Thunk!
Bibi Dong raised her hand and flicked his forehead. "Speak properly. Stop just going 'mm' and 'oh.'"
Xuan Ming held his forehead. "I've always talked like this."
"That doesn't make it right," Bibi Dong said.
"I don't care if you brush other people off, but when you're talking to me, make an effort."
"How?" Xuan Ming asked.
Bibi Dong thought for a moment. "Take what we just said. I asked whether you were settling in. If you are, say, 'It's all right. I'm settling in well.' If you aren't, say so, and tell me what problems you've encountered."
"Do you remember that?"
"Mm."
"Mm?"
"I remember."
"..."
Bibi Dong sighed. "Next, I'll start helping you repair that part of your Martial Soul's defects. The process might be painful. I'm not sure how much it'll hurt either. Are you... ready?"
"I'm ready," Xuan Ming said.
"..."
"Then come with me." Without saying more, Bibi Dong stood and led Xuan Ming toward a secret chamber deep within the Pope's Palace.
"For the first stage, I need to separate the tangled parts of your two Martial Souls, then straighten them out. This will take a long time. Once we start, we can't stop. And while I'm repairing your Martial Souls, you absolutely cannot lose consciousness. You must do everything you can to keep both Martial Souls under control, especially your Beast Martial Soul! You mustn't let it run wild!"
"Understood," Xuan Ming said.
"Take off your clothes and get in." Bibi Dong pointed at a small wooden tub giving off steam inside the chamber.
"I prepared the medicinal liquid in there. It can ease your pain and help the damage to your Martial Souls heal faster."
"But you'll absorb it very slowly, so I'll use a special method to help speed that up."
"Of course, it might hurt a little."
"..."
"Scared?" Bibi Dong looked at Xuan Ming, who had not moved.
"No. Do I have to take everything off?" Xuan Ming asked.
"You don't have to," Bibi Dong said.
"I can tear your clothes off for you later."
"..."
Xuan Ming hesitated, then walked over to the tub and removed his outer garments. But when it came to taking off the clothes underneath, he hesitated a little.
"Stop hiding. I'll see everything later anyway," Bibi Dong said.
"..."
Xuan Ming took a deep breath, quickly stripped off his clothes, and jumped in.
"Why are you as shy as a little girl?" Bibi Dong found it rather funny.
"It doesn't suit that ice-cold bearing of yours."
Xuan Ming did not answer. Most of his head was submerged.
"All right, I'll stop teasing you." Bibi Dong walked behind Xuan Ming and sat down.
"Concentrate. Steady both your Martial Souls and suppress them with everything you have."
"Mm." Xuan Ming nodded.
"Then let's begin." Eight spider legs shimmering with purple light sprouted from Bibi Dong's back and slowly settled onto Xuan Ming's body.
"It might hurt a little at first. Bear with it."
"Mm... Mm!!"
A violent tearing sensation swept through his entire body. The twin dragons on Xuan Ming's back nearly went out of control.
"Your Beast Martial Soul affects your body too deeply. Working on it is almost the same as working on you." Bibi Dong's brows knitted tightly.
"Bear with it."
"Mm!"
"..."
"Should we forget it? You already look like you can barely hold on, and the really painful part is still to come."
"Lady! Stop messing with me! I'm already hurting!"
"All right. You said it."
"Mmph!!!"
"See? I told you that you couldn't take it."
"..."
Chapter 53: Only Those Attached to Life Yearn for Death
Half a month later.
"Great Enshrined, there's still no word from Bibi Dong. Could something have happened?" Golden Crocodile Douluo was growing worried.
It was not that he begrudged those treasures. It was just rare for Qian Renxue to want something. If it ended up ruined after all this effort, the child would be disappointed again.
"That boy's Martial Soul problem is very troublesome. It can't be rushed," Qian Daoliu said.
"Even I had no solution. Even if Bibi Dong can resolve it, it certainly won't be easy."
"But according to the news from the Pope's Palace, Bibi Dong hasn't shown herself in half a month," Golden Crocodile said.
"What if she's deliberately dragging things out? Buying time to win him over."
"That boy is only a child, after all. With Bibi Dong's methods of winning people over, if this drags on and she gets to him first... there really might be trouble."
Qian Daoliu frowned slightly. "Go take a look."
"Never mind. I'll go myself. You stay here."
Golden Crocodile and Bibi Dong were already at odds, and his earlier encounters with that child had not gone well either. If he went, they might get into another conflict.
Troublesome.
Deep within the Pope's Palace.
