My head...
It felt like someone had whacked me hard on the back of the head with a club, or like I'd been tossed into a washing machine after a night of drinking and spun around for three hours.
Su Yun slowly woke. The first thing he saw was a canopy embroidered with intricate gold patterns, while the faint scent of expensive sandalwood, with a hint of chill, lingered in the air.
This wasn't my rented apartment.
Su Yun abruptly sat up, and the silk quilt slid down, revealing his bare upper body.
His muscles were sleekly defined, his skin fair, and his body brimming with youthful vigor.
Then, a tidal wave of memories surged into his mind without giving him a moment to adjust. They forced their way in and churned through his thoughts.
"Spirit Hall, Young Master? Bibi Dong's nominal disciple? A junior favored by Qian Daoliu?"
A moment later, Su Yun pressed his fingers to his throbbing temples, the corner of his mouth twitching.
The good news:
He'd transmigrated, and not only had he avoided becoming a useless loser, he'd become the Young Master of Spirit Hall, the most powerful force on Douluo Continent. His status was exalted, his looks were heaven-defying, and he'd started with a royal flush.
The bad news:
The boss of this organization was a lunatic, the Young Master was a spy, and in the future, a cheat named Tang San would wipe them all out and scatter their ashes to the wind.
"Isn't this just game over?!"
As a veteran webnovel reader, Su Yun knew all too well how things went in Douluo Continent.
Spirit Hall looked impressive on the surface, but it was really full of holes.
The Pope, Bibi Dong, was a textbook case of a lovesick fool. For a useless man like Yu Xiaogang, she was willing to destroy Spirit Hall's foundations.
The Great Enshrined, Qian Daoliu, was a textbook doting grandpa. In the end, he sacrificed himself to empower his granddaughter.
And the Young Master, Qian Renxue, was even more outrageous. She spent twenty years undercover, then fell in love with the enemy and played a winning hand into the dirt.
It was like joining a Fortune 500 company, thinking you could coast along until retirement, only to find that the chairwoman wanted to blow the company up, the general manager was spying for a rival, and you were about to be purged.
"No, I need to run."
Su Yun made his decision at once.
Go to the Heaven Dou Empire and live like a rich old man?
No. He'd get caught in the wars later.
Go overseas?
The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King was waiting there with its mouth open.
Just as Su Yun was weighing whether to kneel and surrender to Tang San or find a remote mountain forest and lie low for the rest of his life, a sudden "Ding!" rang out in his mind.
The sound was crisp and pleasant, like music from heaven.
[The Causality Diary System has been activated.]
[Host: Su Yun]
[Bound identity: Spirit Hall Young Master]
[Function: Write a diary every day (at least 200 words) to receive rewards. The diary's contents will affect the world through causality and may even alter the course of the plot.]
[Newbie quest: Write your first diary entry.]
[Reward: Twin Martial Souls awakening, Innate Full Soul Power, newbie gift pack.]
A system?!
Su Yun's eyes lit up, and he straightened his back.
Why didn't you say so sooner!
With a system, who'd still act like a doormat?
Who'd still run away?
He'd punch Tang San, kick Yu Xiaogang, and make Spirit Hall bigger and stronger, leading it to even greater glory!
Just then, a black notebook with a wonderfully textured cover appeared out of thin air before him, with a golden quill floating beside it.
Su Yun reached out and took it, rubbing the cover as a playful smile spread across his face.
"I can get stronger just by keeping a diary? That's practically free loot."
But who in their right mind kept a diary?
That famous movie line flashed through Su Yun's mind.
Could anyone who kept a diary really be a decent person?
Pathetic!
But then he thought about it. For the sake of getting stronger and surviving in this high-risk world, what did he have to lose?
Pathetic it was!
Su Yun skillfully opened the first page and picked up the pen. He pondered for a moment, then began to write in bold, flowing strokes.
He had no intention of writing some dull play-by-play. Since it was a diary, he might as well vent, complain, and spill all the blunt truths he'd been bottling up.
Anyway, only Heaven, Earth, himself, and the system knew about it.
[X year X month X day, weather: sunny.]
[I've transmigrated, and somehow ended up as Spirit Hall's Young Master. To be honest, my feelings are complicated.]
[Looking at this devastatingly handsome face in the mirror, I should be happy. After all, in a world where looks matter, being handsome means you've already won half the battle. And as Spirit Hall's Young Master, second to one and above tens of thousands, this start looks like a winner's life no matter how you slice it.]
[But! There's always a "but."]
[Just thinking about having Bibi Dong as my immediate superior makes my future look bleak. I even feel like hauling a train out of here in the middle of the night.]
[Why? Because she's a hopeless lovesick fool!]
[Bibi Dong is a peerless beauty with a figure among the best of the best, and her strength stands at the pinnacle of the continent. But somehow, she's blind.]
