Chapter 287: With a Dominator’s Body, Standing Above Transcendence
Since she had nothing better to do, after entrusting the Ark of Paradise to Yulia for safekeeping, Bai Fu boarded a spaceship with Dimitri and headed for the Empire.
Although the Painter hadn’t joined the Empire, she had always resided in the Empire's Star Abyss Star Sector.
Star Abyss bordered the Star Ring Island Star Sector and Titan Industries. It was slightly smaller than the Edge Worlds and contained numerous ancient galaxies, all clustered closely together, colliding, tearing, and merging with one another.
Moreover, at the “center” of Star Abyss was a highly unusual Aberration Pull Source, which dragged all surrounding galaxies to “fall” toward it.
The simultaneous occurrence of these two phenomena had led this massive galactic-scale filamentous structure, spanning over a billion light-years, to be named Star Abyss.
Unlike Star Ring Island, Crown of the Universe, or Vast Continent, the Star Abyss Star Sector had very few permanent residents.
Of course, “few” was relative. In truth, the number of intelligent beings living here could not simply be measured in billions.
The Empire’s development of Star Abyss leaned more toward scientific research.
What troubled the Empire most was the research on the Aberration Pull Source.
Over the years, the Empire had sent a large number of researchers to the area near the pull source, attempting to uncover the real cause of the gravitational and spatial curvature anomalies in that region. Unfortunately, to this day, no theory had gained widespread academic acceptance.
There were no massive celestial bodies near the region, and the gravitational pull of other surrounding superclusters should not have caused such anomalies.
Perhaps only when the Empire fully grasped the concept of “dimensions” could they truly understand Star Abyss.
“It’s said the Painter resides in Star Abyss just to study that Aberration Pull Source.”
“The Painter, like you, is a Psionic Illustrator, but her stream is different from yours. You specialize in Prayer Summoning, while she follows the 【Phenomenon Stream】, using Prayer Cards to unleash all sorts of phenomena against enemies.”
“Besides the Ethereal Realm Research Society, the Painter hasn’t joined any organization. She’s always smiling on the surface but is actually a loner who dislikes getting close to others. The only reason we could contact her this time was thanks to the Curse Lord.”
Dimitri patiently explained the intelligence related to the Painter and Star Abyss to Bai Fu.
Bai Fu nodded repeatedly. Most of this information wasn’t publicly available; only those within the inner circle would know.
She didn’t have a deep impression of the Painter. The only thing she remembered was that after she defeated Zephyr, the Painter’s favorability toward her plummeted. She wasn’t sure how the Painter felt about her now, years later.
With this curiosity in mind, a few days later, Bai Fu and Dimitri arrived at the Painter’s residence—
Basin Star.
The spaceship landed on a meadow lush with greenery.
As Bai Fu stepped out of the ship, she saw the Painter watering flowers in the courtyard.
She wore old-fashioned clothes, hunched over, holding a small watering can in hand. Wrinkles crowded her face, flowing with the deep twilight of time.
If one didn’t know better, who would’ve thought such a kindly old woman was actually a Psionic Supreme revered by countless people?
“Lady Painter, long time no see.”
Dimitri saluted her from across the wooden fence.
The Painter paused what she was doing. “Didn’t expect a busybody like you to find the time to visit me.”
Dimitri chatted with the Painter for a bit with a smile.
This time, he accompanied Bai Fu mainly because the Empire was worried about potential dangers.
Although the Painter lived within the Empire’s territory, the Empire knew very little about her. What limited intel they had came from Curse Lord Olsen.
If she were to suddenly attack Bai Fu, things would turn disastrous.
“Come in and have a seat. Try some of my cooking. We can chat as we eat.”
The Painter opened the small double doors and invited Bai Fu and Dimitri inside.
After Bai Fu and Dimitri sat down at the stone table in the courtyard, she brought out a tray of handmade pastries from inside the house.
During this process, Bai Fu didn’t speak; she silently observed the Painter’s favorability toward her.
【-48】
Even lower than the -29 back at the Ethereal Realm Research Society gathering.
Seeing this number, Bai Fu gave up on the idea of obtaining a Color-grade Prayer Card Blueprint. Now, she just wanted to know what exactly she had done to offend the Painter so badly that her favorability was this low.
While they casually chatted and finished the first pastry, the Painter suddenly pulled out a fingernail-sized data storage device from her pocket.
“There’s a Prayer Card Blueprint in here called 【Painter’s Whisper】. It’s the most valuable one I own. I wonder if it meets your needs.”
The Painter slid the data chip toward Bai Fu.
Bai Fu picked it up and pretended to inspect it, while secretly casting an Apostle’s Spiritual Vision on it.
【Painter’s Whisper (Color)】
The feedback information shocked Bai Fu.
It was real!
Could it be that the Painter genuinely wanted to trade?
Bai Fu nodded. “No problem. What do you want from me in exchange, Lady Painter?”
The Painter rested her hands demurely on her lap. “Before I get into the details, may I tell you a story?”
Bai Fu and Dimitri exchanged a glance and both nodded in agreement.
