She swept 9,999 steps. It took her a full four hours!
Every speck of dust on these stone steps seemed as heavy as Qian Jun, containing some kind of terrifying law of gravity.
As for her 99th-level Limit Douluo Soul Power, which she had always been so proud of, it was suppressed here until it was like a candle flickering in the wind. Just resisting this force of gravity had already exhausted every last bit of her reserves.
"Just... one more step..."
Bibi Dong clenched her teeth and tremblingly swept away the fallen leaves from the final step.
"Plop."
The moment the last leaf fell, she collapsed as if utterly spent, sprawling unceremoniously on the cold stone steps and gasping for breath.
She was the dignified Pope of Spirit Hall. When in her life had she ever suffered like this?
Even when she had undergone the Rakshasa God Trial, she had never endured this kind of pure physical and spiritual torment!
"Could this be Heavenly Palace's test?"
At that thought, Bibi Dong raised her head and looked at the mountain gate before her, still soaring into the clouds as if it had no end.
At that moment, fatigue was not the only thing in her eyes. Above all, she was shaken to her very soul.
Because while she had been sweeping just now, she had occasionally looked up and seen something that shattered her entire worldview.
She had seen a child who looked only seven or eight years old, carrying a gourd larger than himself and humming as he ran down the mountain.
As the child passed her, he glanced at her curiously. The aura he let slip in that instant was actually stronger than that of her, a 99th-level Limit Douluo!
A seven- or eight-year-old child had an aura on par with a god-level powerhouse from Douluo Continent?
For a moment, Bibi Dong even wondered if she had gone mad.
"Finished?"
As Bibi Dong was questioning her sanity, that aged voice sounded again.
The old man who had given her a show of force earlier had appeared behind her at some point, without making a sound.
"P-P... Senior!"
Bibi Dong shuddered all over. She hurriedly struggled to her feet and bowed respectfully, her manner as humble as that of a newly initiated apprentice.
"This junior has fulfilled her duty. All the steps have been swept clean."
At her words, the old man glanced indifferently at the spotless stone steps, then gave a slight nod.
"You were a little slow, and your constitution is ridiculously poor. You're as frail as paper."
"But at least your will is resilient enough. You didn't slack off."
Hearing that assessment, Bibi Dong could only lower her head bitterly.
Ridiculously poor constitution? Frail as paper?
If someone said that on Douluo Continent, who would dare say it to a Limit Douluo with Twin Martial Souls?
But in a world where even a seven-year-old child was stronger than her, she knew the old man was telling the truth.
"Since you've finished your work, it's time to eat."
With that, the old man casually waved his hand and produced a battered coarse porcelain bowl from who knew where. It held half a bowl of white liquid, like some unknown rice porridge, with a few green leaves floating on top.
"Here."
The old man held the chipped bowl out to Bibi Dong.
"This is the food for the Handyman disciples. Eat."
Looking at the bowl of plain porridge, which was almost shabby, Bibi Dong was stunned for a moment.
That was it?
She, the dignified Pope, had worked herself to exhaustion sweeping the steps for four hours, nearly dying in the process, and this was all they gave her to eat?
No one at Spirit Hall would even feed something like this to a pig, would they?
A fierce sense of humiliation surged through her, but in the face of the old man's terrifying strength, she didn't dare let it show.
"What? Don't like it?"
The old man seemed to see right through her thoughts and gave a cold laugh.
"If you won't eat it, throw it away."
"I'll eat it! This junior will eat!"
Bibi Dong clenched her teeth and finally took the chipped bowl with trembling hands.
When you're beneath another's roof, you have to bow your head.
To survive, to grow stronger, she would have to swallow it even if it were poison, let alone porridge!
So Bibi Dong closed her eyes, then lifted the bowl and took a small sip as if marching to her death.
But the moment that seemingly ordinary porridge slid down her throat—
Bibi Dong's eyes snapped open, her pupils contracting to pinpricks!
How could that be porridge? It was a mass of liquefied energy, refined to the utmost purity!
The moment this energy entered her belly, it surged through her limbs and bones like a volcanic eruption!
Her meridians, parched from being pushed past their limits, rang out with joy as they were nourished by this energy!
"W-What is this?!"
Bibi Dong was utterly stunned.
Just one sip!
She felt the bottleneck that had remained motionless for ages develop a crack under the impact of this energy!
