The Defection of the Two Generals Heng and Ha

The coronation ceremony concluded. Ignoring Golden Crocodile's murderous glare, Bibi Dong took Nan Feng directly back to the Pope Hall Meeting Hall.

From now on, or rather, for the foreseeable future, she would be working here.

A week ago, after the Elder Council passed the resolution for her to succeed to the position of Pope, the Pope Hall had begun renovations. Every Pope was permitted to alter the furnishings of their office area to a certain extent.

At Bibi Dong's request, the ornate gold decorations in the Pope Hall were all discarded and replaced with purple-gold.

Beyond that, the decor of the hall was vastly different from before. It lacked the ostentatious style of Qian Xunji's reign. The current dark purple base tone was somewhat oppressive, but this was exactly the style Bibi Dong preferred.

"Are you sure this unconventional approach will work?" Bibi Dong asked, feeling a bit uneasy.

She highly suspected that Nan Feng was doing this purely for fun!

He had claimed that her posture while holding the kitten had coincided perfectly with the pose of the Angel God Statue. Furthermore, he argued that in such a solemn setting, the more casual she appeared, the more unsettled those watching her from the shadows would be.

To put it bluntly: it was all a power play.

Whether or not she could actually control them was one thing, but she had to dominate them in terms of presence first.

If she followed the Elder Hall's wishes in every regard, she would appear weak and easily bullied in everyone's eyes, which would make the subsequent work of reclaiming power very difficult.

Endurance was necessary, but she no longer needed to endure anything.

Since Qian Daoliu had dared to place her in this position, it proved he would not interfere too much. As long as Martial Soul Hall developed in a positive direction, Qian Daoliu would not intervene.

As for the Elder Hall, which she was worried about, since those people had only joined Martial Soul Hall out of fear of Qian Daoliu's strength, as long as she was stronger than them, no one would dare stand up to stop her.

And if some stubborn fool really did dare to step forward, she would simply kill them.

"With your current strength, the only ones who can suppress you are those High Priests at level 96 or above. That bunch doesn't concern themselves with affairs, and they all listen to Qian Daoliu. As long as that old man doesn't speak up, the High Priests won't interfere with your actions," Nan Feng said.

"What if Qian Daoliu intervenes?" Bibi Dong asked, worried.

The only thing she feared was Qian Daoliu throwing a wrench in her plans!

That was the reason she had previously intended to lay low for a while and develop her strength slowly.

"If he intervenes, you just go head-to-head with him," Nan Feng said.

"If the Pope and the Grand Priest clash, causing instability within Martial Soul Hall, you aren't the one who loses out. After all, this Martial Soul Hall belongs to his family. We might as well have some fun with it."

"Besides, this is the first time I've ever played a real-time strategy game in person."

The corner of Bibi Dong's eye twitched.

I knew you were up to no good, you brat!

"What are you doing?" Bibi Dong glared at Nan Feng, who was being restless in her arms.

"What kind of bad intentions could a little kitten possibly have?" Nan Feng looked up, his face full of innocence.

"If you mess around again, I'll throw you out." Bibi Dong pinched the back of Nan Feng's neck and lifted him up.

"Yes, yes, yes..." Nan Feng landed on the table obediently and began to flip through the strategic deployment plans for the upcoming war between Martial Soul Hall and the Clear Sky Sect.

Every Spirit Master faction possessed a massive industrial chain, involving every level of human society. Clothing, food, housing, and transportation—all of these things were controlled by the Spirit Master Class.

The war between Martial Soul Hall and the Clear Sky Sect was not simply a matter of charging forward with their martial souls and calling it a day. The Clear Sky Sect's affiliated sects within the Two Great Empires, as well as the industries under their banner, all had to be dealt with.

After the declaration of war, Martial Soul Hall launched attacks on these sectors immediately. Although nominally it was only a war between Martial Soul Hall and the Clear Sky Sect, in reality, this conflict had already spread to nearly half the continent; no sect could remain on the sidelines.

