Chapter 625 - Face to face with the past after many years: I love you vs. I loved you (Part 1)
Chapter 625 – Face to face with the past after many years: I love you vs. I loved you (Part 1)
Bai Zemin immediately focused his mind not daring to act careless at all when he felt part of the soul that contained a part of the records that made up the existence known as Shangguan Bing Xue trying to link up with a part of his soul.
The subject of souls was something that Bai Zemin did not dare to treat casually but knew that sooner or later he would have to face. It was just that he preferred to leave that matter for later, as was visible by the fact that he had not even asked Lilith any more questions on this matter. At the end of the day, he was still too weak to think about something as distant and untouchable as souls.
When part of Shangguan Bing Xue’s soul linked to part of his own, Bai Zemin’s expression immediately changed as he felt rejection from both sides. He had experienced something similar with Wu Yijun before so he was preparing to receive the expected backlash of pain.
Shangguan Bing Xue also noticed this not-so-small fact and just as happened with Bai Zemin her expression also sank. However, contrary to him, she did not give up and gritted her teeth at the same time as she forced her soul to connect with his, sending out more Soul Power to strengthen that part of her soul. Even when she had experienced a tremendous amount of pain back then when she tried to link her soul with Chen He’s, Shangguan Bing Xue was really not willing to give up this time.
Bai Zemin’s soul was simply too strong and strange, so much so that in that unsteady spiritual bond that had formed Shangguan Bing Xue felt small and insignificant just like a wooden boat in the middle of the rough sea being battered by fierce waves on a stormy night.
But what happened next surprised Bai Zemin.
Just as he was preparing to receive a backlash strong enough to avoid hurting Shangguan Bing Xue’s soul, restraining his own soul, that unstable bridge linking the two sides suddenly stopped trembling with such dread.
Shangguan Bing Xue frowned slightly and a faint whimper escaped from her tightly closed lips. However, a second later and at the same time as a bead of sweat slid down her face, a bright smile naturally began to take shape at the corner of her lips.
“You see… There was nothing to worry about after all…” She said softly, clearly exhausted as if she had just finished experiencing a great battle to the death.
Bai Zemin wanted to say a lot of things at this moment. He wanted to ask her if she was okay, he also wanted to ask her why she had done something as imprudent as compromising more records which could have hurt her more critically, and many other things besides. However, there were no words coming out of his mouth at this moment as out of pure instinct his mind focused practically entirely on the records flashing across his retina.
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[Freeze the hearts of 300.000 enemies: 300.000 / 300.000]
[Charm 100 First Order enemies using Charming Eyes: 100 / 100.]
[Using Ice Maker in conjunction with Charming Eyes, take the life of 50 Second Order enemies without receiving ally support: 50 / 50.]
[Upgrade the skill Charming Eyes to the Third Order: Completed.]
[Upgrade the skill Ice Maker to the peak of the Second Order: Completed.]
[Experience your soul quivering with emotion: Completed.]
[You have successfully evolved and become a Second Order existence. You receive the unique class ‘Ice Soul Charming Demon’. It becomes more difficult for you to fall under passive, active, or UNIQUE skills with the ability to affect your reasoning, feelings, or combat ability. Your natural charm increases by 35% and your beauty transcend to a new stage, officially setting you on the path of a charming demon.]
[You receive the UNIQUE Third Order skill level 5 ‘Spirit of Ice’.]
[You have leveled up and reached level 80. You have gained 120 status points to distribute freely.]
[All Soul Power absorbed during the evolution process has been calculated correctly. You gain additional stats: Strength +520, Agility +513, Stamina +403, Health +590, Mana +492, Magic +499.]
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While Shangguan Bing Xue was ecstatic about being able to connect a part of her soul to Bai Zemin’s soul even though the price to pay was to be so exhausted that she could use two or three hours of replenishing sleep, Bai Zemin himself was experiencing the shock of his life as he looked at the records recorded in that part of Shangguan Bing Xue’s soul that she linked with him.
