Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun who were preparing to return to the stone square through the teleportation circle immediately were surprised to see a secret door appearing where a moment ago there was a wall.
While such things were not unusual considering the current world and the existence of the magic circles, the fear of possibly having left the place and in the process leaving behind treasures that could help to increase the overall strength of their faction or them individually was truly terrifying.
In this world that was plagued with dangers and where death practically whispered sweet words in their ears every second of the day, opportunities to become more powerful should be cherished and never wasted; this applied especially so for opportunities to become stronger that did not require risking one’s life.
Meng Qi patted her not-so-big but certainly not small chest and sighed visibly relieved that nothing bad had happened. While her class allowed her to understand more about the world she found herself in the longer she resided in it, her general knowledge of runes and magic circles was superficial at best and most of her knowledge came mainly from the notes she had written and analyzed before.
If something wrong happened because of her previous words then Meng Qi could never have forgiven herself. After all, the existence of magic circles was undoubtedly mysterious to them and if one of those magic circles could teleport their bodies to other spaces then there were definitely many more with the ability to launch powerful attacks.
Bai Zemin did not let his guard down even though everything seemed to be over, the last thing he wanted was to get his butt bitten while smiling. However, when his right hand turned the door handle and the door creaked in its backward motion, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
“Cough! Cough! Cough!….” Bai Zemin suddenly began to cough and subconsciously took a step back as he covered his nose and mouth.
“”Bai Zemin!””
“Big brother!”
Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun were immediately shocked and cried out his name loudly when they saw what was happening. Similar to Meng Qi, who cried out with affection and concern in her manner of addressing him, the two women thought that when the door broke open a poisonous mechanism was shot out from inside.
“Cough! Cough! Cough!… Damn it!” Bai Zemin finally managed to regain his composure and while waving his hand in front of him he complained loudly, “This room is dust free so I thought it would be the same case with the hidden room…. But I was wrong!”
Bai Zemin was sure that whoever had purposely hidden this blacksmith shop had not put some maintenance or basic cleaning magic circle inside the hidden room as he or she had done with the main room.
He was even imagining an old man dressed in Taoist robes and a long white beard laughing in his grave right now because of his little prank!
“Dust?”
“… This guy…!”
“Sigh…”
Wu Yijun blinked in surprise, Shangguan Bing Xue gritted her teeth and looked at his back as if she wanted to bite him to pieces, and Meng Qi simply sighed in relief.
“Ah…” Bai Zemin turned around and while scratching his head said in embarrassment, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…. Hehe…”
Lilith couldn’t help but chuckle and secretly shake her head as she watched Bai Zemin’s expression. The current him had really grown and evolved tremendously as a sentient human, Lilith couldn’t imagine the Bai Zemin of three months ago showing such a pure and sincere expression as he was doing right now.
After waiting for a few minutes to let the flying dust inside the hidden room seep into the main room and be cleared automatically, Bai Zemin in the company of three women visible to the naked eye and one hidden from everyone walked into the hidden room with careful steps.
However, there was not much inside the room and in fact Bai Zemin was slightly disappointed when he saw the single bookshelf with several weird stones.
“Hey, you three… Was I the only one who was expecting some Rank 3 or even Rank 4 precious equipment?” Bai Zemin forced a smile without looking back.
“… Honestly, I was expecting something like that too.” Wu Yijun nodded and right behind her Shangguan Bing Xue and Meng Qi also expressed their agreement.
“Little brother Zemin, you’d better not jump to conclusions to avoid getting bitten by your own words later.” Lilith covered her mouth and let out a chuckle as she said those words.
“Em?” Bai Zemin blinked and his slightly decayed mood immediately raised after hearing Lilith’s words.
There was no way she would say those words if what was in front of them was not something good, or was there? Therefore, any disappointment he had ever felt before vanished from Bai Zemin’s heart without a trace in just an instant.
“Let me see what this is all about.” He advanced without delay and upon arriving before the bookshelf placed his hand on one of the stones.
This particular stone was grayish-white with some golden veins and its size was nothing special, only the size of a fist. Update faster? please come to P.an.da No.vel However, when the records of this stone appeared in Bai Zemin’s retina, the only reason why he did not scream out loud was because the shock that shook his heart was far stronger than his happiness.
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[Mutant Expanding Wall (Mana Eater, Rank 4): An extremely rare type of item/creature that is among the few passive Mana Eaters capable of transforming into a wall and expanding on its own only after receiving Unclassified Soul Stones as a source of growth. It can grow up to 5000 meters high and withstand a maximum of 100 attacks from a Fourth Order existence before collapsing.]
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At first, Bai Zemin froze and even forgot to breathe for several seconds. However, when his brain finally accepted the reality of what was happening, his entire body trembled fiercely as if he was facing the coldest place in the universe.
His expression turned tremendously serious and he subconsciously squeezed the grayish-white stone so hard that had it not been for its hardness it would have turned into crushed dust by now.
Seeing the extremely serious expression on the face of Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue and the other two beauties subconsciously looked at the surroundings cautiously as the three of them could not help but think that he probably detected some formidable enemy.
However, nothing could be further from the truth.
“Bing Xue, look at this.” Bai Zemin extended the stone to her without hiding how serious his thoughts were.
She frowned slightly and took the stone cautiously, however, when she wished to know the records of the object and the Soul Record unpeeled the small window in her eyes her pupils trembled fiercely, and just like Bai Zemin, she froze.
Her beautiful blue eyes widened wider and wider as she murmured in shock, “This is…. This is…”
Shangguan Bing Xue was so shocked that she could not even speak properly, confusing Meng Qi and most of all surprising Wu Yijun as she knew well what kind of person her good sister was.
Only Bai Zemin understood Shangguan Bing Xue’s feelings as he had just experienced them in person.
