The body of Eduard, the man who had once led and ruled over Russia not only after the apocalypse but also before, was in such a terrible condition that Bai Zemin doubted whether what he was looking at was really a human being.

To call it simply a mere, disgusting piece of meat would probably be better, he thought to himself.

"For God's sake..." Nangong Yi turned to face the door through which he had entered with his face now pale.

He had seen several bloody scenes, at the end of the day, Nangong Yi was a top-tier soul evolver who had been fighting on the front lines since the very beginning of the apocalypse. However, this level of torture was extremely rare even for him.

"Are you okay watching that?" Nangong Yi noticed out of the corner of his eye that Bai Zemin's expression was quite calm even as he watched and listened to the writhing mass of flesh.

Bai Zemin did not respond, as the only reason why what he was seeing was tolerable was because he had tortured Liang Peng in an extremely cruel manner in the past.

It was just that Evangeline had taken that level of torture, which Bai Zemin saw as extremely cruel, to a whole new level.

About twenty minutes later, Eduard fainted and his screams stopped.

Despite Evangeline injecting him with some kind of serum several times, the man simply did not wake up and it was as if his brain had completely shut down to preserve itself.

Perhaps realizing that for today this was all she would get, Evangeline walked over to a small iron table located to her left. She began cleaning her "tools of the trade" as she softly said, "Most ants are too big because of mana and evolution, but evolution brought a new branch of ants that are still very small. Because they are small and bite really hard, our New Life Research team called this species Flea Ant."

"That explains a few things." Bai Zemin looked at the former Russian Leader's body and finally figured out how the wounds had been caused where both his skin and his flesh and muscles had been torn rather than cut.

"Ants love sweet things. It was that way before evolution and it's still that way today." Evangeline continued, as if talking to herself, "Honey is a scarce resource and quite precious today because only soul evolvers above level 25 willing to risk their lives could get it from the huge honeycombs. I had to spend half a month of my salary buying honey this time."

Evangeline's salary was naturally very high. She was one of the top ten highest paid people in the entire Transcendent faction; money in the new currency approved by the new government, Soul Stones for her skills, skill scrolls, system treasures, and more.

"... Don't tell me you spent all that money on honey to torture this old thing." Bai Zemin pointed in disbelief.

"Why not?" Evangeline finally looked him in the eye. There was no joy or sadness in her gaze, "Eduard Valentinovich spent a lot more than that to tear my family apart, don't you think he deserves at least a share of his goodwill? Besides, I also took care of that man called Roman, don't thank me."

"What you do with what you earn is none of my business." Bai Zemin shook his head, and as he looked at the flesh mass bound by the chains he had personally made, he remarked, "I also don't care how you treat our enemies. Besides, I promised you this when you agreed to follow me back then."

It was that dark fatal night almost two years ago that Evangeline appeared to attempt to kill Bai Zemin and his team after being tricked by the Leaders of one of the camps taken down by the Transcendent faction while it was still in its initial stage. It was also then that Bai Zemin saw the terrifying potential Evangeline possessed and decided to do anything for the sake of bringing her to his side.

"Then we're good." Evangeline nodded and walked past Bai Zemin and Nangong Yi with the intention of leaving, "I'll try to get some rest... I think he won't wake up for the rest of the day anyway."

"So it's not over yet..." Nangong Yi muttered in shock.Bai Zemin turned to look at Evangeline's back, and the more he looked at her the more sadness he felt in his heart.

Evangeline's body was so small, and her back looked so vulnerable... Who would have thought that such a young and beautiful girl had actually been carrying such a past for 3/4 of her life?

A past that she would carry for eternity... Because if there was something that could not be changed even by the strongest being of all, it was precisely the past.

"What should I do now..."

As Nangong Yi looked at Bai Zemin in worry and confusion, the latter's sigh accompanied the silence in the bloody dark room.

* * *

A week later, Russia's former leader Eduard Valentinovich finally gave his last howl of pain.

This man that had ruled Russia for over thirty years and who did what even beasts would hesitate to do for the sake of preserving his position finally succumbed to his fate, dying.

His death was not honorable, and he was not even killed by a human being.

Eduard Valentinovich's records were absorbed along with his flesh and blood by millions of tiny ants while Evangeline watched everything closely. She took it upon herself to inject him with all sorts of evolved and mutated drugs to keep him alive most of the time and even made sure to feed him using extremely expensive potions just to make this man she hated so much breathe for even one more minute.

"This snow just won't stop."

The woodstove was burning and the sound of small tree trunks and branches being incinerated by the blue flame inside echoed for a long time throughout the spacious hall of the castle that once belonged to the previous Russian Leader but now belonged to the highest leader of the Transcendent faction.

The one who spoke earlier was Shangguan Bing Xue. She was wearing blue jeans tight to her body and a long sheep's wool coat that was even whiter than her own hair. She looked extremely beautiful and even cute in her current clothes.

"I thought your favorite season of the year was winter?" Standing in front of the large floor-to-ceiling window, Bai Zemin watched the scenery outside with a frown.

