Era of Disaster

Chapter 156: Thin Power

The unexpected crowd that flocked together and squeezed toward the center quickly attracted the attention of everyone nearby. Soon after, everyone knew that Bai Yi had come to New Christchurch. Regardless of whether it was to join in the festivities, or they really hoped that Bai Yi could save their companions that went berserk,, most of the people in this city who knew of this congregated to this location. As things appeared, the situation started to get more and more out of hand.

Of course, the commotion also alarmed the group of people in 'power' in this city.

Bai Yi is here!

After they learned this, these people in power immediately became astonished as well, but also started to become slightly nervous. Although it had already been half a year, it still wasn't completely clear who was the one in control of this city. Roughly 5 different factions controlled New Christchurch at this point in time, but the number of smaller groups or teams below them was countless. Bai Yi's words at the beginning indeed pushed a bunch of ambitious people on.

And at this time, Bai Yi's appearance would undoubtedly threaten their unstable positions.

How could they let go of the power that they were already holding in their hands!

Don't talk about how this kind of thinking was very old-fashioned. Power had always been a force that drove the majority of people onward, so it wasn't so easily disregarded or abandoned. Although in reality, these people in power didn't welcome Bai Yi's presence, they still had to appear so on the surface, and they even had to give him a very warm welcome. The people who could sit in those positions were all not ordinary. Very quickly, some people headed to Bai Yi's location as well.

……

"Somebody is coming, it's Minister Alcott." A voice came from somewhere. Immediately, the crowd split apart to let a group of people inside the crowd. Bai Yi looked over and saw that this Alcott had a body covered in scales, but other than that, there weren't any strange characteristics on him.

"Is this Team Leader Bai Yi? I am Alcott, the Minister of Public Security for New Christchurch." Alcott immediately walked toward Bai Yi when he entered the circle of people around him.

"Hello, I am Bai Yi."

"I have long heard of Team Leader Bai Yi's great name, but I didn't expect that Team Leader Bai Yi would grace New Christchurch city at this time. We have really been waiting for this for too long, so many of our companions have fallen into the berserk state! We haven't been able to find a good solution to this so far, so the fact that Bai Yi team leader could come here is really great! However, this isn't really the place to talk. Why don't we head toward the Ministry of Public Security and continue chatting there?" Alcott asked.

"Sure!" Bai Yi blinked slightly and nodded his head.

"Then, this is really my pleasure." Alcott seemed to be very honored, and he waved his hand at the crowd around him, gesturing for them to not cause any trouble. "I know that everyone is very excited over Team Leader Bai Yi's appearance in New Christchurch, and I believe that Team Leader Bai Yi wouldn't ignore all your companions that fell into the berserk state. But, can everyone make way first? Everything still needs to follow a rational process. Please wait patiently, I believe that very soon, Team Leader Bai Yi will meet with everybody again," Alcott said toward the crowd around him. The tightly packed and agitated crowd slowly started to calm down.

"Then, please!"

"No need to stand on ceremony!" Bai Yi had a slight smile at the corner of his lips, but inside he was smiling widely. Just as expected!

In reality, even before coming to New Christchurch, Bai Yi's team already had a discussion about the situations that they may face when they came here. In the end, they felt that Bai Yi would very likely be turned into a figurehead for them. Perhaps, he would have a certain amount of reputation, but he wouldn't have much real power in the end. It couldn't be helped, Bai Yi was slower than other people by half a year. New Christchurch had definitely developed its own power structure by now. Nobody would be willing give up their position to Bai Yi.

Sure enough, right at the start, this Alcott had set Bai Yi's mission for him - helping all the evolved humans who had fallen into the berserk state to regain their consciousness!

Reject him?

How was that possible! Bai Yi really couldn't reject him because he was the only one who could wake people up from the berserk state so far. Looking at the agitated crowd full of anticipation and hope, it was obvious what would happen if Bai Yi really rejected them. When the hope in their hearts gets ruthlessly dashed, it was extremely easy for the excited anticipation to turn into vilification and hate. At that time, could Bai Yi still establish himself among the evolved humans?

