Chapter 112: Underworld
Bai Yi's group carried the four corpses outside and dug a simple hole to bury them. Anyway, there was a big cemetery outside. As for the circumstances of Xiao's team, they couldn't be considered to be sad either, but Bai Yi's group just felt that it was quite pitiful. Perhaps they just had some sympathy for people who had persevered through the same thing as them.
That's right, pitiful!
In New Zealand now, the initial estimates of the number of surviving evolved humans was not even 1 million. The population of New Zealand before wasn't a lot either but it was still around 5 - 6 million people. In this short 9 months, more than 80% of the people had died. Moreover, even now all the surviving evolved humans lived in fear every single day. They feared meeting some dangerous evolved lifeforms and getting killed in a moment of carelessness. Other than that, they still had to worry about when they would fall into the berserk state and not be able to wake up again, becoming truly mindless monsters.
In New Zealand now, all the evolved humans lived on the edge in fear, and every step they took could be their last.
Even Bai Yi's team met with numerous dangers over these few months as well. However, they were lucky enough and very adaptable. As such, none of them had died during this period. One would be wrong if they thought that Bai Yi's team could move around fearlessly and recklessly. Hence, when they witnessed the death of Xiao's team, they also felt much sympathy for them.
The Progenitor had asked them to do something to make up to the entire world for her mistakes, but they still couldn't see any trace of hope yet.
……
"Momo, can you get those Spirit Devouring Butterflies to follow us?" Bai Yi asked. There were another two vengeful spirits that chased all the way inside, but they were swiftly devoured by the butterflies. The other vengeful spirits seemed to naturally feel afraid of the butterflies and they didn't enter this place anymore. Their journey would be a lot smoother in this ghost city if they could move with this bunch of Spirit Devouring Butterflies.
"Daddy are you willing to feed and take care of them?" Momo asked happily.
"I said if we could bring them along. As for food, I really don't know how to feed these things," Bai Yi explained. It wasn't so easy to understand new things like this, and Momo's eyes had also changed after entering this city. They didn't know what would happen to her after leaving the city, so Bai Yi was also very worried about her.
"Oh……" Momo said with some resentment, seemingly quite unhappy.
"En, we can try to raise them if you can make these butterflies follow us of their own will."
"Really?!" Momo jumped happily.
"Really." Bai Yi nodded.
"My daddy said I can bring you guys along. Do you want to follow us…?" Momo immediately said joyously to the butterflies surrounding her.
Woolf and the rest of the group were instantly speechless. You shouldn't pamper your daughter so much, no? Without even talking about how they were supposed to bring so many butterflies with them, just the danger of these butterflies was enough to keep all of them on guard. This danger wasn't just talking about their ability to consume souls. After all, who knew what other dangers these butterflies posed. However, since Bai Yi had already made the decision, the rest of them didn't object either.
Bai Yi saw Momo talking to those butterflies and felt like laughing. Could those butterflies even understand her words?
In New Zealand now, practically every plant and animal had assimilated with activated cells, and their intelligence had grown greatly. However, it was still the intelligence of mammals that had increased more in comparison. Maybe it was because the Progenitor was human and thus a mammal as well.
"En en, oh ok, you guys can't leave this place for now? This is the environment that you guys mutated and adapted to huh." When those butterflies stopped on top of the feelers on Momo's head, she started talking to herself. It was like she really was communicating with the butterflies.
Can she really understand them?
Bai Yi suddenly recalled that in the past, Momo communicated with Sharpei in this way too, but he just thought that it was because Sharpei and Momo grew up together since they were young. From the looks of it now, it didn't seem to be just because of that.
Animal bond?
That doesn't seem right either, Momo didn't seem to be so close to all animals.
Bai Yi couldn't guess the reason, but he thought that it probably wasn't a bad thing.
At this time, 11 butterflies flew out from the swarm. The butterflies were all packed quite tightly together just now. As such, they couldn't tell that these butterflies seemed to be black and almost transparent. They only realized this when these 11 butterflies flew out. If they didn't look carefully, they almost thought that these butterflies were just a projection and didn't possess a real body. These 11 butterflies stopped on Momo's body and stuck to her closely.
"You guys can leave with me? It's ok, Momo likes you guys a lot!" Momo said happily.
Just when they were trying to understand what had happened, these 11 butterflies just stuck to Momo's body like this and slowly merged into her. They went in…! Bai Yi immediately got a big shock and wanted to stop Momo. They only saw these butterflies for the first time, and even their name was just given. They didn't know the characteristics of these butterflies at all. If something really happened, then it would be too late for Ba Yi to feel regret.
"Momo!"
"En daddy, what's wrong?"
"What is this? Why did these butterflies merge into your body?" When Bai Yi put his hand on Momo's shoulder he had already forced himself to calm down. In a situation like this, nobody knew what was going on, so it was best to deal with it calmly.
"I don't know either, they just said that they could leave with me!" Momo said and stretched out her right hand.
From her fingertips, a butterfly spread its wings and flew out. Everyone dumbly looked at this butterfly that carried a slight glow. There definitely wasn't any butterfly on Momo's hand just now, so how did this butterfly appear? Wait…If they could still tell that the butterflies before had a real body, then this butterfly was completely transparent without a physical body.
"Ah I can't do this anymore, I'm hallucinating." Woolf smacked his head. Pupu beside him shook his head vigorously too, his whole body shaking about.
Bai Yi also massaged his forehead. Even though they saw countless new and strange lifeforms in New Zealand so far, this kind of change was really still beyond their imaginations.
"Momo, what just happened? Explain slowly," Bai Yi said gently to Momo.
"En!" Momo nodded.
After Momo used her simple and kiddy words to explain for a long while, the rest of them finally understood more or less what was going on.
______________________________________________________________________________
Underworld - A special environment where a large number of living things had died. Spiritual lifeforms can directly exist in this place.
The underworld existed in many legends around the world, but in reality, nobody had truly discovered any place that had ghosts so far. There were no ghosts discovered even in those ancient battlefields or ancient tombs. In truth, the world had a natural ability to repair itself, and Earth was a world that existed mainly in the physical dimension. Without outside forces to maintain it, an underworld that was born through chance like this would be gradually eroded by the main world before it eventually disappeared.
This was why people now couldn't find any ghosts in places that reportedly had ghosts in the past like ancient battlefields or tombs.
Other than in the case of coincidence of coincidences, the underworld required somebody to maintain it so that it could continue to exist. Examples of this would be like the formations in ancient eastern legends, the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, the pyramids of Egypt, Easter Island, and the like…
The things in the legends weren't just legends. Instead, they really had a purpose to it, and that was to maintain the environment and energy field of the underworld.
Unfortunately, the humans after always thought too highly of themselves and entered these places with the goal of exploration. However, their reckless actions changed the setup of the systems in place to maintain the underworld. As a result, the main world swiftly eroded the underworld in these places away and it eventually became a normal physical environment.
Hence, when those tomb raiders, thieves or explorers entered a place for the first time, they would commonly encounter some hard to believe things. The system maintaining the underworld hadn't been damaged yet so the spirits really existed then. When the underworld disappeared afterward, the spiritual lifeforms weren't able to exist in the physical world for an extended period of time. Naturally, people subsequently didn't notice any abnormalities. The people after didn't manage to find anything abnormal and still shouted shamelessly that their predecessors were just deluding themselves, or that it had no scientific evidence.
