Chapter 1090: Winner and Loser

Bai Zemin stayed awake talking in a low voice with Lilith as he waited for the battle between Shangguan Bing Xue and Feng Tian Wu to end.

"Feng Tian Wu has always felt some kind of resentment towards that girl." Lilith let out a chuckle and pointed out, "I don't know what Feng Tian Wu was like during your high school years but it's clear that although she stopped being an interested girl she definitely hasn't lost her competitive personality."

Leaving aside Bai Zemin and perhaps Kong Jun, Shangguan Bing Xue was always the mightiest soul evolver in the entire Transcendent faction. Although her time as the most powerful was recently interrupted because of her long stagnation at the peak of the Second Order, her dominance on the battlefield was still evident and Bai Zemin's confidence in her was so high that he did not hesitate to take her into the toughest of fights.

Before, Feng Tian Wu's talent had not fully blossomed so her inferiority in terms of power was obvious to anyone; even to herself, as hard as it was for her to admit. However, after Feng Tian Wu entered the Third Order and acquired the Unique class that had set her on the right path her power had skyrocketed enormously.

The current Feng Tian Wu had a skill that even Bai Zemin probably wouldn't be able to escape from were it not for the fact that he had armor that allowed him to use powerful ice magic thanks to Shangguan Bing Xue; although he needed her to help him aggravate more mana since it had been spent earlier during the battle against the 9-Headed Immortal Dragon.

"I just hope the two of them know when to stop." Bai Zemin smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"It's okay. This is like when you men need to engage in fist fights to release a bit of frustration, the next day you guys could greet each other as if nothing happened, right?" Lilith looked unconcerned as she sipped a cup of red tea. "Oh, this tea is quite good. Though not as good as the one that charming woman Sun Ling can brew."

Bai Zemin simply nodded but his concern was evident.

He had spent about 15 minutes in the outside world, which meant that in the Collector's Pocket World the battle between the two women might not even have begun even depending on what battlefield they were looking for.

"I hope they don't destroy my house." Bai Zemin muttered as he looked towards one of the large beds in the nearest bedroom.

The door to the bedroom was open, and from his position, he could faintly see the silhouettes of three people under the sheets; two large and one smaller and growing.

These three were Nangong Lingxin, Kang Lan, and Bai Shilin. The three beauties, two adults and one barely born, had been too tired with all that had happened during the day in the war against the dragon race so when their bodies had a chance to touch the comfort of a bed they immediately surrendered to the world of dreams.

"Who do you think will win?" Fire Sorrow asked suddenly.

She had been very silent since what had happened with Lucifer, and barely said a word as she felt incredibly uncomfortable in her heart.

No matter how one put it, the truth was that the odds of the Transcendent faction and the Demonic Army clashing fiercely in a bloody war were not particularly low.

How could Fire Sorrow feel comfortable chatting with Bai Zemin while she was part of the faction that could potentially be their enemy? In fact, she believed in her heart that he was the same in this respect only that he wouldn't let it show on the surface.

Fire Sorrow left Bai Zemin behind to report the situation to Lucifer when the Fifth Order phenix insident occurred because at that instant she knew that things were about to get out of control. But something Fire Sorrow never dreamed even in her wildest nightmares was that in such a short time it would become incredibly difficult to smile and talk to this young man as they had in the past.

Not having the time nor the heart to care too much about what Fire Sorrow was thinking or feeling, Bai Zemin frowned even harder at his already furrowed brow, and after a brief silence he said slowly, "Hard to say... In terms of sheer destructive power, Feng Tian Wu is undoubtedly superior to Bing Xue. But Bing Xue far surpasses Feng Tian Wu in practically everything; her only problem in winning rests in the factor that her ice will have a lot of trouble facing Feng Tian Wu's fire."

While it was true that Shangguan Bing Xue could use her ice-frost skills to control the battlefield, Feng Tian Wu could easily destroy such control by releasing her flames.

In a battle between ice and fire, it was very difficult to know which of the two would win since both were opposing elements.

The only way Shangguan Bing Xue could easily overwhelm Feng Tian Wu was by using her physically superior body, since unlike Feng Tian Wu who focused purely on magic Shangguan Bing Xue was also a very experienced and terrifyingly powerful warrior.

However, even if Shangguan Bing Xue had the advantage in terms of Agility, Stamina, and Strength, approaching a fiery volcano capable of releasing gusts of destructive flames continuously was not going to be an easy thing to accomplish; not without paying a great price in the process.

"Oh, we better get some rest no?" Lilith set the now empty teacup down on the glass table in front of her and extended her dainty little hand towards her worried partner, "Time in both places runs completely differently, so even if you stay awake all the time it's no use. Let the girls sort out their problems, there's nothing you can do here, right?"

Bai Zemin thought about it for a moment and finally couldn't help but sigh.

He took Lilith's hand, making her smile shine even brighter.

"Don't worry, big brother Zemin. I'm sure they're both sensible enough to know when to stop without letting things get out of hand."

"... I hope so." Bai Zemin went with Lilith to a different bedroom, and as if her ant senses alerted her Bai Shilin immediately got out of bed and went to them to join them with a beautiful sleepy smile, falling asleep again in less than a second.

