"Are you the owner of this place?" Cai Jingyi looked at the woman on the ground and asked calmly.
Seeing the appearance of a soul evolver, the woman smiled bitterly and a flash of bitterness shone in her eyes.
In the past, all she had hoped for was to live a peaceful life with her son whom she had laboriously raised after the loss of her husband. However, when the entity known as Soul Record appeared and the apocalypse began, the peaceful life she longed for was not only disrupted but her only loved one left her soon after.
Still, she could not find the courage to die. Therefore, she decided to live for herself and her son. That was why she worked so hard to get here.
But… What good were all her efforts? She, who had decided to live her part and that of her son, in the end only continued to be punished and repressed as if in her past life she had been the cause of countless evils that could only be repaid with her own suffering.
Sometimes, she really wanted to ask to the heavens why they were so intent on her suffering.
"Yes. It's me." The woman responded to the question of the young woman who didn't even appear to be of legal age due to her petite figure but whose aura was enough to suffocate her with her presence alone.
The voice of the restaurant owner was calm and her eyes were no longer trembling with fear as they were a few seconds ago.
She had decided. This time, she felt that she would be able to put an end to this pitiful and miserable life she had been living. A life filled with suffering could no longer be called life and was nothing more than a hell of pain where possibly death was the true reward.
However, fate had other things in store for her.
"I see." Cai Jingyi then smiled sweetly and her slightly indifferent eyes softened faintly. She stepped forward and introduced herself, "My name is Cai Jingyi, leader of the First Brigade of the Blood Spear Legion under the command of the King of Yanqing. I am sorry for what just happened. Our leader is a very fair person so all those people with business will receive compensation upon arrival at the new base, but considering that your place was destroyed, I doubt you will get too much. As such, have this as compensation."
Then, under the disbelieving gaze of the business owner, Cai Jingyi took something out of her bag and held it out to her.
"T- This is…" With trembling hands and subconsciously, the woman took the emerald green ticket and tightened her grip on it as if she couldn't believe it.
"That ticket should be worth roughly 5000 kilograms in food." Cai Jingyi calmly shot in reply, "Aunt, when we arrive at the new base, wait a few days until the logistics team settles down and then go to the head office. Use that ticket to buy a building in a good position and use the rest to set up your business again."
The green-colored food ticket was practically at the top of all the tickets and therefore only people with great status and power within the base could get their hands on one of these. Even for someone like Cai Jingyi, it was not an easy task to get her hands on a green ticket unless she saved for months and the only reason she had this ticket in her hands was because she had contributed a lot to the faction, as well as her high salary as the main leader of the First Brigade of the main and most powerful legion of the entire Transcendent faction.
With such a food ticket, the owner of the now ruined restaurant could rise from the ashes just like the legendary phoenix once she followed the main forces south and settled down completely. If she was smart enough, she would just have to wait and see which would be the next most popular avenue in the new base and buy a storefront there before setting up a business that in time would surely make her a millionaire within the Bai Zemin's power system.
However, there was one drawback that depending on how it was handled could be a major or minor one but if left the way it was now would undoubtedly become the restaurant owner's undoing.
The number of eyes that gathered on the emerald green ticket in the hands of the restaurant owner were so many that she could almost distinguish the emotions each of them felt just based on the way they looked at her or the light that illuminated their eyes; envy, greed, malicious intent, jealousy, and many other negative emotions pricked the body of the restaurant owner in such a way that her entire being shuddered for a split second.
Fortunately for her, not only had Cai Jingyi been a student of International Relations in the past, but throughout her life, thanks to having lived in various parts of the world, she had met many different people. Moreover, having been sharpened by the cruelty of the apocalypse, the current Cai Jingyi was in no way the same timid and fearful student she had been until not long ago.
Having ended the lives of so many beings of different races, Cai Jingyi possessed a sharp killing intent that while it had no way to compare to Bai Zemin's thick killing intent was powerful enough for her to sense when someone else released killing intent near her. So, it was not at all difficult to realize the present problem.
It was clear that if she leaves now and left things like this, the restaurant owner would not only not come to exchange the ticket later but she would probably not survive to see the sun of the coming day because while the rules were strict, human beings were greedy by nature and the temptation that a green food ticket held was simply too great to pass up; this was even more so when such a treasure was in the hands of a weak and harmless woman who could be bullied by anyone.
Cai Jingyi snorted under her breath and looked at a specific corner across the street where there was a dark alley.
"You two, come here."
At first, all those watching from a distance were confused because when they looked toward the same spot that the female soul evolver was looking at all they saw was a patch of darkness belonging to the dank alley where the rays of light could not easily penetrate. However, a moment later, two silhouettes emerged from the shadows like ghosts and appeared before everyone.
