Chapter 383 - 325: The Heavenly Monarch’s Secret! A Drone Carrier Bombs the Imperial Capital

What was this? A traitor guarding the nation’s gates while a villain died for the country?

It was precisely because of this act of protection... that Vice President Xin completely lost the initiative.

The light faded.

A man with pure white wings sprouting from his back stood calmly before Vice President Xin. His hair was stark white, the wrinkles on his face had vanished, and his body was enveloped in a faint, pale halo—

This was, of course, Hu Kaikang!

Hu Kaikang, who had revealed his Transcendent Angel form!

At that moment, rings of light shackled Vice President Xin’s hands, legs, and neck.

"...God Worship Sect! Hu..." Vice President Xin managed to force out four words. With each word he spoke, the ring of light around his neck tightened, until he was completely unable to finish the name.

"How should we deal with them?" Hu Kaikang asked, his tone light. The only person here who gave him any pause was Vice President Xin. ’It’s not that I can’t beat him,’ he thought, ’the problem is, he was just too close to Chu Bamboo!’

He wasn’t sure he could have perfectly protected Chu Bamboo in the middle of a battle between them—but he never, ever would have expected things to be resolved like this.

’I was worried about hurting Chu Bamboo... and the other side was even more worried? This is absurd!’

’Although, it does make sense...’ Hu Kaikang glanced at Chu Bamboo, recalling everyone’s prior speculation—the Grand Ancestor!

If he’d heard this under normal circumstances, he definitely would have scoffed... but now, having witnessed everything, he was shocked to find that he was actually starting to believe it.

As for how he’d been able to get in...

Well, that was because Chu Bamboo had instructed them to lie in wait at the Police Chief Bureau’s entrance... right before the three major legions were bombed! So, naturally, they were able to follow everyone else inside...

Chu Bamboo patted the Little Mushroom Head in his hand. Little Mushroom Head waved its own hand, and beams of light suddenly descended from above, bathing one-fifth of the people at the scene—Chu Bamboo had already uploaded the faces of his die-hard loyalists to Nuwa No. 17.

"...What?!"

"Th-Th-This..."

"The Great Goddess Nuwa is performing a miracle!"

"Is this divine punishment... I was wrong! I have sinned!"

"..."

Many among them looked terrified, collapsing to their knees and not daring to raise their heads—even though these were just beams of light with no physical power at all.

"..." Chu Bamboo was momentarily at a loss. He had been planning to kill all of them, but now...

The next instant.

A masked figure suddenly struck.

He was incredibly fast, his voice cold and stern. "The miracle of the Great Goddess Nuwa is upon us! Resistors will be killed without mercy!"

Even those fast enough to react were so shaken by his words that they subconsciously offered no resistance.

And then...

One by one, they collapsed, unconscious.

"..." Eunuch Huang was dumbstruck, his back drenched in cold sweat. ’This... what kind of Divine Technique is this?!’

Vice President Xin stared at the masked man in disbelief. His lips moved, and his expression contorted. He wanted to reach for the ring of light on his neck, to loosen it so he could speak, but his hands were also bound, completely immobile.

The Masked Hero silently appeared behind Chu Bamboo.

"You really are something else... Hmph!" Chu Bamboo’s expression was noncommittal. ’He must have sensed my killing intent,’ Chu Bamboo thought, ’that’s why he acted so decisively, to spare the lives of all these people.’

However...

Chu Bamboo wasn’t angry; on the contrary, he was pleased. ’Even with a mask, how could Huo Qiming hide his identity from colleagues who knew him so well? It’s obvious Vice President Xin has already figured out who he is.’

’In that case... forcing Huo Qiming onto my side is a foregone conclusion. Of course, Huo Qiming himself must have realized this, or he wouldn’t be standing behind me right now...’

"What’s next?" Hu Kaikang turned to Chu Bamboo and asked in a low voice.

Chu Bamboo’s expression was serene. He patted Little Mushroom Head. "Nuwa No. 17... bring up the map!"

Hearing the familiar name again and watching Little Mushroom Head actually obey the command, Hu Kaikang was internally reeling. His expression grew even more reverent.

Chu Bamboo studied the map thoughtfully, then spoke abruptly. "My unfilial descendant should still be... in the Imperial Palace, right? I remember..."

Chu Bamboo’s finger slid gently across the map. "At this time of day... the Imperial Court session should be over. By custom, he should be in the Yangxin Hall, correct?"

Eunuch Huang: "..."

’How do you know... the Emperor is in the Yangxin Hall?!’

Eunuch Huang’s expression stiffened. ’That’s something... only a Chief Eunuch like me, who has served the Emperor for so long, could possibly know with any certainty!’

’You...’

’Oh no!’

’If word of this gets out, His Majesty will think I’m the traitor, won’t he?!’

Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes, his mind racing. He slammed a fist on the map, right over the Imperial Capital, and spoke in Mandarin, "Hive, restock on ammunition, then... begin an indiscriminate bombardment of the Imperial Palace!"

Chu Bamboo was pondering a question: was the Heavenly Monarch actually a Transcendent?

’Logically, the Heavenly Monarch has to be a Transcendent, right?’

’But the problem is... his lifespan!’

