And at the same time, on the other side.
Qian Renxue changed back into the palace attire of the young angel master. She waited in the side hall for an hour before Chen Jieqi arrived belatedly.
"Are you ready to go with me?" she said.
"Go at this time," he said,
"The person you want to meet shouldn't be simple, right?"
"My grandfather, Spirit Hall Great Enshrined, Angel God, the guardian of the lineage, level 99 Limit Douluo, Qian Daoliu."
She stared into his eyes.
"Didn't you say you'd visit after the game?"
"Plans can't keep up with changes," she said.
She stared into Chen Jieqi's eyes, assessing his reaction.
Chen Jieqi didn't show any of the expressions she expected.
No surprise, no awe, no hesitation.
"You did it on purpose." she said,
"When you exposed Holy Light Domain on the ring yesterday afternoon, you knew I would come to find you."
"I guess you won't be able to sit still." Chen Jieqi said,
"But I didn't expect it to be today. I thought you would wait at least another day."
She was silent for two seconds. Then she raised her head.
"I can't wait any longer. Bibi Dong met Tang San tonight."
Chen Jieqi's pupils shrank.
She pushed the door open, not Worship Hall, but Chen Jieqi, a place she had never understood before.
"Tell me on the way."
There is an endless staircase inside under Angel God Statue.
Chen Jieqi followed Qian Renxue and climbed up the spiral stone steps.
The reliefs on the wall flickered in the light of candlelight,
Angels with six wings, worshipers kneeling down, and sinners whose eyes are burned by the light.
When he counted to level 300, a light appeared in front of him.
Pouring down from the dome, it is as cold as silver and as holy as snow.
At the end of the stairs is a circular altar.
Twelve stone pillars surrounded the surroundings, and each pillar was engraved with words that he could not read. There was a person standing in the center of the altar.
White clothes, white hair, white beard.
His face showed no age.
The body is as straight as a sword, but the eyes are not sharp.
Just an old man, standing in the center of this ancient altar, as if he had grown up here.
Qian Daoliu.
He didn't speak. He just looked at Chen Jieqi for a long time.
That kind of "seeing" is not surveying and mapping like Tang San, nor is it evaluation like Bibi Dong.
Pure "seeing", like light itself, has no likes and dislikes, it just makes all things appear.
Then he spoke:
"You are not from this world."
Chen Jieqi didn't answer. He was waiting.
Qian Daoliu added:
"Your Martial Soul does not belong to the Douluo Continent. Heart of the Naaru. I don't recognize the name. But I recognize its light."
He paused.
"Angel God's holy light is the same white color as the one in your body."
Qian Renxue suddenly turned his head and looked at Chen Jieqi.
This is the first time she has heard this statement.
Chen Jieqi still didn't speak. But the mark between his eyebrows lit up uncontrollably.
"The light from outside falls on those in a foreign land."
Qian Daoliu slowly approached, "You didn't come to this world to compete."
"No." Chen Jieqi finally said.
"Then why did you come to see me today?"
"To ask a question."
"Say."
"Can the light of Angel God illuminate the cocoon of Asura?"
The twelve stone pillars on the altar simultaneously emitted a low hum.
Qian Daoliu looked at him.
"What you're asking about is not Rakshasa. It's Asura."
"Yes."
"Do you know the difference between the two?"
"I know." Chen Jieqi said,
"Asura is the god king, in charge of killing and order.
Rakshasa is First-Level God, in charge of filth and change. They are not on the same level."
Qian Daoliu was silent for a breath.
"Then do you know that there are no more than five people in the Douluo Continent who know the name 'Asura'.
Know that it belongs to the God-King, no more than three."
"Now there is one standing in front of you." Chen Jieqi said.
Qian Daoliu didn't answer. He just looked at the mark between Chen Jieqi's eyebrows for a long time.
"That boy does have the aura of Asura in his body.
It's very light, as if it's been suppressed by something and hasn't fully woken up yet.
But you are right, that cannot be faked by Rakshasa.
Asura only cares about killing, and that young man has walked out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood."
His voice deepened,
"Rakshasa is also there. But it seeped in later."
"Seepage?" Qian Renxue frowned.
"Yes. Rakshasa chose his negative side.
His unwillingness, obsession, and hatred are the nourishment for Rakshasa.
