Chapter 9: The Bastard and the Holy Maiden
Although Bibi Dong's spirit power and raw strength completely surpassed Qin Xuan's, her movements were restricted. Her left hand was clamped over her disheveled collar, a desperate attempt to maintain her dignity.
This hindrance, born of shame and fury, left her vulnerable.
Purple spirit power flared around her angrily as she lunged, her fingers curled like claws, but Qin Xuan, anticipating the clumsy attack, narrowly dodged to the side.
"Hey, Sister Dong'er, if you don't stop, you're going to attract people," Qin Xuan said, his voice light. He dodged another swipe, shamelessly licking his lips as if savoring a memory. "And you're not exactly dressed for guests."
"So what?" she spat, her attacks becoming faster. "I want to see if they listen to you or to me, the Holy Maiden! I can still catch you and tear that tongue from your head!"
"Oh, of course they'll listen to you," Qin Xuan agreed easily. He suddenly jumped back, performing several clean backflips in the air. He landed gracefully on a thick tree branch, creating a wide distance between them.
He looked down at her, his smile infuriating. "But is it really good for you to be seen in your current state?"
They stared at each other across the gap.
Bibi Dong's chest was heaving, not just from the exertion, but from sheer rage. Her collar was wrinkled and pulled aside, and her hair was messy from the struggle. No matter how one looked at it, the implication was... compromising.
Qin Xuan let the silence stretch before adding, "Besides, you wouldn't want this matter—or our other conversation—to be known by others, would you? Especially... him."
At these words, Bibi Dong instantly deflated like a punctured ball. The purple energy around her vanished. Her face alternated between a sickly green and a deep purple.
After a long, tense silence, she finally managed to blurt out, "If you... if you dare to reveal this, I'll kill you. I swear it."
"Of course, of course. I still want to walk out of Slaughter City alive, after all," Qin Xuan grinned mischievously. "And then, I plan to marry you."
His expression was intriguing, a complex mix of teasing and absolute seriousness that she couldn't decipher.
Bibi Dong's pretty face, already flushed with anger, turned a shade redder. She scolded angrily, "Bastard! Don't even think about it! I will never marry you!"
She took a shaky breath, trying to regain her composure. "Also, you must keep Xiao Gang's matter a secret! You swore you would! If you break your word, I'll still kill you."
"Yes, yes, my Holy Maiden Highness," Qin Xuan said with a mock bow.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving. I'm a busy man."
He made a show of stretching. "Otherwise, if someone discovers us later... well, I don't care. I'm practically a dead man walking, just a worthless life. But you... tsk tsk."
Qin Xuan clicked his tongue, his gaze pointedly raking over her disheveled appearance. He was, in fact, still busy thinking about opening his blind box.
"Wait..." Just as Qin Xuan was about to leap from the tree, Bibi Dong's hesitant voice sounded in his ear.
He paused, looking back. "What is it?"
Her expression was complex. The anger was still there, but it was mixed with something else. "Don't die in Slaughter City."
Qin Xuan's smile widened, all trace of mockery gone, replaced by genuine amusement. "What? Are you worried that if I die, no one will be left to marry you?"
Bibi Dong secretly cursed Qin Xuan for being so shameless, but for a reason she couldn't understand, the words didn't anger her as much as they should have.
After all, they had known each other since childhood. She said with a surprising touch of melancholy, "I just feel that if you die... then in all of Spirit Hall, besides Xiao Gang, I will have no other friends."
It was a rare moment of vulnerability, a glimpse of the girl beneath the Holy Maiden's robes.
Qin Xuan gave a mischievous smile, instantly shattering the moment. "Isn't that still because you can't bear to part with me?"
If he hadn't activated the system before, his future would have been bleak. But now that he had a cheat, going to Slaughter City was imperative.
That Ten-Headed Fierce Yang Serpent inner core was of immense use to him. It was a treasure of pure, tyrannical fire attribute, capable of nourishing his Spirit.
To some extent, it was even more precious than a 100,000-year spirit ring, comparable to an Immortal Herb. It could give the Vermillion Bird sealed within his Spirit the possibility of evolution.
"Pfft, don't dream!" Bibi Dong snapped, her vulnerability vanishing. "I like Xiao Gang! He is the only one I will ever love!"
"If you dare to mention this again, you won't even need to go to Slaughter City! I'll kill you right now!"
As she spoke, 6 spirit rings—2 yellow, 2 purple, and 2 black—rose from beneath her feet. The oppressive aura of a Spirit Emperor flooded the clearing, and the phantom of her Death Spider Emperor began to materialize behind her.
Qin Xuan quickly raised his hands in surrender. "No, no, I can't beat you. You win."
Bibi Dong possessed the Death Domain. The difference in strength between Spirit Masters with and without a Domain was already significant, not to mention the huge disparity in their spirit power.
Even with the same spirit power, before his cheat translated into actual strength, he wasn't confident in defeating this undisputed twin-spirited genius of the Douluo Continent.
"Since that's the case, why aren't you hurrying up and getting lost?" Bibi Dong said, flushed with shame and anger.
"You must keep what happened today to yourself! Otherwise, even if you die in Slaughter City, I will drag your corpse out and whip it later! I mean it!"
"Then I'll take that as a good omen," Qin Xuan smiled, his figure blurring as he leaped from the branch and disappeared into the forest.
After this farce, the two of them had finally cleared the air. Their old, simple relationship was shattered, replaced by something new, tense, and undefined.
At the same time, Qin Xuan realized that Bibi Dong, before she was blackened by trauma, was truly easy to coax.
Although she was arrogant and proud, she was also innocent, kind, cute, and, in her own way, adorably silly.
