It had been four days since the Earth evolved, entering its Third Stage in just over a year’s time.
To say that everyone, or at least the more normal and weaker ones hated the Soul Record was not an exaggeration at all. This hatred would only grow if Earth humans knew that other worlds took thousands of years to reach the Third Stage of Evolution but they were forced to adapt and grow to such a level in little more than a year and three months of time.
As the saying goes, many times being ignorant of something was bliss in itself.
Four days ago, after Fire Sorrow left, Bai Zemin stayed in his room for about 10 minutes thinking about the conversation he had had with her.
While it was true that Bai Zemin’s thoughts mainly lingered on the Heavenly Wolf Sirius and the love Fire Sorrow felt for him or had once felt for him, there were also times when Bai Zemin couldn’t help but remember the sorrowful look filled with expectation in those beautiful purple eyes.
In the event that he really was the reincarnation of the Heavenly Wolf and even though Bai Zemin had no memory of his life as Sirius, Fire Sorrow had certainly been a person of importance in his life. Therefore, remembering that small spark of hope in the midst of so much sadness certainly came as something of a shock to him.
It didn’t feel particularly pleasant to be unable to remember a person who was most likely part of his past, and it didn’t feel particularly good not knowing what complicated relationship the two of them had come to share.
Fortunately for Bai Zemin or not, this time he didn’t have room to get lost in his thoughts and let his mind wander too much.
Several minutes after Fire sorrow left, Bai Zemin stood up and began to help with the reorganization, as well as personally giving orders.
It was around this time that Bai Shilin and Xiao Xiao who had been helping to calm the troubled waters approached him, and Bai Zemin certainly showered them with affection as he strove to get everyone’s lives back to “normal” as soon as possible.
Two days later, the first general report with a considerably close approximation of how many casualties the Transcendent faction’s population had suffered was handed to Bai Zemin’s table while he was sharing his lunch with Xiao Xiao, Bai Shilin, and Kali.
“Eight million dead…” Bai Zemin clenched the page in his hands tightly and a pained expression crossed his face as he mumbled the number between his teeth.
His Transcendent faction barely had a little over 40.000.000 living beings, all of them divided into numerous bases in the different Districts and Sub-Districts of China so that there was at least one base per District.
40.000.000 was not a particularly small number, but considering the colossal size of China it was far from enough. Now that almost a quarter of that number had disappeared overnight one could try to imagine how long it would take to recover.
The loss of 8.000.000 lives was not as simple as losing numbers, there were many jobs that had been left empty, over 4 bases that had completely collapsed, observation stations and advance camps that needed to be replaced immediately, and many more things that would become clearer once the overall report became even more accurate.
“Where is Luo Ning and the Wen twins?” Bai Zemin asked, trying to maintain his composure as he set the folder aside.
He no longer had the appetite to touch the delectable food in front of him.
“Yes, reporting. Miss Luo Ning and the two Misses Wen Yun and Wen Yan are currently at the Shanghai base.”
“Shanghai?” Bai Zemin was slightly surprised.
“Yes, Leader.” The soul evolver in front of him nodded. “Shanghai borders the Pacific Ocean, and an operation is currently being planned to recapture the nautical military base located there.”
If Bai Zemin was not mistaken, in that military base there should be some American ships… Could it be that maybe there were aircraft carriers with intercontinental missiles?
He stood up and said in a deep voice, “Who is the person in charge?”
“It’s Miss Shangguan Bing Xue.” The soul evolver quickly explained, “She told me to inform you about it, Leader, and that there was no need to worry too much. Other than second-in-command Shangguan, General Feng Hong, General Liang Jing, and Miss Sun Ling are among the selected troops.”
“Good. I’m heading to Shanghai.” Bai Zemin nodded and without delay delivered several orders.
Before leaving, he left Kang Lan in charge of the base and also made the two Nangong siblings his Loyal Followers.
Bai Shilin, Kali, and Xiao Xiao entered the Collector’s Pocket World while Bai Zemin climbed onto Little Snow’s back and left for the Mother Fortress.
Although Little Snow had entered the Third Order and in theory should be able to take on human form and speak, the reality turned out to be completely different. No matter how much Bai Zemin tried to engage her in conversation, Little Snow simply could not respond with human language even though she clearly understood perfectly what he was saying.
She also didn’t seem to be able to turn human, something that perplexed Bai Zemin and the others who believed that upon reaching the Third Order all mutant beasts were capable of doing so.
After about 40 minutes of running through the sky at full speed, Little Snow took Bai Zemin to the Mother Fortress. He did not stay there long, and after using another of his now 5 free spaces to make Fu Xuefeng his Loyal Follower he ordered Little Snow to run at full speed to the south of the kingdom.
…
Shanghai was located in the south of China while Inner Mongolia was in the north. Moreover, with the territory of the world in general growing exponentially, even at the wind speed Little Snow was moving at, it was not possible to get there in a matter of a few hours.
