Tens of thousands of trees were cut down in a matter of an hour and within that same time, the soul evolvers that made up the First Brigade of the Blood Spear Legion also removed all those trees from the forest whose size had been reduced by an insignificant notch compared to their true size.

Of course, during the whole process of tree felling, not a few evolved beasts and mutant plants came out of their caves when they realized that the place where they lived was being indiscriminately attacked. 

As a result, a great three-way battle among soul evolvers of three different races raged fiercely with blood flying everywhere and corpses littering the ground continuously.

While there were a few soul evolvers who died in the process, the number was less than 20 while after fighting for a whole morning they managed to hunt down several thousand mutant beasts. The only reason this masterful feat was possible was due to three simple but critical factors.

The first crucial factor was the purity of Soul Power; the soul evolvers of the Blood Spear Legion, under the strict orders of Bai Zemin, mainly hunted higher-level enemies to level up. This led to the consequence that the stats of each soul evolver were at least slightly higher compared to those enemies of the same level.

The second crucial factor was teamwork. After having received strict daily training where they were taught to cooperate perfectly with their teammates, a party composed of 2 melee fighters, 1 archer, and 1 mage or 2 archers if there was no mage free; they became capable of fighting at least one creature that exceeded them by 5-10 levels.

While victory and defeat depended on the execution of the techniques learned during training, this was where the third and final crucial factor that led the soul evolvers of mankind to victory once again came in.

Attack and defense equipment and treasures.

With the vast amount of armor and weapons that Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue managed to obtain after facing the asura race, the power of each soul evolver, as well as the defense, was raised one or two levels in the worst-case scenario.

Moreover, with a character such as Wu Yijun present, the terror of the forests was no longer so great. With her as the main focus, the beasts and especially mutant plants fell one after another thanks to the fact that within the forests Wu Yijun was no different from the supreme.

In this way, time flew by and soon morning turned to afternoon.

Wu Yijun took it upon herself to coordinate with several cargo trucks which trailed giant ice wagons behind and with Infinite Reduction all the felled trees were loaded as were the corpses of evolved beasts or mutant plants; nothing was left behind.

Of course, this was a process that took many hours and it was only at almost midnight when everyone finally returned to Cuicun Town to rest.

There was still a lot of debris to be removed, however, it was definitely a task that could be finished within the next 24 hours if all the workers continued at the same pace. After all, Cuicun Town had been home to around 40,000 inhabitants so even though in the past there had been many buildings for businesses and homes, with over 1000 workers whose physical stats were around three times that of 1000 workers in the past, as well as the support of magical treasures, the task of clearing everything would be infinitely easier and faster.

Thousands of tents had been set up around the heavily enclosed grounds by the army and the war machines. Although most of these tents were only a few bones of mutant beasts along with the pelts of giant beasts, in reality they were more than enough to protect the survivors from the cold.

In addition, at this point there were practically no leeches in the Transcendent faction as everyone had found some sort of job; therefore, each survivor had their own salary and therefore their own food.

While most of the survivors were temporarily unemployed due to the construction process of the new city, each family had their own food reserves which would be enough for each of those families to get through half a month without any problems. But even then, with the government supporting this whole big movement from behind, no one would go hungry no matter what.

...

-In a military tent.

Cai Jingyi and Wu Yijun had just arrived from the forest located more than 100 kilometers to the northeast with Cuicun Town as the central point. The two women finished handing Lu Xiaoyao and the rest of the logistics team the documents detailing everything they had accomplished during the day and then headed to the military tent located in the center of the camp.

The tent was just a normal tent but the inside had been reinforced with the pelt of a creature called Giant Brown Bear whose level reached 29 while it was alive, therefore, the inside was very warm and the winds from outside were basically unable to penetrate beyond the pelt. In addition, the interior was divided into several parts so that several people could sleep there without any problem.

This military tent was not unlike a small house by itself.

Upon entering the tent, the first thing Cai Jingyi and Wu Yijun saw were the maids in charge of arranging Bai Zemin's comforts working to prepare dinner while the inside of the place was illuminated by a solar-powered generator; a luxury that only three or four people in the entire Transcendent faction could enjoy.

Qin Ming noticed the arrival of the two women and quickly stopped what she was doing. She smiled politely and addressed them both, "Miss Wu, Miss Cai, good job."

"Aunt Qin, good job to you too." Cai Jingyi smiled sweetly in response.

Both she and Wu Yijun, as well as all those who could be considered close to Bai Zemin, were familiar with Qin Ming and also respected her a lot after learning about all the bad things she went through before she was saved.

Moreover, Qin Ming was a woman who was really hard working and worthy of respect apart from her own natural mature charm which had won the admiration of several men among whom there were soul evolvers but who were eventually rejected without even receiving another glance from her.

