Chapter 278: Struggle
The grand battle between the four did not result in a decisive victory, but it did conclude with Ramdo achieving his strategic objective. His intention was to stall the coalition's invasion, ensuring they lost this opportunity.
Ramdo knew that even a suicidal curse, unleashing power far exceeding his own tier, could never last long. As long as he could endure these few days, everything would revert to normal.
Therefore, what he had to do was to block, at all costs, anyone attempting to seize this land during these few days.
It was just a pity that, by this point, all clandestine schemes had transformed into overt strategies, and intelligence had lost its significance.
"Now you want all air force fighters to depart and air-drop apples from the warehouses into the various villages across Maysuo?" Chen Bo, who also served as the military's supreme leader, received a call from Bai Mo.
"Yes, unless there are unforeseen circumstances, our transaction is complete here."
"Unforeseen circumstances?" Chen Bo caught the hidden meaning in his words.
"If I inform you of unforeseen circumstances, then do not hesitate. Launch all existing nuclear weapons of the Hua-Ya Federation at Maysuo."
"What exactly are you doing?!"
"You're playing with fire!"
"Relax, the probability of anything going wrong is virtually zero. Besides, I'm not doing this in Huaxia."
"I hope you're telling the truth. Just this once!" Chen Bo was somewhat helpless; not yet having the sufficient resolve to take the step into Chemosynthesis, he simply couldn't restrain the still rapidly expanding Bai Mo in terms of power.
"Mm." After completing the transaction, he hung up the phone.
"What kind of thing are you trying to create?" Ning Yan Huo had been listening to their phone conversation from the side.
"You'll know soon enough." Bai Mo picked up the human head floating beside him and continued his journey through Maysuo.
"We've been through twenty small towns now. Do you have any thoughts?" Halfway through their journey, he asked Ning Yan Huo this question.
"Not everyone in the One-Wheel Cult is bad..."
"Having a change of heart now?"
"No. The One-Wheel Cult, as a sect, should not exist. Believing in it is an original sin!" Ning Yan Huo, who had been tormented by hatred for many years, could not possibly abandon her resolve because of such collateral damage to innocent people.
"Religion, ultimately, only exists because people believe in it." Bai Mo's original promise to Ning Yan Huo to utterly destroy the One-Wheel Cult was precisely to use this plan to make all living people stop believing in it, effectively annihilating it in an indirect way.
"Once this plan is complete, you'll be invincible, won't you?" Ning Yan Huo suddenly countered.
"In terms of sheer battle prowess, I'm already the strongest human on this planet, but it's still not enough." Bai Mo nodded, then said something that left his interlocutor somewhat perplexed.
"How do you know you're the strongest?"
"I have avatars positioned in high-level positions within the major powers of the United States, Europe, Yamato, and Mao'e." Bai Mo possessed numerous methods for extracting secrets from the mouths of the dead, so he didn't reveal the specific details.
"Is being the strongest still not enough to satisfy your ambition?"
"At least in my plans, the 'strongest' I am now isn't strong enough."
"My teacher once asked me a question. He asked why I wasn't continuing my research in physics, but instead, like a wizard, pursuing so-called personal cultivation using these metaphysical and empirical methods." Bai Mo abruptly changed the subject, no longer discussing his future plans.
"Why?" Ning Yan Huo now played the role of a temporary listener.
"Given my capabilities, conducting genuine scientific research would indeed be the best choice for society as a whole; however, for me personally, becoming a spirit qi technology researcher is simply not the optimal solution."
"Compared to dedicating myself to technology that benefits all people, ruthlessly exploiting countless individuals to make myself stronger at a terrifying pace allows for the maximization of my own interests."
"My starting point is high enough; not developing myself through a snowball effect would be the greatest waste."
"As for things like 'for the country and its people,' I'd only choose to donate six hundred million after earning a billion, not fifty thousand when I only have a hundred thousand."
"Scientific research requires reproducibility and a clear understanding of all principles. As a trade-off, it's far too slow in the early stages compared to metaphysical cultivation, which doesn't demand thorough comprehension but merely relies on empirical feeling."
"We know nothing about spirit qi. Perhaps by the time we achieve something, twenty or thirty years will have passed. By then, the speed and efficiency of scientifically guided cultivation might very well surpass those metaphysical cultivators who rose by exploiting the lower strata."
"But what good is that to me? Through ten years of plundering others, I've already reached the apex of the pyramid. I can now, purely for my own sake, launch this unprecedentedly massive plan as I please."
"Now that I stand at the very top, I can also start from scratch and research spirit qi using scientific methods. My power guarantees my freedom to choose."
...
Bai Mo, uncharacteristically, spoke at such length to the dying person before him, not much caring whether the other could understand him.
After listening, Ning Yan Huo said nothing, but her impression of this perpetually mysterious "demon" was altered. It turned out he was also merely a person who had once been confused by the choices before him.
As Bai Mo and Ning Yan Huo chatted, a large contingent of Huaxia fighter jets, as if entering an unmanned territory, breached Maysuo's airspace, carrying massive "apple bombs."
Plagued by intense itching, Maysuo's air force pilots could only hide within the canopies of faith projected by their priests, suppressing the curse.
Once they left the military bases protected by the canopies and took to the skies, the severe itching made it impossible for them to concentrate on piloting. Forcibly taking off would likely result in both plane and pilot being lost.
Countless apples, each tied with a small parachute, were quickly dropped onto the various small towns unprotected by canopies of faith. However, not a single one landed in the large cities that did have canopy defenses.
To ensure these apples remained intact after falling from high altitudes, Bai Mo had preemptively cast a simple protective spirit art on them, providing a double layer of protection in conjunction with the parachutes.
At first, the residents of the towns and villages thought it was an enemy air raid and quickly dragged their exhausted bodies to flee.
But soon, they discovered that what was falling wasn't bombs, but individual apples tied with parachutes, and at that point, they were utterly bewildered.
As the "fruit of sin," apples were a taboo in the hearts of countless One-Wheel Cult believers. In their daily lives, the word "apple" was rarely even mentioned.
Now, seeing real, vibrant red apples, they felt as if they were witnessing the heart of a demon.
Meanwhile, their itching skin began to tempt them, promising that if they just ate these apples before them, they would no longer suffer such torment.
Not everyone possessed the unwavering faith of a missionary, capable of resisting any corruption. Many residents in the small towns had only become followers of the One-Wheel Cult because everyone around them believed in the same religion, coupled with the influence of the entire nation's culture.
Comments