Bai Zemin’s words were a great shock to the silence that reigned inside the hall as people immediately began to murmur and whisper while looking at each other in amazement. However, the most shocked was undoubtedly the people who knew Bai Zemin but did not yet know about his true identity.
Bai Delan and Ye Linger’s eyes widened to the point of looking like spotlights as they stared at the handsome young man several meters ahead who with only a couple of friends was challenging the whole world. They knew their son better than anyone else, they knew that Bai Zemin would definitely not make up something so crazy in a situation like this as someone smart like him surely knew that lies of such magnitude would only lead to the situation getting more complicated than it already was.
However, looking at Meng Qi who was standing silently and indifferently, the two parents realized that the two siblings were still hiding things from them and telling secrets to each other just like they did during their early teenage years.
On the other hand, Sun Ling and Wu Keqian looked at Bai Zemin in shock. However, Sun Ling suddenly put two and two together and said loudly, “The human establishment that suddenly appeared in the north!”
Bai Zemin looked at her sideways and said in a cold voice, “That is correct. I am the leader of all the people north of this place.” He looked at Wu Keqian who was also looking at him in shock and said with a hint of disdain in his voice, “It’s just that, unlike this place, the power of my Transcendent faction properly rests in my hands. My leadership seat is not a cardboard throne and the crown on my head is not a paper one!”
Wu Keqian ignored Bai Zemin’s words and suddenly looked at his daughter Wu Yijun. She, despite being under threat of a dagger, didn’t seem nervous for her life at all… Rather, Wu Yijun seemed on the verge of tears at the overall situation.
“You… Don’t tell me…” Wu Keqian muttered more to himself than to anyone else as he stared at his daughter in total disbelief.
He couldn’t believe that the daughter he raised, spoiled, cuddled, hugged, and showered with affection for years was actually betraying not only him but the entire Wu Family!
“Uncle Wu, instead of blaming Yijun you should be grateful to her.”
A voice that contained some regret amidst the coldness sounded in the middle of the hall and everyone’s eyes automatically moved to the black-dressed beauty with silver-white colored hair.
Wu Keqian could not help but smile with scorn and said with some disdain: “Are you asking me not to blame my daughter for betraying her family? You want me to be grateful to her for bringing and hiding a lion in the courtyard of our house?”
His body was trembling and it was clearly not only from pain but also from anger. How could he not feel betrayed? His own blood was stabbing him in the back!
Sun Ling was staring at her daughter intently, but in contrast to Wu Keqian, what she felt was pity and understanding to a certain extent. Then, after a moment of silence, she asked in a voice that although it was low the silence helped it to be heard by everyone:
“Yijun, surely you have your reasons for doing what you are doing?”
Wu Yijun tried to open her mouth and say something but that small movement was all it took for the tears she was barely holding back to start raining down on her beautiful face. She brought both hands to her chest and began to take deep breaths as if she was having trouble breathing, as if a large rock was weighing down inside her chest.
“The reason she is doing all this is for the good of everyone here.” Cai Jingyi said in a playful voice. “If it wasn’t for Wu Yijun, everyone in this establishment would only have two options. The first option would be unconditional surrender… As for the second option, I think everyone here can imagine it.”
Nangong Lingxin looked at Wu Keqian and sighed as she calmly said, “Mister Wu, even if we put aside Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue alone has the ability to overwhelm this entire faction in a matter of a couple of hours at most.”
As if to prove that what Nangong Lingxin said was true, the exquisite body of Shangguan Bing Xue swayed gracefully and in an instant disappeared from her previous position leaving behind an afterimage. In the next instant and unnoticed by anyone, she was behind Wu Keqian with an ice sword pointed directly at his back.
Wu Keqian froze and his pupils trembled in shock as he felt the very slight killing intent behind him. He couldn’t believe it… Even if he was distracted by everything that was going on, a Second Order existence like him shouldn’t be able to be ambushed so easily!
Suddenly, that slight killing intent disappeared and Shangguan Bing Xue was once again in her previous position. She looked at him with a complex expression on her face as she said in a low voice: “Uncle Wu, now do you understand?… The reason why Yijun did all this and even went to the trouble of bothering Bai Zemin even though this could bring a lot of trouble to him which could become an impediment for him to love her in the future is because you have no possibility of victory.”
