Chapter 230: Promotion to Calamity, the End of the Secret Tower!
When he was teleported to the rear of the fleet through the beacon, the Master of the Secret Tower fantasized about countless ways to kill Bai Fu.
For someone as vengeful as him, if he truly had the chance to kill the “evildoer” Bai Fu, he certainly wouldn't just kill her outright—that would be far too kind. At the very least, he would lock her up and torture her for forty-nine days, then stab her 1024 times with a small knife, and finally record the whole process and broadcast it for the world to see.
However, he was also well aware.
The current situation didn’t allow him to do that.
The people from the Alliance weren’t fools. They wouldn’t just stand by and watch as Bai Fu was captured and taken away.
So his plan was to severely injure Bai Fu in a flash, then immediately initiate a global livestream and publicly behead her in front of the entire Edge Worlds.
He believed that the flair of that one strike would leave all viewers with an unforgettable memory.
"The Death of the Saintess"
What a magnificent artistic creation.
Using this as the opening piece of their Spear of Lamentation plan couldn't be more perfect.
However, while immersed in his fantasies of slaughter artistry, the Master of the Secret Tower never dreamed that what awaited him was not a scream of terror, but applause.
"Welcome!"
Clap, clap, clap...
Melodious voices like orioles and crisp clapping resounded together.
Bai Fu made a splendid entrance.
After her, everyone surrounding the Secret Tower members who had just been teleported in via the beacon also smiled and applauded.
Brilliant.
Damn brilliant!
The impressions of those hired for the occasion were still shallow, but the people of the Star Web Commonwealth and other civilizations felt differently.
They had waited for this moment for many years. Over the years, how many had perished under the Secret Tower’s assaults?
When they just heard from Manu and Mitchell that Bai Fu had seen through the Secret Tower’s plan, they were still a bit skeptical. Even moments ago, many were doubting if Bai Fu had made a mistake. But now that the Master of the Secret Tower and the Dark Domain Insect Queen had actually shown up, what else needed to be said?
Applaud!
Applaud for the all-knowing, almighty Dark Domain Saintess Bai Fu!
Applaud for the Master of the Secret Tower who had fought against them for years and now delivered himself to their doorstep!
"Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome."
"Had a rough journey, huh? Now that you’re here, take a good rest."
To the uninformed, it might seem like a welcome banquet for distant guests.
Amid the joyful laughter, at this very moment, the Master of the Secret Tower had only one thought—
Damn it, I’m losing it!
He had no idea what was going on, but he knew he was in deep trouble.
He was carrying a power level detector. Although not highly advanced, a simple scan revealed that among those surrounding him, there were three Calamity-rank individuals.
2v3, and he was in enemy territory. In such circumstances, even though the Dark Domain Insect Queen's strength far surpassed an ordinary Calamity-rank, there was still a considerable chance that he would perish here today.
The Master of the Secret Tower was both shocked and furious.
Just a second ago, he was still basking in the joy of obtaining the True Spirit Pillar. Now he had fallen into a death trap. The journey from heaven to hell—was it really that short?
Wait a minute.
Maybe things hadn’t hit rock bottom yet.
The Master of the Secret Tower’s gaze suddenly locked onto Bai Fu. The power detector still showed her at S+ rank. If he could capture her alive in the chaos and immediately start a livestream, would the others dare to kill him in front of countless viewers at the risk of Bai Fu’s life?
He wasn’t entirely sure, but he believed it was highly unlikely.
Even if they dared, having Bai Fu as a hostage would greatly increase his chances of survival.
Thinking this, most of the tension in his heart dissipated.
Bai Fu, oh Bai Fu, taunting me with applause—sure, that’s a psychological tactic. But you shouldn’t have stood so close to me. With your strength, you might be able to barely withstand a Calamity-rank attack, but I’m no ordinary Calamity-rank.
Attack!
Without a word, the Master of the Secret Tower launched his attack on Bai Fu.
The other members of the Secret Tower, as well as the Dark Domain Insect Queen, followed suit—but their targets weren’t Bai Fu.
Boom!
The Master of the Secret Tower’s palm seemed coated in blue light, piercing Bai Fu’s body like an electric serpent.
Grab—
No, something was wrong. His hand appeared to pierce Bai Fu’s body, yet didn’t hit anything real!
An illusion?
The Master of the Secret Tower sensed something was off. But now was no time for second thoughts—because the group who had just been clapping and smiling was now attacking.
Though not old acquaintances, they were old enemies. This fight was to the death. A perfectly intact spaceship was shattered from the inside out in mere seconds under the full force of multiple Calamity-ranks.