This guy - Bai Yi couldn't help but glance at Alcott, so the Minister of Public Security, huh?

However, Bai Yi laughed in his heart…haha!

Before they came to this place, they had already imagined that such a result was possible. In fact, Bai Yi's team had studied the possible future environment of New Zealand as well as the situation of the evolved humans in detail.

One would really have to admit that Bai Yi's team understanding of activated cells were really much deeper than the majority of people. And because they understood it so much, they were really astonished. Based on the current classification of the levels, it could be split into Nascent Stage, LV1-1 Binging Stage, LV1-2 Brutal Stage, LV1-3 Hypersomnia Stage, and LV2 Metamorphose Stage. Other people's understanding of the LV2 Metamorphose Stage may stop at just its name, but Bai Yi's team understood it more.

Immense power! Even just the initial stages of LV2 Metamorphose Stage already possessed frightening strength. As for what it would become if the lifeform continued evolving, they weren't clear about it either. However, they still let Yeye simulate and calculate the possible futures.

The final result was - Individual strength would dominate the rights of the masses!

To put it simply, if the lifeforms continued to evolve, then the strength of a powerful individual would bring about a much greater ruling authority and domination than the kind of power given democratically.

This was the conclusion that Yeye predicted, so Bai Yi's team had also set their future goals. Their goal was definitely not to fight for power at this point in time but to make full use of the time they had now to understand the changes in their bodies and increase their strength. Moreover, Bai Yi had just broken out of his cocoon, so he still wasn't too clear about the changes to his body. He definitely did not have the time to waste on power struggles. The power given by the masses did not belong to oneself, and in the end, only personal strength would never betray.

Ambition? It couldn't really be said to be ambition actually, Bai Yi just wanted to have the strength to protect himself and his friends.

……

Of course, the greatly nervous temporary rulers of this city would never know Bai Yi's plans.

Although they said it was the Ministry of Public Security, Bai Yi's team saw a big church when they came here instead. Looking at the two 3 meters tall evolved humans that stood guard at the entrance, Bai Yi understood as well. Indeed, only a grand building like a church would be big enough to fit the evolved humans who all grew a lot bigger.

After they invited Bai Yi to the Ministry of Public Security, the other ministers of other ministries in New Christchurch City came to this place very quickly as well. No matter how much they didn't want Bai Yi to be here, they still had to display their high regard for Bai Yi on the surface.

Through these few people, Bai Yi's team got to know of New Christchurch's current power structure. Of course, the city now couldn't be split into as many different ministries like before, so there were only a few essential ones.

Ministry of Public Security - Maintaining the peace and security of New Christchurch, the minister is Alcott.Ministry of Agriculture - Searching for various mutated vegetables, plants, or cattle that could be used as a long-term food source, forming a new food supply chain. The minister is Edgar, he used to be a botanist.Ministry of Defence - The biggest armed force in New Christchurch now, in charge of the production of weapons and exterminating the evolved lifeforms around the city. The minister is Freud, and he is also the publicly-acknowledged number one expert in the city.Ministry of Research - Due to the influence of Bai Yi's speech and the information released, New Christchurch had also begun its research into activated cells. They hoped to be able to find a way to solve the negative impacts of the activated cells. The minister is Isaac, he was originally one of the researchers that participated in the research on activated cells. At the beginning of New Zealand's change, the things he knew wouldn't be any lesser than Bai Yi. However, he never dared to reveal his identity to anybody until now.Ministry of Medicine - Studying the various new plants and animals in New Zealand and extracting the useful components from them. In combination with the medical skills and system that humans already possessed, they hope to achieve an even greater medicinal effect and save more evolved humans. The minister is Lucretia, she was the doctor-in-charge of one of the big hospitals in New Zealand before. She was also the best Medicinal Maker in New Christchurch now.

