Qian Renxue's Investigation

Inside the Library Pavilion, Su Chen glanced at the glaring blood-red warning on the Eye of Omniscience screen, his expression as calm as an ancient well.

With a flick of his mind, the screen silently retreated into his Sea of Divine Consciousness.

The majestic soul power from his recent breakthrough to a level 50 Soul King was still rampaging through his meridians, so he quickly circulated his cultivation technique to soothe and stabilize it.

The concealment properties of his World Tree martial soul were fully activated, locking that vast, god-like life fluctuation deep within his consciousness so that not a single trace leaked out.

He hunched his shoulders slightly, slowed his breathing, and his entire aura plummeted.

In the span of a single breath, that sickly, humble servant without even a single soul ring had returned.

He leaned back into the bamboo chair, closed his eyes, and waited for the storm to descend.

At this moment, outside Martial Soul City.

The night was as thick as ink that refused to dissolve. A pitch-black carriage without any insignia tore through the night, its wheels grinding over the wilderness before coming to a silent stop in the shadows at the foot of the city wall.

The carriage curtain was pulled back by a slender, fair hand.

Having shed the disguise of the Heaven Dou Crown Prince Xue Qinghe, Qian Renxue wore a crisp, platinum Young Master's uniform. With a sharp "click," her military boots stepped firmly onto the bluestone ground of Martial Soul City.

The moment her feet touched the ground, the Six-Winged Angel martial soul within her body began to throb wildly without warning!

"Hum~"

Her very blood seemed to be simmering!

This craving and pull, originating from the deepest depths of her bloodline, ignored all barriers and pointed with absolute precision toward the northeast corner of Martial Soul Hall.

That was the Library Pavilion!

Immediately following, the blood-red system panel in her mind forcibly popped up.

[Newbie Task: Perform Ten Combing Sessions for Su Chen.]

[Countdown: 20 days, 11 hours.]

Those blood-colored digits, like a death warrant, frantically stimulated her divine consciousness.

Qian Renxue's brows furrowed slightly. With a flash of sacred soul power at her fingertips, she suppressed the throbbing of her martial soul with near-savage force.

"Young Master!"

From a blind spot inside the city gate, a subordinate in black robes lunged forward and slammed onto one knee!

"Speak." Qian Renxue's voice was icy, devoid of any wasted words.

"Martial Soul City... has undergone a massive upheaval!"

The subordinate spoke with the speed of a machine gun, his forehead covered in cold sweat. "A few days ago, in order to protect a servant in the northeast Library Pavilion, the Pope personally crushed an Elder Token from the Worship Hall in public!"

"Early this morning, the Great Elder went to the Pope Palace to demand an explanation, and the two nearly came to blows! It was a bloodbath at the level of Limit Douluo!"

Qian Renxue's pupils shrank violently.

The subordinate swallowed hard, his voice trembling: "The Pope refused to yield an inch and tore the sky apart! She designated the Library Pavilion as a Level One Forbidden Zone, and the Great Elder has already been forced back to the Elder Hall!"

"What is the blockade status?" Qian Renxue asked coldly.

The target of her mission was right there; regardless of whether it was a dragon's den or a tiger's lair, she had to get inside.

"Impenetrable!"

The subordinate's voice carried a hint of a sob. "Within three hundred paces of the Library Pavilion, it is entirely occupied by the Pope's most elite Judgment Knights!"

"Her Holiness issued a kill order: anyone who approaches is to be executed on the spot without warning! Two days ago, a high-level scout from the Worship Hall had his toes cross the line, and his bones were shattered before he was thrown out of the inner city!"

The night wind howled.

For the first time, extreme astonishment appeared on Qian Renxue's face.

For a servant with zero soul power?

Is she insane?!

In her understanding, Bibi Dong was cold-blooded, perversely rational, and a power-hungry maniac who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals!

She even viewed her own biological daughter as the greatest humiliation of her life!

This act of "going berserk" to protect someone completely overturned the stereotype Qian Renxue had held of her mother for twenty years.

Had that woman lost her mind?

The carriage drove through a secret passage into the inner city, heading straight for the Young Master Palace.

Inside the palace, the lights were dim.

Qian Renxue sat behind her desk. In her Sea of Divine Consciousness, the system's warning of "soul tearing until death" flashed like an alarm light, leaving her with no way to retreat.

Force her way through the Judgment Knights?

That would be pure suicide, equivalent to sticking her face out for Bibi Dong to slap.

Qian Renxue narrowed her eyes, tapped her fingers against the desk, and decisively ordered: "Activate the 'Heavenly Net'."

The subordinate was struck with terror on the spot.

"Heavenly Net" was a top-secret dark web that the Young Master had spent years cultivating while undercover in Heaven Dou, built by pouring astronomical resources into the lowest rungs of Martial Soul Hall. It was not to be activated unless the situation was a matter of life and death!

"Avoid all of the Pope's eyes and ears. Investigate that man in the Library Pavilion; his name is Su Chen."

Qian Renxue's voice was as cold as ice. "Start from the most inconspicuous corners, like the Imperial Kitchen or the low-level deacons. I want you to dig up his ancestors eighteen generations back and find the flaws in his defenses!"

"Understood!"

The dark web began to stir.

Outside the Young Master Palace, the air suddenly distorted.

