Spirit City, the year-end Sacrificial Ceremony.
On the vast plaza before Pope Palace, thousands of golden-armored Judgment Knights stood in formation like a golden tide.
Their heavy spears pointed diagonally at the sky. The synchronized scrape of their armor plates blended into a chilling symphony of steel.
High-ranking bishops and Titled Douluo stood on either side of the red carpet, crimson robes intermingled with purple ones—a portrait of Spirit Hall at the height of its power.
On the left side of the high platform, Qian Daoliu sat in a high-backed golden chair, surrounded by the elders of the Worship Hall.
Above them, Bibi Dong wore the pope's robes, extravagantly ornate and luxurious, and a purple-gold crown. She sat in silence upon her jade throne.
Their eyes met across the space between them.
The sacred solemnity of past ceremonies had vanished without a trace.
All that remained was a murderous chill cold enough to freeze the marrow in one's bones.
Where their gazes collided, the air was compressed by two invisible surges of Limit-level spiritual power, producing a faint crack like tearing silk!
The tedious formalities hurried through more than half their course beneath that strange, oppressive atmosphere.
They had reached the stage for verifying the identities of the inner court personnel.
Pei Yuan, the Worship Hall's law-enforcement elder, strode forward, holding a thick register of names, ready to make his move.
Qian Daoliu raised a hand slightly and brought two thin, withered fingers together, stopping him.
The Great Worship of Spirit Hall slowly rose to his feet, his golden robe stirring without a breeze.
Thousands of gazes across the plaza were instantly seized by an invisible hand and dragged onto him, as if their necks had been gripped tight!
He couldn't even be bothered to pretend to be checking the servants. He went straight for the kill.
"Pope."
The single word rolled out like thunder, exploding above the plaza and rupturing the eardrums of the weaker Judgment Knights in the front ranks.
Qian Daoliu looked down at her, his gaze like an eagle's talons as it pinned Bibi Dong in place. "At the northeast corner of Spirit City, you've established a first-grade forbidden zone in secret and hidden an unknown good-for-nothing there. You've also used the Pope's Decree to bar the Worship Hall from inspecting it."
His voice rose sharply, every word infused with the terrifying might of a Ninety-ninth Level Limit Douluo.
"I'll ask you only one thing: what exactly are you trying to do?!"
A direct challenge from the highest level! He was forcing her to yield in front of the entire hall's leadership!
The thousands of elite soldiers below erupted into an uproar. Cardinals exchanged alarmed looks, their faces full of shock.
No one had expected Qian Daoliu to drop all pretense this time and flip the table outright!
Bibi Dong's face was calm as still water.
She did not rise. She didn't even shift in her seat.
"Establishing a forbidden zone is within my authority as pope."
Bibi Dong's voice was steady, yet it sounded as if it had been quenched in the North Sea's ten-thousand-year-old ice. "This place concerns Spirit Hall's plans for the next century. No one without business here may pry into it. The Worship Hall may hold a revered position, but it has no right to meddle in my internal affairs."
She met him head-on!
Wielding the lawful authority of the current pope, Bibi Dong struck back with crushing force!
Purple-black soul pressure poured down the steps, silencing the bishops in an instant.
"Plans for the next century?" Qian Daoliu let out an extremely harsh sneer.
He abruptly raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and grabbed at the empty air!
"Buzz!"
A brilliant golden token, engraved with the divine patterns of nine Six-Winged Angels, appeared in a flash!
The Holy Judgment Token!
It was the highest symbol of authority established when Spirit Hall was founded, created specifically to keep the pope in check.
The token floated at the very center of the high platform, its dazzling golden light instantly banishing every shadow on the plaza.
Amid that blinding radiance, Qian Daoliu's spiritual imprint and the supreme majesty of the Six-Winged Angel erupted like a volcano.
The appearance of the Holy Judgment Token meant that the highest-level impeachment process had been forcibly initiated.
The token possessed the absolute legal authority to compel the pope to reveal all her secret plans in public.
Bibi Dong's pupils contracted sharply.
She stared at the golden token hanging in the air.
