The pressure of a three-ring Soul Elder came crashing down on him, heavy as a boulder.
Su Chen's back hunched even further. He clasped both hands over the back of his head, his body trembling uncontrollably. His breathing was rough and hurried, like a snake pinned seven inches from its head.
"Heh."
The short, pudgy young man snorted and raised his right foot.
The toe of his hard leather boot struck the tea table leg with pinpoint accuracy, tipping over the entire wooden table and the basin on top of it.
Warm water and splinters came pouring down over Su Chen. A sharp strip of wood scraped across his cheekbone, drawing a thin line of blood.
Su Chen didn't dodge.
He only raised a hand in silence to wipe the water from his face. His fingers trembled so badly that even after three tries, he couldn't wipe the blood away.
Seeing what a pathetic coward he was, the last trace of hesitation in the pudgy young man's eyes vanished completely.
The pleasure of tormenting him welled up in his throat and spilled out as a sickening sneer.
He planted one foot on the edge of the bamboo recliner. Its legs creaked under the strain.
"Su, you useless piece of trash. Listen up!"
The pudgy young man counted off on his fingers, one point at a time.
"First, starting today, you're cut off from rations! A piece of trash without even a Soul Ring doesn't deserve to eat the food of the Spirit Hall!"
"Second, the fallen leaves in the plaza outside Spirit City haven't been swept in a month. Get out there, now! You're not allowed to rest until you've finished!"
He leaned down and patted Su Chen's soaked shoulder like he was teasing a dog.
"It's fine if you don't finish. Worst comes to worst, tomorrow we'll throw you out of the city. The Soul Beasts outside are hungry, after all. No one will care if you lose an arm or a leg, right?"
Su Chen didn't say a word.
He clutched the gap between the bookshelves behind him and slowly slid downward, inching toward the deepest corner of the Library Pavilion.
His shoulders hunched tight, trembling violently. He only stopped when his back thumped against the wall.
A textbook frightened quail.
But beneath his lowered eyelids, the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen silently unfurled.
[Binder No. 001 · Bibi Dong — Current Status: Underground chamber beneath Pope Palace. Finished fusing with a new Soul Bone and is still immersed in the afterglow of her surging power.]
Su Chen huddled in the corner, completely still.
The fishing line had already been cast.
The fish was due to take the bait.
The two lackeys exchanged glances, laughing without restraint.
The shorter one stepped forward, grabbed Su Chen by the collar of his brand-new coarse-cloth undershirt, and hauled him bodily out of the corner.
"Riiip—"
The rough tug tore a huge hole in the new fabric.
Bibi Dong had personally changed that undershirt for him.
Su Chen's eyelid twitched sharply.
On the Light Screen, the line showing Bibi Dong's status suddenly lit up!
Pope Palace, underground chamber.
Bibi Dong had just withdrawn the Eight Spider Lances and was feeling the immense power her newly acquired Soul Bone had brought her.
Suddenly!
A mechanical voice exploded in her mind, shrill as a power drill!
[Warning! The Lord of Creation, Su Chen, is being maliciously targeted! His mood is continuously deteriorating!]
A blood-red panel flashed wildly, its blinding light reflected in Bibi Dong's suddenly constricted pupils.
She sprang to her feet.
Angela had just gone to deliver the lockdown order. She'd been gone for less than fifteen minutes!
Someone in the Spirit Hall actually dared lay a hand on that Library Pavilion at a time like this?!
The system interface refreshed.
[Emergency Mission Released: Immediately eliminate the threat and establish the Lord of Creation, Su Chen's authority!] [Reward: Increase Soul Power by one level!]
Bibi Dong's breath stopped for a full beat.
Soul Power... increased by one level?
For an ordinary Soul Master, that might amount to years of arduous cultivation.
But for an unparalleled powerhouse like her, standing at the peak of the Titled Douluo realm and just one step away from the Limit, this one level was as good as being given half a life anew!
The woody fragrance that soothed the Rakshasa's malice surfaced in her mind once more.
