Bai Zemin and Xian Mei'er exchanged glances for a moment before they both went about their own business.
The East Sea King also looked at Bai Zemin but his gaze lingered on him for a good 5 seconds. He definitely remembered the semblance of the young soul evolver of the human race whose power made him tremble months ago, but many things had changed during that time.
"Father, this is His Holiness Israfel, the Supreme High Priest of the humans." Xian Luo stepped forward and introduced his new ally. The lower part of his body had turned into a long greenish-blue fish tail, making his movements underwater extremely fluid.
Soon, the East Sea King's attention was switched to Israfel's body. After sizing him up for an instant and realizing that he could not measure the smiling young man's strength, Xian Huotian was surprised in his heart although he did not show it on the outside.
Meanwhile, the angel named Sonnata explained in a clear voice: "You must remember that you cannot stay long in Hero City so you should hurry to find all the treasures you can there. Hero City can be considered as an artifact that is between Rank 5 and Rank 6 and therefore it has its own guardian spirit. But, rest assured because this guardian spirit only expels the unregistered after 48 hours unless the City Master wishes otherwise... but since Hero City has no owner, there is no need for you to worry about it."
Seeing that everyone seemed to understand, the Fifth Order angel said in a deep voice, "Now, although you are free to do whatever you want there is only one absolute rule that you all must follow or else you will definitely die a horrible death. It doesn't matter how strong you are, you will definitely die!"
After uttering such words, Sonnata mainly looked at Israfel, Bai Zemin, Saint of the Absolute Felix, Demon of Corruption Shun, Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun, Angelo, and a few others.
Bai Zemin secretly frowned because he could not sense any kind of lie in the words or tone of voice of the angel named Sonnata.
"You can go to as many parts of Hero City as you want, but you absolutely must not go near the center of the city. Avoid the center no matter what!"
"Avoid the center of Hero City?" Wu Yijun was surprised to hear this and couldn't help but ask dumbfounded, "If we don't go to the center then how are we supposed to get control over Hero City?"
All the others also had frowns on their faces. They clearly shared the same doubts.
"Get control over Hero City?" The angel named Sonnata snorted but his voice was still soft as he explained, "Although Hero City is said to be nothing more than the core of the legendary Sky City whose whereabouts are unknown, it is still an artifact in between Rank 5 and 6, which is equivalent to a quasi Demigod treasure if you want to look it that way. Do you think you can take control of the core of Sky City, whose full power is said to be able to wipe out gods and demons alike? Even if you make it to the throne room you still have to be approved by the guardian spirit, and if you fail you are dead!"
"Sky City?"
"What's that?"
"I don't know..."
"A city is the core of another city? What the heck..."
Everyone was puzzled as this was the first time they had heard of Sky City.
The biggest doubt, however, was something else.
"Hey, angel!" Demon of Corruption Shun took a step forward and said in a hoarse voice, "That God of yours said Hero City was one of the treasures we could take, what are your words supposed to mean?!"
"My warning was given so you do as you please, and if you think you have the ability to withstand the scourge of a space storm that could even turn me into meat paste then I invite you to ignore the words I said just now." Sonnata shrugged as if he didn't care about the fate of the others.
After a pause, however, the Fifth Order angel added, "When my Lord mentioned Hero City, his goal was to point out the treasures inside the city, not the city itself. Hero City should have at least a few dozen treasures if not hundreds of ancient weapons. So, my recommendation is that you settle for that unless you're willing to jump into a level of danger that will kill you with 99% probability."
99% chance of dying?
Some soul evolvers exchanged glances before shaking their heads.
If the odds of dying were really this high equivalent to 99%/100% then it wasn't worth the risk. While gaining control over Hero City certainly sounded very appealing one needed their life to enjoy the benefits.
"I'm not ashamed to say that some of you might have a better chance of surviving fighting against me than ignoring my words once inside Hero City. I said what I have to say, it's up to you later." Sonnata clapped his hands to end the matter before saying, "Although everyone here is strong, I'm afraid that so many days of flying surely drained a good deal of Stamina from most of you so... we will be resting in the East Sea Kingdom for 1 day before heading to Hero City's location not too far from here."
Soon, the group headed to the huge city located at the bottom of the sea.
"This is Kraya City, the capital of our East Sea Kingdom. It was built to extend over 200 kilometers in a northwesterly direction and is approximately 70 kilometers wide in total. Although our customs may differ in some areas from the races living on land, we do have our own ways of having fun so I can guarantee that you will definitely not be bored during your stay in case you are restless haha!"
The first prince Xian Luo had become the guide of the group, and although obviously his closeness was much stronger with Israfel and the other members of the Holy Church he still treated everyone else considerably well with the only exception being Bai Zemin's group; he didn't treat them particularly bad, he just ignored them.
As for the King of the East Sea...
Bai Zemin and the others saw him chatting in a low voice with the angel named Sonnata. As for what the content of the conversation was, it was a mystery because they were using some sort of insulating treasure as they advanced a little further away from the others.
"I'm sorry."
"Mm?"
Bai Zemin shifted his attention to his side and only now noticed Xian Mei'er swimming beside him.
A flash of anger very rarely seen in her shone in her blue eyes as she said under her breath, "When you left right after showing your strength in front of my father, I thought my position as successor to the throne was guaranteed. My father even left me in charge of protecting the capital of our kingdom for over a month until slowly stabilizing the situation after the catastrophe caused by the sudden evolution of the Earth."
"Princess Xian Mei'er, what actually happened?" Wu Yijun asked perplexed. "Your father the East Sea King still dares to ally with other people even though Bai Zemin showed him what he can do?"