A violent explosion swept in all directions, igniting a brilliant blaze in the starry sky.
Fortunately, most of the crew had already evacuated, and only a few bait Players were killed on the spot. But they were Players—death wasn't a big deal since they could revive.
“Bai Fu, you’re not getting away!”
Electric arcs flared in the Master of the Secret Tower’s hands.
He couldn’t distinguish illusion from reality, but his power detector could. Among all the detected individuals, the one closest in energy to Calamity-rank was Bai Fu!
“Cover me! I’ll capture Bai Fu alive. Once we have her, we can get out of here!”
The Master of the Secret Tower shouted in the Secret Tower’s comms.
The Dark Domain Insect Queen hesitated, then charged at the three Calamity-ranks.
Acid surged around her body, forming towering walls like massive waves, buying the Master of the Secret Tower some space.
The Alliance members instantly realized what the Master of the Secret Tower was attempting.
“No way!”
They launched simultaneous attacks at the acid walls. The three Calamity-ranks led the charge, and the acid walls began to waver, clearly unable to hold for long. The situation was extremely urgent.
“One minute—no, just give me thirty seconds!”
The Master of the Secret Tower sneered coldly.
He stared at the detector’s display. A few seconds later, accompanied by two soft beeps, his gaze locked onto a patch of empty space.
No mistake—Bai Fu was hiding there!
“Bai Fu, you’re not—”
Just halfway through his shout, the Master of the Secret Tower abruptly stopped himself.
Something was wrong!
He clearly saw the stabilized numbers on the detector begin to tremble again—they were rising, rising rapidly, rising at a speed beyond imagination!
“This...”
The Master of the Secret Tower suddenly realized a possibility. His body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Seeing him like this, the Dark Domain Insect Queen—still fighting three at once—grew anxious and couldn’t help but roar.
“What are you standing around for?!”
“I...”
The Master of the Secret Tower wanted to say something, but it felt like something was stuck in his throat.
...
In fact, the moment she avoided the Master of the Secret Tower’s attack using Shadow Doppelgänger, Bai Fu had already pressed the upgrade button.
Then, a series of prompts appeared.
[Awakening successful]
[You have unlocked a new class: Apostle Walker, current level Lv1, Strength +1, Agility +2, Constitution +3, Inspiration +8, Stat Points +7]
[You have completed your first Awakening. Each point of Constitution now converts to +15 HP, each point of Inspiration converts to +20 Psionic Value]
[You have obtained the Calamity-rank trait talent: Calamity Crown]
[You have learned new skills: Advanced Psionic Precision Control, Prayer Card Fusion]
[You have learned a new skill: Gloom Field]
[Your exclusive talent Twin Moons has evolved into Exalted Moon]
At that moment, Bai Fu felt every cell, every ounce of energy, every component of her body celebrating in jubilation.
To Awakening—be inspired!
To the sublimation of life—be inspired!
It’s coming, it’s here!
Whoosh—
A terrifying force surged from deep within Bai Fu’s body like a tidal wave.
When her main class level rose from 110 to 111, she felt as though she had finally broken through the raging undercurrents and reached the boundless sea surface. An ultimate sensation of comfort enveloped her, and the world around her seemed to become much more vivid.
“So this is Calamity-rank?”
After awakening, the conversion ratio of her Constitution to HP rose to 1:85, and the ratio of Inspiration to Psionic Value rose to 1:70. The base recovery speed of her HP and Psionic Value also improved significantly. Compared to before awakening, it was a transformation of epic proportions.
But the changes brought by awakening didn’t stop there.
New skills, new talents, special rank bonuses… all these combined truly defined the Calamity-rank!
Bai Fu quickly reviewed the game prompts.
First was the Calamity-rank trait bonus.
Calamity-rank, Domination-rank, and Transcendent-rank—these three awakenings each brought boosts to attributes, resistances, and more.
Each individual gained different bonuses upon awakening. This time, Bai Fu received five boosts from the talent [Calamity Crown].
All attributes +10%;
All resistances +10%;
Physical damage reduction rate +5%;
All Psionic-class skill cost -20%, effectiveness +25%;
Prayer Card effectiveness +25% (this bonus continues to increase with level)
Five bonuses—each one was critical. Some increased her durability, some increased her damage, and some enhanced her sustain.
Since these were percentage-based boosts, they would remain effective even as her level increased.
Next, Bai Fu reviewed her newly unlocked skills and her evolved exclusive talent.
[Advanced Psionic Precision Control] at Lv10 reduced Psionic cost by 40% compared to the 25% of Intermediate-level skills. Moreover, as long as she willed it, the skill would no longer cause any damage to “allies”—truly a divine skill.
