Era of Disaster

Chapter 141: Red Kiss

He didn't try to keep his ability a secret, because he knew that it would be exposed eventually. A person who was truly strong would definitely become the center of everyone's attention. They didn't rely on their enemies not understanding their abilities, but how their enemies would be helpless before them even if they knew their abilities. Right now, Bai Yi already had that kind of mindset.

Reverse Flower Eyes!

After he fused with butterfly genes, his eyes started with the initial Confusion Mimicry and Warning Intimidation. Then, it evolved time and time again from the shock of his friends' death. Eventually, it became his currently powerful hypnosis. Every single time, the blood of his companions seemed to be the fountain of his eyes' growth. His eyes could completely be labelled as a pair of cursed eyes. However, Bai Yi had no choice but to place heavy importance on these eyes.

The guy who had intentionally tried to scout out Bai Yi's secret immediately fell to the floor. At this moment, Bai Yi turned his head away and looked at the audience right below him. Simultaneously, blood started to flow slowly from his eyes.

This kind of eyes!

Everyone who looked up toward the stage felt intimidated simultaneously. Subconsciously, they averted their line of sight. Those bewitching eyes, combined with his cold expression and powerful intimidation, felt like a God was looking down on them. All of them couldn't help but look away from Bai Yi. After they realized that they had subconsciously averted their gazes, 4 people among the crowd forcefully stopped their own actions and turned their heads back to stare at Bai Yi.

Bai Yi smiled faintly in his heart. The Reverse Flower Eyes could capture all the movements of everyone in the plaza right now. These 4 people could forcefully suppress their instincts to back down and stared back at him. Apparently, they were not ordinary either. However, now wasn't the time to contend with the 4 of them. Bai Yi's eyes slowly changed and gradually returned to a normal pair of eyes.

However, everyone in the plaza had already deeply etched the name of this pair of eyes in their minds - Reverse Flower Eyes!

"This is the ability I gained after my activated cells mutated. It can hypnotize anything that looks at my eyes to a certain extent. This powerful hypnotic ability can let evolved lifeforms enter deep-level sleep. This balances the body and soul at a deeper level and the reason why I can subdue Raymond," Bai Yi slowly said. At this time, there were still many people who still hadn't recovered from their daze.

"Don't ask me how I became like this, because I don't know either. All I can say is, this is all by chance."

"Other than that, if it isn't an emergency, don't talk about asking me to help everyone fall into deep-level sleep, because that is impossible. Or I should say, I want to, but I don't have the power to do so. My eyes can't be used unlimitedly, and you guys saw it for yourself too. Every usage will cause my eyes to start bleeding. In truth, using it for more than a few times a day would greatly affect my vision. I even lost my sight for more than a month before from overuse of this ability." Bai Yi pointed to his eyes, as the blood from it formed 2 red streaks down his face.

Everyone looked at the red streaks on Bai Yi's face and subconsciously nodded.

Looks like they couldn't rely on Bai Yi's eyes after all. They still had to rely on their own efforts to figure out a way to deal with the Brutal Stage. But now that they knew that hypnosis was effective, they could think about things in that direction as well.

A few other people breathed a sigh of relief at his words. Although Bai Yi said that his eyes could only hypnotize people, in their hearts, the most effective usage of his eyes would be on the battlefield. Anybody who had to battle Bai Yi would find it incredibly troublesome, because vision was the sense that people used the most amongst the 5 senses. If they were afraid of looking at the opponent, it was easy to imagine how restrictive and troublesome a fight would be. Although they weren't enemies with Bai Yi now, nobody could be certain of the future.

Ha~~!

Bai Yi laughed in his heart. Of course, his eyes were not fragile to the point where it would bleed the moment he used it. He just did this to increase his persuasiveness. As for whether they really believed him or not, that was up to them. A powerful ability with an equally great restriction and flaw would still let many people be at ease.

