Chapter 248: Transcendent End, the Highly Watched Bai Fu
The large-scale defection of Players had a devastating impact on Flemming’s forces.
The detour to attack Lockheed’s rear army ended in complete annihilation—not a single spaceship escaped. The front and middle rear fleets suffered less damage, but the morale, which had been painstakingly restored earlier, once again plummeted to rock bottom, and this time, it looked like there was no chance of recovery.
Right before their eyes, Bai Fu had flown back and launched another attack.
Flemming quickly contacted headquarters. He wasn’t trying to request reinforcements—by this point, it was already too late for that. He simply wanted to report what had happened to General Lister, so that others wouldn’t fall victim to the same trap.
“General Lister, something terrible has happened! Bai Fu—she really has completely sided with Nilis. We were ambushed by her near Lockheed, she… she’s practically a monster, we—”
Bzzzzzzzt.
As Flemming shouted, an ear-piercing electric current suddenly came through the communicator.
Not good—signal blocking!
He was about to order the spaceship’s Mechanic to respond when the ship suddenly shook violently. Even he almost stumbled and fell.
“What’s going on?”
Flemming turned his head and saw a massive gash appear in the ship’s Shield.
It was over.
There was no time left—if they didn’t respond immediately, Bai Fu would break in at any moment.
Flemming’s face darkened.
What he had just said should be enough to make General Lister more cautious of Bai Fu. But simply being cautious was useless if they didn’t realize they also had to guard against the Undying Ones.
“I can only hope General Lister and the others figure it out quickly, otherwise the losses in the coming battles will be catastrophic.”
In small-scale skirmishes like this, the damage caused by the Undying Ones’ betrayal could still be recovered. But in decisive battles that determined the fate of a civilization, encountering such a situation could—if luck ran out—directly cause defeat.
“Heaven bless the Taim Civilization!”
Gritting his teeth, Flemming charged out of the spaceship.
Escape was impossible now—the only thing left was to do as much damage to Bai Fu as possible.
Clearly, Flemming had overestimated his own strength, and underestimated Bai Fu’s.
Bai Fu’s destructive power wasn’t particularly outstanding among Calamity-class combatants—after all, she was only a Psionic Mentor—but when it came to hitting people, her damage output was top-tier.
Eye of Lament applied Lament debuff!
Dark-attribute Psionics reduced Stats and Resistance!
Apocalypse-attribute Psionics increased damage taken!
Darkness Unbound and Dark Mystery restricted senses!
Dark Vortex and Dark Force Field restricted movement!
A seamless chain of skills landed, and Flemming felt as if he had fallen into an abyss. He couldn’t even figure out where he was, let alone sense Bai Fu’s position—he had completely become a living target.
Until—
“Get out of the way, Commander Flemming!”
“What the hell is Flemming doing, does he have a death wish?”
“What happened?”
An Annihilation Torrent stacked with True Punishment effects struck Flemming directly. His intact Calamity-class body disintegrated into ashes at a speed visible to the naked eye.
As his consciousness was about to be swallowed by darkness, two thoughts flashed through Flemming’s mind.
The first—
“It really hasn’t even been half an hour.”
Damn it—if there’s a next life, he would never again set up a death flag!
The second—
“Why does Bai Fu, who’s nicknamed ‘Saint,’ have so many underhanded moves?”
There was no time to ponder the question, nor share it with anyone else.
【You have killed Flemming】
The game notification sounded.
With Commander Flemming dead, the rest were much easier to handle.
Bai Fu didn’t even need to take action herself—Hei Fu, Cersia, Steel Curtain, and Maren led the battleships to encircle the remaining enemies and ships. Those who refused to surrender were killed; those who surrendered were tied up and sent to Nilis for processing.
“We won! Haha, we won!”
Lockheed’s defenders cheered.
Bai Fu calmly used Prayer Card Recycling to recall the scattered Legion troops.
