Chapter 286: Third Awakening, The Path to Ascension Beyond the Supreme
【The real show is coming, family!】
Bai Fu clicked into the game community and found that Wind Rises Among the Stars had posted a new thread, and in just half an hour it had already surged to the top of the daily hot list.
“What is this?”
She clicked in doubtfully, thinking Wind Rises Among the Stars was attacking her again, but unexpectedly stumbled into the riddler’s nest.
Inside the post, Wind Rises Among the Stars elaborated on the preview for Version 2.2 and offered his own analysis before the version went live.
Then, he suddenly shifted tone, speaking mysteriously——
【Now, the wind has risen!】
【From your perspective, today is no different from any other day】
【You log in as usual, take quests as usual, praise Bai Fu as usual, complete tasks as usual, and log off as usual】
【But from the very first character I typed in this thread’s title, the structure of the stars had already quietly shifted】
【This is how change begins】
【At first, no one notices it, it is but a grain of sand, a spark of flame】
【But when the winds of an era blow upon it, when you finally notice it, it has already become a shining star!】
Just like the other players flooding in, Bai Fu was filled with question marks.
“？”
“”
If it had only been Wind Rises Among the Stars spouting riddles here, people might think he had simply gone mad, but soon everyone realized there were other well-known Bai Fu haters who often lurked with him.
Their comments carried the same cryptic tone as his.
In short, change had begun, something big was coming, very big, incomparably big—so big it was unbearable.
【Switch to manual】
【Riddler get lost!】
Bai Fu scrolled through the community, still confused about what was happening, until she opened the in-game map and realized that something had truly happened.
“Where on earth did Sui Xi run off to?”
The light representing Sui Xi had run straight past the map’s edge.
She zoomed out the map more than ten times before finally spotting him in a fog-covered corner.
Bai Fu’s pupils contracted.
Could it be that Sui Xi had gone to the Holy City of the Apostles?
The more she thought about it, the more certain she became.
Otherwise, how could Wind Rises Among the Stars and those haters be so gleeful?
She wondered whether Sui Xi’s favorability toward her was still above 90, and whether he had seen through her lie.
But even if he had, it did not matter much.
At the very least, Sui Xi had helped her locate the Holy City of the Apostles.
Back when she clashed with the Apostle of Truth and Secret Tower, she had wasted a great deal of time just locating their headquarters.
Now, right at the start, she already knew where the enemy’s main base was.
As long as she gathered enough strength, a single blitz attack could flatten the Holy City of the Apostles.
Of course, saying it was easy, doing it would be another matter entirely.
Bai Fu did not know how powerful the Holy City of the Apostles truly was, but from the fact it dared to scheme against the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations, its paper strength must be greater than any two combined interstellar civilizations of the known universe.
It was a monstrously troublesome opponent.
However, Bai Fu was not worried.
She was not alone!
Behind her stood the colossal force of the Rebirth Empire!
More accurately, it was not that the Rebirth Empire stood behind her, but that she stood on the side of the Rebirth Empire, because the Rebirth Empire was one of the principal forces in this civilizational conflict.
“Right now the Rebirth Empire isn’t as strong as the Holy City of the Apostles, but in a few years, once its Dominators and Supremes grow further under my guidance, things might be completely different.”
“So, the key is still time. I wonder if the Holy City of the Apostles will give the Rebirth Empire time to grow, and whether the Supernova Battle Group and Titan Industries might suddenly jump out and stir trouble.”
Bai Fu rubbed her temples.
Enough, enough, why think so far ahead?
The priority was to raise her own strength.
As long as she became strong enough, even if the Rebirth Empire perished in this civilization conflict, she would have nothing to fear.
Bai Fu glanced at the thread by Wind Rises Among the Stars.
And laughed.
“Laugh while you can. When you learn the truth in the end, I hope you don’t cry.”
Bai Fu turned her focus back to squeezing the Beast God.
The more she pressed him, the more she realized how useful the Ark of Paradise was.
The more useful the Ark of Paradise felt, the more she thought the Beast God must be lonely.
“In this vast paradise, having only one person is far too empty.
I must find the Beast God more companions.
That way, working together won’t feel so exhausting, and with communication and interaction, the risk of his depression will be greatly reduced.”
When capturing someone, force was necessary.
When exploiting someone, warmth was necessary.
