Chapter 979: The last gift and the last words ofthe Queen

"The past number no longer matters." Bai Zemin dismissed Xian Mei'er's question with ease.

"Sorry, it was disrespectful and insensitive of me to ask such a private thing." She said quickly after realizing her mistake.

Knowing the evolution requirements of a soul evolver in part would reveal the kind of potential and a good portion of the immediate strength that this soul evolver would have after advancing to the next Order.

Xian Mei'er had been too surprised after finally realizing how crazy Bai Zemin's evolution requirements were so she ended up forgetting that asking questions like that was considered taboo and had simply asked the question in automatic mode.

"The real problem now is that I'm 2 Third Order soul evolvers short of evolving." Bai Zemin continued, "And naturally I can't kill my soldiers."

"... I'll just say it just in case but I won't let you kill Sei Yin nor Sei Yuan." Xian Mei'er said, referring to the two Third Order triton females following her.

"... I am aware of that. Don't worry, I never thought about doing harm to them." Bai Zemin sighed.

He turned and looked into her eyes, "Therefore, I have more chance to evolve fast if I go with you to the bottom of the sea."

"What did you say?" Xian Mei'er asked subconsciously as she blinked repeatedly.

"From what you told me earlier your father loves you all but he certainly supports the competition among you siblings to the point that he won't intervene even if you kill each other, is that right?" Bai Zemin shrugged and said indifferently, "Therefore, I plan to go with you to the East Sea to help you become the next Queen of the East Sea, or Forgotten Queen as you call this position."

"While I'm at it, I'll kill the Third Prince Xian Kun and take that strange plant that presumably helps to automatically complete an evolution requirement. I'll just be short of killing a Third Order soul evolver, but I guess killing some soldier of another of your siblings will do the trick."

After saying this, Bai Zemin fell silent and looked at Xian Mei'er waiting for her opinion on the matter.

For almost a full minute, the Seventh Princess Xian Mei'er just stared at him with her beautiful deep blue eyes barely blinking in the process.

"Could it be that you're really out of your mind?"

"...Those are some good first words you've got there after being mute for practically half a lifetime." Bai Zemin looked at her at a loss for words.

"Can you blame me?" She pressed her brow with some force and said wearily, "Bai Zemin, are you forgetting that if you go into the sea you'll have to fight the alligator my brother found somewhere?"

She glanced sideways at him and said slowly, "No offense but the current you no longer gives me the same feeling of oppression as before. I assume it has something to do with the change in your eye color... But whatever it is, it is undeniable that you are weaker than before."

The meaning behind the words of Xian Mei'er was simple.

He couldn't defeat the alligator being at a much more powerful echelon than his current one so she wanted to know where his confidence came from to want to face the same enemy now that he was weaker.

"Well, even though that alligator might have recovered, which I somewhat doubt, the arm he lost after being hit by the Cosmic Particle Cannon certainly shouldn't be back. Even if he had some skill or regenerative ability, I refuse to believe that in such a short time he managed to recover an entire limb." Bai Zemin said before sighing, "... Even so, my current self certainly can't defeat him unless I manage to hit him with my strongest attack... Which is unlikely now that sir alligator knows of its existence. He'll certainly be more attentive next time."

"Even knowing that do you want to go to the East Sea with me?" Xian Mei'er looked at him with eyes of someone who was looking at a genuine lunatic, "I mean, I feel grateful for your good intention and all but I'd rather you didn't throw your life away you know? I need you alive for this alliance to work."

This time it was the turn of Bai Zemin to roll his eyes.

"For god's sake, do you think I'm planning to go to the East Sea and die just like that?"

Bai Zemin proceeded to tell Xian Mei'er his idea, but when he finished all he got from her was a blank stare before the mermaid princess finished him off.

"You are crazy after all aren't you?"

"...Just because it's hard to do doesn't mean I'm crazy." Bai Zemin argued back.

"Gambling your life and other people's lives like that... I can't say I agree with your way of looking at things, Bai Zemin." Xian Mei'er stood up after saying this and walked towards the door with the intention of leaving. However, before leaving she stopped and said without looking back, "You can count on me. Although I still think what you are doing is a bad idea."

Bai Zemin silently looked at the place where she had been a moment ago, and after a few seconds, he muttered to himself, "It's not like I have any other choice... The time limit is approaching."

He turned and looked out the large window at the world outside. His eyes were complicated, because he knew Xian Mei'er was right.

What he was planning to do was quite insane, especially since it involved the lives of people he held dear to his heart.

Of course, he was doing this because he certainly had some confidence or else he would never put into practice something like what he had in mind.

It was just that "some confidence" was not absolute confidence to succeed.

...

Three days passed in an instant for the members of the Transcendent faction who were busy with all sorts of tasks ranging from hunting monsters and harvesting crops to strengthening the walls and studying the technology obtained in order to empower everyone as a group.

Three days ago, on the night of the same day that Bai Zemin had an important conversation with the Seventh Princess of the East Sea, an assault helicopter coming from the north of Beijing landed on the airstrip of the first base that the Transcendent faction had erected in Inner Mongolia before the war against Liang Peng and the alliance completely broke out.

There was only one person riding in that combat helicopter other than the pilot; Meng Qi.

