Chapter 706: Triumphant Return! (part 3)
Chapter 706: Triumphant Return! (part 3)
It was impossible for the little Roaring Flame Tigers to survive for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions of years… No, maybe even longer, who knows.
If the Kang Kingdom really had a soul evolver capable of drawing such advanced runes such as runes capable of stopping the passage of time within a certain area, then Kang Guiying would not have needed to force a part of his soul into a Fourth Order Soul Stone just to leave a thread of his consciousness behind in order to carry out his final will. The king could have simply locked himself inside a room where the flow of time had stopped thanks to the runes and waited for his trusted subordinates to find some divine medicine capable of healing his critical injuries.
Earlier, when Bai Zemin found the room where the Roaring Flame Tigers were, he was so happy that he almost jumped out of the seat of the ship’s captain at that moment. How could he not have been overjoyed after understanding what those 50-60 tiger cubs meant? However, after Bai Zemin found the report on the Roaring Flame Tigers, his excitement cooled and after several minutes of silence he sighed with complicated emotions flashing in his eyes.
In reality, the reason the energy barriers were there was not to prevent the Roaring Flame Tigers from escaping; the mutant beasts were quite docile and unless another creature attacked them they rarely became aggressive or took the initiative to launch an attack. Then, why were those energy barriers there even though the room was sealed off by a huge Rank 2 metral alloy door capable of withstanding even the attacks of maximum First Order existences and even initial Second Order?
The reason was very simple…. And also cruel from a certain point of view.
Kang Guiying knew that with his departure the Kang Kingdom would soon fall, every great kingdom was destined to fall once its leader fell; not only would his trusted subordinates begin to fight among themselves for power but the distant kingdoms would seize the opportunity to attack when the strongest soul evolver of the kingdom had fallen and when the inner realm was in chaos. It was precisely because he knew that the future of his realm was sealed in stone that Kang Guiying decided to leave behind the five ruins using the Five Silver Pagodas as a nucleus.
Without humans to feed them and beasts to hunt and eat, the Roaring Flame Tigers were destined to starve to death at some point. Therefore, even though the Roaring Flame Tigers that Kang Guiying had locked up in this special room of the Sky Destroyer were all top-notch Third Order mutant beasts, in the absence of food their fates would be miserable no matter what.
However, as Third Order existences, the Roaring Flame Tigers managed to stay alive even after a whole year of eating nothing and drinking nothing. During that year, the Roaring Flame Tigers naturally mated with each other and many little tiger cubs were born.
Finally, when the first generation of Roaring Flame Tigers died completely, the second generation that had been born a month or two earlier at most was destined to die a lot sooner since they were only level 10 cubs. However, just as the second generation was about to die, the energy barriers lit up and the corpses exploded; even the bones exploded to the point where nothing was left.
The blood, the flesh, the tendons, the muscles, the bones, the hearts…. Every fragment of the bodies of the Roaring Flame Tigers of the first generation were driven by various runes in order that the Roaring Flame Tigers of the second generation that refused to eat their parents could get stronger and grow.
Thanks to this, the second generation managed to live for several months; months during which they came to reproduce, thus giving birth to the third generation of Roaring Flame Tigers.
When the second generation died of starvation, their bodies exploded and were used as nutrients for the third generation… The process simply repeated itself again, and again, and again, and again, and again.
At first, the number of Roaring Flame Tigers was around 700. However, sometimes the number of Roaring Flame Tigers that were born was less and therefore that number slowly began to fall.
Now, countless years later, this generation of Roaring Flame Tigers was all that was left; only half a hundred of them.
Bai Zemin estimated that if he and his team had taken a couple more months then all of these little mutant tiger cubs would have suffered the same fate as their countless predecessors.
As cruel as it was, Bai Zemin could not judge Kang Guiying’s decision…. Because if not for him doing what he did, all the Roaring Flame Tigers would have died earlier when whatever happened did happen.
After several minutes, Bai Zemin looked at the group around him and observed them for a couple of seconds. Most of them naturally did not have a tiger cub in their hands since there were more humans than Roaring Flame Tigers, he would have to distribute these mutant tiger cubs well to trusted subordinates to nurture them and then allow them to have cubs to mutiply the current number by at least two or even three times.
Bai Zemin clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention and commanded calmly, “Everyone, feed this to the little tigers for now.”
Saying it, Bai Zemin waved his hand and the corpses of some mutant weaver ants appeared. He no longer had any more meat in his storage ring; it had been consumed during the week they stayed inside the fifth ruin to wipe out all the ants and to boost their levels and Soul Power.
“Isn’t the meat of the weaver ants poisonous?” Wu Yijun asked carefully as she stroked the tiger cub in her arms.
“Wu Yijun, don’t forget they are mutant beasts and not human beings.” Nangong Lingxin carried the tiger cub she was holding over to one of the weaver ant corpses and let it go.
