Chapter 502 - Subcla.s.s Evolution & New UNIQUE Skill (Part 2/2)
Everyone"s breath caught in their lungs as Shangguan Bing Xue described how from over 2,000 kilometers away, the thunderous explosions shook the earth beneath her feet in an attempt to describe as much as possible how terrifying each one of the shockwaves resulting from the deadly battle that Bai Zemin waged for over two hours against a tremendously strong being was.
Everyone"s imagination went wild as their mind raced as if it were a cinematic movie replaying a scene they did not see but seemed to witness thanks to Shangguan Bing Xue"s clever and careful recounting.
Excitement coursed through the veins of every soul evolver and soldier, but what they felt most was pressure and fear. Just the resulting shockwaves and explosions were enough to make someone as powerful as Shangguan Bing Xue, who could now slaughter Second Order enemies with no apparent problem, feel helpless.... How fierce had been the battle that Bai Zemin had experienced then?
None of them could imagine.
Third Order? It didn"t seem to be possible considering that he had killed one quite easily before.
So... Fourth Order? Everyone"s eyes slowly began to change as they listened more and more. At this point, they didn"t seem to be looking at a human or a monster; when they looked at Bai Zemin they seemed to be looking at the incarnation of G.o.d!
Shangguan Bing Xue nodded in satisfaction as she observed the changes everyone was experiencing. Even the soldiers who had surrendered today were not much different and every time they looked at Bai Zemin the light of hope shone in everyone"s eyes.
To be honest, Shangguan Bing Xue had wanted to do this for a long time. In her eyes, Bai Zemin possessed power, skill, intelligence, and vision enough to rule. What he lacked, however, was political cunning; something that in order to accomplish the goal of overthrowing her father, Shangguan Bing Xue had developed from an early age.
Bai Zemin believed that he needed to show his strength to make others become obedient or submissive, however, in Shangguan Bing Xue"s eyes his approach was poor.
Who said that someone who aimed to rule everything under the heavens had to make everyone obedient and submissive? He didn"t need to show anything! All he needed to do was to exaggerate his achievements a bit so that the rumors would spread far enough for those who did not witness them to narrate his feats for years to come!
With the strength of Bai Zemin, he only needed a little bit of intelligence and political cunning to put the whole world within his grasp! This was something Shangguan Bing Xue was confident of for sure.
She had not done what she was doing now solely and exclusively because she wanted him to figure out for himself what he needed to move forward. However, Shangguan Bing Xue now realized her mistake. Wasn"t she aiming to become someone capable of supporting him? Wasn"t what she was doing now helping him to lead? Not everything had to be limited to swords and magic! Words also had their own charm!
Even more so her words.
Shangguan Bing Xue"s eyes occasionally glowed unnaturally with unusual lights. However, everyone was stupefied and in an apparent trance as they listened to what she said so no one noticed this little fact.
During her not-so-pleasant stay in Oblon World, while Bai Zemin was fighting in the distance and after she had finished off all the enemies that appeared non-stop, Shangguan Bing Xue had taken brief moments of rest to evolve one of her main skills but one that she did not use very often.
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[Charming Eyes (Third Order active skill) level 1: Consumes 30 Mana points to activate. Its power now depends on the magic power and the Magic stat of the user, so the higher the magic power and the higher the Magic stat of the user, the more powerful the daze will be and the longer it will last on beings whose general power is lower. You now have a certain chance of enchanting beings one Order above you. The skill has a cooldown of 1 hour.]
[Second Activation-]
[Sacred Word: Consumes 5 Mana points to activate and 1 Mana point per second to maintain the activation. Imbues all your magic in your gaze and transforms your eyes into magical objects capable of enhancing the effect of your words to a great extent depending on the difference in Soul Power and purity of the same.]
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Shangguan Bing Xue had consumed more than ten Second Order Soul Stones and many more First Order Soul Stones while she was still in Oblon World to evolve her skill a whole Order.
Of course, she did not evolve her skill all at once and did it little by little as she obtained the necessary Soul Stones and fulfilled the various requirements the skill imposed to her. However, it was worth it as even the second activation called "Sacred Word" was coming in handy now.
A faint smile similar to that of a clever little fox appeared on her face unnoticed and as she glanced over her shoulder slyly she noticed that Kang Lan and Bai Zemin were busy with their things.
Then, she went on to narrate the match with the asura emperor and the most powerful being she had ever seen in her entire life.
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As Shangguan Bing Xue gave her speech, Bai Zemin did not know what to say about it. Although she was far from lying, Bai Zemin could not help but feel that she was exaggerating things a bit.
