Because of what had happened, Bai Zemin gave the order to rest.

The sun had already begun to set on the distant horizon and staying in the forest without any protection during the night was no different from suicide for normal survivors.

The survivors were still persistently frightened because of what had happened about an hour ago. None of them felt safe and their fear-filled eyes scanned the surroundings cautiously as no one knew when a second terrifying bear like the previous one might jump out of the shadows.

Most of them had never seen the real power of Bai Zemin and very few had seen him eliminate First Order beasts or other powerful creatures. However, there were a few who had seen him at his peak and seeing his current injuries only made the despair in their hearts grow even greater.

This was probably going to continue this way since they had not yet seen the body of the Second Order bear. But when they could see the even more miserable condition in which the beast's corpse ended up, they would probably feel some relief and comfort.

...

In the heart of the forest, military base.

Those in charge of the kitchen began to prepare dinner immediately.

Although the previous commander of this base took many kitchen utensils with him for obvious reasons, there were still many that were left behind. Therefore, Bai Zemin had ordered the messenger who returned to the Beginning Village to tell Cai Jingyi and Zhong De that there was no need to bring pots and pans or anything like that.

When dinner was served, the hardworking survivors began to devour with fervor. None of them knew if they could survive another day considering where they were, at least they wanted to die with their stomachs feeling satisfied and not roaring with hunger.

While these people's dinner was simply rice and meat with a steamed bun, without too much luxury and without too much variety, none of the survivors had the slightest complaint in their minds. They all ate with joy shining in their eyes; because these people were aware of how cruel and painful it was to experience hunger.

That feeling of helplessness that devours the bones little by little, the awareness that there was nothing they could do about it, the feeling of the strength of their bodies leaving them little by little, all this was something that could not be understood by those who never suffered or experienced great hardships in their lives.

Moreover, although the dinner was simple, the meat they were eating was actually mutated beast meat. The mutated beast meat was filled with nutrients capable of improving the human body, it gave a few permanent stats to those who were weaker, and its blood was able to quickly replenish the energy they had lost after a day of hard work and filled with heavy and dark emotions.

At one of the tables in the military dining room, the main leaders of the group as well as the armed soldiers were having their own dinner.

First Order snake soup, small pies stuffed with First Order wild boar meat, noodles with different kinds of sauces, and so on.

It was certainly a much more varied dinner than that of the normal survivors. However, everyone was aware of the rules of the group; those who fought had the highest priority.

The armed men were devouring their bowls voraciously. Even they could not enjoy this kind of treatment very often. Only the leaders could eat this kind of thing whenever they felt like it.

Bai Zemin had already showered and currently had his left arm resting on a bandage that went around his neck. Although it wasn't much it was better than having his arm hanging carelessly. Even with his current Health he would need two or three more days to recover from such injuries unless he received magical medical treatment.

The wound on his face had not bled for a long time. Tissues moved slowly and steadily, repairing those that were damaged while cells worked overtime to shape new tissues to replace those that had been completely destroyed.

"You... Are you okay?" Chen He asked as he looked at him with complicated eyes.

He had noticed a strange closeness between Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue after they returned from the forest victorious. It was not a romantic closeness by any means, but Chen He noticed a kind of harmony and calmness between the two. Something like this was hard to expect since considering the similar personalities that Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin had, the most normal thing would be to expect a big disagreement between the two.

This puzzled and worried Chen He a little. However, he was also genuinely worried about Bai Zemin's health. After all, Bai Zemin was a battle colleague with whom he had been through a lot over the past few weeks and while he secretly saw him as a kind of rival, he felt no hatred of any kind towards him.

"I'm fine." Bai Zemin nodded as he took a piece of roast meat with his chopsticks and savored it slowly to prevent the wound on his face from worsening again. "When we return to the village tomorrow I will have Kang Lan use her skill on me. I assume that in three days, maximum four, I'll be back to my best condition."

"It's really a pity that Kang Lan didn't come. Otherwise she could start treating you now." Wu Yijun lamented as she imagined the pain Bai Zemin must have been enduring silently. She didn't think such wounds didn't hurt at all.

"That's why we should finish everything here and return tomorrow at dawn." Shangguan Bing Xue calmly interjected.

Chen He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Doesn't it hurt?"

He simply could not understand how Bai Zemin was not even blinking. Just imagining the pain of suffering such injuries made Chen He shudder slightly.

Bai Zemin was about to take another piece of First Order beast meat into his mouth but upon hearing Chen He's question his movements automatically stopped. He looked at the talented young marksman as if he was looking at an idiot.

"What do you think?" he asked rhetorically and then rolled his eyes, "Stop being a sissy and eat. Isn't it just some pain? No need to make a big deal out of it."

How could he not feel pain? It was just that Bai Zemin had been injured on more than one occasion during his constant fights and sometimes they were tremendously painful injuries. It had gotten to the point where even the pain was no longer as horrendous as it was in the past.

Chen He shook his head and did not ask any more questions. He simply could not understand because he had only received superficial injuries so far and the worst wound he had suffered had been a gunshot on the arm when he had confronted the armed men of the village that now belonged to them.

The group dined calmly, some of them worried about the future, others worried about the present, others missing the past. But they all knew that the only choice they had was to keep moving forward without rest.

The appearance of the Second Order bear had been a harsh wake-up call for all of them. It was a warning that told them to not forget something important: the era of peace and tranquility where the laws of society protected them had long since ended!

*******

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