Bai Zemin ignored Fu Shuren's reaction and instead suddenly began to worry about something else. He approached up to the mature maiden who had helped Nangong Yi take care of his clothes and asked in a firm voice, "What is your name? How old are you?"
The maiden was startled for a moment when she saw him walking towards her, however, upon hearing his question, she hurriedly responded in a respectful voice, "Sir, my name is Chu Jiao, and I will be 40 this year."
"Phew…" Bai Zemin let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately she wasn't someone's mother or something like that. "Alright, you two go ahead and retire. You don't need to do anything else for now."
Chu Jiao bowed and retreated along with Fu Shuren, who gave one last glance at Bai Zemin before closing the double doors to the bathroom.
"Bloody hell…." Bai Zemin was speechless as he took off the lower part of the armor.
Really… If what happened before wasn't a coincidence then there simply shouldn't be any coincidence in this world.
Who would have thought that he would meet the sister of an ally? Fortunately and Bai Zemin was a fairly rational and upright person, otherwise, if he was a young man who got carried away by the heat of the moment and jumped on the beautiful Fu Shuren, he probably might have had to take charge for his entire life, or worse, lose an ally. After all, even if Fu Xuefeng did not say anything, his heart would definitely not be happy.
After taking off his armor completely as well as the light clothing he wore underneath, Bai Zemin took a white towel and wrapped it around his waist before walking towards the pool in the center of the bath.
The steam had built up so much that while the view was not obstructed to the point of not seeing, it did make it difficult to see with clarity what was going on several meters ahead. When Bai Zemin finally descended the steps of the pool, the hot water began to slowly rise from the tips of his toes, his legs, thighs, and only when the lower half was almost completely covered did he stop and lean back against an edge.
A sigh of satisfaction escaped automatically from his mouth and his eyes closed involuntarily. All the muscles in his body immediately began to loosen as he came into contact with the warm water and his pores opened to breathe in the clean surrounding air.
Although Bai Zemin could always enjoy similar treatments, this case was special and his body was particularly tense with his mind on constant guard. After all, this was the base of an enemy faction, and even though he was strong, he could still be killed if he had a moment's carelessness.
"Man, who would have thought that kid's sister would be here?"
A low but deep voice sounded a few feet away. Bai Zemin softly opened his eyes and even though his gaze was directed at the white ceiling, he naturally knew that the voice belonged to the one person who was accompanying him at the moment.
"Indeed. What just happened was something I didn't expect." He sighed again and closed his eyes once more as he calmly said, "But this is also good… I hope we can find more of everyone's family members to at least lighten their burdens even a little."
Nangong Yi seemed to be enjoying the shower as his voice was several volumes lower than normal: "Fortunately and I didn't touch that girl with the surname Fu. Otherwise it would have been troublesome."
"Yeah…" Bai Zemin agreed.
Even though Nangong Yi was stronger than Fu Xuefeng in a head-on battle, if Fu Xuefeng wanted to kill Nangong Yi, he only had to wait for the right moment.
Fu Xuefeng's main skill was Stealth, an Unclassified skill. However, he had managed to evolve the skill to First Order Invisibility level 1. With this skill and a couple more in his arsenal, Nangong Yi would have a headache dealing with an enraged Fu Xuefeng.
"Well, I don't like getting between the legs of a woman even younger than my little sister." Nangong Yi didn't seem too concerned about the matter.
Bai Zemin simply chuckled lightly and joked, "Be sure to ask the name of the woman you're going to sleep with just in case."
"Hahaha…"
After chatting for a couple of minutes, they both fell silent and enjoyed the bubbles that were constantly coming out of the pool. It was as if little hands were constantly massaging them and it felt really exquisite.
Time passes very quickly when people were enjoying what they were doing. Without Bai Zemin realizing it, it had already been about 40 minutes since he went into the bath.
In fact, he was so comfortable with his current situation that as a consequence of keeping his eyes closed for so long in a pleasant environment, he directly fell asleep.
Nangong Yi hesitated about waking him up or not, but in the end, decided to leave quietly while trying to make as little noise as possible.
Bai Zemin was only 20 years old, but the weight he carried on his shoulders was the fate of thousands of people and the expectations of countless others. Although he usually smiled calmly or acted indifferently, even though Nangong Yi had only known him for about three or four days, it was impossible not to be physically and mentally exhausted.
There was no living being capable of withstanding so much pressure without long-term consequences.
As if that were not enough, Bai Zemin had confined himself to work immediately after he had suffered terrifyingly painful injuries after a mortal battle with an extremely dangerous enemy that was capable of threatening his own life.
It could be said that since the apocalypse erupted with the Soul Record's arrival on Earth Bai Zemin had not even had a single moment to rest to his heart's content.
