iron

It's just inside this forest."

Outside the jeeps, Wu Yijun pointed to the dirt road just off the main road before looking at Bai Zemin and the rest.

​​

"Even though it's been several years since then I can still clearly remember the place. It's definitely this way."

Bai Zemin nodded silently and took a step forward as he carefully scanned his surroundings.

The dirt road was not very wide and probably only one vehicle could pass without allowing a second to pull alongside it. Adjacent to the dirt road, the grass had grown dangerously knee-high making it difficult for anyone entering there to move and see while the trees stretched as far as the eye could not reach.

The northern area of Beijing was known as a forested area and the Yanqing District was especially for being an ecological area. It was the district with the most green areas in all of Beijing as well as one of those with the least human population.

As a result, it was natural for the government to hide military camps with weapons and logistics in such places where no human beings usually went. After all, no one in their right mind would venture into an unknown forest that was likely to be teeming with wild animals and creatures.

However, this also had an incredibly important consequence.

Being filled with forests, wildlife was naturally more prosperous. Therefore, beasts that had managed to mutate and evolve were probably lurking everywhere.

Bai Zemin did not believe that the forest in front of him was an exception to this rule. In fact, he had been starting to feel a little uncomfortable for a while now, but he did not know why since there was no enemy of any kind in sight.

In this operation, Bai Zemin had decided that the best option was to bring as few people as possible but with enough power to fight an army without any problems.

This was because he did not know what kind of dangers they would encounter and in cases like this, an ordinary person without proper training would only be more likely to cause trouble rather than help solve it.

Cai Jingyi, Kang Lan, Fu Xuefeng, Zhong De, Luo Cheng, Xiao Min, and all the other subordinates of Bai Zemin together with the armed militia moved the more than three hundred survivors who were in the second village to the Beginning Village. Bai Zemin ordered them several times to keep their guards up and to quell any kind of conflict with an iron fist.

In this kind of dangerous situation, the last thing he needed was trouble in the backyard while fighting to keep the front line safe.

After more than twenty minutes of observing the surroundings carefully and thinking a bit about the current situation, Bai Zemin turned around to look behind him and noticed that everyone was a bit tired.

After a full night without sleep, coupled with how troubled the previous day had been, it was natural for everyone to feel mentally overloaded. Even if the Stamina stat had only decreased a little, the human brain was another matter.

"Let's rest for a few hours." Bai Zemin glanced at his digital watch before looking at everyone again and announced, "It's currently a bit past 6 am. After we have some lunch at noon we'll start exploring the area and head into the forest."

Wu Yijun and Chen He looked at each other and sighed in relief. Under their eyes were small bags as evidence of tiredness. They were really trying hard not to collapse from sleep.

Even Shangguan Bing Xue, who had recently evolved to First Order, couldn't help but nod as she gently rubbed her eyes somewhat sleepily.

"You don't sleep?" Chen He asked as he saw that Bai Zemin did not move from his place.

"Don't worry about me." Bai Zemin smiled slightly and shook his head. "Just go and rest, we'll have a lot of work to do soon."

Chen He hesitated for a moment before turning and leaving.

Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun looked at him as if they wanted to say something but in the end neither of the two women said anything and left together to the jeep they had come inThey really needed to get some sleep.

When they all returned to the vehicles to rest, Bai Zemin frowned and a small glint of doubt flashed in his eyes as he looked up at the sky.

"Lilith, where did you go...?" he muttered to himself.

The night before, Lilith had told him she would be gone for a few hours before disappearing. This was the first time she had left his side in twenty days, so Bai Zemin felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Not hearing her voice or feeling her presence near him, for the first time in a long time, Bai Zemin could not help but feel a little lonely.

Although Shangguan Bing Xue, Chen He, and Wu Yijun were there and were people with whom he had spent a lot of time together and had even fought shoulder to shoulder in many battles, his relationship with the three of them was completely different from the complicated but balanced relationship he had with Lilith.

* * *

In a place far away from planet Earth, a beautiful woman floated silently in the sky.

Her inky black hair fell down her back like a waterfall, swaying in the dancing breeze that embraced her lovely and seductive body covered by a beautiful dark colored dress. She had her eyes closed and her breathing was so calm that she looked as if she was sleeping.

Swoosh!

Suddenly the space several hundred meters away seemed to twist as a silhouette appeared.

This silhouette turned out to be an extremely handsome man, even more handsome than Chen He. The aura that his body unconsciously exuded was incredibly frightening, which was proof that he was not someone normal.

But the most striking thing was the two white wings behind his back that gently swayed and held him in the air. These wings also represented his faction and the path he had decided to walk by evolving beyond all mortal limits.

Indeed, this man was a Higher Existence.

"Who are you?" the handsome man asked cautiously.

"Who am I?"

The woman's lovely voice sounded in a whisper. She giggled softly and slowly opened her eyes that had been closed until now. Her two ruby eyes glowed faintly and her lips curved into a charming smile.

"You are welcome to call me Lilith." She replied and her ruby eyes glowed slightly again.

At the sight of her smile, the handsome man with angel wings was spellbound for several seconds before he awoke from his reverie, seemingly oblivious to what had just happened.

"Lilith?" The man frowned before shaking his head, "Never heard that name."

Lilith didn't respond and simply remained standing in the void.

"Why would a demon like you be in a Lower World?" the angel questioned and his hands flashed until a large spear of light formed, "Are you planning something?"

"Planning?" Lilith played with her hair and nodded as she whispered, "Actually, I am planning something. You want to know what my plan is?"

The angel frowned and couldn't help but feel a bad premonition.

When the angel belonging to the Army of Heaven heard completely what Lilith had planned he didn't know how to react.

