Chapter 45: Goodbye, Bibi Dong
The female Titled Douluo was clearly very interested in Qin Xuan. She threw him a charming glance, her eyes, sharp as they were alluring, seeming to peel back the layers of his simple robes. She whispered in an enchanting, husky voice, "Little brother, to dare face fear and even survive that dreadful place... you're quite handsome."
Her voice carried a subtle, spirit-power-infused charm, designed to make the listener's heart race.
"Ling Yuan Douluo, you jest." Qin Xuan kept his expression neutral, though he secretly checked his system.
There was no prompt for a conquerable target. It seemed she was too obscure, only mentioned in passing in the original work. Or perhaps, she was simply too old, despite her youthful appearance.
"Speaking of which," Qin Xuan continued, his tone polite but distant, "I haven't had a chance to congratulate you on your promotion to Titled Douluo yet."
"Hehe, you truly are a handsome and adorable little fellow." Ling Yuan Douluo lightly covered her red lips and chuckled, the sound like silver bells. She then leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping into an even more alluring whisper. "How about after the competition, I give you a chance for... compensation? I am very curious to know what secrets a man who survived that place in one piece holds."
"Ling Yuan Douluo, I am a man with a family," Qin Xuan stated flatly, his internal guard rising. These Titled Douluo were not easy to get along with.
Although they were utterly manipulated by Tang San's side in the original work, their temperaments were all famously strange, if not outright dangerous. Before possessing comparable strength, if he were to take this woman's words seriously, he might end up eaten without even bone fragments left one day. He wasn't just a "little fellow"; he was a man walking a tightrope.
Ling Yuan Douluo heard this and, surprisingly, didn't get angry. Instead, the playful, predatory look on her face grew even more intense. "Oh? A family man? I can't believe you're such a loyal little fellow. Alas, that's truly a pity."
She deliberately stretched, her dress and the close-fitting armor beneath it tightening, outlining a curvaceous and graceful figure that could drive men mad. "I originally wanted to teach you some... adult games. The kind you can't learn in any academy."
Qin Xuan cursed inwardly, 'Demoness.'
Just then, the Cardinal's powerful voice sounded from outside the massive doors, echoing off the golden-inlaid walls of the hall, "The Supreme Pontiff has arrived!"
The heavy doors of the Elder Hall opened, and everyone below the rank of Elder, including Qin Xuan, immediately placed their right hands over their chests and bowed their heads in salute. The playful atmosphere vanished, replaced by one of solemn, crushing authority.
Immediately, Qian Xunji, with his left hand lightly clasped at his waist and his right hand behind his back, strode in. He was clad in the magnificent robes of the Supreme Pontiff, his handsome face a mask of cold piety.
Two men and one woman, three familiar figures, followed closely behind him.
"It's actually her?" Qin Xuan, bowing his head, recognized the female figure instantly from her unique spirit power signature and the whisper-light footsteps. His heart gave an involuntary jolt.
If the two minor character bodyguard Douluo were within Qin Xuan's expectations, then Bibi Dong's presence here greatly exceeded them.
Today, Bibi Dong wasn't wearing her usual light purple dress but had changed into a dark purple, tight-fitting leather suit. It was the formal combat attire of a Spirit Hall Saint, designed for mobility and defense, and it highlighted every curve of her maturing figure, making her look both dangerous and breathtaking.
The foolishness she displayed in front of Yu Xiaogang last time was also gone from her face.
All that remained was determination. Her eyes didn't waver, she wasn't nervous, nor did she look around. Her expression was as calm as Qin Xuan's, remaining unfazed even when facing a dozen powerful Titled Douluo in the room.
She truly looked like the Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall, the future ruler of the continent.
It was just a pity, Qin Xuan thought, that hidden deep within her heart was a love-struck mind and a fearless, naive ignorance.
Facing Qian Xunji, this beast of a teacher, Bibi Dong was completely unaware of how perilous her current situation was. She saw a master; Qin Xuan saw a predator.
"It seems my opponent... should be her," Qin Xuan instantly had the answer in his heart. His master, Qianjun Douluo, had said he would change the opponent. This was the change.
"Father." Qian Xunji's gaze swept across the sides of the hall. When he saw Qin Xuan, a faint, almost imperceptible cold glint flashed in his eyes, gone in an instant.
Immediately, he placed his hands on his chest and bowed his head in a deep, respectful salute to Qian Daoliu, who was seated at the very top of the hall.
Bibi Dong and the two personal bodyguard Douluo, however, dropped to one knee.
"Rise, all of you," Qian Daoliu slowly raised his right hand, and a soft, divine spirit power gently lifted Qian Xunji from a distance.
Bibi Dong and the two personal bodyguard Douluo also stood up.
Bibi Dong, who had spent the past year only cultivating and flirting with Yu Xiaogang, oblivious to the outside world, finally had the chance to size up the opponent her teacher, Qian Xunji, had arranged for her.
