Chapter 736: The end of one era and the beginning of another
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Bai Zemin looked back over his shoulder and saw several silhouettes running from a distance or leaping into the sky and soaring hundreds of meters in seconds. Regardless of the method they had chosen to move, they were all moving towards his current position.
In a matter of seconds, Shangguan Bing Xue floated down from the starry sky like a beautiful b.u.t.terfly br.i.m.m.i.n.g with elegance. With a soft and delicate sound, she stopped right next to Bai Zemin. Her charm was definitely much higher than normal with the moonlight surrounding her figure, and the soul evolvers and soldiers gasped even though they could not see her clearly due to the distance.
Meng Qi naturally felt a bit jealous at the practically transcendental beauty. Although Meng Qi was conscious of her natural beauty, even more so after becoming a powerful soul evolver whose level had already reached 42, the difference between her beauty and Shangguan Bing Xue"s was still big; even Wu Yijun, Feng Tian Wu, Sun Ling, Nangong Lingxin, and other top-grade beauties could not come close to her. However, Meng Qi also respected and admired the ice princess, moreover, she did not feel discomfort when Shangguan Bing Xue and her brother approached.
Qin Ming was quite fine, she had somehow or other gotten used to how dazzling Shangguan Bing Xue could be. However, Ye Linger was taken aback as she stared at her before snapping out of her daze seconds later and secretly punching her husband after discovering him gawking at the young woman.
"Cough..." Bai Delan coughed before clearing his throat.
Although they already knew Shangguan Bing Xue and knew that she was one of the trusted subordinates of their son, it was hard to get used to so much perfection in a single body.
Shangguan Bing Xue nodded to Qin Ming and bowed slightly to the family of Bai Zemin before looking him in the eyes.
"Earth has just completed its evolution." He said even before she said anything.
Even though she hadn"t asked questions, Bai Zemin knew what she was going to ask, therefore, he gave the answer without a second thought.
Shangguan Bing Xue was a little surprised at first, but she ended up nodding without saying too much more.
Not long after Shangguan Bing Xue"s arrival, people like Chen He, Wu Yijun, Wu Keqian, Sun Jun, Feng Hong, Feng Tian Wu, Liang Jing, Evangeline, Shen Mei, Zhong De, Nangong Lingxin, Teng Hua, and many more arrived at the south gate from the other three battlefields and immediately went in search of Bai Zemin.
Although the main fighters had gathered in one battlefield and the powerhouses that gave the most attack and defense power to the base had abandoned the other three battlefields, this was not a problem at the moment considering that the goblins were not attacking. Besides, the earthquake that shook the earth really was too striking to ignore.
Bai Zemin turned to look at everyone for a couple of seconds before he began to explain what was taking place.
He told them about the reason why there were so many goblins appearing, he also explained the existence of a creature similar to the mana womb that he and his group faced at the university, and finally concluded with the announcement of the complete and official evolution of the world.
"So... Now that Earth finally evolved, what"s supposed to happen now?" Wu Keqian asked looking at the surroundings in confusion.
"No, more importantly." Sun Jun interjected before anyone else could say anything. He looked at Bai Zemin with narrowed eyes and slowly asked, "How do you know that goblins are born out of mana? Furthermore, where did you get the information that they possess some artifact or creature capable of absorbing huge amounts of mana to push the evolution of the goblins?"
Sun Jun"s words naturally attracted a lot of attention from most of those present, after all, it was true that everyone was curious as to where Bai Zemin had obtained such answers from.
"You don"t need to worry about that," Bai Zemin waved a hand and said indifferently, "You just need to listen to my orders and carry them out, that"s all. Your chances of survival will be higher if you listen to me, but if you want to waste your life then go ahead, no one is stopping anyone here."
Sun Jun opened his mouth to say something but after thinking better of it he closed his mouth again and became silent.
Seeing this, Bai Zemin nodded in satisfaction and felt a hint of admiration for Sun Ling"s brother.
Sun Jun was able to see the world before his eyes even though all his life he had been respected by everyone because of his background. In this new world and now that the Earth had evolved, a Second Order existence no longer represented total security so even great powerhouses would have to be very careful with every step they took from now on; just as it had been at the beginning of the apocalypse at the time when everyone was level 0.
The others asked no questions. Chen He and the few who had followed Bai Zemin had already grown accustomed to him having the answer to everything but not explaining it to anyone.
"In answer to the question from uncle Wu," Bai Zemin suddenly said. "As everyone should have noticed by now, many things changed compared to a week ago."
"I noticed that the gravity increased considerably." Feng Tian Wu pointed out as she looked into his eyes. She said in a clear and slow voice, "During the past few days, the gravity should have doubled or tripled... but the increase was happening so gradually that it now seems to be natural."
Wu Keqian nodded and looked at Bai Zemin with admiration as he slowly said, "Zemin, child, you really are something else. If not for your warning and your idea, thousands of homeless survivors would have died due to the change in the world"s gravity."
During the past few days, Bai Zemin had requested Wu Yijun"s father to feed all the survivors with soup made from mutant beast meat above level 15, four bowls a day for each one. This gradually improved the bodies of everyone and prevented the weaker survivors from being crushed to death during the process of evolution of the Earth. p and a
Novel One needed to know that the meat of a level 15 mutant beast was very valuable. Even though many beasts were hunted every day, most were low level and the few thousand that were hunted daily only lasted a few days before all the meat was consumed. One had to remember that the Chinese Renaissance was a faction that needed to maintain over 300,000 survivors!
Bai Zemin nodded and continued, "Uncle Wu, command the troops to prepare to resist the last a.s.sault of the goblin army. They should make their last effort for a final push now that their fuel source has dried up."
