Chapter 256: Racial Evolution, Calamity Among Calamities Bai Fu
The King of the Earth enhancement genome had been personally delivered by Julian.
After the operation to gang up on the Ten Saints Council ended, the Security Bureau gave him special commendation, promoting him to team leader of the operations unit at the Security Bureau’s Second Subdivision—a position ranking among the top ten.
Julian recognized Bai Fu’s value. He personally came to deliver the item in hopes of chatting with her face-to-face and forging a closer relationship.
Bai Fu saw through Julian’s intentions at a glance. She didn’t expose him but instead treated him warmly.
To go against the Head of State, it wasn’t enough to rely solely on her own strength—she needed an insider within the Empire, and Julian was a highly suitable target.
After seeing Julian off, Bai Fu immediately began her path of enhancement.
【Use［King of the Earth Enhancement Genome］?】
【Yes】
The genome was slowly injected into her body. A needle-like pain surged forth, and it felt like she was rolling naked across scorching sand.
When the progress bar finally hit 100%, Bai Fu let out a long sigh of relief and hastily wiped the sweat from her cheeks.
She felt like she was about to turn into a water-being—her whole body was soaked, even more than when doing experiments with Yulia.
But with pain came gain.
【You have completed Racial Evolution. Your race has changed to［Earth Prophet (Bai Fu)］】
【Race successfully changed. You’ve received Stat Bonuses—
Strength +138, Agility +106, Constitution +300, Intelligence +82, Willpower +78, Inspiration +92】
【Exclusive skill［Prophet Mark］evolved to［Prophet Mark＋］】
【You’ve obtained new racial trait bonuses—
You have gained the exclusive skill［Thorn Armor］;
2. You have gained the exclusive talent［King of the Earth］;
3. You have gained the exclusive talent［Impeccable Body］.】
“Damn, a full 300 Constitution—that’s like getting 2 points per level on average! Empire goods really are top-tier!”
Excited, Bai Fu peeled off her combat suit and, tiptoeing, spun a few light circles in front of the mirror.
Although outwardly, her body showed almost no change after the evolution—what was big remained big, and what was perky stayed perky—just doing spins already revealed how much lighter she felt.
Clenching her fists, she could even sense her cells roaring, as if each cell had been fitted with a power core.
“Interesting. If Cersia sees how my body suddenly became this powerful, she’ll probably faint from despair.”
Humming a cheerful tune, Bai Fu began checking the effects of her newly acquired skills and talents.
【Prophet Mark＋】, as the name suggested, was an upgraded version of 【Prophet Mark】. Thanks to her significantly enhanced physique, she could now place three blink marks simultaneously. Whether for combat or escape, it was far more convenient. Yup, also more convenient for time management.
【Thorn Armor】was a damage-reflecting skill, the basic ability of the King of the Earth race, capable of returning 10% of received physical damage to the enemy.
【King of the Earth】was also a basic racial talent, but its effects were anything but basic.
— Max HP +20%, Constitution-to-HP conversion rate +30, HP regen rate +500%, massive boost to stamina, defense, and resistances. Adaptable to extreme environments—freezing cold, scorching heat, high radiation, spatial distortion, etc. Additionally, gain +2 Constitution per level up.
【Impeccable Body】—simply put, granted immunity to True Damage.
“Invincible!”
Familiar with Cersia’s stats, Bai Fu realized with a quick comparison that her base tankiness had now surpassed Cersia’s—though Cersia still had a full set of skills to enhance her durability.
Now, her kill-resistance had multiplied several times over.
“Alright, keep going!”
Bai Fu jumped into the bathtub, soaking while digesting the two Domination-level Advanced Knowledge texts sent by the Rebirth Empire.
After five hours, she finally raised both texts' reading progress to 100%. This was much faster than when she read Path of the Apostle.
Part of it was because these two texts were slightly less valuable than Path of the Apostle; another reason was that her increased knowledge reserve had improved her reading speed.
