First Contact with Bibi Dong

"This child..."

On the academy's high platform, Bibi Dong gently held Hu Liena in her arms, a trace of tenderness appearing in her eyes at some point.

Bibi Dong looked toward the square. As the smoke and dust from the collision between flames and red light dispersed, only one person remained standing in the vast square. Yan was in poor condition, his forehead covered in sweat, while across from him, Xie Yue was in even worse shape. He had collapsed from exhaustion and fallen unconscious.

"Let today's matter end here."

A strange emotion rose within Bibi Dong. She had no desire to keep watching, so she gave the order casually before carrying the little girl away from the high platform.

Pope Bibi Dong's departure seemed to signal the end of the event. One Titled Douluo after another left, and Spirit Hall's many powerful figures followed the Pope out of the academy. The farce finally came to an end.

A group of students had fought fiercely over a few spots, yet in the end, none of them got to go onstage and present their gifts. It made everything they had done seem meaningless and utterly foolish, but in truth, Yan had already achieved his goal.

When he provoked this conflict, he had known very well that even if someone truly won, they could not possibly replace those three student representatives and go forward to present gifts. That would not conform to the rules, and it would also be a challenge to the authority of the academy's upper management.

The high-ranking Spirit Hall powerhouses who had come to observe the ceremony might appreciate certain talented students who performed well in the conflict, but they would never accept, much less indulge, this kind of challenge to the academy's authority.

So, the moment this chaos erupted, the academy's subsequent arrangements had already been ruined. They could forget about presenting gifts. Avoiding punishment would already be the best possible outcome.

But none of that had much to do with Yan anymore. He had achieved his goal of becoming famous. Moreover, he had not been the one to provoke the dispute, nor had he been the most arrogant one. Even if the academy's leaders wanted to make trouble, they could not pin it on him. Wasn't that enough?

After Spirit Hall's powerhouses left one after another, the previously silent academy immediately became noisy. Countless students discussed the chaotic battle from earlier, while all the teachers and administrators wore extremely grim expressions.

However, this no longer had much to do with Yan. After greeting his homeroom teacher and the teacher leading the group, he helped Xie Yue up from the ground and headed toward the lounge. How the teachers and administrators would punish them was a matter for later. For now, they should treat their injuries first.

As for Hu Liena, it was obvious that she and Bibi Dong truly had a strong affinity. The Pope had personally carried her away. Could there be a better outcome than that?

Yan had made every arrangement. Hu Liena had successfully drawn Bibi Dong's attention, and he had done everything he could for now. As for how things would develop from here, he could only leave it to fate and take things one step at a time.

"Boss, I'll help you."

An eager voice came from the side. The chubby Tuo Ba Hong had already come over. He carefully took Xie Yue from Yan's hands, then supported Yan by the shoulder with his other hand. With his help, Yan quickly made it to the lounge.

After being treated by the academy lounge's recovery-type auxiliary Soul Masters, Yan and Xie Yue had basically recovered. Then came another plain and unremarkable day, as though nothing had happened that morning: class, dismissal, reading, school ending, going home, eating, cultivating... In the end, Yan came to the study alone.

The soft candlelight made the study somewhat dim. Yan sat before the desk with his head lowered as he wrote, occasionally rising to consult books from the shelves.

A bookshelf stood beside the desk, while on the wall directly opposite the bookshelf hung a large map. The wall was densely covered in all manner of markings. As Yan continuously thought and wrote, he would occasionally walk over to the wall and add a few more notes.

Just after Yan wrote another line onto the map on the wall, he suddenly sensed a slight change in the candlelight. The room seemed to have grown a little darker.

He noticed a long shadow cast by the lamplight beside him. His hand holding the pen tightened slightly, and then he slowly turned around. He saw someone he had not expected, someone he had never imagined meeting under such circumstances.

"Pope."

Yan's expression showed a hint of confusion and surprise. When Bibi Dong had carried Hu Liena away, he had guessed that he would meet Bibi Dong again, but he had not expected it to happen so soon, much less in such a setting.

The study, which had originally contained only Yan, now had another person in it. It was none other than Spirit Hall's current Pope, Bibi Dong, whom he had seen earlier that day.

Bibi Dong wore a dark black dress. She still possessed that lovely face and captivating bearing, yet she displayed an entirely different temperament. If she had been a gentle and elegant goddess during the day, giving people a sense of warmth, then now she was a solitary and haughty goddess of frost, her eyes filled with cold scrutiny.

"Did Nana tell you anything about me?"

Though Yan phrased it as a question, his tone was certain.

"You really are intelligent."

Bibi Dong spoke for the first time since entering the room. She took light steps until she stood three feet away from Yan. Her beautiful eyes were filled with scrutiny. After studying him for a long while, she continued, "Even now, I find it difficult to believe that the series of disturbances in the academy today was actually the idea of a child."

"Oh? Why don't you believe it? Did you compare me to yourself and find it hard to believe that someone could do such things at this age?"

Yan replied casually. He naturally brushed past Bibi Dong, walked to the bookshelf, and began flipping through another book, as though Bibi Dong was not even worth his attention.

"Nana has told me everything."

The look in Bibi Dong's eyes shifted slightly. This man before her—no, this boy—actually dared to ignore her so completely. "To be honest, before coming here, I truly found it difficult to believe Nana's words.

"A child of merely six years old received news that high-ranking figures would soon inspect the academy, then began plotting to sabotage an event arranged by the academy.

"You found a channel to gather information on the academy's upper-year students, then arranged and planned this morning's disturbance. I know all of this. What else do you have to say?"

"Mm, not bad. It seems Nana listened carefully to everything I told her and explained it all clearly to you. That saves me quite a bit of trouble."

Yan nodded from behind the desk, then picked up his pen and resumed writing. From the bits of information Bibi Dong had revealed, he had already inferred certain things. That gave him greater confidence, and naturally, he appeared even more self-assured.

Bibi Dong's gaze froze. A trace of disbelief flashed through her eyes as she lowered her head to look at Yan, who was writing, and could not help asking, "What do you mean by that?"

Second update today, brothers, please give the story a round of bookmarks and follow-up reads. Don't keep stockpiling chapters. I just spoke with my editor, and the story currently has fewer than four hundred follow-up readers, so advancing to the next round will be rather difficult. I'm sincerely asking for follow-up reads and bookmarks here. Even if you just follow and flip through a few chapters, that still counts as support.