Looking around, all Bai Zemin saw was pure darkness.
With no light from magic skills and Wu Yijun's seeds destroyed, the bottom of the sea was truly terrifying. It was like a wolf's mouth, there was nothing in sight but endless darkness.
It was surprising that even though Bai Zemin's race had ascended he still couldn't see anything beyond 3-4 meters in front of him without mana and magic alterations.
Bai Zemin turned around and with a thought made the blood sphere that acted as a shield meant to protect Wu Yijun and Shangguan Bing Xue lose its form. However, he held the 3 blood chains firm as he needed them.
When Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun were released, the two were shocked by the darkness in the surroundings but soon understood that the battle was over and subconsciously the two sighed in relief, which ended up causing them great pain and making them grunt softly.
"Bing Xue, Yijun. I'm really glad you two are well." Bai Zemin spoke from a short distance away. "I'll send you to the Collector's Pocket World so that you can recover from your wounds and refuel the Mana spent during the battle."
"What about you?" Shangguan Bing Xue asked in a low voice as she tried to focus her sight to see better.
"I'll first look for Evangeline, Kong Jun, and your mom. It's hard to explain but now that I evolved and obtained my Blood Mystic class I can sense the location of my subordinates more clearly. Although I can't accurately sense Aunt Shangguan's location, I can say that she is close to Evangeline, all of them are alive... But Kong Jun needs to receive treatment soon or he will die in less than an hour." Bai Zemin stopped and quickly stepped back, "Yijun, don't come closer."
"Uh... Is something wrong?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Bai Zemin heard a soft, sweet, worried, and slightly disappointed voice from no more than 3 or 4 meters in front of him. He quickly explained, "Not that you did anything wrong, but.... Well, my treasures somehow came back to me after my body stopped exploding... but the same can't be said for my equipment so...You know... Yeah."
For a second or two absolute silence returned to the depths until Bai Zemin heard a short gasp followed by a soft grunt of pain probably brought on by the gasp and the wounds of the person in question.
" A- Are you telling me that you are completely naked now?" Shangguan Bing Xue could barely get those words out, making it clear that the previous gasp was her creation.
"... Are you seriously surprised by something like that?" Bai Zemin shook his head, which earned him a new groan of pain now that his pain sensors had been reactivated with the deactivation of Blood Berserker's Wrath.
"Well... I-" Shangguan Bing Xue didn't know what to say. She finally looked at Wu Yijun beside her and said in a low voice, "I hope you're not thinking anything perverted, little Yijun."
"E- Eh?!" Wu Yijun jolted in surprise and embarrassment as if she had been caught doing something naughty.
She was lucky as she was practically unharmed and her biggest problem was the loss of Mana and Stamina or else she would have opened her wounds badly with her sudden move just now.
Shangguan Bing Xue shook her head not knowing whether to laugh or cry. She felt much calmer now; Bai Zemin was alive, her good sister was alive, Bai Zemin's sister was alive, and she was alive. Shangguan Bing Xue could not ask for more from life.
Soon, the two women were sent to the Collector's Pocket World by Bai Zemin and he did not delay as he quickly headed to the bottom of the sea without approaching the city of sea creatures.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})When his right foot touched the bottom, Bai Zemin immediately slashed several times with Annihilation of the Falling Sky in the form of a one-handed sword. The sudden movements naturally did him no good, but he needed to leave a message behind.
Approximately 10 minutes later, the blood chains he had sent out earlier in different directions returned, but this time they were not alone as each chain was delicately but tightly coiled around three unconscious bodies.
Shangguan Xinyue had several small wounds, but the worst was on the top of her head and the major cause behind her loss of consciousness in the midst of the battle. Her life was out of danger since that wound had been caused by a shockwave and not by a direct attack, she only needed a few hours at most and she would open her beautiful deep blue eyes to the world again.
Evangeline, on the other hand, had only three or four wounds throughout her body. The problem was that one of these wounds was on her upper chest. She was alive but certainly needed to be treated with magic skills or else she might die if her Health stat and regeneration speed could not keep up with the rate of damage that the outsider mana was inflicting on her body.
The biggest problem was undoubtedly Kong Jun.
Bai Zemin frowned as he saw that 70%-80% of Kong Jun's exoskeletal armor was gone while the remaining 20%-30% of it was in bad condition. The loyal guardian's flesh was visible, and although his blood was moving like a living being trying to reform the lost parts and close the wounds it was more than obvious that the damage caused by the crimson light beam was just too much.
Before leaving, Bai Zemin picked up a silver-colored ring that he saw glowing faintly in the distance. It was most likely Thao Zhi's property, but now it was his spoils of war.
Approximately 15 minutes after Bai Zemin entered the Collector's Pocket World, several silhouettes with lights around them approached from the distant point of white light where the royal city of the kingdom Xian Mei'er came from was located.
A few minutes later, the figure leading them, a powerful-looking middle-aged man with deep blue hair and heavy sky-colored plate armor covering his upper body stopped as his large gold-colored fish tail slowly swished behind his body.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Xian Mei'er stood next to Meng Qi and her two Third Order bodyguards, but she was not the only princess there.
Apart from there being four other princesses, all of whom were beautiful and radiant with dazzling supernatural charm, a total of six princes with similar but different demeanors at the same time were separated from each other. Each of them was accompanied by at least one Third Order guard, and those who had two as was the case with Xian Mei'er were the most powerful and prestigious among the offspring of the royal family.
Approximately 1 minute later, the Eastern Sea King snorted and his beard moved like waves in the sea at his outburst.
