“Uncle Wu, give the order to mobilize the soul evolvers and soldiers! Have the combat helicopters go 10 kilometers ahead in the eight main directions and make constant reports of the situation on the ground!” Bai Zemin shouted as he ran towards the magic circle that would teleport him inside the battleship.
“I- Understood!” Wu Keqian nodded immediately and without hesitation upon receiving Bai Zemin’s order, not realizing that he sped up the process of passing the command even more.
[Your subclass ‘Marquis’ has been revoiced and removed from your records. If you want to obtain a leader-type subclass again, please consider the establishment of a faction].
Wu Keqian’s pupils trembled slightly as the green-lettered message from the Soul Record flashed in his eyes, informing him that he had just lost one of his great sources of power. Although Wu Keqian already knew that this was going to happen sooner rather than later, he was only delaying the inevitable.
Wu Yijun’s father had obeyed the voice of Bai Zemin, which was filled with a tone of command that could not be refused. As he obeyed an order that was meant to lead the troops without hesitation, and considering the situation, the Soul Record immediately revoked his ‘Marquis’ subclass as it correctly identified him as a leader who had been replaced.
Of course, this did not mean that Bai Zemin had received control of the Chinese Renaissance faction; there were still many things to be done to reach that optimal result. However, this also did not mean that he had not received “something good” even if it was indirectly.
“Xia Ya! You come with me!” Bai Zemin shouted when he reached the magic teleport circle and instead of immediately teleporting inside the ship he called out to a stunned Xia Ya.
“O- Okay!” Xia Ya quickly nodded, partially snapping out of the daze she had fallen into after the Soul Record announced to her that her subclass ‘Loyal Follower’ and one of the sources of her power had been deleted and removed from her records.
She didn’t know what was going on, but be that as it may, it was good news which was why Xia Ya immediately rushed forward and stepped into the magic circle where Bai Zemin was waiting for her to initiate the movement.
“Son, where are you going at this moment?!” Bai Delan called from a distance.
Lightning began to thunder louder and louder in the increasingly dark sky, acting as a source of light even brighter than the sun itself. The entire base was in chaos, terrified survivors hid in their homes while others simply lost their heads and began to cause mayhem.
Amidst so much noise and mess, even the strongest soul evolvers had to shout for their voices to reach each other.
“Father, I need to go and back up my team members that are up north! I’ll take mother with me just in case!” Bai Zemin shouted in response. His Transcendent faction, the people most loyal to him and with whom he had been fighting shoulder to shoulder since the beginning of the apocalypse were practically given over to death in the midst of the chaos that was about to break loose.
Among all of them, perhaps only Fu Xuefeng and Nangong Yi had the ability to face an initial Second Order existence each. Bai Zemin needed to hurry and return to support them or else they would definitely be wiped out when the mana of the world empowered all living beings; among them, of course, mutant beasts and zombies!
“Alright! Be careful!” Bai Delan replied loudly without hesitation. It was better for his son to take Ye Linger with him, because although she had Shen Mei and the Green Defender Ring that could summon the spirit of a Second Order defender tree, Ye Linger was only a level 17 soul evolver; too low to even react against the attack of an Agility-type beast, for example.
Bai Zemin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue, but instead of shouting some kind of instruction he simply had to look at her for a brief moment before she understood his intention.
“Don’t worry, you go and take care of business in the north! Leave this side to me and the rest!” She yelled, her silver-white hair was currently a mess in the midst of the strong winds blowing in all directions but her beautiful blue eyes were as bright and steady as ever.
“I will return as promptly as possible!” Bai Zemin bellowed, finally activating the magic circle and disappearing in a flash of white light together with Xia Ya.
After getting into the battleship, Bai Zemin disassociated himself from anything to do with the Chinese Renaissance faction. He had another mission now, and Shangguan Bing Xue could take over this place until he secured the lives of the rest of his subordinates waiting for him.
As Bai Zemin and Xia Ya ran towards the command room, the ring with golden runes on his right hand began to release intermittent glows constantly; a result of the orders Bai Zemin was giving. The engines powered up and the Sky Destroyer slowly began to build altitude as it turned in a northerly direction.
“Leader, are we going to pick up the initial members of your original faction?” Xia Ya asked as she followed a few steps behind him.
“No, we are going to help defend the base in the process of construction.” Bai Zemin replied in a serious voice. Humanity could not be in a single base, several needed to be built to function as military and logistical support centers.
He continued, “Xia Ya, when we get there and depending on the situation, I will count on you to activate Wolf Pack.”
The skill ‘Wolf Pack’ could link Bai Zemin’s subordinates with his records in a partial way such that Unclassified existences could easily face First Order existences and First Order existences above level 40 could fight against normal initial Second Order existences without overwhelming stats such as the red colored weaver ants. Xia Ya was going to be crucial in case any fighting broke out and Bai Zemin brought her with him because her importance might even be greater than his in several aspects when it came to group warfare.
