Chapter 326: Bai Fu’s Effort and Sweat
“Sigh.”
Watching Bai Fu’s departing back, Dmitri could not help but let out a deep sigh.
If it were possible, he truly wished he could take Bai Fu’s place in performing the rear-guard duty.
As a man of the Iron-Blood Empire, what he cared about had never been personal glory or safety, but the Empire’s interests; in his view the Empire’s interests were above all else, including the Emperor.
Between him and Bai Fu, it was obvious that Bai Fu was the one who could make the Rebirth Empire develop better.
But Bai Fu was right: with his abilities and characteristics, he simply could not do the rear-guard job.
In terms of sheer strength alone, there were actually quite a few people in the allied forces suitable for doing the rear-guard.
For example, the Empire’s senior partner Chongxiao, for example the Dragon God of the Supernova Legion, and also the Titan Industries affiliate Master of the Whirlpool.
They all had the ability to restrain a large number of similarly ranked psionicists in a short time.
However, no one trusted them to do a rear-guard task like this.
Chongxiao was a partner of the Empire, but he was also the shepherd of the Mechfire Sect — could he really go so far as to sacrifice himself for the lives of the other allied forces?
It was unlikely.
Among this allied force, there was only Bai Fu who could do that and make others believe it.
“Sigh.”
Dmitri sighed again.
At this point, fretting was useless; they had to find a way to break out first — alive was the only condition that allowed speaking of the future.
“Begin.”
Dmitri exchanged glances with the others in the cockpit.
Then they split into several small teams, flew out of the ship’s cockpit in succession, and, according to the plan they had agreed on earlier, cooperated with Bai Fu to launch a feint attack toward the Holy City of Apostles.
……
“Pah, these scumbags really never let one catch a break — they were just driven back a short while ago and they’re already charging up again. Do they not fear death, or have they still not realized the gap between us?”
Near the temporary stargate of the Holy City of Apostles, a transcendent-class follower about seven or eight meters tall, who looked like a yaksha demon, spat and could not help but speak.
Another transcendent-class follower nearby snorted, “Wait until we kill a few of them and we’ll see whether they truly don’t fear death or only pretend not to.”
Those words provoked a round of laughter.
But not everyone was laughing.
Liet did not laugh.
He was calculating how best to sell out his teammates in a way that would both teach a lesson to the Supreme Apostle who wanted to frame him and weaken the influence of Cathedral Number Four, and also leave no obvious flaws for the Supreme Apostle to pick on.
The people of the Hall of True Spirits did not laugh.
They were watching Liet; after seeing his solemn expression, they increasingly suspected that Liet was the mole Bai Fu had planted inside the Holy City of Apostles.
Senlan did not laugh either.
He was thinking about what he could do to dispel others’ suspicions of him.
The best way, naturally, would be for him to personally eliminate Bai Fu — but he did not have that capability.
In that odd atmosphere, the followers of the Holy City of Apostles charged out through the temporary stargate.
A great battle thus erupted.
Roaring energies collided in the starry void, scraping open rifts in space one after another.
Brilliant colored lights intertwined in the Eternal Night, painting the whole starry sky as if it were a bewildering phantom realm.
During the fight, the people of the Holy City of Apostles suddenly realized something was wrong.
“Where is Bai Fu?”
As one of the allied forces’ main combatants, Bai Fu had been extremely active in the previous clashes.
But this time they not only did not see Bai Fu, they had not even seen Kabaya or the Prayer Angel.
Where there’s something odd, there’s usually a trick!
“Quick, search the vicinity — we must find Bai Fu!”
At the thought of Bai Fu’s past achievements, those from the Holy City of Apostles felt a faint pressure.
They currently held the great advantage; if, with such advantage in hand, the allied forces still managed to turn the tables, how could they ever face the Holy City of Apostles again?
“Their attention on the Holy City side has already been drawn away by Bai Fu — prepare to withdraw.”
Seeing that the Holy City of Apostles’ forces were being mobilized, Delano and the others immediately moved to the second step of the plan.
They deliberately pretended to be overmatched and gradually retreated toward the ship.
But their withdrawal was very slow, as if afraid the enemy would fail to catch up.
“This is wrong — they’re trying to lure us away. Return, hurry back!”
The Chief of the Tribunal shouted immediately over the psionic comms channel.
However, as they were about to turn back, the allied forces immediately tangled with them again.
At the same time, space near the temporary stargate suddenly burst with an extremely strange fluctuation; when the fluctuation dissipated, a smaller stargate entrance had appeared out of thin air nearby.
Swish!
The next second, Bai Fu charged out of the stargate with Kabaya, the Prayer Angel, and the Eye of Sorrow, aiming straight for the nearby temporary stargate.
