"Lu Yuan, calm down!"
With Bibi Dong pressing him at every turn, Lu Yuan wanted to slap himself to force himself to calm down.
"Think, Lu Yuan, hurry up and think! What else in the world of the Douluo Continent could explain these strange things about me? Oh, I've got it!"
A gleam flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes as an idea formed, but facing Bibi Dong and the other two, he remained outwardly meek and timid.
"W-well, Your Holiness, to tell you the truth, all the strange things that happened to me actually had to do with a dream."
"A dream?"
This time, awkward expressions appeared on the faces of Bibi Dong, Chrysanthemum Douluo, and Bone Douluo.
What kind of dream could bring an eight-year-old child's soul power close to that of a level thirty Soul Elder, and turn both his first and second soul rings into purple thousand-year soul rings?
"Yes, a dream!"
Lu Yuan put on the innocent expression of an eight-year-old and nodded with absolute conviction.
"Two years ago, right after I awakened my martial soul, I saw a beautiful fairy lady in my dream that very night."
"A fairy?"
Chrysanthemum Douluo looked incredulous.
This silly child can't even make up a decent story. A fairy lady in his dream? I could say I met the Angel God in mine! Let's see how you fool His Holiness with that.
Chrysanthemum Douluo smiled as he thought this, then looked toward Bibi Dong, only to find her expression utterly serious.
"Surely not, Your Holiness. You actually believe this little brat's nonsense?"
Lu Yuan continued, "That fairy lady told me in the dream..."
Bang!
A sudden crash erupted in the meeting room as Bibi Dong seized the Pope's Scepter and slammed it against the floor.
Bibi Dong's expression turned extremely solemn. She looked at Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo and ordered sternly:
"Yue Guan, Gui Mei, both of you go outside and guard the door. Don't let so much as a mosquito in."
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo exchanged glances. What magic did Lu Yuan's words possess to make His Holiness the Pope clamp down so tightly on their spreading?
Neither could stand against Bibi Dong, so they could only cast resentful looks at Lu Yuan before leaving the meeting room. They closed the door and stood guard over Lu Yuan and Bibi Dong's conversation, preventing anyone from overhearing.
"Lu Yuan, what did the fairy you dreamed of look like?"
Lu Yuan tilted his head up, pressed his right index finger to his chin, and stared at the ceiling, pretending to think hard.
"I remember she wore blue-green clothes. I couldn't see her face clearly, but her aura made me feel very close to her."
"Then how did this fairy help you cultivate?" Bibi Dong pressed.
The corner of Lu Yuan's mouth curled upward.
She finally took the bait.
He continued explaining these strange events as though they had truly happened, using a child's voice and perspective.
"That fairy lady said she wanted to play nine games with me. As long as I finished all of them, she could turn me into someone really powerful. I asked if she could make me one of those powerful Titled Douluo I'd heard about, and she said I'd be much stronger than a Titled Douluo."
Lu Yuan said this without a racing heart or a flushed face. He merely prayed silently that the Goddess of Life wasn't watching from the Douluo God Realm and wouldn't discover that he was borrowing her tiger's skin to fly his own banner.
"That fairy lady said I'd already finished the first game by awakening my martial soul, and she rewarded me by making my cultivation talent much better. The second game was to become a Soul Grandmaster within two years. That would let me increase the ages of my first two soul rings."
Hearing Lu Yuan's words, Bibi Dong drew a startled breath and sank limply against the back of her chair.
When Lu Yuan first began speaking, Bibi Dong had still been half-convinced and half-doubtful.
But once he went on about the "nine games," each with a reward afterward, she became ninety, even one hundred percent certain.
This was no chance encounter with a fairy lady. Clearly, a deity in the Divine Realm had taken a fancy to Lu Yuan and chosen him as a successor to inherit a divine seat. Those "nine games" had to be the nine divine trials for that inheritance.
As for why Bibi Dong knew this so well, it was naturally because she herself was the Rakshasa God's successor. She was also suffering under the Rakshasa Nine Trials: despite possessing the strength of a level ninety-nine Peerless Douluo, she could only keep herself suppressed at level 98.
As a result, Bibi Dong still couldn't defeat Qian Daoliu, the Angel God's Great Enshrined and Qian Renxue's grandfather. Otherwise, with her thorny-rose temperament, she would have fallen out with the Worship Hall long ago.
While Bibi Dong sat in a daze, Lu Yuan continued explaining.
"Last month, I successfully cultivated my soul power to level twenty. After absorbing my second soul ring, I was surprised to find that my first and second soul rings had become thousand-year soul rings. My soul power also rose by a lot, straight to level 28."
"That fairy lady's voice appeared in my mind again. She told me to work hard at cultivating, and that once my soul power level reached a higher stage, she'd come back to play the remaining nine games with me."
At this point in Lu Yuan's account, Bibi Dong clenched her teeth, her features trembling uncontrollably.
"Why? Why are this child's nine divine trials so easy, while my Rakshasa Nine Trials..."
Bibi Dong recalled the days of torment she had endured under the Rakshasa Nine Trials, and even her ability to control her emotions deteriorated.
Just then, her gaze happened to fall on Meowmeow, the external martial soul, and she suddenly thought of her dear Brother Yu Xiaogang.
"Damn it! Brother Xiao Gang awakened an external martial soul too, and his innate soul power was also level 0.5. Why didn't a deity choose Brother Xiao Gang, with his outstanding theories?"
Bibi Dong held her forehead and closed her eyes, her mind in turmoil.
"Lu Yuan, go report to Spirit Hall Academy first. If anything comes up, I will summon you again. Tell Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo outside not to come in yet. I need a moment to calm down."
Lu Yuan's brows lifted, and delight showed on his face.
At last, by inventing the lie that a deity had chosen him, he had muddied this pool of troubled water enough to slip through.
Lu Yuan acknowledged the order and withdrew. Outside, he relayed Bibi Dong's words to Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo, then slipped away beneath their astonished gazes.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo gossiped about just what ability Lu Yuan possessed to leave His Holiness needing some time alone.
The two suppressed their curiosity and continued guarding Bibi Dong's door.
Alone in the meeting room, Bibi Dong closed her eyes and immersed her mind in the Rakshasa Secret Realm, the place where she communicated with the Rakshasa God.
At first, the Rakshasa God was surprised by Bibi Dong's arrival. After she told the deity about Lu Yuan, that surprise turned to utter astonishment.
The perceptive Bibi Dong immediately noticed that something was wrong with the Rakshasa God and asked without hesitation.
"Lord Rakshasa God, who exactly is the god who chose Lu Yuan? Do you know them?"
The Rakshasa God's voice trembled. "O-of course I do."
Lu Yuan's external martial soul, Meowmeow, possessed both plant and life attributes. Combined with his description of the deity who chose him wearing green...
The Rakshasa God was almost certain that it was the God of Life, whose true form was the Life Ancient Tree and who was one of the Five Great God Kings of the Douluo God Realm.
Lu Yuan had never imagined that his offhand fabrication would fool not only Bibi Dong, but even a lofty First-Level God.