Chapter 378: Heavy Blow to the Original Pact
When Ignaz discovered that the Tear of the Universe had successfully fused with a living organism, he immediately stopped being anxious.
Run, then.
No matter where Bai Fu fled to this time, she would not escape his pursuit!
Indeed, Bai Fu was a monster-level psionic genius—but no matter how monstrous she was, in this round of confrontation, he still held the upper hand.
After all, Bai Fu did not know his true identity.
A tiny gap in information was enough to decide many things.
“Come then!”
The aura surrounding Ignaz began to surge wildly.
At that very moment, the Majestic Divine Body led an enormous psionic legion from another direction to join the fray.
Cooperating with the Ethereal God-King, whose momentum pierced through the heavens, they launched a pincer assault.
Ordinary beings—let alone fight—would lose all will to resist just by glimpsing the soul-crushing pressure radiating from these two divine giants.
But who were Ignaz and his comrades?
Not only did they show no fear, they instead took the initiative to charge forward and launch the first attack.
A dozen transcenders, each above level 220, equipped with large quantities of ultra-rare high-grade items and Cosmic Treasures, struck all at once. Even the Ethereal God-King and Majestic Divine Body soon fell into disadvantage.
Among all combatants, Ignaz shone the brightest.
Not an ordinary “bright,” but dazzling in the sense that his slender frame was actually forcing the colossal Ethereal God-King, whose height reached tens of kilometers, to retreat step by step.
Giant claws swung down?
Then he simply struck those claws back!
Scales fired out like blades?
He caught them bare-handed—and tore them to shreds!
Ignaz was a peak martial artist endowed with Esper powers.
His ability not only strengthened his physical might but also imbued each punch and kick with destructive energy capable of disintegrating a target at the subatomic level.
In other words, he was a hybrid powerhouse—his Esper strength surpassed Oblivion Demetri, while his physique outclassed Demetri’s by dozens of times.
Each punch he threw made the Ethereal God-King convulse violently, as though tied to an electrified chair.
No matter how the Ethereal God-King roared, no matter how many shields he created from Ethereal Realm Particles, Ignaz ultimately beat him into fragments.
He turned and glanced toward Fate-Weaver and the others.
Though they had not slain the Majestic Divine Body, they had effectively completed their task of restraining it.
When the set time expired, the Majestic Divine Body naturally vanished.
Ignaz nodded calmly. “The nuisances are cleared. Move—keep chasing!”
Without delay, the group streaked past the nearby Origin Star, heading straight toward the Tear of the Universe’s location.
They radiated killing intent and confidence—never realizing that the one who actually held the initiative was the Bai Fu whom they believed had nowhere left to run.
“I’ll keep them circling a bit longer. You all go join Hei Fu first.”
Hiye, Jin Lu, Demetri, and the others wasted no words. They immediately activated their ships’ Dark Energy Engines and sped toward Hei Fu’s position.
Watching them depart, Bai Fu lowered her head to the spatial container in her hand and smiled.
“Like playing cat-and-mouse, do you? Then I’ll show you who’s the cat—and who’s the mouse!”
Inside the container was a Stellar Beast she had casually caught earlier.
The instant she caught it, she embedded the Tear of the Universe—the one Demetri had entrusted to her—into its body.
Ignaz thought he had locked onto her location. In reality, what he tracked was merely a mindless Stellar Beast driven purely by its hunting instinct.
“Since Hei Fu hasn’t finished laying the trap, I’ll play around with you all for a while longer.”
Bai Fu tore open space with her bare hands and slipped into a Dimensional Rift.
Her speed was not exaggerated—her base agility was barely over twenty thousand. Even after activating multiple buff skills, she still could not match Ignaz.
But as both an Apostle and a Void Sovereign, she could freely jump between the Main Space, Dimensional Rifts, Ethereal Realm, and Void—back and forth, again and again.
This bizarre movement pattern made it impossible for Ignaz—despite his incredible speed—to catch her quickly. He could only chase her endlessly through overlapping dimensions.
“Damn it! Is Bai Fu part mudfish!?”
One of the Original Pact’s transcendents cursed in frustration, while the others looked equally grim.
“Keep jumping, go on! Let’s see how long you can last—when we catch you, you’re dead!”
The tormenting chase lasted a full day and a half.
After a day and a half, Ignaz noticed Bai Fu finally stopped zigzagging and was flying straight toward a fixed direction.
