Chapter 379: Sudden Upheaval, Bai Fu’s Two-Pronged Plan
After learning from Demetri that the leader of the Original Pact was Emperor Ignaz himself, and that the Rebirth Empire’s emperor Odoacre had completely sided with Ignaz, Bai Fu made two simultaneous arrangements.
The first arrangement was, of course, to lay a trap — to use the opportunity to severely ambush the Original Pact on Origin Star.
The second arrangement was to quietly notify, as soon as possible, those people who were close to her so they could withdraw.
For example, the Vow Master and Andras of the Origin Consortium.
These people had very close ties to her; their factions had deep operational bindings with the Quiet Garden.
If she went to full war with the Original Pact and the Rebirth Empire openly sided with Ignaz, then if they did not flee, they would very likely become primary targets of the Rebirth Empire’s strikes.
Having both plans in motion at once nearly broke Ignaz’s composure.
Could he not lose his composure? He had confidently gone to hunt Bai Fu, sneering all the way and treating her like a candle in the wind, mocking her as already spent.
In the end, Bai Fu had not been killed; his carefully arranged scheme was turned against him by Bai Fu and became a blade that slaughtered many of his own transcendent allies.
That alone was infuriating enough.
To add insult to injury, his immediate thought after such an event had been revenge — he was even willing to use immoral, despicable methods — only to find that the other side had already foreseen it, leaving him with nothing.
Haha — the clown was himself!
Ignaz’s mentality exploded.
In more than ten thousand years, even when he had just become emperor and had been suppressed by the Senate to the point of suffocation, he had never felt so miserable; even when the Psionic Garden had been pushed onto the imperial homeland, he had not felt so stifled.
A mouthful of anger sat lodged in his chest; it could neither be swallowed nor expelled. He was so constricted that he could not speak a word, his face turning a deep crimson.
Fortunately his power was great; if an ordinary person had become this angry, their blood vessels would surely have suffered.
“Since I cannot kill you, then I will at least destroy your reputation!”
When physical elimination temporarily failed, Ignaz quickly switched paths—
a propaganda assault!
Having control over the Empire was in effect control over one third of the starry sky’s megaphones.
With so many trumpets simultaneously launching a media offensive, he refused to believe they could not tear down the golden image Bai Fu had built.
However…
he was still one step too slow!
Before he had even left Origin Star, Bai Fu had already been preparing a media offensive.
When the war suddenly erupted, she immediately informed those who had come to aid from the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries about the Original Pact’s relationship with the Rebirth Empire, the existence of the Reaper, and Ignaz’s aim — he had wiped out a large number of Original Pact transcendants in one stroke — so she was not at all worried that telling the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries this secret would trigger a Reaper’s Descent.
At first, the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries received the news with doubt, at times even suspecting that Bai Fu was sowing discord.
But as the Origin Star battle ended and Ignaz ordered the Rebirth Empire to purge the Quiet Garden, the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries suddenly saw the situation clearly.
Damn — Bai Fu had not lied; the Rebirth Empire really had problems!
Originally everyone had been happily harvesting the Apostolic Holy City’s spoils; then the Rebirth Empire suddenly produced a backer stronger than the Supreme God’s disciples, and this backer intended to establish a new order ruled entirely by him.
No matter how you looked at it, the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries could not accept such an outcome.
They had to counter it; they could not allow the Rebirth Empire to ride roughshod over them.
The three-way alliance thus broke apart.
When Ignaz told Odoacre to prepare a propaganda offensive, Fitz, the Warband’s chief, and Delano, the Industrial Council chairman, had already ordered their publicity departments to disclose the true identity of the Original Pact’s leader.
【WTF, the Original Pact’s leader turned out to be Ignaz of the Rebirth Empire?】
【If that’s true, then why did he attack the Rebirth Empire? Wasn’t he the greatest emperor in the Empire’s history — is he insane?】
【This must be fake news.】
【Exactly — if the Original Pact’s leader really were Ignaz, then when the Empire was threatened by the Apostolic Holy City, why didn’t he come out to help the Empire? Why did he let an outsider like Bai Fu intervene?】
【Not fake — this was announced personally by the Warband’s external communications minister.】
【I think it’s a conspiracy: Ignaz hid his identity and created the Original Pact to help the Empire swallow the Warband and Titan Industries. His letting the Original Pact attack the Empire was just an act to avoid suspicion. If not for the Apostolic Holy City’s sudden invasion, the Warband and Titan Industries would already have been Empire possessions.】
In a very short time, online public opinion swung decisively against the Empire and Ignaz.
