Chapter 293: The Anti-Apostle Holy City Alliance Was Established, Bai Fu’s New Evolution
【Reconciliation? That must be a joke!】
In the core Little Haters group of Wind-Rises-Among-Stars, the moment they saw the word 【Reconciliation】, everyone grew restless.
Which one of these Little Haters wasn’t a star-level figure in the gaming Community?
In Beyond the Stars, Player nicknames could be changed with a Rename Card, and appearances could be altered in countless ways, but the number ID assigned when a character was created could never be changed.
As soon as other Players saw that familiar number, they would immediately know that these people had once been seasoned Bai Fu haters.
Now they wanted to reconcile with Bai Fu? Even if Bai Fu accepted them, her Players would never accept them.
— “You’re here to be a spy, aren’t you?”
— “Reconciliation my ass, I’ll twist your head right off!”
To avoid being recognized by Fu Sect Players, their only option was to delete their accounts and start over.
Come on.
It was already almost Version 2.3. If they restarted now, they would probably have to lie low until Version 3.1 before qualifying to experience the main storyline again. What fun would that be?
None of the core group wanted to start over.
In the heated discussion, Wind-Rises-Among-Stars once again stood up.
Wasn’t this obvious?
If reconciliation was impossible and no one wanted to restart, then why were they still chirping uselessly here?
So what if Bai Fu was the protagonist? In Beyond the Stars, the protagonist didn’t come with an invincible halo. The protagonist could also be injured, marginalized by the storyline, or even die suddenly by accident.
Things were man-made, brothers.
Although Bai Fu had the upper hand at the start of Version 2.3, it wasn’t as though they had no power to resist, was it?
Don’t forget—they had successfully latched onto Sui Xi, the NPC suspected to be a future great villain.
In the 2.3 preview trailer, Sui Xi’s appearance might not have been as dazzling as Bai Fu’s, but she was still introduced as a key NPC.
As long as they gave their utmost to assist Sui Xi, wasn’t it possible for her to surpass Bai Fu in the end?
They mustn’t forget—at the very beginning, Sui Xi was stronger than Bai Fu. It was only because Sui Xi’s storyline came later that Bai Fu overtook her!
“I’m not just trying to comfort you,” Wind-Rises-Among-Stars said. “Look, Sui Xi is now the disciple of the Supreme Apostle of the Holy City!”
What was the Holy City of the Apostles?
That was a faction even stronger than the Three Universal Civilizations! And the Supreme Apostle was its leader. In fact, the advantage was theirs, comrades!
Many times villains lost to heroes simply due to an information gap—while they focused on fighting X, they never realized Y was the real threat, until they were overturned at the end.
But now the situation was different. With them around, the Holy City would never ignore the massive threat that Bai Fu posed.
“Brothers, we are the 【most critical piece】 ensuring the Holy City’s victory!”
“Come on, let’s just go all in!”
This speech from Wind-Rises-Among-Stars rekindled the fighting spirit of the group.
Truly, Wind-bro knew how to talk.
Call them Little Haters?
What a joke!
When they helped the Holy City and Sui Xi take down Bai Fu, those others would be the ones facing reckoning!
The Little Haters rejoiced, while Fu Sect Players grew even more excited seeing Bai Fu confirmed as the new version’s protagonist.
“Nice! From Origin Star to… Origin Star, Fufu is finally the officially appointed protagonist again, and this time a very important one. That’s insanely awesome.”
When the new version began, following beside Fufu would definitely let them enjoy a feast of benefits.
【I’m telling you, in Version 2.3 our role will definitely be greater than in 2.2!】
【And I don’t just mean because Fufu is the protagonist—since we’re close to Fufu, we’ll definitely be entrusted with important duties.】
【Have you noticed the updated level cap? That’s right, the cap has been raised in one go from Level 70 to 80!】
【Normally, an update like this would have capped us at Level 75, just brushing the threshold from A-rank to S-rank. But this time the devs were generous, raising it all the way to 80, letting us experience more content.】
【I don’t think it’s just the devs being kind. More likely, if they only capped it at 75, with our strength we might still be insufficient for the events of Version 2.3.】
【And the devs already confirmed that right after 2.3 comes Version 3.0. I estimate that 2.3 will be a version full of intense battles—combat-hungry Players can look forward to it.】
Excavation-Princess posted a massive thread in the Community, which drew countless Players to read.
