Chapter 1116: We are all villains in a poorly told story
Several kilometers away from the place where Wu Yijun had defeated her enemy, Fu Xuefeng sat on the main branch of a tree that stretched more than 200 meters into the sky. His face had a complicated look on it and his mouth was curved in what appeared to be a smile filled with hidden bitterness as he watched the scene in front of him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Previously, Fu Xuefeng had been ambushed by a Russian Second Order enemy.
This enemy was quite powerful as his Soul Power was not only very pure but also had characteristic skills that were strangely the perfect counter to Fu Xuefeng's combat style. However, the man was so arrogant and cocky that he not only revealed his level but also exposed what his main stats were, thus exposing how many status points he could have invested so far as well as his possible weaknesses.
For this particular type of enemy that he hated the most, Fu Xuefeng had planned to play for a few minutes and then finish quickly. Someone who was as arrogant as Bai Zemin but didn't even have the strength of a finger on his hand deserved a humiliating death, and Fu Xuefeng would gladly be the one responsible for it.
But not everything always went as one expected in this life.
After fighting for 2 or 3 minutes and cutting off one of his enemy's arms only to have it regenerate seconds later, Fu Xuefeng was preparing to end the whole show once and for all. Although he would have to use a rather powerful skill that few knew about since all the enemies who saw it were already dead, Fu Xuefeng felt no pity in his heart if it would allow him to finish off such a troublesome enemy.
How was Fu Xuefeng to know that when he had made his decision, giant plants and trees would start growing everywhere? Moreover, the faint pink mist that spread everywhere had an effect not only on the surrounding enemies but even the Russian man in front of Fu Xuenfeng immediately seemed to go insane.
Despite being a Second Order soul evolver, Fu Xuefeng watched helplessly as his enemy launched attacks into the air and laughed or sneered as if he was having a very simple battle with some kind of enemy that only he could see.
Because Fu Xuefeng was mostly stationed in northern China, he and Wu Yijun had very little contact now, being mostly short calls to receive and deliver reports of all kinds. But even though he had not been on a battlefield with her in a long time, he still knew that if there was someone capable of giving birth to a forest several kilometers long with terrifying plants like this then that person was undoubtedly Wu Yijun.
After about 10 more minutes, Fu Xuefeng scratched his head fiercely and growled loudly, "Forget it! I'll give him eternal rest once and for all."
"It's no use, it's no use! The serum that was injected into me had features of the Tasmanian King Crab! I can regenerate from any wound in seconds!" Viktor Innokentievich shook his fists as he laughed out loud happily.
His fists were so heavy that each blow caused extremely terrifying air cannons. In the surroundings, some trees were turned to dust after being hit and only the toughest ones managed to stand with great difficulty. Most surprising of all was that even after being destroyed, new plants grew and in just 20 seconds everything had returned to its previous condition.
Fu Xuefeng slowly stood up while shaking his head. He had no idea how big an amount of Mana Wu Yijun needed to do these things.
Standing on the thick branch, he looked at his enemy and snorted while muttering something to himself.
Bang!
His body became a blur as he shot into the sky, soaring past the tops of most trees until the sunlight covered his silhouette. Fu Xuefeng pointed his dagger skyward and an azure lightning crackled noisily on the blade, "Lightning Descent!"
It was only for an instant but the sun seemed to change from golden to dark blue as Fu Xuefeng's words worked as the trigger to initiate the activation of his skill.
BOOM!!!!
A terrifying explosion shook the entire area and some buildings in the distance collapsed causing loud booms.
A lightning flash as thick as a mutant tree trunk rained down from the center of the sun, turning everything it touched into ashes. The lightning was extremely fast, it was only a blink of an eye before it struck the ground with accuracy.
Viktor Innokentievich literally did not know what hit him even when he was hit. His whole body was engulfed by the lightning flash and his figure was submerged inside the crackling column for about 30 seconds.
After the aforementioned time, the sun returned to its natural color and the lightning column slowly disappeared. However, there was no longer any trace of Viktor Innokentievich and a good part of the forest had turned to ashes.
Ten seconds later, Fu Xuefeng looked at the large burnt patch and put away his dagger as he muttered, "Too arrogant, too arrogant."