They denounced Ignaz as a man who appeared heroic but was actually despicable.
They condemned the Empire as a worthless state that, while its allies fought and bled, schemed to stab those allies in the back.
Amid the shouts, players who had personally witnessed the Origin Star battle popped up and released video evidence showing the Original Pact invading Origin Star and the Rebirth Empire’s reinforcements attempting to cooperate with the Original Pact to kill Bai Fu.
With those videos surfacing and a torrent of players razzing the Empire across the Interstellar Network, the reputations of the Empire and Ignaz stank even worse.
【Holy crap, how could the Empire be so evil!】
【She was born to do it — Bai Fu helped the Empire so many times, and the Empire, fearing she would become an obstacle to their establishment of total rule, stabbed her without a second thought.】
【Helped them so much, and what did she get? A bunch of thankless dogs.】
【Odoacre, you son of a—!】
Besides Ignaz, no one received more denunciation than Odoacre.
Under Bai Fu’s direction, his complicity with Ignaz in stealing relics and morally manipulating Demetri to ambush Bai Fu had all been exposed.
Both inside and outside the Empire, many had long been dissatisfied with Odoacre.
Once those discontents spread, the already unhappy grew angrier.
What on earth was happening?
Bualois, the Senate representative, felt stunned as he read reports from every quarter; he had no idea why things had turned out this way.
The return of Emperor Ignaz should have been a good thing — so why was he attacking Bai Fu?
With this uproar, the Empire had instantly become the villain of the starry sea.
Filled with questions and dissatisfaction, he sought out Odoacre.
Odoacre was sweating and frantic.
Not long before, Odoacre had received Ignaz’s order to launch a vicious propaganda campaign to smear Bai Fu; before he could act, the Empire had already been blackened.
How could he possibly reverse the situation?
Facing Bualois’s interrogation, the impatient Odoacre could not utter a single word.
He stammered, his mind racing, thinking of how to pacify Bualois, when suddenly, a shadow appeared in the room.
“ㄴThe Emperor?”
Bualois’s pupils contracted sharply.
He recognized it immediately—it was the projection of Emperor Ignaz.
“Odovacar, step aside. Let me handle this.”
Odovacar, relieved, made a swift escape.
The vast palace hall was, for a moment, left with only Ignaz and Bualois.
Ignaz patted Bualois on the shoulder and then began to reveal the truth of the world.
……
The public opinion storm raged for several days.
—After being beaten back repeatedly in the early stages, the Empire finally rose back up and began using various methods to reverse the situation.
They first organized people to debunk the rumors, then gradually found others to “expose secrets.”
It was already impossible to completely whitewash the Empire’s image, so their goal was to instill this impression in the public—
「Though our Empire did disgraceful things, Bai Fu isn’t some kind of saint either!」
The Empire’s propaganda mainly aimed to prevent those forces or individuals outside of their control from feeling pressured and fleeing to Bai Fu’s side.
Bai Fu was already difficult enough to deal with. If a bunch more went to her, it would become even harder to eliminate her.
While running the propaganda campaign, the Empire was also secretly conducting many other operations.
▶The first matter was internal consolidation.
Ignaz had returned. Though the Emperor of the Empire was still Odovacar, from this moment onward, the one who truly held power in the Empire was no longer Odovacar—it was Ignaz.
Who agreed? Who opposed?
—Those who agreed stayed.
—Those who opposed, if they ran even a little slow, were all purged.
▶The second matter was establishing full cooperation with the Original Pact.
The two sides, once at odds, now stood on the same front, united in their effort to build a new order.
In this process, a large number of rebel and revolutionary groups under the Original Pact exploded in outrage.
They felt betrayed by the Original Pact.
They had fought for so long to topple the Three Universal Civilizations, and now the Original Pact was cooperating with the Empire? What a joke!
Some launched attacks against the Empire and the Original Pact—unsurprisingly, they were crushed.
Others fled, hoping to reach Bai Fu.
▶The third matter carried out by the Empire was Ignaz personally reaching out to the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries.