He sneered. “Cautious woman. She doesn’t even know we’re behind her—she’s just looping around to shake off possible pursuers. No wonder she’s survived so many crises. But too bad she doesn’t realize how deadly that strike Demetri gave her truly was.”
He led his team, brimming with murderous aura, toward the Tear of the Universe’s coordinates.
Another hour later—
“There!” Ignaz raised his hand. “Everyone ready! This time, we won’t let Bai Fu escape again!”
The group cracked their knuckles and drew out every last trump card they had been hiding.
Moments later, at Ignaz’s command, they charged.
Ignaz was at the forefront, closing the distance between himself and Bai Fu in a blink.
“Bai Fu, didn’t expect this, did you—”
Wait!
Ignaz’s shout abruptly cut off.
Something was wrong.
He sensed Bai Fu’s presence just ahead—but there was no Bai Fu in sight. Only a spatial container manufactured by the Imperial Industrial Group.
Was Bai Fu hiding inside that box?
Absolutely impossible.
She wasn’t insane—why would she hide there?
No, Bai Fu couldn’t be inside, yet the Tear of the Universe was. Which meant—there was only one explanation.
The lifeform fused with the Tear of the Universe and hiding inside that container—was not Bai Fu at all!
“This is a trap! Bai Fu must’ve already figured out the Tear of the Universe’s effect! She embedded it into another lifeform—and lured us here!”
Had Demetri betrayed them?
Or had Bai Fu’s vast experience allowed her to recognize the Tear of the Universe herself?
No—now was not the time to ponder that!
Ignaz suddenly felt an overwhelming pressure descend from every direction.
A force field.
But not just a force field.
This entire space—had been assimilated into the Ethereal Realm.
“Come out, Bai Fu! Get out here now!”
Ignaz’s expression grew ghastly.
As he shouted, the others finally realized what was happening.
Since Bai Fu dared lure them into this trap, she must have prepared thoroughly.
And indeed—
“There!”
Someone pointed. Instantly, every gaze turned toward that direction.
They saw the Ethereal God-King. They saw Kabaya. They saw the Prayer Angel. They saw Bai Fu’s five transcendental Apostolic Envoys. And they saw an innumerable army of psionic legions.
Before these True-Spirit summons and True-Spirit beings, a black tree spiraled upward—its branches and leaves like dark flames. At its crown hovered a small figure draped in black ceremonial robes—Bai Fu herself.
She held a staff, a Holy Shield trailing behind her, with Revelation and Mind Desert orbiting her like glowing orbs.
Tiny as she was—no larger than a grain of rice compared to the Ethereal God-King—no one dared ignore her.
The brilliance radiating from her was enough to shake the galaxies and dim the flow of time itself.
“Ignaz,” Bai Fu’s smile was faint, her voice crystalline and cold, “do you think this will be your grave?”
Ignaz’s fury erupted like fire.
“Bai Fu, did you think that by luring me into a trap you could kill me? You were far too naive!”
Though he felt shocked, humiliated by being toyed with, and stung by the mockery, those emotions only stoked his fighting spirit higher.
He had lived through plenty of setbacks and death crises—when had they ever been few?
The pressure Bai Fu put on him now did not compare to when the Psionic Garden had struck!
When the Psionic Garden hit, it had almost shattered not only him but the entire Rebirth Empire—this was nothing in comparison.
For this deep, intoxicating starry expanse.
For all civilizations that had grown under these stars.
For all sentient life that survived beneath this sky.
Today he must kill Bai Fu!
Raging, Ignaz transformed directly into a man of red flame.
With him at the front and Fate-Weaver urging them on, those who had been shaken by falling into the trap now all drew cold killing intent.
They surged forward together.
The two sides clashed with earth-shattering force.
When Bai Fu had laid her plans she had prepared to finish Ignaz in one decisive blow and consign the entire Original Pact to the dustbin of history.
To that end she had gathered every ally she could summon in the short term and employed many tricks.
For example, at first she had not let Hei Fu or Élisée appear; at first she had not used psychic attacks either, nor had she unleashed the full power of the Double Helix Tree.
But as the fighting progressed she realized an utterly terrifying problem.
“Ignaz’s strength… what is going on?”
Bai Fu hurriedly cast an Apostolic Vision on Ignaz.
