Chapter 455: Z's Gift! Chu Bamboo: This Gift Is Terrifying

Finally.

Half a minute later.

Chu Bamboo followed the shredded wall to an opened entrance… Without a doubt, Huo Qiming had slipped inside.

Chu Bamboo heaved a heavy sigh. “So, Z, what kind of gift did you prepare for me, exactly?”

‘I have a feeling this gift is a bit too… heavyweight!’

Rubbing his cheeks, Chu Bamboo glanced at the wall again. The stone had been torn away, revealing a metallic color underneath… ‘So, they installed a layer of special metal within a normal wall? No, this metal can block Huo Qiming’s attacks… It must have some kind of Extraordinary element mixed in.’

Chu Bamboo collected his thoughts and walked through the open doorway.

He looked around, a strange light in his eyes. This was a bizarre hall. The ceiling was terrifyingly high.

Its layout was somewhat similar to a nuclear facility… It also had metal walls, a frighteningly high roof, and a massive cylinder in the center that connected to the ceiling.

Chu Bamboo did a quick mental calculation and realized the cylinder in this position had to be the space elevator connecting to outer space—

‘Of course, the entrance to the space elevator probably isn’t here… The headquarters is below, so there must be several more floors… The real entrance to the space elevator must be on one of those lower floors!’

He didn’t dwell on it, however, turning his head to gaze quietly at… the creature currently chained in the very center.

It was, without a doubt, a Giant Dragon!

It wasn’t particularly large, only about five meters long. Its whiskers were white, and its pale golden scales had lost their luster.

Its four claws were firmly pinned to the ground by eight ground-locks, rendering it immobile—of the eight locks, four held its claws, while the other four clamped down its limbs, pinning it completely to the floor!

The two wings on its back were also bound tightly by chains hanging from the metal ceiling—

This series of restraints left the Old Dragon able to move only its head… and it even had a muzzle ring! It seemed they were worried about it spraying something… Hmm…

Huo Qiming knelt before it, lashing out with his own claws, desperately attacking the chains… Fierce gales swept out, and sparks flew.

However, under this terrifying assault, the silver metal chains didn’t change shape or color in the slightest… let alone show any signs of breaking.

In the next breath.

Chu Bamboo found the scene before him change dramatically. He had somehow appeared out of thin air right in front of the Giant Dragon.

Huo Qiming’s claws were clamped firmly around Chu Bamboo’s neck. His pupils had become serpentine slits as he said coldly, “…Unlock them!”

“Do you think I can possibly unlock them?” Chu Bamboo wasn’t the least bit flustered. He was so calm it was as if he wasn’t the one being choked, his eyes filled only with interest and curiosity.

He struggled to turn his head to look at the silent, tightly bound Old Dragon. “Say, why aren’t you making a peep… Are you stupid or something?”

“…Impossible! Absolutely impossible.” Huo Qiming squeezed harder, his body trembling slightly. His face was a mask of terror and panic, as if he were the one being choked, not Chu Bamboo.

Huo Qiming was incoherent and hysterical, like a drowning man grasping at his only straw. “You can open them… You can definitely open them!”

“If I had that kind of power, would I have let you grab me?” Chu Bamboo’s voice carried a trace of mockery.

Huo Qiming’s body froze, and his hands trembled even more violently.

Blood dripped from Chu Bamboo’s neck. Huo Qiming’s loss of composure had clearly caused his control over his strength to falter. With a calm expression, Chu Bamboo activated his Light Divine Techniques, and then, he transformed into light and vanished.

“?!” Huo Qiming’s expression changed drastically. His Divine Thought couldn’t even keep up with Chu Bamboo’s figure.

‘Too fast, way too fast! It’s like Chu Bamboo is everywhere now…’

“…Damn it, this is ridiculous!” Chu Bamboo’s figure coalesced. He staggered, dry-heaved a couple of times, and felt incredibly dizzy… He had, of course, used the Light Transformation Skill!

A few breaths later, Chu Bamboo hit his own brain with a Purification and took a couple of gasping breaths before returning to normal. ‘Even though I had my suspicions after reading the description for the Light Divine Techniques, using it for real still shocked the hell out of me…’

‘Light Transformation is literally transforming into light! Attaining the ultimate speed of light… I thought it was just a descriptor, that Light Transformation just slapped on a light-based visual effect while moving extremely fast…’

‘After all, what does the speed of light even mean? If I were outdoors, I could circle the Earth nearly ten times in one second…’

‘And this is just the Third Realm Divine Power of Light…’

This couldn’t help but make Chu Bamboo marvel at the flexibility of Divine Techniques.

‘Of course, its drawback is also very obvious… At this speed, with a Third Realm practitioner’s reaction time, precise control is out of the question… No, it’s not even a matter of being unable to lock onto a precise landing spot. What does circling the Earth ten times in a second even imply?’

‘Where you end up is pure luck…’

‘Without the ability to lock on, ending up halfway across the planet from your intended destination would be completely normal!’

As for why Chu Bamboo had been zipping around randomly indoors, it was because of light refraction—the reflective effect of the metal walls was just too good.

He had no idea how many times he’d circled inside the metal room. In any case, the chaotic information from his Divine Thought made him feel as if his mortal self had been tossed into a washing machine on a frantic spin cycle…

It was enough to make his Third Realm self almost puke after coming to a stop.

“…Light!” the Old Dragon suddenly spat out one word.

Chu Bamboo frowned and looked over again, only to find the Old Dragon had once more lapsed into a state resembling senile dementia, merely uttering “Light” again in its daze.

“Ancestor!” Huo Qiming knelt before the Old Dragon, his face twisted and ferocious. A moment later, he turned his head again, his slitted pupils fixed on Chu Bamboo. Though his demeanor was still violent, there was now a clear hint of pleading. “…What will it take for you to save the Old Ancestor… Let’s make a deal… Otherwise, I’ll kill you!”

“Bring it on.” Chu Bamboo was quite composed. He was only focused on gathering intelligence, and the information he’d gotten so far was enough for him—he could basically confirm that this Old Dragon was… Hmm?

Chu Bamboo thought for a moment, then pressed a hand to his forehead, unsealing a portion of his memories. “…So that’s how it is. The Dragon of Consciousness and Heart, huh?”

Understanding dawned on Chu Bamboo. Huo Qiming was also a dragon in disguise… though he didn’t know what kind of technique, or perhaps Divine Technique, he was using…

The Giant Dragons were acting so crazed to save their Divine Being, or rather, their ancestor! It made perfect sense.

The only problem was…

“…Don’t tell me!” Chu Bamboo’s eye twitched frantically. ‘This Dragon God is the gift Z gave me? What kind of person gives someone a dragon… Are you trying to give me a mount? This thing doesn’t look like it can be ridden… No, wait. So that’s it!’

The realization hit Chu Bamboo belatedly. Once he understood Z’s true purpose, he was stunned.

‘If Z obtained some of the memories of the Divine Being Z, then there’s a good chance our conversations were in there… I remember on the last world-line, the final reset line, when I talked with Z, he mentioned that the Divine Position of the Dragon of Consciousness and Heart was the most suitable for me…’

‘So!’

“…This is frickin’ terrifying!”

What does it mean to be full of martial virtue?

Vaguely, Chu Bamboo seemed to hear Z’s voice in his head—’Dad, you want to become a god? Well, I beat this dragon half to death and tied it up here for you! Whenever you feel like it… just slaughter it and take its Divine Position. That’ll do it.’