"This matter isn't simple for me either. You could even call it troublesome. We're neither kin nor friends, so why should I help you?"
"..."
"It's fine if you can't think of an answer. Go back and rest first. Take your time."
Bibi Dong straightened up and turned toward the raised platform.
"Likewise, if you suspect I'm trying to scare you, feel free to ask someone else."
"See whether I'm just trying to frighten you."
Qian Renxue must have been drawn to this boy's unusual innate domain, but she definitely knew nothing of the trouble he carried. She Long certainly couldn't have seen it either.
Yue Guan had snatched the boy from She Long. Qian Renxue would surely send word soon. She might even ask Qian Daoliu to help her take him back.
Meanwhile, with the third prince dead a gruesome death and Baers missing, the autumn hunt ended early. Exhausted in body and mind, the princes returned to Heaven Dou City under the imperial guards' escort.
Xue Qinghe also gave a detailed explanation of everything that had happened. With the princes and General Ge Long corroborating his account, Emperor Xue Ye suspected nothing.
But losing sons one after another within a single year was simply too devastating a blow. After seeing the third prince's mangled remains, the empress fell ill on the spot.
"Congratulations, Young Master. With this, there's no longer any doubt about who will become crown prince," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"Make the preparations. I'm going back to Spirit City," Qian Renxue said.
Snake Lance Douluo froze. "Young Master, the third prince has just died. The grand funeral comes next. You can't leave."
Qian Renxue's brows knitted tightly. "But over in Spirit City..."
With that woman's skill at winning people over, what if she really brought Xuan Ming to her side?
"Young Master, if you truly can't bear to give that boy up, just contact the Great Enshrined. There really is no need to make the trip yourself," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"Besides..."
Even if Qian Renxue personally went back over something like this, it wouldn't do much good. In the end, she would still have to ask the Great Enshrined to intervene.
Qian Renxue fell silent for a while. "I'll write to Grandpa now."
"Young Master, what if even the Great Enshrined can't take him back?" Snake Lance Douluo asked.
The Pope already controlled more than half of Spirit Hall. Aside from the enshrined elders, most of the Elder Hall had also sided with her.
If the Pope insisted on keeping the boy, the Great Enshrined probably wouldn't openly break with her over it.
"Can't take him back?" Qian Renxue looked up at Snake Lance Douluo.
"What are you trying to say?"
"Young Master, if Xuan Ming sides with the Pope, he might become an obstacle to you in the future," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"Let's try taking him back first," Qian Renxue said.
"If we really can't..."
"The Pope asked why she should help you?"
After leaving the Pope's Hall, Xuan Ming had been brought by Yue Guan to stay in a nearby courtyard.
"Seriously, you couldn't even answer a question that simple?" Yue Guan looked at him as though he were an idiot.
This boy looked quite clever. Why was he so dense?
"Don't tell me you think the Pope was bluffing?" Yue Guan raised his eyebrows.
"A little," Xuan Ming said.
"Then you're overthinking it," Yue Guan said.
"Although the Pope sometimes stops at nothing to get things done, she won't plant a mine for herself."
"If this were a lie, how would you react when you learned the truth someday?"
Ultimately, he had forcibly abducted the boy and brought him back. Bibi Dong wouldn't use threats or coercion on a child either. There was no point.
After all, if he obeyed on the surface while resisting in his heart, keeping him would only leave a hidden danger.
Bibi Dong wanted the boy to stay here willingly.
"Forget it. Take your time thinking it over." Yue Guan said no more and turned to leave.
Several days later, a letter from Heaven Dou City entered Spirit City and was delivered straight to the summit of the great mountain at its center.
The Worship Hall.
"Twin martial souls, innate full soul power, an innate domain?"
As he read the letter's description, a subtle, indescribable change came over Qian Daoliu's expression.
Wasn't this just like Bibi Dong?
"Great Enshrined, what's wrong?" Golden Crocodile Douluo asked.
"Has Xiao Xue run into trouble?"
"Things are going smoothly on her end." Qian Daoliu handed the letter to Golden Crocodile Douluo.
"She's just found some trouble for me."
Golden Crocodile Douluo read the letter in puzzlement, and his expression grew somewhat unnatural too.
"Great Enshrined, if this is true, we really can't leave this person to Bibi Dong."
They had already witnessed the power of twin martial souls in Bibi Dong. That woman was only thirty-five, yet she had already reached the same realm as him!
If another appeared and served under Bibi Dong as well, there would be trouble in the future.
"But do you think she'll hand him over?" Qian Daoliu asked.
In her letter, Qian Renxue had shown that she valued this Xuan Ming immensely. Everything she wrote conveyed that he had to get the boy back for her, no matter what.
But with Qian Renxue taking that attitude, wouldn't Bibi Dong feel exactly the same?
