Chapter 650 - Conquering the First Silver Pagoda

The words Lilith just said confused Bai Zemin immensely. He had many questions he wanted to ask her but that he knew would probably not be answered in their entirety if they somehow or other involved matters against the rules; for example, Bai Zemin knew that if the information he needed to know contained something that would prevent him from taking a certain path then she could not tell him anything as that would be involving herself in his immediate fate very deeply.

However, even without asking questions, there was something that Bai Zemin understood after hearing the words 'Ancient Ruins'.

Where there were ancient ruins, treasures were a given!

Regardless of the era or age, whenever a ruin from ancient times was found then that country and eventually the entire world was bound to benefit in some way or another!

Of course, there was first the unknown path that was wrapped in a cloak of darkness and mystery to be revealed; a path which judging by the circumstances they were currently facing would definitely not be smooth and easy to walk.

"These things don't even give Soul Power after we kill them!" Cai Jingyi bellowed angrily as she kicked a golem she had just torn apart with her dagger.

"Of course not, they're golems." Zhong De pointed out as he smashed another golem with his mace and turned it into a pile of useless scrap.

"Bah!" Cai Jingyi was still dissatisfied so her body began to blink among the melee mechanical golems and for every second that passed at least a dozen of them were chopped into pieces and the gleam in their eyes faded after they fell to the ground.

While people like Zhong De, Cai Jingyi. Huang Tian, Teng Hua, Sun Ling, Wu Yijun, Nangong Lingxin, Liang Jing, Xia Ya, Little Snow, Meng Qi, and others teamed up with lower level soul evolvers to take down the mechanical golems in close combat, people like Shangguan Bing Xue, Feng Tian Wu, Feng Hong, Chen He, Bai Zemin, and many more mages and archers took it upon themselves to crush the enemies attacking from inside the pagoda.

Explosions sounded constantly along with curses and screams of pain as a soul evolver was sent flying after being hit by the power of the mechanical golems, barely clinging to their lives thanks to the Rank 1 armor and equipment that Bai Zemin had provided them with. On the other hand, the sound of metal being torn and falling to the ground became clearer and clearer in the middle of the night.

Iron arrows powered by mana, mana arrows, lightning bolts, fireballs, wind blades, clouds of corrosive acid, ice pikes, ice swords, earth spears, blood spears, and all kinds of magic composed of different elements flew through the skies in the direction of the pagoda.

The mechanical golems attacking from within quickly began to be destroyed and the power of the blue light beams began to be less threatening as the number of enemies decreased.

Surprisingly, even when the pagoda was hit by some misplaced magical skill, the walls held firm and so far not even a fragment of stone belonging to the square had been destroyed.

"Damn it, where the hell are these creatures coming from?!" Chen He couldn't help but curse when after more than thirty minutes of continuous fighting the mechanical golems continued to pour out from the pagoda as if there was no end in sight.

"What you want to know is probably what everyone here is wondering, little He." Sun Ling said a bit grumpily. Her mood wasn't very good as her passive ability that served to affect the movements and reasoning of enemies didn't work against machine-like creatures so her battle prowess had dropped considerably as a result.

The face of Bai Zemin was uncertain as he continued to use Blood Manipulation to finish off the gunners in the back or to support at crucial moments anyone who was about to lose their life.

He had visited this place with his family a few years ago and had even been inside all the pagodas except for the central one that was always closed to the public. However, while the inside of the pagoda was large enough to accommodate many people, the number of mechanical golems that he and his team had destroyed during this time was definitely over fifty thousand.

So, where the hell were those golems coming from and how had they been put in there? Bai Zemin soon thought of something and associating it with the previous words of Lilith he understood what was going on.

"Underground..." He muttered with narrowed eyes. "More magic circles?"

"Did you say something?" Shangguan Bing Xue, who was standing to his left, asked in confusion while not stopping attacking and defending at the same time, saving the lives of not a few in the process.

"No, it's nothing." Bai Zemin shook his head before shouting loudly, "Everyone, keep going like this! The enemy seems to be running out of troops soon!"

Regardless of the reason why he had said that, the words from Bai Zemin were basically divine words at this point for most of the soul evolvers fighting alongside him. Therefore, upon hearing that they would soon be finishing, many could not help but roar with renewed humor and begin to attack more fiercely with the idea of speeding up the process.

Indeed, Bai Zemin proved to be right when approximately ten minutes later the melee-type mechanical golems stopped coming to attack them so in seconds the remaining few were crushed to pieces.

"Very good!"

"Holy shit, it's finally done!"

"..."

Some had received minor wounds during the combat while others received wounds heavy enough to fall unconscious when their bodies relaxed after the combat ended. However, everyone was glad that the end was near.

"All soul evolvers of the Black Turtle guild, stay back!" Bai Zemin did not allow the melee fighters to approach in any way.

The energy beams that the gunner golems fired from inside the pagoda were really powerful to the point that just as Shangguan Bing Xue said earlier, a First Order human soul evolver of the initial stage would be killed on the spot if they were hit in a vital area.

Approximately five minutes later, the last of the gunner golems fell to the ground when its head was hit by a fire arrow launched by Feng Hong.

