Chapter 353: Poor Élisée, Toyed with in Bai Fu’s Palm
"I was still a bit too hasty, but if I don’t seize this opportunity now to quickly improve my strength, in the future world, I fear there will no longer be any place for me to stand."
Lufas covered his already half-transparent left arm, several traces of sorrow surfacing on his face.
Just a moment ago, he had gone to attack a Void Sovereign with whom he had never gotten along.
Relying on his own versatile abilities, and with the advantage of a sneak attack, he had nearly completed the solo kill.
But at the crucial moment, another Void Sovereign happened to arrive, causing his efforts to fall short.
It could only be said that he was truly unlucky!
If that other Void Sovereign had arrived just two or three minutes later, he would have been able to reap his second Void Sovereign Core. How could it have ended like this, not only gaining no benefit but nearly losing his life instead?
Sinful, utterly sinful!
Lufas’s mentality once again hovered at the edge of collapse.
But in the end, he was not someone who would easily admit defeat, nor accept reality so easily and stop climbing toward greater peaks.
He wanted to win.
As long as he still had a breath left, as long as his fingers could still struggle, he would never simply lie down.
He would tear and gnaw at every morsel of food within sight like a ravenous beast, until he had truly filled his belly!
"Just wait for me. I’ll be back soon!"
A vicious gleam flashed in Lufas’s eyes.
Despite being seriously injured, he did not rush to find a hiding place. Instead, he intended to continue lurking nearby, seeking another chance to strike.
He believed that those two Void Sovereigns would never expect him to have such a move left—this was his chance.
However…
"Hm?"
Only a few minutes later, Lufas was horrified to find an extremely terrifying aura surging in from all directions.
There was no mistaking it—this was the energy fluctuation that only a Void Sovereign could emit.
He felt it: the space around him was rapidly contracting, ready to lock him into a cage.
How could this be?
Lufas was shocked.
He could not think of any way those two Void Sovereigns had found him. Could it be that today he really was going to die here?
No!
Lufas desperately dodged.
But no matter how he struggled, he could not evade the opponent’s lock.
The twisted space chased after him like a living creature, never giving him a chance to breathe.
Because of his injuries, Lufas had no effective countermeasures at this moment. He could only grit his teeth and keep dodging, hoping for a stroke of luck to escape with his life.
This situation continued for a full ten minutes.
Gradually, Lufas noticed something wrong.
The other party seemed to be deliberately toying with him?
For if they truly wanted to kill him, they would have done so long ago—why drag it out?
So Lufas simply stopped, his expression ferocious: "Who? Yuan Shi? Or Funeral Song? Or someone else? If you want to kill me, then come out straightforwardly!"
After his roar, silence continued for another minute.
Just as Lufas’s heart sank deeper, the space before him suddenly rippled.
He quickly retreated a step, tensing his entire body.
The next second, a figure he would never have imagined stepped out of the spatial fluctuation.
"Bai Fu?!"
Lufas’s eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief.
That “girl” with hair as smooth as fresh winter snow and shimmering with a faint light—who else could it be but Bai Fu?
Shocking!
But the problem was—why was it Bai Fu?
"Finding you was really not easy."
Bai Fu smiled.
Fortunately, when she had gotten the Void Sovereign Core and was about to leave, she used her last Blank Skill Card on the Fate-Weaver of the Original Pact, copying from it a skill to find people—【Fate-Thread Traces】. Otherwise, it really wouldn’t have been easy to locate Lufas in such a short time.
Lufas stared fixedly at Bai Fu.
He was pondering a question.
Behind Bai Fu, could another Void Sovereign be hiding?
If so, that meant Bai Fu had allied with other Void Sovereigns.
If not, then didn’t that mean the terrifying mastery of the void just now had come from Bai Fu herself? This…
This was even more terrifying!
"That was you, just now?"
Lufas hadn’t noticed his voice had already begun trembling.
Bai Fu said nothing, raising her right hand to personally demonstrate her void ability before Lufas.
Lufas felt his scalp tingle.
It was really Bai Fu!
His heart sank straight into the abyss.
His enmity with Bai Fu was far deeper than with any other Void Sovereign.
Now, with him grievously injured and Bai Fu unscathed, wielding powerful void abilities and coming for him, no matter how he racked his brains, he could not find the slightest hope of survival.
It was over!
Now, Lufas regretted it.
