Although the expansion of the Earth had ended, Lilith had told Bai Zemin that there was a possibility that when a second phenomenon occurred in which the sky would darken as a result of the great charge of mana that would be injected into the Earth, the world would expand further again. 

In addition, the surroundings were not at all safe at the moment and therefore Bai Zemin ordered that the survivors were strictly forbidden to get out of the vehicles they were in. He also ordered to completely quell any attempts to cause disturbances but to treat those who acted appropriately with respect and politeness.

Although there were many survivors frightened by what was happening, fortunately, no major mishaps occurred and since they were virtually cut off from the outside world, they did not know the exact situation of the rest. This added to the fact that there were hundreds of soldiers constantly patrolling the area where the vehicles had been parked was enough to prevent the fear from becoming a reason to cause chaos.

On the other hand, there was another factor that had helped a lot to calm the waters and it was that this time the survivors were able to taste a delicacy that most of them had not tasted for over two months; fish!

Fish was a common food before as with the East Sea crossing the northern part of the country the outer districts of Beijing enjoyed a lot of fishing. However, fish was also a food that unlike red meat would get rancid very quickly even if it was frozen so it was not a type of food that could be left for several days without being eaten. So, with the mutation of the world and the creatures that inhabited it, eating fish became a luxury that even Bai Zemin had hardly enjoyed until now.

Fortunately, during the previous hunt, he had managed to recover around 200 relatively intact fish corpses. To help calm the troubled waters that were lashing the hearts of the survivors, Bai Zemin pulled out a few low-level mutant fish and handed them over to the cooking teams to prepare soup with.

Thus, although they had no smiles on their faces, the survivors were able to go to sleep without a frown and with full and warm stomachs in the middle of the cold night.

* * *

The next day, the sun had not yet risen but the now destroyed Cuicun Town was extremely lively.

"Hey, move that over this way!" Lu Xiaoyao, who was wearing comfortable but warm clothes as well as a yellow safety helmet on her head, shouted as she pointed to a group of people struggling to move a large concrete block.

The group that was working hard to move the concrete block that was easily the size of an entire wall were not soul evolvers, but with more than ten of them working together and thanks to the fact that their stats had risen considerably as a result of good nutrition with food rich in Soul Power, it was possible to accomplish such a feat.

Bang!

The group managed to reach the place Lu Xiaoyao pointed out and without a care in the world they roared in unison as they threw the large concrete block the size of a wall towards the place where there was a huge pile of concrete.

Apart from that group, there were many others who constantly came and threw the concrete blocks belonging to the buildings that collapsed after the quake that shook the entire world during the Earth's growth wherever Lu Xiaoyao indicated.

After many had accumulated, she raised her right hand with which she held a strange futuristic-looking gun and pulled the trigger in the direction of the huge pile.

Swoosh!

Under the startled eyes of the workers, a large beam of light shot out from the muzzle of the futuristic-looking gun. The beam of light widened and under the movement of the gun in Lu Xiaoyao's hand, it completely covered the colossal pile of rubble.

By the time the beam of light disappeared, the survivors who had not yet witnessed Infinite Reduction's power gasped in disbelief and amazement. While there were all kinds of skills, seeing a huge concrete mountain turn into a pile of normal rocks had a strong impact on everyone's heart!

Lu Xiaoyao nodded in satisfaction and brought the intercom she held in her left hand to the level of her lips, "You can take these away now."

Then, she turned around and, seeing everyone standing there staring at her dumbfounded, Lu Xiaoyao frowned and shouted loudly, "Move! We have a lot of rubble to remove in order to build our home here!"

The survivors snapped out of the daydream they had fallen into and quickly got down to work for fear of losing this job. While no one would starve, eating rice with some meat every day was definitely better than eating soup forever! Not to mention that by working hard they could stabilize their lives at a level not too different from before the world changed!

One or two minutes later, two huge trucks appeared with wagons of ice behind them under the leadership of a crane truck slightly smaller than the other two.

The crane truck driver followed the orders of those near Lu Xiaoyao and carefully lifted the huge ice platform using the power of the crane. Then, the driver unloaded all the debris whose weight had now been reduced by 50% onto the two trucks.

Lu Xiaoyao waved her hand and the trucks were driven away from everyone's sight, taking the debris somewhere.

Under the teamwork of more than 2000 survivors, the debris began to disappear without a trace.

...

Fu Xuefeng, in charge of protecting the northern part of the site where the first official city of the Transcendent faction would be built, had also been put in charge of leading a team of about 1000 survivors.