Bai Fu first thought of Head of State Kaide.
Then she shook her head.
Kaide was a pure warrior.
If dragged into her plantation… paradise, he would be useless.
“Zephyr of the Supernova Battle Group isn’t bad, and that Shadowstorm Corona who’s tied to the Saint is also a decent choice.”
Bai Fu began jotting down notes.
Sooner or later, she would turn the Ark of Paradise into a lively, bustling family.
And so, her high-intensity exploitation of the Beast God continued for three months.
After three months, Bai Fu finally obtained the remaining five pieces of psionic frontier knowledge, along with enough experience to advance to Supreme.
She quickly opened her panel and poured the experience into the 【Apostle of Truth】 class.
+1, +1, +1……
After fifteen consecutive clicks, she successfully raised Apostle of Truth to max level, Lv50.
As the upgrade chime rang, she received a reminder that her third awakening quest had been triggered.
【You have triggered the third awakening quest [Unparalleled Beyond the World]】
The first awakening quest had two objectives, the second had three.
As expected, this third awakening quest had four objectives.
Collect at least 3 frontier knowledge (1/3).
Raise racial potential score above 90.0 (Current score: 82.1).
Possess a Domination-level permanent True Spirit summoned unit (1/1: Hei Fu).
Master three 【Color】-grade Prayer Card blueprints (1/3: Eye of Sorrow).
Unlike the first and second awakening quests, the third awakening no longer had a basic stat requirement, but instead turned the stat requirement into a pursuit of racial potential score.
So-called racial potential score referred to the level one’s race could reach if pushed to its natural limit.
With Bai Fu’s current race, no matter how hard she trained, it was impossible to advance to Supreme.
To cross this barrier, she had to first break the “genetic lock,” and on a path of life evolution that seemed to have reached its end, forcibly carve out a new road.
Only then could she climb the peak of Supreme.
“So that’s it.
The two most important factors for advancing to Supreme are 【Knowledge】 and 【Potential】.
No wonder people often group Dominator and Supreme together.”
Bai Fu suddenly understood.
From Dominator to Supreme was indeed a qualitative leap, but the gap in combat strength was not as overwhelming as people imagined.
Those Dominators who reached the dead end of the old road could still wrestle with those Supremes who had just taken their first step on the new path.
However, as the progress of the Sprout of Divine Fire increased, the gap between the two would grow larger and larger.
“Looked at this way, it’s incredibly cruel.”
Bai Fu touched her chin.
She had the player panel, which allowed her to easily see her racial potential score, and easily see whether something could raise it.
Therefore, raising her racial potential score above 90.0 was no real problem for her.
What troubled her more was how to collect three Color-grade Prayer Card blueprints.
But for ordinary Dominators, it was a completely different story.
Those with sufficient racial potential could cross the barrier naturally.
But those with insufficient racial potential found it impossibly difficult.
At the Dominator rank, the race of a psionicist was already unique, to the point that even their children struggled to fully inherit their traits.
Without the guidance of visualized data, raising the score by even 1.0 might require countless trials and errors.
And if something went wrong, their racial potential score might even drop.
The path to Supreme lay right in front of them, yet no matter how they struggled, they could not step through.
That despair, despair that would last a lifetime, lasting until death…
Just imagining it made Bai Fu feel a chill.
“From Dominator to Supreme, from the First Divine Metamorphosis to the Second Divine Metamorphosis, even up to the Fifth Divine Metamorphosis—how many have walked this path?”
Now Bai Fu could understand why people were so fanatical about the 【Crystal Orb of Insight】, and why the Rebirth Empire had given her such lavish gifts without hesitation.
She also realized her own value was far greater than the Crystal Orb of Insight.
Indeed, the Crystal Orb of Insight lacked the restriction of being usable only at a bottleneck, but at the same time, it also lacked the ability to guide Dominators stuck at their racial potential bottleneck on how to raise it.
“If I wished, I could become the Dao Ancestor from a xianxia novel, open a lecture hall, and teach the ‘Dao’ to the world.”
Dao Ancestor Bai Fu?
Hmm.
That nickname wasn’t bad!
Bai Fu laughed.
Good.
She now held another bargaining chip, which she could exchange with the Rebirth Empire for more benefits.
