The central area of the Beginning Village was where 100% of the battle power was concentrated; from the lowest soldiers to those who led squads of several dozen men; all of them lived in the central area.

While there were differences in treatment, as was the case with the type of food they could enjoy or the luxuries they could afford as well as the difference in the quality of houses, they all enjoyed the same title; Royalty.

At first, it was fine since the Beginning Village barely had a thousand survivors anyway. But after the four big bosses were defeated and Bai Zemin's group took over the territory, they began to tirelessly expand in all directions while searching for resources and rescuing more and more survivors.

Therefore, it was necessary to make some adjustments in the government and the separation of power. After all, a common soldier could not enjoy the same title as those who controlled the real power of the settlement.

* * *

In one of the larger villas in the center of the village.

This villa had a total of four floors in all and occupied a large tract of land. It was adorned with quite a few luxuries considering it was only a village villa. More than a dozen beautiful and pretty women of different ages walked everywhere, carefully cleaning even the tiniest speck of dust.

All of these women were extremely careful about their work and seemed to take special care to keep their voices low when they spoke. Especially when they looked at the large double door at the end of the corridor that was open wide.

This villa was the place where the most powerful people in the entire village would occasionally congregate to have meetings and make important future decisions. A single word from any of the people able to enter and sit in this great hall was enough to make the life of any of these women miserable so they were all careful with their actions. In addition, the pay they received was extremely generous compared to other people, none of them were willing to lose this job no matter what.

...

Inside the huge hall, Bai Zemin was resting with his eyes closed.

Standing behind him, Lilith in her Lili form had a faint smile on her face while her charming dark eyes occasionally glittered.

The atmosphere was quiet and calm, a gentle atmosphere that could only exist when the trust between two people reached a certain threshold.

Bai Zemin was currently wearing comfortable clothes, he had not yet put on his armor. What he was doing at the moment was gliding through the records engraved in his soul. Although he had not left his workshop for a total of seven days, his records had slight changes but only now could he focus on them as when the green letters appeared in his retina, he simply pushed them away as he was focused on blacksmithing and nothing but blacksmithing.

[Blacksmithing (First Order passive skill) Level 2: Increases your ability and knowledge of forging to double. You have a 5% chance to forge items with a special characteristic even using normal low-quality materials with no special characteristics.]

After forging so many equipment for seven days with practically no rest and consuming 1 First Order Soul Stone and 10 Unclassified Soul Stones, Bai Zemin's Blacksmithing skill evolved quite a lot. In just one week, it went from an Unclassified skill level 3 to a First Order skill level 2; the progress had been quite fast.

[The number of survivors under your rule has exceeded 2000. Your overall power increases by 0.2%. Current total bonus: 1.2%.]

Bai Zemin finally opened his eyes and sighed a little satisfied. The 0.1% increase in extra power after obtaining another thousand survivors was so little that it could practically be ignored. But in reality, as the number of survivors under his rule increased, that mere 0.1% could reach a number so terrifying that he could not even imagine.

Even the tallest skyscraper starts from the floor. To reach the heavens, a person needed to firmly settle their feet on the ground, and just like anyone trying to defy gravity, the first steps were difficult and slow; but like a rocket soaring into outer space, once the flight was undertaken, everything was easier.

"Apparently, the rest didn't really slack off while I was out." He smiled slightly.

"You'll know soon enough." Lilith replied lightly.

A series of footsteps were heard from outside the hall before the two could continue chatting. Soon, a large group of people appeared and everyone's gaze focused on Bai Zemin, who was sitting at the head of a huge wooden table about ten meters long.

Bai Zemin also returned their gaze and inspected everyone one by one.

Shangguan Bing Xue, Chen He, Wu Yijun, Cai Jingyi, Fu Xuefeng, Zhong De, Kang Lan, Luo Cheng, Luo Ning, Xiao Ming, Fu Qigang, and several other people who possessed control over at least a team of armed men consisting of no less than twenty men.

I really need to make adjustments to the social pyramid. Bai Zemin frowned slightly as he realized that the current situation really was a bit exasperating.

Soon, all the people took their seats and the table was almost completely filled leaving nothing but a couple of chairs free... But at this rate, they might fill up sooner rather than later and even the whole hall would not be enough.

Wu Yijun looked at Bai Zemin with sparkling eyes. Her dark eyes seemed to contain stars from the night sky within them, and her red lips curved slightly seemingly happy to see him.

"It's been seven days." She was the first to speak and didn't seem the least bit shy when she said, "I see that you've fully recovered and I'm very happy about that."

Bai Zemin looked at her and noticed that she was wearing the armor he had forged for her.