Of course, Bai Zemin did not know that Shangguan Bing Xue was being honest and was simply describing how she felt at that moment. To her, what he managed to do in Oblon World were feats that everyone on Earth should know about since Shangguan Bing Xue saw it as unfair that while everyone was sleeping comfortably or gazing at him waiting for the chance to usurp everything he had, he was dying fighting for the sake of this world.
"Suddenly I feel like I"m a hero without a cape... Well, my cape was taken from me by her so...." Bai Zemin muttered under his breath as he looked at Shangguan Bing Xue.
He shook his head and looked at his severed arm in pain.
Honestly, he lied earlier. Bai Zemin wasn"t so sure he could reconnect his arm.
He tried to put it back together using Blood Manipulation but there was no way to succeed as the severed and destroyed tissues could not be reattached so quickly and unfortunately, Bai Zemin was aware that it was only a matter of time before his left arm started to rot. His concern was so high that Bai Zemin could not even worry about the golden spear at this point, and instead, he decided to take several Soul Stones to evolve a skill that he believed would help him recover without having to lose the potion.
After all, while consuming valuable high-ranked Soul Stones would cause the heart of Bai Zemin to ache, the evolved skill would forever be with him helping him day by day but Bai Zemin had no way of obtaining another potion right away so in his eyes the red potion was of greater value even than the Fourth Order Soul Stone that he reclaimed when Jack died after being impaled by the spear.
However, just then, something Bai Zemin did not expect happened.
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[Congratulations!]
[The intelligent existences under your rule are now over 10,000 and they all see you as a worthy and respectable leader to follow. Keep it up!]
[Your subcla.s.s "Lower Leader" has evolved to the next stage.]
[Lord: Increase your overall power by 3% and by 0.1% for every 2000 inhabitants under your rule up to a maximum of 200%.]
[The number of Loyal Followers you can appoint is now increased to 5 and those who become your Loyal Follower will never be able to betray you. In addition, each of your Loyal Followers will have access to 10% of your total strength in life and death situations and will have access to 2% of your strength without affecting you when they go into combat mode.]
[You have received a hidden reward for being the first human on planet Earth to manage to build a strong faction from the ground up with your own hands and without relying on pre-evolution means: All For One.]
[All For One (Third Order UNIQUE skill) level 5: Transfer 100% of your power to one of your Loyal Followers for 24 hours or vice versa. The skill has a cooldown of two months. This skill cannot be evolved by normal means. Possible evolution requirements are unknown.]
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Bai Zemin"s movements stalled as disbelief flashed in his dazed gaze.
What? For a moment, Bai Zemin"s brain failed to process the situation before he recalled what was happening.
Indeed. When Bai Zemin checked he realized that he had suddenly fulfilled the requirements for his Lower Leader subcla.s.s to advance to the next stage.
But how had this happened? Bai Zemin was of course happy but he was also confused.
His faction in the north would need at least three or four more days, maybe even longer, for the number of survivors under his standard to exceed 10,000 and more time for all of them, or at least the necessary number, to see him as a leader worth to follow.
On the other hand, even though Bai Zemin would meet the requirement now that he had taken over Baiquan Camp, he still needed more time for the survivors and the troops to see him as a real leader to follow and not someone they would follow just because they had no choice but to do so.
All in all, Bai Zemin had estimated that he might need another week or even half a month to get his subcla.s.s to evolve. Therefore, he was confused about this sudden breakthrough.
"Was it her?" Bai Zemin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue in surprise.
However, his surprise turned to shock when he saw the fervent gazes that the soldiers and soul evolvers who belonged to Baiquan Camp and who had surrendered with no choice a few hours ago.
It was as if they were looking at the G.o.d of salvation who had descended to expel the darkness and evil from their lives instead of looking at a human being!
Whatever Shangguan Bing Xue had done, Bai Zemin had no words to thank her enough! After all, he seriously doubted that just a few words would be enough to affect the mentality of so many people so suddenly.
Now, with his subcla.s.s having advanced, Bai Zemin could feel his overall power shooting up slightly and the wounds that plagued his body began to heal faster than before!
Furthermore, Bai Zemin was very thankful that now the 100% limit had been extended to double what it was before and even the number of Loyal Followers he could recruit now exceeded twice as many as he currently had!
More surprising was the fact that his Loyal Followers could not only use 10% of his total strength in life and death situations as opposed to the previous 5% but now they also received 2% of Bai Zemin"s overall strength just for going into combat mode!
One had to know that 2% of each and every one of Bai Zemin"s trackable and untraceable stats represented a slight boost of power that could not be ignored in a deadly battle between two equal beings. After all, Bai Zemin was not a First Order existence that could be casually judged!
However, what left Bai Zemin most speechless was the hidden reward.
He had just received another UNIQUE skill without even expecting it. Yes, again.
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I will upload at least 1 more chapter today but it will be later!
Again, thanks for the super gifts everyone <3
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