After she finished speaking, Bibi Dong lightly planted the scepter in her hand against the ground.
Hum!
In an instant, Golden Crocodile Douluo behind her took a forceful step forward.
Roar!
A deafening crocodile's roar rang out, and the enormous phantom of the Golden Crocodile King appeared behind him.
The terrifying pressure of a Level 98 expert crashed toward the Clear Sky Sect's people like a tangible tsunami.
Tang Xiao grunted, holding his ground against the pressure without taking a single step back.
It looked as though Spirit Hall and the Clear Sky Sect were about to come to blows right outside Listening Rain Pavilion.
At that very moment, in a private room on the third floor of Listening Rain Pavilion,
sunlight streamed through the carved wooden window and spilled warmly across the polished floor.
On the windowsill, a plump orange cat lay sprawled on its back, fast asleep.
Even though sixteen Titled Douluo were releasing their pressure outside, locked in a standoff, and the plaster on the outer walls was crumbling down in little showers,
the orange cat didn't even twitch an ear. It just kept snoring.
Inside the room, Su Chen slowly sat up in bed.
He stretched lazily, listened to the tense commotion in the street outside, and couldn't help yawning.
"Making all that noise first thing in the morning. Are you holding a funeral?"
Muttering to himself, Su Chen shuffled over to the window in his cloth slippers.
As naturally as could be, he reached out and scratched the orange cat under its chin.
"Purr, purr..." The orange cat rolled over in delight and rubbed its head against Su Chen's palm.
Su Chen smiled, then strolled over to the copper basin and scooped up a handful of cool water to wash his face.
He casually took the towel beside it and dried himself off.
Then he pulled on his spotless white robe and straightened its collar.
The standoff outside had reached a fever pitch.
Intent on avenging his younger brother, Tang Xiao couldn't care less that Spirit Hall had the numbers.
"Out of my way!"
Tang Xiao roared and swung the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand.
"Once I've smashed this Listening Rain Pavilion to pieces and taken that Storyteller's head, I'll settle the old score with Spirit Hall!"
With that, Tang Xiao actually rose into the air without a second thought.
The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand swelled against the wind, growing as large as a small mountain. With enough force to shatter a city wall, it came crashing down toward the entrance of Listening Rain Pavilion!
Watching Tang Xiao attack, Bibi Dong looked on coldly without trying to stop him.
She could use Tang Xiao to test whether there were any hidden formations in the teahouse.
Meanwhile, Xue Ye's face had gone deathly pale. His guards escorted him backward as he retreated again and again.
The enormous hammer was about to crash onto Listening Rain Pavilion's roof like Mount Tai coming down on them.
Creak—
A faint sound came from the wooden door opening.
Immediately afterward, someone slowly pulled open the shut door of Listening Rain Pavilion from the inside.
A young man in a snow-white robe, holding a folding fan, strolled over the threshold.
He didn't even glance at the black hammer hurtling down from above.
He merely raised his folding fan and casually waved it toward the sky.
"Smashing my shop door this early in the morning."
"Have you no manners?"
As Su Chen spoke, the seemingly flimsy paper fan in his hand fluttered lightly against the Clear Sky Hammer, which was as large as a small mountain.
In an instant, the faint breeze stirred by the fan swept over the hammer. Tang Xiao's attack, infused with the peak Soul Power of a Level 97 expert, vanished like a clay ox swallowed by the sea!
Not only that, an irresistible force of recoil surged up the enormous hammer's handle.
Tang Xiao grunted. The webs between his thumbs and forefingers split open, and blood sprayed from his hands.
He and his enormous Clear Sky Hammer were sent flying by that gentle breeze!
Boom!
Tang Xiao flew backward more than ten meters before managing to land, crushing the flagstones beneath his feet.
Everyone along the entire street stood frozen in place.
Nearby, Xue Ye's pupils contracted sharply. Even his breathing stopped.
Even Bibi Dong, standing on the other side, looked utterly incredulous.
Golden Crocodile Douluo instinctively took half a step forward, shielding Bibi Dong behind him.
He hadn't sensed even the slightest fluctuation of Soul Power!
That young man in white had merely flicked his fan, yet he had stopped a peak Level 97 Douluo's full-force attack?
"Are you that Su Chen?"
After steadying himself, Tang Xiao glared through gritted teeth at Su Chen, standing by the threshold.
Su Chen casually folded his fan and tapped it lightly against his palm.