Was the East Sea King mentally retarded? Did he want to die so badly? Didn't the King of the East Sea know that his actions could cause the downfall of his entire kingdom? Despite her doubts, Wu Yijun did not say it aloud, but from the expression on her face, it was obvious what her thoughts were.
Xian Mei'er wanted to start explaining before she was misunderstood, but Shangguan Bing Xue tapped her shoulder to stop her.
"Princess, I think it will be best if we talk when we get somewhere a little more private."
Bai Zemin nodded in agreement with Shangguan Bing Xue's words, "Bing Xue is right. You don't worry, Xian Mei'er. As long as you don't betray our alliance, I and my Transcendent faction will be on your side. I will definitely take it upon myself to seat you on the throne of the East Sea no matter who likes it."
Several princes and princesses looked at Bai Zemin with disdain after hearing his words, but he ignored them completely. They were just daddy's and mommy's babies anyway, the real business were the big guys.
In fact, as far as Bai Zemin was concerned even the Eastern Sea King was just an insignificant little fry that only managed to break the Fourth Order using external methods and was not even close to level 250.
Xian Mei'er was so moved that if it weren't for all the hardships she had experienced over the past year that had made her mature greatly she would have burst into tears. She nodded firmly and said in a choked voice: "My goal is the prosperity and well-being of my people, that's all. You can do what you want with everything else."
The goal of the pacifist Seventh Princess did not change even for a second, and this was precisely the reason why she and Bai Zemin could cooperate so perfectly.
While it would be easier for Bai Zemin to support another prince or princess since Xian Mei'er was clearly at a disadvantage, it was of no use to put a greedy character on the throne of all the world's oceans. For him, Xian Mei'er who had no greed in her heart was the perfect choice for an ally.
Just at that moment, a little mermaid with golden hair and blue eyes that had been watching Bai Zemin and the others with her big eyes sparkling with curiosity swam towards them. Her movements were incredibly graceful and fluid, so despite looking like a little girl of 9-10 years old she was already beginning to show signs of the charm of an adult beauty that would undoubtedly complete her blossoming in a couple more years.
"Oh, right... Bai Zemin, Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun... Let me introduce my little sister Xian Bao Bao. She is the Ninth Princess of the East Sea." Xian Mei'er suddenly remembered something and motioned the little golden-haired mermaid to come closer, "Bao Bao, say hello to big sister's friends."
"Big brother, big sisters. Hello, I am Xian Bao Bao but you can call me Bao Bao or Bao'er!" Xian Bao Bao put a bright smile on her little face.
"What an adorable little mermaid!" Wu Yijun couldn't help but reach out her hand to stroke the Ninth Princess' little head.
Even Shangguan Bing Xue immediately felt that this little mermaid was cute.
"Eh...?" Xian Mei'er was surprised to see that Xian Bao Bao did not take off and let herself be caressed by Wu Yijun's hands. She had been worried for nothing apparently, "That's pretty unusual... Although it's not as extreme as Xiao Xiao's dislike, Bao Bao doesn't usually accept physical contact except by very few people."
Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue exchanged glances with mysterious smiles on their faces.
Wu Yijun was now the owner of one of the fragments of the World Tree Heart that was said to possess the purest natural energy in existence so she naturally had a knack for making a good impression on animals or plants. Since Xian Bao Bao was an inexperienced young mermaid, it was to be expected that she would not have very high defenses against her.
Xian Bao Bao looked at Bai Zemin with her big round eyes and asked in a sweet voice thick with curiosity, "Big brother, big sister Meimei told Bao'er that you are the strongest soul evolver she has ever met. Are you really that fierce?"
Due to her low level, Xian Bao Bao could not differentiate Bai Zemin's silhouette that day when he wiped out hundreds of thousands of enemies at lightning speed. However, she heard from her older sister some of his impressive feats.
Bai Zemin smiled slightly and a glint of understanding shone in his eyes as he understood what Xian Meier's intention was.
Evidently, the Seventh Princess was silently telling him that unlike the rest of her siblings she shared a good friendship with this little golden-haired mermaid loli. Since that is the case, Bai Zemin would naturally not be aggressive towards an innocent girl regardless of her race.
He cleared his throat and said something that only Lilith, Shangguan Bing Xue, and Wu Yijun understood among those present... No, even Eleanora understood it after reading the minds of the last two girls.
When they heard what he said they almost choked to death.
"Little Bao Bao, actually, big brother is secretly an expert."
"Ah? An expert? Are you even a high-level famous swimmer?"
"Forget about famous swimmers and traveling fishermen, big brother can move underwater faster than a state-of-the-art submarine and even beat the Leviathan on shore."
"Big brother, what is a state-of-the-art submarine? Is it those big corals we can't get close to? Besides, Leviathan is the name of one of the enemy kingdom's shark bodyguards?"
And so, for over 30 minutes and completely ignoring everyone, Bai Zemin spat his spit all over the place and bragged to the little mermaid about how he beat the legendary Leviathan in the seas, about how he took down the mighty 9-Headed Immortal Dragon in the sky, and about how he ended the life of the Mana Eater on the ground.
Of course, the way he narrated the events made the angel Sonnata almost lose his balance several times while Shangguan Bing Xue, Wu Yijun, and Eleanora looked at him as if they were looking at some sort of unknown sea monster.
Literally, it was as if he didn't care about the fact that he was surrounded by enemies and dangers to the point where most of the Fourth Order soul evolvers began to despise him in their hearts.
Only little Xian Bao Bao who knew nothing kept clapping her hands and exclaiming loudly while the sparkle in her eyes kept growing. It seemed that she would soon be Bai Zemin's first fan.
* * * * * * *
Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3