Immediately after that, the place fell deathly silent and seconds later the blue light covering 2/10th of the stone square changed to a green color.

"Do...ne...?" Feng Tian Wu muttered under her breath. Her generous chest rose and fell as a result of her slightly labored breathing; she had consumed quite a bit of Mana in the battle against the weaver ants and had yet to fully recover when another battle raged so she needed a night's rest to regain her full strength.

In fact, Feng Tian Wu was not the only one as most of those present had slightly pale faces and were physically and mentally exhausted. Half of them had barely been able to sleep for one hour when they were awakened by the commotion and the other half had not even been able to rest at all throughout the whole day.

Bai Zemin noticed the relieved expressions on the faces of everybody when they realized that the battle was over and he realized that they all needed a refreshing night's sleep. Sending them off to fight now was definitely not wise at all.

"What do we do now?" Sun Ling walked up to Bai Zemin and looked at him.

He noticed that her face was slightly sweaty and her breathing was also a bit labored. At the end of the day, Sun Ling was one of the few who charged to the front and at all times she was fighting at least against ten mechanical golems at the same time so she was naturally somewhat exhausted after losing a lot of her Stamina.

Bai Zemin turned to face the giant door of the now open pagoda before closing his eyes and ordering in a soft voice, "Everyone, you've done a good job.... Return to the tents and get some rest. We will continue the exploration in six hours."

Several sighs of relief filled the surroundings as relieved smiles filled the faces of everyone present.

Bai Zemin gave a few more orders and eventually except for him, Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun, Chen He, and Zhong De, everyone went to sleep to replenish their energy. While Xia Ya was probably still well, her assigned task was to protect Sun Ling and in urgent moments support Wu Yijun if her life was ever in danger and Bai Zemin or Shangguan Bing Xue could not help her.

Although Meng Qi also wanted to stay awake, Bai Zemin reprimanded her and ordered her in a firm voice to go to sleep for which she reluctantly retreated to the central tent and soon fell asleep next to Little Snow.

While Meng Qi wanted to be more useful and help her brother the most, her Stamina was not particularly high and this was basically her first large-scale exploration and assault as a soul evolver; the number of things she had experienced in just a day was too many so a night's rest was probably something she needed both physically and mentally.

With each of them scattered in different areas and covering the camp area to prevent any mutant creature or enemy of any kind from sneaking in and wreaking havoc on the sleeping troops, the night's time began to run slowly.

Meanwhile, Bai Zemin sat cross-legged on the ground staring at the open door of the pagoda they had just conquered. The night still had several hours to go so he would surely be bored doing nothing during all that time.

Suddenly, a breeze of otherworldly air containing the scent of fresh roses surrounded him and not even a second later he heard the lovely voice of the one who had become the most important woman in his life:

"Aren't you going in now?"

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"It's hard to say if there isn't a more powerful enemy in there. Even though all the golems had a power level equivalent to an Unclassified soul evolver, the swords carried by the melee types were all Rank 1 swords with over 300 points of physical attack power." Bai Zemin pointed out in a whispering voice. "On the other hand, the power of those energy beams was truly terrifying. Even First Order level 30 mutant beasts would be suppressed if a team of 50 normal men surrounded it with that kind of weapon."

"I see. That means you'll wait until tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Besides, I still need to think of a countermeasure..."

"Countermeasure?"

"If worst comes to worst, I'll probably have to use Crimson Blood Judgment... And if things get really bad, I might even have to use the power of Gravity Manipulation or the Endless Blue Lotus Flame. I need to think up something to not affect the surroundings in a big way."

"... I understand. I guess you'll use the night to think about it?"

"Yup."

Bai Zemin nodded his head and suddenly felt a light weight resting on his back. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was and judging by the sensation it seemed to be Lilith resting her back on his as Bai Zemin could feel the caresses of her hair on his neck.

"I'll be your company then," Lilith whispered, her voice so soft that the wind soon swept it away and carried it far into the sky along with several dried tree leaves.

"Okay." Bai Zemin closed his eyes and smiled with relief and happiness.

Relief because he finally didn't feel lonely anymore.... Even in the middle of the night, regardless of whether he had to stand guard or if he couldn't sleep, he would now have someone to accompany him for the rest of his life.

As for the reason why he was happy.... Bai Zemin believed that any sentient living being in the universe would be happy to be reciprocated and accompanied by the one they loved even in the middle of a cold night like this one.

The night passed without any incident worth mentioning.

There were no enemies attacking from the air, from the forests, or even coming out of the now open pagoda.

Bai Zemin and Lilith rested against each other as they chatted about things that had no real purpose, mostly with Bai Zemin sharing some of his life's experiences and Lilith giggling under her breath or making funny remarks about it.

When the tactical compass clock struck 8 am and after everyone had eaten breakfast, Bai Zemin finally stood up after staying in lotus position all night and turned around.historical

There, hundreds of faces charged with energy and vigor looked at him with firm, resolute expressions, brimming with faith and overflowing with confidence.

A night's sleep really could do wonders.

"Move!" Bai Zemin waved his hand and turned on the spot.

His eyes flashed with anticipation as he took the first step forward toward what could be one of the greatest changes for mankind.