Ning Lin confronted Tang San and edited Qian Renxue's past

"Xue Xing!"

Tang San spoke. His voice was quiet, yet it struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.

"My Tang Sect defended the empire against Spirit Hall, risking our heads and spilling our blood, and you dare slander us as a cancer?"

"Who gave you the nerve!"

Under his stare, Prince Xue Xing's legs went weak, and he nearly fell to his knees.

"I... I..."

He stammered for a long while, unable to get a single word out.

Tang San turned his gaze toward Xue Beng on the dragon throne.

"And you, Xue Beng. I thought you were a smart man."

"To think you were another ungrateful, benighted ruler, letting treacherous ministers pull your strings!"

Xue Beng's face turned deathly pale. His lips trembled, but he dared not argue.

Tang San's aggression exceeded everyone's expectations.

Was he going to... demand an accounting before the court, or even... kill the emperor?

The entire hall was as silent as death.

Only the aura radiating from Tang San, mingling fury with murderous intent, continued to spread.

Until...

Clink.

A soft sound rang out.

Ning Lin set down his teacup.

That tiny movement was like a thunderclap, instantly drawing everyone's attention.

He rose and brushed nonexistent dust from his clothes, his expression still as calm as drifting clouds in a gentle breeze.

"Tang San."

He spoke.

"It's been a while. It seems you gained quite a lot in the Star Dou Great Forest."

"How did it feel to receive the sacrifice of two hundred-thousand-year soul beasts?"

Ning Lin's words were a sharp knife, plunging straight into the deepest wound in Tang San's heart.

Da Ming, Er Ming!

Tang San's eyes instantly reddened.

"Ning Lin!"

He pointed the Sea God Trident straight at Ning Lin, terrifying golden light pulsing along its blade.

"You deserve to die!"

"Today, I'll use your blood to honor Da Ming and Er Ming's spirits in heaven!"

Faced with this undisguised murderous intent, Ning Lin merely smiled faintly.

"Kill me?"

"With your strength?"

He took a step forward.

Just one step.

An intangible aura rose from him.

Unlike Tang San's violent aura, it was as unfathomable as an abyss, as oppressive as a prison.

Tang San's divine might of the Sea God, powerful enough to keep an ordinary Titled Douluo from lifting their head, melted away effortlessly before that aura, like spring snow beneath a blazing sun.

Tang San's pupils abruptly contracted.

How was this possible!

He had already become a Titled Douluo and wielded the Super Divine Artifact, the Sea God Trident. Why... why did he still feel that familiar helplessness before this man?

Just what realm had Ning Lin's strength reached?

Watching the shock on Tang San's face, Ning Lin felt little stir within him.

A Titled Douluo...

The Sea God Trident...

So this was the so-called chosen one?

Blessed by fortune, encountering one wondrous opportunity after another, always surviving desperate situations and emerging stronger.

Today, he had stormed into the hall with the force of thunder, determined to reclaim everything through absolute power.

An ordinary opponent would probably have already lost their nerve in the face of such a scene.

Unfortunately, his opponent was Ning Lin.

Crushing him with sheer strength could certainly solve the problem.

But that would be far too dull.

To break this stalemate, he had to strike at the root and shatter everything Tang San took pride in.

Ning Lin's gaze casually swept over "Xue Qinghe," standing in a corner, likewise stunned speechless by the sudden turn of events.

A thought surfaced in his mind.

"Ding!"

A crisp notification sounded in his mind.

The system interface, which he had not seen for some time, appeared automatically.

[Detected that the host is facing a challenge from the 'chosen one.' The activation conditions for the 'History Compilation' system have been met.]

[Currently editable character: Qian Renxue.]

[Begin editing?]

Here it was.

A hint of amusement curled Ning Lin's lips.

Tang San, your greatest trump card was your "destiny."

And mine was the ability to rewrite "destiny."

He looked at Tang San's face, twisted with rage, without a shred of pity.

To break this stalemate and plunge this so-called "chosen one" into an abyss beyond redemption, what could be more effective than undermining his strongest potential ally from within?

Qian Renxue...

Spirit Hall's young mistress, the future Angel God.

Estranged from her mother, Bibi Dong, she felt no sense of belonging to Spirit Hall. Instead, she saw Tang San as a pawn she could use against Bibi Dong.

In the original course of events, she would even show him mercy several times because of the unusual feelings she developed for him.

How laughable.

Then...

What if the source of that estrangement were rewritten?

What if the tragic childhood that drove her and Bibi Dong apart as mother and daughter had never existed in the first place?

Ning Lin's gaze deepened.

His consciousness sank into the system interface.

Light and shadow shifted, countless fragments of history glittering before him like stars.

He precisely located the darkest, most crucial point in Qian Renxue's history.

[Select historical point—]

Ning Lin's thoughts became commands, which he entered without hesitation.

[Qian Renxue's tragic childhood!]

[Select historical point—]

[Qian Renxue's tragic childhood!]

Ning Lin's thoughts became commands, which he entered without hesitation.

In an instant, the entire council hall, along with everyone poised on the brink of conflict within it, seemed to have been paused.

The twisted rage on Tang San's face, Xue Beng's deathly pale terror, the trembling ministers, even the dust drifting through the air—all froze in that instant.

Only Ning Lin's consciousness remained beyond it all.

Before his eyes, light and shadow shattered, and everything became streaks of light racing backward.

The river of time and space surged, countless fragments of scenes hurtling past him.

Like a spectator on the bank, he watched coldly as the system forcibly extracted and reversed the course of "Qian Renxue's" fate.

That dark childhood, born of Qian Xunji's crime, during which Bibi Dong hated and neglected her before finally sending her to infiltrate the Heaven Dou Empire... was being erased.

In its place came an entirely new thread of fate, woven by Ning Lin himself.

The light faded.

Ning Lin's consciousness descended into an entirely new "past."

Spirit City, the Papal Hall.

Gone was Bibi Dong's gloomy, lavish style. Instead, everything was golden, filled with sanctity and majesty.

A statue of the Six-Winged Angel towered above, looking down upon everything.

A little girl with golden twin ponytails, about six or seven years old, sat upright at a desk.

She wore a fitted, pale-gold court dress, her little face as exquisite as a porcelain doll's. At an age when her golden eyes should have shone with innocent joy, they instead held a stillness and concentration that did not belong to a child.

Before her stood a stack of soul master theory books half a person's height.

Qian Renxue.

"Xue'er."

A voice, dignified yet gentle, came from the doorway.