Although science was really becoming more and more advanced, humans were also increasingly losing their reverence and devotion, becoming more and more arrogant!
Foolish…!
……
A large number of people dying in addition to the unique construction of Wellington had caused this place to become the mythical underworld.
In this special environment, the lifeforms that still survived in Wellington either left or adapted and changed because of this place. The other lifeforms only adapted to the special environment and energy field of the underworld, but the Spirit Devouring Butterflies had changed even more thoroughly and started to feed on souls.
This characteristic caused a small portion of the Spirit Devouring Butterflies to undergo a drastic change, that is…Half-Spiritual Body!
These 11 butterflies were the ones that adapted the earliest and had already had half-spiritual bodies They lied on the boundary between the physical and the spiritual. That was why they could adhere themselves to Momo's body, and maintain their existence through feeding on the excess energy that her soul gave out. Moreover, these butterflies roughly judged the strength of Momo's soul now, and they didn't let too many butterflies adhere themselves to Momo. They only let a number of butterflies that Momo's soul could withstand to adhere to her.
11 Spirit Devouring Butterflies, that was the limit of Momo's soul.
The rest of them looked to the swarm of butterflies and realized that there indeed were more butterflies that were at a similar level as the 11 butterflies in the swarm.
________________________________________________________________
Momo only used simple words to describe the special environment of Wellington, as well as why those Spirit Devouring Butterflies had changed and why they adhered themselves to her body.
As for the underworld, not just Momo, but the rest of them couldn't wrap their heads around this idea either. Even if Wellington was a ghost city now, they still couldn't figure out why.
Wellington was an underworld formed by chance. Nonetheless, as time passed, it would be eroded away by the main physical world and return to normal. At that point in time, all the lifeforms living in Wellington now would either have to adapt to the normal world again or truly die. When that time came, other than people like Bai Yi's team who had really seen the ghosts, everyone else would probably think that everything was an exaggerated rumor.
In truth, Heloise had fallen into a slight daze and shock when she looked at the scene of Wellington below her in the air.
So Wellington looked like this from the top, but why is it the more I look at it, the more…how do I describe this?
Heloise couldn't describe this weird feeling that she had, but she felt that the topography and environment of this place was a little strange. She decided to stay there and think about it for a while. She also drew down the appearance of Wellington since she wasn't in a rush to look for Bai Yi and the rest. However, Heloise at this point in time didn't understand the importance of the drawings in her hands.
Chapter 112: Underworld
Bai Yi's group carried the four corpses outside and dug a simple hole to bury them. Anyway, there was a big cemetery outside. As for the circumstances of Xiao's team, they couldn't be considered to be sad either, but Bai Yi's group just felt that it was quite pitiful. Perhaps they just had some sympathy for people who had persevered through the same thing as them.
That's right, pitiful!
In New Zealand now, the initial estimates of the number of surviving evolved humans was not even 1 million. The population of New Zealand before wasn't a lot either but it was still around 5 - 6 million people. In this short 9 months, more than 80% of the people had died. Moreover, even now all the surviving evolved humans lived in fear every single day. They feared meeting some dangerous evolved lifeforms and getting killed in a moment of carelessness. Other than that, they still had to worry about when they would fall into the berserk state and not be able to wake up again, becoming truly mindless monsters.
In New Zealand now, all the evolved humans lived on the edge in fear, and every step they took could be their last.
Even Bai Yi's team met with numerous dangers over these few months as well. However, they were lucky enough and very adaptable. As such, none of them had died during this period. One would be wrong if they thought that Bai Yi's team could move around fearlessly and recklessly. Hence, when they witnessed the death of Xiao's team, they also felt much sympathy for them.
The Progenitor had asked them to do something to make up to the entire world for her mistakes, but they still couldn't see any trace of hope yet.
Chapter 113: Mad Ghost Anna
After simply communicating with the Spirit Devouring Butterflies, they understood their request and were willing to move with Bai Yi's team.
From the simple communication between Momo and the Spirit Devouring Butterflies, they learned that these butterflies already had the habit of going out to hunt at a set time. The ghosts and vengeful spirits were just food to these butterflies. With just a big swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies opening the way for them, Bai Yi's team didn't have to fear vengeful spirits anymore. Momo was still the most popular with the butterflies. The rest of them were quite envious when they saw her smiling happily being surrounded by a big swarm of butterflies.
Bai Yi's team walked out of the cathedral again, and beside Momo was a big swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies.
……
They walked back along the path that they ran from, and without walking too far they saw the old ghost Johnny and his granddaughter, Nessa, again. Apparently, the two ghosts were quite worried about them after they got split up from each other.
When Momo saw the two ghosts, they also saw Bai Yi's group. However, once Johnny and Nessa saw the swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies next to them, they immediately revealed a look of terror. With a 'sou!', they started to fly away like green smoke. As ghosts who had lived here for more than half a year, how could they not know the power of these butterflies?
The Spirit Devouring Butterflies beside Bai Yi's team immediately started chasing the ghosts as if they had seen their prey.
"Momo, tell the Spirit Devouring Butterflies not to harm them." The rest of them couldn't see ghosts, but after Momo said that the butterflies went to chase Johnny and Nessa, they immediately asked Momo to stop the butterfly swarm. Bai Yi did not know how Momo communicated with the butterflies. Although they had both fused with butterfly genes, Momo seemed to be comparatively closer and more intimate with animals.
When they finally caught up with Johnny and Nessa, these two ghosts were surrounded in the middle of the street by the butterflies. They were unable to even move an inch.
The bodies of the Spirit Devouring Butterflies were actually very fragile, not too different from a normal butterfly's. If they were released outside, these butterflies would just be free food for other lifeforms. However, facing these simple ghosts and vengeful spirits who didn't have any physical form of attacks, the Spirit Devouring Butterflies were their natural bane. It could only be said that every evolved lifeform countered another, the Spirit Devouring Butterflies were born with the activated cells as a catalyst and the special environment of Wellington.
Moreover, these ghosts seemingly couldn't use their ability to go through physical objects when faced with these butterflies. Their bodies seemed to be restricted by some attractive force that rooted them to the spot.
"Oh, we meet again." Bai Yi looked at the two vague ghostly figures in the middle of the street.
"Oh…!" Johnny couldn't even make himself laugh bitterly when he heard Bai Yi's words.
"Eh? You guys can speak?" Bai Yi's team were all extremely surprised. Although the voice was quite muffled, they could still hear it.
"Can you get these butterflies to go away, I'll explain to you guys," Johnny said.
Bai Yi gestured for Momo to make the butterflies disperse. After the butterflies left Johnny and Nessa, they immediately disappeared into thin air. However, seeing that Momo still looked toward the same place, they knew that the two ghosts hadn't left the place. It was just that they couldn't see them anymore. Recalling the situation a while ago, Nessa had even suddenly revealed her appearance to Bai Yi's team to scare them. They didn't think of asking about this incident earlier, so they must get things clear now.
After Johnny and Nessa's explanation, they finally understood what was going on.
The underworld was a special environment. In the underworld, these ghosts could maintain their existences for a long time. The stronger the energy field of the underworld, the more influence the ghosts could exert on the real world. If Bai Yi's team entered the center of Wellington now, they could completely see those vengeful spirits with their own eyes. Another way to increase their influence on the outside world was to increase their personal strength. If the ghost was strong enough, then they could still reveal their bodies in places with weak energy in the underworld. They would also be able to communicate with other living lifeforms.
