"Bibi Dong! How dare you disregard the Heaven Dou Imperial Family like this!"
Ning Lin was the Marquis Who Guards the Nation whom she had personally invested.
He was a subject of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Now, the Pope of Spirit Hall was marrying her subject, yet she had issued a proclamation to the whole world without so much as a formal notice!
This was naked humiliation!
She was telling everyone that, in Bibi Dong's eyes, the Heaven Dou Empire was nothing!
The Heaven Dou Imperial Family could neither keep the man she wanted nor dare to try!
"Please calm yourself, Your Highness."
Prince Xue Xing, standing beside her, hurriedly tried to soothe her.
"Spirit Hall is powerful. We... we should swallow our anger for now."
"Swallow it?"
A cold light flashed in "Xue Qinghe's" eyes.
"That word isn't in my vocabulary!"
Qian Renxue had spent years plotting in Heaven Dou, and success was finally within reach. How could she allow Bibi Dong to thrust herself into the middle of things now and derail her entire plan?
"Pass down my orders."
"Xue Qinghe's" voice regained its composure.
"Prepare a generous gift. Tell them... I will personally visit the City Lord's Residence to congratulate Marquis Ning!"
The Star Luo Empire, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan...
Every power opposed to Spirit Hall felt unprecedented pressure upon receiving the news.
Ning Lin's personal strength might not have been enough to make them wary.
But standing behind Ning Lin was Bibi Dong! The whole of Spirit Hall!
This marriage was not merely the union of two people, but the merger of two great powers.
Once Ning Lin and Bibi Dong married, Heaven Dou City, the imperial capital, would fall completely under Spirit Hall's control.
Then Spirit Hall's power would blaze like the sun at its zenith, and no one would be able to shake it.
Some rejoiced, while others grieved.
And none grieved more than Yu Xiaogang, who had just been invested as the "Blue Lightning Prince."
The Blue Lightning Prince's Residence.
Yu Xiaogang listened to the news brought by his servants and froze.
Bibi Dong... was going to marry Ning Lin?
The news struck his heart like a heavy hammer, leaving him dizzy and almost sick to his stomach.
Why?
Why would that woman rather choose an obscure city lord than spare him another glance?
He, Yu Xiaogang, was her first love!
He was the "Grandmaster" with the greatest theoretical knowledge on the Douluo Continent!
Jealousy, resentment, bitterness...
All those dark emotions gnawed madly at his heart like venomous snakes.
"Impossible... this is absolutely impossible!"
His face twisted as he roared hysterically at several trusted subordinates.
"This is a conspiracy! Ning Lin's conspiracy!"
"Bibi Dong has been blinded by him! Deceived by him!"
Clutching at his last lifesaving straw, he began frantically making "excuses" for Bibi Dong.
Yet his words sounded so pale and powerless.
"Your Highness, the Pope Token's proclamation has already spread throughout the world. This... this can hardly be false."
One subordinate cautiously reminded him.
"Shut up!"
Yu Xiaogang snapped furiously.
"What do you know!"
His eyes darted about, and he seemed to think of something. A venomous gleam flashed in them.
"That's right! Hu Liena!"
"You remember how Hu Liena burst into the City Lord's Residence yesterday and mentioned that my princely title had been restored, don't you?"
His subordinates exchanged glances and nodded.
Yu Xiaogang sneered. "Don't you find that strange? How could a mere Saintess of Spirit Hall have learned something so confidential immediately?"
"It was all false!"
"It was clearly a lie Ning Lin and Hu Liena concocted together!"
"Their goal was to blacken my name before Bibi Dong! To slander me!"
"Bibi Dong must have believed their rumors and made such an impulsive decision in a fit of anger!"
Yu Xiaogang's voice brimmed with "reason" and "certainty."
He pushed all the blame onto Ning Lin and Hu Liena.
He cast himself as an innocent victim framed by villains.
Listening to his words turn black into white, his subordinates all wore odd expressions.
Though they dared not contradict him, their hearts were clear as mirrors.
His Holiness the Pope and Lord Ning were a perfect match, a talented man and a beautiful woman joined by heaven. What did that have to do with a useless fool like you?
And here you were, imagining yourself loved and stirring up trouble with rumors.
Truly... utterly ridiculous.
To Yu Xiaogang's own ears, his self-righteous "analysis" sounded perfectly reasonable, seamless as a heavenly robe.
He placed himself in the victim's position: a tragic hero misunderstood by the woman he loved and framed by treacherous scoundrels.
His own touching fantasy let him briefly forget the cruelty of reality.
His trusted subordinates, however, exchanged glances, their eyes revealing undisguised contempt and... pity.
The newly invested Blue Lightning Prince seemed to have lost his head to jealousy and bitterness.
He seemed to have forgotten that the Pope Token embodied Spirit Hall's highest will. How could it be a trifling matter?
Besides, anyone could have seen the deep, inseparable affection in His Holiness the Pope's gaze when she looked at Lord Ning in Heaven Dou Square yesterday.
How could that have been the result of deception or delusion?
It was clearly a love suppressed for twenty years bursting forth at last.
They simply dared not say any of this.
Yu Xiaogang was immersed in the lies he had woven for himself. Anyone who tried to poke through that thin paper veil would be regarded as his enemy.
"Go and spread my words!"
Yu Xiaogang waved his hand grandly, looking as though he were directing the affairs of the realm.
"I want everyone in Heaven Dou City to know Ning Lin's true face! To know what a vile, shameless scoundrel he is!"
"Well..."
His subordinates looked troubled.
"Your Highness, wouldn't that be... somewhat unwise? Lord Ning is riding high right now, and His Holiness the Pope is backing him. We..."
"Useless fools!"
Yu Xiaogang flew into a rage and kicked over the chair beside him.
"A pack of worthless good-for-nothings! Have you forgotten that I am now a prince personally invested by the Heaven Dou Imperial Family? The entire Heaven Dou Empire stands behind me!"
"No matter how strong Ning Lin is, can he really oppose the empire?"
"Bibi Dong... she's merely confused for the moment! Once she understands the truth, she will surely change her mind and return to me!"
Seeing Yu Xiaogang looking like a man possessed, his subordinates dared not advise him further. They could only murmur their assent and bow as they withdrew from the hall.
Soon, a new rumor began quietly spreading through Heaven Dou City's streets and alleys.
Its contents were exactly the same as Yu Xiaogang's furious ranting in his residence.
It claimed that Ning Lin and Hu Liena, Spirit Hall's Saintess, had long been having an affair, and that the two had devised a vicious scheme to drive a wedge between Pope Bibi Dong and Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang.
It also claimed that Ning Lin had used honeyed words and ingratiating smiles to blind His Holiness the Pope, tricking her into agreeing to marry him.
The rumor had been crafted with a nose and eyes, convincing down to the smallest detail. It even described Hu Liena's nighttime intrusion into the City Lord's Residence, twisting it into "proof" of a secret rendezvous between them.
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