After getting to know of the makeup of the powers in the city now, Bai Yi couldn't help but sigh. They really formed the various factions really quickly, just that there wasn't a clear leader due to them dragging each other's feet.

All of them had their own thoughts as to Bai Yi's appearance, but apparently, nobody was willing to have somebody pop out on top of them from nowhere. However, they didn't have a choice but to treat Bai Yi seriously with his level of fame.

Before coming here, the few of them had apparently heard about Alcott's words on the streets and all approved of it in secret. Wasn't Bai Yi's reputation really great? Now that they had somebody here who could save everybody's companions that went berserk, this noble mission was definitely his for the keeping! Could he even reject it?

"Sure, my pleasure!" Outside of everyone's expectations, Bai Yi agreed to it easily.

"I'll try to wake all those who went berserk, but my eyes can't be used limitlessly, so I need a lot of time to rest. I'm afraid I can't save that many people," Bai Yi said unhurriedly with a smile on his face.

"That's fine, it's already a great help to have somebody that can reverse the berserk state. To everyone else, this is also an extremely heartening news and a big source of hope," three of the ministers immediately said hurriedly, while the other two didn't say anything and stared at Bai Yi, as they silently thought, This Bai Yi, did he really not intend to fight for power?

That was indeed one of the reasons. Bai Yi really wasn't too interested in power. The most important thing was that Yeye had analyzed and predicted that in the future, individual strength would dominate over any sort of society-given power. Since they already knew this, then was there a need to waste time now? Moreover, if he could really help the evolved humans, then it wasn't like he was unwilling either.

It was just that the ministers couldn't understand this!

Chapter 157: Chairman

In the end, Bai Yi became the Chairman of the Recovery Center for Berserk Evolved Humans. Of course, his team followed along as well. Maybe some people had the intention to split up Bai Yi's team, but at this time, even an idiot knew that it wasn't possible to bring this up now. Bai Yi did not reject it either but accepted the position with a smiling face.

Chairman of the Recovery Center… Bai Yi gave a small laugh in his heart, heh.

The few ministers very quickly announced this news to the public, seemingly afraid that Bai Yi would go back on his words. Afterward, somebody brought Bai Yi to the Recovery Center. The place was originally a large hospital in Christchurch, and it was still usable after tidying it up. Other than that, they brought Bai Yi to a large-scale prison, and inside the prison, they saw hundreds of berserk evolved humans.

"Team Leader Bai Yi, these are all the berserk evolved humans," Lucretia said.

Since Lucretia was the Minister of the Ministry of Medicine, she had also studied how to let these berserk humans regain their minds. In the end, she was the one to bring Bai Yi around and introduce him to the place. Seemingly, Lucretia also wanted to know herself just how different the rumored mysterious pair of eyes were. They sounded like they had special abilities that came right out of an anime.

"Only more than a hundred?" Bai Yi asked in doubt.

"En, only a hundred-odd people, but these are the people that got brought back here and imprisoned after going berserk. Many people who went berserk either got killed or integrated with the natural world, becoming one of the evolved animals. It's difficult to tell who is an evolved human and who is an evolved animal nowadays." Lucretia's voice had a trace of sadness to it.

"I understand." Bai Yi nodded.

Putting aside the issue of whether they could bring back those people who went berserk, but the way to deal with them after bringing them back was a big problem as well. Luckily, they found a large-scale prison on the outskirts of Christchurch and they could have a place to imprison these people. Other than that, Bai Yi also realized that the evolved humans imprisoned here weren't too strong. Thinking about it, that made sense as well. If it was somebody on Woolf's level of strength, a prison like this wouldn't be able to hold them.

"Then let's start." Bai Yi nodded, as he prepared to open the door to one of the prison cells.

"Wait!" Lucretia immediately stopped Bai YI.

"What is it?"

"Is it ok opening it just like this? They are Brutal Phase lifeforms after all. It's easy for something to go wrong," Lucretia said.