Under the reverent gazes of Steel Curtain and Maren, she boarded the tattered Fortress Ship and reported the results to Nilis.
“Well done!”
Nilis was overjoyed.
The enemy had deployed a Fortress Ship, yet they were still utterly defeated by Bai Fu—this was proof of her immense strength.
After hearing the detailed account of the battle, Nilis not only felt joy, but also fear in hindsight.
Thankfully, he had contacted Bai Fu immediately, and Bai Fu was an upholder of justice. Otherwise, if she had been in the opposing camp, he would be losing sleep at night.
With a grand wave of his hand, Nilis paid Bai Fu’s team their contracted reward on the spot.
The moment the transfer came through, Bai Fu also heard the Mission Completion Prompt.
Because she had crushed Flemming so swiftly and decisively, she received the highest-tier mission reward: 300 million XP and 500 Contribution Points.
Bai Fu nodded in satisfaction.
As expected of a major version main storyline mission—just a few more like this, and the XP gains would be like harvesting Player leeks.
“Everyone, take a good rest for now. After this round of raids, there will be a war of words, and after that, the real major conflict will begin—by then, I’ll still need to rely on your strength!”
“Sounds good, sounds good.”
Bai Fu smiled and nodded.
After ending the conversation with Nilis, she noticed that Steel Curtain and Maren’s gazes had completely changed—from initial wariness to admiration, and even gradually to something approaching fawning loyalty.
“……”
Where’s your dignity? You’re Calamity-class combatants—where’s your dignity?
Steel Curtain and Maren just chuckled.
Can dignity be eaten?
They didn’t know.
All they knew was that following Bai Fu meant eating the finest delicacies.
After destroying Flemming’s fleet, they thought their contributions wouldn’t get them much of a bonus.
But to their surprise, Nilis, in his good mood, not only paid early, but also—out of respect for Bai Fu—raised their pay to the maximum.
Nice!
If they could go on every mission with Bai Fu, that would be double nice!
“If we ever can’t keep going in the mercenary business, we might as well consider joining Tide of the Dark Moon and working for Bai Fu. With her character, there’s no fear of being exploited.”
The two plotted in their hearts.
After leaving the shattered Fortress Ship, Bai Fu went to meet the Players who had just defected.
She had only intended to use Excavation-Princess to showcase the new benefits of joining the Garden of Silence—yet unexpectedly, it had provoked Flemming’s Players into seizing ships and defecting on the spot.
This had both pros and cons.
The advantage was that with these Players as examples, more Players from other factions—who previously had no intention of siding with her—would come over. Some would even willingly act as spies like Tai Er Zhenren, feeding her intel. With their help, her progress in the Taim Civilization main storyline would be much smoother.
The drawback was that some of the Players who came over would undoubtedly be spies from other factions. She’d need time to determine whether the intel they brought was genuine. Furthermore, once news of Lockheed spread, other factions—upon learning she could turn Players mid-battle—would greatly increase their wariness, perhaps even adopting special countermeasures.
Bai Fu believed that in the long term, the benefits far outweighed the drawbacks.
The value of Players was simply too high.
Although in the short term she’d face more targeted suppression, as the version progressed and Players grew stronger, the Players she had recruited through this incident could bring her tenfold, even a hundredfold, returns in the future.
For example, in version 2.0, the level cap for Players was 50. By version 2.1, whether the cap increased by 5 or 10 levels, Players could officially become A-rank Psionicists.
This was an A-rank Psionicist, the backbone of the Star Sea!
If she could bring in hundreds of thousands of Players in the coming period, then by the next version she would have hundreds of thousands more A-rank Psionicists under her. With so many A-rank Psionicists attacking together, even S-rank and S+ rank would be flattened into meat paste—only Calamity-class could still act arrogant.
“I need to find an opportunity to deliberately say something in front of the media that sounds righteous but is actually green-tea in nature, to sow discord between NPCs and Players of other factions. Most Players are proud by nature—if they get angry enough, they’ll come to me.”
