Liao Su took a moment to carefully read the minor records that were part of an even larger record which acquired the name Immune Blood, thus translating into a passive skill.
Bai Zemin's heart was not at ease while he waited to hear the description of the skill as he somehow had a good feeling about it. However, this was the first time Liao Su had surfed so deep into his soul which was why it was natural for him to require a little more time. Therefore, despite his anxiety, Bai Zemin waited patiently like an adult instead of rushing things like a teenager.
"All right, I've got it now." Liao Su said after about a minute of silence. He looked at Bai Zemin and asked calmly, "Would you like me to tell you what this skill does?"
"Please." Bai Zemin nodded earnestly.
"The name of the skill is Immune Blood and it is a First Order level 5 passive skill. According to the description of the skill Immune Blood, my organism generates stem cells 200% more than any human evolved or not and these stem cells support my immune system in such a way that my entire system became immune to uncontrolled mana infection. Any zombie below level 15 will no longer be able to affect me regardless of whether it's from a scratch or a bite and only those above level 15 represent a real danger."
Liao Su's voice was flat and without much emotion even though he clearly understood what this meant. If it was in the past, he might have perhaps gotten so excited that he would be jumping on one foot. But now, Liao Su no longer felt that way; in fact, he was neither sad nor happy about being human again.
Bai Zemin could not help but overlook the demeanor of the man who had just been recently reconverted into a human by the power of his Limitless Pagoda. His heart skipped fiercely and the speed at which it pounded against his chest increased tremendously along with the blood flow that made his face turn red with excitement.
Bang!
Bai Zemin stood up abruptly causing the chair he was sitting on to fall down on its back due to the blow but he couldn't care less at this moment. He clenched his fists so tightly that small explosions began to thunder inside the room as proof of how terrifying his Strength was at this stage of evolution.
He had to clench his teeth so hard that his gums almost started to bleed due to the strength he was putting on his jaw but he had no choice but to do this to avoid opening his mouth and roaring towards the sky.
To say that Bai Zemin was excited was an understatement…. He was happy! So happy that for an instant he forgot all the bad things that were happening in the world as he stood there doing nothing!
With the skill Immune Blood of Liao Su being a skill that modified the blood of the organism, Bai Zemin could now see a much brighter future for mankind that had been plunged into chaos and darkness ever since the apocalypse broke out!
Vaccine!
This was the first word that came to Bai Zemin's mind when he heard that Liao Su's organism possessed blood capable of fighting the impure mana that had become the bane of humans when facing zombies. With a vaccine, zombies would no longer be the most terrifying race on Earth in the eyes of mankind and would become just another opponent to face and defeat!
The whole body of Bai Zemin trembled uncontrollably as a surge of pride filled his heart. This was all being made possible by his own ability! If it wasn't for him being this capable, the Soul Record would never have given him the Limitless Pagoda, and without the Limitless Pagoda, Liao Su would not have been reconverted from a zombie to a human, which would completely leave out the possibility of creating a vaccine.
Moreover, when the word 'vaccine' hit Bai Zemin's brain, he finally remembered that flash of inspiration he had had during the Four Race War at the top of the bridge but had missed it and if Bai Zemin's thoughts were correct and he managed to carry out his ideas, then the odds of success in formulating an antibody would shoot through the roof in a heartbeat!
Liao Su was a little surprised to see that the young man in front of him had enough strength to cause small outbursts just by the mere clenching of his fists. For the first time, he realized that a human being could become so powerful.
"You… You are very strong, aren't you?"
Liao Su's question caught Bai Zemin off guard but undoubtedly served to bring him out of his inner world. He took a deep breath before picking up the chair he had knocked over earlier and sat down.
"I'm sorry for my behavior just now, but your passive skill is too important to mankind." Bai Zemin said in a deep voice, "As for your question…. I am…. I am strong." He nodded with honesty and not arrogance.
Sometimes, honesty could be seen as arrogance. However, in Bai Zemin's eyes, honesty was honesty and arrogance was arrogance; it depended on the listener how they interpreted the reality before them. In this case, he was simply being sincere instead of pretending false humility.
Liao Su looked at Bai Zemin dumbfounded before smiling bitterly as he realized something.
"I hadn't noticed it before, but now that you mention it, indeed…. My skill seems to be a treasure."
The reconverted man's voice was tinged with a hint of sadness that seemed to come from deep within his heart and from the deepest part of his soul. It was a pain so, so deep, that all the pains Bai Zemin had experienced so far seemed to pale in comparison.
Bai Zemin did not understand why this was this way. In contrast to Liao Su, he had been fighting to the point of exhaustion and insanity for all this time; the number of times he had been badly wounded and was on the verge of death was not small, but all his pains were incomparable to the pain that a man whose consciousness had been shut down for most of this time? What kind of sense was this?
"… Is something wrong?" Bai Zemin asked with a slight frown after a moment of silence.