The face of Wu Keqian was white as a sheet and he found no words to refute. If Shangguan Bing Xue was strong and fast enough to appear behind him and threaten his life so easily, then how terrifying the person leading her must be? The very thought of it made his heart tremble with fear.
Bai Zemin looked at Wu Keqian and said more calmly now, “I had planned to take one more week to prove to you that I am worthy to lead and then I would challenge you to a small duel to show you that I have the power to carry the weight on my shoulders. At first, it was because your daughter is not only an important subordinate but I also consider her a precious friend, however, as the days went by you gradually won my respect.”
After a pause, he shook his head and said coldly, “However, at the end of the line you disappointed me. Now, I’m afraid I don’t have the patience to wait anymore.”
The entire hall was silent and even Sun Yun did not dare to say a single word after seeing Shangguan Bing Xue’s casual display of power. Everyone had realized that many things were about to change and the last thing they wanted was to antagonize this small but terrifying power that seemed to be rising without impediment.
“… What do you plan to do after conquering this place?” Wu Keqian suddenly asked, sounding calm and looking at Bai Zemin with clear eyes.
Bai Zemin looked at him with a serious expression on his face and stated confidently, “After conquering this place, I will divide my troops to the east and west while I and a smaller number of soul evolvers head south in search of the family of Bing Xue and Chen He. My goal is to reunite the humanity of our country under a single rule within the next ten months at the most.”
Ten months!
Several guests gasped in shock as they looked at Bai Zemin with wide eyes.
“Nonsense!” Sun Yun shouted from a corner after Sun Jie’s condition stabilized. He looked at Bai Zemin as if looking at a crazy man and remarked, “You want to conquer China in ten months? Bullsh*t!”
China was one of the largest countries in the world even before the expansion of the Earth, and even before the expansion, it would be impossible for a power to manage to gather all the Chinese in less than ten months let alone a world whose natural size grew almost four times its former size!
“For all of you, it is impossible… because you are weak.” Bai Zemin said indifferently. His voice was neither high nor low, there was no pride or disdain as he calmly said, “But I have the power and ability to achieve it. In just a couple of days, I slaughtered over 20,000,000 zombies and over 20,000 mutant beasts among which there were almost ten Second Order existences and two Third Order existences. I doubt there are many powers of such magnitude in China, which means it will be easier to conquer them.”
“Twenty million…” Sun Ling whispered and suddenly her body trembled as she subconsciously exclaimed in terror, “The zombies of the Eastern Dragon’s Back!”
“The zombies from all the cities, towns, and villages surrounding the north and south of the Eastern Dragon’s Back were gathered under the main leadership of a zombie over the level 100.” Bai Zemin said as he looked at Sun Ling calmly, “After slaughtering half by myself in about two days and two nights, I and the seventh princess of the Eastern Sea formed an alliance due to certain circumstances and wiped out the rest of the creatures on the bridge which finally allowed me and my faction to make it this far.”
Bai Zemin ignored everyone’s reaction and didn’t care if they understood what he was talking about or not. He stared at Wu Keqian who was also staring at him and demanded in a firm voice: “Surrender. Although I am disappointed with you and your family, Wu Yijun has nothing to do with this. Besides, regardless of being my friend, she is one of the central pillars of my Transcendent faction so as long as I am still standing you and the rest of your family will be able to live lives of luxury.”
Wu Keqian looked down before looking at Bai Zemin and calmly saying, “And if I refuse?”
Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes and a glint of coldness flashed in them as he slowly said, “If you refuse… Even though I am not going to kill you, I’m afraid you probably won’t be able to stand up again for at least a couple of years.”
“Father, no!” Wu Yijun shouted finally finding strength. She looked desperate as she anxiously cried, “Surrender! Just give up! You can’t win!”
She knew very well how terrifying Bai Zemin was. She knew that if it weren’t for her, he would have long since continued on his path of conquest after crushing any resistance that stood between him and his goal; he had always been doing it this way from the beginning and each next result was each time more crushing than the last.
