Embrace Bibi Dong, Qian Renxue Returns

Bibi Dong's foot, which had just stepped forward, remained frozen at the threshold.

In her mind, the system's crimson countdown [00:59:59] flickered frantically, its light stinging her Sea of Divine Consciousness with sharp pain.

The early autumn moonlight was as cold as ice.

Su Chen did not cower on the floor begging for mercy as he usually did, nor did he even turn to look at her.

He simply sat quietly by the window.

That sense of loneliness, as if abandoned by the entire world, gripped her heart like an invisible hand, causing it to skip a beat!

The air in the room solidified like iron.

The night breeze caught the slipping thin blanket, brushing against the floor tiles with a soft "rustle."

Bibi Dong took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the bitterness rising in her throat, stepped over the threshold, and gently pulled the wooden door shut behind her.

The room was unlit.

The system's prohibition hung over her head like a mountain.

No verbal guidance, no suggestive expressions.

She could only stand there like a puppet, stiffly, five paces away from Su Chen, watching the man huddled in the shadows.

Time crawled, second by second.

[00:20:00]

The countdown approached twenty minutes!

Bibi Dong's tightly clenched fists trembled violently, her nails digging once more into the scabs on her palms until beads of blood seeped out.

The system's death warrant and the unspeakable, synchronized ache she felt for Su Chen in the depths of her heart waged a frantic war inside her mind.

This was the most helpless and agonizing moment of her forty years of life!

[00:10:00]

The moment the countdown ticked into the final ten minutes, Su Chen moved.

He slowly turned his head to look at Bibi Dong, who was hidden in the gloom.

Under the moonlight, all the cowardice in his eyes had faded away, leaving behind only a startling, raw sincerity.

"Your Excellency..."

His voice was low, as if rasped by sandpaper, "This subordinate has lived in Martial Soul Hall like a dog for sixteen years. No family, no friends; everyone thought I was only fit to rot in the mud."

These words turned into rusted, blunt nails, hammering into Bibi Dong's eardrums, one by one.

Her pupils contracted sharply!

The dark secret chamber, the cold face of Qian Daoliu, the resolute back of Yu Xiaogang... all the fragments of memories of being used by kin and abandoned by a lover exploded at once!

A terrifying resonance of souls shook her long-frozen Sea of Divine Consciousness like a tsunami!

Su Chen did not stop.

His gaze was deep, locking onto Bibi Dong's eyes, and his eye sockets turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Until you appeared... although I don't know why you are so good to me, these past few days, this subordinate has felt that living... perhaps isn't so unbearable after all."

The words fell.

They struck like a precise, heavy hammer, smashing Bibi Dong's already crumbling defenses into pieces!

The Soul Devouring countdown in her mind had turned a glaring, blood-red.

But at this moment, all she could see was Su Chen's appearance—lonely to the extreme, yet desperately yearning for light.

Her shoulders, which had been tense as iron, slumped by half an inch, beyond her control.

Su Chen lowered his eyes slightly, his lips pulling into a humble yet satisfied, miserable smile:

"The porridge Your Excellency cooked, although burnt, was truly... delicious. It was the warmest thing this subordinate has ever tasted in this life."

In the dead silence of the Library Pavilion, the lethality of this sentence magnified exponentially!

Bibi Dong's eyes suddenly grew hot, her throat feeling as if it were tightly blocked by something.

For forty years, she had given everything, only to receive betrayal, exploitation, and fear in return.

Never had anyone offered such devout gratitude for her clumsy, even failed, efforts.

Su Chen's words were like a blade, mercilessly stripping away her shell as Pope and forcibly dragging two souls struggling in the dark onto the same level.

[00:02:00]

The countdown, the final two minutes!

In Su Chen's mind, the data on the Eye of Omniscience screen had already surged into a tsunami.

[Bibi Dong Resistance Value: 0%]

[Heartache Value: 100% (Off the charts)]

He slowly stood up from the window.

Without the slightest hesitation, one step, two steps, he trod upon the pale moonlight, walking toward Bibi Dong.

