Faced with Nan Feng's shamelessness, Bibi Dong fell silent.
Whatever Nan Feng's motives, the truth was, his words had hit the nail on the head.
She really had no trusted allies in Spirit Hall. If she ran into resistance, she couldn't personally step in and kill people every time. It would be beneath her dignity and might easily stir up public outrage.
"But..."
Bibi Dong still felt that something was amiss. "Having two of me appear at the same time is just too absurd. How do I explain it to the Elder Hall? How do I convince the world?"
"Explain?"
Nan Feng looked at Bibi Dong with an innocent expression.
"Why explain?"
"You're the Pope! Who do you need to explain yourself to?"
"When people ask, just spread your hands and say helplessly—"
Nan Feng instantly threw himself into the role, putting on an aloof, helpless expression just like Bibi Dong's as he said:
"Goodness, I'm desperate too. Ever since I went mad during cultivation last time, this Eighth Soul Skill has mutated. My avatar has a mind of her own and runs around wherever she likes. I can't control her either!"
"She's her, and I'm me. What does what she does have to do with me? I'm a victim too!"
At that, Nan Feng returned to his normal voice and chuckled.
"See? What a perfect excuse."
"Since it's a mutated Soul Skill, then it's beyond your control. And if you can't control her, what does it matter to you, the benevolent Pope, if she goes berserk and beats people up—or even kills them?"
"..."
Bibi Dong looked at this fellow, who wore her face yet grinned like a sly old fox, and felt a chill run down her spine.
This trick of "I can't control myself" took shamelessness to the extreme.
She could use the avatar to get things done while keeping her true self completely out of it.
She could even use this "uncontrollable" avatar to test and purge the forces opposing her.
If anyone dared attack the avatar, they'd be attacking the Pope.
If the avatar beat someone up, it was just "a Soul Skill gone out of control, a pure accident."
"Nan Feng..."
Bibi Dong gazed at this fellow, who wore her face but was rotten to the core. Deep in her eyes, the thrill of vengeance fulfilled that had only just begun to rise was quickly fading, replaced by a bone-deep chill.
This plan was too perfect.
But it was precisely because it was too perfect that it frightened her.
"What? Has the Emperor's wisdom left you in awe?" Seeing Bibi Dong staring at him in a daze, Nan Feng raised an eyebrow. "Are you suddenly thinking that having a strategist like me by your side is the greatest stroke of luck in your life?"
"Luck?" Bibi Dong sneered. "Perhaps. But it feels more like some kind of slow-acting poison."
She slowly rose to her feet, her gaze fixed firmly on Nan Feng's eyes.
"Nan Feng, can you tell me whether this really was just a spur-of-the-moment idea?"
"What do you mean?" Nan Feng blinked.
"From the very beginning..."
Bibi Dong stepped closer, her voice icy. "From the moment you offered yourself as a sacrifice in Death Canyon, was everything part of your calculations?"
"Back then, I thought you were just trying to survive. I thought I was the hunter in control of everything, and you were my prey—my Soul Ring."
"And what happened?"
Bibi Dong pointed at her chest. "You didn't die. You merged with my Death Spider Emperor Martial Soul and took half of my control over my body. That was the first step."
"After we returned to Spirit City, you used Qian Xunji's affair to sow panic. You even deliberately provoked me, forcing me to agree to the Soul Blood Pact for the sake of revenge, and let your soul's origin completely merge with mine. That was the second step."
"Now you've proposed this so-called avatar plan, letting yourself appear in public openly and even giving yourself the authority to enforce the law."
"Martial Soul, soul, and now identity..."
"Step by step, you've been gnawing away at my defenses, drawing me deeper into your rhythm."
"I really feel like a butterfly caught in a spider's web. No matter how hard I struggle, I only sink deeper along the threads you've woven!"
"First it was my Martial Soul, then my soul. What comes next?"
Bibi Dong suddenly leaned close to Nan Feng's face, her eyes filled with wariness and accusation. "What else do you want? To take over my body completely? Or turn me into your puppet?"
"Although I really don't want to admit it, I have to say..."
"Nan Feng, I'm afraid of you."
Faced with Bibi Dong's barrage of questions and her undisguised fear and hostility, Nan Feng's playful grin finally faded.
He sighed, putting on an expression of heartfelt anguish.
"Dong'er, those words of yours are like stabbing a knife straight into my heart!"
Controlling the Spider Emperor Avatar, Nan Feng spoke with an aggrieved look. "We're one in heart and body now, partners who share life and death! How can you think I'm so sinister?"
"I admit, I've used a few tricks, and I've had a little scheme or two. But what was it all for?"
"To stay alive!"
"I want to live, and so do you. You want revenge, and I want to become a god. Our goals are the same, and our interests are bound together!"
"Wasn't every one of my schemes for our safety? Wasn't every one of them to clean up your mess?"
"Heaven and earth can bear witness to all I've done; the sun and moon can attest to it!"
Caught up in the emotion, Nan Feng looked solemn, his voice ringing with conviction. "The sun and moon can attest to my loyalty to you! I swear on my conscience that I've never thought of harming you!"
As he spoke, to show his sincerity, he reached out and solemnly placed a hand on "his own" conscience.
Except...
Since he was the avatar and Bibi Dong was the real body, although their souls were connected, they were still two separate individuals standing face-to-face.
And so Nan Feng's "hand on his conscience" landed naturally and precisely on the heart-stirring softness of Bibi Dong's real body.
And, as if to make sure his "conscience" was still beating, he gave it a little squeeze.
"Mm, warm, and still beating. See? My conscience is red," Nan Feng declared righteously.
The air froze in that instant.
Bibi Dong lowered her head and looked at the hand resting on her chest, still pressing down ever so slightly.
Veins bulged one after another at her temple, as if they were alive.
"Nan Feng..."
"Mm?"
"Get your hand... off me!!!"
Saintess Hall, rear garden.
"Bang!"
As the bedroom door slammed shut, Nan Feng, controlling the Spider Emperor Avatar, stood outside like a rogue kicked out of the house and rubbed his nose.
"Tsk, so stingy."
Nan Feng pursed his lips, showing no sign that he'd just been thrown out. "I only touched your conscience. Was there really any need to get so angry? Isn't that where your conscience is?"
Still, even though he'd been thrown out, Nan Feng was in a pretty good mood.
Bibi Dong hadn't dispelled the Soul Skill or forcibly shoved him back into the Sea of Consciousness. That meant she'd accepted it.
She'd agreed to the plan to "go berserk separately."