“Uncle Wu, please just surrender.” Chen He said from the distance. He sighed and shook his head as he said with complicated emotions, “You have no way of knowing how strong Bai Zemin actually is. I know it will sound crazy but to say that his entire existence is a huge living and moving nuke is not exaggerated at all.”
However, Wu Keqian did not seem to listen to outside advice. He looked at Bai Zemin and suddenly he disappeared from his previous position.
The ground where Wu Keqian stood a moment ago exploded as a terrifying air pressure sent all the nearest people flying amidst desperate screams and cries.
As for Wu Keqian…
“… Em. I really can’t win.”
His voice was complicated but there was no bitterness or regret.
Bai Zemin’s eyes were as calm as a lake as he gazed indifferently at the man less than two meters ahead.
Wu Keqian had his right leg slightly bent forward and his left leg fully extended behind his body. His torso was bent forward and his right arm fully extended while his clenched right fist was pointing toward Bai Zemin’s head.
“… I guess I passed the test?” Bai Zemin asked indifferently.
His left arm was pointing ninety degrees upwards and in his clenched fist was Wu Keqian’s hand that regardless of how much strength he put into his arms could neither advance nor retreat.
Wu Keqian raised his head and his face was slightly contracted due to the pain transmitted from his right hand. He could feel his bones creaking slightly and it was clear that the young man in front of him was holding back so as not to break them into dust.
Wu Yijun finally couldn’t stand when she saw this and her knees gave out so she began to fall to the ground. Fortunately, Cai Jingyi quickly supported her to keep her from falling and looked forward with a serious expression on her face.
The whole place was deathly silent.
“You don’t kill me even after I attack you?” Wu Yijun’s father asked with calmness in his voice. He even smiled unburdened and said indifferently, “If you have mercy on your enemies, I don’t think you can achieve your goal within the estimated time frame.”
“Mercy…?” Bai Zemin whispered and his eyes flashed with a hint of self-mockery as he said quietly, “I’m afraid the word mercy no longer has anything to do with me, Uncle Wu. It hasn’t for some time now.”
Bai Zemin had slaughtered hundreds of millions. Among those he killed were no shortage of children, infants, and old people. Regardless of whether it was indirectly or not, it was certain that he was responsible for those deaths.
For some reason, the hearts of Bai Delan and Ye Linger ached at the sight of their son’s somewhat bitter expression. Both parents, just like any sane parent, wanted nothing but the best for their child… Unfortunately, both were weaker than fate so they had no ability to protect him.
Only Shangguan Bing Xue understood Bai Zemin’s feelings to a certain extent because only she was by his side during the invasion of Oblon World. Therefore, she looked at him with complicated eyes and couldn’t help but bite her lips softly.
“Uncle Wu? I thought you would call me Mayor Wu from today onwards.” Wu Keqian chuckled.
“… The reason you are still alive is because your previous attack didn’t contain even a hint of murderous intent.” Bai Zemin was very sensitive to things like murderous intent so he knew that Wu Yijun’s father wasn’t even aiming to really hurt him when he attacked him just now.
“And the reason why I even stopped myself when I wanted to break your hand is because just now one of the people I love the most in the whole universe asked me to have mercy on you.” Bai Zemin added ironically as he closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of roses that hugged him from behind.
Ignoring Wu Keqian’s questioning look, Bai Zemin looked at him with serious eyes and demanded for the last time, “Surrender. I will not say it a third time.”
However, even though Bai Zemin had just proved to have enough power to crush him, Wu Keqian shook his head again. Then, he looked at him with a faint smile and pointed:
“You just proved that you have the strength. Now, prove to me that you have the ability to lead.”
Wu Keqian smiled carefreely and continued:
“If you prove to be able to lead better than me, then I will gladly hand everything over to you and even will help you make everything go smooth and clean which will make things a lot easier for you…… I guess handing everything over to my future son-in-law isn’t too bad anyway. Hahahaha! Who knows, maybe one day I can say that the daughter of me, Wu Keqian, is actually the wife of the most powerful man in all of China and the hero who freed our race from the cliff!”