"Is this how the Clear Sky Sect treats its guests? You come to tear down someone's house first thing in the morning?"
"You crippled both my younger brother's arms! You humiliated him in front of everyone!" Tang Xiao roared furiously, the nine Soul Rings around him surging wildly.
"Today, the entire Clear Sky Sect has come out. You'll pay for this in blood!"
Faced with Tang Xiao's fury, Su Chen let out a scornful laugh.
"Pay for it in blood?"
As he spoke, Su Chen's gaze swept over Tang Xiao and the five elders behind him. He sneered,
"You mean you few rats who hid away in the snowy mountains and cowered for more than a decade?"
"Back then, a single Pope of Spirit Hall frightened you into sealing your mountain and refusing to come out. You couldn't even protect your own affiliated Four Single-Attribute Clans, leaving them to be slaughtered at will."
"And now you've come to Listening Rain Pavilion to throw your weight around?"
At Su Chen's words, each one striking home, the Clear Sky Sect's people turned pale, then red.
Sealing their mountain and abandoning their affiliated sects was what the entire Clear Sky Sect least wanted to discuss.
Now Su Chen had exposed it in front of the whole world.
"You insolent brat!"
The Second Elder, the most hot-tempered of them all, instantly snapped and trembled with rage.
"Why waste your breath on him?"
"Form the array! The Clear Sky Array! I'll smash him into mincemeat today!"
Rumble!
At the Second Elder's roar, Tang Xiao and the five Clear Sky Sect elders instantly shifted positions. Six peak experts moved as one.
Six enormous Clear Sky Hammers soared into the sky, weaving together into a terrifying storm of lightning.
Then the Soul Power of all six fused flawlessly in midair, forming a phantom black hammer a hundred meters long!
The instant the hammer took shape, the surrounding space crumbled inch by inch.
Even a Peerless Douluo of Level 99 wouldn't dare meet this deadly attack head-on—it combined the power of six Titled Douluo!
"Your Holiness, retreat!"
Golden Crocodile Douluo's expression changed dramatically. He immediately shielded Bibi Dong and retreated dozens of meters, afraid they would be caught in the terrifying force.
The Royal Knights around Xue Ye were crushed into disarray as they stumbled over one another and fell back.
Everyone stared intently at the slender figure in white at the entrance of Listening Rain Pavilion.
Faced with a formation attack capable of destroying heaven and earth, how could he possibly stop it?
Yet Su Chen merely shook his head at the hundred-meter hammer overhead.
"Scrap metal is still scrap metal, no matter how many pieces you bring."
With that, Su Chen took a step forward.
As he did, a profound black halo appeared behind his head without warning!
Unique Cave Heaven!
The moment this Grotto-Heaven appeared, the essence of heaven and earth throughout the world seemed to come to a standstill.
The next moment, the imposing hundred-meter hammer, powerful enough to flatten the entire street, crashed straight down onto the black halo.
There was no scene of Su Chen being crushed to pulp. There wasn't even the slightest ripple.
The hundred-meter hammer, which had gathered the full Soul Power of six Titled Douluo, shattered on the spot the moment it touched the Unique Cave Heaven.
"What?!"
"The formation was broken? How is that possible!"
Tang Xiao and the five elders nearby were all struck as if by lightning.
Their Martial Soul Fusion Skill was forcibly interrupted, making all six of them grunt at once and spew out a large mouthful of blood.
But before they could recover from the shock, Su Chen's voice rang out again.
"Kneel."
As the words fell, domineering golden vital energy erupted from Su Chen's body and bore down on Tang Xiao and the other five.
Crack! Crack!
A series of bone-shattering cracks made everyone's scalp crawl.
The six Titled Douluo of the Clear Sky Sect fought with all their might to resist, but their knees were instantly crushed beneath the pressure.
In the end, all six knelt in unison before the entrance to Listening Rain Pavilion, smashing six deep pits into the hard flagstones.
The Clear Sky Sect's mighty Sect Master and five elders had been pinned down in the street like criminals, forced to kneel by a Storyteller who hadn't even lifted a finger!
"Impervious to all techniques—it really is impervious to all techniques!"
Nearby, Xue Ye, who had witnessed everything, grabbed Xue Qinghe's arm, his voice trembling.
"Qinghe, you did the right thing! You did absolutely right!"
"We must win over an expert with such immortal abilities, even if it takes the entire treasury of the Tiandou Empire!"
"An Imperial Tutor—he's the perfect Imperial Tutor!"
