The scarlet countdown numbers [58], [57] flashed wildly across Qian Renxue's retinas.
With every tick, her nerves spasmed violently.
On the platform, in the young mistress's seat, every muscle in Qian Renxue's body had gone rigid as iron. Cold sweat nearly soaked through her white-and-gold uniform.
Reason blared an eighteenth-level alarm in her head. To step down at a moment like this and take a man's hand was to kick twenty years' worth of hard-won authority straight into the mud!
But the system's icy warning of annihilation was like a knife at her throat. She had no choice!
Meanwhile.
At the center of the square, on the red carpet,
Su Chen lowered his head and raised his right hand with excruciating slowness.
Thousands of murderous, scrutinizing, venomous gazes from the crowd pinned his palm like spotlights.
Deep in his Sea of Divine Consciousness, the World Tree's vast, godlike life essence churned violently, trying to burst forth.
Su Chen held it down with all his might. Using its Absolute Concealment trait, he forced a sliver of Soul Power—so faint it barely existed—through his meridians.
A flash of light flickered across his palm, dim as a candle in the wind.
A shriveled, gray, leafless "dead branch" floated alone in his hand.
It had no trace of Soul Power. Even the withered grass by the roadside had more life in it.
Silence.
The vast square fell silent for a brief moment.
"Pfft—"
Then the stifled laughter burst out like a dam breaking. Waves of it swept through the elite ranks of Spirit Hall.
On the platform's left, Pei Yuan, an enforcement elder of the Worship Hall, sprang to his feet.
Pointing at Su Chen, he laughed like a pig, tears streaming down his face. His voice was sharp and grating, dripping with undisguised malice. "Your Holiness! Is this the unique constitution you called one in ten thousand? The Holy Son candidate who supposedly concerns Spirit Hall's plans for the next century?! A rotten branch that wouldn't even make a decent firewood?!"
The taunts struck the Pope's faction like a series of slaps across the face.
Qian Daoliu's face turned so dark it looked ready to drip. He jerked his withered hand high into the air.
"Vmmmm!"
The Holy Judgment Token in his hand blazed with golden light. The divine might of a Limit Douluo crashed down, bearing straight toward the jade throne.
Pointing at Bibi Dong, Qian Daoliu spoke with divine might ringing in his voice, like thunder that made everyone's eardrums buzz. "Pope! You dare profane the position of Holy Son with this piece of garbage! You're trampling Spirit Hall's century-old ironclad laws underfoot! Utterly absurd!"
Dozens of Cardinals below exchanged doubtful looks and began whispering among themselves.
The little faith they'd had in Bibi Dong crumbled the moment they saw that dead branch.
Bibi Dong sat on the throne, her face as still as water.
The purple-black murderous intent of Rakshasa in her eyes nearly dripped into the open.
She didn't even look at the branch.
What his Martial Soul was didn't matter. All she wanted was to protect him!
The veins stood out on the back of her hand as she gripped the armrest. Her gaze shifted slightly, sending Angela, at the foot of the steps, an extremely dangerous look.
A chill ran down Angela's spine, and her right hand instantly tightened around her sword hilt.
Behind her, the sixteen elite members of the Judgment Knights bent forward in unison, their Soul Power surging madly within them.
A hidden current surged beneath the surface. If the Worship Hall made a move, they would force their way out without hesitation and take Su Chen with them!
Swords were drawn! A bloodbath teetered on the brink!
Just as this deadlock was about to tear everything apart, the countdown on Qian Renxue's retina dropped below [10] seconds!
"Tap!"
The crisp clack of a military boot heel suddenly rang out from the platform's right side, piercing the uproar and confrontation with perfect precision.
Every head turned toward the sound.
Qian Renxue abruptly rose from the young mistress's seat!
Grating her teeth, she fought the urge to tear that wretched system out of her head and strode down the white jade steps.
Her steps were swift, and her aura was sharp and uncompromising.
Qian Daoliu stared at her in shock.
Bibi Dong's suddenly constricted pupils locked onto her.
Qian Renxue ignored it all.
Eyes fixed straight ahead, she walked directly toward the gray-robed servant holding up the dead branch in the middle of the square.
The Cardinals along the way instinctively stepped aside, their faces aghast.
What was this usually aloof young mistress doing, stepping into a situation where death was all but certain?
Was she here to purge the ranks and execute this piece of trash herself?
Countdown [3].
Qian Renxue stopped half a foot in front of Su Chen and looked down at him.
Su Chen lifted his eyes slightly and met her gaze.
His face was still pale with fear, and his body was still trembling.
But before his eyes, on the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen, Qian Renxue's emotional panel was roiling like boiling water.
[Extreme Humiliation: 99%]
[Will to Survive: 100%]
[Inner Monologue: Damn this system, damn Bibi Dong, damn Su Chen! I'll endure it! To stay alive, I'll take the public humiliation!]