Even her soul, which had grown dark and twisted from undergoing the Rakshasa God Trial, seemed to grow clearer after being washed by this energy!
"These leaves... Could they be ten-thousand-year-old spirit herbs?"
"And are these grains legendary immortal treasures?"
Bibi Dong looked at the half bowl of porridge left in her hands, and the humiliation and resentment in her eyes vanished in an instant.
A divine treasure!
This was a divine treasure!
At that moment, she couldn't care less about her dignity as the Pope. She lifted the bowl and gulped down its contents without a shred of decorum, even licking the last drop from the bottom.
Meanwhile, on Douluo Continent, at Spirit Hall—
The Pope Palace was deathly silent.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo stared at Bibi Dong on the Sky Screen, cradling a chipped bowl and licking its bottom like a starving ghost. They looked at each other, both stunned beyond words.
"Th-That's His Holiness the Pope?"
Chrysanthemum Douluo's voice trembled, his worldview lying in ruins.
"Even if she's suffering in that world, surely she wouldn't be so hungry?"
"It's just a bowl of plain porridge, without even a piece of meat, and Her Holiness... She's eating it like it's delicious?"
Ghost Douluo beside him also looked as if he were questioning his entire life.
"Is the food in that world really that bad? Or has Her Holiness been tortured into madness?"
At that moment, it wasn't only them. Every Soul Master on the continent felt a strange absurdity as they watched.
The greatest person on Douluo Continent was showing the expression of someone who had obtained a rare treasure over half a bowl of porridge that looked like pig slop.
What a tragic sight.
But just when everyone thought Bibi Dong had gone mad with hunger—
The scene on the Sky Screen changed abruptly!
"Vmmm!"
Bibi Dong, having finished her porridge, suddenly erupted in dazzling light!
Then two enormous Martial Soul phantoms, the Death Spider Emperor and the Soul-Eater Spider Emperor, appeared behind her, completely beyond her control!
More terrifying still, as the energy within her body was absorbed, her already black-red ninth Soul Ring began to tremble violently. Its color was undergoing an astonishing transformation!
Red... deep red... dark gold...
Finally, before the horrified eyes of every Soul Master on the continent, that Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring forcefully evolved into a brilliant golden divine ring, radiating an aura of nobility!
Boom!
In an instant, a terrifying aura that surpassed the Limit Douluo realm and even touched the divine domain swept out, leaving all of Douluo Continent behind the Sky Screen dumbstruck.
"A g-god-level aura?!"
In the Worship Hall, the teacup in Qian Daoliu's hand shattered with a crack. He shot to his feet, terror filling his cloudy old eyes.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
"She only drank a bowl of porridge, a bowl of plain porridge meant for Handymen!"
"How could it break the shackles of level 99 outright and even make her Soul Ring undergo a divine evolution?!"
At that moment, Qian Daoliu went mad.
It wasn't only him. Every Titled Douluo on the continent went mad.
They had cultivated bitterly for a hundred years in pursuit of godhood, even sacrificing their relatives to inherit a god's divine position.
Yet now Bibi Dong was telling them that, in that higher-dimensional world, the opportunity to become a god was hidden in a bowl of plain porridge found everywhere, disdained even by Handymen?
"What kind of porridge is that? What kind of immortal porridge is this?!"
"Let me have one sip! I'd trade every Spirit Bone I own for that bowl of porridge!"
At that moment, countless old monsters stuck at bottlenecks stared at the chipped bowl with bloodshot eyes, so jealous they were coming apart at the seams.
Meanwhile, before Heavenly Palace's mountain gate—
Bibi Dong trembled as she felt the surging, ocean-like power within her and the transformation brought by that golden Soul Ring.
At last, she slowly raised her head and looked at the expressionless old man sweeping the ground before her.
She dropped to her knees with a thump—but this time, it was from the bottom of her heart.
Bibi Dong was not without gratitude. Back then, she had killed her teacher, Qian Xunji, because he had raped her first.
"Thank you, Senior, for bestowing this treasure!"
"This junior is willing to sweep Heavenly Palace's grounds for the rest of her life!"
At that moment, Bibi Dong thought: What was so great about being the Pope? Being a frog in a well on Douluo Continent had far less promise than being a woman who swept floors at Heavenly Palace.
"Heh, a treasure?"
Hearing Bibi Dong's words, the old man glanced at her excitement. The corner of his mouth curled into a mocking smile as he picked up the chipped bowl from the ground.
