Hidden Hand in the Worship Hall

Su Chen leaned back on his bamboo lounge chair, retracting his gaze from the direction of the Heaven Dou Empire as the light screen of the Eye of Omniscience slowly faded from his mind.

The wind outside the window carried a hint of chill.

He glanced at the blockade outside the Library Pavilion; under the shadows of the trees on the perimeter, a few unfamiliar faces had appeared.

These people breathed with extreme restraint, their positioning cunning, as if they had merged into the darkness itself.

Even though the scouts had been disposed of, the Worship Hall's dark web had not withdrawn; instead, it had tightened, like a pack of hyenas that had caught the scent of blood.

Deep within the Worship Hall.

Qian Xunji sat on the main seat, his fingers curling shut. The miniature Soul Guidance Bird, along with the secret letter inside, was crushed into powder and scattered from between his fingers.

On both sides of the secret chamber, three worships stood in trembling silence.

"Bibi Dong is personally guarding a servant, going so far as to crush an Elder Token for his sake."

Qian Xunji's voice was low and heavy. "That dilapidated building must hide a divine object capable of shaking the foundations of Martial Soul Hall, or perhaps the top-secret inheritance of some ancestor."

The Second Worship nodded immediately: "Exactly! This thing must never fall into her hands alone!"

Qian Xunji's gaze shifted to a young man standing at the door.

Pei Yuan, twenty-three years old, a four-ring Soul Ancestor, and a core disciple cultivated with heavy investment by the Worship Hall.

"Pei Yuan, take my decree."

Qian Xunji tossed out a scroll that shimmered with blinding golden light. "Go to the Library Pavilion, and under the guise of an annual audit, strip that servant bare until I know everything about him!"

Pei Yuan received the decree with both hands and bowed his head in obedience: "Yes, First Worship!"

At the same time, in the underground secret chamber of the Pope Palace.

Bibi Dong sat cross-legged on a cold stone platform, a mass of purple-black light suspended in mid-air before her.

This was an additional reward issued by the system: the credential for the eighth stage of the Rakshasa God Trial.

The light expanded, swallowing her in an instant.

In her mind, the system's cold, mechanical voice rang out.

[Ding! Host has entered the pre-trial deep fusion stage.]

[Warning: During the fusion process, all external perception will be severed.]

Bibi Dong's brows locked instantly.

With her protection gone at the Library Pavilion, those old fossils in the Worship Hall would definitely take advantage of this window to stir up trouble!

Before she could dwell on it further, a pillar of purple-black light poured down from above, the power of the God Trial ruthlessly locking onto her Sea of Divine Consciousness, leaving her no room to resist.

Bibi Dong had no choice but to close her eyes as her consciousness sank into total silence.

Outside the Library Pavilion.

Sixteen Temple Knights kept their hands on their sword hilts, staring fixedly ahead.

Pei Yuan strode forward, closing in on the blockade.

"Halt!" Angela drew her longsword, the tip pointing directly at Pei Yuan. "By order of the Pope! This is a Level One Restricted Area; trespassers will be executed!"

Pei Yuan couldn't even be bothered to draw his own sword; he raised his right hand, and the golden scroll snapped open.

The First Worship's decree!

The pressure of the Six-Winged Angel, mixed with the soul power of a four-ring Soul Ancestor, slammed into Angela's blade like an invisible hammer.

Angela let out a muffled groan, her knees buckling as she staggered back three steps.

The knights behind her were pinned to the spot by the soul pressure, unable to move a muscle.

With the Pope absent, no one could withstand the decree of the First Worship.

Pei Yuan crossed the blockade and headed straight for the third floor.

Reaching the entrance, he raised his right foot, unleashed his soul power, and kicked the newly nailed wooden door!

"BOOM!"

With a deafening crash, the wooden door exploded on impact!

Splinters and wood shavings, carried by the force of the blast, shot into the room like blades.

Su Chen sat on the bamboo chair, not even lifting his eyelids.

Angela and the knights chased after him to the doorway, and upon seeing this scene, they all gasped in horror.

The Worship Hall was forcibly breaking into the Pope's restricted area... the situation had completely spiraled out of control.

Pei Yuan stepped over the threshold, looking down at Su Chen on the bamboo chair with a cold sneer curling his lips.

"A routine audit by the Worship Hall to clear out obsolete archives."

He didn't even glance at the desk, turning instead toward the tallest row of solid wood bookshelves nearby.

Four rings of Soul Power instantly flooded his arms.

Pei Yuan pressed his hands against the bookshelf and, with a thunderous roar, shoved it forward with all his might!

The thousand-pound bookshelf let out a teeth-gritting sound of splintering wood and collapsed with a deafening crash!

Over a hundred ancient books, thick as bricks, mixed with shards of broken wood, rained down directly toward Su Chen's head.

Su Chen's gaze remained as calm as still water.