Su Chen felt nothing. He even wanted to applaud.
Qian Renxue took a deep breath, her chest heaving once.
She crushed the humiliation and stiffness on her face beneath her composure, forcibly replacing them with the lofty, merciful mien of a ruler.
She thrust out her right hand, clad in a white-and-gold silk glove.
Countdown [1].
As her hand shot forward, Qian Renxue seized Su Chen's left hand, the one holding the dead branch!
Under the bulging eyes of everyone present, she firmly and forcefully pried his fingers apart, slid her own between them, and clenched tight!
Their fingers interlaced!
The instant their skin touched, the faint, deeply concealed life force in Su Chen's palm flowed along their fingertips, instantly soothing the Soul Power raging within Qian Renxue from humiliation.
An inexplicable calm welled up in her heart. Her tense body instinctively softened, just a little, and she unconsciously gripped his hand even tighter.
"Vmmmm—"
The scene sent a magnitude-ten earthquake through the square and its thousands of onlookers!
Time seemed to stop. Every cardinal and knight stood with their jaw on the ground, mouths wide enough to swallow a fist.
Pei Yuan's laughter caught in his throat. He looked like a duck being strangled, his face purpling as his eyes bulged like copper bells.
The lofty young mistress, the heaven-blessed daughter of Spirit Hall...
was holding the hand of a male servant in full view of everyone!
Their fingers were interlaced! There was no murderous intent, only a bizarre intimacy!
Su Chen hunched his shoulders and stood stock-still, looking like a village girl snatched away by a bully.
But on the Light Screen, Bibi Dong's panel had exploded!
[Jealousy: 1000% (Beyond the Limit!)]
[Possessive Fury Mode fully activated!]
"Crack!"
The sharp snap rang across the square.
Bibi Dong had crushed the jade armrest of the throne to dust with her bare hand!
Purple-black Rakshasa Death Qi spilled out of control, and behind her, it faintly took the shape of a hideous Demon Spider.
Her eyes instantly bloodshot as she glared at their tightly clasped hands. Her murderous intent was about to pierce Qian Renxue on the spot!
In the silent square, Qian Renxue forced herself to withstand the pressure of the young mistress's authority. Her cool voice, infused with Angel Soul Power, rang steadily across the grounds.
"Mother, your foresight is far-reaching."
Qian Renxue straightened her back and looked ahead, forcing an airtight legal justification over her "public humiliation."
"Since this person possesses a unique constitution that could influence the sect's future, and is worthy of being a Holy Son candidate, then as Spirit Hall's young mistress, I ought to share the burden for the sect."
She even raised the hand clasped with Su Chen's, displaying it to everyone as she spoke each word with finality.
"I will join the Pope in overseeing his cultivation."
The whole square fell silent. You could hear a pin drop.
The wind stopped.
Qian Daoliu's raised hand, holding the Holy Judgment Token, froze in midair.
The wrinkles on his old face twitched wildly, his eyes filled with utter disbelief and shock.
For the first time in Spirit Hall's history, its two highest representatives—who had always been at each other's throats—
the Pope and the young mistress—
had formed a united front over this useless man!
The Pope's inherent authority, joined with the young mistress's legitimate claim.
The combined will of Spirit Hall's two most powerful figures instantly turned Pei Yuan and the others' cries into the yapping of clowns.
The Worship Hall's impeachment had lost all internal legal support.
The Holy Judgment Token in Qian Daoliu's hand, representing the highest authority to judge, sensed that it had no legal basis. Its golden light rapidly dimmed, beyond his control.
It couldn't judge two leaders who were united against the outside world!
Seeing the young mistress and the Pope join forces to protect Su Chen, the six super elders of the Worship Hall exchanged glances on the platform's left.
Even Golden Crocodile Douluo, the most hot-tempered of them all, clenched his fists hard before finally sitting back down without a word, his fighting spirit extinguished.
The Cardinals in the crowd were in turmoil.
Shocked by this bizarre love triangle, they imagined countless power struggles playing out behind the scenes, but none of them dared to challenge Su Chen again.
Qian Daoliu's chest heaved violently. He gave a cold snort, his voice a muffled thunderclap that made the platform vibrate.
His withered hand flipped sharply, and the dimmed Holy Judgment Token turned into a streak of light and vanished into his sleeve.
From above, he gave Su Chen a long, penetrating look. The young man stood on the red carpet, Qian Renxue's hand clasped tightly around his.
In public, he couldn't suppress the two women joining forces like this.
But he refused to believe that a dead branch without even a trace of Soul Power could hold such magic that the two most powerful women in Spirit Hall would throw away their dignity for it.
Qian Daoliu turned and strode away.
He made a cold decision.
If the rules couldn't kill the boy, he'd do it in the shadows.
If he didn't investigate every last detail about the boy's ancestors, he, Qian Daoliu, would write his name backward!
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