Chu Bamboo had read the internal records. While few Transcendents in the Captain’s Office lived to an old age, that was due to their high mortality rate. Chu Bamboo had seen a file on a Third Realm Cultivator who lived to be two hundred and ten before dying from loss of control.

’In other words, two hundred-odd years is nowhere near the maximum lifespan for a Cultivator!’

’The Heavenly Monarch doesn’t need to go to war, he has access to countless Artifacts from across the land, and he has the most stringent methods for preventing contamination... Logically, living for a few thousand years should be a piece of cake, shouldn’t it?’

’But...’

’The Heavenly Monarchs actually succeed one another at a normal rate!’

’This is far too interesting...’

’It’s been over two hundred years, and the current ruler is the eleventh Heavenly Monarch of this dynasty... which works out to an average reign of twenty years per emperor!’

’By the standards of a feudal era, that’s a normal lifespan. But for an era where the Extraordinary exists... Heh!’

’But if the Emperor isn’t Extraordinary, then there are just as many things that don’t add up. How can a person without absolute power sit on the highest throne in the land? How can he command the obedience of so many eunuchs and the Captain’s Office, who are themselves Transcendents?’

’So, Chu Bamboo wanted to run an experiment. He didn’t actually expect this bombing run to take out the Emperor, but he at least wanted to see what tricks his enemy had up his sleeve...’

"...You, what are you doing?!" Eunuch Huang’s voice trembled. He couldn’t understand the Mandarin that Chu Bamboo was using to communicate with Hive, but he could see the massive red dot that had appeared over the Imperial Palace’s location in the Imperial Capital. "And... who are you talking to?"

His gaze flicked uncontrollably toward Chu Bamboo’s phone.

The voice of Hive was quite different from Nuwa’s...

’But the problem is, their forms of existence are just too similar... It’s hard not to be suspicious...’

"This being... which one is it from the Mythical Era?" Hu Kaikang managed to ask, his eyes flashing with awe, apprehension, and doubt. ’This can’t be a being on par with Nuwa... No, in the myths, there are very few great deities who can compare to her.’

’But even if it isn’t, it must be a great deity second only to Nuwa, right?’ The names of one Celestial Court god after another flashed through his mind. ’The one from Moisture Teaching? That seems plausible... One from Buddhism? It can’t possibly be the Confucian Saint, can it...’

"Oh, it’s none of them. You could say its existence predates even God..." Chu Bamboo said offhandedly, his gaze fixed seriously on the display. At a flick of his finger, Little Mushroom Head projected screen after screen of light.

Hu Kaikang: "..."

’Just listen to yourself! That’s absolute blasphemy...’ Hu Kaikang thought. ’When I write my report later, I can’t possibly repeat that verbatim for the Pope... Everyone knows that unregistered, unofficial deities are collectively known as Evil Gods. With a statement like that, you could be part of a damn cult! The only thing saving you is the Great Goddess Nuwa’s endorsement...’

But then, as he looked at the screens, Hu Kaikang’s eye began to twitch... He stared at Chu Bamboo with growing shock. ’Something isn’t right...’

The screens clearly showed an aerospace drone carrier, massive as a Kunpeng, along with the surviving soldiers of the three major legions, who were being captured and herded by individual drones...

Each and every image was like a view from God’s own eyes!

The amount of information they revealed... was unimaginably vast.

As Eunuch Huang watched from the side, he fell into despair... ’This... to have this kind of perspective! To have the unrestricted support of this Nuwa, to be able to seize control of all of Nuwa’s Divine Envoys...’

’How can anyone fight this? How can anyone possibly win?!’

Meanwhile, Hu Kaikang still felt that something was off. He mulled it over and over, until he finally had a sharp realization about what had been bothering him—from start to finish, had Chu Bamboo’s tone not been one of pure command?

’He could command Nuwa’s Great Divine Envoy, and also... a being suspected to be a god on the same level as Nuwa herself...’

’You... you couldn’t also be...’

’Wait, aren’t you the Grand Ancestor? No, hold on, there was a legend that the Grand Ancestor was actually Emperor Ziwei descended to the mortal realm... Emperor Ziwei, one of the sovereigns of the Celestial Court!’

’Could it be that it wasn’t just a legend...?’ Hu Kaikang’s imagination ran wild. He felt it was impossible, but at the same time, he couldn’t think of a more logical explanation. The more he thought, the more his head ached. It was like the two halves of his brain were at war, and he felt like his skull was about to split open from the strain...

Strictly speaking, four-fifths of the people at the scene hadn’t been knocked unconscious, nor were they imprisoned. They could still move freely...

And yet, at this moment, they all seemed to share the resignation of captives. Strictly speaking, with their combined strength, while they couldn’t defeat Hu Kaikang and Huo Qiming together, they could certainly have caused the pair significant trouble, and some of them might even have escaped...

They simply stood there, quietly watching Chu Bamboo, watching the screens of light projected by Little Mushroom Head. They were silent, their faces a mask of terror and dread, as if waiting for a verdict...

They watched as the giant "Kunpeng" returned to its underground base, reloaded with ammunition, and then took to the skies once more...

It then sped off toward the north. Watching the giant red dot and the Kunpeng’s flight path, they all realized—even without understanding a word of Mandarin—

The Kunpeng was about to descend upon the Imperial Capital!

What in the world was he... or rather, He... planning to do?!