Chapter 712: Beginning of the War & Royal Harem
After Bai Zemin explained the current state of affairs to his mother, Ye Linger finally got a general idea of what was happening and what might happen.
With the Earth evolving, the mana of the world would become heavier than before; which would lead to the consequence that all living beings would become stronger. While it was true that humans would also become stronger when evolution reached a certain point, the strengthening of the other races was something that meant nothing but bad news for the weaker human race.
Many things would become more challenging in many ways, the danger would grow to the point where some of the stronger ones could lose their lives at the slightest of carelessness. Even worse, many human establishments would definitely be destroyed this time which would result in the death of thousands, tens of thousands, and probably even hundreds of thousands.
'I wonder how many soul evolvers or humans that have been fighting hard until now will lose their lives this time...' Bai Zemin sighed inwardly as he looked at the situation outside with complicated eyes.
In the sky, lightning crackled constantly and thunder rumbled so loudly that the ground shook uncontrollably. On the ground, mutant beasts ran rampant from the different forests with bloodshot eyes, some fighting each other and devouring their kind while others simply ran in any direction and flattened anything that came their way.
"Leader, look over there!" Xia Ya suddenly took a step forward and pointed in the northwest direction, her voice sounded pressing and even urgent.
Bai Zemin quickly looked in the direction pointed by Xia Ya and he didn't need to zoom in on the holographic screen to understand what she wanted him to see.
In the distance, approximately 5 kilometers to the north, several luminous explosions joined the lightning in the sky to spark the surroundings. Shattered rocks were flying everywhere and parts of a large forest were being cleared at surprisingly high speeds.
It was plain to see that there were at least two powerful beings fighting each other in the forest.
Bai Zemin narrowed his eyes and at the same time as he slowed the speed of the battleship's flight he ordered in a deep voice: "Secondary cannon number 9, aim in a northwesterly direction. Coordinates 40.21612 116.23471."
A small part of the holographic screen detached, showing the cannon movement. The red-colored magic circle lit up and glowed over the muzzle of the secondary cannon but did not charge power as Bai Zemin needed to give the order first.
"Leader, why don't you just shoot and finish them all off over there?" Xia Ya asked curiously.
The existences fighting there were definitely in the Second Order and were clearly above level 60 just based on the destruction they were causing. If those who were fighting at the front were zombies or mutant beasts, then they definitely needed to be destroyed before one of them fled to prevent them from growing more powerful and someday representing a danger to humanity.
At this stage of the apocalypse, Unclassified existences represented the basis of a race, First Order existences were the present and what kept a race alive, last but not least, Second Order existences; they represented the present and the future, were the guardians.
As for Third Order existences.... They were leaders, creators, and destroyers.
"First I want to make sure that the other party does not involve a human being." Bai Zemin calmly replied, to which Xia Ya nodded along with Ye Linger.
If one of the powerhouses in combat was from the human race then it was better to recruit him or her than to kill them. While the odds were low, they were not 0%.
The battle soon entered its climax after a few seconds and it seemed that the existences involved in the deadly battle were losing their patience as they began to use way more stronger attacks and skills than before. Bai Zemin noticed that the number of combatants was of two.
Boom!!
With a loud explosion that was heard even from far away, approximately 5000 meters of the forest was swept away with broken trees and shattered stones flying everywhere. In the middle of a crater over 500 meters in diameter, a brown bear with red claws was ferociously hacking at the flesh of what appeared to be a bull whose skin was silver and its horns shone like gold.
"Looks like there was no need to overthink it after all." Bai Zemin muttered before quietly ordering, "Secondary cannon number 9, firepower level high. Fire when the charge is ready."
On the separate small holographic screen, the crimson-colored magic circle began to light up and its glow soon covered the entire cannon body. Under Ye Linger's wide-open eyes, a large beam of bright red light shot out with a noisy bang.
Everyone watched as the beam of bright light grew in size, in a second breaking beyond the line of sight of the group inside the battleship and disappearing into the horizon heading northwest directly into the ground.
Immediately after, the red light disappeared for a brief moment and during that brief moment, the sound of explosions coming from the distant battlefield ceased completely. However, the "silence" did not last long as the terrifying power of the secondary energy cannon immediately followed.
Boooooooom!!!
A huge red sphere rose approximately 50 meters, illuminating the surroundings with its crimson glow. The power of the laser beam had been so strong that the slashing wind exploded everywhere, wiping out a great part of the forest instantly. Although the destructive power could not compare at all to that which would be caused by the shockwave of a nuke explosion, its terror had made Ye Linger's legs feel weak and if not for Shen Mei's help she might have fallen to the ground as she stared at the holographic screen with lingering fear.
Such a terrifying power... Just a couple of words from her son had resulted in a scary explosion.... Ye Linger looked at Bai Zemin and she couldn't help but feel complex emotions in her heart. Although she knew it was good to have power in this new world order, the fact that her son had so much power in his hands also worried her... because power always attracted problems.
But Bai Zemin had no time to worry about anything but the two messages that flashed in his retina.
[You have received the Soul Power of Second Order 'Galactic Bull' level 63...]
[You have received the Soul Power of Second Order 'Abyssal Claw Bear' level 65...]
