Chapter 304: The Universal Strategist
When the fleet set out, Bai Fu had deliberately brought along more than a dozen engineering ships.
Thus, in just a single day, she successfully built a fully equipped temporary base on Graywind Star, completing the first condition of Mission Branch 1 in 【Tub Campaign】. What she needed to do next was hold this base within the set time limit.
However, she was not particularly fixated on completing Branch 1.
The reward for completing this mission was only 500 million XP. For her current self, this meager amount of XP was hardly enough to fill the cracks between her teeth.
If the situation truly turned dire, she could simply pack the survivors of Graywind Star into the ships and flee. There was no need to fight desperately, risking the loss of her entire fleet, just for 500 million XP.
「How are things going on your side?」
The second day after the base was completed, Bai Fu contacted the commander of the special unit sent by the Rebirth Empire—Winter of the Apocalypse.
Winter of the Apocalypse was an ice-type esper who had already undergone two divine metamorphoses. His strength was not on par with Dmitri or Chongxiao, but within the Rebirth Empire he could still be regarded as a pillar-level powerhouse.
The Rebirth Empire had dispatched him, along with the perfectly complementary Master of the Whirlpool, to deal with the Apostle Holy City’s fleet invading the Tub Civilization. It showed how much importance they attached to this war.
After all, even the Supernova Legion and Titan Industries had spared no effort in resisting the Apostle Holy City, each sending two formidable transcendents.
Yet the way things unfolded completely exceeded Bai Fu’s expectations.
A lineup of six transcendents plus over a dozen dominators—placed anywhere in the explored universe—should have been enough to crush any force short of the Three Universal Civilizations.
But here in the Tub Galaxy, they had run headlong into disaster.
Within the Apostle Holy City’s fleet was a transcendent so terrifying that it made one’s scalp go numb. With his own power alone, he could stall four transcendents from the side of the Three Universal Civilizations—and faintly even held the advantage.
「According to the members of the Anti–Apostle Holy City Alliance under your command, that man is the Fourth Candidate Apostle of the Holy City. We estimate that if neither side uses a Cosmic Supreme Treasure, even Annihilation and Chongxiao combined may not be his match.」
Winter of the Apocalypse’s voice carried a faint, hard-to-detect tremor.
He was not afraid of the Fourth Candidate Apostle himself—what he feared was the overall strength of the Apostle Holy City.
If the Fourth Candidate Apostle was already this fierce, then with seven Candidate Apostles, plus the Chief of the Tribunal and the Lord of the Hall of True Spirits, and on top of that the rumored even more dreadful Supreme Apostle—how terrifying would that lineup be?
Fortunately, the Ten Saints had exposed the existence of the Apostle Holy City early on, sparing them from being completely blindsided.
Otherwise, if the Apostle Holy City had been allowed to prepare in secret and then suddenly launched a surprise attack crippling the high-end power of one of the Three Universal Civilizations, even with the remaining two uniting fully it would have been almost impossible to resist.
Though the situation was still grim now, it was not without hope of reversal.
「Does the Empire have no plans to send reinforcements?」 Bai Fu asked.
Winter of the Apocalypse explained: 「If not for the Ten Saints, the Empire would certainly have dispatched a grand army by now. But with that group of guide-spies around, the Empire has no choice but to guard against the Apostle Holy City pulling a feint—pretending to throw its full force into the Tub Civilization, while actually preparing to attack from another direction. So the Empire dares not divert too many troops to aid Tub.」
Bai Fu nodded. That indeed was a danger they had to guard against.
Still, with things as they were—could she truly clear out the Black Hole at the center of the Tub Galaxy within the remaining seven days?
The situation felt a little tricky.
She and the Players had been making noise everywhere, drawing massive attention, but none of these actions could affect the larger tide of war.
Perhaps she should take the initiative. After all, the one she had dispatched was Hei Fu. Even if Hei Fu died, she would revive automatically after some time.
Just as Bai Fu was pondering how to strike first, she suddenly received a game prompt.
【You have triggered Emergency Mission［Falling into the Abyss］】
「？？？」
Bai Fu quickly opened the mission details.
【Mission Introduction: Disaster always descends unnoticed. While you are still immersed in daily life, the Abyss has already devoured the world. At this moment, what you believe to be normal—can it really still be called normal?】
【Mission Objective: Lead your fleet out of the Abyss!】
【Reward: 1.5 billion XP】
Already confused, Bai Fu became even more bewildered after reading the introduction.