"Of course, you guys can still come and find me in an emergency, I wouldn't turn anybody away during those times." Bai Yi gave these people some hope with his words. However, these people wouldn't come and bother Bai Yi under normal circumstances anyway, and Bai Yi could reject them more easily as well since his eyes couldn't be used 'too much'.

After that, Bai Yi and Gary made some general plans for the problems of integrating and reorganizing the manpower. Of course, it was not feasible to break up all the teams at the start, as nobody would agree to that. However, they still gave out general missions and roles to every team. This included matters from collecting materials, looking for talented people, scavenging for resources remaining from the old New Zealand, and various other missions.

Everyone became incredibly active due to Bai Yi's previous words, as they wanted to start to increase their influence now. They aimed to be in a better position and occupy a higher place in the future. Sometimes, ambitious people were the source of the development and progress in the world.

Bai Yi smiled in his heart, as he looked at the few team leaders talking with Gary seriously.

There were more than 3000 people in this snow valley. Within a few days, many talented people were discovered. These people started to prepare and plan for the future development of all evolved humans. In a short week, the atmosphere of the snow valley changed completely, and turned into a scene full of flourishing hope for the future. Although New Zealand was still the Devil Island, everyone's hearts had started to become positive and energetic.

Perhaps it was a coincidence or maybe it was intentional, but Bai Yi didn't take up any job or roles in the snow valley. Seemingly, everyone subconsciously excluded Bai Yi. This wasn't solely because of Bai Yi having an overly-high reputation, but also because Bai Yi was Chinese. Racial discrimination was something that couldn't be avoided completely at any time.

However, Bai Yi did not mind this anyway. If they stayed here, they couldn't fulfil their mission. They still had to travel across the whole of New Zealand and connect all the surviving evolved humans.

Perhaps, when the communication network was re-established in New Zealand, Bai Yi's team would finally have an easier time.

……

After stopping for more than a week, all the matters inside the snow valley had more or less started to self-operate, Bai Yi's team prepared to set off again. The fact that they stayed in the valley for a week wasn't because Bai Yi was worried about the matters inside the snow valley. Instead, it was because he was waiting for Melvin to finish repairing the fang sword.

Just like Melvin had estimated, it would be roughly a month until he finally finished repairing the fang sword.

The repaired fang sword had a heavier and bewitching feel to it now. The dark red blade became even darker as it approached the back of the sword. In addition, Melvin had also made some adjustments to the shape of the sword, which made it appear even more exquisite. If the fang sword was still quite crude previously, the fang sword now could completely be seen as a work of art—a work of art that was used for killing.

"Based on your request, the poison element is hidden inside, and this is still thanks to the solution that Bonnie concocted for me. I'm not too sure what happened either, but when repairing it, I felt something flowing into the fang sword from my body. The poison element is concealed now, but I don't understand how to activate it either. It seems to need that 'something' to flow into the fang sword for the poison element to activate," Melvin said to Bai Yi.

Flow?

The few of them stared at Melvin, this guy was even better than they had imagined.

"If I'm not wrong, that is the special energy in your body. Although we can't sense it normally, this energy does exist and has already enhanced the basic constitution of our bodies from the most fundamental level. I don't know what genes you fused with, but from the looks of it now, the genes fused is secondary, while the main thing is still mutation," Bai Yi slowly explained.

"My eyes and Momo's eyes can both passively bring about the movement of the special energy in our bodies, and the special energy would automatically support the usage of our eye powers. The ability of your blood to soften the bones and teeth of other lifeforms should also be a form of mutation. Just like in the information released, before LV2 Metamorphose Stage, evolved humans and lifeforms aren't able to actively manipulate the special energy in their bodies. However, they can still passively bring about the movement of this special energy under certain circumstances. The feeling that you had should fall under this situation if I'm not wrong."

"Was it like that?" Melvin was quite hesitant and shocked. He was too busy trying to repair the fang sword and didn't try to understand the available information in detail.

"More or less!" Bai Yi nodded.

"Not bad huh. You are actually the third person in this team to able to sense the special energy flowing in your body. Although it's still a passive flow, it is already very impressive." Woolf joked and patted Melvin's shoulder and almost smacked him onto the floor.