For example, the 【Color】-grade Prayer Card blueprints she urgently needed—surely the Rebirth Empire had them, right?
“I’ve already obtained the frontier knowledge.
So now, what I need most is to quickly raise my racial potential score above 90.0.”
That was not difficult.
As long as Yulia could extract something from the Beast God’s body in her research, she should be able to reach that goal.
Even if it was still not enough, she could always ask the Rebirth Empire for help.
Smiling, Bai Fu allocated all her extra stat points from leveling into Inspiration.
After the boost, her stats became——
【HP】: 1212502/1212502
【Psionic Value】: 1222491/1222491
【Qi】: 43735/43735
【Attributes】: Strength 2367, Agility 2330, Constitution 3943, Intelligence 1785, Spirit 2909, Inspiration 8177
The improvements were very noticeable, but what Bai Fu looked forward to most at this stage was still the reinforcement from the five new frontier knowledge the Empire had delivered.
《Research on Anomalous Materials (Psionic)》, 《Limits of the Mind》, 《Virtual Realm Creator》, 《Psionic Dimensions》, 《Dark Energy: Two Sides of One World》.
Each of the five focused on different aspects, with the most unique being 《Dark Energy: Two Sides of One World》, because its research was based on a special hypothesis.
That psionic energy and dark energy were complementary forces.
Psionic energy was born from “life,” dark energy was born from “death,” and together they formed the foundation for the existence of the Virtual Realm as a special dimension.
In recent years, research in this area had progressed rapidly.
Some of the conclusions explained previously unexplainable phenomena very well.
Unfortunately, so far, no one in the explored universe had truly discovered dark energy.
“Interesting.”
Bai Fu nodded.
Whatever, she would study it first anyway.
Even if she learned in a scattered way, it would bring no negative effects to her.
【You begin reading 《Research on Anomalous Materials (Psionic)》……】
One notification after another rang out.
It took her a full twenty days to master all five disciplines.
With a swipe of her hand, a string of game notifications popped up in front of her.
【You have comprehended a new skill [Psionic Material Alteration]】
【You have comprehended new skills [Ultimate Psionic Specialization], [Ultimate Prayer Specialization], [Ultimate Prayer Enhancement]……】
【You have comprehended new skills [Heart of Blessing], [Heart of Curse], [Heart of Illusion], [Heart of True Spirit], [Void Spirit (Inactive)]】
【You have comprehended a new skill [Prayer Card · Limit Breakthrough]】
【You have comprehended a new skill [Bai Fu · Pure Land of the Night]】
【You have comprehended a new talent [Spiral (Inactive)]】
Those new skills prefixed with “Ultimate” were upgraded versions of the original Dominator-level passive skills.
After upgrading, their effects had generally increased by about 50%.
The passive skills with names ending in “Heart” were Supreme-level core bonuses for different psionic priest schools.
The one useful to Bai Fu was 【Heart of True Spirit】.
Heart of True Spirit greatly increased legion limits, True Spirit summons’ self-healing ability, and the stat bonuses from Supreme auras.
Finally, the skill 【Void Spirit (Inactive)】 was very special.
The notification said she lacked sufficient frontier knowledge of dark energy, and so could not currently use it.
Its effect was extremely powerful.
Once activated, Bai Fu could directly draw psionic energy from her summoned True Spirit units and use it for herself.
With this passive, her battle endurance could increase seven or eight times at the very least.
And if Yulia also grew stronger, then combined with this skill, she could practically transform into a perpetual-motion princess.
【Psionic Material Alteration】 was an ability to remodel psionic materials by infusing psionic energy, greatly enhancing the material’s strength and the quality of the final product once made into psionic items.
【Prayer Card · Limit Breakthrough】 had an effect exactly as its name suggested.
It could increase the enhancement limit of Prayer Cards.
Combined with the extra breakthrough granted by 【Beyond the Peak】, at this stage Bai Fu could enhance her Prayer Cards up to +13.
This raised the combat power of her Psionic Legion by far more than just a little.
The bad news was that upgrading the levels of so many Prayer Card blueprints would require another huge pile of experience.
Fortunately, the number of Silent Court players had recently soared past ten million, so she could still handle it.
【Bai Fu · Pure Land of the Night】 was a uniquely named exclusive skill, and its effect was powerful.
After mastering this skill, Bai Fu could create a special space uniquely her own, named 【Pure Land of the Night】.
