Douluo: Yu Hao is reborn, this Tang San is different

Chapter 129 The Master Meets Bibi Dong
The golden silk curtains hanging from the dome of the Papal Palace rustled loudly under the force of the hidden energy. Bibi Dong's scarlet skirt swept across the steps inlaid with reliefs of six-winged angels, and her gilded scepter slammed heavily on the ground, the sparks scorching the floor tiles.

Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei knelt on one knee, their soul power flickering like a candle in the wind under the Pope's pressure.

"Useless!" Bibi Dong's voice was as cold as a poisoned dagger, and her dark green eyes surged with boundless rage. "With thirty Soul Saints and twelve Soul Emperors, you couldn't even capture a seriously injured Tang Hao?"

She raised her hand and waved it lightly, and an invisible wave of air sent the two of them flying. Yue Guan crashed into three marble pillars and his ghostly figure twisted violently in the shadows.

Yue Guan struggled to his feet, his purple-gold robe stained with pebbles, and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the angel emblem: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger! Tang Hao continuously detonated his rings in a desperate situation, forcibly breaking through the bipolar static domain." His voice stopped abruptly as he saw Bibi Dong suddenly clench her scepter, her knuckles turning almost transparent white.

The temperature inside the hall plummeted, and frost spread along the stone pillars, condensing the candlelight into eerie green ice crystals.

"Detonation rings?" Bibi Dong slowly rose to her feet, the jewels on the papal crown reflecting a chilling light. "He's certainly willing to do that."

She strode up to the two men, her black boots crushing Yue Guan's jade pipe, instantly turning the exquisite object to dust. "And what about you? You've completely disgraced yourselves as Title Douluos!"

The ghostly figure, trembling from the shadows, spoke: "Your Majesty, we have detected Tang Hao."

"Enough!" Bibi Dong suddenly turned around, the gust of wind from her skirt overturning the long table in the hall. Just then, Yue Guan abruptly looked up and shouted:

"Your Majesty! During the arrest, we encountered Yu Xiaogang!"

These words struck like a heavy hammer, plunging the entire hall into a deathly silence.

Bibi Dong froze on the spot, the raging anger in her dark green eyes suddenly solidifying, replaced by a fragile, stunned look. A thunderclap boomed outside the palace, lightning illuminating her pale face, making the curve of her lips appear exceptionally cold and desolate.

Yue Guan secretly observed the Pope's expression and continued, "Yu Xiaogang was rescued by Tang Hao, but he..." His voice unconsciously softened, "...he seems to have been tortured, and his body is incomplete."

Memories flooded back like a tide—that rainy night, the way Yu Xiaogang huddled in the mud, Luo Sanpao's weak whimpering spirit, and the burning resentment in his eyes when he looked at Liu Erlong.

Bibi Dong slowly walked to the full-length mirror, where the reflection overlapped with the scene from twenty years ago.

Back then, she was a girl with pigtails. Under the willow tree at Notting Academy, Yu Xiaogang gently placed Luo Sanpao's martial soul seed in her palm and said tenderly, "Xiao Dong, your twin martial souls will surely shock the continent." But now, the person in the mirror wears a heavy crown of a priest, and her eyes are so cold that they can freeze everything.

"What did he say?" Bibi Dong's voice was as soft as a whisper, her fingertips tracing the mirror's surface as if trying to touch a past sealed by time. Yue Guan hesitated for a moment before truthfully replying, "He... he's shouting that he wants to demand an explanation from His Majesty."

These words sent a shiver down Bibi Dong's spine. Yu Xiaogang's vow still echoed in her ears: "Even if it means going against the whole world, I will protect you." But reality was that the pressure from their families and Qian Xunji's conspiracy crushed their love to pieces.

She still remembers the night she was forced to take the drugs. Yu Xiaogang's desperate cries pierced through the locked door, and she could only grit her teeth and swallow all the pain and humiliation.

Outside the window, a torrential downpour washed over the glazed tiles of the Papal Palace. Bibi Dong gazed at the angel murals on the wall and murmured to herself, "Xiao Gang, we can never go back."

The candlelight in the Papal Palace flickered violently in the sudden gust of wind, the six-winged angel pattern on Bibi Dong's gilded scepter gleamed coldly, and the emotions surging in her dark green pupils froze the air.

Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei knelt amidst the shattered porcelain, their soul power twisting and deforming under the oppressive force.

"Go and bring Yu Xiaogang here." Bibi Dong's voice seemed to come from the depths of ice, with a barely perceptible tremor at the end. Just as Yue Guan was about to ask for details, the jewel on the Pope's crown suddenly shattered, sharp fragments flying past his ear and creating a deep crater in the ground.

"If you can't find them, you don't need to come back."

Night rain pattered against the rusty iron bars of the dungeon, where Yu Xiaogang huddled in a stinking pile of straw.