An example would be how Nessa revealed herself to frighten them earlier.
However, Nessa wasn't powerful enough and she was simply releasing the power of her soul. This kind of state couldn't be sustained for long, or she would cause great damage to herself.
So, it wasn't that Johnny didn't want to directly interact with them, it was just that they couldn't do it at their current level.
After hearing Johnny's explanation, Bai Yi didn't blame them either. He just asked questions about any relevant information and clarified things, recording them all down for later.
'Have you seen this person?' While asking about the ability of ghosts to appear and disappear, Bai Yi finally asked about their true goal for coming to Wellington.
'You guys came here to look for people? Is it a friend? It's really dangerous to come to this place.'
'Friend…absolutely not!' Bai Yi's expression turned cold.
Even if they couldn't communicate directly, Johnny and Nessa could still see Bai Yi's expression. Looking at his face, they immediately knew that the Yu Han they were looking for wasn't their friend. The old ghost Johnny could read the situation better and told Bai Yi that they could inform the other ghosts. If any of them saw Yu Han, then they would tell him immediately. Afterward, Johnny brought Nessa and left the encirclement of the Spirit Devouring Butterflies as they continued to shiver in fear.
"Uncle Bai, you're letting them go just like this?" Warner couldn't understand it.
"En, it doesn't matter even if we let them go." Bai Yi revealed a smile. Actually, what could they do even if they kept them here? They weren't going to get any information about Yu Han either way.
"Warner!"
"En?" Warner and Pupu looked at Bai Yi.
"Do you have any complaints?"
"Why?"
"I'm talking about how I brought everyone to this place because of the grudge in my heart. Yu Han would definitely not be alone. From the information we have gathered lately, we know that he has quite a few decent teammates with him. Coming here to find Yu Han this time, maybe we won't succeed, and some of us may even die in this place. It might be you, it might be Woolf…In reality, even before seeing Yu Han, Heloise has already gone missing. Don't you guys have any complaints?" Bai Yi said slowly. At the start, he was just talking to Warner, but toward the end, he looked at everyone else.
Everyone fell into silence!
"I believe that Heloise will be fine," Woolf said seriously after a while.
"This isn't just your business, don't put all the responsibility on yourself. You must know, if we did not want to come, we wouldn't have tried to accommodate and follow you to this place either," Mavis said slowly, while the look in Sara's eyes when she died appeared in Mavis' mind. Similarly, the rest of them thought of their companions from before.
Martin, Sara…Hong Qi Hua!
A sharp murderous aura gradually rose from all of them. This murderous aura even displaced the surrounding energy field of the underworld, and the Spirit Devouring Butterflies on Momo's body couldn't endure it and flew away.
"Then, don't regret!" An extraordinarily bewitching and cold light flashed in Bai Yi's eyes.
"Of course!" All of them replied solemnly.
Only when the aura around them calmed down did the swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies return to Momo's side. These bunch of butterflies couldn't understand the changes in the people of Bai Yi's team. They only naturally felt very close to Momo and could communicate with her. She felt just a companion that looked different from them.
"Momo, if we really see Yu Han's team later, immediately make the Spirit Devouring Butterflies leave. These butterflies are the bane of spiritual type lifeforms, but they are actually very weak toward normal lifeforms. If Xiao's team did not make an error in judgment just now, many of these butterflies would have definitely been killed." Bai Yi started to instruct Momo.
"En en!" Momo did not want her newly-made friends to die like that either.
……
After waiting for half a day, just when they thought that Johnny and Nessa weren't coming back anymore, they finally saw their figures. There were more than 10 other ghosts accompanying these two ghosts.
'Johnny, what are you trying to do?! Why didn't you say that there were so many butterflies here!' One of the female ghosts with them immediately grabbed onto Johnny and scolded him after seeing the swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies. The other ghosts also couldn't help but start to run away in the other direction.
"It's fine, it's really fine. These Spirit Devouring Butterflies won't attack us, they listen to the words of that little girl called Momo.'
'Spirit Devouring Butterflies?'
'They will listen?' The other ghosts were very curious as well.
Three ghosts shakily and very nervously came in front of Bai Yi's team, while most of them looked on from afar without daring to approach. Seeing their natural bane dancing around in the sky around them, Anna couldn't help but feel that she was serving herself on a platter to someone else.
"I heard that you guys are looking for some people!" The female ghost that scolded Johnny just now didn't hide herself and revealed her appearance with a burst of spiritual power.
"That's right, we are looking for some people." Bai Yi nodded.
"Enemies?"
"En…Talking to us directly like this, aren't you afraid that your body can't take it?" Bai Yi looked at the female ghost sitting casually on the floor and asked.
"Hmph, don't compare me to this bunch of idiots."
'Anna is more powerful than us.' A row of words appeared on the sand beside them.
Bai Yi looked at Anna and couldn't help but nod his head. Apparently, this female ghost called Anna was the top few among the ghosts. This wasn't too surprising since there would definitely be differences between every ghost. As long as there was a large enough number of ghosts, then there would definitely be the so-called 'most powerful' group of ghosts after comparing all of them.
"I have seen the person you talked about!" Anna said to Bai Yi.
"Where is he!"
……
After talking to Anna for a while, Bai Yi's team finally learned where Yu Han was. He was actually on the other side of the city. Although they weren't directly opposite each other, it still wouldn't be easy to meet him. In addition, Anna didn't tell them the information about Yu Han so enthusiastically out of good-will.
"Ooohhhh, I've never seen something like a blood feud before! I tell you what, more of you guys must die later, it's a super good bargain! If you die in the Wellington now, your soul won't disappear quickly but become a ghost like us…" Anna said excitedly.
'I knew it, I shouldn't have brought her here.'
'I actually didn't think of coming back here in the first place, who knew that Anna woman would overhear our conversation.' Johnny whispered to his granddaughter. Sure enough, after learning that the goal of Bai Yi's team was to find people, Johnny didn't have the intention of coming back anymore. However, this madwoman Anna actually heard them and forced them to come back here. The rest of the ghosts here also joined along the way to watch the show. One must know, not many people came to Wellington these days, so these ghosts felt quite bored normally as well.
Chapter 114: Confession And…
An endless parade of ghosts!
This was the scene around them now, and it was definitely not an exaggeration. There really were an uncountable number of ghosts following them. Due to the ghosts reports in Wellington, fewer and fewer people came here over time, so the ghosts felt extremely bored. Now that there was a melodramatic blood feud coming up, it was a good form of entertainment for these ghosts. However, even if these ghosts were curious, they didn't recklessly approach Bai Yi's team. After all, that large swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies wasn't something to be taken lightly.
"More of you guys must die later!!" Anna followed beside Bai Yi and said something like this from time to time.
However, they completely ignored the curse-like harassment from Anna, because all of them were running rapidly toward Yu Han's location. A fierce and desolate atmosphere surrounded a few of them and very quickly affected the ghosts around them. Even Anna shut her mouth after a while. This group of people, just what kind of hatred and resolution did they bring with them here?
……
"I feel great sorrow over Doss' unfortunate passing!" Yu Han said with his eyes slightly red. At this time, they had just stored the Dead Soul Flower and had assembled together again. Yu Han's feelings weren't fake. Maybe he really wasn't willing to be the subordinate of others, but he still had real feelings toward the teammates below him.
