Bai Zemin noticed that Shangguan Bing Xue's face was slightly pale and quickly judged that the battle, despite having gone on for less than 1 hour, had been fierce and exhausting enough that she had to consume large amounts of Mana in a short time to prevent the problems from escalating.
However, he didn't have much time to study her as she shook her head and calmly responded to what he had just said, "What I did is no big deal. Unlike you and Yijun who fought alone against large armies of beasts to prevent chaos from spreading around, I was being supported and assisted by a large armed army and thousands of soul evolvers."
The words of Shangguan Bing Xue were naturally intended to highlight that the reason why the battle had ended so quickly had also been in no small part thanks to the fact that Bai Zemin and Wu Yijun had practically single-handedly contained tens of thousands of creatures from the forests located in the north.
This woke everyone up and made them realize that the reason Bai Zemin was not fighting at the front lines alongside them was because he had stayed behind to face tens of thousands of beasts to buy time; enough time for the entire faction to escape and gather in the midst of the chaos.
Again, everyone's gazes on Bai Zemin were filled with admiration. However, he did not care about anyone's admiration and the only reason he did what he did was because apart from the fact that among those present were people he considered valuable subordinates or friends, Bai Zemin did not want all his efforts to be destroyed in an instant.
Not to mention the fact that the more survivors he saved the greater his power would be in the long run!
"Let's put aside who did more or who did less." Cai Jingyi interjected with a relieved smile on her face, "The important point is that we managed to survive this great change despite the hardships."
"Right." Zhong De nodded with a serious voice and with his plate armor slightly dipped inward in the chest area. He held his mace tightly and said with a hint of pride, "If this kind of situation had happened before, surely 90% of us would have died. But this time, we not only managed to survive but we barely lost less than 100 soldiers in this war against other mutant creatures."
They all looked at each other and in the eyes of those next to them, they managed to see pride and joy in their gazes. They were no longer those people who feared at the first sign of trouble and fled with their tails between their legs; they were now brave warriors and powerful enough to take on entire armies when they joined together!
Bai Zemin sighed as he looked at the people in front of him and could not help but admit that he also felt some pride in his heart. At the end of the day, he was the leader of this powerful group of soul evolvers; each of them had gathered in this very place regardless of their past identities thanks to him linking them together after a lot of different circumstances occurring at the same time.
"So, what do we do now?" Wu Yijun interjected the moment and frowned as she pointed at the surroundings, "Cuicun Town collapsed completely. There's not even a healthy building here."
With the Earth expanding, while there were no cracks or damage to the world itself, the structures that had been built on top of the earth were not spared. After all, the shaking of the world had been strong enough for any foundation regardless of its quality to collapse.
They all looked at Bai Zemin waiting for his decision. At the end of the day, they all needed a place to rest and safe ground on which to set up a base; it wasn't as if they could move in vehicles forever in any case.
Just as Bai Zemin was considering what to do, the voice of a person who had been silent all this time rang out.
"How about we build a whole new city?"
"Em?" Bai Zemin raised his head and saw that, at some point and unnoticed by anyone, Lilith had replaced her clone and was now perfectly taking Lili's place.
Everyone looked at Lilith with curious eyes since although she should not be present considering she was only a maid, no one really treated her as such. It was no secret that this woman whose face was nothing out of this world but whose body made men drool had a rather close relationship with Bai Zemin.
Besides, she often gave good ideas and advice so while she seemed crazy to say something like that out of the blue no one pointed it out.
On the other hand, Shangguan Bing Xue frowned and her mood immediately soured. For some reason, she really didn't feel at ease with Lilith regardless of the fact that she had been "sexually assaulted" by her and teased over and over again; she just didn't like her too much and that was it.
"Can you explain?" Bai Zemin took a chair and sat down.
Seeing Bai Zemin's sparkling eyes, Lilith laughed in her heart: 'This little scoundrel may be very mature sometimes but when it comes to crazy ideas he immediately becomes like a child who can't wait to try it out.'
Most were looking at her as if she was crazy, however, when Bai Zemin heard 'build a city' he immediately became interested in it.
"Today's world is no longer the world of two and a half months ago. Not only have the rules fallen, but the animals have become mutant beasts whose power is more than enough to demolish a building with ease." Lilith slowly pointed out something that everyone knew but it was necessary for them to understand her point: "Not to mention that apart from the mutant beasts there are other races as well. Besides, wars between the human sides will happen often until a single power can unify these lands. So, wouldn't it be somewhat foolish to rely on buildings of the past which would collapse after a single blow?"
Everyone present immediately frowned upon hearing her words. In fact, what Lilith had just pointed out was a fact that everyone had thought of before; a level 15 Unclassified soul evolver already possessed the power to knock down a house so it was difficult to rely on buildings like before.
If for some reason a soul evolver went berserk and attacked the city, most of the deaths would probably be the result of destroying large buildings and not because of its power.
"Do you have something in mind?" Evangeline couldn't help but ask when something suddenly flashed in her mind.
Lilith smiled weakly and quietly proposed, "Since this is how things are, why don't we take the collapse of all the buildings like Earth helping us in the demolition process so that we can construct buildings worthy of a chaotic world like this?"
"Mutant beast materials." Shangguan Bing Xue suddenly said.
