Chapter 645 - Good Eyes & Bad Eyes
The expression on Bai Zemin"s face was really interesting to appreciate as he listened to the loud exclamations of the soul evolvers and soldiers more than 300 meters below him.
"What"s wrong with these people?" he muttered dumbfounded as if he really didn"t understand what was going on.
Lilith rolled her eyes and growled under her breath, "Forget about them, even I am stupefied by what I just saw. You think that witnessing an army of millions being annihilated in less than sixty seconds is something that can be seen every day?"
"Mm?" Bai Zemin frowned and said in confusion, "But hadn"t they already-"
Suddenly, he stopped after realizing that in the heat of the moment he had forgotten something important.
He face-palmed and muttered to himself, "s.h.i.+t, I forgot that these guys aren"t the soul evolvers of my Transcendent faction."
Because everyone was listening to him and following his words to the letter, Bai Zemin had partially forgotten that the people he was leading this time were not the subordinates who had witnessed his power on several occasions. Besides, all the soul evolvers and even the normal soldiers were performing so well that Bai Zemin mistakenly a.s.sumed that they all knew that with him present nothing bad would happen.
"You..." Lilith was a bit speechless as she looked at him as if she was looking at an alien even though ironically she was one.
"Whatever. I can"t find the commander of the weaver ants." Bai Zemin shook his head as the effect of Overlap Regeneration ended.
He had used the second activation of Regeneration twice in a row so Bai Zemin estimated that he had eight more times to use it in a day before his soul began to suffer in silence.
The first activation was to boost his Magic, magical power, increase the area of effectiveness of his skills, etc. The second time was to repeat all of the above but also to turn the blood he had leaked into the organisms of the First Order weaver ants into deadly threads that destroyed the creatures" internal organs in milliseconds.
Bai Zemin deactivated Gravity Manipulation and as a consequence his body began to plummet, reaching the ground in moments. Despite the alt.i.tude of a few hundred meters, Bai Zemin managed to somehow make almost no sound when his feet touched solid ground.
What he encountered when he arrived in front of the human group were looks of fear mixed with adoration and admiration that seemed to come from deep within their souls. Even now, the words "Bai Zemin" still echoed noisily within the forest.
"Silence!" Bai Zemin roared with a serious expression on his face.
His voice at this moment was no different from the voice of G.o.d to the ears of those present. Even if Bai Zemin whispered a word it was highly likely that everyone would hear him and follow his command not to mention him roaring in such a manner.
His eyes swept over everyone and after several seconds of silence, he said in a deep voice: "Have you forgotten where we are? We are in unknown territory where the enemies are hiding in the shadows watching for us! Have you forgotten the training you received?"
Everyone lowered their heads in shame at being reprimanded in such a manner and although many wanted to say that it was actually impossible for anything bad to happen with him present no one dared to disrespect the divine ent.i.ty in front of them.
Bai Zemin nodded in satisfaction before quietly ordering, "Form groups of 10 men with at least half of them exceeding level 15 and immediately start collecting the Soul Stones we got from this battle. However, do not go further than 1500 meters and keep the illumination on at all times."
Without delay, the four guild leaders set about carrying out Bai Zemin"s orders. In addition, Nangong Lingxin, Cai Jingyi, Zhong De, and Chen He separated at different angles and prepared to a.s.sist in any kind of ambush that might happen.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun approached Bai Zemin with rather calm expressions compared to most.
"Can you already master that power?" Shangguan Bing Xue asked in a low voice once she reached his side.
"To a certain extent, you might say." Bai Zemin nodded slightly and calmly explained, "With my skill reaching the peak of the second stage, the amount of information and knowledge I gained was not only about the blood element itself but also about how to make it react to my Mana in a way that allows me to annihilate with relative ease those with pitifully low Soul Power."
"That"s great!" Wu Yijun exclaimed in a low voice as she looked at Bai Zemin with eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with adoration and admiration. "Even if this kind of attack only works on Uncla.s.sified existences, most of the enemies we will face in the near future will be Uncla.s.sified existences. Armies and numbers will not be a hindrance to you at all! You will be able to rule the country in a matter of months!"
Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin looked at each other and both saw the joy and excitement in each other"s eyes after hearing Wu Yijun"s words. With the high Agility they both had, as well as the ability to crush entire armies using their core skills, the seemingly distant dream of once again uniting all of China"s mankind under a single standard now seemed to be just around the corner!
Shangguan Bing Xue subconsciously clenched her delicate fists and gently gritted her teeth. She knew that with her and Bai Zemin"s power at the head, practically any obstacle that stood in the way of the Transcendent faction"s growth would be crushed immediately.... This meant that she might soon have to make an important decision that could have repercussions for the rest of her life; that crucial moment she had dreamed about for years was finally within her grasp.
Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun noticed the struggle in Shangguan Bing Xue"s eyes, however, all they could do was silently support her morally. Only Shangguan Bing Xue could make this kind of decision and no one else but her.
Suddenly, Bai Zemin and the two women felt a series of light footsteps approaching so all three of them turned around at the same time.
The two people approaching were Wu Yijun"s mother, Sun Ling, and the other was Xia Ya, who was following Sun Ling as her shadow.
