Bibi Dong Emerges from Seclusion

In a secret chamber located in the deepest part of the main hall of the Spirit Hall, within the Pope's Hall, a slender figure suddenly emerged from a mirror erected within the chamber.

It was Pope Bibi Dong.

"Finally... another assessment has been completed."

Bibi Dong leaned against the wall, her voice hoarse.

At this moment, Bibi Dong's face, which had once exuded elegance and nobility, was now filled with uncontrollable malice and madness. Anyone familiar with her would likely be utterly shocked, suspecting that she was someone else impersonating the Pope.

Even though Bibi Dong tried her best to control her facial expressions, her sinister and vicious temperament and the suffocating, twisted soul pressure she exuded could not be concealed.

Unlike those gods who are incredibly generous, even overly biased towards those who take the divine test, the Rakshasa God who gave Bibi Dong the divine test was extremely stingy.

Not only did they not give her any treasures, but they also didn't help increase the age of her Soul Ring. They even suppressed Bibi Dong's divine power level and allowed the Rakshasa God's madness to continuously pollute and torment Bibi Dong's mind.

If Bibi Dong knew that Qian Renxue's divine examination was practically guaranteed, and that the Sea God and the Asura God had obtained their divine positions through loopholes, she would probably be driven mad with envy and have a broken heart. Although she had already gone mad, she had only forced herself to wear a rational disguise in order to achieve her two major goals of becoming a god and Destruction God King the Spirit Hall.

Of course, it's also possible that this is the treatment that ordinary test-takers usually enjoy.

In short, in order to complete the divine test and become a god, Bibi Dong has always been in a weakened state.

Meanwhile, in order to prepare for the divine test, Bibi Dong would frequently declare that she was in seclusion, temporarily entrusting the affairs of the Spirit Hall to others. This time, her "seclusion" took another six months.

The mirror that was once hidden in the secret chamber was the entrance and exit to the God Trial Secret Realm, which Bibi Dong set up herself.

"Call..."

Bibi Dong rubbed her head wearily.

Having just completed the assessment, she had no intention of leaving seclusion like this. She knew all too well what kind of commotion it would cause if she went out maintaining the same mental state she had during the assessment.

However, she doesn't plan to stay in this place that holds the most disgusting memories for her.

Bibi Dong hid the entrance to the Rakshasa God Trial Secret Realm here to remind herself and use the flames of hatred to stimulate herself, thereby strengthening her determination and belief in completing the trial.

But even Bibi Dong didn't want to be in an extreme state all the time.

Otherwise, she feared she wouldn't be able to endure until the end and would start her own plan before she was fully prepared.

This is the only thing she absolutely cannot accept!

Thus, Bibi Dong moved to another, less secluded room, which was fully equipped with all kinds of facilities and was the room she usually used for seclusion, and began to rest.

Two weeks later, she finally officially announced her return from seclusion and began to resume her work Pope.

"Present all the documents that I accumulated during my six-month seclusion."

Under Bibi Dong's orders, the aide did as instructed.

However, less than an hour into Bibi Dong's work, her aide, who had received a message from a subordinate, suddenly stepped forward. "Your His Holiness the Pope, Elder Ju and Ghost Elder have something to discuss with you."

Bibi Dong frowned slightly and nodded. "Let them in directly."

As soon as Kiku and Kiku entered, they went straight to the point. "Your His Holiness the Pope, do you still remember the 'Masked Killer' incident from six months ago?"

"The Masked Killer?"

Bibi Dong's brows furrowed even deeper.

Having spent a long time in the Rakshasa God 'God Trial Secret Realm, a place so remote that she had no energy to think about anything else, she felt a strong sense of disconnection from the outside world.

One hidden purpose of dealing with the backlog of tasks is to allow her to reconnect with the real world through these tasks.

She thought back carefully and realized she did have some recollection of the Masked Killer; she had seen some chain reactions caused by his existence in the documents she had just seen.

Bibi Dong sneered, "If I remember correctly, this matter was mainly handled by the two of you back then, wasn't it? What, half a year has passed, and it's still not resolved!?"

