"They had already killed themselves when the two benefactors came in. Those beasts usually kept us chained up, only letting us loose when they wanted to do it. They forced us to eat every day, so we had no way to kill ourselves."
"And you? How did you..." Bibi Dong remembered what had happened to her and felt immense sympathy for the woman before her.
The gaunt woman shook her head, coughed twice, and only continued after catching her breath.
"I was among the first to be captured. It's been almost half a year. The women captured with me died long ago. Even the women brought here afterward have all died. But I didn't want to die. I couldn't die. I had to live!"
"My child is still waiting for me at home. My family is still waiting for me to return. What would happen to them if I died? His father was already killed by them, but he's still so young. He can't lose his mother too."
"So I kept holding on, holding on, hoping someone would come and save us, hoping they would kill all those beasts. I always believed that wherever light reached in this world, there was more of it than darkness. Thankfully, I waited long enough. The two benefactors came..."
At that point, the woman could no longer contain her grief and broke down in tears.
A mother's love was great. Her incomparably powerful will to survive had kept this mother alive.
Women might be weak, but mothers were strong!
She dwelled in soul-devouring darkness, yet her heart had never stopped yearning for salvation through warmth and light.
Bibi Dong patted the poor woman's back and used Spiritual Power to put her to sleep.
They had experienced similar pain, yet the woman before her had suffered far more. Bibi Dong possessed the peerless talent of Twin Martial Souls, was a Super Douluo favored by the gods, and could personally avenge herself through her own strength.
But what about her? She was merely an ordinary woman without even the strength to truss a chicken.
Yet she was so much stronger than Bibi Dong...
Was there truly more light than darkness in this world?
Xia Tianling stepped forward and embraced Bibi Dong, speaking softly by her ear.
"Godmother, you still have me, Sister Xue, and Senior Sister Hu Liena. Promise me you won't give up on yourself, okay?"
Bibi Dong felt the powerful heartbeat of the person before her, her expression slightly dazed.
Six years ago, he had only been a child who came up to her waist. Now, he had nearly grown into a "man" almost as tall as her.
Yes. He was right.
That beast was dead, but she still had Little Xue, Liena, and Tianling. There was still so much beauty in this world.
Was the obsession I had clung to for more than ten years really right?
Perhaps I truly should try letting it go.
"Rakshasa's Sixth Trial: Comprehend the true meaning of [Evil]. Passed. Reward: Rakshasa affinity increased by twenty percent. Current total affinity: one hundred percent." "Rakshasa's Seventh Trial."
A cold voice rang out in Bibi Dong's mind.
So she had been walking the wrong path all along. Rakshasa should have been a god who controlled sin and judged sin, not a god who became sin.
Just like the Asura God—using evil to restrain evil!
The Rakshasa's Sixth Trial that had troubled her for a full six years had turned out to be this.
"Ding. Bibi Dong's life trajectory has undergone a severe change through the host's actions. She has perfectly inherited and surpassed the original Rakshasa God Position, obtaining a massive amount of Fate Power. Due to the excessive amount, this reminder is hereby issued."
Perfectly inherited and surpassed it? It seemed Bibi Dong had finally worked it out.
Still holding Bibi Dong, Xia Tianling stared in astonishment. He had never expected that, by sheer coincidence, he would resolve Bibi Dong's inner demons. From the system's wording, it seemed that Bibi Dong in the Original Work had not perfectly inherited the power of the Divine Position?
"Yes, Host. In the original timeline, Bibi Dong misunderstood the concept of Rakshasa, resulting in an imperfect fusion between herself and the Divine Position. The Divine Position, originally a dimensional singularity, had undergone certain changes in nature after being impacted by the immense Power of Faith accumulated over tens of thousands of years. This affected Bibi Dong's mind. Combined with her own evil thoughts, she ultimately became a puppet of the Rakshasa Divine Power."
"So after Bibi Dong inherits the Divine Position now, she won't undergo the drastic personality change she did in the later stages of the Original Work?"
"Yes. Bibi Dong has already correctly understood the meaning of Rakshasa. Her understanding of power even surpasses that of the previous Rakshasa God."
Phew, that was good. His efforts had not been in vain after all. Xia Tianling let out a long breath of relief.
After six whole years of effort, he had finally dealt with the ticking time bomb that was Bibi Dong.
After a long while, Bibi Dong pushed her disciple away, and her aura surged dramatically.
Having let go of her obsession, her thoughts now flowed freely, and her Soul Power rose directly by one rank.
Unlike before, there was no longer that unsettling malice surrounding her.
"Thank you, Tianling. If it weren't for you, I probably would have walked down a very dark path." Bibi Dong looked at the boy before her, immensely grateful that she had taken him as her disciple.
"It's good that you've let it go. People always have to look forward." Xia Tianling smiled. "Since you've already let go, why not have Sister Xue cancel her undercover plan too?"
Bibi Dong rolled her eyes at him and replied irritably.
"Did cultivation turn your brain to mush? Wasn't that canceled years ago?"
Xia Tianling hurriedly checked the system records and, sure enough, found a notification from four years ago about Qian Renxue's altered Fate Power trajectory. At the time, he had been agonizing over his failed attempt to condense a Nascent Soul and the absence of a Thunder Tribulation. Qian Renxue seemed to have mentioned it to him, but he apparently... uh, forgot.
He could only scratch his head awkwardly and stand there grinning foolishly.
Thinking about it carefully, whenever he visited the Worship Hall over the past few years, he could see Qian Renxue there. He had never even suspected a thing.
"After the undercover plan was canceled four years ago, we directly had Little Xue fake her death and escape. Not long after, news came from the Heavenly Dou Empire that Crown Prince Xue Qinghe had died in an accident, and that the imperial family's only direct heir, Fourth Prince Xue Beng, had been named crown prince."
"Still, it's rather amusing. After Xue Beng became crown prince, he seemed like a completely different person. He went from an ignorant, useless playboy to a diligent and studious second-generation royal. Tsk, tsk. He's probably afraid Little Xue will kill him. It really wasn't easy for the boy to keep pretending for so many years."
Huh? Xue Beng had returned to his true nature after becoming crown prince? Without him and Prince Xue Xing standing in the way, Little San and the others were probably really going to become students of Imperial Dou Academy.
Hehe, now this was getting interesting. He wondered whether Yu Xiaogang and Flender would still meet Liu Erlong again.
Everything had been dealt with, and there was no reason to stay here any longer.
The master and disciple left this den of filth with the sleeping woman.
Before leaving, however, Xia Tianling set the small houses ablaze, burning them completely to the ground.
First, it was to clean up the battlefield and prevent the corpses from rotting and causing an epidemic later. After all, the Black Death on the Europa Continent during the Middle Ages and the plagues of ancient Huaxia had both been terrifying.
Second, it was to completely incinerate the blood, corpses, and everything else left behind by those Evil Soul Masters. Who knew whether there were Evil Soul Masters capable of controlling corpses like Necromancers? The corpses of powerful Soul Masters would make perfect materials, wouldn't they?
Before you continue