Chapter 287 - Ice Goddess Skadi (Part 1)
Chapter 287 – Ice Goddess Skadi (Part 1)
After hearing Lilith's words, Bai Zemin's breathing completely stagnated and all he could do was stare at her face with a stunned expression.
Less than a hundred circles around the Sun…. Less than a hundred years…
Lilith's age didn't even reach a century…? Even though he had just heard the answer just moments ago, for some reason Bai Zemin's mind refused to accept it; or perhaps he simply could not understand how such a thing was possible.
.Lilith did not seem to be amused by his funny expression or anything else. In fact, the expression on her face was still as complex as when she said those words before the room fell into absolute silence.
While the natural sound of nocturnal insects added an extra layer of calm to the dark night, two existences were overwhelmed by their own emotions that although different, the result led them to stay in silence for a long time.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Bai Zemin asked in a halting black voice, "Lilith… Aren't you… Aren't you a Sixth Order existence…? How… Less than 100 years old…"
Lilith looked at him silently, a smile containing a hint of sadness adorned her beautiful and always cheerful face; a smile that Bai Zemin could not make out due to his own fluttering heart.
She said without knowing whether to laugh or cry: "Why? Did you expect me to be an ancient woman? You didn't expect me to be a genius of the highest level the universe has ever seen?"
"No… It's not that." Bai Zemin finally managed to calm down a bit, at least, enough to have a normal conversation. He shook his head and quickly said with glittering eyes: "I mean… I admit I didn't expect your talent and power to be terrifying enough to carry you so high in the ranks of power in all the history. Although I don't know how long it usually takes for an existence to reach your level, it definitely must be thousands of years at the very least. Isn't it?"
"Thousands of years and tens of thousands of years, that's the norm," Lilith replied in a slightly muffled voice. She looked at him with narrowed eyes and smiled slightly before saying, "Even if we leave aside all those who stagnate without being able to advance any further and end up being swept away by the river of time before becoming mortal remains, I can say with some pride that there has been no one capable of reaching the Sixth Order at a speed faster than me."
Every Higher Existence, at some time, was also a Lower Existence.
Among countless Lower Existences, only a small handful managed to break the chains of time and become a Higher Existence. Each one of these beings were geniuses among the greatest geniuses in recorded history; all of them had the right to be proud and arrogant. In the past, they were not only heroes of their respective worlds but also represented the hope of their own races.
However, even though he knew nothing about it, even though he was a mere pitiable First Order Lower Existence who had not yet reached even level 50, Bai Zemin was 100% sure of one thing.
This was that regardless of how fast the others were, they definitely could not have been faster than Lilith.
The reason was simple.
"To level up, every existence regardless of race needs to absorb commensurate Soul Power to purify, solidify, and increase one's own Soul Power." Bai Zemin remarked as he looked at her in admiration. "The higher the level and Order of an existence, the more difficult it becomes to advance. If I wanted to level up now, I should probably kill at least around 100,000 zombies considering the Soul Power they currently possess. So…"
Lilith listened to him silently and, even though he hadn't finished yet, she somehow already knew what he was going to say. Therefore, she nodded and replied indifferently, "What you are thinking is correct."
Bai Zemin sucked in a breath of cold air and became incredulous once again.
"Then… You… How many Higher Existences did you kill to ascend so quickly…?"
If an existence followed the normal path to become stronger, which meant absorbing a lot of Soul Power from existences weaker than oneself so as to be safer and less likely to face death, then the amount of time needed to rise through the ranks would be ridiculously high.
Even those outstanding talents who transformed into Higher Existences needed millennia to ascend to the Fifth Order, forget about the Sixth Order then.
However, Lilith managed to go from being nothing, a mere 0-level Lower Existence, to a being with very few rivals in the entire universe, all in less than 100 years!
What did this mean? The answer was simple; Lilith must have fought countless battles to the death with her life on the line, challenging insanely strong beings, absorbing the Soul Power of those existences, and leveling up and climbing among Orders at a speed that could only be called mind-blowing!
"Hehe… Little brother Zemin, big sister already forgot that." Lilith smiled sweetly before she shook her head and rectified herself, "Rather than forgetting, I just killed too many to remember the count. Do you even remember how many beings you've killed so far?"
Bai Zemin was dazed for a moment before forcing a smile into his heart.
Remember how many beings he had killed so far? That was simply impossible. Bai Zemin had ended the lives of hundreds of thousands of living beings; in little more than a mere month but he had already killed so much.
How could Lilith remember then? However, even without an exact number, Bai Zemin naturally knew that the amount of lives that the lovely woman sitting on the couch in front of him had claimed with her two small hands definitely exceeded tens of millions with ease.
Of course, even though he was aware of this fact it did not mean that he felt apprehensive or disliked towards Lilith in any way. To people like Bai Zemin, a woman capable of taking the life of another being in order to survive was praiseworthy.
