Chapter 1233: Situation

Situation

Over the next few days, the Integration Faction always seemed to be enveloped in gloom.

Starting from the second day, classes proceeded as usual. Teacher Ye stood on the podium wearing a shirt as usual, talking from the principles of Fusion to human history, and then to geography and astronomy. He assigned homework as usual, and conducted in-class exams as usual.

It was worth mentioning that after half a year of hard study, Chen Ling's grades in the class had gone from dead last at the beginning to the top twenty. Although he wasn't considered excellent and was far from the grades of the study committee member, Little Peach, at least he had grasped most of what he needed to learn.

Of course, a certain poor student who slept in class still performed stably, scoring dead last.

Aside from the two extra graves covered in paper flowers on the desolate earth behind the Integration Faction's Mother Tree, everything seemed to have returned to its usual track... But Chen Ling could keenly perceive that the atmosphere of the entire Integration Faction had subtly changed.

To this day, Teacher Ye had not announced the cause of death of those two Integrators. Zhao Yi, who always loved to show off the most, had not said a word since coming back. Even the frequency of communication between Mi Bo and He Chengxuan had decreased. When the two occasionally brushed past each other, they were as silent as strangers.

Although the children were young, they were always very sensitive to the emotional changes of adults. They saw everything in their eyes. The laughter within the Mother Tree had decreased a lot, as if they were afraid of disturbing something...

"Want to eat tanghulu?"

Sun Bumian stood at the top of the stairs, and seeing four or five children carrying their homework preparing to go upstairs, he spoke with a smile.

The children's eyes lit up!

"Big Brother Sun!"

"Big Brother Sun is the most handsome!"

"Big Brother Sun, your lion is so good-looking!"

"..."

"Not bad! Take it and eat!"

Sun Bumian, thoroughly satisfied, materialized four or five tanghulu in one breath and handed them all to the children. Then he clapped his hands and walked into the distance... Just at this moment, as if recalling something, he turned his head and asked:

"Right, did you see Chen Ling?"

"Big Brother Chen Ling seems to be outside."

"Alright."

Sun Bumian walked all the way out of the Mother Tree. From a distance, he saw a Great Crimson Theatrical Robe sitting on the steps behind the Mother Tree, holding a branch in his hand, not knowing what he was writing or drawing.

After he got closer, he discovered that an incredibly complex map had already been drawn on the ground in front of Chen Ling at some point.

"What are you doing?" Sun Bumian curiously leaned his head over.

"Deducing the situation."

Chen Ling answered without raising his head.

"Oh? Weren't you uninterested in the survival of the Human Domains? Why are you suddenly caring so much about them?"

"The survival of these domains has nothing to do with me." Chen Ling paused for a moment. "I just want to see, if everything truly reaches that step, where else can shelter the Integration Faction..."

Sun Bumian fell silent.

He glanced at Chen Ling's serious face and sat down directly beside him. "What's the situation?"

Holding the branch in his hand, Chen Ling pointed to the circles on the map one by one:

"Among the Nine Great Human Realms, the Ruoshui Domain and the Aurora Domain have already been completely annihilated. After the Red Dust Domain and the Wuji Domain suffered heavy casualties, the Lord of the Red Dust and the Lord of Wuji have both left. The few remaining survivors have also been transferred to the Tianshu and South Sea Domains, so there are four completely abandoned domains."

"The remaining five domains are Tianshu, South Sea, Xuanyu, Zangyun, and Lingxu."

Chen Ling emphasized and deepened the positions of the five circles.

"Among them, the Lingxu Domain is located in the furthest northwest corner of the Nine Great Realms, while we are in the far south. It's almost impossible to cross thousands of miles to get there... If we go west, to Xuanyu or Zangyun, we can't bypass the Bitter Flesh Forest. Therefore, the closest and safest routes to the Integration Faction are only Tianshu and the South Sea..."

"But the Tianshu Domain is now surrounded by the Sighing Wilderness." Sun Bumian added.

"Yes, so theoretically speaking, there is only one most suitable target right now... the South Sea Domain." Chen Ling continued, "Moreover, the South Sea Domain is the most special among the remaining five domains."

"What's special about it?"

"It is the only domain overseen by two Demigods: one is the Lord of the South Sea, Chu Changqing, and the other is a Demigod of the Path of the Scholar God. If the war between the two realms really breaks out, the probability of this domain surviving is the greatest."

Sun Bumian rubbed his chin. "What you said makes sense... but this returns to that question: will the South Sea Domain accept the Integration Faction?"

Chen Ling was somewhat hesitant.

"Is it possible to change our line of thought?" Sun Bumian suddenly spoke up. "What if... we don't go to the Human Domains?"

Chen Ling took a deep look at him. "I know what you're thinking. Besides the Human Domains, the only places capable of sheltering so many people are the Divine Dao Ancient Repositories... and to satisfy the eating and sleeping problems of so many children, there is only one final choice..."

"The Ancient Vault of the Drama Path."

"...The possibility is not high." Chen Ling shook his head directly. "The Ancient Vault of the Drama Path is the headquarters of the Dusk Society. Have the Red King accept such a group of displaced Integrators to live in his own headquarters? Don't forget, he is a person who can even scheme against his own disciples. What does the life or death of the Integration Faction have to do with him? What does it have to do with Reversing the Era?"

"He even stole my gold!" Sun Bumian gnashed his teeth. "Alright, now my grand plan of revenge to scheme against the Red King is hopeless too..."

"There is not much time left for the Integration Faction."

Chen Ling slowly stood up. "Recently, the portion sizes of the food in the Cafeteria have all been decreasing, and the children can't get full at all... Even if you can materialize tanghulu for them to improve their diet, your Spiritual Power is not infinite. You can't supply a hundred people at the same time..."

"To be honest, eating too much of this stuff will really make you vomit... I can already feel that they're not too willing to eat my tanghulu anymore." Sun Bumian sighed heavily.

"Let's wait a bit longer, give Teacher Ye some more time."

"Say, why is Teacher Ye so unwilling to return to the Human Domains? He must have made a lot of contributions to humanity back then."

Chen Ling cast his gaze toward the direction of Teacher Ye's office, slowly speaking:

"...Who knows."

...

Office.

Teacher Ye sat alone inside the dim room, looking at the compiled list of ingredient consumption before him, motionless like a sculpture...

After an unknown amount of time, he sighed lightly.

He took out a key from his pocket and slowly opened the small drawer by his hand. Inside, apart from a mysterious syringe, there was a stack of yellowed papers. They looked like they had a history of many years, but seemed to have been carefully preserved all along and had not been damaged.

Teacher Ye gently placed the scattered stack of papers on the desk, brushing away the thin dust on them with his hand. Several printed characters caught his eye:

— "The Evolutionary Revolution of Horizontal Gene Transfer".

— Author: Chu Changqing

— Advising Instructor: Professor Ye Mu