Chapter 187

Chapter 187: Shadow Empress Bai Fu Successfully Finds the Second Novice Planet [6k]

Despite Tessia never showing any ill intent, Bai Fu’s guard was fully up against her.

Why wouldn’t it be? Her affinity remained in single digits, and she was from Shiji Crystal Company.

Others might not know about Bai Fu’s grudge with Shiji Crystal Company, but Bai Fu herself knew all too well.

Therefore, after bringing Tessia to her room, Bai Fu quickly excused herself to make tea and slipped into the kitchen. As soon as she was out of Tessia’s sight, she transformed into an ethereal state using her Shadow Double technique and fled. Just before the illusion faded, she summoned He Fu in an emergency.

When dealing with someone of unknown origin, He Fu was the best choice. Even if He Fu were incapacitated, she could be summoned again after 12 hours.

As for Scarlet Leaf, though powerful, she was deeply affected by voidification and couldn’t overuse her strength. Otherwise, there was a risk of further voidification progression, so conserving her power was better.

“Try this; it’s a taste from my hometown.”

He Fu handed Tessia a cup of black tea.

Tessia carefully held the cup with both hands. When she looked up at He Fu, she suddenly noticed something was off.

In just these few seconds, how had Bai Fu seemed to change?

The previous Bai Fu had a pale complexion, dry lips, and appeared dehydrated, but now Bai Fu was radiant, clearly well-nourished.

Tessia quickly took a sip of tea to mask her confusion.

He Fu sat on the sofa and asked, “Now that no one else is here, Elsa, what do you want to say?”

Tessia put down her teacup, fell silent for a few seconds, then successfully switched to Empress Mode.

“Alas,” Tessia sighed deeply, lowering her head and clutching her hair with both hands, expressing equal parts helplessness and pain.

“I’ve come to confess. I’m not actually a business specialist from Shiji Crystal Company, but rather a spy sent by their backers to monitor you. They hoped I could gain your trust and stay by your side, stealing the True Essence Pillar from the Blessed Sect when you have contact with them, and then framing you for its theft.”

The room suddenly fell into an eerie silence.

Tessia smirked smugly, thinking she’d stunned Bai Fu speechless—never expecting such a move!

After a long pause, He Fu suddenly spoke, “Why confess now? If you hadn’t said anything, even if I suspected your intentions, it would take me some time to find evidence.”

Tessia looked up, revealing a bitter smile. “Because you’re a good person.”

“?!”

“At first, I thought your kindness, your warmth, your enthusiasm—all of it was an act. But during these days on Ulysses Star, I realized I was completely wrong. You aren’t pretending—you are truly the Holy Maiden!”

Tessia began to ramble.

She talked about understanding Ulysses’ past, its present, and her conversations with the people of Ulysses.

“Without genuine love, how could you receive so much love in return from the people of Ulysses?”

Bai Fu, the Holy Maiden among Holy Maidens, the sole benchmark of holiness!

At this point, Tessia’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.

“When I realized this, I suddenly remembered my own past. I was born on a planet similar to Ulysses.”

Tessia recounted her childhood.

She described how tragic her homeland was and the hardships she endured living there. From that time, she had yearned for a hero to descend from the heavens and save her and her homeland. But she waited a long time, until her homeland collapsed, without a hero ever coming. Eventually, she encountered the faction she now serves, which prioritizes profit and isn’t exactly noble, but at least gave her a place to stay. So, she stayed with them.

“This continued for ten years.” Tessia looked reflective. “Until I met you again—you’re the kind of hero I once awaited. My homeland didn’t get its hero, but Ulysses did. I… I can’t harm you. If I did, wouldn’t I be just like those who harmed my homeland before? Actually, I wanted to confess everything a few days ago, but the faction I’m with saved me, and I was conflicted. Confessing the truth would mean betraying my saviors…”

As she spoke, Tessia sighed deeply again, lowering her head, clenching her fists on her knees, and trembling slightly, appearing highly emotional.

Bai Fu: “…”

A competition of misfortunes?

Among the people she had interacted with, like Anya, Xia Shi, Youlia, and Scarlet Leaf, it seemed that “Elsa” indeed had the most tragic backstory.

But, is your story real?

Tessia praised her as a hero, yet her affinity hasn’t changed at all—it’s still only 6 points.

So, you’re acting, huh!

Bai Fu instantly switched to Empress Mode.

It’s fine for you, “Elsa,” to act, but not for me, Bai Fu?

She controlled He Fu to stand up and walk to Tessia. Hearing the footsteps and seeing the white-and-pink feet encased in toe-exposing high heels, Tessia was still pondering what Bai Fu would do when she suddenly felt two slightly cool hands gently lift her face.

