Bibi Dong's gaze lingered on Su Chen's pale face for half a second, then withdrew.
In her mind, the line of blood-red countdown numbers flashed silently.
[Time remaining: 15:00]
She took a deep breath and turned to Angela behind her, her voice cold as a blade scraping across ice.
"Put everything down, then stand guard outside."
Angela set the basin and Black Wood Box on the tea table, then was just about to speak.
"Without my orders, anyone who dares approach within three paces of the Library Pavilion will be killed without mercy."
Angela shuddered and hurriedly lowered her head as she backed out. The wooden door closed behind her with a dull thud.
In the hallway, Angela stood ramrod straight, fine beads of sweat gathering at her temples.
She stole a glance inside through the shadowed crack in the door, her mind a complete muddle.
The dignified Pope of Spirit Hall, the most powerful woman on the continent, had come all the way to this dilapidated Library Pavilion in the middle of the day—and even told her to prepare hot water and clean underwear?
The useless man inside didn't even have a Soul Ring. What on earth did Her Holiness intend to do?
Angela swallowed and didn't dare ask a single question.
Inside the Library Pavilion.
Su Chen knelt on the ground, maintaining his pose as a man "still recovering from a serious illness," while sneaking a glance at the Light Screen.
Bibi Dong raised her hand and casually swatted in his direction.
She didn't touch him, but the force of a Titled Douluo swept over from a distance, pressing against his chest like a wall.
Su Chen obligingly began to "cough, cough, cough!"
A violent cough welled up from deep in his throat. His knees buckled, and he let himself fall back onto the bamboo chaise longue. He closed his eyes, breathed rapidly, and let his head loll to one side.
He simply pretended to faint.
He had no choice. The World Tree's Martial Soul Awakening had greatly strengthened his constitution. Bibi Dong's strike couldn't knock him out, so he had to fake it.
Bibi Dong watched the countdown reach [05:00], both hands gripping the edges of her papal robe so tightly that her knuckles turned bluish white.
Wipe his body. Change his underwear.
Those eight words were like red-hot iron branding themselves into her mind.
She looked at Su Chen, who had his eyes closed in "unconsciousness." Two forces were tearing at each other inside her chest. Humiliation surged like boiling water, while the shadow of Soul-Devouring Pain clamped around her throat once more.
One hundred and forty-four hours.
The last seventy-two-hour warning had nearly driven her to collapse. Double that, and she would become a complete cripple.
The countdown dropped to four and a half minutes.
At last, Bibi Dong moved.
She stepped forward, biting through her lower lip with her pearly teeth. The taste of blood spread through her mouth.
She raised her right hand and released a wisp of Soul Power from her palm.
"Bzz~"
The cold water in the wooden basin on the tea table suddenly heated, and wisps of steam curled upward.
Outside the door, Angela abruptly sensed the surge of Soul Power. Her heart jolted, and cold sweat drenched her back.
Had Her Holiness started fighting inside the Library Pavilion?
What capital crime had that useless man committed to deserve being personally ground to dust by Her Holiness?!
Angela clenched her sleeves, not daring to make a sound.
Bibi Dong walked over to the bamboo chair.
She looked down at Su Chen's "unconscious" profile, then tremblingly reached out and pinched the first knotted button on his coarse outer shirt.
The sound of her fingertips rubbing against the fabric rang out with startling clarity in the silent Library Pavilion.
The first button came undone.
Her breath hitched.
The second button came undone.
Her ears began to burn.
Su Chen kept his eyes closed, while the Light Screen of the Eye of Omniscience in his mind glowed steadily.
[Bibi Dong's heart rate is skyrocketing: 132...147...] [Current embarrassment: 85%] [Anger: 40%] [Inner monologue: He's unconscious... He doesn't know anything... I'm only carrying out a mission...]
Su Chen silently gave a thumbs-up in his mind.
Your Holiness, you're even better at fooling yourself than I am.
She pushed the outer shirt aside.
Bibi Dong dipped the towel into the warm water and wrung it out.
She squeezed too hard, and a few droplets splashed onto the back of her own hand.
She stared fixedly at the towel, refusing to look at Su Chen's body. Suppressing the urge to throw him straight out the window, she pressed the towel against him.