She was welcomed by Kong Jun, who without saying a word guided her to the military facility near the airstrip.

Although the Transcendent faction had managed to take control over Inner Mongolia, there was still a lot of work to do: especially when it came to distributing the population.

Some bases in Inner Mongolia might have to be abandoned as there were simply not enough people to occupy all the bases. Therefore, the first base was deserted; although this would certainly change in the days to come as this base was an important fort needed to connect northern Beijing with Inner Mongolia, as well as serving as an outpost to stop the wild sea creatures that only sought blood.

As Meng Qi entered one of the buildings inside the military zone, her expression lit up and with quick steps, she walked towards the handsome young man waiting for her with a faint smile.

"King of China, uh?" She said without breaking the hug.

"Who would have thought." Bai Zemin chuckled.

Meng Qi moved away only far enough to look him in the eyes but not too far to miss his warmth. Her eyes twinkled slightly as she met her big brother's black eyes and in a soft but happy voice she remarked, "I always believed in you, and still do of course. I always knew that my wonderful older brother was being limited by the world he was born into. And look at you now, hasn't life proved me right?"

"Girl, with that silver tongue of yours if you're not careful what you say you'll end up making even more young men fall for you than have already fallen for you." Bai Zemin shook his head.

"Regarding that, you don't need to worry." Meng Qi took a step back and held up a finger as she closed her eyes and said in a teasing tone, "My silver tongue is only yours so there's no danger of crushes!"

Bai Zemin chuckled before putting on a serious expression, and seeing this Meng Qi also became serious.

He had already told her everything through long-distance communication, there was no more to explain.

"Are you ready?"

"Since always."

And so, a total of thirty days passed inside the Collector's Pocket Watch.

During those thirty days, Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, Shangguan Xinyue, Wu Yijun, Kong Jun, Evangeline, and Xian Mei'er trained by fighting as a team to increase coordination between them all. However, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue never teamed up during the entire training because the two of them had come to the conclusion that it was impossible for them to increase even more the practically divine coordination they shared on the battlefield considering that they could understand each other just by looking into the eyes of the other.

Of course, they all held back and did not let go completely. They wanted to put their attacks and coordination into practice after all, not fight each other to the death.

Although it was true that letting Xian Mei'er enter the Collector's Pocket World might not be the best idea, the circumstances were harsh enough to pressure Bai Zemin into doing something he would rather not do; another proof that he was not an omnipotent existence.

As for Meng Qi, she spent the thirty days together with Kali. The little porcelain doll drew various runes on some metal objects similar to flat discs and then taught Meng Qi the function of each rune, how to activate them, and in what order/position she needed to place each metal disc for the true power of the set of runes to be revealed.

Thirty days later for them but only three days for the rest of the universe that was not inside a formation or treasure capable of affecting the passage of time, Bai Zemin met everyone in the still unfinished house and pushed them to enjoy a great meal all together.

Shangguan Bing Xue: "Hey, when will you finish building this house?"

Bai Zemin: "Little Bing Xue, Daddy is too busy right now."

Xian Mei'er: "Why do you refer to yourself as Daddy and call her Little? It's impossible for you to be Bing Xue's father, she is older than you."

Meng Qi: "... Believe me, it will be better for your innocence if you don't ask any more questions."

Everyone: "..."

Kali listened to the amused and carefree conversation of the group in front of her. Despite being so young, she was certainly mature enough to understand that they were doing this knowing well that this could be their last meal.

The battle to come was one that even Bai Zemin was not confident about so the possibilities of dying were certainly not low.

However, they had all been ready to die since the day they killed their first zombie or mutant beast.

They were soul evolvers, they breathed death and stepped on bones.

Such was the world they lived in now.

No one had a guaranteed tomorrow.

It was just that this time the chances of never seeing the sun again were higher than normal, that was all.

"Everyone, are you ready?" Bai Zemin asked in a serious voice.

Although no one said anything and they simply nodded, Bai Zemin could not see even the slightest trace of hesitation in the eyes of any of his teammates.

"In that case-"

"This."

"Mm?" Bai Zemin stopped and looked at Kong Jun in confusion, "Kong Jun, is something wrong?"

The over 2 meter tall ant took a step forward, his body fully revealed.

"This." He extended his claw covered by a shiny jet black exoskeleton forward and said in a robot-like voice, "Her Majesty asked me to give this to you."

Her Majesty? Was it Bai Shilin?

Confused, Bai Zemin subconsciously took the small glowing stone Kong Jun was handing him.

It was a Third Order Soul Stone, Bai Zemin recognized it easily.

"Kong Jun, why did Shilin want you to give this to me?"

However, the former queen's guardian shook his head and said slowly, "It was not Her Majesty the Princess but Her Majesty the Queen."

"Her Majesty Shi Lin?" Bai Zemin was greatly surprised at the same time as confusion swept over him more strongly than before.

The former Queen of the weaver ants Shi Lin, the first mother of Bai Shilin. An existence that Bai Zemin, unfortunately, did not get to know too well but that was always a mystery.

"Her Majesty... She saw this day today." Kong Jun's bright red eyes shone like flashlights as he said emotionlessly, "Her Majesty Shi Lin said before she left... That you would need this, and that I should give it to you before the veil that covers the world gets uncovered."

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