It seeps in along these cracks and adheres to the breath of Asura."
"Two gods..." Qian Renxue paused, "Are they fighting?"
"It's not a fight." Qian Daoliu corrected,
"It's pollution. Rakshasa is not qualified to compete with Asura, but it can make Asura deteriorate."
He paused for a breath, as if considering his words.
"Asura's killing is cold. But there is order. Order is Asura's bottom line. But Rakshasa..." His voice sank,
"Rakshasa is a change in filth, an out-of-control desire. It will not make Asura stronger, it will only make Asura lose its direction."
"What has it become?"
"More bloodthirsty. Even more unstoppable."
He stopped.
Chen Jieqi finished for him:
"Until he couldn't hold it anymore and was torn to pieces from the inside out."
Qian Daoliu's eyes changed.
"You know?"
"Guess." Chen Jieqi said,
"Asura needs him to kill, Rakshasa needs him to suffer.
When two things happen at the same time, it is nourishing, not destroying.
When he is old enough, his body becomes a cocoon.
The one who breaks out of the cocoon is God. The one who dies is Tang San."
The air on the altar seemed to be clenched by an invisible hand.
Chen Jieqi didn't stop.
"Angel God Can the light shine into that cocoon?"
Qian Daoliu was silent for a long time. Then he said:
"The light of angels only appears in judgment. To judge sinners and to judge sin."
He paused,
"And Rakshasa and Asura are not within the category of 'sin'.
They are part of the order, and angels have no right to judge the order itself."
Chen Jieqi said nothing.
Qian Daoliu looked at the mark between his eyebrows.
"But maybe your light can. The purification of the Naru does not judge sin. It only purifies the 'turbidity'."
"Asura's killing is turbidity, Rakshasa's changes are turbidity."
He pondered for a moment.
"The price is that you are brighter than it."
Qian Renxue's breathing paused at that moment.
She looked at the mark between Chen Jieqi's eyebrows. It was glowing, very quietly, like a star, not dazzling, but not extinguished.
When the two of them walked out of the statue, the night was already extremely dark.
Qian Renxue stopped.
"That question, which side do you think the angels are on? You're not asking God, you're asking me."
"Yes." Chen Jieqi said.
"I hate her."
Qian Renxue's voice sounded so awake in the night,
"Bibi Dong. Ever since I can remember."
She lowered her eyes and unclenched her clenched fists.
"There is no mother, no daughter, no companion. In the past twenty years, there has been only one person."
"That's enough."
"What's enough?"
"Not now." Chen Jieqi looked at her and said.
Qian Renxue was stunned for a breath.
Then he withdrew his eyes, not letting him see.
"Let's go." She turned around, her voice softer and more steady than before.
Chen Jieqi looked back at Angel God Statue behind him.
In the night, the face of the statue is still downcast, staring at the earth,
It's like knowing all the answers but never telling them.
He asked Sheng Hui in his heart,
"He said angels have no right to judge order, right?"
Sheng Hui's voice sounded after a breath, much deeper than usual.
"Yes. That's why you are here."
He caught up with her back and walked into the same night.
Under the same crescent moon, the lights of the Pope's Palace have been extinguished.
Tang San opened his right hand to the moonlight alone.
There was nothing in his palm, but he could feel it. It was watching and waiting.
Bibi Dong's words replayed in his mind one by one, like snake scales scraping across dry stone.
He didn't fully believe it.
He split every word she said into three parts: one part true, one part false, and one part bait.
But there was one thing she didn't lie to him.
"You have a name," Tang San said to the palm of his hand,
"It's you she wants to win over. Not Tang Hao's son, not Clear Sky Douluo. It's you."
What came from the palm was not language, but a confirmation that was older than language.
Like cracks on the ice, spreading from one pole to the other.
It's laughing.
Then he said,
"Then let her think she succeeded.
As for who you are when the time comes, it's not her who has the final say."
He slowly clenched his right hand, as if crushing something invisible.
The next morning, the Spirit City mist finally dispersed.
The sun penetrated the clouds and illuminated Angel God Statue's face extremely clearly.
Chen Jieqi stood in the courtyard and saw Dugu Yan walking out of the side door with dew on her sleeves. She probably scanned the area with her earth element perception.