Chapter 252: Unlocking the Hidden Main Storyline, the Advantage of a Plot Prophet
When Yuan Yi heard the news that Bai Fu had been ambushed but had fought one against ten and beaten the ambushers into a panicked retreat, he appeared completely calm.
This was Bai Fu, someone he had high hopes for—such a battle record wasn’t the least bit surprising to him.
But after he learned the specific details of the battle, he could no longer remain calm.
“That is…”
Yuan Yi stared fixedly at the video, in which Ying Fu was still calmly commanding the Psionic Legion.
Others might not notice anything unusual about Ying Fu. At first glance, they might even think she was Bai Fu’s flat-chested younger sister. But as the one who had given Bai Fu Path of the Apostle, how could he not see the problem?
“Bestowing a True Name—this is definitely a psionic lifeform born after receiving a True Name!”
Crash!
Overcome with emotion, Yuan Yi’s hand swept across the table without thinking, knocking everything on it to the ground.
The sudden noise startled La Nie, who was speaking to him through the communicator. In all the years since becoming his student, this was the first time he had seen his teacher so flustered.
“Teacher, what happened?” La Nie asked anxiously.
“A Seeker—a Seeker, and most likely not an ordinary Seeker!”
Yuan Yi paced back and forth in the room, abnormally excited.
He had given Bai Fu Path of the Apostle partly as an investment to gain her favor, and partly to test whether Bai Fu was a Seeker.
A Seeker, put simply, referred to those who had been the earliest to reach the Transcendent realm in the Psionic Exploration Journey.
They were the pioneers of the journey, paving new roads for intelligent life to pursue eternity—hence the name “Seekers.”
Because the era was so long ago, many Seekers had already perished under the erosion of time. But not all had died. In order to survive and continue their pursuit of eternity, quite a few Seekers resorted to unorthodox methods.
Some Seekers transformed themselves into mechanical or digital lifeforms, hoping to achieve immortality by ascending into mechanical gods.
Some altered their bodies on the genetic level—either fusing with the genes of other long-lived species or outright changing their species to achieve a different kind of “evolution.”
This “evolution” was cross-species, discontinuous, and completely different from the life sublimation, racial evolution that came with advancing strength. The risks were enormous—some became monsters, others grew far stronger.
Some Seekers acted from the spiritual level, stripping their minds from their flesh and transferring them into another body with exceptional talent, starting cultivation from scratch.
Because their willpower remained as strong as ever, these Seekers advanced much faster the second time around, reaching the peak in far less time than usual—after which they could continue their pursuit of eternity.
This too carried risks—they could lose their memories or inevitably suffer spiritual damage. Too much damage would be irreparable. Still, this method was far less risky than genetic ascension.
From the start, Yuan Yi had suspected Bai Fu was the third type of Seeker, because her advancement speed was far too fast—even faster than the martial-maniac Oathmaster. But he had no proof.
Now, Ying Fu was strong evidence that Bai Fu was indeed a Seeker!
Path of the Apostle was Domination-level advancement knowledge. For an ordinary Calamity-class to master it, it would take twenty to thirty days, sometimes even months.
But Bai Fu? In just over ten days, not only had she mastered Path of the Apostle, she had also bestowed a True Name to create a psionic lifeform. If she wasn’t a Seeker, what else could she be?
Of course, it was possible that Bai Fu had already mastered the knowledge before receiving Path of the Apostle from him. But that would only further suggest she was likely a Seeker.
After all, it had been barely two years since Bai Fu advanced to Calamity-class. In those two years, she had to improve her strength, master Domination-level knowledge, and constantly take on commission missions. Even a master of time management couldn’t do it better than her!
“Should I go meet her now?”
“No… that would be too direct and might make her wary.”
“Besides, there’s a good chance she’s currently in an amnesiac state. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have needed to go around collecting advancement knowledge earlier.”
“Better to be cautious—not rush over yet. But I can take advantage of her amnesia to sell her a few more favors. That way, when she recovers her memories, the chances of her agreeing to help me will be much higher.”
