"I have a rough idea. It seems their relationship has always been pretty good."
Of course, Bibi Dong would not admit that she actually understood it perfectly, lest she arouse suspicion.
While circulating her soul power to heal her injuries, she adjusted the state of her soul.
In just a few brief moments, her soul's essence had been severely damaged, to the point of shaking her foundation.
The core area of her soul, the Water Soul, was in ruins.
The once-bottomless lotus pond was now visible to the eye, its muddy layers undulating.
The lotuses above had dwindled to almost nothing.
The remaining withered branches and leaves bore the marks of having been ravaged by fire, not a single one intact.
However, she had no intention of showing this state in front of Qian Renxue.
It was meaningless.
Bibi Dong just looked at her with dim eyes, her pale lips parting slightly, "At least I know that she understands Su Cheng better than you."
"..."
Qian Renxue's expression flickered, and she seemed about to say something, but she restrained herself, waiting for Bibi Dong to continue.
"Qian Renxue, you think yourself exceptionally talented and always disregard others. But until now, has anything you gained not come from Su Cheng?
"If he had spent the effort on someone else instead of you, wouldn't the achievements be just as impressive?
"Moreover, others wouldn't be as willful as you.
"You think you can help him, but you actually can't do anything, except cause trouble and be completely useless!"
"What did you say?!" Hearing this, Qian Renxue was instantly furious.
A longsword condensed in her hand, the blade burning with silvery-gray flames pointed directly at Bibi Dong.
Bibi Dong remained still, just looking at her with a cold smile.
"My relationship with Su Cheng is none of your business!"
Qian Renxue gritted her teeth, but she couldn't actually attack.
The other party was severely injured, and it was for saving Su Cheng that she ended up in such a sorry state.
Drawing her sword was an impulsive act of anger.
"Bibi Dong, today's matter has nothing to do with my strength, it's Su Cheng's promise to me!"
In truth, Bibi Dong's words had been somewhat one-sided.
Qian Renxue reaching her current height was something extraordinary, even with Su Cheng's guidance.
Not to mention her unique talent of a dual soul, which was not something everyone could have.
This required an inherently strong soul foundation.
If it were someone else, even if they encountered a situation leading to soul splitting, the result would likely be mutual annihilation and death.
"It has nothing to do with strength? That's easy to say." Bibi Dong sneered softly, "If Zhu Zhuqing were far stronger than you, would you still dare to draw your sword against her?"
"Not dare? What a joke!" Qian Renxue laughed in anger.
"Listen to me, there's nothing in this world I don't dare to do!
"Zhu Zhuqing's strength has nothing to do with me!
"Isn't she your disciple? Then you can tell her that because Su Cheng took a hit for her today, I'll let her go.
"But one day, I will kill her!"
Hearing this, a strange look flashed in Bibi Dong's eyes. She then softened her tone and said indifferently, "What I mean is, given how things have developed, you might as well accept it. After all, you all owe your achievements to Su Cheng. Look at Zhu Zhuqing; she knew about your existence early on and never complained."
Bibi Dong's words only fueled Qian Renxue's anger.
Especially the more extreme side of her personality, her eyes faintly ignited with a subtle fire.
"Her? She's not worthy!"
The silent golden-armored figure also had a cold gleam in its eyes.
On this matter, both consciousnesses were unanimous.
"You don't understand what Su Cheng and I have been through together. You don't understand his lofty ambitions. For us, what is the Star Luo Empire? What is the Spirit Hall?"
"That sounds impressive."
Bibi Dong casually complimented her.
Then she softly mocked, "But I'm curious, if you talk about great ambitions, always saying 'we,' does Su Cheng really need you? In this regard, what's the essential difference between you and Zhu Zhuqing, who were both trained by him? Or do you think the difference is that you can stab him with a sword while Zhu Zhuqing can't?"
"..."
Qian Renxue's fingers trembled slightly.
The flames on her sword flickered.
Back to the same problem.
Who is Qian Renxue?
She could face life and death calmly, so proud she was almost arrogant.
So, no matter how exaggerated Bibi Dong's words might be, she couldn't refute them, nor did she deign to.
This was, in fact, a long-standing knot in her heart.
