Qian Daoliu strode down from the high platform, and the radiant golden Holy Judgment Token turned into a streak of light and vanished into his sleeve.
On the left side of the platform, Second Worship Golden Crocodile Douluo's face had turned ashen. He flung his sleeve with a sharp snap and let out a heavy, icy snort.
"Go!"
The six Worshippers turned in unison, their figures becoming streaks of light as they tore through the deathly silence above the square and left in a fury.
The Sacrificial Ceremony, a deadly contest originally seen as a purge of the inner court, came to an abrupt end amid an eerie, stifling silence.
Thousands of Cardinals and Judgment Knights scattered in orderly ranks, as if granted a pardon.
Not a single person dared make a sound.
Yet anyone who looked closely could see countless eyes flickering wildly.
Everyone's gazes met and clashed in secret through the air.
The shock of what had just happened on the red carpet was etched in those eyes: the lofty platinum-clad young master tightly holding the hand of a gray-robed menial, while His Holiness the Pope had crushed the armrest of the white jade throne.
Pope Palace, bedchamber.
The light was extremely dim.
The heavy velvet curtains had been drawn tightly shut, keeping out every trace of sunlight.
Bibi Dong sat ramrod straight in the shadows before her dressing table, her face as still as water.
She had yet to remove her purple-black papal robes, which radiated a deathly chill that warned everyone to keep their distance.
Outside the palace doors.
Angela knelt on one knee, her forehead pressed firmly against the cold floor tiles. She looked as if she had just been hauled out of the water, and her voice trembled uncontrollably.
"R-reporting... Your Holiness." Angela swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva. "After the ceremony, the entire city was placed under lockdown. But... everyone in Spirit Hall is secretly discussing the young master and the Holy Son."
"Go on." Bibi Dong's voice held not the slightest inflection, yet the temperature outside the door plunged instantly to freezing.
Angela trembled even harder. Bracing herself, she repeated the rumors spreading outside. "Quite a few Cardinals are privately speculating that the young master was willing to step down from the high platform in front of everyone today, even going so far as to oppose the Worship Hall and... clasp hands with the Holy Son, because the young master fell in love with him at first sight."
"Love at first sight."
Those four words were like a cold blade laced with deadly poison. With a sharp thunk, they drove straight into Bibi Dong's heart, precise and brutal.
"Bang!"
Bibi Dong whipped her sleeve, and a violent surge of Soul Power shot out.
The heavy bedchamber doors slammed shut before Angela, kicking up a cloud of dust and cutting off the rest of her report.
The hall fell utterly silent.
Bibi Dong stared fixedly ahead. Reflected in the polished bronze mirror on her dressing table was her slightly twisted face.
Deep in her soul, the Rakshasa Death Qi she had been suppressing all along could no longer be contained after the words "love at first sight" struck her.
Threads of purple-black baleful energy seeped through her pores, making a grating, corrosive hiss in the air.
"Crack, crack..."
The Rakshasa Death Qi brushed against the bronze mirror before her, and a web of fine cracks instantly spread across its surface.
Bibi Dong thrust out both hands and gripped the edge of the dressing table.
She clutched it so hard that her fingers dug ten deep holes into the sturdy sandalwood. Sharp splinters pierced her fingernails without resistance, and blood welled up, but she didn't feel a thing.
In her mind, the scene on the square replayed again and again, beyond her control.
Qian Renxue's cold, proud face. Her striding toward Su Chen, forcing open his stiff fingers, then threading her own through his and clasping his hand tightly.
She had held on hard—so hard it could only be called domineering.
Bibi Dong's teeth clenched with a grating sound.
She knew all too well that daughter of hers, with her filthy Angel Bloodline. Qian Renxue's arrogance and contempt for everyone ran even deeper than Qian Daoliu's.
That little wretch would touch a menial covered in dust, with not a shred of Soul Power?
If it was all an act, meant to help her, the "mother" she had always been at odds with, out of a tight spot?
Impossible. Qian Renxue would only have been eager to watch her fall from the throne and be torn apart by the Worship Hall.
Following that brutally cold logic to its conclusion...
Bibi Dong's breathing grew ragged, her chest rising and falling violently.
Her memories leaped back to the previous night.
The Library Pavilion in the dead of night, the pallid moonlight.
Qian Renxue had stood behind Su Chen, holding a wooden comb. Her face wore an expression of unprecedented intoxication and serenity that made one sick to look at.
A thought that could drive anyone mad took root in Bibi Dong's mind and spread like wild grass.
It wasn't an act.
That wretch had truly developed some unspeakable possessiveness toward Su Chen!
In the depths of this dim bedchamber, inside Bibi Dong's chest, two women's fierce, possessive instincts began tearing at each other.
A heartache unlike any she had ever felt, along with an utterly ferocious urge to kill, surged up Bibi Dong's throat at the same time.
For a full forty years.
She had lived among schemes, betrayal, and a mountain of corpses built by power struggles.
