Who Really Killed Xiao Wu's Mother? Her Holiness the Pope Took Action Personally

"Have you been getting along with Tang Chuan lately?"

Bibi Dong sat in Hu Liena's room, taking a light sip of tea as she asked casually.

After arranging the tea set, Hu Liena pondered for a moment.

Then she spoke hesitantly.

"At first, I thought he was the kind of arrogant, overbearing young master from a wealthy family who looked down on everyone."

"But after getting to know him recently..."

"I found that he seems very different from the impression I had of him."

Hu Liena began listing things one by one, such as Tang Chuan's usual attitude toward her, which differed from how he treated Lan Yin and Xiao Wu.

For example, he never spoke seriously and constantly spouted flirtatious nonsense.

For example, he was extremely ostentatious in what he did and never considered other people's feelings.

For example, he was incredibly enthusiastic and could call every person he met in Spirit Hall by name...

Bibi Dong simply watched Hu Liena with a complicated gaze as her little mouth babbled on for more than ten minutes...

As for how things were progressing between Hu Liena and Tang Chuan!

Bibi Dong had people secretly watching them.

Therefore, she knew their relationship perfectly well.

That was why she found it somewhat unexpected.

Hu Liena was usually an exceptionally proud child with an unusually strong sense of vigilance.

In all her years since joining Spirit Hall,

apart from Xie Yue and Yan, those relatives and friends she had grown up with,

Hu Liena's interactions with others had mostly remained superficial. She could never truly open her heart.

Yet she had only met Tang Chuan a few days ago,

and he had forcibly chiseled a hole into the heart she guarded so fiercely.

Even if that hole was still very small,

if this continued over time,

Hu Liena would inevitably fall for him.

"Could it be that Nana really is lovesick, just like Tang Chuan said?"

Bibi Dong had only heard this new term over the past two days from Tang Chuan's conversations with Xiao Wu and the others.

It referred to the kind of person who disregarded everything for love.

However, it was obviously still a little too early to use it to describe Hu Liena.

Hm?

Lovesick?

Quite a few Spirit Hall consecrates and elders pondered the term carefully.

Then, as though they had suddenly thought of something,

their peripheral vision instinctively drifted toward Bibi Dong, the Pope seated in the place of honor.

They all remembered that long ago,

before Bibi Dong became Pope, she seemed to have defied the previous Pope for the sake of some trash from a certain sect, even claiming that she wanted to elope with him.

Thinking about it that way,

the term lovesick could not have been more fitting for the Pope.

With so many people secretly looking at her,

even Bibi Dong's usually calm and composed beautiful face trembled slightly.

Clearly, she too had recalled the events of the past.

But in the end, she merely took a deep breath.

She suppressed the displeasure in her heart.

"I'm done, I'm done."

"Brother Tang Chuan, your soul skill is too shameless. I can't beat you at all."

After being thoroughly roughed up by Tang Chuan, Xiao Wu dragged her exhausted body over and lay down beside him.

Over the past few months, with the help of the Blue Silver Spirit-Gathering Array and Whale Glue,

Xiao Wu's strength had also risen at an astonishing pace.

Her speed was so great that even ordinary agility-attack Great Soul Masters found her difficult to handle.

Her explosive power even surpassed top-tier beast martial souls of the same rank.

For a roadside soul beast like the Soft Bone Rabbit, which could not even be considered a high-tier martial soul, this was simply unimaginable.

"By the way, Xiao Wu, I noticed that whenever you met Bibi Dong before, you always seemed very afraid of her."

"You often hid behind Lan Yin and me too."

"Is Her Holiness the Pope really that scary to you?"

Tang Chuan lay on the grass with his eyes closed as he spoke slowly.

Upon hearing the question,

Xiao Wu fell silent for a moment.

Then she turned to look at Tang Chuan.

Her little lips pursed slightly.

"Brother Tang Chuan, I can tell you everything about my past, but you have to promise me that you absolutely won't tell anyone else."

"I'm your reserve soul ring. In the future, I'll only belong to you."

"You can't betray me and sell me to someone else."

Although Xiao Wu did not have much experience living in human society,

she could still sense

that Tang Chuan was very different from those humans with evil hearts.

So, she was willing to place this trust in Tang Chuan.

Thus,

Xiao Wu briefly explained how, when she was young, her mother had sent her away before luring Spirit Hall's experts away alone and fleeing deep into the forest.

Not long afterward, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring appeared in the sky.

Combined with Pope Bibi Dong's current lofty status,

as long as she could confirm whether Bibi Dong possessed a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring,

Xiao Wu could determine whether Bibi Dong was the one who had killed her mother.

After hearing her out, Tang Chuan merely fell silent for a moment.

Then he sat up from the grass.

"Xiao Wu, your mother's death may indeed have been connected to Spirit Hall."

"But the person who killed her was most likely not Bibi Dong."

The moment Xiao Wu heard that, she froze.

Her eyes gradually reddened as she asked in a trembling voice, "Wh... why are you so certain?"

"Because Bibi Dong has two Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Rings. One came from the Death Spider Emperor, and its soul skill grants an Undying Body. The other came from the Purple-Winged Spider Emperor, and its soul skill is Martial Soul True Body, along with an external soul bone."

(Bibi Dong's second martial soul should have originally had six black rings and one red ring. Later, the author changed it for a time to five black rings and two red rings—the Death Spider Emperor, Xiao Wu's mother, and the Purple-Winged Spider Emperor. Combined with Xiao Wu saying in the side story that her mother died at the hands of a ferocious beast, this confirms that the Purple-Winged Spider Emperor was the seventh soul ring of Bibi Dong's second martial soul.)

"How could that be?" Xiao Wu was instantly at a loss.

She had cultivated so diligently until now precisely to avenge her mother. That was why she had pushed herself so desperately.

But if Bibi Dong was not the enemy who had killed her mother, then who was?

"As for what exactly happened, wait a few years until you return to the Star Dou Great Forest and ask those two little brothers of yours. They should give you the answer."

"But there is something I need to remind you of. The Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape are now Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, and their strength is no trifling matter."

"Yet even though they are so powerful, they have never been able to avenge your mother."

"That means your enemy is an existence even stronger than them..."

As Tang Chuan spoke, he suddenly stopped.

His gaze turned toward the palace in the distance.

Bibi Dong, dressed in a magnificent court gown and holding the White Radiant Stone Scepter,

was slowly walking toward them.

Clearly,

that foolish disciple Hu Liena could no longer be relied upon.

If she continued trying to win Tang Chuan over,

she might end up falling for him herself.

Left with no other choice,

Pope Bibi Dong chose to act personally, seeking a way to draw Tang Chuan from the neutral camp into her ranks.