Chapter 239: Physical development: Bai Fu becomes the center of attention in the Fringe Worlds
“Where Has Bloodthorn Gone?”
Upon seeing the title of the program, loyal viewers of Atomic News were filled with confusion and dissatisfaction.
What kind of lousy program name was this?
Did Atomic News really have time for this nonsense? Hurry up and continue broadcasting the real-time ranking program of Bai Fu and Bloodthorn!
Watching the commentators argue and the bullet chats explode was a thousand times more entertaining than this meaningless impromptu insertion called “Where Has Bloodthorn Gone?”
But when the host stepped forward to explain the reason for airing the program, all the viewers were stunned.
What in the world.
The battle between Bai Fu and Bloodthorn was already over. The Calamity Corps had been nearly annihilated, and Bloodthorn, with no escape route, had been forced to hide on a nearby planet. Now, the undead from Silent Night were searching everywhere for Bloodthorn?
The viewers of Atomic News momentarily suspected they were hearing things.
Yet, it was true!
Because the news showed footage of the Calamity Corps being blown apart, of their exploding ships being towed away, and of Bloodthorn fleeing in panic to a nearby planet.
“We received authorization from Silent Night and the Origin Consortium. The footage being broadcast now is transmitted from panoramic cameras aboard Silent Night’s ships!”
One had to admit, Atomic News knew how to run a program.
After connecting to the signal transmitted from Bai Fu’s side, they immediately brought the fan groups previously arguing in another studio over Bai Fu and Bloodthorn into this new studio, letting all viewers continue watching the fan disputes, breakdowns, and celebrations under the theme of “Where Has Bloodthorn Gone?”
“Ha! I said it long ago, Bai Fu is number one in the world. You believe it now, don’t you?”
“Impossible. There’s no way Bloodthorn can be captured. Just wait and see!”
The news spread rapidly across the Fringe Worlds.
In fact, about twenty percent of people had believed in Bai Fu's chances in this battle, but even they hadn’t expected the fight to end this quickly.
They thought that even if both sides were efficient, it would still take half a day or more for new information to surface.
But now, only a little over two hours had passed since Bai Fu had gone to the meeting?
Godly!
If this wasn’t divine, what was?!
At the same time, in different places, different people stared at the same livestream footage and gasped in unison.
“How on earth did she do it?”
Frank and the members of the Sanctification Order were all utterly astonished.
Half a year ago, when they fought Bai Fu, she was just an ordinary Calamity-class. How could she destroy the Calamity Corps in under three hours now?
What had this woman become?
Frank recalled the harsh words he had said to Bai Fu.
He felt a chill of fear.
Fortunately, he had postured in front of Bai Fu half a year ago. If it were now, he wouldn’t even have had time to flee before she killed him.
But Frank quickly calmed down.
It didn’t matter.
With the Pillar of True Spirit in hand and the plan already in motion, no matter how much Bai Fu grew, as long as she didn’t suddenly become a Transcendent, it wasn’t a big deal.
While Frank managed to stay composed, Hampton from the Origin Consortium could no longer remain calm.
“Medicine... bring me the medicine!”
Watching the news broadcast, Hampton almost had a heart attack from rage.
Thankfully, the AI these days was highly advanced. It immediately detected the issue and sent over a professional medical robot.
Though his life was temporarily not in danger, Hampton’s temples were throbbing and it felt like his head was about to explode.
He never imagined that Bloodthorn could lose so utterly.
Back when he hadn’t given the Rose Blossom Potion formula, Bloodthorn could still escape from Bai Fu with his subordinates. After receiving the Rose Blossom Potion formula, Bloodthorn ended up barely escaping with his life?
Well done. So all that power-up led to a reverse outcome?
Hampton was in complete panic.
If Bloodthorn, before dying, handed over evidence of Hampton’s sabotage to Bai Fu—given Bai Fu’s current demonstrated capabilities—even if she didn’t come after him, the rest of the Origin Consortium would make sure he paid dearly.
But things had come to this point, and there was no way he could save himself anymore. He had no power to affect Bai Fu’s pursuit of Bloodthorn.
There was only one thing he could do—
Watch the news broadcast and silently root for Bloodthorn.
Come on, my little manic underling—whatever you do, don’t get caught by that demon Bai Fu!