Deep in her soul, the Rakshasa's evil thoughts, held down by force all this time, sensed the provocation of the Angel God's sacred aura and instantly erupted into a frenzy.
By the rules passed down through the generations, when the Holy Judgment Token appeared, the pope had to descend from her throne and bow her head to answer the accusations.
But Bibi Dong did not.
In her mind flashed Su Chen's clear, utterly unwavering gaze from the night before, after he had drunk that bowl of foul-smelling fish soup.
Her instinct to guard what was hers crushed what little she had called reason in that instant.
Bibi Dong flung her arms outward!
"Boom!"
The Rakshasa Divine Power surged from her body in a raging black tide!
Its aura of destruction and death tore a massive hole through the golden radiance, forcibly opening a pitch-black domain where no hand could be seen before one's face!
She was taking on the Holy Judgment Token head-on!
The terrifying pressure of two Limit Douluo collided in the most primal, most brutal clash atop the high platform.
Visible cracks spread through space with a series of sharp snaps where light met darkness.
Below the platform,
dozens of Temple Knights and low-ranking bishops in the front rows couldn't withstand a clash between beings on this level.
Their faces turned deathly pale. Their knees buckled, and they dropped to the ground in a continuous series of thuds, all kneeling with their heads bowed.
Everyone stared with eyes almost popping from their sockets, their hearts surging with shock.
She was mad! The pope had gone completely mad!
For a servant with no Soul Power, she dared to use sheer force to challenge the supreme authority of the Holy Judgment Token in front of the entire hall's leadership!
What the hell was that if not treason?!
"Outrageous!"
At Qian Daoliu's side, Second Worship Golden Crocodile Douluo's face turned livid. He kicked over his golden-backed chair and rose to his full height.
Then—
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Third Offering, Fourth Offering... all six Super Douluo elders of the Worship Hall rose as one!
Dozens of dazzling, deadly Soul Rings belonging to Titled Douluo lit up on the left side of the high platform.
The pressure of the six Super Douluo joined into an impregnable wall and slammed down against Bibi Dong's dark domain.
In the name of all the offerings, they exerted pressure as one, standing firm behind the Great Worship's impeachment.
In that instant, the balance of power throughout Spirit Hall collapsed and split apart!
One half seethed with purple-black Rakshasa Death Qi; the other blazed with golden Angel Divine Light.
In the young mistress's seat on the right side of the steps, Qian Renxue wore a white-and-gold formal outfit.
She did not summon her Martial Soul, but her hands, hidden inside her wide sleeves, were clenched so tightly that her nails dug deep into her palms.
Qian Renxue raised her head, staring at the seat of honor.
She watched the pope, that mother of hers who had always been so imperious and put power and profit first, now risk falling out with the entire Worship Hall for the sake of a servant named Su Chen—even seeming ready to drag them all down with her.
The sheer absurdity of it.
A warped jealousy.
The two emotions tore at each other inside Qian Renxue's chest.
The Dark Web's intelligence had been true!
So had the details she had uncovered in front of the bamboo chair last night!
This unprecedented political storm drove home the unshakable place Su Chen held in Bibi Dong's heart in the cruelest way possible, smashing the truth right into her face.
"I'm the young mistress of Spirit Hall. How exactly am I inferior to a good-for-nothing with no backing..." Qian Renxue gritted her teeth, a terrifying, unbridled will to win rising in her eyes.
Since you're so protective of him, then I'll test his mettle myself!
On the plaza,
the terrifying Soul Power storm pressed the entire crowd into deathly silence.
All the leaders of Spirit Hall held their breath amid the aftershocks of this rift in power, not daring to make the slightest sound.
Facing Qian Daoliu's domineering gaze from above and the collective pressure of the six Super Douluo offerings,
Bibi Dong remained seated on her throne, the Rakshasa-red glow in her eyes burning at its peak.
But she did not continue driving her Soul Power in retaliation.
Instead, she slowly closed her eyes.
Her fingers dug deep into the armrests of the white jade throne, and fine stone dust sifted down.
The storm across the plaza fell into a state of oppressive stillness.
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