At this, Yue Guan's heart trembled.
Two Titled Douluo were being sent out together to capture a storyteller?
How many years had it been since Spirit Hall had made such a show of force?
"Your subordinate obeys!" Yue Guan didn't dare hesitate in the slightest and hurriedly accepted the order.
"What if Su Chen dares to resist?" Yue Guan carefully ventured another question.
"Resist?"
"If he knows what's good for him and willingly hands over that body-tempering secret art and the Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art, I might still leave him with a whole corpse."
"If he doesn't know what's good for him..."
At this, Bibi Dong let out a cold laugh. She brought the scepter in her hand down hard against the floor with a dull thud.
"Then break all four of his limbs, cripple his blood and energy, and drag him back here like a dead dog!"
"On Douluo Continent, it isn't a storyteller's place to run wild!"
Hearing this, Yue Guan felt a chill crawl down his back. He repeatedly kowtowed and agreed, then got up, preparing to leave the hall.
However, just as Yue Guan turned around and was about to step over the threshold of the great hall—
"Wait."
Bibi Dong's voice suddenly came from behind him again.
Yue Guan stiffened and hurriedly turned back, lowering his head respectfully.
On the Pope Throne, Bibi Dong wasn't looking at Yue Guan.
She was gazing down at her own fair, jade-like palm.
For some reason, another phrase from Yue Guan's report suddenly echoed in her mind.
A Supreme Bone born within him.
The source Divine Bone of another person had been taken and forcibly implanted into the Double-Pupiled One.
A method so cruel, yet capable of defying fate and changing one's destiny.
"Yue Guan."
Bibi Dong slowly raised her head, her face wild with fervor.
"You just said that Little One Shi Hao, who had his Supreme Bone gouged out, not only survived but was reborn through nirvana?"
Yue Guan froze for a moment, then nodded almost instinctively. "In reply to Your Holiness the Pope, that's what Su Chen said."
"But he stopped telling the story just then, so he didn't explain how the boy was reborn."
At this, the smile at the corner of Bibi Dong's mouth grew more profound.
"To lose the source of everything and still be reborn through nirvana."
"Su Chen's stories truly conceal far too many taboos and secrets that shouldn't exist in this world."
With that, Bibi Dong slowly clenched her fist.
What if she forcibly took the Clear Sky Hammer, hailed as the world's number one Tool Spirit, and used this so-called method of nirvana to implant it in her daughter Qian Renxue?
Or directly implant it in herself?
Could the rules governing Soul Bones and Martial Soul inheritance on Douluo Continent be completely shattered as well?
At this thought, Bibi Dong grew even more greedy.
"Go."
"No matter the cost."
"I want everything in his head!"
"Every last word!"
"Yes!"
At the same time, deep in the boundless ocean at the southernmost edge of Douluo Continent—
This was a sea cut off from the rest of the world, forever sheltered beneath the radiance of Sea God's Light.
Sea God Island.
This island, regarded by countless ocean Spirit Masters as an absolute holy land, was at that moment bathed in a serene, sacred blue glow.
At the summit of Sea God Mountain stood the magnificent and solemn Sea God Hall, like a monument unchanged since time immemorial.
Yet today, its tranquility, preserved for millions of years, was shattered by the hurried sound of footsteps.
A burly figure was charging up the long staircase of Sea God Mountain.
He wore a blue robe etched with a sea dragon totem, and the powerful pressure of a Level 95 Titled Douluo radiated from him.
He was none other than the leader of the Seven Sacred Pillar Guardians of Sea God Island, Sea Dragon Douluo!
The composure and dignity Sea Dragon Douluo usually wore were nowhere to be seen.
Before long, he reached the entrance to Sea God Hall.
"Grand Pontiff!"
Sea Dragon Douluo dropped to one knee against the stone floor. He didn't even dare raise his head.
The depths of the hall were dimly lit.
Only the colossal, hundred-meter-tall statue of the Sea God gave off a soft yet imposing blue light.
At the statue's feet stood a slender figure.
It was a woman.
She wore an exquisitely extravagant crimson robe. Her sea-blue hair fell behind her like a waterfall, trailing all the way to the floor.
Her beauty was breathtaking, yet her features carried the weight of years gone by.
In her hand she also held a three-meter-long Golden Scepter. She seemed to have become one with the world around her—and with the statue of the Sea God.
She was the Grand Pontiff of Sea God Island, the Level 99 Peerless Douluo, Bo Saixi.
Hearing Sea Dragon Douluo's urgent call, Bo Saixi didn't turn around.
She merely gazed up at the Sea God Statue before her, her voice ethereal and distant, as if it had drifted down from beyond the heavens.
"What has you so alarmed?"
"You're the foremost of Sea God Island's Sacred Pillars. What kind of behavior is it to lose your composure like this?"