Sects and countries that had business dealings with the Clear Sky Sect were impacted to varying degrees, especially those families that served as affiliated forces to the Clear Sky Sect, including the Four Single-Attribute Sects, totaling nearly twenty large and small entities.

To put it more vividly, this conflict even triggered a small-scale financial crisis. It wasn't just Spirit Master factions that were affected by the collapse of the Clear Sky Sect's industries; there were also a vast number of workers.

And these unemployed workers would go on to become refugees within the Two Great Empires, or even be reduced to slavery.

Who told them they were unlucky enough to have worked for industries associated with the Clear Sky Sect?

As for where these unfortunate people would end up, Martial Soul Hall would not care. After all, Martial Soul Hall was a Spirit Master organization; the life and death of ordinary people had nothing to do with them. Martial Soul Hall only cared about Spirit Masters and only represented the interests of the Spirit Master Class.

"Hmm?"

Bibi Dong, who was processing official documents, suddenly looked up toward the doors of the Pope Hall.

"Come in."

Hearing the command, Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo, who had been fidgeting outside the door for quite some time, walked in one after the other.

"Oh?" Bibi Dong was somewhat surprised.

"What business do the two elders have?"

During today's Coronation Ceremony, only the two of them had shown up to support her. To be honest, she was somewhat surprised; after all, the current situation was unclear, and the elders would not casually choose a side.

The actions of the two today could actually be interpreted as them choosing to stand on her side.

However, she didn't understand why these two were in such a hurry.

One had to know that before the Coronation Ceremony, apart from Qian Daoliu and Golden Crocodile, no one knew she had already advanced to a Title Douluo, and that included the two of them.

Moreover, these two had previously been with Qian Xunji. Now that Qian Xunji had just died, wasn't it a bit inappropriate for them to switch allegiances so quickly?

It should be noted that although Qian Daoliu had pushed her into the position of Pope, anyone with eyes could see that the atmosphere between them was off during the Elder Hall meeting.

Choosing a side at a time like this was far too risky, wasn't it?

"Greetings, Your Holiness the Pope!"

Led by Yue Guan, with Gui Mei following closely behind, they knelt on one knee.

Bibi Dong was taken aback. "What is the meaning of this, Elders?"

The Pope was the supreme leader of Martial Soul Hall, but the status of an Elder was not low either. Even a Platinum Bishop, who held a lower rank than an Elder, was not required to kneel before the Pope, let alone an Elder.

"We implore Your Holiness the Pope to take us in," Yue Guan said in a deep voice.

"Take you in?" Confusion appeared on Bibi Dong's face.

"What do you mean by that?"

Yue Guan found it difficult to speak. "Your Holiness the Pope may not know, but there is no longer a place for us in the Elder Hall."

Upon hearing this, Bibi Dong's mind began to race.

Yue Guan and Gui Mei had just been severely injured in the recent operation of Martial Soul Hall; how could they say there was no place for them?

Could it be because...

Quickly deducing the reason, Bibi Dong found it somewhat amusing. "I thought the Grand Priest was broad-minded, but it seems he is nothing more than this."

Qian Xunji had led Yue Guan and Gui Mei out to hunt down Tang Hao and the 100,000-Year Transformed Spirit Beast. In the end, they failed to capture the 100,000-Year Soul Beast, countless Spirit Saints who participated in the pursuit were killed or injured, and three veteran Title Douluos were either dead or severely wounded.

Most crucially, Qian Xunji was dead!

Yet, Yue Guan and Gui Mei, who had also participated in the siege against Tang Hao, were still alive and well.

If it weren't for the fact that the two of them had barely any breath left when they returned, that old man Qian Daoliu would likely have struck them dead on the spot the moment he saw the miserable state of Qian Xunji!

She still remembered the terrifying pressure of soul power and the cold killing intent that had erupted from the Elder Hall that day.

The killing intent of the former Adjudicator Elder...