Bai Delan did not answer Bai Zemin’s question and instead waved his hand as if dismissing him, leaving him a little tongue-tied about it.
Ye Linger smiled kindly at the sight of the expression of curiosity and helplessness on her son’s face and said in a mysterious voice, “Princess, take your big brother to the back of the house and show him that little thing. I’m sure he’ll be surprised.”
“Mother, even you are acting like this?” Bai Zemin really felt like crying but there were no tears to shed.
Meng Qi covered her mouth and let out a light chuckle before standing up taking Bai Zemin’s hand, “Big brother, come on. I’ll show you that little thing.”
“For the love of god.” Bai Zemin rolled his eyes and let himself be dragged away by Meng Qi.
Once the two of them disappeared beyond the corridor connecting the side hallway to the living room, the expression on the face of Bai Delan became serious as he looked at the place where Bai Zemin had just disappeared.
Seeing her husband looking like this, Ye Linger immediately became nervous to the point where her face turned sickly white once again.
“Delan…? Is something wrong?” she asked in a hesitant voice.
She and her family had just finally met after so many hardships. What Ye Linger wished most now was that things could continue like this forever even though deep in her heart she knew that such a thing was not possible. At the very least, she hoped to spend a couple of days with her loved ones in peace, and the expression on the face of her husband did not show the joy that a father would usually show after being reunited with his son whom they had practically given up for dead.
Bai Delan did not respond immediately and instead recalled what happened several hours ago.
“At that time, that child moved too fast… Way too fast.” Bai Delan muttered words that his wife could not understand at all. “Even I didn’t realize when he had left my side to appear inside the house and catch Linger’s body.”
Bai Delan was a powerful soul evolver. Even if his forte was not in Agility unless the other person might completely overpower him or unless that person possessed an active skill capable of increasing Agility tremendously, it was absolutely impossible for him, a level 43 soul evolver, to not even be able to see a shadow or perceive any movement from the other party.
In fact, when Bai Zemin moved at that moment, in Bai Delan’s eyes he had basically teleported to Ye Linger’s side.
“Linger, I need to go talk to Leader Wu about some matters.” Bai Delan said as he calmly stood up.
Ye Linger also stood up and said in a resolute voice, “Then I will go with you!”
She was worried about the attitude of her husband just now and feared that something bad would happen with Bai Zemin. However, Bai Delan had already thought of something, so after smiling slightly, he said calmly:
“Honey, why are you worried?” He caressed the face of his wife and proudly said, “Today, our little brat showed great power in the Black Tortoise guild admission test. That kid has become so strong that even Guild Leader Huang agreed to make him the official leader of the 15th team.”
“Eh?!” Ye Linger exclaimed and covered her mouth in shock.
Bai Delan chuckled and as he walked towards the exit he said loudly, “I will go thank Leader Wu and explain the changes that will happen in the leadership of the troops soon!”
Ye Linger had no idea how such things worked so upon hearing her husband’s words she nodded and called out from behind, “O- Okay! Be careful!”
Ye Linger was aware that the leader of the 15th team was her husband and while the responsibility was substantial, the pay and the honor were really high. The fact that her son could take that position so fast meant that he was truly powerful and brilliant.
As a mother, she was extremely proud and happy. However, she was also sad to realize that the more powerful and brilliant her son proved to be meant in retrospect that the dangers and hardships he had to go through to get here were greater than she hoped they would be.
“Enough of the regrets!” Ye Linger tapped her face several times and resolutely walked to the kitchen to prepare snacks. Be that as it may, they were all united now and that was the important thing; as long as they were no longer separated, that was sufficient.
…
On the other hand, after getting into his car, Bai Delan drove in the direction of the Wu Family villa.
“I hope the Wu Leader can do something about that damn kid or else my son might end up beating him to death one of these days.” Bai Delan frowned with concern.
He didn’t know how strong Bai Zemin was but now he had confirmed that his son was really holding back when they fought before. Otherwise, Bai Delan was sure that he wouldn’t be able to react at that ghostly speed he saw earlier.
As for why Bai Zemin was holding back and not showing all of his real power, Bai Delan didn’t know nor did he care. The only important thing was that Bai Zemin was his son and whatever his son wanted to do or whatever motives he had for doing so, Bai Delan would be there to support him.
It was just that if some matters could be avoided, then all for the better.
…
Of course, Bai Zemin had no way of knowing that during that moment when his emotions were overwhelmed by meeting his mother again after so much had happened in his life he had committed a brutal slip that caused his father to notice things that he had intended to hide a little while longer.
