Time flew. Eight months later.
"Saintess, Her Holiness is looking for you."
In the Saintess Hall beside the Pope's Palace, a maid spoke to Hu Liena, who had just finished cultivating.
"I know."
Hu Liena nodded and left the Saintess Hall, heading straight for the Douluo Hall.
Although the maid had not said where her teacher Bibi Dong was, Hu Liena knew. For nearly a year, her teacher had been waiting outside the Douluo Hall.
Before she reached the hall, Hu Liena saw from afar her teacher Bibi Dong, who was still waiting outside.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Hu Liena sensed a heavy sorrow from her teacher.
"Teacher."
Hu Liena hurried forward and called softly.
"Nana, you're here."
A faint smile appeared on Bibi Dong's pale face. She reached out to smooth the hair that had been tousled by Hu Liena's quick steps. "My Nana has grown up. From now on, when your teacher is not around, remember to take good care of yourself, all right?"
"Teacher, are you going somewhere?"
At the words "when your teacher is not around," Hu Liena panicked and asked quickly.
"Yes. Your teacher is going on a long journey."
Bibi Dong nodded.
"Then when will you be back, Teacher? Will it be a long time?"
"It will be a long time."
Caressing Hu Liena's head with affection, Bibi Dong's thoughts returned to the final moment of her previous life, to the words spoken by that great being who gave her "rebirth" and called himself the Darkness of the Universe: "Unless the universe comes to its end and the world is destroyed, you will not be reborn for a hundred million years."
A hundred million years. Is that ten thousand times ten thousand years?
"Nana, cultivate hard from now on. When you can hold up a sky of your own, your teacher will come back."
Bibi Dong told a lie.
"Mm."
Hu Liena nodded heavily.
Looking back toward the Douluo Hall, whose great doors were still tightly shut, Bibi Dong said, "Nana, can your teacher ask you for a favor?"
"Please say it, Teacher. Not just one. Even if it were a thousand or ten thousand, your disciple would do them all."
Hu Liena answered without hesitation.
"When the doors of the Douluo Hall open again and a golden-haired elder sister walks out, tell her this: Bibi Dong knows she was wrong. She does not ask for forgiveness, but hopes that from now on she will always take good care of herself."
As she instructed Hu Liena, tears once again slipped from Bibi Dong's eyes.
"Qian Daoliu, I, Bibi Dong, beg one thing of you. Take care of Nana for me."
With near demigod-level spiritual power, Bibi Dong sent a voice transmission to Qian Daoliu in the Worship Hall.
At the same time, within the Angel Secret Realm, as Qian Renxue was undergoing the Angel God Trials, a sudden panic rose in her heart, and the image of Bibi Dong surfaced in her mind.
She shook her head and drove out the distracting thoughts.
She had to cultivate hard. Completing the god trials was the top priority. How could she let that bad woman Bibi Dong disturb her dao heart?
She should not. Absolutely not.
Even so, Qian Renxue connected with the Angel God statue in the secret realm, exited the Angel Secret Realm, and returned to the outside Douluo Hall.
Hateful Bibi Dong, deliberately disturbing my dao heart.
Rumbling sounds rose. The heavy doors of the Douluo Hall slowly opened.
Bibi Dong turned to look. Beyond the gaping doors of the Douluo Hall appeared a stunning golden-haired figure.
At once, Bibi Dong rushed toward Qian Renxue in impatience.
But at that instant, a strange might descended. The world seemed to congeal. Everything around fell into absolute stillness.
"No."
Gazing at Qian Renxue, so close yet forever out of reach, Bibi Dong roared in anguish.
It was just a little more. Why, why was it always a little short? Why could she not be allowed to fulfill her last wish?
Was someone as steeped in sin as she was unworthy even to fulfill a final wish?
As if the last of her strength had left her, Bibi Dong collapsed to the ground before the Douluo Hall.
Then a figure wreathed in gray mist, its aura utterly evil and its face indistinct, walked out of the void and stopped before her.
"Unwilling?"
Chu Chengzhou, incarnated as the Darkness of the Universe, asked.
Bibi Dong did not answer. She only wept as she looked at the Qian Renxue who was within arm's reach.
It was not because she was about to fall forever into the Avici Hell. It was because her final wish could not be fulfilled.
"What if you had a chance to start over again?"
Chu Chengzhou asked again.
Bibi Dong leaped to her feet at once, a light of longing flashing in her eyes.
Chu Chengzhou pointed at Qian Renxue. "In my view, her soul is more excellent than yours. Because there is a direct blood tie between you, you can sell her soul to me.
"Once the deal is done, you will not have to fall forever into the Avici Hell. I can even reverse time and space and send you back to any point on your life's path, even to before that dim starlit night.
"After time is reversed, you can pursue the one you love. You can obtain what you desire.
"And once you change your fate, she will no longer exist, and you need not feel guilty for selling her soul."
The words of the Darkness of the Universe, like a devil's whisper, entered Bibi Dong's ears with perfect clarity.
When he finished, the light called desire dimmed in Bibi Dong's eyes. She shook her head.
When she killed Yu Xiaogang, Bibi Dong's heart was in pain.
But as time passed, she gradually realized that the Yu Xiaogang she had never forgotten was not such a big deal after all.
In this life, after she killed Yu Xiaogang with her own hands, she did not feel that her life's obsession had ended.
Yet in her previous life, when Qian Renxue was about to die beneath the Shura Demon Sword, she did not hesitate to use her own chest to block that blade for Qian Renxue.
Bibi Dong did not know why she did so, but she knew that her heart would not lie.
Yu Xiaogang had indeed been the one she once loved, but in her heart his weight was far less than that of her daughter Qian Renxue, even though she had once deeply loathed this daughter.
In the final moment of her previous life, she understood a mother's responsibility. As a mother, how could she abandon her daughter in exchange for a chance to start over?
"Remember your choice."
Chu Chengzhou smiled. As his words fell, his figure vanished between heaven and earth.
After that, the world whose time had been frozen gradually blurred.
As she watched the forms of Qian Renxue and Hu Liena grow indistinct, Bibi Dong, whose wish could not be fulfilled, found her heart grow calm.
Compared to her previous life, what was this small unfulfilled wish?
If you are well, even hell is heaven.