"Uh?" Bai Zemin blinked, surprised.
This was something he hadn't expected at all.
"Leader, is something wrong?" Shen Mei asked as she noticed the slight change in Bai Zemin's expression. She was characterized as an observant person, to begin with.
"... It's nothing." Bai Zemin shook his head as he mentally controlled the battleship to approach the now destroyed battlefield.
'Could this be because I am the Sky Destroyer's recognized commander?' Bai Zemin pondered. He would have to talk to Lilith later regarding this matter as obtaining Soul Power using the Sky Destroyer's firepower was something Bai Zemin did not count on.
After approaching the area where the two Second Order creatures had been fighting until a few moments ago, Bai Zemin confirmed that there was no Soul Stone anywhere before finally controlling the ship to continue its course. The beasts had already started to fight after leaving the forests and running rampant all over the place, it was highly probable that the battle had already begun everywhere in the world.
For every second that passed, Bai Zemin was sure that at least one person in the world lost his or her life in this deadly war that had broken out again. Man, woman, old man, old woman, child, newborn.... It didn't matter gender or age, in this era where the only thing that mattered was evolutive strength, things like life were too insignificant.
"My God..." Ye Linger looked at the scene outside becoming more and more catastrophic as she covered her mouth with both hands.
While the sky was an apocalyptic disaster, the ground wasn't much better.
The mana of the world had become so thickly concentrated that when the strong winds began to blow in a single direction it gave birth to a frightening phenomenon that even left Bai Zemin's blood running cold.
"What the hell is that thing?" Shen Mei asked in shock as she looked towards the distant bright blue swirl.
"It's a mana tornado," Lilith replied, not to Shen Mei but to Bai Zemin. "Those mana tornadoes usually appear during the evolution of a world. When the mana of the world reaches a level of purity too high and becomes too heavy, heavy enough to grow more compared to the absorption rate of the planet, these kinds of mana tornadoes arise. They will disappear at the end of evolution causing mana explosions and annihilating everything within 1 kilometer inside their core."
Bai Zemin's expression turned black as he heard the explanation Lilith had just given him and his heart clenched as he watched the 10,000+ foot high whirlwind that seemed to connect the skies and the earth as it spun and plowed through everything in its path.
If what Lilith said was true, didn't that mean that even if one tried hard to survive one could die casually just because one was a bit unlucky to be near such a phenomenon?
As if she knew what he was thinking, Lilith pointed out straightforwardly: "Luck is also part of one's strength. Just as in the past many died from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, this is not much different. Everyone's fate is written in stone, and unless we are strong enough to rewrite the laws of that stone, we have to accept it as it is."
"...Even if you say that..." Bai Zemin couldn't help but mutter such words, drawing the attention of the three women that were looking at him in confusion.
Only Kong Jun knew that the human in front of him was talking to that strange female who mysteriously appeared and disappeared.
Bai Zemin controlled the Sky Destroyer to make the battleship pick up speed again and they quickly continued their course. The energy of the Soul Stones was not infinite, it was being drained by every passing second, and although it was true that the higher the speed the higher the consumption, Bai Zemin did not really have time to spare.
The distance between the Chinese Renaissance base and the Transcendent faction's base was large, large enough for Bai Zemin to need a few hours running at his highest speed due to the expansion of the Earth. However, with the Sky Destroyer that distance could close far faster even if he did not push it to its maximum capacity.
Approximately 30 to 40 minutes later, Bai Zemin and the others finally managed to see the base where the Transcendent faction was located.
Bai Zemin's and Shen Mei's eyes lit up as they stared at the 600-meter-high walls built of mutant tree trunks. Most striking of all, however, was the huge moat that stretched for over 100 kilometers and had a width of approximately 2000 meters surrounding the entire base.
From the battleship, the group could see how large groups of mutant beasts charged down the only available path leading to the only entrance and exit of the fort. However, the mutant beasts were not having much success as they had barely gotten within 500 meters of the drawbridge when thousands of bone arrows rained down on their bodies, and only those with the strongest skins or defensive skills managed to continue charging.
Xia Ya's eyes lit up when she realized the majestic effect the water moat had and couldn't help but excitedly remark like a little girl: "Amazing! Not only is the moat large enough to avoid mutant beasts surrounding the base but it's also filled with wild sea creatures to act as a natural defense barrier!"
She turned to look at Bai Zemin and asked, "Leader, who was the person who came up with all this? He or she is definitely a genius! Something so simple is actually having such a great effect in the middle of the war!"
Bai Zemin, instead of replying, straightened his back and puffed out his chest as he thought to himself, '80% of this was thought up by this daddy, of course!'
Shen Mei covered her mouth and let out a chuckle as she looked at Bai Zemin in admiration.
Shen Mei's eyes did not escape Ye Linger's attention and neither did Xia Ya's admiration. She looked at the two ladies, measuring them from head to toe as if she wanted to check a few things before nodding.
She, being the mother of the future king of China naturally needed to carefully measure her son's future royal harem. Therefore, Ye Linger had decided to start making a list right now after witnessing some of the power her son controlled.
If Bai Zemin knew that his mother was already planning a harem for him when he actually had yet to introduce her to his fiancée he would probably spit out seven liters of old blood and die on the spot.