What are you all good for?!

Bibi Dong practically pointed at the noses of the two Titled Douluo and cursed them like that.

The two Douluo, especially Yue Guan, showed obvious embarrassment on their faces.

He said, "I apologize, Your Majesty, this is indeed our dereliction of duty, that cannot be denied! But on the other hand, capturing this Masked Killer is indeed beyond our capabilities."

Bibi Dong frowned. "Could this guy be a Titled Douluo? When did Titled Douluo, who represent the pinnacle of martial prowess on the continent, become so cheap as to become low-level assassins?"

"No, in my estimation, the Masked Killer is probably only at the Soul Douluo level in terms of combat strength. But this guy is even more slippery than some Titled Douluo! Especially his escape speed and ability to hide!"

Yue Guan spoke urgently, and Gui Mei nodded in agreement, adding, "This guy's speed at full power is already at the level of a typical Titled Douluo. Coupled with his strange technique of concealing his aura, you'll lose track of him if you keep a little distance."

Bibi Dong suddenly looked at the assistant beside her.

This assistant had been by Bibi Dong's side for many years. With Bibi Dong, she understood what she meant and immediately stepped forward to explain, as if to corroborate the words of the two Titled Douluo.

"Your His Holiness the Pope, in fact, including Elder Ju and Ghost Elder, there are a total of five elders currently stationed in Spirit City. The elders have faced the Masked Killer a total of six times. Even with our side at its best, four elders participated in the siege of the Masked Killer at the same time, but he still managed to escape. After the Masked Killer fled into the Star Dou Great Forest, he became impossible to track down."

With the testimonies of Chrysanthemum and Ghost, as well as her aide, Bibi Dong was finally convinced that this little Masked Killer, with his mere Soul Douluo rank, had indeed stirred up the entire Spirit City and left the Spirit Hall helpless against him.

After a long silence, Bibi Dong finally spoke, "Where is the Worship Hall? This Masked Killer is so rampant, hasn't the Worship Hall done anything about it?"

"The Worship Hall has not conveyed any information to us," the aide replied.

"Laugh!"

Bibi Dong burst into laughter in anger. "Huh!? What's going on? Are they really trying to shift all the problems onto my Pope's Hall? A mere Soul Douluo is slapping our Spirit Hall in the face like this, and they're not even going to lift a finger!?"

Kiku and Kijima lowered their heads silently, keeping their eyes down and not daring to speak. And in fact... that was exactly what they believed.

Despite Bibi Dong's anger, her aide pulled out a document and said, "Your His Holiness the Pope, please take a look."

Bibi Dong took the document and saw that it was a list of people who had died because of the Masked Killer.

Bibi Dong was initially puzzled, but after seeing the message her aide had specially marked after each name, she finally understood.

Nine out of ten of these people have completely sided with her.

In fact, it wasn't that You Chen specifically chose Bibi Dong's people to assassinate. In You Chen's eyes, completing the mission was a higher priority.

However, those who clash with him are naturally more likely to join Bibi Dong's camp.

Bibi Dong did not make any special effort to win over people who had been hostile to You Chen.

The final outcome is likely related to the current internal factions within the Spirit Hall.

The Spirit Hall today is basically divided into the pro -Pope faction, the neutral faction, the worship faction, or the family faction.

The first two are self-explanatory. The so-called "Patron Saints" are the old family forces that have connections with past Pope and have gradually integrated into the Spirit Hall.

Because apart from Bibi Dong, the Angel Clan has always controlled the position of Pope, this faction is essentially the Angel Clan faction.

The worshippers, such as the Golden Crocodile Douluo and the Azure Luan Douluo, are either the current patriarchs of these worshipping families or high-ranking elders.

Such factions, bound by blood ties, are quite exclusive.

Looking at the aristocratic families in ancient Chinese history, we can see that these families often only intermarried within their own families. Even if they recruited people from other families, it was usually only through marriage, and generally speaking, the outsiders who joined would not have a high status.

