After finishing the forging of what Bai Zemin considered the perfect earring needle after about 30 hours of non-stop work, he stored all his forging tools in his storage ring and took them into the house.
More specifically, Bai Zemin took his forging tools to a large basement whose length and width was basically comparable to the entire house.
This basement was destined to become his workshop from now on. Bai Zemin would probably never dismantle monsters or do blacksmithing work in the outside world again; not when in the Collector's Pocket World he could do everything a lot more efficiently and without so many worries about time running out in the outside world.
"With this out, I now have a larger amount of space in my storage ring." He nodded in satisfaction as he looked at his now organized tools.
Even though the basement still needed to be finished along with the rest of the entire house, something was better than nothing.
Instead of putting himself to continue the process of building the house, what Bai Zemin did was to leave the Collector's Pocket World to check that all was well in the outside world. At the end of the day, although neither he nor anyone else believed that the enemy would launch an attack again after the crushing defeat they had suffered the previous night, it was impossible to know what the other party was thinking exactly.
After all, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Fortunately, the worries in Bai Zemin's heart were not fulfilled and when he returned to his room in the outside world all seemed calm.
Bai Zemin went to the east wall of the base and chatted briefly with Nangong Lingxin regarding the meat of the sea creatures.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Bai Zemin, I'm afraid we might need about 2 weeks to finish all this." Nangong Lingxin shook her head as she pointed at the towering large mountain of carcasses, "Unclassified fish are fine, but when it comes to Unclassified crabs and lobsters it takes a few minutes to disassemble the meat shells carefully. Besides, we counted a total of 20953 relatively healthy First Order carcasses. For those First Order sea creatures, the time needed is even more not to mention the few Second Order ones there are."
Bai Zemin rubbed his chin slightly as he frowned thinking about the current situation.
He had expected the whole process to take about 1 week at most, but 2 weeks was a bit much.
"This won't work." He shook his head and looked off into the distance before calling out loudly, "Xuefeng, come here for a moment!"
Fu Xuefeng was helping to give orders and keep watch in case enemies showed up, but when he heard Bai Zemin's voice he immediately said something to the female soul evolver next to him and without waiting for a reply he walked towards him.
"Big brother, is something wrong?" he asked the young assassin in a surprisingly innocent voice.
Just like Nangong Lingxin, Fu Xuefeng still treated Bai Zemin in the same manner as in the past when they were in private.
Far from feeling annoyed, Bai Zemin felt grateful that at least these not-so-small little things hadn't changed at all; it probably meant that he was doing a good job not only as a leader but also as a friend even though he didn't have as much free time as he would like.
"Xuefeng, any news from Kang Lan and the rest?" Bai Zemin asked as he pointed ahead, "We need manpower here. We are making the soul evolvers work on something that is not their place to begin with, be sure to tell them all that they will receive a bonus at the end of the month. Moreover, we need to cut the finishing time in half."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})After all, this was only the first enemy base in Inner Mongolia; even if the Mother Fortress was in theory one if not the largest of them all.
"Big brother, I informed Kang Lan of the situation over here just as you told me to do." Fu Xuefeng explained quickly, "Kang Lan said she would finish completely healing Cai Jingyi and Shen Mei by noon today so I assume it will be a few hours from now... Why don't you try to get in touch with her? You will probably be able to get a clearer update about this."
After some thought, Bai Zemin nodded and told Fu Xuefeng to continue doing what he was doing. For his part, he used the commander ring to make contact with Kang Lan.
Because all communications used the Sky Destroyer as a super network, Bai Zemin who possessed the ring with full control of the ship could communicate at will with anyone he wanted as long as those people were registered in the computer. Another advantage was that all communications were recorded and could be searched for later playback if they were necessary.
While this certainly meant that there was no such thing as 100% privacy, such a level of privacy never existed even before the Soul Record came to Earth to alter everyone's lives.
Besides, as long as one had no dirty marks there was no need to worry, was there?
After a few seconds, Bai Zemin finally connected with Kang Lan's military radio.
"This is Kang Lan."
Her voice sounded firm and much more confident, a stark contrast to her previous reserved and timid self.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Kang Lan, this is Bai Zemin. Have you finished the process of healing Cai Jingyi and Shen Mei?" he asked quickly.
"Oh. Leader, it's you." Kang Lan's tone of voice immediately changed to one that was softer, less formal, more respectful, and with a tinge of admiration impossible to hide after she learned that the person on the other end was Bai Zemin. " Responding to your question. Both Cai Jingyi and Shen Mei are fit to return to the battlefield, but it would probably be a good idea to let both of them rest for 30 hours."