The little animal used its little paws and surprisingly managed to cut the dead ant’s skin with its claws. The mutant tiger cub didn’t hesitate to start eating as soon as it saw the creature’s flesh and after a single bite its eyes sparkled with excitement, speeding up the swallowing speed quickly as if it feared someone would take away its food.
“Their bodies are built in a different way.” Nangong Lingxin smiled kindly as she explained to the worried Wu Yijun.
Although the tiger was hungry, its little stomach couldn’t hold too much food which is why after a few minutes it stopped and lay down on the ground. The cheeky little creature casually burped before it closed its eyes and began to snore with what looked like a happy smile on its face.
Seeing that all was well, the others let go of their fears and allowed the mutant tiger cubs to begin devouring the food. The little beasts did not even hesitate and after several minutes the 60 or so cubs were lying on the ground with their swollen bellies, snoring and sleeping with pleasure.
Bai Zemin shook his head before ordering in a deep voice, “Let’s move to the next room.”
Next room? Everyone blinked for a few seconds before they remembered…. Bai Zemin had said that there were actually two more treasures inside the war battleship!
The Roaring Flame Tigers were the first treasure but there was another one missing!
Everyone quickly followed Bai Zemin, leaving the tiger cubs behind to rest after having a feast. Of course, Bai Zemin quietly closed the door; he didn’t want to have to search for every tiger cub everywhere inside the battleship after all.
A few minutes later, the group was brought into another room. Bai Zemin glanced behind him over his shoulder and his eyes flashed strangely as one of the jet-black ring’s golden runes lit up upon receiving his mental command.
The normal looking metal alloy door casually slid aside, revealing the inside of a room that was dark as the mouth of a wolf making it hard to see what was beyond.
Just as everyone wondered what was going on, two flashes of red light shone in the middle of the room. Everyone froze in fear at the two eyes that seemed to be staring at them from the infinite darkness, but their fears grew when a second pair shone.
One, two, three, four, five…. The room was definitely very large as even after 1000 flashes of red light the number continued to grow.
Everyone watched with wide eyes and bated breath what seemed to be tens of thousands of demonic eyes staring at them.
“This… This is…” Chen He gulped audibly and felt his blood run cold at a bold but definitely logical thought growing rapidly in his heart.
Hadn’t they already seen this kind of red eyes before?!
Bai Zemin smiled dangerously and narrowed his eyes as he muttered softly but clearly to everyone, “We have more teammates now…. and we don’t need to worry about them suffering injuries in combat and won’t feel emotional pain for a long time if one of them falls.”
* * *
“All set?” Bai Zemin asked calmly as he sat down in the chair of the ship’s captain.
“It’s all set.” Wu Yijun nodded. She was standing just to his right and as she looked at the large dark screen in front of them she said in a serious voice, “All the soul evolvers and soldiers waiting outside the fifth ruin were brought in and are right now aboard the Sky Destroyer. We have also moved all our obtained gains so you don’t need to worry about leaving anything behind.”
Bai Zemin nodded, fully trusting in Wu Yijun’s words. She was the most efficient when it came to organization after all.
“In that case, shall we go home?” He smiled slightly and silently took out a small glowing rock from his storage ring.
It was the Fourth Order Soul Stone that Kang Guiying left behind. Although it wasn’t filled with energy by any means, that remaining 30% was probably equivalent to the power of a nuclear bomb if it were released all at once.
Bai Zemin moved the small glowing rock closer to the top of the pillar before him and with a grateful look on his face placed it in the correct slot.
Immediately after the Soul Stone got into the pillar, several lights lit up along the pillar and Bai Zemin immediately knew that he could now turn on the battleship’s engine. Each Soul Stone fulfilled a particular function, so while the Sky Destroyer could fly using the energy of some Third Order Soul Stones, the main engine could only be turned on when the main Soul Stone was present; a Fourth Order Soul Stone.
“Hey, aunt Sun.” Bai Zemin suddenly said.
“Mm?” Sun Ling blinked with curious eyes. She was standing right next to her daughter, staring at the still dark screen before them.
“Do you think uncle Wu will hand over control over the faction to me now?”
“Child, you…” Sun Ling looked at Bai Zemin not knowing whether to laugh or cry. In the end, she chuckled and said with a giggle, “If that husband of mine still dares to give you trouble after this then I will divorce him and marry you, how about that?”
What a joke! Bai Zemin’s colossal power aside, Sun Ling had seen his wonderful leadership and she was convinced that there was no one better to lead than him despite his young age! With him, China was destined to blossom and go far!
“Mom!” Wu Yijun looked at her and stomped on the ground with an adorable blush on her face.
“Hahahaha!” Bai Zemin laughed heartily and said in a cheerful voice, “I’ll take your words as a positive feedback then!”
He waved his hand and the ring of command released a powerful golden glow.
The energy screen lit up, revealing what seemed to be the blue sky and white clouds despite the fact that above them were countless piles of rocks and earth as they were only god knew how many meters underground.
“Take off!” Bai Zemin commanded in a loud voice.
Rumble….!
The engines started up… The mighty battleship that had been silent for countless years was finally starting to move again.