[Prayer Card Fusion] had two effects.
First, it could fuse two identical Prayer Cards to generate a more powerful card of the same type. This fusion was not restricted by the Prayer Card level cap—for example, Little Black Fu’s cap was Lv10, but after fusion, it could generate a Lv11 Super Little Black Fu.
Of course, the fusion couldn’t continue indefinitely. You couldn’t fuse two Lv11 Super Little Black Fu into a Lv12 Super Little Black Fu 2.
Second, it allowed the fusion of True Spirits summoned by Prayer Cards. While this wouldn’t increase the attributes of the True Spirits, it could heal them through fusion. Junk + Junk = New Product. This effect was very useful in large-scale Psionic army operations.
[Gloom Field] was an advanced version of [Forcefield Advance], with a wider range, higher damage bonus, and most importantly, Bai Fu could freely manipulate the “force” within the field.
Previously, she could only apply pressure, tearing, or repulsion effects to targets through the field. Now, every part of the field functioned like her own hands. She could apply pressure to the target’s thumb, tearing to the index finger, and different effects elsewhere.
Unfortunately, since her control over Psionic Power wasn’t deep enough yet, she couldn’t apply force without harming the target. Otherwise, the field could be used for extremely refined manipulation.
[Exalted Moon] was the evolved talent of [Twin Moons], the summoning talent for Hei Fu. After evolution, the summoned Hei Fu inherited 100% of Bai Fu’s base attributes and could now act independently at a distance. The summon cooldown after death was shortened from 12 hours to 6 hours, and the blessing bonus Hei Fu provided increased from all attributes +5 to all attributes +15.
Impressive. The upgraded Hei Fu was incredibly powerful. Just the ability to act independently without range limitations alone was worth its weight in gold.
“Now this is the real Twin Moons—Exalted Moon: Bai Fu, Moon of the Dark Night: Hei Fu!”
Bai Fu sighed with emotion.
Although the awakening process seemed lengthy, in reality it took just over ten seconds, since her race didn’t change this time.
She casually opened her attribute panel.
[Attributes]: Strength 308, Agility 729, Constitution 839, Intelligence 620, Spirit 817, Inspiration 2188
Her base attributes didn’t increase excessively, but her HP and Psionic Value surged by nearly 50%.
This was awakening!
Transcendent evolution!
Transcendent ascension!
“I’m terrifyingly powerful now!”
Bai Fu took a deep breath.
Her gaze landed on the Master of the Secret Tower, who had locked onto her location using a power level detector.
Had she been Calamity-rank from the beginning, the Master of the Secret Tower would have fled with his people the moment he arrived via teleportation. He might actually have had a slim chance of escape—but now, it was too late.
The Allied Fleet had begun to encircle them, the Dark Domain Insect Queen was under siege, and the upgraded Bai Fu’s strength completely surpassed the Master of the Secret Tower.
Now, she had only one task to complete.
“Do you like the funeral I prepared for you?”
A cold voice echoed.
The Master of the Secret Tower’s expression changed drastically in horror.
As expected, his instincts were right—Bai Fu had really advanced to Calamity-rank!
But now that he realized it, what good did it do?
He couldn’t win—not even close.
The Master of the Secret Tower had completely collapsed mentally. He no longer cared about any of his companions. He turned and tried to flee.
At that moment, a terrifying forcefield suddenly surged from all directions. Under the burn of Gloom Psionic Power, his HP began to drop by percentage.
“You can’t kill me, Bai Fu! You can’t kill me!”
Bai Fu ignored his words like background noise.
This was her first time fighting a Calamity-rank opponent head-on. So instead of rushing in with full-force Dark Burn, she used the Gloom Field and a temporarily hand-crafted small Psionic army to continuously suppress him.
The Master of the Secret Tower’s base attributes weren’t much lower than hers, but his additional bonuses were clearly inferior. On top of that, he was in a state of panic. Even though Bai Fu hadn’t used even half her strength, after a series of clashes, the Master of the Secret Tower was left gasping for breath, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Unreasonable.
Completely unreasonable.
Bai Fu had just recently advanced to Calamity-rank. Why was she already this strong?
The two clashed and shifted throughout the starry sky. The Master of the Secret Tower kept trying to escape, only to be easily blocked by Bai Fu every time.
Gloom Psionic Power burned intensely, forming a strange black wall of flame in the already dark starry void. The Master of the Secret Tower, weaving through the flames, looked like he was dancing on a mountain of knives—no matter how graceful his moves, his body was suffering constant damage.
The spectators were dumbfounded.
