Heaven Dou City, a private room in an upscale, secluded restaurant.
Qian Renxue, disguised as Xue Qinghe, sat upright in the seat of honor. The tea before her had long gone cold, clearly showing that she had been waiting here for some time—and that she was not in a good mood.
"Creak—"
The door opened, and Snake Lance Douluo entered with Ghostly Shadow.
"Greetings, Young Master." Ghostly Shadow gave a slight bow.
"No need for formalities."
Qian Renxue waved her hand. She did not even invite Ghostly Shadow to sit before getting straight to the point.
"I called you here to ask one thing."
"That Xuan Hao..."
Qian Renxue's eyes were full of confusion and anger. "Is he really from Spirit Hall? Does he not know what the Angel Family represents? Does he not know what my identity represents?"
Ghostly Shadow sighed inwardly and answered honestly, "Young Master, Xuan Hao naturally knows."
"Then why did he act like that?!"
Qian Renxue slammed her palm against the table. Her refined, gentle face was now filled with fury. "He dismissed me outright? Mocked me? He even used that woman to pressure me?"
"Everything he has done in Heaven Dou City these past few days—whether plotting against Dugu Bo or making use of the Imperial Family and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect—shows that he is a deeply calculating, intelligent person who understands how to weigh pros and cons and read the situation!"
"I valued his intelligence and believed he could accomplish great things. That was why I offered him such generous terms from the start, even promising him the position of Pope!"
"And what happened?"
Qian Renxue laughed in extreme anger. "He dismissed it outright? He even treated me like a joke?!"
"Does he think only that woman can give him everything? Does he think Qian Renxue can't afford to?!"
Ghostly Shadow fell silent for a moment. Looking at this proud daughter of heaven who had been born with a silver spoon in her mouth and was accustomed to everyone yielding to her, he sighed inwardly.
How was he supposed to put this?
Should he say that the Young Master had terrible emotional intelligence? Or that she was putting on too much of an act?
"Young Master... do you want to hear the truth?"
"Speak!" Qian Renxue said coldly. "Don't beat around the bush. If you don't explain this clearly, I'll go back and ask Grandfather myself!"
Ghostly Shadow was helpless. He knew there was no avoiding this.
"Young Master, the problem isn't that your terms weren't good enough. It's... your attitude."
"My attitude?" Qian Renxue frowned.
"Yes." Ghostly Shadow gathered his thoughts and explained cautiously, "I watched Xuan Hao grow up. His temperament is somewhat... unusual. He is the sort who responds to kindness but not force."
"If you speak to him properly, make him happy, or offer him something fun that genuinely interests him, then even without such enormous benefits, he might happily get it done for you."
"But..."
Ghostly Shadow glanced at Qian Renxue, lowering his voice.
"Young Master, when you first approached him... you had that lofty, superior manner. Like, 'It's your good fortune that I've taken a liking to you,' and 'You'll follow me from now on.'"
"To be honest, watching from the side, I was nervous the entire time."
"Nervous?" Qian Renxue was puzzled.
"I was afraid Xuan Hao's temper would flare up and he'd punch you right in the face!"
Qian Renxue's eye twitched slightly. She could hardly believe it. "Lay hands on me? He would dare lay hands on me?"
"He really would!" Ghostly Shadow said seriously.
"Young Master, you may not understand Xuan Hao's position in Spirit City. Over these past two years, he has been the Little Overlord of Spirit Academy. Of the academy's more than one thousand students, at least two-thirds have been personally beaten up by him."
"From the Education Committee down to the students, who in the entire academy doesn't treat him politely and coax him along?"
"Forget you—even when His Holiness the Pope took him as a disciple back then, she had to coax and trick him, and even make enormous concessions before she managed to lure him back."
"His Holiness truly dotes on him in daily life. Though she occasionally scolds him or beats him up, she has always treated him as an equal... even like a younger brother. She has never put on the airs of a Pope."
"As for those who have shown him kindness, even if they beat or scold him, he accepts it with a grin. He can even shamelessly act cute and clingy."
"But if it is a stranger..."
Ghostly Shadow cautiously glanced at Qian Renxue's darkened expression.
"Especially someone like you—meeting him for the first time, having neither done him a favor nor built any friendship, yet immediately acting like, 'I'm the boss, and it's your honor to follow me.' You even used his Younger Sister to threaten him..."
"To be honest, the fact that he didn't punch you in the face today already showed tremendous restraint."
"..."
After hearing this, Qian Renxue was completely stunned.
That woman... that cold-blooded, merciless woman whose face was always like ice toward everyone—she actually doted on a child like this? Treated him like a younger brother?
An indescribable bitterness and jealousy surged through her heart, making Qian Renxue's facial expression even uglier.
"So..."
Qian Renxue took a deep breath, her voice trembling slightly. "You mean I have to... coax him? Beg him?!"
Who was she? The Young Master of Spirit Hall! The inheritor of the Six-winged Angel Clan!
Ever since she was young, others had always coaxed and catered to her. When had it ever been her turn to humble herself and coax someone else?