Before he awakened his memories, why was his predecessor foolish enough to be a "simp"?
The simp strategy was fundamentally flawed. It placed her on a pedestal and gave her all the power, making him predictable and, ultimately, disposable. This new "bastard" approach, while dangerous, was far more effective. It created mystery, danger, and uncertainty. It forced her to think about him.
If he had used his current methods from the start, there would have been no business for Yu Xiaogang at all.
Alas, he could only take it one step at a time.
As soon as Qin Xuan left, the forest returned to silence, broken only by Bibi Dong's ragged breathing.
"That... bastard..." she muttered, her anger giving way to a profound sense of confusion. "How did he change so much overnight? Was this truly the real him all along?"
She stomped her foot fiercely on the forest floor, muttering to herself while she hastily tidied her clothes, her hands shaking slightly.
Recalling the scene where Qin Xuan had ambushed her, catching her off guard and... forcing himself on her... her cheeks burned with a heat that was no longer just anger. It was humiliation, but it was also something else, something she refused to name.
Perhaps even she herself hadn't realized that, compared to the fawning, predictable "simp" of the past, the current Qin Xuan—confident, dangerous, and utterly disrespectful—was not as repulsive to her as she had imagined.
He was the first person, other than her teacher, who had ever dared to challenge her so brazenly.
...
On another note, Yu Xiaogang's situation was quite miserable.
He was waiting anxiously at the edge of the grove where Bibi Dong had told him to stay.
Yu Xiaogang, as a cunning man, was, of course, well aware of Qin Xuan's "simp-like" affection for Bibi Dong.
It was just that in the past, Bibi Dong was completely under his control. She gave him whatever he wanted, fawned over his "theories," and was always at his beck and call.
In contrast, she was disdainful and cold to other men, especially Qin Xuan.
Therefore, Yu Xiaogang had never believed Qin Xuan could pose a threat to him. He saw him as nothing more than a pathetic fly, easily swatted.
This perceived control was also the capital that allowed him to be so boastful and composed in front of Qin Xuan. He knew that whenever anyone disrespected him, Bibi Dong would always stand by his side.
But ever since Bibi Dong had angrily chased Qin Xuan into the woods, leaving him behind, things had changed.
A seed of doubt had been planted, and Yu Xiaogang began to feel anxious and deeply uneasy.
He still didn't believe Qin Xuan could actually snatch Bibi Dong from him. He was Yu Xiaogang, the great intellectual, and Qin Xuan was just a simp.
But... it was better to be safe than sorry.
Especially with Qin Xuan now holding a "secret" over her. What if Bibi Dong compromised? What if, to protect himself (Yu Xiaogang), she...
Thinking of this, an unidentifiable surge of cold anger welled up in Yu Xiaogang's heart. It felt as if ten thousand Cao Nimas had trampled over it, and he felt his head turning green.
[Inorin's Note: "Ten thousand Cao Nimas" (a homophone for "f*ck your mother's horse") is Chinese internet slang for feeling completely "WTF." A "green head" or "wearing a green hat" is the Chinese idiom for being a cuckold.]
[Yu Xiaogang's resentment +2888]
[Yu Xiaogang's resentment +2776]
He wanted to follow and check. He needed to know what was happening.
But as soon as he took a step, he hesitated, his foot hovering in the air.
Yu Xiaogang was, at his core, such a person: deeply insecure, profoundly arrogant, selfish, self-centered, and yet, very cowardly.
A scumbag who could abandon his own wife on their wedding night and flee alone, disappearing for twenty years... it's easy to imagine how ugly and despicable his heart truly was.
He was afraid. Not of Qin Xuan, but of what Bibi Dong would think if she saw him following her. It would shatter his carefully crafted image of a mature, confident, and misunderstood genius. He couldn't risk that.
While he was deliberating, frozen in his own pathetic indecision, footsteps came from deep within the forest.
Yu Xiaogang heard them. Thinking it was Bibi Dong returning, he was instantly overjoyed, his anxiety vanishing, replaced by a possessive relief.
"Bibi Dong!" Yu Xiaogang looked up sharply, his voice abruptly stopping.
Qin Xuan walked out leisurely, not a single hair out of place. Upon seeing Yu Xiaogang's pathetic, anxious expression, he inwardly checked his emotion value. It was already over ten thousand. He was filled with a quiet joy.
Then he heard Yu Xiaogang demand, his voice strained, "Qin Xuan! Why are you alone? Where's Bibi Dong?"
"What did you call me?" Qin Xuan's smile vanished. "Also, is the Holy Maiden Highness's name something a mere librarian like you can call?"
He immediately gave Yu Xiaogang a taste of his authority, his voice dripping with the same contempt Yu Xiaogang reserved for others.
Yu Xiaogang's expression changed instantly, his face flushing with anger. He suppressed the unwillingness in his heart, forcing a change in his tone. "Lord... Qin Xuan. Why didn't the Holy Maiden Highness come with you?"
"The Holy Maiden Highness's whereabouts are not for a mere follower, a mere librarian like you, to speculate," Qin Xuan said coldly, stopping directly in front of him.
"Just wait here patiently. Like a good dog."
"No matter what, you must understand your place and know your own worth. If you dare to violate the oath you made earlier, I will absolutely make good on my word."
"Also..." Qin Xuan said, his voice dropping. He placed his right hand heavily on Yu Xiaogang's shoulder, leaning in close, invading his personal space.
He whispered softly, so only the two of them could hear.
No one knew what he said in Yu Xiaogang's ear, but Yu Xiaogang's face, which had been pale with suppressed rage, instantly turned a violent, apoplectic red. His anger reached its absolute peak.
[Yu Xiaogang's resentment +9999]
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