A Lively Night Awaits
"Yeah?"
Xiao Wu looked suspicious, wondering if Tang San was trying to fool her.
Dip pen?
It looks like a small carving tool, such as a small awl or chisel.
[Could it be that Tang San never even thought about preparing New Year Gift for me?]
Just as she was thinking this, Xiao Wu suddenly noticed Zhou Qing and Tang San looking at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Didn't you prepare any gifts for us?
Oh no!
Xiao Wu's head was buzzing. She immediately put her hand into her Waist Pouch and shouted, "Of course I'm prepared!"
Then, she took out two pink and white scarves from her Waist Pouch.
Zhou Qing: "Didn't you buy this from a clothing store in Nuoding City?"
Tang San: "I've seen it too. They say it costs one Copper Soul Coin."
"Who said that? I knitted it myself!" Xiao Wu tilted her head back, not letting the two of them see the blush on her face, but Zhou Qing seemed to see that her nose had "grown longer".
However, Zhou Qing and Tang San didn't "hold a grudge" against Xiao Wu and accepted the scarf, which was worth one Copper Soul Coin...
That night—
It's destined to be lively.
Heaven Dou City.
Inside the palace.
On Xue Ye, his concubines, and princes gathered at the Pure Heart Palace. They did not discuss court affairs or national matters, but only family matters, enjoying the bliss of family life.
This was also the most difficult and painful day for Xue Qinghe.
After all, she has never enjoyed a family gathering since birth:
When my father was alive, he was always busy...
My grandfather spends most of his time cultivating himself in the Worship Hall, detached from worldly affairs...
Mother···
Even more outrageous, he almost never got close to her, so in order to gain her mother's approval, she pretended to be Xue Qinghe from a young age and plotted against Heaven Dou.
But every year-end is like a tribulation for her, requiring her to pretend even more convincingly than usual, to be a loving father to Xue Ye, and to be respectful and fraternal to the other princes and princesses who have no blood relation to her.
She absolutely loathed this feeling!
However, she also longed to one day be able to have a New Year's Eve dinner with her mother, instead of pretending to be with Xue Ye and others.
After the meal, the concubines took their respective princes to watch the performance by the Royal Art Troupe, while Xue Ye asked Xue Qinghe about Falling Star City.
"Didn't Father Emperor say that we shouldn't talk about court affairs or state matters on this day? Why are you bringing this up again?" Xue Qinghe asked, a hint of doubt in his voice.
"Haha, I just learned that my son seems to be investigating the matter of Falling Star City recently, and I'm a little curious." Xue Ye had also recently learned about what happened in Falling Star City, so he prepared to discuss it with Xue Qinghe.
A fallen nobleman from Star Luo City, now the lord of a small border town, colludes with the Fallen Ones...
He didn't really care about this matter.
The Fallen Ones merely murderers and cannibals, their methods extremely cruel; in terms of true depravity, they are nowhere near as depraved as the nobles, large and small, within the Two Great Empires.
However, in this incident, the entire city's people, led by the local Spirit Hall Branch Master, went to demand an explanation from Dales, and Dales was ultimately executed! Even afterward, the Star Luo Empire's higher-ups did not hold the Spirit Hall accountable!
This is a big problem!
No matter how absurd Dales's mistake was, he was still an official of the Star Luo Empire and should be dealt with by the higher-ups of the Star Luo Empire. It was not the Spirit Hall's place to interfere.
Not to mention, the person who ultimately killed Dales was apparently the guild leader of a private Adventurer's Guild!
This made Xue Ye suspect that the Star Luo Empire had reached some kind of cooperation with the Spirit Hall —with the Spirit Hall's growth in recent decades, especially after the current Pope took office, it has been recruiting Commoner Soul Master on a large scale, as if it were to build an army.
Perhaps--
The Spirit Hall wants to establish a nation!
Upon hearing this conjecture, Xue Qinghe was utterly shocked—this expression was not feigned, but rather an expression of utter disbelief that Xue Ye had actually guessed the Spirit Hall's intentions.
[As expected! None of those who become emperors are fools!]
Xue Qinghe was extremely wary of Xue Ye and decided to postpone the plan again to avoid him noticing anything amiss.
"Why is my son so surprised?" Xue Ye asked.
"I just don't understand... why does the Spirit Hall want to establish a nation? Logically speaking, their current situation is the best." Xue Qinghe feigned surprise and doubt. "They have the hearts of Commoner Soul Master and also have prestige and reputation, so why bother to establish a nation when it's a thankless task?"
Seeing this, Xue Ye sighed and said, "Qinghe, you're just too conservative."
With prestige, fame, and the hearts of Commoner Soul Master, he naturally desires to go further and unify the continent.
We in Heaven Dou want it, the Dai family in the Star Luo Empire want it, and how could the Spirit Hall, which can use its own strength to siphon money from the Two Great Empires to subsidize Commoner Soul Master, not want it too?
"By using our own resources to empty their Spirit Hall's coffers, it's a brilliant plan that kills two birds with one stone."
"Then what should we do?" Xue Qinghe asked anxiously.
"Wait."
The Xue Ye uttered a single word.
"... Father Emperor, what does this mean?" Xue Qinghe truly didn't understand.
"Hey, Qinghe, you need to grow up faster."
Xue Ye sighed and coughed violently before explaining, "The establishment of the Spirit Hall is nothing special, as long as it doesn't start wars without reason. After all, this continent will at most change from Two Great Empires to three empires. Perhaps under the tripartite balance, our Heaven Dou will be more stable."
"Now, regarding the Falling Star City incident, the attitude of the Star Luo Empire's higher-ups is rather intriguing. I'm afraid they've reached some kind of cooperation with the Spirit Hall, and will launch a joint attack on our Heaven Dou in the future!"
Xue Qinghe was shocked. "How could this be?"
This wasn't a pretense; she genuinely felt that the guess was impossible.
The Spirit Hall couldn't infiltrate the upper echelons of the Star Luo Empire, so how could it possibly cooperate with them? Her mother... that woman always liked to control everything.
"Ahem! When the benefits are right, anything is possible."
Xue Ye coughed and said, "So, Qinghe, you also need to strengthen the empire's power and be on good terms with Yu Tianheng. You've taken a very good step. Next, you need to talk to Ning Fengzhi more and try to get the entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to lean towards our Heaven Dou, not just Ning Fengzhi alone."
"That Ning Fengzhi is a cunning old fox. He only said he would personally accept you as a student, while the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect remains neutral..."
"Hehe! There's no such thing as a free lunch. But we in Heaven Dou can't force things, so Qinghe, you should get closer to that old fox."
Xue Qinghe agreed, and at that moment he truly realized just how much he lacked compared to Xue Ye and Ning Fengzhi in analyzing the situation on the continent...
Star Luo Empire.
Star Luo City.
Dai Tianran dined with his three sons, but the atmosphere was much more solemn than that of the Heaven Dou Royal. Apart from the gurgling of drinking and the smacking of chewing food, there were almost no other sounds.
"Mu Bai, what level has your cultivation reached?" Dai Tianran suddenly asked.
"Level 20." Dai Mubai immediately stopped eating and answered respectfully.
"Nine years old, level 20, not bad."
Dai Tianran was fairly satisfied with Dai Mubai's progress. "Three years from now, when you are twelve years old, your Soul Power should reach level twenty-seven or twenty-eight."
Dai Mubai, however, kept his head down, pondering what level of strength Dai Weisi would reach three years from now, and how much the gap between them would widen...