Chapter 310: A New Top Donor?
The Painter was not surprised at all by the answer given by the Tigerhead Man.
After all, she had already thought the same way long ago, and it was precisely because of this reason that she had made a move against Bai Fu.
Now she only felt delighted, even though just a moment ago, one of her companions had died at Bai Fu’s hands.
It did not matter—after all, she was not familiar with that person and had never even met them.
What delighted her was that everyone was finally beginning to realize that what she had said was true.
Good.
As long as it was confirmed that Bai Fu was indeed an Apostle, then the next step was simply to figure out which Apostle she actually was. From there, things would be much easier to handle.
An unidentified Bai Fu was hard to deal with, but once her underwear was seen through, dealing with her would become much simpler.
The Painter was full of anticipation, hoping that the Leader’s side could reach a conclusion soon.
Half a day later.
Inside the organization’s temporary stronghold.
The Leader gazed coldly at the two phantoms that appeared before him.
The one on the left had a massive body, like a small mountain. His nickname was the Fate Weaver. His own combat ability was mediocre, but he possessed many wondrous powers—for example, extraordinary toughness, the ability to calculate a target’s past and present, and the ability to inflict lingering curses upon a target through “destiny.”
The one on the right stood in stark contrast to the Fate Weaver. She floated in midair, slightly larger than Xipulis, but unlike the silly Xipulis, even when she did nothing, her whole being radiated a deeply oppressive gloom. She was the Child of Prophecy, and her abilities were to foresee the future and peer into the past. Her prophetic powers were extremely strong, so much so that even the futures of Transcendents could be foreseen.
“This is an ancient relic I spent a long time finding. It will greatly help in peering into destiny. What happens next depends on you.”
The Leader placed a many-faced crystal that glowed faintly blue upon a conical pedestal.
Then, he retreated more than ten steps, leaving space for the Fate Weaver and the Child of Prophecy to work.
The Fate Weaver and the Child of Prophecy exchanged a glance.
“I fear it will not be so smooth.”
The Fate Weaver’s voice was low and heavy.
If Bai Fu’s fate was so easy to pry into, then someone would have already exposed her true identity long ago. Why else would they still need to extract information from the Undying Ones?
Even so, he and the Child of Prophecy still slowly moved before the crystal.
Begin.
Energy was injected into the crystal. Gradually, a thin layer of mist rose around it.
“How is it?” the Leader asked.
“I saw something, but it was very blurry,” said the Child of Prophecy. “I need to get closer.”
The Leader nodded, anticipation growing within him.
Bai Fu—today, I will tear away your disguise!
He fixed his gaze on the faces of the Fate Weaver and the Child of Prophecy. As he stared, he noticed their expressions growing extremely grave, their eyes even flashing with traces of shock.
Shock?
Even if Bai Fu really was an Apostle, that should not have been enough to shock them, right? Could it be that Bai Fu’s true identity was more terrifying than that of an Apostle?
The Leader quickly asked, “What exactly did you see?”
The Fate Weaver frowned. “Mosaic.”
The Leader froze. “You said you saw…”
“Mosaic. That’s right, all I saw was a screen full of mosaic.”
The Leader: “……”
At that moment, the Child of Prophecy shook her head and said gravely, “What I saw was different from his.”
The Leader’s eyes lit up.
Good, good. Although the Fate Weaver had gotten nothing useful, there was still the Child of Prophecy.
“What did you see?”
The Child of Prophecy replied, “I saw a sentence.”
“What sentence?”
‘Please come back later to explore this area.’
The Leader: “……”
Damn it, you bastard!
The Leader nearly erupted in flames.
He understood. He completely understood. Bai Fu must have noticed their attempts to spy on her and was deliberately mocking them!
Fine, fine, if that’s how you want to play!
“Actually,” suddenly, the Child of Prophecy spoke again, “when I was idle before, I foresaw some of the Undying Ones’ futures. At that time, I also saw strange, coded-out images or bizarre phrases. I never thought I would see something similar when peering into Bai Fu. So…”
“You think Bai Fu and those Undying Ones are the same kind of existence?” The Leader suppressed the fury in his heart.
The Child of Prophecy and the Fate Weaver spoke in unison: “That’s what we believe.”
“An undying body… an undying body…”
The Leader chewed over the words.
This did indeed explain why Bai Fu had not died even after taking Helonis’ Supreme Glory head-on.
