With Shangguan Bing Xue's first words said, Nangong Yi and Nangong Lingxin looked at each other. The elder brother nodded naturally and said in a deep serious voice, "As long as the rules are fair, you don't need to worry about any of that." 

Shangguan Bing Xue ignored his words directly and instead came to the topic at hand, "About that camp. Tell me everything you know. From the number of armed men and the type of equipment to the division of powers and evolvers... The more the better."

The corner of Nangong Yi's mouth twitched a couple of times and he finally realized that the extremely beautiful young woman in front of him not only had a cold and indifferent face but her personality matched her appearance.

Although Shangguan Bing Xue looked extremely beautiful and brave in her deep blue leather armor, as she sat there she looked like nothing more than an ordinary person. From an onlooker's point of view, she was nothing but a powerless beauty. But Nangong Yi was no fool. Someone capable of leading all these armed men could not be simple. Even the mage Kang Lan was sitting to the side with an expression of respect and admiration on her face every time she looked at her.

Moreover, although it was something more intuitive, Nangong Yi and Nangong Lingxin felt like they were looking at a huge mountain instead of a person each time they looked at the young woman sitting in front of them.

After a moment of silence, Nangong Yi began to tell in detail what he knew.

"Leader, to be completely honest, I don't know exactly how much power the camp that I and my sister escaped from controls." He thought Shangguan Bing Xue was the highest leader so he directly called her that.

No one in the room seemed to mind too much and let him continue, after all, it was true that Shangguan Bing Xue was one of the leaders. Not the highest leader, but a leader for sure.

He continued, "What I do know quite accurately is the amount of armed forces controlled by Kang Rong. Kang Rong controls approximately two hundred and thirty men with guns used by the People's Liberation Army in ancient times; quite similar to the weaponry that the group of soldiers outside possesses but perhaps with less firepower."

Nangong Yi had naturally seen the machine guns and rifles that the Beginning Village soldiers used. He judged that they must have opened a vintage military camp.

"Kang Rong found or opened a military camp?" Shangguan Bing Xue interrupted and a slight frown appeared on her face.

"No." Nangong Yi shook his head without hesitation. "Definitely no. Neither Kang Rong nor the other police chief have opened a military camp. They all use the supplies that the two police stations controlled before the apocalypse."

"I see. Go on." Shangguan Bing Xue relaxed a little. If the other group had opened a military camp things would be more complicated and she would probably have to wait for Bai Zemin to come out of his confinement to decide what to do since it was too crucial a decision. But if not, then it was easier and there was no need to go around the issue so much.

"Other than these two hundred and thirty armed men, there are no heavy weaponry like tanks or anything similar." Nangong Yi thought deeply for a moment before continuing, "At most, four or five vehicles with mounted weapons similar to those outside."

Nangong Yi was powerful even among the Kang Rong forces. He knew a lot of information about this man's faction and without hesitation spilled everything he knew. Anyway his family and the other side could not coexist. Besides, this was a good opportunity to see what this group was capable of; if they were weak, then he would have to think about what to do together with his sister.

From Nangong Yi's mouth, Shangguan Bing Xue got a rough general idea of the situation in the other camp.

Apart from the two hundred and thirty armed men and a couple of vehicles mounted with weapons, Kang Rong had under his command approximately one hundred people who had evolved by absorbing Soul Power. The power among these evolvers varied; some of them had barely begun to evolve while others were terribly powerful.

Kang Rong's faction, after entering into a dispute with the other faction, occupied the southern part of the camp with approximately half of the survivors under his command.

The name of the other police chief who controlled the northern part of the camp was Lu Yan. 

Lu Yan was already in his fifties, but with the help of several of his trusted men, he managed to evolve quite a bit so he looked quite healthy despite his age. As for how powerful Lu Yan's forces were or what levels his evolvers were, Nangong Yi did not know.

Since Kang Rong controls 50% and Lu Yan controls the other 50%, the strength between the two sides should be quite balanced then. Shangguan Bing Xue thought to herself as she gently took a sip of tea. This tea was extremely fragrant and of high quality. There were only about four hundred grams in total and except for important meetings, even someone like her could not enjoy it often.

If the strength between the two sides were too different, then one would have already swallowed the other. Otherwise, why on earth would Lu Yan allow Kang Rong to protect his son Kang Hong after his own daughter was almost raped? Therefore, the strength of the two must have been so similar that neither side was willing to risk attacking the other fiercely for fear of losing everything or achieving a victory so miserable that it could not even be called a victory.

Still, the situation was a bit complicated.

