Chapter 443: A Fundamental Gambit, Gaining Recognition from All Nuwa Models

Chapter 443: Chapter 378: A Fundamental Gambit, Gaining Recognition from All Nuwa Models

Chu Bamboo said unhurriedly, “Old Huo, I don’t need you to help me! Or to attack any of your colleagues!”

“…Then what about what happened in the Underground Temple?” Huo Qiming’s voice was tinged with sarcasm.

“I never ordered you to do anything! You took action… wasn’t that also to keep the Captain’s Office’s casualties to a minimum?” Chu Bamboo turned to look at Huo Qiming, a smile on his face.

Huo Qiming fell silent.

“…So!” Hu Kaikang’s eyes darted around for a moment before he said softly, “What’s the plan? I’ll be honest, even with the Pope’s orders… if you’re just planning on dragging me to my death… I won’t go along with it!”

“The most I can promise is to leave you an intact corpse… but when the time comes, young man, don’t blame me for killing you and using your body to prove my loyalty!”

Chu Bamboo was completely unfazed. “Suit yourself! It’s just… there’s really no point in doing that…”

Hu Kaikang’s attitude was different from the previous timeline, however—

After all, in the previous timeline, he had seen that Chu Bamboo could not only gain Nuwa’s approval but had also destroyed an entire military camp—

That, at the very least, proved there was a chance Chu Bamboo could succeed in his bid for power. No matter how slim that chance was… having one at all made all the difference!

Back then, Hu Kaikang could at least convince himself this was all part of the Pope’s plan… perhaps an investment. Coupled with the fact that Chu Bamboo had saved his life, he was willing to accept it.

But now, with only Nuwa’s approval to go on, all Hu Kaikang could see was Chu Bamboo embarking on a suicide mission. Even with the Pope’s orders and the life debt… if the cause was hopeless, he was making it clear he would withdraw…

‘Besides,’ Hu Kaikang now thought, ‘the only ones who know what’s going on are the people here in this underground base. If I kill them all, the secret will be safe!’

Hu Kaikang was no righteous fool; he was a Bishop renowned for his iron-fisted methods. He had once resolved the Great Smog incident in the Celestial Capital with near-brutal efficiency, adhering to a policy of “a blood debt paid in blood.” He had even been transferred to Jinghai City, a notoriously tough assignment.

Chu Bamboo said nothing, merely lifting his head to gaze quietly at the sky.

“?” Confusion filled Huo Qiming’s eyes; he didn’t understand what they were waiting for. Suddenly, Hu Kaikang seemed to sense something. His expression changed dramatically as he instinctively looked up at the sky, choking out, “…How is this possible?”

“???” Huo Qiming followed his gaze. His expression froze for an instant. First, he saw several small black dots. Then he watched as these dots rapidly swelled and expanded until, finally, they cast immense shadows across the sky.

Aerospace Carriers!

Although Huo Qiming couldn’t hear any commotion, he knew it was only because Eunuch Huang and his men had cleared out all the nearby residents. Given the size of these things… they could surely be seen by people for dozens of kilometers in every direction…

‘The public outcry… if something like this happened…’

A headache was already starting to form for Huo Qiming.

The Aerospace Carrier was immense, a full kilometer in length, on a completely different scale from the drone carriers. A three to four-hundred-meter-long drone carrier, while much larger than in the previous timeline, still looked like a mere child next to the Aerospace Carrier—

Suspended in the sky, it truly resembled a Sky Island! Thankfully, they were still a good distance from the ground… otherwise…

Several unmanned Shuttle Ships shot out of the Aerospace Carrier at incredible speed, even producing sonic booms… They went from decelerating to accelerating, then back to decelerating, appearing before Chu Bamboo in one smooth, fluid motion—a testament to the mind-boggling level of technology in these unmanned craft!

The unmanned shuttle was about five meters long. Up in the sky, emerging from the Aerospace Carrier, it had looked no bigger than a mosquito. But now, appearing before the three of them, the contrast with its previous, mosquito-like size was enough to render one speechless with shock.

“Let’s get on.” Chu Bamboo stepped forward without hesitation.

Having seen the tip of the iceberg of the power Chu Bamboo wielded, Hu Kaikang’s attitude was now completely different. He quickly followed… Huo Qiming grimaced, ground his teeth, but ultimately chose to follow as well.

The interior of the Aerospace Carrier was all gleaming metal, its overall layout bearing a striking resemblance to a Nuwa Base.

Chu Bamboo entered the central control room, and screens of light materialized one after another. Simultaneously, the floor beneath them turned transparent, revealing the blue sky and white clouds all around.

It was as if they were floating in the middle of the sky.

The shock was so great that Hu Kaikang spontaneously sprouted two Angel wings and began to fly… It was only when he saw Chu Bamboo standing his ground with a calm expression, and noticed that Huo Qiming—despite the cold sweat beading on his forehead—hadn’t moved, that he came to his senses. With some embarrassment, he landed again.

Chu Bamboo studied the light screens and reached out a hand. ‘I can swipe the screens with my hand to issue commands…’ he thought. ‘Considering the external view… Hmm, this aspect is also remarkably similar to the abilities Nuwa demonstrated back at the Nuwa Base.’

“What are you doing next—” Huo Qiming started to ask.

