Hope? What hope? A toad dreaming of eating swan meat, are you?

"Guards, prepare the horses!" Inside the Papal Palace, Qian Xunji immediately rose to his feet, his clear voice carrying outside.

There was no time to lose. Now that he had obtained detailed information, he did not want to stay in Spirit City for another moment. He would set out immediately—to intercept the Blue Silver Emperor and become the future protagonist's father!

A moment later, Qian Xunji leisurely descended from Divine Mountain. At its foot, a carriage that gleamed entirely golden, its edges inlaid with precious gems, had already been waiting for quite some time.

The carriage was pulled by four snow-white Soul Beast horses without a single stray hair. A Six-Winged Angel was carved into its body, radiating indescribable luxury and nobility!

When the Pope traveled, naturally, his retinue was beyond what an ordinary Soul Master could imagine. Of course, today he had wanted to keep a low profile...

The rain in the sky still showed no sign of weakening, while dull thunder continued to rumble deep within the clouds.

Qian Xunji stepped on the footstool and boarded the carriage.

"Let's go. Leave Spirit City." His indifferent voice came from inside the carriage and reached the coachman's ears.

"As you command, Your Holiness!" Seated in the coachman's position was a steady-looking middle-aged man.

Who could have imagined that this gray-clad, utterly unremarkable-looking driver was actually a six-ring Soul Emperor?

Across Douluo Continent, where would an expert of Soul Emperor rank not be respected? Yet in Spirit Hall, before the Pope Qian Xunji, he was only qualified to serve as a coachman.

The golden carriage slowly began moving. The four white horses' broad hooves struck the ground, producing a crisp, rhythmic sound.

The carriage traveled neither quickly nor slowly, and its route happened to pass through Spirit Hall's most prosperous Central Square.

Seated inside the carriage, Qian Xunji rested his chin on one hand and gazed leisurely out the window toward Central Square.

His eyes quickly locked onto a dark, slightly damp corner at the edge of the square.

There, a miserable figure was curled up.

At first, Qian Xunji had been furious. After all, he knew what his future held! He also knew what this ungrateful wretch would do!

She would destroy Spirit Hall and its reputation built over ten thousand years! Because of the Rakshasa God, she would even develop the terrifying idea of destroying the entire continent!

And he himself would die at her hands, becoming the most important link in her initiation of the Rakshasa God Examination.

But now, looking at the ugly freak curled into a ball in the mud, filthy from head to toe, with a golden bowl placed before her, Qian Xunji could no longer feel the slightest ripple in his heart.

Because the current Bibi Dong was simply too miserable—far more wretched than the Bibi Dong of the original timeline.

The Bibi Dong of the original timeline had at least retained her cultivation; it had not been crippled. But now, Bibi Dong's cultivation had been destroyed, her Martial Soul ruined, and her appearance had become this horrifying.

She had even been abandoned by Yu Xiaogang and reduced to a beggar, forced to beg in Central Square—and with a golden bowl at that.

It was obvious that when he gave Bibi Dong the golden bowl, he had never considered what she might receive by begging! After all, what beggar used a golden bowl?

Without cultivation, without a Martial Soul, without status, and without her appearance, she was now far inferior even to the most ordinary peasant woman!

At the edge of Central Square...

The two Security Team members stationed not far from Bibi Dong heard the crisp sound of hooves from far away.

When they saw the luxurious carriage pulled by four Soul Beast horses, with a Six-Winged Angel carved into it, the expressions of the two Security Team members changed instantly!

One of them immediately said in a low voice, "This... This is the carriage His Holiness the Pope uses when he travels!"

"Why would His Holiness come here at a time like this?"

The other swallowed nervously and instinctively glanced at Bibi Dong in the corner. "Do you think His Holiness is just tough on the outside but softhearted on the inside? It hasn't even been half a day."

"Maybe he softened and deliberately came over in a carriage to take a look? Perhaps he's planning to find an excuse to bring her back?"

Although the two Security Team members spoke quietly, every word reached Bibi Dong's ears.

The person who had been curled up in the corner like a lump of mud suddenly trembled. In those bloodshot eyes that had long since lost their luster, a frenzied gleam erupted!

"Teacher..." Bibi Dong used all her strength to slowly raise her head. Her severely disfigured face, covered in charred scars, was filled with sickly delight and hope.

She stared fixedly at the approaching carriage, as if she had already seen Qian Xunji step out and take her back.

"I knew it... I knew Teacher could never be so heartless toward me! Fourteen years of raising me—how could Teacher simply abandon me?"

"He did all that only to punish my willfulness!" Bibi Dong began wildly filling in the blanks in her mind.

She cried and laughed at the same time. "Teacher, Dong'er truly knows she was wrong... As long as you let me return, even if you make me serve you as a slave or maid for the rest of my life, Dong'er will do so willingly!"

Under Bibi Dong's nearly pathological gaze, the luxurious carriage drew closer and closer to her position.

Eighty meters...

Fifty meters...

Thirty meters...

Twenty meters...

Bibi Dong almost held her breath. She had even thought about how humble and sincere she should be when the carriage stopped, crawling over to confess to her teacher inside.

However, when the golden carriage passed the place where she was, it showed not the slightest sign of slowing down.

The carriage simply continued mercilessly through the rain, traveling along the broad road right past Bibi Dong.

The four white Soul Beast horses proudly raised their heads, while rainwater splashed from the wheels toward both sides of the carriage.

The carriage did not stop... It continued toward Spirit City's gates and finally vanished into the curtain of rain.

Bibi Dong stood frozen in place. The hope that had just ignited within her turned into despair once more...

Why?

Why give her hope of starting over, only to ruthlessly crush it before her eyes?!

Or had there never been any hope at all? Had it merely been hope she had imagined herself? Her teacher had only happened to be passing by? Could it be that Teacher truly no longer wanted her?

"Whew... You scared the hell out of me!"

Seeing the carriage disappear into the distance, the Security Team member who had previously spat at Bibi Dong slapped his chest hard and finally let out a sigh of relief.

He looked at Bibi Dong with schadenfreude and sneered contemptuously, "I told you just now. How could His Holiness the Pope forgive a traitor who bites the hand that feeds it?!"

"Truly a toad dreaming of eating swan meat. Why don't you take a piss and look at what a wretched mess you are now? You actually expected His Holiness the Pope to come personally and take you back? Heh! What a daydream!"

"If you could really return and lord it over us again, wouldn't that mean everyone could betray Spirit Hall in the future?"