Bibi Dong's Devastating Losses, and the Shifting Balance of the Continent!

After resolving the backlash from the curse-like Poison afflicting Dugu Bo and his granddaughter.

Leng Yaozhu did not linger. Taking Lu Xuan with her, she transformed into a streak of crimson light and returned straight to Heaven Dou City.

Meanwhile, thanks to her martial soul evolution, Dugu Yan's soul power had soared to the peak of rank 19.

She simply decided to remain in seclusion at the treasure land that was the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

She intended to break through to rank 20 in one push, then have Dugu Bo take her directly to hunt for her second soul ring, sparing them the trouble of traveling back and forth.

And so, five days slipped by quietly in peace.

Yet beneath those five seemingly calm days, towering waves had surged through the continent's shadows.

Outside Spirit City, yellow sand filled the sky.

Two figures with utterly depleted auras appeared on the horizon, supporting each other as they stumbled forward.

They were drenched in blood, their once-splendid elder robes reduced to charred scraps.

Their exposed skin was covered in burns so deep that bone showed through, making them look like fiends that had just crawled out of an infernal sea of fire.

Only the last breath in their chests kept them clinging to life.

They were none other than Gui Mei and Ling Yuan, who had fled for their lives!

For five days, they had been like birds startled by a bowstring, not daring to stop for even a moment.

Only when the walls of Spirit City, the symbol of the continent's supreme authority, came into view.

Did their nerves, stretched to the breaking point, finally snap.

With a thud, both collapsed outside the cold city gates.

"Quick! Someone, come quickly! There are gravely wounded people outside!"

The captain of the guards stationed at the gates noticed something wrong and hurried forward with his men.

When he brushed aside their tangled, charred hair and saw their faces clearly, he gasped in horror.

"It's—it's Elder Gui Mei and Elder Ling Yuan! Quick! Get them settled immediately and notify His Holiness the Pope at once!"

"What?!"

Inside the Pope's Palace, Bibi Dong shot up from her throne upon hearing the news, her breathtaking face filled with disbelief.

She did not dare delay in the slightest.

Immediately, she summoned the palace's finest healing-type Soul Saint and hurried to the room where the two elders had been placed.

"Quick! Heal both elders, whatever it takes!"

Bibi Dong barked the order, a barely perceptible tremor in her voice.

Sweat covered the healing Soul Saint's forehead as they hastily released their martial soul, enveloping Gui Mei and Ling Yuan in a rich green light brimming with life.

As time passed, the gruesome wounds on their bodies slowly began to scab over, but the healing Soul Saint's face grew increasingly pale.

"Your Holiness..." The healing Soul Saint dropped to their knees with a thud, their voice trembling.

"I am incompetent! I can barely heal the elders' external wounds, but an exceedingly terrifying, tyrannical flame lurks deep within their meridians!"

"That flame clings like a festering sore on the bone, constantly eroding their vitality. The moment my healing soul power touches it, it is burned to nothing. I cannot eradicate it!"

"If this fire Poison is not removed, it will not only severely impair their strength in the future, but may even..."

The healing Soul Saint pressed their head low against the floor, not daring to continue.

Bibi Dong's expression darkened until it seemed water might drip from it, her fists clenched tightly inside her sleeves.

"Your Holiness..."

A faint, hoarse call broke the deathly silence.

Gui Mei, whose foundation of soul power was deeper, was the first to regain consciousness.

He struggled to open his eyes. His once ethereal, elusive ghostly form now betrayed unmistakable fear.

"That female Titled Douluo... called herself Heavenly Phoenix. Her name is Leng Yaozhu."

"Her strength... is unfathomable. I'm afraid... I'm afraid she has already reached the level of a rank 99 Limit Douluo!"

Those words struck Bibi Dong's heart like a sledgehammer.

A rank 99 Limit Douluo?!

Where on this continent had such a terrifying, peerless powerhouse suddenly emerged from?!

Bibi Dong forcibly suppressed her shock and swept her gaze across the room, her voice tight. "Where is Yue Guan?"

Yue Guan, Gui Mei, and Ling Yuan were the core strength she could currently control completely.

Losing any one of them would be as unbearable as having an arm severed.

Worse still, if those old men in the Elder Hall learned that her orders had cost them such fighting strength, her position as Pope would be thrown into peril!

That old bastard Qian Daoliu would absolutely seize the chance to turn on her!

At the mention of Yue Guan, two trails of bloody tears flowed from Gui Mei's hollow eyes, his voice shrill with despair:

"Old Chrysanthemum... he insisted on holding them off to give us a sliver of hope. He has already... fallen!"

Boom!

Bibi Dong's head spun, and her heart instantly went cold.

Gui Mei and Yue Guan's greatest deterrent had been their martial soul fusion skill, one capable of deciding the outcome of a battle—the Two Extremes Stillness Domain.

Now Yue Guan was dead and Gui Mei gravely wounded. That martial soul fusion skill was gone forever. The trump card in her hand was ruined!

"I'm sorry, Your Holiness... we underestimated her..."

Ling Yuan also slowly regained consciousness beside him and begged forgiveness, her face bleak.

"...Rest and recover."

Bibi Dong drew a deep breath.

Forcing down the vicious fury surging in her chest, she waved a weary hand and strode out of the chamber.