"It's fine," Bai Yi replied and opened the prison cell door. A guy like this, there wouldn't be a problem even if there were dozens of them. Within the evolved humans, the differences in fused genes also came with an incredibly huge gap in personal strength.

After Bai Yi opened the door, the guy inside stared at Bai Yi like a wild beast and immediately pounced toward Bai Yi. Lucretia's eyes immediately opened wide and her entire body tensed. Although Lucretia was quite worried, she didn't retreat. This was a basic inner quality that she had. Any evolved human that could live until now knew the maxim that the more scared of death you were, the quicker you would die. However, what Lucretia saw now was…

Bai Yi's left hand moved unhurriedly and easily slapped aside the claw of the guy that pounced out. His right leg swung right and left, and he interrupted that guy's movements again. Finally, Bai Yi rammed his shoulder into the berserk fellow and followed up with an elbow strike. Lucretia could only feel that his movements flowed like water, and an immense force sent this Brutal Phase lifeform flying backward. Then, Bai Yi trapped him against the cell wall by holding his neck.

Tai Ji Fist! Lucretia immediately thought of the thing that Bai Yi had released to the world.

Reverse Flower Eyes!

Bai Yi's eyes immediately started to spin, and the hypnosis effect gradually increased. Lucretia behind him couldn't see his eyes and immediately became anxious. The whole reason why she took on this mission to bring him here was to see what was so special about Bai Yi's eyes! She couldn't have imagined that Bai Yi's treatment would be so violent and simple. All she could see now was his back view, what was the use of that?

After more than 10 seconds, Bai Yi's Reverse Flower Eyes powered up to the maximum and the figure that still struggled slowly stopped and fell asleep where he stood.

After Bai Yi turned his body around, his eyes had already returned to normal. Lucretia stared at Bai Yi's eyes with a face full of disappointment. It ended just like that? But I haven't seen anything yet!

"Minister Lucretia, do you guys have any potions that can nourish the soul?" Bai Yi asked.

"Are you referring to Clearyheart?" Lucretia immediately replied. She was a minister after all, so she could control her emotions very quickly.

"Clearyheart?"

"This is a medicine that we developed over this period of time. The main ingredients are the Calming Wormwood and the Joyful Devil's Snare. We used these 2 along with more than 10 other supplementary plant and animal essences to create this medicine. It can calm the heart and mind, and also let somebody go into a deeper level of sleep. It's the most popular medicine in New Christchurch City now," Lucretia said proudly to Bai Yi.

"Can you let me see the formula for this medicine?" Nancy asked directly.

"This…ok!" Lucretia hesitated for a while before nodding.

The formulas of a Medicinal Maker had always been a secret, but it was never that big a secret. This was completely due to the strange and unique plants and animals in New Zealand now. Even the plants that mutated from the same original plant would only be about 90% similar, and the remaining 10% would still result in great differences in the outcome of the final product.

Such as Clearyheart. The main components were definitely the Calming Wormwood and Joyful Devil's Snare. But in reality, every stalk of Calming Wormwood and every stalk of Joyful Devil's Snare had significant differences. This was the special nature of New Zealand now. It was due to this difference that it wasn't possible to produce these medicines like in modern factories, even if they knew the formula. It was utterly pointless even if somebody managed the precision of the mass of the compounds to a milligram because every stalk of every plant was different.

What was necessary now was the Medicinal Maker's grasp of the medicinal properties of every stalk of plant, and the intuition and talent in their bones. This was why Medicinal Makers like this were extremely rare and hard to come by in New Zealand now.

"The main components are Calming Wormwood, Joyful Devil's Snare, the supplementary components are…" Lucretia could tell that Nancy was definitely the Medicinal Maker in Bai Yi's team, and that was why she wanted to know about this. As for Lucretia herself, she seemed to have the intention of bragging as well. This was something the bunch of them had developed together at the Ministry of Medicine, so Nancy shouldn't know all this.

