[Phase Two of the comparison has concluded. In seven days, the Phase Three comparison film will be broadcast.]
White World – Spirit Hall
The announcement slowly faded from the heavenly screen.
Inside Spirit Hall, the atmosphere was unusually relaxed.
Bibi Dong leaned comfortably against the shoulder of Yu Xiaogang, her posture intimate and natural, as though she had no care in the world.
"After this," she said softly, "it should be around the time you first arrived at Spirit City."
Yu Xiaogang smiled faintly, memories surfacing in his eyes.
"Yes," he replied. "Thinking back on it now, those days still feel vivid."
Though he had already lived through two lives, youth always carried a unique brilliance. No matter how much time passed, the excitement, awkwardness, and emotions of those early years were difficult to forget.
Interesting things always happened when people were young.
Nearby, Hu Liena glanced at the two of them leaning against each other and speaking quietly. She wisely chose not to interrupt.
Instead, her eyes shifted toward Qian Daoliu and the other elders.
A curious gleam entered her eyes.
"High Priest," Hu Liena asked eagerly, "what exactly happened back then when Dragon God His Eminence first arrived at Spirit City?"
The question caused Qian Daoliu's face to twitch slightly.
He cast an annoyed glance at Yu Xiaogang.
"What else could it have been?" he snorted. "Mostly that brat trying to abduct our Spirit Hall Holy Maiden."
The dissatisfaction in his voice was impossible to hide.
At the side, Gold Crocodile Douluo burst into loud laughter.
"Hahaha! Let me tell you, their story back then was truly entertaining."
He stroked his beard and continued with obvious amusement.
"One was from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect. The other was the future Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall."
"Under normal circumstances, those two should never have ended up together."
He shook his head dramatically.
"But we simply couldn't stop that girl Bibi Dong from being so stubborn."
Then he grinned wickedly.
"Later, that brat Yu Xiaogang invented a term for people like her."
"Love-brain."
Gold Crocodile Douluo slapped his thigh.
"I say that description fits her perfectly!"
The moment those words were spoken, Qian Daoliu immediately covered his forehead with one hand.
Hu Liena, however, looked unsurprised.
Considering how inseparable her teacher and Dragon God His Eminence were now, calling Bibi Dong a love-brain seemed completely accurate.
Unfortunately, the person being discussed did not share that opinion.
"Senior Golden Crocodile!"
Bibi Dong immediately turned her head and glared fiercely.
"Are you really speaking ill of me behind my back?"
Gold Crocodile Douluo snorted.
"Behind your back? I'm saying it to your face!"
He crossed his arms.
"With the things you did back then, do you dare deny you were a love-brain?"
"You—!"
Bibi Dong opened her mouth, only to find herself speechless.
Because deep down…
She knew he wasn't entirely wrong.
Unable to argue with the elder, she turned sharply toward Yu Xiaogang instead.
"It's all your fault!"
Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"You were the one who invented that ridiculous term. Now everyone uses it to laugh at me!"
As she spoke, she raised her fist and lightly punched Yu Xiaogang twice in the chest.
The strikes carried no strength whatsoever.
Rather than anger, it looked more like coquettish complaining.
Yu Xiaogang spread his hands helplessly.
"Fine, fine. My fault. All my fault."
What else could he do?
She was his wife.
Still…
Thinking back carefully, Bibi Dong in those years truly had been somewhat irrational whenever matters of love were involved.
But then again—
That irrational devotion had been directed toward him.
When he thought of it that way…
He rather liked it.
A faintly smug smile appeared on his face.
Bibi Dong noticed instantly and narrowed her eyes.
"You're thinking something shameless again, aren't you?"
Yu Xiaogang coughed lightly.
"Absolutely not."
No one believed him.
Black World – Spirit Hall
Elsewhere, in the darker parallel world, the atmosphere could not have been more different.
Bibi Dong sat alone inside her office.
The room was spacious, luxurious, and cold.
The only sound was the faint echo of the heavenly screen's announcement.
She stared upward blankly.
"So… that Xiao Gang is also going to Spirit City."
Her voice trembled slightly.
When she had seen the youthful face of the parallel Yu Xiaogang on the screen, something painful stirred in her chest.
