At the steward's shrill, broken shout, Bibi Dong, Hu Liena, and Xie Yue all turned deathly pale!
"Purple-gold light?"
Bibi Dong's heart sank. She had no time to think. In a flash, she appeared outside the Pope Palace.
Hu Liena and Xie Yue hurried after her. All three looked up almost at the same time, gazing toward the skies above Spirit City.
At the sight, even Bibi Dong, with her formidable composure, felt her pupils contract sharply.
The clear, cloudless sky seemed to have been torn open by an invisible giant hand, leaving behind a savage gash!
It was a massive rift in the void, black and unfathomably deep, as though it led to another, unknown world.
At that moment, endless purple-gold divine light poured furiously from the rift, like the Milky Way cascading down from the heavens. It shrouded the entire majestic Spirit City in a resplendent, eerie glow.
"What... what kind of power is this?"
Xie Yue's face turned pale. Beneath the radiance, the Soul Power within him grew so sluggish that it seemed on the verge of freezing.
Bibi Dong didn't answer. Her expression had never been graver.
The Rakshasa Divine Power within her surged instinctively, trying to resist the pressure. Yet before that purple-gold light, her divine power was as small as a stream facing an ocean!
Just then, an ancient scroll, its entire surface glowing purple-gold, slowly descended from the rift in the void.
Its edges were carved with intricate, exquisite designs of nine-tailed foxes. Bathed in the purple-gold radiance, the patterns seemed to come alive, moving and shimmering across the scroll with an unsettling, uncanny vitality.
Hum—
As the scroll descended, a pressure a hundred times more terrifying than before instantly enveloped all of Spirit City!
It was gentle, yet carried a supreme will that brooked no defiance, as though the will of Heaven and Earth itself had descended.
"Ah!"
Across Spirit City, countless Soul Masters groaned in pain.
Those with Beast Martial Souls felt an uncontrollable trembling deep in their souls—the absolute suppression of one life form by another of a higher order!
Soul Masters with fox-type Martial Souls were hit hardest. Some couldn't even cry out before their legs gave way.
Thud! Thud! In droves, they fell to their knees, their bodies shaking like leaves in a storm, their eyes filled with the most primal awe and submission.
Even the Titled Douluo turned red in the face. They struggled with all their might to circulate their Soul Power, barely managing to stay on their feet. Every one of them breathed heavily, gazing up at the sky in horror.
As for the ordinary Soul Masters, the pressure had already flattened them. They didn't even have the strength to stand.
The ordinary townspeople, meanwhile, were utterly awestruck by this miraculous sight. They couldn't feel the terrifying pressure targeting the Soul Masters; they only felt as if they were bathing in holy light.
In an instant, countless people fell to their knees, clasping their hands and praying devoutly to the sky, their mouths murmuring blessings.
"A divine sign! This must be a divine sign!"
"A god has descended upon Spirit City!"
Before the Pope Palace, Bibi Dong's expression had turned grim.
She stared fixedly at the slowly descending Purple Gold Scroll, her heart churning like a raging sea.
What was this thing?
How could it summon such terrifying signs from Heaven and Earth?
The pressure was far beyond anything she could comprehend—even more terrifying than the divine sense of the Rakshasa God she had felt!
Just then, beneath the gazes of the assembled crowd, the Purple Gold Marriage Contract unfurled slowly in midair.
In an instant, grand, solemn, ancient chants rang out of nowhere between Heaven and Earth.
The voice seemed to come from the primordial past, crossing endless stretches of time and space to reach the ears of everyone in Spirit City.
Stranger still, mingled with the solemn chants was the clear, melodious cry of foxes, a sound that seemed to pierce the soul.
At the sound, Hu Liena's delicate body trembled. Her Demon Fox Martial Soul seemed on the verge of boiling over, and she felt an uncontrollable urge to prostrate herself in worship!
Then the grand voice began to read the contents of the scroll.
Every word rang like a heavenly decree, embodying the unquestionable truths of the Great Dao:
"I am Shen Yichen, master of Taixu Temple and Ancient Celestial Master!"
The voice wasn't loud, yet it rang clearly in the depths of every person's soul.
"By the ancient Green Hill Covenant, with Heaven and Earth as matchmaker and the Fox Clan as witness, I choose Hu Liena, Saintess of Spirit Hall, as my Dao Companion!"
Boom!
At those words, everyone before the Pope Palace—and throughout all of Spirit City—was struck dumb. Their minds went utterly blank!
What?
The master of Taixu Temple? An Ancient Celestial Master?
He was proposing to the Saintess of Spirit Hall?!
Bibi Dong froze. She abruptly turned to Hu Liena, who stood beside her with the same stunned expression.
But the grand voice kept reading, giving no one time to think:
"Heaven and Earth gather eighteen layers of betrothal gifts, sent from the east, to celebrate my Dao Companion!"
"When the eighteen layers of betrothal gifts have arrived, I shall personally come to Spirit City, wed my Dao Companion, and together we shall attain eternity!"
At the end, the voice seemed to carry a trace of amusement. It became a gentle yet domineering declaration that rang directly in Hu Liena's mind:
"Hu Liena, simply await the auspicious day."
As the words faded, so too did the grand chants and the foxes' cries between Heaven and Earth.
The Purple Gold Marriage Contract, which had proclaimed this shocking news, drifted lightly through the air before turning into a streak of light and landing squarely above Hu Liena's head.
It hovered there, radiating a soft, affectionate purple-gold glow that enveloped her completely.
In an instant, the terrifying pressure that had left every Soul Master in the city gasping vanished without a trace.
A deathly silence fell over the square before the Pope Palace.
Everyone stared, dumbfounded, at the unbelievable scene, their faces full of disbelief.
Heaven and Earth as matchmaker?
The Fox Clan as witness?
And what were those... eighteen layers of betrothal gifts gathered by Heaven and Earth?
This... this was even more outrageous than a god descending!
No one could have imagined that anyone would propose to the Saintess of Spirit Hall in such an overbearing, unbelievable manner!
This wasn't a proposal. It was a declaration!
A declaration to the entire continent that Hu Liena was his woman!
Xie Yue stared blankly at his sister, bathed in the purple-gold light. He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word.
He wanted to rage, to roar, to demand who that Shen Yichen was—but before the lingering pressure in the depths of his soul, he couldn't even summon the slightest urge to resist.
Bibi Dong's chest rose and fell sharply. She gazed at the Marriage Contract above Hu Liena's head, radiating the supreme aura of the Great Dao, her eyes flickering with shock, anger, wariness... and every other kind of complicated emotion.
And Hu Liena, at the center of it all, was completely dumbfounded.
Her head buzzed. Her mind was a blank.
Before you continue