Qian Renxue's Irritation

Qian Renxue's Irritation

Xue Qinghe—or rather, Qian Renxue disguised as Xue Qinghe—had indeed received Chen Ming's file. However, she had received it not after Xue Ye ordered a eunuch to deliver it, but the moment it entered the palace, before it had even reached Xue Ye's desk.

Yes, without Xue Ye's knowledge, a large portion of the eunuchs and guards around him had been secretly bribed by Qian Renxue. While Xue Ye was still flipping through the roster in his bedchamber, and the information was still being passed along, a copy of it had already landed on Qian Renxue's desk.

"A genius with only level five Innate Soul Power, whose Martial Soul evolved due to a fortuitous encounter, allowing him to absorb a Thousand Year Soul Ring as his Second Soul Ring?"

"That's truly rare. I always thought only Spirit Hall could produce such a genius. Who would have thought one would emerge in the Heaven Dou Empire and even join Heaven Dou Royal Academy?"

As she read through Chen Ming's file, Qian Renxue mercilessly jabbed at the Heaven Dou Empire's sore spots. Because of a recent visit from relatives, the usually gentle and composed Qian Renxue occasionally experienced intense emotional fluctuations in private.

The Heaven Dou Empire's military strength was famously weak. High-level combatants were scarce, and it relied entirely on vast numbers of soldiers to maintain its fighting power. Imperial authority was unstable, while countless nobles had carved up powers that should have belonged to the royal family.

The nobles in every region had practically become independent warlords, obeying orders but ignoring decrees. There were too many illegal acts to count. Unless the royal family's own interests were involved, it simply could not be bothered to govern them.

Ever since Qian Renxue had taken the position of Crown Prince, she had been busy with all manner of affairs. On the smaller scale, there were banquets within Heaven Dou City and exchanges among nobles. On the larger scale, there was disaster relief, suppressing rebellions, and even auditing accounts.

Following imperial law and punishing nobles for the sake of commoners only earned her the hostility of nobles great and small. When she returned to Heaven Dou City, Xue Ye would even reprimand her for being too immature.

Whenever she audited accounts, she uncovered swarms of vermin. Corruption and embezzlement were everywhere, and wherever she went, granaries seemed to go up in flames. Sometimes, after investigating, she would find that the books had actually been in deficit for decades, even centuries. Everyone had simply kept silent about it.

Those who pocketed only thirty percent out of every ten portions of funding could already be considered honest and upright. There was no shortage of people who swallowed seventy or eighty percent. Some brilliant minds even invented new pretexts—not only did they devour all ten portions of the funds, they found ways to take another bite from elsewhere.

Sometimes, while auditing the accounts, she would uncover cases of colluding with enemies and betraying the country, de facto separatism, or secretly raising troops in preparation for rebellion.

If she did not have Titled Douluo-level guards at her side, and if she herself did not possess the God-Tier Martial Soul, the Six-Winged Angel, Qian Renxue felt that with the Heaven Dou Empire Crown Prince's meager security alone, she would probably have died seven or eight times already.

Honestly, Qian Renxue felt that she was an undercover agent. She should have only needed to fulfill an undercover agent's duties. Yet all sorts of circumstances had forced her into being a workhorse, exhausting herself for the Heaven Dou Empire.

Over the years, even Qian Renxue herself could not remember how many matters she had handled for the Heaven Dou Empire. But the more she dealt with the nobles' tangled messes, the more she felt that the Heaven Dou Empire was doomed sooner or later.

Xue Ye never did anything decent, dumping every burden onto her head. Yet while she handled them, Xue Ye was still constantly restricting her from the side.

For some reason, that old man Xue Ye seemed to have gone into heat lately. Every day, he buried himself in the harem and ignored all affairs of state.

If that were all, Qian Renxue could barely hold her nose and accept it. But the problem was that whenever Xue Ye emerged from the harem during this period, it was either to find something for her, the Crown Prince, to do, or to knock her down a peg.

