"Wang Zhong, didn't I tell you I am your teacher?"
"Didn't I teach you that you could give up on the past, when you charged ahead blindly with courage and grit?"
"Didn't I warn you that if you had any difficulties or doubts in your cultivation, you could ask me for guidance?"
Three consecutive "Didn't I" statements highlighted Bibi Dong's furious and tempestuous rage at this moment.
"Yes!"
Wang Zhong lowered his head, his voice hoarse and low.
"Yes! Yes! Since it's true! Then tell me, what were you doing before!"
The roar of anger echoed through the heavens and earth. Although Bibi Dong wasn't using her spirit power to suppress Wang Zhong at this moment, he felt crushed by something else, unable to lift his head.
"Tell me, who gave you the guts! To defy my orders and warnings!"
"And who gave you the courage to so carelessly discard and trample upon something I hold as a treasure!"
Wang Zhong kept his head down and remained silent. Bibi Dong's eyes, however, trembled twice after she uttered this sentence.
She understood!
In this relationship of supposed mother and son that she had considered fake, she had actually begun to believe it!
Unsure if it was pain or self-mockery, Bibi Dong closed her eyes, turned around, and concealed all expression on her face. She spoke softly in a hoarse voice.
"Wang Zhong, that day above the forest, your whispered words were met with my gentlest, most fervent response."
"I don't know your thoughts, but I will remember every detail of that day, and engrave that moving moment in my heart."
"I, Bibi Dong, can be unfaithful to everyone in the world, but I will be true to that response!"
Her voice, soft as if it could be scattered by the slightest breeze, yet it bore down on Wang Zhong like a colossal mountain, causing his head to droop and his spine to curve.
You thought you could withstand everything, but you never expected that your actions would inflict such pain on some people.
The body you didn't care about was cherished by someone to the very core, treated as a priceless treasure.
A child's injury wounds the body, a mother's heart aches for it!
A stream of hot tears overflowed from his eyes, slid down his cheeks, and finally dripped. In the tranquil, mirror-like black blood, ripples spread, shattering the image of Wang Zhong kneeling.
With tear streaks on his face, Wang Zhong looked up at the slender figure standing with her back to him. His lips parted slightly, as if wanting to speak, but in the end, only silence emerged.
"If you make a mistake, you must be punished!"
"Wang Zhong, this time your mistake is something I will not forgive, nor can I possibly forgive!"
"From today onwards, your status and position as the top student of Class A are stripped. All resources you gained from three consecutive rank-breaking challenges are revoked!"
"In three days, you will be banished to the Death Canyon for four years!"
"If you emerge alive after four years, then everything will be restored to you. If not, then so be it."
Bibi Dong, her back still to Wang Zhong, looked up at the sky, exhaled deeply, and stated each punishment, which was enough to drive any student of the Spirit Hall Academy mad or even to their death, in the calmest and coldest tone.
Status, position, and resources were obvious penalties, but the last one was the most severe.
The Death Canyon was a more terrifying and ferocious spirit beast paradise than the Star Dou Great Forest. Over ninety percent of the spirit beasts there reveled in slaughter and were bloodthirsty and frenzied.
If spirit beasts were classified as good and righteous like humans, then the Star Dou Great Forest would be an orderly kingdom ruled by a monarch, while the Death Canyon was a free and bloody utopia.
Chaos and death were the prevailing themes there.
Wang Zhong pressed his lips together, not answering, merely lowering his head in silence.
Bibi Dong did not wish to say more. Still facing away from Wang Zhong, she slowly walked away.
There were a thousand unsaid words between them, but they ultimately dissolved into silence.
In silence, she returned to the Pope's office. Bibi Dong had, at some point, changed back into her Pope's robe. Hands clasped behind her back, she stood by the window, her brow furrowed with worry and confusion.
Had she truly taken it seriously?
Was her punishment too severe?
Had her slap been too much?
Various questions and strange thoughts flooded her mind – thoughts she had never had before, never even considered. As a dictator, how could she ponder so much?
Her eyes half-closed, Bibi Dong walked to her desk, wrote down Wang Zhong's punishment, and then notified the attendant outside the door to summon Gui Mei and Yue Guan.
"You two will announce this matter."
The two who had just arrived were bewildered. Upon taking the letter that Bibi Dong handed them and reading it carefully, Yue Guan and Gui Mei's expressions simultaneously changed.
"Your Excellency, did that little fellow commit some offense! Why is the punishment so severe!"
Yue Guan exclaimed his confusion. Gui Mei also interjected, "Your Excellency, the other two penalties are acceptable, but this third one is perhaps too harsh."
"The Death Canyon; even a Spirit Emperor wouldn't dare to say they could enter and exit without harm, let alone send a newly-arrived Spirit Ancestor like that little fellow there for four years!"
"Such a punishment..."
"Enough, my mind is made up. You will announce it!"
Bibi Dong raised a hand, interrupting Gui Mei before he could say more, her expression solemn and irrefutable.
"Yes!"
Seeing that Bibi Dong had made up her mind, the two said no more. Yue Guan held the letter, and they left together.
Exiting the Pope's building, Gui Mei asked Yue Guan beside him, "Do you know what happened between Your Excellency and Wang Zhong?"
"Why such a severe punishment was suddenly decided upon."
Yue Guan stared at the letter in his hand, reading it over and over without finding any unusual information. He finally sighed, "How would I know about such matters."
"Who would dare to pry into Your Excellency's private affairs."
"Regardless, that young fellow Wang Zhong must have done something extraordinary, otherwise, it wouldn't have caused such an outburst from Your Excellency, who has always been lenient and favored him."
"Death Canyon! If that little fellow were a bit older, twelve or thirteen, I could still understand it as the Pope intending to temper him. But he's only eight years old; it's truly too soon."
Gui Mei also sighed, "Never mind, Your Excellency's thoughts are not for you and me to guess. Let's go announce this order first!"
"No, no, no, I don't think now is the best time to announce it."
"If Your Excellency only made this decision in a fit of anger, she might calm down after some time and possibly revoke this punishment."
"Once we inform the entire school of this order, it will be irreversible!"
Yue Guan rubbed his chin, pondering, and stopped Gui Mei's action.
"Then what is your suggestion?" Gui Mei asked with confusion.
"Three days from now! That time will be the best!"
Gui Mei nodded in agreement.
This timeframe was indeed the best and most considerate. Whether Bibi Dong had truly made up her mind or acted impulsively, the most accurate answer would be obtained that day.
"Honestly, I'm quite curious about what that little fellow did to make Your Excellency so enraged."
"I'm also curious, but only to the extent of curiosity! Yue Guan, don't do anything you shouldn't."
"Don't worry, I'm not an idiot, I won't seek death."