Urgent Guardian Mission

Pope Palace bedchamber.

Crack!

The rosewood armrest shattered instantly, wood splinters embedding themselves into her palm, yet Bibi Dong felt nothing.

She stared fixedly at the line "Bathe Together" on the light screen, reading it for the third time.

Blood rushed from her neck to the crown of her head with a roar, her temples throbbing so violently they felt ready to burst.

"Is this broken system out of its mind!"

Before the words had even faded.

A crimson notification sound, like a bucket of ice water dumped over her head, instantly cleaved through all the shame and fury in her mind.

[Emergency Protection Mission: A spy from the Worship Hall is forcing their way into the Library Pavilion, attempting to make contact with the Lord of Creation. Stop them immediately! Reward: Slight increase in mental power.]

The expression on Bibi Dong's face turned cold in an instant.

It was no longer the shame and annoyance she felt toward the system's tasks, but a genuine, bone-chilling murderous intent seeping from her very marrow.

"Worship Hall."

Her voice was soft as she spoke the two words.

Yet, the remains of the armrest beneath her palm had already been ground into powder.

Those old fossils dared to reach their hands into her forbidden territory?

She did not don her Pope crown, nor did she summon her Eight Spider Lances.

Bibi Dong rose from her throne, transforming into a streak of purple-black light. She smashed through the window frame, leaving an afterimage in the night wind as she bolted straight for the Library Pavilion!

She didn't even realize that, from start to finish, she hadn't needed the system to urge her a second time.

Library Pavilion outer perimeter blockade.

The morning mist was damp and cold.

A middle-aged man dressed in the grey robes of a servant carried a toolbox, walking toward the area at a leisurely pace.

His face was unremarkable, his gait casual; there was nothing unusual about him.

The lead Temple Knight drew his longsword, the blade held steady three inches from the man's chest.

"By order of the Pope, this is a Level One restricted area! Trespassers will be executed! Stand down!"

The middle-aged man stopped, not even glancing at the sword.

A curve slowly formed at the corners of his mouth. He flipped his sleeve, and a dark gold token fell into his palm.

On the token, a Six-Winged Angel was carved with lifelike detail.

Elder Token of the Worship Hall!

The soul pressure inherent to the token spread silently—it was not the strength of raw power, but the suffocating weight of authority itself.

The Worship Hall, the true foundation of Martial Soul Hall, an existence that stood above the Pope.

The hands of the Temple Knights holding their swords began to tremble, and the lead knight's blade wavered by half an inch, though he did not withdraw it.

The middle-aged man glanced at him, his tone as casual as if he were discussing daily chores.

"Routine inspection of the moisture-proof formation. Move aside."

"Halt!"

Rapid footsteps approached from afar. Angela, dressed in red, rushed to the front, blocking the path of the others, her feet firmly planted on the ground.

"I only recognize the Pope's decree!" Her voice trembled, but she enunciated every word with heavy resolve.

The middle-aged man's smile vanished.

He stared at Angela, his gaze sweeping over the wooden door behind her, his eyes turning cold.

"Cardinal, are you certain you want to block me?"

Soul power erupted suddenly!

A high-level Soul King!

The phantom of a pale gold soul ring emerged deep within his pupils, and a terrifying pressure crushed down upon Angela!

Angela's knees buckled, but she held firm, veins bulging on her forehead.

The knights behind her were forced back a step in unison, the sound of their armor clashing in a chaotic mess.

The spy lifted his foot, preparing to cross the blockade line.

Inside the Library Pavilion.

Su Chen was awakened by the fluctuations of soul power outside the door.

He remained motionless in his bamboo chair, the Eye of Omniscience opening silently.

[Target not bound to Qian System, displaying surface-level information only: High-ranking spy from the Worship Hall, custom Qian System mark on the nape of the neck.]

Su Chen's eyes narrowed slightly.

The Worship Hall finally couldn't sit still anymore.

The sixteen years of peaceful life he had spent lying low were destined to end the moment Bibi Dong stepped through that door.

His gaze swept past the gray marker representing the spy and landed on another red dot moving at high speed.

Bibi Dong's coordinates were hurtling toward this location at a speed that defied the laws of physics.

Su Chen reached out and unhurriedly ruffled his own collar.

