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Time flew. Eight months later.
"Saintess, Her Holiness the Pope is looking for you."
Inside the Saintess Palace beside the Pope's Palace, a maidservant addressed Hu Liena just as she exited meditation.
"I understand."
Nodding, Hu Liena left the Saintess Palace and walked straight toward Douluo Hall.
Though the maidservant hadn't specified where Teacher Bibi Dong was, Hu Liena knew well—nearly a year now, her teacher had waited tirelessly outside Douluo Hall.
Before reaching the hall, Hu Liena already spotted Bibi Dong waiting in the distance.
Perhaps it was an illusion—but Hu Liena sensed a profound sorrow radiating from her teacher.
"Teacher."
Hu Liena hurried forward, calling softly.
"Nana, you're here."
A faint smile appeared on Bibi Dong's pale face as she reached out to smooth Hu Liena's wind-tousled hair. "My Nana has grown up. When Teacher isn't here, remember to take good care of yourself. Understand?"
"Teacher, where are you going?"
Hearing "when Teacher isn't here," Hu Liena's heart lurched. She asked urgently.
"Yes—I'm leaving on a long journey."
Bibi Dong nodded.
"When will you return, Teacher? Will it be very long?"
"A very long time..."
Gently stroking Hu Liena's head, Bibi Dong's thoughts drifted back to her final moment in her "past life"—to the last words spoken by the great being who called himself the Darkness of the Universe and granted her "rebirth": "...unless the universe reaches its end and the world is destroyed, you shall never reincarnate for ten thousand years."
Ten thousand years—was that ten thousand lifetimes of ten thousand years?
"Nana, cultivate diligently. When you can stand on your own and hold up your own sky, Teacher will return."
Bibi Dong lied.
"Mhm."
Hu Liena nodded firmly.
Turning toward the still-sealed gates of Douluo Hall, Bibi Dong said: "Nana, can Teacher ask you a favor?"
"Teacher, just say it! Not just one thing—even a thousand, ten thousand things—I will fulfill them all!"
Hu Liena didn't hesitate.
"When Douluo Hall's gates open again, and a golden-haired elder sister steps out—you tell her: 'Bibi Dong knows she was wrong. I don't seek her forgiveness. I only wish for her to take care of herself forevermore…'"
As she entrusted this to Hu Liena, tears silently streamed down Bibi Dong's cheeks once more.
"Qian Daoliu—I, Bibi Dong, beg of you: take good care of Nana!"
Her near-semi-god-level spiritual power spread as she transmitted these words to Qian Daoliu in the Supply Hall.
At the same moment, inside the Angel Secret Realm, Qian Renxue—undergoing her Angel God trials—felt an inexplicable pang of panic. The image of Bibi Dong flashed unbidden in her mind.
Shaking her head, Qian Renxue banished the distracting thought.
Cultivating hard and completing the divine trials came first—how could that wicked woman Bibi Dong disrupt her focus?
Unacceptable. Utterly unacceptable!
Yet despite these thoughts, Qian Renxue communed with the Angel God statue within the secret realm. She exited the Angel Secret Realm and returned to the Douluo Hall in the mortal world.
'That despicable Bibi Dong—deliberately shattering my focus!'
RUMBLE RUMBLE—
A faint rumbling echoed. The heavy gates of Douluo Hall slowly opened.
Bibi Dong turned and saw—beyond the open gates—a breathtakingly beautiful golden-haired figure.
Without hesitation, Bibi Dong rushed toward Qian Renxue.
But at that very instant—a mysterious, almighty force descended. The world seemed frozen. All around her fell into absolute stillness.
"NO—"
Gazing at Qian Renxue—so close yet eternally distant—Bibi Dong screamed until her throat bled.
'So close... Why? Why just a little too late? Why couldn't I fulfill my final wish?!'
'Is a sinner like me truly unworthy of even this small grace?'
As if her last ounce of strength vanished, Bibi Dong collapsed before Douluo Hall.
Then—a figure shrouded in gray mist, radiating pure evil, its face indiscernible, emerged from nothingness and halted before her.
"Do you resent this?"
Chu Chengzhou—disguised as the "Darkness of the Universe"—asked.
Bibi Dong didn't answer. She only wept, gazing at Qian Renxue so near yet unreachable.
Not because she faced eternal damnation in endless hell—but because her final wish would go unfulfilled.
"And if you were given another chance to begin anew?"
Chu Chengzhou asked again.
Instantly, Bibi Dong stood up, her eyes burning with desperate hope.
Chu Chengzhou pointed at Qian Renxue. "To me, her soul is far nobler than yours. Since you share direct blood ties, you may sell her soul to me."
"Once the pact is sealed, you need not fall eternally into endless hell. I can even reverse time—sending you back to any point in your life's journey. Even... to before that starless night."
"After reversing time, you may pursue the one you love. You may obtain all you desire."
"And once you've altered your destiny... she will cease to exist. You'll feel no guilt for selling her soul."
The "Darkness of the Universe's" words slithered into Bibi Dong's ears like a demon's whisper.
As the words faded, the hope in Bibi Dong's eyes dimmed. She shook her head.
When she'd killed Yu Xiaogang, her heart had bled.
But as time passed, she realized—the man she'd yearned for all her life wasn't truly irreplaceable.
For in this life, after killing Yu Xiaogang with her own hands, she felt no desire to end her existence.
Whereas in her past life—watching Qian Renxue about to die under the Asura Devil Sword—she'd thrown herself forward without hesitation, taking the blade meant for her daughter.
Why? Bibi Dong didn't know. But she trusted her heart.
Yu Xiaogang had been her love—true. But in her heart, his worth paled before her daughter Qian Renxue's—even though she'd once hated that very daughter.
In her final moments of her past life, she'd awakened to the duty of motherhood. How could a mother trade her child's soul for her own second chance?
"Remember your choice!"
Chu Chengzhou smiled. His figure dissolved into the heavens and earth.
Then—the world, frozen in time, began to blur.
Gazing at the fading forms of Qian Renxue and Hu Liena—her final wish unfulfilled—Bibi Dong's heart found peace.
Compared to her past life... what was this small unfulfilled wish?
If you are well, hell... is also heaven.
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