"Now after receiving all of that… can you truly change your destiny?"
Yet despite her words, not a single person within the hall heard her voice. It was as though she existed in another layer of reality.
Qian Renxue quietly looked at Bibi Dong for several moments. Her eyes, which resembled vast purple nebulae, showed neither hatred nor affection.
"Perhaps there was once lingering emotion within me," she continued softly. "That was why I improved your fate."
"Now, after so many years, you finally wish to act as a mother… and seek me."
Her hand slowly touched her chest.
"However, My heart feels nothing."
There was no fluctuation in her expression when she said those words, only a strange emptiness.
Her gaze pierced through countless walls and structures before arriving at the Elder's Hall deep within Spirit City.
There, Qian Daoliu was still kneeling before the Angel Goddess statue.
Even after all these years, the old man continued praying silently, perhaps still hoping for news regarding the granddaughter who had disappeared after creating that miracle of light years ago.
Qian Renxue watched him quietly.
"Perhaps I left Julia beside Grandfather because spreading the glory of the Angel Goddess was his greatest wish."
"And perhaps the reason I never appeared before him again… is because his presence no longer holds meaning within any of my plans."
Her voice remained calm, yet faint ripples spread within the surrounding space.
"The Seven Worshippers of the Elder Hall…"
"The elders I once acknowledged…"
"My childhood companions…"
"Jiang Mo, Shi Ming, Qing Dan, Tian Yue…"
"All of them became pieces within the play I created."
It did not sound as though she was explaining herself to another person.
Rather, it resembled someone calmly organizing their own thoughts after walking too far down a lonely road.
As Qian Renxue spoke, her pupils gradually emitted a deep purple radiance.
Then, within those beautiful eyes, countless shadowy pupils began appearing one after another.
Layers upon layers of endless eyes overlapped within her gaze, as though innumerable dream worlds were staring back at reality itself.
Suddenly, Qian Renxue jerked her head slightly and looked toward the direction of the Heaven Dou Empire.
A strange smile slowly formed on her lips.
"My, my… you could have enjoyed some peaceful time."
"But instead, you jumped into this quagmire yourself."
The smile on her face gradually became eerie. Dark shadows resembling layers of overlapping pupils spread across her beautiful face like living stains. Countless indistinct eyes flickered beneath her skin, as though something terrifying was attempting to emerge from within her existence.
Qian Renxue calmly raised her hand and pressed it against her own face. The shadows immediately receded.
Silence returned and only her cold purple eyes remained.
"So many arranged coincidences… all to provoke my reaction."
Her gaze pierced through space itself, seeming to observe invisible chess pieces moving across the continent.
"Don't worry," she whispered softly. "I will react."
"Because it seems… my preparations are finally complete as well."
Then Qian Renxue laughed quietly at herself. It was a self-deprecating smile.
Her eyes slowly turned toward Bibi Dong seated upon the papal throne below.
For the first time, a faint trace of complicated emotion appeared within those indifferent eyes.
"I have already smoothed your path," she whispered.
"But whether you can walk it yourself… depends entirely on you."
"My path lies elsewhere."
As she spoke, the purple glow within her pupils deepened further. It was no longer merely dreamlike.
It resembled an endless abyss where memories, dreams, fate, and cognition intertwined together.
"I still need to achieve… something."
At that moment, Qian Renxue's expression hardened completely.
The final traces of emotional fluctuation vanished from her face.
Then her body suddenly burst apart into countless shimmering dream bubbles.
The bubbles floated silently through the hall before disappearing into nothingness one after another.
No one realized she had ever been there. The Pope's Hall remained exactly as before.
Bibi Dong still sat upon the throne, listening absentmindedly to Ghost Douluo's trembling explanations.
Yet suddenly— Her hand pressed against her chest.
A sharp pain spread through her heart without warning.
It felt as though something extremely important to her had drifted infinitely far away in that instant.
Bibi Dong frowned slightly. For someone at her level, such emotional fluctuations should have been impossible.
Far away within the Elder Hall, Qian Daoliu also opened his eyes abruptly while praying before the Angel Goddess statue.
An indescribable restlessness surged within his heart. It felt as though he was about to lose something forever.
The old man slowly lowered his hands, confusion appearing within his aged eyes.
Neither of them understood the source of this strange feeling.
They did not know that, for a brief moment, the Goddess of Dreams and Memories had experienced a ripple of genuine emotion within the gradually freezing depths of her heart.
And that fleeting fluctuation had unconsciously resonated with the people most deeply connected to her existence.
----
Hidden location.
The interior of the cliff had long been hollowed out, forming a vast underground structure. From the outside it appeared like an ordinary mountain wall, but inside it resembled a luxurious secret mansion.
Well, it truly was one of Prince Xue Xing's secret mansions.
As one of the biggest profiteers in the underground slave trade of the Heaven Dou Empire, Xue Xing possessed many such hidden locations scattered throughout the continent. His wealth had been built upon filth and blood. Countless children had been kidnapped, broken mentally, and trained into obedient slaves before being sold to nobles and powerful clans.
The luxurious decorations surrounding the hall only made the atmosphere feel more disgusting.