The clearing was deathly silent for several seconds and everyone's gazes focused on the young man wearing black sweat pants and a casual white T-shirt without impurities. The look on the young man's face was as indifferent as if what he had just done was not taking the lives of two people but killing two flies.
The three armed men who accompanied Shao Yang looked at the corpse of their former team leader and cringed in fear as they realized that those blood threads were mysteriously floating in the air, only becoming partially visible when the sun's rays hit them at the right angle.
Bai Zemin ignored the cries of fear and pleas of the kneeling survivors and looked at the three armed men before declaring in a firm, cold voice, "You three broke orders and supported a traitor to free a captive but also raised your guns against your own comrades."
"W- Wait!"
"Leader, please listen to what I have to say!"
...
The three immediately started shouting and pleading, but Bai Zemin shook his head and waved his hand.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Three blood threads flew through the air and pierced the body of the three armed men, crushing the heart with ease and taking their lives in the blink of an eye.
As the three collapsed lifelessly, Bai Zemin looked at Fan Bo and the young officer shuddered in fear.
"Where is Shangguan Bing Xue?" he asked with a frown.
According to him, Shangguan Bing Xue should be around. He was sure that if she were present those four pieces of scum would already be dead and wouldn't have caused so much trouble.
"Miss Shangguan..." Fan Bo hesitated as he didn't know how to address Shangguan Bing Xue.
Officially, she was just like Bai Zemin and did not actually have a military rank within the army. However, everyone knew that her position was incredibly high and second only to the Leader himself so everyone treated her with the utmost respect possible.
"She was here before and ordered us to execute all the criminals, saying that those were direct orders from you, Leader." Fan Bo finally began to explain, "After that, she left together with temporary Captain Lu Yan and a team to initiate the preparations for marching."
Bai Zemin's eyes immediately flashed with understanding when he heard this.
Actually, since he had been in Lu Yan's mansion meeting with Lu Xiaoyao and listening about last night's losses and gains for almost an hour, it was completely normal for Shangguan Bing Xue to not be here. After all, this place didn't require her presence at all.
"I see." He finally nodded and then looked at the kneeling survivors, "Are they part of the ones who caused disturbance last night?" He asked calmly.
"Yes..." Fan Bo nodded and said cautiously, "Commander Fu Xuefeng and Captain Nangong Yi captured them and brought them to the facility since they didn't know how the Leader would deal with them."
Bai Zemin noticed that there were young men, women, there was even a man over 50 years old with a face covered with wrinkles. All of them were on their knees with their hands tightly bound and their feet together as they looked at him with pleading eyes and sobbed silently.
He did not have to think too hard to understand the reason why Nangong Yi and Fu Xuefeng did not execute these people immediately and instead took the trouble to capture them alive.
Bai Zemin looked at Fan Bo and ordered: "From today, you two will join the battalion under Fu Xuefeng's direct command. You report to him and tell him that you are going under my orders. Also, be sure to inform the rest of the team about it. Fu Xuefeng will be in direct charge of you from now on."
The two men's eyes lit up and they were immediately relieved. After all, the team they belonged to before had just basically disappeared completely.
"Yes!"
The two immediately responded.
Bai Zemin nodded and walked towards the exit without another word.
"Leader! What do we do with these people?"
He did not stop at Fan Bo's question, instead, he asked, "Didn't you get orders before?"
Fan Bo and his colleague looked at each other, remembering Shangguan Bing Xue's previous visit. They both nodded to each other and lifted their guns before pointing forward.
In the distance, Bai Zemin heard the sound of gunshots several times before everything went silent again. His expression did not change at all, and his eyes were as cold as ice and sharp as swords as he left the military compound and walked towards the square that stood in the center of the entire base.
When he finally got there, he saw dozens and dozens of large vehicles parked.
A large group of soldiers were guarding the area, keeping curious survivors who were pointing and muttering from afar out of the area.
Several soul evolvers were working in groups, moving the corpses of a large number of mutated beasts whose sizes differed from one another and carefully placing them on cargo trucks or on huge trailers that had been improvised using the bones of other beasts.
Each vehicle had been modified thanks to Shangguan Bing Xue's foresight so that even the smallest truck at this point was capable of carrying more than a dozen beasts of considerably large size. Although the speed would be greatly reduced, this was not a big problem as the road conditions did not allow them to travel very fast anyway.
The only real problem would be that the engines would not last long and the pistons could burst at any time due to the large amount of weight. After all, even if these were truck engines there was a weight limit to what they could carry before problems started to show.
