The room that awaited the group beyond the large metal door was even larger than the command room. This room measured approximately 2000 square meters and took up quite a considerable part of the second floor for itself.
The room was illuminated by dim, light-colored lights that provided a clear view of the interior but at the same time avoided hurting the eyes even if a normal human being would stare at the beautiful colored pearls that adorned the ceiling and light sources for a long time. In addition, there were large semi-transparent colored energy barriers with pink tones that divided different areas of the room into what seemed to be something similar to prisons but without metal barriers.
What attracted the eyes of everyone was what lay beyond each of the energy barriers, inside each jail.
At least 50 or 60 pairs of small eyes looked towards the entrance of the room with curiosity. Some of them just closed their eyes lazily after several seconds while most of them stood up with hesitant steps, approaching the energy barrier as if they wanted to take a closer look at the newcomers.
“What cute little animals!” Meng Qi rushed forward like a whirlwind and appeared in front of one of the energy barriers. She knew that the barrier was not meant to cause harm because she had seen one of the little animals carelessly touching it, therefore, Meng Qi knelt down to be at a similar height with the little creature and pressed her forehead to the barrier.
“Hello, little cutie…” Meng Qi smiled sweetly as she spoke to the creature about half a meter tall.
The little animal gently opened its mouth and let out a low, weak sound in response before using its pink tongue to lick itself with its eyes still fixed on Meng Qi.
The display of tenderness from the little animal had been fatal, because immediately after Meng Qi, several soul evolves from the human group rushed into the room. Some did so silently and with bright eyes filled with excitement while others had big smiles on their faces as they tried to engage in conversation with the little beasts on the other side of the energy barriers.
Shangguan Bing Xue looked uneasy as she slowly walked into the room next to Bai Zemin. He glanced sideways at her and couldn’t help but smile as he saw the glint of excitement in her blue eyes as well as the anxiety that flickered like a mischievous child in her stare every time she met the tender eyes of the little creatures beyond the energy barriers.
“Why don’t you go too? Aren’t you curious about these little animals?” Bai Zemin asked with a faint smile as he continued to move forward with his eyes straight ahead.
“… There’s no hurry.” Shangguan Bing Xue replied in an attempt to play like a composed and mature woman even though she was clearly eager to charge forward and smash the energy barrier. She pointed out, “What are these beasts?”
“According to the information I found in the Sky Destroyer records, these little fellows are a special and extremely rare type of mutant beast. They are called Roaring Flame Tiger and each of them can reach the Third Order in the future if they are nurtured carefully, some might even make it to the Fourth Order with some luck and effort.” Bai Zemin explained, stopping just before one of the farthest energy barriers of all and thus the least crowded by the soul evolvers of the group.
One of the small beasts approached the barrier with its beautiful bright red eyes brimming with curiosity for the humans in front of it. Roughly 40-50 centimeters tall, the Roaring Flame Tiger was covered in a coat of jet black fur that glistened in the dim light of the room. However, the most striking feature was undoubtedly the small red flames that danced around its tiny paws with every little step the animal took forward.
“Roaring Flame Tiger…” Shangguan Bing Xue murmured, squatting down and looking at the little tiger that was looking at her with its little head tilted as if trying to understand what was happening. She couldn’t help but reach out a hand and stroke the barrier as she muttered under her breath, “What a cute little animal…”
“This Roaring Flame Tiger was considered as a very rare beast in the past, and only the special troops of the Kang Kingdom led by brother Kang Guiying disposed of them. They are very friendly towards those who are kind to them and most importantly extremely loyal to those who help them grow.” Bai Zemin continued to explain based on the information he had read previously: “Specializing in Agility and Stamina, the Roaring Flame Tigers are the best mutant beasts to use as mounts, the best companions on the battlefield that would rather die than have their rider fall in combat.”
The ring of the commander on the little finger of the right hand of Bai Zemin lit up, and upon receiving Bai Zemin’s mental command one of the golden runes glowed.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!…
The energy barriers suddenly went out and the little creatures that had been separated from the humans immediately noticed the difference.
Meng Qi yelled happily as the little black tiger she had been chatting with from the other side of the barrier jumped on her and began to lick her face. She giggled like a little girl as she stroked the body of the animal and looked at it with affection and warmth.
Wu Yijun and the other girls were not very different and there were even many men among the group of soul evolvers who could not restrain themselves from the urge to cuddle the little animals that with just one look were able to touch hearts.
Shangguan Bing Xue watched as the little black tiger with red eyes walked toward her in slow steps. For a second, she could not help but think of Lilith when her blue eyes met those bright red eyes and her affection for the little animal faded, however, when the little black tiger began to rub its head on her leg and purr as if it were a kitten, the heart of the ice princess was immediately moved.
Bai Zemin watched as everyone hugged and played with the little Roaring Flame Tigers. He had great plans for these mutant beasts and in fact, the value of these little cubs was from several points of view even higher than that of the Sky Destroyer itself.
