Chapter 414 - Peace Built Over Bones And Blood
Five kilometers away from the ruined city and at twice the distance from the Baiquan Camp, standing on the top of a tree that towered three hundred meters high, Bai Zemin watched from afar with indifference.
At a height of three hundred meters, the wind blowing from the mutant forests was whipping hard enough to tear the skin of a normal human being. Bai Zemin's cloak flapped fiercely but in the midst of the gale the flapping sound was practically non-existent.
Using to his advantage the fact that the terrain he was standing on was high as well as the height of the tree, Bai Zemin could see as well as hear the moment when the landmines exploded one after the other. The dense cloud of dust that rose more than two hundred meters high in the sky was visible even from so far away.
Next to Bai Zemin was a quite pretty soul evolver. She wore a cloth robe that clung to her lovely body tightly and held a staff of magic bone in her right hand. The strong winds blowing from the four directions caused the magic cloth robe to cling to her body even tighter than normal, revealing a great deal of sexual charm.
This woman was level 24 and she was very close to reaching the limit of the Unclassified stage. Moreover, despite her youthful appearance similar to a 25-year-old maiden, she was actually over 36 years old. The most striking thing about her, however, was the white color of her eyes; the pupils and sclera in both eyes were almost perfectly in synchronization.
"All the bombs hidden underground were successfully destroyed, Legion Leader." The woman said with a faint smile.
"Good job, Yuan Mei." Bai Zemin chuckled and nodded in satisfaction.
There were a variety of skills with different purposes, among them, eye skills were considerably rare as they were not only difficult to obtain but also had different functions despite affecting the same body part.
For example, Yuan Mei's eye skill in particular was similar to X-rays used to see through things. While her skill was still not as practical as it only allowed her to see things hidden underground, the advantage was that her skill also increased her vision range x10 times her normal.
It was precisely thanks to Yuan Mei's skill that Bai Zemin discovered the bombs hidden underground.
"Legion Leader, if I may I would like to ask you a question." Yuan Mei suddenly said.
"Oh? Ask with confidence." Bai Zemin looked at her in confusion and nodded.
"Then that I will do." She nodded and then frowned slightly as she said in a puzzled voice, "May I know if there is any particular reason why you decided to send little Ning to disable the bombs? If I'm not wrong, Blood Sword Legion Commander Zhong De's Earthquake skill should have worked a lot better."
Bai Zemin chuckled upon hearing this and was about to reply when a sweet scent of jasmine filled his nostrils so that he unconsciously paused for a moment to appreciate it. Although it wasn't that lovely rose scent he so longed to feel again after almost half a month, this fresh scent wasn't bad at all either.
Bai Zemin didn't need to turn his face to know who the person who had just arrived was.
"That question actually has a very simple answer."
A slightly cold and indifferent voice sounded to Bai Zemin's left.
Who else could she be but Shangguan Bing Xue?
Yuan Mei immediately became somewhat nervous at Shangguan Bing Xue's presence. This was because Shangguan Bing Xue was probably the person who was the most difficult to get close to; even more so than Bai Zemin. Her indifferent expression and cold voice made others automatically turn away from her, so it was hard to know how to act around her and this only became more complicated when one took into account Shangguan Bing Xue's position inside the faction.
"Oh? You understand the reason why I did this?" Bai Zemin looked at her with slight surprise.
Until now, almost everyone believed that his decision was not too correct since even though Luo Ning had killed countless zombies and mutant beasts so far, she had not killed humans with her bare hands. Therefore, most thought that sending her immediately to a war camp filled with enemies of the same race as her was not the wisest thing to do.
Shangguan Bing Xue nodded at Bai Zemin's question. She looked into the distance and as she saw a shadow approaching in a hurry, she said calmly, "Luo Ning needs to practice with her skill to fight intelligent enemies. So far, she has only faced wild beasts or mindless zombies, which in the short term is not bad. However, Luo Ning is still young and has a lot of time to learn, which at the same time means she has limited experience. Therefore, in order to prevent her from encountering major setbacks in the future, it is best to prepare her for the worst now. After all, we won't necessarily always be by her side to protect her, and at that time she will have to rely on herself."
Bai Zemin nodded silently as Yuan Mei's eyes lit up more and more the more she listened to Shangguan Bing Xue's speech. In fact, very few soul evolvers had thought about this. Although Luo Ning was undoubtedly strong, she was too young. Being young was not bad by any means, the problem was that being young and innocent in this chaotic world was a big problem; that very naivety could be the cause of one's death.
Several days ago, Bai Zemin had asked Luo Ning if she wanted to continue fighting or if she would rather just go to school and make lots of friends her own age. However, the little girl almost burst into tears thinking that Bai Zemin was going to forbid her to continue fighting against the zombies and pleaded with tearful eyes to let her continue fighting.
In the end, Bai Zemin had to assure the little girl several times that he was really just asking and was not going to force her to do anything she did not want to do. Even though Bai Zemin was sure that if he ordered her to stop fighting to live a quiet life Luo Ning would surely listen and obey, what right did he have to take away a little girl's freedom to express herself and follow her wishes? Not to mention that the more powerful Luo Ning was the better it would be for her own safety.
"Although you are right, that is not the only reason why I asked Luo Ning to fulfill this task instead of asking someone else." Bai Zemin said, noticing how Luo Ning riding on the back of her shadow cat quickly approached, "How would you feel if a nine-year-old girl breaks through the defensive lines of an armed army so easily and then leaves as if it were child's play?"
He let that question float in the air and jumped down, leaving the two women dumbfounded.
After several seconds of awkward silence, Yuan Mei couldn't help but smile wryly as she said, "Our Legion Leader really thinks of some pretty interesting ideas ha haha...."
Shangguan Bing Xue nodded and sighed in her heart.
On the ground, Bai Zemin approached Luo Ning and watched her dismount from the shadow cat before she undid the summoning.
"Big brother, I did as you asked!" Luo Ning said in a cheerful voice as she walked towards him.
Her eyes were slightly narrowed from exhaustion, her face pale after the severe loss of Mana, and her steps were somewhat unsteady as if to prove how weak she was. Although she had not fought physically, the amount of effort Luo Ning had put on herself as well as the amount of mental weight she was bearing as thousands and thousands of shots flew in her direction had been enough to send her over the edge.
Bai Zemin felt some regret in his heart, however, knowing that what he had done was partially right, he calmed down. He reached over and caressed her slightly tousled hair as he said in a soft voice, "You've done a great job today, little Ning. Why don't you get some rest? Big brother will wake you up when it's all over."
Luo Ning gently shook her head and as she wrapped both arms around his waist she looked up and said in a serious voice, "I want to help big brother more. I also want to help the other uncles and aunts more. When all the bad guys are defeated and big brother becomes the King of China, peace will finally return to everyone's life, big brother promised after all."
The eyes of the soul evolvers who were hidden and heard Luo Ning's words could not help their gazes from softening as they looked at the little girl. Many of them felt pity, others felt gratified, but there was no doubt that they all wanted to protect her.
To date, Luo Ning was the only small child who fought tenaciously and woke up early every day to train with the adults or go out to hunt enemies. All the other children who previously wanted to fight gave up when they were taken by the soldiers on expeditions, completely freaking out when after a long time they again faced the terror of zombies.
"Don't worry." Bai Zemin said in a stern voice and his eyes flashed with firmness as he said, "I will take it upon myself to build peace with my own hands... and with the help of all of you."
"Mhm!" Luo Ning nodded vigorously and smiled tenderly.
'Even though that peace will be built over bones and blood.' Bai Zemin finished in his heart.
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