What the hell kind of riddle-speaker nonsense was this?
Still, jokes aside, she knew the game would never go mad at such a time. It must mean she had really fallen into 【the Abyss】.
「The mission reward is 1.5 billion XP. That’s far lower than the other emergency missions I’ve faced. Does that mean this Abyss is weak, or is it just because this isn’t my main body here?」
Bai Fu leaned toward the latter.
If 【the Abyss】 was truly weak, why would the game issue an emergency mission?
「So the key must be that last sentence in the introduction.」
What I believe to be normal…
Bai Fu immediately dispatched large numbers of Tiny Hei Fus and Tiny Bai Fus, while asking Anya and the others if they had noticed anything abnormal.
The answer was no.
She then quickly checked all the Eyes of the Dark Moon she had planted throughout the planetary system where Graywind Star lay. Still no anomalies.
This felt somewhat similar to when she had been trapped by Titan Industries’ 【Home of the Lost】.
But Bai Fu was sure the essence was completely different. Otherwise, with the Heart of Supreme Purity’s blessing, she should have detected something.
Fine. If no problems could be seen—then she would just go straight for the heavy-handed approach!
Bai Fu drew a 【Endless Domain of Darkness】 Prayer Card from the Eternal Night Pure Land.
As a super-super-rare rainbow card, the coverage of 【Endless Domain of Darkness】 was absurdly vast. Toss it into a place like the Solar System and it could easily cover the entire heliosphere, if not the whole Oort Cloud.
And this planetary system containing Graywind Star was smaller than the Solar System.
With this card activated—no matter what demons or ghosts lurked here—so long as they were within this space, they would all be forced to show themselves.
……
At the same time.
Inside a ship of the Apostle Holy City.
The attendants of Cathedral Number Four were grinning as they watched the virtual screen before them.
Not long ago, the Fourth Candidate Apostle had suddenly appeared in person, launching an attack on the bases established by the Three Universal Civilizations in the Tub Galaxy. This had thrown them into chaos, making them think the Holy City intended to fight to the bitter end.
「They never dreamed our true target is actually Bai Fu’s avatar!」
「Bai Fu is far too confident. She thought sending just an avatar and a bunch of Undying Ones would let her act with impunity. But we are the Apostle Holy City—we have already mastered Dark Energy!」
Dark Energy—the other side of Psionics—possessed many wondrous uses.
First, it could block psionic detection.
For example: right now, their ships had brazenly entered the planetary system of Graywind Star, yet Bai Fu’s side noticed nothing, all because they had cloaked the ships with a massive Dark Energy shield.
Second, Dark Energy both coexisted with and repelled psionics.
Exploiting this property, Dark Energy could be used to seal any Psionic Priest who had not yet mastered its secrets. Indeed, with enough Dark Energy, even transcendents could be sealed.
A sealed Psionic Priest was like someone trapped in a sandpit: if they did not struggle, they might survive longer; but the harder they struggled, the faster their inner psionic energy was drained.
Because Dark Energy cut them off from replenishing psionics from outside, once their internal energy was exhausted, their body would enter a state of depletion.
In the short term, this had little effect. But over time, it could even cause a Psionic Priest’s rank to fall.
This time, the attendants of Cathedral Number Four intended to use precisely these two traits of Dark Energy to capture Bai Fu’s avatar.
Of course, their true intent was not to destroy it.
They merely wished to use Bai Fu’s avatar to learn what she really was—then trace back to destroy her true body.
For most, this would be impossible. But for the Apostle Holy City, with its profound mastery of psionics, it was not beyond reach.
「Full speed ahead! Reach Graywind Star as fast as possible! We cannot give Bai Fu even the slightest chance to react!」
The fleet’s acting commander, the transcendent attendant of Cathedral Number Four—Senlan—issued the new order.
However, just as the ship engines reached maximum output, something utterly unexpected happened.
Buzz～
A shockwave spread at an unimaginable speed, instantly flooding the entire planetary system of Graywind Star.
「This is… psionic fluctuation?」
A trace of unease rose in Senlan’s heart. Before he could warn the others, a mass of black bubbles suddenly surged around their ship.
These bubbles, like enraged bulls with their tails set on fire, slammed frantically into the Dark Energy shield around the ship. The collision of psionics and Dark Energy triggered neutralizing explosions that shook space into constant distortion, shattering and reforming again and again.
