Behind the Pope's Palace in Spirit City, there is a secluded courtyard.
This courtyard is completely different from the rest of Spirit City.
There were no grand halls, no imposing guard posts, only a few towering ancient trees standing quietly by the courtyard wall.
The dense canopy of trees cast dappled shadows over most of the courtyard.
A blue stone path meanders through the courtyard, with some unnamed flowers and plants growing on both sides, blooming quietly and vibrantly in the afternoon sun.
This place doesn't seem like the residence of a Pope; it's more like the secluded retreat of an old man who has retired to the mountains.
But everyone in the Spirit Hall knows that His Holiness the Pope loves to spend his time alone in this courtyard.
No one dared to underestimate this place, because in the entire Spirit City, this small courtyard was the true heart of the city.
At this moment, Bibi Dong was standing under the oldest ginkgo tree in the courtyard.
She wore a plain white robe with no superfluous decorations, except for two extremely fine lines embroidered in gold thread at the cuffs.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the ginkgo leaves, casting dappled patterns of light on her white robes, making her exquisitely beautiful face even more breathtaking.
She tilted her head slightly, gazing at the ginkgo leaves swaying gently in the wind, as if lost in thought, or perhaps waiting for someone.
Her fingers were gently twirling at her side, a habitual gesture she made when she was thinking.
Two very light footsteps came from the courtyard gate, and then two figures walked in one after the other.
The person in front was tall and slender with a delicate face and a pair of narrow eyes that always carried an unfathomable smile. It was Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan.
The person following behind was shrouded in shadow, exuding a cold, sinister aura that kept strangers at bay— the Ghost Douluo Gui Mei.
The two stopped three steps behind Bibi Dong and bowed simultaneously.
"Your Majesty."
Bibi Dong didn't turn around; she kept looking at the ginkgo tree above her head.
Her voice was faint, as faint as a breeze coming from a very distant place:
Still no news?
Yue Guan and Gui Ying exchanged a glance, both sensing the bitterness on each other's faces.
Chrysanthemum Douluo stepped forward, his voice even lower than usual:
"Your Majesty, I have already dispatched three groups of men to thoroughly search the borders between the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire."
That girl, Zhu Zhuqing... she's hidden herself very well and hasn't shown herself at all.
Our people can't track her scent.
After saying that, he shut his mouth and Xiao Xin observed Bibi Dong's reaction.
Bibi Dong's fingers, which were placed at her sides, clenched slightly, then slowly relaxed.
Her expression remained unchanged from beginning to end, as if Yue Guan had just reported something insignificant.
"You've been searching for a woman who's not even Soul Emperor for a whole year and you still can't find her."
Her voice remained calm, but cold sweat was already seeping from Yue Guan's back.
"Keep searching. She's just a Soul King; she must still be hiding somewhere."
Bibi Dong paused slightly, a hint of coldness creeping into her voice:
"If necessary, we can be ruthless. We must find her no matter what and bring her back. She is the last card we have to force Xiao Yan to show himself."
Yue Guan her mouth as if to say something, but ultimately swallowed all her words of defense.
He simply bowed his head and replied with a "Yes."
The Gui Mei standing behind him remained silent, as always.
But Yue Guan knew that Gui Mei was thinking the same thing as him; a year had passed.
Throughout the year, the Spirit Hall dispatched countless people, both openly and secretly, to search for Zhu Zhuqing's whereabouts, but to no avail.
The young woman seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace.
Several times, they finally got news of Zhu Zhuqing, but then the trail went cold again.
This in itself carries a certain air of mystery that is difficult to explain.
Just as Yue Guan was about to say something more, Bibi Dong suddenly raised her head.
A rare glint appeared in her usually calm eyes.
With a hint of surprise and a strong sense of excitement.
The next moment, a strong spatial fluctuation came from the direction of the Pope's Palace.
The surge tore through space itself, carrying an energy aura that did not belong to this world, and then exploded with a deafening roar.
