Yu Xiaogang: "That's Impossible!"

Bibi Dong sat upright on the throne in a side hall of the Pope Palace, her fingertips unconsciously tapping the armrest with dull knocks.

She was waiting.

Chrysanthemum Douluo and Gui Mei had already set out on her orders. Before long, the Self-Condensed Soul Ring would emerge into the world.

But before that, there was someone she had to tell in person.

"Summon Yu Xiaogang to see me."

The deacon standing outside the hall answered and left.

Bibi Dong leaned against the cold throne and looked at the empty vaulted ceiling of the side hall. A mural of angels descending adorned it, its gold paint glinting with an aged light in the candlelight.

She suddenly recalled many years ago, when she had not yet become Pope and Yu Xiaogang was not yet the Grandmaster. Back then, he had always loved pulling her aside to talk about his wild theories, speaking with animated excitement, his eyes full of light.

Later, she had snuffed out that light with her own hands.

Later still, she had wanted to use the Creation Institute to kindle that light again.

But fate made fools of people.

The Soul Ring replacement scheme was too difficult. Even Yu Xiaogang himself had no way to reignite his own light.

Unhurried footsteps sounded outside the hall doors.

Bibi Dong straightened.

The doors were pushed open, and Yu Xiaogang walked in.

Eleven years.

Yu Xiaogang had aged considerably since arriving in Spirit City. More of his hair had turned white. The instant his eyes met Bibi Dong's, they rippled faintly before swiftly returning to calm.

"Your Holiness." Yu Xiaogang bowed slightly, his voice hoarse and restrained.

"Sit." Bibi Dong raised a hand and pointed to a seat at the side.

Yu Xiaogang sat as instructed, placing his hands properly on his knees. His gaze rested on the desk before Bibi Dong, and he did not look directly at her.

This had been their fixed way of interacting for the eleven years since he came to Spirit City. She never summoned him privately, and he never sought an audience with her on his own. All communication remained within the framework of official business, clean and proper, never crossing the line.

"How has the Creation Institute been progressing lately?" Bibi Dong asked, her voice as cool as ever.

The corner of Yu Xiaogang's mouth twitched. It was impossible to tell whether it was a bitter smile or self-mockery. "In reply to Your Holiness, the latest three experiments all failed. The Eighth Scheme suffered a structural collapse during the energy closed-loop stabilization stage. The Ninth Scheme could not even maintain its initial framework. The Tenth Scheme is still being deduced, but under current conditions, the possibility of success is infinitesimal."

He spoke in an even tone, as though he were reading an experimental report that had nothing to do with him.

Bibi Dong was silent for a while.

"Xiao Gang."

She suddenly called him by his name. Not Grandmaster, not Director Yu Xiaogang, but Xiao Gang.

Yu Xiaogang's body visibly stiffened.

He had not heard that form of address from her lips in decades. His fingers curled slightly against his knees, then slowly relaxed.

"There is something I believe you should be the first to know."

Bibi Dong rose and picked up the urgent dispatch sent from Suotuo City from the desk.

"A message from the Spirit Hall Branch in Suotuo City. They discovered a Soul Master." She paused, her gaze falling on Yu Xiaogang's face. "He successfully condensed his own Soul Ring."

Boom—

Yu Xiaogang looked as if he had been struck by an invisible bolt of lightning.

He abruptly raised his head. His bloodshot eyes locked onto the dispatch in Bibi Dong's hand, and his pupils contracted violently.

"That's impossible."

The words almost burst out of him.

Yu Xiaogang's voice took on a hoarse edge. "The core difficulty of Self-Condensed Soul Rings lies in constructing the underlying structure of a Soul Ring. Every known theoretical framework across the continent is stuck at this step. No one can condense a stable Soul Ring without resolving the underlying structure first..."

"He already succeeded."

Bibi Dong interrupted him and handed over the document.

Yu Xiaogang froze on the spot. Only after a long while did he accept the document from Bibi Dong's hand.

His eyes quickly scanned the page.

He read it once.

Then again.

Then his arm slowly fell, and the urgent dispatch slipped from between his fingers, floating lightly onto his knees.

