Sis Dongdong Came to Play Late at Night

Holy Soul Village.

Tang San sat alone in the wooden house, waiting for a long time.

Several hours passed.

The door of the wooden house was pushed open. Tang Hao walked in.

His expression was grim. Not the grimness of anger, but the kind left after someone had slapped him hard across the face. Ashen, heavy, bottling up something he could not vent.

Tang San sat up on the bed. "Dad, what about the things in the back hills?"

Tang Hao stood at the doorway, silent for a long while.

"Someone got there first and took them."

Tang San froze. "Who?"

Tang Hao walked to the window with his back to Tang San. His shoulders were rigid, his fingers gripping the window frame so tightly that his knuckles hurt.

"Qin Chuan. And Bibi Dong."

Tang San's head buzzed.

Qin Chuan again.

Qin Chuan had ruined his reputation at the Soul Master Tournament. Qin Chuan had kept Xiao Wu at the Game Hall. And now, even the gift his father had prepared for him had been snatched away by Qin Chuan.

Tang San clenched the corner of his blanket, his body trembling slightly.

"Did you... did you go after them?"

"I did." Tang Hao turned around. "I couldn't get it back."

He offered no further details. He did not want his son to know.

Tang San lowered his head, the veins on his forehead throbbing.

Silence hung over the room for a long time.

Tang Hao sat down beside the bed and glanced at Tang San's condition. Although the things in the back hills were gone, the path he had planned for Tang San had not been cut off.

The Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone was gone, but there was still Slaughter City. The Divine Slaughter's Domain did not require a Soul Bone. It required killing intent and willpower.

"Get ready to leave," Tang Hao said.

Tang San looked up. "For Slaughter City?"

"Yes. The things in the back hills are gone, so stop dwelling on them. But the opportunity in Slaughter City is still there. The Divine Slaughter's Domain can only be obtained there."

Tang San nodded. He got off the bed, steadied himself, and began packing his few belongings.

Halfway through packing, he pulled a piece of cloth from the bottom of his bundle.

It was the handkerchief Xiao Wu had given him. A rabbit was embroidered on it, its crooked stitches sewn by Xiao Wu herself.

Tang San held the handkerchief and stared at it for a long time.

Then he walked over to the brazier in the middle of the room. Embers left over from the previous night still glowed inside, dark red flickers beneath the ashes.

He tossed the handkerchief in.

The fabric touched the embers, curled, smoked, and then caught fire.

Flames licked at the embroidered rabbit, swallowing its threads one by one.

Tang San pulled a few more things from his bundle.

A woven grass bracelet Xiao Wu had given him, a colorful stone she had picked up in the Star Dou Great Forest, and a drawing she had made of two people standing hand in hand on the grass. The drawing was poor, their faces nothing more than two circles.

He threw them all into the brazier.

The flames leaped up, burning those little things to ash one by one.

Tang San stood beside the brazier, the firelight casting alternating light and shadow over his face. His eyes remained fixed on the things turning to ash, and he did not shed a single tear.

What a pity. Xiao Wu is gone, and so is the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring. That Qin Chuan got a bargain.

Tang San turned and looked at Tang Hao.

"Let's go."

Tang Hao nodded.

Father and son finished packing, pushed open the wooden house's door, and walked out.

As Tang San walked down the road, he did not look back at Holy Soul Village.

From this day forward, he would no longer be that softhearted, indecisive Tang San.

Spirit City.

After Qin Chuan and Bibi Dong returned from Holy Soul Village, each made their arrangements.

Qin Chuan put the Blue Silver Emperor's seed into the [Wishful Treasure Bag], while the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone went to Bibi Dong. Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan was responsible for coordinating with the various sects on the continued implementation of the Soul Beast Protection Law.

The days passed one by one. Business at the Game Hall remained booming.

That night, the Game Hall closed.

Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing finished tidying the counter and left with everyone else.

Hu Liena was the last to leave. She finished balancing the day's accounts, locked the ledger in the cabinet, and switched off the lights in the first-floor hall.

To outsiders, they were merely working here to earn a living.

But only they themselves knew that this seemingly ordinary daily work was actually a form of cultivation.

Playing games whenever work left them a spare moment, day after day, their Soul Power soared steadily.

The entire Game Hall sank into darkness.

The second-floor corridor was quiet and empty. Qin Chuan sat alone for a while. He casually glanced at the Points on the system panel, which had climbed another stretch today, then quietly closed it.

Less than fifteen minutes later.

Someone knocked on the door downstairs.

Knock, knock.

Two knocks, neither hurried nor slow.

Qin Chuan went downstairs and slid back the door bolt.

Bibi Dong stood outside.

She was not wearing her Pope Robe today. Instead, she wore a deep purple dress, her long pinkish-purple hair loose over her shoulders and down to her waist.

She wore no Nine-Curved Purple Gold Crown and carried no scepter. She looked like an ordinary noblewoman, though there was nothing "ordinary" about that face.

Yue Guan and Gui Mei stood two paces behind her.

Qin Chuan stopped at the doorway and bowed slightly, his voice polite without being overly deferential. "Your Holiness."

In front of outsiders, the proper courtesies still had to be observed.

Bibi Dong nodded slightly, sweeping her gaze over the Game Hall's frontage. A black sign with gold lettering, broad floor-to-ceiling windows, and traces of the customers' footprints from the daytime still lingering on the steps outside.

She looked for two breaths, then withdrew her gaze and spoke to Yue Guan and Gui Mei.

"You two, stand guard outside."

Yue Guan answered, "Yes, Your Holiness."

Gui Mei nodded silently.

The two Titled Douluos took their places on either side of the Game Hall's entrance.

Bibi Dong walked inside alone.

This was her first visit to the Douluo Game Hall.

Of course, she knew how lively this place was during the day. Word spread through every street and alley in Spirit City: someone had opened a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring from a mystery box, someone had hit three jackpots in a row on a Fruit Machine and won a pile of Gold Soul Coins, and the Object Hide-and-Seek upstairs had people laughing until their stomachs hurt.

Hu Liena had also mentioned it several times when she returned to report on her work each day, saying business was so good she could barely keep up, and her strength was steadily improving too.

But Bibi Dong had never come.

It was not that she did not want to. She had her dignity to consider.

She was the Pope. The supreme leader of Spirit Hall. Running into a Game Hall in broad daylight to play Fruit Machines and win stuffed toys alongside ordinary people? What would people think if word got out?

So she had chosen to come at night.

Qin Chuan took her on a tour of the first floor.

The first-floor hall was spacious.

On the left stood a row of Fruit Machines, each with a small stool in front of it. Although their lights were off, their metal surfaces reflected a dull sheen in the moonlight.

On the right was the mystery-box wall. Hundreds of little boxes were neatly arranged across three or four walls, divided into several color-coded sections.

Farther inside was the Claw Machine area, where several large transparent cabinets were stuffed with all kinds of plush toys.

Qin Chuan introduced them one by one.

"This is a Fruit Machine. Insert a coin, then pull the lever. Match three symbols and you win. The prizes range from Gold Soul Coins to low-tier Soul Rings."