The rest of the day proceeded without too many incidents occurring. Since the group of seven led by Bai Zemin was waiting for the results of the search for the survivors that had been marked with red in the notebook, none of them wanted to leave nor did they have any reason to do so.
On the trip to the Wu family villa, the seven of them had seen that the administration Wu Keqian was doing on the base was quite good at least superficially. While it was necessary to go deeper into the more distant streets and poorer areas to see what life was like there, at the very minimum it was clear that the life of the survivors seemed to be several steps above when compared to the North Camp and Baiquan Camp that fell into the hands of Bai Zemin.
But such a thing was also to be expected considering the position Wu Keqian had held in the past. Unlike in the North Camp and in the Baiquan Camp where power was divided into two halves, it could be said that 80% of the real power of the Chinese Renaissance was in the hands of Wu Yijun's father.
Bai Zemin watched as Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun, Chen He, and the Wu parents chatted comfortably among themselves, and after a couple of minutes, he excused himself saying that he was a bit tired and that he needed to rest a bit to recover his energy.
Cai Jingyi, Zhong De, and Nangong Lingxin had already retired to their rooms after dinner so Bai Zemin didn't feel like staying there either. Besides, Bai Zemin thought he was a bit out of place there considering that everyone in the room had known each other for years and probably had a lot to talk about.
Although Wu Yijun's parents and she invited him to stay a little longer, Bai Zemin politely declined and retired to his room under the guidance of a pretty maid.
After reaching the top floor of the villa, the maid led Bai Zemin silently along the long corridor.
He naturally admired the gorgeous body of the young woman in front of him and even nodded several times as if he was satisfied with what he was seeing. Of course, this earned a lot of ridicule from Lilith to which Bai Zemin turned a deaf ear.
The eyes were there to see! Looking at the beautiful scenery was not a sin!
After walking for about 1 full minute, the maid stopped in front of a door and opened it before stepping aside and bowing in respect.
"Thank you for your hard work." Bai Zemin nodded and was about to close the door behind him when the maid's voice stopped him.
"This- Mister, excuse me."
Bai Zemin stopped and looked at the maid with a raised eyebrow, "Yes?"
The face of the young girl who looked no more than 21-22 years old blushed and she did not dare to look Bai Zemin directly in the face. She seemed to be hesitating and from the way she continuously wiggled her fingers, it was clear that what she wanted to say was something awkward to express.
Seeing this, Bai Zemin could not help but smile bitterly in his heart.
How could Bai Zemin not know what the little beauty in front of him wanted to say? This kind of situation had been happening too often lately and Bai Zemin couldn't help but think that being good-looking sometimes really was inconvenient.
"Sorry, I'm a little tired today." He said in a soft voice to avoid scaring the girl in front of him. "If you like we can chat another day, what do you think?"
"O-Okay…" The young maid nodded immediately and responded in a soft voice.
Although Bai Zemin noticed the glint of disappointment in the girl's eyes, he shook his head secretly and closed the door.
"Little brother, you're quite a heartbreaker nowadays…" Lilith appeared in the blink of an eye.
Bai Zemin stopped in his tracks and looked at the woman sitting on the large Queen size bed. Lilith was looking at him with both arms folded and with a cute pout on her face as if she was a little girl complaining about something.
Bai Zemin didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he shrugged, "That girl was probably sent by Wu Keqian or something. I bet Zhong De also received some kind of indecent proposal and maybe Chen He will receive it later."
"Hmph!" Lilith snorted and before Bai Zemin could say anything else she simply disappeared, leaving nothing but the warmth of the place she was sitting a moment ago as proof of her existence.
Bai Zemin laughed out loud as he sensed the slight jealousy of Lilith and his heart bubbled with happiness.
He silently approached the bed and brought his face close to the place where Lilith was sitting a couple of seconds ago. Without a word, he knelt on the floor and rested his head on that part where the sheets were slightly wrinkled as proof that someone had been there not too long ago.
"So comfortable… So warm…" Bai Zemin whispered with his eyes closed.
"You little scoundrel, you really are a pervert!"
"Hahahaha!"
* * *
Next day.
Bai Zemin and the rest had gathered in the front yard of the Wu family villa when it was just around 6:30 in the morning. Although the sun was indeed shining in the sky, the lingering chill of the night was still showing and if one looked at the grass one would immediately notice the thin frost that was just beginning to melt.
