The eyes of Bai Zemin were focused on the face of the young man located first from the left side and, coincidence or not, that young man was the first person he saw among the people in the group that had just arrived. However, a bigger coincidence was the fact that Bai Zemin knew this young man!
Inky black hair brushed back with pomade, a truly handsome face, strong body, tall. Dressed in his black suit, this young man really was good-looking enough to charm the heart of any young woman with just a smile from him. However, only those who knew him well understood that the slight smile that was always on his face carried disdain for others, arrogance, pride, and ego.
‘Isn’t this young man that little piece of sh*t surnamed Sun and named Jie?’ Bai Zemin was at a loss for words.
Several minutes ago, Bai Zemin had met the girl he once loved even though he honestly believed they would never cross paths again. But little did Bai Zemin expect that the surprises had just begun as apart from Feng Tian Wu he also ended up meeting Sun Jie soon after!
Sun Jie was precisely the young man who in the past had been Bai Zemin’s best friend and who after teaming up with Feng Tian Wu played a bad joke on him and ended up with broken legs once Bai Zemin recovered from his depression!
Why was Sun Jie in this place? Bai Zemin frowned and looked at the rest of the group that had just arrived and finally understood what was going on here.
Can there really be such a coincidence in this world? My God! Bai Zemin really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when he saw that apart from Sun Jie and the one who seemed to be his father, there were also several people he knew very well in that group.
Wu Keqian, Sun Ling, Wu Yijun, Shangguan Bing Xue, and finally, Chen He.
It was the lineup of three women that really took the breath away from everyone in the hall and even Bai Zemin gasped for a moment.
Wu Yijun was wearing a purple dress so long that it covered even her feet but stopped just before touching the floor which meant it was custom-made especially for her. The dress, despite being long, was considerably daring considering Wu Yijun’s personality as the neckline area was black mesh-like lace so while it didn’t reveal too much it did reveal enough to tempt anyone. Her beautiful baby face in conjunction with her seductive body and the way she was dressed caused many young men who had come with the intention of wooing her to immediately take a step back.
Wu Yijun’s mother, Sun Ling, was much more daring and somehow Bai Zemin was not surprised to see her wearing a Chinese dress similar to the one Nangong Lingxin wore but in milk white with a black dragon on the abdomen area and another black dragon on the chest area; an area that seemed about to explode due to the tension. She had a slight smile that exuded confidence and not a few men received death gazes from their partners when they noticed how they looked at her.
However, the one who took the crown was none other than Shangguan Bing Xue.
Shangguan Bing Xue wore a night-black Western-style dress that far from being revealing was probably one of the most conservative in the entire hall as not only did the sleeves cover up to the elbow area but the chest area was completely covered and the neckline was high enough to touch her small and delicate clavicle. However, even though the dress was also long enough to completely cover her long legs, barely exposing the silver high heels, there was a long slit in the front left to mid-thigh area, exposing that beautiful leg that seemed to shine under the illumination of the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
Her hair which was an intermediate between white and silver was almost completely free except that on her head was the crown-like treasure she obtained as a reward after partially completing the Destroyer of Destroyers mission during the invasion of the asura race. Her delightful body was especially tempting when it was wrapped around the elegant dress and her matching light hair and high-heeled shoes created a strong contrast when coupled with the night-black of her attire.
This was the second time Bai Zemin thought she managed to somehow touch Lilith’s naturally suppressed charm, being the first when he first saw her smile for the first time on that night when they both went out hunting and when their friendship officially began.
Literally, to say that most of the men in the place fell in love with her at first sight was not an exaggeration at all and there were not a few older men who looked at her with the desire to possess her.
The group moved forward calmly and each of them ignored the stares of everyone as in some way all of them were already used to being in the spotlight anywhere. This especially applied to Shangguan Bing Xue whose face at this moment was cold and indifferent and walked like a goddess despising mortals in the middle of the crowd.
Wu Keqian separated from them after reaching the back of the hall and approached the small stage that had been erected at the back. The lights dimmed even more and once he had the desired attention he smiled happily and said in a clear voice loud enough not to need any microphones:
“First of all, thank you all for attending this party even though the announcement was too sudden. Thanks to all of you who changed your plans for tonight… As you can well see, the smile on my face should be proof of how happy I am right now. This happiness has been with me for the past eight days and has not left me even for a second despite the difficulties mankind is facing.”
Wu Keqian paused for a brief moment after saying these words so the entire hall fell silent as everyone processed the message. After a moment of silence, he continued his speech:
“Eight days ago, my daughter who I honestly thought I would never see again appeared outside the north gate of our base. Not only did she return alive, but she returned as a powerful First Order mage whose skills are top-notch.” Wu Keqian smiled very proudly as any father would be of his child’s great achievements and said aloud, “Few here know that my daughter, my most precious treasure, was studying at the distant Beijing University when the world change occurred. However, she along with a team composed of brave young warriors traveled tens of thousands of kilometers from Yanqing District to our Changping District!”