His two wings flapped gently as his silver armor shimmered with the rays of light from the distant stars and his blond hair danced in sync with the breeze.

​​

"How about, don't you think it's incredible?" Lilith clapped her hands as if she were an excited little girl and her eyes sparkled as if a million galaxies lived inside them.

After a moment of silence, the male angel leaned his head back and began to burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha!" His laughter echoed everywhere and anyone who heard it might come to think that Lilith had just told the best joke in history since the creation of the universe.

Lilith simply curved her lips and waited patiently for the angel to stop his laughter. When he finally stopped, she asked in an innocent tone of voice: "But I'm curious, why were you roaming the Earth? Is the Army of Heaven so free that they can casually send their angels to spy on Lower Worlds?"

"We, angels, are not as free as you, filthy demons who oppose the grace of the Lord!" The angel scoffed before swinging his spear of light and pointing it at Lilith, "I was just casually passing by as I seemed to sense a strange space rift but I didn't expect to meet a lunatic woman like you!"

"Kya~ Little pigeon, how do you suddenly get so aggressive!" Lilith exclaimed and took a step back as if she was scared while secretly letting out a sigh of relief.

Previously she had sensed this angel prowling the vicinity of Earth so she immediately acted to intercept him. She feared that some faction of Higher Existences had noticed Bai Zemin and somehow sought to harm him. Fortunately her concerns were not valid or else everything would become much more complicated than it already was.

"Hmph. Enough of your nonsense, demon." The angel snorted and charged forward as he shouted in a straight voice filled with holiness, "Even though you are a lunatic, the mere fact that you are a demon and that you claimed that a little Lower Existence would one day take the supreme throne that belongs to the Lord is enough to claim your head!"

Lilith neither dodged nor moved from her position. Her ruby eyes glowed brightly and she calmly said, "We'll see if I'm a lunatic or not... Though I don't think you can live to see that day come~"

"Wh-"

Only an inch away from piercing her heart, the angel's spear of light stopped abruptly. The eyes of the brave and holy warrior of one of the most important and powerful factions in the universe widened in shock as he stared into the red eyes of the woman in front of him. When he wanted to say something, his mouth abruptly closed with such loudness that his teeth almost broke in the process.

"Do you really want to kill me?" Lilith whispered in a fearful voice as she trembled as if she was scared to death. Her ruby eyes glowed intensely, releasing her charm and activating one of her simplest but most terrifying skills.

The angel's face turned as pale as a sheet as he realized that his body was not obeying his brain and he was increasingly losing control of his own thoughts.

He was a Fifth Order angel! In the past he had been a hero of his own world before ascending to divinity after receiving grace from the Lord and entering the arms of Heaven!

But he was beginning to lose his mind because of the demon in front of him!

"Bi-Bitch!" The angel barely managed to exclaim through gritted teeth.

Lilith ignored him and with the tip of her finger casually pushed the spear of light away.

She ignored the angel's surprise and sighed, "You men really are boring. It only takes so much for you to turn into mindless puppets... Look, even you fell for it. Weren't you angels free of impurity and lust? Then why are you breathing heavily like a dog in heat?"

She turned to leave and soon disappeared from the sight of the angel who not long after regained the mobility of his body.

The angel descended to the grounand sat down in terror as he scolded himself for letting such nefarious thoughts cloud his judgment. However, a sweet voice with a slight tinge of coldness soon reached his ears.

"Freeze everything: [Niflheim]!"

The powerful Fifth Order angel turned pale and all he could do was whisper a few words as he felt the terrifying amount of Mana moving from outside this planet and the power of the skill activating: "Death does not exist... I will only return to the arms of the Lord..."

BOOM!

After a thunderous explosion that shook the entire world, a terrifying amount of freezing power descended and enveloped everything.

From the earth and grass to the tops of gigantic trees ascending hundreds of kilometers high. The white clouds were frozen, the rivers of liquid and crystalline water became ice rinks, and the deserts with extremely high temperatures were transformed into an icy hell.

Thus a world that had already gone through several stages since the Soul Record reached this part of the universe was sealed in ice without a trace of life.

Surrounded by stars of different colors and galaxies, Lilith had an ice-cold gaze that if Bai Zemin saw could probably never associate it with her warm and playful smile that usually embodied her charming face.

"I wonder what these white pigeons will do when the news that one of their worlds was destroyed by a demon? Surely Satan and that 'Lord' will have a good time having fun so they won't be able to divert their attention too much elsewhere."

Her indifferent voice was the only thing that proved her existence since in an instant her entire presence had disappeared without a trace... Except for the obsidian-colored ice that sealed an entire planet and brimmed with dark energy.

* * *

Planet Earth, China, Beijing City.

It was past noon when Chen He and the rest opened their eyes again. They all woke up at about the same time with slight differences and after about six hours of sleep they felt refreshed.

"You didn't sleep at all?" Shangguan Bing Xue approached Bai Zemin and asked with a frown as she saw him standing silently in exactly the same place where he had been when they had all gone to sleep.

Bai Zemin remained standing looking up at the blue sky above his head and replied without much interest, "No."

"You..."

Shangguan Bing Xue frowned even more tightly and began to feel annoyed. Her annoyance was understandable considering that they would soon be going deep into a forest where there were probably many wild beasts running rampant but the leader seemed unconcerned as if they were going for a walk in the park.

Swoosh!

The wind whistled softly and as that gentle breeze caressed Bai Zemin's face, a rose fragrance distinctive to him greeted him. His lips curved upward slightly as he understood what this meant and his eyes turned toward Shangguan Bing Xue.

"Don't worry, ice princess. I'm perfectly fine."