His pace was not fast, yet it carried the resolve of a moth flying into a flame.

Bibi Dong stood rooted to the spot, watching him approach step by step.

Her heartbeat was like a thundering drum, shaking her until she felt she might suffocate.

In this moment, she even forgot the guillotine about to fall in her mind; there remained only one absurd and frantic thought in the depths of her heart.

He's mad! He's gone mad, and I've gone mad too!

Cross over!

Su Chen stopped half a foot in front of Bibi Dong.

He was so close that he could clearly smell the cold, faint fragrance lingering on her.

Watching her slightly reddened eye corners and her tightly bitten lower lip, he slowly raised his hand.

His hands trembled violently in mid-air, stopping three inches from her shoulders, unable to advance even a fraction further.

Su Chen's Adam's apple bobbed, his voice shattering like sand in the wind, filled with extreme hesitation and humility:

"Your Excellency... may this subordinate... embrace you?"

The moment those words fell.

All of Bibi Dong's defenses were completely wiped clean.

She did not speak, nor did she dodge.

She simply, with total resignation, slowly closed her eyes.

The next second, Su Chen's arms thrust forward, crossing her waist, and he gently pulled her entire being into his embrace!

The instant they made contact!

Within Su Chen's Sea of Divine Consciousness, the World Tree martial soul erupted with ten thousand rays of divine light!

The ancient and vast origin of life flowed along their pressed bodies, rushing into Bibi Dong's body like a bursting dam!

The Rakshasa evil thoughts accumulated in the depths of her soul let out a hiss like melting ice and snow under the scouring of this warm current, instantly being more than half purified!

[30]

[29]

The thirty-second embrace countdown, begin!

Time was stretched infinitely.

Held in his arms, Bibi Dong's spine, originally stiff as iron, softened inch by inch.

She listened to his steady heartbeat, greedily absorbing that woody, clean fragrance that brought peace to her soul.

[03]

[02]

Just one second before the countdown hit zero.

Bibi Dong's hand, which had been hanging at her side, after several seconds of internal struggle, finally raised with extreme slowness, as if resigning herself to fate.

She did not return the hug.

The back of her hand merely rested, ever so lightly, against Su Chen's back.

But this light touch was the first time in forty years she had voluntarily lowered all her spikes to touch a man's back.

A genuine tremor, one that could no longer be excused as a "system mission," tore a rift open in the depths of her heart.

[00]

[Ding! High-difficulty interactive mission "Embrace of Trust" completed perfectly!]

The system's mechanical voice and the notification of a hundredfold critical strike exploded in both their Seas of Divine Consciousness simultaneously!

[Obtained hundredfold critical return! Ultimate feedback of origin soul power!]

The soul power within Su Chen's body detonated with a roar!

Level 41!

Level 43!

Level 46!

His meridians widened frantically, the branches of the World Tree soared once more, and the violent soul power crushed all bottlenecks, surging all the way until it steadily stepped into the realm of a Level 50 Soul King!

On the screen of the Eye of Omniscience, that line of numbers completed an epic leap.

[Bibi Dong's current favorability: 36 → 50 (Breakthrough of the qualitative change threshold)]

The two slowly separated.

Bibi Dong did not say a single word.

She took a deep look at Su Chen, and those phoenix eyes, usually so cold, were now shimmering with moisture.

Her earlobes were blood-red as she turned and left, her footsteps chaotic as she vanished into the night, looking as if she were fleeing.

The Library Pavilion returned to a deathly silence.

Su Chen sat back in his chair and exhaled a long, heavy breath, just as he was preparing to calm the surging power of the Soul King within his body.

The center of the Eye of Omniscience's light screen was suddenly covered by a blinding, blood-red hue!

A top-tier emergency warning directly occupied the entire screen!

[Warning!]

[Binder 002, Qian Renxue, has crossed the outer defensive line of Martial Soul City!]

[The target has entered the system's core monitoring range and is approaching the inner city at high speed!]

Su Chen leaned back against his chair, his deep gaze cast toward the window.

In that dark night sky, two massive storms of destiny had already collided!