"Team leader, this isn't your fault. Now that New Zealand is so dangerous, we have actually all mentally prepared ourselves for this before coming," one of the teammates said.
"No, the responsibility lies largely with me! You guys only know that we are here for the Dead Soul Flower, but I actually have another selfish motive!" Yu Han clenched his fist.
"Selfish motive?" Everyone was shocked.
"That's right, selfish motive!" Yu Han nodded. The people in Yu Han's team went silent for a while and looked at him seriously as they waited for his explanation. Only Ning Xue stared at Yu Han. Was he really going to them everything?
"Actually, I have an enemy all along."
"Enemy?"
"That's right, enemy. At the very beginning of New Zealand's change, we had some conflicts in our strive for survival. Eventually, we grew to become life and death enemies." Yu Han nodded.
"This enemy must be very bad right. After all, he clashed with a good person like team leader," Gaute said casually. His life was saved by Yu Han, so he trusted Yu Han a lot. He had followed Yu Han for more than half a year and found that Yu Han was a decent leader. He also thought that Yu Han was a good person who thought for all the evolved humans of New Zealand.
"No, the bad person is…me!" Yu Han said softly, and everyone was stunned on the spot.
"Don't you guys want to know who exactly is chasing me? I think you guys won't find this name unfamiliar."
"Who?"
"Bai Yi!"
"Bai Yi? It's actually him?"
"That's right, it's him. Due to my immaturity and jealousy before, it caused many things to happen between us. When you guys joined this team, I said that I don't mind the things you did in your past because everybody makes mistakes. As long as we help each other and unite together after entering the team, then everything is good. Actually, I set this rule because I myself had done wrong things in the past, and I haven't been able to make up for these mistakes yet." Yu Han slowly told them everything that had happened between him and Bai Yi.
Of course, Yu Han had been planning these words for very long, and he was very skilled with his words. He did not deny the things that he did, such as trying to kill his teammates or killing Hong Qi Hua. However, the version that Yu Han told them had some slight differences. From the simple jealousy and resentment, it became about them competing over leadership in the team, which eventually resulted in their conflict.
Yu Han's words seemed even more genuine precisely because he did not deny these wrongdoings!
"I admit, I did wrong in the past," Yu Han raised his head and said, staring at the dark sky.
"Hence, as somebody who did wrong before, I have never asked you guys about your past. I think that what happened before isn't important. To try and survive in this cruel world and still make sure that your actions do not go against morals or feelings is an extremely difficult thing to do. However, I…even after all this, I still can't completely run away from what I did before," Yu Han said softly, revealing his innermost feelings to his teammates.
At this time, Yu Han's teammates listened to him silently, and nobody spoke for a while.
So their team leader was somebody like this in the past?
"I could never pluck up the courage to confess these things to you guys and speak of it. After all, I'm such a despicable person, if I told you guys these things, all of you would probably leave me," Yu Han mocked himself.
"Yu Han, is everything you said true?" Athena asked with a cold face.
"It's true."
"I really didn't imagine that you were somebody like this," Athena said, wanting to stand up and leave.
"Wait, Athena, sit down first." Adams stopped her. After Athena sat down again, Adams looked at Yu Han again. "Team leader, the selfish motive you talked about just now, can you clarify it?" Adams asked.
"En, actually Bai Yi and I are both relatively famous people, so our whereabouts aren't a secret. When Bai Yi knew that I was nearby, I naturally knew that he was nearby as well. So, I decided to have a final closure with Bai Yi in Wellington. Because this is something between Bai Yi and me, I chose to do it in Wellington so as to not implicate you guys."
"Why did you choose Wellington?"
"Because Wellington is a ghost city!" A bottle of solution appeared in Yu Han's hands. This bottle of solution and the solution that purified the Dead Soul Flower came from the same source, and both could purge spiritual lifeforms.
"We learned from Cook that Wellington really had ghosts in it, and we even got the juice from the Soul Purifying Tree. However, Bai Yi's group probably doesn't know that. As such, with the power of this ghost city, we might be able to finish him off without directly battling with him. This way, you guys can avoid battling with Bai Yi's group and there wouldn't be any casualties either," Yu Han explained.
"Yu Han, even at this time you are still scheming against Bai Yi?" Athena said in anger.
"Ah, that's right. Because I'm not willing to just give my life up like that." Yu Han nodded frankly.
Yu Han was also gambling now, gambling whether his teammates would abandon him because of this. If there was any basis to his gamble, it would be the half a year of friendship with these people, and the cruel environment of New Zealand now. Other than a few lucky people, nobody could remain completely kind and pure in this place.
"Yu Han, you are really hopeless…"
"Enough Athena, you shut up." Evelynn who hadn't said a single word so far suddenly shouted at Athena.
"Evelynn, you!" Athena looked at Evelynn in disbelief. Why, why was she the one told to shut up? Moreover, looking at the expressions of the other people, they didn't seem to think that Yu Han did anything wrong.
"Let me share my past then. Before I became a monster, I got captured by a group of guys because of my decent looks and was treated as a plaything by them. In a lucky opportunity, I killed them and escaped. After that, while trying to survive, I stole food from others and even killed other people, I…my hands are stained with blood too," Evelynn looked at her hands and slowly said.
"Me too…I used to follow another team. We preyed on and killed other humans for survival, we only did it once but…" Adams said too.
"Me too…" The rest of them slowly shared their stories as well.
"Does it count if I stole a bone from a dog before? But it chased and bit me for a few streets after that," Ah De said. Their initially low mood was suddenly interrupted by Ah De and they laughed out loud, but this laughter disappeared very quickly.
"Athena, I believe that you really did not do anything that went against your conscience before. But you must know, from the beginning of the change until now, the world has turned so cruel. People like you who never had to make a moral choice is really in the tiny minority. I think a lot of people probably made a choice that went against their conscience just so they could survive."
"I don't think that what team leader did was right. In truth, team leader doesn't think that what he did was right either. However, in the New Zealand now, how many people dare to say that they didn't do any wrong things, that they have a completely clear conscience?!"
"I…don't dare," Evelynn slowly said.
"I agree with Evelynn, at least from this period of time that I spent with team leader, I can tell that he isn't a bad person. I believe my own eyes," Adams said as well.
"But he's still trying to scheme against Bai Yi now."
"That isn't a mistake either, I don't think that he is doing something wrong. At least, I'm not able to just give my life up either. As for the selfish motive team leader talked about, I don't think that it was all selfishness. To look for the Dead Soul Flower, we had to come to Wellington in the first place. Bai Yi definitely doesn't have an undeserved reputation. If we battle with his team somewhere else, at least some of us would definitely die. Although team leader is scheming by setting the battle here, part of it is still in consideration of trying to protect us," Adams said and looked toward Yu Han.
"Team leader, I want to ask, what are you planning to do to Bai Yi!"
"I'm sorry, I plan to face Bai Yi directly and ask for a peaceful resolution. If he doesn't agree, then I will battle with him until one of us falls," Yu Han said seriously.
"This world no longer has absolute good or evil anymore, maybe team leader's actions are…Forget about it. Anyway, I'm following team leader," Adams said to Yu Han and stood on Yu Han's side.
"Me too."
"Me too, I don't know how that Bai Yi is like, but at least the Yu Han I know is definitely not a bad person," Evelynn said.
Success!
A word rose from Yu Han's heart. From this moment onward, he had truly captured the hearts of this bunch of subordinates.
