A Chance Encounter

After Hu Liena and the other two left, Yue Guan soon took his leave as well.

Lin Bei instructed A Fu to find someone to repair the courtyard, while he headed toward the Papal Hall.

Before long, he arrived at the Small Garden inside the Papal Hall and saw Bibi Dong.

"Teacher."

Lin Bei bowed to Bibi Dong, who was seated on the flower-vine chair.

Bibi Dong glanced at him and asked, "Did Na Na and the others go to see you just now?"

"Mm."

"You fought?"

"We sparred."

Bibi Dong shot him a sidelong look. "They weren't injured, were they?"

Lin Bei said innocently, "Teacher, why don't you ask whether I was injured?"

"Heh."

Bibi Dong's fair, slender fingers held a crystal grape. "If they could injure you, I'd have them become the Holy Sons instead."

After placing the grape in her mouth and chewing and swallowing it slowly, Bibi Dong asked, "All right, tell me. What did you come to see me for? Is there some problem with your cultivation?"

"Teacher, my Soul Power has already advanced to level thirty."

"Level thirty?"

Bibi Dong straightened in her seat and looked at Lin Bei in surprise. "So fast?"

If she remembered correctly, Lin Bei had only been around level twenty-five or twenty-six two days ago. How had he reached level thirty after such a short time?

Bibi Dong's eyelid twitched. She said to Lin Bei, "Hold out your hand."

Lin Bei blinked and obediently held out his right hand.

Bibi Dong immediately took Lin Bei's hand.

Lin Bei felt a smooth, tender softness against his hand, then sensed a surge of power flowing into his body.

Before long, Bibi Dong released Lin Bei's hand and said with furrowed brows, "You really have reached level thirty. It seems the Soul Power added to you by the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring was even greater than I imagined."

Lin Bei blinked—

Bibi Dong thinks my Soul Power came from the Soul Ring?

Ahem, perfect.

Now I don't have to come up with an excuse.

Lin Bei laughed inwardly, but on the surface, he asked in all seriousness, "Teacher, do I need to go to the Star Dou Great Forest now to hunt for my third Soul Ring?"

Bibi Dong frowned, then shook her head. "In three weeks, it will be the grand ceremony to confer you as Holy Son. If you go hunt for a Soul Ring now, you may not make it back in time. After the ceremony is over, I'll have Yue Guan and Gui Mei take you."

Hunting for a Soul Ring was something that took a great deal of time and depended heavily on luck.

After all, it was impossible for you to encounter a Soul Beast suited to your Martial Soul the moment you entered the forest.

Finding a suitable Soul Beast and Soul Ring took a great deal of time and luck.

If you were lucky, you might find one in two or three days.

If you were unlucky, even ten days or half a month might not be enough to find a suitable Soul Beast.

"Oh, okay."

Lin Bei nodded. When the time came, if Yue Guan and Gui Mei went together, he could try looking for a Soul Beast with a higher age.

Bibi Dong said, "If there's nothing else, go on. Remember to go to the academy to learn etiquette and the ceremony procedures."

"Oh, I know, Teacher."

As soon as Lin Bei left, a middle-aged man suddenly appeared in the Small Garden.

The middle-aged man looked only thirty or forty years old. He was very handsome, dressed in a simple gray robe, and carried a gentle, peaceful aura about him.

The moment she saw the middle-aged man, Bibi Dong's expression turned cold and disgusted.

The middle-aged man did not mind Bibi Dong's attitude. He asked calmly, "Is that child the new disciple you took in?"

Bibi Dong did not answer and did not even look at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man said, "His talent is quite good. He seems even better than Xue Er."

Bibi Dong: "..."

The middle-aged man glanced at Bibi Dong, then said, "I received word that Xue Er will return this time."

Bibi Dong, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke, though her tone was filled with unconcealable disgust.

"What is she coming back for?"

She was her child, yes.

But that child's existence represented that stretch of experience she could never forget—one more hateful to her than any nightmare.

She loathed that child's existence!