“She wants to conceal her true identity, but it’s useless now. At this stage, is it really so difficult to guess who she is? She is an Apostle—she must be an Apostle! As for those Undying Ones, they are very likely special True Spirit lives she created by some method. Only that can explain why ordinary means cannot kill them completely!”
An Apostle was not truly immortal, but killing one was extremely difficult.
This was because an Apostle, like the Ethereal Realm, was essentially a projection of the past.
To destroy an Apostle, it was useless to simply shatter its body or erase its soul. Only by erasing its “shadow” within the Ethereal Realm could it be truly destroyed.
The Leader asked, “Other than the mosaic and that sentence, you truly saw nothing else?”
The Fate Weaver and the Child of Prophecy shook their heads.
The Leader frowned deeply. “Which Apostle do you think Bai Fu most resembles?”
The Fate Weaver and the Child of Prophecy exchanged troubled looks.
It was well known that there were eleven Apostles in the Ethereal Realm. This was not a large number, but throughout history, only three or four had been truly familiar to humankind. Even they, who already possessed the method of entering the Ethereal Realm, had only gathered intelligence on seven of them so far.
They thought carefully but found that Bai Fu’s abilities matched none of the seven Apostles they knew.
That meant Bai Fu could only be one among the First Apostle, the Third Apostle, the Fourth Apostle, or the Eleventh Apostle.
These four Apostles were all missing, so very little was known about them. Among them, the First Apostle and the Eleventh Apostle were particularly special.
The First Apostle had established the entire structure of the Ethereal Realm and enjoyed the title of God of the Ethereal Realm.
The Eleventh Apostle, although ranked last, was not the weakest. She simply disliked competition, and that was why she ended up in the final position.
“From the strength Bai Fu has currently displayed, it is still too early to say which one of the four she might be. We have to see whether she can continue to grow in the short term. If she can keep growing, then she is very likely that legendary God of the Ethereal Realm!”
When the Leader uttered the words “God of the Ethereal Realm,” even his breathing unconsciously quickened slightly.
When an Apostle was trapped within the Ethereal Realm, no matter how it struggled, it could not break through the perimeter line.
But once an Apostle escaped from the Ethereal Realm and found a foothold in the main space, the situation became completely different.
“Even if she is the God of the Ethereal Realm, she must be killed!”
The Leader suddenly turned around and shouted at the assistant standing outside the quiet chamber: “Forget the rest. Directly launch an attack against the Rebirth Empire. Once the Holy City of Apostles sees chaos in the Explored Universe, they will step out and cooperate with us!”
“Yes!”
“And leak the news that Bai Fu is an Apostle. We are far from the only ones who oppose Apostles. Give her a few more enemies.”
“Yes!”
The Leader put away the ancient relic.
Excellent.
Next, he personally set out, gathered certain relevant members of the organization, and discussed with them ways to completely kill an Apostle in its prime.
“Bai Fu, wait until we send you a big surprise!”
……
Bai Fu spent an entire day returning to the Gate of Ascension she had opened when she entered the Ethereal Realm.
When she passed through the gate and returned to the Psionic Research Center, Heinz had just finished telling the others what had happened inside the Ethereal Realm.
Buvalo and the rest listened as though hearing a myth, utterly astonished.
If Heinz, their trusted ally, had not said it himself, they would have thought it was complete nonsense.
One against six, and she even killed one of them?
Was she—
＜(￣0￣)d
But they also knew now was not the time to surround Bai Fu with praise. Since Bai Fu and Heinz had returned, Olsen and the others were still inside the Ethereal Realm. They had very likely been attacked by the same strangers, so reinforcements had to be sent immediately.
In these turbulent times, the death of even one Transcendent or a Domination-level being was a huge loss the Rebirth Empire could not bear.
Buvalo hurriedly said, “I’ll report this to His Majesty right away and have him activate Level-Zero Authority to summon Chongxiao and the others to rescue them!”
Level-Zero Authority was a privilege unique to the Emperor of the Empire, higher than that of anyone else, higher even than the Radiant Host, and it symbolized imperial authority.
Within minutes, the Empire’s mobilization order had reached Chongxiao and all other Transcendents not participating in the Battle of Tub.
Since the order had been issued under Level-Zero Authority, Chongxiao and the rest did not decline, but immediately rushed to the Psionic Research Center.
