Chapter 758: Heading south: Beginning of the conquest! (part 1)
Chapter 758: Heading south: Beginning of the conquest! (part 1)
Bai Shilin blinked as she looked at her father for a few seconds, then she wiggled a little on her second mother’s lap to raise her head and look into her eyes for several seconds.
Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin exchanged glances feeling puzzled by Bai Shilin’s weird silence before she softly asked, “Little Shilin, is something wrong?”
“This… Bing Xue mom, dad…” Bai Shilin looked really confused and did not know how to express what was on her mind. Suddenly, her eyes lit up and she quickly spoke so that she wouldn’t forget the words that had occurred to her, “Shilin is level 55 but Shilin can tell that mom is at level 90 while dad is at level 50. But then why can’t mom and dad sense Shilin’s level?”
Level 55? Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue looked at each other in shock, therefore, they could not immediately answer the question that Bai Shilin had asked them.
They were not shocked because the level was too high, on the contrary, they were shocked because it was low considering the huge amount of mana and records that Bai Shilin had absorbed before her birth. However, the main source of shock for the two was something else.
Despite being at level 55, Bai Shilin could sense Shangguan Bing Xue’s level without a problem while at level 90 Shangguan Bing Xue could not sense Bai Shilin’s!
Didn’t this mean that Bai Shilin’s Soul Power, her Soul Records, were much purer and of higher quality than Shangguan Bing Xue’s? Although it was hard to believe considering that Shangguan Bing Xue had the purest Soul Power Bai Zemin had ever seen in a living being other than himself, this was the only reason they could both think of.
‘No, wait a moment.’ Bai Zemin’s eyes flashed at the thought of a certain possibility.
“Shilin, do you have any skills?” Bai Zemin asked as he played with his daughter’s small fingers.
“Oh, Shilin naturally has skills!” She nodded with enthusiasm and asked quickly, “Does the father and mother would like Shilin to activate one of her skills?”
“This…” Bai Zemin gave Shangguan Bing Xue a sidelong glance before shaking his head. “Shilin, don’t do it…. Better… Better just tell us the function of each of your skills.”
Bai Zemin didn’t want to take any risks. If his beloved daughter brimming with innocence ended up activating a strange destructive-type skill…. The destruction of Shangguan Bing Xue’s entire household would no longer be the real problem but probably many innocents could be affected.
Besides, judging from the way Bai Shilin was talking she even had more than one skill from birth! As expected from the highest and never-before-seen genius in the entire history of the ant race. With Shi Lin’s records, part of Bai Zemin’s records, and part of Shangguan Bing Xue’s records; Bai Shilin was undoubtedly a little monster that in the future would be a source of terror to her enemies despite her sweet and cute appearance.
“Mmmm…” Bai Shilin took a few minutes to check her own records. She was new to all this so while opening and closing her status window was easy, surfing through the records that made up her total existence to find a few specific ones was no simple task at all.
A single ruin could have over 10,000 records composing it, one could only try to imagine how huge a number of records a living, intelligent entity must have!
After about ten minutes during which both Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue remained silent while looking at Bai Shilin’s serious little face, she finally opened her previously closed little eyes and said with enthusiasm, “Okay! I found them!”
She quickly continued, “Shilin has a skill to see the future, this skill is weaker than the skill Shi Lin mother had when she was still alive and I can only see up to 10 seconds forward but with a 2 minute cooldown. I also have a skill called Ice Maker but it is already in the Third Order, this skill Shilin has thanks to the records of Bing Xue mom. Also, dad, mom, Shilin finally knows why she can know your levels, it’s because Shilin has a passive skill that allows her to sense the levels of any living being within the same Order or below. Lastly, Shilin has a skill called Overlap Strength.”
“Overlap Strength?”
“Ice Maker?”
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue gasped in shock, the most surprised, however, was undoubtedly Bai Zemin.
Overlap Regeneration was the second activation of a skill, not a skill per se. However, his newborn daughter had acquired a SKILL with a suspiciously similar name….. What was this all about???? Bai Zemin really didn’t understand anything.