“Nuwa No. 17! Hive!” Chu Bamboo ignored Huo Qiming and placed the Little Mushroom Head on the control console. “I know the two of you can’t directly interface… but you can use the most primitive method: spoken language and projected light screens to exchange data.”

“I am issuing the following command: Nuwa No. 17, input all the Nuwa Base locations you previously shared with me into the Hive!”

“Hive, proceed in order through the Great River Industrial Belt City Group. Visit every city that has a Nuwa Base… I need to register my permissions with each of those mainframes. After that, head south, and then north!”

Chu Bamboo’s gaze turned cold and distant. His last defeat had come because Yang Province had mobilized its forces against him—

‘In that case, this time, I’ll take over every single Nuwa Base. Let’s see what you can do then!’

“Acknowledged!”

“Oh, right.” Chu Bamboo remembered something and added, “To be safe… hmm, the Aerospace Carrier is too big! This time, ascend to a high altitude… no, you can travel to outer space, can’t you?”

After receiving an affirmative reply, a look of delight spread across Chu Bamboo’s face. “That makes things much easier! Then please position yourself in outer space… and then begin. By the way, can these shuttles of yours transport people from outer space down to Earth, landing in a precise city or region?”

“Yes!”

“It’s settled then.”

Chu Bamboo smiled. He had been worried that even at a high altitude, out of sight, they might be discovered and have powerful masters sent to shoot them down.

But flying into outer space… that was a different matter entirely!

Of course, if there really were masters who could fly into outer space, Chu Bamboo would have to accept his fate. He’d just take the loss and be more careful next time—

But even if they could, the concealment offered by outer space was far superior to simply flying in the atmosphere.

At the very least, no one standing on the ground during the day could spot the Aerospace Carrier with the naked eye.

Nuwa No. 17 projected a map showing the precise coordinates of the various Nuwa Bases.

Then…

The Aerospace Carrier ascended rapidly. The projected virtual reality made it seem as though they were standing in the void, soaring upwards along with the vessel.

Huo Qiming held his breath. Hu Kaikang’s eyes stared blankly. They watched, transfixed…

The Aerospace Carrier soared into the starry expanse of the Cosmos!

The vast, boundless depths of the Cosmos…

The azure planet lay beneath their feet, a sight of indescribable magnificence and grandeur.

A brief, dead silence.

“…Th-this… this is!” Huo Qiming’s teeth chattered.

“This is impossible!” Hu Kaikang’s fists clenched, his face a mask of shock, as if his entire worldview had been shattered. “A mere Ancient Relic… how could it just fly… and…”

It wasn’t that he was unaware of the Cosmos, but the problem was… the only viable method he knew of to reach it was by climbing the Heaven-Reaching Ladder!

But to just fly there directly…

‘Even for an Ancient Relic… No, can Ancient Relics really do something like this?’

Hu Kaikang began to question his entire existence. As he scanned his surroundings, his expression changed, filling with a deep reverence and awe. ‘In my eyes, this fucking thing has to be a Divine Artifact, right?!’

‘Could it be that this thing beneath my feet was actually created by God! Wait.’ I finally realized… ‘It must be the Great Goddess Nuwa! After all, Great Goddess Nuwa is with him… or it could be that other great god whose identity is uncertain…’

Countless possibilities flashed through Hu Kaikang’s mind, his thoughts a chaotic mess.

Chu Bamboo continued to ignore their reactions, listening intently to the Hive’s detailed report. “The two drone carriers have reached their maximum flight altitude. They do not possess the ability to enter the Cosmos.”

“Next, estimated flight time via unmanned shuttle across the Great River Industrial Belt, visiting all cities… thirty-seven minutes! However, if a stop is required in each city—even just the cities with a Nuwa Base—at half an hour per base… factoring in the additional travel time from stopping and starting… the entire route will take at least five hours! If we were to cover the entire country, it would be impossible to complete within a single day…”

“Just follow the plan,” Chu Bamboo said without hesitation. The current time estimate was based on him needing time to locate each Nuwa Base… but in reality, having reset several times, Chu Bamboo could essentially take shortcuts, speedrunning the process to compress the time as much as possible—

Of course, if even with this extreme compression there still wasn’t enough time, Chu Bamboo had another solution: he would just focus on obtaining permissions for the Nuwa Bases at key strategic nodes—

The Nuwa Bases in more remote regions that weren’t critical to the overall situation, such as Hu Jian or Guangdong and Guangxi, could be put off for later.

The Hive’s voice was as dispassionate as ever. “Acknowledged! Now… please follow the directions to unmanned shuttle number seven… This is a single-person model. Its speed is the fastest among all current models… and its structural integrity is at ninety-seven percent. It is exceptionally safe!”

“…You two, try to get along,” Chu Bamboo said softly, addressing Hu Kaikang and Huo Qiming. “If anything comes up, have a word with these two… they’ll contact me.”

“…O-okay, of course!” Hu Kaikang nodded hastily, though he was screaming internally. ‘Are you sure those two things are *people*? They’re more like two gods… And your attitude toward them is really something else…’ Despite his thoughts, his outward demeanor became even more respectful.

Huo Qiming, however, simply watched Chu Bamboo leave, then began to pace back and forth, looking deeply worried.

Hu Kaikang, on the other hand, chose to sit down cross-legged and gaze blankly at the view. He had been to space a few times before, but this was the first time he was simply enjoying the scenery.

He soon saw a shuttle depart from the Aerospace Carrier, streaking in the direction of Earth…