Su Cheng was her teacher, most of her strength came from his guidance; she was the one he pulled along.
Even her current cultivation method was tailor-made by him.
But Qian Renxue never wanted it this way.
She didn't want to be a mere appendage.
Bibi Dong was well aware of this.
And she knew Qian Renxue's weaknesses.
She was too proud.
From a young age, she had always been this way.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have agreed to infiltrate the Heaven Dou Royal Family for a coup mission as a child.
After Su Cheng appeared and her soul mutated, her extremity only intensified.
Extreme people are easily swayed by emotions and manipulated by words.
This isn't about intelligence, but about the thresholds they hold.
So, in their conversation, Bibi Dong seemed to be advising her but was actually provoking her, equating her with Zhu Zhuqing.
How could Qian Renxue accept that?
But the problem was, there were two obstacles she couldn't overcome.
Su Cheng's divided affections and her own lack of confidence.
This situation wasn't without a solution.
If Su Cheng could spend more time on her, even if he couldn't resolve her issues, he could at least alleviate them.
But unfortunately, Su Cheng was currently overwhelmed, giving Bibi Dong an opportunity.
From provoking Qian Renxue, to advising, to pushing her to accept Zhu Zhuqing's presence, Bibi Dong's words, regardless of how calmly presented or logically sound, were essentially pouring fuel on the fire.
When she guided the conversation away from emotions to strength, the outcome was sealed.
Bibi Dong knew this well.
At this point, Qian Renxue seemed to have many choices, but in reality, she had no choice left.
"... You don't need to say any more."
After a long silence, the two people standing opposite Bibi Dong exchanged a glance, determination flashing in their eyes.
Qian Renxue, dressed in silver-gray armor, sheathed her long sword and said flatly, "I can't accept that person's existence."
Hearing this, Bibi Dong raised an eyebrow. "So what do you want to do, kill her now?"
"I will kill her, but not now. I need to go out and train for a while. Later, I'll go inform Grandpa. From now on, you can discuss matters of the Spirit Hall with Su Cheng and Grandpa."
"You're not going to wait for Su Cheng to wake up and tell him yourself? He almost lost his life because of your impulsiveness."
"…"
Qian Renxue finally looked at the blue flames that had turned blue for a moment.
Her slightly reddened eyes showed reluctance, hesitation, and deep resentment.
But she said nothing.
Then, the two figures left the place one after the other.
A long time later, a voice came from a distance, "No need, as long as he's fine."
At this moment, Su Cheng was unaware of what was happening outside.
Of course, even if he knew, he would only go and talk to Qian Renxue; he would never blame Bibi Dong for anything.
Although her words were overly harsh, she was indeed speaking from Su Cheng's standpoint to justify his actions.
Not only that, she had also loyally refrained from revealing his close relationship with Zhu Zhuqing.
In fact, Su Cheng was still trying to stabilize the gradually improving situation inside his body.
With the shattering of his first five spirit rings, his innate power had explosively increased, finally suppressing the power of the sun.
In this situation, his powerful life force finally came into play, rapidly repairing his severely damaged internal organs, bones, and flesh.
Especially those meridians that had been burned and carbonized were being quickly rebuilt.
However, perhaps due to the continuous burning by the sun's fire, certain changes occurred in his body during the recovery process.
A large amount of innate power gradually merged into his bones and flesh as the sun's fire burned, forming a subtle connection that he couldn't yet understand.
Moreover, the newly formed meridians were much tougher than before, with a faint golden glaze on them.
But Su Cheng didn't dare to be careless at all.
After contending with the sun's power for so long, he had already noticed some characteristics of this powerful energy and its derivative flames.
Besides its extreme overbearing nature and the terrifying high temperature capable of burning souls, another characteristic was that it became stronger when faced with strong energies, using energy of the same level as fuel to intensify its burning.
Although the current terrifying white flames had been suppressed by the suddenly increased innate power, it wouldn't be long before the strength of the sun's fire increased accordingly.
The benefits brought by the shattering of his spirit rings were unsustainable, and he didn't have much time left.
So...
Su Cheng steadied his mind. In the next moment, one of the two remaining spirit rings on his martial spirit, the crimson sixth spirit ring, shattered and disappeared!