Then, he curled deep into the bamboo chair, hunched his shoulders, turned his complexion deathly pale in an instant, and began to breathe in ragged gasps.

Professional.

A piece of trash who had just recovered from a major illness, scared out of his wits by high-level soul power—this performance was perfectly reasonable.

He waited quietly for the show to begin.

The spy's toes were a mere half-inch from the blockade line.

The sky went dark.

There were no storm clouds; the light itself had been forcibly snuffed out by a supreme will!

A beam of purple-black light slammed down vertically from the firmament, striking the floor tiles less than a foot in front of the spy with pinpoint accuracy.

BOOM—!

The ground shattered!

Granite fragments sprayed in all directions, and the stone slabs beyond the blockade line were flipped over in rows by the shockwave.

The blast surged into the spy's limbs and bones; his high-level Soul King soul power defense was as thin as a cicada's wing in the face of this force.

"Crack!"

The sound of kneecaps shattering was crisp and piercing.

The spy's knees slammed into the ground, and his entire frame instantly dropped a head shorter.

The dark gold Elder Token flew from his hand, bouncing twice on the ground.

He tried to speak.

A military boot stepped down, precisely, onto it.

"Crack!"

Bibi Dong's sole ground over the wings of the Six-Winged Angel on the token, crushing the dark gold emblem—a symbol of supreme authority—into shards within the cracks of the granite!

Angela knelt.

All the Temple Knights knelt.

Not because of an order, but because their legs were too weak to stand.

Bibi Dong stood upon the remnants of the token, looking down at the spy in the crater. Her face held no rage, only a coldness that was calm to the extreme.

"Is this Seat's forbidden ground something you pack of old dogs can lay your hands on?"

The spy spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with a few broken teeth.

His eyes were bloodshot, staring fixedly at the token fragments beneath her foot, his heart and gallbladder trembling with terror.

She was mad!

This woman had completely lost her mind!

She had crushed the Worship Hall's Elder Token; this was equivalent to tearing off the mask in public and slapping those old immortals across the face!

Bibi Dong withdrew her gaze, her voice indifferent.

"Throw him out of the inner city."

Two Temple Knights scrambled forward, hauled the spy up, and dragged him away at high speed.

A long, dark red trail of blood remained on the floor tiles.

Angela lay prostrate on the ground, trembling like a sieve, not daring to lift her head.

Bibi Dong did not look at her.

She turned around, her gaze passing through the door gap and landing on that bamboo recliner inside the Library Pavilion.

On the chair, Su Chen was curled into a ball, his collar disheveled, his face deathly pale, his shoulders shaking violently.

The furrow between Bibi Dong's brows eased by half.

In her mind, a mechanical voice rang out.

[Ding—Emergency protection mission complete! Reward issued: Slight increase in mental power.]

A cool sensation surged into her Sea of Divine Consciousness, smoothing away her boiling killing intent.

Bibi Dong withdrew her gaze and turned to leave.

Her footsteps were steady, and she did not look back.

Only the corners of her mouth pressed down ever so slightly, as if suppressing some emotion that ought not to exist.

Half an hour later, in a dark alley of the outer Martial Soul City.

The scout leaned against the moldy base of a wall, his legs twisted at an unnatural angle.

Using his only functional right hand, he pried a Miniature Soul Guidance Communication Bird from the lining of his sleeve and injected his final sliver of soul power into it.

The secret message finished burning into the device.

The communication bird flapped its wings, but it did not fly toward the Angel Temple.

It skirted all patrol routes, swept over the city walls, and finally descended into a deep valley a hundred miles outside the city.

At the bottom of the valley, a hand as withered as a ghost's claw reached out from the darkness and caught it.

Library Pavilion.

The scent of blood had dissipated.

Su Chen straightened his posture in the bamboo chair and brushed non-existent dust from his collar.

A golden notification popped up on the light screen.

[Detected that Binder No. 001 has completed the protection mission. Lord of Creation's hundredfold critical return triggered! Reward obtained: Mental power strengthened one hundredfold! Sea of Divine Consciousness expanded by 20%!]

A warm current surged into his Sea of Divine Consciousness, and the canopy of the World Tree unfurled a little more.

Su Chen closed his eyes, savoring his surging mental power.

Refreshing!

In the corner of the light screen, the favorability number jumped quietly.

[Favorability: 23→28]