Su Chen leaned back in the bamboo recliner and withdrew his gaze from the direction of the Heaven Dou Empire. In his mind, the Light Screen of the Eye of Omniscience slowly faded away.
The wind outside the window carried a hint of chill.
He glanced at the cordon outside the Library Pavilion. Beneath the trees around its perimeter, a few unfamiliar faces had appeared.
These people breathed as slowly as they could and stood at cunning angles, as if they had merged with the darkness.
The spy had been crippled, but the Worship Hall's Dark Web had not withdrawn. Instead, it had tightened its net, like a pack of hyenas that had caught the scent of blood.
The deepest part of the Worship Hall.
Qian Xunji sat in the seat of honor. His fingers closed, crushing the miniature Soul Guidance Bird and the secret message inside it to powder. The dust sifted down through his fingers.
On either side of the secret chamber, the three Worships sat in hushed silence.
"Bibi Dong is personally guarding a menial servant. She even trampled the Elder Token for his sake."
Qian Xunji's voice was low and grave. "That broken-down building must be hiding a divine artifact capable of shaking Spirit Hall's foundations, or the closely guarded legacy of some ancestor."
The Second Worship immediately nodded. "Exactly! That thing must never fall into her hands alone!"
Qian Xunji turned his gaze toward the young man standing at the entrance.
Pei Yuan, twenty-three years old, a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor, and a core disciple whom the Worship Hall had spent a fortune cultivating.
"Pei Yuan, take my written order."
Qian Xunji tossed him a scroll that gleamed with dazzling golden light. "Go to the Library Pavilion. Under the pretext of an annual audit, strip that menial servant down to his underwear!"
Pei Yuan accepted the order with both hands and bowed. "Yes, Great Worship!"
At the same time, in the underground chamber of the Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong sat cross-legged on the cold stone platform, a mass of purplish-black light floating in midair.
This was an extra reward from the system: the token for the eighth trial of the Rakshasa God Trial.
The light spread, swallowing her in an instant.
The system's cold, mechanical voice sounded in her mind.
[ Ding! The host has entered the pre-trial deep fusion stage. ]
[ Warning: All external perception will be cut off during the fusion. ]
Bibi Dong's brows drew together at once.
Without her protection, those old men from the Worship Hall would definitely seize this opening to make trouble for Su Chen at the Library Pavilion!
Before she could think any further, a pillar of purplish-black light poured down from above. The power of the trial domineeringly locked onto her Sea of Divine Consciousness, leaving her no chance to resist.
Bibi Dong could only close her eyes as her consciousness sank into complete silence.
Outside the Library Pavilion.
Sixteen Temple Knights gripped their sword hilts, staring fixedly ahead.
Pei Yuan strode toward the cordon.
"Stop!" Angela drew her long sword, pointing its tip straight at Pei Yuan. "Pope's Decree! This is a Level One forbidden area. Anyone who enters without permission will die!"
Pei Yuan could not even be bothered to draw his sword. He raised his right hand and unfurled the golden scroll.
The Great Worship's written order!
The Six-Winged Angel's pressure, mixed with the Soul Power of a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor, slammed down on Angela's blade like an invisible sledgehammer.
Angela grunted. Her knees buckled, and she stumbled back three steps.
The knights behind her were pinned in place by the pressure of his Soul Power, unable to move.
With the Pope absent, no one could stand against the Great Worship's written order.
Pei Yuan crossed the cordon and headed straight for the third floor.
At the door, he raised his right foot. His Soul Power erupted, and he kicked the newly fitted wooden door!
"Boom!"
With a deafening crash, the wooden door burst apart!
Splintered wood and chips rode the gust of wind like a shower of knives, shooting into the room.
Su Chen sat in his bamboo chair without even lifting an eyelid.
Angela and the knights raced to the doorway. When they saw the scene, every one of them drew in a sharp breath.
The Worship Hall had forced its way into the Pope's forbidden ground... This had spiraled completely out of control.
Pei Yuan stepped over the threshold and looked down at Su Chen in the bamboo chair, a cold smile tugging at his lips.
"The Worship Hall is conducting a routine audit. We're clearing out some old, useless books."
Without even looking at the desk, he turned and walked toward the tallest solid-wood bookshelf nearby.
Four rings' worth of Soul Power flooded his arms in an instant.
Pei Yuan planted both hands against the shelf, let out a shout, and shoved with all his might!
The thousand-catty bookshelf groaned with a teeth-grinding crack and crashed to the ground!
More than a hundred ancient books, each as thick as a brick, tumbled down with the broken planks, straight toward Su Chen's head!
Su Chen's gaze remained as calm as still water.