He took a deep breath and said in a serious voice, “The information about this stuff cannot be divulged no matter what. Especially not until we succeed in taking full control over the Chinese Renaissance.”
When Bai Zemin said those last words, he looked especially at Wu Yijun.
She looked at him in confusion but when Shangguan Bing Xue handed her the Mana Eater called Mutant Expanding Wall she finally understood what was going on. Wu Yijun gasped in shock as she exclaimed with delight, “Amazing! With this treasure, we can build a super-secure and unpenetrable city!”
Then, Wu Yijun looked at Bai Zemin and nodded, “Don’t worry about me. I won’t say a word about this.”
Just as Wu Yijun had said moments before, the Mutant Expansive Wall was a treasure that could withstand basically all kinds of attacks; even a nuclear bomb would not be able to bring it down. Moreover, being able to grow up to 5000 meters high, even Bai Zemin had no way of breaking through it with ease; even less so if several defenses were mounted on the walls.
In other simple to understand words, the Mutant Expansion Wall was a treasure that would allow the weakest to build a large safe land. Who wouldn’t want such a thing in the midst of the apocalypse? Even the holiest and kindest of men would probably try to steal it at any cost.
Wu Yijun understood Bai Zemin’s apprehensions. What he feared was not that the Mana Eater would be stolen since with his strength anyone who tried to do so would simply be sending themselves into the wolf’s den…. What he feared was that someone, especially someone from Wu Yijun’s family, would become greedy and blinded which would eventually end up bringing problems that for obvious reasons everyone wanted to avoid.
“Em. I have confidence in you.” Bai Zemin nodded with a slight smile and his heart pumping with joy.
“With this Mana Eater, the possibilities are endless!” exclaimed Meng Qi. Her face was a graphic representation of the word happiness as she held the small stone in her hands and said, “We can build a city that can house millions! Even Second Order existences will have severe difficulty crossing the walls and only Third Order existences that are a rarity will become our enemies to keep at bay!”
A single Second Order existence had the ability to crush everything in its path if it did not meet an enemy within its stage or an anomaly. However, with the Mutant Expansive Wall, those Second Order existences had suddenly lost a great deal of their terrifying appearance in Meng Qi’s eyes.
“That’s right! Big brother, didn’t you have blueprints to build a super cannon capable of threatening even Third Order enemies?” Meng Qi suddenly looked at Bai Zemin with glittering eyes and without waiting for a reply she continued in awe, “If we can build several hundred of those cannons and place them on top of the walls so that the soul evolvers in charge of firing it can see the terrain from several kilometers away, our Transcendent faction’s domain in the area will be absolute!”
Bai Zemin understood Meng Qi’s joy as he himself was joyful. However, upon hearing his dear little sister casually wanting to take out several hundred Goblin Magic Cannons, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.
Forget about several hundred, his faction had not yet been able to develop a single one!
Long before, Bai Zemin had handed over a handmade copy of the blueprint for building the Goblin Magic Cannon. It was his intention to build one of those cannons using some Rank 2 metal, as well as normal gunpowder, since even if it was destroyed after a shot, it would surely be a useful weapon in times of urgency.
However, no matter how hard the development teams tried, every attempt ended in failure.
“Maybe… Maybe we can build some cannons.” Shangguan Bing Xue suddenly said, looking towards the bookshelf in front of them that still had around 40 or 50 more stones/metals. Update faster? please come to Pan.da N.o.vel “Even… We could even potentially build several energy generators using the blueprint we got from that night battle in the forest.”
“… Indeed.” Bai Zemin nodded and after taking a deep breath he turned and picked up a stone/metal.
The records of the object soon flashed in his retina.
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[Jasluisium (Metal, Rank 3): Excellent material for the construction of light energy weapons or mana-powered vehicles. Despite not being especially hard, its lightness makes it easy to move and its characteristic of reducing its own weight makes anything constructed from Jasluisium even lighter than objects constructed from any lower Rank metal.]
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Bai Zemin was happy but he could not deny that at the same time he felt some disappointment; disappointment which was soon swept away. While the Jasluisium was a Rank 3 mental, its description specified light energy weapons and its lightness was surely proof of its weakness. He did not believe that the Jasluisium could withstand the firepower of the Goblin Magic Cannon.
However, weren’t there several stones/metals that still needed to be explored? Bai Zemin was sure that at least one of them should meet the requirements for the construction of the cannon and generator!
“Ah!”
“What happened?!”
Wu Yijun’s cry made Bai Zemin automatically turn in her direction with concern, but all he saw was her smiling from ear to ear while holding some kind of heavy-looking stone as big as three basketballs together.
“This metal called Obrientine is just what we were looking for! Hard, tough, and it even increases the power of heavy armaments below Rank 4 by 10%!”
“Let me see it.” Bai Zemin immediately advanced and like a ghost took the metal away from Wu Yijun.
Seeing that Wu Yijun’s words were true, Bai Zemin did not fight Shangguan Bing Xue who had just snatched the metal called Obrientine from him and instead clenched his fists tightly.
“Finally….! We are finally able to make energy generators for our bases and defensive cannons on our walls!” He said with gritted teeth and bubbling excitement. “With all these precious metals and stones I refuse to believe that we can’t build at least a few dozen cannons and twenty or so generators!”
Shangguan Bing Xue, far from looking like a cold and arrogant woman, looked like a little girl with a smile as warm as the sun on her face when she finally realized what was happening. Everything they were working hard for was finally showing results after so much sacrifice.
In their heads, the image of a colossal-sized city with tightly packed defenses and beautiful well-lit buildings with people walking with smiles on their faces through the streets began to take shape.
For the first time since all this chaos broke out, he saw real hope for mankind; light among so much darkness.
