Rich Second-Gen's Thirty-Second Day

Xue Ling felt as though he were soaking in warm water, his whole body warm and comfortable, making him want to drift back to sleep. Only then did he realize that this did not feel like being dead.

As his consciousness gradually returned, he began to hear sounds.

Sometimes, unfamiliar people would murmur softly. Whenever that voice appeared, he felt relaxed and at ease. It was usually accompanied by meowing sounds too. Perhaps someone was treating him?

Sometimes, he heard his teammates' voices. Those were the moments that made him feel most guilty. Especially when he heard Ah Huan crying, he would instinctively lower his head—wait, he was lying down right now. He could not lower his head.

Then there was his biological father. His father's moods were rather unpredictable—sometimes he cursed furiously, sometimes he cried and complained, sometimes he threatened and bribed, and sometimes he appealed to both emotion and reason. Just like the man himself, he was impossible to read. But lately, Xue Ling had not heard his father's voice.

Perhaps other people had come to see him as well, but he truly lacked the energy to distinguish them.

Drowsily, Xue Ling thought that ever since awakening his spirit, he had never had such leisurely days. Then he sank back into sleep.

"So sleeping is also a form of self-healing?" Xiao Wu asked Ming Sui while holding Nian Nian. They had been having so much fun lately that they had forgotten about the test on soul beast basics. Only the two top students had escaped unscathed; everyone else was desperately cramming. So today, only Xiao Wu accompanied Ming Sui and Nian Nian as they treated Xue Ling.

"The human body really is amazing," Xiao Wu could not help sighing.

Ming Sui found that a strange thing to say, as if she herself were not human, but she did not dwell on it. Having devoted two lifetimes to the study of the human body, Ming Sui had finally found a subject she could really talk about. From meridians to organs, from bones to blood vessels, then to the causes of illness and how to locate lesions, she finally got to speak her fill!

Xiao Wu listened in agony. By the Beast God, why did she have to listen to this? Was this the blessing of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast rebuilding its cultivation?

Perhaps the medical knowledge had been too stimulating, but Xue Ling finally gathered enough strength to open his eyes. Seeing the two unfamiliar girls before him, his mind went blank. "I... cough, cough, cough." His throat, unused for so long, burned with pain.

Xue Ling had awakened, and Ming Sui immediately went out to call the others. Xiao Wu instinctively said, "Don't talk. I know what you want to ask."

"After you were injured, His Highness the Prince brought you to Calais City for treatment. It was inconvenient for His Highness to come care for you personally, but your teammates are here. They'll arrive soon." Xiao Wu kept it brief.

His teammates arrived very quickly, though not all of them. Only Ice Fox Ah Huan and the soul master Xue Yan came. Before Xue Ling could speak, the delighted Ah Huan and Xue Yan—yes, that soul master was actually named Xue Yan—rattled off every last detail of what had happened before and after.

Enduring the throbbing pain in his head, Xue Ling analyzed the current situation.

All his plans that day had succeeded. The dissatisfaction many members of the imperial clan held toward Xue Qinghe had begun to surface openly. Even the emperor had started to distrust Xue Qinghe, not to mention the public opinion outside. Some observant relatives would likely notice the suspicious details between them afterward as well. That was enough. For now, this was all he could do.

"You're worrying so much you don't want your brain anymore?" Ming Zhen walked over and casually scooped up Nian Nian. "Come on, young lady. Restore some of his health."

Nian Nian haughtily licked her paws, then sent a stream of Soul Power into Xue Ling's forehead. The head that had been throbbing with pain fell quiet in an instant.

Once Ming Zhen saw that his condition had stabilized, he began clearing the room. "All right, you should all leave. Whoever needs to report this to His Highness Xue Xing, go report it. Whoever needs to go back to class, go back to class." Then he handed Nian Nian to Ming Sui. "Go get something tasty and serve our young lady properly."

The crowd scattered in an instant. After Nian Nian's treatment, Xue Ling could speak again. He cautiously asked, "Saint Light Your Excellency?"

Ming Zhen pulled over a chair and sat in front of the bed, nodding casually. "Looks like your brain is still working pretty well."

Xue Ling choked on those words. He knew perfectly well what the consequences of Soul Split were, yet he had done it anyway. That did not look like something a person with a sound mind would do.

"Thank you for saving me, Your Excellency. Whatever you wish to know, as long as I can tell you, I will hide nothing."

The smile on Ming Zhen's face grew a little more genuine. How did children like this even grow up? "I only want to know why you did this."

Though he had already prepared himself to be questioned, Xue Ling still went expressionless. He calmed himself for quite a while before finally making up his mind.

"I was avenging Brother Qing. The real Xue Qinghe is already dead. The Xue Qinghe now is an impostor." Xue Ling closed his eyes and spoke slowly.

"Brother Qing and I were very close from childhood. Even my name was chosen after his—Qinghe and Lingling. His name was Qinghe, and I was A-Ling. Your Excellency knows what kind of person my father is, and my mother died early. Brother Qing raised me from the time I was little. Later, I awakened the Swan Spirit and even gained a Talent Domain. Brother Qing was the one who guided my cultivation. He taught me all these secret arts and old stories as well. We brothers were as close as one person."