Then, she saw a pitiable face and the compassionate gaze in those autumn-water-like eyes.

Tessia was frozen for several seconds.

“Thank you, Elsa. If it weren’t for you, I’d still be in the dark, torn between my savior and the person I originally was. You must feel terrible right now, don’t you?”

Tessia: “…”

Just talking? Why did you touch my face?

Suppressing her urge to comment, Tessia played along with He Fu.

“Since I’ve made my decision, I have to move forward despite feeling terrible. Besides, I believe I haven’t made the wrong choice.” She forced a bitter smile but quickly returned to normal. “Let’s stop talking about me for now. Let’s discuss what we should do next. I have two suggestions. The first is to capture me outright and tell my faction that you’ve uncovered their plot.”

He Fu shook her head immediately. “I won’t capture you.”

Tessia said, “I knew it. So, I came up with the second plan: we cooperate and deceive my faction as much as possible. I don’t know how long I can delay them, but every bit helps, and the situation won’t worsen.”

He Fu said, “That’s a decent plan. The only problem is that if your faction discovers your betrayal, they won’t let you off easily.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Tessia paused. “Don’t you wonder what faction stands behind me?”

He Fu released Tessia’s cheeks. “They are your saviors. I won’t ask, and what you’ve done for me is enough. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable anymore.”

Tessia opened her mouth slightly.

How does Bai Fu speak so eloquently?

No wonder those undead follow Bai Fu so devotedly. Compared to Bai Fu, who radiates sanctity, she really is the ugly monster others call her.

Tessia’s original plan was to gain Bai Fu’s affection through self-sacrifice and then gradually uncover the location of the prototype. Now, she was almost unable to control the overwhelming emotions building inside her.

Why is Bai Fu so perfect? Perfect like a mirror reflecting the hearts of others.

It makes me envious.

It makes me jealous.

It makes me want to tear her apart piece by piece.

That way, her ugliness won’t be reflected.

“I’m sorry, it’s not that I don’t want to reveal the faction behind me, but I can’t. A curse has been placed on me. If I say the name, everything happening here will be known to that faction.” Tessia looked up with a tinge of resentment.

He Fu showed understanding. “Don’t trouble yourself or apologize. What I should say is thank you.”

The room fell silent again.

Tessia and He Fu stared into each other’s eyes, their gazes intertwining, sparking a little warmth.

Moments later—

“Elsa!”

“Bai Fu!”

They tightly embraced, expressing their friendship.

Tessia was starting to admire her own acting skills, convincing Bai Fu so thoroughly.

However, it was about time to end it.

She couldn’t bear it anymore. With Bai Fu right there in her arms, how could she hold back?

Show off, flaunt it hard!

Forget finding the prototype. Simply use her mind-control ability to make Bai Fu reveal it. If that doesn’t work, torture Bai Fu. If torturing doesn’t work either, exhaust Bai Fu first, then use the mind-control ability when Bai Fu is physically drained.

With this combo, there’s no way the prototype won’t be found.

What if it still doesn’t work?

Who cares.

All Tessia wanted now was to devour Bai Fu bit by bit. Her eyes had already turned into the shape of Bai Fu.

As they embraced, black mist suddenly rose around Tessia’s body, and under her clothes, patterns resembling black fishnet stockings appeared.

Suddenly, Tessia’s right hand rested on He Fu’s waist, her fingertips lightly caressing the tender flesh…

Hmm?

She froze abruptly.

This texture wasn’t right. It was smooth and tender, but lacked the sinking sensation of flesh entirely.

Not believing it, Tessia unleashed her full power, reverting to her original form. The “spider legs” extending from the “black fishnet stockings” swiftly wrapped around He Fu, lifting her up until her toes barely touched the ground when fully extended.

Now that she had her locked, the next step was naturally to drain her life force!

Wait, sister?

He Fu widened her eyes in shock.

Tessia laughed. “Didn’t expect that, did you? Blame yourself…”



It’s too perfect, so perfect that I can’t control myself at all. Otherwise, I could still cooperate with you and continue the act for a while.”

She thought Bai Fu was shocked by her sudden betrayal, but in fact, what shocked Bai Fu was her ability.

What the heck, isn’t this Tessia, the Night Mother of the Tower of Secrets?

It turns out this guy also has the ability to transform. Not only can he transform, but after transforming, his attribute panel even changes along with it. What kind of OP ability is this?

Bai Fu imagined a terrible scenario: she was conducting an experiment with Youlia, and suddenly Youlia turned into Night Mother Tessia…

My goodness, a spider spirit that absorbs life force!

Bai Fu quickly pulled Youlia and the nearest group of players towards the starship.

Fight?

Fight my a**!