Sea Dragon Douluo swallowed, forcibly suppressing his shock, and gritted out,
"Please calm your anger, Grand Pontiff!"
"It isn't that your subordinate lacks composure. The news from the mainland is simply too shocking to believe. It may even... even constitute blasphemy against Lord Sea God!"
At the word "blasphemy," a ripple finally crossed Bo Saixi's placid eyes.
She slowly turned around, her deep blue eyes like the ocean settling calmly on Sea Dragon Douluo.
"Speak."
Sea Dragon Douluo drew a deep breath, then reported every detail of the news he had heard from a merchant ship returning from the mainland.
"In reply to the Grand Pontiff, a storyteller named Su Chen has appeared in Heavenly Dou Imperial City."
"This man is outrageously arrogant. He spouted nonsense in Listening Rain Pavilion, making up a ridiculous universe called Perfect World and Shrouding the Heavens."
Sea Dragon Douluo then quickly recounted the tale of the naturally born Supreme Bone, the Double-Pupiled One, and the majesty of the Human Emperors in the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm.
"Su Chen said that in that world, even being an ant wasn't something a Titled Douluo was fit to do."
"Any random lord could shatter a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast with a single roar."
"He also said..."
Cold sweat beaded on Sea Dragon Douluo's forehead, and his voice began to tremble.
"He also said that if the Human Emperor who ruled billions of miles of territory descended, even the gods in the heavens would have to bow their heads and submit to him!"
Boom!
At those words, the gentle blue light throughout Sea God Hall flickered violently.
A terrifying pressure beyond description erupted through the hall like an undersea current!
Before the pressure of a Peerless Douluo, even Sea Dragon Douluo felt his chest tighten and nearly collapsed to the floor.
The gods bowing their heads? Submitting to him?
In Bo Saixi's faith, the Sea God was the supreme being in this world, the ruler who created all things and sheltered all life!
And now some mainland storyteller was claiming that a god would bow to a mortal emperor?
Such blasphemy was like a knife stabbing into Bo Saixi's heart!
"Just some ignorant fool trying to draw attention to himself."
Bo Saixi lightly tapped the floor with the Golden Scepter in her hand, and the terrifying pressure vanished in an instant.
Her voice was once again cold and indifferent.
"Those Spirit Masters on the mainland have spent their lives tucked away in a corner, like frogs in a well. How could they know the true greatness of the gods?"
"Making up such absurd stories to catch people's attention is a trick those mortals use all the time."
To Bo Saixi, this was nothing but a farce.
A mortal who had never even seen a god was using his pitiful imagination to force the status of mortals higher.
Yet Sea Dragon Douluo, still kneeling on the floor, didn't look relieved.
He lifted his head and continued explaining.
"Grand Pontiff, if Su Chen were merely a fraud who only knew how to talk, your subordinate wouldn't dare disturb you over such a trivial matter."
"But!"
Sea Dragon Douluo's voice suddenly rose.
"According to reliable reports, Su Chen is no ordinary person!"
"Just yesterday, in front of all the prominent figures of Heavenly Dou Imperial City, he clashed with Poison Douluo Dugu Bo."
Poison Douluo?
Bo Saixi furrowed her brows.
Although Dugu Bo was at the bottom of the Titled Douluo ranks, he was still a genuine Level 92 expert.
Even Spirit Masters of his own rank found the poison of his Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor extremely troublesome.
"Was Su Chen poisoned to death?" Bo Saixi asked coolly.
"No!"
Sea Dragon Douluo drew in a sharp breath, as if recalling the terrifying scene described in the reports.
"Faced with Dugu Bo's ninth Soul Skill, Su Chen didn't release a Martial Soul at all!"
"There wasn't even the slightest trace of Soul Power fluctuations from him!"
"He merely stood there as golden blood and energy, brilliant to the extreme, erupted from within his body."
"Then..."
Sea Dragon Douluo swallowed with difficulty and spoke one word at a time.
"He merely flicked his sleeve, and the gale raised by his flesh alone swept away the pillars of poison filling the sky!"
"Then he took a single step through the air, seized Dugu Bo by the throat with one hand while he was using his Martial Soul Avatar, and smashed him into the ground like a dog, knocking him unconscious on the spot!"
At this, Sea God Hall fell utterly silent.
Even the sound of waves crashing against the reefs outside seemed to vanish completely.
Bo Saixi's calm blue eyes abruptly narrowed.
Her fair hand, gripping the Golden Scepter, tightened sharply, a few veins rising on its back.
No Soul Power?
Using only the energy and blood of his flesh, he swept away a Titled Douluo's attack with one flick of his sleeve and killed Level 92 Dugu Bo in a single move?
How was that possible?
As a Level 99 Peerless Douluo, Bo Saixi understood better than anyone where the limits of the flesh lay.
