Was it because this was his first time meeting an emperor that he found it a little novel? Was this really the mindset of an eleven-year-old child?
Was he getting old?
Or was the world changing too quickly and too drastically for him to keep up? Had children matured this much without him even realizing it?
No... no, that couldn't be right. Forget normal children—even those little debt-collectors he'd fathered wouldn't dare stay so calm in front of him... er, except for his little cotton-padded jacket, Xu Tianzhen.
Yes, speaking of that precious little cotton-padded jacket he'd worked so hard to raise, the old emperor felt the anger he'd spent half the night suppressing flare up all over again.
She'd gone out to hunt for her third Soul Ring. The Demonic Forest, Jingyang Mountain Range, and Sun-Moon Valley were all close at hand, yet she just had to run several thousand miles away to the Star Dou Great Forest.
Going there was one thing. She only needed a third Soul Ring, after all, not somewhere particularly dangerous. But after venturing deep into the mixed zone, she'd nearly been kidnapped by an Evil Soul Master.
And then, to make matters worse, she'd taken a liking to some wild boy who'd appeared out of nowhere to play the hero and rescue the beauty. She'd kicked up such a fuss, demanding that the boy become her prince consort.
He was already fed up from bickering with those fog-brained nobles and verminous ministers all day, then poring over a mountain of memorials in the afternoon.
And now, even when he went to bed at night, he had to worry that some wild boar might suddenly come along and root up the fine cabbage he'd spent years carefully cultivating!
His precious daughter!
How old were you? Couldn't you focus on studying and cultivating at your age?!
When your father was your age, he was a wise and sagely ruler in the prime of his life, and all he knew was...
All he knew was... er...
Thinking back to himself at just over ten, he'd been busy causing enough trouble to tear the roof off.
One day he'd skip class and climb out of the palace with his lackeys and study companions to sneak a peek at a bride. The next, he'd send love letters to pretty girls at the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. Then he'd get dead drunk at the Imperial Kitchen Bureau, only for his furious father and mother to grab him by the ears and drag him to the ancestral temple to administer the family punishment...
The old emperor's thoughts snapped to a halt.
No, wait!
The root of all these problems really did seem to lie with him!
The old emperor realized that he himself was the source of all the trouble, and couldn't help feeling a little guilty.
So the long speech he'd prepared in advance went right back down his throat.
"..."
After a long while, the more guilty he felt, the more the old emperor sighed. He helplessly instructed the attendant beside him, "Someone, bring a seat."
Before the words had even left his mouth, a thin, stooped figure soundlessly emerged from behind the curtain beside the imperial desk. Moving with an odd gait, the figure flickered several times across the vast Wenhua Hall, then placed a small stool directly in front of the desk, as if to show off.
'Oi, old Qian, there's a Titled Douluo hiding beside the old emperor.'
The Rakshasa Phantom, unable to keep quiet, whispered on.
'He is an emperor, after all. There's nothing wrong with keeping a Titled Douluo by his side to protect him.'
With that, Qian Yuhan walked over to the stool in front of the imperial desk and sat down with unhurried ease. "Thank you for granting me a seat, Your Majesty."
Only then did the old emperor, seated behind the desk, finally get a clear look at Qian Yuhan's face in the lamplight. He was an old emperor who had once raised troops in the name of restoring the rightful order and seized the throne through rebellion.
The young man before him had a deep gaze, pale, thin lips, and a pallid complexion. Even the cool gleam in his eyes held not a trace of warmth. His high, straight nose made his still-developing jawline look even sharper.
His smooth golden hair fell casually over his shoulders, lending him a distinctive air of elegant nobility.
Most difficult to look away from was the unique, indescribable aura surrounding Qian Yuhan.
It was a wondrous aura, noble yet touched with a hint of ethereality, aloof yet impossible to profane.
The divine had no form.
If one had to use something to describe the gods of legend, then from Qian Yuhan's face, tinged with a trace of the sacred, one might glimpse the faintest hint of one.
Hmph (`3´), the boy really is good-looking. He's only a tiny bit behind me in my day. No wonder that girl Tianzhen got those ideas.
Yes, even judging Qian Yuhan's looks by the most critical standards, the emperor-father still gritted his back teeth and gave him an exceptionally high appraisal: only a little worse than I was in my day.
Then he drew back his probing gaze, pretended not to care, and picked up the porcelain cup beside him. He took a small sip of the cooled tea he'd deliberately set aside to quell his anger.
Click—
As the old emperor firmly set the porcelain lid back on the cup, Qian Yuhan also turned his attention to the awkward old man, who was still waging an inner battle.
"Xu Yan and the others said you're from the Dou Ling Empire?" the old emperor asked.
"Yes." Qian Yuhan nodded. Under the wary gaze of the stooped old man beside the curtain, he took a stack of identification documents from his Storage Soul Tool. The Titled Douluo examined them and then handed them over to the old emperor.
"..."
Faced with the stack of identification documents, the old emperor neither took them to read one by one nor even glanced at them. He simply looked at Qian Yuhan in silence.
A strange hush settled over Wenhua Hall.
Who knew how long passed? Long enough for the Rakshasa Phantom to complain to Qian Yuhan for who knew how many times that the foolish old man might have fallen asleep with his eyes open. At last, the old emperor spoke.
He said:
"Boy, do you know? The Sun Moon Empire has an old saying."
"'He who harbors thunder in his chest yet keeps a placid face may be made a general.'"
"You're quite extraordinary."
"You flatter me, Your Majesty."
"I am indeed praising you, but more than that, I'm warning you." The old emperor raised a hand to stop Qian Yuhan and slowly continued:
"Young people should act their age. Mature too early, and you stand out like a crane among chickens."
"I know that compared with your peers—no, to be precise, compared with everyone I know—your talent as an eleven-year-old with four Soul Rings, and your record of fighting an eight-ring Evil Soul Master, are enough to put you above them, even crush them."
"But even the mightiest genius is fragile before reaching maturity. A genius who dies before coming into his own isn't worth a copper."
"So... I can ignore who you were before, whatever strange origins you may have, and I can leave aside whatever unspeakable past you had."
"What I want to talk to you about is the future!"
"I can cherish, nurture, and protect you as if you were a native genius and subject of the Sun Moon Empire. I could even betroth the empire's princess to you."
"And all I want is a tiny, pitiful little thing!" The old emperor measured out a gap between two fingers, then emphasized, "Just this tiny little thing."
Qian Yuhan wasn't surprised by the old emperor's words at all.
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