Why did people believe that life was beautiful but death was horrifying? Maybe, just maybe, it was because life was a beautiful lie while death was a cruel reality… But for people who breathed death instead of air while living, life did not represent safety and death did not represent something to fear.
"But…" Lilith looked at him sharply and said something that made Bai Zemin's blood run cold.
"I have destroyed no less than ten worlds. Including all life in them, of course."
Destroying worlds and annihilating races?
Bai Zemin felt he could no longer be more surprised than this and smiled bitterly before shook his head. He sighed and said not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "You know… One of the reasons I most appreciate having you near me is because knowing your accomplishments somehow helps me keep my growing arrogance under control. Otherwise, I'm not quite sure what kind of person I would have become at this point."
Even though he didn't have many people to compare himself to, Bai Zemin knew he was powerful. Powerful enough to be invincible among all the humans he had faced or who had demonstrated their power in front of him so far. Even terrifying wild beasts with a level far above him eventually fell before his feet without being able to oppose against his strength.
However, Lilith's existence reminded him every day, every hour, every minute, and every second; even while he slept, that out there were countless beings with the power to devastate him with a single finger or even a single thought.
Knowing that even though he had not yet met these beings there were existences stronger than him, Bai Zemin's personality did not deviate so much and he continued to work hard every day practically without rest to improve himself.
Ever since the Soul Record showed up on Earth, from that first second when that green-lettered message flashed across his retina, Bai Zemin knew that the only way he could survive was to be powerful.
Therefore, as he became aware that his life and fate were not yet in his hands no matter how much it seemed so, the fire inside his soul burned like a raging volcano about to burst and sweep away everything in its path.
"What happened to the worlds you destroyed?" Bai Zemin pursued further, "I mean, since the living beings that inhabited it were wiped out by you, then those worlds are now considered empty worlds or maybe in many more years they will be inhabited by intelligent beings again?"
Even though she was aware that he wouldn't get any help from this kind of conversation, the motivation he received was enough to make it all worthwhile, and even if he ignored that, for the first time Lilith was willing to talk a little about herself.
"Pffft- Hehehe…" Lilith put a hand to her mouth and laughed charmingly. Her red eyes flashed with a hint of coldness that Bai Zemin had never seen until now and she replied in a casual voice, "Little brother Zemin, didn't you hear me before? I said that worlds were destroyed. Worlds such as Earth completely annihilated leaving no trace of life for there to be any possible evolution in the future. There are even three Higher Worlds on that list."
Higher Worlds. As Lilith had told him in the past, this was the term used for worlds capable of containing the attacks of Higher Existences without being destroyed. At this point, the world also gained its own will and power, which allowed it to defend itself against threats of annihilation.
"You completely destroyed more than ten worlds?!"
For the first time in a month, Bai Zemin raised his voice uncontrollably. However, he soon realized something and sucked in a breath of cold air as he said in a state of shock, "So…. All the Higher Existences of those worlds…"
"Dead. Massacre." Lilith replied matter-of-factly and shrugged her shoulders. "What can I say, I'm strong after all hehe…"
How many Higher Existences inhabited a Higher World? Bai Zemin had no way of knowing it. However, if that number was several million, then what Lilith was saying in flat words could be considered the highest feat ever since creation.
Therefore, she had the right to be arrogant and proud enough to pronounce such words.
However, Bai Zemin soon noticed a problem and couldn't help but point it out, "However, Lilith, something here doesn't match."
"What is it?" She smiled with interest.
"Worlds evolve at the speed of the beings that inhabit it, therefore, a Higher World should have the power to oppose Higher Existences. How can it be then…"
"What you want to know is: how is it possible for the Will of the World to allow an existence, in this case, it would be me, to annihilate every living being that inhabits it?" Lilith finished the question he wanted to ask for him and continued, "Of course, the Will of the World would never allow such a thing to happen. After all, wiping out all life on a world would mean that the world would come to an end and the Will of the World would eventually end up dying since worlds cannot exist without living beings just as living beings cannot live without a world."
"Then how…?" Bai Zemin was really puzzled by this matter and felt that if he didn't get an answer he probably wouldn't be able to sleep for days.
"That's because the Will of the World couldn't fight back." Lilith pointed out indifferently, "When you're powerful enough to annihilate everything with a single attack, there's really nothing you can't do… Of course, it's not as if I'm all-powerful at all by any stretch of the imagination. There are several existences that are much stronger than me."
Seeing Bai Zemin silent, Lilith shook her head and went back to looking at the stars in the distant sky. She sighed and a complicated light flashed in her red eyes again before quickly disappearing.
"Bai Zemin, do you like stars?"
Today, Bai Zemin would know which were the true most terrifying powers that existed in the multiverse.
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