No matter how much hatred Shangguan Bing Xue might feel in her heart, and no matter how much she wanted to crush Xuanyuan Wentian, this person was, at the end of the day, her father.
Even if Shangguan Bing Xue did not care at all about the fact that this man’s blood ran inside her veins, she also had to consider her mother’s feelings and thoughts on this important matter.
She did not know whether her mother was still in love with that man or not, Shangguan Bing Xue wanted to believe that this was not the case, but taking into consideration the fact that her mother had never tried to be happy again and only devoted herself to raising her, she could not rule out this possibility.
Therefore, she had to think very carefully about the direction of her next course of action.
…
Bai Zemin returned to his family home by himself this time, Bai Delan and Meng Qi decided to stay overnight at the Wu family mansion; especially Meng Qi, she had not even stopped reading rune books or similar content and was completely absorbed in them.
He explained the situation to his mother before heading to the back of his family’s property, leaving Lilith and Ye Linger alone.
The two women seemed to be getting along even better now, this was true to the extent that Ye Linger was practically ignoring Bai Zemin now and all her focus had been practically entirely on her new daughter-in-law.
Upon reaching the edge of the pool, Bai Zemin squatted down and peered inside with nothing but starlight dimly illuminating the surroundings.
Xiao Xiao seemed to still be asleep, she would probably wake up soon though. Bai Zemin didn’t know the reason but he just knew.
He took off his boots and put them aside before sitting on the edge of the pool and dipping his feet into the water.
“Whew… Cold as hell.” Bai Zemin muttered under his breath, and as he raised his head to the sky, he couldn’t help but notice that winter was approaching.
The nights were already so cold now and sometimes one or two corpses were found, stray survivors that had frozen to death in the middle of a freezing night. When winter came it would definitely be a horrendous situation that Bai Zemin didn’t even want to think about.
Although it was still about 1.5 months before winter descended on China, this was an estimate according to the previous world. With all the changes the Earth had experienced and would continue to experience, nothing was 100% certain anymore.
“I need to get the wool machines to start producing more warm clothing…. But I’m afraid I’ll have to invest a lot of mutant beast furs to reinforce the normal clothing with some mana.” Bai Zemin thought under his breath as he swayed his feet gently in the water.
The wool or cotton of the past would definitely not be able to fight against extremely low temperatures. China had regions in which snow was common during cold seasons, but with the laws of the Earth enhanced after the evolution and absorption of huge amounts of Mana, Bai Zemin was 100% sure that what was coming in the future would be something never seen before.
While it could be that he was thinking too much or maybe he was being too pessimistic, Bai Zemin believed that it was better to expect the worst so that the future would not catch him with his pants down. After all, a single mistake or a small detail ignored could be the cause of death of hundreds of thousands and the downfall of entire nations in this new world.
Bai Zemin did not realize that he had been sitting in the same position for more than two hours. This was a rare moment of solitude that he could take advantage of to clarify many of his thoughts and it was also because he managed to think of several new ideas as well as countermeasures to possible future problems that he did not notice the passage of time.
“Pu!”
A joyful sound characteristic of a single existence brought Bai Zemin back to the real world, and as he lowered his head his eyes darker than night itself met two beautiful bright pink eyes that looked at him with happiness and enthusiasm.
Bai Zemin’s eyes flashed slightly and chuckled as he leaned his body forward and dipped his hands into the icy water.
Xiao Xiao quickly swam towards him, and with a small sound similar to a cat’s purring let herself rise from the water.
Bai Zemin did not mind his clothes getting wet, and while holding the little pink dolphin in his left arm, he did not lose his grip on the egg in his right arm.
“My dear Xiao Xiao, how are you feeling now?”
“Puu pu!” The little dolphin’s eyes sparkled as she nodded her little head as if to show that she was full energy and could fight several hundred deadly battles right now.
After a minute or two of chattering, Bai Zemin’s expression slowly turned serious as he asked in a low voice, “Xiao Xiao, did Princess Xian Mei’er reply to your message from before?”
Xiao Xiao’s eyes also took on a certain seriousness and with a mighty nod she quickly activated one of her spiritual skills.
Bai Zemin saw Xiao Xiao’s eyes brighten, and a second later he felt something hit his head. The Spiritual Earring in his left ear seemed to light up for a moment, but as if the treasure knew that this was not an attack, it immediately turned off and did not get activated, allowing the spiritual wave sent by Xiao Xiao to directly hit his brain.
Bai Zemin’s eyes went blank for a brief moment, he lost all sense of the outside world, his head hurt as if someone had given him a fierce hammer blow to the back of his head, but all that strange feeling disappeared so fast that his brain didn’t even have time to really feel that pain; as if it had been an illusion.
When his eyes cleared, his expression was uncertain as he remained silent for several seconds during which the only sounds that accompanied him were the sound of the pool water moving and the wind blowing from the different wooded areas.
Xiao Xiao looked at him without making a sound, and after a full minute, Bai Zemin gently kissed the small animal’s forehead as he thanked her with a faint smile, “Thank you for your help, Xiao Xiao.”
“Puuu!”
The little pink dolphin’s eyes closed and took on a crescent shape as a soft, sweet sound came out of her little mouth. She was clearly pleased with the compliment and reward she had just received.
Bai Zemin looked up at the sky and muttered under his breath, “Looks like that mermaid princess finally woke up from her soft and gentle personality…. That’s good for me. Now I can progress with my plans for the future.”
The message Xian Mei’er had sent him was very simple but at the same time complex as it revealed a lot of information despite its little content.
‘Let’s meet at the northern shore of the place you call Yangfang District in a month’s time. I accept your previous offer, I will aim for the throne.’
A faint smile that slowly began to grow into a rather terrifying one appeared on Bai Zemin’s face as he looked up at the white stars shining amidst the dark sky, it was those seemingly insignificant little dots that prevented the terrifying darkness from achieving its goal of swallowing the entire world.
“You and I are like those tiny white dots in the middle of a huge black blanket, Xian Mei’er. The two of us may seem insignificant in everyone’s eyes, not knowing that we can scatter the darkness together.”
Great heavies of the past with high positions in the government or the army would definitely not pay attention to a young nobody like Bai Zemin. They definitely took advantage of their influence during the first 2 months to establish powerful factions, probably some of them even had 500,000 or more in their bases.
However, Bai Zemin had already managed to take down people like this with the most recent being Wu Keqian, a mayor of an entire large district who thanks to Wu Yijun’s intervention wisely surrendered after realizing that he had no hope of defeating Bai Zemin in combat. It definitely wasn’t going to be a bloodless path from now on.
The same was true of Xian Mei’er, she was ignored by her family and had never been seen as a danger. However, Bai Zemin knew that she had talent and all she lacked was decisiveness and ferocity in her blood to increase her hunger for power.
The entire East Sea royal family would be shaken to its foundations when Bai Zemin and the seventh princess that had always been ignored and despised by all would join hands.
With him on land and her on the seas, the two of them would be like the small but bright stars in the sky; small but whose influence would one day be able to cover the whole world!
Time really does fly, and in what seemed like a single instant, a week passed.
It was time to face the former president, probably the most terrifying human enemy the Bai Zemin faction would face for some time.
Of course, many things happened during that week, among them was the birth of the future queen of the ants; Bai Zemin’s adopted daughter.
However, an “accident” of sorts happened during the birth process of Bai Zemin’s daughter, something that would make everyone’s life more “interesting”.
* * * * * * *