Even the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, which had lived for a million years in the depths of the ocean, needed the vast Soul Power within it to support its mountain-sized body!
Without Soul Power, how could pure physical strength possibly reach a level that could crush a Titled Douluo?
Unless...
An absurd thought suddenly flashed through Bo Saixi's mind.
Unless all the stories told by Su Chen...
The Little One who could swing one arm with a hundred thousand jin of strength, and the Ancient Sacred Body that could withstand divine weapons with its flesh alone—
Unless they were all true!
"You said golden blood and energy erupted from within him?"
Bo Saixi's voice was no longer calm. It carried a tremor she herself hadn't noticed.
"Yes!"
Sea Dragon Douluo hurriedly nodded. "Su Chen said in his story that once the Ancient Sacred Body reached minor mastery, it would give rise to a golden Bitter Sea, with blood and energy like a dragon."
"That golden blood was born immune to all evil. A single drop could purify every sinister poison in the world."
"Before his golden blood and energy, Dugu Bo's snake venom was like snow beneath the blazing sun, melting away in an instant!"
At this, Bo Saixi fell into deep thought for quite some time and gradually began to take the matter seriously.
Golden blood that was immune to all evil.
An unparalleled physique that made the body itself a saint.
Such things completely overturned everything she had understood over the past century!
In her worldview, for a Spirit Master to grow stronger, they had to hunt Soul Beasts and absorb Soul Rings, then pass a god's trials and inherit a divine position. Only then could they transcend the mortal realm.
This was the truth she had believed without question throughout her life of guarding Sea God Island.
But now, a man named Su Chen had used a brutally direct method to tear that so-called truth apart before the eyes of the entire world!
No need for a Martial Soul, no need for Soul Rings, no need for a god's charity!
With nothing but his flesh, he could suppress a Titled Douluo!
If he kept cultivating, if he truly reached the level of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body from his story...
Challenge an emperor?
No. On Douluo Continent, that would mean challenging the gods!
Just as Bo Saixi's state of mind was thrown into turmoil, Sea Dragon Dououluo beside her continued speaking.
He had no idea how deeply the Grand Pontiff had been shaken. He simply poured out all the remaining information in one breath.
"Grand Pontiff, it's not just this Ancient Sacred Body."
"That Su Chen also told the story of a woman called the Ruthless Empress."
"He said she was born with an ordinary body, unfit for cultivation—a beggar who scavenged for scraps in the mortal world."
"But she refused to accept her fate!"
The more Sea Dragon Douluo said, the more his scalp tingled.
"She had no divine inheritance, nor did she have a top-tier Martial Soul."
"Through her own efforts, she created the Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art, devouring those darlings of heaven."
"In the end, with nothing but an ordinary body, she slaughtered her way through the entire universe, cut down every king, forcibly attained the Great Emperor's throne, and ruled over all!"
The moment the words "Ruthless Empress" and the story of how she defied fate reached Bo Saixi's ears,
the sea outside the Sea God Hall, which had been calm and still, suddenly erupted into a terrifying tsunami a hundred zhang high!
Bo Saixi's body jerked, and she even took half a step back without realizing it.
In those eyes, usually as calm as an undisturbed lake, a raging storm now surged!
An ordinary body...
No divine inheritance, yet she forcibly attained the Great Emperor's throne?
Those words nearly made Bo Saixi question everything she knew.
Throughout her life, Bo Saixi had been a figure of grace and renown.
She possessed the top-tier Sea God Martial Soul and was the most devout of believers.
But what had she sacrificed for this so-called position of High Priestess of the Sea God?
She had lost her freedom, confined for her entire life to this isolated island, forbidden to set foot on the mainland.
She had missed the man she loved deeply, forced to watch Tang Chen leave for a distant land in search of a chance to become a god.
She had dedicated her entire life—and even the life she had yet to live—to the Sea God, all to wait for the one who could inherit the Sea God's position, then pave the way for him through her sacrifice!
She had always thought this was her destiny, an unparalleled honor.
But today, that Storyteller named Su Chen had told a tale like this on the mainland.
A little girl with an ordinary body had no need to rely on the mercy of any god as she waited for her older brother.
She showed no reverence for heaven and earth, no respect for ghosts or gods.
With nothing but her own fists, she fought her way to a Great Emperor's throne of her own!
Why?
Bo Saixi gripped the Golden Scepter in her hand so tightly that her chest heaved violently.
Why could that little girl, though just as human, defy fate and trample every rule and constitution beneath her feet?
While she, Bo Saixi, had been born with extraordinary talent, yet could only become a piece on a god's chessboard, a sacrifice for someone else's ascension to godhood!
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, Bo Saixi felt her faith—and her belief in the Sea God's supreme authority—begin to waver.
Before you continue