Wu Yijun's body was truly exquisite. The leather armor seemed to fit her perfectly and even Bai Zemin himself was surprised as he had not taken her body measurements or anything similar. Every curve of her graceful and seductive body was outlined with firmness while her bosom area seemed to be even more prominent than in the past.

In fact, it was not only Wu Yijun who was wearing the armor. Everyone present was wearing armor forged by Bai Zemin. Although Shangguan Bing Xue's armor and the rest were of higher quality and with better bonuses, the defense of any of these armors was enough to ignore the damage of medium caliber bullets.

Bai Zemin smiled slightly and responded calmly, "Thank you for worrying. But I'm fine now, as you can see."

He did not take Wu Yijun's words to heart too seriously. She naturally noticed this and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Just when she seemed to want to say something, Shangguan Bing Xue interrupted.

"Here is a documented summary of what happened during the past seven days." Shangguan Bing Xue, who was sitting to Bai Zemin's right, passed him a pile of documents.

He received the documents and read them calmly. Only a minute or two was enough as his brain process was much faster than in the past.

From the current population to the amount of supplies on hand; everything was written there. There was even a map marking the areas explored and an approximation of how long rations would last with current consumption. The person who had made these documents really did a wonderful job.

Bai Zemin put the documents down on the table and looked at Shangguan Bing Xue calmly, "Who documented all this?"

Shangguan Bing Xue looked at him indifferently and said with her usual coldness, "Yijun and I did it after gathering the information from all the scouting teams."

He was not bothered by her cold voice, he was used to it. Besides, he knew this was simply her personality.

"I see." He nodded calmly and looked at the two women as he said, "You two did a great job. You saved me a lot of headaches."

Wu Yijun smiled brightly and her eyes curved into a charming crescent shape, attracting the attention of the men in the room.

Shangguan Bing Xue simply nodded with a calm expression on her face. Although her expression did not change, every little gesture she made was surprisingly elegant and beautiful to look at.

Bai Zemin finally looked at Chen He and said with a faint smile, "Congratulations on evolving to First Order."

The room fell silent when those words came out of his mouth. Among those present, almost everyone knew what a First Order existence represented. Everyone's gaze fell on Chen He and the way they looked at him changed completely.

Chen He was not embarrassed by the stares he received. He was already used to being the focus of attention from a young age so he was able to act naturally. He looked at Bai Zemin with a smile and nodded, "Thank you very much. I only advanced two days ago."

Then, he said with some surprise, "But how do you know I breakthrough? I was going to announce it during this meeting and only told Yijun and Bing Xue until now."

Since Bai Zemin was confined in his workshop, it was impossible for Shangguan Bing Xue or Wu Yijun to have told him the news. Simply put, he noticed it by himself. This was something Chen He could not understand so he asked doubtfully.

Bai Zemin calmly replied, "I have absorbed a lot of First Order Soul Power. So much so that except for some high level beasts I don't even receive extra stats anymore. Therefore, I can feel the difference in the aura between an Unclassified existence and a First Order existence quite easily."

Chen He's eyes finally lit up and he understood. The same thing happened to him when Unclassified existences appeared, he could identify the difference immediately so Bai Zemin's words made a lot of sense.

Still, Chen He could not help but smile bitterly in secret. While Bai Zemin received almost no stats from any First Order beings, he still received a great and powerful boost every time he killed one. This left a bitter taste in his mouth as with those words Bai Zemin had inadvertently said that his Soul Power was much purer than his and consequently much more powerful as well.

Bai Zemin did not seem to be aware of Chen He's thoughts. His gaze swept over everyone in the room, pausing on Cai Jingyi for a moment.

"If you need help with your breakthrough mission, just tell me." He offered.

Cai Jingyi smiled sweetly and nodded. She had managed to break through level 24 during the previous week, advancing to level 25 and thus receiving her evolution mission to First Order.

Then, Bai Zemin's gaze fell on the only two people he had never seen before and who, judging by the aura of their bodies, were only slightly weaker than Cai Jingyi. This surprised him a little since Cai Jingyi was currently the fifth or fourth most powerful person in his faction.

But after some thought, that surprise disappeared completely. It was only natural that among so many people, some had certain talents or had had their own fortuitous encounters. They may even have spent sleepless nights hunting zombies to tirelessly raise their levels. He and his group were not the only ones evolving and growing.

While Bai Zemin was scanning the two of them, Nangong Yi and Nangong Lingxin were also secretly studying him.

Over the past four days since joining this group, Nangong Yi and Nangong Lingxin had heard many things about the main leader. His feats had practically spread among every survivor and even those new ones who had never seen him before were aware of his brilliance.

But what Nangong Lingxin and her brother did not expect was that this leader was only a young man of 20 or 21 years old.

* * * * * * *

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