"Good job, I'll be sure to reward you later." Bai Zemin said happily as he heard that two of his most powerful soul evolvers were ready for combat and their lives were no longer in danger.
"That's not necessary, this is what I should do after all." Kang Lan replied with a smile on the other end of the line.
Bai Zemin's expression turned serious and he asked in a deep voice, "Kang Lan, how much time do you need to mobilize both the main combat troops and the secondary combat troops along with the different logistics teams from our base to the Mother Fortress?"
"... I heard something about it from Fu Xuefeng." Kang Lan hesitated for a moment before cautiously saying, "Leader, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to mobilize everyone... The resources that are here-"
"There's no need to move the resources, just the main thing." Bai Zemin interrupted her as he knew what she meant, "I know that mobilizing over 200,000 men along with a large amount of resources will be a problem, but I only need manpower."
Bai Zemin gave a quick summary to Kang Lan of what the situation was like here, and after she got a better view of the big picture her earlier idea changed immediately.
"I understand! If that's the case then things are easier for everyone!" Kang Lan said with enthusiasm. "Leader, I'll get to work right away together with the others. Rest assured, first thing tomorrow morning the northern advance troops of our Transcendent faction will be entering the south gate of the Mother Fortress!"
"That's the way I like it." Bai Zemin nodded with a smile.
After a few more brief words, he cut off communication with Kang Lan to let her work and looked at Nangong Lingxin who had been waiting and standing beside him all this time.
"Good news?" She asked although the slight smile at the corner of her lips exposed that she already knew the response after listening to the conversation.
Bai Zemin nodded, "Nangong Lingxin, I'm sorry to ask this of you but you'll have to keep working hard until tomorrow dawn. Once Kang Lan and the rest get in the vehicles and head here it won't take more than a few hours to get to the Mother Fortress, she will coordinate with you so you both can put the different logistics teams to work."
Nangong Lingxin chuckled and nodded, "In that case, I guess I have to keep working hard a little longer. There is no reward for me? I heard that you would reward Kang Lan later."
Bai Zemin naturally knew that she was joking, so he had no problem joking a little since he was in a good mood knowing that Cai Jingyi and Shen Mei had practically fully recovered; especially Cai Jingyi, who was one of the closest people to Bai Zemin leaving aside a small select number of people.
"How about I double your salary at the end of this month?"
Nangong Lingxin let out a chuckle and said with a wink, "I'll settle for that, though only for now."
Bai Zemin shook his head with a wry smile before exchanging a few more words with her and retreating back to the villa.
He entered the Collector's Pocket World again, but this time he took the three little girls with him. After spending about 4 hours with them chatting, joking, and helping them train, Bai Zemin began his own training. Still, this time his training was supported by Lilith again as he focused on improving his whip ability.
Although Bai Zemin's improvement had been huge, he still had a long way to go and this was something he had noticed before while breaking ice fragments and dodging Lilith's attacks.
Therefore, he devoted himself to training the whip for 3 whole days and after that, he spent another 3 days sitting under the shade of a tree carefully attacking the seal on his soul weakening it little by little.
Of course, during those 6 days, Bai Zemin took some time to send Bai Shilin, Luo Ning, and Xiao Xiao to the outside world repeatedly so as not to affect the minds and hearts of the three little girls so much. In addition, he also took some time to sleep and eat properly since his faction was at war so it was not wise to go to the battlefield weakened; especially considering that there was a powerful and mysterious enemy in the shadows.
Living six days in the Collector's Pocket World meant that approximately 14 hours had passed in the outside world, less than a day. Furthermore, since Bai Zemin and the three little girls had entered the Collector's Pocket World shortly after noon, the sun had yet to rise in the outside world for this new day.
Despite being almost completely rested, Bai Zemin slept for 4 hours in the outside world and when his natural clock struck 6 am his eyes opened automatically.
He walked to the south wall, where Fu Xuefeng, Nangong Lingxin, Nangong Yi, and Xian Mei'er were already waiting.
"Have you been here standing here long?" Bai Zemin asked as he looked at the twenty-plus airships flying over the area in search of any enemy visible in the distance.
"We all just arrived." Xian Mei'er replied softly as she shook her head causing her straight deep blue hair to move slightly, "The difference we all arrived at is less than a minute."
"I see." Bai Zemin nodded, but before he could say anything else, his eyes shifted to the south, and even though he still couldn't see anything, he said with a slight smile, "The reinforcements are here."
* * * * * * *