Yuan Yi’s mind raced, quickly devising all sorts of “benefiting Fu” plans.
His desire to befriend a Seeker was mainly to learn the methods Seekers used to extend their lives.
He was too old—old enough to feel genuine fear of death.
After collecting so much knowledge over his life, if he were to die without having fully absorbed it, he would never rest in peace.
While Yuan Yi was still busy planning ways to help Bai Fu, she, completely unaware of this, was still pursuing Frank and the others.
Compared to earlier, however, her offensive had weakened considerably.
And how could it not?
Without Yulia with her, the flurry of high-percentage-cost skills she had used during that brief period of extreme burst had drained her psionic energy completely.
Now, without the Blessing of the Mind buff and unable to deploy Dark Force Field, she had plenty of Stats but few skills she could actually use—forced to rely on a few low-cost Prayer Cards.
Although she could still maintain a certain degree of combat power, chasing down multiple upper Calamity-class opponents at once was, in theory, impossible.
The only reason she could do it now was because Frank and the others had been terrified—first by her crippling blow to “Calvin,” and then by her one-against-five performance, barely letting five upper Calamity-class enemies defend themselves.
Who would dare test whether her strength had actually weakened? If it hadn’t, wouldn’t such a test just be sending oneself to death?
Bai Fu was perfectly happy with this situation.
To be honest, at this point she had no intention of killing Frank and the others outright.
She wanted to use them as bait to lure out the true mastermind behind the scenes.
If she killed them all here and exposed Frank’s true identity, their backer would know she had seen through the truth and would be on high alert—making it far harder for her to root them out later.
With that in mind, during the next stage of the chase, she deliberately allowed the upper Calamity-class enemies she was pursuing to scatter, and she intentionally refrained from chasing Frank—turning instead to pursue others.
The chase lasted over ten minutes.
Bai Fu called Cersia and the others to act together, successfully capturing three upper Calamity-class enemies. The remaining two—including Frank—escaped with the gravely wounded “Calvin” using teleportation tools to reach a spaceship docked at a distance.
As soon as they boarded, they immediately activated the ship’s warp engine.
Just as the engine was about to start, Bai Fu arrived, “furiously” attacking the ship.
Fortunately, the ship entered warp mode at the moment the attack landed.
Shake—shake—wobble—
The ship jolted violently several times in warp, but eventually stabilized.
According to the Ship AI, the ship’s rear armor had sustained some damage, but its performance wouldn’t be affected in the short term.
“At least we survived.”
Frank braced himself against the wall, his heart pounding as if it would leap out of his throat.
He glanced at the empty spaceship, then at “Calvin” lying on the floor gasping for breath, and felt only desolation.
They had come with ten people, full of confidence, but were returning with only two and a half.
What kind of monster was Bai Fu, to be so overwhelmingly strong?
Sigh.
Forget it—this wasn’t something he needed to think about anymore.
Bai Fu’s strength was clearly at the very peak of Calamity-class. To take her down, they would either need to send more than a dozen upper Calamity-class, or a Domination-level.
Whatever the higher-ups did next was no longer his concern.
He only hoped that in the coming operations they could finish off Bai Fu, so he wouldn’t have to keep having nightmares.
He hadn’t forgotten the time he had shown off in front of Bai Fu at the Secret Tower headquarters. If she learned he had just attacked her again, she’d probably tear him apart.
Sleep—just sleep. Before the warp jump ended, he’d take a nap and pray she wouldn’t appear in his dreams.
Frank tossed “Calvin” into the medical pod, then found a comfortable spot to lie down.
…
“Good. Now let’s see where they’ll go next.”
Bai Fu smiled as she looked at the red dot marked on the in-game map.
That final attack she’d unleashed hadn’t been just to vent her anger—she had deliberately slipped in a little gift—
An upgraded Eye of the Dark Moon!
With the Eye of the Dark Moon acting as a mobile surveillance device, she could track Frank no matter where he went.
Bai Fu closed the map and began tallying up the gains from this unexpected mission.
After driving off Frank and the others, the 【Secret Meeting】 mission officially settled. She earned a total of 205 million XP, and in addition, she unlocked a new passive skill—【Fighting Against the Many】.