"Young Master, you can't put it that way." Ghostly Shadow said helplessly. "You are indeed a proud daughter of heaven, but Xuan Hao... is also a peerless genius seen only once in ten thousand years."
"Not yet ten years old, already Rank 35, with a top-tier True Dragon Spirit and a mind as cunning as a demon."
"His talent, methods, and pride are no less than yours."
"Between geniuses, the greatest taboo is one person placing themselves above the other."
"In his eyes, he is not beneath you."
"So, that little act of bestowing favors may truly look like nothing more than... a joke to him."
The private room fell into a long silence.
Qian Renxue sat there, the expression on her face shifting unpredictably.
She had always thought she had done well. She had shown the utmost sincerity and offered the highest price.
Yet she had never expected...
From the very beginning, her posture had been wrong?
That Junior Martial Brother whom she believed needed to be "favored" was actually a Xiao Zu Zong who needed to be "coaxed"?
She was unwilling to accept it.
Truly unwilling.
Why could that woman do something that she could not?
Why could that woman make such a genius wholeheartedly devoted to her, while Qian Renxue could throw down every bargaining chip and receive only disdain in return?
"So he responds to kindness, not force..."
After a long while, Qian Renxue unclenched her hand, an unyielding gleam flashing through her eyes.
"What a proud son of heaven."
"If that woman can coax him, why can't I, Qian Renxue?"
"I refuse to believe there is anyone in this world whom I, Qian Renxue, cannot win over!"
She looked at Ghostly Shadow, her gaze becoming calm again.
"Elder Ghost, since you understand him so well."
"Tell me, then. Other than cultivating and causing trouble, what does this brat usually like most?"
Ghostly Shadow was stunned. "Uh... money?"
Qian Renxue: "..."
"Are you serious?"
Ghostly Shadow thought for a moment, then told her about how Xuan Hao collected Protection Fees at Spirit Academy.
Qian Renxue was speechless after hearing it. "Isn't that just being a bandit?"
She Long could not hold it together either.
With that kind of talent and status, he was actually obsessed with money?
Was that all the ambition he had?
Ghostly Shadow explained, "Xuan Hao simply does not like owing people favors. Therefore, if there is a problem he can solve himself, he will never let others help him. If money can solve it, he will never involve himself in troublesome obligations."
"If he wants something, he earns it himself, takes it himself, or... trades for it in his own way."
"That way, he owes no one anything and can live with a clear conscience."
Qian Renxue was puzzled. "What about the Pope?"
"If he is so independent and dislikes owing favors so much, then between him and that woman..."
"It is the same." Ghostly Shadow explained, "Over these past two years, Xuan Hao has almost never taken the initiative to ask His Holiness for anything. Whether Soul Tools, medicinal herbs, or cultivation resources, as long as he could obtain them himself, he would never open his mouth."
"Unless he was truly at the end of his rope with no other choice, he would never casually draw on His Holiness's favor."
"He personally told His Holiness that whether between master and disciple or among family, the essence of it all was mixed with exchanges of interest. But if too much was mixed in, it would become corrupted. Only by maintaining a certain degree of independence could one preserve the purest relationship."
"Feelings need to be nurtured, not spent. If one side gives too much while the other knows only how to take, then sooner or later, that relationship will deteriorate into favor and charity."
"This child may appear lawless, but in truth... he knows his limits very well."
If Xuan Hao had truly been someone who knew nothing of his place and only caused trouble, then given Bibi Dong's temperament, she could never have tolerated him like that, much less doted on him!
Xuan Hao and Bibi Dong's relationship was managed with terrifying precision!
He supposedly raised the roof every few days and angered Bibi Dong so much that she wanted to hit someone, but Ghostly Shadow could see very clearly that Bibi Dong was not actually angry.
If not for Xuan Hao's careful nurturing of this relationship over the past two years, Bibi Dong would have acted long ago over the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast matter!
"Interesting..."
A strange glimmer flashed through Qian Renxue's eyes. "It seems I really did use the wrong approach."
She had originally thought Xuan Hao was a spoiled little brat, or perhaps a profit-oriented petty man.
But now, it seemed that this brat's mind was even more mature than she had imagined, perhaps even... colder.
He viewed everything as a transaction, using that to protect himself from being hurt or bound.
No wonder he had dismissed her recruitment offer.
Because in his eyes, it was "charity," "trouble," and, more importantly, a debt of gratitude that could never be repaid.
"If he knows his limits so well, then what happened this time?" Qian Renxue asked.
"If it were merely ordinary mischief, that woman would at most scold him a few times. But now, not only have the two of you Titled Douluo been sent personally to Heaven Dou City to capture him, Spirit Hall has even mobilized every covert agent from the Spirit Hall."
"That kind of deployment does not look like a simple case of running away from home."
Qian Renxue stared intently at Ghostly Shadow, trying to read something from his stiff face.
"What earth-shattering thing did he do in Spirit City... exactly?"
"..."
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