"Boom—"
A sound like a thunderclap echoed deep in his soul.
Violent blood energy and surging soul power flooded his entire body.
Not only that, but also soul power!
Pure and abundant soul energy, like moonlight, merged into his soul.
In that instant, he felt like a balloon rapidly expanding, as if he might explode at any moment.
Fortunately, it was just a fleeting illusion.
Although his sixth spirit ring was very strong, and the energy burst caused by its shattering was comparable to a divine-level energy fluctuation, it was still within Su Cheng's tolerance range.
The three kinds of rapidly increasing energy quickly merged, transforming into a vast amount of perfect innate power under the influence of his Eternal True Form, sweeping through his body.
The energy conductivity of the new meridians was astonishingly good, and in no time, they completely suppressed the remaining sun fire.
The color of the flames also changed from the initial blazing white to blue-white, then to a ghostly blue, brilliant gold, and finally stabilized at a golden-red, clinging to his meridians and bones.
Feeling the changes in his body, Su Cheng was both happy and worried.
He was happy because he discovered that after this high-level energy battle within his body, part of his perfect innate power had transformed into the ideal permanent state.
To be precise, a tiny portion of the energy had merged into his body, completely integrated with it, and then regenerated within his flesh, endlessly.
Perhaps this power could no longer be called innate power, as its nature had changed somewhat.
However, the specifics of these changes and their principles were still unclear to Su Cheng.
What worried him was that he now realized the sun fire had a third hidden characteristic—it could resonate with the sun.
Yes, that real, gigantic, terrifying fireball in the sky constantly undergoing nuclear fusion reactions.
Although this resonance wasn't strong, it made it impossible for energy of the same level to completely extinguish the remaining fire in his body.
Unless he could find a place unaffected by solar energy, such as another planet not exposed to the sun...
"Xiaoxue is really outrageous, how did she suddenly comprehend such a high-level energy, was it by chance?"
Su Cheng silently clicked his tongue.
After much thought, he decided to temporarily leave these residual fire seeds alone.
If he shattered his seventh spirit ring, that extremely special spirit ring, it would undoubtedly elevate his power to a level comparable to a first-level god in a short time, possibly even touching the threshold of a god-king.
But Su Cheng didn't dare to do that.
Although the sun fire was still burning, it was just residual flames now, and the temperature wasn't too high.
He only needed to continuously consume a small amount of innate power to keep it suppressed. Although it was troublesome and would further limit his power, it couldn't cause him much harm anymore, as long as he endured the constant burning pain.
However, if he shattered his seventh spirit ring, his body might not withstand it.
The explosion of that power, even if momentary, could very well cause him to explode.
Moreover, if he still couldn't completely extinguish these flames by then, he would be left with no trump card.
Not to mention, he was utterly exhausted now.
Not physically or spiritually, but mentally.
The extreme pain over a long period had drained his spirit to an exceptionally terrifying degree.
In this state, attempting to manipulate overly powerful energy was almost suicidal.
"After this ordeal, I wonder how much of my strength has been lost. What a mess..."
Su Cheng smiled bitterly.
With the disappearance of his first six spirit rings, his martial spirit and domain would inevitably undergo significant changes.
Even though he gained a small amount of innate power fused into his body, he didn't feel particularly happy.
Given a choice, he would prefer to slowly convert this power himself, seeking the path that truly suited him. Instead of gaining this small amount of "battlefield compensation" due to an accidental event.
Moreover, this power had to be used to suppress the remaining fire, rendering it mostly useless in future, merely serving as research material.
Not to mention, he had forever lost the five spirit rings that could mutually resonate and grow, and the sixth spirit ring with added Moonlight Sword Intent. It was foreseeable that after today, his martial spirit and domain would inevitably weaken significantly.
Outside, when the innate power erupted after the sixth spirit ring shattered and completely suppressed the sun power inside Su Cheng, the giant burning pillar of fire finally dissipated.
In the next moment, his falling body was caught in a soft embrace.
"Do you think I'm getting what I deserve..."
Mumbling this lowly, he could no longer resist the fatigue of his spirit and fell into a deep sleep in Bibi Dong's arms.