The great purple clouds filled with mana, the tornadoes of mana, and the lightning flashes of mana; all had disappeared when Earth finished its evolution. In other words, goblins would no longer be born from mana in large numbers and it wouldn"t be in this area either since the surrounding mana levels were normal.
"One thing I need to announce first," Sun Ling took a step forward and looked at Bai Zemin first. Seeing him nod slightly, she smiled back and slowly said, "I just received a report. It seems that something big happened at the base."
Seeing the expressions of everyone change, Sun Ling chuckled and explained, "It"s not something bad this time, don"t worry.... Apparently, all humans below level 10 received a stat boost. It"s not really known how the thing is but my subordinates are working on it now to learn more regarding the situation, but I don"t think it"s a big boost anyway."
"... Isn"t that a bit unfair?" the corner of Feng Hong"s mouth twitched a couple of times.
Teng Hua nodded in agreement, "I also feel it"s unfair. No matter how small that boost is, if they continue to grow they will probably have an advantage later on."
"No, it"s actually not unfair." Chen He interjected, drawing the eyes of everyone. He looked at them one by one and slowly explained, "Remember that gaining impure Soul Power will eventually be disadvantageous to us soul evolvers. It is like having a huge soul but empty inside, unlike those who absorb purer Soul Power and in the future will have a huge soul but packed with potential."
"He is right." Feng Tian Wu nodded and pointed out in a serious voice, "Besides, since when have we lived in a just world? We just have to focus on ourselves, that"s how it is. To begin with, those people who haven"t fought so far will probably continue not to fight for the rest of their lives. We can only hope and wait for their future generations to be formidable warriors someday."
Everyone, including Bai Zemin, nodded at Feng Tian Wu"s words.
One of the most important reasons why everyone tried to save as many humans as possible regardless of whether they were weak or trash was because those humans might one day give birth to an outstanding warrior. If out of millions of weak couples a single powerhouse was born, then the long-term investment would definitely have been worth it.
"Father, escort mother to the house please." Bai Zemin looked at Bai Delan and said in a serious voice, "The goblins will probably be considerably crazier than during the previous days this time."
However, Ye Linger shook her head and said quickly, " There"s no need, you don"t need to accompany me."
She did not want to be a bother to her husband or her son. Besides, Ye Linger believed that she would be fine since she had a treasure that allowed her to summon a Second Order defender tree to protect her in cases of need.
In the end, Bai Zemin did not argue with his mother and watched her leave alone back to the base with Qin Ming along with her. However, he secretly gave Cai Jingi a glance and she nodded before disappearing soundlessly.
Bai Zemin naturally had enemies everywhere, he knew that many of those who smiled at him in the streets were definitely waiting to knock him down in a moment of carelessness. Besides, he still needed to properly take control of this base and that would take some time which was why there was no way he was going to leave his mother walking around the streets alone.
"I need to find a way to get mom to level up." Bai Zemin thought secretly and immediately felt a headache approaching.
Bai Zemin had spoken to Ye Linger in the past and asked her what she thought about evolving, however, his mother shook her head and said with a humble smile that all she wanted was a quiet life, to prepare food for her family, and to enjoy the grandchildren that Bai Zemin and Meng Qi would one day give her in the future when they both found the right partner for them.
Because of his goals, Bai Zemin was destined to step on many people"s toes and offend countless others; he was fully aware that the number of enemies he had would only increase as time went by. For this very reason, his family would eventually become his weakest point.
Bai Zemin would never forgive himself if one of his loved ones was killed because of him, therefore, he needed his mother to become stronger no matter what. The Second Order defender tree was useful for now, but as the months and years pa.s.sed, a Second Order monster would no longer be a reason to fear. Not to mention the fact that to live longer a human needed to absorb Soul Power from another living being and evolve; Bai Zemin was not willing to see his mother die of old age when in front of him he had the opportunity for her to live for several centuries or even millennia.
Immortality was not impossible as long as he achieved his eventual goal!
Suddenly, Bai Zemin"s eyes sparkled as an idea popped into his head. He involuntarily looked at his father and stared at him for several seconds.
"W- What"s the deal with that smile?" Bai Delan immediately became guarded when he saw the smile at the corner of his son"s mouth.
The others might not know what that smile meant as it looked very normal, however, Bai Delan was not Bai Zemin"s father just because he used half of his genes for him to be born but he knew the child perfectly well.
That smile, Bai Delan had seen it before when Bai Zemin planned for a whole week to throw two egg cartons at the house of the neighbor during childhood and blamed it on a boy who lived on the other block because that boy had killed his ant collection!
"... I don"t know what you"re talking about." Bai Zemin muttered under his breath before slowly withdrawing his stare but not before nodding as if he was confirming something.
Bai Delan wanted to say something else but his words caught in his throat when a loud explosion in the distance attracted the attention of everyone.
Rumble....!!!
The ground began to shake, and as everyone looked at the purple cloud in the distance, they were shocked.
It wasn"t the purple cloud that was clearly packed with mana they were shocked by, what shocked everyone was that the huge egg-like object that had been several kilometers away had disappeared!
More precisely, the egg had exploded into pieces!
"It looks like the source broke." Bai Zemin raised his weapon vigorously, and as he let the blade rest on his temporary shoulder pad that he was wearing, he said in a deep voice, "We just need to finish off the remaining ones, victory will be ours then. We will definitely get through this and will continue to move forward!"
With such words as an opening, after a night in which the bloodiest war so far was unleashed, the just over 6000 soul evolvers and just over 40,000 soldiers who fought until exhaustion, until their bodies ached either from wounds caused by enemies or from the firearms they held, managed to defeat the army that three days and four nights ago seemed to be endless.