Chapter 313: Bai Fu, Your Doomsday Has Come
Inside a spacious room filled with bright light.
A humanoid figure, wearing a loose white robe and bearing an oversized head, was glaring with hatred at a row of phantoms standing not far away.
“Are you motherfuckers brain-dead? It’s just preaching, such a simple task, and you still couldn’t do it right. Then what the hell use do I have for you?”
“There’s still one month left until the deadline, yet you’ve only completed 36.742% of the mission. Damn it… I gave you such trust, money, power, manpower—none of it did I withhold from you—and this is how you repay my trust?”
“Trash, trash, all of you are fucking trash!”
Spittle flew across the room.
The captain of Rayas’ Seventh Missionary Team, Nanton, was on the verge of exploding with rage.
When the Holy City of Apostles invaded Rayas civilization, he had been the first to defect to them, thus landing himself such a cushy role as missionary team captain.
His work was simple: convert every Rayasian in the region assigned to him into devout believers of the Holy City’s god.
Though the task seemed single in focus, his authority was immense—even the colonial governor of this area had to obey him.
To repay the Holy City’s trust, he had sworn before their high-ranking figures that he would complete the task in half the time others required.
Yet, a year had passed, the deadline loomed, and he hadn’t even finished half the mission.
If this matter reached the ears of that great figure, even ten lives wouldn’t save him.
He was wrong. He should never have hired fellow Rayasians out of misplaced kinship.
He had given them the greatest leniency, defended them everywhere, yet they schemed for his life and slandered him behind his back.
Damn it!
Nanton, fuming, steeled himself and resolved to use his final measure.
“I told you long ago—if preaching doesn’t go smoothly, you can use the Holy Light Bombs. Seems you completely ignored my words. I’ll give you one last chance—no matter the means, within the next half-month you must make up the deficit!”
His furious roar made the row of phantoms before him tremble in fear, hurriedly voicing assent.
“Get lost. If you can’t complete the task, find a quiet place to end your lives yourselves, or don’t blame me for turning you all into Seeds of Faith!”
Nanton cursed and ended the remote meeting with his subordinates.
Pah.
He spat harshly.
Just as he intended to step outside for air, a sudden, stabbing pain pierced the depths of his mind.
“What’s happening?”
The thought had barely surfaced before he collapsed to the floor with a thud, losing consciousness.
“Anya.”
Bai Fu called toward the door.
The next moment, the door opened automatically, and Anya stepped inside.
“Boss, leave it to me.”
The Needle of Sin and Punishment went to work, and in moments successfully extracted Nanton’s memories.
After viewing them, Bai Fu’s lips twitched. “Well now. Ruse even asked me to save him, claiming he was Rayas’ hero. Said that when Rayas was invaded and all lived in terror, he charged without hesitation with a fleet at the Holy City of Apostles… Turns out he simply used the charge as a cover to surrender.”
Nanton’s scumminess didn’t end there.
He embodied all the worst traits of a traitor.
After becoming one, he treated his own people even more cruelly than the Holy City did.
Moreover, while committing various atrocities, he constantly made excuses for himself, dressing them up as “bearing the heavy burden.” He used those excuses to PUA the Rayasians he recruited as labor.
He recruited them not out of kindness or protection, but because those of the Holy City despised him—he could only command Rayasians.
But beyond his traitorous history, Bai Fu cared about two things in particular.
First, the Holy City of Apostles had stationed an advanced research team in Rayas civilization’s former capital star.
Second, while pushing their policy of converting all conquered people into believers of their god, they avoided using brainwashing. They instead preferred coercion, inducement, and subtle re-education.
In Nanton’s memories, he had once asked his superior why they didn’t simply use psionic brainwashing to instantly convert all Rayasians. The result? He was scolded like a dog.
“There’s something off. From this alone, it’s clear the Holy City’s conversion is not merely about【conquest】, but something deeper!”
Bai Fu glared at Nanton, psionic force bursting forth, killing him outright.
Then, she locked his soul into a “Glass Orb,” and tossed it into the Eternal Night Pure Land.
To understand the situation, she needed to investigate that advanced research team sent by the Holy City. If lucky, she might even obtain cutting-edge Dark Energy Knowledge there.
“Let’s go.”
Bai Fu left the room with Anya. Yet before they had gone far, a massive explosion erupted at the base of the kilometer-high tower they were in.
Immediately after, the entire city’s skies were sealed by datastreams—no network signals could break through.
“We’ve been discovered?”
Anya was shocked.
Bai Fu patted her shoulder. “Calm down. They’re not here for us—they’re here to kill Nanton.”
Below the tower, tens of thousands of Rayasians, shouting, stormed the blasted entrance. In the skies, hundreds of small flyers roared straight toward the tower.
“Captain Nanton, it’s bad!”
“Quick, contact the Holy City—these rioters have gone mad!”