Lilith clapped her hands and said happily, "That's right! As expected from the second one!"
Shangguan Bing Xue was the second in command and when Bai Zemin was not present she was the one in charge of everything. Therefore, when Lilith said "the second" everyone assumed that she meant her as second in command.
However, Shangguan Bing Xue's expression sank slightly and her eyes flashed with a hint of coldness as she looked at Lilith. She naturally understood that Lilith's words were meant to mock her in another sense and it was not as simple as everyone thought.
Of course, Lilith ignored her and continued, "We can use the bones of mutant beasts, mutant tree trunks, rocks, or any other natural product that possesses mana inside to forge buildings. With mana as a support, depending on the amount of mana the material possesses, the building could become strong enough to withstand the attacks of a First Order existence."
"That idea is great!" Nangong Yi jumped out of his seat and shouted excitedly, "We were so busy thinking about how to get stronger that we forgot that increasing defense is also a means of making us stronger!"
Lilith looked at Bai Zemin and said with a smile, "Besides, it is possible to use other materials to reinforce the buildings. We could even try to find a way to use Soul Stones to boost that defense even more."
Bai Zemin did not delay and immediately looked at Lu Xiaoyao who despite having the right to be present at this kind of meeting did not have the qualifications to intervene because her rank was not yet high enough.
"Lu Xiaoyao, do we have architects?"
Lu Xiaoyao already expected him to ask that question ever since the conversation started so she was not too surprised. However, she shook her head and calmly answered, "We have builders in large numbers but I don't think we have bothered to invest in architects yet."
Builders were not only needed to reinforce walls or erect watchtowers but were also the perfect heavy workers as they had a high ability to adapt; they were perfect even for digging large pits that could be used as a preventive measure in case a large horde of enemies appeared.
However, architects were an unnecessary resource in the first stage of the apocalypse. After all, who could be bothered with beautiful buildings or perfect dimensions when not even the next day's survival was certain? But now that the Earth was about to move into its Second Evolutionary Stage and with probably all the buildings collapsed, Bai Zemin felt it was time to completely change the history of mankind.
The world had changed, the beings that inhabited it had changed… It was time for the buildings to change as well.
Bai Zemin fixed his eyes on Lu Xiaoyao and ordered in a deep voice: "I want you to find as many architects as possible. Not only architects; designers, tailors, interior experts ….. All kinds of capable people who will help in this project can leave their previous jobs if they so wish to devote themselves to what they really know to do."
Since they were going to build an entire city, Bai Zemin would not allow that place to be a city full of hideous buildings. After all, that would be the place where they would be living. Therefore, apart from the defense of the buildings, it was also necessary to think about the decorations and arrangements designed to cover up the fact that they were living among bones and leather.
Bai Zemin did not even wait for an answer from Lu Xiaoyao and immediately looked at Wu Yijun: "I need you to form a group with the First Brigade of the Blood Spear Legion and head to the nearest forests. Focus on hunting down as many mutant beasts as possible but I also need you to cut down some trees. I know this will take some time but don't worry about it and try to do it right. Can you do that?"
"Of course. Leave it to me." Wu Yijun immediately nodded before looking at Cai Jingyi.
"We're counting on you." Cai Jingyi smiled politely and nodded.
Cai Jingyi was the leader of the First Brigade of the Blood Spear Legion so she would have to collaborate with Wu Yijun to carry out the task that Bai Zemin requested. While the two women did not have too much contact with each other as they usually worked in different departments, the relationship between the two was not bad considering they had fought together in the past several times.
With Wu Yijun's skills and special class, fighting mutant beasts or any other creature in the forests would become many times simpler. Besides, she was really perfect for the job that Bai Zemin pointed out, therefore, Cai Jingyi had no problem handing over the control of her unit to someone capable.
As the meeting continued as there were many things to plan as building a city was no small task, Lu Xiaoyao excused herself as she needed to prepare multiple teams to prepare dinner.
Given what was happening and considering that the sun had basically already fallen, the survivors would not be allowed to leave the vehicles. Therefore, they would have to eat and sleep in there for their own safety.
Bai Zemin looked at everyone present and said in a serious voice, "This will probably be the biggest change that mankind will experience other than the appearance of soul evolvers and evolvers of other races. However, it will definitely not be the last; this is just the beginning of something much, much bigger…. We will start building the first city destined for this new evolved Earth, but we will definitely build and conquer many more."
Nangong Lingxin rested both elbows on the table and rested her chin on her hands. She looked at Bai Zemin with a smile and said quietly, "In two months, you managed to conquer the entire Yanqing District. Changping District is sure to fall a lot faster this time… I wonder if at that time they will also start calling you King of Changping or something else?"
Everyone looked at Bai Zemin and chuckled.
Despite what had just happened, regardless of what was going on, and no matter what will happen; none of them thought that anyone could really stand up against the young man in front of them.
In the eyes of all of them, conquering the whole of China was only a matter of time.
By then, each and every one of them would be etched in the history books as top heroes who participated in the countless wars meant to save mankind and who shed their blood to re-unify the country under a single standard when China was under attack by all sorts of mutant and evolved creatures.
With such a bright future ahead of them, the danger was the least of their concerns… Besides, they had what everyone thought was the incarnation of the invincible God of War fighting alongside them!
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Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3