Hee-hee.
The only headache for Bai Fu now was the possibility that this might cause people on the Head of State’s side to suspect the spy she had just planted there not long ago.
But the problem wasn’t that big. She had already figured out most of the Head of State’s plan, so even without the spy, the overall situation wouldn’t be affected.
“Hello everyone!”
“Hello, Fu-fu!”
…
While Bai Fu was greeting the new Players, on Lister’s side, an urgent investigation into Flemming’s situation was underway.
Flemming had just shouted “Bai Fu is a monster” before losing contact, which made Lister’s faction deeply uneasy.
Bai Fu is a monster—did that mean she was literally a “monster,” or just that she was monstrously strong?
A few hours later, the news finally spread.
Flemming’s fleet—completely annihilated!
They saw the news in a broadcast.
When facing the media, Nilis fiercely condemned Lister.
Half an hour later, the Head of State came forward, angrily accusing Lister and others of seriously undermining the nation’s traditions and committing the crime of division.
Another half an hour later, Gustav, La Nie, and factions large and small all came forward, kicking Lister while he was down, taking a high-and-mighty stance to condemn the first faction that couldn’t sit still.
And that wasn’t even the most infuriating part.
The Glorious Forces suddenly jumped out, with their Spokesperson announcing they welcomed General Lister to “abandon the dark for the light” and join them in fighting to liberate the civilizations enslaved by the Taim Civilization.
“Once the great liberation cause is successful, we are willing to recommend General Lister as the first President.”
Smack!
Even though he had expected criticism for his actions, Lister was still so furious that his head felt like it was smoking.
He had even given Flemming a Fortress Ship—so how could they lose so badly?
Now it was all over—he had lost both face and substance.
Of course, Lister wasn’t going to just take it. He immediately struck back, saying he had evidence of Nilis and La Nie manipulating the election, and oh—evidence of Nilis colluding with Titan Industries as well.
The reason he launched the raid on Nilis, and especially on Lockheed, was to cut off Nilis’ channel to Arctic Dynamics, and by extension, to Titan Industries.
“The Taim Civilization belongs to the people of the Taim Civilization and must never be handed to outsiders! Such behavior—willingly colluding with other civilizations just to become Head of State—is especially detestable. I will not recognize the election results! All who still love the Taim Civilization—join me and fight for the future of our civilization!”
Lister unleashed his full firepower.
With his statement, the factions of the Taim Civilization completely tore off their masks.
The election could no longer continue.
The Head of State urgently declared the nation in a state of war—achieving his goal of clinging to his position.
But Lister and the others did not accept this.
“You useless fool—what are you even doing here?”
They all accused the Head of State of colluding with Nilis and being unfit to remain in power.
The war of words surged like a tide.
Bai Fu, watching the spectacle from Lockheed, was nearly full from the show.
It was the first time she learned there were so many factions within the Taim Civilization.
If her strength had grown slowly, back when she was dealing with the major powers on Origin Star, she probably wouldn’t have avoided such messy infighting either.
“Fists… are a good thing.”
After days of verbal warfare, it finally turned into open conflict.
On the surface, Nilis and Gustav were the biggest rivals, but this time they tacitly agreed not to target each other, instead focusing on Lister.
Lister might not have seemed very smart, but he had control over a large number of troops. A man like that was a huge threat—he had to be eliminated quickly, or else, if he suddenly got hot-headed and launched a full-force attack to settle everything, everyone would lose a chunk of flesh.
Bai Fu’s relationship with Nilis was that of a hired contractor, so she didn’t participate in the direct war. Instead, she moved between Nilis’ bases and fortresses, guarding trade routes and occasionally carrying out raids.
This time she really farmed to her heart’s content—and so did all the Players who went on campaigns with her.
Raking in “XP” daily!
After four consecutive missions, and with her earlier reserves, Bai Fu now had over 2 billion XP saved up.