Several voices of amazement immediately rose when the people in the hall heard the words ‘Beijing University’ and ‘Yanqing District’. The distance between such points and Changping District was colossal not to mention the difficulty one would have to experience to get from that place to here!
The amazement of everyone came from the fact that although Wu Keqian did not say it explicitly, his daughter and her team must have broken through one of the most dangerous areas in the entire country to get here in less than three months!
Followed by amazement, however, admiration naturally came over the majority of those present and without being asked by Wu Keqian the people began to applaud as they nodded to each other and quietly chanted words of praise for Wu Yijun and his team.
“Hahaha! Mayor Wu, Miss Yijun sure has a sense of leadership to be able to lead a group of people through the Eastern Dragon’s Back! Like father like daughter, I guess! Hahaha.” A pot-bellied man who owned several businesses in the most popular streets of the establishment stepped forward and praised loudly.
The pot-bellied man’s words naturally drew several nods from other adults but only people like Feng Hong, Sun Yun, Sun Ling, Bai Delan, and a handful of others knew the truth.
“Ah, actually my daughter was not the leader of this small team of young warriors.” Wu Keqian shook his head.
“Eh?”
“Wasn’t it Miss Wu?”
“Who else then?”
“Could it be a Second Order warrior?”
“You… Do you really think Second Order humans grow like cabbages by the roadside or what?”
“…”
The expression on Bai Zemin’s face changed slightly as he heard the whispers and noticed everyone’s confused expressions. He somehow already saw what was about to happen coming.
In fact, Wu Keqian was such a righteous man that he not only did not allow his daughter to keep the honor that did not belong to her but kindly pointed to Bai Zemin who was standing next to Meng Qi in the middle of the crowd.
“Young friend Bai Zemin, I wonder if you wouldn’t mind coming here and telling a little bit about the hard battles you guys had to go through to get this far?” Wu Keqian said in a soft voice before sighing as he looked at Bai Zemin with practically pleading eyes.
While Wu Keqian “knew” that to get here many of Bai Zemin’s comrades had to have died on the journey, what Wu Keqian wanted to do was to open the eyes of all the people who lived in the privileged area and had forgotten the danger of the outside world; in fact, this was another reason why he organized this party in the first place.
Bai Zemin understood the thoughts of Wu Keqian and praised him in his heart. However, the attention he was receiving now that he had become the center of everyone’s eyes subconsciously caused him to frown slightly before his expression relaxed. There was no need to worry about anything and if the worst came to the worst then he would simply beat it to a pulp since there was no one present capable of stopping him anyway.
With leisurely steps, he walked over to the stage but not before looking at Meng Qi and whispering something in her ear.
Feng Tian Wu frowned slightly when she heard the name ‘Bai Zemin’ but when she saw who the advancing person was she shook her head as if she had confirmed something.
On the other hand, Sun Jie’s expression sank when he heard that name as if the words ‘Bai Zemin’ were linked to bad memories. Moreover, when he followed the eyes of everyone and saw the woman he was courting but was ordered to stay away from being so close to another man something inside him began to boil. He followed Bai Zemin’s silhouette with his eyes and the more he looked at him the more he felt like he knew him from somewhere so he focused on trying to remember from where.
Everyone watched with different emotions as Bai Zemin stepped onto the small stage and looked at Wu Keqian silently as if he was asking him what he was supposed to do now.
Wu Keqian patted his shoulder friendly and said looking at the crowd, “This little friend here is called Bai Zemin and he is barely 20 years old right now. He, like my daughter Yijun, was at Beijing University when that strange something that calls itself Soul Record changed this world forever.”
Wu Keqian was giving a short introduction about Bai Zemin. He even mentioned who his father was and his amazing achievement of taking the position of leader of one of the Black Turtle guild’s teams, conveniently leaving out the fact that the team Bai Zemin led was actually an incomplete team that was not officially listed yet. However, there came a point when two people in the crowd were no longer listening.
The first person was Feng Tian Wu. She frowned when she heard the age and the place where the young man in front of her studied. She had met a Bai Zemin in the past and because of juvenile stupidities, she did something she had always wanted to apologize for, however, that Bai Zemin left for Beijing University to study so Feng Tian Wu never had the chance to see him again.
It was just that Feng Tian Wu did not believe that the Bai Zemin of the past and the Bai Zemin in front of her were the same person since the appearance of this Bai Zemin was simply transcendental compared to the at best average appearance of the Bai Zemin of her memories.
The other person was none other than Sun Jie. However, in contrast to Feng Tian Wu, when Sun Jie looked at the black eyes of the handsome man on the stage his entire body trembled like crazy and a distant memory resurfaced from his mind, causing both of his legs to tremble as if a great deal of pain suddenly assaulted him.