However, contrary to Lucretia's expectations, Nancy asked about the medicinal properties of a few other types of natural plants before she shook her head.

"Why?" Lucretia's tone turned a bit unhappy. Anybody would probably feel the same way if somebody else shook their heads at something one felt extremely proud of.

"This kind of medicine is indeed not bad, it can calm the heart and quiet the mind, but it isn't what we need." Nancy had stayed by herself in Wellington for quite a long time, so she probably wasn't the kind used to being tactful in front of people.

"The biggest cause of the Brutal Phase is the incongruence with the soul. Clearyheart's effect is actually to let people fall asleep so as to re-calibrate this incongruence. But this is just a basic requirement for such a type of medicine. Unfortunately, I don't think that there's any calming medicine that can compare to Bai Yi's Reverse Flower Eyes. The most important thing for Brutal Stage lifeforms now is to speed up the growth and repair of the damage to the soul, and that was why Bai Yi asked you if you have had any medicines to nourish the soul," Nancy explained.

"Nourish the soul? Who knows if the soul really exists, nobody can sense it!" Lucretia got angry at this time. In reality, she believed in the existence of the soul, but indeed nobody could sense it at this point in time. Moreover, Nancy's attitude infuriated her. Those in power never liked to see those they thought of as below them oppose their words.

"The soul does exist; don't tell me you've never even heard of the Ghost City Wellington?" Nancy immediately retorted.

"Ok, that's enough. Don't argue about this so much. Minister Lucretia, if you want to wake these people who fell into the berserk state up, soul-nourishing medicines are an absolute necessity. Otherwise, you would have to wait for a long time," Bai Yi said.

"Then do you guys have it?"

"Yes!" Nancy replied straightforwardly.

"Fostsoul - Soul Nourishing Dew. A potion that I concocted from the Dead Soul Flower, it can use the flower's medicinal properties more efficiently and foster the growth of the soul. Other than that, this potion can also be used to heal damage to the soul normally," Nancy said, as she looked at Lucretia without giving an inch.

Bai Yi immediately felt speechless at this scene. Although Bai Yi did not intend to hide something like this, they should have still waited for a more opportune situation to reveal this potion so as to achieve a better result. Anyway, forget about it. Since Nancy had already revealed this medicine that they had, they shall just go along with it.

"Dead Soul Flower?"

"That's right, a flower that grows through absorbing human souls. So far, this flower only grows in the ex-capital of New Zealand, Ghost City Wellington. We still have some here, but it isn't many either. It's difficult to say how many people we can save this way," Nancy nodded.

In the end, they decided to use 5 people as experiments. One of them was the guy that Bai Yi chose at the start, while the remaining 4 were also chosen by Bai Yi's team. Based on their judgment, the severity of the berserk state of these people was quite similar. Among the 5 people, 2 of them consumed Fostsoul (Soul Nourishing Dew), 2 of them used Clearyheart (Clearing Heart Dew)1, and the last person was only hypnotized to sleep without consuming anything as a control.

"Why only 5 people? We still have a lot of medicine!" Lucretia asked.

"Because of this!" Bai Yi pointed at his own eyes.

"I already said before, my eyes can't be used limitlessly. Since you heard about the special characteristics of my eyes, you should have heard about the limitations of it as well," Bai Yi said.

"Yes, I heard of it, but it can only be used 5 times?" Lucretia asked.

"I can still use it, but it would be forcing myself and it would cause great harm to my eyes. Under normal circumstances, I can use my eyes between 3 - 8 times depending on the degree of usage." Bai Yi's ability to use the Reverse Flower Eyes was of course not limited to just 5 times. However, he wanted to hold some things back as well. In the end, the kind of person that gave his everything for the sake of others didn't exist. Moreover, Bai Yi still wanted to leave more time for himself to grasp the changes in his body.

Looking at Bai Yi's tired expression, Lucretia nodded her head…3 - 8 times huh?

Bai Yi sighed in his heart. They would probably try to sound him out in the near future. Scheming and plotting was really something so disgusting yet unavoidable.

