The Pope's Protective Instinct, Thunderous Methods Shock the Audience

Bibi Dong shifted her gaze away from the pool of blood spreading between the cracks of the floor tiles.

She looked toward the corner of the room.

Su Chen was curled up there, his brand-new coarse cloth undershirt torn open with a jagged gash.

It was the very garment she had personally fastened for him not long ago, now ripped wide open.

The bloodstain on his cheekbone had already congealed, looking like a hideous red thread against his deathly pale skin.

In her mind, the system's green text popped up automatically.

[Lord of Creation's vital signs are stable; failure penalty not triggered.]

Bibi Dong's spine, which had been tensed to the breaking point, finally relaxed by half an inch.

But the raging fire in her chest did not dissipate; instead, it burned even brighter.

She stared fixedly at that torn collar, her nails digging deep into her palms, nearly drawing blood.

That garment was something she had fastened button by button, eyes closed and teeth gritted, while suppressing a thousand distracting thoughts in her heart.

Now, it had been torn apart by a three-ringed ant.

"Clang! Clang!"

Outside the corridor, the dense sound of heavy armor colliding approached from afar, as urgent as a battlefield charge.

The next second, Angela in her red robes burst into view, followed by two squads of murderous Temple Knights—sixteen in total, all of them Spirit Kings!

They charged into the Library Pavilion.

Then, they collectively slammed on the brakes.

Everyone's gaze froze upon the human-shaped crater in the floor.

The short, stout youth looked like a rag, smashed bodily into the granite tiles; his twisted bones had even pierced through his deacon's uniform, and the blood flowing from his seven orifices had pooled into a small puddle.

"Thud!!"

Sixteen sets of kneecaps hit the ground, as synchronized as a muffled clap of thunder.

Every Temple Knight pressed their forehead firmly against the floor, cold sweat instantly soaking through their armor linings.

No one dared to look up; even their breathing stopped.

Angela knelt at the very front, her hands pressed to the floor, her fingertips deathly pale.

She saw the shattered bone protruding from the sleeve, and her stomach churned violently, though she forced herself to swallow the bile back down.

Just then, the lackey sprawled in the urine-soaked mess seemed to have grabbed onto a final straw of hope, struggling to lift his head like a madman.

He saw the Temple Knights as if he had seen his own father!

"Your Holiness the Pope!"

The lackey slammed his forehead against the ground as if it cost him nothing, knocking it into a bloody mess, his words spilling out like beans from a tipped jar.

"It's this piece of trash! He stole something! We were only cleaning house for Martial Soul Hall; we absolutely had no intention of offending you!"

He pointed a trembling finger toward Su Chen in the corner, his voice cracking into a high-pitched shriek.

"It's him! A bastard without a single spirit ring—what right does he have to wear new clothes? This subordinate suspected him of theft, and that's why..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

Bibi Dong couldn't even be bothered to lift her eyelids.

Her heel descended.

Precise, elegant, and lethal.

"Crack!"

The crisp sound of bone shattering exploded in the deathly silent Library Pavilion!

The lackey's scream had just reached his throat when a purple-black spirit pressure clamped down like an iron vice, strangling his neck and forcing all sound back down!

His eyeballs bulged instantly, his face turned the color of a liver, and his mouth hung open in an "O" shape, yet he could not emit a single sound.

The terror of suffocation caused him to pass out on the spot.

The Temple Knights kneeling on the ground collectively gasped.

Sixteen heads buried themselves even lower.

Bibi Dong retracted her foot; there was a speck of blood on her heel, but she didn't even glance at it.

Her icy gaze swept over the people kneeling on the floor, her voice not loud, yet infused with spirit power, causing everyone's eardrums to hum.

"Su Chen has a unique constitution; his existence concerns the century-long grand plan of my Martial Soul Hall."

With that one sentence, the entire room fell into absolute silence.

"From this day forward, whoever dares to touch a single hair on his head..."

She paused, spitting out the final four words.

"Shall be executed on the spot!"

Angela's body shuddered violently, her brain completely shutting down.

A sweeping servant... had become the "centennial grand plan" of Martial Soul Hall?

What kind of joke was this!

In the corner, Su Chen precisely captured the subtle shift in the air.

Everyone's breathing had turned chaotic.

He knew it was time for his performance.

Su Chen's shoulders gave a sharp jolt, his knees went weak, and he hit the ground with a heavy thud, his forehead slamming into a puddle as his voice trembled as if he were about to breathe his last.

