A Wisp of a Soul in the Rakshasa Secret Realm

The Rakshasa Secret Realm was a space belonging to the Rakshasa God alone. It was where her successors underwent their Divine Trials and inherited her Divine Position.

Whenever Bibi Dong cultivated—or rather, undertook a Divine Trial—she opened the entrance to the secret realm in the hidden chamber beneath the Papal Palace and entered this world shrouded in the Rakshasa God's will.

But now, the realm that had once admitted only those undertaking Divine Trials was far from peaceful.

A deep-purple palace stood in the darkness, with an enormous Rakshasa Scythe barring its entrance.

Inside, a massive throne stood at the center of the palace. A beguiling figure sat upon it with one leg crossed over the other, watching an orb before her.

She was merely a Rakshasa Divine Thought left behind by the Rakshasa God, responsible mainly for overseeing Divine Trials.

The orb she watched was a ball of deep-purple light. A faint figure flickered within it: Bibi Dong.

More precisely, it was the last wisp of Bibi Dong's soul remaining in the world. What housed that wisp was a reward the Rakshasa God had once granted her for a Divine Trial: a God-given Soul Bone.

It was the very Torso Bone Qian Juechen had failed to find.

Who could have imagined that a Soul Bone once symbolizing a god's blessing would become Bibi Dong's last refuge?

Once the lofty Pope, the continent's youngest Titled Douluo, the possessor of Twin Martial Souls, and a god's successor, she had died without even leaving an intact body behind.

Like a ghost trapped in a cage, she could only curl up inside the orb, clinging to existence through another's power.

"After all this, you still want revenge?"

The Rakshasa God looked down at her. There was little expression on her alluring face now.

"Bibi Dong, if the Rakshasa Divine Thought I left inside you hadn't awakened on its own at the moment of your death, blocked that attack, and preserved this wisp of your soul..."

"You probably wouldn't even be able to speak to me now."

Inside the orb, Bibi Dong looked haggard, her expression grim.

She was dead. Utterly dead. Her body had been destroyed, her soul shattered, and everything she once possessed had vanished like a bubble.

If the Rakshasa God had not saved a fragment of her at the last moment, she would not even have lived long enough to learn how it ended.

But she could not accept it. There was still too much she had not done.

She had not reclaimed everything she had lost or made those who had hurt her pay. She had not stood at the pinnacle of the continent and vindicated that man!

She had accomplished none of the things she had set out to do. How could she die? How could she possibly die?

"If you won't let me take revenge, why did you save me?"

Bibi Dong stared hard at the Rakshasa God, her voice thick with anger and helplessness.

"If you won't bring me back to life, why save my soul? Just so you could laugh at me? Just to humiliate me?" Bibi Dong demanded through clenched teeth.

To her mind, the fact that the Rakshasa God had saved her meant she still had some use. She still had a chance to turn things around. That chance would not come easily, so she had to fight for it with everything she had.

Her questions left the Rakshasa Temple silent for a moment.

The Rakshasa God did not answer at once. She had other things on her mind.

In truth, the Rakshasa God was even angrier than Bibi Dong.

Bibi Dong was her successor, yet another god's successor had cut her down in public.

This was no longer merely a contest between successors. In a sense, the other side had dealt the Rakshasa God a blatant slap in the face.

If word spread that one god's successor had been slain by another's, it would be a direct challenge to her divine authority.

Ordinarily, she would have sought out that god and settled the score.

The problem was that this time, she had come up against someone she could not afford to provoke lightly.

Only moments ago, she had learned what had happened and discovered the young man's background.

She could hardly believe that seven gods stood behind him—and not just any gods, but seven first-rank chief gods of her own standing: the Seven Elemental Gods, renowned throughout the Divine Realm.

Taken individually, none of the Seven Elemental Gods was necessarily weaker than she was. Worse, they were a close-knit group. They could coordinate with one another and even wield Seven-Element Fusion Power.

Not even Asura made her this wary.

If she went alone to confront that group over a failed successor like Bibi Dong...

She would be walking straight into a trap. Whether she managed to settle the score was doubtful; whether she got beaten was not.

Faced with that reality, even the habitually reckless Rakshasa God could only swallow her anger for now.

As for when she would reclaim her pride, that could wait.

Gods had long lives. They lacked neither time nor the patience to wait for an opportunity.

The Rakshasa God looked at the humbled Bibi Dong and gave a soft laugh. "Abandon you?"

"To be honest, I've considered it."

"I had such high hopes for you at first. But before you could even complete a simple trial of succession, another god's successor killed you. A failure through and through like you no longer deserves to inherit my Divine Position."

The words "a failure" made Bibi Dong's pupils contract. They pierced her heart like a knife, digging up memories she had buried and filling her with pain.

"I didn't lose!" Bibi Dong roared hysterically.

"If it hadn't been for that bastard..."

"Enough!" The Rakshasa God raised one hand, and a quiet utterance cut off her outburst.

"A loss is a loss. I care only about the result. I never consider the process, and I don't listen to excuses."

Those few words silenced Bibi Dong, who had been almost beside herself a moment before.

She clenched her fists. Even reduced to a wisp of a soul, she still could not accept what had happened.

That man's son—a boy weaker than she was, with one fewer ninth soul ring and one fewer martial soul—had cut her down.

Now she could not even take revenge. The god who had once valued her was about to abandon her too. She was a complete failure, a joke in their eyes.

As she sank into self-recrimination, the Rakshasa God suddenly spoke again.

"Still, abandoning you would be something of a waste."

Bibi Dong jerked her head up, a flicker of hope in her eyes.

The Rakshasa God looked down at her, a knowing look in her eyes.

"After all, I've invested so much in you over the years—Divine Trials, Soul Bones, Divine Power, and all those resources. Letting you fade away now would be rather wasteful."