"Great Enshrined, this isn't a question of whether she'll hand him over," Golden Crocodile Douluo said.
Qian Daoliu frowned slightly. "You mean..."
"If nothing else works, that will be our only choice," Golden Crocodile Douluo said.
A genius they couldn't obtain could naturally only be destroyed.
"Let's try first," Qian Daoliu said.
"In all these years, this is the first time Xiao Xue has insisted so strongly that I help her."
"If there's a chance, let's get him over here and send him to her."
Golden Crocodile Douluo's expression grew somewhat unnatural. "Great Enshrined, could Xiao Xue have..."
"It hasn't gone that far." Qian Daoliu shook his head.
"She's certainly interested in this genius with twin martial souls, but more than that..."
She was probably trying to compete with Bibi Dong.
Chapter 37: I Was Never Sold
"Is the information accurate?"
"I investigated everything personally. There's no mistake."
"How tragic..."
Reading the information Gui Mei had gathered on Xuan Ming, Bibi Dong frowned slightly.
No wonder a child of only six was so cold.
Before he was even born, his father had been conscripted and never returned.
At five, his mother had died of illness, and someone had seized his home.
At six, he had undergone his martial soul awakening, only to be sold by that patrol deacon the very next day.
He had then escaped from the human traffickers, met Dugu Bo, and been dragged into more misfortune.
After reaching Heaven Dou City, he had encountered Barak's brainless prince and nearly lost his life.
He hadn't enjoyed even a few peaceful days before Yue Guan abducted him from Sunset Forest in the middle of the night...
Even written into a storybook, his winding, troubled life would belong among the tragedies.
"To verify his account, I also searched along that mountain road. I did find the corpses of two Soul Masters at the edge of a grove," Gui Mei said.
"Although the bodies had long since rotted, one still clearly showed a fatal wound in the chest. A weapon like a spear or lance had pierced it with tremendous force, shattering even the bones."
"What the boy said should all be true."
Bibi Dong sighed and set the information Gui Mei had gathered on the table. "What about that patrol deacon from Aolai City?"
"I brought him back. He's already locked up in the Punishment Hall," Gui Mei said.
"Shall I send him over?"
Bibi Dong considered it. "Keep him locked up for now. Sending him over won't accomplish anything at this point."
After everything that had happened, suspicion had already taken root deep in that child's heart. That couldn't be changed.
Even if she handed that patrol deacon over to Xuan Ming, his wariness wouldn't diminish in the slightest. On the contrary, it would only grow stronger.
She needed to find another way...
"Send the child to Spirit Hall Academy first. We'll discuss it once his emotions have settled a little," Bibi Dong said.
Yue Guan had only just forcibly abducted the child from Heaven Dou City, and his wariness was at its peak. Approaching him at a time like this would only have the opposite effect.
The more urgently one tried to deal with wariness, the harder it became to resolve. They could only take it slowly.
"By the way, how is Nana doing?" Bibi Dong asked.
"She just obtained her second soul ring a little while ago," Gui Mei said.
"Her second soul ring..." Bibi Dong thought for a moment.
"Have Nana and the other two look after him. Don't let anyone bully him."
"Bully him?" Gui Mei hesitated.
According to Yue Guan, that boy's first soul ring was already eight hundred years old, and its power even rivaled a thousand-year Soul Skill!
With that shameless domain of his added in, even among Soul Grandmasters, there probably weren't many capable of bullying him, were there?
"With his distinctive appearance, do you think there will be few people at Spirit Hall Academy looking to trouble him?" Bibi Dong said.
"Have Nana keep an eye on things. Don't let his wariness rise any further."
Someone with an unusual appearance like Xuan Ming would certainly face plenty of trouble once he entered. Among Spirit Hall Academy's students were even descendants of Titled Douluo elders. Only Hu Liena, the Pope's disciple, could keep those troubles in check.
"That tragic?"
After hearing Gui Mei explain Xuan Ming's background, even Yue Guan couldn't help sighing.
"He gives you a run for your money."
Gui Mei's life had been quite tragic too. He had died once as a child, but through a chance coincidence, his soul had returned to his body, awakening his martial soul.
This had also given him an extremely unusual martial soul: a ghost. In a sense, Gui Mei's soul was his martial soul, while he himself was a living corpse.
"I was never sold," Gui Mei said, speechless.
"Well, nobody would buy you," Yue Guan teased.
Even without his unusual martial soul mutation, Xuan Ming's looks would have been top-tier. Plenty of people liked children like that.
But Gui Mei? Just how bizarre would someone's tastes have to be for them to want to buy a living corpse?
"Enough. The Pope told me to take him to Spirit Hall Academy." Gui Mei couldn't be bothered with Yue Guan's idle chatter. He was very busy.