One of them was a young teenager of about 16-17 years old and the other was a mature woman of about 39-40 years old. Both were equipped with leather armor but differed in their weapons as while the young teenager carried a normal sword the woman had a shield that was almost as big as her body on her back and a whip wrapped around her waist.
Both of them were First Order existences that had managed to advance during the last period of time and were among the top ranks of the Blood Spear Legion. Although they could not compare to the core members, the strength of these two could not be ignored as when the two of them teamed up even a First Order level 40 existence could fall due to the fact that the two of them were perfectly synchronized between ranged attacks, melee, and even defense.
"Brigade Leader."
The young teenager and the woman approached Cai Jingyi respectfully and waited for orders obediently. They were both mother and son who after losing the rest of their family began to evolve on their own and joined Bai Zemin's faction about 1 month after the apocalypse broke out already being level 20 existences whose power could not be ignored.
"Lan Zan, Huo Gang. For the next ninety-six hours, the mission of both of you will be to protect the physical safety of this woman." Cai Jingyi pointed at the restaurant owner as she ordered in a slightly imposing voice.
Ninety-six hours, which was equivalent to four days of time, should be enough for the eyes that were focused on the restaurant owner to be lost. After all, if someone followed her for all that time they would easily be discovered by people on the level of the mother-son pair and with the way things were now it was unlikely that this someone had good intentions.
However, Lan Zan and Huo Gang hesitated after hearing the order Cai Jingyi had given them.
"This… Brigade Leader…" Lan Zan did not know how to express her concern and disagreement since Cai Jingyi was her immediate boss.
The problem was that they had both been chosen as Cai Jingyi's bodyguards and their duty was to maintain her all-around security. After all, while Cai Jingyi was powerful, she was, at the end of the day, only one person and on many occasions, two sturdy arms could not defeat four thinner arms.
Although the majority of soul evolvers worked for Bai Zemin and his cause, it was impossible to control so many thousands of survivors. Therefore, sometimes a hidden soul evolver would appear and try to kill core members just because they disagreed with the strict rules of the base. There were not a few times that people such as Kang Lan, Zhong De, and others, faced assassination attempts during the past month and a half and in some of them the number of enemies, as well as the coordination, served to corner them to the point where they received several injuries in the process.
"It's okay, you don't need to worry about my safety temporarily." However, Cai Jingyi dismissed the duo's doubts easily by saying, "During this time, I and the rest of the leaders will mainly be finishing up the preparations to leave for the south together with the Leader."
Basically, what she meant was that with existences that were no weaker than her and with the soul evolver who was practically seen as a divine being by everyone at her side, any attempt to harm her would be over before it began.
The mother-son pair looked at each other now more relieved and this time did not hesitate to nod and agree with the order Cai Jingyi had given them.
After giving a few more instructions to the two, Cai Jingyi turned into a rush of wind that in a matter of moments completely disappeared from the sight of the crowd without even caring about opinions let alone the murmurs she heard before disappearing as she had to continue scouting the base for troublemakers to help with the elimination.
The restaurant owner felt like she was dreaming but no matter how many times she pinched herself or bit her tongue the pain felt too real to be a dream.
She, who was nothing more than a nobody, had actually met face to face and even exchanged words with one of the noblest existences on the entire base.
At this point of the road, all the survivors were aware of the existence of the three legions created by the King of Yanqing himself and among those three legions, the most powerful was undoubtedly the Blood Spear Legion.
According to rumors, the King of Yanqing had not even bothered to mobilize his three legions and only by using the power of the Blood Spear Legion, which at that time was much weaker compared to the current one, he was able to easily break through the defenses of the Baiquan Camp just like the sharp tip of a spear piercing through paper shields to take control of the entire base in less than half a day.
It was said that the power of the Blood Spear Legion was so terrifying that under the leadership of the King of Yanqing it suppressed the soldiers of the base so much to the point of forcing them into submission with its overwhelming presence alone.
However, she had just received the favor of the top leader of the First Brigade that made up the Blood Spear Legion? She could not believe it! But seeing those two powerful soul evolvers looking around with sharp eyes, the restaurant owner realized that everything that had happened to her was real no matter how fantasy-like it seemed.
She pressed the emerald green ticket and carefully folded it before sliding it into the locket that contained a picture of what was once her family. This ticket, to many, might be a ticket to board a rocket and take off to the heavens, but to her, it represented hope and warmth in the midst of the darkness that almost devoured her and the coldness that nearly froze her soul.
The woman looked at the place where Cai Jingyi had disappeared and bowed profusely for a full minute before straightening her posture and walking towards the side room of the now ruined restaurant, followed by the two soul evolvers responsible for her protection for the next few days.
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Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3
