Inside Bai Zemin’s tent, the meeting among the strongest and most important people in this operation went on for about another twenty minutes after sealing the previous deal.
Finally, after about thirty minutes in total, the leaders of the four guilds, Xia Ya, and Feng Tian Wu left after being dismissed by Bai Zemin.
Remaining inside the tent those who were originally there when Bai Zemin arrived, the group was adjusting some minor details when a soldier reported from outside that dinner had been prepared so they left everything as it was and walked out of the tent.
Although the dinner was not as sumptuous and luxurious as people with high power were used to eating such as Sun Ling, Bai Zemin, Wu Yiju, Shangguan Bing Xue, Chen He, and many more; this did not mean that it was not delicious. Although it was just white rice with some sautéed vegetables and small pieces of meat interspersed, the vegetables that grew in the evolved land and nourished with the mana of the world did not lose in flavor with the juicy mutant meat at all!
Sun Ling watched Bai Zemin’s every move in silence as apart from being part of this scouting operation she also had to see if the young man was really worthy of being handed everything on a silver platter. His strength seemed to be an undeniable fact and while he had not yet demonstrated very much it was clear that in terms of speed and strength he surpassed Wu Keqian, the most powerful soul evolver of the entire Chinese Renaissance; now it was time to study his ability and leadership style.
However, Sun Ling was amazed to see how during dinner he mingled among the normal soul evolvers casually chatting and even engaging in a joke or two that made several of them laugh.
In fact, all the higher-ups were slightly separated from the others. Perhaps to avoid being seen as friends by the lower-ranking soldiers and soul evolvers which could lead to a decrease in the importance of their words when giving orders.
“Is he always like this?” Sun Ling asked in a whispering voice to her daughter who was sitting next to her.
“Eh?” Wu Yijun blinked uncomprehendingly before looking at Bai Zemin and finally realizing what her mother was talking about. Wu Yijun looked at her in confusion and asked curiously, “Yes, he’s always like that. Why?”
“In military operations, generals interact as little as possible with normal soldiers. This is because they want to prevent soldiers in times of crisis from mistaking small talk for friendship which could lead to crucial problems.” Chen He intervened from the side and calmly pointed out, “Even in ancient times it was the same.”
“Bai Zemin is a strange kind of leader, don’t try to understand him.” Nangong Lingxin shook her head and pointed out, “Many times he is cruel to the point that even I dare not look him in the eyes, however, many other times he is so kind that even the coldest person in the world cannot help but be moved.”
Sun Ling nodded silently as she listened to the opinions of those who had spent the most time fighting alongside Bai Zemin and slowly an image began to form in her head.
* * *
The next day.
It was early in the morning and the sun had not yet risen when each of the soldiers and soul evolvers began to work to clear the camp under the careful inspection of the high command.
Approximately twenty minutes later, the group of approximately 600 people began to walk south, directly towards the forest that was only a few kilometers away. This time they were only on foot and left the vehicles behind since in the woods driving was impossible and noise would probably not be too dear an ally.
Bai Zemin ordered the lower-level soul evolvers to carry the tents and tactical backpacks where things like food, clothes, weapons, etc. were stored. In this kind of situation, in his eyes it was more important to have a soldier equipped with a machine gun rather than a level 10 soul evolver whose Soul Power was trash; it would take some time to change this as these soul evolvers were not the ones he had trained in his Transcendent faction.
While Bai Zemin had his storage ring, he would not reveal it so easily. A treasure of such a high grade was enough to make the eyes of many turn green as greedy wolves and while he was not fearful of problems he was not fanatical about them either.
Approximately 30 minutes later, Bai Zemin managed to spot the forest less than 300 meters in front so he stopped and looked at the people next to him as he calmly said, “Remember that you only have to protect the flanks and rear. The front belongs to me, understood?”
Huang Tian, the old assassin Liang Jing, the young man with the snake Teng Hua, and Feng Tian Wu’s father Feng Hong nodded toward him. The four of them had state-of-the-art military radios so they quickly transmitted Bai Zemin’s words before splitting up into different flanks.
Bai Zemin nodded in satisfaction as he saw the performance of these people. Then, he looked at the nothingness in front of him and commanded in a deep voice, “Go. But don’t go too deep.”
“Roger!” Cai Jingyi’s voice sounded a short distance ahead and the space seemed to tremble slightly before everything went silent again.
“Meng Qi, you and Little Snow follow me from close behind.” Bai Zemin said as he resumed his march. “Remember what I told you earlier?”
“Yes!” Meng Qi nodded with a resolute expression on her face.
Little Snow let out a low little howl in reply, which earned a pat from Shangguan Bing Xue to the big white dog’s delight. She had even slept in Bai Zemin’s tent next to Meng Qi just for the sake of being close to Little Snow’s beautiful soft fur; not to Bai Zemin’s surprise.
Of course, Bai Zemin’s tent was not peaceful that night as taking the opportunity Wu Yijun also decided to stay, which led to Sun Ling also staying for the night, and eventually even Chen He had his place there.
Be that as it may, while Bai Zemin recalled events of the previous night, the group stepped into the forest and advanced carefully.