She returned to the vast, dimly lit Pope's Palace.

Looking at the mountain of documents piled on her desk, Bibi Dong slumped back into her broad chair, unable to speak for a long time.

The great hall was deathly silent, save for her slightly labored breathing.

"Bibi Dong."

Suddenly, a majestic, boundless voice, as impossible to defy as a god's, thundered above the Pope's Palace.

Brilliant golden light tore through the gloom inside the hall.

A tall, straight-backed figure appeared out of thin air, looking down upon her from above.

"What? Qian Daoliu, did you come all this way just to laugh at me?"

Bibi Dong slowly raised her head, a cold smile tinged with madness and mockery curling across her exquisite face.

Qian Daoliu's face was as still as water, his eyes radiating undisguised pressure and coldness:

"Hmph! In this operation, the Elder Hall lost a rank 95 Super Douluo."

"A rank 95 Titled Douluo and a rank 93 Titled Douluo were gravely wounded and left on the brink of death!"

"Bibi Dong, this is a grave dereliction of your duties as Pope!"

Ignoring the venom in Bibi Dong's eyes, he announced in a tone that brooked no argument:

"I came to inform you that Xiao Xue's undercover mission in the Heaven Dou Empire ends here!"

"With such a terrifying powerhouse of unknown origins now entrenched in Heaven Dou City, it is no longer safe."

"I will go to Heaven Dou City myself and bring Xiao Xue back!"

Before leaving, Qian Daoliu gave her a cold glance. "And from now on, it would be best if you and your daughter never met again."

The golden light faded, and Qian Daoliu vanished without a trace.

He had not seized the opportunity to strip Bibi Dong of her position as Pope.

Yet that lofty pronouncement struck her nerves more painfully than any punishment could.

"Hahaha... hahahahaha!"

Bibi Dong's hysterical laughter suddenly erupted through the empty hall.

She sprang to her feet, her lavish papal crown tilting slightly amid her violent trembling.

"Well done, Leng Yaozhu! Well done, Qian Daoliu!"

She stared fixedly in the direction where Qian Daoliu had disappeared.

A chilling gleam of purplish-black evil suddenly blazed from her once noble, majestic eyes.

Meanwhile, in the council hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

The atmosphere was so heavy it seemed like solidified lead.

"Fengzhi, what earth-shattering event has happened for you to summon us two old bones in such a hurry today?"

Bone Douluo Gu Rong sat squarely in his chair, his brow slightly furrowed.

Ning Fengzhi stood in the center of the hall, his expression graver than it had ever been.

He drew a deep breath and said solemnly:

"Uncle Jian, Uncle Gu, we just received a secret report. A mysterious female Titled Douluo has appeared in Heaven Dou City."

"Spirit Hall dispatched an elite lineup of three Titled Douluos—Yue Guan, Gui Mei, and Ling Yuan—to surround and eliminate her. The result..."

Ning Fengzhi paused, his voice dry. "Yue Guan died in battle. The other two fled with grave injuries!"

"What?!" Gu Rong shot to his feet, his pupils contracting sharply.

"How is that possible?! Even I could only avoid a direct confrontation with that lineup. How could they have suffered one dead and two wounded?!"

"Because the opponent they faced was no ordinary Titled Douluo."

Sword Douluo Chen Xin, who had been resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them.

A sharp sword intent flashed through the hall and vanished. His voice was low and certain. "She is a rank 99 Limit Douluo!"

"Uncle Jian, how can you be so certain?!" Ning Fengzhi turned toward him in surprise.

Chen Xin rose, gazing at the vast sky outside the hall, a trace of remembrance and reverence passing through his eyes:

"My father was also an extraordinarily gifted rank 98 Peak Douluo when he was alive."

"Back then, he went to Spirit Hall to challenge its Arbitration Elder, Qian Daoliu, who was known as invincible in the skies."

"After that battle, my father returned gravely wounded and passed away soon afterward."

"Before his death, he explained to me in detail the terrifying gap between each rank above 95."

"At that realm, the difference between each rank is an uncrossable gulf between heaven and earth!"

"Yue Guan and Gui Mei possessed an extremely rare martial soul fusion skill. Since she could kill Yue Guan and severely wound the other two."

"It means that mysterious powerhouse forcibly crushed their fusion skill through absolute strength!"

Chen Xin turned around, his gaze frighteningly calm:

"Across the entire continent, only a rank 99 Limit Douluo who has touched the realm of gods could accomplish that!"

The hall fell into a long, deathly silence.

After a long while, Ning Fengzhi wearily rubbed his brow and slowly exhaled a stale breath:

"Let us wait and see. At least for now, nothing this peerless powerhouse has done conflicts with the interests of our Upper Three Sects."

"In fact, from a certain perspective, she has helped us deal a heavy blow to Spirit Hall's arrogance."

Such a powerhouse had appeared out of nowhere on the continent, powerful enough to shatter its balance.

The entire Soul Master World's power structure was bound to undergo a violent reshuffling.

And it was not only the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

On the desks of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the Lower Four Sects, and the other major powers, this bloodstained, top-secret report was arriving one after another.

And tonight.

The one who would struggle most to sleep was probably the emperor seated on his dragon throne deep within the imperial palace of Heaven Dou City.