Chapter 192: Yu Xiaogang Is a Eunuch
"If you have nothing useful to say, then don't waste everyone's time. Our time is valuable," Bibi Dong said coldly.
Yu Xiaogang froze, his mind struggling to process her words. Her icy tone—so distant, so full of disdain—cut deeper than any blade.
"Bibi…" he blurted out before he could stop himself, wanting desperately to plead with her.
But before the word had fully left his lips, Bibi Dong's pressure exploded outward. A sudden wave of spirit power struck him like a hammer, throwing him violently across the square.
Her gaze turned frigid as she looked down at him.
"Call me that again, and you won't leave this place alive. My name isn't something a worthless insect like you can utter."
Her sharp rebuke sent shockwaves through the entire courtyard. Everyone stared in disbelief for an instant before realization hit—Yu Xiaogang had just dared to address the Pope by name.
The crowd's mood shifted instantly from confusion to outrage.
A lowly academy instructor—barely above level thirty—had dared to directly shout the Pope's name. How dare he!
Even the high-ranking guests invited by Spirit Hall exchanged incredulous, mocking glances.
Yu Xiaogang, still reeling from the impact, could barely comprehend what had happened. It wasn't until Flender rushed forward to help him up that he finally regained his senses.
"Your Holiness!" Flender said urgently, forcing a nervous smile. "My colleague spoke out of turn. On behalf of Shrek Academy, I apologize for his offense."
As he spoke, he gave Yu Xiaogang a frantic glare, silently begging him to shut his mouth.
Cold sweat ran down Flender's forehead. He had never imagined Yu Xiaogang would be stupid enough to act so insolent here.
Yu Xiaogang rose shakily to his feet, his heart twisting as realization struck: Bibi Dong was no longer the woman he once knew.
She had become the exalted Pope, while he was nothing but a pitiful level thirty soul master.
His fists clenched tightly as he took a deep breath. "Your Holiness," he said stiffly, "I was out of line. The reason I interrupted the match is simple—Shrek Academy has decided to forfeit the morning portion of the finals. We will voluntarily compete in the losers' bracket this afternoon."
Bibi Dong's cold eyes fixed on him. Were it not for Luo Ling's earlier request—to let her "put on a little show"—she'd have erased him on the spot the moment he tried to call her name.
"There should be no issue with that, should there?" Yu Xiaogang continued, feigning composure while hatred simmered beneath his gaze. "Even if you're the Pope, forfeiting is our right. You can't strip us of that."
Gasps rippled through the arena.
He wasn't wrong—but to phrase it like that in front of the Pope? It was blatant defiance.
First, he had dared to speak her name. Now, he was openly challenging her authority.
The contrast between their statuses couldn't be starker—one, the supreme ruler of Spirit Hall; the other, a self-proclaimed "master" with the power of a mere Soul Elder.
To anyone with sense, it was obvious: Yu Xiaogang was digging his own grave.
Flender's heart nearly stopped from panic. He feared any second now, Bibi Dong might simply strike Yu Xiaogang dead where he stood.
A tense silence blanketed the square.
Yu Xiaogang mistook Bibi Dong's silence for hesitation—for lingering affection.
A hopeful smile crept across his bruised face.
To those watching, that smile looked utterly deranged. In such a confrontational moment, he was smiling.
"You're right," Bibi Dong finally said calmly. "You do have the right to surrender."
Yu Xiaogang's smile brightened—until the next words fell like thunder.
"But you dared to call me by name. That disrespect will not go unpunished. Strike him thirty times as punishment."
She waved her hand dismissively.
Immediately, several knights moved in, guided by a red-robed cardinal. They grabbed Yu Xiaogang by the arms before he had a chance to react and hauled him down onto the open square.
"Bibi Dong! You can't do this to me! I—"
His struggles were cut short as a guard shoved a cloth into his mouth.
"How dare you continue to insult Her Holiness!" the cardinal barked. "Hit him. Hard!"
He retrieved several metal rods as thick as a man's leg—their surfaces studded with cruel barbed spikes.
The sight alone drained the color from Yu Xiaogang's face. Terror seized him. He kicked and thrashed wildly, his muffled cries emerging as frightened whimpers—"Mmmph! Mmmph!"
Around the square, even Shrek's team went rigid, unable to intervene. Surrounded by Spirit Hall's masters, they could only grit their teeth and endure.
"Make it fifty," Bibi Dong added coldly.
Yu Xiaogang's eyes went wide with horror.
Thirty strokes might have maimed him—fifty could very well kill him.
"While you beat him, heal him between strikes. He's still an academy representative—I don't want him dying here."
Another cardinal bowed. "As you command, Your Holiness."
He stepped forward, grinning wickedly.
And so unfolded one of the strangest, most humiliating scenes the Pope's Plaza had ever seen.
During the Continental Tournament Finals—before an audience of the entire continent—Yu Xiaogang was publicly beaten beneath the Pope's Palace.
Each swing of the rods landed with a dull, sickening crack, accompanied by flashes of restorative healing light to keep him conscious.
Yu Xiaogang's screams, muffled by the gag, echoed faintly between the blows.
He quickly lost all sense of dignity or pain—his lower robes were in tatters.
When one of the red-robed priests noticed this, he casually tore the remnants of the cloth away—revealing the most shocking sight imaginable.
Yu Xiaogang's lower body was… empty.
He lacked any trace of a man's anatomy.
The crowd froze.
Even the beatings stopped.
Whispers swept through the plaza like a wave—
Yu Xiaogang… was a eunuch!
The cardinal holding the rod blinked in confusion, then looked around sheepishly before clarifying loudly, "All of you bear witness! We didn't do this! He was already like this before we began!"
His tone was perfectly solemn. "Spirit Hall's punishments never mutilate a man's descendants. We are not responsible!"
Laughter rippled faintly through the onlookers; even those who despised Spirit Hall knew this must be true.
No one doubted what they saw with their own eyes.
Shrek's members, though, were utterly thunderstruck.
None of them could even blink.
How could the man who called himself "Master"—the great theorist of the spirit world—be… that?
Only Flender stayed silent, his brow furrowed deeply as if wrestling with realization.
Tang San, on the other hand, was shaking—his face a mixture of disbelief and shock.
Yu Xiaogang wasn't just his teacher. He was the man Tang San viewed as a father.
And now…
Tang San's mind flashed back to their first meeting in Nuoding City—how he'd once heard rumors that Yu Xiaogang had been crippled.
Perhaps those rumors... had always been true.
From the very beginning, his teacher had already been a eunuch.
Tang San said nothing.
For the first time, silence truly engulfed him.
(END CHAPTER)
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