“May I know why you ask that?” Meng Qi looked at Feng Tian Wu with a faint smile on her face and raised an eyebrow in playfulness.
Feng Tian Wu took a moment to think before replying with the first thing that came to her mind and probably the real reason behind her previous question:
“Just curious.”
“… I see… Just out of curiosity.” Meng Qi muttered before letting out an amused chuckle and saying with a bright smile, “Alright, I’ll satisfy your curiosity.”
Feng Tian Wu narrowed her eyes slightly and nodded in silence.
“Actually, the reason why my surname is Meng and not Bai has nothing to do with my dear mother or my dear father.” Meng Qi said with a faint smile and revealed with a strange flash of light sparkling in her dark eyes, “The reason why I am Meng Qi and not Bai Qi or anything similar, is because when I was nine years old my real parents passed away in a traffic accident. Although I was taken in by the Bai family, my surname never changed, and out of respect and honor for my real family, my adoptive parents decided that it would be better for me to keep Meng as my surname.”
The reaction of everyone was rather flat when they heard Meng Qi’s words, especially the reaction of Nangong Lingxin who had already heard the real story from Bai Zemin long before even arriving in Changping District.
To begin with, no one really cared whether Meng Qi was the sister of Bai Zemin or not; what was really important was the fact that the two were extremely close and that alone was enough for no one to dare to disrespect Meng Qi in any way whatsoever as that would mean disrespecting Bai Zemin.
However, just as Meng Qi expected, the reaction from Feng Tian Wu was not as flat or neutral as that from the others.
“Then…” Feng Tian Wu frowned slightly and while looking at Meng Qi intently asked tentatively, “Does it mean that you and Bai Zemin are not really siblings?”
“That seems to be the case.” Meng Qi chuckled before saying in a teasing tone of voice, “Now that you put it like that, it’s really interesting. My big brother and I don’t share the same family name, so blood aside, in the previous world we could have married without a problem… But now, in this new world where the rules are decided by him, since we don’t even share a drop of blood we could even be a couple now hehehe…”
The expression of Xia Ya and the others changed slightly when they heard those words from Meng Qi and they all looked at her with surprise on their faces.
“… This… Meng Qi?” Nangong Lingxin cleared her throat and said with a fake smile, “Y- You’re joking… right?”
“Mm?” Meng Qi didn’t look at Nangong Lingxin but instead stared straight into Feng Tian Wu’s eyes as she said in a clear voice with a hard-to-understand tone of voice, “Who knows…. I might be joking…. or maybe I’m not joking at all…”
The corner of Nangong Lingxin’s mouth twitched a couple of times. She opened her mouth several times as if she wanted to say something but, in the end, she wisely decided to seal her lips and keep her thoughts to herself.
Feng Tian Wu looked at Meng Qi in silence for a few seconds, trying to read her expression. Even though in her heart she knew that Meng Qi was messing with her and strangely was succeeding, for some reason she couldn’t understand Feng Tian Wu decided to say the following words:
“I don’t think your brother would like to hear those words.”
Meng Qi shrugged her shoulders and spread her arms wide as she sighed exaggeratedly and said in a surrendered voice, “I know~ That’s why I never say stuff like that. But you asked me didn’t you? I just answered your question, what else can I do if not?”
One of Feng Tian Wu’s eyes trembled slightly for an instant before she regained her usual stoic expression. She stared at Meng Qi, who had now returned to rest her back against the battleship wall, and after several seconds, she finally withdrew her stare without speaking again.
Nangong Lingxin exchanged glances with Liang Jing and Xia Ya. The three of them were too curious about the story behind Bai Zemin and Feng Tian Wu for Men Qi to be so defensive against her. However, they were all adults who had experienced many things during these months so they knew when to ask something and when not to.
The group was wrapped in a slightly weird atmosphere, but even then, they all kept their guard up. Except for Meng Qi and Feng Tian Wu who remained silent after that peculiar exchange of words they shared, the other three occasionally exchanged a word or two to pass the time and ease the tension they felt while waiting.
* * *
Bai Zemin naturally had no idea of the conversation that took place right behind him. After separating from the rest of the group, his only focus was on the hologram-like screens at each new junction that appeared before him as he ran through the battleship.
Bai Zemin was as fast as the wind as he ran without stopping, blasting violent gusts that hit the alloy walls before shooting off to the back and getting lost among the many different corridors he had already passed through before.
The Sky Destroyer battleship was approximately 5000 meters long, 1000 meters wide, and 500 meters high. Its internal size was divided in a way that made it seem even more colossal than it was and it took Bai Zemin two minutes before he finally left the corridor area and reached the area of what seemed to be rooms intended for different purposes.
According to the map, the Sky Destroyer was apparently divided into five floors in total.