In an instant, Bibi Dong's expression shifted from astonishment to bone-deep coldness.
She didn't straighten her disheveled robe, much less put on the Pope's crown, the symbol of supreme authority.
She tapped her toe, and a dazzling red, hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring erupted beneath her feet!
"BOOM—!!!"
The underground chamber's heavy door, cast from steel and basalt, was blasted to smithereens by the terrifying Soul Power!
Shards of stone slammed into the corridor walls, gouging countless craters.
The two high-ranking Temple Knights outside the door only had time to glimpse a purple-black blur shooting into the sky. The next instant, the pressure that made their very souls tremble pinned them firmly to the ground!
Their knees crashed into the stone slabs. Their heads were forced against the floor, and they couldn't summon the strength to lift a single finger!
The Library Pavilion.
The pudgy young man watched Su Chen, pale-faced and held by the collar, and his grin stretched wider and wider.
He raised his right hand high.
Earth-yellow Soul Power from his three Soul Rings gathered in his palm, aimed at Su Chen's face—the face that made him so jealous he could hardly stand it.
"Think that pretty, coquettish face of yours can put food on the table?!"
His slap came down!
Three inches.
Su Chen saw the red dot representing Bibi Dong on the Light Screen rush toward the blue dot representing him at a speed that defied the laws of physics, until the two overlapped completely!
Two inches.
One inch.
The next instant, the sky fell.
There was no warning.
A terrifying pressure that made even space wail crashed down from the ceiling, piercing through three floors and compressing every inch of air in the room until it was as solid as iron!
The pudgy young man's hand stopped.
Not because he wanted it to.
His body and soul alike had been frozen in place by that pressure!
His eyes bulged with sheer terror, bloodshot and swollen. A wheezing sound escaped his throat. Even breathing had become an impossible luxury.
At that moment, he saw the Grim Reaper.
Purple-black Soul Power, solid as matter, poured down like the Milky Way cascading from the Ninth Heaven and engulfed him completely.
The curse he hadn't managed to spit out was forcibly shoved back down his throat.
"Thud."
A muffled impact.
The three-ring Soul Elder's body was seized by an invisible hand and smashed into the hard granite tiles like a fly being swatted!
His bones burst like firecrackers, crackling in a rapid chain of pops!
Blood seeped from the cracks between the tiles, spreading into a glaring pool of dark red.
The pudgy young man didn't even manage to let out half a scream.
The lackeys' knees reacted faster than their brains.
Their legs gave way, and they collapsed to the floor. Their trousers were soaked in an instant.
One of them trembled for a long time before squeezing out a broken syllable with all his strength.
"Your..."
The Library Pavilion's window lattice shattered in the shockwave. Sunlight poured in, illuminating the figure at the entrance.
Bibi Dong stood there, her long hair loose and her robe disheveled.
She wore no papal crown and hadn't released the Eight Spider Lances.
But the killing intent surging in her phoenix eyes was ten thousand times colder than the crown above her head!
Her gaze passed over the three heaps of wreckage on the floor and landed precisely in the corner.
On the curled-up figure with the torn collar.
Su Chen was huddled in the corner, his expression frightened and his shoulders still shaking. The thin cut on his cheekbone stood out sharply in the sunlight.
He raised his head and met Bibi Dong's gaze.
Two numbers on the Light Screen changed at once.
[Bibi Dong's Current Emotions: Killing Intent 99% / Heartache 34%] [Favorability: 8 → 12]
Su Chen lowered his eyes and hunched his neck further, his voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
"Your Holiness... I'm fine. I-I'm fine."
Bibi Dong didn't answer.
She slowly turned her head, glanced at the pudgy young man still bleeding between the floor tiles, then swept her gaze over the two lackeys who had wet themselves in terror.
Her voice was soft, almost as if she were talking to herself, yet it chilled the entire Library Pavilion to the bone.
"I said it before."
"Anyone who trespasses within three hundred paces of the Library Pavilion will be killed without exception."
Before you continue