Angel Lady's Wisdom

Night had deepened, and Heaven Dou City, noisy for an entire day, had finally fallen asleep.

Yet in the inner courtyard of the heavily guarded Crown Prince's Residence, bright candlelight still burned.

Within the private bedchamber that had originally belonged to "Xue Qinghe," a graceful figure had appeared at some point.

The woman leaned quietly against the window. Her slightly lowered violet eyes held a barely noticeable trace of loneliness, along with the satisfaction of a plan proceeding smoothly.

The cool night wind streamed in through the half-open window, brushing across her flawless face and stirring her flowing golden hair into slight disarray.

Having completely cast off the heavy disguise she had worn all day and returned to her true form, Qian Renxue stretched lazily without restraint.

Her close-fitting moon-white silk nightdress tightened slightly with the movement, perfectly outlining her breathtakingly lovely curves.

Gazing at the pitch-black night beyond the window, the corners of her glossy lips unconsciously curved into a faint smile.

One glance back and one smile could charm a hundred souls; before her, the painted beauties of the six palaces lost all color.

Years of hiding and scheming had filled her eyes with unmatched confidence. The future absolute ruler of this continent could only be Qian Renxue. Everything was under her control!

After enjoying this brief peace, the slender figure turned and gracefully returned to the desk.

Under the dim candlelight lay an admission certificate for Heaven Dou Royal Academy that had just been processed.

Qian Renxue's pale, delicate fingertip lightly tapped the name on the paper, and a meaningful glint appeared in her exquisite eyes.

"Fine. Since you've come under my watch, we'll leave it at that for now."

"As for everything else, we can discuss it later."

Her slender fingers lightly drummed against the tabletop as Qian Renxue silently made her decision.

She would forcibly suppress all information regarding Lin Nuo's true circumstances and would not submit a single word to Spirit City.

No matter what, that young man with talent monstrous enough to defy reason was very likely the flesh and blood that woman had secretly given birth to behind everyone's backs.

For Qian Renxue, who had grown up in the cold Pope Palace and desperately longed for familial affection,

even if that blood relationship carried a trace of unspeakable absurdity, she realized that she simply could not bring herself to sever it completely.

Even worse, if Lin Nuo's origins were truly confirmed, it would be an enormous scandal for the Worship Hall, one capable of turning the heavens upside down.

If it truly came to that, she did not even dare imagine what thunderous methods her grandfather, who had always doted on her, and those hot-tempered Worship Hall elders would use to erase this stain.

Therefore, keeping him hidden in Heaven Dou City was currently the safest course of action.

"My foolish little brother, no matter how outstanding your talent is, your sister will always be your sister."

Thinking of Lin Nuo's slick, unyielding attitude in the hall today, Qian Renxue could not help letting out a soft snort.

A proud look of complete control surfaced on her stunning face.

She had absolute confidence that she could make that brat behave obediently in the days to come.

After all, no matter how heaven-defying Lin Nuo's second Soul Ring was, it was still nothing before her divine Angel Martial Soul with Innate Soul Power at rank twenty.

This was the absolute confidence that belonged to her alone.

If not for the mountain of government affairs that old bastard Xue Ye had shoved onto her over the years, severely delaying her cultivation progress in order to perfectly play the Crown Prince,

her true cultivation should have entered the Soul Saint realm long ago, perhaps even touched the threshold of Spirit Douluo.

But so what?

Even though the Nation-Stealing Plan had delayed much of her cultivation time, Qian Renxue firmly believed

that across the vast Douluo Continent, there was absolutely no one among her generation who could catch up to her.

The pride of the continent's greatest genius had never been empty talk.

The faint light of dawn spilled into the room through the windowsill.

Lin Nuo slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air, ending this round of meditation.

He had to admit that the high-level internal meditation method he had freeloaded from Salas was truly incredible. In just one night, he could clearly feel the circulation speed of Soul Power within his body increase by a huge margin.

Even his mood early in the morning had improved considerably.

It also made him sigh once more at the cruel barriers of reality on Douluo Continent.

In this era, even though Spirit Hall was charitable enough to send people into every village to awaken Martial Souls for commoners free of charge,

it was never something grassroots commoners could accomplish in one leap with nothing but passion if they wanted to truly cross the class divide.

If he had not known the hidden effect of high-grade Whale Rubber in improving one's constitution, and had foolishly clung to the generic beginner meditation method distributed for free by the Martial Soul Branch Hall, he would probably still be struggling in the mire of the teens as a Spirit Scholar.

Breaking through the Soul Grandmaster threshold before turning nine? That would have been nothing more than a fool's dream.

After getting out of bed, Lin Nuo changed into the finely crafted Heaven Dou Royal Academy uniform made from excellent materials, then pushed open the door and left his single dormitory room.

Since he was already here, he planned to take a proper stroll through this academy that was nominally the empire's foremost institution.

Yesterday, both Salas and the three Education Committee Members had praised the academy's costly "Mimicry Cultivation Environment" to the skies, patting their chests as they guaranteed they could find a cultivation location best suited to his Martial Soul.

Honestly, he was rather interested in checking it out for himself.

Still, Lin Nuo quietly prepared himself for the worst.

After all, his Martial Soul was the Death Spider Emperor.

If the academy's so-called "mimicry environment suited for a Spider Martial Soul" meant throwing him into some disgusting cave that never saw daylight, was dark and damp, and crawled with snakes, insects, rats, and ants...

Then he would turn around and leave without another word.

For some negligible cultivation bonuses, going to sleep alongside a pile of foul-smelling venomous bugs was not the sort of masochistic hobby he possessed.

Lin Nuo had originally assumed there would not be many people wandering around near the Mimicry Cultivation Area so early in the morning.

Yet when he casually made his way close to his destination, the scene before him made him stop in his tracks.

Beside the tree-lined path ahead, dozens of people had gathered in a dense crowd.

With a rough glance, he found that more than half of these spectators were female students.

A few on the outskirts were even clasping their hands to their chests with flushed cheeks, whispering excitedly to one another about something.

What was going on?

The little bit of gossip-loving curiosity in Lin Nuo's heart was immediately stirred.

He rose slightly onto his toes and peered through a gap in the crowd toward the center.

His view suddenly opened up.

At the very center of the crowd stood a young male student dressed in refined clothes, his hair groomed with meticulous precision.

At that moment, the fellow was holding a large bouquet of vibrant flowers in both hands, passionately and eagerly pouring out his love to the girl standing before him.

And when Lin Nuo's gaze passed over the flowers and landed on the girl being confessed to,

especially when he saw her distinctive chin-length purple hair and her pretty face carrying a touch of cold pride, understanding immediately flashed through his eyes.

Oh?

Wasn't this Yu Xiaogang's dutiful grandnephew?

Then the other one was Dugu Yan?