“This story is about me,” the Painter began. “I was born into a wealthy family and displayed extraordinary psionic talent from a young age. Don’t laugh, Miss Bai Fu, but I might’ve been even more gifted than you.”
Seriously?
Bai Fu’s interest was piqued.
The Painter smiled. “It only took me three and a half years to go from an ordinary person to A-rank!”
Oh, then you still need practice. I took less than that.
Bai Fu refrained from crushing the Painter’s pride. She played the role of a good listener.
“I was quite proud back then—noble birth, great talent, everything went smoothly for me. I thought I was the god’s favorite, until I met her.”
“She was a Psionic Illustrator too, but unlike me, she came from a poor background and had little talent. But she was extremely devout—her devotion to psionics was something I’d never seen before.”
The Painter lifted her head slightly.
In her pupils, it was as if a figure not meant to exist had been reflected.
She was reminiscing. Remembering.
“I challenged her. She refused, but I kept pestering her until she gave in. Then, she cleanly defeated me using Prayer Cards.”
“That was the first time I tasted defeat.”
“I thought beating me with Prayer Cards was cheating. I was unwilling to accept it and tried to argue with her, but I was quickly left speechless by her vast knowledge, suffering a second defeat.”
“Of course, I couldn’t just give up. I was too proud for that. I believed that if I got serious, I could definitely beat her in her domain. That’s how I became a Psionic Illustrator.”
“It’s funny thinking back. My mentor at the time knew less about Prayer Cards than the woman who beat me. To catch up to her, I had to borrow her study notes from the library—and she caught me borrowing them! Can you imagine how embarrassed I was?”
The Painter looked exasperated.
Bai Fu nodded. She could certainly relate. But if it were her in that situation, she wouldn’t have felt embarrassed—her face was thick as steel.
The Painter went on, “I don’t know if she noticed my embarrassment. She just said that if I wanted to learn, I could come to her directly. She didn’t mind sharing her knowledge. She hoped more people could become devout psionic believers like her.”
“I figured I’d already lost face, so I might as well learn from her. That’s how we officially met. I originally thought it’d take at most a year to surpass her, but… from our teenage years when we met to the day she passed away, I never did.”
“Six months after I started learning from her, war broke out. She joined the battlefield. The war lasted seven years. I lost contact with her many times. Later, I joined too, but in logistics, so I rarely saw her.”
“After the war, she was recruited by the Alcras Church for her merits and became one of their Battle Nuns. I…”
“Alcras Church?” At that moment, Dimitri exclaimed, interrupting the Painter. “The one that caused the Psionic Calamity?”
The Painter replied, “That’s right.”
Dimitri’s pupils shrank. “The person you’ve been talking about all along—was it Alcras’s 【Caller】, Mary?”
The Painter said, “Exactly.”
The small courtyard suddenly fell into silence.
Seizing the moment, Bai Fu used the Virtual Heart to look up related events.
The incident had occurred at the border between the Rebirth Empire and Titan Industries, in a supercluster named Seaberry.
This supercluster didn’t belong to any universe-scale civilization. Its internal factions were tangled and numerous, wars were frequent, and the environment was extremely hostile.
Alcras was a religion that preached using psionics to heal the world’s suffering. Sixty-four years ago, the Alcras Church conducted a sacrificial ritual, intending to summon an Apostle through it and bring a complete end to the chaos of the Seaberry Supercluster. The one who performed the ritual was none other than the devout Caller, Mary.
However, something went wrong during the ritual. The Apostle didn’t descend—what descended instead was an uncontrollable surge of psionic power.
Under the overwhelming flood of psionics, the Alcras Church was nearly wiped out, and the surrounding civilizations suffered heavy losses. One of them, called Shapley, was annihilated completely.
In the end, at the joint request of various factions in the Seaberry Supercluster, Titan Industries intervened to quell the Psionic Calamity.
“Mary died—she died before I could challenge her.”
The Painter pulled out a physical photograph and placed it on the table. In the photo, a younger version of herself and Mary were leaning closely against each other.
“I tried to dissuade her, but she was willing—no one forced her. She had always been a devout believer in psionics. To her, becoming one with psionics through sacrifice to summon an Apostle and bring lasting peace to Seaberry wasn’t a sacrifice—it was the happiest moment of her life.”
“The day she stepped onto that altar, I lost the only goal I had in life. I felt something hollow inside me. I think from that moment on, I may have never truly felt joy or sorrow again.”
“But…”
“The Psionic Calamity happened.”
“Everyone believes the calamity was an accident. Yes, it was—but not the kind of accident you all think. I was there. I saw the Apostle descend with my own eyes, but what it brought wasn’t peace—it was slaughter. The Apostle devoured Mary, devoured the members of the Alcras Church, devoured my homeland, devoured my family. To this day, I still remember the expression on Mary’s face when she realized the Apostle was going to consume her.”
The Painter’s breathing grew heavy.
She was no longer calm—murderous intent surged in her gaze.
To lose her idol, her family, her homeland—all to the hands of the Apostle—such hatred was only natural.
Bai Fu said, “So, Lady Painter, are you hoping I’ll help you deal with that Apostle?”
