I existed for you.

Countless questions still rippled through Bibi Dong's heart. In Spirit Hall, while hunting Fallen Soul Masters, she had witnessed endless schemes, betrayals, and slaughter. There had been no shortage of people plotting against her, which was precisely why she could not understand-

This was only their second meeting. What about her could possibly warrant him doing all this? What was his purpose in going so far for her?

"...Ah... that's a very, very long story."

Ji Feng looked into the distance. La Signora had turned into a vast blaze, seemingly burning away the virulent poison inside her with fierce flames, giving them a little breathing room.

Shimmering green light rose around Ji Feng and Bibi Dong, pouring immense, verdant vitality into both Ji Feng's Kokomi form and Bibi Dong.

Beside them, Ah Yin raised her hand and released a Soul Skill. She watched the two embracing tightly, her expression blank. Beneath the soft green glow, even her long azure hair seemed tinged with green.

"Explain it! Tell me everything! I'm about to die! Stop lying to me!" Bibi Dong clutched Ji Feng's hand, pleading with reddened eyes.

"I... am not good at lying."

As he spoke, Kokomi's delicate figure dissolved into faint light, revealing Ji Feng's true appearance-a figure with some resemblance to Ah Yin, so beautiful he almost looked like a woman.

Ji Feng gazed at Bibi Dong, yet seemed to be looking through her at another figure. He said heavily, "I... came from the future. I came for you."

"Everything I told you before wasn't because my Martial Soul could predict the future. It was because I truly saw and lived through that future."

Bibi Dong felt somewhat dazed, but deep down, she was already beginning to believe him. If he had come from the future, everything had an explanation.

Besides, she did not think this idiot Ji Feng, who could only parrot "There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters," was capable of inventing lies. To her, he looked like a simple, slightly dim, honest man.

"In that future, I was merely an ordinary man with a trash Martial Soul. When Fallen Soul Masters persecuted me, you... saved me. After that, I could never forget you."

Ji Feng gazed at Bibi Dong as he spoke, his eyes brimming with affection.

Bibi Dong's cheeks reddened slightly, but something suddenly occurred to her. Her expression turned odd. "But... when I killed those Fallen Soul Masters and saved you, wouldn't I have been using Martial Soul Possession? Wouldn't you have thought I was a monster?"

"I'm not someone who can't distinguish right from wrong. Besides, I think Dong'er is very cute even after Martial Soul Possession," Ji Feng said earnestly, looking straight into Bibi Dong's eyes.

Bibi Dong shyly averted her gaze. "All right, all right! I understand. Go on."

"But in the end, I only had a trash Martial Soul. Even if I wanted to help you, I had no strength to spare. I could only watch silently as you walked the path to becoming Supreme Pontiff. I saw you become Spirit Hall's Supreme Pontiff. I saw you turn Spirit Hall into the Spirit Hall Empire, ascend the throne as empress, and launch a war to unite the entire continent. In the end, you even became a god-the Rakshasa God!"

Ji Feng recounted Bibi Dong's story, his words full of admiration and love for her.

Bibi Dong, however, knitted her slender brows and quietly poured cold water on his words. "But she still died in the end, at the Sea God's hands. Didn't she?"

"That's right. In the end, three people became gods: you, the Rakshasa God; your daughter, the Angel God Qian Renxue; and Tang San, the son of Tang Hao of the Clear Sky Clan, who became the Sea God."

"My daughter, Qian Renxue?! Who was my husband?" That surname made Bibi Dong's heart lurch.

Ji Feng ignored Bibi Dong's question. He merely lowered his eyes slightly, his expression grave.

"Even though you and your daughter joined forces and managed to kill Tang San once, you still couldn't defeat him after he returned from the dead and inherited the dual godhood of the Asura God and the Sea God. Your death nearly broke me. To find a chance to resurrect you, I ventured into countless secret realms and perilous lands with a mortal body. At last, after decades of searching, I was fortunate enough to find an Otherworldly God."

"I passed her trial and successfully revived her. In exchange, she granted me three promises."