To begin with, the requirements that the breakthrough mission imposed on Shangguan Bing Xue, while not as crazy as the requirements that Bai Zemin had to complete, were undoubtedly far-fetched, to say the least. Leaving aside the first two requirements which were relatively easier despite their natural difficulty, just the requirement where she was required to kill fifty Second Order existences solo and with sub-requirements was enough to make any other existence go crazy and despair.
One had to remember and keep in mind that Shangguan Bing Xue was still a First Order existence when she had to fulfill those requirements! The requirement where she had to kill those fifty Second Order existences was countless times crazier than the requirement Bai Zemin had to go through when he was required to kill two First Order enemies while he was still an Unclassified existence! In fact, the difficulty of killing fifty Second Order enemies single-handedly with sub-requirements was probably equivalent to the difficulty of the requirement in which Bai Zemin had to kill a First Order existence with a single attack while he was an Unclassified existence!
On the other hand, asking a First Order existence to evolve a skill to Third Order… It was a bit too much. If not for the fact that Shangguan Bing Xue was powerful and had the full support of both Bai Zemin and the Transcendent faction’s resources, where was she going to obtain the Soul Stones that such a thing required? Another impediment whose magnitude was only slightly below the previous one.
Finally, Bai Zemin had no idea what the final requirement meant and he was sure that Shangguan Bing Xue probably did not know what it was and simply fulfilled it by pure chance of fate.
Despite all this, it was clear that making your way to walk a unique path that had only been created for you and by you would definitely not have the same ease as making your way to walk a path that was walked by countless existences and that practically everyone could choose.
Besides, the rewards for walking that path… They were simply preposterous if not downright insane.
Bai Zemin was literally breathless when he saw the insanely high number of natural stats that Shangguan Bing Xue had received. It was over three thousand raw points for heaven’s sake!
Bai Zemin didn’t know how high Shangguan Bing Xue’s stats were before but now he was sure that at least when it came to pure stats and not combat power he wasn’t necessarily above her in certain aspects!
Of course, when it came to actual combat power with the destructive skills of Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue would have a lot of trouble fighting against him, but this did not overshadow the fact that the current her undoubtedly had plenty of the ability to give him a lot of trouble!
However, after a moment’s thought, Bai Zemin understood everything.
No matter how one put it, Shangguan Bing Xue had killed dozens and dozens of Second Order existences while she was still a First Order existence; one of them was even on the verge of level 100. Therefore, it was by no means surprising that she received so many stats.
This made Bai Zemin excited to think about how crazy his power boost would be after he completed his evolution requirements and successfully acquired the Mystic Blood class.
Bai Zemin looked at her with joy and relief coming from the bottom of his heart as he said softly, “Congratulations, Bing Xue, for evolving to the Second Order. Now your power must be close to mine.”
Shangguan Bing Xue forced a smile and shook her head as she slowly said, “In terms of statistics, yes maybe? But if it comes to full combat power, both you and I know that’s not true. My current self can take on a Third Order existence in the early levels but I definitely wouldn’t be able to take on a person capable of causing explosions like those in Oblon World, let alone threatening the safety of Fourth Order existences.”
Bai Zemin said nothing regarding this as he was clear about the truth. At the end of the day, statistics did not represent the full strength of a person in the same way that levels did not represent the power limit of an existence. The power of the skills, the synergy of each skill, the purity of the Soul Power, the treasures, the equipment, etc. There were many variables to take into account.
On the other hand, Shangguan Bing Xue was happy about another matter.
“Hey, Bai Zemin.”
“Mm?”
“I’m the first person to succeed in linking part of her soul with you other than you-know-who?”
“In fact,” Bai Zemin chuckled at the words of Shangguan Bing Xue and nodded, “Other than her, you’re the only one who managed to create a link with me.”
However, he suddenly frowned and said somewhat worriedly, “But… Are you okay?”
“Um. Just a little bit exhausted, that’s all.” She smiled refreshingly and waved her hand as if it was nothing, “Not even a bit of pain.”
