Reading the Entire History of Spirit Hall's Destruction in Front of the Pope
The twelve-shichen countdown at the top of the public screen ticked through its final interval. The soft click as it reached zero burst in the ears of everyone in the group.
In Perching Swan Academy's new quarters, Qin Zhaoye had long since settled at his desk. Unhurriedly, he reached out and pressed the bronze buttons marked "Lock Topic" and "Post to Wall" on the host console.
[Group owner: Time's up. The first half of the special session, "The Complete Record of the Battle of Godhood and Spirit Hall's Destruction," begins now. The topic is locked. Microphone one goes to the lead speaker.]
The first bronze microphone on the host platform slowly lit up with golden light.
Lan Xuanyu had been waiting for this moment. He had already typed up three years of work into a full-volume post. The moment he got the microphone, he wasted no words and pinned the first piece of hard chronological evidence to the center of the public screen.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Front row, pin this to the wall! "Official History of the First Era: The Record of Spirit Hall's Destruction"-unboxing the whole volume! First floor, let's start with an overview of the timeline: from Spirit Hall's expansion at the height of its power all the way to its collapse and destruction in the Battle of Godhood. It looked like a hegemony with fire blazing under boiling oil, but in truth, every step landed on empty air, and the whole game was lost!]
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: To give everyone a clear picture, I've put together a comparison image: an illustration of the First Era Pope's Palace at its peak, alongside a half-price student ticket for a later-era "One-Day Tour of the Spirit Hall Ruins" and a Pope's Palace souvenir wooden plaque. Take a look!]
Qin Zhaoye readily played along, using the host console to pin the long, vertically split image to the top bar.
The upper half showed the magnificent sight of ten thousand Soul Masters paying homage to the Pope's Palace. In the lower half, later-era tourists held flyers advertising "Half-price student tickets, free Pope's Palace souvenir wooden plaque" as they took photos in front of the ruins' broken walls.
This old joke had been dug up and made into a comparison image. To put it bluntly, it had been plastered right in the Pope's face.
The cross-era listeners lurking below erupted on the spot. Words leaped frantically across the collapsed banner as if a dam had burst.
"The audience is in an uproar ×2310!"
Over in Spirit City, Bibi Dong stared coldly at the comparison image in the Pope's Palace. The Pope's Palace at its peak and a ticket to its later-era ruins had been placed side by side. She watched coldly as Lan Xuanyu posted the second floor's chronicle of the downfall, passage by passage.
A full incense stick's worth of time passed before she slowly typed her first rebuttal on the public screen.
[Bibi Dong: Absurd. Spirit Hall commands more than half the continent's Soul Masters and has numerous Titled Douluo under its banner. How could mere mortal empires and a few sects raze the foundations of my Spirit Hall within a few years?]
Qin Zhaoye swiped a fingertip across the host console, projecting Bibi Dong's challenge onto the confrontation panel. Then he casually switched the microphones over to Lan Xuanyu and Huo Yuhao.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Don't be impatient, Your Holiness. The third floor brings you the middle section of the "Record of Destruction" timeline! The official history states it plainly: when Spirit Hall forcibly sent troops to swallow up the surrounding lands, it lost large numbers of elites. Afterward, it fought on multiple fronts, its supply lines stretched longer and longer, the front lines failed to break through despite prolonged assaults, and its branches in the rear fell one after another!]
Huo Yuhao took the microphone and twisted the knife.
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: Judging from a strategic analysis, its advantage in high-level combat power on paper depended on a swift victory. If the front lines were stalled and supplies cut off, Spirit Hall's vast Soul Master establishment would instead become a burden that dragged down its foundations.]
The timeline's records were laid out line by line: provisions cut off, branches fallen. They effectively nailed Bibi Dong's challenge right back at her.
As the chronicle turned a page, the audience counter climbed another round.
"The audience is in an uproar ×2760!"
In the Pope's Palace, Bibi Dong's breath caught slightly as she looked at the hidden risks of supplying multiple fronts, because even she had only ever considered them in secret.
This time, she didn't wait so long. After just the time it took to drink a cup of tea, she quickly typed out her second rebuttal.
[Bibi Dong: Even if the front lines are deadlocked, once my cultivation reaches level one hundred and I become a god, I alone can sweep aside ten thousand troops. What would gains and losses in a mortal war matter then?]
[Group owner: Now that's the heart of the matter. @Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor, put up the complete death notice and the cause-of-death file.]
Qin Zhaoye personally opened the host console's core archive slot, then steadily pushed the gold-edged pages of the final reveal onto the public screen's main display.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: The fourth floor is a big one! "Pope Bibi Dong, died in the Battle of Godhood"-unboxing the complete cause of death! The official history records it as hard fact: Bibi Dong did break through level one hundred at the decisive moment, but the root of her defeat and death lay buried in the "Rakshasa God inheritance terms" themselves!]
