Chapter 1120: Six days & Really special enemies
When the group of 15,000 men with Bai Zemin at their head moved fully into the forest, the situation changed immediately. In fact, it didn't even take more than 10 seconds before almost everyone present noticed a big change; particularly the weaker ones.
"Somehow... it feels like I'm having a harder time breathing here?" a beautiful soul evolver in leather armor and with a bone bow surrounded by a light layer of frost in her left hand touched her chest as she frowned.
Another soul evolver who was also in the First Order couldn't help but nod, "I thought it was just me, but now it seems that such is not the case..."
As Bai Zemin carefully observed the surroundings, he naturally also paid attention to what his troops were muttering behind him.
Shangguan Bing Xue approached, and while cautiously looking at the area said in a low voice, "The density of mana inside this forest is at least three times higher than outside."
When Bai Zemin heard Shangguan Bing Xue's analysis his expression immediately changed for a split second before returning to normal. What he least needed now was for his subordinates to see undesirable changes of expression on his face, heralding bad news.
He looked at her silently as if to confirm whether she was sure of what she said, but when he saw Shangguan Bing Xue imperceptibly nodding he finally realized that things might be more difficult than he estimated by at least two times.
Every time a world evolved, the amount and density of that world's mana would begin to grow steadily to allow the inhabitants of that place to adapt for at least several days. Of course, several days or a month was only the case for an abnormal world like Earth since normally an evolution process could take even a whole year and sometimes even more.
This was because a big hit of mana rushing into the organism could cause immediate death in the worst case or unwanted mutations; wasn't the first evolution and the third evolution of the Earth evidence enough of that?
However, inside this forest the density and amount of mana was at least three times stronger compared to outside; Bai Zemin did not doubt Shangguan Bing Xue because she had always been extremely receptive and capable when it came to controlling or sensing mana, even more than he was. What did this mean? Simple.
'The density of mana is already three times stronger in this peripheral area of the forest? Doesn't this mean that if we keep moving towards the center it will increase by at least a dozen times more?' As this thought flashed in his head, Bai Zemin's heart sank.
Forget about First Order soul evolvers; even those who had already surpassed level 50 and successfully evolved to the Second Order would probably die horribly or suffer monstrous mutations!
After thinking about it for a moment, Bai Zemin turned around and ordered in a deep voice, "All those below level 50 will retreat to the Collector's Pocket World first to preventing the mana in this place from becoming negative for you. In addition, I want when any of you feel difficulty breathing or moving to immediately declare it so that I will send you to a safe place."
Bai Zemin's words were more than welcomed by most. This was because the more time passed the more difficult it became for them to breathe and move; both of these were clear symptoms that their organisms could not adapt at the same rate that the mana from outside was hitting them.
Of course, there were also some who did not want to leave. This did not mean that they were disobedient but that they wanted to continue fighting and supporting their Leader to take revenge on the enemies and bring redemption to the innocents who were slaughtered and humiliated by the Russian troops.
Regardless of what any of them thought and regardless of whether they agreed or not, Bai Zemin directly sent all First Order soul evolvers to the Collector's Pocket World.
The 15,000-man army immediately reduced tremendously.
Bai Zemin looked at the little over 3000 people in front of him and nodded in satisfaction in his heart. These soul evolvers had surpassed level 50, and although most of them had only recently broken into the Second Order they were still powerhouses worth nurturing and caring for.
Under everyone's surprised eyes, Bai Zemin waved his hand into the air, and out of nowhere a slight disturbance occurred in the space around them.
Sun Ling's eyes opened wide in surprise when about 12 thousand people covered in black cloaks appeared out of nowhere in front of them. The most surprising thing was that all of these strangers had auras that were equivalent to that of a First Order soul evolver!
"These people... No, robots...? Doesn't seem to be right either..."
Although Sun Ling had forgotten since Bai Zemin had never used them until now, Shangguan Bing Xue's memory that had been present during the entire process clearly remembered these things that appeared when he waved his hand in the air.
These 12 thousand cloaked figures that had suddenly appeared were none other than a part of the warrior golems that Bai Zemin had taken control of after obtaining the Sky Destroyer. In one of the rooms of the great flying war battleship were at least tens of thousands of warrior golems, and so far, Bai Zemin had not used them. in fact, the number of people who knew of the existence of these golems was probably no more than ten.