While waiting for their arrival, Bai Fu did not sit idle.
She took the time to publish a trade request in the newly established communication group of the three cosmic-level civilizations—
【Exchange for a mental training method that a non-Mental Esper but a psionicist with willpower comparable to a high-level Calamity can cultivate】
After stealing the skill 【Wall of the Pathseeker】 from Jonas, among the four requirements for transformation, the only two she had yet to meet were her mental attribute and Ethereal Adaptation.
【Willpower - 4373/5000】
【Ethereal Adaptation - 89.2%/90%】
Both requirements were not too hard to reach.
Within just a minute of posting the request, Bai Fu had already received several private messages.
Her position within the three cosmic-level civilizations was far from ordinary, and many people wanted to foster good relations with her.
Bai Fu did not pick and choose—she accepted them all.
Although she could only practice one training method, the surplus could be given to Anya, Xipulis, and Vic to practice.
“With the boost from the Paradise Ark, the mere gap of a little over six hundred willpower points will be filled in no time.”
The only thing troubling Bai Fu now was how to improve her Ethereal Adaptation.
There were two ways.
One was to enhance her body’s psionic potential through gene optimization.
The other was to study more psionic knowledge. Since she had already learned almost all the ordinary psionic knowledge, her only option left was to turn to dark energy knowledge.
To be honest, neither method was easy.
Her body’s psionic talent was already outrageous. Even the enhanced genome of the Radiant Families, who had the highest psionic affinity in the Empire, might not be able to raise her Ethereal Adaptation.
As for dark energy knowledge… the Holy City of Apostles definitely would not share it with her, which left only Olsen and the others, whom she had tricked into the Eternal Night Pure Land.
The problem was that, though Olsen and his group were not the brightest, their vigilance was high. If she went to them for dark energy knowledge right after tricking them, not only would she get nothing, but her favorability would plummet.
“A bit troublesome… what should I do?”
Bai Fu was even prepared to launch a sudden raid on the Holy City of Apostles while they were unguarded and rob their dark energy knowledge.
But just then, she suddenly received new information—
“Dark Lord, news is spreading everywhere outside that you are an Apostle. The headlines of all major news outlets are covering it, and related discussion threads on the forums have surged to the trending list.”
The message was from Whitney of Multidimensional Capital.
Her tone was brimming with joy.
An Apostle, an Apostle!
She was thrilled, but Bai Fu was baffled.
“？”
What the hell?
How had she suddenly become an Apostle?
Though she did wish for people to misunderstand her that way, she had not even begun acting yet. Could it be that Digging-Treasure had posted a new plot-analysis video?
Bai Fu immediately checked the game community, but only found a few newly posted threads.
She was stunned. So the news had not come from the players?
She quickly opened several news websites, and after browsing multiple reports, she realized the news had been released simultaneously from multiple sources and had rapidly spread throughout the entire Explored Universe.
“This must be someone’s secret orchestration… but who?”
Bai Fu frowned.
Damn.
If she could find this person, she would definitely shake their hand hard!
Her savior!
She had been worrying about how to further deceive Olsen and the others, yet someone had now provided a perfect assist.
Bai Fu immediately took her leave from Buvalo, saying she needed to rest outside for a while.
Buvalo did not insist on keeping her—after such a fierce battle, she was not needed again for Olsen’s rescue.
After leaving the Psionic Research Center, Bai Fu released Olsen and the others from the Eternal Night Pure Land under the pretext of letting them get some fresh air.
“You can walk around nearby, familiarize yourselves with the environment. If trouble arises, I’ll rush over immediately.”
Olsen and the others quickly nodded.
Bai Fu was truly a sincere person. If only she really were the descent of the Number Three Apostle, how wonderful that would be.
As they thought so, Olsen and the others suddenly heard voices not far away.
“Have you seen the latest news? They’re saying Bai Fu is an Apostle!”
“I don’t know if it’s true, but what I do know is that all the major media are reporting it. Some people are even calling for Bai Fu to be killed, because if an Apostle descended among us, it surely couldn’t be with good intentions.”
Wait—an Apostle?
Olsen and the others were shocked and immediately looked around.
They found no one speaking, but they did see a giant virtual screen suspended in the sky. On the screen, a blonde news anchor was reading from her script—and her script was the news about Bai Fu being an Apostle.