It was Flender.
He caught the tottering Yu Xiaogang and angrily rebuked Hu Liena on the Judgment Platform.
"You ignorant brat, stop spouting nonsense!"
Flender's voice rang out strong and forceful. He thumped his chest, his expression full of righteous indignation.
"I, Flender, have known Xiaogang for decades. No one knows his character better than I do!"
"He is upright and rigorous in his scholarship. You have no idea how much blood and sweat he has poured into his theoretical research, how much hardship he has endured!"
"To call him a thief? To say he betrayed a friend? What an outrageous joke!"
"These are rumors! Slander!"
"..."
Flender swept his gaze around, his voice suddenly rising.
"Today, right here, I, Flender, pledge the honor of our Golden Iron Triangle!"
"Xiaogang is absolutely not that kind of man!"
He believed he knew Yu Xiaogang inside out, unaware that the man he knew was merely the downtrodden, obsessive Yu Xiaogang whom fate had toyed with.
When the words "Golden Iron Triangle" thundered forcefully from Flender's mouth,
Bibi Dong, who had remained silent on the Judgment Platform, suddenly stirred.
"Pfft..."
A soft laugh slipped from her crimson lips.
At first, it was only a stifled chuckle, but it soon became unrestrained, gloriously liberating laughter.
"Haha... hahahaha!"
Bibi Dong laughed like a flowering branch trembling in the breeze, her delicate figure quivering slightly. Her clear, melodious laughter echoed above the entire Square.
Everyone stared, dumbfounded.
This noble, imposing female Supreme Pontiff had actually... laughed?
In such a drawn-swords-and-bent-bows confrontation, she was laughing so freely.
Sunlight spilled over her breathtaking face, and tears slid from the corners of her eyes.
Whether they came from laughter or something else, no one knew. The charm she displayed in that instant made heaven and earth pale in comparison.
Standing beside her, Ning Lin watched with a flicker of tenderness in his eyes and murmured a heartfelt compliment.
"Your grace hasn't faded a bit since those days."
Bibi Dong's laughter stopped abruptly.
She turned and gave Ning Lin a sidelong look, brimming with allure, only for it to swiftly give way to solemnity.
Her expression hardened again, and her gaze settled on Flender, making his heart lurch.
"The Golden Iron Triangle?"
Bibi Dong spoke slowly, a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Good. Very good."
"Since you're invoking that name as your guarantee, I shall have a proper talk with you today about what happened back then."
"..."
Her gaze slowly shifted to the ashen-faced Yu Xiaogang.
"Yu Xiaogang, will you tell them, or shall I?"
Yu Xiaogang's body shuddered violently, and his expression grew uglier still.
Talk about what happened back then?
Talk about the three of us in front of Bibi Dong?
Wouldn't that be inviting humiliation?
But now, with countless eyes upon him, he had no way to retreat.
He drew a deep breath, forced himself to assume a semblance of his "Grandmaster" bearing, and stiffened his neck as he tried to defend himself.
"Hmph! What is there about those days that we cannot discuss?"
Yu Xiaogang's voice was dry and hoarse. Avoiding Bibi Dong's eyes, he addressed the people in the Square at the top of his voice.
"Though my soul power is meager and I have spent my entire life stuck at rank twenty-nine, that does not prevent me, Yu Xiaogang, from becoming a great scholar!"
"My 'Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul' have shown the way to countless lost soul masters!"
"I trained Tang San, an unparalleled genius whose brilliance shakes the ages!"
"I am also the imperial preceptor of the Heaven Dou Empire, revered by all its people!"
The more he spoke, the more agitated he became.
"I, Yu Xiaogang, have walked straight and sat upright all my life! How dare petty scoundrels like you slander me!"
Yu Xiaogang delivered his impassioned speech so convincingly that he almost believed it himself.
Yet the moment his boasting ended,
a cool female voice, like a basin of icy snowmelt dumped over his head, extinguished every last flame of his bluster.
It was Hu Liena.
With her arms folded across her chest and a mocking smile on her lips, she spoke calmly, asking just one question.
"Besides Tang San, do you have any disciples worth mentioning?"
Every trace of color drained from Yu Xiaogang's face.
His lips trembled and his Adam's apple bobbed, but he could not make a sound.
That was right.
Besides Tang San, whom had he ever trained?
Not a single person.
Every halo over his head, every shred of his glory, rested on Tang San alone.
Once Tang San, that lone exception, was stripped away, what would he, Yu Xiaogang, have left?
He did not dare think about it.
Seeing Yu Xiaogang looking so utterly lost, Tang San stepped forward again, trying to salvage his teacher's dignity.
But Yu Xiaogang spoke first.
"Wh-what... does this have to do with what happened back then?"
Like a drowning man clutching his last straw, he tried to force the conversation back onto its original course.
At his words, Hu Liena's lips curled in scorn.
"What does it have to do with it?"
"Quite a great deal."
"Yu Xiaogang, I have read your so-called 'Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul.'"
"They sound perfectly logical, but in truth, they are empty—nothing but flowers without fruit."
"Your theories have one fatal flaw."
"..."
Hu Liena paused, sweeping her gaze toward the Shrek group below the platform.
"They apply only to those supreme geniuses who appear once in a century. To the ordinary people who make up ninety-nine percent of the soul master world, your theories are nothing but a pile of wastepaper!"
At those words, a thoughtful light immediately flickered in the eyes of the soul masters of humble origins in the Square.
Many of them had once treated the Grandmaster's theories as sacred standards, yet when they cultivated, they ran into walls at every turn and achieved little.
In the past, they had simply assumed they lacked talent and were slow-witted.
With Hu Liena pointing it out today, they suddenly felt as though wisdom had been poured straight into their heads.
"So... so I wasn't the problem?"
"The Grandmaster's theories aren't suited to ordinary people like us at all?"
Yu Xiaogang turned deathly pale and still tried to argue.
"Nonsense! My theories are universally applicable..."
"Universally applicable?"
Hu Liena interrupted him with a soft laugh.
Her gaze shot like a precisely aimed arrow into the ranks of the Shrek Seven Devils.
"Evil-Eyed White Tiger Dai Mubai, a prince of the Star Luo Empire. Your martial soul was already top-tier, and you follow the power-attack path passed down through your family. What does any of that have to do with his theories?"
Dai Mubai's eyes darted away, his expression a little awkward.
"Sausage Specialist Oscar, a food-type soul master with innate full soul power. Your cultivation path is to become a support even Titled Douluos would fight over. What did he teach you?"
Oscar rubbed his nose awkwardly and said nothing.
"Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Ning Rongrong, with the world's greatest support-type tool martial soul. You have your sect's finest resources and legacy. Do you need guidance from someone who cannot even figure out the optimal soul ring configuration?"
Ning Rongrong instinctively avoided everyone's eyes, her small face flushing.
"And you, Ma Hongjun."
Hu Liena's gaze finally settled on the fat boy.
Before you continue