"Looks like there were two dead here, and judging by the fact that Xian Kun is nowhere to be found I bet he and that damn bodyguard of his must be the ones to lose today." The king's expression was indifferent but his tone of voice held some anger, "That stupid son of mine really put a shark in a fish tank!"
The reason behind the King's anger was not in the death of his son, because unlike humans they were mutant beasts. This did not mean that mutant beasts did not have deep feelings for each other or for others, it was just that most saw the death of the weaker as natural; the strong would survive and the weak would perish, that was the one absolute law of life.
"However, Royal Father." An extremely handsome tall young man with brown hair and blue eyes pointed out, "What were those shots before? Those cannons are definitely not part of our city's defenses, are they?"
This young man was the First Prince, his name was Xian Yuan. His level was 159 and many said that he was the most qualified to be the next East Sea King among all his brothers.
"There are many things you kids still have to learn." The East Sea King shook his head and said calmly, "You are young and inexperienced, our waters are not as simple as they appear to be just like the surface has its mysteries. The cannons that bastard alligator used are only a part of the secret weapon of our kingdom, but because of him...!"
The King gritted his teeth in fury and barely managed to restrain himself from breaking into an outburst.
The princes and princesses exchanged glances with each other. They all saw astonishment in the eyes of their peers as this was the first time they had heard anything about their kingdom's secret weapon... Indeed, there were many things they did not know despite their positions.
Xian Mei'er frowned slightly upon hearing her father's words.
Secret weapon? She couldn't help but think about what Bai Zemin had asked her days ago and without hesitation, she ended up agreeing to it.
If that thing really existed wouldn't she end up becoming a sinner? As for not giving up what she promised... Honestly, Xian Mei'er never thought about it but even then she wouldn't dare.
All she wanted was peace, and going to war against Bai Zemin's faction for breaking a promise after they had helped not only her but her people so much... Xian Mei'er simply did not see it right.
"Mei'er, you said that besides your human friend there were six others didn't you?" the East Sea King suddenly asked.
"Th- That's right." Xian Mei'er nodded and replied honestly, "Royal Father, other than Evangeline- the human woman you chased away earlier when she tried to cause problems, there are five more."
"Mhm. That human female is really powerful, if not for the fact that she clearly had an urgent goal to complete it wouldn't have been easy for me to chase her out of the city." The East Sea King nodded calmly.
It was he the one who fought Evangeline and forced her back after inflicting a medium-grade wound on her left shoulder, inadvertently causing Bai Zemin's plan to go down the drain.
"Let's go back to Kraya City. There's nothing to see or do here." The East Sea King looked down at the bottom of the sea and shook his head before turning around to leave.
Before leading the way back to the city, however, the East Sea King stopped and looked at Meng Qi with a serious expression, "Young lady, you have a really good brother."
"I am aware of." Meng Qi responded bowing slightly as a show of respect to the other party. At the end of the day, the status of the man in front of her was equivalent to that of her brother Bai Zemin, and what Meng Qi least wanted was to cause trouble for her family.
"Mhm." The King nodded and soon continued on his way with the rest following not far behind.
"Hey, big sister Mei'er. Can I ask a question?" A little mermaid with silky smooth blonde hair approached waving her emerald green tail gracefully.
She, as was very normal among non-combat mermaids, had two beautiful seashells covering her chest area and some jewels, but other than that her upper body was uncovered and exposing her white skin to everyone's eyes. Her body was very petite like that of a kid, evoking tenderness instead of bizarre thoughts.
Her name was Xian Bao Bao, she was the Ninth Princess of the East Sea. She was only 34 years old, and although 34 years old was a lot from a normal human's point of view she was actually equivalent to a little kid of 7 years old among the sea creatures as they developed slower but lived longer after developing intelligence.
Xian Mei'er really liked this younger sister of hers. Xian Bao Bao was one of the few members who did not compete for the throne, which was obvious considering she was so young. Although most saw her as a nuisance, in Xian Meier's eyes she was like a beautiful pearl being as innocent as a newborn and having no evil in her heart.
Xian Bao Bao looked at Meng Qi with her big blue eyes filled with curiosity and asked in a low voice: "What were you talking about before with Royal Father? Is this big sister's big brother really that good?"
"That's..." Xian Mei'er didn't know what to say about it.
Actually, everyone had understood the meaning behind the King's words. But little Xian Bao Bao was too innocent to think of such things.
The reason why the East Sea King said those words to Meng Qi earlier was that if not for Bai Zemin's existence, Meng Qi's life would not be guaranteed in the sea.
Simply put, the East Sea King did not want to go to war against a human kingdom that had already managed to establish in a year's time since the beginning of the apocalypse. Especially considering that the King of the said human kingdom had the ability to fight and kill Thao Zhi; regardless of whether he did so with help, the East Sea King did not downplay this feat since he would also have no chance of winning against Thao Zhi in a one-on-one battle.
It was precisely this reason why Bai Zemin retreated to the Collector's Pocket World, and although the East Sea King did not know where he had gone he certainly understood and praised his clever reasoning.
If Bai Zemin had appeared before the East Sea King in his badly wounded state... Things might have been different. But if he appeared after recovering enough to fear nothing then the East Sea King would think twice before making any moves against him.
Meanwhile, Meng Qi would definitely not be in danger after the East Sea King learned that she was the sister of the King of China.
...
On the other hand, at the same time that Bai Zemin was retreating with serious injuries, he did not know that his beloved was in a critical situation while fighting her own battle just the same way she did not know that her loved one was a hair's breadth away from dying on two occasions.
* * * * * * *
A/N: Tomorrow I might be able to post a 3rd chapter before the reset since I have some free time... unless something unforeseen comes up >.<