This space could be used to house psionic lifeforms and True Spirit summons.
She could even relocate her Prayer Card production factory into it, allowing her to resupply herself with Prayer Cards anytime, anywhere.
But the Pure Land of the Night’s role did not stop there.
From now on, those special NPCs she enlightened through 【Bestowal of True Name】, such as Ying Fu, would no longer disappear permanently after dying.
Instead, they could resurrect inside the Pure Land of the Night.
“Awesome, this is really transforming into a Psionic God.”
Bai Fu’s gaze finally landed on the description of the talent 【Spiral (Inactive)】.
Like 【Void Spirit】, this talent was temporarily ineffective due to her lack of frontier knowledge of dark energy.
Its effect was simple and brutal—once activated, Hei Fu would completely become her other body.
Unless an enemy killed both her and Hei Fu in a short time, or directly annihilated her from the soul level, she would be unkillable.
Eh, speaking of souls, one had to mention the Ark of Paradise.
The Ark of Paradise’s ability allowed her to revive even if her soul was shattered.
Bai Fu’s eyes lit up.
In that case, unless something went wrong with the Ark of Paradise, who could kill her?
Of course, all of this was premised on her obtaining more frontier knowledge of dark energy.
“Color-grade Prayer Card blueprints, frontier knowledge of dark energy… there really are quite a lot of things to collect.”
Bai Fu closed her attribute panel.
She first relocated her Prayer Card production factory into the newly created Pure Land of the Night.
Then she personally went to meet with Annihilation Dimitri, who had already been stationed on Origin Star.
“Not long ago, I had just requested frontier knowledge of psionics.
Now I’ve come again to ask for Prayer Card blueprints.
I know this may stir some discontent within the Empire, so I’ve brought you two good news items.”
Bai Fu raised two fingers.
Dimitri was briefly stunned.
“What good news?”
Bai Fu said, “First, I’ve faintly touched upon the Supreme rank.
I estimate that within one or two years, I’ll officially advance to Supreme.”
What the hell?!
Dimitri’s eyes widened, thinking he had misheard.
If he wasn’t mistaken, it had only been a little over two years since Bai Fu advanced to Dominator, right?
If the first piece of news was already this shocking, then what about the second?
“Second, I can guide those Dominators, who cannot advance to Supreme due to insufficient racial potential, on how to raise their racial potential.”
Bang!
Dimitri’s hand trembled, and he accidentally swept a decoration off the table, which crashed to the ground with a harsh sound.
He believed Bai Fu wouldn’t lie to him at such a moment.
If Bai Fu was willing to let the Empire use this ability, then it wouldn’t be long before the Empire had dozens of Supremes!
Although the Empire itself didn’t have that many stuck Dominators, other factions certainly did.
Once those Dominators learned Bai Fu had this ability, how could they not flock to the Empire to seek her help?
“I’ll immediately report… no, wait.”
Dimitri suddenly shut his mouth.
He realized this matter must be handled with extreme caution.
The fact that Bai Fu could help Supremes complete Divine Metamorphoses had already provoked the vigilance of the other two interstellar civilizations.
If they learned she also had the power to help Dominators advance to Supreme, they would surely unite against the Empire to prevent it from growing too strong.
Right now, with the Apostle Holy City’s stance still unclear, the Empire was not ready to fall out with the Supernova Battle Group and Titan Industries.
“I’ll do everything I can to apply for what you want.
But this ability of yours—don’t use it for now,” Dimitri said sternly.
Bai Fu shrugged.
“Suit yourselves.”
As long as she got what she wanted, it was fine.
Dimitri’s side acted with astonishing efficiency.
After learning of Bai Fu’s special ability, the Emperor immediately ordered the news sealed.
At the same time, to prevent Bai Fu from being poached by other factions, even though the Rebirth Empire had no Color-grade Prayer Card blueprints, they proactively put Bai Fu in contact with the Painter, one of the top three seats of the Virtual Realm Research Society.
“The Painter said she wants to make a deal with you.”
“What kind of deal?”
Dimitri said, “Not sure.
She said she would only explain in detail after meeting you.
The Painter is very stubborn—once she sets her mind on something, no one can change it.”
Bai Fu nodded.
Alright.
Since the Painter wanted to meet, then she would meet her!