When they had fought near the Origin Star she had already checked Ignaz’s level with Apostolic Vision.
Level 274—just like Aetheron—only his stats had been a bit higher and his abilities more complex; nothing especially surprising.
But now Ignaz’s panel had changed.
His total level remained 274, yet his attributes were completely different.
【Life Furnace】【Relics of Old Days】【United Ten Thousand】
Bai Fu saw several new status effects listed after Ignaz’s name.
It was precisely those statuses that inflated Ignaz’s attributes to an outrageous degree: strength and agility had both topped eighty thousand!
“Oh shit—you opened them too?”
In fact Fate-Weaver and the others had opened theirs as well, but not to such an extent.
What was happening?
Bai Fu called Hei Fu out to help while quickly examining those status effects on Ignaz.
After reading them she finally understood.
Ignaz and his side were burning the Original Pact’s accumulated heritage of over ten thousand years!
The so-called Relics of Old Days were the sacred relics left behind by the Pact’s past fallen members; when those relics were burned, they spanned light-years to provide terrifying bonuses to Ignaz and his allies.
Suddenly everything made sense.
No wonder Ignaz had earlier asked Odoacre to retrieve the sacred relics from the Empire’s sub-spaces—he had been preparing for today all along.
Damn it.
Don’t think that because you’ve grown stronger now I’ll be scared of you!
Mid-battle, Élisée suddenly burst onto the field.
As the God of the Ethereal Realm, Élisée’s power was no joke—total level 270. Not as high as Bai Fu’s, but paired with Bai Fu they made three monsters all above level 270.
Three against one—couldn’t kill you, Ignaz; couldn’t kill your lackeys either.
Besides, I still had Yulia, Cersia, Hiye, and Anya helping me.
The two sides collided mercilessly.
In such fierce combat, even with Bai Fu supporting them, Cersia and the others succumbed to severe wounds and died; of course, those on Ignaz’s side did not fare well either.
One transcendental fell after another; Ignaz’s eyes grew darker and darker.
At a certain moment he suddenly sensed it.
A soul fluctuation.
“Bai Fu! You possess a soul-type Cosmic Treasure! No wonder before this—no wonder others and I killed you so many times and still couldn’t finish you off!”
Ignaz trembled with fury.
After realizing this, he understood.
Though the battle seemed to be a life-for-life exchange, in truth it was only his side that had been truly dying.
Honestly, he wanted to charge forward—willing to risk further grievous wounds—to wrench Bai Fu’s and Élisée’s heads off.
But he could not continue like that; Fate-Weaver must not die. Fate-Weaver’s ability was key to maintaining the new order.
“We’re leaving!”
Ignaz abandoned the others and fled, taking only Fate-Weaver with him.
The remaining Original Pact transcendents watched in utter despair.
“Leader!”
But Ignaz did not respond to them.
“Since he ran, you lot can suffer in his stead!”
Bai Fu smiled and looked toward the remaining members of the Original Pact.
A chill spread through the starry depths.
……
Edge Worlds.
Ignaz’s face was already distorted by the time he burst out of a Dimensional Rift.
He recalled being toyed with by Bai Fu for two days.
He recalled the Original Pact transcendents who had died over those two days.
He could not swallow that breath of humiliation.
He must exact revenge!
Bai Fu wanted to hide? Then he would force her out!
“Round up everyone on the Origin Star and arrest them. At the same time, have the Rebirth Empire purge the Garden of Silence and any factions closely tied to it. Also—launch a full propaganda campaign; I will tear Bai Fu’s image to shreds piece by piece!”
Ignaz sneered.
He wanted to see whether, when everything he had built tumbled into the abyss, Bai Fu would still have the heart to stay hidden—or whether she would be unable to resist and leap out to face him.
“I want to see whether you are a true Saintess or a fake one—let me be your judge!”
A light of destruction flickered in Ignaz’s eyes.
Fate-Weaver, standing nearby, suddenly felt uneasy in his chest.
Ignaz was still Ignaz, yet somehow also not the Ignaz he knew.
He had no time to ponder the matter.
Because he still had to carry out Ignaz’s orders.
But the orders did not seem easy to execute.
“Leader, the people on Origin Star were already relocated by Bai Fu.”
“What about those who were close to her—like the members of the Star Agreement?”
“They’ve all fled without a trace too.”
Aaaargh—
Ignaz’s eyes bled and he let out a bestial roar.