***

Translator Notes

The author actually gave the English version of the name of the medicine, so Fostsoul and Clearyheart are the English names that the author gave, while Soul Nourishing Dew and Clearing Heart Dew are the translations of the Chinese name of the medicine. I'll use Fostsoul and Clearyheart in general unless there's some reason to use the Chinese version of it in the future.

Just to clarify a few things and standardize a few terms as well from now on:

The author uses two different versions to describe the LVs, so, for example, I have translated them as Brutal Stage and Brutal Phase. I'll use this two terms interchangeably since it refers to the same thing.Wellington will be officially known as Ghost City Wellington.I'll use Team Leader _____ from now on, realized it was quite weird to use Bai Yi team leader in English.I realized I haven't really been consistent with numbers, like to leave it as five or 5, sometimes one feels more suitable than the other but I guess I should standardize it now. So numbers 20 and below will be written out in words, while numbers above 20 will be left as a number from now on (except in special circumstances).I'll also be leaving TNs in the form of footnotes so as to not disrupt the flow of reading the story.

Chapter 158: I'm Very Busy

Sleep has actually always been a very magical state; even in normal societies, sleep was differentiated into shallow sleep, deep sleep, and dreamless deep sleep. In some Taoist theories, there were also several different states like meditation, womb sleep, One With Heaven1, and a few others. In reality, those states were also a form of sleep, it was just that normal humans weren't able to reach them. To do so required a long period of cultivation and also a certain degree of fate. Hence, even in the ancient records, these states were described as a kind of extremely lucky encounter. Those so-called Instant Enlightenment2 was one of the key factors to breaking through into those mysterious states.

The state that Bai Yi let these five people enter was dreamless deep sleep. It could be said that this was the best state of sleep that normal humans could reach. Based on scientific research, just one hour of dreamless deep sleep was enough rest for the entire day. Moreover, based on the quality of sleep, it was far superior to even more than ten hours of normal sleep a day.

Under Bai Yi's hypnosis, the bodies and souls of these five people rapidly rebalanced and automatically readjusted themselves. This was a higher level of adjustment than the homeostasis process that the body usually undergoes. Bai Yi simply gave them a suitable environment, but it was precisely this environment that was the hardest for people to reach.

On the first day, the evolved human that received only the hypnosis treatment slept for nine hours, the two that received Clearyheart slept for ten hours, and the two that used Fostsoul slept for a full seventeen hours. After they woke up, all of them became calmer, and at the same time required plenty of food to replenish their energy.

"Why is the difference so big?"

"I already said it before, your Clearyheart is only capable of letting people enter a peaceful sleep. There really isn't any drug or medicine that can compare to Bai Yi's hypnosis, so even if they consumed that medicine, it would only be adding flowers to a brocade3. You are a doctor, you definitely know that the body will automatically readjust itself during sleep. Fostsoul is the medicine that these people need the most in their state of sleep now." Nancy said plainly.

"But other than the Dead Soul Flower, so far nobody has found any other plant that can nourish the soul." At this time, Lucretia also had to admit to the truth.

"Then that is your problem. Register this as a mission: the team that discovers a new soul nourishing plant can choose five members to undergo free treatment by me for a month." Bai Yi said.

"They didn't even fall into the berserk state, what treatment would they need from you?!" A man behind Lucretia suddenly said.

"Ask your boss to tell you what Body Maintenance is!" Bai Yi waved his hand and ignored this man's hostility.

"Body Maintenance refers to daily activities that nurture the body in various ways so as to enhance its constitution. By doing so, it could extend our longevity. It isn't that we only have to care for our bodies after we are sick; Body Maintenance during normal times is extremely important as well. In reality, all of us are currently in the Brutal Stage and the body and soul are constantly in a state of rebalancing themselves. The fact that we aren't in the berserk state does not mean that our bodies are in a perfect balance. On the contrary, all of us are carrying a huge concealed threat to ourselves, and receiving treatment from Bai Yi is the best way to remove this threat." Lucretia quietly explained and glanced at the man behind her. He wouldn't reveal such rash hostility usually, as expected...!