The expression on Xia Ya"s face was neutral so it was hard to tell exactly what was going on in her head. She had probably made use of the time that had just pa.s.sed to calm down enough to be able to act composed on the surface at least.
As for Sun Ling... She was looking at Bai Zemin with an extremely complicated expression on her face.
"Who would have thought... Who would have thought that the person who came to our base a week ago, acting like a warrior in search of a safe haven, would actually be this powerful." She sighed and shook her head gently. "Really, there are mountains above mountains and people above people."
Sun Ling was tremendously powerful on her own, so much so that even if she couldn"t defeat a Second Order existence she was confident that if she wanted to flee not even the most powerful existence in the world would be able to stop her. She also thought that her husband Wu Keqian"s power was already terrifying; she had seen him destroy an enemy armored tank with his bare hands as if he was tearing paper.
However, now that she was looking at the young man in front of her, Sun Ling realized what real power was. In the face of real and overwhelming power, the enemy"s numbers and ability didn"t matter; everything would be turned into clouds of smoke with a simple wave of hands.
"Aunt Sun, I may be strong now. But do you know how many times I nearly died in such a short time?" Bai Zemin shook his head as he understood Wu Yijun"s mother"s feelings and said with a sigh, "The first enemy I faced, far from being a slow and relatively weak level 1 zombie, was a level 5 flying-type mutant insect.... If not for luck being on my side at the time, a level 0 existence like me wouldn"t even have been able to leave the university"s male dorm facility."
"Level 5...." Sun Ling whispered bitterly and forced a smile as she said softly, "I thought it was already amazing for me to kill a level 3 zombie but your first kill was a flying creature that surpa.s.sed you by so many levels."
"I had to kill hundreds of zombies to get out of the male dormitory, and if not for the fortune of fate I managed to get hold of a Rare grade sword, the level 25 mantis outside would have cut my head off without even giving me time to feel pain." Bai Zemin said calmly, shocking the four women to the point that even Xia Ya looked at him in utter shock.
"You... You killed a level 25 mutant beast on day 1?" Shangguan Bing Xue looked at him with wide eyes as this was the first time she had heard something like this.
"Em. Although that mantis hadn"t evolved to First Order yet." Bai Zemin sighed and said in a complicated voice, "If it wasn"t for me saving all my status points for emergency situations, the difference in Agility between that mantis and me would have become the reason for my death."
Everyone was silent for several seconds as they thought about how many dangers they had faced. They had all been on the brink of death at least one time.... But something like facing an existence on the brink of evolution on day 1 was far more than they could imagine.
Bai Zemin finally looked at Sun Ling and said calmly:
"I am strong, that"s a fact. But this strength I have because I risked enough to earn it. While many slept comfortably in their beds, I spent entire nights hunting alone and fighting enemies that surpa.s.sed my level by more than a few. The number of injuries my body suffered has been so many that were it not for my fast evolution and high Health every centimeter of my skin would be deformed with gruesome scars."
What Bai Zemin meant by his words was that he had already lost a lot and sacrificed so much for the sake of having the strength he had today, therefore, unless others were willing to lose everything they should not look at him with envy, far from it. At the end of the day, while it was true that he was lucky in several situations, luck only played a certain role... but it was Bai Zemin who fought with tooth and nail not to be dragged into the foxhole of death.
Sun Ling smiled slightly after understanding the meaning behind his words and nodded silently. She looked at him before looking at her daughter and saying proudly, "In the past, I was proud of my foresight. I always believed that I, Sun Ling, was a woman with great eyes for men since not only before the apocalypse the man I chose was talented but even after the world changed he became someone indispensable. However, today I must admit defeat."
"My beautiful princess has the best eyes of all after all! Not only did she choose as her future husband a handsome and charming young man but her future husband will be the founding father of the new motherland!" Sun Ling nodded satisfied and proud as if it was not Wu Yijun who had set her eyes on Bai Zemin but herself. "Young, strong, ambitious! Em. Fight hard, my dear. I don"t think this little brat won"t fall for your charms..... After all, you are the daughter of me, Sun Ling!"
Wu Yijun blushed slightly but said nothing and instead secretly looked at Bai Zemin wanting to see his reaction to her mother"s words.
"Haha..." Bai Zemin gave a slightly awkward laugh but didn"t say anything as he didn"t want to hurt Wu Yijun. At the end of the day, things between the two were clear so there was little he could do here.
As for Shangguan Bing Xue, she shook her head not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She admired Wu Yijun"s tenacity and willingness to put aside her pride to chase after a man who might never reciprocate her love, unfortunately or not, that kind of bravery was something Shangguan Bing Xue did not possess and probably never would.
At the end of the day, Shangguan Bing Xue had always been a proud woman; it could be said that pride was the foundation of her being. Throwing away her pride would be no different than throwing away her very existence.
On the other hand, while the small group was chatting, there was a person who while making sure to pick up the highest quality Soul Stones was also paying attention in that direction. However, upon hearing Sun Ling"s words praising Wu Yijun"s eyes, this person could not help but force a smile into her heart.
If Wu Yijun had good eyes, then didn"t this mean that she had mouse eyes?