Restrooms, recreation rooms, training rooms, cafeteria, restaurants… The Sky Destroyer was not much different from a normal warship except that it was a lot more luxurious to the point of being comparable to a first-class cruise ship.
After reaching the third floor from the bottom and second from the top, Bai Zemin finally slowed down and only a minute later stopped when he arrived in front of a double metal alloy door.
Bai Zemin noticed the deep blue magic circle at the top of the door; something that all doors had. However, what drew his eyes principally was the bright sign right next to the double door.
Command Room.
Bai Zemin said nothing and instead looked at the door in front of him with a quiet expression.
The one or ones inside didn’t keep him waiting too long anyway.
The doors slid slowly to both sides, slowly entering into the empty space between the metal alloy walls. The movement was slow and careful as if the existence controlling it feared to scare the person waiting outside.
Once the alloy double door was fully opened, a soft voice free of malicious intent came from the interior:
“Thank you for accepting my invitation…. Come in, don’t stand outside please.”
Bai Zemin did not hesitate as he took a step forward and then a second to enter the command room. Since he had decided to come then there was no need to act like a coward and back out now.
Of course, he kept Annihilation of the Falling Sky in his right hand just in case.
The control room of the Sky Destroyer was different from anything Bai Zemin had ever seen before. It wasn’t like the control room of any other spaceship he’d seen in movies, let alone resembling the control room of a current-era aircraft or Earth ship.
The room was spacious, approximately 200 square meters. The floor was covered by what appeared to be pure white glossy marble and was well lit by what looked like some sort of faint blue gemstones. The air inside was fresh and pleasant, but most striking of all was undoubtedly the single seat right in the center of the command room as well as the huge magic circle that occupied approximately 80% of the total size of the room.
The eyes of Bai Zemin, however, focused on the two existences in front of him.
One of them was what seemed to be a huge blue-colored weaver ant, but unlike the blue-colored weaver ants Bai Zemin had seen so far to date, this blue-colored weaver ant looked significantly more terrifying. Its body was over 2 meters tall, its explosive muscles gave it an especially corpulent appearance, its black eyes sparkled with intelligence, and the exoskeleton covering its body was at least two to three times bigger compared to the other blue weaver ants.
Bai Zemin could sense mortal danger from the hulking weaver ant in front of him and immediately raised his guard several notches as he realized that it was not an enemy to be trifled with in any way.
“Young warrior of the human race, I apologize for not standing up to greet you… I’m afraid my current situation is a bit complicated.”
The eyes of Bai Zemin moved to the existence sitting in what seemed to be the seat of the ship’s commander and his eyes couldn’t help but widen in shock at what he saw.
“Are you the queen of the weaver ants?” Bai Zemin asked unable to hide the surprise in his voice.
“At least of the colony you destroyed.” The queen of the weaver ants smiled slightly as she said those words and despite their content did not seem to be really angry.
Bai Zemin said nothing. In fact, he was so surprised that he couldn’t help but take a few seconds to look at the queen of the weaver ants who seemed to understand his surprise and so didn’t say anything more as well.
The queen of the weaver ants was, of course, an ant. However, as surprising as it might sound or crazy to hear, Bai Zemin had to admit that the ant sitting in the commander’s seat was indeed a first-rate beauty even with her racial characteristics that set her apart from humanity.
Abnormally white-colored skin, large black eyes, two long dark antennae on top of her head; these were the characteristics that differentiated the queen of the weaver ants from a human….. For except for this, she was like any other normal woman but more beautiful. Tantalizingly seductive curvy body, a slight smile at the corner of her glistening black lips, jet black hair falling down her back and caught between the middle of the seatback, and finally a sweet, melodious voice.
“Ahem!”
Bai Zemin jumped in place and subconsciously looked to his right. There, his eyes met Lilith’s, she was looking at him with her arms folded and both eyebrows raised.
The corner of Bai Zemin’s mouth twitched a couple of times as he turned to look at the queen of the weaver ants again; she was completely naked.
Lilith was jealous of the queen of the weaver ants? Bai Zemin didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.
Although the queen of the weaver ants was indeed, a beauty; this was considering that she was an ant. In reality, to the taste of a human male like Bai Zemin, women like Kang Lan, Cai Jingyi, Shen Mei, and others, were far more beautiful than the queen of the weaver ants not to mention Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun, Sun Ling, or Nangong Lingxin.
As for Lilith… She was in another league where there was no competition.
He took a deep breath and while looking at the ant queen introduced himself with a stern expression on his face, “My name is Bai Zemin, you can call me as such instead of human warrior or anything like that. Is it okay for me to just address you as ant queen?”
“Bai Zemin… I see, so that’s your name.” The queen of the weaver ants nodded. However, she soon shook her head gently and said in a soft voice, almost like a whisper, “Call me by my name please, my name is Shi Lin…. As I told you before, I won’t be queen for too much longer anyway.”