"Th-this subordinate... kowtows in gratitude to Your Holiness the Pope... for sparing my life..."

The voice was shattered and off-key, his entire body curled into a ball, looking exactly like a rat that had just crawled back from the gates of hell, scared out of its wits.

He played the image of a piece of trash stunned by a pie falling from the sky with vivid, three-dimensional realism.

Bibi Dong did not look at him.

She turned to face the doorway, her voice cold enough to drop icicles.

"Pass down my Pope's Decree."

"From this moment on, the Library Pavilion is designated as a Level One Forbidden Area of Martial Soul Hall."

Angela snapped her head up, her pupils contracting violently.

A Level One Forbidden Area!

That was a status on par with the Worship Hall and the Pope's Bedchamber!

In the entire Martial Soul Hall, including this one, there were only four!

Bibi Dong's voice carried not a shred of emotion.

"Aside from This Seat, anyone who dares to step even half a step inside shall be executed without mercy."

"By your command!!"

The sixteen Temple Knights slammed their heads against the floor, their roar shaking the heavens.

Meanwhile, Su Chen, kneeling in the water with his head bowed, saw a golden notification pop up in his mind, hidden by his messy hair.

[Detected that Binder No. 001 Bibi Dong has completed the crisis clearance and provided the highest level of protection for the Lord of Creation. Triggering a hundredfold critical return!]

[Reward obtained: Level 100 Divine Power Crystal Fragment ×1!]

The corners of Su Chen's mouth curled up in the reflection of the puddle, only to be ruthlessly suppressed within 0.3 seconds.

Stay steady, don't get cocky.

The knights, as if granted a reprieve, scrambled to their feet and swiftly cleared away the bodies and bloodstains on the ground like they were dragging dead dogs.

A blockade line was rapidly established one hundred paces outside the Library Pavilion.

A hundred paces away, in the shadow of the Bell Tower.

A pair of turbid eyes took in everything that had just transpired.

It was a gaunt man dressed in servant's robes, completely unremarkable, yet deep within his pupils, a ring of pale golden soul rings rotated silently.

A spy from the Worship Hall.

He had seen it: the Pope had gone completely mad over a piece of trash.

A Level One Forbidden Area? A centennial grand plan? Personally arriving on the scene?

This reaction was too much.

So excessive that... it was as if she were covering up some heaven-shaking secret.

The spy pulled a Miniature Soul Guidance Communication Bird from his sleeve, exhaling a trace of soul power from his fingertips as a secret message was silently etched into it.

The next second, the communication bird vanished into the clouds.

Inside the Library Pavilion.

Everything fell silent.

Bibi Dong confirmed there was no one else around, reached into her sleeve with her right hand, and pulled out a small, emerald-green porcelain bottle.

High-Grade Golden Sore Medicine, a treasure that only someone at the level of a Temple Knight Commander could receive.

She didn't speak, nor did she hand it over.

With a flick of her wrist, without even looking, the bottle seemed to have eyes as it landed with a "clack" in the puddle half a foot in front of Su Chen.

Water splashed up, a few droplets landing on the back of his hand, icy cold.

Having done this, Bibi Dong turned and left.

A purple-black afterimage flashed by, and she had already vanished from the doorway, leaving behind only the sound of the wind wailing through the hall.

Su Chen sat alone in the empty room.

He picked up the small porcelain bottle from the water, the surface still retaining a trace of a woman's body heat.

Su Chen casually tucked the medicine into his robes and leaned lazily back into the bamboo recliner, his mind stirring to call up the system panel.

[Assets List of the Lord of Creation:]

[Supreme Martial Soul: World Tree—Awakened]

[God-tier External Soul Bone: Wings of Creation—Fused]

[Soul Power Level: Level 30, Soul Elder]

[Level 100 Divine Power Crystal Fragment x1—Can be used to break through critical bottlenecks]

Su Chen looked at the shimmering gold on the panel, his heartbeat not even accelerating.

"Level 30 Soul Elder... Level 100 Divine Power Crystal Fragment... tsk, this haul is a massive profit."

He rested his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

He had laid low for sixteen years; he could spare one more afternoon.

Outside the window, the sunset was perfect.

The few tender shoots that had sprouted just yesterday had already grown into emerald bamboo leaves, looking truly beautiful in the afterglow.