Divine Nature

This was a national treasure of the Heaven Dou Empire!

To be precise, anything placed in the imperial treasury could be considered a national treasure of the Heaven Dou Empire. It was just that because nobody had ever been able to figure out any use for this national treasure other than its being hard, Xue Ye had always treated it like ordinary jewelry or mineral ore, and hadn't given it much attention.

Giving away something with no practical use is far better than giving away a soul bone, Xue Ye thought to himself. After all, a soul bone was far too important to the royal family, and he was genuinely reluctant to give it away as a gift. And while the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud was also a national treasure, at least for the moment, it didn't seem to hold much value.

With that, Xue Ye finalized what he was prepared to give away. To prevent the other party from also considering this thing useless, Xue Ye thought about it for a moment, then added a medicinal herb from the imperial treasury.

Having made his decision, Xue Ye took action.

The imperial treasury could only be entered by the reigning emperor and the crown prince, so nobody else could be sent to fetch the items; Xue Ye had to go and get them himself.

The next day, Xue Ye handed a Storage Soul Tool to Qian Renxue.

After thinking about it yesterday, besides the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud and the herb, Xue Ye had taken out some Gold Soul Coin from his private vault to use as icing on the cake.

"Qinghe, I leave everything in your hands."

"Yes, this subject will certainly not fail Your Majesty's trust."

Xue Ye paused, then let out a sigh.

"If possible, please still try to secure a path to survival for your younger brother; after all, they are both my sons..."

Qian Renxue fell silent for a moment, then lowered her head.

"Qinghe will do her best."

"So, Xue Ye sent Big Brother Xue to apologize?"

Qian Renxue pondered inwardly, her gaze fixed on every move Lang Lei made. When she saw Lang Lei accept the Storage Soul Tool, the heavy stone in her heart finally dropped to the ground.

After all, if Lang Lei refused to accept this apology, then what followed would likely become extremely tricky. However, now that Lang Lei had accepted the Storage Soul Tool, it at least showed that there was still the possibility for their conversation to continue.

Qian Renxue took a deep breath, steadied herself, and then said to Lang Lei with a smile, "Indeed, His Majesty is also heartbroken over what happened previously. He knows his actions caused you a great deal of trouble, so under my persuasion, he specially selected two treasures from the imperial treasury, hoping to obtain the forgiveness of little brother Lang Lei and Your Excellencies."

Lang Lei nodded slightly to indicate he understood the situation. His expression remained calm, making it difficult to fathom his true inner thoughts.

"Is that so? I understand." Lang Lei replied indifferently. Then, he suddenly changed the subject and asked, "What about those three fellows?"

Qian Renxue's heart tightened; she naturally understood who Lang Lei meant by "those three fellows." The conflict between those three and Lang Lei had reached an irreconcilable point, practically turning into a blood feud.

Qian Renxue hesitated for a moment before answering truthfully, "They... they are still in the palace."

Lang Lei was no saint. Since things had reached almost a blood feud, why keep the other party around? He had already used them for all they were worth; if he didn't deal with them promptly, was he supposed to wait until they grew strong enough to come looking for trouble again?

Keeping Xue Beng and Xue Xing previously was because he had long anticipated that there would always be some spoiled scions among the nobles, so he had planted a mine in advance to give himself a justifiable excuse.

After all, he was a Sea Ranger, not a Great Extinction Lord.

He just hadn't expected this mine to detonate so quickly.

Such an excuse could only be used once; using it again would carry the suspicion of bullying others with power.

"Uh, His Majesty's meaning is to leave them to little brother Lang Lei's discretion..."

"Dispose of them. I don't want to lay eyes on those distressing things again," Lang Lei interrupted without a moment's hesitation. "Of course, if you guys can't bring yourselves to do it, I can have Sister Bing take a trip to the palace."

Hearing this, Qian Renxue didn't get angry; instead, she let out a sigh of relief, feeling a sense of wild elation.

She had finally cleared away all the obstacles in her plan. Furthermore, the last one, Xue Beng, had taken zero effort—Xue Beng had simply dug his own grave.

On top of that, it had even taken down one of her political rivals, who was also her only formidable enemy, Prince Xue Xing.

She certainly knew that Xue Ye would soon prop up new officials to form a balance with her, but during that process, her own faction could also expand further, something even Xue Ye couldn't stop.

"Very well, then little brother Lang Lei, I won't disturb you any further. I wish little brother Lang Lei a pleasant time studying at Heaven Dou Royal Academy."

"I will, Big Brother Xue, until next time."

After Qian Renxue left, Lang Lei couldn't wait to open the Storage Soul Tool. The moment it opened, a dazzling golden light flashed out violently, almost blinding Lang Lei's eyes.

How truly vulgar~ Despite saying that, Lang Lei's body was very honest as he scooped those Gold Soul Coin one by one into his own pocket. After all, who would ever think they had too little money?

The Interstellar Peace Company had indeed grown and developed slowly through money! Although a portion of currency hegemony might have been involved, regardless of how one looked at it, having more money was indeed better!

However, when Lang Lei's gaze shifted to the other two items inside the Storage Soul Tool, he suddenly froze.

It was a blue box, looking completely ordinary, yet Lang Lei sensed an unusual aura. He looked closer, his heart receiving a sharp jolt—if he wasn't mistaken, this "blue box" actually carried traces of divine nature!

He had dealt with quite a few fellows who called themselves "gods," the strongest among them being entities like Star Gods, who were simply the personification of unreasonableness. The divine nature on these fellows had completely submerged their human nature, making them elusive.

In contrast, those beings in other worlds who called themselves gods also carried some divine nature, but it wasn't nearly as dense. As for something like "divine nature," it was very hard for Lang Lei himself to explain in words what exactly it was. Even so, relying on his rich background and experience, he could simply tell at a glance whether a person possessed divine nature; this had no direct connection to their power tier, and arose purely from seeing enough of it to naturally develop a gut feeling.

Other things aside, looking at Lang Lei himself, his own body actually carried a greater or lesser trace of divine nature. This was perhaps the reason why Snow Empress and Ice Empress called him a Divine Child, while he himself didn't feel anything strange about it. After all, if it were merely due to the influence of divine nature on his soul, it probably wouldn't have made his divine nature dense enough to feel as though it were about to overflow.

From this, it could be seen that there was more or less some subtle connection between this body of Lang Lei's and the deities of this planet.