Chapter 99: I, Bibi Dong, Will Not Be an Ungrateful Person
Qian Xunji was very much looking forward to it.
When Bibi Dong gave birth to his excellent offspring, would Qin Xuan still have that nauseatingly smug expression on his face?
"Cherish this beautiful time, my dear disciple."
Qian Xunji quietly left this sentence, his figure flashed, and he disappeared from the Priest Hall, his mind already spinning with dark, triumphant plans.
On the other side, Qin Xuan had already brought Bibi Dong to the small grove on Supreme Pontiff Mountain. This was the exact spot where he had first awakened his past life memories, the place where he had tested his Spirit and inadvertently met her and Yu Xiaogang.
Nearly two years had passed. The gully he had once carved into the earth with his First Spirit Ability, Sword Breaking the Sky, was already overgrown with thick, green weeds and moss. The forest floor had reclaimed the scar, leaving only a faint depression.
"Does it feel nostalgic?"
Qin Xuan surveyed the surroundings, every plant and tree, and chuckled softly. The air here was damp and quiet, a stark contrast to the divine, oppressive atmosphere of the Priest Hall.
Bibi Dong was immersed in an ocean of internal conflict at the moment and hadn't been observing their path carefully. She leaned against Qin Xuan's back as they flew, her beautiful eyes slightly closed, her mind a storm of confusion.
Only after hearing Qin Xuan's words did she look around, recognizing the familiar ancient trees.
"Don't bring up the past anymore," Bibi Dong glared at him, though her voice lacked any real anger. It was more... weary. She released her hands from his waist and jumped off the Changming Sword, landing softly on the grass. She walked a few steps deeper into the grove, her back to him.
Qin Xuan smiled slightly, not saying anything more. He retracted his Spirit and silently followed behind her, giving her space.
She was silent for a long moment, the only sounds being the distant chirping of birds and the rustle of leaves in the breeze. Finally, she spoke, her back still to Qin Xuan.
"I suppose you already know about the High Priest's order to cancel the expedition to Sea God Island."
"Of course. I know quite a bit about Sea God Island. There's a Peak Douluo with Spirit Power as high as Level 99 on that island. You would only be sending yourselves to your deaths if you went. It was I who requested the High Priest to withdraw that order," Qin Xuan nodded, confirming her suspicion.
"Thank you... for saving me, and for saving everyone," Bibi Dong recalled the chilling report from Priests Qingluan and Xiongshi. They described an aura from the island, an ocean-deep power that had suppressed two Peak Douluo from a distance.
Besides the lingering fear, she felt more relief.
Fortunately, no war broke out; otherwise, facing that Limit Douluo, they would have probably been completely annihilated.
At the same time, her heart, which had been so certain for so long, couldn't help but begin to waver.
The figures of Qin Xuan and Yu Xiaogang kept flashing in her mind, one after the other.
Qin Xuan: decisive, overwhelmingly powerful, mysterious. He returned from the dead, brought back a wife of terrifying strength, and now stood as an equal to the High Priests, his word capable of stopping a war.
Yu Xiaogang: gentle, wise, and... weak. The man who needed her protection, her support. The man whose theories were his only shield.
She suddenly realized, with a cold jolt, that she had become the very person she disliked the most.
So she closed her eyes in pain. After a moment, as if having made a major decision, she suddenly opened them. She turned to face him, her expression serious and resolute. "I've decided. Once Xiao Gang returns to Spirit Hall, I will tell my teacher about our relationship. Then I will make it public."
She didn't want to continue like this. Wavering between Qin Xuan and Yu Xiaogang, this suffocating, ambiguous indecision, was irresponsible. She hated this feeling; it was completely different from the pure, singular love she yearned for in her heart.
Qin Xuan showed no surprise at all. Rather, this was already part of his plan. "Then what? If the Supreme Pontiff doesn't agree, what do you plan to do? Threaten to leave Spirit Hall?"
"No!" Bibi Dong shook her head, a hint of sorrow appearing on her beautiful, slightly chubby face. She stubbornly said, "If I did that, wouldn't I become the ungrateful wretch you described? The one 'eating with the bowl in hand, then cursing when the bowl is put down'?"
Upon hearing this, Qin Xuan also became interested. He crossed his arms, leaning back against a tree, his expression curious.
"Then what do you plan to do? You should know that it's impossible for the Supreme Pontiff to agree to you being with Yu Xiaogang. Even if he agrees, the Elder Palace won't."
