Chapter 363: The Path of Evolution, the Sacrificial Ritual
From the moment the Supreme God’s disciple realized that Bai Fu’s power was growing far faster than expected, an inescapable cloud of unease settled over his heart.
Even when the Apostolic Holy City successfully repelled the desperate counterattack from the Three Universal Civilizations, then pressed forward to capture territories in sweeping victory, he still could not smile.
Unless the Apostolic Holy City could use this wave of triumph to completely annihilate the Three Universal Civilizations and help him gather all the faith seeds and divine fire he needed, all of this meant nothing to him.
He had never cared whether the Apostolic Holy City could become ruler of the cosmos.
That had nothing to do with him anyway.
The Apostolic Holy City was never a tightly structured national organization.
What he truly cared about was only himself—and that group of people from the place where he was born.
To him, the Apostolic Holy City was nothing more than a stepping stone that could help him reach the end of the Path of Evolution.
Whether that stepping stone was solid or shaky, as long as it could hold him up successfully, it was a good stepping stone.
Before Bai Fu appeared, the Supreme God’s disciple’s plan had been proceeding extremely smoothly. Though there had been occasional small obstacles, none had affected the overall situation.
But once Bai Fu appeared, everything changed.
Bai Fu brought small obstacles, medium obstacles, and large obstacles—so many that when gathered together, they formed a colossal one capable of severing his entire Path of Evolution!
It was a burden too heavy to bear.
The Supreme God’s disciple clearly remembered how much effort he had spent and how many things he had sacrificed for that goal.
If he were to fail in the end, how could he face his past self? Would those who were sacrificed think their deaths had been meaningless?
“In a short time, it’s impossible for me to completely kill Bai Fu, because I have no idea where her other body is. In that case, even if I wanted to implant the Death Factor of the Ethereal God separated from the Fourth Apostle into her, there’s no target.”
The Supreme God’s disciple drew a deep breath.
If he couldn’t locate Bai Fu’s other body, then he couldn’t stop her from continuing to grow stronger. Once Bai Fu regained the position of the Ethereal God, his own Path of Evolution would be severed.
To keep his path from ending here, there was only one thing he could do—
Seize the “Divinity” of the Ethereal God before Bai Fu could!
As long as he occupied that position first, then no matter what Bai Fu did afterward, she would never be able to affect his path again.
To achieve that goal, the Supreme God’s disciple decisively abandoned the Apostolic Holy City’s main fleet and flew straight toward the Holy Land Star.
He had to retrieve something—an object buried beneath the Holy Land Star, a tree that, at first glance, resembled a tangled pair of yin-yang fish.
What he didn’t know was that this unusual move of his had utterly bewildered everyone.
The Three Universal Civilizations were thrown into panic, fearing he had uncovered their secret plan and disappeared because of it.
The Fourth Apostle and the followers of the Apostolic Holy City who had defected to him were equally alarmed, worrying that he had seen through their schemes.
When the Original Pact received the news, they immediately sent the Child of Prophecy and the Fate-Weaver to peer into his destiny—where he had gone, and whether they should continue assisting the Three Universal Civilizations.
Among everyone, the calmest of all was none other than Bai Fu, whose very actions had driven the Supreme God’s disciple into overthinking and altering his plans at the last minute.
The Supreme God’s disciple had vanished?
Oh, that was indeed surprising.
But it was fine.
If he wanted to disappear, let him disappear. As long as he didn’t suddenly return to the Holy Land Star, it didn’t matter at all!
Bai Fu quietly waited for good news from the Three Universal Civilizations.
Despite their worries, the allied forces of the Three Universal Civilizations held nothing back in their assault on the Apostolic Holy City’s warships that had fallen into the Distant-Pit Plan.
Regardless of whether the Apostolic Holy City had hidden strategies, they would first annihilate those trapped enemies before thinking of anything else.
If they hesitated, looked both ways, or held back, they might end up gaining nothing—and worse, be attacked from both sides by the Apostolic Holy City and suffer even heavier losses.
This time, the Three Universal Civilizations had made the right gamble!
Because the Supreme God’s disciple had vanished without warning and no one could contact him afterward, those trapped within the Distant Pit had no choice but to suspect that he had betrayed them.
What? You say the Supreme God’s disciple would never sell us out?
Then the only other possibility was that he was dead—otherwise, why hadn’t he responded?
Pick one. Between those two guesses, one had to be true!