Half a month had passed since the Martial Soul repairs began.
Xuan Ming had finally made it through the repair stage, which had left him hovering between life and death from pain, and entered the recovery period.
"I've untangled the adhesions between your Martial Souls, but don't use both at once for now. Once they've recovered and stabilized, you can slowly start trying."
Exhausted after half a month, Bibi Dong reclined on the bed. Xuan Ming was still soaking in the medicinal tub.
"Thank you," Xuan Ming said.
"You should thank me." Bibi Dong opened her eyes, her face still somewhat pale.
"I've taken a huge loss."
She had underestimated the ferocity of these two Martial Souls, especially that brainless Beast Martial Soul. Even against her Soul Devouring Spider Emperor, it dared to charge forward in a frenzy and bite. She simply could not subdue it!
Suppressing it with her Martial Soul's own imposing presence was completely ineffective. She could only "coax it along."
If not for how pitiful the boy was, and how he had never called for her to stop even when the pain nearly killed him, she really would have wanted to give up halfway through.
The whole ordeal had left her weakened as well. Without six months to a year of recuperation, her Soul Devouring Spider Emperor would not recover.
A huge loss!
"But I'm curious. Were you abused before?" Bibi Dong asked.
"Why?" Xuan Ming asked.
"Your endurance is a little absurd," Bibi Dong said.
"Unless someone has endured prolonged, intense suffering and developed sufficient resistance in their mind and will, not just a child your age-even Soul Masters who spend years fighting and killing couldn't have that level of endurance."
At first, she had thought Xuan Ming's Beast Martial Soul had merely affected his body too much. A mutated body was one thing, but a Martial Soul was still a Martial Soul.
But after she officially began the repairs, she discovered that the degree of fusion between the boy and his Beast Martial Soul was absurdly high!
Rank thirty and rank seventy were two thresholds in a Soul Master's cultivation.
Before Beast Martial Soul Masters reached rank thirty, even their Martial Soul Possession was incomplete, let alone the degree of fusion between the Martial Soul and the Soul Master.
But true Martial Soul Possession for a Beast Martial Soul should actually come at rank seventy, with the activation of the Martial Soul Avatar.
The Martial Soul Avatar was the true union of person and soul. Only after activating it could a Soul Master truly resonate with their Martial Soul and achieve a higher level of fusion.
Yet Xuan Ming's degree of fusion with his Beast Martial Soul was extremely high, comparable to a Soul Saint who had activated their Martial Soul Avatar. That was why his physical strength was so strange, vastly exceeding Soul Masters of the same rank, as though he were a humanoid Soul Beast.
Because his body and Martial Soul were so highly fused, Xuan Ming's body could almost be called his Martial Soul.
As a result, when she separated and repaired the adhered parts between these two Martial Souls, she was practically taking a knife to Xuan Ming himself!
Despite that pain, the boy had not broken down. He had actually endured it without losing consciousness, all while doing his best to suppress his Martial Souls.
Honestly, that was the main reason she had been willing to go to such lengths.
Had Xuan Ming shown even the slightest thought of giving up, she would never have done this much for him.
"I just don't want to die," Xuan Ming said.
"But sometimes, living is worse than death," Bibi Dong said.
"People say that because they've never died," Xuan Ming said.
"Only those who've never died think death is a release. They yearn for something they've never had and take it upon themselves to romanticize it. But if they were really about to die, how many would be willing?"
"Only those attached to life yearn for death."
"If death really were some kind of release, there would be no suffering in this world. If someone truly thought living was worse than death, they'd simply go die. Where would they find the leisure to complain about living being worse than death?"
"..."
Bibi Dong stood, walked over, and bent down, leaning on the wooden tub. "Why do I get the feeling you've really died before?"
Only those who had never brushed against death would lament that living was worse than dying. Anyone who had truly experienced the feeling of approaching death would struggle desperately to claw their way back!
"Hm?" Bibi Dong frowned slightly, straightened, and walked to the bedside to put on her clothes.
"Get some rest. I'm stepping out."
With that, Bibi Dong opened the secret chamber's door and walked out.
"What brings you here, Great Enshrined?"
"There was no word from you for half a month. I came to see whether you were dead."
"You seem disappointed to see me alive, Great Enshrined."
"A little, yes."
"..."
"How is Xuan Ming doing?" Qian Daoliu asked.
"Fine. He won't die," Bibi Dong said.
"Let me see him," Qian Daoliu said.
"He needs rest." Bibi Dong blocked the doorway.
"I want to see his condition," Qian Daoliu said.