"Thanks to my skills and level, this kind of temperature is not enough to freeze me." Shangguan Bing Xue remarked while looking at the small ripples in the liquid inside the teacup she was holding, "It's just that because of the low temperatures, some people are dying even if we feed them properly... We need the weather to improve before the clothes made in mainland reach Moscow."

Bai Zemin nodded without saying anything.

In fact, not only were there more than 200 survivors dying every day because of the low temperatures and shortage of proper coats to withstand it, but even the work of Wu Yijun and the others to hold on tightly to the hearts of all Russians was also undergoing difficulties.

At first, it was estimated that only a month would be necessary for Wu Yijun to ensure that the Soul Record would accept and confirm Bai Zemin's reign over this newly conquered territory, however, that time would probably be extended by another month if things did not improve soon.

"By the way, regarding that girl named Sylvia you brought." Shangguan Bing Xue suddenly thought of something, and while looking at his back she commented with a tinge of surprise in her voice, "Zemin, how did you meet her in reality? This Sylvia girl's skill has a really terrifying growth potential to the point where I don't understand how you let her live.""We don't kill just because someone might threaten us someday." Bai Zemin shook his head and pointed, "Xia Ya, Kali, Shilin, Xiao Xiao... They all have mysterious skills that even today we cannot comprehend in depth. Kali's capacity to comprehend and draw runes capable of damaging even soul evolvers above level 200, Xia Ya's skill to connect to other people's records and potentially damage them, Xiao Xiao's skill to communicate spiritually that could evolve into a spiritual attack impossible to prevent, Shilin's physical strength which is even higher than mine and probably that of any living being on Earth..."

Shangguan Bing Xue thought about it for a moment before nodding as she realized that Bai Zemin was right. Suddenly, she realized something and while looking at the surroundings puzzled she asked, "By the way, where is she?"

"She?"

"You little succubus was it? Whatever." Shangguan Bing Xue rolled her eyes.

"Ah." Bai Zemin nodded with understanding, and with his eyes still on the white landscape, he explained, "Lilith is with Shilin and the twins right now. She wanted to explore a little deeper into Hero City and see if she could discover something that would help her to get stronger."

Hearing that Lilith was in Hero City, Shangguan Bing Xue couldn't help but frown. After a moment of hesitation, she carefully pointed out, "Zemin, I understand that you love Lilith... and now I know that sometimes love makes us act or do things that we wouldn't normally do. But, are you really sure it's a good thing when a member of an enemy faction is digging up the secrets of the most powerful weapon in our entire faction?"

Shangguan Bing Xue's concerns were undoubtedly reasonable and logical, Bai Zemin was aware of that.

"Don't worry." He shook his head again, "Although Lilith and I have only known each other for a little over two years, a short time compared to the total of her life and experiences so far, I am completely sure that she won't stab us in the back like that."

"Is it because you love her and she loves you?" Shangguan Bing Xue asked, feeling that those reasons were unreasonable.

"That is part of the reason." Bai Zemin replied calmly and somewhat mysteriously, "If she is who I think she is then it will be okay to show her everything."

Shangguan Bing Xue felt that his words were too vague but somehow implied too much, but just as she was about to press for more her expression changed slightly and turned into a blur as she stood up.

In less than a second, Bai Zemin heard the wind howl behind him, felt the temperature of the entire room plummet as the flame in the fireplace froze, and also heard the sound of metal clanging against metal followed by a small grunt.

"How did you catch me?"

Bai Zemin looked over his shoulder with no change in his expression, and seeing that the person he had been waiting for all this time finally appeared he simply nodded.

"I see you made up your mind to show up, Khristina."

Shangguan Bing Xue whose ice sword was trying to press lower the body of the crystal woman in front of her who was defending herself using a beautiful pair of crystal daggers stopped, surprised that Bai Zemin and this person knew each other.

Khristina, still shocked at being discovered so easily by Shangguan Bing Xue, exclaimed, "Now tell her to stop it at once or all the energy in the castle will be gone!"

It was precisely beneath this castle that the former Russian Leader found ruins of ancient times, and it was also thanks to this that the entire castle was still standing even after all the old structures collapsed. However, the power of the runes also had its limits and would eventually run out of energy after absorbing continuous shocks.

Just as Bai Zemin sighed in relief as he did not know what to do about Evangeline and Khristina, Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the woman in front of her with a tinge of anger in her blue eyes.

Khristina grimaced at the way she was glaring at her, and quickly pointed out, "Don't worry, I won't steal him from you."

* * * * * * *

A/N: Sorry for not posting for the last few days. I was and still am going through a very bad time in my life, so I'm doing the best I can. Those of you who follow me for a long time know that I never miss an update day unless it's for something extremely important... Thank you for all your support and understanding, from the bottom of my heart <3

Those who don't understand that we authors also have lives and problems to deal with and don't like my way of doing things are more than welcome to stop reading, like you: kiai_kaalele

I'll upload another chapter today and one more before the next reset.

PD: This message is not 200 words long so you're not paying more for it >.>