“I wonder what abilities I’ll unlock this time?”
Bai Fu opened the new game prompt.
Essence of Psionic Resonance brought a series of passive skill upgrades.
From the single-unit passive 【Advanced Psionic Specialization】 to 【Advanced Psionic Precision Control】, and from 【Summon·Legion】 to 【Synergistic Reaction】 in the legion-type passives—all these had evolved.
Their new format was now【Domination-level XXX】, with boosted power as expected.
Bai Fu dumped over 200 million XP to max them all out.
In an instant, her skill effects, Prayer Card effectiveness, card creation efficiency, legion stat bonus ratio, legion control count, and knowledge reading speed all saw massive improvements, while psionic consumption sharply decreased.
Oh, right—with these boosts, her meditation efficiency also skyrocketed. Previously, she needed two years to reach level 1000 in Path of the Apostle. Now, it would only take a year and a half.
Application of Mind Projection, just like the Security Bureau Director had said, granted her psionic hyperspace capabilities.
With it, she could now remotely deploy and retrieve Prayer Cards and legions. Her skill casting range also significantly increased.
This knowledge was absolutely essential for any Psionic Prayer-user pursuing Prayer Card, Summoning, or Mage paths. Without it, even ascending to Domination would still leave her strength incomplete.
Bai Fu then opened her attribute panel.
【HP】：295680/295680
【Psionic Value】：394894/394894
【Qi】：18295/18295
【Stats】：Strength 1004, Agility 1171, Constitution 1752, Intelligence 946, Willpower 1213, Inspiration 4297
“HP doubled. All stats have grown significantly. What a massive harvest.” Bai Fu marveled at the explosive growth on her panel. “If I can get another Domination-level knowledge focused on stats, it’ll be perfect.”
Still, things were already looking excellent.
She hadn’t even reached Domination yet, but this round of upgrades had already multiplied her combat power several times over—truly a calamity among calamities. Once she advanced to Domination, her power would undoubtedly skyrocket even further.
“The gap between Domination and Calamity-class really is massive. I actually thought I could take a hit or two from a Domination… tch. Good thing I didn’t directly provoke the Head of State—he’d have slapped me to death with just a couple of attacks if he got pissed.”
Bai Fu raised her right hand. Deep purple psionic energy swirled constantly around her index finger.
Moving with her will.
Now, psionic energy had fully become part of her body. She could control it however she pleased—change its shape, behavior, function—anything she imagined, she could make it happen.
This was something she hadn’t been capable of before.
In traditional fantasy terms, her current energy stage would be: Calamity-class Pinnacle Full Mastery · Half-Step Domination Realm!
Ah, wait. Maybe not quite full mastery—after all, her base Inspiration hadn’t reached 5000 yet.
“Eh, whatever. I’ll hit it sooner or later.”
Bai Fu urgently called Cersia, requesting a “soft test” of her body’s strength post-enhancement.
“I’m on my way!”
Summoned directly, Cersia instantly dropped what she was doing and whooshed into Bai Fu’s room.
Then—
“Why’d you bring stamina recovery potions? Toss them, toss them! No drinking! This time, we’re doing it real—no extra tricks!”
“Eh, seriously?”
“Enough talk. Get on with it!”
Then—
“Hiss!”
Cersia sucked in a cold breath.
Bai Fu had modified the sparring rules, restricting a bunch of techniques. Under normal conditions, this style of constrained combat was highly favorable for Cersia, and she had prepared to absolutely demolish Bai Fu—armor shattered, people flying, flowers falling, utter defeat, no hope of comeback—before triumphantly declaring victory.
But once the real match started, she realized: Three days without seeing Bai Fu, one must treat her with new eyes.
She had gone all out, yet Bai Fu had taken everything head-on. What was supposed to be a quick win turned into a drawn-out war of attrition.
In the end, she did win. But as she sat in the bathtub cooling off, she felt far from satisfied—instead, she was gripped by a looming sense of crisis.
