Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Saint and Pie in the Sky
"If you’re truly willing to join, I’ll recommend you to my direct superior, Archbishop Xingdou Yun! Plus, we in the God Worship Sect have a unique method for growing stronger." Zhang Hai paused briefly. "It’s very, very powerful!"
Chu Bamboo considered it for a moment, then said, "We’ll see."
Chu Bamboo had no intention of joining the God Worship Sect... To be more precise, he had no plans to join any Orthodoxy.
After all, his identity was too sensitive. If he were to join, it would inevitably have a direct impact on the shantytown—something Chu Bamboo could not accept.
’However, if the process of obtaining the God Worship Sect’s Cultivation Technique after joining was really fast—if it could be compressed into a single day—then it might be worth sacrificing one of my lives to get my hands on the God Worship Sect’s Dharma Gate.’
"Okay!" Not having held out much hope, Zhang Hai froze for a second. He even subconsciously cleaned out his ears, sizing up Chu Bamboo with a look of disbelief. After confirming he hadn’t misheard, he began to tremble, nodding eagerly with a joyous expression.
Chu Bamboo still hadn’t agreed, but he had at least wavered. In Zhang Hai’s eyes, this was already a major victory!
...
「In the shabby little building.」
Zhang Hai didn’t seem to mind the state of the place, sitting right down on the sofa. He sighed emotionally. "This restraint of yours, wielding great power without indulging in extravagance—it’s the perfect example of the Puritan lifestyle our God Worship Sect promotes! You were practically born to be one of us..."
"With your abilities and your potential future accomplishments, it’s not impossible for you to become one of our church’s Saints!"
"...You think I’ve never made grandiose promises to anyone before?" Chu Bamboo stared at Zhang Hai, expressionless. ’This guy is something else,’ he thought, speechless.
"But I’m telling the truth," Zhang Hai said, his face a mask of sincerity.
Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes and sat in the armchair to Zhang Hai’s left. He sank into thought.
’Based on the information I have, the assassin... is probably directly connected to the Eleventh Apostle... The key question now is, did the Eleventh Apostle personally give the order?’
’If anyone else were to summarize the available intelligence, they would certainly conclude that the Eleventh Apostle gave the order.’
’But the problem is, I know a little something about the Eleventh Apostle... Based on what I know about him, if that lunatic really wanted to make a move, he would do it himself! He wouldn’t be so roundabout, ordering his underlings to assassinate me...’
’But if it wasn’t him, then where did this kill order come from?’
Chu Bamboo’s fingers drummed on the arm of the sofa.
’In truth, I haven’t met that many Apostles—out of a total of thirteen, I’ve only met eleven of them!’
’And I only have a trivial bit of knowledge about those eleven!’
’My impression of the Apostles is that they’re all complete lunatics.’
’I used to think this group was just playing with cults until their brains fried... but now, it seems like it might be an issue of contamination? It’s just that, compared to Guan Fei and the others who went completely brain-dead in the last ruined timeline... these Apostles seem to have retained some semblance of their sanity?’
’At least, based on past experience, you can hold a conversation with them... It’s just that halfway through the conversation, they’re liable to fly into a rage!’
’Of course, because of this, the thirteen Apostles have a... very complicated reputation, even within their own organization!’
’It’s just like those three from before who nearly pissed themselves when they heard the name "Eleven." Basically, no official members are willing to become a direct follower of an Apostle... It’s no different from signing up to be cannon fodder.’
’I have every right to speak on this matter, because I’ve actually followed these Apostles before. I’ve been used as a sacrifice more than a few times!’
"That Eleventh Apostle... he must have gone to the Celestial Capital, right?" Zhang Hai suddenly spoke up. Considering the Apostle’s power and status, and the name of the city itself, he figured it had to be one of the two capital cities near Jinghai.
His eyes were filled with anxiety. As if talking to himself, but also asking, he muttered, "I wonder what he’s doing there... This is bad!"
Zhang Hai clenched his jaw, pulled his phone from his pocket, and glanced instinctively at Chu Bamboo. Seeing that Chu Bamboo had no intention of stopping him, he let out a sigh of relief and dialed a number.
"Bishop, it’s me... I need to report something... Yes, it’s about the man I told you about before... Mm, it should be the Eleventh... The intelligence... I can’t reveal the source of the intelligence to you! My apologies... Thank you for your understanding! Oh, and one more crucial piece of intel. The Apostle’s surname... it should be..."
Zhang Hai glanced at Chu Bamboo again. He saw that Chu Bamboo was merely watching him with great interest, still showing no sign of stopping him, so he finally said, "Li!"
"...Huh? You already knew that? Then never mind..."
Chu Bamboo rolled his eyes. ’If a Bishop of the God Worship Sect in the region of the two capitals didn’t even know the surnames of the Apostles, he’d be totally incompetent, wouldn’t he?’
’After all, I still suspect there’s a specific relationship between that organization and this church.’
"So," Zhang Hai said after hanging up, looking at Chu Bamboo. "That assassin... is he still going to show up? I mean, you’ve already made your move..."
To be honest... even now, when Zhang Hai recalled the effortless ease with which Chu Bamboo had walked into the Mass, it still felt absurd.
"He will," Chu Bamboo said, his tone unreadable. "After all, we’ve already basically confirmed the assassin has no connection to Xue the Third. He reports directly to the Eleventh Apostle... To put it bluntly, we wiped out Xue the Third’s den, but it’s hard to say if the assassin even knows about it yet."
After a brief pause, Chu Bamboo steered the conversation back on track. "Let’s discuss something more useful. The person who came to assassinate me is someone with Shadow Divine Techniques. His abilities manifest as..."
Chu Bamboo described in detail everything he had seen in the previous timeline, then looked directly at Zhang Hai. "Do you have any insights?"
"Shadow Divine Techniques!" Zhang Hai mused. "That should be a derivative of the Dark Domain Divine Techniques. No wonder you were certain the enemy would attack at night... After all, shadows are most lethal in the darkness!"
Chu Bamboo: "?"
’Wait a minute. Logically speaking, don’t you only have shadows during the day? There aren’t any shadows at night, right?’
’Hang on, because it’s a derivative of the Dark Domain... does that mean in a dark environment, the Shadow Divine Techniques are actually enhanced?’
Chu Bamboo grew thoughtful.
He suddenly thought of something and held his hand out to Zhang Hai. "Let me see your phone!"
"...What for?" Zhang Hai handed over the phone, his expression turning a little odd. "I’ve been meaning to ask, how is it that someone like you, Mr. Zhu, doesn’t even have a phone? Is the shantytown really that poor... Oh, sorry..."
Zhang Hai realized that perhaps the shantytown really was that poor—
It wasn’t that the union couldn’t squeeze money out of the shantytown.
But if the union actually did that, it would violate the guiding principles Chu Bamboo had established for it from the start. Zhang Hai knew about these principles, which was the key reason he was so eager to bring the union into the God Worship Sect’s fold.
His goal was to make the God Worship Sect an organization that truly served the people at the bottom. He had always struggled with how to begin, but the principles Chu Bamboo had built the union on gave him a great deal of inspiration.
This was the fundamental reason he was so convinced that Chu Bamboo could become a Saint.
"It’s nothing," Chu Bamboo said, taking the phone. ’Before the dreamscape and reality synchronized, a phone was useless. As for why I still haven’t gotten one...’
’That’s because when I officially join the Captain’s Office, they’ll issue me one!’
’Why buy something you can get for free?’
Chu Bamboo dialed Li Kang’s number. "Uncle Li!"