As Bai Zemin ate a piece of melon seed bread and took the occasional sip of reserved milk, his eyes moved from left to right.
'What's going on here…?' Bai Zemin thought as he silently swallowed a piece of bread and licked his lips subconsciously.
For some unknown reason, the atmosphere was a bit dark. Although the sun was shining brilliantly in the sky, Wu Yijun looked somewhat downhearted while Shangguan Bing Xue and Chen He seemed at a loss as to what to do to lift the young beauty's spirits.
In fact, it was not only Bai Zemin who noticed this peculiar phenomenon as Zhong De, Cai Jingyi, and Nangong Lingxin also noticed the faded mood of the always cheerful and lively Wu Yijun.
Shouldn't she be happy now that she had met her parents? It was the question on their minds but they were temporarily unable to ask due to the circumstances.
Wu Keqian was a short distance away and seemed to be chatting with a military officer who apparently would become the group's nanny driver for the day. After about 5 minutes, he approached the group of seven and said cheerfully, "Okay, all of you. You don't need to worry about anything, I already processed the application papers for each of you to the different guilds so you just need to get there and take the test before you are accepted and can start to get paid the corresponding salary every half month."
Bai Zemin noticed that Wu Keqian occasionally looked at Wu Yijun and his eyes were brimming with complicated feelings so it was not difficult for him to guess that something had happened last night. However, he had no way of inquiring now and it was probably not right to meddle in other people's family matters either.
Moreover, he was interested in something else.
"Uncle Wu, may I know what test you are talking about?"
Wu Keqian looked at Bai Zemin and said in a serious voice, "Apart from the four big guilds you know, there is also a small guild where all soul evolvers below level 10 or without decent skills go. Only after they grow up and prove their worthiness will the leaders of each guild let them join hunting expeditions since the death of an evolver human is considered a great loss to all of us."
"Oh…" Bai Zemin nodded and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
From his point of view, that other guild for "babies" was pure trash and a waste of time. If he were the leader of this place, he would send all the stronger soul evolvers to support the weaker ones to grow to the point where they at least could not be considered useless. After all, it was true that a soul evolver below level 10 was quite useless at present unless its Soul Power was quite pure.
After saying a few more words to them, Wu Keqian hesitated for a moment as he looked at Wu Yijun, but after several seconds he finally shook his head and returned to the villa.
Bai Zemin threw the rest of the melon seeded bread into his mouth and while licking his fingers looked at the man's back with curious eyes before finally following the rest and boarding the military vehicle.
As the vehicle made its way through the streets of the privileged area towards the back area, Bai Zemin noticed that the number of people he could see was decreasing more and more until it reached a point where there was not even a building in sight.
During the journey he looked at Shangguan Bing Xue, and although he said nothing, she seemed to understand his gaze as she glanced at Wu Yijun secretly before she shook her head slightly.
Bai Zemin nodded, realizing that she was trying to say that she would tell him later what was happening.
"You two seem to understand each other only with your eyes… Quite annoying."
Bai Zemin cleared his throat at the jealous succubus' words but refused to comment on it. In fact, there was nothing he could say since even he didn't know how this strange comprehension worked.
A few minutes later, the military vehicle passed through several military checkpoints and not long after reached a huge estate several kilometers long and wide. Bai Zemin didn't know how big the base was in general but to be able to hold over 200,000 people and still not look crowded it was definitely very large.
"The nearest site is where the Black Turtle guild test takes place." The military officer from before and who was acting as a driver looked in the rearview mirror and announced in a respectful voice.
Zhong De, Nangong Lingxin, and Bai Zemin exchanged glances before nodding without commenting on it.
About 10 minutes later, the three left the military vehicle and once they said goodbye to the rest they looked at the huge open field in front of them. Had it not been for the small wooden hut they might have thought they were really abandoned there.
As they approached, an old woman dressed in military uniform pointed behind her and handed the trio a piece of paper with a number on it to each of them. After that, she indicated that they had to go 2000 meters deep to reach the test area.
"Number 12?" Bai Zemin muttered as he pretended to run alongside Zhong De and Nangong Lingxin. "I guess this is the order we will take the test on?.".
"I'm 22." Zhong De pointed out as he casually put away his paper.
"I got number 15." Nangong Lingxin said as she looked at her paper.
"Hahaha… This somehow feels like light novels." Bai Zemin chuckled and suddenly said.