The earless prisoner's leather boots ground down hard on his deformed wrist, and spittle was spat on his scabbed forehead: "Still being stubborn? Mention the Pope again, and I'll rip your tongue out and feed it to the rats!"

When the moldy black bread was snatched away, he instinctively reached out to stop it, only to be hit hard on the back of the head with a wooden spoon.

Luo Sanpao's martial spirit flickered faintly in his chest, its pink light almost extinguished by the sewage. Yu Xiaogang stared at the water seeping from the crack in the stone above his head, his consciousness flickering in and out of focus amidst the pain.

The cherry blossom rain at Notting College twenty years ago, the vows on the back mountain, and Bibi Dong's smiling face with her pigtails flashed back in my mind like shattered mirrors.

When the white-haired prisoner's cigarette butt burned his back again, he suddenly laughed out loud, blood trickling down the corner of his mouth, startling the abuser into standing still.

The heavy creaking of chains echoed from the depths of the dungeon. Yu Xiaogang thought it was yet another round of torture, but then he heard the guard gasp in terror: "Lord Ju... Lord Ju Douluo!"

Purple mist surged over the cell like a tide. Yue Guan, fan in hand, walked slowly in; the chrysanthemum emblem on the fan bloomed eerily in the dim light. He frowned in disgust, looking at the filth scattered on the floor.

"Which one is Yu Xiaogang?"

The earless prisoner's Adam's apple bobbed up and down, trembling as he pointed towards the corner.

Yu Xiaogang struggled to lift his head, his swollen eyelids barely opening, and saw Ghost Douluo's eerie green figure appearing and disappearing in the shadows. "His Holiness the Pope summons me."

Yue Guan flicked out a golden thread that wrapped around his wrist, ruthlessly pulling him up. Yu Xiaogang groaned in pain, his broken ribs making a soft grinding sound as he moved.

The corridor leading to the Papal Palace seemed endless. Yu Xiaogang's gray robe dragged across the bluestone slabs, leaving a trail of blood. He recalled the first time he entered this place—back then, he was still the pride of the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Clan, holding Bibi Dong's hand, dreaming of a future where martial spirit theories would change the continent. And now, he was like a dying stray dog, dragged to trial by his former lover's henchmen.

"Sir, the dungeon records show that this person was imprisoned for theft." The warden wiped away cold sweat as he followed behind Yue Guan. "He also repeatedly claimed to know His Holiness the Pope, which is a serious blasphemy." Before he could finish speaking, Ghost Douluo's eerie green claws pierced through his shoulder: "Shut up."

The ornate doors of the Papal Palace slowly opened, and Yu Xiaogang was roughly pushed inside.

Bibi Dong stood with her back to him before the enormous angel mural, her black and gold robes trailing on the ground. The light reflected from her crown was so bright that he could hardly open his eyes. "Step back," she said calmly. Yue Guan and the ghost bowed and disappeared into the shadows, the heavy palace doors slamming shut with a dull thud.

Yu Xiaogang staggered as he tried to regain his balance, but collapsed to the ground due to fractures in both legs.

He heard his own heavy breathing echo in the empty hall, mingling with Bibi Dong's slow footsteps. When the pair of long boots embroidered with gold thread stopped in front of him, he finally raised his head and met those familiar yet unfamiliar dark green eyes.

Bibi Dong's pupils contracted sharply. The spirited young man she remembered was now withered and emaciated, like a walking corpse. His silver hair was stained with blood, his left eye was swollen to a slit, and his right hand was twisted at an eerie angle. Most shockingly, there was a deep whip mark on his chest, almost piercing through the core area of ​​Luo Sanpao's martial spirit.

“You,” Bibi Dong’s voice tightened, and she quickly changed her words, “Who hurt you like this?” As she bent over, the jewels on her crown cast shadows, obscuring the turbulent emotions in her eyes.

Yu Xiaogang laughed, his laughter tinged with coughing up blood: "Does it matter? When you sent people to kill me, did you ever think about whether I would feel pain?"

The hall fell into a deathly silence. Bibi Dong suddenly grabbed his chin, her nails almost digging into his flesh: "Insolence!" But when her fingertips touched his sunken cheek and she felt the burning heat from his palm, her movements suddenly froze.

The boy who used to pat her head twenty years ago is now so fragile that he seems like he could break at the slightest touch.

Yu Xiaogang coughed up blood, splattering it onto Bibi Dong's sleeve. He looked at her face, which had turned deathly pale, and suddenly remembered how her ears had flushed similarly during their first kiss. "Why?" His voice was as soft as a sigh.

"Are the vows we made back then really worthless?"

The flickering candlelight in the Papal Palace cast a distorted and menacing shadow of Bibi Dong. She stared intently at Yu Xiaogang, who slumped to the ground, her dark green eyes blazing with overwhelming hatred and resentment. Her gilded scepter slammed heavily onto the ground, sparks illuminating her rage-contorted face.

