As the beast's red blood splattered all over the floor with small pieces of broken skull and intermingled brain matter, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue had never felt so relieved in all their lives. 

In fact, for the first time, they both felt that the messages magically flashing in their retina due to the existence of the Soul Record were not irritating.

Even when they evolved to First Order they had never felt so joyful!

Such was the terror that a single Second Order beast had managed to inflict on their bodies and into their minds.

Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue were aware that if they both really wanted to, they could at least have a great chance of escaping when the Second Order bear was entertaining unleashing a one-sided massacre on the other survivors.

However, at the same time, neither of them could do such a thing. Although their motives were different, the result in the end was the same.

Shangguan Bing Xue could not do such a thing not only because her two childhood friends were in the forest, but even though she was cold, she could not really just abandon to their fate people who had somehow or other entrusted their lives to her.

Sometimes, the coldest people were those with the warmest feelings. Maybe this was a vivid example of that proverb.

As for Bai Zemin, he had two simple reasons why he had not retreated regardless of Lilith's warning.

1) He did not wish to see all his effort crushed just like that. He had worked harder than anyone could imagine to get to where he was and gather people willing to work for him in the midst of all this hell.

2) If he fled, Bai Zemin felt indistinctly that he would lose something too important. As for what that was, he did not know.

Besides, if he had to run away once, then he would definitely have to run away twice in the future... And if on one of those occasions he was not allowed to run away? What would he do then? Therefore, Bai Zemin preferred to become stronger at the cost of risking his life a little; after all, he didn't think he would die.

That way, he could absorb some of the Soul Power of someone far stronger than him and gradually prepare himself for those moments of real danger when he didn't even know if he would get out of a situation alive or not.

[You have obtained the Soul Power of Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear level 58. You have received Strength +86, Agility +75, Stamina +62, Health +41, Mana +41, Magic +59.]

[You have leveled up and reached level 41. You gained two status points to distribute freely.]

[You have leveled up...]

[You have leveled up...]

[You have leveled up...]

[You have leveled up and reached level 45. You gained two status points to distribute freely.]

Although Bai Zemin had not absorbed all of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear's Soul Power, just a portion was enough to raise his overall stats to new heights. Even he was very surprised.

You should know that the Soul Power of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear that Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Cai Jingyi had absorbed was not all the Soul Power they could have obtained if they had not used modern weapons.

In fact, the only reason Cai Jingyi was rewarded with a portion of the Soul Power available by the Soul Record was probably because although she had used external weaponry, the strategy, the risk, the finding the perfect opportunity for attack, was all done by herself.

Cai Jingyi's situation was completely different from those survivors who just raised a modern firearm and shot at a distant enemy. To say that she had earned the additional stat increase was by no means an exaggeration. 

Not only with his part he managed to gain so many stats but his level shot straight up to 45 in one step!

According to Lilith, many people couldn't even level up after spending months or years. After all, 95% of living beings hunted enemies of the same level or lower, slowly accumulating Soul Power until the Soul Record pushed them to the next level; this was the safest and most popular evolutionary path.

Therefore, the fact of going up so many levels or leveling up so fast constantly was not something normally seen and only a privileged few were able to achieve such feats. Of course, "a privileged few" in comparison to the entire living existence.

These "privileged few" actually numbered in the hundreds of millions. After all, the universe was simply too vast and the number of existing worlds was simply uncountable.

...

When the additional stats were absorbed into his soul, Bai Zemin felt himself becoming much stronger and from the look of pleasant surprise in Shangguan Bing Xue's blue eyes, she was experiencing the same evolutionary process as him.

What gave Bai Zemin the most satisfaction was when his Health stat increased a few dozen points... This was due to his current condition.

"Ufff...." Bai Zemin slowly let the air in his lungs out as he slowly sat down on the floor.

Without a care in the world, he simply laid down smoothly on the ground and his blank stare looked up at the sky. His whole body hurt so much that no one would ever be able to understand it unless they experienced it for themselves.

The bones in his left arm had broken into no less than twenty or thirty pieces and now that he was more relaxed and calm he realized that he had three broken ribs. As if this were not enough, his face itched and hurt badly.

He unconsciously reached out his hand to touch his face, but Shangguan Bing Xue stopped him as she calmly looked at him, "Don't touch it."

Seeing him looking at her, she explained, "You narrowly missed losing an eye. I guess your Health statistic is very high since even to the naked eye I can see how the tissues are moving slowly... I assume it won't be long before the wound disappears completely."

Well, I guess with almost 300 points of Health it's normal for my recovery to be monstrous. Bai Zemin thought silently before letting his hand fall to the ground again.

Shangguan Bing Xue also sat down on the ground not far from where Bai Zemin was. The two of them remained silent. Neither of them had the energy to even care to see if they had gained anything from the death of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear.

She didn't notice that even though there was barely half a meter of distance, she didn't feel particularly uncomfortable. Maybe it was fatigue, who knows...

Bai Zemin did not realize that he was unconsciously beginning to trust Shangguan Bing Xue more or else he would never allow himself to collapse in such a way, apparently unable to protect himself. Maybe it was fatigue, who knows...

On the other side of the forest, Lilith in her human form sighed in relief and a proud smile appeared on her face as she saw Bai Zemin and the ice princess sitting a short distance away from the lifeless corpse of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear.

Not bad. She thought. 

Her heart was overflowing with indescribable joy not only because of the hard-fought and previously seemingly impossible victory.

*******

Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3