The night wind in the Library Pavilion was cold and bleak.
Qian Renxue's gaze was nailed to Su Chen's somewhat messy hair.
In her mind, the death countdown "[03:59:59]" ticked silently.
With every tick, her Sea of Divine Consciousness throbbed as if pricked by a needle.
Her teeth ground together with a sharp grating sound, and her chest heaved once.
For twenty years, she had been the lofty Young Master of Spirit Hall and the Crown Prince who had commanded the Heaven Dou Empire's affairs from behind the scenes.
And now she was supposed to comb the hair of a lowly servant with no Soul Power?
But she had to stay alive.
And she had to beat that woman.
The twisted desire to win, provoked by Bibi Dong, now crushed every shred of her dignity.
In utmost humiliation, she reached into the hidden pocket of her tight-fitting night clothes.
A delicate wooden comb carrying a faint scent of tulips fell into her palm.
On the bamboo chair, Su Chen dug his fingernails into the thin blanket, his shoulders hunched like a turtle pulling its head into its shell.
Terror filled his eyes, and his body trembled violently.
In the Sea of Divine Consciousness, the Light Screen of the Eye of Omniscience glowed faintly.
Every word of Qian Renxue's panel of humiliation, anger, and resentment was imprinted in Su Chen's eyes.
Heh. No wonder she's Spirit Hall's little princess. That twisted jealousy of hers is something else. Su Chen snickered to himself.
Qian Renxue's knuckles whitened around the comb.
She drew a deep breath, then spoke in a chilly tone, her words carrying an unquestionable command: "Turn around."
Su Chen pretended to be stunned by her voice.
His body jerked as if struck by lightning, and he awkwardly scrambled around on the bamboo chair with both hands and feet.
He turned around fearfully.
His utterly unguarded back and that unruly black hair were fully exposed before Qian Renxue.
Qian Renxue looked at his humble figure.
This was the first time in her life she had ever combed a man's hair.
Overwhelmed by the absurdity and humiliation of it all, she roared inwardly, her fingertips trembling slightly.
A trace of ruthlessness flashed through her eyes as Qian Renxue abruptly snapped her wrist.
As if the teeth had eyes, the comb plunged straight into Su Chen's hair and dragged down with brutal force.
"Pss—" Su Chen sucked in a sharp breath. His shoulders hitched, his performance utterly convincing.
At the very instant the comb teeth scraped over his scalp and the two made indirect contact—
Deep in Su Chen's Sea of Divine Consciousness, the World Tree Martial Soul swayed gently.
A wisp of exceedingly subtle, supremely pure life essence flowed silently upstream along the strands of hair and the comb's teeth.
The wisp slipped into Qian Renxue's palm.
In an instant, the Six-Winged Angel Soul Power within her, which had been surging wildly from humiliation and resistance, fell still.
All her agitation and aversion vanished in a flash.
An unprecedented, strange serenity that reached straight to the depths of her soul took control of her consciousness.
Qian Renxue's hand froze in midair as she combed his hair. Her phoenix eyes widened, disbelief filling them.
She stared at the wooden comb in her hand, her heart pounding. What... what is this power?!
A high-level Soul Master's mental strength was inherently keen. The power crawling up from her palm had not the slightest trace of aggression, yet its vastness overwhelmed all ranks.
Before this power, the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul not only failed to resist but instead gave voice to a greedy resonance.
Her defenses of reason crumbled completely.
Qian Renxue lowered the comb again, almost involuntarily. This time, all the resentment-fueled roughness had vanished without a trace.
The comb's teeth glided slowly down Su Chen's hair, her movements growing gentler and more meticulous with every stroke.
Her rigid back relaxed inch by inch. The sharpness in her gaze gradually softened beneath a shimmering veil, and without realizing it, her breathing fell into rhythm with Su Chen's steady heartbeat.
She was utterly absorbed in this moment of peace.
On the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen, Qian Renxue's favorability score quietly began to rise from the glaring [0].
[1], [3], [5]... The number climbed steadily.
At the same time, several miles away, in an underground chamber beneath the Pope Palace—
Bibi Dong, who had been sitting cross-legged and suppressing the Rakshasa malice, abruptly opened her eyes.
She keenly sensed the disturbance coming from the direction of the Library Pavilion. That fleeting ripple of Angel Soul Power filled her with loathing. "The stench of that old dog Qian Daoliu's line. Fucking disgusting!"
But a strange harmony mixed into it stung her nerves even more.
