"I believe you remember the next step. There's some… information she needs to receive, very discreetly."
The man bowed again, deeper this time. "Yes, Young Master. The moment we confirmed her return, the preparations have began. It will be done."
"Good," Qian Renxue said, dabbing her lips with a silk napkin embroidered with a faint angelic sigil. Her smile widened, almost innocently. "Let her be reminded of certain… events. The kind that open old wounds, but it should be done gently."
"Yes, Young Master."
She waved her hand lazily. "Off you go then. I expect results by tomorrow."
The man turned, bowing deeply once more before taking his leave. As he exited, his gaze briefly swept across her, sitting like an angel cloaked in gold, her expression soft yet unfathomably distant. And that smile...
He felt an odd sensation like cold breath crawling up his spine.
----
A new day began in Spirit City
The first rays of sunlight filtered through the stained glass windows of the Pope's Hall, casting golden, rose-tinted hues across the white marble floors. The dew-kissed breeze from the sacred gardens flowed gently through the open windows, carrying with it the distant sound of birdsong. The tranquil melody laced through the quiet halls like a soft prayer at dawn. Spirit Hall, momentarily, was bathed in peace.
After what felt like an eternity in seclusion, Bibi Dong had finally returned to her office.
Dressed in her ceremonial robes, trimmed with violet and gold, she sat down on the high-backed seat behind her desk. Her expression was calm, but her heart pulsed with a complex tide of emotions. She had expected mountains of documents to await her, matters that had piled up during her retreat, but to her mild surprise, the parchment stack was small and orderly.
She narrowed her eyes slightly.
"…Did Qian Xunji reassign my duties while I was away?" she muttered to herself. Though she tried to keep her tone flat.
She began working with practiced ease, reading and signing without wasting time.
But then her hand stopped.
Her eyes locked onto a specific folder tucked between routine reports of border patrols and Spirit Hall branch updates. The title stood out:
"The Golden Iron Triangle"
Bibi Dong's breath hitched involuntarily, her slender fingers gripping the edge of the report tightly. She recognized that name, it was a soul fusion team that had recently gained notoriety for defeating a Soul Douluo together. But she also knew that within this triangle was him.
Her breath caught and her pulse quickened.
"Yu Xiaogang..." she whispered.
But this report… 'why was it here?'
She clenched the report in her hand.
'Qian Xunji had made sure that any and all information regarding Yu Xiaogang be suppressed, erased, hidden from her eyes.'
He had gone to lengths beyond measure to sever her from her past.
And yet, this scroll had made it to her desk.
A genuine, hopeful smile touched her lips.
'I wonder how Yu Xiaogang has been living these years…'
Her expression softened as her thoughts drifted, back to her youth, to days filled with naive dreams and quiet smiles, before it all fell apart.
But then she opened the scroll.
Line after line, she read. And with each word, the warmth in her eyes faded, replaced by growing darkness.
Until finally, her eyes locked on one name.
Her pupils contracted and her jaw clenched.
The quill she held cracked between her fingers.
"Liu Erlong…!" she hissed, voice trembling with fury.
"Why!!" she roared, the word echoing off the grand stone walls.
A suffocating wave of dark purple soul power exploded from her body, swirling and crashing like a storm around the office. The decorative curtains tore, scrolls flew off the desk, and the very air warped under the pressure. Her rose coloured hair danced wildly as the aura consumed the room, drowning it in chaos and wrath.
Dark whispers, like the scraping of ancient metal on stone, crept into her mind.
'See? Your lover has already moved on.'
'You were discarded like trash. Forgotten and unwanted.'
'So many angels around you… why not start with the weakest one? Just one sacrifice and your Rakshasa Divine Trial can begin…'
Her eyes trembled with hate… pain… and confusion.
But then—
"No!"
Her voice rang with clarity, cutting through the whispers like a bell of defiance.
Her newly formed soul core pulsed at that moment. The refined vortex at the center of her power stabilized, holding her rampaging soul force in check. Slowly, though her chest heaved and her vision blurred, she brought her aura under control.
The malicious mist faded.
The divine whispers retreated.
And with them, Bibi Dong's strength gave out.
She collapsed back onto her chair, her hands trembling, her face pale.
A single tear fell, tracing a line down her cheek.
'I'm glad… that Yu Xiaogang has found someone he loves…'
'I'm impure… unworthy of him now.'
In the original storyline of Douluo Dalu, Bibi Dong had descended into obsession over Yu Xiaogang, clinging to the belief that he had remained alone, waiting for her all those years.
That belief had been carefully maintained by Qian Xunji, who had deliberately cut off all information about Yu Xiaogang's personal life. She never knew he had long since found love again, with Liu Erlong.
After she became the Pope she buried all her feelings inside and did not explicitly searched about information about Yu Xiaogang's love life
But now, before the story's original timeline could even begin, the revelation that Yu Xiaogang had moved on, that he had someone he loved, brought a strange calm to Bibi Dong's heart.
It dulled a part of her obsession, but only slightly. The anger that had faded in one direction surged anew in another. It now pointed at the man who had orchestrated their separation, her master, Qian Xunji.