When he saw his mother about to collapse, even though he knew she would not get hurt, Bai Zemin’s body moved on its own and before he knew it he found himself hugging his mother to keep her from falling to the ground. In fact, he had no idea how much Agility he had used at that moment.
At this moment, Bai Zemin was being carried by Meng Qi to the backyard of his family’s house.
The backyard was quite large as even as they were chatting nonsensical small talk between the two of them it took them about two minutes to get to the part that was at the back of the whole thing.
“Em?” Bai Zemin stopped and frowned at the inside of the considerably large wooden hut that had clearly been built not too long ago.
He could sense the aura of a living being there, and apparently it was quite strong, around level 24 or so.
Seeing him standing there confused, Meng Qi smiled slightly and as she took a step back shouted cheerfully, “Little Snow, time to eat your food!”
Time to eat your food?! Bai Zemin almost jumped right there at his sister’s words.
Was this little bird trying to turn him into food for some strange creature? Em? Did she just say Little Snow?
Swoosh!
Just as Bai Zemin stood there in a daze, a white shadow shot out from inside the hut, and before he could do anything, he found himself on the ground.
“Ugh…” Bai Zemin frowned slightly as he felt the weight on top of him but before he even opened his eyes he felt a slightly rough tongue licking his face to the point where slime began to get inside his armor.
When Bai Zemin finally opened his eyes, what greeted him was a truly strange but still splendid sight.
With one paw on his chest, a mutant beast of about two meters tall was staring at him with its enigmatic sky blue eyes that somehow reminded him of a certain someone. The mutant beast had its long tongue out of its snout and saliva kept dripping constantly trickling down onto Bai Zemin’s chest plate, it even bent down from time to time to lick his face delicately.
“You are…” Bai Zemin looked at the creature in front of him unable to believe what was happening.
“Hehe… Amazed, big brother?” Meng Qi chuckled sweetly as she reached over and stroked the pure snow-white hair of the beast that still refused to let Bai Zemin stand up.
“This is the Little Snow that you saved before you went back to college during the last vacations.” She said warmly.
“Little Snow…” Bai Zemin muttered with weird eyes as he scrutinized the two-meter tall creature before him. “If I remember correctly… Little Snow was an unbred puppy… How come…?”
“Of course, it is due to the evolution of all living things.” Meng Qi pointed out as if it was obvious even though Bai Zemin had not yet finished his question.
Bai Zemin sighed at the coincidences of the life. Just like a minority of pigs, sheep, and other animals that evolved after absorbing the world’s mana. he would never have expected that that puppy he saved in the past just by coincidence would actually become one of those mutant animals that kept its calm and didn’t attack humans just for the sake of doing so.
“Little Snow helped our family a lot.” Meng Qi said tenderly as she ran her face through the giant dog’s perfectly white and soft fur. “I can’t count how many times our mother and I were bailed out by her.”
“Who would have thought…” Bai Zemin sighed again as he reached out both hands to pat the giant head of the animal, much to the latter’s delight. As Little Snow closed her eyes happily, Bai Zemin continued, ” Is this karma?”
“If you hadn’t helped the homeless Little Snow back then, then mother and I probably wouldn’t be able to see you again, big brother.” Meng Qi looked at Bai Zemin with kind eyes and said softly, “It’s definitely fate. Your kindness from the past is being repaid silently.”
The eyes of Bai Zemin flashed with complicated light. He could still remember that day as if it had been yesterday.
Back then, Bai Zemin had returned home to spend summer vacation with his family during his second year of college. One of those days, when he had gone to the store five or six blocks away from his house to buy some frozen ice pops, he found a white puppy whose fur was dirty with scorched oil, lying on the side of the road as if someone had abandoned it to its fate.
He had no idea of the reason but when his eyes that always observed the world with coldness met those two big blue eyes that were full of purity, pain, and sadness, Bai Zemin could not help but stop in his tracks. As if something had taken over his body, before Bai Zemin knew it he found himself charging the little puppy to his home.
“I still remember how hard it was to convince dad to let Little Snow stay in the house.” Bai Zemin sighed and slowly stood up while the giant dog moved her body to the side.
“Mm. Father also apologized to Little Snow and even cried on the sly after learning that she saved my life and mother’s life when more than twenty zombies surrounded the house.” Meng Qi nodded as she played with the animal’s fur.
“Mmm…” Bai Zemin looked at those big eyes that were also staring at him with sparks of joy shining inside. Suddenly, he laughed out loud and while stroking the giant dog’s chin said, “Little Snow, your blue eyes really look like those of the ice princess. I’m sure with how cute you are Bing Xue will want to cuddle you all night long!”
