What Bai Zemin knew of the Golden Dominion was, at best, next to nothing.
Exactly, almost nothing.
The only thing he knew was that the Golden Domain was a kind of higher universe, the main universe from which this universe and the others were born after a terrifying war.
Now, as to what had provoked that war, what the living beings in that place were like, what kind of powers they had, what kind of energy they used, what their motive or motivations were for coming to this universe and attacking indiscriminately... Bai Zemin simply knew nothing at all.
To think that he could have lived in that place was something he would never think of under normal circ.u.mstances. But given everything that had happened since he entered the Sky Emperor Palace for the second time, the most reasonable thing for him to do was to a.s.sume even the wildest theories.
"Your Majesty."
Lu Cai's voice brought Bai Zemin out of his inner thoughts, and when he looked over he saw the man with the giant spear looking at him with a serious expression on his face.
"What's wrong?" Bai Zemin questioned.
"If I may, could Your Majesty tell us what level you are currently at?" Lu Cai frowned slightly before pointing out, "Although it is true that we need the Sky Emperor to be able to move within Hero City without being punished by the law of time and the Soul Record, I'm afraid that many warriors won't be willing to follow someone too weak..."
Bai Zemin immediately frowned after hearing Lu Cai's words. However, after thinking it over he realized that what this powerful and former Sky Faction member said was completely normal and reasonable.
For them to reach such high levels of power, Bai Zemin knew from his own experience that they had definitely fought countless deadly battles. That kind of person was truly terrifying, and many times they would often prefer to die over submitting not to mention submitting to someone weak.
Bai Zemin looked at the twenty soul evolvers in front of him, nineteen males and one female.
"My current level is 100. I'm stuck at the peak of the Second Order."
"Level 100?" A blonde-haired, black-eyed man looked at Bai Zemin in shock from his kneeling position, "Second Order? Y-Your Majesty, you're joking aren't you?"
It was probably another feature of the Throne of Creation but it seemed to be that Lu Cai and the others could not sense Bai Zemin's aura or Sylvia's aura accurately.
Sylvia just listened to the conversation, as she didn't know how strong level 100 was. The only thing she knew was that her current level was 14, so as far as she was concerned, level 100 was simply too high.
Besides, she had seen Bai Zemin's strength firsthand... But, she felt that level 100 might not be as incredible as she was thinking after seeing the expressions of disbelief on the faces of the 20 warriors before her.
Bai Zemin sighed, as he knew this would happen.
"Although my level is 100, my battle power is far beyond that." He didn't know how to say his next words, but he did the best he could, "At present, I dare say that nothing below the Fifth Order represents a threat to my life when I am serious."
"Second Order versus top Fourth Order?"
"That sounds hard to believe..."
"His Majesty Yin was considered among the most powerful in several eras because he could fight enemies up to 150 levels above him you know?"
"But he's saying he can fight soul evolvers 300 levels above... That's exactly twice as much as His Majesty Yin."
...
Bai Zemin smiled bitterly as he listened to most of them muttering amongst themselves.
Lu Cai forced a somewhat uncomfortable smile as he said, "Your Majesty, please don't blame them. They just..."
"It's okay, I understand." Bai Zemin waved his right hand casually, "This is not the first time I have been underestimated, and I know it won't be the last."
The number of times both enemies and allies underestimated Bai Zemin because of his comparatively lower level was so large that he had already lost count of the exact quant.i.ty. Therefore, he was neither surprised nor angry.
He knew that earning people's loyalty was not an easy thing, and he would definitely not earn it simply because his existence allowed Lu Cai and the others to move instead of being frozen like statues.
"Alright." Bai Zemin stood up, attracting everyone's attention once again.
"Your Majesty?" Lu Cai frowned feeling confused to see him nod.
"At present, several soul evolvers are roaming around Hero City in search of old treasures or anything that might be of use to them. Although among them there are none particularly strong, I guess we'll have to settle for now." Bai Zemin looked at the reaction of the twenty and, not to his surprise, they all widened their eyes in disbelief.
"Hero City is used as a harvesting ground?" The only woman in the group, a green-haired beauty with a sword sheathed at her waist, spoke for the first time, "And they're nothing but Lower Existences at that? Aren't they afraid of dying?"
"Hehe, that's because they don't know that Hero City is not a place to play." The same black-eyed blond man who had spoken earlier chuckled.
When Bai Zemin heard the two's words and observed the mocking expressions on the faces of the others he couldn't help but worry about the safety of Shangguan Bing Xue and the rest.
Although he had control over the weapons and now the entire Hero City, Bai Zemin did not know how the city had been built.
"Lu Cai, are there any traps that automatically trigger in the presence of uninvited guests?" Bai Zemin asked hurriedly.
"Em? Yes, that's right. Of course." The worries in Bai Zemin's heart immediately grew as he saw Lu Cai nodding with a serious expression, "Although none of us know how long it's been since we were put to sleep, and while it's true that many defense mechanisms probably weakened or shut down completely after not being fed for so long, there are still some that work on a mana basis and don't need Soul Stones to kick in."
It was only now that Bai Zemin remembered that Hero City seemed to have a mana generator or attractor!
With a serious expression on his face, he sat on the Throne of Creation and waved his hand.
"Come on. You guys should follow me if you want to see some of my strength."