Xia Ya said nothing, she simply followed Bai Zemin silently. She had been observing him for all these days and came to understand better what kind of person the young leader was who in the near future would have control over more than 300,000 lives was. Bai Zemin was very friendly and even kind as long as his subordinates obeyed his orders when it was time to obey, he hated disobedience and detested lack of discipline. Xia Ya believed that as long as she avoided those two conditions, everything would be fine for her.
The battleship had begun to move slowly and by the time Bai Zemin reached the command room and sat down in the captain’s seat the ship was already quite close to the residential part of the privileged area.
The walls in the command room had become giant screens, showing Bai Zemin and Xia Ya the current situation outside. The only word that could describe what they were seeing was disaster.
Military vehicles and modified vehicles were speeding through the streets, soldiers yelling at residents to stay in their homes, residents standing in a daze looking up at the sky as the giant ship advanced over their heads, survivors crying, and more. However, the biggest turmoil was beyond the privileged area; it was at the base where the normal survivors were.
Survivors running all over the place, police officers and low-level soul evolvers that couldn’t join one of the four official guilds trying to quell all kinds of possible trouble rising up, lunatics that in the midst of the chaos took the opportunity to run out of their homes with torches and set fire to many establishments… and there were definitely a lot of worse things going on that couldn’t be appreciated from the sky.
“We humans are truly a despicable race…. Zombies, beasts, weaver ants, and even the marine race…. They all join together to fight a common enemy when the situation calls for it but we fight internally even when death is knocking on our doors.” Bai Zemin spoke his thoughts aloud as his indifferent eyes scanned the situation below.
Xia Ya was standing to his left, her expression was complicated as she listened to the words Bai Zemin uttered. She would be 30 next year and this was the first time in her life that she had seen a young man 10 years younger than her rationalize in such a way. Even she who had seen a bit of everything after the apocalypse, Xia Ya could not help but wonder what kind of things the young man sitting on the leather seat beside her had seen to turn his heart this cold.
Kong Jun, standing at the right side of Bai Zemin, listened to his words in silence. The large black cloak covered the entirety of his figure including his eyes so it was hard to tell what the great Third Order Apocalyptic Ant was thinking.
“I’ll be right back.” Bai Zemin said and immediately after he disappeared from his position, leaving only Xia Ya somewhat uncomfortable with the giant ant.
He appeared directly in the teleportation room and a moment later was teleported to the outside of the flying warship. Bai Zemin could teleport from the command room to anywhere in the Sky Destroyer but he could not teleport from anywhere into the command room; at least not temporarily, it was a too advanced function that needed to be unlocked first.
Bai Zemin quickly approached the edge and looked down. The Sky Destroyer had stopped right in front of his house and just over 300 meters above.
“Mom!”
Ye Linger had been in a daze looking at the large warship, next to her was Shen Mei who had a serious expression on her face as she fiddled with a sharp dagger that had over 600 physical attack points and held a 9mm pistol in her free hand meant to finish off small fries quickly and effectively.
Hearing her son’s voice, Ye Linger’s body trembled. She had been waiting for his return from the first moment he left the base but Bai Zemin had not returned even half a month later, even with Evangeline and Shen Mei reassuring her that he was alive Ye Linger was still so worried about her two children that she was barely eating and if it wasn’t for him being a soul evolver she would have been sick by now.
Ye linger raised her head higher into the sky just in time to see her little one plummeting down, making her eyes sparkle with joy and relief.
Bai Zemin activated Gravity Manipulation in reverse to soften his fall and in an instant his feet touched the ground gently.
“My son…” Ye Linger immediately rushed over to hug him. She looked him up and down carefully and noticed several lick marks on his skin but her mind was too anxious to realize that those lick marks were in no way the product of battles.
“Your sister… Where is Meng Qi?” Ye Linger inquired anxiously.
Evangeline could only confirm that nothing bad had happened to Bai Zemin, but no one knew anything about Meng Qi. Now that she could get news from the best person, Ye Linger immediately asked after making sure he was fine.
“Don’t worry, she is fine and is with father right now.” Bai Zemin replied in a serious voice before quickly switching to the urgent topic, “Mom, we don’t have time to chat right now. I’ll explain everything on the way. Shen Mei, you come with us.”
“On the way?” Ye Linger was about to ask what he was talking about when suddenly her body felt lighter, and by the time she realized that her son was carrying her, her surroundings became a blur.
In just an instant, Ye Linger found herself on top of the battleship, and in the next second, she had already been teleported inside.
Bai Zemin carried his mother while Shen Mei followed behind, three bodies flashed through the corridors and with Bai Zemin’s guidance they quickly reached the command room.
For Ye Linger, it hadn’t been more than about 60 seconds, or maybe a little more, but she finally got to see how powerful her son was. In fact, she didn’t even feel a gust of wind cutting her face which meant that he had been guarding her all the way to prevent her from getting hurt by the pressure generated by the speed.
Back in the captain’s seat of the ship, Bai Zemin explained the situation to his mother while he controlled the Sky Destroyer.
The giant warship gradually picked up speed until it soon became a flash of light that disappeared into the distance, leaving all the survivors of the base that had been paying attention to this large ship stupefied.
