"Man, this spaceship's performance is even better than my 'Night of Serenity', right?"

"Kill, kill, kill! Blood rivers, here I come!"

In the bedroom, Bai Fu lay on a lounge chair, a drink in her left hand and fried chicken in her right. Behind her, Black Fu massaged her shoulders while Shadow Fu kneaded her feet—I mean, peak comfort!

This scene, if seen by outsiders, would definitely cause a huge uproar.

Ah, so that's what the Saintess is like behind the scenes, huh?

To that, Bai Fu replied, "Isn't getting stronger all about living the good life? Keep the music playing and keep dancing!"

These past few days her mood was great; although none of her tasks had progressed and her experience pool hadn't increased much, her scheming caused the main villains of a hidden main storyline and those in the Tem Civilization storyline to clash.

Especially the Leader—his losses were severe.

Within just a few days, half of his special forces had been wiped out, and out of the four Catastrophe-level operatives within those forces, three had been killed.

As for the bases of the special forces, except for those around Tem Star, all were bombed to dust.

Why such a disaster? Partly because of the Ten Saints Association's efficiency, and partly because everyone except Nellis was just watching the show.

Challenge the Ten Saints Association with a new instance at this time?

Oh, badass, let's see how badass you really are!

And so, the Leader got thrashed.

Damn!

With all these openly known Catastrophe-level operatives gone, any future endeavors he planned were now significantly more complicated.

Luckily for the Leader, his bad days didn't last too long—it was all over within just a few days.

"The task contribution points have increased. Looks like the Rebirth Empire has already started clashing with the Ten Saints Association."

Bai Fu raised her arms excitedly, even stretching her toes.

Just as she had guessed.

After thorough preparations, the Rebirth Empire launched an attack on the Ten Saints Association's foothold in the Edge World, deploying two Super Supremes and three Dominators, along with several of the empire's top-class warships in one breath.

The reason they hadn't sent more people was mainly to avoid attracting attention from the Supernova Battle Group and Titan Industry.

The Ten Saints Association was not just being hunted by the Three Major Cosmic Civilizations because of the Saints' deeds but also because of some big secrets they possessed.

The attack came very suddenly, catching the Ten Saints Association completely off guard.

When the news spread, others who received the message, like Yuan Yi, as well as people from the Supernova Battle Group and Titan Industry, were also stunned.

Yuan Yi: "I was still investigating the relationship between Lupus and the Ten Saints Association, thinking about how the return of the Ten Saints Association would impact the Edge World, and you guys from the Rebirth Empire already went straight for the jugular?"

Upon rethinking it, everyone felt something was off.

Wait, wasn't the news of the Ten Saints Association's return just leaked by the Tem Civilization Leader a few days ago? How have you already attacked their base, isn't that too fast?

Could it be...

Was the Leader actually a person from the Rebirth Empire?

Did he attack a small outpost of the Ten Saints Association to draw their attention, while the Rebirth Empire took the opportunity to strike directly at their main base?

The more everyone thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

They had to investigate this thoroughly—if the Leader had truly secretly aligned with the Rebirth Empire, they would need to add him to their target list too, they couldn't let him sneak around and benefit from this turmoil.

Bai Fu had just intended to trap the Leader and the Ten Saints Association but hadn't expected her maneuvers to make all the forces start questioning the Leader's allegiance.

The Leader was strong, being a true Dominator, but other major factions from the Tem Civilization Civil War also had Dominators backing them, and after losing the advantage of a hidden identity, half of his edge was gone.

At this point, the main storyline of the Tem Civilization had completely diverged from its original trajectory.

...

Di-di-di—

Hours later, Virtual Heart sent the collected intel to Bai Fu.

This was the latest intelligence on the Rebirth Empire's crackdown on the Ten Saints Association.

Under the onslaught of the Rebirth Empire, the Ten Saints Association suffered heavy losses, even losing a Dominator, but the Saint managed to escape from the encirclement with his eel-like elusiveness.

"It seems like there's more to this main task, huh."

Bai Fu casually submitted the task named [The Saint's Wailing].

Since she hadn't participated in the battle herself, the final reward was only 3.9 billion experience points, with no other items, but it was better than nothing.

[The next phase of the task will be triggered after finding the new foothold of the Ten Saints Association or raising the affinity with the Rebirth Empire to over 400.]

"400 affinity, huh, that's tough."

After informing the Rebirth Empire about the Ten Saints Association, Bai Fu unlocked the affinity and reputation metrics for the Rebirth Empire camp.

Her current affinity was 180, and her reputation was 30, both of which could only be described as plain.

Just take it slow, Bai Fu wasn't in a hurry, since there was still more than a month left until the end of version 2.0. When players truly get involved in the struggle among the Three Major Cosmic Civilizations, it would likely be version 3.0.

As time slowly passed, Bai Fu's communicator eventually rang.

She opened the virtual screen of the communicator and saw that the Rebirth Empire had sent over the two pieces of Dominator-level advanced knowledge she wanted.

"The Earth King's enhanced genome is also on its way and will be delivered to Lockheed in two days. Please be ready to receive it."

Bai Fu smiled and nodded. Looking at Julian who seemed a bit down, she said, "You seem a bit off."

Julian sighed, "Don't remind me, the Saint got away again, and the most crucial thing is... never mind, I can't talk about it. Anyway, the intelligence you provided was really useful."

Since Julian didn't want to elaborate further, Bai Fu didn't press him.

Her focus now wasn't on that but on quickly digesting the goods she had exchanged from the Rebirth Empire.

After finishing studying two new pieces of advanced knowledge and fusing the Earth King's enhanced genome, she was only two steps away from becoming a Dominator.

Step one, increase basic inspiration to 5000!

Step two, defeat an opponent with an attribute no less than 4000!

Bai Fu already had someone in mind to target.

"It's settled then. You're it, Honorable Force!"

Bai Fu planned to sacrifice the Honorable Force before the Leader could.

Walk the path prepared by the Leader, leaving no path for the Leader himself!

This would definitely annoy the Leader, but by then, she would have ascended to Dominator—what did she have to fear from a mere Leader!