Chapter 449 384: Declaration to Heaven and Earth... Heavens! Grand Ancestral Temple! Nuwa

He wasn't the only one.

The officials who had chosen to swallow their pride and cooperate with the drones to manage government affairs, the powerful local clans, the Transcendents from the major religions, the members of the cults—all of them wore vastly different expressions!

Moreover, those who knew Chu Bamboo personally felt an even more complex, subtle, and overwhelming sense of shock.

These were people who, despite knowing Chu Bamboo, either didn't have his number or had it but couldn't get through to him before. At this moment, a thousand thoughts could be summed up in a single sentence: 'So it really is you!'

...

"...It's over!" Sun Min didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Just moments ago, she had been ranting and raving, calling the usurper a traitor to the nation, even swearing to the heavens that since intelligence suggested the Heavenly Monarch was not dead, they were duty-bound to defend him... only to now discover...

Xu Yuan cautiously took a sip of his wine, not daring to say a word.

...

「Elsewhere in the Celestial Capital.」

"...So it is you!" A look of reverence and fanaticism appeared on Eleven's face. He wasn't the least bit surprised. If it was *him*, then accomplishing any miracle, no matter how great, was only to be expected.

After a moment's thought, he abruptly asked, "Has the Imperial Capital been notified?"

There was no one beside him...

Yet, out of nowhere, a slightly hoarse voice spoke.

"...Our forces in the Imperial Capital are to stand down! But... as for the other religions, it's hard to say!"

"...No, we must help the Saint!" Eleven's expression suddenly turned savage. He began to frantically tear at his face, ripping it clean off. But what he tore at was not just a mask; he soon started clawing at his own face, sending blood streaming down. "If anyone dares to kill the Saint... then..."

"...That won't be necessary!" the voice spoke again, as calm as ever, tinged with a scrutinizing quality. "If the Saint could die so easily, then he wouldn't be the Saint."

Eleven froze. He thought for a long while, biting down on his thumb with increasing force until he actually bit it off. A look of relief washed over his face. "First! You are right."

'Still,' Eleven felt a twinge of reluctance, even dissatisfaction with First. 'Perhaps the Saint doesn't need our help, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't offer it!'

"...However," First's voice grew more ethereal, "this time, we truly shouldn't intervene. We will simply observe... Heh, this 'Saint' of yours has begun the Feng Shan ceremony... Hmph. Such vanity! Is he truly the Saint?"

First's voice was filled with confusion... He couldn't understand the practical significance of this act...

'It won't win the hearts of the people... In fact, it will only make everyone think this new emperor is flamboyant and unreliable!'

Eleven took a deep breath, calming himself. 'If First never believed he was the Saint to begin with, then his actions are understandable...'

"...Perhaps he simply wants to establish a connection with the Great Goddess Nuwa... After all, aren't there several Great Divine Envoys of Nuwa with him?" Eleven mused. "And if he actually succeeds... Well, the Saint could be described as the one who conquered the world with the greatest of ease. If he doesn't add some legitimacy... it's hard to say what the future will hold."

'Ultimately, if it can be done in a single day... how difficult can it really be?'

"A declaration?" First fell silent for a moment, then murmured, "But... why would 'That One' get personally involved? This has never happened before... It violates all her previous patterns of behavior!"

"Could it be that the last Celestial Secret Archbishop's prophecy... is about to come true?!"

Eleven thought for a moment, his blood-stained face suddenly turning grim. "You don't mean..."

First said nothing more, but his silence was a form of confirmation.

"No, impossible!" Eleven denied it outright. "I absolutely refuse to believe it... That was nothing but the last Bishop's dying ravings! He was on his deathbed... what weight could his words possibly hold?"

"All that talk about the apocalypse coming... It may have caused a huge stir back then, but now, isn't it just a joke?"

However, the voice offered no further reply.

Eleven's expression became extremely grim, but he soon seemed to think of something. Breathing a sigh of relief, he pulled an Inverted Cross from his clothes and began to pray piously.

'It matters not... Even if the great cataclysm descends! Under the protection of the Saint and the Lord, we will survive the calamity...'

...

「Meanwhile.」

Chu Bamboo's declaration had reached its final section. To be honest, reading the proclamation in his hand made him feel rather strange.

After all, the declaration had actually been generated by Nuwa No. 17. 'Using a declaration generated by a Nuwa to make a proclamation to Nuwa in order to awaken the Nuwa Mainframe... Hmm.'

Still, regardless, Chu Bamboo read on to the final line.

"...I, Chu Bamboo, hereby proclaim to Heaven and Earth—

The new dynasty is established! May the world be blessed with great fortune!"

The surrounding officials from the Ministry of Rites: "..."

'Great fortune to the world, my ass!'

'You've got some nerve... Who's ever heard of the world being "blessed with fortune" right after a massive, chaotic war?'

One of them, his expression flickering, wondered if he should rush forward right now... and smash his own head against the altar, killing himself on the spot!

'That would turn this man's confident Feng Shan ceremony into a complete and utter farce...'

However, just as he shifted his feet, his expression froze...

...

A dazzling white light suddenly erupted.

Then, the long-sealed doors of the Grand Ancestral Temple began to slowly swing open.

Chu Bamboo raised an eyebrow, a flicker of amusement in his eyes. He took a deep breath, and for a split second, his body seemed to shimmer.

"?!" The slender man's pupils contracted as he instinctively glanced toward the sky. He vaguely sensed a new unmanned shuttle appear in that direction...

'Wait, that guy... that wasn't his real body???'

The slender man's mind went blank. 'If I had actually tried, if I had seriously used my Divine Thought to probe him, I would have been able to tell...'

'But who would have ever thought of that?'

'To use a clone, or whatever that was, as a substitute for something as sacred as the Heaven-Worshipping Ceremony—and only swap his real body back in after it was successfully completed!'

'And to do it in front of everyone...'

'You! Aren't you afraid of it backfiring? Wouldn't that be the same as openly displaying Extraordinary power in front of everyone? It's madness... And aren't you worried you'll infuriate the Great Goddess Nuwa...?'

'You... You show no respect or reverence for the Great Goddess Nuwa whatsoever. The sheer audacity... Why would the Great Goddess Nuwa ever acknowledge someone like him?'

The man's expression grew uglier. Although the previous Heavenly Monarch was a man of poor character, he had to admit he was at least a competent Monarch...

But this new lord... He'd never seen anyone so outrageous. This was an Emperor who completely defied their Confucian ideals.

Chu Bamboo stretched his limbs, his expression calm. Beneath his robes, an unseen cloak stirred—his ability to pull this off was, of course, all thanks to the Shadow Cloak.

He had used the Shadow Cloak to split off his own shadow, letting it conduct the ceremony in his place. If any accidents occurred, it would be the shadow that died. If everything went smoothly, he could just use the cloak's substitution function to swap places.

As for how a pitch-black shadow split from the Shadow Cloak could be disguised as Chu Bamboo—that, naturally, was the work of the Power of Overwriting.

With complete composure, Chu Bamboo entered the Grand Ancestral Temple.

Behind him, the great doors slowly swung shut.