Chapter 112: Underworld
Bai Yi's group carried the four corpses outside and dug a simple hole to bury them. Anyway, there was a big cemetery outside. As for the circumstances of Xiao's team, they couldn't be considered to be sad either, but Bai Yi's group just felt that it was quite pitiful. Perhaps they just had some sympathy for people who had persevered through the same thing as them.
That's right, pitiful!
In New Zealand now, the initial estimates of the number of surviving evolved humans was not even 1 million. The population of New Zealand before wasn't a lot either but it was still around 5 - 6 million people. In this short 9 months, more than 80% of the people had died. Moreover, even now all the surviving evolved humans lived in fear every single day. They feared meeting some dangerous evolved lifeforms and getting killed in a moment of carelessness. Other than that, they still had to worry about when they would fall into the berserk state and not be able to wake up again, becoming truly mindless monsters.
In New Zealand now, all the evolved humans lived on the edge in fear, and every step they took could be their last.
Even Bai Yi's team met with numerous dangers over these few months as well. However, they were lucky enough and very adaptable. As such, none of them had died during this period. One would be wrong if they thought that Bai Yi's team could move around fearlessly and recklessly. Hence, when they witnessed the death of Xiao's team, they also felt much sympathy for them.
The Progenitor had asked them to do something to make up to the entire world for her mistakes, but they still couldn't see any trace of hope yet.
……
"Momo, can you get those Spirit Devouring Butterflies to follow us?" Bai Yi asked. There were another two vengeful spirits that chased all the way inside, but they were swiftly devoured by the butterflies. The other vengeful spirits seemed to naturally feel afraid of the butterflies and they didn't enter this place anymore. Their journey would be a lot smoother in this ghost city if they could move with this bunch of Spirit Devouring Butterflies.
"Daddy are you willing to feed and take care of them?" Momo asked happily.
"I said if we could bring them along. As for food, I really don't know how to feed these things," Bai Yi explained. It wasn't so easy to understand new things like this, and Momo's eyes had also changed after entering this city. They didn't know what would happen to her after leaving the city, so Bai Yi was also very worried about her.
"Oh……" Momo said with some resentment, seemingly quite unhappy.
"En, we can try to raise them if you can make these butterflies follow us of their own will."
"Really?!" Momo jumped happily.
"Really." Bai Yi nodded.
"My daddy said I can bring you guys along. Do you want to follow us…?" Momo immediately said joyously to the butterflies surrounding her.
Woolf and the rest of the group were instantly speechless. You shouldn't pamper your daughter so much, no? Without even talking about how they were supposed to bring so many butterflies with them, just the danger of these butterflies was enough to keep all of them on guard. This danger wasn't just talking about their ability to consume souls. After all, who knew what other dangers these butterflies posed. However, since Bai Yi had already made the decision, the rest of them didn't object either.
Bai Yi saw Momo talking to those butterflies and felt like laughing. Could those butterflies even understand her words?
In New Zealand now, practically every plant and animal had assimilated with activated cells, and their intelligence had grown greatly. However, it was still the intelligence of mammals that had increased more in comparison. Maybe it was because the Progenitor was human and thus a mammal as well.
"En en, oh ok, you guys can't leave this place for now? This is the environment that you guys mutated and adapted to huh." When those butterflies stopped on top of the feelers on Momo's head, she started talking to herself. It was like she really was communicating with the butterflies.
Can she really understand them?
Bai Yi suddenly recalled that in the past, Momo communicated with Sharpei in this way too, but he just thought that it was because Sharpei and Momo grew up together since they were young. From the looks of it now, it didn't seem to be just because of that.
Animal bond?
That doesn't seem right either, Momo didn't seem to be so close to all animals.
Bai Yi couldn't guess the reason, but he thought that it probably wasn't a bad thing.
At this time, 11 butterflies flew out from the swarm. The butterflies were all packed quite tightly together just now. As such, they couldn't tell that these butterflies seemed to be black and almost transparent. They only realized this when these 11 butterflies flew out. If they didn't look carefully, they almost thought that these butterflies were just a projection and didn't possess a real body. These 11 butterflies stopped on Momo's body and stuck to her closely.
"You guys can leave with me? It's ok, Momo likes you guys a lot!" Momo said happily.
Just when they were trying to understand what had happened, these 11 butterflies just stuck to Momo's body like this and slowly merged into her. They went in…! Bai Yi immediately got a big shock and wanted to stop Momo. They only saw these butterflies for the first time, and even their name was just given. They didn't know the characteristics of these butterflies at all. If something really happened, then it would be too late for Ba Yi to feel regret.
"Momo!"
"En daddy, what's wrong?"
"What is this? Why did these butterflies merge into your body?" When Bai Yi put his hand on Momo's shoulder he had already forced himself to calm down. In a situation like this, nobody knew what was going on, so it was best to deal with it calmly.
"I don't know either, they just said that they could leave with me!" Momo said and stretched out her right hand.
From her fingertips, a butterfly spread its wings and flew out. Everyone dumbly looked at this butterfly that carried a slight glow. There definitely wasn't any butterfly on Momo's hand just now, so how did this butterfly appear? Wait…If they could still tell that the butterflies before had a real body, then this butterfly was completely transparent without a physical body.
"Ah I can't do this anymore, I'm hallucinating." Woolf smacked his head. Pupu beside him shook his head vigorously too, his whole body shaking about.
Bai Yi also massaged his forehead. Even though they saw countless new and strange lifeforms in New Zealand so far, this kind of change was really still beyond their imaginations.
"Momo, what just happened? Explain slowly," Bai Yi said gently to Momo.
"En!" Momo nodded.
After Momo used her simple and kiddy words to explain for a long while, the rest of them finally understood more or less what was going on.
______________________________________________________________________________
Underworld - A special environment where a large number of living things had died. Spiritual lifeforms can directly exist in this place.
The underworld existed in many legends around the world, but in reality, nobody had truly discovered any place that had ghosts so far. There were no ghosts discovered even in those ancient battlefields or ancient tombs. In truth, the world had a natural ability to repair itself, and Earth was a world that existed mainly in the physical dimension. Without outside forces to maintain it, an underworld that was born through chance like this would be gradually eroded by the main world before it eventually disappeared.
This was why people now couldn't find any ghosts in places that reportedly had ghosts in the past like ancient battlefields or tombs.
Other than in the case of coincidence of coincidences, the underworld required somebody to maintain it so that it could continue to exist. Examples of this would be like the formations in ancient eastern legends, the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang, the pyramids of Egypt, Easter Island, and the like…
The things in the legends weren't just legends. Instead, they really had a purpose to it, and that was to maintain the environment and energy field of the underworld.
Unfortunately, the humans after always thought too highly of themselves and entered these places with the goal of exploration. However, their reckless actions changed the setup of the systems in place to maintain the underworld. As a result, the main world swiftly eroded the underworld in these places away and it eventually became a normal physical environment.
Hence, when those tomb raiders, thieves or explorers entered a place for the first time, they would commonly encounter some hard to believe things. The system maintaining the underworld hadn't been damaged yet so the spirits really existed then. When the underworld disappeared afterward, the spiritual lifeforms weren't able to exist in the physical world for an extended period of time. Naturally, people subsequently didn't notice any abnormalities. The people after didn't manage to find anything abnormal and still shouted shamelessly that their predecessors were just deluding themselves, or that it had no scientific evidence.
