Chapter 665: The Play
"Long unseen... weakness."
Bai Mo briefly assessed the power of this avatar; its normal output was roughly equivalent to a Fourth Tier attack. Should he attempt to overcharge it, power would leak, potentially triggering several more earthquakes.
However, the greatest advantage of a Ghost Immortal avatar lay in its indestructibility, coupled with infinite energy.
A boundless torrent of power flowed from the illusory realm, transforming his avatar into an almost unkillable monster.
...
"I'm sorry." A voice as clear and sweet as a silver bell drifted from near his feet.
Just as Bai Mo was walking along, contemplating how to locate the Main God, something soft, quite by chance, bumped into his chest.
On the ground, a schoolgirl, bread still clutched in her mouth, had tumbled into a rather undignified pose, her uniform skirt ridden up slightly. She was gently rubbing her thigh, which had taken the brunt of the fall.
Black thigh-high socks, a blue and white sailor-style uniform—it was the standard attire for the Seris Empire's mid-level noble academies.
Before Bai Mo could utter a word, the girl, evidently in a hurry for school, simply brushed the dust from her clothes and sprinted off in the direction of the academy.
...
Watching the girl's receding figure, Bai Mo also began to trail her, heading towards the school.
Bai Mo had cast a "Do Not Approach" Spirit Art upon himself, interfering with the electromagnetic fields around his body. This subtle distortion subconsciously prompted ordinary people to avoid him.
Yet this girl had clearly bumped into him with extreme intentionality, a fact that piqued his interest.
She wasn't a Reincarnator.
So who could she be?
...
"How was the target?"
"I don't believe he detected anything amiss." The girl who had just collided with Bai Mo quickly devoured the bread in her hand, then reported with a serious expression to the white-clad figure seated on the sofa.
"A pity your test failed; he still noticed you."
"How could that be! My acting is absolutely flawless!" The girl's face registered utter disbelief.
The white-clad figure had observed the girl's entire performance. To be fair, her acting was indeed superb; even the girl herself couldn't find a single flaw.
However, that transcendent being evidently possessed something beyond common sense, capable of logically deducing the issue.
"Since that's the case, by our agreement, I cannot take you as a disciple."
"Master... are you truly abandoning me now?" The girl instantly adopted a pitiful, helpless expression, one that couldn't help but stir sympathy.
"The more obvious your exquisite acting, the more I doubt the authenticity of your emotions." The white-clad woman showed not the slightest trace of softening.
"Considering the affinity between us, I'll give you this little item." Despite refusing the girl's request to take her as a disciple, she left behind a peculiar artifact that looked seventy to eighty percent like a lollipop.
...
The mysterious white-clad woman was Ming Qi, the recently arrived captain of the Heaven Squad.
Upon her descent, she had coincidentally discovered this girl, unusually curious about the transcendent world, tinkering with some mysterious rituals copied from who knew where.
Concurrently, the white-clad figure had also detected Bai Mo in the distance, utilizing a transcendent perception device acquired from the Main God.
After a brief exchange, Ming Qi, who proclaimed herself a reclusive master, subtly used a portion of her power to thoroughly bamboozle the girl.
She then used the pretense of taking on a disciple to trick the girl into testing Bai Mo...
"In this virtually magic-less world, a native capable of wielding such power is definitely a crucial NPC."
Ming Qi, nicknamed the Silent Angel, particularly enjoyed interacting with powerful NPCs, always seeking to extract benefits from them.
The Heaven Squad consisted solely of her, though to say so wouldn't be entirely accurate, as several sub-personalities also resided within her.
Whenever the primary personality required assistance, these sub-personalities, each adept in various auxiliary abilities, would take control of additional limbs or even parts of her body to lend a hand.
...
"An interesting little trinket."
The peculiar lollipop in the girl's hand hadn't even been properly secured before a sudden gust of wind from behind snatched it away.
Bai Mo, who had trailed them all the way, materialized directly before the Heaven Squad captain. He then casually took the "lollipop" from the girl's hand and began meticulously examining it with his divine sense, as if utterly oblivious to their presence.
"Return it to her." Ming Qi drew her sword and activated her combat-ready white armor before speaking coldly.
The combat power display from her earlier probe showed that the man before her possessed six stars of combat power, placing him at the same level as herself.
This naturally prompted her to exercise extreme caution.
"Hold on, just ten more seconds." Bai Mo didn't even spare her a glance. If he truly unleashed his main body's power, the white armor would simply mean the difference between living one second longer or one second less.
This tiny "lollipop" was, in fact, a minor bio-enhancement Ming Qi had casually exchanged from the Main God. A little girl equipped with this could likely thrash two or three grown adults with ease.
But that was all it amounted to. Compared to the advanced bloodline powers available in the Main God Temple, this lollipop bio-enhancement, unable to even withstand a pistol shot, was truly worthless.
Something far inferior even to Earth's current technology, Bai Mo was naturally not interested in its underlying principles. What he truly sought were the coordinates of the spatial rift where the Main God Temple was hidden.
To reverse-engineer the Main God Temple's location by analyzing the equipment that flowed out from it...
"Remember to feed it glucose daily." Approximately nine seconds later, Bai Mo returned the now-useless bio-enhancement to the girl, who stood by, watching the "immortals fight."
The Main God Temple's precise coordinates were, of course, not so easily extracted, but with the aid of this deduction, the search radius had been significantly narrowed.
The lollipop bio-enhancement was indeed rather peculiar; it was powered by glucose...
As she took back the lollipop bio-enhancement, the girl noticed a subtle difference in its feel compared to before, though she couldn't articulate why.
"May I consider this a provocation?" A fully armored Ming Qi raised the longsword in her hand, pointing it directly at Bai Mo.
"A hundred years."
"?"
"It's been nearly a century since anyone dared to proactively draw a sword against me."
"..."
Ming Qi was no stranger to NPCs who spoke with such audacious bravado; they typically represented the pinnacle of combat power within their respective planes, using absolute might to silence all dissent. Their formidable strength was the foundation of their arrogance.
Based on her experience, the only way to communicate as an equal with such individuals was to fight them, damn it!
Only by earning recognition through force could one hope to acquire truly valuable things from them.
Of course, there was another strategy: the sycophant's approach. This involved using wisdom beyond a single plane to devise various ways to curry favor with these reclusive masters. However, this path was subjectively unacceptable to most experts who held a certain standing within the Main God's system.
Newbies and cynical veterans—the ones with trash-tier combat power—didn't care, though. As long as they could survive the treacherous cycles of the Main God and live comfortably, what was a little bootlicking of plot characters or NPCs?
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