Fire Sorrow silently watched the family of three disappear with extremely complex emotions shining in her beautiful purple eyes. Suddenly, she blinked and muttered quietly, "Big brother?"

As if thinking of something, Fire Sorrow blushed as she muttered something to herself.

...

Bai Zemin slept for 4 hours in the outside world, and when he opened his eyes he felt quite better even though he knew in his heart that he would have no problems or complaints if he was allowed to sleep for another 4 hours more.

The battle against the 9-Headed Immortal Dragon had been really hard, way harder than Bai Zemin expected.

Although he had Regeneration to recover his Stamina easily in exchange for a practically ignorable amount of Mana, that ignorable amount became particularly high when the battle went on for a long time.

Not to mention that Bai Zemin's battle style consumed too much Stamina just by relentlessly carrying and wielding a weapon that weighed several tons while moving at absurd speeds.

Seeing that Lilith was still sleeping, Bai Zemin could not help but feel pain in his heart.

She was definitely more tired than him when it came to mind and spirit. Unlike Bai Zemin who wasn't scared and only worried about the appearance of 7 Higher Existence Leaders, Lilith was scared even if she didn't show it with words or actions.

If things had gotten out of control at that time, even Bai Zemin was clear that Lilith would have no way to protect him even if she was willing to sacrifice her life for him.

What Bai Zemin didn't know was that aside from her fear and helplessness towards what might happen, Lilith was also worn out after using the partial power her second Firmament Fragment granted her for a short period of time.

He was not supposed to come into contact with such beings so soon, it had only been about 1 and a half years since he started evolving. However, Bai Zemin knew that there was not much time for the real end to begin.

As he was looking at her beautiful face he couldn't help but reach out a hand to caress her, but halfway there he stopped for fear of waking her up and without a word activated Shadow Blink to jump into the shadow of the closet on the opposite wall of the room.

He smiled gently to see that she was still asleep, but now that he had a better view of the bed he noticed that there was another person there. His expression froze before he felt as if a large stone was lifted from his heart.

This other person was actually Shangguan Bing Xue, and although 90% of her body was hidden under the sheets, she seemed to be fine. Except for her somewhat messed up aura and her low Mana, she didn't seem to have any kind of problem to fight again soon.

When he arrived in the living room he met Feng Tian Wu. She was drinking red wine.

Bai Zemin raised an eyebrow and couldn't help but comment in a low voice to avoid waking the others, "Alcohol this early in the morning?"

Feng Tian Wu had been staring with unfocused eyes at the outside world beyond the huge window that ran from the floor to the ceiling of the room but her body trembled slightly when she heard his voice.

Snapping out of her daze, she looked at him silently for a moment before looking down at her wine glass, "I lost."

Her voice was soft, as soft as that of a little girl who was sad to get a 99 on her final test instead of her much-desired perfect 100.

Actually, Bai Zemin was not too surprised with this result.

While it was true that Feng Tian Wu was tremendously powerful and her talent of the highest category, Shangguan Bing Xue had grown to the point where her race had evolved to new heights.

Perhaps he had been silent for longer than he expected since Feng Tian Wu spoke again.

"That woman... Shangguan Bing Xue was inferior to me in the entire match. I completely overwhelmed her to the point where she could only put up walls of ice and use ice shields to protect herself from my flames as she ran all over the place... However, right at the end I became over confident for less than a fraction of a second when I trapped her in my Flame Prison. It was only less than a split second but it was the cause of my defeat."

Feng Tian Wu gently clenched her left fist on her thigh as she said in an increasingly low voice, "If that had been a death match I would no longer be alive."

Bai Zemin was naturally happy with this outcome. At the end of the day, Shangguan Bing Xue was his closest friend and one of the people he trusted with his life while Feng Tian Wu had no way of getting close to her in his heart.

However, as a Leader he had responsibilities.

"Why are you sad?" He said in a perplexed voice.

Feng Tian Wu shook her head without saying anything. He had no way of knowing how important it was for her to defeat Shangguan Bing Xue after all.

"You had to restrict the power of your destructive magic, and there were definitely skills that you could not activate as you might have caused a calamity. Bing Xue's ice magic is very adaptable so she didn't need to worry so much about letting loose a bit, but your fire magic only knows destruction so you were much more restricted than her in this aspect." Bai Zemin reasoned as he reached over and took the wine glass from her, "Drinking in the morning is not good, even if we can't get intoxicated with normal alcohol."

Feng Tian Wu looked at him in surprise. What she least expected was for him to say words of encouragement to her, since in her heart she was more than clear that the importance that woman had for him was practically unbeatable; reason why she wanted to win, and thus have the hope of replacing her even a little.

"Are you consoling me?" she asked as she stared into his eyes.

"If that's how you want to take it you are welcome to do so." Bai Zemin shook his head, and just as he felt several people wake up he added, "I might not be able to match Shangguan Xinyue in a training match, but does this mean I am weaker than her? My skills are focused on killing and destroying, not practicing."

Feng Tian Wu's eyes practically sparkled as she stared at him.

For the first time in many years, Bai Zemin saw her smile. Except that unlike in the past, this was a genuine smile that came from her heart.

"I see... I understand now... Thank you."

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