Chapter 647 – Mysterious Earth on the verge of evolving completely
The group advanced for another two hours and although it was not possible to see the sun from the forest as the high treetops shielded the interior as if it were a world apart from the rest, in reality, it was not difficult to estimate that it was already dark even without looking at the clock.
To begin with, the temperature had dropped enough for the normal soldiers to start shivering with cold, and as if the above wasn’t enough of an indication, the howls, growls, and roars of the mutant beasts that were usually quieter during the day had now become unusually active.
“Bai Zemin, wouldn’t it be better to stop and set up the camp over here?” Sun Ling couldn’t help but interfere as she saw that the young man leading everyone had no intention of stopping.
“No,” Bai Zemin replied firmly without looking back. “Setting up camp in the middle of the forest I don’t think is a good idea. Even if we set up guard all night our enemies may appear from above and even from underground.”
“But at this rate everyone will be more exhausted to fight tomorrow.” Sun Ling reasoned with a slight frown.
“They will be able to rest once we reach the summit. It’s not like it will be long anyway, we’ve already walked so far so walking another two hours won’t be the reason for total exhaustion.” He continued without hesitation, “Once we reach the five pagodas we will finally be able to see the sky again. Our enemies will have no cover and instead of being attacked from all sides at least we will only have to defend ourselves against normal land creatures or at worst a few flying ones.”
Sun Ling still wanted to say something again but Shangguan Bing Xue shook her head and stopped her.
“Once he makes a decision even the most stubborn mule in the world cannot compare to him.”
Sun Ling forced a smile and shook her head as she said in a low voice, “Forget it. He definitely has more experience than me in going into mutant forests. He should definitely know what he’s doing.”
The group continued to move forward slowly. However, Bai Zemin did not count on the fact that they would have to stop several times to allow the normal soldiers to have some warm mutant meat soup to keep them from freezing.
In the end, all he could do was give each of them several hides of mutant beasts that had already dried out to cover their bodies since the cold during the night was really unbearable unless one was covered by a strong shelter or some kind of clothing that had mana around it.
“All thanks to you, girl.” Bai Zemin gently tousled Meng Qi’s hair and praised her with sincerity, “If not for you warning me beforehand about the non-evolved ones, now I might be in some trouble.”
Bai Zemin was used to going into the forests by himself or with soul evolvers, he rarely allowed armed soldiers who had not evolved to venture into such dangerous areas, let alone in the middle of the night.
“Hehe!” Meng Qi smiled sweetly and did not seem at all worried about the current situation.
Throughout the entire journey, while they had been attacked practically without a break, with so many strong people taking the reins there was no need for Bai Zemin to personally step forward every time. Therefore, he had been able to take some time off to help his younger sister choose the most suitable class for her (with Lilith’s secret help, of course) based on the rarity of the name and its characteristics.
In the end, the class that Meng Qi chose as her First Order job, the first path she would have to walk to find her destiny had the name of World Guru. Unfortunately, Bai Zemin did not have a rune book so it was not possible for Meng Qi to become a rune master right now and would probably have to wait for the future when he managed to get his hands on a rune book.
Approximately three hours later, around midnight, the human group led by Bai Zemin at the head finally managed to spot the target they had been searching for since morning.
With lightning and flares illuminating the front to the point where even a normal human could see a building more than two kilometers ahead, Bai Zemin stopped after reaching the top of one of the most remote mountains in the forest.
In the distance, with the starry sky as a blanket and clear of any kind of plant or mutant beast, there were five huge silver pagodas towering several hundred meters into the sky. Although they were clearly not from this era, their construction had been sufficiently detailed and meticulous that regardless of the era they could be appreciated for their beauty.
The Five Silver Pagodas released a strange aura of ancientness and oppression that seemed to drive away all living things by their presence alone and the big stone lion statues were like guardians protecting them.
Suddenly, however, just as everyone sighed in relief to finally reach the destination this mission indicated and secretly admired the magnificent structures a little more than a kilometer distant, a shocking event occurred.
The night sky that was covered by stars suddenly began to light up and the white stars were soon dimmed to the point where they were no longer visible. The dark blanket that represented mystery, danger, and beauty, was soon replaced by a large and seemingly boundless blanket of blue.
Even the bright full moon that reigned in the skydome was replaced by the usurping yellow king who did not seem to be patient enough to wait for its turn.
“It became the day?”
“How is this possible?”
“The tactical compass clearly says it’s after 00 o’clock at night!”
“Didn’t something similar happen several days ago when suddenly the sky darkened even though we were just approaching noon?”
…
The soldiers and soul evolvers immediately became agitated and started muttering nervously. They all clutched their weapons tightly and looked at the surroundings with increasing caution as they knew well that any unexpected change in the middle of a mountain range surrounded by mutant forests definitely did not bode well.
“Move!” Bai Zemin shouted loudly and quickened his pace as he commanded in a deep voice, “Pick up the pace! After reaching the Five Silver Pagodas Square, don’t relax and secure a 500-meter perimeter immediately!”