In his original plan, Ignaz had no intention of bothering with the Supernova Warband or Titan Industries. With overwhelming strength, he would simply push through. If they yielded, fine. If not, he’d crush them.
But now, he couldn’t do that.
Bai Fu hadn’t been eliminated as planned. If he directly struck at the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries, he would only push them into Bai Fu’s arms—extremely detrimental to his plan.
Ignaz’s diplomatic efforts were far from smooth.
Because while he was contacting them in secret, Bai Fu had also maintained contact with both the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries.
The three sides continued to tug back and forth, forming a delicate balance.
As Universal Civilizations, the Supernova Warband and Titan Industries, even if they knew their strength couldn’t match Ignaz and Bai Fu, wouldn’t surrender easily.
—If their knees were truly that soft, they would have submitted when the Apostolic Holy City launched its fierce assault. Why would they still be holding out?
This balance lasted for several days.
Eventually, Ignaz couldn’t hold back any longer and detonated a long-planted trap—
【Eternal Investments】!
Bai Fu hadn’t had much interaction with Eternal Investments, only negotiating an authorization deal for selling character cards related to the game 《Cosmic Web》 developed by one of its subsidiaries.
But there was no denying Eternal Investments was the most powerful conglomerate in the explored universe. Its wealth and network were vast enough to sway the decisions of even a Universal Civilization.
In some people’s eyes, Eternal Investments’ real controller—José—was on the same level as the Emperor of the Empire, the Chairman of Titan Industries, and the Chief of the Supernova Warband.
José and Eternal Investments were undeniably formidable.
But no one knew that José and Eternal Investments had gotten to where they were largely thanks to Ignaz’s support behind the scenes.
Whether during competition with other conglomerates, or when provoking powerful factions with their investment ventures, or during conflicts with Universal Civilizations—Eternal Investments had faced annihilation multiple times. It was Ignaz who stepped in and resolved these crises.
Now that Ignaz faced trouble himself, naturally, it was José’s turn to help.
Eternal Investments’ headquarters was located within Titan Industries. This time, Ignaz’s request for José was simple: find a way to eliminate Titan Industries’ most staunch anti-Empire figure—Chairman Delano.
Though José felt the task was daunting, considering Ignaz’s strength and the benefits he’d gain once the Empire established its new order, he moved into action.
Several days later—
Something shook the entire explored universe—
Delano was assassinated!
Despite his formidable power, he was still brutally murdered. The culprit? The leader of an interstellar criminal syndicate that had deep enmity with Titan Industries.
The incident reeked of conspiracy.
The criminal leader was strong enough to kill Delano, sure—but how did he sneak so close without raising alarm? Why wasn’t any major commotion heard during the killing?
『There must have been an insider working with the killer!』
Titan Industries was plunged into fierce internal strife.
In the end, the winning faction was led by Delano’s granddaughter—Xuequan, the same 超绝 who had been beaten terribly by Bai Fu before and had twice sold out her teammates.
Her faction rose to power, using the excuse of rooting out traitors to crack down hard on rivals, while also attempting to cozy up to the Empire.
This behavior immediately raised red flags among other factions within Titan Industries.
Big trouble was brewing!
They rushed to the Supernova Warband.
The Chief of the Supernova Warband—Fitz—also realized the problem at this point.
Titan Industries was definitely leaning toward the Empire now. Given their current strength, the Supernova Warband couldn’t possibly defeat the combined might of the Original Pact + the Empire + Titan Industries.
Surrender?
No.
He would rather die than yield to those despicable schemers!
Fitz could only hastily send envoys to contact Bai Fu, hoping she could lend a hand.
He had a bad feeling—it wouldn’t be long before the Empire launched a full-scale war against the Supernova Warband.
……
“Holy crap, has the explored universe really turned into this mess in just twenty days?”
Bai Fu couldn’t help but click her tongue.
It looked like Ignaz and his gang had completely dropped the act.
Although they posed no immediate threat to her, her freedom of action was clearly being tightly squeezed.
Once Ignaz fully unified the Three Universal Civilizations, what could she possibly use to fight back against him?
“It seems I must make two preparations!”
—The first, naturally, was to assist the Supernova Warband as much as possible in fending off the invasion from the Empire and Titan Industries.
—The second, was to gather all people and factions opposed to Ignaz and form an anti-Ignaz alliance. That way, even if the Supernova Warband fell, she wouldn’t be left powerless to resist.