The soldiers raised their machine guns and rifles high with nervous expressions on their faces as this was the first time they had actually gone into a forest. Even the soul evolvers were clutching their combat weapons with some trembling in their hands as even they were beginning to lose vision once the sun’s rays had difficulty piercing the top of the mutant trees.
Swoosh!
The group had not walked more than five minutes when a purple shadow flashed toward them at full speed from the left side.
The soldiers barely had time to react when a clear, unwavering voice rang out amidst the silence:
“Burning Flare!”[Updated from F r e e w e b n o v e l. c o m]
The surroundings brightened as a burst of fire flew out from Feng Tian Wu’s outstretched palms and with a loud bang hit a silhouette that was in mid-leap a few meters in front of her.
The silhouette’s body was sent flying engulfed in a ball of fire but it didn’t even have time to writhe in pain since as soon as it hit the ground the flames began to extinguish, revealing nothing but scorched bones and a pile of black ashes.
The surroundings were still dimly lit as small particles of fire floated in the air, slowly spreading. Bai Zemin looked at Feng Tian Wu and without him saying anything she looked in his direction and said in a clear voice, “Unclassified, level 15.”
Bai Zemin nodded and calmly ordered, “All soul evolvers below level 13 step in. Only those above level 13 may remain on the outer perimeter.”
Soon, several orders were transmitted and the group formation became smaller and tighter in comparison. Bai Zemin waited for a bit and immediately received the news that the right flank barely had any melee-type soul evolvers so he looked at Nangong Lingxin silently.
“Leave it to me.” She nodded and soon disappeared in a westerly direction.
Sun Ling and Xia Ya nodded silently as they understood Bai Zemin’s plan. Decrease casualties, avoid burdens, have emergency troops, and there was even the possibility of empowering them depending on the situation; all had been covered with a couple of simple orders but which to be carried out needed powerful warriors capable of withstanding large loads of enemies on their own.
The group continued to advance, except that this time Bai Zemin moved forward a couple of meters next to Meng Qi and Little Snow. He guided them and let both Meng Qi and Little Snow level up but Bai Zemin only let them kill creatures of a higher level than them; of course, he contributed his “little bit” to greatly weaken those enemies so that it was not difficult for them to obtain some of that Soul Power which was tremendously pure for them.
So far, most of the enemies were coming from the front or the sides but with Bai Zemin in front and with soul evolvers of level 30 or above taking the reins on the flanks they had not suffered any casualties even after they had been inside the mutant forest for about half an hour and had walked for a couple of kilometers.
Approximately another twenty minutes later, the trio hadn’t taken more than a few steps into the darkness after taking the life of a level 24 Unclassified mutant beast when one of the bushes a few meters ahead trembled lightly. Bai Zemin had no time to say anything as Little Snow shot forward and disappeared into the shadows.
Soon after, the big white dog appeared dragging the corpse of a large ant whose color ranged from light green to reddish which was over a meter long and over half a meter tall.
“Ant?” Bai Zemin’s face changed slightly and he hurriedly but in a composed voice ordered, “Turn on the lights!”
Several mages in the center of the formation raised both hands to the sky and called out the name of different active skills. At the same time, two soldiers stationed at opposite points raised several flares and fired them into the sky.
The flares along with lightning, fire, and light magic immediately illuminated everything for more than 1000 meters around and when the group that had not yet suffered a single casualty managed to see more clearly what was around them, they were almost scared to death.
Mutant ants whose size was comparable to that of a dog in the past world were crawling carefully toward them and at this moment they were no more than 100 meters distant. They stared at them with their large black eyes and the antennae on their heads moved in cutting motions as sticky saliva slid out of their mouths and fell to the ground constantly.
The problem was not only that they seemed to come in numbers that easily exceeded half a million but also what kind of ant they were!
“Weaver Ant!” Meng Qi exclaimed in alarm.
The Asian weaver ant was one of the strongest ant species in the entire world. They were not poisonous, nor did they contain any corrosive acids in their saliva although their blood did contain formic acid which could cause a lot of pain…. The real problem was that these ants were capable of lifting objects up to 100 times their weight so their strength was terrifying!
Fortunately, however, the weaver ant was also quite slow.
“Feng Hong! Chen He! Feng Tian Wu! The three of you protect the two flanks and the rear, I’ll take care of the front!” Bai Zemin ordered in a deep voice and did not dare to underestimate this enemy. “Bing Xue, Yijun, you two will lead the others to provide support to anyone who needs it, and don’t let the weaver ants get too close!”
“Okay!” Wu Yijun nodded with a serious expression and soon began to throw several mutant seeds all over the place, preparing her magic.
“No problem.” Shangguan Bing Xue nodded with a faint smile and several ice particles glowed around her, giving her the appearance of a frost goddess before disappearing underground; probably a new skill or the evolution of an old one.
Bai Zemin sighed in relief as he saw how Shangguan Bing Xue was still standing and did not faint as happened back then when the army of wolf spiders attacked.
While Bai Zemin or Shangguan Bing Xue could wipe out this large army of weaver ants on their own, this operation was not just about pure force but it was necessary to prove that he was capable of leading. It was the only way Bai Zemin could avoid clashing with Wu Yijun’s family and thus he was delighted to be able to do it the easy way.
The only thing that worried Bai Zemin was the fact that there might be a nest…. If that was the case then it would be a headache.