Would it really be that fun?
In anticipation, Version 2.3 finally launched.
A tidal wave of Players flooded in immediately—and Bai Fu showed them with action that it was indeed going to be exhilarating!
She had long been annoyed at how much time it wasted to contact one civilization at a time. Now that Players had returned, she immediately discussed with the Rayas Exile Government to simultaneously send multiple fleets to contact those civilizations that had been beaten by the Holy City of the Apostles.
The fleets were led by representatives of the Rayas Exile Government, commanding Players in their expeditions.
If any issues arose, the Players went first. If they failed, Bai Fu would descend into her True Spirit Summoning to resolve it personally.
This both sped up the formation of the Anti-Holy City Alliance and let Players uninterested in exploration enjoy a grand wave of combat.
【Hahaha, kill, kill, kill!】
【You little bastard, secretly colluding with space pirates against your own kind—eat my spear!】
【The Katana Hero is here!】
Under the Player assault, in less than a month the Alliance’s members grew from three civilizations to nine.
Some of the later-joining civilizations hadn’t even seen Bai Fu fight personally, yet they still recognized her as the initiator of the Alliance.
The reason was simple—they had witnessed the way Players fought.
What did it mean to be interstellar savages? That was the Players!
Hundreds of thousands of fearless S-ranked Players surging forward—it was a scene not easily forgotten.
The exiled civilizations acknowledged the Players, and naturally, Bai Fu—who could command them freely—was acknowledged as well.
Thus, at the official founding assembly of the Anti-Holy City Alliance, Bai Fu was unsurprisingly elected as leader, with the formal title of 【First Speaker of the Civilization Council】.
“This Anti-Holy City Alliance is finally starting to take shape.”
Bai Fu smiled in relief.
At this stage, excluding her and her own people, the Alliance had four Dominators and over two hundred Disaster-class beings. In terms of raw individual combat power, they already surpassed the Taim Civilization.
Of course, if they truly fought Taim, they would still lose—after all, Taim had massive fleets and vast resources, while the Civilization Council didn’t even have a true base yet.
But Bai Fu didn’t care about the actual combat strength. What she cared about was the benefits this event of the Alliance’s founding brought her.
The nine civilizations each had unique strengths. Their arrival meant the Quiet Garden faction no longer lacked Disaster-class Player class mentors, and the knowledge and blueprints they submitted gave her more ways to squeeze benefits out of Players.
Right now, she didn’t lack XP. But once she advanced to Transcendent rank, she would once again need massive amounts of XP to complete her Divine Metamorphosis.
Laughing, Bai Fu opened the Quest Panel.
With the Alliance founded, the related Exploration Quest she had triggered now completed its first stage, accumulating a quest reward pool of three billion XP—quite the reward.
“When I finish building the Council headquarters, recruit more civilizations into it, and help some of them rescue those kidnapped by the Holy City, this reward pool will grow even higher. Maybe I’ll even roll some rare prizes later.”
Bai Fu looked forward eagerly.
The founding of the Civilization Council sparked lively discussions among both NPCs and Players.
The Three Universal Civilizations’ attitude was to just let Bai Fu do as she pleased. A few Dominators banding together wouldn’t affect the grand scheme. But if she ever managed to recruit a Transcendent into the Council, that would be worth vigilance.
Players, on the other hand, unanimously saw this as the defining event of Version 2.3—the start of the new main storyline. Yet their reactions varied depending on faction.
Players of the Supernova Legion and Titan Industries, thinking of long-term benefits, strongly advised their NPC factions to secure a share of this event.
But their suggestions were ignored—when asked why they wanted it, they couldn’t provide a reasonable answer.
“What’s the reason?”
“The reason is Bai Fu is… ababa ababa…”
What they meant was Bai Fu was the protagonist and must be taken seriously—but whenever they tried to say it, it turned into incomprehensible babbling.
