Bibi Dong finally came to a stop on the Judgment Platform.
She looked at no one.
Not at the ashen-faced Tang San, nor at the utterly desolate Yu Xiaogang.
From the moment she appeared, her gaze had remained fixed on that figure who stood ramrod straight despite the wounds covering his body.
She studied Ning Lin's face, and in her eyes, deep as a sea of stars, flickered bewilderment, remembrance, pain, and... wild joy.
Time seemed to stand still at that moment.
Under the gaze of tens of thousands, the empress who reigned over all beneath heaven remained lost in a daze for a long time.
Then, suddenly.
She moved.
As though she had gone mad, she rushed toward him, heedless of everything.
Before everyone's stunned eyes, she threw her arms around Ning Lin, rose onto her tiptoes, and kissed his lips with all her strength!
Possessive, yet passionate.
Only after a long while did their lips part.
Yet before anyone could recover from that earth-shattering sight—
Smack!
A crisp slap rang out across the entire square.
Bibi Dong raised her hand.
Her eyes instantly reddened.
"You're alive! Why didn't you come find me all these years?!"
The entire square fell deathly silent.
If Bibi Dong's arrival had been a thunderclap out of a clear sky,
then her embracing and kissing Ning Lin in public had turned heaven and earth upside down.
And the slap that followed that kiss, along with her bone-chilling demand, made everyone's minds shut down completely.
The tens of thousands in the Square gaped, their eyes wide and round, their expressions frozen as though a petrification Soul Skill had been cast on them all.
What... what was going on?
The Supreme Pontiff of Spirit Hall, the most powerful woman on the continent, and a condemned prisoner about to be executed...
What exactly was their relationship?!
The deafening cries for his death had vanished. Now, a falling pin could have been heard.
Everyone strained their ears and held their breath, afraid of missing even a single word or detail.
This scandal was enormous!
Beyond anything anyone could have imagined!
Below the High Platform.
Tang San's expression could no longer merely be called ugly.
His face was ashen, twisted with fury.
He stared fixedly at the two on the Judgment Platform, his fists clenched beneath his sleeves until they crackled, his knuckles white from the strain.
The plan had fallen completely apart!
The trial he had so painstakingly arranged, the public sentiment he had so perfectly shaped...
The moment Bibi Dong appeared, it had all become a joke.
What kind of monster was this Ning Lin?
Not only had he ruined his plans time and again, now he had even dragged Bibi Dong into this!
"Teacher..."
Tang San turned toward Yu Xiaogang beside him, his voice dry and strained.
He wanted an answer.
What he saw, however, was a face paler than a corpse's.
Yu Xiaogang's body was trembling violently beyond his control.
His eyes were vacant, fixed unwaveringly on Bibi Dong. His lips quivered, but no sound emerged.
Jealousy?
Rage?
Or... despair?
Countless emotions churned in his chest, threatening to tear him apart.
The woman he had loved all his life, and hated all his life.
The woman he had believed always held a place for him in her heart.
Now, she had traveled countless miles to appear here for another man.
She had even offered him such a... passionate, deeply affectionate kiss before the eyes of the entire world.
Yu Xiaogang felt as though an invisible hand had seized his heart and squeezed viciously, the pain leaving him unable to breathe.
He had lost.
Lost utterly and completely.
The Shrek group had long since been left dumbstruck.
Dai Mubai swallowed instinctively and murmured, "I... I didn't see that wrong, did I? The Supreme Pontiff... kissed Ning Lin?"
Ma Hongjun's reaction was the most exaggerated.
Such a beautiful woman...
Had actually thrown herself into Ning Lin's arms??
Jealousy surged ever more fiercely in his eyes.
Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing exchanged a glance, each seeing shock and confusion in the other's eyes.
Their greater concern was the political significance behind this incident.
The man of Spirit Hall's Supreme Pontiff...
That identity alone was enough to shake the entire continent!
In the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's seating area.
Ning Fengzhi's hand trembled slightly as he held his teacup.
A drop of scalding tea splashed onto the back of his hand, but he did not notice.
A sharp light flickered in his worldly, discerning eyes as his mind raced.
No wonder...
No wonder Bibi Dong had suddenly changed her mind back in Spirit City and spared the Upper Three Sects.
No wonder Ning Lin's strength had soared after returning from Spirit Hall, and he had even become the Heaven Dou City Lord.
So this was the key to it all!
Ning Lin was actually Bibi Dong's man!
He had buried this secret far too deeply!
He glanced at Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo beside him, whose expressions were equally grave, then slowly set down his teacup with an almost inaudible sigh.
This game of chess was growing ever more complicated.
Back on the Judgment Platform.
Facing Bibi Dong's reddened eyes, brimming with endless hurt and fury, Ning Lin fell silent.
Let the show begin!
He raised his hand, wanting to caress the face he had yearned for day and night, but stopped halfway and finally let it fall helplessly.
He turned his head slightly, avoiding her gaze, his voice as hoarse as two sheets of sandpaper scraping together.
"If I could..."
"I truly wish you had gone on believing I was dead."
At those words, Bibi Dong shuddered.
The fury in her eyes was instantly replaced by immense confusion and pain.
"Why?"
Her voice trembled.
"Do you know that I thought you were dead?! For you, I... I..."
Her words caught in her throat, and she could not continue.
Ning Lin slowly shook his head, a bleak smile appearing on his face.
He turned to meet Bibi Dong's gaze and began recounting what had happened, word by deliberate word.
"That night, Qian Xunji's Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul nearly annihilated me, body and soul."
"It was the Phoenix Undying Flame—its final gift—that let me rise from the ashes in the depths of despair."
Relief at his survival flickered in Bibi Dong's eyes.
But Ning Lin's next words plunged her into an icy abyss.
"But..."
"The price of that rebirth was that my innate constitution, my talent, everything I had... was utterly ruined."
Ning Lin gave a self-mocking smile and slowly raised his hand, his soul power rippling around him.
Yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black.
Six Soul Rings pulsed beside him.
"Look."
"More than ten years have passed."
"For more than ten whole years, I gave everything I had, and I'm still nothing but a mere rank sixty-nine Soul Emperor."
"A... worthless failure."
He spoke those final words very softly, yet they struck Bibi Dong's heart like two heavy hammers.
"And you?"
Ning Lin looked at her, his eyes filled with love, pain, and an inferiority that ran deep into his bones.
"You became the Supreme Pontiff of Spirit Hall, a rank ninety-nine Peerless Douluo, the most exalted woman on this continent, standing at a summit everyone else can only gaze up at."
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