Chapter 704: Triumphant Return (part 1)
Chapter 704: Triumphant Return (part 1)
When Xia Ya leading Shangguan Bing Xue and the others arrived at the control room about half an hour later, the expression on the face of everyone was fabulous to appreciate. Bai Zemin really had a lot of fun taking mental pictures; especially of the expressions of people such as Sun Ling who usually acted all flirtatious and seductive, as well as Shangguan Bing Xue who most of the time behaved composed and calm.
Liang Jing was the wildest of all. The man started coughing furiously and his face had turned as red as a beet; Bai Zemin even though he was about to have a heart attack as he fell to the ground while looking at the futuristic-looking control room with wide eyes.
“Big brother.” Meng Qi muttered under her breath.
She didn’t even care about the scenery and immediately walked toward Bai Zemin as soon as she set foot inside the command room.
Bai Zemin was sitting in the seat of the ship’s captain. His posture was relaxed and arrogant to the point where several of the soul evolvers who saw him at first had the urge to charge forward and punch him in the face to wipe that smile off while more than a few ladies froze for several seconds before looking away with sweat running down their faces and their hearts beating fast.
His right leg rested on his left leg, the elbow of his left arm rested on the armrest of the seat made of some kind of black mutant beast leather, and with his arm extended upwards, he rested his face in the clenched fist.
He really looked like a relaxed person who was taking some kind of vacation.
Bai Zemin smiled kindly at Meng Qi after she arrived beside him and assured her that everything was fine when he noticed the concern on her face.
It was only then that Meng Qi realized that there was someone else in this room besides her brother and the group that had just arrived.
“This…” Meng Qi looked at the silhouette standing just behind the seat where her big brother was sitting and subconsciously took a step back before stopping. She eyed the figure warily and asked cautiously, “Big brother…. Who is this person?”
It was her words that brought the others out of the dreamy state they were in. They all followed Meng Qi’s eyes and froze as they saw the giant tower standing just behind the seat of the ship’s captain in which Bai Zemin was sitting.
“Mm? Oh!” Bai Zemin nodded as if he just realized what was happening and calmly said, “Everyone, let me introduce our new team member. This big guy here is named Kong Jun and from now on he will be my bodyguard.”
“Bodyguard…” Shangguan Bing Xue whispered to herself as her entire body tensed while looking at the silhouette wrapped in a large black cloak that covered his appearance completely. She could sense extreme danger coming from the figure underneath the cloak; danger to the extent that her life could be endangered in a 1 vs 1 confrontation.
This came as a great shock to Shangguan Bing Xue! Because just as Bai Zemin had pointed out before, she was tremendously powerful at this moment!
Everyone looked at Bai Zemin’s “bodyguard” in shock.
None of them could understand where this person named Kong Jun had come from as they were all fully aware that there should not be such a person in this group. Each and every one of them was well aware of how many had entered the ruins but there was definitely not such a big person with the name Kong Jun in the memories of any of them!
Moreover, the aura of the person wrapped by the cloak was extremely terrifying and the size of his body made it difficult for them to think that they were dealing with a human being.
“Come on, Kong Jun. Greet them, they will be your companions on the battlefield from today onwards.” Bai Zemin looked back in an attempt to break the ice.
Even though Bai Zemin had covered Kong Jun with a hooded cloak that even covered his facial features, it was hard not to feel fear for him. After all, the presence of Kong Jun was simply too overwhelming for the others.
Under everyone’s surprised eyes, Kong Jun moved slightly and then everyone watched as his head moved down slightly in what seemed to be a nodding gesture in greeting.
The corner of Bai Zemin’s mouth twitched a couple of times at the sight. He cleared his throat and while looking at the others said with an awkward smile, “Well, Kong Jun is not good with words. He was locked up here for countless years and the only reason he survived was thanks to one of the functions of the battleship. He also has no memories of the past so I hope you’ll be sympathetic to him.”
Although the words Bai Zemin said were quite vague and even questionable, none of them could really point out anything after looking at their surroundings. This was a war battleship whose technology was so advanced that none of them could comprehend at all!
It wouldn’t be too crazy if it actually had some sort of function to preserve bodies in a comatose state. Hadn’t there been enough movies where humans traveled through outer space in spaceships that looked similar to the battleship they were in now? Humans who went into a state of hibernation for tens of thousands of years so as not to feel the passage of time during the ride.
“Hey, Bai Zemin.”
“Mm?” Bai Zemin looked at Wu Yijun, who looked at him curiously, and said in confusion, “Yes?”
Wu Yijun looked at him, or rather, looked down at his lap with a rather puzzled expression on her pretty baby face. She pointed to what was resting against his body and asked quietly, “That…. What’s about that egg you have there?”
Bai Zemin looked at the egg in his lap and he felt a small headache approaching. Because inside the egg was the future queen of the weaver ants, Bai Zemin could not store it in his spatial storage ring since he could not store living beings there. Therefore, he had no choice but to carry the egg at all times without daring to move away from it for fear of someone stealing or hurting his future little unborn daughter.
