Kill with a Borrowed Knife

By my calculations, the God Test should have begun by now, Su Cheng thought.

Qian Renxue's progress through the God Test would definitely be much faster than in the original work.

Although he did not know the specific trials of the first eight tests, he understood the general direction of a God Test.

It was nothing more than raising the soul, body, and Martial Soul to quasi-god-level foundations, while increasing compatibility with the divine position. That way, at the final step, one could perfectly merge with the divine position, condense a divine soul, reconstruct a divine body, and transform soul power into divine power.

Su Cheng had always trained Qian Renxue along this path, precisely so she could reap the greatest benefits from the God Test.

At that thought, he narrowed his eyes slightly.

The first eight tests were like that, certainly. But what about the ninth?

Su Cheng did not want to indulge in conspiracy theories. Overthinking would affect his judgment, but for the sake of the future, he had to find out whether there were any hidden truths behind it.

The Angel Ninth Trial from the original timeline was truly too strange.

The Angel God was no evil god. Its nature was upright and noble.

Logically, tempering the soul and making it undergo transformation should have meant strengthening one's will, using the temptations of the seven emotions and six desires as whetstones.

Yet in Qian Renxue's ninth trial, Bibi Dong and Tang San—people who should not have appeared—had both appeared.

Could the Angel God's Inheritance really be completed by drawing upon hatred and lust? What a joke.

What was more, when Tang San later underwent the Sea God Test, he had somehow been able to learn about the contents of the Angel God Test. That made no sense.

And the punishment for failing the Angel Ninth Trial was death. The Qian Family of Spirit Hall were all descendants of the Angel God. It would be one thing if the Angel God did not give its descendants special treatment, but to drive them to their deaths? Su Cheng did not quite believe it.

God Tests could be difficult or simple. So long as the inheritor met the requirements, the attitude of the original holder of the divine position could play an enormous role.

Still, he would have to wait until Qian Renxue completed the inheritance before he could learn the specifics.

Su Cheng looked again toward the Pope's Palace.

"Bibi Dong, what about you? Are you ready to undergo your ninth trial? Will you devour the top-tier Beast Martial Souls of the Three Great High Priests—Golden Crocodile, Azure Luan, and Lion—or not?"

Inside the Pope's Palace in Spirit City, within the Pope's private cultivation chamber.

Bibi Dong, who had been sitting cross-legged in meditation, slowly opened her eyes. A scarlet, blood-red glow shone from within them.

Her once noble and peerlessly beautiful face was now filled with a terrifyingly twisted air, streak after streak of blood marks crisscrossing her cheeks.

Behind her, an indistinct black phantom had also emerged.

Bibi Dong drew a deep breath. Black-purple light surged, and the changes on her body gradually vanished, restoring her original appearance, though her face looked somewhat pale.

Unlike Su Cheng, she could clearly sense the Angel God Test currently beginning in Douluo Hall.

Hatred filled her eyes. "Qian Daoliu, your son ruined me. Then I will ruin everything belonging to your Angel Clan."

She raised her right hand, and a book floated down into her palm. She opened it to a certain page.

The page was somewhat wrinkled, and even the edges around the cover had frayed. It had clearly existed for a long time and had frequently been held and read.

"...Tool Martial Souls lean more toward the nature of tools. In the hands of soul masters, whether in attack, defense, control, or other aspects, they can more easily achieve the utmost extreme in a single area compared to Beast Martial Souls. Beast Martial Souls, though they also have their strengths, possess more balanced abilities.

"Especially Martial Soul Possession, which is a unique advantage of Beast Martial Souls. It can enhance all aspects of a soul master's qualities. In other words, Beast Martial Souls can actually provide a certain degree of enhancement to one's mental will, something Tool Martial Souls find difficult to achieve.

"Moreover, if the strength of the Martial Soul can be greatly increased, the effect of Beast Martial Souls in enhancing a soul master's willpower will far exceed imagination. I have personally experienced this myself..."

This was a theory Yu Xiaogang had published several years ago. Whenever Bibi Dong had nothing to do, she would take it out and read it again and again. She could practically recite the contents of this page backward.

"Enhancing Martial Soul strength..."

As the owner of the Soul Devouring Spider Emperor Martial Soul, she naturally knew how to enhance the strength of her Martial Soul.

Qian Xunji's feast of flesh and blood back then had given her quite a pleasant surprise.

A strange light flashed through Bibi Dong's eyes. "Xiao Gang, perhaps this is fate. Even after reaching this point, you can still help me enormously in the unseen."

She had originally still hesitated over whether to devour those people from the Worship Hall.

If she simply continued cultivating steadily for another dozen years or so, she would certainly complete the Rakshasa God Test smoothly. At that point, she would be invincible in the world.

But now that she saw Qian Renxue had also begun a God Test, she could no longer sit still.

Bibi Dong was mad, not stupid. Over the years, she had naturally noticed the change in Qian Renxue's attitude.

She had long suspected that Qian Renxue already knew the truth behind Qian Xunji's death.

Between mother and daughter, perhaps their grudge would not necessarily require one of them to die to settle it. But she would not allow herself to survive only because of Qian Renxue's mercy.

What she wanted was the right to decide for herself whether to utterly destroy the Angel Clan.

"Who should I start with..."

She gently licked the corner of her lips with the tip of her tongue, and a wicked, crazed smile appeared on Bibi Dong's face.

Those Three Great High Priests naturally would not be her match, but if they joined forces, it would be difficult for her, with her current strength suppressed by the God Test, to kill them all at once. She could only break them one by one.

Moreover, an actual battle would not be quiet. Although Qian Daoliu was accompanying Qian Renxue through the God Test, that did not mean he would be unable to get away.

She still needed to plan carefully.

Besides them, there was one other person she had found irritating for a long time.

With that thought, Bibi Dong rose and left the cultivation chamber. Arriving in the Pope's Palace, she summoned Chrysanthemum Douluo.

"Your Holiness."

"Yue Guan, have you been spending a lot of time with Su Cheng lately?" Bibi Dong asked casually.

"Yes. I promised Mr. Su that I would assist his cultivation for the next few years."

"Assist his cultivation?" Bibi Dong frowned delicately. "Do you have nothing better to do?"

"Your Holiness, my breakthrough in cultivation these past few years was entirely thanks to Mr. Su giving me an Immortal Herb called the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum."

Yue Guan's expression was calm, but his heart gave a violent leap.

Su Cheng had only just sought him out and told him that if the Pope asked, he could reveal the existence of the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum.

Then Bibi Dong had actually asked about it almost immediately. Yue Guan instantly felt that there were too many things here that he could not see through.

It seemed something major was about to happen in Spirit Hall.

"The Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum?!" Bibi Dong revealed a look of astonishment. "Isn't that your..."

"It is indeed an Immortal Herb identical to my Martial Soul."

Bibi Dong fell silent for a long while after hearing that, then waved a hand to indicate that he could leave.

Once he had gone, her expression instantly darkened, turbulent waves churning in her heart.

How long ago had Su Cheng begun making arrangements to guard against this day?

She had originally wondered how Yue Guan, whose cultivation progress had once been slow, had advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few years.

When she had asked him about it then, he had hemmed and hawed without answering.

So that was the reason.

"Su Cheng..."

A trace of Killing Intent flashed through Bibi Dong's eyes, then vanished without a trace.

Su Cheng was merely a trifling Soul King, an insignificant ailment.

Since Chrysanthemum Douluo, whose strength had now greatly advanced, was protecting him, there was no need to create further trouble over this.

Compared to him, Qian Renxue, who had a chance of becoming a god, was the true threat.

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