And over the past few years, because she was not in Spirit Hall, while her grandfather Qian Daoliu had retired to the Worship Hall and no longer involved himself in Spirit Hall affairs, that woman had also been secretly causing trouble for her. Sometimes, even the aid provided by Spirit Hall could not be trusted.

Over the past few years, Qian Renxue felt that she had truly been living in deep water and scorching fire.

It was said that the Star Dou Great Forest contained a special soul beast called the Roaring Marmot. Though its quality was ordinary, it possessed an innate ability to turn pressure into roars. As long as the pressure was great enough, even a hundred-year Roaring Marmot could kill a ten-thousand-year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear.

Qian Renxue felt that if she were a Roaring Marmot, then with the pressure she was under, forget a ten-thousand-year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear—even a hundred-thousand-year or 200,000 Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear would not be able to withstand a single roar from her!

Sometimes, Qian Renxue also wondered whether she should truly listen to Ning Fengzhi, that nominal teacher of hers. Should she learn to act more like a noble and stop caring about so many things? Should she abandon useless emotions and view problems from the perspective of profit?

Although that did not align with her Angel Martial Soul or Spirit Hall's ideals, Qian Renxue sometimes had to admit that perhaps the times had changed, and her own way of doing things had become outdated.

If she were truly right, then why was she, the young mistress of Spirit Hall, undercover in the Heaven Dou Empire?

At that thought, Qian Renxue sighed. She no longer dwelled on those pointless matters and instead began slowly reviewing the file. Yet anyone could clearly see how distracted she was.

After looking it over, Qian Renxue originally had no intention of dealing with Chen Ming's matter at this time. She wanted to sleep instead.

However, at that moment, a spy Spirit Hall had placed within the palace suddenly came to report that Xue Ye had ordered a eunuch to dispatch hidden guards to investigate Chen Ming's family, and had also ordered a eunuch to deliver Chen Ming's file to the Crown Prince's residence.

This time, Qian Renxue truly had no sleepiness left at all. She only felt the discomfort in her lower abdomen from her period gradually churning, and she could not help gritting her teeth as she got up again to handle the matter.

After receiving the eunuch and going through the formalities, she obtained the file she had already read. Qian Renxue sat in her Study Room, silently pressing her temples beneath the lamplight as she slowly calmed her emotions.

Seeing this, a middle-aged woman appeared at Qian Renxue's side, her face full of concern.

"Young Mistress, you must put your health first."

"Aunt Mei, I know." Qian Renxue sighed and answered slowly.

The woman called Aunt Mei had been sent by Qian Daoliu to watch over Qian Renxue. She was from a branch of the Qian family. Although she had not inherited the Qian family's Angel Martial Soul, she was quite powerful in her own right, a Control System Soul Douluo.

Because she was absolutely trustworthy, and would not expose her connection to Spirit Hall even if she acted, she had always been deeply trusted by both Qian Daoliu and Qian Renxue.

Snake Lance and Pufferfish were reliable as well, but their genders made them unsuitable to remain by Qian Renxue's side at all times.

Thus, whenever Snake Lance and Pufferfish were unable to be present, she was responsible for Qian Renxue's protection. She was also the only relative who could frequently appear at Qian Renxue's side.

The awkward part was that, by seniority... this eighty-year-old woman belonged to the generation of Qian Renxue's grandson's grandson. Therefore, the two generally took the initiative to ignore this matter.

PS: To thank everyone for your support, starting today, the author has evolved from a two-update beast into a three-update beast. Chapter release times have changed from twice daily at seven in the morning and five in the evening to three times daily: seven in the morning, noon, and five in the evening.

Please give your recommendation votes and monthly votes, and please keep reading and investing as well.

Although only chapter 23 has been released, the author has actually already written up to chapter 72, with around fifty chapters saved up. So this novel will not be easily abandoned. Please support it more.

(Quietly muttering: The author starts writing as soon as he opens his eyes. These past few days, he has actually been writing 8,000 words every day, but because Qidian recommendations require 4,000 words per day, there have only been two chapters.)

A new book has entered the library. Please support it, everyone.