Although Bai Zemin could build an army of soul evolvers if he turned the zombies back into humans, the truth was that he still needed to study many things regarding the power of his Limitless Pagoda.
For example, by turning back into humans, those who had lost the ability to think and reason for themselves would regain those abilities, and therefore, the chances of the reconverted ones following and obeying Bai Zemin's orders were not 100%. After all, the description of the power of his pagoda did not say anywhere that those affected by the power of the Limitless Pagoda would faithfully obey the pagoda's owner.
Therefore, he needed to be careful as the number of Unclassified Soul Stones he had, while high, was not unlimited. Furthermore, both Lilith and Bai Zemin were aware of a cruel reality and that was that for the pagoda to turn zombies back into humans it needed at least twice as many Soul Stones: therefore, to turn 1 into a human 2 zombies had to die, which was not unlike killing 2 potential humans.
Being aware of this factor naturally added a bit of remorse to the conscience of Bai Zemin, however, he was not an all-powerful god. The extent of his power could only reach this far and there wasn't much he could do about it other than trying to obtain as many Soul Stones as possible from other living beings; even so, it would be impossible not to kill zombies just because they were potential human-allies.
Another important factor that Bai Zemin needed to study very carefully was the type of condition in which those reconverted would awaken. Would they retain the memories of everything they had done as zombies? If this was the case, then it was highly probable that 100% of them would go out of their minds considering what the zombies used to do.
Since the power of their Limitless Pagoda was vastly more extensive than what could be appreciated at first glance, there were many things that needed to be tested and studied first before he could begin to use the power of the pagoda more openly. Only by knowing the range that this treasure could reach would Bai Zemin be able to get the most out of it without making mistakes that he might regret tomorrow.
"Bai Zemin, remember not to let anyone take your pagoda from you," Lilith warned in a serious voice as she walked beside him, who was running back to the base where all his troops and subordinates were.
Bai Zemin frowned slightly and said in a low voice: "I also feel some kind of connection with the pagoda so it is definitely somehow linked to my soul. However, it is true that the connection is too weak compared to my connection to the Endless Lotus Blue Flame… Even my connection with Annihilation of the Falling Sky is stronger even though it is not my true and legitimate Soul Armament.
As for this, Lilith could only apologize with honesty: "Sorry but I don't know too much about pagodas. Everything I know I've practically told you or am telling you now therefore the rest we'll have to find out on the way."
Bai Zemin smiled gently as he listened to Lilith say "we'll have to find out on the way", and not "you'll have to find out on the way". There was no need to explain or say out loud too much for him to understand what she meant by it.
"Back to the matter of stealing the pagoda." Lilith said in a serious voice once again, "You really can't let it be stolen because if that happens the other person can break the connection between you and the pagoda such that it will be impossible for you to discover its location."
"… Even though I have no intention of letting anything get stolen from me, let alone such an important treasure, really what a pain in the ass." Bai Zemin couldn't help but curse under his breath as he complained incessantly, "Doesn't this mean that others can steal from me but I can't steal anything from them? Holy fuck…"
Lilith forced a smile and said in a bitter voice, "Well…. Considering that probably only you on all the Earth will have a pagoda unless this world is not what it seems to be, it is as you say. But when you become much more powerful you can steal the pagodas of the other factions of Higher Existences too if you want."
"Oh! That's good!" Bai Zemin was so excited by the last half of Lilith's talk that he overlooked the oddity of her first words. He continued zigzagging through the forest trees as he said cheerfully, "The power of my faction will skyrocket to the heavens if I manage to acquire another pagoda while the rival faction will plummet! Hahaha, it feels a bit like it's a video game."
"Yeah well, the difference being that if you lose there is no restart button." Lilith pointed out.
Bai Zemin's words were true, that was precisely why Lilith did not refute his previous comment too much.
If a faction stole the pagoda from the leader of another faction, the faction that stole the pagoda would immediately rise above the others as it would then have two pagodas instead of one while all the others would have a single one.
The power of pagodas could change the course of war if used well, so they could not be underestimated at all. A well-cultivated pagoda was more than enough to protect the principal castle of a faction for hours and even days without falling!
* * *
After returning to the base, the first thing Bai Zemin naturally did was to make it known that he was already completely healed and there was no need to worry.
While he kept a close eye on the man who had just become human again, Wu Yijun took it upon herself to report what had happened during the approximately 72 hours in which Bai Zemin had been in a deep sleep as his soul healed.
Hearing that the number of soul evolvers continued to grow day by day, Bai Zemin was naturally happy. Another thing that made him happy was that it seemed that the investment of around 300,000 Unclassified Soul Stones was not a waste as his troops became a lot stronger; so much so that they now had a new array up their sleeves which allowed them to cover an area of several thousand kilometers in length and breadth to wipe out the troubles. Of course, to accomplish such a thing it was necessary for Kang Lan to be present along with several users with elemental wind-like skills.