Each Roaring Flame Tiger was born as a level 10 mutant beast, which was not that high considering that there were mutant beasts that were born even as existences on the border of the First Order depending on various factors. However, the Roaring Flame Tiger at level 10 had 100 points of Agility and 90 points of Stamina; an absolute brutality!
‘If these cubs are carefully nurtured with exceptionally pure Soul Power…. They will definitely be terrifying war machines and the best mounts ever for the army!’ The eyes of Bai Zemin sparkled with anticipation at the thought of having an army of hundreds of thousands of soul evolvers under his command, riding Roaring Flame Tigers and waiting to charge in the direction of wherever his sword pointed.
Of course, Bai Zemin’s dreams were actually impossible. Forget about leading an army of hundreds of thousands of soul evolvers riding Roaring Flame Tigers, Bai Zemin currently didn’t even have 100 Roaring Flame Tiger cubs.
‘However, these cubs are not like us humans. In just three or four months they will grow big enough to reproduce and each female Roaring Flame Tiger will be able to give birth to at least two or three cubs. Three or four months later, the new cubs will be able to give birth again and a little later the old ones will give birth again…’ Bai Zemin quickly did the math and realized that in 1-2 years of time he would be able to have an army of at least 40,000 or 50,000 brave mounts with high combat capability and mobility!
The size of the Earth would not stop expanding with the passage of time, distances would become a big problem not only for the army but also for all mankind. Panda Novel
The use of old vehicles was definitely out of the question as not only would the fuel run out at some point but they were also too unreliable to survive the apocalypse, but worst of all, the vehicles of the past were simply too slow. Closing distances of thousands of kilometers in a vehicle that moved at 100 kilometers per hour on average would become a nightmare, to say the least.
Bai Zemin knew that he needed to find a solution to this problem, and he had been thinking hard about one. However, he had never thought of taming mutant beasts; this was because all the mutant beasts he had encountered so far were simply too bloodthirsty and they would attack even their own kind not to mention humans. As for taming Second Order mutant beasts that had sufficient intelligence? That was impossible.
The appearance of the Roaring Flame Tigers was a great relief to Bai Zemin as this meant that there were definitely creatures that could be tamed from a young age and taught to be the best friend of man.
Even though the first beasts would be given to the army and only a minority would be left behind for other purposes at least at first, Bai Zemin could already feel a great burden being immediately lightened by finding a rather plausible solution to future but imminent problems.
“Bai Zemin, there’s something I don’t get.”
Shangguan Bing Xue slowly stood up with the little tiger cub in her arms. She stroked the little animal with one hand and looked at Bai Zemin with a slight frown.
“Mm?” Bai Zemin snapped out of his thoughts and looked at her in confusion. “What’s the problem?”
Shangguan Bing Xue looked around for several seconds, watching as everyone played with the mutant tiger cubs, chatting with each other with smiles as they carried the animals. She looked back at Bai Zemin and asked in a dumbfounded voice:
“How did these animals survive all this time?….. If these Roaring Flame Tigers were left behind by the King of the Kang Kingdom…. That’s a period that is not even recorded in the oldest records! There is no data whatsoever of such a thing. Did these animals survive until now like this? Does time inside the barriers stand still for them and that’s why they don’t grow?”
The doubts Shangguan Bing Xue had were very reasonable. In fact, she had simply been the first to realize those several crucial points, but they would definitely be noticed by the others after the emotion of everyone calmed down and they began to think rationally.
Bai Zemin looked Shangguan Bing Xue in the eyes for a long time. His silence was quite uncomfortable for her and she couldn’t help but frown as she thought something was wrong.
Bai Zemin slowly looked toward the place beyond the barrier and remained silent for a moment as he observed the place where the tiger cubs had been all this time. Even though the little creatures had been there, there was no feces at all or any kind of waste; there wasn’t even a bad smell at all.
He looked at Shangguan Bing Xue and sighed before saying softly, “Bing Xue, you are a very warm-hearted girl. No matter how much you try to be cold and indifferent, after fighting alongside you for these three and a half months I came to understand that you actually feel the strongest emotions compared to others. The fact that you are hugging and caressing the little tiger cub is proof of that.”
“… That’s just because I like cute and small things.” Shangguan Bing Xue cleared her throat and tried to make excuses.
Bai Zemin forced a smile and shook his head. The reason Shangguan Bing Xue was so attached to animals and did not hesitate to show her emotions toward them was because, unlike the cunning human, animals were creatures that did not hurt feelings and did not look at her for her beauty but for her heart; she did not need to fear being hurt by them.
But Bai Zemin didn’t need to say it out loud because Shangguan Bing Xue already knew it, and she probably also knew that he had already gotten to know her so deeply.
“It’s better that you don’t know the past of these little tiger cubs.” Bai Zemin patted Little Snow, who had appeared beside him as if she was afraid of something, and said slowly, “You just need to take good care of the Roaring Flame Tiger in your arms and that’s all what matters.”
Bai Zemin simply didn’t want to tell Shangguan Bing Xue the story behind these little cubs? Because it was a very pitiful story.