The patriarchs of these families doted on Qian Renxue as if she were their granddaughter or daughter, and naturally, they were full of rejection towards the Pope faction represented by Bibi Dong.

Of course, they all believed that the position of Pope would eventually return to Qian Renxue, so their main concern was to exclude Bibi Dong. Although they disliked the Pope faction, they wouldn't specifically target them.

In a sense, You Chen can also be considered a member of the worship faction.

However, many people have reservations about You Chen, an outsider, becoming their little princess's teacher.

Therefore, they turned a blind eye to Bibi Dong's suppression of You Chen.

It is obvious that in the first few years of You Chen's rise, it was precisely the period when Qian Xunji was most optimistic about cultivating You Chen. How could You Chen possibly have a conflict with the people of the Offering Faction?

When Qian Renxue was born and You Chen was assigned to be Qian Renxue teacher, there were indeed some people who were dissatisfied, but...

Given Qian Daoliu's level of protection for Qian Renxue, this small group of people are the true core of the Offering Sect, and each of them is related to those offerings. You Chen does not intend to provoke them at the moment, and even if he comes across a task related to them, he can only give it up one by one.

Given the exclusivity of the Papal faction, those who clashed with You Chen were unlikely to later join the Pope faction.

Factions are often nested in layers. Within the Pope faction, many people simply choose a neutral person who is unlikely to achieve much if they want to make a name for themselves, because joining the patron faction is difficult and they prefer the type of person who gets things done but is a hard worker.

Of course, there were also those who, for the sake of power, completely sided with Bibi Dong, even becoming her lackeys like Bai Hu.

Most of the mission targets had conflicts with You Chen, so seeing Bibi Dong's intention to suppress You Chen naturally made them more inclined to Bibi Dong.

Conversely, when Bibi Dong sees that these people have a history of clashing with You Chen in their resumes, she will naturally feel more favorably towards them.

This was essentially a subtle, two-way selection process. Under this process, these people eventually became Bibi Dong's closest associates within the Pope faction.

Those who supported the Papacy were overjoyed to see the Masked Killer Pope close to Bibi Dong; they were probably secretly delighted.

If the Masked Killer's actions hadn't damaged the Spirit Hall's prestige, they probably wouldn't have hesitated to applaud and cheer.

Bibi Dong realized the reason why the Worship Hall had stood by and done nothing, and her face darkened as she fell into deep thought.

Suddenly realizing something, she asked, "Is Spirit City still in chaos?"

Then, her aide gave her the answer she expected.

No.

The aide said, somewhat puzzled, "Although at the beginning, many residents were indeed restless, inquiring about the situation from the Execution Division every day. Many people were in a hurry to auction off their homes, and some even left Spirit City overnight. But... about two months later, everything calmed down, as if nothing had happened..."

Bibi Dong was not at all surprised by her aide's statement.

Rather, this completes another piece of the puzzle in the Worship Hall, which has been left untouched.

Those who died were all Bibi Dong's people, and there wasn't much turmoil in Spirit City. Although the Spirit Hall lost some reputation, it was Pope Bibi Dong's reputation that was lost! Once Qian Renxue to the throne, they can then help her rebuild the Spirit Hall's glory, which would more smoothly consolidate Qian Renxue 'Qian Renxue position and solidify her foundation as the new Pope in a short time!

Bibi Dong immediately understood what those old guys were thinking.

Her slender index finger swept across the list of assistants, and she said, "You're confused? That's because you don't understand humans at all! Haven't you noticed that the status and strength of these people killed by assassins have basically been constantly rising, never falling! And in this process, although the Masked Killer are extremely brutal to their targets, they correspondingly do not harm the innocent in the slightest..."

Upon hearing this, Yue Guan's eyes lit up, and he said, "In other words, these residents may seem to be in constant danger, but in reality, they are not in any real danger at all. They can even watch those who are of higher status and were once high and mighty fall from grace while staying in Spirit City! As such, they are naturally no longer afraid and no longer think about leaving!"