Bai Shilin’s entire birth seemed like a miracle in itself. She could even see the future up to 10 seconds ahead with 2 minutes of cooldown! Such a thing was simply insane! With 10 seconds ahead, Bai Shilin would even be able to read all of Bai Zemin’s future moves and take him out of the game in seconds easily if she played her cards right and Bai Zemin got careless!
“Mm, but, dad, mom…. This skill of mine, Overlap Strength isn’t as good as the Overlap Regeneration dad has.” Bai Shilin looked a little embarrassed as she lowered her head and whispered softly, “When Shilin was trying to eat the records dad transmitted during the last few minutes after activating that powerful skill, many green messages started to fill my eyes and in the end this skill Overlap Strenght was the only thing I could have because my soul wasn’t too powerful to have Overlap Regeneration.”
After hearing Bai Shilin’s words, Shangguan Bing Xue couldn’t help but look at Bai Zemin out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes glinted strangely, her thoughts unknown.
As for Bai Zemin, he remained silent for a moment, trying to digest his daughter’s words. After a few seconds, he looked into her eyes and asked curiously, “Shilin, what is the benefit Overlap Strenght grants you?”
“Eh?” Bai Shilin tilted her little head and looked at him blankly.
‘It seems that despite her intelligence at most it’s only that of a 5-year-old.’ Bai Zemin judged silently after realizing that the overly complicated words seemed to be somewhat difficult for his daughter to understand.
“When you activate your skill Overlap Strenght, what happens?” Bai Zemin rephrased with a gentle smile.
“Oh!” Bai Shilin clapped her little hands and swung her little feet as she replied with enthusiasm, “When Shilin activates her Overlap Strenght skill, Shilin can take 50% of a stat except for Health and convert it into Strength points for 1 minute!”
It was a powerful skill, there was no room for doubt about it. This was especially the case considering that Bai Shilin was at least 50% of the weaver ant race so her Strength was definitely not something to scoff at. It was just that Bai Zemin wasn’t too surprised because his Overlap Regeneration was much more flexible.
Of course, he was still surprised and couldn’t help but praise Bai Shilin several times telling her that in the future she would be a great ally to everyone. The little girl was so happy that she began to laugh and giggle with joy before throwing herself into her father’s arms, much to Shangguan Bing Xue’s frustration.
* * *
Approximately 40 minutes later, Bai Zemin said goodbye to Shangguan Bing Xue and left her house to head to his family’s home.
Although the ice princess was a little reluctant to part with little Bai Shilin, she understood that Bai Zemin wanted to introduce her to his parents so she very reluctantly nodded.
Although Bai Shilin was a high-level soul evolver and her mutant ant blood helped her fight the night cold much better than normal humans, neither Bai Zemin nor Shangguan Bing Xue was willing to let the girl go out naked in the fierce winds blowing from all directions as a result, little Bai Shilin ended up looking like some kind of strange creature after being wrapped in several woolen blankets that Shangguan Bing Xue used to cover her.
“Father, is this our house?” Bai Shilin asked, snuggling into the embrace of her beloved father who carried her like a porcelain doll wrapped in the woolen blankets.
“We will have many houses in the future, Shilin.” Bai Zemin smiled slightly, and as he walked to the entrance, he added, “But we will have only one home.”
Bai Zemin opened the door and both he and his little adopted daughter were greeted by the warmth and lights inside, as well as the voices and giggles coming from the living room.
“That home will be where our family is.”
Bai Shilin’s eyes sparkled as she heard her beloved father’s words. Even though she didn’t understand very well what he meant, somehow she felt her heartwarming up when she heard those last words so she couldn’t help but close her little eyes and rub her little head on his chest as if trying to get even closer.
Meng Qi was sitting on the couch and was waiting for her turn to play the snake game. It seemed that she had also joined the small gamer team of Luo Ning and the Wen twins.