A dozen white-robed Rayasians rushed up to Nanton’s office floor in panic. But when they flung open the door, they saw not Nanton, but a petite alien utterly unlike them.
“You are—”
“Shut up!”
Countless deep-purple threads shot from Anya’s palm, instantly piercing and killing over a dozen S- to S+-level espers.
Before their bodies could hit the ground, the approaching flyers outside the tower opened fire.
biubiubiu——
Under the relentless blasts of energy beams and rounds, the tower’s defenses soon collapsed. Walls blew open with hole after hole, rubble piled in the corridors, smoke billowed—the scene was apocalyptic.
“We did it!”
“Kill Nanton—don’t let the traitor escape!”
“Everyone, with me!”
Amid shouts, hundreds leapt from their flyers. Leading them were some of those Nanton had scolded earlier. They quickly slipped through breaches into the corridors.
They intended to storm Nanton’s office and hack him into pieces.
But then terror struck.
An invisible force rippled through the corridor. All who touched it felt as if sunk in a swamp, unable to move. Many hung frozen in midair, unable even to fall.
What’s happening?
They looked around, finally fixing their gaze on two aliens—one tall, one short; one black, one white; one large, one flat—the contrast striking.
“Damn, Nanton actually prepared for this!”
“We’re finished.”
The rebels’ excitement froze into despair.
Anya turned to Bai Fu. “Boss, they’ve seen us. What do we do now?”
Bai Fu stepped forward. “You came to kill Nanton.”
Her eyes locked on the only peak S+ Rayasian present.
Van Buren—that was the name she had gleaned from Nanton’s memory.
A transcendent aura pressed down like a mountain, suffocating all in its reach.
Yet under Bai Fu’s gaze, Van Buren did not fall.
“Yes. We didn’t expect you to be prepared, so our efforts were wasted. I’ve nothing more to say. If you want to kill me, then do it.”
“Nanton is already dead.”
Bai Fu spoke, dragging Nanton’s corpse with her psionic field, tossing it at Van Buren’s feet.
Van Buren’s pupils shrank sharply, completely unprepared for such a turn of events.
To slip silently into this tower and, in the brief span between finishing their talk with Nanton and the uprising beginning, kill Nanton—just how terrifying was the strength of these two aliens?
A higher Calamity-level?
Or a Dom…
“I am Transcendent.”
Bai Fu seemed to pierce straight into Van Buren’s heart.
The moment the words fell, under the shockwave of her psionic power, the tower beneath her feet instantly shattered into countless tiny particles.
Those particles surged into the sky like a flood, whirling together to form a colossal black dragon. It pierced through sunlight, burst into the atmosphere, and, like a missile, slammed into a warship plummeting from above.
Boom!
The warship exploded in the skies, leaving behind a blinding flare of light.
Van Buren swallowed hard.
He didn’t know if Bai Fu truly was Transcendent. He only knew this was a power he had never before witnessed.
That warship was a Creed-class ship of the Holy City of Apostles. Normally, its shields could even withstand a higher Calamity-level attack—yet it had been destroyed so easily.
Such horror!
“You, you…”
Van Buren’s mouth hung open, unable to form a complete sentence.
Bai Fu smirked faintly. “Do you hate the Holy City of Apostles?”
At those words, Van Buren’s face twisted with fury. “How could I not hate them?”
Bai Fu said, “But you’re too weak. With your strength, don’t speak of destroying the Holy City—even killing one of their colonial governors is beyond you.”
Van Buren had no reply, only a bitter sense of frustration in his chest.
Tang Sui could brandish his sword to threaten the First Emperor of Qin, saying, “If the warrior is enraged, two corpses shall fall, five steps shall flow with blood, and the world shall don mourning white,” forcing the Emperor to restrain himself. But in a star sea where individual strength could snuff out stars with a flip of the hand, the fury of a warrior, no matter how fierce, meant nothing.
Such was the cruelty of the star sea.
“I know I’m weak. But even so, I will resist. Rather than be brainwashed by the Holy City into becoming a Seed of Faith, I’d rather die. Now… now it’s fine. Nanton the traitor is dead. Though not by my hand, he’s dead. That makes this operation worthwhile.”
Van Buren seemed resigned to his fate.
Bai Fu said, “Do you want to live? Do you want to continue taking revenge on the Holy City of Apostles?”
Van Buren and the others around him raised their heads abruptly. “What do you mean?”
Bai Fu said, “Nanton is dead. You can take his place, infiltrate the Holy City, and uncover their secrets—for example, why they insist on turning people of other civilizations into Seeds of Faith. Don’t worry, if you agree, I can help you fool the Holy City’s probing. I can even claim responsibility for this assault, making you, instead of an attacker, a hero who braved danger to save Nanton. So—will you await the Holy City’s purge, or accept my offer? Think carefully.”
Van Buren’s face shifted.
It was a good offer, the only issue being—if he took Nanton’s place, he would inherit Nanton’s task of brainwashing Rayasians.