He gave no one time to catch their breath before following up with another post.
[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Here's an excerpt from the official history: the Rakshasa God inheritance terms carried a heavy price and shackles! During the divine trials, evil thoughts eroded her mind, causing her to make one disastrous move after another and alienate those around her. Forcibly wielding the inherited divine power also left a fatal hidden injury. In the end, her divine armor shattered in the Battle of Godhood, and she died from the inheritance's backlash and the combined assault of powerful enemies!]
"The audience is in an uproar ×3420!"
The counter shot sharply upward once more.
Inside a dormitory at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.
Tang San looked at the text on the fourth floor and reached out to circle the words "inheritance terms" on the light screen. Then he posted a line on the public screen.
[Tang San: Even the terms for an inheritance that lets someone become a god at level one hundred contain shackles that lead to their defeat and death?]
[The Bystander Sees Clearly: There's no power in this world that comes for free. A divine position looks like a shortcut, but the price was already marked in its terms.]
Inside the Pope's Palace in Spirit City.
Bibi Dong stared fixedly at the words "Rakshasa God inheritance terms" on the light screen.
Though no one else knew what erosion by evil thoughts and agonizing backlash she had endured in the secret chamber, she knew all too well. The hidden danger of the divine trials, which she had thought only she knew about, had been recorded in that history without a single word wrong!
The last shred of hope she had held that "becoming a god would let her rewrite the ending" was utterly shattered. And the evil thoughts and hidden injuries that had plagued her for years were the cause of her dead end—this, too, had been laid clearly before her for the first time.
Bibi Dong's fingers hovered over the input box. This time, she fell completely silent and posted not another word of rebuttal.
With the opposing party silenced, Qin Zhaoye pressed a button in the backend. Taking advantage of the nuclear bomb's popularity reaching its peak, he opened the overall betting pool for the entire volume.
[Group Hub: Popularity of a volume-level nuclear-bomb topic has reached its peak. The cross-volume overall betting pool is now open. Pool question: "Will the Battle of Godhood still break out as recorded in the history books?" This pool rolls over across volumes and will be settled solely on the basis of the Group Hub's final ruling!]
[Group owner: The overall pool is open. Everyone in the group may place a bet. Also, the hard evidence for the first half is settled, so let's settle an account first.]
Golden light flashed across the scroll, and two notification boxes popped up in succession. Members throughout the group poured out to place bets in the newly opened pool.
[Gold-letter report: The major revelations from the Record of Destruction and the Rakshasa God inheritance terms are settled. The bonus for breaking the composure of the person involved while present has been triggered. Group owner credited with 1,500 Talking Capital!]
[Host console announcement: The projected share from the godhood special session, approximately 8,000 Talking Capital, has been posted. Settlement will be made once the entire special session concludes!]
In fact, that afternoon before the special session began, things had already grown a little tighter in Suotuo City. Outside Perching Swan Academy, the Spirit Hall Branch's sentry posts had multiplied overnight, surrounding the academy without making a move.
When Qin Zhaoye pushed open the door and walked into the front courtyard, he came upon Dean Feng Yanqiu having people carry him on a couch to hide in the rear hall. Three official letters lay beside the couch, all signed by He Zhili, the man in charge of the branch.
"Zhaoye, look at this!" Feng Yanqiu rapped the letters with his abacus, counting the points off one by one. "Anyone coming or going has to show the branch's pass, and every teacher and student gets questioned! They've cut the market's supplies to us by thirty percent in one stroke! And he wants me to go to the branch today to 'hand over the person and state my position'!"
He clutched his abacus tightly and burrowed under the covers, grumbling, "So this dean has suddenly come down with a terrible illness and can't get out of bed today. I'll hold him off by stalling for now!"
Hearing this, Qin Zhaoye glanced at the three official letters bearing He Zhili's seal and nodded. "Keep stalling him, Dean. I've made a note of this debt."
By the time the first half of the special session ended, it was already late at night.
In the new quarters, Qin Zhaoye circulated the Ever-Bright Bamboo Slip Art and regulated his breathing to finish his cultivation. He could feel his Soul Power naturally pass the threshold and settle firmly at level thirty-five.
He unrolled the bronze scroll. Deep in the Heaven Dou imperial palace, Qian Renxue had just reached the end of the chronicle post. Seeing her name pinned side by side with the words "Angel God," she immediately tagged the group owner on the public screen.
[Qian Renxue: @Group owner, I want a separate session.]
Her words had only just set off another rise in the public-screen counter when Bibi Dong's private-message avatar lit up in the scroll's lower right corner. The preview showed only the first few words:
"I'll name a price."