She had experienced this kind of spatial fluctuation once before.
That time, she watched as Xiao Yan tore through space in the Pope's Palace and disappeared before her eyes.
That time, she couldn't keep him.
But this time, it definitely won't happen again.
"His Majesty?"
The Gui Mei sensed something was wrong and asked in a low voice.
"He's back."
Bibi Dong's lips slowly curved into a smile, a smile that held both anticipation and amusement.
"It's been a year, and I thought he was planning to hide forever."
Before she could finish speaking, her figure had already become blurry on the spot.
The leaves of the ginkgo tree rustled as an invisible wave of air shook them.
A few golden leaves drifted down from the branches, but before they even hit the ground, Bibi Dong's figure had completely disappeared from the courtyard.
Yue Guan and Gui Ying exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of shock in each other's eyes.
You're back?
Xiao Yan actually came back?
The two dared not delay, and in a flash, they followed Bibi Dong.
Meanwhile, in the Pope's Palace Spirit City.
This grand hall, symbolizing the supreme power of the Spirit Hall, was now completely empty.
The enormous mural of a Six-Winged Angel on the dome appeared even more solemn in the dim light.
Below the mural, the pure gold Pope throne stands quietly on the steps at the end of the hall, its angel wings carved on the back gleaming Youyou in the Zhu Huo.
The entire hall was empty and silent, with only a few eternal lamps burning quietly on the walls on both sides, emitting extremely faint crackling sounds.
Just then, a pitch-black crack suddenly appeared in mid-air in the very center of the hall without any warning.
The crack was initially only the size of a palm, its edges churning with energy fluctuations that did not belong to this world.
Then, it began to expand outward at an incredible speed, growing from the size of a palm to half a person's height in the blink of an eye, and then from half a person's height to more than a person's height.
The darkness inside the crack was terrifyingly deep; there was not a ray of light, yet ripples of silvery-gray energy constantly surged within.
Each ripple caused a subtle hum to resonate in the air of the hall.
It was as if even this space itself was resisting the arrival of this otherworldly rift.
A tall, slender figure stepped out from the crack.
He wore a black robe, had a thin face, and his black eyes quickly scanned his surroundings the moment he stepped out of the crevice.
Xiao Yan stood in the center of the Pope's Palace, and the spatial rift behind him began to slowly close after he stepped out.
He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the air of the Douluo Continent.
The aura was so familiar that it stirred up a complex and indescribable emotion within him.
He's back.
The last time he stood here, he fled in panic.
At that time, he was powerless against Bibi Dong and could only escape in a sorry state by opening a spatial gate.
However, before he could even take a few more breaths of the air from his homeland, a strong sense of crisis, so intense it made his scalp tingle, suddenly struck him from above.
Xiao Yan rolled backward almost reflexively, his body sliding several feet across the smooth marble floor.
The instant he left his spot, a sharp, incomparably powerful black blade silently slashed down from the void.
It cleaved a deep trench in the marble floor where he had just been standing.
Rock fragments flew everywhere, and the edges of the ravine still emitted a hissing, corrosive energy. The pungent smell caused Xiao Yan's pupils to contract abruptly.
Xiao Yan knelt on one knee and raised his head.
At the top of the steps at the end of the hall, in front of the Pope throne, a woman dressed in a plain white robe had appeared there at some point.
No one saw how she appeared; it was as if she had been standing in that spot from the beginning, only deciding to let people see her at this moment.
Her plain white robe stood out starkly in the dim light, and a faint smile graced her exquisitely beautiful face, which sent chills down one's spine.
Bibi Dong looked down at Xiao Yan in the center of the hall, a faint smile playing on her lips, but there was no warmth in that smile.
Her gaze slowly swept over Xiao Yan, as if she were examining a precious collectible that had been lost and found again.
Xiao Yan.
Bibi Dong's tone carried a hint of amusement, along with a well-disguised excitement.