A flash of pale golden soul power flickered, and a secret envoy of Qian Daoliu appeared out of thin air, presenting a secret letter sealed with the wax of a Six-Winged Angel with both hands.

"A personal letter from the Grand Elder. Please, Young Master, open it yourself."

Qian Renxue took it and broke the seal.

There was only one sentence on the letter, yet between the lines lay an unquestionable command: [Bibi Dong is hiding a divine object within the Library Pavilion, one that concerns the very foundation of our Hall. Come to the Worship Hall immediately; we shall join forces to seize it.]

The few confidants inside the palace only had to glance at the envelope to feel a chill run down their spines, their breathing turning labored.

The Grand Elder was directly pulling the Young Master into his camp!

This meant they were about to be dragged into the meat grinder of Martial Soul Hall's highest power struggle. Who could possibly withstand that?

Qian Renxue finished reading the letter, her face as calm as still water.

"A divine object?"

She sneered, a trace of holy soul power leaking from her fingertips.

Sizzle~

The golden letter paper instantly turned to ash.

They wanted to use her as a pawn? She had no interest in participating in the dog-eat-dog fight between the Worship Hall and the Pope Palace.

Just then.

"Report!"

The most deeply embedded operative of the dark web slid onto his knees from the shadows, gasping for air; it was clear he had run for his life to get back.

"Did you find out?" Qian Renxue leaned forward slightly.

"Young Master..."

The operative's expression was incredibly bizarre, as if his worldview had been utterly pulverized into absurdity. "Your subordinate... managed to piece together a... top-secret report from the mouths of a cook kicked out of the Imperial Kitchen and a peripheral member of the Pope's personal guard."

"Did they mention the divine object the Grand Elder spoke of?"

"Not... not a single word." The operative swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "The intelligence recorded... nothing but trivial daily matters..."

"Read it!"

"Yes! The report says that every night and every noon, the Pope herself carries a food box to the Library Pavilion to deliver meals to that servant named Su Chen! And she has to watch him finish eating with her own eyes!"

The teacup in Qian Renxue's hand froze in mid-air.

"Anything else?"

"The people in the Imperial Kitchen say... the Pope once spent the middle of the night alone in the kitchen cutting ginger, and it seems... it seems she even cut her hand, wrapping it up haphazardly with a strip of cloth!" The operative buried his head even lower; speaking these words was practically treasonous, enough to cost him his head!

"Furthermore... the guards on rotation were scared to death, vaguely revealing... that the Pope once personally... personally changed Su Chen's clothes, and even... tied his sash for him..."

Dead silence.

The entire Young Master Palace fell into a deathly stillness.

Clatter!

The Ru ware teacup in Qian Renxue's hand slipped from her fingers, smashing heavily onto the desk.

Scalding tea splashed everywhere, soaking the precious documents.

"Tying a sash," "cutting her hand," "personally serving three meals."

These words, filled with the mundane smoke and fire of common life, and even humble to the bone, struck Qian Renxue's Sea of Divine Consciousness like ten-thousand-ton hammers, unreasonable and brutal!

What kind of fantasy was she hearing?!

That cold-blooded Pope who sat high upon the throne, looking down upon the world, who dared to stand toe-to-toe with her grandfather Qian Daoliu for the sake of power...

Learning to cook in the kitchen in the middle of the night? Serving plates to someone? And even, goddammit, personally undressing someone and tying their sash?!

Absurd!

The greatest joke under heaven!

Combined with the fate-images the system had forcibly injected into her mind—in the flames of the collapsing Martial Soul City, Bibi Dong throwing herself recklessly toward the Asura Blood Sword to block a fatal blow meant for her.

And now, before her eyes, the outrageous, almost "self-abasing" tenderness Bibi Dong showed to a man from the bottom of the social ladder with no background!

Qian Renxue's worldview suffered a nuclear-level, devastating impact.

The image of the high-and-mighty mother she had resented for twenty years collapsed in this moment, falling from her pedestal and shattering into pieces!

Her phoenix eyes contracted violently, her chest heaved, and even her breathing fell into total disarray.

"All of you, withdraw."

Qian Renxue's voice carried a hint of hoarseness as she waved her hand.

Her confidants acted as if they had been granted a reprieve, scrambling away in a panic before slamming the palace doors shut.

Left alone, Qian Renxue walked to the window of the high tower.

The early autumn night breeze stirred her long golden hair, and her gaze pierced through the heavy veil of night, locking firmly onto the Library Pavilion shrouded in darkness in the northeast corner.

In her mind, the life-threatening task of [Ten Combing Sessions] and the earth-shattering intelligence she had heard tonight were intertwining and colliding frantically!

She gripped the window frame so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

A truly terrifying thought fully took shape in the depths of her heart.

The so-called "divine object" mentioned in Qian Daoliu's letter?

It was utterly laughable!

That man named Su Chen... to be defined by the system as a "Fate Variable," to be able to make the arrogant Bibi Dong willingly act as a mere kitchen maid.

He himself was ten thousand times more terrifying than the ethereal divine object described by the Grand Elder!

Qian Renxue slowly closed her eyes.

She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly.

When she opened her eyes again, all the shock and bewilderment in her gaze had been forcibly crushed and buried deep within her heart.

In their place was absolute coldness and resolve.

The intelligence had been fully digested.

For the upcoming ice-breaking journey to the Library Pavilion, she had prepared herself with the utmost mental readiness.