The Painter shook her head. “I will deal with the Apostle myself.”
“Then…”
“This 【Painter’s Whisper】 was developed based on Mary’s research. You could say it’s the last thing she left behind in this world.”
The Painter suddenly stood up, leaning forward with her hands pressed on the stone table.
“What I intend to trade for it is… your life!”
As her words fell, from the earth below, the sky above, and the dust all around, flames of psionics erupted into existence. As the fire burned, the entire world changed.
The picturesque pastoral mountain home vanished, replaced by a storm-tossed wasteland.
The frail old Painter disappeared too, replaced by a regal, stunning woman who looked to be in her thirties.
Bai Fu: “?”
What the hell, lady—what are you doing?
Dimitri’s expression shifted drastically. He quickly stepped forward to shield Bai Fu.
“Painter, what are you doing? As long as I’m here, don’t even think of hurting Bai Fu!”
Within the storm, cold laughter echoed all around.
“Annihilation, do you really think you can stop me?”
Dimitri looked down and realized the ground beneath his feet was expanding at a bizarre rate. In the blink of an eye, the distance between him and Bai Fu stretched from a mere meter to several thousand meters. Between them, a twisted psionic storm wall rose high.
“Break!”
He raised his hand swiftly.
To his surprise, his Esper Power had no effect on the storm wall.
An illusion?
Dimitri’s face darkened. By sight and sense, he couldn’t tell if the wall before him was real or fake.
To pull off something like this—this meant the Painter’s true strength was far beyond what he had imagined!
How the hell had this old schemer hidden her power level so well?
“Painter, are you insane? Bai Fu never did anything to you. You dare attack her—aren’t you afraid of the Empire’s retaliation?”
The Painter’s voice rang out. “Bai Fu is very likely the Apostle reborn. She’s growing too fast—far too fast—it’s completely unreasonable. Last time at the Ethereal Realm Research Society headquarters, I briefly sensed the Apostle’s aura on her. I’ve seen the Apostle with my own eyes. I won’t be mistaken. Even if I can’t sense it now, I absolutely cannot let her continue growing. She must die!”
Bai Fu was furious.
This was too much! Just because she leveled up fast, they said she was an Apostle? That made no sense. She could say the Painter was an Apostle too then!
But in the midst of her anger, a thought suddenly struck her.
Wait.
Could the Apostle’s aura the Painter mentioned actually refer to the True Spirit Pillar aura from Yulia?
Back when she sparred with Zephyr, although she didn’t merge with Yulia, she had borrowed part of her power through their link.
“Just because I briefly emitted the Apostle’s aura, you want to kill me? Isn’t that a bit rash? What if you find out later I’m not the Apostle?”
The Painter said, “Even if you’re not the Apostle, I’ll still kill you. Your existence is a massive threat to my plan! The Apostle—or rather, psionic power itself—shouldn’t exist in this world! Annihilation, don’t worry. One day, I’ll wipe out the Rebirth Empire and Titan Industries too! Mary may have sacrificed herself willingly, but she wouldn’t have ended up on that altar without the Rebirth Empire and Titan Industries stirring up chaos in Seaberry!”
BOOM!
With a thunderous boom, Bai Fu suddenly saw a grotesque beast emerge beside her.
“Transcendent-level Summoned Beast?!”
From afar, Dimitri couldn’t hold back anymore. He flew toward Bai Fu, but just a few meters out, the Painter appeared before him out of thin air, blocking his path.
“Annihilation, you’d better worry about yourself first!”
Goddamn it.
Dimitri was furious.
If Bai Fu died here, it would be like severing the Empire’s path to ascension—an irreparable loss the Empire could not afford!
“Get out of the way!”
Dimitri unleashed his full Esper Power, but even after undergoing his third Divine Metamorphosis under Bai Fu’s guidance, he still couldn’t break past the Painter’s blockade in time.
It was over.
By the time he reached Bai Fu, she’d probably already be dead—slain by that Transcendent-level summon—
“You really think you’ve got me cornered?”
Suddenly, a cool voice echoed.
Both Dimitri and the Painter froze.
They weren’t seeing things—that Transcendent-level summoned beast had slammed its palm down on Bai Fu’s head, yet Bai Fu’s body had only swayed slightly and showed not a scratch!
“If you’d attacked me earlier, you might’ve really taken me down. But now, if you think this summon alone can kill me—you’re not even close.”
One after another, Legion Reliquaries shattered in Bai Fu’s palm, turning into scattered starlight.
The starlight drifted within the storm.
No matter how the storm howled and tore, the starlight didn’t budge.
They were so resilient, so full of life.
When the dancing starlight finally stilled, twenty +13 Psionic Legions stood within the storm-wracked wasteland.
They were disciplined, sharp, and powerful—standing behind Bai Fu, awaiting the command of their general.
In this moment, Bai Fu truly embodied the aura of a Dark Master.
She gently pressed her right hand forward.
“Charge!”
In an instant, billions of True Spirit summons surged past her, transforming into a Dark Moon Tide, sweeping over and drowning everything that lay ahead.