Diffusion

The timing matches.

The location also overlaps.

Could it be...

Bibi Dong's pupils contracted slightly for a fleeting moment.

A razor-sharp glint flashed through those deep brown eyes.

If the child Qian Jun and Jiang Mo brought back was indeed Ning Zha, the one who had drawn his sword and taken his own life—

Doesn't that mean...

That child might not be dead?

This...

Bibi Dong's brow furrowed, her gaze fixed deep and hollow on a void in the hall.

Her thoughts raced through her mind, which was as precise as a chessboard, for several breaths.

But a moment later.

Bibi Dong slowly shook her head.

That sharp glint faded from the depths of her eyes, replaced once more by her habitual languor and indifference.

"Perhaps I am overthinking it."

She whispered to herself, her tone flat, as if dismissing an absurd conjecture.

Qian Jun and Jiang Mo had taken the route through the Far North, passing through the better part of the Heaven Dou Empire along the way. It was not strange to encounter someone or pick up a child on such a journey. It did not necessarily have to be related to the incident in Heaven Dou City.

Besides—

"Regardless, it is nothing more than an inconsequential trifle."

Bibi Dong tilted her head back, leaning against the headrest of her throne, and closed her eyes.

To her, this could neither alter the landscape of the continent nor shake the foundations of any faction. A seven-year-old child, whether dead or alive, whether taken here or there—in this game of chess spanning the entire Douluo Continent, he was nothing more than an insignificant speck of dust.

Thinking about such things was meaningless.

She still had far too many important matters to scheme for.

Bibi Dong closed her eyes to rest, casting the thought entirely to the back of her mind.

The flame of the eternal lamp in the hall flickered gently, then returned to stillness.

On the other side.

Spirit Hall's intelligence network had always been known for being "all-pervasive."

With secret lines, strongholds, and couriers spread across every corner of the continent—once this massive web, woven over decades, began to operate, its efficiency and reach were enough to make the intelligence agencies of the two great empires pale in comparison.

After receiving his orders, Yue Guan transmitted the instructions that very night.

And what he did was exactly as Her Holiness the Pope had requested—simple, direct, and without any embellishment.

He merely stated the facts.

Not a word added, not a word subtracted.

A direct descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had forcibly abducted a woman in broad daylight at the West Market of Heaven Dou City and killed an innocent elder. A seven-year-old child, Ning Zha, saw the injustice and beat the perpetrator into a cripple with his bare fists. Yu Kun, an elder of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, led men to the scene to force a reckoning, using his status as a seven-ring Soul Saint to demand the life of a seven-year-old child. The child's father, Ning Jing, kicked his own flesh and blood to the ground, stepped on his spine, and left him to their mercy. The child's mother, Yin Suzhi, knelt and kowtowed, begging to trade her life for his, only to be refused.

And that seven-year-old child—

He did not cry. He did not beg for mercy.

He cut his flesh to return it to his father. He scraped his bones to return them to his mother. He severed all ties with his clan.

He drew his sword and took his own life.

He died on the spot.

—These facts required no polish, no exaggeration.

Because the truth itself was already shocking enough to stir the soul.

Due to the momentum fueled by Spirit Hall, the matter concerning Ning Zha could not be suppressed, nor was there any opportunity for those with ulterior motives to deliberately whitewash or tamper with the narrative. Furthermore, the event had taken place in full public view—

Consequently, within a few short days, it spread like a wildfire, beyond all control.

In the teahouses and taverns of Heaven Dou City, storytellers wove this tale into long sagas. Every time they reached the part about "cutting flesh to return to father, scraping bones to return to mother," the entire audience would sigh in grief or slam the tables in admiration.

One old man, upon hearing it, wept openly and slammed his table, cursing: "Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan! Bah! So-called number one beast martial soul in the world! They are nothing but a pack of beasts who bully others with their power!"

A woman, hearing it, sobbed uncontrollably while clutching her own child: "That child was only seven... seven! His own father actually stepped on him... How can there be such a heartless father in this world!"

A young soul master, having heard the whole story, turned pale with rage, his fists clenched until they creaked: "What about the imperial officials? What about the pride of the soul master academies? There were so many people on the street, and not one stood up? A seven-year-old child knew how to stand up against injustice, yet you people with the power to act all hid your heads like cowards!"

The news spread outward from Heaven Dou City.

In the border towns of the Star Luo Empire, people argued endlessly in taverns over whether the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan or the collateral branches of the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect were more detestable.

As the guards at Jialing Pass changed shifts, a commander heard the rumor in his tent. He remained silent for a long time before finally saying: "A seven-year-old child knew what it meant to have backbone; we adults should be ashamed of ourselves."

In the spirit master academies of every city, commoner students gathered in small groups after class to discuss the news. Some spoke with fervor, others with righteous indignation, while some remained silent—yet in every pair of eyes, the same emotion burned.

Even in remote villages and towns, ordinary folk who could barely read a word heard the story from peddlers traveling from place to place.

"Have you heard? Someone from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan killed a man in broad daylight in Heaven Dou City!"

"It wasn't just murder! They drove a seven-year-old child to his death! And the boy's own father helped those outsiders harm his son!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... what a world we live in... those so-called Upper Three Sects, always preaching morality and righteousness, but aren't they just a bunch of bullies who pick on the weak?"

The public outcry grew increasingly intense.

In just a few short days, the reputation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan shifted from "arrogant and overbearing but powerful" to "treating human life like dirt and preying on the weak."

Although the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect was primarily affected through its branch families, once the label of "branch members selling their own children for glory" was attached, the reputation of the entire sect was dragged into the mud.

After all, in the eyes of the common people, branch or main line, they all shared the same surname and bowed before the same ancestral hall.

If you people of the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect would abandon your own child, what right do you have to preach about profound principles?

Furthermore, who was to say the branch family's decision hadn't been sanctioned by the main line?

Amidst all the discussion, anger, sighs, and lamentations—

One name, like a branding iron, was seared deep into the hearts of countless people.

Ning Zha.

It was not because of how strong he was.

It was not because of any extraordinary martial soul or talent he possessed.

It was simply because—

A seven-year-old child, in this world of survival of the fittest, filled with hypocrisy and filth, at a time when everyone else chose silence, retreat, and compromise.

He stood up.

He did not bow his head.

In the most tragic and resolute way possible, he proved one thing to this world—

A person may lack a martial soul.

A person may lack soul power.

But a person cannot lack conviction and backbone!