While blood had splattered everywhere and still continued gushing from both halves of the severed body of the enemy First Order soul evolver, not even a drop of blood-stained Shangguan Bing Xue's existence. Every drop of blood that flew in her direction was met with particles of cold air that froze that blood into tiny ruby-colored crystals that as they fell to the ground glittered in the sun's rays like precious jewels.
It only took a few moments for all the blood in the area to freeze due to the low temperature and as Shangguan Bing Xue stood on a platform of ice, the area around her was filled with these ruby-colored jewels created from the enemy's blood and her Ice Maker skill.
As Shen Mei watched from the back, she could not help but be amazed at such a sight. Initially, the place seemed to have turned into a living hell but a few seconds later that living hell slowly began to become more like a beautiful heaven of precious jewels.
This was probably the first time Shen Mei thought that death and slaughter were so beautiful.
There was no doubt that Shangguan Bing Xue's way of killing was extremely elegant. This coupled with her natural beauty that seemed to come from another world as the sunlight shone on her made her look like a goddess who descended from the heavens to the mortal world.
Her cold and emotionless eyes looked at the 14 people before her and without uttering a single word her body swayed gently as she still clung to the hilt of her Frozen Winter Sword.
The fourteen soul evolvers only saw the beautiful but thorny rose before them disappear and then all they managed to see was a flash of bright light glinting before them. A moment later, what these soul evolvers managed to make out was the world around them begin to spin before finally realizing that it was not the world spinning but their heads.
How horrifying was it to see your own headless body while blood gushed from your neck like an endless torrent? No one could ever imagine themselves in such a situation, let alone get an idea of how horrifying such a sight was. These decapitated soul evolvers were no exception either; however, they had just experienced that feeling for the first and last time in their lives.
The fourteen heads fell to the ground making thudding noises, followed by the lifeless bodies of the fourteen enemy soul evolvers. Before the blood could spread any further, Shangguan Bing Xue waved her hand gracefully and the frost energy gathered beneath her feet, casting a silver-colored magic circle.
Bang!
The frost-like energy spread outward with her as the center and in a second everything twenty meters in front of her was completely sealed in layers of crystalline white ice.
Shen Mei's eyes twitched as she saw how excellent control over her own Mana Shangguan Bing Xue had. This was probably the most perfect magic and magical activation Shen Mei had seen since the Soul Record arrived on Earth.
'What a beautiful and talented woman!' Shen Mei exclaimed in her heart as she watched the moonlight silver hair of the young woman in front of her sway gently as the frozen air particles danced around her.
Shangguan Bing Xue glanced icily towards the vehicle 50 meters away, easily noticing the presence of some people inside. She did not bother to go there immediately and instead turned her body slightly to look behind her.
There, Luo Ning was resting in Shen Mei's arms. The girl's eyes were closed tightly and there was a slight frown on her face that made her look extremely pitiful. The occasional trembling of her body made one believe that she was having an ugly nightmare from which she could not wake up, which generated a need to hug her to relieve her lament.
Seeing Luo Ning in such a state, Shangguan Bing Xue's heart was not too affected. Because while it looked like the girl was suffering, it was actually nothing compared to what she would experience if she fell into the enemy's hands.
Earlier, while they were on their way here, Luo Ning was very cheerful and did not seem to take all this matter seriously at all. In fact, the girl even asked Shangguan Bing Xue to help her put on a show in which it would appear that she could control ice as well since Luo Ning always liked Shangguan Bing Xue's skill.
At that time, Shangguan Bing Xue had frowned and her heart was discontented so she was about to scold Luo Ning when suddenly an idea came to her. Then, her frown disappeared in an instant and with a weird glint in her eyes, she decided to play along with the girl.
Therefore, the woman who was unwillingly given the title Ice Princess by the survivors and fighters of the Transcendent faction set a trap using the second activation of her skill Second Order Ice Maker level 1 in a way that only needed a pinch of her Mana to activate. This trap was placed in front of Luo Ning so that when the girl sent the signal, Shangguan Bing Xue could easily activate it and protect her from the enemies.
In the end, everything turned out just as Luo Ning expected. At first, the enemies were indeed surprised to see that she could use ice magic other than summoning magic and agility magic. However, it was here that things got out of control.
It was here that Luo Ning learned that the battlefield was no joke and this was precisely what Shangguan Bing Xue wanted to do; she wanted to let her see Luo Ning and make her experience the cruelty of the world first hand, she wanted the girl to see that zombies and mutant beasts were not the only enemies she faced but humans were as well.
