Chapter 254: Apples
"Alas, still not quite there." Bai Mo continued to meticulously control the output, yet it remained just a fraction shy of the orange truly transforming into yellow.
He didn't press on, for he felt as if he were walking a tightrope; one careless mistake, and the minds of the millions of ordinary people around him would be assimilated.
Should that happen, even those closest to him would be forced by societal pressure to mobilize the entire nation's might to hunt him down, and all the plans he had laid out in the Hua-Ya Federation would be irrevocably stalled.
Bai Mo had no desire to end up like Sa Qia Si Ji, for he hadn't yet accumulated enough power to contend against the world.
"It's finally done." After Cheng Mu uttered these four words, the gateway to his Divine Kingdom slowly began to close, vanishing into the void.
At this moment, the Spirit Stones embedded on either side of the altar were continuously having their power drawn out by the guiding array, allowing Cheng Mu's projection to slowly materialize in the center of the formation.
"As long as the true body doesn't descend, one's life is quite guaranteed." The projection, virtually indistinguishable from a real person, remarked with emotion.
"As long as there are no issues, the next session will begin in an hour."
The news of Cheng Mu's successful deification quickly ignited a frenzy among the tycoons closely watching the grand ceremony, for this was a path that could be paved purely with money!
"Can 'believers' hired with money even be called faithful?" While some rejoiced, several religious organizations and nations considered this a profanation of faith, vehemently denouncing it. Radical elements of the One-Wheel Cult even threatened to eradicate any such grave acts of blasphemy.
But no matter how outsiders judged it, Cheng Mu, who had successfully achieved deification, was immensely satisfied with his current state.
His true body remained hidden within his Divine Kingdom, all external actions handled by projections. The strongest projection he could manifest, according to Bai Mo's calculations, could barely reach the lower Fifth Tier, enough to contend with a newly breakthrough Xuanhua Stage cultivator.
However, the stronger the projection, the greater the damage to the true body if it were destroyed, so it couldn't be used for casual reconnaissance like a spirit energy clone.
For a politician like him, the divine system, which made true death exceedingly difficult, was the most suitable. As long as he survived, there would always be an opportunity to rise again in the future.
What he had always worried about was someone suddenly flipping the table one day, abandoning the rules of the game, and enforcing their will through sheer violence.
"Old Cheng, did you leave enough descent points?" Liu Zhen, seeing the pioneer's success, felt significantly more relaxed, even finding the leisure to joke.
It wasn't easy to travel from the subspace where a Divine Kingdom resided to the material world. Without immense power, one could only rely on specially inscribed descent arrays to be guided forth.
Therefore, once all descent points were lost, it would be akin to being exiled within the Divine Kingdom. While inside, one couldn't perceive the real world's conditions, and information input relied almost entirely on the projections moving through the human realm.
"Of course." How could a man who had been cautious his entire life be careless with something that concerned his very existence? He had naturally left behind a large number of secret descent points known only to himself.
"These projections are too weak; I could take on five of them by myself." Zhang Xu merely glanced over them and came to this conclusion.
He hadn't idled away the past two years either. Most experts who cultivated the Martial Path were proficient in various mental secret arts, such as Will Descent and Will Possession. Almost everyone who could break through to the Eight Orifices or Nine Orifices levels knew a trick or two.
As a standout among them, Zhang Xu had even begun to research more profound techniques like Will Overlay.
Ever since his defeat in a skirmish with Bai Mo's avatar two years ago, he had treated Bai Mo as his imaginary foe, ceaselessly analyzing the principles of starlight.
Finally, combining it with his empathic abilities, he gradually developed a secret art called "Neither Me Nor Foe," which allowed him to overlay and influence the enemy's will, causing them to lose themselves and become unable to determine their own identity.
Against such deities, by attacking their projections, he could even indirectly harm their true bodies.
The hour of rest quickly passed, and Liu Zhen's deification ceremony officially commenced.
Thanks to the unprecedentedly meticulous plan, his transformation into a deity was equally smooth and uneventful. After the gateways to both Divine Kingdoms closed, they completely vanished into the void, leaving only their avatars behind at the scene.
"Congratulations..." After the entire grand ceremony was perfectly concluded and the crowd dispersed to collect their meal boxes, Cheng Mu and Liu Zhen were surrounded by their subordinates, offering their felicitations.
Their success also meant that for at least the next five years, there would be two seats reserved for them on the Seven-Person Council, bringing a collective sigh of relief.
Once they lost their voice in the highest echelons of power, a major reshuffle would inevitably follow.
After five years of development, the forces under both Chen Bo and Ye Zi's factions had experienced explosive growth. They would no longer be like five years ago, unable to manage the entire country due to a scarcity of core loyalists, thus compromising and leaving most of the benefits to them.
Now, even if Cheng Mu's faction were completely marginalized, there would immediately be enough personnel to take their place.
"Bai Mo." After the matter concluded, Chen Bo called out to him.
"Hmm?"
"Let's make a deal. I know you deliberately revealed the news of your breakthrough to me; you must have some ideas."
"I'll give the relevant data to a few of you. In exchange, a year from now, I'll need your cooperation with a plan of mine." Bai Mo seized the opportunity to state his demands.
"Does it have something to do with the thousand acres of apple orchards you bought?"
"Indeed." He wasn't surprised they guessed.
"You're going to deal with the One-Wheel Cult?" Chen Bo pressed further.
As the biggest source of instability, their subordinates naturally had a specialized psychological expert team dedicated to collecting all intelligence related to Bai Mo, analyzing it, and deducing some of his thoughts.
"It's hard to say, but we might just devour half of Maysuo Nation then," Bai Mo said with a chuckle.
"A large nation spanning the central part of the continent, with an area of eight million square kilometers and a population of nearly two hundred million... the Hua-Ya Federation couldn't possibly digest it, unless..." He refuted it with a straight face, but then a possibility suddenly occurred to him.
"As long as you cooperate with my experiment then, nothing is impossible."
"I'll discuss it with them." Chen Bo suddenly felt as if he were making a deal with the devil; the white light covering Bai Mo's face appeared somewhat chilling.
"Chen Xi, contact Zhao Ru Yi and have her send another two million custom chips here. Then, contact the engineering teams to construct eight more layers of information barriers. Finally, check on the situation at the apple cultivation base."
Returning to the experimental site, after issuing various commands, Bai Mo once again entered the connection pod, integrating all sorts of new information from the VR System.
The knowledge and insights that grew every moment made his white light increasingly powerful. Only under the heavy protection of the core zone could he release all suppression and wantonly unleash his power..
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