Bai Zemin was silent, pondering over the words Shangguan Bing Xue had just spoken.

To say he was not surprised would be a lie.

Shangguan Bing Xue was about one or two years older than him, her background was also not normal or else she could not be childhood friends with people like Chen He and Wu Yijun who were deeply connected with the Chinese army or government.

However, the words she had just said seemed to come from deep in her heart and not just nice words that were spoken to act mature.

So what kind of life did a 22 or 23 years old girl have to live to say words that were usually spoken by middle-aged or even elderly people? Bai Zemin did not know nor did he think it was polite to ask about other people's personal lives.

Although the confidence between the two was gradually growing, it was just a step and he did not believe that such a thing was something of direct interest to him anyway.

Therefore, after staying silent for a couple of seconds, he simply nodded: "I see..."

"Won't you see what's over there?" Shangguan Bing Xue pointed at the limp, lifeless body of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear.

Bai Zemin, not feeling like lingering too long on the previous conversation, looked at the corpse of the Second Order beast with shining eyes.

His heart began to beat uncontrollably at the thought of the war spoils he might have obtained this time.

Even if the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear was slightly injured by the grenades and in the end was wounded quite a bit by the main cannons of the two M3 IFVs, there should at least be something good right? Bai Zemin thought silently.

No matter how you put it; a Second Order beast was a Second Order beast. Moreover, one that had been miserably beaten and killed by an existence several levels lower and a completely lower Order.

Walking towards the body of the dead beast with slow steps due to the pain he felt in every part of his body, Bai Zemin soon noticed something that made him audibly swallow saliva.

"T- This is..." he mumbled dumbfoundedly in surprise to Shangguan Bing Xue.

She walked forward and stopped beside him. Her pretty sky-colored eyes sparkled with a hint of surprise and she whispered to herself, "Green?"

A faint green glow shone and flashed faintly right next to the body of the Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear. The object was perfectly circular like a natural diamond sphere, something no man could replicate.

According to Lilith, the treasure orbs naturally born from the enemy Soul Power that could not be absorbed were divided into a scale of seven levels.

As for the orb before Bai Zemin's eyes, it was actually a green orb!

Ranked fourth among the seven from the bottom up, the green colored treasure orb represented an Epic grade treasure!

To say that Bai Zemin was incredibly excited and joyful would be an understatement of how he was feeling at this very moment!

However, a doubt soon popped into his mind.

Why...? While it was amazing what he had just accomplished, defeating a being countless times more powerful than him, Bai Zemin did not believe that a treasure of such a grade should have appeared here.

"Don't overthink it." Lilith's enchanting voice rang in his head, clearing his doubts like a warm spring breeze clearing the autumn dew, "The treasures of the Soul Record are generated according to the difference in actual enemy power, that is, the greater the enemy's Soul Power compared to yours, the greater the chances of obtaining a high-ranked treasure... A Second Order existence is, as you may have already noticed, an existence that even you cannot face yet... But even then you killed one. Probably the Soul Record wanted to reward you for your achievement? Who knows..."

Bai Zemin finally understood everything.

Simply put, the appearance of treasures coming from the Soul Record did not depend on whether an enemy was of High Order or not, it depended on the difference in power.

This meant that even a Fourth Order being would not necessarily give even a normal grade red orb if they were killed by an enemy of their own Order and would definitely give nothing if they were killed by a higher Order one.

Indeed. The Second Order Surprisingly Strong Archaic Bear should not have died here. Even Lilith still could not calm the astonishment that struck her heart as she stared at the bear's lifeless body from the distance.

The difference in power between a First Order existence and a Second Order existence was as great as the difference between a normal human being and a human being who had already become a First Order existence and with several advanced levels within that Order.

It was like comparing the past Bai Zemin with him after advancing to First Order and reaching level thirty.

That was how great and horrifying the difference between the First Order and the Second Order was!

"Come on, pick it up." Shangguan Bing Xue urged.

He looked at her and hesitated a little. While it was true that almost all of the work had been handled by him, the reality was that Bai Zemin knew very well that if it weren't for her, the enemy could have killed him at worst or fled at best.

As for killing it... Bai Zemin would not have been able to do it. At that point not only had he lost over 90% of his Mana, but he had also consumed approximately 70-80% of his Stamina due to the constant activation of Blood Will and the intense battle. The wounds on his body did not help and there were less than sixty seconds left before the effect of his Lightning Movement skill vanished, leaving him at the mercy of the beast's superior Agility.

Shangguan Bing Xue understood his thoughts and secretly couldn't help but have her impression of him greatly improved.

"Just take it. We can talk about the loot and similar later." She simply waved her hand as if it was nothing.

"... Alright then." Bai Zemin nodded and took a step forward before picking up the green orb the size of a baby's fist.

Swoosh!

With a firm squeeze, the cracks spread across the orb, letting out a luminous white light that forced both of them to close their eyes momentarily.

Bai Zemin felt a new object appear in his hand, and when he and she opened their eyes again, they finally saw with surprise the treasure that had emerged from the green orb.

The object was surprisingly a strange looking gun, a weapon in the shape of a gun that neither of the two of them had ever seen before. It looked like a sci-fi gun out of a movie or animation.

The size of the gun was roughly similar to a 9mm pistol but slightly larger. Its color was deep navy blue and instead of a muzzle it had a thin two millimeter wide line on the front whose color was milk white as was the trigger.

What caught Bai Zemin's attention the most was that on the part where the bottom of the magazine was supposed to be, there was actually a strange crystalline colored sphere with mysterious moving particles of light.

*******

Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW