The moment the mechanical voice fell silent, Bibi Dong's entire body shuddered violently.
She felt it clearly.
The purple-black malice entrenched in the depths of her soul was as if an invisible hand had seized it by the roots and ripped away a huge chunk, wrenching it out of her Sea of Divine Consciousness!
The pain lasted only an instant.
Then, a long-lost clarity surged through her like a tide. It was as if she'd spent three years wallowing in a filthy quagmire, only to finally be pulled ashore.
Bibi Dong's lips parted slightly. The stale breath that had been lodged in her chest for years finally flowed out without a hitch.
Her cultivation actually advanced by half a step in that instant.
It was nothing compared to the earth-shattering breakthrough of a Limit Douluo reaching level one hundred, but the feeling of a spiritual shackle loosening was ten times more refreshing than breaking through a bottleneck!
She looked down at her hands. They weren't trembling anymore.
The humiliation and murderous intent in her eyes vanished without a trace.
In their place was sheer disbelief.
Her gaze pinned Su Chen's face, unblinking.
Meanwhile, Su Chen's mind erupted into chaos.
[Origin Life Force · Hundredfold Critical Return! Congratulations, host, you have obtained: Primordial Creation Life Force ×100! The Withered Martial Soul is awakening...]
Before the system notification had finished, Su Chen's body had already reacted.
Deep in his chest, the Withered Sapling Martial Soul that had lain dormant for sixteen years was as if a sun had been forcibly stuffed inside it!
Its desiccated roots swelled wildly. Its cracked bark burst apart with a series of sharp pops, and tender green shoots thrust savagely through the fissures, growing an inch, two inches, three inches... at a speed far beyond what he could endure!
Su Chen's face flushed red in an instant.
An ancient, boundless force rampaged through every inch of him, like a primordial beast fresh from its cage, utterly beyond his control.
His veins bulged beneath his skin, and the veins at his temples throbbed.
But his expression remained as steady as a rock.
Because right across from him stood a Titled Douluo who could go berserk at any moment.
Bibi Dong finally came back to her senses.
Her gaze toward Su Chen had changed. She no longer looked down on him as the Pope might look at trash. Now, she examined him like a hunter sizing up unknown prey.
She advanced step by step.
The spiritual power of a Titled Douluo burst forth, spreading into an invisible net. With an overbearing force that brooked no resistance, it descended over Su Chen!
Once that net fell, forget an ordinary person—even a Soul Ancestor would be stripped bare.
She wanted to see clearly.
Just what the hell was hidden inside this man?
The instant Su Chen felt that spiritual pressure, his scalp prickled.
He knew full well that the Creation aura within him was at a critical point in its transformation. If Bibi Dong discovered even the slightest clue, there was no way a woman like her would let an unpredictable variable she couldn't see through remain in Spirit Hall.
At best, he'd be placed under house arrest. At worst... he'd be cremated on the spot.
He couldn't risk it!
In a flash, Su Chen made his decision.
A muffled groan escaped his throat. His eyes rolled back, and he toppled straight over.
Like a piece of wood with its backbone ripped out, he fainted cleanly and decisively.
Bibi Dong's spiritual net hadn't even reached him when he fell.
Her heart lurched.
Her body moved faster than her mind.
Almost instinctively, she stepped forward, supporting the back of Su Chen's head with one hand and wrapping the other around his waist, catching him securely in her arms.
The motion was smooth and precise, as though she'd rehearsed it a thousand times.
But she hadn't.
In her entire life, she had never willingly embraced a man.
Su Chen's head rested on her forearm, his face turned upward. His eyes were closed, and his expression was peaceful, as if he were asleep.
Moonlight fell across his lashes, casting faint shadows beneath his eyes.
Bibi Dong froze.
She held the pose for two seconds, three seconds, four...
At last, reason returned.
Her brows furrowed, and she was just about to push the "trash" away.
A wisp of aura, faint yet impossibly pure, escaped from Su Chen.
It was like the first breath of mist at dawn in a deep mountain forest, or the fragrance at the heart of a thousand-year-old tree.
It was the purest Origin Life Force.
The instant it brushed her nose, the Rakshasa frenzy remaining within Bibi Dong was doused as if by a bucket of ice water, extinguished in an instant.
In its place came a peace she had never known.
Her hand stopped.
She couldn't push him away.
It wasn't for lack of strength. Her body simply wouldn't let her.
Bibi Dong's breathing faltered for two beats.
She lowered her head, her gaze involuntarily settling on Su Chen's profile.
Through the thin fabric of his clothes, the young man's warmth traveled clearly to the inside of her arm.
Like a piece of warm jade resting in her palm, its temperature just right.
A blush crept from Bibi Dong's snow-white neck to the tips of her ears.
She could feel her heart pounding, fast and wild, completely beyond her control.
The last time it had beaten like this was more than ten years ago, when she had faced Qian Xunji.
No.
It was beating even faster than then!
Bibi Dong bit down hard on her lower lip.
She took a deep breath and carefully moved Su Chen onto the bamboo reclining chair, laying him flat and settling him in place.
Her movements were so light that not even a fallen tea leaf could have made a sound.
She stood by the reclining chair for a long time.
Long enough for the moonlight to shift from the left side of the window to the right.
At last, Bibi Dong forced herself to turn around and walked step by step toward the entrance of the Library Pavilion.
She never looked back.
The sound of the wooden door closing was barely audible in the night.
The footsteps faded completely.
In the darkness, Su Chen opened his eyes.
He didn't hurry to get up. First, he looked at the Light Screen in his mind.
[Binder No. 001 Bibi Dong has left the detection range. Eye of Omniscience entering standby mode.]
[Final favorability change: -10→+8]
One pour of tea had earned him eighteen favorability points. Not bad.
Su Chen sat up and rolled his shoulders. Bibi Dong had caught him with just the right amount of force, leaving not a single bruise.
Then he saw the new mission panel pop up in the corner of the Light Screen—
[Chain mission issued for Binder No. 001 Bibi Dong: At noon tomorrow, go to the Library Pavilion to wipe down the body of Lord of Creation Su Chen and change his undergarments.]
[Reward: 100,000-year External Soul Bone · Shadow Spider Leg ×1.]
[Failure penalty: upgraded Soul-Devouring Pain, lasting 144 hours.]
Su Chen stared at the words "wipe down the body" and "change his undergarments," falling silent.
System, you've gone too far!
He was mainly worried that Bibi Dong would be so mortified she'd scatter his ashes on the spot.
But his favorability was in the positives now. She probably... wouldn't, right?
He put away the Light Screen, lay back on the bamboo chair, and closed his eyes.
Inside him, everything had been turned upside down.
The Trash Martial Soul that had been dormant for sixteen years had completed its transformation.
The withered sapling was gone. In its place stood a towering tree, its roots buried deep in his soul and its branches and leaves filling his entire Sea of Divine Consciousness!
A line of golden characters, so domineering they seemed to blot out the heavens, slowly appeared in his sea of consciousness:
[Martial Soul Evolution complete. Supreme Martial Soul · World Tree.]
[Innate Soul Power reassessment: God-tier.]
Su Chen felt the vast power awakened within him. His breathing and heartbeat remained as they had always been.
Sixteen years had been worth it.
A wisp of utterly concealed Creation aura seeped from him into the ground, following the earth's veins as it silently spread in every direction.
At the same moment.
Thousands of miles away, in the imperial capital of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Qian Renxue jolted awake from her sleep.
Her Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul released itself without warning. Six pristine wings of light burst open behind her with a boom, shredding the bedroom curtains!
Golden, sacred light filled the room in an instant.
Qian Renxue clutched her chest and gasped for breath.
Her Martial Soul was trembling.
Violently, uncontrollably—as if worshipping, awestruck, terrified! As if it had sensed an existence of the same origin, or even one that surpassed it!
"What... is that?"
Her voice trembled slightly.
The next day, at noon.
Su Chen sat on the bamboo reclining chair, holding a yellowed ancient book and looking every bit the avid reader.
He had changed into clean, coarse-cloth clothes. His face was pale, his lips colorless, and faint dark circles lingered beneath his eyes.
He had spent half an hour creating the whole effect with cold water.
He had perfected the look of someone still weak from a serious illness.
Footsteps sounded outside the Library Pavilion.
More than one person.
Su Chen's eyebrows lifted almost imperceptibly.
The Light Screen lit up right on schedule.
[Binder No. 001 Bibi Dong has entered the detection range. Current status: full papal regalia. One attendant. Identity determination: Spirit Hall Cardinal, Angela.]
[Bibi Dong's current emotions: embarrassment 97%/conflict 94%/anxiety 88%]
[Inner monologue: I am here to inspect the Library Pavilion. Yes, inspect it... not to wipe him down... absolutely not... Damn it! The countdown is back!]
The wooden door of the Library Pavilion swung open.
Bibi Dong stood there in full papal regalia, radiating an overwhelming presence.
Behind her followed a dignified-looking Cardinal, carrying a black-lacquered wooden box.
Su Chen put down his book and "struggled" to rise from the reclining chair. His movements were slow, and every step betrayed the weakness of someone not yet recovered from a grave illness.
Then, once again, he dropped to his knees with a thud.
"May Your Holiness be in good health."
Bibi Dong lowered her eyes. Her gaze swept over his pale face and lingered for half a second.
On the Light Screen behind her, her embarrassment shot from 97% straight to 99%.
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