Su Chen was the only person in those forty years who had seen her at her most wretched and disgraced, yet still felt nothing but gratitude toward her.
He was the only man willing to sever his own heart meridians on the high platform to protect her.
He was the only one who had gulped down every drop of the leftover soup she had made—a broth no better than swill—as if it were a delicacy beyond compare.
It had been a ray of light she had finally managed to grasp in her withered soul.
Now Qian Daoliu wanted to destroy that light.
And Qian Renxue wanted to steal it away!
Bibi Dong sprang to her feet. The redwood stool beneath her shattered into dust.
She raised her right hand and swept it across the dressing table.
"Crash!"
Amid a piercing clatter, expensive cosmetics, white jade porcelain bottles, and amber jewelry were swept to the floor and smashed to pieces.
Bibi Dong stood amid the wreckage.
Her purple-black hair stirred without a breeze. Her chest heaved violently, and blood vessels slowly spread across her once breathtakingly beautiful phoenix eyes, turning them an unnerving red.
At the same time.
In the northeastern corner of Spirit City, the Library Pavilion.
The early autumn night wind blew through several unrepaired holes in the wall, carrying a trace of chill.
Su Chen lounged at ease in his personal bamboo chair.
He lifted his left hand slightly and lowered his eyes, examining the back of it in the dim, yellow lamplight.
Several distinct red marks stood out against the skin, pale as ever.
They were the result of Qian Renxue gripping him too hard on the square that day, overcome by tension and humiliation.
"She's got quite a grip." A relaxed smile curled Su Chen's lips.
Deep in his Sea of Divine Consciousness, the system's Light Screen for the Eye of Omniscience burst into a dazzling torrent of golden data.
The cold mechanical voice now sounded like heavenly music as it rang out.
[ Ding! Binder 002, Qian Renxue, has successfully completed the 'Social Death Bond' quest! ]
[ Calculating quest rewards...]
In the center of the Light Screen, Qian Renxue's quest results appeared clearly.
[ Quest rating: Perfect. ]
[ Reward issued: Qian Renxue's Angel Martial Soul purity +10% ]
Through the Eye of Omniscience's godlike perspective, Su Chen's vision instantly crossed half the inner city.
He clearly sensed it, deep inside a secret chamber in the Young Master Palace.
A brief yet unbelievably pure golden light from the Six-Winged Angel burst forth like a tangible force and shot into the sky.
It was the manifestation of a bloodline breaking through its shackles.
Although the light vanished in the blink of an eye, its sacred pressure still drew several stifled gasps from the distant direction of the Worship Hall.
Immediately afterward.
The Eye of Omniscience panel shuddered, and Su Chen's own reward results crashed down like a tsunami.
[ Ding! The host has triggered a hundredfold critical return! ]
[ Obtained a divine consumable: Angel Feather ×10! ]
[ Obtained: Massive infusion of the source of spiritual power! ]
"Boom!"
The instant the system notification sounded, Su Chen let out a muffled groan.
A pain as though his skull were about to split open shot through the space between his brows. But the sensation of tearing lasted only half a second before turning into an extreme clarity that let him look down across the ages.
His spiritual power had transformed on the spot.
The Eye of Omniscience's detection radar had originally only reached the edge of the inner city. Now, it expanded like an invisible net without limits, covering all of Spirit City and slipping into every nook and cranny.
Every blade of grass and every tree, every brick and every tile.
Even the hushed conversation of two knights patrolling with spears beneath the outer city wall reached his ears with perfect clarity.
"Did you hear? The young master stood up to the Worship Hall right on the square today."
"Obviously! The young master even dared to snub the Great Worship for the Holy Son. With the Pope and the young master backing him, the Holy Son's position is rock-solid now. You'd better steer clear whenever you see him from now on."
Su Chen listened in silence as the city's opinions swung completely in his favor.
Qian Daoliu's painstakingly laid deathtrap had become the perfect cornerstone for fortifying Su Chen's "path of survival." With the Pope and the young master backing him, no one in Spirit City would dare investigate him again.
Leaning back in his chair, Su Chen slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air flecked with faint golden light.
Just as he was about to close his eyes and get used to his rapidly enhanced, god-tier spiritual power...
The golden panel representing Qian Renxue on the right side of the Eye of Omniscience Light Screen suddenly began flashing wildly without warning.
"Hm?"
Su Chen raised an eyebrow and opened the panel.
The system's cold notification sounded once more:
[ Ding! Binder 002, Qian Renxue, has triggered a brand-new chain bond quest! ]
[ Quest requirements:...]
Su Chen's gaze skimmed rapidly over the quest details, then locked onto the very bottom of the panel.
There, the quest's coordinates had been enlarged in blood-red text by the system, flickering and pulsing with a delightfully malicious eagerness to throw the world into chaos.
They read clearly...
[ Quest location: Outside the rear window of the Pope Palace bedchamber. ]
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