Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner in the Apocalypse

When Bai Zemin's body stepped through the open doors of the first silver pagoda, he immediately felt as if he was stepping through some kind of invisible membrane. Although it was only one step, the unspeakable feeling made him feel slightly uncomfortable for a mere fraction of a second before that feeling of discomfort disappeared without a trace.

However, Bai Zemin did not expect to encounter something so miraculous when he stepped into the pagoda so when he finally saw what lay beyond that strange darkness that even the sun's rays could not pierce he stood there frozen.

His reaction was by no means special since Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He also froze when they entered the building moments after him. The same happened to Sun Ling, Xia Ya, Wu Yijun, Huang Tian, Liang Jing, Teng Hua, and all the others who entered the pagoda not long after.

Soon, the situation had grown to the point that if not for the door being especially wide many might have stayed outside as those in front did not advance and blocked the way to the inside.

"Awesome..."

Bai Zemin's memory was still clear when it came to the inner appearance of this pagoda even though it had been a few years since the time he visited it together with his family back then. However, what was in front of him was definitely in any way not similar to what he had stored in his memories.

"What's this all about?"

"Where are we?"

"No, but... Look, the square is right behind..."

"How is this possible?"

"Such a magical place!"

"..."

Everyone immediately began muttering words under their breath as they stared at the huge room before them that was easily the size of two soccer stadiums with a capacity of 100,000 people each. Furthermore, the most incredible thing was that when they looked up they all saw a ceiling over their heads which made no sense whatsoever since in theory, they should be looking at a huge circular staircase that would lead them to the rest of the pagoda's floors.

"This place was actually built by a rather talented rune master I have to say," Lilith spoke in a voice that only Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue could hear. She surveyed the surroundings casually and commented nonchalantly, "Even though I know practically nothing about runes, I can say that the person who drew these magic circles really knew what they were doing."

She pointed to one of the two huge magic circles inside the room, on which they were all standing, and noted, "If I'm not mistaken, this magic circle must act as a teleporter. I bet that when the pagoda received the required energy of 2000 Unclassified Soul Stones through the two bronze statues, this magic circle would immediately activate once the test is passed so that when the victor walks through the pagoda's door he or she would be taken to the treasure."

Ironically or not, just as in the novels, many powerful existences liked to leave their legacies or any kind of mark that proved they once existed in the world before they died. Lilith had known some Fourth Order existences that after reaching the limit of their lives or suffering mortal incurable wounds decided to create their own mausoleums where they would leave part of their wealth along with trials waiting to be discovered and surpassed by some lucky soul evolver.

Of course, if one did not have the necessary strength then one would definitely die like a dog. Taking the previous case as the most recent example, if not for the fact that in this group there were monster level existences such as Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, Chen He, and a few more, then all the other humans would have been slaughtered; even an army of five hundred thousand armed men would have been destroyed by the mechanical golems.

"Shangguan Bing Xue and I will go in the front, the rest stay behind with Nangong Lingxin and Huang Tian as the second line." Bai Zemin took a deep breath and began to walk slowly and cautiously, being closely followed by the rest of the human troops.

Seeing how cautious he was being, Lilith didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Although she was actually happy that he was not being overconfident, his caution was too high!

Bai Zemin did not allow anyone to touch anything inside the room and even he pulled back at the urge to grab one of those weird-looking strange weapons lying on the floor next to the twenty thousand plus gunner golems that had now been reduced to nothing more than a pile of scrap metal.

It was only after walking around aimlessly for more than five minutes and making sure that at least in the immediate vicinity there were no hidden movie-like mechanisms when Bai Zemin finally waved his hand for everyone to relax.

"Too cautious." Shangguan Bing Xue muttered to herself as she looked at him with bitter eyes.

"Em?" Bai Zemin looked at her and said with a raised eyebrow, "Did you say something?"

"... It's nothing." Shangguan Bing Xue withdrew her eyes and even whistled childishly.

"Hmph!" Bai Zemin snorted before bending down to pick up one of the weapons from the ground.

Shangguan Bing Xue also picked one up and soon each of the leaders of each guild or deputy leaders picked up one of the futuristic looking weapons.

He didn't know it, and Shangguan Bing Xue didn't know it either, but actually that short exchange drew a lot of attention, mostly due to her ever cold expression finally melting away and demonstrating such a gentle and playful personality that contrasted greatly with her usual indifferent and cold self.

The gun was approximately 100 centimeters long and weighed about 5 kilos which made it a relatively heavy weapon considering it was shaped like a rifle with the most notable difference being the barrel. The barrel of the gun was actually two metal arms that extended along the gun in a straight line, making up in total more than 60% of the total length of the weapon. In addition, the barrel had what looked like several bright red metal plates joining the two arms.

Overall, the weapon looked quite powerful despite its peculiar structure.

Soon, the weapon's records flashed in the eyes of Bai Zemin.

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[Electromagnetic Rifle- }

[Long-Range Weapon]

[Rank: 1]

[Physical attack power: 75]

[Magical attack power: 3500]

[Remaining Energy: 2240 Soul Megacyclone]

[Durability: 2,548 / 3,000]

[Options- }

[1) The wielder of the weapon can switch between rapid-fire and single-shot mode at will.]