And Qian Xunji's purpose was very simple and crude: he wanted to prove through this competition that Qin Xuan was unworthy of the Holy Maiden.
Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes swept across the sides and quickly settled on a fiery red figure.
But when she saw that her opponent was Qin Xuan, the man she thought she would never see again, the man who had vanished into the City of Slaughter... she was instantly stunned.
"It's... it's actually him? He's still alive?" Bibi Dong felt a dizzying rush of conflicting emotions—surprise, genuine happiness, and a sudden, terrible, flustering panic.
In Spirit Hall, Qin Xuan was one of her few friends.
He was also the first, and currently only, man to have broken through her three bases.
Even her beloved Xiao Gang had only reached half a base, at most holding hands. He didn't have the courage to kiss her. But Qin Xuan... that day, in that small, dark room, in a moment of complicated, desperate circumstances...
In addition, Qin Xuan also had an agreement with her teacher, Qian Xunji: as long as Qin Xuan escaped the City of Slaughter, her teacher would marry her off to Qin Xuan.
Now that Qin Xuan was standing here, alive and whole, it meant he had already passed through the City of Slaughter.
Doesn't that mean she was to be married to Qin Xuan?
'No, absolutely not!' Her mind screamed. 'I love Xiao Gang! I can't marry Qin Xuan!'
Just as Bibi Dong was at a loss, her heart pounding in her chest, Qian Xunji's cold, emotionless voice transmission echoed in her ear, "Disciple, before Qin Xuan went to the City of Slaughter, he proposed to me, wanting to marry you. I presume you already know. Do you want to marry him?"
Qian Xunji knew Bibi Dong loved Yu Xiaogang, so he asked knowingly, twisting the knife.
Bibi Dong was startled, her body trembling almost imperceptibly. She hesitated for a moment, then bit her red lip lightly and replied via her own transmission, "This disciple and he... we are just friends. I don't have those kinds of feelings for him."
Qian Xunji, who had already moved to stand beside Qian Daoliu, curled his lips into a barely perceptible arc of triumph. "Very well, then. Later, you must do your best to defeat him. Teacher will cancel this engagement for you."
His voice then turned colder, filled with a sinister implication. "If necessary, you can even strike to kill. Cripple him, and then he will never be able to lay a hand on you again. Prove to me, and to the Elders, that you are the unblemished Holy Maiden, not some... property to be claimed."
"I will defeat him!" Bibi Dong replied, her voice shaking. She didn't say she would cripple Qin Xuan. She couldn't. But she still felt an emptiness in her heart, a stuffy, suffocating feeling in her chest, an indescribable sensation of being trapped.
Qian Xunji frowned, clearly dissatisfied with Bibi Dong's incomplete answer, but he did not press. He turned to Qian Daoliu, "Father, we can begin."
Qian Daoliu nodded slowly. With his cultivation, he naturally knew Qian Xunji had just been transmitting spirit power, and was most likely plotting something bad again. But in front of so many people, it was not good to expose his son. If any unexpected situation arose, he could always personally intervene to stop it.
Standing beside Qian Daoliu, half a step behind, Qianjun Douluo, leaning on his Coiling Dragon Rod, stepped forward. His voice, deep and resonant, boomed across the hall. "Xuan'er, it's time for you to display the results of your year of training in the City of Slaughter."
As soon as these words were uttered, the entire hall, which had been silent, instantly erupted in an uproar. Those Titled Douluo Elders, who were confident in their strength and had seen everything, all showed expressions of pure astonishment.
"The City of Slaughter?"
"He went to that hell?"
"In just one year? He came out?"
"Qianjun, is this true? Your disciple... he's a Slaughter God?"
Ling Yuan Douluo's eyes widened, her playful demeanor replaced by genuine shock. "My... one year? That little brother... he's not just handsome, he's a monster."
No one had expected that this disciple, who had gone out for training, had actually gone to the City of Slaughter. And he had emerged in just one year. This was truly too shocking.
Even Tang Hao, whose reputation was soaring outside and who was hailed as the Clear Sky Sect's greatest genius in a hundred years, wasn't this astonishingly talented, was he?
"Yes, Teacher," Qin Xuan respectfully responded, his voice calm, cutting through the murmurs. He stepped forward to the center of the hall's open space.
"Disciple, you shall thoroughly test the strength of my good second brother for me," Qian Xunji's voice followed, his words sounding like encouragement, but carrying the weight of a command.
"Yes, Teacher," Bibi Dong also stepped out, standing twenty paces from Qin Xuan, her face now pale but resolute.
"I'm sorry, Qin Xuan." Bibi Dong looked at him, her eyes filled with complicated and guilty emotions. "I'm very happy you were able to come out of that place... but today, I have a reason I must win."
She quickly regained her determination, pushing all conflicting thoughts to the back of her mind. She took a stance, and a terrifying aura began to emanate from her.
"Bibi Dong, Spirit Death Spider Emperor, Level 72 Control-type Spirit Saint. Please guide me."
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