As it turned out, by the time Bai Zemin got there it had already been almost 20 hours since the time of his departure.
“Where are you guys?” Bai Zemin asked as he brought his right hand up to his mouth.
Two or three seconds later, Shangguan Bing Xue’s indifferent voice came out from the golden runes of the commander’s ring, “We occupied the university.”
“I’ll be there shortly.” <sub> </sub>
The two had been in contact for the past few hours, so Bai Zemin now had a better idea of the situation.
Arriving at what was once the prestigious Shanghai University, Bai Zemin was not surprised to find a pile of rubble and shattered buildings.
There were also numerous soul evolvers tossing zombie corpses aside to later set them on fire.
“Leader!”
“Leader Bai!”
“My god… this is the first time I’ve seen him in person.”
“Is that a dog?”
“That dog is the Leader’s mount. It’s a Third Order mutant beast.”
“T- Third Order?!”
…
Of course, Bai Zemin’s arrival did not go unnoticed.
Especially when the others saw him descend from the sky riding a giant white dog nearly 3 meters tall that was even bigger than a horse.
He waved to those who greeted him and asked them to return to their business without paying too much attention to him before finally making his way to the single tent that had been erected in the center of the grounds within an area that had clearly been cleared in advance.
When Bai Zemin stepped into the tent, he was immediately greeted by familiar faces.
“Leader, it’s been a while- Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!” Amidst fierce coughs and his face growing redder and redder from lack of air, Liang Jing barely managed to speak with tear-filled eyes, “It’s a pleasure to see you again- Cough! Cough! Cough! Cough!!!”
The corner of Bai Zemin’s mouth trembled like crazy as he looked at Liang Jing speechlessly.
This dude was a Third Order level 115 soul evolver and his power was not inferior to Fu Xuefeng’s at all, being only surpassed by Evangeline, Shen Mei, and Cai Jingyi among all the assassins in the faction.
Despite his level, however, Liang Jing looked so old and unhealthy that he seemed to have one and a half feet in the grave. Had it not been for Bai Zemin and the others knowing that this was a peculiar trait of his class everyone would have panicked thinking that instead of helping him live longer what evolution was doing was killing him and taking away his lifespan.
“Liang Jing, it’s good to see you are still as healthy as ever.” Bai Zemin winced as he said those words.
Liang Jing was coughing fiercely unable to speak so he waved his hand as a sign.
Soon, Bai Zemin’s eyes landed on Feng Hong and his expression became serious. However, before he could say anything Feng Hong beat him to it.
“Leader, you don’t need to say much regarding my daughter.” Feng Hong shook his head and sighed, “To be honest, it wasn’t until three months ago that I found out about your past relationship with Tian Wu. She may have always kept herself indifferent and cold on the outside, but how could I as a father not notice the frown that appeared more and more often on her face every time someone mentioned you?”
Shangguan Bing Xue and Sun Ling were the only two adults present in the place, and upon hearing the words “past relationship” both immediately focused their attention.
No one knew for sure but it wasn’t hard for the more attentive to notice that Feng Tian Wu and Bai Zemin definitely knew each other from before, and since Bai Zemin always kept her at a certain distance it wasn’t hard to assume that whatever past the two shared was not particularly pleasant. However, no one asked anything about it and even Shangguan Bing Xue who was one of the people closest to Bai Zemin was only now learning the truth.
Feng Hong continued, “I know you have already forgiven my daughter, but that girl still blames herself for what she did in the past. I’m sure she did what she did this time to try to break out of that guilt that torments her heart, so none of this is your fault.”
Hearing Feng Hong’s words, Bai Zemin could not help but sigh in his heart.
Feng Tian Wu’s state was currently too miserable. He had visited her three times in the past few days but even with his fire resistance being almost 30% he could barely be around her for a few minutes before he was forced to retreat from the ice chamber.
According to Kali, she estimated that Feng Tian Wu would probably die within a month at the latest.
“The past is in the past, and although it is impossible to forget I have truly forgiven Feng Tian Wu for what she did back then. I have forgiven her, but perhaps she needs to find her own forgiveness.” Bai Zemin sighed. A moment later, his expression turned serious and as he looked at Feng Hong he assured him, “I will do everything within my power, even risk my life to find a way to help Feng Tian Wu get out of her current situation. She is a cherished warrior of my faction willing to fight to the death for me, so it is the least I can do.”
Feng Hong bowed his head in silence and remained so for several seconds to express his gratitude.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Sun Lin on the other hand looked at Bai Zemin. Although it had not been said out loud, the two women were smart and on their own were able to judge that the relationship between Bai Zemin and Feng Tian Wu was more than just friends but things had probably not ended well.
At the same time that Bai Zemin arrived in Shanghai, the battle between Lilith and Fire Sorrow that had been going on in outer space was finally coming to a conclusion after almost two days.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We have been in the top 1 GT for 10 months in a row, and it means a lot to me to see that my effort pays off. Many thanks to you, who still donate your golden tickets and support Blood Warlock <3