Although science was really becoming more and more advanced, humans were also increasingly losing their reverence and devotion, becoming more and more arrogant!
Foolish…!
……
A large number of people dying in addition to the unique construction of Wellington had caused this place to become the mythical underworld.
In this special environment, the lifeforms that still survived in Wellington either left or adapted and changed because of this place. The other lifeforms only adapted to the special environment and energy field of the underworld, but the Spirit Devouring Butterflies had changed even more thoroughly and started to feed on souls.
This characteristic caused a small portion of the Spirit Devouring Butterflies to undergo a drastic change, that is…Half-Spiritual Body!
These 11 butterflies were the ones that adapted the earliest and had already had half-spiritual bodies They lied on the boundary between the physical and the spiritual. That was why they could adhere themselves to Momo's body, and maintain their existence through feeding on the excess energy that her soul gave out. Moreover, these butterflies roughly judged the strength of Momo's soul now, and they didn't let too many butterflies adhere themselves to Momo. They only let a number of butterflies that Momo's soul could withstand to adhere to her.
11 Spirit Devouring Butterflies, that was the limit of Momo's soul.
The rest of them looked to the swarm of butterflies and realized that there indeed were more butterflies that were at a similar level as the 11 butterflies in the swarm.
________________________________________________________________
Momo only used simple words to describe the special environment of Wellington, as well as why those Spirit Devouring Butterflies had changed and why they adhered themselves to her body.
As for the underworld, not just Momo, but the rest of them couldn't wrap their heads around this idea either. Even if Wellington was a ghost city now, they still couldn't figure out why.
Wellington was an underworld formed by chance. Nonetheless, as time passed, it would be eroded away by the main physical world and return to normal. At that point in time, all the lifeforms living in Wellington now would either have to adapt to the normal world again or truly die. When that time came, other than people like Bai Yi's team who had really seen the ghosts, everyone else would probably think that everything was an exaggerated rumor.
In truth, Heloise had fallen into a slight daze and shock when she looked at the scene of Wellington below her in the air.
So Wellington looked like this from the top, but why is it the more I look at it, the more…how do I describe this?
Heloise couldn't describe this weird feeling that she had, but she felt that the topography and environment of this place was a little strange. She decided to stay there and think about it for a while. She also drew down the appearance of Wellington since she wasn't in a rush to look for Bai Yi and the rest. However, Heloise at this point in time didn't understand the importance of the drawings in her hands.
Chapter 112: Underworld
Bai Yi's group carried the four corpses outside and dug a simple hole to bury them. Anyway, there was a big cemetery outside. As for the circumstances of Xiao's team, they couldn't be considered to be sad either, but Bai Yi's group just felt that it was quite pitiful. Perhaps they just had some sympathy for people who had persevered through the same thing as them.
That's right, pitiful!
In New Zealand now, the initial estimates of the number of surviving evolved humans was not even 1 million. The population of New Zealand before wasn't a lot either but it was still around 5 - 6 million people. In this short 9 months, more than 80% of the people had died. Moreover, even now all the surviving evolved humans lived in fear every single day. They feared meeting some dangerous evolved lifeforms and getting killed in a moment of carelessness. Other than that, they still had to worry about when they would fall into the berserk state and not be able to wake up again, becoming truly mindless monsters.
In New Zealand now, all the evolved humans lived on the edge in fear, and every step they took could be their last.
Even Bai Yi's team met with numerous dangers over these few months as well. However, they were lucky enough and very adaptable. As such, none of them had died during this period. One would be wrong if they thought that Bai Yi's team could move around fearlessly and recklessly. Hence, when they witnessed the death of Xiao's team, they also felt much sympathy for them.
The Progenitor had asked them to do something to make up to the entire world for her mistakes, but they still couldn't see any trace of hope yet.
Chapter 113: Mad Ghost Anna
After simply communicating with the Spirit Devouring Butterflies, they understood their request and were willing to move with Bai Yi's team.
From the simple communication between Momo and the Spirit Devouring Butterflies, they learned that these butterflies already had the habit of going out to hunt at a set time. The ghosts and vengeful spirits were just food to these butterflies. With just a big swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies opening the way for them, Bai Yi's team didn't have to fear vengeful spirits anymore. Momo was still the most popular with the butterflies. The rest of them were quite envious when they saw her smiling happily being surrounded by a big swarm of butterflies.
Bai Yi's team walked out of the cathedral again, and beside Momo was a big swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies.
……
They walked back along the path that they ran from, and without walking too far they saw the old ghost Johnny and his granddaughter, Nessa, again. Apparently, the two ghosts were quite worried about them after they got split up from each other.
When Momo saw the two ghosts, they also saw Bai Yi's group. However, once Johnny and Nessa saw the swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies next to them, they immediately revealed a look of terror. With a 'sou!', they started to fly away like green smoke. As ghosts who had lived here for more than half a year, how could they not know the power of these butterflies?
The Spirit Devouring Butterflies beside Bai Yi's team immediately started chasing the ghosts as if they had seen their prey.
"Momo, tell the Spirit Devouring Butterflies not to harm them." The rest of them couldn't see ghosts, but after Momo said that the butterflies went to chase Johnny and Nessa, they immediately asked Momo to stop the butterfly swarm. Bai Yi did not know how Momo communicated with the butterflies. Although they had both fused with butterfly genes, Momo seemed to be comparatively closer and more intimate with animals.
When they finally caught up with Johnny and Nessa, these two ghosts were surrounded in the middle of the street by the butterflies. They were unable to even move an inch.
The bodies of the Spirit Devouring Butterflies were actually very fragile, not too different from a normal butterfly's. If they were released outside, these butterflies would just be free food for other lifeforms. However, facing these simple ghosts and vengeful spirits who didn't have any physical form of attacks, the Spirit Devouring Butterflies were their natural bane. It could only be said that every evolved lifeform countered another, the Spirit Devouring Butterflies were born with the activated cells as a catalyst and the special environment of Wellington.
Moreover, these ghosts seemingly couldn't use their ability to go through physical objects when faced with these butterflies. Their bodies seemed to be restricted by some attractive force that rooted them to the spot.
"Oh, we meet again." Bai Yi looked at the two vague ghostly figures in the middle of the street.
"Oh…!" Johnny couldn't even make himself laugh bitterly when he heard Bai Yi's words.
"Eh? You guys can speak?" Bai Yi's team were all extremely surprised. Although the voice was quite muffled, they could still hear it.
"Can you get these butterflies to go away, I'll explain to you guys," Johnny said.
Bai Yi gestured for Momo to make the butterflies disperse. After the butterflies left Johnny and Nessa, they immediately disappeared into thin air. However, seeing that Momo still looked toward the same place, they knew that the two ghosts hadn't left the place. It was just that they couldn't see them anymore. Recalling the situation a while ago, Nessa had even suddenly revealed her appearance to Bai Yi's team to scare them. They didn't think of asking about this incident earlier, so they must get things clear now.
After Johnny and Nessa's explanation, they finally understood what was going on.
The underworld was a special environment. In the underworld, these ghosts could maintain their existences for a long time. The stronger the energy field of the underworld, the more influence the ghosts could exert on the real world. If Bai Yi's team entered the center of Wellington now, they could completely see those vengeful spirits with their own eyes. Another way to increase their influence on the outside world was to increase their personal strength. If the ghost was strong enough, then they could still reveal their bodies in places with weak energy in the underworld. They would also be able to communicate with other living lifeforms.