"Qian Renxue? She hasn't left yet?!" Blood-red threads instantly spread across Bibi Dong's phoenix eyes.
A moment ago, Qian Renxue's piercing taunt flashed through her mind: "Could it be that you've taken a liking to him?"
The words had originally been a probing thorn. Now they became a blaze that set off a powder keg.
An uncontrollable instinct to guard what was hers erupted, mingled with a vicious jealousy she had not even noticed in herself.
Bang!
The indestructible steel door of the underground chamber was smashed into a rain of fragments by a blast of purple-black Soul Power.
Bibi Dong did not even put on her papal robe.
She became a Rakshasa streak of light, trailing murderous intent that surged like a raging tide, and tore through the night as she raced madly toward the Library Pavilion.
The terrifying pressure tossed the patrolling knights aside, while the purple-black aura tore a passage through the clouds overhead.
Inside the Library Pavilion, the moonlight was deathly pale.
Qian Renxue was immersed in that strange serenity, the comb's teeth gliding tenderly over the tips of Su Chen's hair. The two of them had drawn to within a foot of each other.
There was no killing intent, no scheming for power—only the faint rasp of the wooden comb against his hair.
They could even smell each other's breath.
An eerie silence.
Rumble!
A deafening crash rang out as the Library Pavilion's already battered wooden door was blasted to dust by a surge of purple-black divine power, violent beyond measure.
Splintered wood flew everywhere.
Bibi Dong's figure landed at the doorway with a crash, her terrifying killing intent freezing the air in an instant.
Amid the swirling wood chips, the moonlight laid bare the scene inside the room.
The lofty Young Master of Spirit Hall was lowering her brows, looking completely absorbed as she combed the hair of a servant with not a trace of Soul Power.
The air froze completely for that one second.
Bibi Dong stood in the doorway, staring at the wooden comb in Qian Renxue's hand. Her nails pierced her palm, and blood dripped down.
In Su Chen's Sea of Divine Consciousness, three system panels sounded an ear-splitting alarm all at once.
On the left, the [Jealousy Value] on Bibi Dong's emotion panel shot past its limit at a speed visible to the naked eye. Red light blazed.
On the right, golden light flashed across Qian Renxue's panel, and her favorability instantly leaped to [15].
In the center, a golden notification rang out frantically:
[ Ding! Extreme emotional clash detected! Host has triggered a hundredfold critical bonus! ] [ Reward: Angel Feather ×10! ] ( Note: Angel Feather, a divine-grade consumable. Ignores all defenses and barriers, and can forcibly block one fatal attack at the Titled Douluo level. It can also be used to reshape divine-grade foundations. )
The immense reward poured into his storage space. Su Chen maintained his fearful posture, but a profound look of control flickered in his eyes.
I made a killing!
Facing Bibi Dong's phoenix eyes, which seemed ready to bleed—
Qian Renxue jolted out of her daze.
As if shocked, she snatched the wooden comb away. The instant her reason returned, a strange sense of loss welled up inside her.
The serenity she had craved so desperately vanished completely when their physical contact broke.
She forcibly suppressed that sense of loss and glanced at Bibi Dong's furious face.
Qian Renxue let out a cold laugh.
"Just a routine inspection."
Leaving behind those words, laden with provocation, she transformed into a dazzling streak of golden light and hastily vanished into the night.
Only Bibi Dong and Su Chen remained in the Library Pavilion.
Bibi Dong stared at Su Chen's back, her eyes a frantic tangle of fury and something like grievance. Without saying a word, she turned abruptly and disappeared.
That night—
A crash of shattering porcelain rang out from the Pope Palace's bedroom.
Bibi Dong, driven mad with jealousy, smashed three full-length bronze mirrors one after another.
Among the scattered fragments, her bloodshot eyes stared back, brimming with resentment.
"Hmph, you little brat!" she cursed under her breath.
In the Young Master Palace—
Qian Renxue held the wooden comb and, for once, sat down before her dressing table.
She stared hard at her reflection. Her old pride had been replaced by a new emotion, and her mind could not shake the flutter she had felt while combing Su Chen's hair—or the murderous look on Bibi Dong's face.
A twisted urge to compare herself crept into her eyes.
"Just how am I worse than her?"
Meanwhile—
Inside the Library Pavilion, Su Chen slowly leaned back against the bamboo chair.
At the edge of the Eye of Omniscience, in the distant direction of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan—
The pre-awakening signal for [No. 003 · Liu Erlong] suddenly lit up with a searing red glow.
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