"Your Holiness, please calm your anger. Sit. We can talk slowly."
Chu Chengzhou raised his hand in a gentle pressing motion and spoke with a smile.
"Hmph."
Bibi Dong snorted coldly and sat back down.
"Your Holiness, this junior has come to present betrothal gifts. This one is for Nana, and this one is for Xue'er."
As he spoke, Chu Chengzhou took out two gift boxes from his storage soul tool. With soul power circulating, the opened boxes floated up out of thin air and landed on the desk before Bibi Dong.
Looking closely, Bibi Dong saw that each box held a limb soul bone, one a left arm soul bone, the other a right arm soul bone.
Judging from the soul power fluctuations they emitted, both soul bones had reached one hundred thousand years.
At once, surprise flashed in Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes.
A bold move for a young man. Betrothal gifts of hundred-thousand-year soul bones, and given separately at that.
Bibi Dong had seen hundred-thousand-year soul bones before. She even wore several herself. That did not make them any less precious.
Without being a peerless prodigy, one does not deserve a hundred-thousand-year soul bone. Without being a powerhouse of the continent, one lacks the strength to obtain one.
Spirit Hall had many Title Douluo, yet those who possessed hundred-thousand-year soul bones, apart from her and possibly Qian Daoliu, numbered only the Second Worship, the Golden Crocodile.
Could it be that to Chu Chengzhou, hundred-thousand-year soul bones were not precious treasures at all?
After staring at Chu Chengzhou for a long moment, Bibi Dong sighed inwardly. With a wave of her fair hand, the box containing the hundred-thousand-year right arm soul bone floated up and landed in Chu Chengzhou's hand.
"Why is this?"
Chu Chengzhou frowned and asked.
Bibi Dong shook her head and said nothing.
Hu Liena was an orphan she had raised from childhood. As her teacher, she was qualified to accept that gift.
What was more, her treasured disciple had long since been taken by this man. If she did not accept the betrothal gift, wouldn't her little cabbage have been fed to a pig for nothing?
Qian Renxue was her biological daughter, but Bibi Dong had never given her motherly love nor fulfilled a mother's duties. She felt unworthy to accept the gift meant for Qian Renxue.
"You are Xue'er's mother. Whatever your relationship with her, you must accept it."
Guessing Bibi Dong's thoughts, Chu Chengzhou spoke solemnly.
"What? You would teach me how to act?"
Bibi Dong's delicate brows knit, her expression turning hard.
Disciples and daughters grow up and are no longer governed by master or mother. The fact that she was holding back her anger and not teaching Chu Chengzhou a lesson already gave him great face. She had not expected this young man to be so ungrateful as to try to instruct her.
"If Honored Mother-in-law thinks so, then so be it."
Chu Chengzhou nodded calmly.
"...!"
Bibi Dong's eyes widened. She could not fathom where this man found the nerve to speak to her like that.
"For Nana's sake, I will spare you this once."
Drawing a deep breath, Bibi Dong pressed down her anger and spoke.
Only because this man was her treasured disciple's boyfriend, and thus half a disciple in her eyes, did she refrain from suppressing him on the spot.
"Hehe. Please advise me, Honored Mother-in-law."
Smiling, Chu Chengzhou released a hint of his aura. The True Spirit Banner martial soul manifested in his hand. Nine scarlet hundred-thousand-year soul rings flared into being, and he cupped his hands to Bibi Dong.
"What?!"
Bibi Dong's eyes widened again. She stared in disbelief at the nine scarlet hundred-thousand-year soul rings rippling around Chu Chengzhou.
A full nine hundred-thousand-year soul rings. His ring configuration actually surpassed hers.
Also, during the Soul Master Tournament, wasn't this fellow only a four-ring Soul Ancestor? How had two or three short years turned him into a nine-ring Title Douluo? Absurd.
"I wonder if this son-in-law's strength is worthy of Honored Mother-in-law's eyes?"
Glancing at his nine rings, newly advanced to nine red, Chu Chengzhou asked with a smile.
"What do you want?"
Bibi Dong asked in a low voice.
"Please accept the betrothal gifts, Honored Mother-in-law."
Chu Chengzhou replied gravely.
Bibi Dong's expression hardened. "And if I refuse?"
"A battle outside Spirit City. The victor is king."
Chu Chengzhou answered without hesitation.
"Bang!"
Her bejeweled scepter slammed heavily against the ground. Bibi Dong sprang to her feet and shouted, "Young man, do not be ignorant of how high the heavens are and how thick the earth is."
The victor is king, the loser a bandit? So you take me for the bandit? Whether victory or defeat, such a son-in-law is unacceptable.
"Then I will measure how high the sky is and how thick the earth is."
Chu Chengzhou's words rang out.
It was not that Chu Chengzhou refused to give his mother-in-law face. It was that his mother-in-law had a mental problem. She needed to be shown some real ability.
He also wanted to use this fight to clear Bibi Dong's head. Her adolescence had dragged on for thirty years. She was still love-addled.
He would let her understand that the white moonlight in her heart, Yu Xiaogang, was far from what she imagined, and that caring for her daughter was the proper path.
In midair more than twenty li outside Spirit City, two figures faced each other a hundred meters apart.
"Honored Mother-in-law, please advise."
Chu Chengzhou cupped his hands toward Bibi Dong.
"Hmph."
Facing Chu Chengzhou's challenge, Bibi Dong's face darkened. The Soul-Eating Spider Emperor possessed her body. As dark green light surged, seven soul rings, black, black, black, black, black, black, red, flared.
Then the seventh hundred-thousand-year ring flashed. Bibi Dong decisively unleashed the Soul-Eating Spider Emperor True Body.
Knowing Chu Chengzhou was not weak, Bibi Dong did not hold back. She opened with her ultimate move, intending to end the fight quickly and suppress him on the spot.
As an elder, Bibi Dong felt obliged to teach this junior what it meant for heaven to be high and earth thick, lest a young man float away because of a bit of strength. He needed a lesson.
"Void Illusion Realm."
Seeing this, Chu Chengzhou, who had not even released his martial soul and rings, smiled. Vast spiritual power surged out as he activated the Void Illusion Realm.
It is worth noting that since the Void Illusion Realm advanced to a rainbow super divine skill, this was Chu Chengzhou's first time using it on someone else.
Even before the illusion descended, Bibi Dong sensed a powerful surge of spiritual power, likely beyond what she could resist.
She did not hesitate. As soul power boiled, a green light blossomed at her brow. She immediately activated the soul bone skill attached to her mental-immunity skull bone: Real World.
The soul bone skill Real World consumed a large amount of spiritual power to deploy. Its effect was to immunize against illusions and charms, to see reality. Any illusion-type skills would fail under its illumination.
Unfortunately, even though Bibi Dong promptly activated Real World, when the Void Illusion Realm settled upon her, her consciousness was still dragged into the illusion.
It was like how invincibility skills such as Invincible Golden Body and Crystal Body are not absolutely invincible. They can only block physical and energy attacks below god level.
Real World could indeed immunize ordinary illusion and charm skills, but it also had an upper limit. Once the illusion exceeded that limit, it would no longer take effect.
It was impossible for a soul bone skill of less than a hundred thousand years to block a divine god skill unleashed by an opponent stronger than oneself. No way.