If it was only a few hundred armed men, Shangguan Bing Xue was 100% sure to finish them all off regardless of whether they had battle tanks or not.

The problem here was that the other sides also had more than two hundred evolvers in total.

Even if these evolvers were of a lower level and Shangguan Bing Xue was countless times more powerful, a human was not the same as a beast; humans could think out tactics and if she made a small mistake she could end up falling.

Shangguan Bing Xue did not know what active skills the other party had, and without this information, she was unwilling to make a hasty decision. She was aware that an army of ants could end the life of an elephant.

Shangguan Bing Xue herself had defeated a level 47 fully evolved First Order goblin while she was still only level 25 using tactics and knowledge. This was the best evidence that even First Order existences could fall before a weaker but smarter and more cunning enemy.

Cai Jingyi and the rest inside the room remained silent. Their gazes were partially focused on the silver-haired woman who seemed to be deep in thought.

After more than ten minutes during which she had drawn up different plans, countermeasures, and after having thought of countless situations, Shangguan Bing Xue finally finished drinking her cup of tea.

She calmly said, "We'd better wait for Bai Zemin to come out of his confinement and fully recover before deciding what to do."

Then, she looked at the two Nangong siblings and said with characteristic coldness, "You two should stay around. You'll have to lead the way in a few days."

With Camp Baiquan to the south and another camp to the north, the Beginning Village was practically enclosed and they could only return to the west where the university was or to the east by an unknown path. Therefore, it was natural to have to attack one of the parties if they wanted to continue to grow freely.

Although Shangguan Bing Xue was very confident, this decision was extremely important and the risks of failure could be devastating. Moreover, she also knew that with Bai Zemin there teaming up with her, even if the other side was twice as powerful they could still only fall obediently.

Two First Order existences with considerably high levels and powerful active skills teaming up against a few hundred evolvers could only result in total domination.

After saying those words, she stood up straight and left. She still had a lot of work to oversee and things that needed to be done by her personally. Her time was too valuable and every minute that passed could result in the evolution of a powerful enemy.

"This..." Nangong Lingxin was dumbfounded. This beautiful young lady arrived like a cold breeze and at the same speed she arrived, she left. She gave no explanation for anything and did as she pleased. This was the difference of status and power!

Cai Jingyi and Kang Lan looked at each other and sighed in relief. Fortunately, Shangguan Bing Xue was still rational as always and did not get carried away by power. If she gave the order to attack the other party, with Bai Zemin away, no one would be able to oppose her.

"Who is this person called Bai Zemin?" Nangong Yi finally woke up when Shangguan Bing Xue left and asked what caught his attention the most.

Wasn't that young beauty the leader of this group? If so then why on earth would she need someone else's approval? He was secretly surprised.

Cai Jingyi giggled softly and as she stood up said with a tinge of pride in her voice, "Bai Zemin is the main leader of our group."

"What?" Nangong Yi was once again surprised although he already had his doubts about it, "That young miss from before then..."

"She is Shangguan Bing Xue. She could also be counted as the leader of this camp. It's just that Bai Zemin is stronger, so he makes the most important decisions." Kang Lan wasn't too sure either but she said what she thought.

The two Nangong siblings looked at each other not knowing what to think about it. In the end, they both shook their heads and decided to wait. It wasn't like they could do anything else at the moment anyway.

* * *

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, four days flew by.

With the sun rising on the horizon and illuminating the land, the nocturnal beings closed their eyes again while the diurnal ones awoke preparing to slaughter everything that came their way in order to become more powerful and evolve.

The survivors in Beginning Village slowly got out of their beds and left their homes, preparing for another day of work. There were simply too many things to do and if they wanted to eat and bring more security to the place where they lived then they had no choice but to make an effort and do their bit.

The leaders and the other evolvers were powerful; there was no doubt about that. But even they had limits to what they could do.

The clearest example of this was Bai Zemin himself. He was powerful, but if he had not established his own faction, then the amount of work he would have to do would be much more.

Let's take blacksmithing as an example. During the past week, Bai Zemin only focused on swinging the hammer and nothing else. But if he were alone, then he would have to dismantle the monsters by himself, throw away the useless parts and separate them from the useful ones, take care of the meat so it wouldn't rot, take care of the blood, and many other tasks.

But thanks to the fact that he built a faction step by step, he could take small freedoms and focus on really important things, thus decreasing the amount of effort he would originally have to put in.

If he had to go through all the processes, forget about a week, even a month of work wouldn't necessarily have been enough.

Crack...

The door to the workshop that had remained practically completely closed for seven days, finally opened.

* * * * * * *

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