【Fighting Against the Many】: When the number of enemies you face (same rank only) exceeds your own, you will unleash your potential, receiving the blessing of the Ethereal Realm, temporarily increasing all Stats by 5%–15%. The boost reaches its maximum when the number of enemies (same rank only) is ten times yours, lasting for 10 minutes.
“?”
Bai Fu’s eyes went wide after reading the skill description.
Good grief. She’d known this skill wouldn’t be ordinary, but the actual effect still shocked her.
Under the right conditions, this passive was almost on par with 【Blessing of the Mind】. The key difference was that it triggered automatically, consumed no Psionic Power, and lasted over three times longer than Blessing of the Mind.
If she had had this passive earlier, when she’d unleashed the Dark Burn Triple Combo on that fake Calvin, she could’ve turned him into a corpse on the spot.
“Nice delivery!”
Bai Fu couldn’t help but give a thumbs-up to fake Calvin and Frank.
If they hadn’t suddenly caused trouble, she wouldn’t have gotten such a powerful skill.
“Next, I need to think of ways to further improve my tankiness—only then can I fully capitalize on the effect of this Fighting Against the Many passive.”
After settling the mission, Bai Fu received a new quest notification.
【You have triggered the hidden main storyline quest［The Return of the Exiles］】
【Quest Description: Exiles of the past have now returned to the civilized world. They hide in the shadows, and no one knows their true purpose. They possess power beyond imagination. Unfortunately, you have now drawn their attention.】
【Quest Objectives:
Branch 1. Offer the true True Spirit Pillar to the Exiles. Reward – Void Genome;
Branch 2. Locate any stronghold of the Exiles in the Edge Worlds. Reward – Key of Evolution;】
【Note: Completing either branch will advance the main storyline and trigger the next stage of the quest.】
“A main storyline quest?”
Bai Fu was surprised.
It seemed these attackers’ origins were far greater than she had imagined.
Branch 1 was something she would absolutely never do. As for Branch 2—since she had already planted an Eye of the Dark Moon on Frank’s ship, if all went well, she had a good chance of finding this so-called Exile stronghold.
Key of Evolution?
Although it wasn’t explicitly stated, it seemed to be an item that could evolve one’s race.
This was exactly what Bai Fu urgently needed.
Among the Void race, the Prophet was a relatively basic type. Even so, its innate talents were already highly useful. If she could evolve into a more advanced Void lifeform, her power would soar again.
“Never thought Frank would one day become my number-one supporter.”
Bai Fu sighed in amazement.
Perhaps this was what people meant by the impermanence of life—like a sausage wrapped inside another sausage.
She closed the quest panel and went to find Anya and the others.
After taking down so many Calamity-class opponents, it was time for Anya to use the Needle of Sin and Punishment to probe their minds for any useful intel.
A few minutes later—
Anya pointed at Ying Fu in surprise. “Boss, where did you find this one?”
Her guard was completely up.
After Cersia, was there yet another seductress?
Ying Fu bowed respectfully to Anya. “Hello, Miss Anya, I am the Psionic Attendant of Elder Sister.”
Elder Sister? Psionic Attendant?
Not only Anya, but everyone else nearby was baffled.
It wasn’t until Bai Fu explained that they understood—this was a psionic lifeform Bai Fu had created herself. No wonder she looked so much like Bai Fu.
Bai Fu urged, “Let’s get to the main task. These people’s identities are unusual—see if you can dig anything up.”
Anya got to work immediately.
With her prior experience, reading memory fragments was now much easier.
After going through all the corpses, Bai Fu could only shake her head helplessly.
This so-called Exile organization was truly cautious. From the recovered memories, among the ten participants in this mission, only the leader, Fire Rat (the fake Calvin), knew the exact location of their stronghold. The others were scattered across the Edge Worlds and only gathered when a mission was assigned.
Bai Fu felt relieved—good thing she had deliberately spared Fire Rat and Frank.
Although she hadn’t found the Exile stronghold, she had still gathered some useful intel.