"I used the first promise to obtain all the knowledge I needed to save you. I also learned that your life was far less perfect than it appeared. As a young girl, you fell in love with Yu Xiaogang, a good-for-nothing from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. He used every means possible to get close to you, all to gain access to Spirit Hall's resources so that his trash Martial Soul, with its innate Soul Power of half a rank, could break through to the Soul Grandmaster realm."

"He also plagiarized Spirit Hall's records, compiled and summarized them, then published the error-riddled ten core competencies of Martial Soul. But he had already deceived you completely. You fell in love with this man who, despite having a trash Martial Soul himself, still declared, 'There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters.'"

Now Bibi Dong understood. She truly understood.

"Oh~"

She gave Ji Feng a mischievous glance, amusement curling at the corners of her mouth, but said nothing and simply kept listening.

"For his sake, you were willing to fall out with Spirit Hall's Supreme Pontiff, Qian Xunji, and wanted to elope with him. Yet he didn't believe in your feelings for him and mistakenly thought you had abandoned him for status. Not long afterward, he fell in love with his cousin, Liu Erlong. But this self-proclaimed theoretical Grandmaster had no idea Liu Erlong was his cousin until her father told him at their wedding. After that, he abandoned Liu Erlong too, fleeing the wedding on the spot."

At this, Bibi Dong could barely keep a straight face. This Yu Xiaogang really was a good-for-nothing.

In truth, though, ever since hearing about uniting Spirit Hall and becoming empress of the Spirit Hall Empire, she had struggled to identify with the story. She was still only a young girl, and all of that felt very distant.

"Your life wasn't good either. To crush your desire to seek out Yu Xiaogang, Qian Xunji raped you and made you bear his daughter, Qian Renxue. Because of that, you turned against Qian Xunji and swore to destroy the angelic lineage. You never showed your daughter any kindness either, giving Qian Renxue a miserable childhood."

"The Rakshasa God's inheritance controlled you through malicious thoughts, driving you to launch a great war in an attempt to unite the continent. In the end, even though you killed Sea God Tang San, the Divine Realm's Asura God King rigged things to resurrect him. Tang San inherited the dual godhood of the Sea God and the Asura God in violation of the rules, then killed you and your Qian Renxue."

Bibi Dong fell silent. Each filthy, despicable, nauseating truth clenched viciously around her heart. Her first instinct was to deny it, to resist it. She could not believe her future would be so tragic.

Yu Xiaogang's hypocritical schemes, his calculated approach to exploit her, the selfishness and cowardice beneath his lofty declarations, and that utterly absurd tangle of love and hatred-that melodramatic farce-had already sent waves of contempt and revulsion through her heart.

Qian Xunji's vile deeds, the violation and coercion that would ruin the rest of her life, the knowledge that she would be forced to bear a daughter and forge her own flesh and blood's tragedy with her own hands, then be swept up by malicious thoughts into endless slaughter, only to end with her body dead and her path extinguished-all of it made Bibi Dong feel as though the blood throughout her body had frozen in an instant.

She was the greatest talent the Douluo Continent had seen in thousands of years: twin Martial Souls, innate full Soul Power, top-tier beast Martial Souls, and the Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall, the continent's foremost power. How could she possibly sink so low?

Yet these stories made terrifying sense.

Her future was nothing but a pitiful struggle, manipulated by fate and forced upon her by wicked people.

"Your future shouldn't be like that. That shouldn't be your future."

As though he had seen what was in her heart, Ji Feng took Bibi Dong's soft, seemingly boneless hand and made his promise with utter sincerity.

"So, for you, I used the second promise to obtain the right to return to the present, and the third to awaken my Martial Soul. It's all right! You don't have to be afraid anymore! You will never head toward that future again."

"Because I exist here precisely to change that future."

"I exist for you."

Those undisguised words struck Bibi Dong's heart like a heavy hammer. The girl's gaze grew hazy, and, before she knew it, an alluring blush had spread across her cheeks.

Her mind was almost completely blank. She could only keep repeating in a shy murmur, "For... for me... you exist."