Bai Fu was improving far too fast. If this continued, it wouldn’t be long before Cersia couldn’t beat her at anything—be it unrestricted combat or highly regulated arena duels.
Unacceptable.
She had to further tap into her own potential.
And the method to do that was simple.
One: Combat.
Two, digest and absorb various enhancement potions.
Three, special training methods.
“Looks like I’ll have to take the initiative—accept more commissions that can help me improve.”
Cersia expressed her intentions to Bai Fu.
“No problem.”
Bai Fu agreed immediately and even allowed Cersia to pick players at will. As long as the players were willing to follow her, she could take as many as she liked.
While reading those two advanced knowledge texts, Bai Fu had already decided on her development direction for the coming year.
First was her own development—nothing more than meditating to increase Path of the Apostle levels, while also maintaining her relationship with Nerys.
Then there was the development of the Silent Court. Its current scale was already considerable, but still far from enough. In the coming year, her focus would be to cultivate the strength of various promising NPCs within the Silent Court, and simultaneously expand its fleet size drastically in preparation for future conflict with the Glorious Forces.
With support from Andras and the financial backing of the Origin Consortium, Bai Fu wasn’t worried about acquiring high-performance ships.
But high-performance ships alone weren’t enough—she needed a large number of “cannon fodder ships” to be piloted by players. Probably several thousand of them. Only with several thousand ships could she transport five million players at once and form a truly combat-capable fleet cluster.
Obviously, Bai Fu couldn’t afford to buy that many ships outright.
So she planned to rob them—using the Virtual Heart to loot ships from interstellar pirates.
That way, she could both acquire ships and boost her Reputation—a double win.
Due to player activity and cooperation from factions like the Starweb and the Tide Civilization, most of the pirates in the Initial Gate Star Cluster had either been captured or fled with their families to other clusters. To rob pirate ships now, she had to go elsewhere.
Previously, Dark Moon Tide Corporation had already expanded its operations to several star clusters near Initial Gate, but the business volume remained low.
The main reason was that each star cluster had its own internal rules. Outsiders couldn’t just barge in easily.
Given Bai Fu’s displayed strength, she could force her way in.
But back then, she wanted to preserve her good reputation, and her attention was focused on the Taim Civilization, so she avoided doing anything too aggressive.
Now, though, the situation was different. For the sake of the Silent Court’s faction development, she had to push forward—Initial Gate alone wasn’t enough to satisfy the appetite of over five million players.
She needed to give players a grander stage, more regions to explore, more storyline and gameplay options—only then could she soothe their restless hearts.
Fortunately, recent changes in the political climate meant Bai Fu didn’t need to brute-force her way in—she could use gentler methods to carve out a share in other star clusters.
Exactly.
She planned to play the “Ten Saints Council” card.
The sudden return of the Ten Saints Council had become the hottest topic in the Edge Worlds over the past two days.
Many people were deeply worried, fearing the Ten Saints might launch something massive and ruin everyone’s plans.
Bai Fu intended to exploit that mindset by forming a mutual aid alliance with the surrounding star clusters near Initial Gate.
While called “mutual aid,” it was essentially her offering military protection to those clusters in exchange for access to their commission missions.
The clusters near Initial Gate were just like Initial Gate itself—rural backwaters of the Edge Worlds, poor star systems barely able to produce even a single Calamity-class being across their entire civilization.
If the Ten Saints Council did cause a massive upheaval that spread their way, they genuinely might not be able to withstand it.
Thus, Bai Fu believed that if she appealed to emotions and logic, then sweetened the deal a bit—like drastically lowering the cost of hiring players—there was a high chance her envisioned mutual aid group could form.
After both she and Cersia cleaned themselves up, Bai Fu ignored her fatigue and immediately contacted Nerys and the Head of State.
She claimed the Ten Saints’ attack had made her worry about her base’s safety and that she planned to return to the Sea Lion System temporarily.