Seeing that the Master of the Secret Tower was targeting Bai Fu, they had planned to rush in for emergency support—only to find out that Bai Fu had advanced to Calamity-rank and was now pummeling him?
What kind of absurd development was this?
Even Players who had absolute faith in Bai Fu were stunned.
[No way, has Fu-fu really recovered her Calamity-rank power?]
[So strong—no wonder she was once the Sovereign of the Shadowed Night. She’s absolutely dominating the Master of the Secret Tower!]
Treasure Digger kept recording Bai Fu from various angles, believing this might be Bai Fu’s true rise in the Star Sea. With more video footage and pictures now, they would certainly draw massive attention in the future.
...
“I’m going to die, I’m going to die…”
After exhausting nearly all his abilities yet failing to eliminate even Bai Fu’s hand-crafted Psionic army, the Master of the Secret Tower felt an unprecedented despair.
He realized there was no way he could defeat Bai Fu. But even if he died today, there was still hope for revenge.
Because of the Chief Steward—because of the True Spirit Pillar in the Chief Steward’s hands!
“Bai Fu, killing me won’t help. The Chief Steward will avenge me!”
Bai Fu remained unfazed: “You, the Dark Domain Insect Queen, and the Chief Steward—I’ll take care of all of you.”
The Master of the Secret Tower sneered, “I admit you’re smart, and I admit your power is strong, but it’s meaningless. Before coming here, we already stole the True Spirit Pillar from the Sanctification Order. You probably learned of the Spear of Lamentation plan from that mole, right? The Chief Steward will use the stolen True Spirit Pillar to complete the Spear of Lamentation plan. That spear will pierce your body without mercy!”
True Spirit Pillar? Spear of Lamentation?
So that’s where your confidence came from!
Bai Fu understood.
The problem was, that True Spirit Pillar was a fake—and it was stolen from your Secret Tower. And you didn’t even know?
Bai Fu was surprised, but still said, “Is there a possibility that the True Spirit Pillar you all seized was fake? Even if it was real, that Chief Steward of yours has no chance of completing the plan. Once I’m done here, I’ll immediately head to the Secret Tower headquarters.”
The Master of the Secret Tower was stunned, and a bad premonition rose in his heart. “You know the location of the headquarters?”
Bai Fu smiled and recited one of the four Star Gate coordinates she had learned through the Players.
The Master of the Secret Tower’s face turned as pale as paper, and his pupils lost focus in that moment.
That coordinate was correct. Bai Fu truly knew the location of the Secret Tower headquarters. In that case, the True Spirit Pillar was likely indeed a fake, wasn’t it?
In that instant, he lost all hope.
“It’s all over.”
The Secret Tower, with a history spanning hundreds of years, was going to end in his hands.
The Master of the Secret Tower stared hard at Bai Fu flying toward him. “What exactly are you? Where did you come from?”
“Me? I’m just Bai Fu.”
Dark Burn descended directly onto the head of the Master of the Secret Tower.
With a dead heart, the Master of the Secret Tower made no attempt to dodge.
As high-damage numbers floated up, the life of this great villain who had wrought countless massacres across the Gateway Cluster came to an end.
Bai Fu did not linger beside the corpse of the Master of the Secret Tower. She quickly rushed to join the other three Calamity-rank combatants in fighting the Dark Domain Insect Queen.
Four against one, the Dark Domain Insect Queen quickly fell.
But she wasn’t completely dead.
“A clone?”
Bai Fu heard the game notification.
At the same time, the dying shout of the Dark Domain Insect Queen’s clone echoed in her mind.
“You have thoroughly enraged me. From now on, the Dark Domain Insect Swarm and you will fight to the death!”
That was a bit funny.
Bai Fu let out a cold snort.
Hadn’t it already been a life-or-death struggle ever since she sided with Sypris?
“Come at me if you dare. If I so much as frown, I lose.”
Seeing the consecutive deaths of the Master of the Secret Tower and the clone of the Dark Domain Insect Queen, the Alliance members didn’t even know what to say anymore.
Damn, Bai Fu was incredible!
She soloed the Master of the Secret Tower and then helped take down the clone of the Dark Domain Insect Queen—was this something a newly advanced Calamity-rank could even do?
They looked at Bai Fu like she was a goddess, even those three Calamity-rankers were reacting the same way.
The only regret…
“We still couldn’t find the headquarters of the Secret Tower this time. The Secret Tower still has that Chief Steward left. There’s likely going to be more trouble ahead,” said Manu, who had just arrived.
Bai Fu smiled and said, “I know where the Secret Tower headquarters is.”
What?
In an instant, everyone’s gaze locked onto Bai Fu.
Why are you so exceptional?