Chapter 764: Evolution of the Special ForcesSoldier skill!
Hearing the words spoken by Wu Jianhong, President Xuanyuan Wentian's confident and firm footsteps came to a halt.
For a moment, both sides were silent and it was only after several seconds that Xuanyuan Wentian's indifferent voice broke it:
"... Two of our five bases in Haidian District were taken over by an enemy?"
Xuanyuan Wentian's voice was low and indifferent, but Wu Jianhong who was listening to him on the other end of the line knew Xuanyuan Wentian too well to understand that when his voice became low and slow it was because he was trying to contain a volcano about to erupt.
"That is correct. But, Wentian, there is something more important I need to mention."
Xuanyuan Wentian had barely taken two steps forward when he stopped again after hearing Wu Jianhong's next words.
"According to the report from base number 5, base number 1 and base number 2 were both taken down within a span of only 3 days. Also, according to the somewhat messy reports, it seems that base number 2 was captured by only two enemies, a young man and a little girl of around 10 years old."
After nearly a minute with no response, Wu Jianhong called out to check, "Wentian, are you there?"
Xuanyuan Wentian took several deep breaths without making a sound, and after a moment, he said in an indifferent voice, "Jianhong, prepare the Swift Wind Legion and Bright Light Legion. I will return to the base in a few days and from there I will personally lead the troops to Haidian District."
A sigh of relief from the other side of the line was followed by Wu Jianhong's confident words, "That's good. I'm afraid the other side definitely has a powerful leader guiding them, and unless you or that crazy dog Shao Tao move we could face big trouble in stopping this group of soul evolvers."
Xuanyuan Wentian frowned slightly and suddenly asked, "Where is Shao Tao now?"
"Hmph, that good-for-nothing only knows how to play with women all day long, where else would he be other than his villa playing with his harem?" broke Wu Jianhong's unhappy voice.
"Forget it, it's better for him to keep busy and not make trouble. It would be a shame to kill him considering his combat power." Xuanyuan Wentian didn't give the matter much thought before saying indifferently, "Prepare a report as detailed as possible about the other party, I'll get in to where you are in three days."
"Three days?" Wu Jianhong replied startled. As if realizing something, he gasped and said in an incredulous voice, "Wentian? Don't tell me you...."
He could not finish his words, so Xuanyuan Wentian did it instead.
"I'm done taking out the waste here. Xicheng District is back in the hands of the government, as it should be." Xuanyuan Wentian announced casually before ordering, "Mobilize 3 government cabinets to take care of the bases in this place. Besides, move 100,000 troops to make readjustments to the military structure."
Only by dividing the united could one really win. Xuanyuan Wentian could have acquired the bases but he knew that unless he divided and reformed the already formed armed teams, it would be like leaving a time bomb under his bed. Therefore, he needed troops in large numbers to carry out a large-scale restructuring.
"Leave this matter to me, you just worry about returning as soon as possible so that this matter can be resolved once and for all." Wu Jianhong sighed, still trying to get over the fact that Hao Ran had died at the hands of none other than Xuanyuan Wentian himself.
Wu Jianhong viewed Xuanyuan Wentian as if he was his own son, and Hao Ran was Xuanyuan Wentian's childhood friend so Wu Jianhong knew how close they really were; which was why Xuanyuan Wentian entrusted him with such an important position. The fact that between two such close people such ugly things happened was something that left too bitter a taste in the mouth to get over after a few words.
Xuanyuan Wentian said no more and simply cut off the communication after he finished listening to Wu Jianhong's words. If Wu Jianhong said "leave this matter to me" then Xuanyuan Wentian knew that there was no need to say any more words since his Prime Minister had never failed him and was always very efficient in his work.
* * *
At base number 1 located in Xueyua Subdistrict, Bai Zemin's days were quite relaxed.
Since it was not wise to attack other enemy bases at the moment because the Transcendent faction was experiencing exactly the same problem as the New China faction in Xicheng District, they had no choice but to wait until the new troops arrived.
It was just that unlike Xuanyuan Wentian, Bai Zemin would not separate the teams as he felt that Chen He's words made a lot of sense when he told him that separating already formed teams would give him more efficient control, but at the same time, it would weaken the strength of his troops. What Bai Zemin planned to do was to use powerful soul evolvers capable of crushing any sign of revelion, simple as that.
Bai Zemin naturally had no idea of the problems that the Xuanyuan Wentian side was experiencing nor did he know that the other side had delegated all those problems to other people so that he could personally take care of the chaos that Bai Zemin had brought to Haidian District after his arrival.
However, since Bai Zemin's plan was to conquer the entirety of Haidian District and finally charge towards Shijingshan District where he assumed the central base of New China and the real bigwigs of the government and army were located, he also wouldn't mind if the other party saved him the trouble of having to go looking for them and decided to come by themselves.