"Nineteen years old, rank seventy-eight, one yellow and six black." He murmured, "Su Mo... it's him..."

Yu Xiaogang was stunned. He truly had not expected someone to actually develop Self-Condensed Soul Rings.

At nineteen, there could be no other way to obtain Soul Rings apart from condensing them himself.

So it could only be real.

At first, he had suspected that Su Mo was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Transformation, but Su Mo's Martial Soul was the Blood Shadow Sword, evolved from the Broken Sword.

What he had never expected was that the person who developed Self-Condensed Soul Rings was the one who had stolen the girl his disciple Tang San liked back at Nuoding Academy.

"You know him?"

Hearing Yu Xiaogang's tone, Bibi Dong was surprised as well.

"I know of him, but I've never met him. I only know that he was also a student at Nuoding Academy back then..."

Yu Xiaogang answered distractedly.

His shoulders slumped slightly, his back bending into an arc it had never taken before.

Those eyes that had always shone with stubborn determination were like lamps someone had blown out, dimming bit by bit.

Eleven years. He had led the Creation Institute in its struggle for eleven years, only to be beaten to the finish by a young man under twenty.

"Your Holiness." His voice was hoarse and dry. "If this is indeed true, then the Creation Institute's eleven years of effort have at least received an answer."

He stood up stiffly, placed the dispatch back on the desk, then bowed slightly to Bibi Dong, preparing to take his leave.

"Stop."

Bibi Dong's voice rang out behind him, carrying a forcefulness he had never heard from her before.

Yu Xiaogang halted.

"Xiao Gang." Bibi Dong slowly walked before him, her beautiful eyes fixed steadily on his. "You devoted eleven years of your heart and blood to the Creation Institute. Now, success is only one step away. This credit should have been yours."

Yu Xiaogang raised his head, a trace of confusion flashing through his eyes. "Your Holiness means...?"

"I can suppress the message from Suotuo City." Bibi Dong enunciated each word. "Spirit Hall can give that young man named Su Mo sufficient compensation. As for the Self-Condensed Soul Ring... we need only announce to the public that the Creation Institute, after eleven years of research and gathering the strength of Titled Douluos from across the land, has finally achieved a breakthrough."

Her voice was low, but it carried an unquestionable power. "Your name, Yu Xiaogang, will be recorded for all eternity in the history of Soul Masters as the creator of the Self-Condensed Soul Ring."

Yu Xiaogang was stunned.

He opened his mouth, and only after a long while did he recover his voice. "This... this would be inappropriate."

His tone was weak, as though he were refusing, yet also testing the limits of those words.

"The Creation Institute's research progress is transparent." He lowered his eyes, as though seeking an excuse for himself, yet also as though seriously analyzing the matter. "For eleven years, every experimental record has been kept in the archives. Ten days ago, I was still writing a failure report over the collapse of the Eighth Scheme; the ink has not even dried. The scholars at the Creation Institute are not fools. They have followed me for eleven years. They personally carried out every scheme and saw every piece of material with their own eyes. Yesterday we were still at the foot of the mountain, and today we have reached the summit. They would be the first not to believe it."

The more he spoke, the smoother his words became, as though focusing on technical details could allow him to avoid the most fundamental issue.

"Once they don't believe it, the message will leak. Once it leaks..."

"I will handle all of that." Bibi Dong cut him off.

Yu Xiaogang fell silent.

"The scholars of the Creation Institute—I will speak with them one by one. This honor should have belonged to your Creation Institute in the first place. The experimental records in the archives can be reorganized. As for Su Mo, as long as Spirit Hall offers enough sincerity, he will not refuse the position of honorary elder."

Bibi Dong stepped forward. The distance between them became close enough for Yu Xiaogang to smell the faint, cool fragrance on her. "I will settle every risk you are worried about."

Yu Xiaogang's Adam's apple bobbed.

He said nothing.

He wanted to refuse with dignity, but he could not bring himself to say the words.

Yet he was also unwilling to accept.

P.S. Rest assured, dear patrons. Bibi Dong will not get her way. Before Su Mo reaches Spirit Hall, he will make sure everyone knows the news.