Bai Zemin and the others had estimated that even if the trucks were of good quality, their engines would probably end up completely melting down within 1 or 2 years without any possibility of repair. By that time, they would have no choice but to find replacements or some other way to substitute the vehicles; but this was not an easy task at all, it was not something that could be done just because they knew it was necessary to do so.
After searching for a while, Bai Zemin saw Kang Lan and Shangguan Bing Xue standing in a corner. Both were silent as they kept their eyes on the work.
He walked toward them and was soon noticed, which ended in several people greeting him. Fortunately, the last week's military training had had a good effect and no one stopped working or else it would have been a headache.
"Done?" Shangguan Bing Xue immediately smiled at the sight of him and asked gently.
"Done." Bai Zemin nodded with a faint smile and then began to explain everything Lu Xiaoyao had informed him.
Kang Lan, who was currently unable to use her right hand and was holding her magic staff with her left, looked at the two people in front of her with surprise written on her face.
Since when did these two become what seemed to be best friends? Suddenly, a playful smile appeared on the mage and healer's face as she thought that things would probably become much more interesting and fun when the group returned to Beginning Village.
After Bai Zemin finished telling Shangguan Bing Xue about the losses, she frowned tightly as the loss of ammunition and men far exceeded her initial expectation.
"Fortunately, we managed to obtain a good number of treasures last night and even got hold of a large supply of food and forging and building materials. Otherwise, I fear this loss alone might have been enough to bring the whole camp down." She analyzed quietly.
"Yeah." Bai Zemin nodded. Then he said calmly, "We'll have to leave for the south as early as tomorrow. The more we delay it, the worse it will be for us on the way back as the amount of firepower will decrease more and more."
"Em." Shangguan Bing Xue nodded before falling silent.
The two separated soon after and began to give orders. Kang Lan also joined them and a few hours later Fu Xuefeng, Nangong Yi, and Nangong Lingxin arrived, who also began to help move things along to finish faster.
By the time night fell, the survivors who would be going south had already left the warmth of their previous homes and moved into the houses around the area around the central square; that way, everyone would be able to board the vehicles first thing in the morning. As for those who were still stubborn and unwilling to leave their homes, Bai Zemin ordered everyone not to bother with those people and to continue working.
Since even after what happened the night before there were still stubborn and foolish people who wanted to stay, then let them stay. Bai Zemin had too many things on his hands and too little time to handle them all to be worrying about the safety or opinions of each and every survivor; this was the most he could and was willing to do. Whether they appreciated it or not was no longer his problem.
After dinner, Bai Zemin did not go into the forest to hunt and also ordered everyone not to go into the forest as the Second Order existences that might be in the depths and the First Order existences in the inner area would probably be on high alert due to what happened before.
In the end, even though they all wanted to strengthen themselves, they obeyed and went to sleep quietly.
Even Shangguan Bing Xue, who wanted to rush as quickly as possible to level 50 to receive her mission to advance to the Second Order did not refute Bai Zemin's words because in her heart she was aware that he was right. Therefore, she also went to her room, and soon after she fell asleep.
Bai Zemin looked around the white room, realizing that for the first time since the beginning of the apocalypse he would be sleeping truly alone. For a moment, a feeling of loneliness and loss grew in his heart. However, as soon as it appeared, he silently scoffed and forcibly shook that feeling away before lying down and closing his eyes.
After all, he had been alone for a long time since even before the apocalypse broke out. Something like loneliness was something he had long since gotten used to and he even believed that he would probably be without company for most of his life; after all, in the past, he wasn't much different from his current self when it came to trusting people.
A few minutes later, his heart calmed down completely and his breathing became quiet. His consciousness drifted away from his body and he fell into a sleep deep enough to rest comfortably but light enough to wake up immediately at the slightest trouble.
* * *
It was 5:30 in the morning and the sun had not yet risen.
The sky was still almost completely dark, the only exception being the sparse starlight coming from distant stars hundreds, thousands, even millions of light years away from Earth.
However, even though normally everyone would be asleep at home for at least another hour, at this point the entire base was awake. Regardless of whether it was a normal survivor or a person of power within the military, everyone was on their feet, dressed as warmly as possible as they made their way alone or with their families to the central square.
Some people carried bags, suitcases, plastic bags, and even used large blankets to wrap their most important belongings. However, there were also others who only wore some slightly worn clothes who had nothing in this world but their own lives.
All of these people walked in an orderly fashion as they saw the large military lineup of several hundred heavily armed men and none of them dared to cause the slightest disorder.
* * * * * * *
Thank you very much to everyone who voted for Blood Warlock with their Golden Tickets! <3