The three major Demon Dao Sects? Chu Bamboo wasn’t familiar with them, but they were, in fact, Demon Sects that wielded Extraordinary Power...

Because in his memory, and according to the previous official classification—these three sects were uniformly labeled as the Shoe Sect!

’I left you alone in the main timeline, and now you’re coming to mess with me?’ Chu Bamboo muttered to himself. ’Reversed Celestial Spirit!’

He expressionlessly grit his teeth. The poison spread through his mouth as he swallowed it down.

There was no pain, nor did it trigger any violent reaction in his body... After all, Chu Bamboo had chosen this poison carefully! All he could feel now was his body gradually growing weak and limp.

"What’s wrong with... wait a second!" Ning Linglong’s expression changed dramatically. She lunged forward, grabbing Chu Bamboo’s wrist and scrutinizing his face. "Why is your face so pale... No, you’ve been poisoned? When? When did the enemy attack... Dammit, why didn’t I notice anything?"

"Impossible!" Li Kang’s expression changed as well. He rushed forward and felt Chu Bamboo’s down jacket. "It’s not torn, so you can’t have been cut or stabbed... Was it something in the air? But then why are we fine...?"

Neither of them ever considered that Chu Bamboo had killed himself, so no matter how they racked their brains, they couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Ning Linglong was visibly enraged. After a brief silence, the brilliant light on her forehead flashed again, shining so brightly it seemed to illuminate her very skull before radiating outward in all directions.

"Wait! If you overload yourself like that..." Li Kang cried out.

’Damn...’ was Chu Bamboo’s last thought. ’Ning Linglong has really lost it this time...’

He could even hear the neighbors discussing in terror.

"What’s happening? What is that light!"

"Could it be... a supernatural event?"

"Nonsense! Something must have gone wrong somewhere. Was it... was it an explosion?"

’Holy crap, has Ning Linglong completely thrown the principle of Extraordinary secrecy out the window?’

’Well, they can fix this later with memory erasure, but the effort that’ll take... Tsk!’

Chu Bamboo’s vision went black. He lost his sight, and then his sense of touch began to fade. He felt himself being hoisted onto someone’s shoulder. Was someone telling him to hold on?

Then...

Everything was reversing!

...

A brilliant light suddenly flared before his eyes.

Chu Bamboo squinted, looking around. The familiar base! The familiar movie.

As usual: close the movie, clear the background processes, and confirm the time—six o’clock sharp!

Then, call Li Kang, go to the Union Headquarters, and quell the unrest! Issue the order for martial law.

After taking care of everything, he called Li Kang again before Li Kang could come find him. He instructed Li Kang to relay his demands when contacting his own superior.

And since he’d already been through this once, Chu Bamboo flew through the sequence of events at maximum speed. As a direct result, the meeting was no longer scheduled for 2:30 PM, but for 10:00 AM instead.

...

「Ten-thirty AM.」

Chu Bamboo walked out of the administrative hall. He looked up, gazing at the Sun. It hung high in the sky, its light scorching. He raised a hand toward the Sun, casting a shadow over his eyes.

And this...

...was the scene that greeted Li Kang, Ning Linglong, Guan Fei, Wall Announcements, and the others as they walked out.

"...This... this is just too incredible!" Wall Announcements silently wiped the cold sweat from his brow. Even now, recalling the earlier events, he still felt like he was in a daze.

Although Wall Announcements had been present for everything that had happened this morning, he still couldn’t make sense of it all—

It was as if he had become a mere puppet on a string, only able to execute one command after another from Chu Bamboo.

Wall Announcements’s most vivid memory was from just a short while ago. Chu Bamboo had just gotten off the phone with Li Kang, having laid out the current situation and his terms for negotiation in no uncertain terms. He had also stated with absolute confidence that an unimaginably high-ranking leader would soon be in direct contact with him—

Furthermore, Chu Bamboo had said that the leader would certainly agree to his terms! If they agreed, they didn’t even need to call him back—he even went so far as to set the meeting time during that very same call!

And in the end, it was proven that Chu Bamboo had not miscalculated a single step.

It was too absurd!

’Are you secretly a prophet or something?!’

In fact, it wasn’t just Wall Announcements; Ning Linglong felt the same way.

Guan Fei was very calm. As Mr. Zhu’s die-hard fan, anything Chu Bamboo did seemed perfectly normal to him. As for Li Kang...

"The oracle works his magic again," Li Kang sighed. "I’ve been through this plenty of times before, but no matter how many times I see it..."

’I’m still filled with shock and awe!’

"But I haven’t seen Ah Zhu this serious in a long time... Then again," Li Kang quickly came to terms with it, "it’d be stranger if this whole thing *didn’t* piss him off, right?"

"Um..." Ning Linglong hesitated for a moment before stepping forward.

"I don’t have time to have a meal with Brother Ning today. We’ll have a working lunch later! Just consider your blind date mission complete and report back." Chu Bamboo continued his preemptive strike.

Ning Linglong: "..."

She was left speechless.

"Oh, right!" Chu Bamboo suddenly remembered something. He said casually, "By the way, ’The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.’"

Chu Bamboo didn’t ask her what she meant by it; he simply recited the line. Then he carefully observed Ning Linglong’s expression.

He could clearly see a series of emotions flash across her face: surprise, astonishment, confusion, and doubt.

Li Kang’s eyes widened. "You’re with Natural Taoism?" he asked. "Wait, no. When did you join? How come I didn’t know?"

"? Natural Taoism? You just mean Taoism, right?" Chu Bamboo frowned. ’In this Dream World where religions flourish, it’s impossible that the God Worship Sect is the only one—’

’As far as I know, most religions from the Real World probably exist here too, like Taoism and Buddhism. There are even more absurd examples, like how in the Dream World, the philosophy of Confucianism has become the religion of Confucianism...’

’There were others, too—sects formed from the names of the Hundred Schools of Thought, which could be traced back to the Warring States period in the Real World—’

’—sects like the Agricultural and Medical Education and Moisture Teaching! Not to mention the three major sects he learned about from Li Kang in the previous timeline: Hehuan, the Five Poisonous Creatures, and the All-Powerful.’

’However, aside from the three major sects—Hehuan, the Five Poisonous Creatures, and the All-Powerful—the rest were officially designated as the Orthodoxy!’

"You don’t know?" Ning Linglong came to her senses, looking a bit bewildered. "Then how did you know that phrase... Could it be that someone from Natural Taoism has been in contact with you? Did they tell you that?"

’Well, that’s true enough!’ Chu Bamboo nodded. Ning Linglong looked like she was from Natural Taoism, so hadn’t *she* been the one to contact him and tell him this?

"...Never mind, then."

Chu Bamboo pressed on, "So, what’s the deal with Natural Taoism, exactly?"