"Light novels?" Zhong De looked at him with strange eyes, something that Bai Zemin naturally ignored.
After arriving at the area the old woman from before had indicated they saw a square…. Or rather, what had once been a square as it was now in pieces as if a great battle had occurred in the past.
There was no one there.
"I guess we have to wait." Bai Zemin shrugged and casually sat down on a large rock.
Zhong De followed him and sat down next to him as he remained silent while Nangong Lingxin stood there observing the surroundings curiously.
To kill time, Bai Zemin suddenly looked at Zhong De and said with a smile that any man would understand, "Hey, Zhong De."
"Em?"
"Yesterday, did you have fun?"
"Yesterday?"
"Hehehe boy…"
Zhong De blushed and began coughing furiously when he finally understood what Bai Zemin meant. He hesitated for a few seconds before nodding reluctantly.
Bai Zemin sighed and as he patted him on the shoulder said in a low voice, "Our Zhong De has finally grown up. Time really flies…"
"Lead- What about you then?" Zhong De looked at Bai Zemin and asked still blushing.
"Me?" Bai Zemin lifted his chin and said arrogantly, "This old senior here has slept with so many girls that he has already lost count."
"Pui!" Zhong De spit on the ground and said furiously, "Bullshit!"
Who didn't know that Bai Zemin was rarely seen with any women? In fact, after rejecting so many beauties even some bizarre rumors were starting to spread among small groups of people.
Bai Zemin snorted and did not comment on the matter.
Time passed and as the minutes began to expire the number of people really increased.
First it was ten, then it was twenty, and after about 40 minutes the number of soul evolvers stopped at just over thirty. All of them were at least level 10 and wore leather or plate armor, some carried scale or bone shields while others carried swords, spears, maces, and other types of melee weapons.
'They must be the ones who want to join the Black Turtle this time.' Bai Zemin thought silently.
Just then, a small commotion arose when approximately 5 people appeared in the distance.
There were men and there were women. All of them were wearing armor clearly of better quality than the soul evolvers who had just arrived and looked quite proud. Some were chatting with each other while others were silent with serious expressions.
Bai Zemin sneered at the proud look some of these people had. Since when did being level 25-30 become a reason to act so cocky? In his faction, the number of soul evolvers who had reached that level range definitely numbered over 600 and was growing rapidly with each passing day.
However, when his eyes fell on one of the people who was walking silently and with a serious expression on his face, Bai Zemin's eyes trembled fiercely and his heart shuddered just like a raging sea lashed by continuous waves.
He stood up abruptly and for an instant lost all his calm.
"Leader?" Zhong De whispered under his breath as he looked at Bai Zemin in shock.
Nangong Lingxin also looked at him worriedly and trying not to draw so much attention to herself she moved closer for fear that something bad would suddenly happen.
This was by far the first time they had seen Bai Zemin behave this way! In fact, Nangong Lingxin thought that something was wrong with Bai Zemin's body so she was preparing to activate her skill at the first strange move from the other party.
But when Zhong De followed Bai Zemin's gaze and met the slightly corpulent man's face in the distance, he finally seemed to realize something and subconsciously sighed in relief as a rarely seen smile formed at the corner of his lips.
"… I'm really happy for you, Leader…" Murmured the silent Zhong De in a voice that only he could hear.
To Zhong De, Bai Zemin was more than a leader or a target to follow. To him, Bai Zemin was a friend, the person to whom he owed his life, the person to whom he owed what he was today and to whom he owed what he would be tomorrow. Therefore, the well-being of Bai Zemin was something Zhong De was more than happy to see.
The movement of Bai Zemin was noticed by only a few but no one paid attention to him as he was practically behind the entire wave of soul evolvers that had arrived earlier.
Contrary to what Zhong De expected, Bai Zemin took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He stood motionless for a few seconds and when the trembling of his body calmed down a bit he sat down again.
Bai Zemin opened his eyes and his eyes sparkled as the sunlight shone on him. Although he had calmed down a bit, his whole body was still trembling slightly and it took all his willpower and even beyond that to keep quiet without charging forward.
Finally, when that group of people stopped a few meters ahead, Bai Zemin's lips curved slightly upward and as his midnight black hair covered his face partially a single tear slid unnoticed by anyone along his left cheek.
"Long time no see, father…"
* * * * * * *
This chapter has +2800 words…
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