There were several occasions when Shangguan Bing Xue had to restrain herself from stepping forward and making a move personally as she knew that the girl's suffering would be over in an instant with a single wave of her hand. However, it was precisely her natural coldness and indifference that allowed Shangguan Bing Xue to reason clearly and negate those emotions of pressure.
"This little girl... I don't think a girl should be on a battlefield like this one." Shan Mei voiced her opinion in a low voice as she sighed inwardly. She looked at Shangguan Bing Xue and asked, "May I know why you let her continue fighting? Considering how powerful you all are, I don't think you don't have the power to protect her anyway."
Shangguan Bing Xue looked at her indifferently and after a moment of silence said emotionlessly, "When we first met Luo Ning, rice was a luxury food for her and even though her elder brother worked in the camp militia which was then led by four petty bandits, there were many times when she was not able to eat her fill. When her elder brother left, Luo Ning was always alone in a small house on the outer perimeter of the camp with a lingering fear of knowing that she might soon lose her only loved one, her only family, and the only person she could rely on to survive.... Do you think a girl who watched her parents die before her eyes would willingly let go of the possibility of becoming more powerful?"
Shen Mei was stunned for a moment before smiling bitterly in her heart and shaking her head.
Of course, the girl would not be willing to stand still and wait for death anymore.
"Our faction is indeed powerful, but most of that power is focused on a handful of soul evolvers. The rest is not that surprising." Shangguan Bing Xue added before turning around to look at the vehicle in the distance and saying, "Luo Ning is yet young and inexperienced, therefore, it will be better for her to learn how this world works early if she doesn't want to leave the battlefield. Neither Bai Zemin, nor I, nor the others will always be there for her... and in such situations, she can only rely on herself."
Shen Mei sighed and said quietly, "I see.... I understand."
During the previous battle, Luo Ning had the opportunity to take the lives of several enemies which, in the end, would have resulted in less burden on her and thus might have led to a completely different outcome than the current one; she might even have won.
However, every time Luo Ning was about to strike the fatal blow, her movements would falter which gave the enemy time to react or as in the last case she would redirect her attacks to non-vital areas. This was proof that she did not yet dare to take human lives despite the fear she felt or the knowledge that they were her enemies.
Such a thing was not necessarily bad as it was proof that Luo Ning's heart was still as pure white as the feathers of angels. Unfortunately, this behavior could not be categorized as good either.
Without another word and without further explanation, Shangguan Bing Xue slowly walked towards the vehicle.
Shen Mei watched her back and after several seconds followed her closely as she hugged Luo Ning with one arm and held the Crocodile Tooth Sword with the other.
In the interior of the vehicle, the faces of Mayor Bai Yong and his younger sister Bai Wei were pale as cartoon ghosts with no trace of red in them.
"B- Big brother... Th-That's not Shen Mei? Why is she with the enemy?" Bai Wei stammered in complete terror after seeing the silver-haired woman's power.
She had not witnessed Bai Zemin's destructive attacks so, to Bai Wei, Shangguan Bing Xue was no different from a monster with human skin; undoubtedly the most horrendously strong existence she had ever seen.
Bai Yong did not respond to his sister Bai Wei's questions. Instead, he just stared at Shen Mei's face for what seemed like an eternity before he finally let out a heavy sigh and plopped down on the back of the back seat of the vehicle.
"I see... Now I understand where that uncomfortable feeling from earlier was coming from." Bai Yong sighed again with a deathly pale face as his lifeless eyes stared at the roof of the vehicle.
Never, not even in his wildest dreams, would Bai Yong have expected that the person who would betray him would be Shen Mei. He might expect it from Mo Zan and indeed guarded against him, however, Shen Mei never showed strange behaviors nor did she prove to be an overly ambitious woman; she seemed comfortable with her place and position.
"... So that's how things are..." Bai Yong smiled bitterly.
Since Shen Mei was not ambitious, then it was only natural to try to protect what she had. A person who had already seen all kinds of plots like Bai Yong did not take long to realize what Shen Mei had done.
Shangguan Bing Xue arrived next to the vehicle and looked inside through the window. Her eyes were cold as she asked, "You are the former Mayor of Baiquan Subdistrict, Bai Yong?"
Bai Yong looked at her, unable to care less about the great beauty before him, and with a heavy heart said quietly, ".... I guess that's me.... I give up, Miss..."
Shangguan Bing Xue shook her head and pointed her finger towards the inside of the vehicle as she said with murderous intent, "We don't accept scum in our group."
Bai Yong's eyes widened and before he could say anything else the frost energy gathered inside the vehicle, freezing everything inside and turning even the driver into ice statues.
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