Whichever the truth was, morale among the Apostolic Holy City’s troops trapped in the Distant Pit crumbled in reality.
And in warfare at this level, the collapse of morale had disastrous consequences.
Internal accusations, rage-filled betrayals, surrendering with hands raised…
A flood of chaotic actions surged forth all at once. Though some still resisted to the death, hoping to break through the Distant Pit with sheer blood-fueled courage, they were far too few to change the tide.
“We’ve won…? We’re really winning?”
Bualois stared fixedly at the virtual screen before him, feeling as if he were dreaming.
In his earliest prediction, in order to eliminate the Apostolic Holy City forces trapped in the Distant Pit, the Three Universal Civilizations would have to pay a grievous price.
But now, their casualties barely reached one-third of what he had initially estimated.
That wasn’t just a win—it was an overwhelming victory!
After this battle, the Apostolic Holy City would be unable to launch another massive offensive anytime soon and would be forced to retreat their lines. And that was their opportunity.
As long as they seized the moment to absorb the dark energy and void knowledge Bai Fu had brought back, and raised their own levels as much as possible, perhaps one day they could even counterattack the Apostolic Holy City’s home territory.
Goruja placed a hand on Bualois’s shoulder and said in a calm voice, “No. It’s not time to celebrate yet. If the Supreme God’s disciple of the Apostolic Holy City returns with reinforcements now, we could still lose everything.”
“You’re right.”
Bualois forced down his excitement.
Would reinforcements come?
The answer was—absolutely not!
The Supreme God’s disciple noticed the flood of distress signals only after he had already crossed deep into the Apostolic Holy City’s domain. By then, half a day had passed since the Three Universal Civilizations had begun their counterattack.
“A trap?”
The Supreme God’s disciple was greatly shocked.
But surprise aside, he had no intention of turning back for rescue.
To hell with that.
There was no time left.
The key was Bai Fu—yes, Bai Fu!
However…
As he was about to shut off his communication device, the Supreme God’s disciple suddenly thought of a plan.
“Just now I was fretting about how to gather them together — isn’t this opportunity knocking right now?”
He could not help but laugh.
This was a godsend!
Go!
The Supreme God’s disciple sped toward the Holy Land Star even faster; while en route, he contacted all followers who were inside the Apostolic Holy City or stationed on other fronts.
“The Three Universal Civilizations are feigning defeat. The front-line main forces have carelessly fallen into a trap they set up in advance. The situation is now precarious. Everyone, assemble at the Holy Land Star immediately. We must concentrate our strength and rescue those who fell into the trap!”
“Everyone sortie? What if the Apostle hiding in the shadows and its followers launch an attack now?”
“Who has time to worry about that? If we can’t rescue those people, the Three Universal Civilizations will pin us down. If something unexpected happens during that time, we’ll all be doomed!”
The Supreme God’s disciple’s “urgent” roar made the others nod.
Indeed, it really did not seem like there was time for other considerations now.
The only problem was…
After the call ended, those followers who had secretly reached agreements with the Fourth Apostle all turned their gazes toward the Fourth Apostle.
Given the current situation, shouldn’t the plan to act against the Supreme God’s disciple be postponed?
If they continued with the plan right now, the chance of success should be fairly high — after all, the Supreme God’s disciple now seemed wholly focused on rescuing the fleets trapped in the pit and certainly would not be guarding against them.
But if they acted at this junction and triggered internal strife, it would effectively assist the Three Universal Civilizations in repelling the Apostolic Holy City’s invasion.
The Fourth Apostle, of course, understood this reasoning.
It pondered for a long time and finally decided to hold off.
It would strike the Supreme God’s disciple only after crushing the Three Universal Civilizations.
That way, once things succeeded, it would no longer have to face both the Three Universal Civilizations and the Original Pact at the same time; it would have ample time to remove those negative statuses on itself and completely replace the First Apostle to become the new Ethereal God.
“On the day I become a god, the Ethereal Realm will return to reality!”
The Fourth Apostle harbored grand ambitions: it wanted to open a brand-new great era and make psionics and dark energy the world’s truth!
The Fourth Apostle informed the others of its decision.
“Prepare as quickly as possible. If the rescue is timely, we might still turn the tide, push deep, and invade the homelands of the Three Universal Civilizations! Then we can deal with the Supreme God’s disciple afterwards!”
Under the Fourth Apostle’s orders, those who had pledged themselves to it began to act.