...

For five days straight, Bai Yi used the Reverse Flower Eyes on these five people. In reality, what Bai Yi did was just let these five people enter dreamless deep sleep to rebalance their bodies and souls themselves.

After five days, the two Brutal Stage lifeforms that consumed Fostsoul managed to have a rational conversation for the first time, although their states weren't very stable yet.

After eight days, Bai Yi announced that the two of them could now completely control their actions, and weren't any different from normal evolved humans. Actually, after Bai Yi's treatment, their states were better than many other evolved humans. As long as they did not receive excessive amounts of shock or stimulation, it wouldn't be easy for them to go berserk anymore.

Just when Bai Yi prepared to rest for two days, however, he suddenly received an invitation from Minister of Defence Freud.

Bai Yi thought about it for a while and decided to accept Freud's invitation in the end. After exchanging pleasantries with each other, Freud finally revealed his request to Bai Yi... to treat his people. Locked up in the Ministry of Defence were Freud's original companions, who had gone berserk. These weren't normal evolved humans like those detained in the prison of Christchurch, but truly strong evolved humans. With just a look, Bai Yi could tell that these guys were definitely not weak.

"Chairman Bai Yi, please help to treat these two people," Freud said.

"I'll give you my response after thinking about it." Bai Yi smiled and said.

The other ministers didn't move as fast, but they knew of Bai Yi's reply as well and started to plan for the future.

However, somehow the general public learned of the two people who managed to recover from the berserk state before Bai Yi had given his response. Although it was only two people, it proved that Bai Yi's treatment was useful, and that gave them a glimmer of hope. As the central figure in this development, Bai Yi became insanely popular among the general public. In New Zealand now, there was nothing more worrying that falling into the berserk state.

Given the agitation and excitement of the public, the ministers had no choice but to organize a news conference for Bai Yi.

However, Bai Yi actually announced not-so-good news to them at the news conference: the speed of recovery was simply far too slow if they relied solely on his treatment. If they wanted quick and effective treatment, then they needed soul nourishing medicine. Unfortunately, Nancy already had fewer than 100 Fostsouls. The two evolved humans that recovered had each used two Fostsouls during their eight days of treatment.

"Just what is soul-nourishing medicine?" A representative asked. The use of representatives wasn't discrimination, it was just that the meeting location would never be able to hold every single person. It was common to have news conferences like this in the normal world, and everyone definitely understood this as people who had originally come from the normal world.

"Fostsoul! A potion concocted from the Dead Soul Flower growing in Ghost City Wellington. We also refer to it as Soul Nourishing Dew, and it possesses the effects of nourishing as well as healing damage to the soul." Bai Yi explained.

"Dead Soul Flower, a plant that only grows in Ghost City Wellington, and which is rumored to grow from absorbing souls—I can tell you simply now that the rumors are true," Bai Yi continued. "Hence, soul-nourishing plants may very possibly not grow in normal environments, so everyone will need to put in more effort to search for them."

"What do you mean by 'put in more effort to search'?"

"The team that finds a new soul nourishing plant may choose five people who shall receive free treatment from me for a month." Bai Yi raised his index finger.

"You said it's free. Does that imply that there are normally some conditions to receive treatment at the Recovery Center For Berserk Evolved Humans?"

"That's a given, otherwise I won't be able to manage it if everyone came at once. As for the detailed conditions," Bai Yi began and paused.

"I'll treat those whom already fell into the berserk state first, but the order of treatment is up to me. Of course, due to the contributions of the five ministers to New Christchurch City, they will be given three nominations each for whom to send to my place for treatment. I'll help these fifteen people undergo treatment first. As for evolved humans that did not fall into the berserk state, don't you guys have a points system for rebuilding New Christchurch City? Everyone can use a certain number of points to exchange for one treatment session with me. Everyone needs to queue up, no matter who you are and there's also a limited number of treatment slots every day." Bai Yi said plainly.