He shouldn’t have been so hasty to make a move on Bai Fu. If only he had waited—first taken care of the Original Pact and the Void Dimension, and only then stabbed Bai Fu in the back—how would he have ended up in such a miserable state?
"How did you master the power of a Void Sovereign?"
Bai Fu shook her head: "That is something you need not know. Lufas, I offer you two paths."
Lufas froze for a moment: "What paths?"
"The first path, to be killed by me; the second path, to cooperate with me and help me accomplish a few things."
Bai Fu crossed her arms, looking down upon Lufas.
Right now, she had absolute confidence she could handle him.
HP: 14,000,000—equal to 1.4 Oathmasters.
Psionic Value: 24,000,000—equal to 2 Curse Lord Olsons.
Base Inspiration: as high as 27,517, which could instantly surge to 50,000 upon full release.
With such a demi-god body, no complex maneuvers were needed. She could crush Lufas in his current injured state purely through stats.
Bai Fu knew she was strong, and Lufas could feel her strength.
Thus, after she finished speaking, Lufas did not argue. Instead, he silently began to think.
There was no way he could win in a fight.
If he wanted to live, the only option seemed to be becoming Bai Fu’s dog.
But the question was—why would Bai Fu do this?
"If I’m not mistaken, we are mortal enemies."
"We are indeed mortal enemies, but after all your tossing and turning, the threat you pose is still far less than that of the Apostolic Holy City and the Void Dimension. So right now, I am not in a hurry to eliminate you. Lufas, I cannot say I understand your situation thoroughly, but I have grasped the basics. In truth, you have no choice. You’ve provoked the Three Universal Civilizations, the Apostolic Holy City, the Original Pact, the Void Dimension, and me. For you, if you do not wish to die, the best option is to work for me, help me eliminate the Apostolic Holy City and the Void Dimension. That way, for the short term, you won’t have to bear pressure from me or the Three Universal Civilizations. And when the Apostolic Holy City and the Void Dimension move against you, I can lend some assistance."
Bai Fu laid it out clearly.
Lufas had to admit that Bai Fu was right. He truly had no choice but to bow his head, letting Bai Fu slip the noose around his neck.
To survive, he was willing to do so.
But—it was suffocating!
Thinking back to when Bai Fu had first arrived in the Star Sea, she was just a measly little B-rank Psionicist, not even worth a glance in his eyes.
Times had changed. He had become a Void Sovereign, yet Bai Fu had grown even stronger than him.
No.
This was only temporary.
He would never obediently stay beneath Bai Fu.
Once he recovered, once he mastered even greater power, he would definitely kill this troublesome Bai Fu!
Just as a surge of vicious intent rose within Lufas’s heart, Bai Fu’s voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
“...I advise you to put away those little schemes. I am no longer who I was before. Even at your peak, you could never be a match for the current me.”
“？”
Lufas said nothing, only sneering coldly in his heart.
Bragging, huh. Did she even know what 【Lufas】 meant?
Bai Fu: “If you don’t believe me, I’ll tell you the truth. You have no secrets before me. Are you planning to rely on Void Decay, or Annihilation to kill me? Or are you planning to finally use that trump-card talent you’ve been hiding all along—Common Sense Collapse—to send me on my way?”
“What?”
If, upon realizing the person before him was Bai Fu earlier, Lufas had been in a state of first-level shock, then now he was already in tenth-level shock.
That move, Common Sense Collapse, he had only used twice in his entire life, and after becoming Transcendent he hadn’t used it even once. Yet Bai Fu not only knew he had this ability, she even spoke the name of it word for word.
Monster. Bai Fu was the ultimate monster!
Lufas felt genuine fear.
“Say it. What do you want me to do?”
“First, cooperate with me to put on a play—one meant to deceive the Apostolic Holy City.”
Bai Fu began explaining her plan to Lufas.
……
One day later.
As the Three Universal Civilizations were urgently constructing new defensive lines to counter the Apostolic Holy City’s next wave of attacks—
As Élisée was patrolling everywhere with the Players, helping them grind quests and experience—
The long-forgotten Quiet Garden suddenly rocketed to the top of the Starsea’s trending news list.
“Enemy attack!”
The roars of psionic summons and the alarm sirens of mechanical constructs tore through the night.
No one expected that, at this moment, Lufas would suddenly appear and launch an assault on the Esper Garden.
This news shook the entire starry sky.
In an instant, the Three Universal Civilizations, the Apostolic Holy City, the Original Pact—all forces turned their attention to this attack. The Three Civilizations even immediately dispatched reinforcements.
