Qian Renxue: "I'm Not, I Didn't!"

What was the biggest problem facing Qian Renxue right now?

Although she was now the Crown Prince, there were doubts over whether she was the best heir. Many people were undecided on that matter. The main reason was not her apparent personal abilities or character, but something rather unusual...

She showed absolutely no interest in women.

As an undercover agent who relied on a Spirit Skill to disguise herself as the Crown Prince, Qian Renxue naturally could not indulge in debauchery or enjoy beautiful women. But to outsiders, that behavior seemed very strange.

You could dislike women, but you could not avoid the whole thing entirely, could you?

If you did not like women, liking men was fine too. As long as you left behind an heir, you could play however you wanted afterward. But you interacted with neither men nor women. You had been raised in the royal family, surrounded by luxury and every sort of vice from childhood, yet you were already in your twenties and had touched neither men nor women?

Could it be... that you were incapable?

The throne required an heir. A Crown Prince incapable of having children would be a tremendous disgrace. Qian Renxue's behavior was not merely restrained—she did not indulge at all. Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that people would suspect something was wrong with the Xue Qinghe she had impersonated.

Qian Renxue had no solution either. After all, she could not actually do anything, and if anyone around this identity harbored ill intent, or if even the slightest flaw was exposed, she would be utterly finished.

Over the past half year, Xue Ye had felt his health worsening by the day, and so he had become increasingly concerned about succession. He repeatedly urged "Xue Qinghe" to quickly marry a Crown Princess and leave behind a bloodline, proving that there was nothing wrong with him so that he could later inherit the position of Emperor of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Qian Renxue had made every excuse she could, but that only made Xue Ye even more suspicious. He had thus secretly sent her here to Nine Heart Begonia for a physical examination, to see whether there really was a problem.

Naturally, Qian Renxue did not reveal everything when she spoke. From Xue Qinghe's perspective, she simply emphasized that she was "focused on affairs of state and had no interest in romance, which was why she did not wish to start a family."

Upon hearing that, Ye Renxin gave Chen Ming a strange look, while Chen Ming returned an equally odd glance.

"Your Highness, there really may be something wrong with your body. Just as Spirit Beasts have mating seasons, once a human body develops to a certain stage, it naturally produces physiological urges. This is an inevitable part of human reproduction—it is our instinct."

"Your Highness, your lack of desire... may indeed indicate some kind of ailment." Ye Renxin gave a slight cough and signaled to Chen Ming with his eyes. Chen Ming immediately left the room and shut the door behind him.

"Senior Ye, I truly am not..."

"Your Highness, I can treat this."

"I really am not..."

"But I truly can treat it..."

After Chen Ming left, Ye Renxin and "Xue Qinghe" continued discussing the matter. Ye Renxin kept insisting that it was not a serious problem and that he could treat it, while Qian Renxue had no choice but to insist that there was genuinely nothing wrong with her.

Chen Ming sat on the stone bench in the courtyard for a full hour before "Xue Qinghe" finally emerged from the room in a disheveled state. Upon seeing Chen Ming, she pondered for a moment before walking over and sitting beside him.

"Viscount Chen, it has been several months since we last met. I never expected you to become Poison Douluo's disciple and study medicine here under Senior Ye. During our conversation just now, I also heard Senior Ye praise Viscount Chen's learning ability and medical skills highly."

"The entire city is now spreading rumors that Viscount Chen is the most talented person our Heaven Dou Empire has seen in a hundred years."

"It seems that talk of your extraordinary talent is not unfounded. Whether in the cultivation of Soul Power and Martial Soul, or in all sorts of other fields, Viscount Chen possesses talents beyond ordinary people."

As Qian Renxue looked at Chen Ming, her thirst for talent rekindled within her. Though she was somewhat embarrassed at the moment, she still wanted to seize this opportunity to recruit Chen Ming.

"Thank you for Your Highness's appreciation." Chen Ming answered politely, offering no objection to his own talent. This instead left Qian Renxue somewhat uncertain.

Ordinarily, should someone not be at least a little modest? Did he truly believe that he was the greatest talent the Heaven Dou Empire had seen in a century?

Still... it was only natural for a gifted young man like this to be somewhat high-spirited.

Born a commoner, he had awakened his Martial Soul and, in only a few short years, walked a path that ordinary people could not complete in a lifetime. It was only natural that he possessed some pride.

"I wonder whether Viscount Chen has produced any new inventions over these past few months? The power of crossbows has already been proven in recent months. The Star Luo Empire's forces even suffered a small loss because of them."

"It was only because military discipline was lax that crossbows were privately smuggled into the Star Luo Empire. Now, the Star Luo Empire's forces have begun equipping crossbows as well..."

Qian Renxue had merely intended to find a topic of conversation, but the moment she began speaking, she found herself filled with anger.

The environment within the Heaven Dou Empire was simply too poor. Preparations had been made on the battlefield, and even the crossbows carried by fallen soldiers were destroyed or recovered, leaving the Star Luo Empire no chance to dismantle and study them.

Yet the vermin within the military had sold the crossbows at a "high price." After obtaining prototypes, the Star Luo Empire went to Gengxin City to find smiths to dismantle them, then began deploying Hand Crossbows throughout its forces.

This immediately returned the Heaven Dou Empire, which had only just managed to gain a slight advantage in small-scale clashes, to a suppressed position.

And because Hand Crossbows and Bed Crossbows operated on essentially the same principles and had very similar structures, the Star Luo Empire had even begun manufacturing Bed Crossbows as military weapons, placing even greater pressure on the Heaven Dou Empire.

"Your Highness, if the military cannot keep secrets, then no matter how ingenious the devices I make are, the Star Luo Empire will eventually learn from them. Rather than allow the Star Luo Empire to obtain stronger equipment and weapons to bolster its strength, it would be better to address the problems within the military first."

"The problems within the military are not merely decades old. They have accumulated over centuries, even millennia. The situation is now too deeply entrenched to reverse. What can I, a Crown Prince, possibly do?"

Qian Renxue had played Xue Qinghe for far too long—longer even than she had lived as the young mistress of Spirit Hall. Though she knew she was an undercover agent and merely playing a role, she still viewed the Heaven Dou Empire's situation with sorrow for its misfortune and anger at its failure to improve.

She had once wanted to change the state of the military, but she had touched vested interests and was rejected by the families of military officers. Even her relationship with Ge Long, the empire's highest-ranking general, had become extremely strained.

She had no other choice but to win over regional forces and a few smaller military families as her own supporters.

"Ah... I wonder, Viscount Chen, whether you have any new inventions?"

"I do, indeed."