“Ignore this egg momentarily.” Bai Zemin said, and in an attempt to avert the eyes from the ash-gray egg, he clapped his hands as he said cheerfully, “Now, everyone. How about we go claim our reward for being successful? We have fought very hard, many brothers and sisters died while each and every one of us has suffered all kinds of injuries to get this far. It’s time we saw more of the fruits of what we have reaped!”
“Huh?”
“… Leader, what are you talking about?”
“Rewards?”
“But…”
“…”
Everyone looked at Bai Zemin in confusion and they began to murmur among themselves while exchanging dumbfounded glances. Because they were all speaking at the same time, understanding them was a challenge in itself.
“Bai Zemin, what are you talking about?” Chen He walked over and asked with wide eyes, “Wasn’t the reward of the fifth ruin this war battleship?”
The Sky Destroyer was a war machine that would probably be unmatched for at least the next 50-100 years. Even though the only function they knew of was the teleportation, it was more than clear that this ship had many incredible features.
However, the words Bai Zemin said suggested that there was more!
“In fact, this battleship is the whole reward of the fifth ruin.” Bai Zemin nodded. He took the ash-gray egg and while holding it close to his body said in a low voice, “The Sky Destroyer was the most valuable treasure of the ancient Kang Kingdom, its strongest weapon.”
“Then…” Chen He looked at him blankly, just like everyone else.
“However,” Bai Zemin smiled mysteriously and his eyes flashed as he slowly said, “This Sky Destroyer is a very large ship…. And it turns out that while I was scanning the various functions of the magic circles installed throughout the battleship, I found that one of those features has a function very similar to the security cameras we are familiar with.”
Shangguan Bing Xue narrowed her eyes slightly and asked too confidently to be a question, “You found something else inside the ship, didn’t you?”
Bai Zemin did not reply. Instead, he walked towards the door and as he walked out of the command room he said loudly, “Follow me, I’ll show you something good!”
As everyone looked at each other, Kong Jun rushed forward and quickly followed Bai Zemin; more precisely, he followed the future queen of the weaver ants who was being taken away by Bai Zemin.
Subconsciously, most of them took a step back when they saw the huge figure of Kong Jun advancing confidently. Every step the over 2-meter tall giant took seemed to make the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly, which gave him an even more shadowy and respectable appearance than he already had.
Shangguan Bing Xue looked at Kong Jun for a moment before quickly following behind, joining Bai Zemin first and occasionally glancing back. She was really curious about this person named Kong Jun, but she would have to ask Bai Zemin later if she wanted to know more about it.
On the other hand, as they walked in Bai Zemin’s footsteps, Zhong De and Cai Jingyi exchanged glances quickly. They both saw the shock in each other’s eyes and seemed to understand each other quite well as even without a word they both knew that the other was shocked by a surprising fact they had both discovered.
Kong Jun was definitely not human!
Zhong De and Cai Jingyi were also two of the Loyal Followers who followed Bai Zemin. In fact, they were both part of the first generation of Loyal Followers so to speak. Both Zhong De and Cai Jingyi could feel some sort of connection with Kong Jun, and even though it was a very superficial connection to the point of being insignificant, that connection was more than enough for both of them to know that the new companion was far from being a human!
They were both amazed and couldn’t help but feel a little wary as well. They couldn’t even trust humans of their own race not to mention trusting other races; Zhong De and Cai Jingyi, just like everyone else present, had seen zombies devouring humans and had even seen several goblins raiding human villages, raping and killing with fierce expressions on their faces. Therefore, it was not easy for them to trust Kong Jun even if they knew that under the effect of the skill ‘Loyal Follower’ betrayal was not an option.
Even then, none of them said anything and simply followed the team silently. If Bai Zemin did not say anything, then he had to have his reasons; he had never failed them and always managed to find the best path even in the midst of chaos and hopelessness, which was why Zhong De and Cai Jingyi had blind faith in him.
After walking calmly for about ten minutes, Bai Zemin led everyone to the second floor and stopped in front of a huge metal door that was currently firmly closed. Just like the others, this metal door also had a deep blue magic circle on the top.
“Is it here?” Shangguan Bing Xue looked at him with expectation shining in her eyes.
Bai Zemin chuckled and nodded, “This is the first stop, so to speak.”
With a single thought from Bai Zemin, the golden runes on the jet-colored ring lit up and in response, the more than ten-meter wide metal door slowly slid down.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin were the ones ahead, therefore, they were naturally the first to see what awaited beyond the door when it began to open.
The eyes of Shangguan Bing Xue twinkled as if thousands of stars were shining in them as she muttered under her breath, “My God…”
Even Bai Zemin who already knew what was there because he had seen it using the strange security camera function that the magic circles had couldn’t help but get excited. His heart began to pound against his chest loudly as he looked at the inside of the huge room and just like Shangguan Bing Xue his eyes also lit up brightly.
Meng Qi, who was only a few steps behind, froze in her tracks when she arrived in front of the door. Her eyes sparkled and before anyone else could do anything she looked at Bai Zemin with fierce eyes as she said in a serious voice, “Big brother, you have to give me one of those no matter what!”
Everyone was surprised to see Meng Qi, always calm and mature, behaving like this. But when they saw what was happening, they understood the reason and could no longer blame her.