Papal Hall Stirs

Papal Hall Stirs

Yue Guan did not enter immediately.

He stood outside the threshold, watching for quite a while.

On the replay screen, the White-Clothed Scholar's spear hung in midair, while Tang San's mistakes were broken down into minute details. Shrek's people were listening, and so was the Spirit Hall Golden Generation.

This scene would have been nearly impossible anywhere else.

On the Soul Fighting Arena, the two sides were opponents.

Outside the arena, they belonged to opposing factions.

Yet in this little shop, a monster from a game had somehow brought them together at the same training table, if only briefly.

Yue Guan entered the shop and nodded to Lin Chuan first.

"Boss Lin."

Lin Chuan nodded back without exchanging pleasantries.

Yue Guan looked at Hu Liena. "Holy Maiden, Her Holiness the Pope wishes to hear a detailed report."

Hu Liena was not surprised.

She had bought out the game and drawn the first volume of Fox Shadow. There was no way Spirit Hall would not learn of it.

Yan had originally wanted to speak as well, but ultimately held himself back.

He had not bought out the game, nor had he received any new rewards. If he returned to report now, all he could say was that Tang San had won again and Hu Liena had pulled further ahead.

It left him feeling stifled.

Xie Yue glanced at him without exposing him, merely saying in a low voice, "Understand the rules first."

Yan snorted but did not argue.

Before leaving, Yue Guan probed, "Can Spirit Hall purchase personal saves collectively?"

Flender's ears immediately perked up.

Lin Chuan replied evenly, "No. Personal buyouts are individually bound. No power-leveling and no transfers."

Yue Guan's smile did not change, but his gaze deepened slightly.

Sure enough, this shop could not be entirely controlled with money alone.

As night fell, Hu Liena stood within the Papal Hall.

There were not many lights in the hall.

Shadows from above weighed upon the long staircase, and the higher one went, the quieter it became. Bibi Dong sat in the seat of honor with her scepter at her side. Yue Guan and Gui Mei stood to her left and right, neither interrupting Hu Liena's report first.

Hu Liena did not exaggerate.

She clearly explained the buyout feature, personal saves, Rewind Incense Ash, explanation mode, and the effects of the first volume of Fox Shadow one by one.

When she mentioned Tang San publicly replaying the scene of his death, Bibi Dong raised her eyes to look at her.

Hu Liena paused for a moment, then continued.

"He did not avoid letting people outside Shrek see it."

The hall fell silent for a moment.

Yue Guan sighed softly. "He is a child willing to cast aside his dignity."

Gui Mei said nothing.

But Bibi Dong knew that those willing to cast aside their dignity were often more troublesome than those who cherished it. The former would swallow humiliation for their goals, while the latter at least retained pride that could be exploited.

At last, she raised a hand.

A wisp of Fox Shadow appeared behind her, then swiftly dispersed.

Gui Mei's figure shifted almost imperceptibly.

"No Spirit Ring guidance."

Yue Guan said quietly, "Nor is there any attachment from an external object."

Bibi Dong watched the fading shadow and lightly tapped the armrest with a fingertip.

She had seen countless unusual soul skills and innumerable unorthodox methods. Yet what truly concerned her about the things this internet café provided was not their strength, but the fact that they belonged to no known system.

They did not bypass a soul master's body.

Yet neither did they wholly depend upon martial souls.

That meant they might become an additional path.

"Tang San bought it out as well?" Bibi Dong asked.

Hu Liena nodded. "He drew Rewind Incense Ash. It only lets him retry key moments in the game and does not increase his real-world combat strength."

Bibi Dong did not speak immediately.

Only usable in the game—on the surface, that sounded heavily restricted.

But for someone like Tang San, the most dangerous thing was giving him repeated chances to dissect failure.

One failure could become one replay, and one replay could reduce the next mistake. If he kept practicing, no one could say how many changes there would be before the finals.

Bibi Dong had seen far too many so-called geniuses.

Some charged ahead on talent alone, some piled resources into cultivation, and some changed their fate through a single fortuitous encounter. But Tang San was troublesome for another reason.

He would swallow every setback, then spit out something sharper.

If that internet café kept giving him such opportunities, then even if every improvement was small, by the day of the finals, their accumulation would be enough to shift the situation.

Bibi Dong looked at Hu Liena.