An example would be how Nessa revealed herself to frighten them earlier.
However, Nessa wasn't powerful enough and she was simply releasing the power of her soul. This kind of state couldn't be sustained for long, or she would cause great damage to herself.
So, it wasn't that Johnny didn't want to directly interact with them, it was just that they couldn't do it at their current level.
After hearing Johnny's explanation, Bai Yi didn't blame them either. He just asked questions about any relevant information and clarified things, recording them all down for later.
'Have you seen this person?' While asking about the ability of ghosts to appear and disappear, Bai Yi finally asked about their true goal for coming to Wellington.
'You guys came here to look for people? Is it a friend? It's really dangerous to come to this place.'
'Friend…absolutely not!' Bai Yi's expression turned cold.
Even if they couldn't communicate directly, Johnny and Nessa could still see Bai Yi's expression. Looking at his face, they immediately knew that the Yu Han they were looking for wasn't their friend. The old ghost Johnny could read the situation better and told Bai Yi that they could inform the other ghosts. If any of them saw Yu Han, then they would tell him immediately. Afterward, Johnny brought Nessa and left the encirclement of the Spirit Devouring Butterflies as they continued to shiver in fear.
"Uncle Bai, you're letting them go just like this?" Warner couldn't understand it.
"En, it doesn't matter even if we let them go." Bai Yi revealed a smile. Actually, what could they do even if they kept them here? They weren't going to get any information about Yu Han either way.
"Warner!"
"En?" Warner and Pupu looked at Bai Yi.
"Do you have any complaints?"
"Why?"
"I'm talking about how I brought everyone to this place because of the grudge in my heart. Yu Han would definitely not be alone. From the information we have gathered lately, we know that he has quite a few decent teammates with him. Coming here to find Yu Han this time, maybe we won't succeed, and some of us may even die in this place. It might be you, it might be Woolf…In reality, even before seeing Yu Han, Heloise has already gone missing. Don't you guys have any complaints?" Bai Yi said slowly. At the start, he was just talking to Warner, but toward the end, he looked at everyone else.
Everyone fell into silence!
"I believe that Heloise will be fine," Woolf said seriously after a while.
"This isn't just your business, don't put all the responsibility on yourself. You must know, if we did not want to come, we wouldn't have tried to accommodate and follow you to this place either," Mavis said slowly, while the look in Sara's eyes when she died appeared in Mavis' mind. Similarly, the rest of them thought of their companions from before.
Martin, Sara…Hong Qi Hua!
A sharp murderous aura gradually rose from all of them. This murderous aura even displaced the surrounding energy field of the underworld, and the Spirit Devouring Butterflies on Momo's body couldn't endure it and flew away.
"Then, don't regret!" An extraordinarily bewitching and cold light flashed in Bai Yi's eyes.
"Of course!" All of them replied solemnly.
Only when the aura around them calmed down did the swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies return to Momo's side. These bunch of butterflies couldn't understand the changes in the people of Bai Yi's team. They only naturally felt very close to Momo and could communicate with her. She felt just a companion that looked different from them.
"Momo, if we really see Yu Han's team later, immediately make the Spirit Devouring Butterflies leave. These butterflies are the bane of spiritual type lifeforms, but they are actually very weak toward normal lifeforms. If Xiao's team did not make an error in judgment just now, many of these butterflies would have definitely been killed." Bai Yi started to instruct Momo.
"En en!" Momo did not want her newly-made friends to die like that either.
……
After waiting for half a day, just when they thought that Johnny and Nessa weren't coming back anymore, they finally saw their figures. There were more than 10 other ghosts accompanying these two ghosts.
'Johnny, what are you trying to do?! Why didn't you say that there were so many butterflies here!' One of the female ghosts with them immediately grabbed onto Johnny and scolded him after seeing the swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies. The other ghosts also couldn't help but start to run away in the other direction.
"It's fine, it's really fine. These Spirit Devouring Butterflies won't attack us, they listen to the words of that little girl called Momo.'
'Spirit Devouring Butterflies?'
'They will listen?' The other ghosts were very curious as well.
Three ghosts shakily and very nervously came in front of Bai Yi's team, while most of them looked on from afar without daring to approach. Seeing their natural bane dancing around in the sky around them, Anna couldn't help but feel that she was serving herself on a platter to someone else.
"I heard that you guys are looking for some people!" The female ghost that scolded Johnny just now didn't hide herself and revealed her appearance with a burst of spiritual power.
"That's right, we are looking for some people." Bai Yi nodded.
"Enemies?"
"En…Talking to us directly like this, aren't you afraid that your body can't take it?" Bai Yi looked at the female ghost sitting casually on the floor and asked.
"Hmph, don't compare me to this bunch of idiots."
'Anna is more powerful than us.' A row of words appeared on the sand beside them.
Bai Yi looked at Anna and couldn't help but nod his head. Apparently, this female ghost called Anna was the top few among the ghosts. This wasn't too surprising since there would definitely be differences between every ghost. As long as there was a large enough number of ghosts, then there would definitely be the so-called 'most powerful' group of ghosts after comparing all of them.
"I have seen the person you talked about!" Anna said to Bai Yi.
"Where is he!"
……
After talking to Anna for a while, Bai Yi's team finally learned where Yu Han was. He was actually on the other side of the city. Although they weren't directly opposite each other, it still wouldn't be easy to meet him. In addition, Anna didn't tell them the information about Yu Han so enthusiastically out of good-will.
"Ooohhhh, I've never seen something like a blood feud before! I tell you what, more of you guys must die later, it's a super good bargain! If you die in the Wellington now, your soul won't disappear quickly but become a ghost like us…" Anna said excitedly.
'I knew it, I shouldn't have brought her here.'
'I actually didn't think of coming back here in the first place, who knew that Anna woman would overhear our conversation.' Johnny whispered to his granddaughter. Sure enough, after learning that the goal of Bai Yi's team was to find people, Johnny didn't have the intention of coming back anymore. However, this madwoman Anna actually heard them and forced them to come back here. The rest of the ghosts here also joined along the way to watch the show. One must know, not many people came to Wellington these days, so these ghosts felt quite bored normally as well.
Chapter 114: Confession And…
An endless parade of ghosts!
This was the scene around them now, and it was definitely not an exaggeration. There really were an uncountable number of ghosts following them. Due to the ghosts reports in Wellington, fewer and fewer people came here over time, so the ghosts felt extremely bored. Now that there was a melodramatic blood feud coming up, it was a good form of entertainment for these ghosts. However, even if these ghosts were curious, they didn't recklessly approach Bai Yi's team. After all, that large swarm of Spirit Devouring Butterflies wasn't something to be taken lightly.
"More of you guys must die later!!" Anna followed beside Bai Yi and said something like this from time to time.
However, they completely ignored the curse-like harassment from Anna, because all of them were running rapidly toward Yu Han's location. A fierce and desolate atmosphere surrounded a few of them and very quickly affected the ghosts around them. Even Anna shut her mouth after a while. This group of people, just what kind of hatred and resolution did they bring with them here?
……
"I feel great sorrow over Doss' unfortunate passing!" Yu Han said with his eyes slightly red. At this time, they had just stored the Dead Soul Flower and had assembled together again. Yu Han's feelings weren't fake. Maybe he really wasn't willing to be the subordinate of others, but he still had real feelings toward the teammates below him.