“It might take two to three months.”
Neither Nerys nor the Head of State objected.
Bai Fu wasn’t under their command. They had no reason to stop her at a time like this.
In fact, the Head of State was secretly glad she was leaving—this made it easier to prepare to eliminate her without her being nearby to detect anything unusual.
“When you return next time, it’ll be the day you die! Whatever humiliation I suffered at the Ten Saints, I’ll take it all back from you!”
His heart brimmed with ambition.
But that didn’t last long, because soon a shocking rumor spread.
【Just as the Head of State struck at the Ten Saints Council, the Rebirth Empire immediately surrounded their hideout. Could it be that the Head of State and Rebirth Empire are actually working together?】
Head of State: “?”
Wait, what? How the hell did they guess that? And even guess it right?
His composure was on the verge of collapse.
Once a rumor spread, it didn’t matter whether he explained himself or not—it was already too late.
Everyone would start suspecting him. Once suspicion set in, so did wariness. And if people became wary of him, then his greatest strength—his hidden identity—was gone.
Now, he only had two cards left to play.
One: His true strength was Domination-level.
Two: The Glorious Forces had been secretly built by him.
Could he really win the Taim Civilization Chicken Game with just those two cards?
I’m seriously losing it!
The Head of State smashed his fist through the wall in front of him.
He didn’t even know how to describe what he was feeling.
Anger?
Sorrow?
Despair?
“How the hell did things turn out like this?”
Gritting his teeth, he kept thinking and rethinking, until finally he could only blame it on one thing: his terrible luck.
But then again, who didn’t need a little luck to succeed? Without luck…
“No. No way. I will win. I must win!”
As the Head of State tried desperately to psych himself up, Nerys urgently contacted Bai Fu.
“I’ve got bad news.”
“Bad news?”
Bai Fu blinked in surprise.
Could it be something that hurt her? Like, say, the leak that it was she who reported the Ten Saints’ location to the Rebirth Empire?
Nerys said, “There’s word going around that the Head of State actually pledged allegiance to the Rebirth Empire a long time ago. He’s just been pretending otherwise to deceive everyone.”
Bai Fu was stunned and exclaimed, “Seriously? What’s your take on it?”
Nerys replied, “I don’t have solid proof, but it’s not impossible.”
He was worried too—after all, among the various factions, he was closest to the Head of State. If the man really was working with Rebirth Empire and backstabbed him at a critical moment to seize his forces, he’d end up a total clown.
Bai Fu sighed, “You have a point… but I really don’t see it. Anyway, thank you for the heads-up. I’ll be careful.”
Nerys nodded.
The reason he warned her was because Bai Fu was just too “pure.” He was afraid the black-hearted Head of State would play her like a fiddle—sell her out and have her counting money for him afterward.
Bai Fu was extremely strong, and her Undying Ones weren’t average either. If she became the Head of State’s sword, things could get very bad.
The good news was, based on her reaction, she seemed to take his warning seriously.
Bai Fu might be “pure,” but she wasn’t stupid. Now that doubt had been planted in her heart, she likely wouldn’t fall for his tricks again.
“I wonder who first dug up this inside info. If it hadn’t come to light, we’d all have ended up as the Head of State’s pawns.”
Nerys sighed.
……
Bai Fu shrugged. She didn’t know why things turned out this way, but—good.
This would make taking down the Head of State even easier.
After returning to the Sea Lion System, Bai Fu immediately used her Starweb connections to reach out to other nearby star clusters.
Some welcomed her proposal; others remained skeptical.
Bai Fu wasn’t in a rush—after all, Version 2.1’s server maintenance update was just around the corner. During this update, in-game time would fast-forward by two months, so she had plenty of real time to wait for those factions to make up their minds.
Half a month later.
The Version 2.1 server maintenance arrived at last—along with the long-awaited official buffs Bai Fu had been hoping for.