Liao Su was currently an invaluable asset in his eyes. He didn't know if all future reconverts would awaken with the skill Immune Blood once they went through the process of returning their records to their original state. Therefore, Liao Su's mental health was of utmost importance right now; at least until Bai Zemin could check whether the Immune Blood skill was a natural ability of all reconverts or not.
Liao Su sighed and looked at the blue sky that looked dimmer through the curtain. His voice was light but at the same time heavy, sad but at the same time indifferent as he slowly said:
"I know I'm nobody and probably don't have the qualifications to say your name, but let me call you Bai Zemin for now…. You know, Bai Zemin? Before I turned into a zombie, I tried to take my own life several times. The world had become a living hell, my family had left my side forever, I occasionally suffered from the abuse of the leaders of the small group I joined…. My life was so, so miserable, that every night before I went to sleep I wondered why I was still breathing. A coward like me, at the end of the day, was doing nothing more than consuming resources that would surely help a more worthy human survive."
"However, it turned out that I was more of a coward than I thought I was…. Even after losing my loved ones, I still couldn't find the courage to end my nightmare. But you know what? Now that I have the strength to fight, my mind feels very calm. I am no longer afraid of anything or anyone, not even my own death."
Bai Zemin listened and watched Liao Su's expression in silence. It wasn't even necessary for the man to finish speaking, Bai Zemin understood what he was going to say, and for that reason, he couldn't help but sigh as he rested his back on the back of the chair and closed his eyes.
Liao Su continued without missing a beat, "Can I ask you something personal?"
"Go ahead."
"Do you have a family? Alive, I mean."
"…" Bai Zemin did not answer right away and instead gently opened his eyes to look at the white ceiling above his head. After a few seconds, he responded, "To be honest, I don't know if my family is alive or not. Just a few days ago, I finished slaughtering 20,000,000 zombies and thousands of beasts to open the road to the Yanqing District, my faction will set off first light tomorrow morning… Until I get home, I can only pray for their safety."
"I see." Liao Su nodded and said in an honest voice, "I hope they are alive."
"…"
"Because I don't wish you or anyone else the feeling of emptiness that comes when you lose everything." Liao Su smiled bitterly as two crystalline tears slid soundlessly down his face, "My wife and I met in high school. She was a wonderful woman, funny, beautiful, kind…. Too good for someone like me who had nothing. She even gave me a beautiful princess who brightened my life and brought even more warmth to my heart. For me, my wife and my little 7-year-old daughter represented the energy that drove me to walk and the air that gave me life…. But now that they are gone, I have nothing to drive me, and every time I try to breathe, I feel like I'm suffocating as if I'm short of air."
Liao Su sighed again and used his hands to clean the tears from his face. But to no avail, as like a dam that had broken, more and more continued to fall from his eyes without making a sound. Therefore, he simply let them fall and continued speaking in a level voice as if the tears streaming down his face were nothing more than an optical illusion:
"Before I didn't have the courage to end my life, but now I do. In fact, to be honest with you, the only reason I didn't kill myself as soon as I woke up was solely to say thank you to my benefactor as I'm sure becoming human again didn't come cheap."
Bai Zemin gently opened his eyes and looked at Liao Su with a complicated look.
If Liao Su had told him that he was thinking of ending his life before listening to the deepest feelings in his heart and if not for the fact that Bai Zemin could feel his sadness to the point where his own soul ached, then Bai Zemin would definitely not hesitate to knock him unconscious and do whatever it took to keep him alive until his blood was studied. After all, this was a matter that concerned all of mankind.
However, now that things were as they were, Bai Zemin felt it would be too selfish of him to keep a man who had lost everything alive. Yes, Bai Zemin was a leader who aspired to rule the human race, but at the end of the day, he was also a man just like Liao Su, and by putting himself in his place, Bai Zemin felt that he did not have the qualifications nor the right to stop the life of this man who was nothing more than an empty shell at this point.
Bai Zemin was cruel and ruthless many times. He would not even hesitate to wipe out millions just for the sake of accomplishing his goals. However, at least to this day, Bai Zemin believed that there were not those who were 100% innocent among the blood that stained his hands.
He did not believe himself to be a righteous existence, but at the very least, Bai Zemin was proud to be able to understand a little of the feelings and reasons of others. Putting himself in the place of the man in front of him, Bai Zemin was not sure he would be capable of continuing his life despite all the things that still needed his own care.
Losing his wife and his little daughter at the same time…. Bai Zemin did not even want to imagine himself in that situation as a single second was enough to cause abysmal pain.
Liao Su looked at Bai Zemin with pain-filled eyes and smiled bitterly as he said between saddened laughter and suppressed crying, "But, now that I hear you, I feel that ending my life just like that would be wrong as well. After all, if my blood can help create a vaccine to fight zombies, maybe many families that were destroyed like mine will have hope of finding each other again."
It was a very, very complicated situation. A situation that on one hand involved the future of a race and the suffering of the soul of a man who had been cruelly punished even though he was not guilty of anything.
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