None dared to delay and with serious expressions began to move faster. Even the normal soldiers who were quite exhausted after walking for so many hours and after fighting such a tiring war did not dare to complain and walked as fast as their legs would allow them to.
“Will the Earth undergo changes again?” Wu Yijun asked quietly with some apprehension in her voice.
“Something like this happened before the world expanded in size.” Sun Ling pointed out in a serious voice. “The only difference is that back then day turned into night but now night turned into day.”
“The surrounding mana is increasing again? No, it seems to be higher than that time.” Chen He frowned and noticed another big change not long after.
Bai Zemin said nothing and simply focused on moving forward. Now he had a rough idea of the reason why he might be feeling so anxious all this time.
When day turned to night about half a month ago, the Earth expanded.
Now, night turned into day so it was natural to expect some kind of noticeable change.
According to what Lilith had once told him, when a world was about to evolve, day and night would replace each other for several minutes. Moreover, Bai Zemin felt that she wanted to say something more important but probably due to the rules of the Soul Record she was not allowed to say so he was expecting something big on this occasion.
Even if he didn’t know exactly what was coming, at least he wouldn’t be caught with his pants completely down.
In three or four minutes, the group closed the distance between them and the five pagodas but the sky was still as clear as day even though it was midnight time.
It was no surprise to anyone that during the last few minutes there were no mutant beasts attacking them. It seemed that the pagodas were really not normal as they seemed to somehow keep the dangerous beasts away apart from the fact that they did not collapse when the whole world shook.
Taking advantage of the sunlight, everyone set up the tents as fast as possible and established a secure perimeter as Bai Zemin had ordered before. Explosives were placed everywhere and Bai Zemin even took out two Type 88 light machine guns from his storage ring.
After some simple but clear orders, 50% of them retired to rest while the other 50% stayed awake to stand guard for four hours before it was their turn to rest.
As for Bai Zemin, he and almost all the strongest members of this operation remained awake. As existences that had surpassed level 30 at the minimum, all of them were able to not be affected so much just by not sleeping for a day or two.
They walked through the round square built of limestone and as they advanced to the five pagodas Wu Yijun couldn’t help but look at the ground beneath their feet curiously.
“How weird… Were these lines always here?” She said as she pointed downwards.
“Em?”
Bai Zemin and the others stopped as they heard the words spoken by Wu Yijun. They had all been focused on the pagodas as the five of them seemed to be the center of everything so they had inadvertently overlooked the stone square.
“Ah! Big sister Yijun is right!” Meng Qi exclaimed with wonder in her sweet voice. She looked at Bai Zemin with surprise and tried to recall past events as she said, “Big brother, do you remember when we visited Da Yan Sheng Temple just before you went to college?”
Bai Zemin frowned and nodded, “Actually, I remember we climbed the mountain back then. It was the first and last time we visited Xingshou… Unfortunately, my attention was on the pagodas and lion statues, not on the square.”
“I clearly remember that these lines were definitely not there.” Meng Qi said with certitude.
“Mmm…” Bai Zemin looked at the ground beneath his feet and noticed that there were indeed many deep lines that no one in their right mind would make unless the architects wanted to cause visitors to fall. “Indeed, it is a bit weird.” He said with a slight frown.
“Let’s check the pagodas first.” Shangguan Bing Xue interjected. “Let’s take advantage of the light we have now to explore and observe as much as we can before night descends again. We can draw conclusions and theories later.”
“Right.”
Bai Zemin agreed with Shangguan Bing Xue and soon ordered the group to move. After all, it didn’t make much sense to stand around and watch helplessly for a few lines.
Meng Qi stood back for a few more seconds, staring at the lines with a frown before shaking her head and following the group. She was weak compared to all of them and her only real ability and probably the only way she had to help was her language comprehension skill so she would try to be as helpful as possible.
“I think it’s a magic circle.” Meng Qi said as she caught up to Bai Zemin.
“A magic circle?” Bai Zemin was surprised, however, soon his eyes lit up with understanding.
“Look, the entire square is surrounded by small lines that seem to form ancient engravings but curiously there are several thicker straight lines that are linked to the four pagodas surrounding the pagoda in the middle.” Meng Qi pointed out under her breath. “We’ll probably find something in the pagodas… And if not then maybe it can help if we can find a way to see the whole square from a great height.”
“… All right. Let’s look at the pagodas first to take advantage of the light. Tomorrow we can continue on this.” Bai Zemin smiled slightly and stroked the top of Meng Qi’s head gratefully.
Meanwhile, Lilith watched the clearly unnaturally bright sky, and as she felt the abrupt increase of mana in the surroundings, she sighed.
She couldn’t help but look at Bai Zemin and felt that he really had bad luck.
“To think that this little boy would be in such a dangerous area just when his world is about to evolve…” She whispered in a voice that only she could hear. Then, Lilith looked down at the stone square from the sky and her eyes flashed weirdly as she said in a low voice: “But…. It really does confirm the words Lucifer said back then.”
“It looks like this little planet Earth really has a lot of good things to offer…. First, that thing under the sea, and now this…”
