Chapter 279 - 231: Target Locked

Chu Bamboo closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to compose himself. When he opened them again, he found the drone was shaking violently and the screen had gone black.

"..." Chu Bamboo narrowed his eyes. He then turned to the other screens, silently swiping through them...

He looked at one screen after another, each showing a drone feed controlled by Nuwa, peering into the various windows of the Guild building. Soon, he spotted several familiar faces.

’It’s not just Zhou Ze...’

Chu Bamboo murmured to himself. The only one who could shock him this much was, naturally, the successor he had once chosen. But now, across dozens of screens, he observed a second person... someone who was supposed to be dead.

One by one, the screens went black. Some even showed the drones plummeting to the ground before the feed cut out. Clearly, the drones had been discovered... and were being systematically eliminated.

"Nuwa No. 17, can you track the enemy’s location?" Chu Bamboo asked calmly.

"Activating optical radar! Specific target acquired... DING! Threat level: extremely high. Based on deep analysis, it will be very difficult to eliminate the target with currently available forces."

"Beginning analysis: Probability of being a Fourth Realm Cultivator: thirty-one percent. Probability of being a Fifth Realm Cultivator: forty-seven percent. Probability of being a Sixth..."

"Initiating deep analysis. Based on currently available assets, providing solution: According to compiled data from the Second Celestial Court Campaign, a fleet of over one hundred bomber drones could be deployed for indiscriminate bombardment. Kill probability: as high as seventy-two percent.

The current number of available bomber drones does not meet this requirement. Other types of drones can be used as a makeshift substitute, but the kill probability will drop to forty-one percent!"

"Climb higher, then pull back," Chu Bamboo said calmly, watching as the drones’ perspectives shot upward. After they passed an altitude of one thousand meters, they were no longer being shot down.

Nuwa had provided a solution, but it was obviously unusable.

Leaving aside the laughable forty-one percent success rate, this was the Guild’s headquarters! Bomb the Guild? What a joke.

Not to mention... the drones weren’t even carrying explosives right now. It wasn’t as if they could just fly back to be re-armed!

’Two possibilities. One, Zhou Ze was a mole from the very beginning, and his death was faked. But that just doesn’t add up, no matter how I look at it... The second possibility is...!’

Chu Bamboo silently clenched his fists, rage simmering within him. ’A Divine Technique that can turn the dead into ghouls or zombies...’

’That would explain why the enemy didn’t even try to communicate with me and just went straight for the kill.’

’After all, all they need is a corpse they can control completely.’

’And that voice in the black fog earlier... it sounded so excited. Perhaps it covets my body, too.’

’But... is he a ghost, or is it just his body being controlled?’ Chu Bamboo closed his eyes. The two seemed similar, but they were fundamentally different concepts. If he was a ghost, it meant that Zhou Ze’s essence had survived, with a chance of even being resurrected. But if it was just his corpse being controlled...

WHOOSH! Chu Bamboo let out a long breath and gave a bitter smile. ’I never thought I’d become so sentimental about this sort of thing. But... now is not the time for sentimentality!’

Chu Bamboo’s expression turned cold as ice. In this timeline, and perhaps in several future ones, Zhou Ze—and even half the Guild—would be his enemy.

What could he do? There was only one way: kill.

On the surface, it seemed simple enough. With his reputation among the Guild’s rank and file, couldn’t he just show up and easily launch a counter-offensive?

But it wasn’t that simple. People like Li Xuan had clearly been placed under house arrest and stripped of their power. There was no longer a direct line to the lower ranks. In other words, the moment Chu Bamboo even hinted at contacting the mid-level leadership, the moment he showed his face, he would be killed instantly.

Besides, Zhou Ze had been confirmed dead. Now that he’s back, what justification were they using? A miraculous resurrection, or that he was framed by a traitor?

Regardless, this period of time had probably been enough for him to consolidate control over a significant portion of the Guild’s forces.

’So, I have to ride a greater tide!’ A thought flashed through Chu Bamboo’s mind. For example, he could get Huo Qiming to act with him, even if it was just as the Masked Hero. But all of this was predicated on one thing: Huo Qiming himself had to be clean.

"Nuwa No. 17, monitor these factories next..." Chu Bamboo calmly began operating the remaining drones.

He waited in silence.

Finally.

A call suddenly came in.

Chu Bamboo glanced at the number, his expression turning guarded. He answered immediately, and Hai Mingyue’s cloyingly sweet voice came through the phone. "Ah Zhu, where are you? Since you made it to the Hai Mansion, why...?"

"Oh, I suddenly remembered something important, so I went to find Huo Qiming. You probably don’t know who he is, do you?" Chu Bamboo’s tone was casual.

"I know, you mean Commander Huo!" Hai Mingyue’s voice held a tone of sudden understanding. "So, when are you coming back? Or are you..."

"Soon. I’m still waiting for Commander Huo. I’ll have a better idea after we talk... Oh, I think I see him now. Gotta go!" Chu Bamboo hung up the phone and stared, expressionless, at the camera feed showing the entrance to the Hai Group headquarters.

"Nuwa No. 17, among all the Hai Clan’s cameras... you haven’t detected any trace of the Eleventh Apostle?"

"Re-initiating data scan!" Nuwa No. 17’s voice became stern. It processed for a full twenty-seven seconds before responding: "No trace found!"

"...That’s to be expected, I suppose." Chu Bamboo sighed. In the previous few timelines, they had never found a single trace of the Eleventh Apostle from beginning to end. He should have expected this.

’Is it because his Divine Technique is one of concealment? Or is he in possession of an Artifact that hides his presence?’

Hai Mingyue’s tone had seemed gentle and composed, but it was actually a warning for him. Based on his understanding of her, if she had genuinely wanted to know his whereabouts for her own sake, she never would have been so direct and impatient.

Her usual method was to flirt for a bit, then casually weave her real question into a series of smaller ones. And what’s more, she had specifically emphasized... *at the Hai Mansion!*

Chu Bamboo had never told her that!

That kind of haste was a clear warning. There was even a high probability that the Eleventh Apostle was right beside her, perhaps with a weapon to her throat.

’I hope she’s okay... But, I seem to recall Hehuan and All-Powerful have a partnership, don’t they? Tsk, tsk.’ Reining in his thoughts, Chu Bamboo shook his head. He stared at his phone with a sigh. ’I never would have guessed... that the one causing problems would be you!’

Zhang Hai!