Helpless, they gave up on persuading.
Their voices were still too insignificant.
The Three Universal Civilizations now valued them, but that value was only because they were useful “tools.” For the Three Universal Civilizations to actually listen to them, they still had a long way to go.
On the other side, Players of the Holy City of the Apostles, in order to deal with Bai Fu, immediately reported the news of the Anti-Holy City Alliance’s establishment to the Holy City.
“What, an Anti-Holy City Alliance? I admit, I’m amused. Look at the names of its members. Even at their peak, we beat them until they fled in disarray. Now that they’ve become trash among trash, they still dare to dream that banding together can turn the tide? Don’t make me laugh. If it were the Three Universal Civilizations forming an alliance, that would be a threat.”
The people of the Holy City of the Apostles likewise ignored the intel from Wind-Rises-Among-Stars.
The only difference was that they still dispatched someone to record Bai Fu’s movements.
Last time, even when the entirety of the followers of Cathedral Number Seven were mobilized, they had failed to capture Bai Fu. Those of Cathedral Number Seven were constantly thinking of taking revenge, of regaining their glory.
Moreover, though Bai Fu herself denied it, the Holy City still firmly believed that she might secretly be working with Rufas. They wanted to reclaim the sacred treasure of the Spiritual Sanctum, so naturally they kept their eyes fixed on Bai Fu.
“Damn it, a bunch of fools! If we don’t deal with Bai Fu now, once she grows stronger, the difficulty of fighting her will increase a hundredfold!”
Wind-Rises-Among-Stars was nearly exploding with anger.
If it weren’t for the fact that he was too well-known, he might have already defected as a spy for Bai Fu to sabotage the Holy City.
Alas, it was still Bai Fu’s Players who were living the good life. Their important suggestions were always taken seriously.
Thinking it over, in the end he decided the only way forward was through Sui Xi.
He needed to find a way to cultivate Sui Xi first, and raise her Favorability. That way, when Sui Xi’s status in the Holy City rose higher, they would finally have a voice of their own.
Soon, Wind-Rises-Among-Stars led a group of Players to find Sui Xi.
Recently, the Holy City of the Apostles had been striking out everywhere, mining rare resources in the Dark Zone and attacking every civilization they found. Sui Xi had been assigned by the Supreme Apostle to train within one of the armies.
With their help, surely Sui Xi would reap even more rewards from this training.
Learning that Wind-Rises-Among-Stars and others wanted to help her, Sui Xi was delighted.
But when she learned they wanted to help her in order to fight Bai Fu, Sui Xi was furious.
Then, on second thought, she realized—wasn’t this actually a blessing? These Undying Ones who wanted to oppose Bai Fu had come to her instead. Her mood immediately lifted, and her Favorability toward Wind-Rises-Among-Stars and the others skyrocketed.
“Do your best to help me. When I grow strong enough to catch up to Apostle Bai Fu, I’ll be very gentle when I drag you all out for target practice!”
“?”
“What’s going on?” Wind-Rises-Among-Stars was dumbfounded.
Favorability first rose, then fell, then suddenly spiked again—wasn’t this trajectory all wrong? He couldn’t figure it out.
But precisely because he couldn’t figure it out, he decided not to think further.
After all, Favorability was up, so what was there to complain about?
“Brothers, the moment you find anything good, report it to Sui Xi. Even if we lose out a little now, once she grows strong, we’ll reap a hundredfold return!”
“Oh yeah!”
……
“Bai Fu, we’ve made progress!”
While the Little Haters were busy raising Sui Xi’s pedestal, Bai Fu received word from Yulia.
After nearly half a year of waiting, the research team had finally extracted key components from the Beast God’s body and created over a dozen Enhancement Potions from them.
“Excellent, this is it!”
Bai Fu picked out the strongest potion and injected herself immediately.
She had been waiting for this moment a long time. Under the potion’s effects, her body suddenly became incorporeal, leaving only a faint phantom standing in the room.
But this state did not last long. After ten minutes, her body dissolved entirely into countless invisible particles.
“?!”
Yulia was startled.
“Don’t worry, this is a normal part of evolution.”