“It truly was a diversion to the east and attack to the west — don’t get entangled with those people. Kill Bai Fu first; under no circumstances allow her into the lane!”
The Chief of the Tribunal’s face changed dramatically.
At his rebuke, those followers who had been chasing the allied forces stopped and rushed toward the temporary stargate.
“Go.”
Watching the followers of the Holy City of Apostles disappear into the distance, Delano stepped forward a few paces and patted Dmitri on the shoulder.
“I know you feel distressed, but now is not the time to hesitate. We don’t have much time left — don’t let Bai Fu’s efforts be for nothing.”
Dmitri said, “I understand. I only wanted to watch a little longer, after all…”
Ha.
As he spoke he suddenly gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
Go on then — standing here and watching longer meant nothing. There were hundreds of millions of kilometers between here and the Holy City’s temporary stargate; even with his eyesight, he could not truly see Bai Fu — let alone the battle situation over there.
Thus Dmitri followed the main force back into the ship.
Until the ship jumped and departed, he stood by the porthole like a statue, dazed.
He had many things he wanted to say, but all those thousands of words boiled down to one sentence —
“She was a hero, no less than Emperor Ignatz’s heroes.”
Though he could not burn alongside the hero, at least the hero’s flame had to illuminate the entire Explored Universe.
……
Near the temporary stargate.
Facing the followers of the Holy City of Apostles charging in from all directions, Bai Fu was not afraid; she became excited.
When Dmitri and the others launched the feint attack at the Holy City of Apostles, she had triggered a new mission.
【Lonely Night Watcher】
【Mission Briefing: …】
【Objective: Cover the allied forces of the Three Cosmic-level Civilizations as they withdrew】
【Rewards: 10 billion XP, [Titan Holy Shield] equipment skill card *5, Psionic Activation Potion (Transcendent)】
The experience reward was not huge, but among the three prizes the Psionic Activation Potion was a god-tier item that would drive all psionic priests crazy.
【Upon use, it greatly increased the user’s inspiration, inspiration-to-psionic-value conversion rate, and psionic recovery speed】
Such generous rewards meant the mission would be very difficult to complete.
But Bai Fu was not worried at all.
As if she cared.
She was no longer Bai Fu — she was Super Bai Fu!
If any player had been nearby, they would have stared in terror to see hundreds of buffs hanging after her name!
Critical immunity, true-damage immunity, death-immunity, huge physical damage reduction, huge psionic resistance increase, fictive life, dark-energy absorption, dark-energy protection, Titan Holy Shield, enhanced HP regen, void absorption with auto-heal…
Her stats, her HP, her psionic bar — everything had been exaggeratedly amplified; moreover, her attacks applied all sorts of debuffs!
“Come on then, let me see your strength! Let’s see whether you kill me first, or whether you receive news of Cathedral Number Four being attacked first!”
Bai Fu dove headlong into the encirclement ahead.
At this moment, whether herself or those from the Holy City of Apostles, everyone understood the charm of a numbers/values aberration.
“Holy crap, what is this thing?”
Those of the Holy City of Apostles were stunned.
The allied forces had executed a feint from the east to attack the west, letting Bai Fu suddenly appear before the temporary stargate. That both alarmed and exhilarated them.
This was their crisis, but also their chance to utterly kill Bai Fu!
However…
Why was Bai Fu so damn tough?
And why could she have two shields active that should have contradicted each other?
Bai Fu smiled.
“Hmph! Yes, you have many people, and your strength was indeed not weak.”
“But if you thought you could quickly kill me because of that, that would be far too naive.”
“Don’t underestimate the hard (kai) work (gua) and sweat (kengmeng) (guaipian) I’ve always put in!”
Under hundreds and thousands of attacks, Bai Fu forced her way into the temporary stargate.
This was something the Holy City of Apostles had never dreamed of — in fact, Bai Fu herself had not expected she could actually break through the crowd and enter the temporary stargate.
Blame it on the Holy City’s transcendent-class composition being too uniform — mostly psionic priests. If their damage had been more diverse, for example if a few high-attack, high-agility martial artists had been present, Bai Fu certainly would not have been able to cross this hurdle and would have been beaten senseless.
But there are no such ifs.
“What are you all staring at — you must stop her!”
The Chief of the Tribunal roared at the stunned masses.
No one dared delay: some stayed to defend the temporary stargate while others followed the Chief of the Tribunal into it; Liet was among them, following voluntarily.
“It seems the perfect chance to sell out teammates I’d been waiting for has come.”
Liet’s gaze swept over the Chief of the Tribunal.
If he could trick the Chief of the Tribunal, the top lackey of the Supreme Apostle, to his death, that would be a wonderful thing!