That, he could never accept.
If he could, why would he have come to kill Nanton?
Then Bai Fu suddenly said, “I can undo the Holy City’s brainwashing.”
“Really?”
Everyone present stared at her in disbelief—except Anya, who simply curled her lips.
Was that difficult? Their boss was omnipotent!
Bai Fu casually grabbed a brainwashed Rayasian, and right before their eyes, freed him from control.
For a Transcendent-level Psionic Prayer-user wielding the Paradise Ark, it was child’s play.
Witnessing this, Van Buren made his decision.
“Even if, during infiltration, you’ll bear endless curses from your people, will you still do it?”
“I will!”
“Even if, in infiltration, you’re exposed and die violently, never clearing your name, will you still do it?”
“I will!”
“You’re an excellent warrior. Take this—it’s a method to raise you to Calamity-level.”
Bai Fu handed Van Buren a document.
The instant he accepted it, his favorability toward her soared to 82.
“I only have two questions left. Who are you? What do you seek?”
Van Buren’s eyes burned with curiosity.
Bai Fu smiled. “An Apostle. Not the same as the Holy City’s Apostles. I came here… to bury the Holy City of Apostles!”
Van Buren almost forgot everything that followed, but never the blazing, unrestrained vitality radiating from Bai Fu as she spoke those words.
He had never believed in gods before.
But now, he did. Bai Fu was his god.
Half a day later.
The Holy City of Apostles’ people arrived.
They thoroughly inspected the scene, questioning Van Buren, his companions, and all witnesses. Yet they found nothing unusual.
Except for him, no one else remembered what truly happened that day.
All they knew was that a terrorist attack had struck. A Creed-class warship and Nanton were lost. Rumors said the attackers were remnants of a civilization once crushed by the Holy City.
Since Van Buren hadn’t fled during the disaster but instead rushed to save Nanton—though he saved nothing—he had seen the number and side profiles of the attackers. So, the Holy City appointed him to replace Nanton.
From that moment, he could meet the high officials overseeing Rayas.
He also knew from that moment the pressure on him would be immense. But for Rayas, it was worth it.
……
“Boss, even if Van Buren reaches Calamity-level, and rises higher in the Holy City, he still won’t be much help to us.”
Anya and Ying Fu were both puzzled by Bai Fu’s move.
After all, altering memories was simple. Even without their boss (or elder sister), they could have managed it.
Bai Fu explained, “The Holy City surely tampered with the souls of their core members. Even if we captured one, we might not learn anything. But by planting pieces like Van Buren within them, surprises may come. And…”
Van Buren’s value went beyond that.
As his favorability grew and he became her believer, she could use him as a ‘signal base station’ to do much.
For instance, suddenly undoing brainwashing across a wide area centered on him.
Bai Fu wasn’t worried about Van Buren being exposed.
She hadn’t used her real appearance when meeting him. And when explaining her true identity, she had only said “Apostle.”
If the Holy City learned an Apostle was watching them—how would they react?
That would be exciting.
Would the deeply hidden Number Four Apostle still remain hidden then?
“From here on, we need more ‘Van Burens’ inside the Holy City. One Sui Xi and one Van Buren are far from enough. I want the Holy City filled with my signal base stations!”
Bai Fu narrowed her eyes.
Beyond that, there was another reason she helped Van Buren.
By taking the blame for the attack herself, she had shifted all the Holy City’s attention in Rayas onto the incident.
“Time to go chat with that advanced research team stationed in Rayas.”
With Anya and Ying Fu in tow, Bai Fu quickly flew toward Rayas’ capital star.
This time, she wasn’t sneaking.
The Holy City truly believed remnants of another civilization had come to Rayas. She could openly cause trouble under that guise.
Charge ahead!
……
Three days later.
Holy City of Apostles.
A hurried cleric approached Sui Xi.
“What happened?”
The cleric said, “Saint, our researchers in Rayas were attacked by a pack of wild dogs. The Supreme Apostle is furious. He sent me to inform you—he wants you to handle it.”
So that was it.
Sui Xi nodded. “Understood. Tell the Supreme Apostle I’ll set out today.”
The cleric added, “Followers of the Hall of True Spirits will accompany you. Don’t worry, you’re in charge this time—they’ll obey your orders.”
After sending the cleric off, Sui Xi gathered her things and went to join the assigned followers at the Hall of True Spirits.
Then, aboard a top-class battleship, they set out for the Rayas starfield.
Many traveled with them, including Players. Among them was Wind-rises-among-Stars, Sui Xi’s number one fan.
Watching the port shrink into the distance, Wind-rises-among-Stars felt his chest surge with pride.
Hahaha.
Now Sui Xi could command Domination-level followers and stand on her own. At last, the era of Sui Xi was coming?
Bai Fu, when Sui Xi rises, it will be your doomsday—even being an Apostle won’t save you!