Night Mother Tessia is someone even Scarlet Leaf finds troublesome. If she went up against her, wouldn’t that just be offering her head? Better to run first.

When the spaceship started, Tessia was still puzzled.

What’s going on? Why couldn’t she s*ck anything out of Bai Fu after trying for so long?

Impossible, her ability didn’t fail, so the problem must lie with Bai Fu herself.

Tessia gritted her teeth and bit down hard on Bai Fu’s arm. The bite was fierce, but it felt like biting on steel. Not only did no bl**d come out, not even a tooth mark was left.

“You’re not Bai Fu?!”

Tessia was greatly startled.

There was no doubt that Bai Fu was a carbon-based life form, after all, Bai Fu had been attacked by her before on Heaven Lake Star.

While Tessia was surprised, He Fu immediately activated the advanced force field. Repulsion came from all sides, followed by a descending Heavenly Burial. Although Tessia wanted to dodge, she suddenly found herself trapped in a silent darkness.

Left?

No, there’s a sharp aura on the left.

Right?

There’s one on the right too!

The rapidly spinning flying magic blades completely disrupted Tessia’s judgment. She was forced to endure a fully charged Heavenly Burial.

Boom!

This move actually didn’t cause much damage to Tessia. After all, He Fu and Tessia’s levels differed greatly, and Tessia was a master of life abilities, far more durable than ordinary superhumans.

But still, she got hit!

Tessia immediately heated up.

She acted for so long, fully believing she had deceived Bai Fu thoroughly, even daydreaming about how to exploit Bai Fu. But it turned out Bai Fu had seen through her all along, making everything she did seem like monkey business. Could she tolerate this?

Tessia angrily lunged at He Fu.

Facing the monster-like Tessia, even with all her efforts, He Fu could not win, and was eventually shattered by Tessia.

Looking at He Fu dissipating like airflow in front of her, Tessia was so angry her eyes were about to roll back.

A True Essence Summon?

That’s why she couldn’t s*ck anything out!

It was fake; Bai Fu’s gentleness, the compassion in Bai Fu’s eyes, Bai Fu’s understanding… All of it was fake!

All of these are fake, so the Holy Maiden image Bai Fu displayed outwardly must also be fake. She couldn’t believe a real Holy Maiden could act this well.

“Bai Fu!”

Tessia roared and rushed out of the room.

She looked around but couldn’t see a single living person. Looking up, all she saw was a huge spaceship disappearing into the clouds.

Boom!

A beam of black light shot out from her body, instantly breaking through the cloud layer, but it was already too late. By now, the spaceship had already exited the atmosphere.

“Ah ah ah, Bai Fu Fu Fu Fu – I will never forgive you, even if you run to the edge of the universe, I will definitely catch you!”

“Phew.”

Bai Fu sighed in relief after seeing Tessia’s reaction through the monitoring equipment on the ground.

Thank goodness all the people of Ulysses have been transferred away by the Star Network, otherwise something serious would have happened this time.

“This Tower of Secrets is really not worth it!”

Bai Fu decided to wait until the civilizations in the Initial Gateway Star Cluster had fully digested the article she wrote earlier before dropping some big bombs.

Sending Tessia to secretly harm me, huh?

Tower of Secrets, you won’t get off easy!

Oh yeah, and Shiji Crystal Company.

Thanks to Tessia’s antics, Bai Fu finally realized that Shiji Crystal Company was actually working with the Tower of Secrets.

Before coming to the Star Ocean, she triggered a quest to deliver the True Essence Pillar to either Shiji Crystal Company, the Blessed Sect, or the Red Moon Mercenary Group. Now she had a clue about this quest.

If she delivered the True Essence Pillar to Shiji Crystal Company, it would follow the Tower of Secrets route; delivering it to the Blessed Sect meant following the protagonist of the plotline. As for the Red Moon Mercenary Group, it might be related to other side quests.

“This is a great opportunity to contribute to the quest task ‘The Tower of Secrets Exposed Completely.'”

Bai Fu thought of Manu.

She didn’t plan to deal with Shiji Crystal Company herself. Given her current strength, solo grinding Shiji Crystal Company would be quite difficult. It would be better to pass this information to Manu, allowing Manu to lay out a plan to take down Shiji Crystal Company in one fell swoop. With good luck, they might even lure some big fish from the Tower of Secrets. This way, the Destruction Contribution she gained would absolutely be much higher than if she wasted time and effort solo grinding Shiji Crystal Company.

With this in mind, Bai Fu quickly contacted Manu.

“Don’t worry, I’ve arranged everything for the relocation of the people of Ulysses,” said Manu.

Bai Fu shook her head: “I’m not talking about that. I just received some information – Shiji Crystal Company is secretly supported by the Tower of Secrets.”

