Chapter 285 - 237: Manipulating the Dead Soul

The Union Headquarters building.

Chu Bamboo walked forward with an indifferent expression. Members of the Security Corps sensed something was wrong and came forward to meet him, only to see his face.

"!!! Mr. Zhu."

"The Director-General?!!"

"Minister... Minister Chu?!"

The three different titles represented the different times they had joined the Union’s Security Corps.

"Who ordered you to lock this place down?!" Chu Bamboo’s voice was stern. With a wave of his hand, drones descended from the sky, shedding their camouflage.

Cold gun barrels aimed at the numerous members of the Security Corps.

The captain in the lead stiffened. "It was, it was Zhou..."

"Enough." Chu Bamboo cut him off. "Now open the gate... and let me in!"

Chu Bamboo’s advance was, naturally, unimpeded. With his reputation, he could get through any checkpoint in the Union on his name alone!

As time went on, the number of Security Corps members following behind him grew larger and larger.

Suddenly.

They came face-to-face with another group of Security Corps members, their expressions rigid. The captain was just about to go forward and win them over, as he had the others, when he saw them raise their guns.

"ZZZRAK!"

A blinding flash of lightning flared.

The two medium-sized drones that had been floating above Chu Bamboo’s head suddenly activated the magnetic energy guns on their undersides.

In the next instant, the opposing members convulsed violently and collapsed, their hair standing on end.

The rest of the Security Corps members: "..."

They shivered, looking at the drones in terror. ’Thinking back,’ they thought, ’if we hadn’t obeyed Chu Bamboo immediately, we would have ended up like that too, wouldn’t we?’

Chu Bamboo’s pace never faltered, not from the very beginning.

A portion of the Security Corps members tacitly stayed behind and began to clean up the scene... Before stepping down, Chu Bamboo had left behind numerous contingency plans, even drill scenarios, and had set mandatory intervals for practice drills... As a result, having been sufficiently trained, they weren’t flustered or at a loss for what to do now.

Finally.

Chu Bamboo reached the top floor and raised a hand. "All of you, wait here for now!"

"Wait... What if!" The captain’s tone was urgent. He now realized that this might have been a political struggle! And the target might have been Chu Bamboo himself. If Chu Bamboo went in alone now, then in the end...

"Don’t worry." Chu Bamboo shook his head, his voice devoid of any fluctuation. He pointed to the drones above him and started walking forward again. Huo Qiming, now masked and having switched into his Masked Hero persona, followed close behind.

Soon, Chu Bamboo arrived before a massive set of doors.

Without him even needing to give the command, the drones released a blinding flash of lightning, forcibly slicing the huge doors apart!

’For some reason, this reminds me of something from Marvel,’ Chu Bamboo mused. The drones in the Spider-Man movies were truly impressive—they could create illusions, they could attack, and most importantly, they were small and compact.

’Maybe I can develop things in that direction in the future?’ Chu Bamboo fell into thought. In terms of pure destructive power, the drones created by C Company were ruthless killing machines! But when it came to versatility, they seemed slightly inferior to the drones from Marvel...

Chu Bamboo shook his head. Then, without hesitation, he stepped inside.

...

"Welcome!" Eleven sat at the desk, a warm and humble smile on his face, his gaze fixed on Chu Bamboo. He spoke in his usual, affectedly gentle tone, "Mr. Zhu!"

’?’ Chu Bamboo frowned slightly. ’He didn’t call me Saint? Wait.’ It dawned on him. ’Could it be that in the previous timeline, the main reason Eleven confirmed I was the Saint was because he saw Nuwa’s attitude toward me?’

’So now... maybe he’s only suspicious?’

"Do it!"

At Chu Bamboo’s command.

Huo Qiming’s figure blurred. His speed was almost terrifying, like a bolt of lightning.

The next moment.

Eleven’s body erupted in a brilliant, searing black light. Black wings, semi-corporeal, extended out to block his body.

In an instant, the wings were torn to shreds. Chains clamped around Eleven’s arms!

"5-72! The Immortal Handcuffs." Eleven murmured. The black wings behind him instantly dissipated, yet he showed no sign of disappointment.

"How was it so easy?" Huo Qiming was confused. Then, as if he had discovered something, he observed for a moment before his expression gradually turned grim.

Chu Bamboo frowned and stepped forward, placing a hand on Eleven’s shoulder and activating his Memory Divine Techniques to analyze him. And then... nothing?

’...No Divine Techniques?’ A storm brewed in Chu Bamboo’s mind; he couldn’t understand it. ’Don’t tell me Eleven is a Body Cultivator... but he didn’t seem like one before!’

Immediately after, Huo Qiming reached out and ripped the skin off the person’s face, revealing... the blank, expressionless face of Zhou Ze.

"?!" Chu Bamboo’s eyelids twitched several times as he belatedly realized, "Wait, Eleven... isn’t even at the Union Headquarters?!"

"This sort of thing!" Chu Bamboo stopped speaking. After a brief silence, he looked at Huo Qiming.

Huo Qiming rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It could be related to some kind of Divine Technique, or it could be a Forbidden Artifact... But if it’s related to an Artifact, the face could be some kind of mask-type Artifact..."

"...It’s most likely an Artifact." Realization dawned in Chu Bamboo’s eyes. ’I always thought Eleven was strange, wearing a human-skin mask that was completely different in style from everyone else’s. But if that mask is actually an Artifact, then everything makes sense!’

Chu Bamboo’s voice turned serious. "His Divine Technique must be some kind of control ability... and it’s extremely wide-range... The number of targets he can control is massive, possibly even swelling into the tens of thousands under certain conditions!"

"...A Divine Technique from the All-Powerful Lineage fits that description." Huo Qiming thought for a moment and said, "It might be the Divine Technique of Mind Control! But that technique can usually only control a single target... Could it be that the Divine Power he developed branched off in that direction? But that can’t be right..."

Huo Qiming couldn’t comprehend it. "What kind of Divine Power would you have to develop to expand it to this extent!"

’Mind Control is fundamentally for single targets. If you develop certain powerful Divine Powers to increase the number of targets to three or five, that’s barely understandable... but any more than that... is it even the same Divine Technique anymore?’

"Is Zhou Ze alive right now?" Chu Bamboo asked abruptly.

Huo Qiming realized something. He glanced at the person before them. "He’s dead... No, wait! If that’s the case... is it... is it Manipulating the Dead Soul?"

Belatedly, a flash of understanding crossed Huo Qiming’s eyes. "If that’s the case... I see, that explains it!"

"He must have developed the ability to project his own power onto the dead souls he controls... That would explain it! That would explain everything."