Even if he got incredibly lucky and beat that kid, what was there to brag about in an eighth-level Soul Engineer beating an eleven-year-old child by throwing his weight around?
By then, he probably really wouldn't be able to show his face in Bright Capital anymore.
Damn it! The old one gives me trouble inside the palace, and the young one humiliates me outside it.
I can't stand another day in this damn Bright Capital. I'm going home! I'm going back to Xiyang City!
Of course, Xu Yan's discreet little fantasy of quitting and retreating to his fiefdom was confined to his thoughts.
If he really left without finishing the job, that scheming old emperor would definitely write down all the stupid things he'd done over the years in his little notebook and send it back to his fief, making his branch of the family infamous among the imperial clan.
Next, he'd have to face:
The duchess's mother's ace enforcer
The duke's father's heir to the title
The twin enforcers of two royal junior clans
<A peerless brawler forged by the family's top-tier stick-based education>
<The beloved grandson Heaven had bestowed upon his grandparents, the prince and princess>
<The culmination of all the love lavished on him by his grandparents and maternal grandparents>
<The stern first mentor of his younger siblings and cousins>
<The family's unshakable legitimate eldest-son status>
<The legitimate eldest son of the Sun-Moon Empire's Xiyang branch>
<The legitimate eldest grandson of the Xiyang family>
<The legitimate eldest grandson of the Yiyang family>
An elder brother as strict as a father
At the peak of his martial prowess
Title: Blazing Sun
The current Duke of Xiyang
A Guardian Douluo of the Sun-Moon Empire
The Empire's little Southern Town King
A Level 9 Soul Engineer
Just imagining his mother, already in her eighties, weeping bitterly as she handed the emperor's little notebook to his nearly seventy-year-old eldest brother, still vigorous in his old age—
Then his brother, blazing with fury and practically smoking, would rush from their fief with the family law in hand, kick down Xu Yan's door, point at him, and roar:
"Your mother's already so old, and you still managed to make her cry like this!"
"You brought shame upon us in front of the imperial clan, and you dare stand there and answer me!"
"You've dragged the names of both the Xiyang and Yiyang families through the mud in Bright Capital, you miserable wretch!"
"Before nightfall, get your ass back to the ancestral shrine and kneel! I'll have a good long talk with you in front of our ancestors!"
Those words.
Xu Yan suddenly realized... sometimes, if you just endured it, it really wasn't that bad.
After all... a real man knew when to bend and when to stand tall!
Right now, his biggest problem was figuring out how to get the two of them into the same academy without disgracing the nation or hurting Xu Tianzhen's pride.
Silence. A long silence.
At last, under Qian Yuhan's puzzled gaze, Xu Yan sighed and said, "Forget it, forget it. Things have come to this, so let's eat first!"
Xu Yan's supper was utterly tasteless, and he ate without knowing what he was eating. You could even say it wasn't remotely like a normal person having a meal.
At best, it was a crude, makeshift process of mechanically stuffing food into his stomach.
After paying the bill, Xu Yan, exhausted in both body and mind, led Qian Yuhan back to his residence. He left him with a quick, lurching, "There are plenty of spare rooms in my mansion. Pick one. Tomorrow, we'll go see the princess," then disappeared down the silver-gray corridor with its distinctly mechanical style.
As Xu Yan's figure vanished from sight, the Rakshasa Phantom shot out of Qian Yuhan's shadow. With hands on his hips, he surveyed the marquis's residence, situated in the most expensive district of Bright Capital, with a faintly critical gaze.
Xu Yan's marquis's residence had three floors. Its overall layout was simple and clear, making most of the floor plan visible at a glance. Silver-gray and black dominated the decor.
The Rakshasa Phantom strolled over to the coffee table in the middle of the living room, flopped onto the sofa, and grumbled:
'His place is pretty clean. No weird decorations, no pointless statues or idols. Not like that Spirit City of yours later on, where they built statues so huge the whole city could see them.'
Seriously? You're taking a shot at Spirit City over this, too?
Besides, it was Angel Holy City back in my day! What even is Spirit City? I have no idea what you're talking about.
After years of arguing with the Rakshasa Phantom, Qian Yuhan had long since cultivated a perfect poker face. He knew full well that arguing with this creature—whose brain was absurdly lopsided in its development, and who spent most of his time saying whatever popped into his head—was pointless.
If you ignored him, three minutes at most and he'd reorganize his underlying code and change the subject on his own.
Sure enough, while Qian Yuhan deliberately kept silent, the Rakshasa Phantom rolled around on the sofa twice before changing the subject by himself. 'Oi, Old Qian, which room are you sleeping in tonight?'
'Of course I'm taking the biggest guest room.'
'Wait...'
'What now?' Qian Yuhan asked impatiently.
The Rakshasa Phantom parted his lips, thought it over for a long while, then warned him in a low voice:
'Old Qian, as the saying goes, a room that's tidy and free of strange smells isn't... well, it's... Anyway, I think you'd better sleep with one eye open.'
'Sleep? How could sleep compare to the pleasure of cultivation? You don't need to worry about me. I have no intention of sleeping in the first place.'
With that, Qian Yuhan promptly turned and went upstairs. He chose a room on the second floor with excellent natural light, sat cross-legged, and entered meditation in one smooth motion.
That left the Rakshasa Phantom on the sofa, pointing at the stairs and cursing. 'Damn you, Qian Yuhan! You cultivate every day, so how come you still haven't worked yourself to death?!'
Meanwhile, Xu Yan had been so tormented by the old emperor's damnable assignment that he felt his insides were burning. He tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. Finally, he kicked off the covers, climbed out of bed, pushed open the floor-to-ceiling window connecting his bedroom to the balcony, and gazed out at the night view as he muttered to himself:
"What a headache! Who'd take a job like this? Xu Tianzhen's a little demoness, stubborn as a mule. Getting her to change her application choices is harder than scaling the heavens. The breakthrough has to come from our prospective prince consort. As long as he changes his answer, everything will be easy."
As he pondered, two tiny figures, each about the size of a palm, suddenly popped into Xu Yan's mind, one on either side.
On the left was a pitch-black little devil. On the right was a little angel who looked a lot like him.
The little devil flapped a pair of bat wings and landed on Xu Yan's shoulder, cackling wickedly.
"Cackle, cackle, cackle! Just say what's on your mind. That kid's honest. If you ask him directly to help change her application choices, he might actually do you the favor. As for the old emperor saying not to make the kid feel like the Sun-Moon Empire is desperate to throw its princess at him, why should you care?"
"The princess is already lovesick, but she's still putting on an act and trying to fool herself. What's the point? As long as you don't say anything and he doesn't say anything, who'll know?"
To be fair, what the little devil said was exactly what Xu Yan was thinking. As long as he got the main thing done, a minor problem didn't seem like a big deal.
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