The night wind was bitterly cold.
Outside the Pope Palace, two figures, one black and one white, walked side by side along the long staircase leading to the northeastern corner of the inner city.
The Judgment Knights and Cardinals lining the way felt as if an invisible mountain were pressing down on their backs. They kept their heads bowed to their chests, barely daring to breathe.
The suffocating tension between mother and daughter, enough to make sparks fly in the air, had plunged the defenses of the entire inner city into the deathly silence of a graveyard.
They walked in silence.
After passing through layer upon layer of security, the two finally stopped in front of the Library Pavilion's rickety wooden door.
"Creak~"
Bibi Dong reached out and pushed it open. The hinges let out a shriek sharp enough to pierce the eardrums.
Early autumn moonlight spilled through the doorframe, stretching two tall, opposing shadows across the wooden debris scattered over the tiled floor.
There was no light inside. Su Chen leaned back in the newly repaired bamboo recliner, eyes nearly shut, a thin blanket draped over him. His breathing was so faint it could barely be heard.
He looked every bit like a frail servant, oblivious to the apocalyptic storm about to descend.
Qian Renxue stepped over the threshold.
Her sharp, swordlike phoenix eyes instantly fixed on the young man in the bamboo chair.
The moment the heel of her military boot touched the floor of the Library Pavilion—
Deep within Su Chen's Sea of Divine Consciousness, the World Tree Martial Soul, towering between heaven and earth, trembled ever so slightly.
A wisp of ancient life essence, so subtly disguised as the scent of grass and trees that it was nearly impossible to detect, drifted on the night breeze and brushed across Qian Renxue's cheek like a feather.
"Bzzzt!"
The Six-Winged Angel bloodline within Qian Renxue, passed down from the dawn of time, was like a fuse thrown into a powder keg. It detonated in an instant!
This wasn't the shiver of meeting a worthy opponent. It was a subject standing before their sovereign!
It was an instinctive act of worship, surging from the source of her bloodline and the very depths of her soul!
"Tap!"
The sound of her boot hitting the ground abruptly cut off.
Qian Renxue's pupils shrank to pinpoints, and her breath stopped.
She bit down hard on her lower lip. Beneath her wide sleeves, her hands moved so fast they seemed to leave afterimages as she formed a seal!
Holy Soul Power surged wildly backward through her meridians. With a brutality that bordered on self-harm, she forced that overwhelming shudder back into her dantian!
She stared at the pale, frail figure before her, her mind utterly blank, her CPU burning out on the spot.
This was insane!
How the hell was this possible?!
A lowly nobody without even a Soul Ring, not a trace of Soul Power on him, had triggered the worship instinct of her divine-grade Martial Soul with nothing more than that faint trace of vitality?!
The "divine object" Great Worship had mentioned?
No. He himself was the greatest monster of all!
As Qian Renxue forcibly suppressed the surge in her blood, a faint groan escaped her.
Su Chen's eyelids twitched, as if the sound had startled him awake.
He opened his eyes in alarm, his gaze landing on the two women at the doorway, both standing at the very peak of the continent.
The next moment, his whole body jolted as if struck by electricity, and he sprang up from the bamboo chair.
He moved too abruptly. The thin blanket slid to the floor, and he tripped, sprawling forward with an awkward thump.
"Thud!"
His knees slammed hard onto the cracked tiles.
Su Chen's shoulders hunched at once. He looked as if he wanted to bury his head in the floorboards, his voice shaking so badly the words nearly fell apart. "Y-Your subordinate pays respects to Your Holiness the Pope! G-Greetings, Young Master!"
His voice was steeped in bone-deep fear and humility. He sounded like an ant that could be crushed at any moment.
Qian Renxue looked down at Su Chen, trembling on the floor like a leaf in a gale, and her eyes instantly turned cold.
Acting?
That suppression of her bloodline just now had absolutely not been a mistake!
She deliberately took half a step forward. The instant her toe touched the ground—
"Whoosh!"
A thread of the Six-Winged Angel's icy, bone-piercing pressure slipped through the cracks in the tiles, an invisible poison needle aimed straight at Su Chen's heart!
She would tear away this man's sickly disguise with her own hands and see what kind of monster was hiding underneath!
The pressure entered his body.
Su Chen "cooperated" perfectly, letting out a suppressed groan. His body curled up as if struck by a heavy blow, cold sweat instantly beading across his forehead.
Just as that wisp of pressure was about to burrow into Su Chen's heart meridian—
Bibi Dong's gaze turned cold enough to freeze the soul!
"Bang!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Bibi Dong stamped her military boot down!