"Xue Ye's brat sent her here to observe the ceremony."

The middle-aged man spoke flatly. Then he looked at Bibi Dong, whose expression had slipped somewhat out of control, and continued, "That child is about to succeed. You had best not cause trouble for her, otherwise..."

"Otherwise what?"

Bibi Dong shot to her feet, and nine soul rings rose beneath her feet—

Yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black, red.

A terrifying aura instantly spread through the entire Small Garden. Countless petals were stirred up, then froze in midair under the suffocating pressure.

"Old thing, don't think I'm afraid of you!"

Bibi Dong looked at the middle-aged man and spoke with a fierce front that rang a little hollow.

The middle-aged man stood with his hands behind his back. Facing the terrifying aura Bibi Dong had unleashed, his face remained expressionless. He merely looked at Bibi Dong in silence.

Bibi Dong looked back at the middle-aged man as well.

Suddenly, the aura around her vanished as abruptly as a deflating balloon. The petals suspended in the air immediately drifted down one after another, withering onto the garden floor.

She sat back down in the flower-vine chair, like a sculpture, not the slightest hint of life in her devastatingly beautiful face.

As for the middle-aged man...

At some point, he had disappeared.

If not for the petals on the ground silently recounting the confrontation that had just taken place, it would have been as though the middle-aged man had never appeared at all.

"Spirit Hall..."

No one knew how much time had passed before Bibi Dong, seated in the flower-vine chair, suddenly murmured.

Her voice was as cold as the dry, frigid wind blowing over the ice of the Arctic, without the slightest trace of life.

No one knew what Your Majesty the Pope was thinking at that moment.

Time slipped quietly away.

Soon, the Bestowal Ceremony was about to arrive, and Spirit City had become much livelier lately. Envoys from various countries and disciples of sects could be seen from time to time.

During this period, aside from using the simulator to simulate transmigration, Lin Bei went to the academy to study etiquette.

It was worth mentioning that Hu Liena had recently taken quite a liking to coming to find Lin Bei.

Lin Bei had no idea where she got so much free time. Whenever she had a moment, she would come to chat with him and ask him for cultivation insights.

But what cultivation insights did he have?

As for the Meditation Method Bibi Dong had given him, Lin Bei had only read it for three nights, and after that, he never touched it again.

His Soul Power all came from the simulator.

While fending off his somewhat clingy senior sister, studying etiquette, and simulating transmigration, Lin Bei's days during this period were very fulfilling.

Through constant simulations, his physical constitution kept strengthening, and it had now already reached the Soul Douluo level.

At the same time, through simulated transmigration, he had obtained a skill from Chinese Paladin: Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique.

This could also be considered the best reward he had received recently.

Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique, like Tang San's Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, was a movement technique.

But Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique was far more badass than Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.

After all, Tang San's Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track was still a worldly movement technique, while Immortal Wind Cloud Body Technique was already a Daoist movement art of immortal cultivators.

Tomorrow was the Bestowal Ceremony.

Hu Liena came to find Lin Bei again. Saying it would help him relax, she invited Lin Bei to go out for a stroll and take a look along the way to see whether they might run into disciples from other sects in the city.

After being still for so long, Lin Bei felt the urge to move and gladly agreed.

The two of them went out together and began wandering around Spirit City.

Spirit City had truly been extraordinarily lively lately.

At a glance, aside from Spirit Hall's soul masters, there were now many more nobles on the streets, as well as some disciples from other sects.

"It's you!"

Suddenly, a childish voice came from behind Lin Bei.

He turned to look and saw a little girl in a princess dress staring at him excitedly.

"What are you doing in Spirit City too?" the little girl asked.

"I'm a soul master of Spirit Hall, so naturally I'm here."

Lin Bei smiled faintly and said in some surprise, "But what about you? Why are you here?"

Hu Liena asked from the side, her expression odd, "You two know each other?"

"No."

Lin Bei and the little girl denied it in unison.

Hu Liena: "..."

They really didn't know each other?

She looked at the two of them suspiciously.

Why don't I believe that at all?