Chapter 98: Hu Liena & Bibi Dong Get Slapped in the Face on the Spot
[Seven Treasure Little Rich Lady: After all, you're a total face-con, aren't you!]
When Hu Liena saw this message, she reacted like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.
[Sworn Protector of the Pope: Impossible! Absolutely impossible!]
[Sworn Protector of the Pope: Tang San is Spirit Hall's mortal enemy! He's the one who defeated our Golden Generation (in the future)!]
[Sworn Protector of the Pope: As a pope's direct disciple, how could I possibly fall for an enemy?!]
[Sworn Protector of the Pope: Ning Rongrong, that's slander! I'm going to sue you for defamation!]
Hu Liena argued righteously in the chat group, her words firm and indignant.
Yet, in reality, a flicker of panic flashed across her charming, seductive face.
Because she understood herself far too well.
She truly was a face-con. And she admired the strong.
If, in a desperate place like the Slaughter City, she were to encounter a man who was both handsome and powerful without knowing he was Tang San…
"N–No way, right?"
Hu Liena felt her confidence waver.
At that moment, Bibi Dong also spoke in the chat group, her tone as protective as ever.
[Supreme Pope: Enough. Nana is my disciple. I know her character better than anyone.]
[Supreme Pope: She is absolutely loyal to Spirit Hall. There is no way she would have any entanglement with Tang San.]
[Supreme Pope: Ning Rongrong, watch your mouth. Don't think that just because the system protects you, I wouldn't dare deal with you.]
The more Bibi Dong defended her now, the more painfully she would be "slapped in the face" by Lin Yuan later.
[The five-year appointment has arrived.]
[The Shrek Seven Devils agreed to reunite at Shrek Academy.]
[Tang Hao felt that Tang San's training was nearly complete, so he instructed him to first head to the Star Dou Great Forest to find Xiao Wu, and then return together.]
[But!]
[There's a chilling detail hidden here.]
[At that time, Tang San's soul power level was at an extremely delicate stage.]
[Peak Rank 59!]
[Just one step away from Rank 60 Soul Emperor!]
[What does that mean?]
[It means he was at a bottleneck, desperately in need of a soul ring to break through!]
[And right at this critical juncture, Tang Hao sent him to find Xiao Wu, a one-hundred-thousand-year soul beast.]
[Doesn't this feel familiar? When Ah Yin sacrificed herself back then, what level was Tang Hao?]
[Peak Rank 89!]
[Just one soul ring away from becoming a Titled Douluo!]
[Father and son. The same script. The same bottleneck. The same journey to find their wife (a hundred-thousand-year soul beast).]
[Then the same pursuit by Spirit Hall. The same forced sacrifice. The same breakthrough after absorbing the sacrificial soul ring, with strength skyrocketing!]
[In this world… Are there really such coincidences?]
Boom!
These words were like a thunderclap from a clear sky, directly blowing Ah Yin's mind apart within the chat group.
Deep down, she had always held onto a trace of hope. She believed it was the cruelty of fate, the oppression of Spirit Hall, Tang Hao's helplessness.
After all, she had never been able to get a clear answer from Tang Hao about what truly happened back then. Perhaps it had really just been a coincidence?
But if one time was a coincidence, it was a tragedy.
Then two identical scripts, played out across two generations of father and son, each perfectly timed at the critical point of breakthrough—
That was no coincidence.
That was a deliberate calculation.
At this moment, Ah Yin's trust in the contents of Lin Yuan's diary rose to ninety percent.
[And there's an even greater "coincidence" ahead.]
[According to Tang Hao's arrangement, Tang San, at that delicate Rank 59 bottleneck, entered the Star Dou Great Forest alone.]
[And what happened?]
[He just so happened to run into Spirit Hall's Golden Generation team, who had come to hunt Xiao Wu!]
[Leading the team were not only Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo, but also Hu Liena, Xie Yue, Yan—the Golden Generation themselves and twenty Soul Saints!]
[That lineup could only be described as luxurious.]
[Their objective was crystal clear: Xiao Wu in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest!]
[Faced with such a desperate situation, what did our protagonist Tang San do?]
[He came up with a brilliant plan, one that required extraordinary "acting skills."]
[He infiltrated them.]
[Directly blending into Spirit Hall's hunting squad, becoming one of them, and following them to search for Xiao Wu!]
[And the reason this strategy succeeded wasn't only because of Tang San's Oscar-level acting.]
[The most crucial factor… was Spirit Hall's Saintess Hu Liena!]
[It relied on Hu Liena's "affection" for him!]
A faint trace of mockery seemed to curl at the corners of Lin Yuan's lips as he wrote this.
…
Spirit City. Spirit Hall Academy.
Inside the Mimicry Training Ground.
Hu Liena, who had been resting moments ago, turned deathly pale when she reached this part.
She stared fixedly at the diary copy visible only to her, her breathing growing rapid.
"Using… my affection?"
"Infiltrating the team?"
"How is that possible?!"
She screamed internally.
She was Spirit Hall's Saintess, the Pope's most beloved disciple, unwaveringly loyal to Spirit Hall.
How could she possibly let a wolf into the fold?
How could she allow an enemy to infiltrate the team, let alone use her to approach their target?
Yet, the next lines of the diary fell like heavy hammers, plunging her into self-doubt.
[Hu Liena might feel wronged. She might think she's loyal to Spirit Hall and would never collude with an enemy.]
[But the truth is exactly that.]
[Because by then, Tang San was no longer the plain-looking Tang San of the past.]
[After awakening the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, his appearance underwent a complete transformation. He became a handsome man with flowing azure hair and a melancholic, noble aura.]
[In Slaughter City, he used the alias "Tang Yin."]
[That was where he met Hu Liena, who had also gone there for training.]
[The two even joined forces to pass through Hell Road together.]
[In those sunless days, before this handsome and powerful man known as "Tang Yin," our usually aloof and prideful Saintess… fell.]
[She seemed to have fallen in love with him.]
[Even when they reunited in the Star Dou Great Forest, and Tang San claimed he was there to hunt soul beasts as well (his surface excuse), she suppressed all objections and persuaded Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo to let him join the team.]
[Little did she know that a single decision would directly cause the failure of this hunting operation!]
…
Boom!
Hu Liena felt as though her mind had exploded. Her heart seemed gripped by an invisible hand, squeezing so tightly she could barely breathe.
"Tang Yin… the man who fought side by side with me in the Slaughter City… was actually Tang San?!"
Though these events had yet to happen, Lin Yuan's description was terrifyingly realistic.
The closed loop of logic left her with no way to refute it.
She knew herself.
She was a face-con.
And she admired the strong.
…
End of Chapter