"If you make all the decisions yourself, Chairman Bai Yi, then isn't all the power in your hands?"

Was this representative stupid? He obviously knew that only Bai Yi had the Reverse Flower Eyes but still asked such a question anyway. Even in the normal world, there wasn't anything absolutely fair. Bai Yi looked at this guy and paused for a moment before revealing a bewitching smile.

"That's right, all the power is in my hands." Exceeding everyone's expectations, Bai Yi actually nodded. "I'll choose who to treat among the berserk evolved humans, while normal evolved humans will have to expend their points and queue up to get their turn. You have a problem with it?" Bai Yi said, looking down on all of them from the stage with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

"You're monopolizing treatment!"

"You just lost your qualifications for it." Bai Yi said coldly.

"You…!" This representative instantly went speechless. "I don't believe that we won't be able to continue living without your treatment!" This representative said furiously, while secretly throwing glances toward the five ministers. As I expected, he was ordered by somebody to do so? There was somebody who wanted to use this to diminish Bai Yi's reputation.

"That doesn't matter, I'll have it easier if there are fewer people." Bai Yi waved his hand indifferently before turning around and exposing his carefree back view to the audience.

Bai Yi's actions really made the few ministers more and more puzzled. Did Bai Yi really not care about reputation at all? Did he not want to become the true ruler of New Christchurch City through the support of the majority of the people?

At this time, Bai Yi chuckled to himself in his heart. Although he said he would make the choices himself, he believed that he would still choose in a fair manner most of the time. Of course, if there were patients that were friends of his, then he would give them some priority; this was just human nature. Absolute fairness didn't exist in the world in the first place.

But it really felt disgusting—although he knew long ago that he would face obstruction and difficulties from various powers, seeing all this scheming and plotting really made him feel uncomfortable.

At this time, Bai Yi felt really fortunate that he didn't come to New Christchurch to fight for power.

...

New Christchurch's newspaper very quickly reported what Bai Yi said during the news conference, and that pitiful representative served as a bright contrast to him. One really had to admit that the majority of people in this world just dumbly followed the masses. Very quickly, Bai Yi's reputation crashed, and many people even loudly declared that they would rather stay like this forever than go to Bai Yi's treatment center.

Little buddy, have you given up on treatment?!4

"Why did you do that? You clearly had a better way to deal with this." Vala asked Bai Yi after everything was over.

"Do you know how much time I spend studying biology, how much time I spend familiarizing myself with my body's changes, how much time I spend practicing combat techniques every day? My time is very tight, and I don't have the time to care about those people. As long as they haven't fallen into the berserk state, the fewer people that come the better—I'm very busy!" Bai Yi said.

Was it like that?

Vala looked at Bai Yi's back as he left. That's right, didn't Yeye already analyze it before? Give up on the power bestowed by the masses and focus on increasing our personal strength.

Many people thought that Bai Yi's reputation would continue to fall like this. However, that was only until the first batch of people received treatment from Bai Yi of their own accord and understood him...

***

Translator Notes

One With Heaven is quite a common idea, it literally means the state of becoming one with heaven. Meditation is quite a self-explanatory state, while womb sleep refers to the kind of sleep a fetus has in the mother's womb, which is supposedly extremely good and effective for development.Instant Enlightenment: you know how sometimes you have an epiphany and everything becomes clear and you suddenly understand everything? Yep, that's it.Adding flowers to a brocade: It means to add something to another thing that's already perfect. (It's a Chinese idiom, so that's why I'm explaining it.)I think this is a reference to something but I don't get it either.

Yesssss i'm finally free of debt! 2 extra chapters this time, 1 to make up for yesterday's missed chapter and 1 for my debt. So yes, the release rate will go back to 1 per day, but i'll try my best my best to translate more and patreon would realistically only be up by mid-feb!