In that other world, he was going to Spirit City so early.
So young.
So full of promise.
Bibi Dong slowly lowered her eyes.
In her own life, she had only met Yu Xiaogang after both of them were already around twenty.
By then, she had already formally become the Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall.
He had come to Spirit City alone.
No support from his father.
No help from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
He had relied entirely on himself—his knowledge, persistence, and talent.
That was what first drew her attention.
Later, affection bloomed.
And those brief days of happiness became the most precious memories of her life.
Since the day Yu Xiaogang left Spirit City, she had survived by clinging to those memories.
Nothing else remained.
But now…
Looking at the parallel world, the eleven-year-old Yu Xiaogang was already on his way to Spirit City.
And judging by the circumstances, there was a high chance he would become a student of Spirit Hall Academy.
At that same time…
She too would have been studying there.
Her fingers tightened.
"If that happened…"
"Would we have become classmates?"
Would they have met earlier?
Would they have spent carefree days together?
Would there have been fewer regrets?
Would everything have changed?
Tears quietly rolled down her cheeks.
"Why…"
"Why couldn't something like that happen to me?"
She curled up alone in her chair, hugging her knees, weeping silently in the darkness.
Shrek Academy
At Shrek Academy, another Yu Xiaogang stared blankly at the heavenly screen.
This was the broken, bitter Yu Xiaogang of the black world.
"He's going to Spirit City too…"
He murmured to himself.
For him, recalling the past felt like reopening old wounds.
His entire life seemed carved with scars.
If someone asked which pain was greatest, two memories immediately came to mind.
The first was everything that had happened within the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
Humiliation.
Disappointment.
Rejection.
Those events had already been shown by the heavenly screen.
They had left him unwilling to ever return to the sect after adulthood.
But the second wound…
Was Spirit City.
His breathing grew heavier.
He would never forget the day he had been driven out of Spirit City like a stray dog by the former Pope, Qian Xunji.
The contemptuous looks.
The silent mockery.
His own miserable state.
Those memories remained etched into his soul.
Honestly, he had never wanted to remember Spirit City again.
Yet after learning that his parallel self was also going there…
He unexpectedly felt anticipation.
Because he knew what would happen.
That parallel self would inevitably meet Bibi Dong.
And given Bibi Dong's personality, there was a high chance she would fall for him as well.
If events unfolded like before…
Then Qian Xunji would surely intervene.
And that proud, confident parallel self—
The one protected by his father.
The one praised by sect elders.
The one who always walked with his head high—
Would be driven out in disgrace just like him.
Just imagining it made Yu Xiaogang's lips curl.
A twisted joy rose in his heart.
He wanted to see it.
He desperately wanted to see that version of himself reduced to the same miserable state.
It was not enough that the other Yu Xiaogang had lived smoothly within the sect.
The wider Douluo Continent was no sect.
There would be no father there to protect him.
No elders to support him.
Only suspicion.
Only hostility.
Only reality.
His face gradually twisted into a look of eager expectation.
Nearby teachers and students noticed.
Though they could not know exactly what he was thinking, they could guess enough.
He was waiting to see Dragon God Douluo humiliated.
Flender looked at him and sighed inwardly.
This old friend of his…
Had truly lost himself.
White World – Spirit Hall
Back in the brighter world, laughter still echoed through the hall.
Gold Crocodile Douluo continued teasing Bibi Dong.
"Come now, girl, why glare at me?"
"You chased that brat so fiercely back then that half of Spirit Hall knew about it!"
Hu Liena blinked in shock.
"Teacher… was it really that obvious?"
Bibi Dong's face turned red instantly.
"It was not!"
Qian Daoliu coughed.
"It was."
Yu Xiaogang nearly laughed aloud.
Bibi Dong immediately pinched his waist.
"You're enjoying this far too much."
"Yes," he answered honestly.
She froze.
Then, despite herself, she burst into laughter.
The room soon followed.
Even Qian Daoliu's stern face softened.
Whatever had happened in the past—conflict, opposition, regret, stubbornness—it had already passed.
Now all that remained were memories.
And among those memories, perhaps Gold Crocodile Douluo was right.
Love-brain really had been the perfect description.
Advance Chapters avilable on patreon (Obito_uchiha)