Chapter 749: New target: Haidian District (part1/2)
Chapter 749: New target: Haidian District (part1/2)
After several seconds during which both Bai Zemin and Meng Qi remained silent with him trying to comprehend and analyze the words his sister had said, and with her watching his face in an attempt to understand the effect her words have had on her brother, Bai Zemin’s frozen expression finally broke.
Meng Qi felt her heart beat a little faster and she didn’t deny the fact that she felt a little scared when she saw her brother’s serious expression, however, as she felt footsteps behind her, an idea popped into her head and before Bai Zemin could do anything she turned and ran towards Ye Linger who was approaching carrying another tray full of food.
“Princess, don’t run while carrying the dishes.” Ye Linger sighed.
Meng Qi turned a deaf ear and while hiding behind her pointed at Bai Zemin with a shake of her head as she said with fake fear, “Mom, Daddy Zemin is bullying me!”
Daddy Zemin? Ye Linger’s hands trembled and she almost knocked over the tray she was holding. However, she quickly calmed down, and seeing the incredulous expression on her son’s face, she couldn’t help but secretly shake her head.
Ye Linger had naturally heard when her son’s partner screamed out loud the night before, it was only natural for Meng Qi to hear it too considering that not only was her level higher than Ye Linger’s but Bai Zemin’s and Meng Qi’s room were closer to each other compared to the master bedroom.
“Okay, princess. Stop messing with your brother, look at the surprised expression on his face, he looks like he will faint soon. Lets go, let’s go eat breakfast before the hot dishes get cold.” Ye Linger smiled slightly and shook her head before continuing on her way.
“Okaaaaay!” Meng Qi nodded and quickly followed her mother, but not before stopping to stick out her tongue and wink at her brother before making a hasty escape.
Bai Zemin, who was only a second short of getting angry at Meng Qi, was speechless as he looked at the backs of his mother and younger sister.
“That little minx…” He shook his head not knowing whether to laugh or cry before finally following behind the two.
During breakfast, Lilith’s fears did not come true, and except for the occasional glares from Meng Qi, she was treated very well by both Ye Linger and Bai Delan. She had integrated into the family so well that Bai Zemin’s mother had asked her to at least stay for the day so that the two of them could talk more about Bai Zemin.
Lilith naturally agreed since she would be able to learn things about Bai Zemin during his past years while Ye Linger would be able to learn more about the months she was separated from her son that seemed like centuries of time.
…
After breakfast, Bai Zemin together with Bai Delan went straight to the government building where practically all the high command officials of the Chinese Renaissance faction had gathered.
Of course, people like Shangguan Bing Xue, Chen He, Zhong De, Nangong Lingxin, Cai Jingi, Evangeline, and Shen Mei were also present. As for Wu Yijun, she was in charge of another important task that Bai Zemin delegated to her so she was not present at this time; in fact, after breakfast, Meng Qi had gone to Wu Yijun’s house.
The meeting lasted about 2 hours, and it was close to 9 am when everyone started to leave the premises. Some of them had shadowy expressions on their faces while others were relaxed and walked normally, full of confidence.
In the meeting room, Wu Keqian forced a smile and said feeling a bit helpless, “Say, Zemin, kid…. Wouldn’t it have been better for you to wait before announcing that you would make a reform in power?”
Wu Keqian had arranged this meeting to inform that from today he would be stepping down from his position as top leader and that from this very moment onwards the person with full power was the young man who had been getting some weird looks because of the egg he was holding with wariness.
Even though Bai Zemin’s popularity had skyrocketed over the past few days due to his incredible feats of not only obtaining technology that was far above the current Earth, the acquisition of a powerful futuristic warship, and of course, his performance in the war against the goblins, there were actually some people who seemed to have never heard of him until today.
“Uncle Wu, those kind of wide-bellied people that only know how to eat, sleep, and have sex with several women don’t need mercy nor do they need time to adapt to changes.” Bai Zemin said as he gently caressed the egg in his embrace. “If they accept the changes and adapt, they will survive. If they cannot accept the changes and do not adapt, then it means they are not fit for the new world we live in. Those people didn’t even have a clue about the situation in the base, the proof is that they didn’t even hear my name all these days.”
Bai Zemin had no problem keeping lazy survivors who didn’t want to do anything behind his walls as so far all of them eventually looked for work after realizing that they couldn’t go on like this. However, he would definitely not allow a couple of old bums with no ability whatsoever to enjoy luxuries just because.
“All the people you want to strip of their positions and titles were once people with some important position in the previous world.” Wu Keqian pointed out, trying to get Bai Zemin to reconcile his idea.
“They were once. Previous world… Past tense, not present.” Sun Ling added from the side.
Wu Yijun’s mother was wearing leather clothing belonging to some mutant beast that clung to her body tightly, covering her completely but still leaving little to the imagination. She looked at her husband and said with a slight smile, “I think what this little guy is doing is the right thing to do. During the early stages it was okay to protect those people since they had connections that could be exploited, but now it no longer makes sense to give them privileges they don’t deserve.”