However, Melvin still seemed to be in quite a daze. Me? Impressive? Mutation?

Bai Yi knew that Melvin had no self-confidence; he could tell this from their first encounter. However, this kind of things couldn't be rushed, and Melvin would change bit by bit as time passed.

Bai Yi held the fang sword and slowly sensed it. The sword had a very comfortable feeling and the dark red blade was translucent and crystal-like. However, how was he supposed to activate the poison element inside the blade? Bai Yi suddenly activated the Reverse Flower Eyes, and he could feel the special energy flowing in his body. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have any influence on the fang sword.

"This thing looks completely different now huh!" said Woolf in surprised, as he looked on from the side. So Melvin still had some ability to him, it wasn't like how he described himself to be ordinary in all areas other than the special solution.

"En, it's completely different now." Bai Yi held the sword in his hand and slowly raised it up.

"Want to give it a name like your eyes? Did you know that your Reverse Flower Eyes are so famous right now?" Heloise teased.

"Name huh!" Bai Yi looked at the dark red blade and thought about it silently.

"I think it should be called…" Raymond and Melvin wanted to give it a name, but suddenly Bai Yi interrupted them.

"Red Kiss, I'll call it Red Kiss."

Raymond and Melvin's words got stuck in their throats. When they looked at Bai Yi's firm appearance, they knew that their hopes of giving the sword a name was already dashed. Raymond was still murmuring at the side, talking about how the name was too tacky. However, Bai Yi just smiled and didn't explain. Only Woolf and Heloise, who saw Bai Yi's expression, thought of Hong Qi Hua. They could roughly guess the meaning behind the name.

However, Bai Yi would never admit to it!

(TN: So the 'Hong' in Hong Qi Hua means red, so red kiss is probably some form of remembrance for Hong Qi Hua.")

***

TN: Hmmm I'm not sure how many people like a style of novel like this where instead of building up power and taking over the snow valley, Bai Yi tries to do something for the good of the world. But I guess I find it unique that Bai Yi tries to be an altruistic character, though he is far from perfect; he still does whatever he thinks is good, without a need to be a perfectly good person. It somehow resonates with me and I actually like this development more than fighting and just endlessly accumulating power until supposedly nothing can threaten the MC anymore (which is probably the end of the story). But well just my 2 cents!

Chapter 142: Sharpei's Transformation

"Bai Yi, are you thinking of Hong Qi Hua?" Woolf asked dumbly. The moment he opened his mouth, Heloise pinched the flesh on his back. This idiot, why is he bringing up Hong Qi Hua now?

"Oh, nope, this is just purely for the sake of giving the sword a name. Isn't the sword dark red in color? What's wrong with the name Red Kiss?" Bai Yi smiled and replied.

"Red Kiss, I studied Chinese a bit too in the past. If we're just talking about the outer appearance and color, this name is actually quite suitable. Other than that, kiss also represents an intimate contact, so wouldn't a kiss from a sword imply fatality? Connecting this to the poison hidden inside the sword, it's definitely beautiful and fatal. So, I think that the name Red Kiss is really not bad for this sword." Vala evaluated objectively.

Woolf and Heloise both stared blankly at her, Wow you can really connect this to a lot of things, but the meaning behind this sword's name is definitely not this.

"See, even Vala says so." Bai Yi placed Red Kiss back into the sheath.

Woolf wasn't an idiot that liked to step on landmines intentionally. Although he blurted out the question accidentally, he understood what was going on by now. Since Bai Yi wanted to name the sword Red Kiss, then it shall be called Red Kiss. As for the meaning behind the name, what was the point of bothering about it so much?

Bai Yi sheathed Red Kiss and hung it on his waist. Melvin adjusted the length of the sword well to Bai Yi's height. The handle of the sword could be seen peeking out from under his cloak, causing Bai Yi to look like a swordsman now.

"Is everything else prepared?" Bai Yi asked.