"Team leader, this isn't your fault. Now that New Zealand is so dangerous, we have actually all mentally prepared ourselves for this before coming," one of the teammates said.
"No, the responsibility lies largely with me! You guys only know that we are here for the Dead Soul Flower, but I actually have another selfish motive!" Yu Han clenched his fist.
"Selfish motive?" Everyone was shocked.
"That's right, selfish motive!" Yu Han nodded. The people in Yu Han's team went silent for a while and looked at him seriously as they waited for his explanation. Only Ning Xue stared at Yu Han. Was he really going to them everything?
"Actually, I have an enemy all along."
"Enemy?"
"That's right, enemy. At the very beginning of New Zealand's change, we had some conflicts in our strive for survival. Eventually, we grew to become life and death enemies." Yu Han nodded.
"This enemy must be very bad right. After all, he clashed with a good person like team leader," Gaute said casually. His life was saved by Yu Han, so he trusted Yu Han a lot. He had followed Yu Han for more than half a year and found that Yu Han was a decent leader. He also thought that Yu Han was a good person who thought for all the evolved humans of New Zealand.
"No, the bad person is…me!" Yu Han said softly, and everyone was stunned on the spot.
"Don't you guys want to know who exactly is chasing me? I think you guys won't find this name unfamiliar."
"Who?"
"Bai Yi!"
"Bai Yi? It's actually him?"
"That's right, it's him. Due to my immaturity and jealousy before, it caused many things to happen between us. When you guys joined this team, I said that I don't mind the things you did in your past because everybody makes mistakes. As long as we help each other and unite together after entering the team, then everything is good. Actually, I set this rule because I myself had done wrong things in the past, and I haven't been able to make up for these mistakes yet." Yu Han slowly told them everything that had happened between him and Bai Yi.
Of course, Yu Han had been planning these words for very long, and he was very skilled with his words. He did not deny the things that he did, such as trying to kill his teammates or killing Hong Qi Hua. However, the version that Yu Han told them had some slight differences. From the simple jealousy and resentment, it became about them competing over leadership in the team, which eventually resulted in their conflict.
Yu Han's words seemed even more genuine precisely because he did not deny these wrongdoings!
"I admit, I did wrong in the past," Yu Han raised his head and said, staring at the dark sky.
"Hence, as somebody who did wrong before, I have never asked you guys about your past. I think that what happened before isn't important. To try and survive in this cruel world and still make sure that your actions do not go against morals or feelings is an extremely difficult thing to do. However, I…even after all this, I still can't completely run away from what I did before," Yu Han said softly, revealing his innermost feelings to his teammates.
At this time, Yu Han's teammates listened to him silently, and nobody spoke for a while.
So their team leader was somebody like this in the past?
"I could never pluck up the courage to confess these things to you guys and speak of it. After all, I'm such a despicable person, if I told you guys these things, all of you would probably leave me," Yu Han mocked himself.
"Yu Han, is everything you said true?" Athena asked with a cold face.
"It's true."
"I really didn't imagine that you were somebody like this," Athena said, wanting to stand up and leave.
"Wait, Athena, sit down first." Adams stopped her. After Athena sat down again, Adams looked at Yu Han again. "Team leader, the selfish motive you talked about just now, can you clarify it?" Adams asked.
"En, actually Bai Yi and I are both relatively famous people, so our whereabouts aren't a secret. When Bai Yi knew that I was nearby, I naturally knew that he was nearby as well. So, I decided to have a final closure with Bai Yi in Wellington. Because this is something between Bai Yi and me, I chose to do it in Wellington so as to not implicate you guys."
"Why did you choose Wellington?"
"Because Wellington is a ghost city!" A bottle of solution appeared in Yu Han's hands. This bottle of solution and the solution that purified the Dead Soul Flower came from the same source, and both could purge spiritual lifeforms.
"We learned from Cook that Wellington really had ghosts in it, and we even got the juice from the Soul Purifying Tree. However, Bai Yi's group probably doesn't know that. As such, with the power of this ghost city, we might be able to finish him off without directly battling with him. This way, you guys can avoid battling with Bai Yi's group and there wouldn't be any casualties either," Yu Han explained.
"Yu Han, even at this time you are still scheming against Bai Yi?" Athena said in anger.
"Ah, that's right. Because I'm not willing to just give my life up like that." Yu Han nodded frankly.
Yu Han was also gambling now, gambling whether his teammates would abandon him because of this. If there was any basis to his gamble, it would be the half a year of friendship with these people, and the cruel environment of New Zealand now. Other than a few lucky people, nobody could remain completely kind and pure in this place.
"Yu Han, you are really hopeless…"
"Enough Athena, you shut up." Evelynn who hadn't said a single word so far suddenly shouted at Athena.
"Evelynn, you!" Athena looked at Evelynn in disbelief. Why, why was she the one told to shut up? Moreover, looking at the expressions of the other people, they didn't seem to think that Yu Han did anything wrong.
"Let me share my past then. Before I became a monster, I got captured by a group of guys because of my decent looks and was treated as a plaything by them. In a lucky opportunity, I killed them and escaped. After that, while trying to survive, I stole food from others and even killed other people, I…my hands are stained with blood too," Evelynn looked at her hands and slowly said.
"Me too…I used to follow another team. We preyed on and killed other humans for survival, we only did it once but…" Adams said too.
"Me too…" The rest of them slowly shared their stories as well.
"Does it count if I stole a bone from a dog before? But it chased and bit me for a few streets after that," Ah De said. Their initially low mood was suddenly interrupted by Ah De and they laughed out loud, but this laughter disappeared very quickly.
"Athena, I believe that you really did not do anything that went against your conscience before. But you must know, from the beginning of the change until now, the world has turned so cruel. People like you who never had to make a moral choice is really in the tiny minority. I think a lot of people probably made a choice that went against their conscience just so they could survive."
"I don't think that what team leader did was right. In truth, team leader doesn't think that what he did was right either. However, in the New Zealand now, how many people dare to say that they didn't do any wrong things, that they have a completely clear conscience?!"
"I…don't dare," Evelynn slowly said.
"I agree with Evelynn, at least from this period of time that I spent with team leader, I can tell that he isn't a bad person. I believe my own eyes," Adams said as well.
"But he's still trying to scheme against Bai Yi now."
"That isn't a mistake either, I don't think that he is doing something wrong. At least, I'm not able to just give my life up either. As for the selfish motive team leader talked about, I don't think that it was all selfishness. To look for the Dead Soul Flower, we had to come to Wellington in the first place. Bai Yi definitely doesn't have an undeserved reputation. If we battle with his team somewhere else, at least some of us would definitely die. Although team leader is scheming by setting the battle here, part of it is still in consideration of trying to protect us," Adams said and looked toward Yu Han.
"Team leader, I want to ask, what are you planning to do to Bai Yi!"
"I'm sorry, I plan to face Bai Yi directly and ask for a peaceful resolution. If he doesn't agree, then I will battle with him until one of us falls," Yu Han said seriously.
"This world no longer has absolute good or evil anymore, maybe team leader's actions are…Forget about it. Anyway, I'm following team leader," Adams said to Yu Han and stood on Yu Han's side.
"Me too."
"Me too, I don't know how that Bai Yi is like, but at least the Yu Han I know is definitely not a bad person," Evelynn said.
Success!
A word rose from Yu Han's heart. From this moment onward, he had truly captured the hearts of this bunch of subordinates.