Manu was stunned: “How do you know?”

Bai Fu replied: “I was attacked by the Night Mother, and she inadvertently revealed this intelligence.”

She wasn’t worried at all about Tessia exposing what happened, nor was she concerned about its impact on her reputation.

Whatever, Tessia is a member of the Tower of Secrets, who would believe her words?

“I’ll report this immediately, thank you very much this time.”

Receiving the message, Manu hastily ended the call.

He wasn’t sure if what Bai Fu said was true, but this definitely needed immediate investigation. If delayed, they might miss out on getting anything useful.

On the other side, after notifying Manu, Bai Fu began planning her future.

After what just happened, she couldn’t return to Ulysses for a while. She had to find a new place to stay.

“Speaking of which, the best place to lay low right now should be the Subcommittee of the Star Treaty Organization in the Initial Gateway Star Cluster, right?”

The Star Treaty Organization is an ultra-class power. Even if the Tower of Secrets hates her deeply, unless they’re insane, they wouldn’t dare to bother her at the Subcommittee of the Star Treaty Organization in the Initial Gateway Star Cluster. If they angered the Sworn One of the Star Treaty Organization, a single slap from them could crush the entire Tower of Secrets.

“Great, let’s go there!”

Before officially setting out, Bai Fu contacted Green Mud to learn about the situation at the subcommittee since it was her first visit.

Green Mud briefly explained that recently things were special because the subcommittee director Lemang was about to be promoted. All the managers below him were desperately trying to show their capabilities, running around non-stop, making the subcommittee seem unusually quiet.

Green Mud watched anxiously in his heart.

He originally thought that with Bai Fu and the Undead joining, Scarlet Leaf would become a strong contender for the position of subcommittee director, but unexpectedly, Scarlet Leaf suddenly encountered trouble and couldn’t use her powers freely. What competition was there then?

Faced with Green Mud’s concerns, Bai Fu paid no heed.

Compete?

When your strength isn’t enough, that’s when you need to compete.

Once she helped Scarlet Leaf resolve her mental knot and successfully ascended to the Catastrophe tier, no matter what tricks Herbert and the others used, the position of director would ultimately belong to Scarlet Leaf!

Not satisfied?

Deal with it!

Having strength allows you to do as you please!

“Oh, by the way, there’s one more thing I almost forgot to tell you.” Green Mud suddenly shouted.

Bai Fu asked: “What is it?”

Green Mud replied: “Didn’t you ask me to find someone to help calculate the coordinates of the Dark Domain planets? The position of the first planet has been calculated now, and I’ll send it to you immediately.”

A few seconds later, a string of numbers and a hand-drawn star map appeared on Bai Fu’s communicator screen.

[Indigo Star]: Coordinate Position (…)

Here it comes, here it comes, finally!

After months in the Star Ocean, she finally found the location of the second beginner planet!

Bai Fu was so excited that her hands started trembling.

Those were a bunch of players who had never been exploited by her, pure as snow. How much experience could she squeeze out of them this time?

Uncountable, but she was already imagining her wonderful future being submerged in a sea of experience!

Actually, finding Indigo Star benefits Bai Fu in more ways than one.

The reason she had the professionals of the Star Treaty Organization calculate the position of Indigo Star first, rather than another beginner planet, was because Indigo Star was the planet where the legend of the Nocturnal Overlord originated!

As long as she showed up on Indigo Star, without doing anything extra, it would solidify the notion in the players’ minds that “she is the Nocturnal Overlord.”

“Green Mud, I won’t go to the subcommittee temporarily.”

“Huh?” Green Mud was confused.

Bai Fu confidently said: “I have an urgent matter to handle. If this matter goes well, even ten Herberts combined won’t pose any threat to Director Scarlet Leaf.”

After putting away her communicator, Scarlet Leaf approached.

“Do you have a plan to deal with Tessia? If you can’t think of one, we might as well go back now and take her out while she’s unprepared using the power of the Void.”

Bai Fu waved her hand: “Do you want to see my other hometown?”

Scarlet Leaf was perplexed: “Another hometown?”

Bai Fu explained: “Indigo Star, a planet hidden in the Dark Domain. We’ll go there first.”

Tessia, huh?

By the time I gather enough experience to level up and come back, just watch how I deal with you, you resourceful spider spirit!

Bai Fu modified the destination of the spaceship. She didn’t rush to inform the players, preparing to give both the players and Indigo Star a surprise.

The main storyline of Indigo Star is far from over, and this trip she could gain a wave of quest rewards as a descending goddess.

What kind of scene would it be for an S-class superhuman to descend on a beginner planet where the strongest is merely B-class?

PS: Thanks to Baiye, the God Slayer, and Salt Content Overload for their support.

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