The nights were bitterly cold and the days were bone-chillingly cold but less intense. The snow fell in torrents as the sun went down and even on its way up it continued to fall more lightly from the sky. Every day, there were one or two humans who could not cope with the cold temperatures even when Bai Zemin ordered several stands to be built at key points in the base to distribute mutant beast meat soup to support the survivors.
The shortage of warm clothing and wool was a problem, as to use valuable leather coated by a natural layer of mana to make clothing that would later be given to the survivors.... The rulers of the two bases that Bai Zemin had captured never thought of doing such a thing since, in their eyes, the normal survivors were just headaches and nuisances compared to the mutant beast leather that could be used to forge precious life-saving armors.
Perhaps Xuanyuan Wentian intended to keep his citizens warm but perhaps due to overwork, he forgot about the snow issue. Of course, there was also the possibility that he also thought like the rest and that was why he turned a blind eye to what was going on, or maybe he did not even know, after all, while it was true that Xuanyuan Wentian used to be the leader of the 2 bases taken over by Bai Zemin, he was not there personally to lead them so it was natural that he did not know certain things and that the government left in charge made decisions in his place.
Be that as it may, Bai Zemin felt some disappointment towards this man who led his country for many years in the past. However, after giving it more thought, he realized that there was no need to overthink it..... Xuanyuan Wentian was a man who was capable of abandoning his daughter, tossing her aside like a trash bag. There was nothing good that could come out of such scum of humanity.
It had been about 60 hours since Bai Zemin had ordered Wu Keqian to send two teams with 3000 soul evolvers each and large quantities of Unclassified mutant beast leather that would be used to start producing warm clothing, and while it was true that production would take time, at some point it had to start as standing idly by was not an option.
The night had descended, as cold as the previous ones and lashing the world once again with beautiful but terrifyingly icy snowflakes.
Inside the base's most luxurious villa, Bai Zemin was sitting on a comfortable leather couch as he enjoyed the dim lighting of the room from the wood-burning stove burning brightly a few meters in front of him.
Shangguan Bing Xue was sitting on the one-seater couch to his left while Lilith in her natural form was sitting on the one-seater couch to his right; both women were silent while the former was reading one of the books found in the third silver pagoda while the latter was enjoying a book that told of the romance between a cursed prince who was turned into a beast and a beautiful woman who by coincidences of fate ended up in his castle.
With her body curled into a small ball and her head covered in silver hair resting comfortably on Bai Zemin's lap, little Bai Shilin had her eyes closed and her breathing was even as her chest rose and fell gently; a clear indication that she was deeply asleep.
With the only sound present being the relaxed breathing of the little girl and the crackling of the wood slowly being consumed by the fire, Bai Zemin enjoyed the warm silence as he browsed through his records in search of something; more specifically, he was looking at his skills.
After several minutes of consideration, his eyes finally stopped on two skills, both of which required Third Order Soul Stones to evolve.
One of them was Blood Manipulation.
While the other was Special Forces Soldier.
Blood Manipulation was currently at the maximum level of the Second Order, and Bai Zemin needed to take it to the next Order as it was one of the requirements he was required to complete before he could finally break into the Second Order and acquire the Blood Mistic job.
On the other hand, Soldier Special Forces was a passive skill that had been with Bai Zemin almost as long as Blood Manipulation. In fact, Special Forces Soldier was his second overall skill and his first passive skill, as well as being probably the skill that had helped him the most in terms of survival since without this skill Bai Zemin's combat techniques and knowledge of all types of weapons and war machines would be pathetically low, to say the least.
Bai Zemin already possessed everything necessary to evolve both skills, it was just that the cost of Third Order Soul Stones was a bit overwhelming for the current him. Even after killing several Third Order enemies, the total number of Third Order Soul Stones he possessed was only 11 and he would need these Soul Stones to replenish the Sky Destroyer's energy in the probably not so distant future, which would be a great loss if he failed to obtain more in that time frame.
Finally and after several minutes of consideration, Bai Zemin gritted his teeth and while looking at the requirements pulled out what he needed to evolve not one but both skills!
[Special Forces Soldier (Unclassified Passive Skill) Level 5 - Evolution Requirements]
[Kill Unclassified enemies: 5000/5000]
[Kill First Order enemies: 100/100]
[Kill Second Order enemies: 10/10]
[Third Order Soul Stone: 1/1]
[All requirements have been successfully completed. Do you wish to evolve this skill to the next stage?]
Bai Zemin still kept his teeth clenched but there was no longer any doubt in his eyes as he nodded heavily.
A Third Order Soul Stone immediately flew out of his hand and floated in the middle of the room, releasing a faint but beautiful silver-colored radiance that caught the attention of the two distracted women.
And just like that, the evolution process of what would eventually become one of Bai Zemin's most powerful skills officially began.