Bai Fu reassured her calmly.
She didn’t know how long it lasted, but eventually Bai Fu re-formed into a solid body, and multiple prompts rang by her ears.
【You have completed a Racial Evolution. Your race has changed to [Aberrant Night Watcher (Bai Fu)]】
【Race transformation complete. You gain Attribute Bonuses——
Strength +219, Agility +268, Constitution +371, Intelligence +164, Spirit +421, Inspiration +109】
【You have gained new Racial Traits——
1. Gain +1 Spirit per Level Up;
2. Each point of Constitution grants +20 HP, each point of Inspiration grants +20 Psionic Value, each point of Spirit grants +10 Qi;
3. You gain the Special Talent [Super Aggregation].】
This time, the racial evolution wasn’t drastic, so Bai Fu only obtained a single new Talent—but it was an extremely powerful one.
【Super Aggregation】 had three effects:
— Health recovery speed +1000%.
— Body could disperse into countless micro-particles to evade certain attacks.
— As long as the remaining body parts could gather Psionic energy, she could rapidly regenerate her form—though it required immense energy.
For Bai Fu, the first two effects were most useful—especially the +1000% regeneration. It made her far more durable. At this point, the basic attacks of weaker Dominators might not even outpace her regeneration speed.
As for the third effect, because she herself was already a half-energy semi-corporeal being, it overlapped with her inherent abilities.
Bai Fu quickly opened her Attribute Panel.
After this bonus, her strength had risen significantly. Now her stats were——
【HP】: 1,671,667 / 1,671,667
【Psionic Value】: 1,464,382 / 1,464,382
【Qi】: 43,855 / 43,855
【Attributes】: Strength 2859, Agility 2858, Constitution 4953, Intelligence 2034, Spirit 3598, Inspiration 8489
Her massive Constitution boost came from both the Beast God Potion and the training method she had obtained from the Oathmaster.
Unfortunately, the Oathmaster only had that one training method suitable for her. Other methods were either too demanding or useless to her current form.
After the racial evolution, Bai Fu’s racial potential rating increased, finally surpassing 90 to reach 90.9. From here, if she obtained just one more 【Color】-grade Prayer Card blueprint, she could ascend to Transcendent.
But she didn’t rush to gamble XP on Prayer Cards. Instead, she decided to check on the Empire’s progress with the Void Converter before making her decision.
Coincidentally, the Empire had just sent her an invitation, saying they had matters to discuss.
“What exactly is it about?”
Leaving the lab, Bai Fu found Dmitry.
Dmitry explained, “It’s the plan you mentioned during your visit to the Ethereal Research Society. The Empire is considering launching it ahead of schedule. Aside from that, they may also need your 【Guidance】 ability.”
Bai Fu nodded.
If the plan was being moved forward, that meant the main storyline was advancing again.
“In that case, no time to waste. Let’s depart immediately.”
She instructed Yulia to distribute the extra Beast God Potions to Anya, Cecia, Scarlet Leaf, and the Oathmaster, before boarding a ship with Dmitry bound for the Empire.
……
At the border between the Rebirth Empire and Titan Industries, near a cosmic void.
The Painter, having restored her original appearance, stood in the cockpit of a small vessel, her expression shifting uncertainly as she pondered.
At that moment, the ship’s radar suddenly blared an alert.
“Unidentified vessel detected approaching. Engage counterattack mode?”
A ship?
Could it be that agents of the Rebirth Empire had caught up?
The Painter was just about to draw a Prayer Card when a familiar voice came through the communicator.
“Selena, are you interested in working with me?”
“Rufas?!”
The Painter was shocked—she never expected Rufas to find her.
Rufas chuckled. “Don’t underestimate my intelligence network.”
He had paid dearly to enlist the help of Shadowstorm Corona to track her down.
The Painter steadied herself. “What cooperation do you want to discuss?”
Rufas’s projection appeared beside her. “I know who you most want to kill—and you know I don’t mean Bai Fu. If you help me, then I can help you…”
He drew a hand across his neck.
The Painter stayed silent for a long moment, then finally nodded.
“Your strength… is sufficient.”