With a single thought, a bright blue portal suddenly appeared in front of Bai Zemin and with another thought he entered with the throne and all, disappearing in an instant.
"Th-That's..." The emerald green-haired female opened her eyes wide as she stared at the portal on the seventh step.
"He really does have full control over Hero City and its functions." Lu Cai sighed, not knowing how to feel about it. Finally, with a serious expression, he picked up his weapon and advanced, "Let's go. Let's see if he has what it takes to replace the former Sky Emperor before we decide what to do."
The other nineteen looked at each other with complex expressions before standing up and following Lu Cai, disappearing beyond the portal in short order.
None of them had particularly high hopes, but they at least hoped to see something good.
While they didn't think a level 100 youth could fight against someone level 400, he should still be able to jump a good 100 levels or else he wouldn't have been chosen to hold the t.i.tle Successor to the Sky Emperor.
* * *
The area north of the center of Hero City was partially covered by a large forest.
The gra.s.s grew lush but not enough to look wild, the nearby buildings were surrounded by beautiful nature and the wind in this part was particularly purer compared to the other parts of the city.
The group composed by Shangguan Bing Xue, Felix, Wu Yijun, Eleanora, Xian Mei'er, Matthew Sanchez, Naomi Sanchez, and Bai s.h.i.+lin headed north while the unconscious Angelo was carried on Matthew Sanchez's back.
According to Naomi, Angelo would be unconscious for a while and none of her skills, even with the support of her scepter, would be able to wake him up.
While the others believed her, Eleanora still looked at her as an enemy.
However, this was only natural considering that Naomi did not have a good face the whole time and clearly did not want to be part of the group; had it not been for Matthew constantly reminding her of the deceased Supreme Pontiff's words, she would most likely have already revealed herself against them.
Not long after Bai Zemin disappeared in the center of Hero City, Shangguan Bing Xue led the team to circle the great cloak of darkness in search of a possible entrance. Unfortunately, no such thing existed and eventually they decided to move northward in search of more treasure.
Worrying about more would do no good and, those who had known Bai Zemin for a long time knew that his life was not so fragile.
But, what they didn't expect was that when they reached the forest and started searching inside the buildings...
"Ah? Who lived in this place?" Bai s.h.i.+lin looked at the beautiful but unfamiliar decorations with surprise, "Second mother, can we take this with us?"
From the furniture to the seemingly useless wooden bows, everything was simply beautiful. Moreover, every single thing inside the buildings was colorful and br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vitality.
Wu Yijun took a deep breath before exalting, "So pure... This place is really nice. I could live here forever."
At first, everything was great and nice, they rarely ran into other soul evolvers in the forest and when they saw them they simply walked away with no intentions of looking for trouble with such a terrifying group.
However, things changed a few hours ago.
When the group reached the center of the forest, some sort of defensive method seemed to be activated and that's when the disaster began.
BOOM!!!!
Mateo stabbed his sword into the ground to stop his recoil as he frowned at the silhouette of whitish blue light disappearing into the forest: "What the h.e.l.l are those things? No matter how many we cut they keep coming and we gain nothing at all!"
Not far away, Naomi and Bai s.h.i.+lin were also facing those strange light figures attacking them with elemental magic like wind arrows, water spears, or lightning b.a.l.l.s.
None of them seemed to be particularly strong for the group, the problem was that after so many hours of fighting, they were starting to wear out so it was only a matter of time before they got into serious trouble.
Even Felix, who was the strongest in the group, had to team up with Shangguan Bing Xue to fight one of those figures enveloped in blue-white light that seemed to be the leader of them all.
The leader was truly terrifying, as it not only used powerful magic but also had a defense terrifying enough to ignore Felix's sword slashes.
Moreover, the strange figures were not the only enemy they were currently facing.
"Green Dragon!" Wu Yijun jumped back with an anxious expression as the magic staff in her hands glowed.
Roar!
A beast nearly 300 meters long shot forward and roared. Its golden eyes seemed to come alive as it charged towards the small female figure and the ten or so soul evolvers around her.
"Hehe, so cute..." The red-haired, green-skinned female giggled charmingly as she waved her hands skyward, "Infinite Vines!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! ...
What seemed to be thousands of vines exploded from the ground and surrounded the green dragon. The beast shredded hundreds, but its advance was gradually halted until it was finally completely contained and buried under the countless s.h.i.+ny vines.
"Mother Earth's Boost!" Wu Yijun chanted from a distance.
The red-haired, green-skinned woman's expression betrayed a trace of surprise when she heard the green dragon's roar, and an instant later, all the vines exploded into millions of tiny pieces.
"Intriguing..." She muttered as she watched Wu Yijun intently.
On the other hand, the ten soul evolvers also rushed forward with the intention of knocking Wu Yijun down and taking her treasures. Unfortunately for them, Wu Yijun was not alone.
Eleanora and Xian Mei'er immediately activated all of their strongest skills, and in an instant, they entered into combat against the soul evolvers that although they did not have particularly high levels were still Third Order enemies that overwhelmed them in numbers.
If not for the fact that Eleanora and Xian Mei'er were soul evolvers with many treasures and very pure Soul Power, they would definitely not be able to fight against so many Third Order enemies at the same time.
* * * * * * *
A/N: Everybody, I will post 3 chapters before the next reset. I think 2 chapters today and another one tomorrow morning, but it could also be the 3 between the afternoon and the evening/night.
Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up 3