"So we managed to end all the disturbances only suffering 2 deaths and just over 30 slightly injured?" Bai Zemin raised an eyebrow slightly surprised by this result. "Honestly, it's a far smaller number than I expected."
When Bai Zemin fell into a deep sleep after arriving from the bridge battle, he had told Shangguan Bing Xue that 5 days from that time on would be the limit and after that time the base would move in its entirety to the south. At that time Bai Zemin naturally expected that there would be disagreements and thus casualties, but little did he expect that everything would go so well.
"The idea of using Kang Lan's skill along with several weak wind type skills with low Mana consumption was brought up by Chen He. He said he came up with it after fighting a two-headed mutated snake with gas and fire skills." Wu Yijun revealed with a bright smile.
She definitely enjoyed being together with Bai Zemin even though she didn't understand the reason why he was so focused on guarding the man in the bed. They were all confused and dazed to see Bai Zemin carrying a man whose physical condition was not the best, but since he didn't say much about it no one asked anything either as he must have his reasons.
Time went by and in the blink of an eye 24 hours passed, with about one more day to go before the big move to the south began to take place as the high command of the base had announced.
The streets were especially noisy lately as the survivors were trying to do some last-minute cleaning. Trading became frenetic as those who wanted to get rid of belongings that would be nothing more than burdens during the moving began to flood the main areas of the base.
Although a few altercations occurred throughout the process, it was nothing too big to draw the attention of the upper echelons. Nothing that the lesser troop leaders couldn't handle.
Chen He was especially focused on training the military troops alongside Fu Qigang. In fact, the handsome archer did not even look for Shangguan Bing Xue during the past few days, and according to rumors the two had had a loud argument. However, those who had more information about it naturally knew that he and Shangguan Bing Xue had not quarreled at all; it was Chen He who seemed to be purposely keeping his distance for some reason, a reason which those belonging to the nucleus around Bai Zemin somehow imagined.
Shangguan Bing Xue also did not comment on the matter nor did she go to talk with him to ask his motives. She was too busy fulfilling her role as a level 1 Noble of the Transcendent faction and together with several groups composed of people with some level of administration ability, she took care of the entire main process; preparation of vehicles, refrigeration for perishable food, loading of weaponry, loading of especially warm clothing such as wool and heavy blankets, loading of bladed weapons and armors, loading of forging materials, loading of beast bodies, and a lot more.
The amount of work in Shangguan Bing Xue's hands was too much for her to divert her gaze elsewhere for any other matter. Besides, since this was such an important task, she could not afford to make a single mistake.
On the other hand, while everyone was terribly busy preparing to leave to the south, in the backyard of the villa where Bai Zemin was staying a "party" was being orchestrated.
Taking full advantage of the temperature of 35 degrees Celsius, two adult beauties, four small beauties, and a single animal fully enjoyed the pool of over 300 square meters.
Lilith in her human appearance of Lili wore a swimsuit which the words sexy and seductive did not do justice to it at all. Her skin was as white and shiny as the most precious ivory in the world and every inch of her body seemed to be covered in layers of diamonds as when the sunlight touched her she shone as if she had her own sun.
The deep black two-piece swimsuit was so skimpy that even though there were no men in the area the women stared at her in a daze.
The top was two large black roses with deep red edges but despite being considerably oversized, it was still small to contain her two beautiful babies while the bottom back could barely be considered a piece of fabric that constantly disappeared between her puffy big cheeks that begged to be nibbled on like marshmallows.
She simply relaxed on a lounger with one leg fully extended and the other slightly flexed with her knee pointing skyward. A pleased smile embellished her face which despite being normal actually looked incredibly beautiful as she wore sunglasses to enjoy the pleasant weather.
Wu Yijun looked at her enviously and bit her lower lip slightly. She was wearing a pure white two-piece bikini which not only accentuated her curves that did not lose at all to Lilith's but also added a natural layer of innocence that perfectly complemented her baby face. In addition, her long, lustrous night-black hair created a wonderful contrast between the bikini and her skin, acting as the perfect highlighter.
Although Wu Yijun looked stunningly beautiful, she felt that she lacked charm when compared to the woman sitting on the lounger next to her. While Wu Yijun's face was more beautiful than the human form with Lilith's charm suppressed to the maximum of the maximum possible, if it came to attitude as a woman and maturity Wu Yijun felt that she lacked a lot in comparison.
Previously, everyone believed that the close relationship between Bai Zemin and Lili had broken down as they did not hang out together as often as in the past. However, Wu Yijun discovered the day before that this was not even close to the truth.
Just when Wu Yijun was taking a little break from government and administration thanks to Shangguan Bing Xue and hoped to spend as much time as possible alone with Bai Zemin in order for the two of them to get to know each other better, this woman Lili appeared and did not move from the room as if she wanted to control what they were talking about.
* * * * * * *
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
