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...Bibi Dong stepped out of the Asura Abyss Secret Realm and returned to Spirit City.
She wore a dark-red divine robe edged in black, her posture tall and straight, her face stunning yet cold as frost. A faint murderous Divine Might lingered about her, as though even the surrounding air had frozen.
Years had passed, yet Spirit City remained majestic; its streets bustled with traffic and the glow of spirit tools flickered between buildings—a scene of prosperity.
Yet Bibi Dong's eyes, imbued with Asura and Rakshasa power, easily pierced that façade and saw the undercurrents surging beneath.
She merely extended her senses; a sweep of Divine Thought across the Empire made her brows knit deeply.
She "heard" it.
Heard the whispers drifting through alleys, aristocratic salons, and Spirit Master Sects.
"The Angel God is merciful and kind—this is the bearing our Spirit Empire should have!"
"Hmph, Her Majesty Bibi Dong's methods are too brutal, and Lord Xuan Ming even more so... Aiya, that massacre back then truly harmed the harmony of Heaven."
"Indeed, now that the Angel God presides over us, we Spirit Masters finally have it easier. Those commoners have been getting restless again."
"I hear the old nobles of Heaven Dou and Star Luo have been active lately. Do they think that with the Angel God here, they can restore their former glory?"
"Shh—watch your tongue! Still... come to think of it, whose Empire is this? Is it Her Majesty Bibi Dong's? The Angel God's? Or... Lord Xuan Ming's?"
"Three Divinities coexisting—this power... I'm afraid it's not so easy to divide. If only..."
Rumors and gossip, like venomous vermin in a sewer, bred and spread beneath the Empire's seemingly calm surface.
Bibi Dong's expression grew ever colder.
In an instant she grasped the root of the problem.
Qian Renxue!
During her seclusion these years, Qian Renxue had governed the Empire.
As the Angel God, Qian Renxue's Divinity stood for "order," "protection," and, to a degree, "tradition."
Her descent to preside over mortal affairs had, unwittingly, sent the wrong signal to the old forces—the surviving nobles of the Two Great Empires and the Spirit Empire's own Spirit Master elite who coveted the restoration of privilege.
They seemed to see hope! Hope that, by relying on the prestige of the "Angel God," they could resist—or even overturn—the new order Bibi Dong and Xuan Ming had built with blood, an order meant to shatter class barriers.
They began to stir, to test the waters, to spread rumors, trying to drive wedges among the three Divinities, fantasizing that when the snipe and the clam fought, the fisherman would profit.
What enraged Bibi Dong even more was that Qian Renxue appeared to have adopted an attitude of tacit—if not outright—approval?!
In the name of "stability" and "the long term," she seemed to have compromised with the old powers' backlash, granting them certain concessions, seeking to maintain the situation through soft-handed kindness.
"Foolish! Naive!" Bibi Dong sneered inwardly.
Her figure flickered; the next moment she stood within the Spirit Empire's supreme seat of power—the council hall of the Supreme Pontiff Palace.
Qian Renxue sat behind a desk, handling a mountain of state papers. She wore an elegant white-gold gown, her beauty still divine and gentle, yet a hard-to-hide weariness lined her brows.
Seeing Bibi Dong appear, Qian Renxue started, a complex look flashing in her eyes before she rose. "Mother... you've left seclusion?"
Bibi Dong ignored the greeting, her gaze icy. "So this is how you've managed the Empire these years?"
Qian Renxue hesitated, then understood. She drew a breath and tried to explain: "Mother, the Empire is newly founded; everything awaits restoration, and internal contradictions are tangled. Xuan Ming's methods back then... were too harsh. Though they suppressed resistance for a time, they sowed huge hidden dangers. My lenient policy is meant to ease conflict, give every side time to adapt, prevent clashes from flaring, and keep the Empire's Foundation from shaking. After all, we can't rule by iron forever; Divinities won't stay in the mortal realm forever—we must found a lasting system..."
"A lasting system?" Bibi Dong cut her off, voice dripping sarcasm. "By compromise? By yielding to those obstinate old powers? By the 'benevolent' halo of your Angel God?"
She stepped closer; mighty Divine Might made the study's air itself grow heavy. "You think you're maintaining stability? You're nurturing a disaster! You're personally destroying the Foundation of the new order Xuan Ming and I barely carved—amid blood and inferno!"
Qian Renxue paled but insisted: "I haven't compromised principle! The Empire's fundamental laws haven't changed! I've merely adjusted enforcement, granting the Spirit Master class necessary respect and some room for profit—this reduces resistance and smooths the transition..."
"Necessary respect? Room for profit?" Bibi Dong's eyes exploded with cold light. "Qian Renxue! You spent over a decade masquerading as Xue Qinghe in Heaven Dou Empire—did you learn even half of Ning Fengzhi's methods?! He knew when to show kindness and when to strike with thunder! You—have only learned a woman's soft-heartedness!"
"Do you know why Xuan Ming chose to bear the sin of millions of dead and unleash that bloodbath? Why I pushed reforms that cut to the root, even if they tore the Empire's muscles and bones?"
"Not to preserve this Empire's façade! It was to shatter the entrenched thinking of millennia! To let hundreds of millions of commoners understand: Spirit Masters are not Heaven, nobles are not Law! All men are born equal; dignity and rights do not depend on Spirit or birth!"
"Only by first using the cruelest violence to carve the word 'equality'—with blood and fire—into every Soul, making them fear and then accept this new rule from the depths of their hearts, can a true new era arrive!"
Bibi Dong's voice rang like ice striking iron, carrying unquestionable resolve. "What you call 'leniency,' your so-called 'necessary compromises,' are telling the dregs of the old era: the old rules may return! Telling the commoners who've only begun to awaken: even the will of Divinities can waver!"
"You're not maintaining stability—you're planting the seeds for future total collapse!"
Qian Renxue, battered by the tirade, turned deathly pale. She opened her mouth to retort but found herself wordless. She had always believed she acted from a safer, longer-term perspective—never imagining her approach might itself be undermining the new order's bedrock.
"As for your fear that chaos will follow when we Ascend?" Bibi Dong gave a cold laugh, a brutal glint in her eyes. "Then let it be chaotic!"
"If the old thinking doesn't die, how can a new order truly stand? If one generation's blood can purchase true equality and freedom for a thousand generations, then that blood... is worth it!"
"Those afraid to shed blood, afraid to kill—what right have they to rule? Soft-hearted mercy? That is the omen of a fallen nation!"
Bibi Dong cast one last glance at the ashen Qian Renxue, turned, and walked toward the door, her frigid voice echoing in the study: "It seems these years have been too comfortable for you."
"This Empire—let me clean it up."
"Some abscesses must be cut out entirely before the wound can heal."
With those words Bibi Dong's figure vanished beyond the doorway.
Qian Renxue stood alone, staring at the empty entrance, long silent. Her mother's ruthlessly cold yet essence-striking words hammered at her heart.
Was she... truly wrong?
Yet if such extreme violence continued, once they Ascended to the God Realm, who could stabilize the Spirit Empire?
Could human greed ever be killed outright?
Meanwhile, outside the Supreme Pontiff Palace, Bibi Dong lifted her gaze to the gloomy sky, hesitation nowhere in her eyes.
Turbulent times call for harsh laws.
Stubborn ills need fierce remedies.
If some have forgotten pain—she would make them remember.
The Spirit Empire's iron and blood, it seems... must be tempered once more!