[Your bases in China, Changping District, have been firmly established and your rule has spread among more than 90% of the humans in the aforementioned area. Despite your absence, as the leader of the unofficial faction under the name 'Transcendent' you receive the corresponding title]
[You have received the title Leader of Changping]
[Your bases in China, Haidian District, have been firmly established and your rule has spread among more than 90% of the humans in the aforementioned area. Despite your absence, as the leader of the unofficial faction under the name 'Transcendent' you receive the corresponding title]
[You have received the title Haidian Leader]
[Congratulations! The number of intelligent beings under your rule has broken the barrier of the million!]
Bai Zemin's eyes sparkled with joy and even to Kali who was still holding his hand, it became too obvious that a great wave of relief washed over him.
"Orc, did something good happen?" Seraphina's eyes sparkled as she saw the slight innocent smile on Bai Zemin's ever serious face.
In contrast to his sly or fake smiles, his current smile was so different that it was very easy to identify its genuineness.
Bai Zemin looked at her while still smiling and nodded, "That's right. My subordinates and friends seem to be doing quite well without me back in my world. Two of the territories we controlled before were finally accepted by the soul record as mine, I just received notification of that."
"I- I see..." Seraphina looked at him with complicated eyes and sighed, "Your friends must be really powerful, aren't they? Being able to capture territories in the middle of a world as peculiar and weird as yours must definitely be incredibly difficult, especially considering that you and they have been evolving for so little time. When my father became king it was all very smooth and simple, the Soul Record identified the transfer of authority and voila, no fighting and no wars."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Well, Gales has been an established kingdom for many years after all." Bai Zemin nodded. "But, my subordinates are strong. Especially my second in command. She is strong enough that even I respect her from my heart."
"She?" Seraphina immediately grew anxious and asked hurriedly, "Your second in command is a woman?"
Bai Zemin blinked and replied without much thought, "Well, that's why she's a she."
Seraphina fell under contemplation for a moment before nodding. She muttered to herself, "If you trust her enough then this girl has to be really quite special."
Although Bai Zemin heard Seraphina's words he said nothing as she was clearly in her own world now.
He shook his head and turned his focus back to Kali only to realize that all this time he hadn't let go of her hand.
"I'm sorry." Bai Zemin nodded and let go of her gently as if worried she would break if he made an abrupt move.
"Bai Zemin, what stage is your world in?" Kali asked suddenly.
"Second stage."
Kali frowned slightly, her second change of expression in all this time even though the number of surprising things that had happened would have made anyone jump at least a dozen times.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Second stage... Can you tell me how long you've been evolving? Also, how old are you really?" Kali asked another question again and pointed out, "Seraphina just said that you and your whole world have been evolving for a short time. Is it ten years? Is it twenty years?"
Ten years or twenty years? Bai Zemin forced a smile and shook his head as he listened to the young girl's great misestimation in front of him.
"Kali, I will turn 21 in three months and my world has been evolving for approximately 7 months to the present day."
Kali's small mouth opened slightly for a moment before she closed it again.
"I see..." Kali murmured as she nodded slightly. She kept her expression fixed on him as she pointed out in a flat voice, "In just 7 months you've made it this far... Are you aware that the stage you are at, not in terms of level but in terms of strength, is a stage that only the vast minority can reach after centuries of effort? But you did it in such a short time..."
Bai Zemin shrugged, "Actually, everyone in my world grows up fast. Bing Xue is currently- That's the name of my second in command, by the way. As I was telling you, she was at level 90 when I came to this world but her battle power was comparable to that of a king of kingdom. I'm sure at this point she should be even mightier."
Kali remained silent as she 'stared' at him. Bai Zemin felt as if she was looking beyond him, and indeed, he was not wrong.
"I wonder if your fast growth, as well as that of your world and its inhabitants, is related to that something inside your soul or if it's because your world is just special in some way." She said as she focused on Bai Zemin's chest area.
Bai Zemin's expression turned serious as he listened to the words Kali said. So much had happened in such a short time that he had forgotten the reason why Kali had initiated the talk about souls and their representative colors.
"Kali, can you tell me what you see in me?" he asked in a serious voice.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})She said nothing for the first five seconds before calmly stating, "Your soul is pure white, I have no doubt about that. However, right there, around your chest area, you have three strange objects that are clearly not part of your soul... Although two of them seem to be attached to you, especially one of them, the hotter of the two."
Three objects?! Bai Zemin felt the world around him spinning and was about to fall to the floor when he quickly calmed down.
"Th- Those two objects must be Annihilation of the Falling Sky and the Endless Blue Lotus Flame." Bai Zemin patted his chest in relief as he whispered those words.
He was already scared enough with a foreign object in his soul, if two more suddenly appeared then Bai Zemin might faint from fear.
"Annihilation of the Falling Sky and Endless Blue Lotus Flame?" Seraphina looked at him in confusion and asked, "What are those?"
Bai Zemin subconsciously looked at Kali as that information was too important. However, he soon scoffed at himself.
While it was impossible for him to trust Kali 100% since he was just getting to know her, she had no real way to hurt him and even if she did, there was nothing for her to gain by doing that. Besides, Bai Zemin doubted that the little porcelain doll in the wheelchair had malicious intentions towards him.
"Annihilation of the Falling Sky is a special type of armament, it's called Soul Armament and it attaches itself to the user's soul.... To be honest, I don't know very well how Soul Armaments works since the way Annihilation of the Falling Sky ended up in my hands is too complicated and special." Bai Zemin calmly revealed. After a slight pause, he continued, "As for the Endless Blue Lotus Flame, it is an extremely powerful flame with some intelligence. We formed a special contract between us and now we are something like master and servant."