[She actually likes that useless Yu Xiaogang? I really can't understand it. A Soul Grandmaster stuck at level twenty-nine, with neither looks nor strength, always wearing a corpse-like expression, stitching together Spirit Hall's materials to come up with some so-called "Ten Core Competencies," then showing off and swindling people everywhere.]
[How could someone like that leave the dignified Pope so utterly besotted? To the point that she'd rather drag all of Spirit Hall down with him?]
[What's the appeal? That he doesn't bathe? That he's old? That he runs fast when things get dangerous?]
[If I were Bibi Dong, I'd have broken Yu Xiaogang's third leg back then and locked him in the Secret Chamber... Ahem, I'm getting off track.]
[Anyway, this is a gigantic pit. And then there's Qian Renxue. She had a perfectly good position as Spirit Hall's Young Master, but ran off to the Heaven Dou Empire to play crown prince, and kept it up for twenty years. What was the point? In the end, she still gave experience to that cheat, Tang San.]
[Not one person in that family is normal.]
[I want to lie low. I want to stay alive. But now that the system's here, there's no helping it. Tang San, oh Tang San, your opportunities, your Immortal Herbs, your Soul Bones, even your Xiao Wu... Heh. Hand them over!]
[Today, I'll set myself a modest goal: lie low and grow stronger, and don't let that madwoman Bibi Dong notice anything strange about me. After all, when she goes crazy, she kills her own people too.]
Su Yun wrote the final punctuation mark and let out a long breath.
That felt good!
Getting all those pent-up complaints off his chest made him feel like a new man.
He closed the diary and waited eagerly for the system's reward.
"Ding! Congratulations, Host, on completing your first diary entry. The reward has been sent to the System Space."
Su Yun rubbed his hands together in delight and was about to check his reward, completely unaware that this Karma Diary had a duplicate.
And the duplicate updated in real time.
The Pope Palace, council chamber.
The domed ceiling soared high overhead, and the light was dim. A peerless beauty sat enthroned upon the lofty papal seat.
She wore a golden gown that fell from her neck, tracing a breathtaking figure. A purple-gold crown rested on her head, and a scepter in her hand. Her fair skin looked as though it might yield to the gentlest touch, while her pale violet eyes radiated an imperious majesty that seemed to rule the world, with a deep coldness hidden in their depths.
The Pope of Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong.
She had just finished handling a mountain of official documents and was rubbing her temples, ready to take a short break.
Suddenly, a black notebook appeared out of thin air on the desk before her.
There was no Soul Power fluctuation, nor any sign of space tearing. It simply appeared without warning.
"Hmm?"
Bibi Dong's phoenix eyes narrowed. Soul Power surged around her, and an immense pressure locked onto the notebook.
An enemy attack?
Impossible. This was the Pope Palace. Even Qian Daoliu couldn't put something on her desk without her noticing.
She tried to destroy it with her Soul Power, only to find that the notebook was surrounded by an invisible law. Even her peerless Soul Power at level ninety-nine couldn't budge it in the slightest.
"Interesting."
Bibi Dong gave a cold laugh, then reached out her slender, jade-like fingers and opened to the first page.
Su Yun's Diary (duplicate).
"Su Yun? That little fellow who was just named Young Master?"
A hint of confusion flashed through Bibi Dong's eyes.
She had met that disciple. His talent was decent, and he was handsome, but in front of her, he was always meek and deferential, not even daring to raise his head.
Was this his?
With a mixture of curiosity and scrutiny, Bibi Dong turned her gaze to the diary's contents.
At first, her expression was calm enough.
But as she read on, her expression changed.
From calm, to astonishment, then to fury.
"Lovesick fool? Blind?"
"What's the appeal? That he doesn't bathe? That he's old?"
"Break Yu Xiaogang's third leg?!"
Boom!
A bone-chilling killing intent erupted in an instant, and the temperature in the entire council chamber plunged below freezing.
The decorative vases around her burst into powder under the force of her pressure.
Bibi Dong glared at the diary, her fingers whitening around the scepter. A flush of anger stained her stunning face, and her chest heaved violently.
"Good! Very good!"
"Su Yun... You always seemed so honest, yet I never imagined you'd be talking about me like this behind my back!"
When had the dignified Pope ever suffered such humiliation?
More unsettling still, the diary's talk of Spirit Hall's foundations being destroyed, Tang San, and Qian Renxue going undercover gave her an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
It was as if that really was the future waiting to happen.
"Tang San? A cheat? Immortal Herbs?"
Bibi Dong took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed her anger. The killing intent in her eyes gradually receded, replaced by an inscrutable depth.
She didn't head straight to the Holy Son Hall to kill him.
As a formidable leader, she keenly sensed that this diary might conceal an earth-shattering secret.
"Su Yun..."
Bibi Dong murmured the name, her red lips parting as the corner of her mouth curled into a cold, dangerous smile.
"Since you understand me so well, I'd like to see how you plan to lie low and grow stronger."
Before you continue