To them, Bai Fu and Bai Fu’s Quiet Garden were of unquestionable importance.
If Bai Fu were to die at Lufas’s hand, then in the drawn-out tug-of-war against the Apostolic Holy City, their situation would become unimaginably dire.
Therefore—Bai Fu must not die!
“I’m going too!”
Élisée’s scalp went numb with panic.
The one under attack—was her mother, ah ah ah!
And her mother was still gravely injured, currently existing only as a phantom soul-body, ah ah ah!
If her mother were to die like this…
Argh ah ah! Lufas, I’ll fight you to the end!
Élisée bolted toward the Esper Garden in a frenzy.
Meanwhile, at the Esper Garden, the battle had reached its climax.
Against Lufas’s advance, the outer True Spirit summons of the Esper Garden fell one after another. Just as he was about to break inside, Bai Fu finally appeared.
Unexpectedly, Bai Fu’s current state was extremely poor.
Under Lufas’s assault, she retreated step by step.
Everyone watching, everyone supporting Bai Fu, felt their hearts twist with fear.
【Everyone, let’s lend Fufu our light together!】
On the other side, those who hated Bai Fu were grinning ear to ear.
【Go on, Big Brother who stands against the whole world!】
The great battle shattered heaven and earth, tearing apart the starry sea.
In the end, Bai Fu unleashed her “trump card.” No one knew how, but she suddenly erupted with overwhelming power, utterly defeating Lufas and forcing him into miserable retreat.
But the price was immediate—at the battle’s conclusion, she collapsed. Her body drifted in the starry sky, unconscious, or perhaps already dead.
Hooray!
The Apostolic Holy City, upon hearing this news, was so overjoyed they nearly jumped for joy. Even the Original Pact, though shocked, was pleased with the outcome.
Unable to kill Bai Fu? Then having her incapacitated, unable to meddle for a while, was just as good.
Someone pour Lufas a cappuccino for his service!
“How could this happen?”
Élisée felt as if the sky itself were collapsing.
That beautiful mother, that caring mother—fake, it was all fake!
Yulia watched Élisée, whose tears were about to fall, with a heavy expression: “Élisée, calm down. Bai Fu hasn’t died yet. She’s just extremely weakened, and then...”
Élisée clutched at the words like a drowning person grasping a lifeline, staring at Yulia with desperate hope.
“She burned herself, which led to...” Yulia pointed at her head, “...here. I mean memory and intellect. Even if she recovers...”
Even if she recovers, she’ll drool, won’t she!
Wuwuwu…
Élisée’s heart collapsed.
“Is there really no way at all? The Three Universal Civilizations can’t do anything? Then what about the other Apostles?”
Yulia: “It’s difficult. The Three Civilizations don’t even know as much about psionics or dark energy as you do. As for the other Apostles—just having them not kill Bai Fu for the sake of the ‘Divine Seat’ is already a miracle. But… it’s not entirely hopeless.”
“Really?”
Élisée’s heart sparked again with a faint hope.
Yulia explained: “First let me be clear—I’m only making this inference from a doctor’s perspective. I’m not certain whether it will work. Bai Fu’s soul is actually intact. That means that in essence, she’s still fine. The reason she lost memory and suffered cognitive damage may be because, when forcibly invoking her power, she triggered a self-protection mechanism. To bring her back to normal, that mechanism must be undone.”
Mm, so that’s how it was. Then—was there anything she could do to help?
Élisée immediately asked.
Yulia thought for a moment: “I fear brute force would only turn Bai Fu into a true fool. So my idea is to use gentler means to ‘wake’ her. How? By trying every way possible to spark her memory resonance, so she herself realizes the outside is no longer dangerous, and comes out of her protection. You, as her daughter, should spend time with her, talk to her about secrets only you two share, or knowledge and abilities only you both understand.”
Élisée nodded at once.
Secrets, knowledge, abilities only she and her mother knew?
There were indeed many.
For example—the method of synthesizing psionics and dark energy.
Understood.
She fully understood!
In the process of helping her mother remember the past, perhaps she herself could also recall the memories she had lost. Truly, killing two birds with one stone!
“Leave it to me! I will definitely awaken my mother!”
Oh, then good luck!
Yulia secretly wiped cold sweat as she watched Élisée, who had been completely tricked into belief.
Bai Fu, you had better pray Élisée doesn’t recover herself first while trying to ‘restore’ you!