After the banquet ended, Prince Xue Xing pulled Dugu Bo away under the excuse of catching up, leaving Chen Ming alone to face the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, Xue Qinghe.
Qian Renxue dismissed the guards around them and sized Chen Ming up with curiosity.
"Elder Chen?" Qian Renxue spoke probingly, unsure whether Chen Ming knew her true identity.
"What does Your Highness require?" Since Qian Daoliu had not said anything, Chen Ming naturally acted as though he knew nothing. In his view, usurping a nation was a rather foolish matter to begin with, and he could not be bothered to involve himself too deeply in it.
"Oh, I was merely curious how Elder Chen could possess so many ingenious ideas." Qian Renxue's expression remained unchanged. She understood that Chen Ming apparently did not know who she really was.
She then familiarly took Chen Ming by the arm and sat with him in a secluded corner, beginning to converse with him from the standpoint of Xue Qinghe, Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire.
It had to be said that the Spirit Bone left behind by the Angel God truly was extraordinary. Had Chen Ming not already known that Xue Qinghe was Qian Renxue in disguise, even at such close range he would not have sensed anything unnatural about her.
Even with physical contact, Chen Ming could only discern that the "Crown Prince's" actual constitution seemed stronger than it appeared on the surface and that the skin was remarkably delicate. Under normal circumstances, such observations would reveal no flaws.
"Duke Chen, it has been a long time since we last met. Your bearing today far surpasses that of before."
"When I first saw you present Father Emperor with crossbows, weapons capable of strengthening the nation itself, I already recognized you as someone with extraordinary creative talent. And after reading the medical texts you wrote, I became even more astonished by your gifts."
"But I never could have imagined that you would be this outstanding. You shattered the bottleneck that had persisted for ten thousand years, broke through the limits of the original meditation method, and pushed cultivation itself to an entirely new level."
"This is an achievement even the Angel God failed to accomplish ten thousand years ago. Yet Duke Chen completed such a great feat at the age of ten. It can truly be said that none before you have achieved this, and none after you ever will."
Qian Renxue's voice carried excitement, envy, and the faintest trace of bitterness.
Back then, at Spirit Hall, she had personally attended Chen Ming's coronation ceremony as the representative of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Listening to the people around her mistakenly believe Chen Ming was the posthumous son of the former Pope Qian Xunji, watching him bask in the reverence of countless gazes and receive his coronation beneath the attention of the masses, the bitterness in Qian Renxue's heart was indescribable.
She knew very well that she herself did not possess the talent to reform a cultivation method that had stagnated for ten thousand years and was already believed to have reached the limits of efficiency. Yet as the child of the Pope and the legitimate inheritor of the Angel lineage, Qian Renxue had never once enjoyed such attention or admiration within Spirit Hall ever since she could remember.
Her mother had never liked her, never acknowledged her, and had even wanted to kill her countless times.
Although her father had been loving and had shown her familial affection, as the Pope he was occupied with government affairs most of the time, rarely having the chance to spend time alone with her. In the end, he had died from the sneak attack of that scoundrel from the Clear Sky Sect, succumbing to grievous injuries.
Qian Renxue could not understand why, as the young lady of Spirit Hall, she could not appear before the public, could not stand beneath the gaze of the masses, and could only hide silently in the shadows listening to her father and grandfather recount the glory and history of their ancestors.
Later, when she grew older, Qian Renxue finally understood.
Because of the identities of her father and mother, their union was something outsiders could not accept. A child born between master and disciple was itself a stain lacking legitimacy.
Qian Renxue wanted to prove herself. She wanted to become someone worthy of her identity. She did not want to spend the rest of her life lurking like a ghost in the corners of Spirit Hall.
That was why she chose to leave Spirit Hall and undertake something that seemed impossible. After all, for someone like her, who was never meant to stand in the light, this merely meant living even deeper in the shadows. At the same time, she could avoid the woman who caused her so much pain. Was that not killing two birds with one stone?
Yet as more and more time passed after leaving Spirit Hall, the anxiety and confusion in Qian Renxue's heart gradually grew stronger and stronger.
She wanted to know whether she had become someone worthy of it all. She wanted to know whether she had made enough contributions to deserve the position of Spirit Hall's young lady. She wanted to know when she would finally be able to reclaim herself.
Over the long years, these anxious thoughts had already become a pathological brand carved deep into Qian Renxue's heart.
The more she thought, the more she matured, the more recognition and praise she received from others as Xue Qinghe, the more overwhelming these thoughts became, and the more they tormented her.
Dark thoughts gnawed at her heart like countless tiny insects. The contrast between her two identities left Qian Renxue tossing sleeplessly through countless nights.
Toward Chen Ming, Qian Renxue felt admiration and envy, but also jealousy. There was even a trace of hatred—hatred that Chen Ming could make his own name and face famous throughout the world—as well as hatred toward herself.
Her burning gaze was even more terrifying than that of a predatory beast. Even when Chen Ming had been conducting experiments, the eyes of those Spirit Beasts looking at him weren't as intense as Qian Renxue's.
That gaze truly felt like she wanted to tear him apart and swallow him whole, making Chen Ming's body reflexively tense from the heat of it.
"Your Highness flatters me." Through microexpression analysis, Chen Ming could infer many things, yet he still could not determine what Qian Renxue was truly thinking right now. After all, this face was not her real one, and much of the information he gathered might not be genuine.
"I simply think a little more than others and have a bit more creativity, nothing more."
"Creativity… that is precisely what all Spirit Masters lack the most. If it were truly so simple, then over ten thousand years, cultivation methods would already have evolved countless times." Qian Renxue fell somewhat silent.
The Douluo cultivation method she practiced was not the continent's Version 1.3, but the deeper Version 1.45 that Chen Ming had specifically given to the Consecration Hall.
For someone as naturally gifted as Qian Renxue, even the slightest increase in cultivation speed produced extremely noticeable results. It was precisely because she had personally cultivated the modified cultivation method created by Chen Ming that she understood just how earth-shattering his achievements truly were.
"Does Duke Chen still remember when Father Emperor transferred you into the Crown Prince's residence to study alongside me? Looking at it now, it seems I should listen carefully to Duke Chen's guidance and teachings. In all the world, I fear no one can surpass the Duke in this regard."
"Though you have not yet graduated, your talent and temperament have already earned the recognition of the entire world. You are now capable of establishing your own sect and teaching others. Even my teacher, Ning Fengzhi, has praised you many times in our private conversations."
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