Seraphina looked at Bai Zemin without blinking for what seemed an eternity before sighing exaggeratedly, "You know, Orc... somehow I'm beginning to feel a little sorry for your subordinates and friends in your world."
Bai Zemin looked at her dumbfounded, "What's that about?"
"Don't give me that!" Seraphina immediately began to tremble and pointed out loudly, "Weren't you using all your strength before?! No wonder if one of your men dies of cardiac failure one of these days!"
What kind of monster was this?! Seraphina was simply speechless. The more she got to know Bai Zemin the more she felt that her whole life until the day of that fateful meet had been a farce!
Bai Zemin shook his head and didn't bother with the immature girl. Kali was definitely much more mature than Seraphina, by far. In fact, Kali's behavior and maturity made Bai Zemin forget for seconds that she was just a girl of 15 years old at most.
As if she was already used to Seraphina's sometimes childish behavior, Kali continued to focus on Bai Zemin's soul as she slowly said: "So, two of the three objects in your soul are part of your strength, I understand... But, Bai Zemin, are you sure there shouldn't be a third one? The third object is... a little hard to describe."
"There definitely shouldn't be a third object in my soul." Bai Zemin replied in a serious voice. "Kali, what do you see?"
"This object is... It's like, it's some kind of incomplete rock...? It could also be something plastic... or is it a piece of metal...?" Kali muttered a little unsure of her own words.
Bai Zemin frowned slightly but did not interrupt her. It seemed that even with Kali's ability it was difficult to understand the existence of the third object in his soul, but such a thing was hard for Bai Zemin to accept.
Annihilation of the Falling Sky was a powerful Soul Armament that had completely devoured the life of a Fourth Order soul evolver with a single strike and the Endless Blue Lotus Flame was one of the few divine flames that existed in the story of the universe. Even if the two were not at full power now, the fact that they were practically unmatched treasures was irrefutable given that both Annihilation of the Falling Sky and the Endless Blue Lotus Flame could continue growing and perhaps return to their peak states if Bai Zemin moved his pieces right.
Something even stronger than a weapon capable of crushing the life out of a Fourth Order existence and a flame equivalent to a God grade treasure? Bai Zemin couldn't think of anything crazier than that... and craziest of all was that this object was inside him, in his soul!
"This piece of rock... or whatever it really is, constantly releases a strange light... no, it's not light but it's lightning."
"Lightning?"
"It's lightning." Kali nodded, this time sounding completely sure. "Those lightning flashes are small and thin, all of them are black with deep red edges and.... I'm not quite sure about this but.... It seems to me that those lightning flashes are just passively there now, that piece of rock seems to be sleeping and releasing no more power than necessary."
"Releasing no more power than necessary?" Bai Zemin opened his eyes wide and hurriedly asked, "Releasing no more power than necessary for what?"
Unfortunately for him, Kali shook her head.
"I'm afraid I can't reply to that question because I don't know the answer."
"Oh..." Bai Zemin couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
However, he quickly patted Kali's head and tried to sound normal as he said, "Well, don't worry too much, Kali. You've helped me a lot and-"
Realizing what he was doing, Bai Zemin cleared his throat and slowly withdrew his hand, "Sorry about that, it's just a habit of mine I have."
Used to Luo Ning, Xiang Feng, the Wen twins, and Bai Shilin, Bai Zemin had subconsciously treated Kali like a little kid he had known for a long time.
Thinking of Bai Shilin, Bai Zemin sighed in his heart and a glint of sadness shone in his eyes. Even though the two of them were not together for long, he really loved the little baby like his daughter and now he could not even be by her side.
Kali's expression was unperturbed and Bai Zemin's subconscious affectionate movement did not seem to shake her at all.
She said in her melodious but at the same time monotone voice, "Bai Zemin, since that third object has been in your soul all this time then don't worry too much, it's probably not a bad thing. That object might even have been there since your birth, no one can say for sure."
Bai Zemin hesitated for a few seconds before nodding and sighing, "I guess we can just leave it at that for now... Kali, I will help you become stronger. Now that you are part of my faction and an important person to me I will do everything I can to make you stronger, that way maybe one day you will be able to help me identify what that strange object is."
If Kali became more powerful, Bai Zemin could be more at ease as he would probably not be able to stay by her side forever and Kali's existence was too important to him to let anything bad happen to her. Besides, if she grew stronger and so did her skills, maybe someday she would learn more about souls and that would benefit Bai Zemin greatly.
Kali and Xia Ya were probably the keys he needed to eventually become the most powerful being under the stars.
He had long since accepted his identity as an anomaly of the universe. The constellation of the Heavenly Wolf Sirius had even tried to communicate with him during his childhood, long before the arrival of the Soul Record on Earth. Since before the Soul Record's arrival on Earth something this abnormal had already happened in his life, Bai Zemin could not rule out that perhaps that third object had always been in his soul except that he did not know it.
Kali was silent and hesitated whether she should say her next words or not.
She looked at the spot next to Bai Zemin, right where Lilith stood, but a second later she turned her head and looked at Seraphina before finally shaking her head.
What she was going to say would expose the existence of that mysterious person, and since Bai Zemin was keeping it a secret apparently not only from Seraphina but from everyone, she wasn't going to expose his cover.
After all, she was his powder now. Especially after hearing for the first time in her life that she was considered important by another living being.
* * * * * * *