But in one-tenth of a second, his body produced a textbook-perfect "weakling" reaction.
He covered his head with both hands.
He hunched his shoulders.
He rolled off the bamboo chair, then crouched on the ground, scrambling with both hands and feet in a pitifully disheveled state.
"Thud!"
The bookshelf smashed the bamboo chair to pieces.
Dozens of heavy ancient books landed squarely on Su Chen's back and shoulders.
He shook among the pile of books like a sieve. The frequency, the amplitude—both perfectly matched the physical limits of an ordinary person facing a mortal threat.
Through gritted teeth, Su Chen shoved aside the plank pinning him down and crawled out on his hands and feet.
Head lowered, hands trembling, he began picking up the books from the ground one by one.
He revealed none of his trump cards and released no Soul Power. He did not even dare to utter a single word of pleading.
Pei Yuan stood where he was, brows knitted tight.
Outside the door, Angela and the knights stared in disbelief.
That was it?
The man the Pope had called "a century-long plan" really had no power to fight back against an attack like that?
Pei Yuan was not satisfied with this result.
He could not have made the trip for nothing.
Four rings' worth of Soul Power gathered between his brows, forming an invisible needle of spiritual power. Without a second thought, he stabbed it straight into Su Chen's body, trying to forcibly pry open every secret hidden within him.
The instant the spiritual power entered Su Chen's body.
The enormous World Tree Martial Soul in Su Chen's Sea of Divine Consciousness swayed gently.
Absolute Concealment activated!
Emerald light fell from its branches, forming an invisible membrane that wrapped his Level 40 god-tier Soul Power and the crystal of godly power at Level 100 tightly, cutting off even the faintest trace of aura from escaping.
At the outermost edge of the membrane, the World Tree even deliberately simulated a faint, withered, decaying-wood aura.
Pei Yuan's spiritual power rampaged through Su Chen's body, searching it from top to bottom.
The result...
His meridians were as thin as strands of hair.
His dantian was empty enough to let a horse run through it.
His Martial Soul was a rotting, withered twig.
The verdict could not have been clearer: Innate Soul Power Level One. A complete waste.
Pei Yuan withdrew his spiritual power.
The grim look on his face instantly crumpled, replaced by undisguised scorn and confusion.
The Great Worship had calculated every possibility, and the Pope had guarded against everything. Yet after all that, the place really did only hide a worthless piece of trash?
"What a waste of time."
Pei Yuan snorted coldly, swept out of the room, and strode away.
Su Chen was still crouched on the ground, picking up books, as if he had been scared witless.
Just as Pei Yuan crossed the threshold and cast one last glance into the room from the corner of his eye.
Su Chen reached out for the farthest ancient book.
The rough-cloth sleeve on his right arm slipped down half an inch.
The pale back of his hand was exposed to the air.
Beneath the skin, the unmistakable outline of an emerald-green leaf flickered for a second. A life force, pure beyond compare and ancient enough to make one's heart tremble, flashed past, then vanished without a trace.
Pei Yuan's eyelid twitched sharply!
The aura had appeared for only an instant, yet it made the Four-Ring Soul Power within him... tremble on instinct!
But he did not stop or turn around. Keeping his original pace, he walked downstairs and left the Library Pavilion.
Su Chen straightened and dusted off the back of his hand.
The bait had been cast.
The Worship Hall's secret pavilion.
The light was dim. Pei Yuan knelt on one knee and swiftly reported everything that had happened.
"...He has no Soul Power at all. The results of my spiritual probe show Innate Soul Power Level One."
Pei Yuan lifted his head and changed tack. "But just before I left, I saw a green leaf mark flash across the back of his hand. It was accompanied by an extremely ancient life force. That aura... far surpassed any Plant-type Martial Soul I've ever seen!"
Qian Xunji sprang to his feet!
The three Worships beside him stopped breathing on the spot.
Without a word, Qian Xunji strode to the bookshelf at the deepest end of the secret pavilion. He exerted his strength with both hands and pushed open a hidden compartment.
Inside sat a metal case covered in sealing runes.
He infused it with Soul Power, undid the seal, and took out a brittle, yellowed ancient book of the utmost secrecy.
Only the Great Worships of each generation were qualified to read this ancient book.
He flipped straight to a page near the middle and pressed his withered finger hard against a line of text.
The three Worships hurried over.
There was only one line on the page:
"The Tree of Creation, source of all souls. When its leaf appears, a divine miracle is near."
A deathly silence filled the secret pavilion.
Qian Xunji stared at those dozen or so characters. Blood vessels instantly spread across his eyes, which widened more and more.
His hands shook like leaves in an autumn wind as he held the ancient book.
The Tree of Creation...
It actually... really existed!
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