Wu Keqian sighed, and after several seconds he finally gave up, nodding his head without adding much more. He was no longer the lord of this place, and it was only a matter of time before everyone accepted Bai Zemin as the new leader. In fact, Wu Keqian had lost much of his power after losing his subclass, but he was fine with that as long as things could stabilize and his people could live better.
Because the news needed to spread, Bai Zemin had not yet received an upgrade in his subclass. After all, for the Soul Record to identify him as the leader of a human settlement it was necessary for the humans of that settlement to know of his existence, and such a thing would probably take a few more days.
However, what surprised Bai Zemin was that even when the 200,000 or so reconverted humans who stayed with him and decided to serve him joined his faction, his subclass had still not advanced at all!
Counting those who were in the northern base and the approximately 200,000 reconverted humans who were temporarily staying in the Sky Destroyer, the total number of survivors under Bai Zemin’s command numbered approximately 235,000!
It seemed that the gap between the Lord level and the next was a lot bigger than the previous gaps.
After the meeting ended, Bai Zemin and the others headed straight to the Wu family mansion where they spent practically the entire afternoon reading a tiny portion of the books obtained from one of the five silver pagodas.
Those books contained precious information for them, and needed to be understood so that in the future they could exploit that knowledge to its fullest potential.
Books of medicinal herbs with illustrations and explanations of their possible uses or functions, poisonous herbs and different types of poison, edible herbs that could replace certain vegetables without any problems, etc.
Cookbooks detailing different methods that could not only make food more delicious but also explained the way in which the meat of mutant beasts or mutant vegetables needed to be cooked in order for them not to lose their properties and for the body to absorb as many of their benefits as possible.
Farming books that explained how to make the most of the land in different types of areas. It was also detailed that from the second stage of evolution, the Earth would experience changes in its territories and that even the warmest places could have cold areas, the same applied in the opposite case so it was now possible to plant or find things that usually would not be there.
Rune books. These books were Meng Qi’s focus since the others could not understand them at all. She spent the entire afternoon and evening completely immersed in them, starting at the basic level and soaking up knowledge like a sponge.
The amount of books was simply colossal, so much so that even with more than 20 people reading several of them had not even reached 2% of the total after a whole evening. This was because there were so many books covering a single subject and advancing in difficulty that they had to start reading from volume 1 to understand volume 2.
By the time night began to descend, everyone was planning to stay at the Wu family home as it would be more comfortable that way. The mansion was large enough to accommodate everyone without any problems and even provide private rooms for each of them. They could rest when they were tired and continue reading books comfortably instead of having to move around, wasting precious time.
However, Bai Zemin shook his head, and once he had a rare moment alone with Shangguan Bing Xue, he told her about the matter of the zombie attack in alliance with the mutant beasts on the north base.
When Shangguan Bing Xue heard that the eastern sea race was targeting the human establishments on the mainland, a flash of anger shone in her blue eyes.
“Do you think that mermaid princess doesn’t have something to do with all this? Don’t you find it suspicious that just when we decided to form an alliance with her, one of her brothers shows up trying to dominate the human camps? It seems too much of a coincidence to me.”
Bai Zemin looked up at the now completely dark sky from the top of the mansion and said in a deep voice, “I don’t want to think that Xian Mei’er betrayed us in any way. Xiao Xiao will wake up in a few hours, she will deliver Xian Mei’er’s message to me, and depending on that I will see which direction we will move from here.”
Shangguan Bing Xue nodded, “If you have already decided, then I am fine with whatever you have in mind.”
After a moment of silence, Bai Zemin looked sideways at her and said softly, “Bing Xue, have you thought about what you will do now?”
“What do you mean?”
She looked at him in confusion, to which Bai Zemin replied:
“Depending on the words Xian Mei’er could say, in a week’s time we will move southward to conquer Haidian District.”
“Haidian District…” Shangguan Bing Xue muttered before turning her head to look up at the starry sky.
Haidian District was where her mother lived, someone Shangguan Bing Xue wanted to see anxiously; these anxieties were the source of her greatest fear that her mother had failed to survive, or that she had to do low acts in order to have something to eat. However, Shangguan Bing Xue was also worried that the loving mother she knew might have completely changed considering everything that had happened in this short period of time.
At the same time, it was in Haidian District where the highest officials in all of China were located; the true core of the country. It would probably be the most difficult district to take over as there would definitely be many military establishments there.
But Shangguan Bing Xue knew that the reason Bai Zemin was asking her that question was another one.
Bing Xue’s real surname was Xuanyuan, not Shangguan.
Her father, the person she had hated the most throughout her life, the person she had wanted to surpass in every way and the reason she had worked so hard to the point that she had practically abandoned the life of a normal girl completely from a very young age, the main source of Shangguan Bing Xue’s hatred and distrust of men…. Xuanyuan Wentian, the president and the highest authority in all of China also resided in Heidian District.
“Have you made your decision?” Bai Zemin asked in a low voice, and just like her, he looked up at the distant sky as he calmly said, “Remember, Bing Xue, whatever you decide you will have the entire faction backing you, and naturally it include myself. If you want the man named Xuanyuan Wentian to live, then he will live. If you want the man named Xuanyuan Wentian to die, then he will die. If you haven’t decided yet then that’s fine, you still have a little more time to think.”
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