“Her?” Meng Qi’s cute ears twitched like those of a charming little animal and she couldn’t help but look at Bai Zemin with suspicious eyes as if she was asking him for explanations.
“I’ll introduce her to you later, Meng Qi.” Bai Zemin announced in a firm voice, perhaps too firm for the content of his words.
For some reason, Meng Qi felt that the resolve behind the words of her big brother had a much deeper meaning than just introducing her to this “her” they were talking about. However, Meng Qi didn’t know why she felt that way but she did know that even if she inquired further she would probably get nothing considering how stubborn Bai Zemin was.
“By the way, Bing Xue.”
“Yes?”
“This change in your personality has to do with the skill Spirit of Ice?”
“That’s right.” Shangguan Bing Xue sighed and said with a bit of a headache, “One of the passive functions of this skill is that when I find myself having a conversation with a person I fully trust my real personality comes out and it’s really hard to put up a high front like before.”
“Does that mean you trust me fully?” He asked with a playful smile.
Bai Zemin was secretly surprised because although he knew that Shangguan Bing Xue was not cold at all deep inside and only acted like that with strangers, he did not expect her to be so teasing and even mischievous deep down in her soul.
Shangguan Bing Xue rolled her eyes and did not respond. If she didn’t trust him fully after all they had been through together and all the reasons he had given her without her asking for them to make her feel secure even in her weakest state then Shangguan Bing Xue wouldn’t be able to trust in anyone.
Instead, she asked curiously, “Do you know what a UNIQUE skill is?” Her eyes moved as if she was reading something invisible to others and she said weakly, “Among all my skills and other people’s skills, this is the first time I have seen or heard of UNIQUE skills.”
Bai Zemin nodded and calmly explained the same thing Lilith had explained to him previously.
“So… A UNIQUE skill is a unique skill?” Shangguan Bing Xue asked dumbfounded and with weird eyes after hearing the whole thing.
“Well… That’s the case.” Bai Zemin nodded feeling speechless again as Shangguan Bing Xue’s reaction and remarks were practically identical to what had happened to him at that moment when he learned the significance of these skills.
“Before I forget, there is something that really caught my attention earlier.” Bai Zemin said suddenly and for some reason, Shangguan Bing Xue felt a bad premonition. Unfortunately, there was nowhere for her to escape to when he immediately asked, “What about that last weird requirement? Experiencing your soul trembling with emotion or something? What is that supposed to mean and how did you complete it?”
Shangguan Bing Xue blushed slightly and her beauty immediately shot to never-before-seen heights as her eyes avoided Bai Zemin’s intense gaze.
He was dumbfounded to see her acting like a shy young maiden in love… Although he was sure that she was indeed a young maiden, the shy and in love parts were the problem at hand!
But Shangguan Bing Xue had no way of telling Bai Zemin how she completed that requirement, which at one point she thought would be the most difficult to complete. Therefore, after practically begging him with her eyes not to make things difficult for her she finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief despite Meng Qi’s slightly narrowed gaze that shifted between the two of them as if she wanted to clear herself of some doubt.
The three of them continued to chat, mainly with Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue catching up as there were many things they needed to inform each other about after not seeing each other for a full week.
Meng Qi intervened a few times and even managed to surprise Shangguan Bing Xue by coming up with ideas that were somewhat crazy but undoubtedly worth trying not only in the governmental aspect but Meng Qi was surprisingly good at everything that had to do with science, technology, development, etc.
About two or three hours later, Shangguan Bing Xue looked at Bai Zemin and suddenly said, “By the way, are you also going to the party tonight?”
“Of course.” He nodded and asked despite knowing the answer, “What about you?”
“There’s no way I won’t go considering this is for Yijun.” Shangguan Bing Xue pointed out the obvious before continuing, “I heard that there will be all the big shots going this time to finally meet princess Wu. There might even be some with intentions of getting engaged to her… But all kidding aside, this will be a good opportunity to meet the most influential figures in the base.”