She planned to save up more, and if she didn’t get any good skills, she would dump it all into leveling up—pushing straight to level 150 to trigger the Domination-class transfer quest.
The Players, on their end, had all become rich ladies and young masters.
Even Players who slacked off had three or four million XP after five deployments, while grind-lords like Starfish-bro and Sword Qi Soaring had at least ten million.
However, while the Players were rich, Bai Fu found it no easier to “harvest” them than before.
This was because the higher the level, the more places there were to spend XP.
Fortunately, Bai Fu now had a huge number of Players under her, so regular harvesting still met her daily leveling needs.
Speaking of the number of Players—after five consecutive missions, all factions finally realized something was off.
Why was it that wherever Bai Fu went, there would be an Undying Ones rebellion?
That didn’t make sense.
Was it because Bai Fu had a special charm that could incite them to rebel, or were those Undying Ones actually Bai Fu’s spies?
The factions had originally planned to send Players into battle on a large scale, but after noticing this anomaly, they put that plan on hold.
No one wanted their own Undying Ones suddenly seduced away by Bai Fu in the middle of an intense battle, causing the war to turn against them.
…
Blacklight Governor’s District.
La Nie was in his room secretly contacting someone.
So far in the civil war, La Nie’s participation hadn’t been high. Since he had only recently become a governor, the number of loyal troops under him was far fewer than other factions.
In such circumstances, even if he wanted to stir trouble, it would be hard to cause much of a stir.
But to underestimate him because of this would be a mistake.
Right now, the person he was contacting was Yuan Yi, one of the three Transcendents of the Edge Worlds and administrator of the Arcane Library!
As always, Yuan Yi wore a voluminous magical robe, holding a crooked black wooden staff in his hand. He looked like an old gentleman, but no one would underestimate him because of his appearance.
Among the three Transcendents of the Edge Worlds, Yuan Yi was the oldest, the strongest, and the most mysterious.
Rufas and the Oathmaster had both sparred with him before—and both lost.
“I’ve confirmed it—those Undying Ones originally had nothing to do with Bai Fu. They were not her spies, and their abilities did not come from her. They were simply captivated by Bai Fu’s charm, and so defected to her on the battlefield.”
Yuan Yi’s voice was deep, carrying an innate sense of authority.
“That’s a relief.” La Nie nodded, then shook his head. “Charm—what a mysterious thing. Why does she attract the Undying Ones so much? Is it just because she’s good-looking?”
Yuan Yi gave no further explanation.
He wasn’t interested in the Undying Ones—what truly interested him was Bai Fu herself.
“If she hasn’t been hiding her strength before now, then her potential is the highest I’ve heard of lately. In just four and a half years, she’s advanced from A-rank to upper Calamity. If her development goes smoothly, she might be qualified to stand as my equal. For someone like her to remain with the Oathmaster, who can’t teach her anything, is a waste.”
“?!”
La Nie was shocked.
“Teacher…”
His voice trembled slightly. “To stand as your equal”—this was the highest praise he had ever heard from Yuan Yi’s mouth, aside from comments about long-established veterans.
But… was Bai Fu really worth such high regard from his teacher?
When facing the Oathmaster, Yuan Yi’s evaluation had only been “not bad.”
Yuan Yi said calmly, “I’m going to convene a peace conference, to bring together all factions of the Taim Civilization for talks.”
Peace?
Before a winner was decided, the Taim Civilization clearly couldn’t achieve real peace—especially with the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations fanning the flames behind the scenes.
La Nie knew that if even he understood this, there was no way his teacher didn’t.
So this so-called peace conference must be a pretext.
But what was his teacher’s real goal?
La Nie couldn’t figure it out for now—and he didn’t dare ask directly. His teacher was not as kind as he appeared.
…
Two days later.
While resting near Lockheed, Bai Fu suddenly received an invitation card.
“Peace Summit.”
“Inviter: Yuan Yi, Administrator of the Arcane Library.”
“Huh?”