1000 troops armed to the teeth, 40 gun-mounted vehicles, 20 modified motorcycles, 1 battle tank, 2 IFVs, 100 soul evolvers; this was the lineup that had been positioned in the north 10 km away from Cuicun Town with the objective of stopping any advance of any kind of life either by hook or by crook.

In the meantime, the 1000 survivors were using all kinds of tools to dig large holes in the ground. Because their bodies had been tremendously improved due to the good food, investment, and good vision of Bai Zemin, they all worked at least three times as effectively so that this group of 1000 easily equaled 3000 people digging at the same time.

The earth was being removed at surprisingly fast speeds and in a matter of minutes a straight line began to appear in the north; this straight line was a giant trench that gradually extended further and further in an easterly and westerly direction.

"I wonder how long it will take them to dig 100 km long and 15 meters deep." Fu Xuefeng muttered before yawning in boredom with some tears on his eyes.

A soul evolver standing next to him chuckled and said confidently, "Vice Brigade Leader Fu, when the survivors working inside finish their stuff they will join here so it will be faster than it looks."

"Well, there are also the three trenches being dug right now in the east, west, and south of the collapse zone as the center." Fu Xuefeng shook his head and whispered, "Big brother really has crazy ideas sometimes... Oh well. A little fry like me could never understand his big mind."

Apart from the north; in the south, east, and west, there had also been stationed troops whose numbers were quite similar to the troops under Fu Xuefeng's command with the south being specially protected with more than double the total power.

Because the area being protected was so vast, it was extremely improbable that even with soul evolvers present it would be possible to prevent a lightning-fast existence from sneaking in. Therefore, about 10 soul evolvers with the active skill Detector Probe were positioned at different strategic points along the four directions so that every 120 seconds a spirit wave with a range of about 1000 meters was launched forward with the intention of increasing security in those less protected areas and thus warning the main teams if necessary.

While not a perfect measure, the area to be covered was simply too large and Bai Zemin lacked sufficient manpower. Therefore, this was the best temporary solution.

...

Several kilometers distant, inside one of the forests located northeast of Cuicun Town.

A team composed of 1000 soul evolvers dressed in leather armor, plate armor, leather tunics, swords, bows, spears, maces, war hammers, etc; faced the two women standing in front of them with respectful expressions. The admiration in their eyes was simply too great and obvious to go unnoticed; especially the eyes of those female soul evolvers who saw the two women in front of them as examples to follow.

Cai Jingyi and Wu Yijun wore leather armor and leather magic tunic respectively. One held two small daggers in each hand and the other held a bone staff with a small Soul Stone embedded in the surface over 1 meter high.

The two women looked at the army of a thousand men in front of them and could not help but sigh in their hearts as they remembered the past.

A month ago, all the Transcendent faction had on hand were about 700 soul evolvers. But now, with the steady growth of applications to join the Blood Spear Legion, each Brigade had 1000 soul evolvers at their disposal. Moreover, the average level among them was level 8 while those at the highest level had already broken the First Order or were about to break through the barrier that held them back.

After about a minute of total silence, Cai Jingyi smiled slightly and asked calmly, "Everyone. You know what you have to do, right?"

"Yes!"

The shouts of 1000 soul evolvers joined together to form a roar similar to that of a dragon about to enter combat mode as they all confirmed at their Brigade Leader's question.

"Em." Cai Jingyi kept that same faint smile on her face and nodded as she calmly said, "Go."

There were no words or nods; only action that showed enough to make that silence meaningful.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!...

Like an unstoppable wave, the thousand soul evolvers rushed forward at practically the same time. With melee fighters in the front, archers in the middle, and mages in the back, the typical formation that could be seen in any kind of fantasy MMORPG raid moved past Cai Jingyi and Wu Yijun before disappearing into the shadows of the huge trees.

But the silence of the forest did not last long as explosions began to come from within. Moments after each explosion, at least a dozen trees that were at least 200 meters high fell to the ground after receiving one or more powerful blows that knocked them down without any problem.

The corner of Wu Yijun's mouth twitched a couple of times when she saw the giant trees flying over her head and falling three hundred meters ahead with a powerful explosion and raising clouds of dust.

She looked at Cai Jingyi and realized that she was stroking her dagger while humming some unknown song with the same smile as before; it was as if what was happening now was the most normal thing in the world to this small-bodied but charming young woman.

"Are everyone in the First Brigade that crazy?" Wu Yijun subconsciously blurted out her doubt aloud.

Cai Jingyi gave her a sidelong glance and said with an angelic smile, "What are you talking about?"

"... It's nothing." Wu Yijun looked away without continuing the matter.

She now finally understood the reason why Cai Jingyi had earned the nickname "Joker" among the soul evolvers; one never knew whether the smile on her face meant kindness or death.

* * * * * * *

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