"Until a few years ago, when Brother Qing returned from traveling outside. He seemed like himself, yet he was no longer himself. We were no longer close, and we had nothing to talk about. I could not even find him when I wanted to. At first, I thought something had happened to him and wanted to help him through it, until he fell ill some time ago." Recalling what he had seen, Xue Ling grew agitated, a flush rising in his face.

"He had two pairs of wings!"

"They said it was a spirit mutation. I knew it was not. Those were not swan wings."

Xue Ling grew increasingly emotional, panting heavily. Ming Zhen released a trace of Soul Power and slowly soothed him. He was far too weak right now to withstand a Titled Douluo's treatment, so Ming Zhen could only use the tiniest thread of Soul Power.

"Before Brother Qing left, he was afraid someone might cause trouble for me, so he left me something. It was his Swan Origin. When he fell ill last time, I took advantage of the chaos to get close to him. The origin did not react to him. Not only that, it began slowly dissipating." Xue Ling's eyes reddened. "I was afraid I had misunderstood, so on the arena, I took out the origin again. There was only a little left, but it still did not react at all. In the end, even that last trace of origin was gone."

If a person was still alive in this world, their origin would not dissipate. Only upon death would it vanish.

"I told my father about it, but he would not believe me. He thought I was talking nonsense. But the origin itself proved that he was a fake."

"There is more than one secret art of the Swan Spirit. There is also Soul Lock, passed down directly through the imperial bloodline, which can halt Soul Split. On the arena, I used Soul Split. He definitely would not use Soul Lock. So he is a hypocrite. He acts ruthlessly and would not even stop an imperial clansman from using Soul Split. The imperial clan will no longer follow him. And those who know how close we were may even become suspicious of him."

Xue Ling began to cry. "I couldn't protect it. I could only watch the origin dissipate. I couldn't do anything. I even lost the container."

Ming Zhen had once been a child too, and he had dreamed those childish dreams. Back then, whenever he felt helpless, he had always hoped someone would tell him that he had not completely ruined everything. Though after growing up, he understood clearly that it was nothing more than a daydream.

Yet at this moment, he could not bear to remain so indifferent. Was it because, after coming to this world, he had begun to believe in powers beyond nature and so had started doing good deeds? Or because he had seen too many tragedies caused by unequal strength and developed compassion?

All he knew was that when in doubt, follow your heart.

"You mean this Jade Swan? The one you were clutching in your hand. You've got quite the grip. It took a lot of effort to pry it loose so I could treat you." Ming Zhen stuffed the little swan into Xue Ling's hand.

The little swan successfully shut Xue Ling up. He lowered his head and stared at the recovered Jade Swan as though it were some priceless treasure.

Ming Zhen rose to his feet. "Get some proper rest, kid. You chose this mutually destructive method to warn your clansmen. Some smart people may have already caught on. You can no longer interfere with what happens next. What you need to do now is rest and recover properly. My treatment isn't free."

"What did you say? Xue Qinghe is a fake?" Tang Yunhua was shocked. "No, I need to contact Yuehua. Xue Qinghe wants to take her as his etiquette teacher."

"Calm down first. It wasn't just Yuehua—old fox Ning Fengzhi was fooled too, wasn't he? But given Xue Qinghe's current situation, he probably has no time to focus on Yuehua or Ning Fengzhi. We need to find out whose man he is."

Tang Yunhua's surge of emotion quickly subsided. She said with certainty, "Spirit Hall, obviously. It can't be Star Luo Empire, can it?" Then she seemed to suddenly realize something.

"Wait. Do you remember that Sacred Aura you sensed in the palace before?" Tang Yunhua looked at Ming Zhen.

"Xue Ling said he gained another pair of wings. A newly appearing Sacred Aura... what spirits have four or more wings?"

Ming Zhen began to ponder. "You think it was not merely an extra pair of wings?"

Tang Yunhua's mind raced. "When we went to the Douluo Hall to take the item, everything went smoothly. That old bastard Qian Daoliu never even showed himself. And it just so happened that the fake Xue Qinghe was ill at the time. Then there's Xue Qinghe's false spirit mutation, which gave him more wings."

"That's right. We took the Angel Heart back then, and we also went to the Spirit Hall treasury and took a lot of soul bones and Soul Tools whose uses they hadn't identified. We said we'd let Sui Sui play with them, and Second Brother gave Xiao San a whole lot of scrap metal too." Ming Zhen nodded. They had forgotten to give the things they brought back to Sui Sui and Xiao San—they had to remember to do so.

Tang Yunhua rolled her eyes. Could they get back to business?

"Could it be that the fake Xue Qinghe was personally arranged by Qian Daoliu to infiltrate the Heaven Dou Empire? Then something went wrong with his martial soul, Qian Daoliu went over out of concern, and we took advantage of the opportunity to pick up the leftovers." Tang Yunhua voiced her wild speculation.

"With Qian Daoliu's status, would he really lower himself to do that?" Ming Zhen did not understand. "But it does make sense. Otherwise, there's no explanation for why our operation went so smoothly."

No matter what, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had to be informed that Xue Qinghe was a fake crown prince. Their cooperation could not be discovered by others, especially not when the fake Xue Qinghe was suspected of being from Spirit Hall.

"The children will be on summer break soon, right?" Ming Zhen looked at Tang Yunhua. "Ning Rongrong failed her Soul Beast Knowledge class. Shouldn't the academy be calling in her parents for a talk?"