However, Wu Yijun seemed busy looking around as if she was searching for someone so she did not even hear Qin Ming's words.

Cai Jingyi and Qin Ming exchanged glances and both saw amusement sparkle in each other's eyes. How could the two women not understand who Wu Yijun was looking for and who had the capacity to make her this absent-minded? 

"This... Aunt Qin." Wu Yijun finally gave up when she didn't find the figure of the person she hadn't seen since the night before and asked quietly, "May I know where Bai Zemin is?"

Cai Jingyi and Qin Ming again exchanged glances as if silently saying to each other, "Of course, this was the case."

However, Qin Ming had no choice but to shake her head and sigh, "Miss Wu, I am sorry to inform you that the Lord is not around at the moment."

"No?" Wu Yijun immediately deflated just like a balloon.

Wu Yijun had been looking forward to returning to inform Bai Zemin of the progress of the mission he tasked her to do and take the opportunity to feast her eyes on his figure so now that it became impossible to do she naturally felt discouraged. 

"Aunt Qin." Cai Jingyi interrupted and asked with a slight frown, "Could you tell us where he is right now? It must be something really important for someone responsible as Bai Zemin to be willing to leave his territory when such big changes are happening."

Qin Ming sighed and instead of answering immediately invited the two young women to sit down. She then poured a cup of honey tea for each and slowly explained the situation.

It turned out that around 5 a.m. today, about 30 minutes before everyone woke up for work, Bai Zemin woke up first and put on his armor. Because Qin Ming usually woke up around that time to prepare all the necessary things for the day, she naturally met him in the central part of the tent.

Bai Zemin informed Qin Ming that he would be leaving for the rest of the day to see with his own eyes the situation Yangfang Town was currently in; his birthplace and where he lived most of his life with his family.

Hearing this much, Cai Jingyi and Wu Yijun looked at each other. They both saw understanding in each other's eyes and now finally understood why Bai Zemin would disappear at such a crucial point as this.

Suddenly and as if remembering something important, Qin Ming looked at Wu Yijun and said, "Oh, right! I almost forgot all about it. Miss Wu, the Lord left a message for you."

"A message for me?" Wu Yijun pointed to herself with surprise on her face.

"That's right." Qin Ming nodded and said with a smile, "Because the Lord did not know whether he would return exactly today or tomorrow, he told me to tell you that temporarily you would be left in charge of the total power and control of our Transcendent faction. He also said that you are the only person with sufficient ability among his trusted confidants necessary for such a task."

She was the only one with sufficient ability within his trusted close ones? Wu Yijun was very surprised.

Did he trust her more than Shangguan Bing Xue? Wu Yijun felt that something was not right when she thought about it so she hurriedly asked, "This.... Aunt Qin, what about Bing Xue?"

"Umm..." Qin Ming looked a little awkward at this question but seeing the small frown on the young lady's face in front of her she finally sighed in her heart and spoke the truth: "It seems that Miss Shangguan understood perfectly what kind of person the Lord is and also managed to guess his plans, therefore... Therefore, when he was about to leave, she stopped him and requested to go together with him."

Qin Ming noticed a glint of bitterness in Wu Yijun's eyes so in an attempt to lift the young lady's spirits she added: "The Lord refused several times at first, but as we all know, Miss Shangguan is a woman of strong and determined character. Moreover, her arguments seemed to be logical so after more than ten minutes the Lord finally gave in and let her do whatever she wanted."

"Of course..." Wu Yijun raised both hands and shook her head as she sighed.

Being honest with herself, Wu Yijun had already realized that her best friend might be interested in Bai Zemin. Still, she hid it and acted as if she knew nothing; that was why she was surprised when Lili brought up this fact as if she knew that the innocent Wu Yijun was actually more cunning than everyone thought.

But Wu Yijun was neither angry nor jealous because her best friend was interested in the man she loved. In Wu Yijun's eyes, Bai Zemin was the best man in the world in every aspect of the word man so it was only natural that any woman with good eyes would be attracted in some way or another toward him.

What Wu Yijun felt was bitterness at the fact that regardless of whether it was strength, skill, bravery, talent, even beauty; she was behind her good sister in practically everything.

Another thing that made her feel bitter was that Shangguan Bing Xue not only surpassed her in the aforementioned aspects but also understood Bai Zemin's train of thoughts and personality much more in depth than Wu Yijun did.

Wu Yijun was sure that Shangguan Bing Xue was not competing against her; but Wu Yijun was competing against Shangguan Bing Xue. She wanted to surpass her as only then would she feel worthy to stand beside him.

* * * * * * *

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