[Face-Tanking Ultimate: You've already been targeted by a Titled Douluo.]
Boom!
Those words exploded in Xiao Wu's mind like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky. Her face instantly turned deathly pale, drained of all color.
"Xiao Wu, what's wrong? Why do you look so pale?" Tang San noticed something was off and immediately asked with concern.
"N-no... nothing."
Xiao Wu shook her head and forced a smile.
Then she quickly typed into the interface.
[First Cute Bunny: Who? Who's targeting me? Why?]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Tang Hao.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Tang San, the person beside you, is his son.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: He's targeting you because you're a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. He wants to keep you penned up until you mature, then turn you into a Soul Ring for his son.]
Ye Qiong's words were blunt and completely unreserved.
Xiao Wu felt as if the blood in her entire body had frozen.
She instinctively edged away, putting some distance between herself and Tang San. At that moment, she was filled with fear.
"Xiao Wu?" Seeing her move away from him, Tang San grew even more confused.
"Uh, I'm really fine. I just wanted to look at the scenery outside."
Xiao Wu quickly recovered and opened the window, turning her face toward the view outside to hide her panicked expression.
[First Cute Bunny: Group Owner! What should I do? What should I do?!]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Don't panic. Like I just said, you're safe for now.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Tang Hao won't make a move against you just yet. His son can't absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring at the moment. So just keep living and cultivating as usual.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Besides, you've joined my group now, which makes you one of us. I—and everyone else—won't let anything happen to you. We'll find a way to deal with this in the future.]
After reading Ye Qiong's words, Xiao Wu felt as if she had grabbed hold of a lifeline.
She took a deep breath, and only after a long while did she gradually calm her frantic mind.
[First Cute Bunny: Mm, I'll remember that. Thank you, Group Owner.]
Just as Ye Qiong finished replying to Xiao Wu, he suddenly received a private message request from Bibi Dong.
Here it comes.
[ Ding! "Most Beautiful Pope" has sent you a private message request.]
Ye Qiong accepted.
[Most Beautiful Pope: You've got some nerve. Hiding in the shadows behind an anonymous name, you dragged out this person's past and entanglements for everyone to judge. Every word you said crossed my bottom line.]
Inside the Pope Palace, Bibi Dong's expression was icy.
In all these years, she had never encountered anyone so brazenly disrespectful.
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: If you feel those words offended you, I apologize. But I didn't make them up. They were things that kept appearing in my "dreams."]
Ye Qiong began making things up.
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: In those dreams, I saw more than just what happened in the past. I could also clearly sense what the people involved had felt at the time, especially Yu Xiaogang. The coldness of his nature was chilling even to hear about. I just had to speak up.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: You could sense his feelings? Go on, then. I'd like to hear what you think you sensed.]
Bibi Dong's expression had returned to normal.
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: I sensed the thing at his very core: utter self-interest. He was good at disguising himself with cowardice.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: He was there that day, just outside the room. He watched with his own eyes as you were dragged into the secret chamber, yet did nothing. But you were mistaken: that wasn't cowardice or helplessness. He was choosing between his personal future and the emotional cost. It was obvious which side of the scale he chose—and he chose it with astonishing speed.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: What outweighed all his other feelings was the fear of being ruined and never being able to recover. Leaving you wasn't an escape that left him heartbroken. It was a "damage-control plan" that best served his interests, decided after quickly weighing the pros and cons.]
Bibi Dong fell silent for a moment, a faint, almost imperceptible sadness flickering in her eyes.
Over the past few days, she had given it careful thought. Perhaps the Group Owner really wasn't wrong.
Yu Xiaogang truly was an intensely self-interested person.
[Most Beautiful Pope: ...Continue.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: On a deeper level, I sensed a pitiful habit in the way he thought. He instinctively cast himself as the "victim" in every relationship.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: For instance, he treated your resolve and the achievements you later earned as proof that he had been "betrayed" and that his talents had gone unrecognized. That let him stay in the position of someone deserving sympathy, giving himself false comfort for his own helplessness and frustration.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: ...]
After a long while, Bibi Dong sighed.
[Most Beautiful Pope: Your words are sharp, but they're right.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: I've thought it through as well. It was only natural that he would make that choice.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: I no longer feel even the slightest longing for him. If anything remains, it's regret for my own ignorance—for allowing that man to occupy a place in my heart.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Thinking this way means you've begun to break free of the shackles of the past. You should look ahead now, toward something greater.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: Shackles? You certainly know how to talk. I thought you only knew how to tear open wounds with your words.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Haha, you're too kind. I am, after all, someone who aspires to become the "Chief Galaxy Psychotherapist."]
Ye Qiong tried to lighten the mood, but then realized that she probably didn't know what a galaxy was, so he added an explanation.
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: By "galaxy," I mean it as a metaphor for a heart as vast as the stars.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: An unusual metaphor. But according to what you saw in your "dreams," will I still be entangled with that man in the future?]
Bibi Dong ignored his joke and went straight to the heart of the matter.
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: Yes, and in an even more intense way.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: Explain.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: He'll come to you for the sake of a disciple he's devoted himself to raising—a young man named Tang San, who has the Clear Sky Hammer and Blue Silver Grass as his Martial Souls. He'll seek a private audience with you and beg you to reveal the core secrets of cultivating Twin Martial Souls.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: Twin Martial Souls? Tang San... Tang Hao of the Clear Sky Sect?]
Bibi Dong's gaze turned serious as she began to think.
The Clear Sky Hammer and Blue Silver Grass... Could that child be Tang Hao's?
Come to think of it, Bibi Dong had Tang Hao to thank. If he hadn't struck Qian Xunji and injured him, she wouldn't have been able to devour him so easily.
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: That's right. He's Tang Hao's child. Because of your old grudge with Yu Xiaogang, you'll refuse him outright.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: You'll also tell him plainly that you've already ordered the elimination of this potential threat to Spirit Hall.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: A threat should be eliminated. What happens after that?]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: That will be the moment when every trace of affection between you is severed for good. After that, you'll stand on opposite sides, locked in a fight to the death.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: You'll devise the "Soul Hunting Operation" and swiftly wipe out the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. After that, there'll be no room left for reconciliation between you and him.]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: He'll use his relationship with Tang San, who will have grown powerful by then, to side with the Heaven Dou Empire and serve as its Imperial Preceptor.]
[Most Beautiful Pope: We'll meet on the battlefield... I'll be waiting. As for this Tang San you mentioned, what role will he play in this conflict? Will he be merely Yu Xiaogang's disciple and proof of his theories?]
[Face-Tanking Ultimate: No, far more than that. He'll be the most devastating "calamity" to befall you and Spirit Hall.]
Before you continue