It was precisely because he considered all this that Nangong Yi decided to leave and not wake him up after hearing his heavy but steady breathing.
* * *
Bai Zemin had a dream.
It was a very weird dream, and it was nothing like any dream he had had in the past.
In this dream, he saw himself fighting against terrifying existences. Beings so strong that they could annihilate myriads of races with a wave of their hands and with the power to destroy stars with a single magic spell.
But his power was not lower.
In his dream, he saw himself wielding a blade even larger than his own body at the same time as a strange being deep inside him gave him apparently endless power.
Every swing of his sword caused the heavens to rumble as if crying out in fear and his magical spells annihilated entire armies. The amount of lives that were claimed by his sword and his magic spells had reached such a large number that the corpses formed mountains and the blood made vast red rivers flow in a seemingly natural way.
But as strange as it seemed, he was very angry. The anger was practically irrational to the point where it was difficult to comprehend. Even though it was a dream, it felt so real that the anger even began to affect him.
Many tried to stop him.
Many others tried to exhaust him using waves of enemies.
However, no one was successful.
The Bai Zemin of his dream was like an unstoppable killing machine. Regardless of the methods used and regardless of how many enemies came, all were defeated and killed while those lucky enough could only flee for their lives.
It was only after all the enemies were decimated that Bai Zemin's anger in his dreams somehow appeared to calm down, even if only minimally. But what most confounded the dream's owner, the real Bai Zemin, was that the thin thread of anger that suddenly disappeared transformed into pain. The pain was so wrenching that his heart squeezed involuntarily. It was a pain he could not comprehend.
After crushing everything, the Bai Zemin who seemingly never exhausted stuck the tip of his giant sword into the ground and let himself fall while looking up at the sky. His eyes, strangely crimson red, seemed to ask why… Though there was no one to answer a question that was unclear.
Raindrops began to fall.
Blood and crystal water mingled with each other, and long after what felt like an eternal storm with no end, the thickness of the blood began to diminish until it was finally swept away.
But even though the blood on the battlefield was swept away, even though the red that tinged the somewhat tattered black plate armor that seemed to have been through countless battles, the hair of that Bai Zemin was still as red as blood.
The rain wanted to wash everything away, but the corpses remained there, giving company to the only living being that even after a long time, still looked with his deep red eyes that seemed to be devoid of human emotions towards the sky with a blank stare. More specifically, he seemed to look beyond the skies, something that a normal person could never comprehend.
* * *
Without knowing how much time passed, Bai Zemin finally opened his eyes and yawned deeply while stretching his arms upward.
The sound of flowing water still reached his ears, and the temperature of the water covering his body up to chest height reminded him that he was still in the bath.
I fell asleep here? Bai Zemin was speechless and unconsciously forced a bitter smile. However, just when he was wondering why that Nangong Yi dude didn't wake him up, he noticed a particular fragrance and a smile rose on his face automatically.
Although the scent of different types of flowers and fruits filled the bathroom, there was a particular fragrance that was impossible for him to mistake; sweet, honeyed, soft, delicate, but surprisingly there was also a slight hint of freshness, an intense but not uncomfortable coldness. It was an extremely uncommon hybrid scent, but a scent to which Bai Zemin had already become familiar.
He smiled and turned around to look at the woman sitting at the edge of the pool half a meter away.
She was wearing a deep black one-piece dress that covered most of her body, however, her slender white legs were bare while her dainty little feet gently kicked the water at the same time as her tender pearl-like toes embraced the bubbles that slipped in between.
Even though the woman was just sitting there, silent, and not performing any exaggerated actions, just the sight of her beautiful beyond all creation face and her smooth legs that looked like mirrors reflecting the dim light indoors was enough to make any living being regardless of gender hold their breath.
Who else could she be besides Lilith?
She looked up at him with her red eyes as intense as fire and as bright as rubies. A glint of imperceptible worry flashed momentarily in her eyes before disappearing like a stone dropped in the middle of the never-ending ocean.
"Aren't you afraid of drowning to death?" She puckered her lips in a slightly taunting but slightly reassured smile.
Her voice was soft, as smooth as velvet to the touch, and seemed to meld with the sound of the water gurgling steadily. In no way out of place, on the contrary, it seemed to add even more calm to the already peaceful scene.
Bai Zemin sighed and shook his head as he jokingly said, "That fella Nangong Yi walked off without me and left me here. Really an irresponsible person."
"Hehehe… Aren't you the only irresponsible one here?" Lilith giggled with a weak smile.
She was like a naive little girl when she acted this way, a stark contrast to her body that was capable of arousing the most nefarious thoughts of the holiest man in the world.
In fact, it was this kind of contradiction that was strangely in sync that made Bai Zemin's stone heart itch as if a small cat's claw was scratching the palm of his hand.
* * * * * * *
Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3