For example, the true name of the Exile organization was the Ten Saints Council.
For example, in recent times the Ten Saints Council had attacked many people. They seemed both to be trying to stir up trouble in the Edge Worlds, and to be seeking something from those they attacked. As for exactly what, none of the grunts knew.
“A villain force with Transcendent-level power… that’s beyond what I can handle. Once I find their stronghold, I’ll just report it to the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations and let them deal with it.”
The main storyline reward was tempting, but she still had to be able to obtain it.
Rather than bashing her head against them herself, Bai Fu would much prefer to trade this intel for something she could use in her current stage.
For example—
Domination-level psionic advancement knowledge!
She just didn’t know if intel on the Ten Saints Council would be enough to exchange for that.
“Let’s go. We’re heading back to the Lockheed Observatory.”
That night—
Bai Fu received contact from a bunch of people, including Nilis, Andras, Manu, and so on.
Most of them were asking if she was injured, but the message from the Star Pact was a little different.
The one who contacted her from the Star Pact wasn’t Yin Zhu, but the Oathmaster. The Oathmaster didn’t ask if she was hurt—instead, he sent her a lavish gift to thank her for sending Players over.
“Virtual Heart!”
Whoa!
Seeing what the Oathmaster had sent over the network, Bai Fu’s breath caught for a moment.
Having used this during her battle with the Secret Tower, she knew just how powerful it was.
Now she had more than 5 million Players under her, but only a little over 200 ships—far from enough. Buying ships herself was too expensive, so she could only seize enemy ships during battles. With the Virtual Heart, her raiding efficiency would skyrocket.
Right, she could even have Xia Shi make a batch of youth versions of the Virtual Heart to give to Players. Then the Silent Court could transform into the Robbery Court.
Even if the stolen ships varied in performance—and most weren’t great—there was no need to fuss when giving them to Players. As long as they could be used, it was fine. After all, Players could just resurrect if they died.
Bai Fu excitedly thanked the Oathmaster for his gift.
Over the next two or three days, she was free, but others became very busy.
In response to her ambush, Nilis and the Head of State jumped out again to mock Lister—saying that as a general, all he ever did was play dirty tricks, and every time he tried one, he failed. He was a complete failure expert.
Once those two started the mockery, others joined in, fanning the flames. Lister’s reputation, already bad after recent defeats, took another dive. He was now the perfect stepping stone to make Bai Fu’s success look even greater.
“Damn it, that wasn’t me!”
Lister was furious, but in the current situation, no one was going to listen to him.
Stop making excuses!
Bai Fu didn’t join in the war of words—she was here to do missions and reap benefits. She didn’t care about the rest.
While the squabbling continued, there was movement on Frank’s side.
The ship landed on a planet called Bovalya within the Taim Civilization’s territory. After it docked, a group arrived to take away the badly injured Fire Rat. Immediately afterward, Frank received an appointment from a Saint of the Ten Saints Council, naming him acting operations commander while Fire Rat was absent.
“The 【Secret Meeting】 is about to be held. This time, you’ll attend in Fire Rat’s place.”
Frank’s heartbeat quickened—he had landed a chance at promotion and a pay raise.
Bai Fu’s heartbeat quickened too—she might really have a chance to find the exact location of the Ten Saints Council’s stronghold.
“Please don’t let the Eye of the Dark Moon be discovered!”
She silently prayed.
While waiting for results, she suddenly received a new commission from Nilis and the Head of State.
“We’ve received intel that Lister has very likely colluded with the Glorious Forces. They’re planning to assassinate the Head of State—cut off the head in one strike!”
Oh?
Bai Fu’s eyes narrowed.
The Glorious Forces were a hidden piece in the Head of State’s hand. Why was the Head of State suddenly activating this piece?
There was definitely more to this!
Bai Fu nodded without revealing anything.
Given the situation, to prevent any accidents, she decided to use up all the XP she had stored.
Skills could wait—her top priority was to raise her base Stats as much as possible.
If she dumped all that XP into her Apostle Walker class, it should be enough to push her total level in her main class to 150, triggering the Domination awakening quest.