Hampton was sweating bullets, while in another office not far away, Andras smiled as he asked his secretary, “Has Hampton done anything unusual?”
The secretary replied, “No.”
Andras shrugged.
If there was nothing, then so be it.
Watching the incoherent Bloodthorn fans in the news broadcast room, and Bloodthorn’s support rate plummeting in real-time, he felt beyond pleased.
If Bloodthorn’s support dropped to zero and Hampton’s heart rate dropped with it, he’d be even happier.
...
“The ratings are exploding. Did I undercharge Atomic News for the broadcasting rights?”
Bai Fu touched her chin, appearing deep in thought.
Oh well.
Let’s call it a friendly discount for today.
Next time something else fun comes up, there’s going to be a bidding war. No more letting these news agencies get away with freebies.
Bai Fu closed the news broadcast and focused on consolidating the intel sent up by players from the ground.
She had deployed over three hundred thousand players in waves across various corners of a nearby planet called Homeworld. The players were divided into many small teams, each equipped with a life detector. On top of that, there was also Cessia, the humanoid life detector, assisting them. Even if Bloodthorn was hiding in a trench or volcano, he would be dragged out.
“If Bloodthorn still has any sense left, he’ll only try to blend into crowded areas. That trick works well against ordinary people or mechanical devices—he only needs to tweak his bone and facial structure slightly to evade detection. But against players, it’s completely useless.”
Bai Fu was grinning happily.
Players had the Scouting skill. Once it was activated and they found an NPC whose stats couldn’t be read, that person was most likely Bloodthorn!
After all, Homeworld was just an average planet with a population under a hundred million. Forget S-rank espers—even A-rank ones rarely showed up here.
Once players identified a suspicious target, she would personally follow up to ensure no innocent person was wrongly accused.
[Fu Fu, we’ve found a suspicious individual over here.]
[Fu Fu, we’ve also spotted a suspicious person over here.]
The operation to hunt down Bloodthorn began on Star Calendar September 12. By the time it hit September 13, viewers watching the livestream on various devices were increasingly shocked.
They had been just as shocked when the program first aired, but at that time, they were amazed by Bai Fu’s ability to nearly annihilate the Calamity Corps. As for whether she could actually catch the hiding Bloodthorn—most people thought that was nearly impossible.
This was clear from the poll opened by Atomic News—roughly 91% of viewers believed Bloodthorn would escape.
But after one day, that number had dropped to 48%—less than half.
The reason was simple. Though Bai Fu’s dispatched players hadn’t found Bloodthorn yet, they had uncovered over a dozen wanted criminals in hiding—including three moderately notorious star-level fugitives, with total bounties exceeding three hundred thousand credits.
In fact, even putting aside the viewers, Bai Fu herself thought it was absurd.
She might have discovered a new income stream.
Sending players to capture interstellar fugitives—now that had potential!
“What the hell is wrong with these undead?”
In the slums of a major city on Homeworld’s east coast, a heavily injured Bloodthorn kept running.
Just minutes ago, he had seen a group of undead on the street capture someone—a wanted criminal, perfectly disguised, yet somehow instantly recognized.
That criminal had tried to resist, but those undead pulled out a prayer card and summoned a phantom Bai Fu, who knocked the criminal unconscious with a single punch.
Bloodthorn was extremely grateful he had been standing far enough away. Otherwise, he believed he would have been recognized too.
But that sense of relief didn’t last long.
He had escaped this time—but what about next time?
Terror enveloped Bloodthorn.
Even when he had faced a Domination-level enemy before, he had never felt this desperate.
Now, just like Hampton, he had no other choice. All he could do was lower his head and keep running.
He ran through muddy streets, he ran through filthy alleys, he ran past foul-smelling ditches… and finally, he ran into the flow of time, where he overlapped with his younger self.
That fleeing figure—this was his lost youth.
He regretted the past.
“Bloodthorn, you have nowhere left to run.”
A cold, crisp voice suddenly rang out, pulling Bloodthorn back from his memories.
He stood dazedly. Not far from him, Bai Fu led a group of Undying Ones and blocked his path.
That small white figure, who seemed so petite compared to him, now radiated a heavy and fearsome presence, like a towering mountain.
“Do you have any last words? Like, who hired you to ambush me? I’ll make sure to send him to meet you soon, so you won’t be alone on the road to death.”
