After parting ways with Shangguan Xinyue and Bai Shilin, Bai Zemin walked through the huge corridors of the palace alone.
The palace was ridiculously large to the point that it could take an ordinary person up to 4 hours to walk from the east wing to the west wing. Walking alone through those long corridors where the silence reigned supreme as only the sound of his footsteps echoing off the walls could be heard, Bai Zemin could not help but feel like the last living being in the world.
Endless thoughts ran through his head tirelessly, particularly about his conversation with Lilith the night before, as well as the words of the Flame of Burning Wrath.
Thinking of the Flame of Burning Wrath, Bai Zemin could not help but let his thoughts lead him back to Kali.
The girl was a mystery even on the same level as him or maybe even more, as no one knew anything about her. Everything around her was a thick mist of mystery impossible to pierce.
Arriving in front of one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows, Bai Zemin stopped and looked out into the outside world in silence for a long time.
From the top of the hilltop palace, the view was truly breathtaking, and coupled with the white clouds swimming around the place Hero City had become a truly beautiful sight to the point where it was hard to believe that such a magnificent level of architecture existed. This was, in his eyes, a city worthy of a god and not something a small emperor could control.
Without knowing why, the image of a man flashed in his head and a complicated expression showed in his eyes: "He probably must have felt very lonely during all this time uh..."
Suddenly, an indifferent voice sounded from behind him a short distance away.
"Who is this 'he' you're talking about?"
Bai Zemin was startled at first but soon calmed down. He did not sense the arrival of the newcomer, but it was also not that much of a surprise when considering who this newcomer was.
He turned with a slight smile and nodded towards the blonde beauty walking in his direction only 15 meters away, "I felt your presence last night around but couldn't find you. I thought you walked away."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Evangeline had a black scarf covering half of her face down, but her emerald eyes were as cold and indifferent as Bai Zemin remembered them. Nowadays, however, that beautiful pair of eyes were at least a little more human than before as emotional glimmers could occasionally be seen flashing here and there deep inside them.
She didn't say anything in response to his words, so the two looked at each other in silence for a couple of seconds until Evangeline finally broke it.
"Congratulations on your marriage. I wish you an eternity of prosperity and happiness."
"Thank you." Bai Zemin nodded with the same smile as before. He could feel the sincerity in her words.
After a pause, Evangeline reached a hand into her back pocket and pulled out something before tossing it to him.
Bai Zemin caught it quickly and upon closer inspection realized it was a palm-sized stone. The stone was jet black in color and looked like an ordinary rock except for the enormous magical power circulating inside it.
"This is..." A flash of surprise shone in his eyes as he looked at the stone.
The amount of magic power circulating inside that stone was enough to blow a large-sized continent into ten thousand pieces if it detonated. In fact, if that stone was destroyed in a Lower World below its third evolutionary stage that world would have an 80% chance of disappearing forever.
"I'll take your advice and go visit other worlds. It's hard to level up here on Earth now that peace reigns under your control... Just break the stone if you need me for anything. I'll be there in an instant no matter where or when."
Bai Zemin raised his head when he heard those words, but when he looked ahead he noticed that no one was there anymore.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly called out loudly, "If you want to level up fast then stay close! I'll do something big soon!"
"Got it."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})After that there was no more movement, and Bai Zemin was sure that Evangeline was no longer around.
A slightly sad and slightly happy smile appeared on his face. He was happy that a good friend came back instead of walking away, and he was sad for that good girl who was treated so badly by life as she never lived for her own sake and even met her end at the hands of the person she did her best to protect; even if she had to sell herself and family to the devil on her own.
This life was really cruel...
So many wars, so much death...
So many good people suffering and families being torn to pieces...
Without knowing when, Bai Zemin found himself clenching his fists so tightly that the space twisted like a sheet of paper, wrinkling over and over again on the verge of tearing into pieces.
"Whew..." He let out the confused air he was holding in and slowly his eyes that were getting redder and brighter dimmed.
"Time to roll on."
He had already missed six months after falling into a coma therefore he had to pick up the pace if he wanted to have at least the slightest chance of winning in a year and a half when the Golden Domain would invade with everything.
He already had a big plan in mind.
A plan that was dangerous but incredibly lucrative at the same time.
A plan he had to carry out even if he wasn't 100% sure of getting his people completely safe out of there... because they didn't have time.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Suddenly, Bai Zemin's urgent communication token lit up. His expression changed abruptly as only a handful of people had that token because they were disgustingly expensive to make, even capable of crossing world barriers to some extent.
Looking at the light coming from the seal, Bai Zemin's expression changed even more as he recognized that color as the signal that only the seal in Kali's hands could send.
...
"So... You sent an emergency signal to give me some information?"
Bai Zemin looked at the doll-like girl in wheelchair who looked less aged than she actually was with an incredulous expression.
Kali "looked" at him with an unreadable expression, and after a few seconds of silence said in an indifferent voice, "Wasn't it you who said that this place is of utmost importance, even on the level of the portals to travel between worlds?"
"I..." Bai Zemin wanted to say that while this place was, indeed, important; that didn't mean she had to use that token just to give him some information.
He glared at Cai Jingyi and Nangong Lingxin who were acting as the girl's bodyguards with a reprimanding expression as if he was telling them why didn't they stop her.
Cai Jingyi turned her head and began whistling audibly while holding her hands behind her back, "The sun sure is hot today don't you think?"
Nangong Lingxin almost burst out laughing.
How could there be any sun here? They were who knows how many meters underground!
Bai Zemin rolled his eyes but he didn't blame them anymore.
He was really scared and worried when he received the signal from Kali so he directly activated the skill of his Emperor title that allowed him to teleport anywhere on Earth according to his will as the highest ruler of the world. He was so scared and worried about the girl that even he got surprised.
It was then he realized that since his conversation with the Flame of Burning Wrath the night before, Kali's importance in his heart had grown more than he was aware of.
"Forget it." He shook his head and sighed, "It's a good thing nothing bad happened."
Kali observed him silently for a long time and suddenly said under her breath, "I'm sorry..."
"Em?" Bai Zemin looked at her in astonishment, and even Cai Jingyi and Nangong Lingxin looked at her with strange eyes.
This was the first time that the emotion of guilt overflowed from Kali's voice, which 99.9% of the time was indifferent to the max.
"I apologize for worrying you but it's really urgent." Kali seemed to realize how worried he was about her so her heart was touched, leading her to apologize. Still, she was the type to show no emotion so she quickly pointed to a particular place and said again indifferently, "I was able to decode that."
"What?"
Bai Zemin's expression went from surprise to shock.
He looked at the place pointed out by Kali and could not believe what he had just heard. The excitement in his eyes, however, was starting to boil over.
Why? This was because the place they were at was precisely inside the ancient runes beneath the Five Silver Pagodas; the place where Bai Zemin found ancient technology and magic at the beginning of the apocalypse; the place where he met the remnant spirit of Kang Guiying who became his sworn brother after exchanging only two strikes; the place where he found the Sky Destroyer; the place where he met Ant Queen Shi Lin and where he obtained the egg from which Bai Shilin was born!
The place Kali had just pointed out was precisely the golden magic circle that Bai Zemin did not even dare to approach, let alone touch!