"Yu Xiaogang! What else do you have to say? If you hadn't abandoned me back then, how could I have ended up like this today!"

Yu Xiaogang struggled to lift his head, a mocking smile on his lips, blood dripping from his chin: "Abandon you? Bibi Dong, you've really turned black into white! Who disappeared without a word back then? Who made me wait under the cherry blossom tree at Notting Academy for three whole months?"

His voice was hoarse and trembling, each word seeming to tear at the deepest wound in his heart.

Bibi Dong suddenly burst into wild laughter, her laughter filled with endless sorrow and despair: "Wait? What right do you have to say wait! Do you think I don't know the true colors of your family? They forced you to sever ties with me, and you obediently complied, didn't you?"

She suddenly ripped open her collar, revealing a hideous scar on her collarbone.

"Do you know what I've been through all these years? Do you know how much I've paid to survive and to get to where I am today?"

Yu Xiaogang's pupils suddenly contracted as he looked at the scar.

Memories flooded back, and he recalled the innocent and carefree girl who always nestled in his arms, talking about their dream of changing the Douluo Continent together. But now, the woman before him had been consumed by power and hatred, becoming a stranger and a terrifying figure.

"So you chose betrayal? You chose to become a puppet of the Spirit Hall?" He struggled to stand up, but fell heavily again due to his broken legs. "Bibi Dong, how can you face your conscience?"

"Conscience?" Bibi Dong sneered, approaching step by step, her dark green soul power surging around her. "When your family trampled me underfoot, when Qian Xunji used dirty tricks to coerce me, could conscience save me?"

She suddenly grabbed Yu Xiaogang by the neck and pinned him against the wall. "You think I don't want to run away with you? You think I don't want to continue being that carefree girl? But reality doesn't give me a choice!"

Yu Xiaogang's face turned purple from being choked, but he still stubbornly stared at her: "Then why didn't you tell me? Why did you have to bear all of this alone? We promised to face it together!"

His words made Bibi Dong's hands tremble slightly, and the sweet memories of the past pierced her heart like sharp blades.

"Face it together?" Bibi Dong released his grip, and Yu Xiaogang collapsed to the ground, coughing violently. "You can't even protect yourself, how can you face this? Do you think your family will let you off the hook? Do you think the Spirit Hall will let this go?"

She turned and walked toward the throne, her back view so lonely and desolate. "I chose this path to let everyone know who is the true ruler of Douluo Continent."

Yu Xiaogang, supporting himself on the ground, said with difficulty, "So you can indiscriminately kill innocent people? You can start wars? Bibi Dong, you've changed, you've changed so much I almost don't recognize you."

"I've changed?" Bibi Dong turned around abruptly, her eyes flashing with a crazed light.
"If I hadn't changed, I would have died in some dark corner long ago! Yu Xiaogang, you're too naive. This world has never been as wonderful as you write in your books. The strong prey on the weak, survival of the fittest—that's the eternal truth!"

Approaching slowly, Bibi Dong's long black dress trailed on the ground, stirring up tiny ice crystals: "Who did this to you?" Her voice seemed to come from the deepest hell, carrying a chilling aura.

Yu Xiaogang leaned against the cold stone pillar, coughing up a mouthful of blood mixed with bits of flesh. Looking at the overwhelming rage surging in Bibi Dong's eyes, he suddenly felt a little ridiculous—the girl who once hurt and wept for him was now looking at him with such eyes.

"Who else could it be?" He twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile that was more like a grimace. "Those old fogies from the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Clan felt that I had disgraced the clan, so they wanted to get rid of me as soon as possible."

These words struck Bibi Dong's heart like a heavy hammer. Her nails dug deep into her palms, blood dripping down the lines: "Good, very good!"

Her voice suddenly rose, causing the candlelight in the hall to flicker violently, "I will let them know what a terrible price they will pay for daring to touch my people! Before long, the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Clan will be completely wiped out from the Douluo Continent!"

Yu Xiaogang suddenly looked up, a hint of panic flashing in his eyes: "You dare!"

He struggled to get up, but his broken legs caused him to fall heavily to the ground again, the excruciating pain making his vision blur. Luo Sanpao's martial spirit flickered weakly in his chest, its pink light almost extinguished. "That's my family. Even if they've been unkind to me, it's none of your business!"

Upon hearing this, Bibi Dong let out a sharp, maniacal laugh, filled with endless mockery and sorrow: "Your family? When they buried you alive, did they ever think that you were one of their own?"
"When they sent people to hunt you down, did they even think of family ties?" She leaned down and pinched Yu Xiaogang's chin, her nails almost digging into his flesh.

"Yu Xiaogang, why are you always so naive?"

(End of this chapter)