Her figure became a purple-black blur as she ruthlessly darted between them, shielding Su Chen, curled up on the ground, behind her.
Purple-black Rakshasa Soul Power erupted from beneath her feet like a raging tide. It swung down like a ten-thousand-ton hammer brought around in a mighty arc, crushing all in its path as it smashed Qian Renxue's probing pressure to pieces with a thunderous boom!
The shockwaves from the collision of Soul Power rippled visibly through the air.
In that split second—
Qian Renxue looked up and clearly saw the flash of anguish in Bibi Dong's eyes when Su Chen cried out in pain.
And the madness of a lioness guarding her food!
Qian Renxue's heart felt as if an invisible hand had clenched it tight.
The Dark Web's intelligence reports hadn't captured even a ten-thousandth of this woman's madness.
The dignified Pope had actually dropped all pretense for a man?!
And in the shadow cast by Bibi Dong's tall figure—
Su Chen remained with his head bowed, shielded from view. But from the angle Qian Renxue couldn't see, the corner of his mouth curled into an amused smile.
With a thought—
The god's-eye view of the Eye of Omniscience opened instantly.
In the darkness, two enormous, semitransparent Light Screens popped up in his mind. Golden-red data streams refreshed at a furious pace.
Left panel.
[Target: Binder No. 001 · Bibi Dong]
[Current Emotions: Vigilance 75% / Possessiveness 60% / Heartache 10%]
[Inner Monologue: Qian Renxue, you lunatic! You dare touch my man? Have you lost your mind?! If you hurt him even a little more, I'll cripple your Angel God Trial today!]
Right panel.
[Target: Binder 002 · Qian Renxue]
[Current Emotions: Shock 80% / Deep Curiosity 65% / Intense Confusion 20%]
[Inner Monologue: Martial Soul Worship... Bibi Dong guarding her food... What the hell is this man named Su Chen hiding?!]
The two panels glowed red and gold.
Bibi Dong narrowed her phoenix eyes. Purple-black Soul Power flickered at her fingertips.
She stared coldly at Qian Renxue, her voice edged with an undisguised threat of death. "Young Master is here to check the archives. Go ahead and rummage through the junk in this ruin."
"But if you dare use even the slightest bit of Soul Power against him again..."
Bibi Dong spoke slowly, each word as cold as if it had been pulled from an ice cellar. "Don't blame me for showing no regard for our ties as mother and daughter."
Boom!
Two forces of pressure, each powerful enough to tear space apart, clashed wildly within the tiny Library Pavilion, neither giving an inch.
Outside the door—
Angela and the sixteen Temple Knights on duty could clearly feel the terrifying pressure through the stone wall, a force so dreadful it seemed capable of freezing their souls solid.
"Thump! Thump!"
The crash of heavy armor hitting the ground rang out one after another.
Everyone was forced to kneel on one knee by the pressure, cold sweat instantly soaking their backs.
Angela didn't even dare lift her head. She screamed inwardly, The world's about to turn upside down! Is the Pope really going to kill the Young Master here over that servant?!
The suffocating standoff lasted a full ten seconds.
"Heh."
Qian Renxue suddenly sneered.
She smoothly withdrew all her unleashed Soul Power, and the Angel Golden Light vanished in an instant.
She casually glanced at the bookshelves strewn across the floor, her gaze as if fixed on a pile of rotten trash.
She knew perfectly well that with Bibi Dong, that mad lioness protecting her cub, right here tonight, she wouldn't have a chance.
A head-on clash would only cost her.
Even the system's new "Ten Combing Sessions" beginner task seemed like a joke now.
"Since Your Holiness the Pope treasures this 'junk' so much, I won't disturb Your Holiness's fun."
Qian Renxue's words were barbed as she turned to leave.
Her military boots crunched over the wood chips, her stride utterly decisive.
Just as she reached the doorway and her right foot crossed the threshold of the Library Pavilion—
A sudden change struck!
In Qian Renxue's Sea of Divine Consciousness, that glaring blood-red Light Screen forced its way into view, ignoring her will!
The cold mechanical voice slammed into her mind like a heavy hammer.
[Beep! Exclusive Advancement Mission Issued!]
[Mission: Secretly spend ten minutes alone with Lord of Creation Su Chen under the moonlight, behind Bibi Dong's back.]
[Restriction: During your private time together, you must remain within one meter of each other.]
[Reward: Increase Six-Winged Angel bloodline purity by 5%; unlock Angel Light · Beginner Stage]
[Penalty for Failure: Permanently lose one component of Angel Divine Armor; suffer Soul-Devouring Heart-Burning for twelve hours!]
Before you continue