At the other end of the street, the people from Spirit Hall had fallen silent as well.
Golden Crocodile Douluo swallowed, a chill creeping down his back.
"Your Holiness..."
Golden Crocodile Douluo lowered his voice, his tone filled with unprecedented wariness.
"That black halo is definitely not a Martial Soul!"
"It instantly neutralized the combined attack of six Titled Douluo. I've never heard of such a method!"
But how could Bibi Dong not know all that?
She had witnessed everything with her own eyes, and she knew very well that Tang Xiao and the others hadn't held back.
Even she would have had to retreat from the power of that combined formation attack.
Yet in front of Su Chen, it hadn't even made a splash.
"The Unique Cave Heaven..."
"Mr. Su is truly terrifying!"
"Spirit Hall must win him over, no matter what!"
Looking at Tang Xiao and the others kneeling there like dead dogs, the crowd struggled to process what they had seen.
Then Xue Ye, nearby, was the first to snap out of it.
This ruler of the Tiandou Empire, who usually held himself high and commanded vast territories, now shoved aside the Royal Knight guarding him.
He didn't even bother to straighten his slightly askew crown. He strode straight to the steps of Listening Rain Pavilion.
"Mr. Su's divine might has truly opened my eyes!"
Standing below the steps, Xue Ye bowed slightly. His aged face brimmed with an exceptionally respectful, ingratiating smile.
He immediately changed the way he addressed himself, casting aside all the airs of an emperor.
"Your world-shaking abilities would put even the gods in heaven to shame if they descended to the mortal realm."
"It is the greatest fortune of the Tiandou Empire to have an unparalleled expert like you living here in seclusion!"
As he spoke, Xue Ye took a deep breath and unhesitatingly offered the rewards he had prepared:
"If you don't disdain the offer, I am willing to treat you as a national treasure!"
"From today onward, you will be the Tiandou Empire's one and only Imperial Tutor!"
"You may freely use the rare treasures in the imperial treasury and the Soul Bones and manuals in the royal vault."
"Even if you want half the Tiandou Empire, I won't object!"
A stir ran through the hidden informants around them as Xue Ye spoke.
Half the empire!
He had offered up the entire foundation of the Tiandou Empire with both hands!
But before Xue Ye could finish speaking,
Bibi Dong gave a cold snort and strode over, her long, jade-white legs moving gracefully.
She casually tossed the Pope Scepter in her hand to Golden Crocodile Douluo behind her. Then she forced a gentle, humble smile onto her beautiful face.
"Xue Ye, how dare you bring out those paltry worldly trinkets and flaunt them before Mr. Su?"
Bibi Dong mocked him without mercy, then lifted her head and fixed her beautiful eyes on Su Chen atop the steps.
"Mr. Su, yesterday, one of my subordinates from Spirit Hall didn't know the rules and offended you."
"Today, I, Bibi Dong, have come in person to apologize."
Bibi Dong dipped into a slight bow, giving the kind of Spirit Master's salute reserved for equals.
Seeing this, Yue Guan and Gui Mei behind her nearly popped their eyes out.
Was this really His Holiness the Pope, the ruthless, domineering woman who had always put herself above all others?
"Only if you are willing, sir."
"The gates of Spirit Hall will always be open to you."
"Not only will you be the supreme Grand Elder of Spirit Hall, but your status will be equal to mine."
"All the Cardinals and Titled Douluo under Spirit Hall will answer to you alone."
"If you find Heaven Dou City too noisy, then in Spirit City, I, Bibi Dong, would gladly brew tea and pour it for you myself as we discuss the Great Dao."
Bibi Dong's words were about as blatant as they could get.
She was offering him not only power and money, but even seemed to be presenting herself, the breathtakingly beautiful Pope, as someone Su Chen could pluck at will.
For the Samsara Precious Technique, for the Unique Cave Heaven—
Bibi Dong had truly gone all in!
Watching the two great figures below—the sort who could shake the Douluo Continent with a single stomp—now squabble over him like shoppers fighting over the last vegetables at a market, each trying to curry favor with him, Su Chen didn't even lift an eyelid from his seat on the high platform.
He simply opened the folding fan in his hand and waved it twice, with complete nonchalance.
Whether it was Xue Ye's promise of half his realm, or Bibi Dong's tantalizing offer to brew tea for him herself, both seemed like dust by the roadside to Su Chen, stirring not the slightest ripple in him.
"Imperial Tutor? Grand Elder?"
Before you continue