When those inside the ship observed the starry sky outside through such distorted space, what they saw was a bizarre world—sometimes inverted, sometimes fractured into pieces.
The scene was stunning.
If an artist had been here, they might well have gained inspiration, but for the attendants of the Apostle Holy City, it was nothing but terrifying.
To be suddenly attacked by psionics on Bai Fu’s turf, and such a massive-range attack at that—was there even a need to guess who the attacker was? It was definitely Bai Fu!
But—how had Bai Fu known they were here?
They had clearly already cloaked themselves in Dark Energy.
At present, there seemed only two possible explanations.
一, there was a traitor among them who had leaked the plan to Bai Fu in advance.
二, Bai Fu had already mastered Dark Energy, making their supposedly covert operation nothing but a joke to her.
Either possibility was terrifying.
If it was the former… then who was the traitor?
Everyone here—and even those absent—had been born and raised in the Apostle Holy City. How could one of them suddenly have become Bai Fu’s agent?
Unimaginable, unbelievable!
If it was the latter, the matter was even worse.
Clearly, the explored universe’s understanding of Dark Energy was still superficial—otherwise it would have long since been in widespread use. So where had Bai Fu obtained the knowledge of Dark Energy, and how had she come to fully control it?
Had she truly comprehended it herself in just twenty or thirty years?
The word “genius” was insufficient to describe Bai Fu. She was practically a god—a god whose single person’s insight equaled the millennia of effort of an entire Universal Civilization!
Faced with such a god, what was the point of fighting? One might as well bow down in worship.
Or had she inherited it from somewhere else?
If so, what else might Bai Fu have inherited? How strong was her true power?
Senlan was drenched in sweat, becoming more anxious the more he thought.
He dared not delay for even a moment, and quickly reported what was happening to the Fourth Candidate Apostle, still engaged in battle with the Three Universal Civilizations.
「？」
The news was simply too shocking—even the Fourth Candidate Apostle was momentarily distracted, taking several free hits from the transcendents of the Three Universal Civilizations.
He quickly regained focus. The situation allowed no time for careful thought. After gritting his teeth, he still gave the order to attack.
「The more it is like this, the more we must quickly uncover Bai Fu’s true nature!」
「Attack! Even if someone has betrayed us, it doesn’t matter. You still have the numbers advantage—and you carry the Inscription of the Dark Progenitor with you!」
Senlan and the others nodded upon receiving the order.
In that case—charge!
Several ships shot rapidly across the starry void, only to be met immediately by enemy ships and coastal defense cannons snapping into combat readiness upon discovering them.
「Ruthless—sending four transcendents directly!」
Using the Endless Domain of Darkness to detect Senlan and his group, Bai Fu immediately recognized who they were.
With four transcendents attacking, no matter how many tricks she had, she could not possibly win.
It seemed this newly built base could not be held.
The good news was that this was not her main body, so she needn’t worry about herself. But after this battle, more than half the ships she had dispatched to the Tub Galaxy would likely be lost.
「Damn it, I’ll definitely need to find a way to retaliate later… eh, wait a minute!」
Bai Fu suddenly realized something.
Although Senlan and his people had used technical means to cut off her external communications, she had still learned the situation from her true body right away thanks to the Paradise Ark cheat.
「The Fourth Candidate Apostle is fighting Winter of the Apocalypse and the others. The remaining four transcendents are all here with me. Doesn’t that mean the Apostle Holy City’s main base—the one near the Black Hole—now has no transcendents at all?」
Bai Fu’s breathing stopped for several seconds. Then she grew ecstatic.
The enemy base lay empty—wasn’t this the perfect chance to attack it?
What, Hei Fu was trapped, Winter of the Apocalypse and the others were entangled, and there were no extra hands?
Don’t joke around—her true body was no decoration!
Far away in the Rebirth Empire, Bai Fu’s true body immediately contacted the Players who were not on Graywind Star but instead sweeping through True Spirit Puppets outside, telling them to use a Big Black Fu card they had bought from her.
Bang!
Big Black Fu descended from the sky.
The next second, Bai Fu used the Apostle’s Body talent to project all her mental and spiritual attributes into this Big Black Fu.
Big Black Fu waved his massive hand.
「Come, I’ll lead you to attack the Apostle Holy City’s main base in the Tub Galaxy.」
Forget fighting here—switching bases was the most advanced tactic of all!