Bloodthorn shook his head.
If Hampton hadn’t given him the Rose Blossom Potion formula, he definitely would have ratted him out by now. But under the current circumstances, he wouldn’t do that.
“Then there’s no helping it.”
Bai Fu didn’t rush to kill Bloodthorn right away. Instead, she locked him up first. She still needed to analyze Bloodthorn’s esper power using the Esper Evolution Tree Atlas.
During the analysis, she even attempted to use the Lock of the Mind to control Bloodthorn.
Unfortunately, Bloodthorn’s level was too high, and the grade of the Lock of the Mind was too low to have any effect on him.
So, after finishing the analysis, Bai Fu decisively used the Dark Force Field to twist Bloodthorn into a pretzel, killing him so thoroughly that he couldn’t be more dead.
【You have killed…】
【You have completed the faction extermination quest [Legion’s Fall]】
Two notifications rang out in succession.
Bai Fu checked the quest rewards. Including the kill bonus, she earned 380 million XP this time. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the XP she squeezed out of Players, but another part of the reward made her eyes light up.
It was a psionic construct blueprint called 【Legion Reliquary】.
The Legion Reliquary’s function was to bundle a batch of summoning-type Prayer Cards into a single 【Legion】. After bundling, there was no longer any need to toss Prayer Cards out one by one to summon the legion—it could be summoned directly with the 【Legion】.
Not only that, the bundled 【Legion】 also received a certain stat bonus compared to the original.
At Lv1, the Legion Reliquary offered a 5% bonus. At Lv10, it was 20%.
That bonus was quite substantial, so upon unlocking the Legion Reliquary, Bai Fu immediately purchased a bunch of Psionic Crystals and maxed out the level of this newly acquired psionic construct.
“It’s been almost a year since I unlocked the fourth psionic construct slot. Finally got something useful.”
Bai Fu was in a great mood.
With the 【Legion】, the combat strength of her summoned psionic legion had skyrocketed—it should now be comparable to an average weak Calamity.
The only issue was that her legion still lacked a core commander. If she had to divide her attention to command it herself, it would negatively affect her own combat ability.
“I’ll figure it out later.”
As Bai Fu was deep in thought, Yulia suddenly came to find her.
“We found something good on Bloodthorn’s flagship.”
“What is it?”
“The formula for the Rose Blossom Potion. Next to it, there were also over a dozen already-prepared doses.”
Yulia explained the effects of the Rose Blossom Potion.
Bai Fu quickly summoned Scarlet Leaf, Cecia, and the others over.
Drink up, everyone! Drink freely!
With Bai Fu guiding them on the side, everyone was able to maximize the potion’s effects.
【You used a Rose Blossom Potion. Under the potion’s effects, the potential hidden within your body is being slowly awakened…】
A dozen minutes later, the loading bar completed. The numbing, biting pain from the tiny bugs crawling out from deep inside the body vanished.
【Potential Awakening Complete. You have gained Stat Bonuses—
Strength +71, Agility +62, Constitution +67, Intelligence +61, Spirit +77, Inspiration +231】
After reading the game prompt, Bai Fu was stunned.
“My body had this many untapped areas?”
In one go, she gained 569 stat points, but Bai Fu still didn’t think this was her limit.
She quickly checked her own stats. With the bonuses from her title and Calamity Crown, her base stats had become—
【Strength 775, Agility 960, Constitution 1203, Intelligence 790, Spirit 1030, Inspiration 3411】
“I’m terrifyingly strong now!”
At the thought of how powerful she had become, Bai Fu’s resentment toward Bloodthorn completely vanished, replaced by pure gratitude.
She hoped to meet a few more goldmine-types like Bloodthorn in the future—if that happened, she could push her base Inspiration past 5000 even before reaching level 150.
Aside from Bai Fu, the strength of Yulia and the others had also increased significantly.
Yulia finally broke through the barrier and entered S+ rank. Alongside her advancement, her talent effects also received a major boost—her psionic recovery speed increased, the stat bonuses from Sanctified Link became +50, and even the possessed skill True Spirit Avatar, similar to Magic Cat, received a comprehensive upgrade.
Scarlet Leaf and Cecia also gained enhancements. Cecia’s upgrade was more substantial since she had already been on a path of sanctifying flesh. Her body had far more untapped areas than even Bai Fu.