"En, everything is prepared, we can leave at anytime." Vala nodded.

"Then let's set off," Bai Yi said. Everything that they should have done, they had already completed, so they didn't have to rush anything now. They really had to admit that with the addition of Vala to the team, the planning and organization within the team had really improved drastically. Hearing Bai Yi's words, the team grabbed the supplies that were already allocated to them and walked out of the small house.

Bai Yi's team walked toward the entrance of the valley and just happened to see a big group of people sending them off at the mouth of the valley. The leader of this group was naturally Gary. No matter what, he was the owner of this snow valley now. After a series of showing off his gratitude, thanks, tears, unwillingness to let them go, and various other messy farewells, Bai Yi's team finally left the snow valley with everyone's hopes on their shoulders. From now on, Bai Yi's team would travel the whole of New Zealand and circulate the plan for the future of all evolved humans to the rest of the survivors. Before the communication network became rebuilt, Bai Yi's team would probably have to take on the role of disseminating information and communicating between groups.

The evolved humans had still kept in contact before, but it was very inconvenient. This was partially because of how everyone came from a developed society, so all of them more or less would be able to use some wireless communications like radios.

After Bai Yi's team left the snow valley, they took out a new map. This map was drawn on top of the original map of New Zealand. On it there, were more than 10 marksthat indicated the locations of the gathering points for evolved humans. In truth, the number of humans in these 10-odd gathering points wouldn't exceed 100,000 people, while the number of humans that still survived in New Zealand was probably around 1,000,000. These people were of course all struggling to stay alive in the Devil Island now.

New Zealand really wasn't too big, but since it was called Devil Island now, there weren't many people who had the capability to travel around this place safely. Even if it was Bai Yi's team, they wouldn't dare to say that they could walk around carefreely. If they were just a little careless, they would meet with danger all the same. If Bai Yi's team really managed to unite all of the evolved humans and reconstruct a safe haven for them, it was easy to imagine just how great their reputation would be.

Precisely because of this, not only Bai Yi's team, but a few other teams took on this mission as well. Danger and fortune existed side by side. Once the evolved humans really united together, every person in these teams would become true heroes.

However, Bai Yi's team didn't have the effort to spare to think about these things. Coming out from the snow valley meant returning to the real Devil Island. They couldn't afford to be careless or distracted at any moment. Otherwise, they might very well lose their lives.

……

Wairarapa Snow Valley was located at the Tararua Mountain Range, and it was basically the center of New Zealand. Bai Yi's team planned to move south, passing by the Cook Straits and heading to the southern half of New Zealand. Then, they would travel starting from the northern edge in an anti-clockwise direction. They would look for gathering points of evolved humans to unite everyone and work together. The other teams all had their own routes to follow as well. Whether they could walk all the way to the end or not depended on not only strength but also luck.

To cross the Cook Straits, they had to use some form of transportation. In the end, Bai Yi's team decide to visit Ghost City Wellington again, because that place was a city next to the sea. It was also the sea port closest to the Cook Straits.

After nearly half a month, their group finally arrived at the ghost city again. The newcomers to this ghost city were all a little afraid, as this city was still quite infamous in the world outside. The ex-capital of New Zealand had turned into a ghost city with a very serious case of paranormal activity. However, with Bai Yi leading them into the city and seeing those ghosts with their own eyes, they realized that these ghosts didn't seem to be so scary anymore.

On the other hand, the newcomers didn't expect that Bai Yi's team actually had a member that fell in this place. Although Bai Yi did not talk about the battle that happened here, they still tried to ask about the past from Woolf and Heloise. After they learned the history of everything that had happened here, all of them couldn't help but sigh; this was really an era where human nature was revealed brutally. At the same time, they also felt some respect and admiration for Mavis' optimism. Even after turning into a ghost, Mavis didn't seem to be affected much. On the contrary, she seemed to enjoy this kind of life as a ghost very much.

"Looking for a ship to cross the Cook Straits?" Mavis asked.