She had arrived about 2 hours ago after her brother disappeared from the workshop and had been waiting for him but so far there was no sign of him.
Just then, Meng Qi noticed out of the corner of her eye a figure entering the living room and immediately jumped to her feet.
“Ah, big brother! You, where-“
Meng Qi’s words caught in her throat as her eyes subconsciously moved from Bai Zemin’s face to the ball of wool he was holding in his hands at chest level…. That was definitely not a normal ball of wool, it was moving and there was silver hair bulging out.
Bai Delan and Ye Linger were chatting with Lilith in her Lili form, especially with Bai Delan and Lili being the two most talkative since it was about the journey of conquest that Bai Zemin was about to embark on. The three of them had been talking about it for quite a few hours, and although Ye Linger and Bai Delan had tried to convince her, Lilith tactfully turned them down saying that her place was wherever Bai Zemin was.
The fact that she said such words naturally earned several sighs from Bai Delan and an even stronger look of approval from Ye Linger. Only a woman who had the will to accompany Bai Zemin in dangerous times and to suffer hardships in the outside world would be accepted by both of them, neither of them would look favorably on a woman who sought only to stay at home doing nothing, eating and enjoying luxuries ostentatiously.
Just then, Meng Qi’s voice calling out to Bai Zemin attracted the attention of Bai Delan and Ye Linger. But when the two of them turned to look towards the entrance of the living room and saw what Bai Zemin was carrying in his arms, they froze completely; this was because, in contrast to Meng Qi, Bai Delan and Ye Linger could see a beautiful, small doll-like face looking towards them with two large, shining, midnight-black eyes.
Bai Shilin squirmed a little in Bai Zemin’s embrace, and taking this as a sign from her asking him to put her down for a moment, he obediently put her down. Bai Zemin didn’t even have time to arrange the blankets or tell his daughter to be careful about tripping when she unwrapped herself and ran out to one of the couches located further east in the spacious living room.
“Lilith mommy!”
Lilith was already on her feet and immediately went down on her knees as she waited for the little girl who ran towards her with her arms wide open, bright eyes full of joy, and a smile as big as a child’s receiving the best gift of all.
Bai Shilin practically bumped into Lilith as she stepped into her embrace and immediately giggled happily as she felt the soft, warm arms wrap around her.
“Shilin, now we can finally talk properly.” Lilith smiled lovingly and put a delicate kiss on the girl’s silver hair, something that caught her attention slightly.
Bai Shilin raised her head as even with Lilith on her knees she was still smaller. Her eyes sparkled as she said with a happy smile, “Lilith mommy, this hug feels even warmer than when I was in the egg.”
“Silly girl, that’s because now we can both feel each other’s body heat.” Lilith smiled tenderly and explained.
“Hehehe!”
…
Bai Zemin watched the scene with a gentle smile on his face. His subordinates, especially those who had stood beside him on at least one battlefield, would definitely not be able to believe that the cold and bloodthirsty Bai Zemin who did not hesitate to blow up the bodies of his enemies into bloody mist would actually have such a gentle expression in his ever indifferent eyes.
He was not worried about the fact that Bai Shilin had called Lilith by her real name, after all, it was a matter that could easily be solved by saying that Lili was an abbreviation since everyone had called her that since she was a child.
But in fact, there was no need to worry about it at all since regardless of whether it was Bai Delan, Ye Linger, Meng Qi, Luo Ning, or the Wen twins; they all looked at the little girl who looked to be around 3 years old. Although each of them had their own thoughts and emotions, the shock was the same for all of them.
Bai Shilin’s eyes moved to Ye Linger, and when Bai Zemin’s mother saw those two beautiful black eyes, she didn’t need anyone to tell her anything to know that this little girl was somehow or other related to her and her family.
“Grandmother, grandfather, aunt Meng Qi! My name is Bai Shilin, and I am my father’s daughter!” said Bai Shilin with happiness to be reunited with her loved ones and pride in announcing her identity as Bai Zemin’s daughter.
* * * * * * *