"Allowing the Next Supreme Pontiff of Spirit Hall to marry an outcast of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would become a huge, humiliating joke for all of Spirit Hall."
Bibi Dong asked with a somewhat dejected expression, "You... you already know about Xiao Gang's situation?"
Qin Xuan nodded. "Yes. He publicly published the 'Ten Core Competitiveness of Martial Souls.' It contained a lot of Spirit Master theoretical knowledge, but it also included many unrigorous and even flawed conjectures."
"This led to dozens, even hundreds, of common Spirit Masters losing their lives because they cultivated according to his flawed theories. It caused a huge uproar in the Spirit Master's world. Now, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan has expelled him due to the immense external pressure."
Bibi Dong sighed softly for some reason, her shoulders slumping. "Are... are Xiao Gang's theories really that bad?"
"Don't you already have the answer in your heart regarding this matter?" Qin Xuan said in a deep voice. "You should know that in this World, there's no such thing as a free lunch."
"Thinking you're born noble, so you think you should be superior."
"Thinking you've read a few books in the Spirit Hall's library, summarized some of the knowledge left by your predecessors, and then patched it together, so you think you're omniscient and omnipotent, with unbeatable theories. Don't you find that ridiculous?"
"I've read all his works," Qin Xuan said, his voice laced with a cold contempt. "Rather than saying he's researching theory, it's more accurate to say he's using you as a template, and then constantly raising the standard for all Spirit Masters."
"And precisely what this World is least lacking is ordinary Spirit Masters. A Twin Spirits genius of your caliber is rare, even in ten thousand years."
"From the moment Yu Xiaogang started using you, a divine-tier talent, as his standard template, his theoretical path was already a dead end."
"Those dozens of common Spirit Masters who chose to believe his theories... they are the victims of his failed attempt at gaining fame."
Bibi Dong did not refute. She couldn't. She had seen the reports herself. But she turned around, her back to him, and said firmly, "With Xiao Gang's wisdom, I believe he will definitely overcome this difficulty."
"But the question is... does he really have wisdom?" Qin Xuan gently stroked the Spirit Tool at his waist and casually threw out a thick, leather-bound book.
"What is this?" Bibi Dong caught the book. It was heavy, and the cover was stamped with the official insignia of the Elder Palace Archives. The title read: "Classification and Summary of Spirit Rings."
"Turn to page 138," Qin Xuan said, his voice flat. "The chapter on the absorption limit record of Spirit Rings."
Bibi Dong opened it as instructed, her hands trembling slightly. When she saw the content, she instantly froze. "This... this is..."
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
What did she see? The highest recorded Spirit Ring absorption age limit, recorded by Spirit Hall's researchers over centuries... was exactly the same as the Spirit Ring age limit that Xiao Gang had told her he painstakingly calculated over more than ten years.
It was precise. Down to the single digit.
"It seems you've already guessed something but are still unwilling to believe it." Qin Xuan then took out Yu Xiaogang's 'Ten Core Competitiveness of Martial Souls' from his own Spirit Tool. This copy was marked with dozens of annotations.
"During the six months I spent calming my killing intent, in order to help Jingni solve the Twin Spirits backlash problem, I almost read every book in the library. Every... single... one."
"Then I read Yu Xiaogang's 'Ten Core Competitiveness of Martial Souls.' Guess what I found?"
"Over 90% of the content was excerpted directly from the Supreme Pontiff Palace's library, with the content virtually untouched. Some punctuation marks weren't even changed. It was all common Spirit Master knowledge that we, as high-level disciples, are already familiar with."
"The ridiculous thing is that he claimed all of this as his own and published it under his own name."
"We are all from common Spirit Master backgrounds," Qin Xuan said, his voice laced with a cold, righteous anger. "If he genuinely wanted to benefit the Spirit Master's world and spread common Spirit Master knowledge, then letting him gain some fame wouldn't be a big deal."
"But the remaining 10%... the crucial part that had no basis, the part he invented, the part directly linked to absorbing Spirit Rings... that is what led those common Spirit Masters into the abyss of death."
"This is no longer just misleading others," Qin Xuan said, his voice dropping to a low, furious growl. "It's a disregard for human life. He's gambling with other people's lives to see if he can become famous, to see if he can finally become a theoretical 'Grandmaster'."
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