When the Supreme God’s disciple arrived at the Holy Land Star, most of them had already gathered before the great statue; the sky and the space above the atmosphere were densely packed with ships — the entire Holy Land Star looked like a gigantic beehive.
“?”
Bai Fu watched in speechless disbelief.
What was happening?
Damn it, why had the Supreme God’s disciple suddenly returned, and why were the other members of the Apostolic Holy City also at the Holy Land Star — could her plan have been exposed?
Impossible.
Except for Hiye, Yulia, and a few others, she had not told anyone her true plan.
And Hiye, Yulia, and the others would absolutely never do anything against her interest.
So did the Player accidentally leak information?
That was impossible too.
She had pulled the Player away from the battlefield of the Fourth Squadron to near the Holy Land Star, and during the transfer she had deliberately wrapped all the Players in ethereal bubbles.
From the transfer until now, the Players had no idea where they were; their maps only showed a patch of gray mist.
If they did not even know where they were, how could the Players have leaked intel?
“This is weird.”
Bai Fu’s brow furrowed.
Now was not the time to strike. Even if she had newly acquired skills, skill cards, or recovery potions, with her current strength it was impossible for her alone to defeat both the Supreme God’s disciple and the Fourth Apostle.
If she could complete the fourth metamorphosis, that would be another story — but hadn’t she not yet finished that metamorphosis quest?
In fact, ever since she had stolen Élisée’s method for synthesizing Ethereal Realm Particles, Bai Fu was no longer far from completing the fourth metamorphosis.
She now had only one remaining requirement unmet—
Omniscient One (Among the Stars — Plot Exploration) -7.3%/8%
The problem was that making up this final 0.7% of plot exploration for Among the Stars was extremely difficult.
Recently Bai Fu had had Yulia and the Players help her collect all sorts of secrets, but those secrets only increased plot exploration in certain regions, not for the entire Among the Stars storyline.
One could only say fate had not cooperated; Bai Fu never dreamed she would be stalled at the last step like this — at first she had thought the condition would be easy to meet.
“Wait and see, maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
Because both the Fourth Apostle and the Supreme God’s disciple were present, Bai Fu refrained from asking Sui Xi anything.
If she accidentally exposed Sui Xi, the situation might become even worse.
…
After arriving at the Holy Land Star, the Supreme God’s disciple did not go meet the Fourth Apostle first; he went to the underground chamber he had carefully prepared.
After confirming that everything in the cellar was intact, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Soon.
The moment he had been waiting for was nearing.
A few minutes later, the Supreme God’s disciple walked out of the cellar with a calm face.
The Fourth Apostle approached him. “A few people haven’t arrived yet; time is tight. I suggest we don’t wait and set off — let them catch up on their own.”
Gazes shifted.
Unexpectedly, the Supreme God’s disciple rejected the proposal.
“Not in a hurry.”
“?”
Now you tell me we’re not in a hurry?
But the Supreme God’s disciple insisted on waiting; the others had no choice but to continue waiting. They waited for nearly half an hour before those few latecomers finally arrived.
The Supreme God’s disciple said, “The number is about right. Although a few are still missing, it no longer affects the overall plan.”
He stopped, turned, and nodded to the Fourth Apostle at his side.
“Now, it’s time to depart!”
Before the Fourth Apostle could react, he raised his right hand without warning and clapped from his palm a viscous black liquid like ink, which shot straight into the Fourth Apostle’s body.
The next second, the ground began shaking uncontrollably; cracks spread like spiderwebs, and from those fissures branches — some white, some black — sprang up and shot like blades at the Apostolic Holy City followers standing on the surface.
“What’s happening?”
“Supreme God’s disciple, what are you doing?”
“Bastard!”
In an instant, the area descended into chaos.
Everyone was stunned, including Bai Fu who watched from afar — no one had expected the Supreme God’s disciple to act at this moment.
A ferocious grin spread across the Supreme God’s disciple’s face.
“I didn’t have time to gather enough fuel outside. Since that’s the case, I’ll use you as fuel. Your deaths will be glorious; with your lives as firewood I will smelt out a true god, a god more real than the Ethereal God — hahahaha!”
His arrogant laughter rippled across the surface.
Amid the laughter, the Supreme God’s disciple’s body slowly floated into the air, supported by the branches; he spread his arms and faced the raging wind.
At that moment he did not look like a god — he looked more like the demonic kin that had troubled the Three Universal Civilizations for a long time!