Inside the Library Pavilion.
Su Chen sprawled in a bamboo chair. The "0 Resistance" entry on the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen made him want to laugh.
Outside the window, the night wind suddenly changed.
The chill of the autumn night was torn apart by a fiercely domineering wave of heat.
Heavy military boots pounded closer, accompanied by the hurried clanging of metal armor.
"Stop!"
Angela's shout quavered, clearly stretched to the breaking point.
Liu Erlong strode forward, followed by dozens of Judgment Knights on high alert. Their long halberds stood like a forest, and the atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme.
Three hundred paces from the Library Pavilion's main entrance, in front of the warning line painted in white lime.
Liu Erlong stopped firmly.
Angela slammed her heavy greatsword into the ground. "Clang!" Sparks flew.
She glared at Liu Erlong, her chest heaving. Her voice sounded as though she had forced it out through her throat:
"Elder Liu, this is a Class One restricted area! No matter how many resources you've spent, cross that white line by even half a step, and you'll be killed without mercy!"
The knights lowered their halberd tips in unison, their killing intent plain to see.
Faced with pressure enough to leave an ordinary Soul Saint gasping, Liu Erlong didn't even lift an eyelid.
She snorted and folded her arms. Ignoring Angela, she fixed her wild gaze on the half-ruined courtyard wall, then shoved it through the gap in the half-open window as if forcing her way in.
Her gaze locked straight onto Su Chen in the bamboo chair.
Su Chen didn't move. He kept up his sickly disguise, merely lowering his eyelids and catching that aggressively invasive stare from the corner of his eye.
Dead silence.
In the darkness, only the torches crackled.
Liu Erlong stood there, openly scrutinizing Su Chen from head to toe for three seconds.
That look wasn't the way one looked at a Holy Son. It was more like she was sizing up a handy weapon—or a prey animal she'd set her sights on.
Three seconds later.
Liu Erlong pursed her lips and spoke in a booming voice, making no attempt to spare anyone's feelings:
"Not bad-looking."
"And he looks sturdy enough. Not completely useless."
Her words fell.
The air froze for a long, long moment.
Angela's hand jerked around the hilt of her sword, and the blade nearly sliced her own leg. The Judgment Knights behind her turned to stone, their jaws dropping to the floor.
They had served for years. They'd seen schemes, assassinations, and flattery.
But who had ever seen someone smash through half the Upper Three Sects' reserves, force her way into the Pope Palace, then march to the entrance of a restricted area just to stare at a menial worker and publicly remark that he was "good-looking"?
Did this Mother Tyrant Dragon have her brain wired backward?!
Inside the Pope Palace, on the shadowed throne.
Bibi Dong's tightly shut eyes snapped open. Her Limit-level spiritual power was fixed on the scene. Liu Erlong's "assessment" struck her Sea of Divine Consciousness like a thunderbolt.
"Crack!"
The white jade armrest shattered.
Purple-black Rakshasa Death Qi spilled out wildly, instantly corroding the tiles before her.
"You insolent bitch." Bibi Dong gritted her teeth, her face so gloomy it seemed water might drip from it.
Her possessive radar blared furiously. That woman had actually dared to look at him like that!
Young Master Palace.
Listening in through the Dark Web, Qian Renxue slammed her teacup onto the table. Scalding red tea spilled over her hand.
Her brows knotted into a tight frown. She'd thought Liu Erlong was plotting some earth-shattering scheme, but she'd already started "getting frisky"? Such vulgar behavior made her feel inexplicably sick.
"Absolutely uncouth." Qian Renxue slammed the teacup down.
Inside the Library Pavilion.
Su Chen sat in the bamboo chair as the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen gave a crisp ding.
Liu Erlong's previously immovable "0" Affection rating jumped for no reason at all.
[Current Affection: 12]
Blunt. Direct.
If she liked what she saw, she liked what she saw. Not a trace of inner turmoil.
