Apocalypse: Master of Soul Beasts

”Come in!”

A familiar voice sounded from inside the room. Hearing it, Wen Yu was slightly taken aback, then immediately realized who the voice belonged to.

As the Corpse puppet pushed the door open, everything inside the room came into Wen Yu’s view—judging from the scene, this was a strategy meeting being held by the Yanjing side, and the one at the head of the table was Lin Haifeng’s son-in-law, Fang Bai.

Thinking of Fang Bai, Wen Yu realized they hadn’t seen each other for over ten years; their last meeting should have been during the second Sequence Member-Ranking Battle. Compared with more than a decade ago, Fang Bai now looked much more mature, with a neat short beard on his chin and eyes shining with a keen light—clearly his strength had improved considerably.

”So it’s the Corpse puppet. I was just about to send someone to look for you—what a coincidence. Find a place and sit wherever you like.”

Fang Bai greeted him briefly, showing warmth without sounding servile; the balance was handled just right.

The Corpse puppet merely nodded slightly at the words, then took a seat on an empty chair.

”Let’s pick up where we left off...”

Fang Bai signaled for the meeting to continue. The specific content was nothing more than deployment on the front-line battlefield and operational guidelines. Wen Yu listened for a bit and quickly lost interest. He turned his head and began sizing up the powerful experts from Yanjing seated around the table.

The most familiar were undoubtedly the duo of Qin Tian and Arthur. At this moment, the two were seated to Fang Bai’s left in the first and second positions. Arthur hadn’t changed much compared to ten years ago; his aura was steady like a mountain, and he wore a serious expression, clearly listening intently to Fang Bai’s strategic layout. Qin Tian’s state, however, made Wen Yu frown deeply.

Right now, Qin Tian’s whole bearing was gloomy, as if someone owed him money. Being close enough, Wen Yu could even smell the reek of alcohol wafting off Qin Tian. He had no idea what kind of upheaval Qin Tian had gone through these past years.

But when he thought of how, in the sixth Sequence Member-Ranking Battle, Qin Tian’s sword strike shook the heavens and firmly secured the Sequence Number 4 spot, Wen Yu no longer wanted to dwell on Qin Tian’s misfortunes—there’s no setback in this world you can’t get past. As long as you’re alive and strong, the rest is just trivial detail.

Still, among those present, Qin Tian wasn’t actually the strongest. To Fang Bai’s right, two seventeen- or eighteen-year-old youths were sitting straight in their chairs, listening to Fang Bai’s strategic briefing with serious expressions, like model students in class.

These two, Wen Yu of course knew—these were the leading figures of the new generation, Lin Que and Fang Yuqiong. One was Fang Bai’s nephew, the other his biological son.

Wen Yu was naturally curious about this new generation. He walked to their side and scrutinized them up and down for quite some time.

Both had pretty decent looks. Lin Que was tall and powerfully built, the black heavy armor on his body accentuating a sharp, aggressive aura that completely obscured any youthful softness. Fang Yuqiong, in contrast, had inherited the good looks of both his dad and mom; fair-skinned and clean-cut, a proper pretty boy.

Way more handsome than Wen Yu...

The key, though, was strength. Lin Que’s strength spoke for itself; his current status as Sequence Number 2 said everything. Looking at Fang Yuqiong, Wen Yu realized this kid had apparently held back during the sixth Sequence Member-Ranking Battle—as that seemingly frail body was suffused with a rich darkness energy. Wen Yu wasn’t quite sure what Fang Yuqiong’s Skill System was, but after a quick assessment he concluded that the kid was in no way inferior to Lin Que beside him.

Aside from these few, there weren’t many people Wen Yu knew—Fran and Kasu held down the fort in Yanjing, some of Lin Haifeng’s old subordinates were with him, while Fang Bai had Qin Tian, Lin Que and the others under his command. It was a fairly robust lineup; at the very least, it wouldn’t be too hard to withstand the pressure of the demon plague.

With nothing better to do, Wen Yu listened through Fang Bai’s entire strategic presentation from start to finish. Overall, it was just standard fare. With Wen Yu’s level of war literacy, he couldn’t really tell much from it anyway. It wasn’t until the meeting approached its end, and Fang Bai announced adjournment, that everyone began leaving the conference room in twos and threes.

It was worth noting that Qin Tian left the fastest among them, as if he’d had more than enough of this mind-numbingly boring meeting. Arthur merely gave Fang Bai an apologetic smile, then immediately followed after him.

Being this kind of brother-in-law had to be pretty exhausting.

Once only Fang Bai, Lin Que, Fang Yuqiong, and the Corpse puppet were left in the room, Fang Bai spoke again.

”Chief Commanding Officer Corpse puppet, about our collaboration plan—what do you think...”

Fang Bai shot the Corpse puppet a meaningful look. The Corpse puppet understood, nodded, and replied, ”I’ve already received word from the Mountain Kui side. As for the specific details of the collaboration, just put them into a document and send it to me when you’re ready.”

Since it was a decision Wen Yu had made, the Corpse puppet naturally had no reason to refuse. Even though this decision would likely cause countless casualties among their race, the reproduction of the Soul Puppets was different from that of mammals. Theoretically, every Soul Puppet could spawn a large-scale race. In terms of kinship, that would amount to ten- or twenty-thousand children. If the Corpse puppet had any sort of bleeding-heart saint complex, he might as well not be a front-line commander.

The two discussed some of the finer points, and about ten minutes later, they finally reached a preliminary agreement. Seeing the eager expressions on the faces of the two youths next to him, Fang Bai smiled and said, ”Since that’s the case, I’ll get going first.”

With that, Fang Bai stood up and left, leaving only the two kids and the Corpse puppet in the meeting room.

”Big Brother Corpse Gui...”

Lin Que was the first to speak. Seeing this, the Corpse puppet instantly broke into a grin.

”Let’s go—see you in the Virtual Arena!”

Wen Yu was momentarily stunned, then realized what was happening—this was going to be a little sparring session.

Judging from how familiar the three were with this routine, Wen Yu knew this wasn’t the first or second time they’d done this.

...

”Screee~~~”

”Screee~~~”

The melodious cries echoed faintly, riding on the wind. As the sound drew closer, a gigantic avian creature with a wingspan of nearly ten meters swept across the sky at high speed. It stirred up a fearsome wind pressure and rippling shockwaves; even the air itself was being liquefied by its velocity.

The bird’s back and wings were jet black, while its belly was pure white. The combination of its sharp tail and razor-like feathers made it look like a blade that could cut through anything.

The sharp-tailed swift, the fastest-flying bird species, had retained its advantage in speed even after mutation—its combat ability might not match certain birds of prey, but when it came to scout and reconnaissance missions, nothing could compete with it!

It crossed seas and mountains, flew over hills, its pitch-black eyes fixed keenly on everything below. Only when those eyes sharply detected an anomaly on a certain mountain peak did it finally slow down and gradually descend onto the high range.

”Location: District 7, Mainland Bloc Number 0158. Anomaly detected.”

The swift spoke in human tongue. Its words were picked up by the receivers mounted atop its wings and rapidly transmitted into the distance.