Chapter 281 - Big Change In Three Days
When people were busy the perception of time seemed to speed up, so for Bai Zemin, 72 hours of time flashed by in the blink of an eye.
During these three days, the amount of work he had to do was simply too much; to the point where he barely had about 3 or 4 hours a day to sleep. Were it not for the fact that his Soul Power was especially high, even as a soul evolver as he would have collapsed by now.
This was because the works that Bai Zemin did were not light work by any means.
He first had to meet with the different team leaders of the North Camp, including those from Lu Yan's previous faction. Then, Bai Zemin had to reform the troops in an improvised way to mix the men who previously had conflicts due to the silent and hate-filled war between their leaders.
To become more familiar with the armed forces, Bai Zemin went on several expeditions in search of supplies in the surrounding area, never going more than 100 kilometers from the base. Because most of the areas had already been explored during the previous month not much could be found, but what could be found was enough to replenish the lost fuel and make some profit to ensure that the time spent would not be considered a total loss.
Little by little, the armed men began to familiarize themselves with this new leader and the vast majority of them were quick to accept him. After all, who didn't want a powerful and capable leader who fought on the front line, taking on the enemy first? The strength, bravery, and dominance on the battlefield that Bai Zemin displayed was enough to attract the admiration and loyalty of many gunmen..
At the base, there were a total of one hundred soul evolvers, but over the past three days, that number had swelled to three hundred. In short, there was a 200% increase in soul evolvers.
This incredible growth rate was all thanks to Shangguan Bing Xue; while Bai Zemin was busy taking over the real control and power of the base, she was not idle at all.
Bai Zemin delegated to her the task of overseeing the distribution of food to the survivors, forming a more efficient logistics team to support the front lines, tallying the amount of supplies the base had available and making an approximation of how long it would last at the new consumption rate, confirming the ammunition inventory, and many other assignments.
Even if Nangong Lingxin, Nangong Yi, and the new logistics team were there to help her, Shangguan Bing Xue was very busy and barely found any time to absorb the Soul Power of other living beings to level up.
In fact, the group of four barely saw each other's faces for the past three days.
As for the reason why there was an abrupt increase in the number of survivors who suddenly became soul evolvers, it was all initiated by Shangguan Bing Xue.
-In the western part of the base, where the weakest and hungriest survivors lived.
As well as in different parts of the base, several stands were set up where relief food was being distributed. This was happening every day just like in the past, but everything had changed compared to when Kang Rong and Lu Yan were in charge of the base.
Standing in the middle of a long line of survivors, a typical family consisting of a couple and their thirteen-year-old son calmly carried their bowls. Unlike in the past, this family did not have an extremely wary look in their eyes and it was obvious that their nutrition had improved exponentially.
The formerly dry and yellowish skin of the 37-year-old woman was gradually becoming tender again, regaining its natural white color while the blemishes on her face were slowly being removed as if by magic.
The man's weak muscles had recovered considerably and the vigor in his eyes made him look like a lion ready for battle.
After about 20 minutes, the family of three arrived at the front and were greeted by a fat man holding a spoon in his hands.
The fat man looked at the three for a moment before putting the spoon into the pot and pulling it out before pouring the contents into the woman's bowl. Then, the fat man did the same with the man's and the kid's bowl before shouting loudly, "Next!"
The family of three retreated to a corner and sat down to begin eating.
"This meat soup is really delicious." The woman commented as she looked at her bowl with sparkling eyes.
"Not only is it delicious. The quantity of meat here can be conceived as a lot even in the past." The man replied to his wife. His voice as loud and powerful as thunder was brimming with gratitude as he said, "This is all thanks to Lord Bai. After he took over the base, everyone's situation changed for the better to a great extent. Now, even the bottom survivor can get at least 3 bowls of meat soup every day."
"Besides, this meat is definitely not normal meat." The woman pointed as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the cooked meat. "Our weak body recovered too quickly and even little Shun recovered from his malnutrition... Truly, this person named Bai Zemin came to become our light."
The tall, strong man nodded before looking up at a building just to see an incredibly beautiful silver-haired young woman emerge from inside before disappearing into the crowd, "Although Lord Bai has not shown himself in public, Miss Shangguan has also been working hard. She appears every day in every food station to supervise the distribution of food at least once. She has become quite famous and well-known among the survivors as well."
One of the biggest changes that North Camp underwent was that the survivors no longer received only one bowl of food per day, increasing to three per day. In addition, instead of rice gruel diluted to the point where it was difficult to find a single grain of rice, what replaced their daily meals were three big bowls of broth with meat in it.
This meat was not normal meat; it was mutant beast meat.
Although they were only normal and low-level mutant beasts, just 10 and below, the meat of these beasts accelerated the recovery rate of the survivors whose bodies were weakened horribly. At the very least, the survivors received an increase of 3 points in their Health stat and the weaker ones even received up to 8 Health points; all this because the Soul Power of these people was scarcely low and of poor quality.