"The entire Golden Generation will buy out the game."

Yan immediately raised his head.

Xie Yue's eyes shifted, while Hu Liena softly acknowledged the order.

Bibi Dong continued, "But remember three things. Do not fight in the shop, do not forcibly investigate the shop owner, and do not damage the shop's rules."

Her voice was not loud, yet it made the air in the hall colder.

"Only variables that can be used are valuable. What your recklessness destroys is not a resource—it is a disaster."

Yue Guan and Gui Mei lowered their heads at the same time.

They understood.

Spirit Hall could compete, could seize the initiative, and could pile resources into an advantage. But it could not, because of temporary dominance, force that shop into an uncontrollable position.

At last, Bibi Dong looked at Hu Liena.

"If you want to defeat Tang San, it will not be only on the arena."

Hu Liena's heart tightened slightly. "This disciple understands."

She understood Bibi Dong's meaning.

Victory or defeat on the arena was only one match.

But the internet café's progress, rewards, replays, and understanding of its rules would all gradually become bargaining chips before the match. If she lost to Tang San here first, then when she truly stepped onto the arena, what she lost would not merely be techniques.

Meanwhile, Shrek's lodgings were no more peaceful.

After the Grandmaster finished explaining explanation mode, the room remained quiet for a long time.

Flender paced back and forth through the room, his soles nearly grinding a sound from the floor.

"Buying it out costs money, using the machines costs money, and now even watching someone get beaten costs money." The more he spoke, the more his heart ached. "We came here for the finals, not to hand money over to that kid."

Zhao Wuji folded his arms. "But the effect is real."

"You think I don't know the effect is real?" Flender glared at him. "The money is real too!"

Ning Rongrong suddenly said, "Headmaster, if necessary, I can buy it out myself first."

Flender was about to nod, but forcibly stopped himself.

He looked at Ning Rongrong and sighed.

"Having money is your own business. The academy cannot always make its students pay out of their own pockets."

Several people froze at those words.

Flender might have been stingy in ordinary times, but at a moment like this, he was still their headmaster.

He picked up the teacup on the table, then set it down again.

The bottom of the cup struck the table with a soft clink.

"I'll figure out the money." Once Flender said that, he closed his eyes in pain first. "But we cannot be reckless about who buys it first and who trains first. We are not here to join in the fun."

Dai Mubai nodded.

Xiao Wu looked at Tang San, and Tang San said nothing either.

They all understood that Shrek did not have the same foundation as Spirit Hall. Every coin had to be spent where it could change the situation the most.

The Grandmaster spoke. "Tomorrow, let Little San continue replaying first. Fatty and Rongrong should focus on watching. If the buyout slots must be queued, then buy it first for whoever can immediately change the training results the most."

Ma Hongjun pointed at himself. "Me?"

The Grandmaster nodded.

"Your problem is the most obvious and the most urgent."

The smile on Ma Hongjun's face slowly faded.

He was usually the best at joking around, but when the words Evil Fire landed on him, he no longer knew how to respond.

No one in the room laughed.

That made Ma Hongjun feel worse than any consolation could have.

Normally, everyone made a few jokes about his Evil Fire, and he could play dumb and muddle through. But now the Grandmaster was too serious, Flender did not scold him, and even Oscar said nothing.

Ma Hongjun lowered his head to look at his hands. At some point, a thin layer of sweat had formed on his palms.

He suddenly wished someone would laugh.

No one laughed, so he could only admit that this was real.

Early the next morning, when Shrek arrived at the entrance of the internet café, they saw that the Spirit Hall Golden Generation was already standing there.

Yan folded his arms and sneered.

"You came pretty early."

Ma Hongjun immediately shot back, "Aren't you the same?"

When Lin Chuan opened the door, he saw the two groups confronting each other outside.

He did not try to mediate.

He only saw that today's takings should be quite good.

Once the door was fully open, morning light fell through the space between the two groups and into the shop.

Neither side yielded first.

In the end, Lin Chuan merely slipped behind the counter and said mildly, "Those who enter first queue first. Blocking the door doesn't count."

That was far more effective than mediation.

Yan stepped inside first, and Ma Hongjun immediately squeezed in behind him.

Their shoulders bumped, but neither apologized. Lin Chuan saw it and pretended not to. So long as they did not fight, a little hostility between customers would only make them more willing to spend money.