Her movements were clumsy and stiff, her reluctance impossible to hide.
And yet...
The instant the warm, damp towel touched his skin, the unique essence of life belonging to the World Tree inside Su Chen flowed soundlessly through the water vapor and the towel's fibers, pouring into Bibi Dong's fingertips.
Pure, ancient, boundless.
That aura swept straight through her meridians and surged into her Sea of Divine Consciousness.
Before it, Bibi Dong's nerves, taut to the breaking point, and the last vestige of the Rakshasa God's lingering frenzy crumbled completely.
Her eyes flew wide with shock.
The repulsion inside her body had vanished.
More than vanished—her hand rested against Su Chen's chest, the towel spread over his warm skin, and she didn't even feel like pulling it away.
Her body was even greedily devouring the aura on instinct, wanting to move closer.
What was this?
At the same time, outside the door, Angela suddenly caught a faint trace of an aura seeping through the crack.
It was so faint as to be almost nonexistent, yet it sent a tingling sensation rippling through the depths of her soul.
It was a tranquil fluctuation that could move even a Titled Douluo—holy and pure, unlike any known form of Soul Power in this world.
Angela's eyes widened. She pressed her back against the wall, her nails digging into her palms.
What on earth were they doing inside?
Through the Light Screen, Su Chen saw the dramatic changes in Bibi Dong's emotional panel.
Her embarrassment had dropped from 85% to 61%.
Her resistance had fallen from 72% to 34%.
And a new number was quietly climbing.
[Dependence: 27%]
The time had come.
Su Chen deliberately let out a weak, unconscious groan and shifted slightly in the chair.
Just as Bibi Dong pressed the towel against him again, his right hand slid down.
The back of his warm hand brushed squarely against the wrist gripping the towel, their skin pressing tightly together.
Bibi Dong stiffened all over, her hair standing on end.
A Titled Douluo's instinct urged her to fling away the insolent hand. Violet-black Soul Power was already glowing at her fingertips.
A blood-red panel frantically popped up in her mind.
[Warning! Host's violent tendencies detected! If the Lord of Creation is harmed, the mission will be judged a failure and one hundred and forty-four hours of Soul-Devouring Pain will be carried out immediately!]
Her Soul Power cut off.
Bibi Dong was rooted to the spot, not daring to move.
Su Chen's hand rested against her wrist. The World Tree's aura inside him poured into her at the point of contact, its spring-breeze-like power ten times stronger than when it had passed through the towel.
She felt something melting inside her Sea of Divine Consciousness.
Humiliation remained, and so did her shame and fury, but that trace of longing for the aura of life wound around her like a vine around a dead tree, tightening with every passing moment.
Three emotions collided in her chest, threatening to blow her apart.
Bibi Dong closed her eyes.
In the end, she didn't fling his hand away.
Over the next few minutes, Bibi Dong gritted her teeth and slowly wiped Su Chen's upper body clean.
Her movements remained stiff, but something had changed from the way she had wanted to kill him at the slightest touch.
She took a fresh undershirt from the Black Wood Box and carefully slipped it over Su Chen, tying the cords at the collar.
Throughout the process, she kept her gaze averted, never looking at his face.
Watching the countdown stop at the final sixty seconds, Bibi Dong let out a long sigh of relief.
It was over.
At last, this ordeal was over.
She dropped the towel and turned to leave.
But the cold, mechanical voice sounded in her mind once more.
[Ding~ The system has determined that the "Change underwear" task has not been fully completed. The Lord of Creation's undergarments on his lower body have not been changed. Host, please continue downward, remove the Lord of Creation's final undergarment, and change it as well.]
Bibi Dong's steps halted.
Her gaze moved downward against her will.
The drawstring of the coarse trousers was tied in a loose knot around his waist. Beneath it was...
Bibi Dong's face turned scarlet in an instant, the heat spreading from her cheeks to her ears, then down her neck and all the way to her collarbones.
On the bamboo chaise longue, Su Chen kept his eyes closed, his breathing steady.
On the Light Screen, Bibi Dong's embarrassment jumped to a number he had never seen before.
[Embarrassment: 120% (Overflow)]
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