Looking at the number, Su Chen couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.
Against the Spirit Hall's "schemers," who were always playing games of push and pull, a straightforward player like Liu Erlong, who refused to follow the script, was a crushing advantage.
Outside, the mission was complete.
Liu Erlong didn't waste a word or bother explaining herself to Angela. She'd simply "got it done."
"Boom!"
She drove off with both legs, shattering the flagstones beneath her.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black.
Seven Soul Rings of the ideal ratio rose in a frenzy. Scarlet Soul Power erupted like a volcano, dyeing the night sky blood-red.
The phantom of a ferocious Crimson Fire Dragon took shape behind her. The terrifying heat of a Seven-Ring Soul Sage swept across the entire scene in an instant.
Angela's face turned deathly pale. She swung her greatsword, ready to block the attack with her life.
Inside the Pope Palace, spatial power gathered madly at Bibi Dong's fingertips, her killing intent already taking tangible form.
Qian Renxue also sprang to her feet, staring fixedly at the crystal.
The nerves of the entire Spirit Hall leadership were stretched to their limit.
Then.
A twist so shocking it left everyone's eyeballs on the floor unfolded.
Liu Erlong stood outside the warning line, not moving an inch.
She didn't cross the line or attack. She didn't even look at the knights in front of her, who were ready to fight to the death at any moment.
She merely clenched both fists and gave a sharp thrust.
"Roar—!"
The Crimson Fire Dragon threw back its head and roared.
The dragon's cry was so utterly harmless it was astonishing. It had no killing power at all. She was purely showing off her strength, boasting to all of Spirit City with a roar loud enough to shake the heavens.
A spectacular trail like a fiery cloud streaked through the air, left behind by the raging heat.
When the roar ended, the firelight illuminated Liu Erlong's wild face.
"Done."
She muttered, then swiftly withdrew her Soul Rings.
The Crimson Fire Dragon dispersed, and the heat faded.
Clang.
A Judgment Knight's halberd slipped from his hands and struck the flagstones.
Angela held up her greatsword, still frozen in the middle of a strike. She had become a statue.
Inside the Pope Palace, Bibi Dong's world-destroying attack remained suspended in midair. The backlash from her Soul Power made her chest tighten.
Inside Young Master Palace, the look on Qian Renxue's face—the one that had calculated everything—froze completely.
Everyone was frozen.
A ridiculous question popped into everyone's mind:
She'd smashed half a treasury and braved the pressure of a Limit Douluo just to make a trip here and set off a thunderous "firework"?
There was no scheme.
No probing.
She'd simply come over to show off a skill, then... call it a day?
Liu Erlong glanced at the [Mission Complete] prompt, then clapped her hands in satisfaction.
"Right, I've seen enough. Let's go."
She turned around and strode away, her long legs carrying her off in style beneath the stares of everyone who thought she was insane.
Her departing figure was brisk and utterly without hesitation.
Inside the Library Pavilion.
Su Chen watched the fiery-red figure disappear, amusement deepening in his eyes.
In his Sea of Divine Consciousness, a mechanical voice rang out.
[Ding! Detected: Subject 003, Liu Erlong, successfully made the Lord of Creation feel her strength and wildness.] [Mission assessment: Perfect.] [Obtained divine consumable: Fire Source Seed ×1!]
Su Chen's thoughts stirred.
A crimson seed the size of a dragon's eye, burning with pure firelight, floated in his mental space.
The instant it appeared, the Angel Feather on the other side of his inventory burst into a powerful resonance.
The red and gold sacred powers shimmered in tandem, their auras blending perfectly.
At the same time, the World Tree Martial Soul inside him, which had lain dormant all this while and disguised itself as a dead branch, sensed the power of its origin. Ancient emerald-green runes lit up across the trunk for the first time.
The World Tree's evolution path, which had troubled him for so long, finally came together in clear focus.
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