Yet, his body executed a textbook-perfect reaction of a "weakling" within a tenth of a second.

He hugged his head with both hands.

He hunched his shoulders.

Rolling off the bamboo chair, he scrambled onto the floor on all fours in an utterly pathetic display.

"BANG!"

The bookshelf smashed the bamboo chair into splinters.

Dozens of heavy ancient tomes landed solidly on Su Chen's back and shoulders.

He trembled in the pile of books like a sieve, the frequency and amplitude perfectly matching the physiological limits of an ordinary person facing a lethal threat.

Gritting his teeth, Su Chen pushed aside the wooden planks pinning him down and crawled out on his hands and knees.

He kept his head low, his hands shaking, and began picking up the books one by one.

He didn't reveal his trump cards, didn't unleash his Soul Power, and didn't even dare to utter a single word of begging.

Pei Yuan stood where he was, his brows locked in a deep frown.

Outside the door, Angela and the knights wore expressions of utter bewilderment.

That was it?

The person the Pope called the "Grand Plan of the Century" actually had no power to fight back at all when faced with such a deadly attack?

Pei Yuan was not satisfied with this result.

He could not have made this trip for nothing.

Four rings of Soul Power condensed between his brows, transforming into an invisible needle of mental energy; without a second thought, he stabbed it directly into Su Chen's body, attempting to forcibly pry open every secret hidden within.

The moment the mental energy entered his body.

Inside Su Chen's Sea of Divine Consciousness, the massive World Tree Martial Soul swayed gently.

Absolute Concealment trait, activated!

Emerald light spilled from the branches, forming an invisible membrane that wrapped tightly around his level forty Super-God-tier Soul Power and his level one-hundred divine power crystals, cutting off any possibility of a single trace of aura leaking out.

On the outermost layer of the membrane, the World Tree even proactively simulated a withered, decaying aura of dead wood.

Pei Yuan's mental energy rampaged through Su Chen's body, searching every nook and cranny.

The result...

Meridians, as thin as strands of hair.

Dantian, empty enough to run a horse through.

Martial Soul, a rotting, withered twig.

The appraisal result was as clear as it could be: Innate Soul Power level one, a pure piece of trash.

Pei Yuan withdrew his mental energy.

The gravity on his face collapsed instantly, replaced by naked contempt and confusion.

The Grand Elder had calculated everything, the Pope had guarded against every contingency, and yet, after all this, was there really nothing hidden here but a worthless piece of garbage?

"A waste of time."

Pei Yuan snorted coldly, flicked his sleeves, turned, and strode away.

Su Chen remained crouched on the floor picking up books, appearing as if he had been scared witless.

Just as Pei Yuan stepped over the threshold, the very moment his peripheral vision swept across the room one last time.

Su Chen reached out to grab the furthest ancient book.

The coarse cloth sleeve of his right arm slid down by half an inch.

His pale hand was exposed to the air.

Right beneath that skin, a distinct emerald leaf pattern flashed for a second, and a life force fluctuation—so pure and ancient it was heart-stopping—flickered into existence before vanishing completely.

Pei Yuan's eyelids twitched violently!

That fluctuation had appeared for only an instant, yet it caused the four rings of Soul Power within his own body to experience a tremor... born of instinct!

But he did not stop, nor did he turn back; he maintained his pace as he walked down the stairs and left the Library Pavilion.

Su Chen straightened up and brushed the dust off the back of his hand.

The bait has been cast.

The secret chamber of the Worship Hall.

The light was dim as Pei Yuan knelt on one knee, swiftly reporting the entire process.

"...There was no soul power whatsoever, and the result of the spiritual power scan was innate rank one."

Pei Yuan raised his head, his tone shifting, "However, as I was leaving, I saw a green leaf pattern flash across the back of his hand, accompanied by an extremely ancient life fluctuation. That fluctuation... far surpassed any plant-type martial soul I have ever seen!"

Qian Xunji stood up abruptly from his seat!

The three great elders beside him had their breathing stall on the spot.

Qian Xunji said nothing, walking quickly to the bookshelf in the deepest part of the secret chamber, exerting force with both hands to push open a hidden compartment.

Inside was a metal box covered in sealing runes.

He injected his soul power, undid the seals, and took out a yellowed, brittle top-secret ancient tome.

This ancient tome was something only the successive High Priests were qualified to peruse.

He flipped directly to a page in the middle, his withered fingers pressing hard against a line of text on the paper.

The three great elders hurriedly crowded forward.

On the page, there was only one line:

"The Tree of Creation, source of all souls; when its leaf appears, the divine miracle shall arrive."

Within the secret chamber, there was a deathly silence.

Qian Xunji stared fixedly at those dozen characters, his eyeballs instantly crawling with bloodshot veins, his eyes widening further and further.

The hands holding the ancient tome trembled like fallen leaves in an autumn wind.

The Tree of Creation...

It actually... truly exists!