It was exactly at this point that one crucial piece of Bai Zemin's plan came into play.
Faced with Shangguan Bing Xue's inquisitive eyes looking at him in puzzlement, Bai Zemin simply smiled slightly and shook his head. She understood that this was not the time for that so in the end she could only nod and decided to back him independently.
Bai Zemin clapped his hands once to get everyone's attention, and when he had all eyes on him he gave his next order without delay: "We will start exploring the periphery of the forest. All of us will go together, let's not split up to avoid major problems. Remember to be attentive and report when you feel negative changes, understood?"
Seeing the people in front of him nod, Bai Zemin turned to look at Wu Yijun, "Yijun, you and your team take over from here on out."
Wu Yijun nodded with a resolute expression on her baby face and took a step forward. About 120 soul evolvers came out with her and broke ranks; all of them were powerhouses with plant-like skills or specializations focused on recognition and finding particular herbs.
She handed out several handouts that she always had ready for moments like this and handed a large bunch to each of the 120. Wu Yijun then divided those 120 soul evolvers so that there was now at least 1 of them every 15 meters among the 3000 humans. She had ignored the hooded figures since she recognized them to be warrior golems as well so there was no need to risk splitting up too much.
Time flew by.
"It grows between the cracks in the rocks, is just over two centimeters tall and has four purple leaves with bright polka dots." A soul evolver squatted as his eyes darted back and forth between the plant in front of him and the leaflet in his hands.
Finally, after about 2 minutes, that same soul evolver exclaimed excitedly, "I found it! It is the Radiant Poison Purple Flower that only grows on worlds in their Fourth Stage and above!!"
One of the 120 people who belonged to Wu Yijun's personal team immediately moved forward upon hearing the surprise in the other person's voice. When he approached and confirmed what the other man said, he immediately said with shining eyes: "Indeed, this is the Radiant Poison Purple Flower needed to concoct the Thousand Nightmares Royal Powder capable of inducing painful illusions even to Third Order soul evolvers!"
Many immediately felt their blood boil upon hearing these words. What did it mean to be able to create a particular powder capable of affecting even powerhouses above level 100? It meant that once they could produce this powder, even a normal human would no longer necessarily be defenseless against an evolved enemy and would at the very least have a slim hope of survival while the enemy was writhing in pain!
Of course, producing such a powder was no simple task and there was no way such a treasure would ever get into the hands of normal survivors.
A few minutes later, Wu Yijun walked over and picked the Radiant Poison Purple Flower personally. Some plants and herbs had particular methods that needed to be employed to be harvested, if someone carelessly pulled it out it could cause the effect to drop more than half at best or completely destroy the herb at worst.
'With this Purple Flower of Radiant Poison I can make my Abyss Queen become stronger.' Wu Yijun's eyes sparkled with joy as she carefully placed the flower in a container with soil before sending it to her Lich Ring.
The Lich Ring was a kind of storage ring as it could store things inside it but its quality was slightly poorer. This was because unlike the storage ring that froze the time inside it protecting the quality of food and other products, the time inside the Lich Ring continued to run. However, this was not necessarily a disadvantage in Wu Yijun's hands considering that she was storing large quantities of precious herbs and plants there.
It had actually already been six days since Bai Zemin led everyone into the mutant forest. During these six days, there naturally appeared enemies dwelling within the forest, and it was precisely from the drop of one of those enemies that a green-colored treasure orb fell from which the Epic-grade Lich Ring came out.
Currently, the team had gone approximately 10 kilometers and walked no less than 100 thousand kilometers in total during the six days that had passed. However, they had yet to reach any of the ends of the mutant forest.
The good thing was that they had managed to find large quantities of precious herbs, but the bad thing was that occasionally some really strong enemies would appear as if they were being ordered by someone to go and see what was going on there.
One would think that the enemies Wu Yijun and the others were facing were mutant plants or ghost trees, but the reality was completely different. In fact, when the first enemy appeared only 10 minutes after they walked into the mutant forest six days ago everyone, even Bai Zemin, looked in shock.
This was because the first enemy they saw was neither of the plant type nor a mutant beast... The enemies they were facing were actually skeletons; bones; undead!
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