"Too wasteful, too wasteful." A voice made Fu Xuefeng jump in fright, and when he looked back he saw Shen Mei looking at him with an amused expression as she shook her head.
"How long have you been there?" he asked with lingering trepidation.
"Oh, about 5 minutes ago." Shen Mei's words made Fu Xuefeng sigh in his heart. Shen Mei's cloak were so good that probably only Evangeline in the whole faction could surpass her in this aspect.
Shen Mei pointed at the black pit and said without knowing whether to laugh or cry, "Why did you launch such a strong attack against a piece of trash like that?"
"Leave me alone." Fu Xuefeng rolled his eyes and turned to leave, "He was my prey anyway so it's fine, no?"
Shen Mei looked at his back silently before letting out a chuckle and disappearing.
"I wonder where that shy boy from before was left?"
Fu Xuefeng looked back when he heard those words but there was no one to reply to anymore. Even so, he called out, "He stayed at the university!"
Shen Mei, like Fu Xuenfeng, was also mostly stationed in northern China. This meant that the two had plenty of opportunities to interact and team up so they got along quite well and knew each other's edges.
...
Several minutes later, Bai Zemin met with the other leaders of his troops.
The massacre was not yet over. There were more than 500,000 lives in this Russian city, and more than half of them were men.
In fact, even from afar everyone could hear the cries of misery of the men being slaughtered and the hysterical cries of the terrified women. It didn't matter if it was a single man, husband, father of a family... they were all killed by the soul evolvers of the Transcendent faction who were furious with the Russian country after knowing how they treated their compatriots.
Bai Zemin looked at his mother's tear-covered face with complicated eyes. He knew that she was a kind-hearted woman, and he also understood that his mother was forcing herself to keep silent because she understood that what Kali told her earlier was true. However, Bai Zemin felt that he was failing as a son by being the cause of her tears.
"Mother, I-"
"I understand." Ye Linger interrupted without letting him continue. She shook her head, "The fact that you let those little children live is already a sign of how miseriocordious you are, Zemin... Because those children will grow up someday and they will remember today's events."
Ye Linger was not stupid. She knew that leaving those children alive was no different from raising tigers at home. The reason for her tears was different from what Bai Zemin thought.
"I just don't want you to be called a villain when you clearly are not. As a mother it hurts my heart deeply to see how you bear all this... When you were born I promised to hold the sky for you if necessary, but I can't even hold a part of your burdens and griefs now."
For a mother her children would always be children regardless of age. Besides, Bai Zemin had been just an ordinary 20-year-old boy until less than 2 years ago, the baby in Ye Linger's eyes. How could she not be suffering now that she saw firsthand everything he had to do?
Bai Zemin, who did not expect this to be the reason behind the tears of the woman he respected most on the face of the earth, smiled with some bitterness and said something that left many thinking.
"I know that I will be the villain of thousands of stories, because society looks at perfection as hero and imperfection as villain... I am not any almighty being, mother. I'm just like those people out there, except that instead of sitting around waiting for my death I do what I can to avoid it... even if my actions lead me to that fate without my knowledge."
In a poorly told story everyone was a villain. As a child one worshipped heroes and wanted to be like them, but as one grew up one could understand that those much hated villains were actually, in many cases, the most pitiful characters in all the story.
Justify himself for his actions? Bai Zemin would never, ever do that. Such a thought never crossed his mind. However, he had no regrets either and he was sure he would not regret about his actions and decisions.
Those children he was saving today would definitely bear resentment against him. After all, Bai Zemin was killing their fathers, uncles, brothers, lovers, and so on. Bai Zemin knew that to let them live was to leave hidden dangers for him... but what was the use of worrying about something so far in the future? It wasn't as if this universe had all that time anyway.
He needed to be the strongest and raise his army in less than 6 years, and that was what Bai Zemin was going to do whatever it took.
At the end of the day, he just wanted to survive.
Three hours later, the cries and wailing had been completely silenced.
Five hours later, the raid group was split in two.
Bai Zemin took the larger group and continued riding north with the intention of completing the invasion while the other smaller part headed south slowly, guarding the Russian survivors and a pile of resources that could not be taken by the enemy before leaving the base.
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