With Bai Zemin leading one and Shangguan Bing Xue leading the other, two large squads of soul evolvers were formed. Each squadron numbered around 50 at first, as that was all the base had. These two squads went into the forest separately and while they didn't charge too deep and only stayed on the outer perimeter, they managed to hunt over 200 mutated beasts in just 1 day.
As Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue targeted the low-level beasts so that the weaker soul evolvers would level up and become more powerful, the hunting rate was not particularly high, but it was undoubtedly sufficient.
Using the meat of over 200 beasts, the next day the survivors began to enjoy a better meal and their physiques began to become more powerful thanks to their soul upgrade.
It was then that Shangguan Bing Xue suggested starting recruiting poor survivors to become soul evolvers, giving them certain privileges depending on the level of power they achieved and the contributions they made to the base.
Now that their physiques had begun to recover quickly, those who were already fed up with the life they were leading and not wanting to experience again the feeling of being eaten by their own body, a large number of survivors immediately enlisted and applied to become soul evolvers.
In only 3 days, the number of soul evolvers who had enlisted exceeded 200 and some of them who were fighting practically without rest had already broken level 15.
...
Inside her family's villa, Lu Xiaoyao was wearing a professional dress uniform and was currently reading over various documents.
The current Lu Xiaoyao had changed considerably compared to how she was in the past. Although she still had tantrums and was arrogant, at least this 18-year-old managed to realize that depending on her father would not always be good for her, since in the future this could be the cause of her own downfall.
Although she did not have the courage to fight, she decided to do another kind of work and was now in charge of supervising the logistics team. A position that was not only prestigious, but also assured her protection of two level 10 soul evolvers with one active skill each and a fixed amount of monthly supplies as pay.
Although the work was heavy and sometimes she had to stay up late at night to confirm that the reports her subordinates sent matched with her own data to make sure that no one was embezzling or diverting supplies, Lu Xiaoyao did not complain.
Gradually, she began to mature.
As she was immersed in the papers, the door to her room was knocked softly and when she looked up she saw her father entering with a smile.
"Father." She greeted with respect and affection in her voice.
Lu Yan rested his back on the door and looked at his daughter with satisfaction. For four days, he had watched her slowly transform from a spoiled little princess into a hardworking young woman who was finally beginning to realize that life was not easy, especially not in this chaotic world in which they lived.
This was all thanks to the arrival of Bai Zemin's group, and Lu Yan was incredibly grateful to them. Because if it weren't for the influence of those young people who were close to the same age of his daughter, she definitely wouldn't have worked so hard to improve herself and become a better person.
"Xiaoyao, how is today's work going?" Lu Yan asked with a fatherly smile. "The numbers are good?"
Lu Xiaoyao looked at the documents in her hands and smiled sweetly, "I think Bai Zemin will be pleased. This time, the soul evolver squads hunted a total of four hundred beasts and gathered 180 Unclassified Soul Stones."
"Oh... That's a lot." Lu Yan was surprised.
Lu Xiaoyao put down the documents on her desk and stood up to stretch her body as she felt stiff after sitting for so many hours.
She replied, "In the past 72 hours, we have gathered a total of 301 Unclassified Soul Stones and even 2 First Order Soul Stones. Also, thanks to the constant hunting, the meat has been slowly accumulating. At this rate, I think the survivors' meals will probably make a small improvement in a while more."
Lu Yan sighed as he listened to his daughter's report.
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue were truly two terrifying young individuals. When the two of them started working as a team, the entire base was turned upside down in a heartbeat.
Dozens of officials who lived lives of luxury in the privileged area were expelled after opposing the new regime, more than two hundred people who tried to rebel were mercilessly slaughtered, a hundred of them became slaves, and were now forced to do hard labor every day.
But what surprised Lu Yan the most was that these two young kids not only improved the lives of thousands of people, but also began to build up a terrifying force in such a short time.
The number of mutant beasts being hunted every day gradually increased, which in turn led to an increase in the amount of food, which resulted in more than 1,500 survivors finding work as dismantlers.
None of the hunted remains were wasted.
The meat was stored in an ice chamber or in large freezers, the fat was stored separately to be used as oil. As for body parts such as ligaments, bones, pelts, scales, etc; they were carefully worked and then stored to be made into armor later.
A new society powered by magic, mana, and soul evolvers began to take shape under the leadership of two young adults who were still college students.
Lu Yan was suddenly curious as to how far this would all go and, in case that path was far ahead, he hoped to live to that day so that he could appreciate it all with a smile and scoff at those who wanted to destroy the human race.
Unconsciously or not, Lu Yan like many others believed that with two such horrendously strong and intelligent young individuals at the lead, this small faction would one day achieve great things.
Undoubtedly, it would not be easy and there would undoubtedly be many impediments. However, Lu Yan had never in his more than 50 years of life met two such prominent people. So his expectations and hopes were very high.
"A new king and a dynasty, eh? Might not be so bad." He muttered with a smile as he looked out the window.
* * * * * * *
Thanks a lot to all those who use their Golden Tickets to vote for BW <3