Luofan stopped and looked at Bibi Dong. This woman had to have something seriously wrong with her.
On the surface, as the Pope of Spirit Hall, she seemed aloof, commanding, and fiercely ambitious.
But now, the madness in her seemed to run bone-deep.
Had her past experiences driven her over the edge?
Or had the Rakshasa God's divine consciousness made her madness worse?
Qian Renxue was carrying out the Nation-Stealing Plan under Xue Qinghe's identity. It was Spirit Hall's way of taking the Heaven Dou Empire without shedding blood.
If it succeeded, they could avoid a bloodbath!
Yet Bibi Dong had barely met him before exposing Qian Renxue's identity outright?
Was that something a normal mother would do?
And she had not even let Qian Renxue tell him herself?
What was she trying to do? Deliberately drive a wedge between him and Qian Renxue?
No wonder Qian Renxue had never had much warmth for Bibi Dong.
This woman was nothing like a normal mother.
"Your Holiness!"
Though Luofan was silently criticizing her, his expression gave nothing away. He looked at Bibi Dong and said, "I've never cared what Brother Xue's identity is. What matters to me is the person he is, not his status as crown prince!"
"Luofan..."
Hearing him say that, Qian Renxue felt a surge of warmth unlike anything she had known before.
The contrast made everything clear!
Just look at how Bibi Dong treated her, despite being her mother!
Then look at Luofan's attitude!
The difference could not have been more painful!
"Oh? So you don't care that she deliberately hid her identity from you? Or even that she hid the fact that she's a girl?" Bibi Dong tilted her head slightly and stared at Luofan in surprise.
Clearly, she had not expected that answer at all.
"I don't."
Luofan shook his head calmly. Then he turned to Xue Qinghe and said, "All I know is that when I left the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and had nowhere to go, Brother Xue took me in and helped me hunt down my first Soul Ring!"
"All I know is that Brother Xue even gave me a head Soul Bone!"
"All I know is that Brother Xue has always taken excellent care of me!"
"I live by one rule: I treat people well if they treat me well. Things like identity don't matter!"
Qian Renxue was deeply moved by his words. Her earlier panic finally ebbed away.
"Bibi Dong!"
Then Qian Renxue glared at Bibi Dong and demanded, "Why did you leave the Papal Palace and come all the way to Heaven Dou City? What are you trying to do?"
Bibi Dong met her daughter's angry gaze with gentle eyes. "Xiao Xue, I simply wanted to see you. You've been here alone in Heaven Dou City for so long, and I don't think I've ever come to visit you."
"Save that for someone gullible enough to believe it!" Qian Renxue's expression did not soften at Bibi Dong's gentle, motherly words. Her reply was distant and cold.
Bibi Dong looked at the daughter before her, her feelings tangled.
Part of her felt guilty. Perhaps she had made a mistake just now.
Another part felt hurt that her own daughter treated her so harshly.
And beneath it all, she was angry. What kind of daughter behaved like this?
"Fine. If you don't want to talk properly, then we won't."
The warmth vanished from Bibi Dong's face, replaced by a colder expression. She turned to Luofan. "I mainly came to see this child named Luofan."
"I won't let you hurt him!" This was the Bibi Dong Qian Renxue recognized. At her words, Qian Renxue hurriedly spread her arms in front of Luofan and glared at her mother.
"Don't worry. This child has remarkable talent, and he's one of Spirit Hall's people now. As its Pope, why would I harm one of our own geniuses?"
Bibi Dong shook her head at the sight of Qian Renxue shielding Luofan.
She really was my daughter. Bibi Dong saw traces of an old acquaintance in Luofan. Did her daughter, like her younger self, have a fondness for this type?
Qian Renxue kept Luofan firmly behind her, her eyes fixed on Bibi Dong.
Bibi Dong's words made sense, but Qian Renxue clearly did not believe her.
Bibi Dong could not be bothered to argue with Qian Renxue any further. Instead, she focused on Luofan.
"Luofan..."
Bibi Dong began, "From what I know, you were born into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. You have a quarter of its bloodline."
"So awakening the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda would have been normal for you."
"But yours was a Malignant Mutated Martial Soul of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda."
Bibi Dong paused almost imperceptibly on the words "Malignant Mutated," then continued, "Yet you completely turned your fate around."
"Your Martial Soul went from a Malignant Mutation to a Beneficial Mutation, becoming a Nine-Story Pagoda-Type Martial Soul!"
"And less than two years after awakening your Martial Soul, you're already a Three Rings Soul Elder!"
"I want to know how you turned a maligned, mutated Trash Martial Soul into a Top-Tier Martial Soul through Beneficial Mutation."
"This would be enormously valuable to Spirit Hall's theoretical research. It could even help everyone in the world with a Malignant Mutated Martial Soul in ways we can't begin to measure. I hope you won't hide the answer from me!"
By the end, Bibi Dong had framed her demand as a matter of helping all humanity.
So that was it!
Bibi Dong's words sounded noble enough. No one could fault her stated reasons.
But Luofan immediately understood why she had come to Heaven Dou City.
She came for Yu Xiaogang, didn't she?
She wants to find out how I overcame my Malignant Mutated Martial Soul so she can help Yu Xiaogang, right?
She really is the biggest fool for love on Douluo Continent!
They had been apart for so many years, and she was now the Pope of Spirit Hall. Yet for Yu Xiaogang's sake, she had personally traveled all this way.
"I don't know."
Though Luofan could not help privately thinking of her as Blind Douluo, he kept his face composed and shook his head. "I don't know how my Martial Soul evolved either."
"All right, Bibi Dong. Luofan has answered you. You can leave now!" Qian Renxue kept her arms spread, shielding Luofan behind her as she spoke bluntly to Bibi Dong.
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