"That's right, we want to go to the southern half of New Zealand and tell everyone about the plan for the future that we made," Bai Yi nodded and told Mavis about their experiences over this period of time.

Mavis nodded her head and observed Bai Yi. After he had finally thought things through, he had a slight change to his mentality and aura once again. He became even more outstanding than before. In addition, although she wasn't familiar with the few new teammates, they seemed quite reliable from the looks of it. "I can ask the other ghosts for help. However, it's incomparably dangerous to cross the straits, so you guys better be fully prepared," Mavis said.

"En, of course!" Bai Yi nodded.

In just the battle at the internal lake with Yu Han in Wellington, there was already some unlucky guy from Yu Han's team that got dragged into the water and devoured by some aquatic monster. Only heaven knew what would they encounter, as they steered the boat past the straits. One must know that the number of animals in the sea was many times that on land. If they weren't well prepared, the most likely outcome was that some monster would pull their boat along with them into the depths of the sea.

Mavis went to find the other ghosts for help. Meanwhile, Bai Yi's team rested and made preparations at the side.

"Daddy, Sharpei wants to go to the city center." Momo looked for Bai Yi.

"Oh, really? Let's go together then." Bai Yi was slightly surprised and nodded. Recently, Sharpei always seemed to be quite discontented, but he didn't seem to be sick either. Bai Yi knew that Sharpei's changes were definitely linked to Wellington's special environment, but he really couldn't figure out any of the details. His choice to return to Wellington was in part to try and figure out the reason behind Sharpei's change.

Going deep into the city caused the few newcomers to feel very uneasy, as it was already 'thrilling' enough to meet the few ghosts at the perimeter. Now, they had to face the hundreds of thousands of vengeful spirits at the city center?

However, no matter what, Bai Yi was still the team leader. At times like this, as long as the team leader didn't make any ridiculous decisions, the team members wouldn't defy them. In addition, though they were afraid, another part of them was very curious. Ghosts and vengeful spirits, just how mysterious was this ghost city?

However, mystery came from the unknown. They traveled with Bai Yi's team, heard their explanations, and on top of that, Momo could see ghosts very clearly. With all these factors combined, they realized that ghosts weren't all that.

However, at this time Bai Yi wasn't in the mood to care about their feelings, as he was carefully observing the changes in Sharpei. After entering the center of Wellington, a layer of dark mist seemed to envelop Sharpei's body. If their guesses weren't wrong, then this dark mist was the atmosphere created by Wellington's special environment. If they really had to use a phrase to explain this mist, then they could only call it 'underworld aura'!

When they entered the city center, the 4 newcomers were also shocked by enormous number of corpses stacked into a hill in front of them. At this time, Sharpei walked over and with a few leaps, he came to the roots of the Soul Release Tree at the center. He opened his mouth wide, biting and devouring the corpses at the roots of the giant tree.

The newcomers got a shock again and even jumped in fright.

Just when the few of them wanted to do something, Bai Yi stretched out his hand to stop them from moving. After all, they had just recently joined the team and they didn't have that much trust in their team members. For example, Woolf and Heloise didn't seem shaken at all, as both of them believed that Sharpei would never hurt them no matter what he turned into.

For 3 whole days, Sharpei's stomach was like a bottomless pit. Sharpei continuously devoured the corpses at the city center. At this time Sharpei's blood soaked body seemed even more sinister. As he stood on top of the corpse hill, he looked just like a real brutal beast that walked out from the underworld. After frenziedly devouring corpses for 3 days, Sharpei finally seemed to be full and crawled below the Soul Release Tree and fell into a deep sleep.

"This is…deep-level sleep!"

Bai Yi checked on Sharpei's state and said in shock. Sharpei's state of deep-level sleep now was even better than the deep-level sleep his hypnosis induced. This probably reached the rumoured 'Womb Sleep' state. Looking at the dark mist slowly flowing around Sharpei's body, even the dumbest person would know that Sharpei was in the middle of a transformation.

***

TN: 2/7 of the chapters i owe