Bibi Dong nodded, gradually recalling all the information about the Masked Killer, and analyzed, "That's exactly right. If we include what happened a year and a half ago, the Masked Killer's targets from the beginning included Soul Master at the Soul Ancestor level. Now, even the weakest target he's killed is at the Soul King level. If he continues to kill higher and higher, even Soul King probably won't have to worry about their safety. Hmm... That's really interesting. Usually, it's the weak who have to worry about their personal safety, but now, the stronger they are, the more they have to worry about their safety?"

Bibi Dong felt a twisted pleasure from the Masked Killer's way of reversing the power dynamics. Just imagining herself in such a situation made her excited to raise the flag! Even though she didn't have one yet!

Looking at Bibi Dong's inexplicable smile, Yue Guan suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He assumed that Bibi Dong was laughing in exasperation, so he quickly lowered his head and asked, "Your His Holiness the Pope, we are dull-witted and cannot even defeat a mere Masked Killer. We beg Your Majesty for guidance."

Bibi Dong's smile vanished instantly.

The Masked Killer's style was indeed interesting to her, but if such interesting things happened on her own turf, then obviously it wouldn't be so interesting.

In particular, considering her future plans to conquer the continent, she really needs manpower.

Given the Masked Killer' reckless behavior, it's obvious to anyone with a brain that if this problem isn't solved, those shrewd and quick-witted individuals will likely leave our side soon, eventually leading to a situation where we have no one left to rely on.

This is Bibi Dong absolutely cannot accept.

Bibi Dong thought for a moment and asked in a deep voice, "First of all, in all this time, have you confirmed his true identity? Even if you don't have a true identity, what about guesses? You can't have no guesses at all, can you? Before, if you couldn't catch that guy, you could say he was really capable, but if you can't even do this kind of thing well, then I have to doubt your ability to handle things."

"Yes."

Yue Guan reported, "Based on the current intelligence, this Masked Killer is most likely the Heaven-Grade Assassin from SkyNet who appeared out of nowhere half a year ago! That Heaven-Grade Assassin only displayed the explosive ability to instantly kill Soul Douluo, but judging from the performance of SkyNet members, he is definitely a guy proficient in various assassin techniques. As for the assassination ability displayed by the Masked Killer, so far, I haven't seen anyone more powerful than him. Moreover, I've fought with him before, and I suspect that the Heaven-Grade Assassin's skill of instantly killing Soul Douluo and another skill he possesses might be the same one! Most importantly, it's hard to imagine two assassins of this caliber appearing at the same time in a short period of time. Besides that Heaven-Grade Assassin, I can't think of any other possibility!"

"In other words..."

Bibi Dong pondered, "We can't rule out the possibility that this assassin was hired by some enemy of the Spirit Hall. Such a high frequency and continuous assassination would cost any force dearly."

Bibi Dong suddenly looked at her aide. "Investigate whether there have been any large-scale capital flows in the top forces of the Douluo Continent recently."

After giving instructions to her aides and ordering them to leave, Bibi Dong looked at Pufferfish and Snake Lance and said calmly, "According to what my aides just said, including you, there are only five people, five elders, who took action. Apart from the two who are away for a long time, what's the deal with the other three elders?"

In the original timeline, the Spirit Hall's Elder Hall only had nine members, one of whom was the incompetent Wisdom God Position Elder Yu Xiaogang.

Now that You Chen Yu Xiaogang failed to become Wisdom God Position Elder, Bibi Dong knows how much humiliation she forced Yu Xiaogang to accept the title of "Grandmaster," which even became the fuse that led to their separation. Therefore, she will not give Yu Xiaogang the title of Wisdom God Position Elder.

The fact that the Spirit Hall gained three more Titled Douluo elders is undoubtedly due in no small part to You Chen's efforts.

Of course, the changes a researcher makes to the world are difficult for an individual to perceive.

Therefore, these three additional Titled Douluo naturally wouldn't realize that they took off with the help of You Chen. They would only think it was the result of their own efforts and wouldn't get close to You Chen.