Yang Xing smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.
"Smart."
Bibi Dong and Hu Liena fell silent at the same time. But it only lasted a second.
Bibi Dong immediately asked her next question.
"So if Nana wants to successfully become your disciple, she has to sign that contract?"
Yang Xing nodded.
"Then that means..." Bibi Dong's voice slowed, each word forced out one by one. "Nana has already failed to become your disciple this time?"
As soon as she finished speaking.
The pavilion fell silent.
Hu Liena's palms were drenched in sweat. Her gaze darted back and forth between Yang Xing and Bibi Dong, her throat dry as if it had been scraped with sandpaper. She wanted to say something to ease the tension, but her lips moved twice without producing a single sound.
Bibi Dong's expression shifted unpredictably.
She sat on the stone bench with her back still perfectly straight, but the fingers clenched over her knees kept tightening, loosening, then tightening again. Her deep violet eyes stared fixedly at Yang Xing, countless thoughts churning within them.
The Spirit Binding Method.
That soul skill, capable of touching the underlying laws of the soul, was an opportunity she had found only with great difficulty—one that might help her resist the erosion of the Rakshasa God Trial.
If she obtained it, perhaps she could take another step toward completing her Divine Trial.
And now, the only way to obtain it lay in Yang Xing's hands.
The air was thick with the sense that a battle could erupt at any moment.
Yang Xing sat across from her, slowly turning a porcelain cup between his fingers. The white porcelain teacup spun silently around and around at his fingertips, as though he were merely passing the time.
"You want to make a move?" Without