"It's just leftover spiritual water from this morning's meal hall, cooked badly with a few stalks of century-old Dragon Tooth Rice. A defective product, that's all."
"Since you like it, you can get a bowl from the kitchen every day after you finish sweeping."
After saying that, the old man turned and left, leaving only one sentence to echo in the mountain breeze.
"Remember, work hard. Don't bring shame on the master."
Bibi Dong knelt on the ground and listened. She felt not the slightest resentment; instead, she was filled with delight.
A defective product? So what!
As long as she could grow stronger, she would gladly eat slop for the rest of her life!
"Yes! This junior will work hard!"
Bibi Dong bowed deeply toward the old man's back before slowly getting to her feet.
Behind her, the billions of living beings on Douluo Continent watched the once lofty Pope gratefully accepting a bowl of plain porridge every day, and fell silent.
But just as Bibi Dong was wondering when she would get to eat her next bowl of porridge, the scene on the Sky Screen suddenly shifted.
Of the five images that had been displayed side by side, the one showing Yan, of Spirit Hall's Golden Generation, suddenly flared with glaring red light!
In the Battle Through the Heavens Plane, in an unknown underground world of molten rock—
There was no ethereal immortal aura of Heavenly Palace here, nor the bustling prosperity of the Great Gan Dynasty. There was only endless heat and dark-red magma.
The air was so hot that even steel would melt in an instant.
"Huff, huff..."
Yan was now encased in thick, dark-red armor. This was the form he took when his Martial Soul, the Flame Lord, possessed him.
As one of the outstanding members of Spirit Hall's Golden Generation, a level 52 Battle Soul King of the Power Attack System, he possessed a top-tier Martial Soul with dual fire and earth attributes, giving him strong resistance to heat.
Even so, he was drenched in sweat, and his Soul Power was rapidly draining.
"Damn it! Why is this hellhole so hot?"
Yan wiped the sweat from his face and added:
"But fortune favors the bold. If the environment here is this hostile, surely it must have given birth to some peerless treasure!"
After he struggled across a stretch of magma, the view ahead suddenly opened up.
At the center of an altar naturally formed from obsidian, a clump of deep-yellow flame was quietly burning.
The flame was only the size of a palm and didn't look remarkable. It didn't even radiate any heat.
But the space around it warped strangely, as if the flame were devouring even the light.
What excited Yan even more was that the aura emanating from the flame perfectly matched his Martial Soul's attributes!
"Steady as earth, scorching as fire..."
Yan's eyes widened, and his heart began pounding violently.
"C-Could this be my opportunity?!"
"This has to be some kind of top-tier fire-attribute natural treasure! If I can absorb it, my Flame Lord Martial Soul will definitely undergo a second mutation!"
"Then I'll trample everyone underfoot! Even Hu Liena will look at me in a new light!"
Greed soon drowned out Yan's reason.
As far as he knew from Douluo Continent, if you came across an unclaimed energy body, all you had to do was make sure its attributes matched yours and guide it in with your Soul Power.
But he had no idea that this world held a terrifying thing known as a Heavenly Flame.
It was something even Dou Emperors and Dou Zongs would hesitate to touch.
Meanwhile, on Douluo Continent, at Spirit Hall...
Seeing this, the elders, whose morale had been low after Bibi Dong ate slop, were instantly energized.
"It's Yan!"
Chrysanthemum Douluo Guan Yue's peach-blossom eyes suddenly lit up. He slapped his thigh excitedly.
"That's an energy body with both fire and earth attributes. Look at the color and shape of those flames—it's practically tailor-made for Yan!"
"Could it be that our luck is finally about to turn?"
Ghost Douluo, standing nearby, also looked delighted.
"Although His Holiness the Pope suffered a little, his strength has greatly increased."
"If that kid Yan can absorb this ball of flame too, then the Spirit Hall will have two powerhouses capable of establishing themselves in this world!"
"It's fate! Heaven is protecting the Spirit Hall!"
For a moment, even Qian Daoliu, who had been sitting high above with a gloomy expression, couldn't help but give a slight nod. A glimmer of anticipation flashed in his eyes.
The flame didn't look all that violent. With Yan's top-tier defensive ability and resistance to fire, it shouldn't be difficult for him to absorb.
If he succeeded, this might be the Spirit Hall's hope of turning the tables!
Before you continue