[2) It recovers 'durability' by expending some of its stored energy.]

[3) It has a maximum range of 10,000 meters without diminishing its power at all.]

[Description: First generation weaponry that possesses enough power to evaporate an entire lake in a matter of minutes. If an experienced unevolved shooter carries it, they can easily claim the life of First Order existences and even hurt Second Order existences slightly. It consumes energy contained within Soul Stones to operate.]

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"What?!"

"This sucker has over 3000 magic attack power!"

"It looks like a weapon out of a sci-fi movie not only in appearance but also in actual capability..."

"Holy crap! It can even hit a target ten kilometers away without losing power!"

"Hahahaha! Our snipers will definitely have fun with these toys!"

The people who picked up an electromagnetic rifle immediately began to discuss with voices of amazement about the high power of the weapon but also for the rest of its capabilities including its peculiar appearance.

However, unlike most of them, Bai Zemin was amazed by something else while looking at the weapon.

Yes, he was shocked by the high power that the electromagnetic rifle had.

Yes, he was amazed by its ability to self-repair.

Yes, he was astonished by its high range.

However, Bai Zemin was more surprised by the fact that the weapon in his hands was not a treasure by any means and had actually been built by human hands.

Such a thing... Such a thing simply did not make sense in the eyes and common sense of Bai Zemin.

If this electromagnetic rifle was in a top-secret military base or something similar then he could understand it. However, this was in a ruin left behind from who knows how many years ago! Didn't that mean that in the past the technology of mankind or whatever had lived on Earth had far surpassed the technology of the current era?

Magical circles, ancient ruins, futuristic weapons, a Soul Stone in a place it shouldn't be... It all pointed to one thing and when Bai Zemin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue he noticed how her blue eyes were trembling as she looked at him in shock.

Bai Zemin took a deep breath and gestured to her that this was not the place or time to freeze or stay talking about anything, causing her to nod even without coming out of the shock she was feeling.

"All soldiers and soul evolvers should pick up an electromagnetic rifle as a primary or secondary weapon depending on your combat style. Also, except for the tents and military tactical equipment, I want everyone to leave anything else you are carrying including the firearms you brought!" Bai Zemin ordered in a deep voice and immediately everyone started to work.

Each of them carried a military tactical bag large enough to store more than ten missile launchers so the number of electromagnetic rifles that could be stored in each bag was more than fifty once all the weapons and food in reserve were brought out.

Shangguan Bing Xue made an ice wagon and stored the food inside but did not bother with the weapons.

Bai Zemin's spatial storage ring was already practically full to the brim at this point. He had stored over 30,000 Rank 1 thin swords and had hundreds of thousands of Soul Stones that while small in size with their numbers definitely didn't take up little space, therefore, he could only store around 5,000 electromagnetic rifles before stopping as he needed more space for whatever they found inside this huge room.

Although there were around twenty thousand rifle golems all of them had been destroyed, and in the process, more than 3,000 electromagnetic rifles were lost and turned into scrap metal after being hit by some magical skill. Still, Shangguan Bing Xue left nothing behind and each piece was stored inside a different part of the ice wagon she had built; she even kept some of the destroyed gun golems for future study.

Bai Zemin and the others were incredibly excited once the electromagnetic rifles were stored. The attack and defense power of mankind would increase tremendously thanks to these weapons so everyone's safety had increased a great deal. Moreover, given enough time, the electromagnetic rifles could be studied and later replicated!

Even if the power of the replicas did not reach that of the original, it would definitely be a mass-produced weapon that would change the fate of the entire race!

Soon, Bai Zemin and his team were on the move once again. Although the room was undoubtedly huge, there were several areas separated from the rest and in the areas visible to the naked eye there was nothing so the group's first objective was to go into one of those separate areas and the one closest to them.

Walking down the huge white corridor and while observing the walls covered with magic circles, they soon arrived at the first separation.

"Ugh... What's that smell?" Chen He immediately held his nose and frowned.

In fact, everyone had a look of disgust on their faces as soon as they turned the corner of the room.

Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue were the only two who were fine and whose expressions did not change. After all, the two of them had bathed in the blood of tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of enemies in Oblon World so any bad smell had no way to compare to the smell of exposed flesh and blood forming mountains and rivers.

"Crystal vases?" Sun Ling frowned as she looked towards one of the three racks in front of them.

Along the length and width of the three walls inside the room were three racks several meters long. On top of each of them were crystal vases and if one were to count each vase one would definitely reach the number of a few thousand.

Bai Zemin motioned to be careful and moved forward to reach for one of the nearest vases located to his right.

The vase was simple, except that there was a small magic circle drawn on the lid covering its interior. Looking inside the vase, Bai Zemin finally realized what these things were and couldn't help but get tremendously excited as he looked at the thousands of vases inside the room.

'All these vases have pills in them?'

The smell inside the room was an extremely strong medicinal odor and the mixture of so many smells together staying locked in this place for countless years naturally reached a level of stagnation that few things could surpass it!

Wouldn't it be good to find some divine pill that would increase overall strength? His troops would become stronger just by consuming them and his entire journey would become much smoother!