“Open mine too.”
That day, feeling she had become much stronger, Cecia snuck over to challenge Bai Fu while Scarlet Leaf was busy talking with Star Covenant Secretary Yin Zhu.
As for the result, naturally, she was utterly defeated—left clutching her stomach and leaning against a wall to escape.
“Andras, I have something good I’d like you to help sell. If we can trade it for psionic knowledge or blueprints, that’d be ideal. If not, just sell it directly.”
Bai Fu sent the Rose Blossom Potion formula to Andras. He readily agreed and immediately sent someone to contact buyers.
Andras’s movements didn’t go unnoticed by Hampton for long.
Worried that Bloodthorn might reveal his name, Hampton had been closely monitoring both Bai Fu and Andras.
When he saw Andras taking action, there was no way he could stay calm.
“What exactly is Andras doing? Don’t tell me he already knows Bloodthorn was acting on my orders and is contacting others to take action against me?”
Hampton hesitated, considering whether he should flee on a spaceship.
Just as he was wavering, his trusted subordinate—who he had sent out to gather intel—finally brought back some news.
Good news, Andras hadn’t contacted the other members of the board—Bloodthorn most likely hadn’t exposed him before dying.
Bad news, Andras was helping Bai Fu sell something, and that something was the formula for the Rose Blossom Potion.
“What the fuck...”
The Rose Blossom Potion—it was worth over a hundred million. It was the thing he had reluctantly given to Bloodthorn, and now it had ended up in Bai Fu’s hands.
Aiding the enemy, aiding the enemy, aiding the enemy...
Pff!
The elderly Hampton coughed up a mouthful of blood and passed out on the spot.
“Mr. Hampton!”
The trusted subordinate who had gathered the intel immediately rushed to support him.
News of Hampton coughing up blood and fainting spread rapidly within the Origin Consortium.
Even Andras, who had been secretly hoping Hampton would drop dead, was momentarily stunned.
Even if you were connected to Bloodthorn, and even if Bloodthorn got blown apart by Bai Fu, was that really enough to drive you into such a frenzy? It’s not like Bloodthorn revealed anything specific.
“Was Hampton always this incapable of keeping his composure?”
Andras’s younger brother shook his head.
Maybe that’s just what getting old does to a person.
“I’ll bring a fruit basket and go pay him a visit.”
“Make sure to buy quality fruit, don’t be cheap about it.”
“Don’t worry, bro. I might cut corners elsewhere, but never on this.”
…
At the very moment Bai Fu intercepted Bloodthorn, Atomic News achieved its highest ratings since its founding.
Caught.
Bai Fu had actually caught Bloodthorn!
In an instant, Bai Fu became the hottest topic of discussion across the networks of the Edge Worlds.
If there were a vote for Edge Worlds Person of the Year right now, Bai Fu would undoubtedly be on the list.
“Looks like there’s no need for me to help them anymore.”
Yin Zhu first contacted Scarlet Leaf to get the full story, then relayed the situation to the Oathmaster.
“Newcomers these days are getting more and more incredible,” Oathmaster couldn’t help scratching her head.
Back when she had first entered the Star Sea, she too had been radiant and dazzling—but compared to Bai Fu, she now felt inadequate.
“Yin Zhu, take some money from my little treasury and buy a copy of Psionic Amplification Theory for Bai Fu. The reason: to thank her for taking care of Scarlet Leaf these past few days.”
“Yes, Lady Simoon.”
While Yin Zhu was out buying Psionic Amplification Theory, Bai Fu was already piloting her spaceship on the return journey. She was eager to mass-produce more Rose Blossom Potions for Anya and the others.
As her spaceship arrived at the Initial Gate Galaxy Cluster, she suddenly received several invitations.
“Nilis, candidate for leader of the Taim Civilization. Gustav, general of the Taim Civilization. The Free Star System Alliance, mortal enemy of the Taim Civilization. The Glorious Forces, the Taim Civilization’s internal rebel faction.”
Four invitations, four different ways to enter the main storyline of the Taim Civilization. It also meant Bai Fu had officially become a hot commodity in the Edge Worlds.
Bai Fu didn’t rush to make a decision. She intended to investigate thoroughly first.