Chapter 128: Chapter 111: The Giveaway Caught by Chu Bamboo
Lei Tong stepped forward, his expression unchanged, and began stripping the clothes off the several men.
’...’ The corner of Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched. ’Are you stripping them for a search? No, wait, if you’re just taking off their clothes, what’s with all the groping? Hold on, that hand of yours... you even gave their crotches a good squeeze... Yeesh!’
’I knew you guys had... predilections! But to see it in person...’ Chu Bamboo found it hard to watch. ’This is out in the open! Couldn’t you at least use a cloth to cover up? Ptooey! Degenerates.’
"That’s... that’s a personal problem! You can’t get the wrong idea about our God Worship Sect because of this." Zhang Hai’s lips trembled, mostly from anger.
"So we should be wary of ’a sea of isolated incidents’ being used to stigmatize the Priests of the God Worship Sect, is that it?" Chu Bamboo shot a sidelong glance at Zhang Hai. ’How do you have the nerve to say that?’
Zhang Hai: "..."
’Damn it all.’ Where was he even supposed to start explaining? He felt like even he didn’t believe the excuses coming out of his own mouth anymore!
"Found them!" Finally, looking as though he hadn’t had his fill, Lei Tong pulled five fist-sized white orbs from their persons. "There’s definitely something... off about them! But they shouldn’t count as Forbidden Artifacts, right?"
"...How is that possible?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Hai’s expression changed drastically. If they weren’t Forbidden Artifacts, how could they have affected him?
"I’m not finished!" Lei Tong shook his head, gently rubbing one of the white orbs. "If they suffer a strong impact, the orbs will shatter! The Energy inside will leak out... This internal Energy must have been produced by a Forbidden Artifact."
Lei Tong paused briefly, his words suddenly heavy with dread. "In other words, they’re derivatives!"
The scene fell silent.
"It seems the waters run deeper than we thought!" At this moment, even Lu Yun couldn’t maintain his cool, imposing posture, his brow furrowing tightly.
’A mere derivative can affect Zhang Hai of the Third Realm... so just how high must the true grade of the original Artifact be?’
’Something’s not right! An item of this caliber... are we really the ones who should be handling this?’
"Perhaps this matter is truly serious enough for Bishop Hu to intervene personally," Lei Tong said, pressing his lips together.
"...Did you perceive anything?" Zhang Hai asked suddenly.
Lei Tong was silent for a long moment before finally saying, "Within a 500-meter radius, I didn’t detect any anomalies!"
Chu Bamboo’s eyes widened slightly as realization dawned on him. ’His Divine Technique... is Perception?’
’No wonder they had him search for the Forbidden Artifact. And no wonder he came here, even though he’s the head of the Fourth District and supposedly weaker than Zhang Hai—despite also being a Cultivator...’
’But then again, doesn’t that just confirm it? Lei Tong’s "search" just now... was definitely done with ill intent!’
"You could say that! But," Zhang Hai’s expression turned more serious than ever, "you can’t ask him what his Divine Technique is... I’ll repeat myself! You cannot ask. The matter of Divine Techniques is actually quite sensitive."
"With so many Cultivators out there, basically every Divine Technique has appeared before... or at least, similar ones have!"
"Many of these Divine Techniques have had their obvious weaknesses exposed in the past! That’s why you have to be secretive, to hide it as much as possible... Because it’s very likely that a fully exposed Divine Technique will have its flaws found by an enemy in the future... leading to a fatal blow!"
"Besides, even if someone casually tells you what their Divine Technique is, don’t believe them completely." Zhang Hai stared at Lei Tong, his tone unreadable. "Perhaps the Divine Technique they display isn’t their real one! It’s possible they’re just using it to mislead others..."
In response, Lei Tong simply smiled.
"So that’s how it is." Chu Bamboo nodded in realization. ’Intelligence warfare, is it? JoJo! I know this one...’
And so.
"So what’s your Divine Technique?" Chu Bamboo asked without a moment’s hesitation.
Zhang Hai: "...?"
He laughed in exasperation. ’Are you kidding me?!’
Lei Tong paid no attention to what the two clowns were discussing. He expressionlessly pulled a phone from his pocket, dialed Bishop Hu’s number, and began to report the situation with a grave look on his face.
"Alright." After hanging up, Lei Tong looked up at Zhang Hai and said gravely, "The Bishop has given an order. For the time being, we are not to leave the Third District Church! Since these are derivatives, it means the other side might still have more of them."
"Even if they’re derivatives, their numbers must be limited!" Lu Yun said, frowning in thought. ’After all, if they had that many, wouldn’t they have attacked all the major churches at once?’
’But by the same token, they can’t have too few, either! Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to use five orbs at once.’
"The Bishop’s side will be sending someone to pick up the samples soon! They’ll start analyzing them... It’s not a big problem. Once the First District figures out a solution, we can all go home!" Lei Tong said, extremely calm.
He had absolute faith in the God Worship Sect.
’They were just a bunch of filthy rats hiding in the gutters. If they really thought they could threaten the God Worship Sect just by scrounging up a Forbidden Artifact from who-knows-where—or even make the Sect hesitate to act for fear of collateral damage—well, that would be the most ridiculous joke he had ever heard.’
Chu Bamboo mulled it over for a moment, then glanced at Zhang Hai and said, "I think I’ll just stay the night in my old room."
"Suit yourself." After watching Chu Bamboo walk away, Zhang Hai thought for a moment and turned back to Lei Tong. "So, what about these believers?"
"We torture them, of course!" Lu Yun said expressionlessly, the corner of his mouth hooking into a savage grin. "Daring to conspire with heretics to move against the church! That is an unforgivable sin!"
"...Perhaps they didn’t actually know?" Zhang Hai’s brow was tightly furrowed. If he remembered correctly, Chu Bamboo had initially said they were going to shout "My only wish is to believe in God!" and then self-destruct.
