Bibi Dong's disheveled figure, fleeing with the food box in her hands, had barely vanished into the night when the Library Pavilion fell quiet again.
Su Chen drew back his gaze and unhurriedly brushed the scattered wood shavings off the tea table.
The mush, mixed with charcoal and a fishy stench, still churned his stomach.
He had just leaned back against the repaired bamboo chair when, deep in his mind, the edge of the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen suddenly flickered.
The golden dot representing Qian Renxue was flashing at an extremely high frequency.
He opened the panel. Her emotional readings showed a tangled mix of agitation and unwillingness, as if she were about to explode.
At the same time, in the Young Master Palace in Spirit City's inner city.
Qian Renxue slammed her palm down on the rosewood table, making the teacups jump.
"A total curfew? To protect that good-for-nothing, she doesn't even care about Spirit Hall's reputation anymore!"
Qian Renxue was so furious her chest felt tight.
Having to comb a servant's hair last night had been humiliating enough. Then Bibi Dong had issued that lockdown order this morning as if she'd gone mad. Her lofty pride had been ground into the dirt.
Just then, a glaring crimson prompt abruptly popped up before her eyes.
The mechanical voice was icy, devoid of the slightest emotion:
[Ding! Advanced mission triggered: Secretly collect ten unknown details about Su Chen to get to know him better.] [Mission reward: Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul resonance +5%!]
Qian Renxue's breath caught. She glared at the words "secretly collect," and then she actually laughed in sheer disbelief.
Secretly collect?
Was this lousy system telling her, the dignified young master of Spirit Hall and crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, to do the work of a common sneak thief?!
Her teeth nearly cracked from how hard she clenched them.
But the temptation of increased Martial Soul resonance was simply too great.
At her level, even a 1% increase in resonance with the Angel Martial Soul was harder to achieve than ten years of arduous cultivation.
Besides, if she could find some dirt on that good-for-nothing, she could not only complete this damn mission but also get even with Bibi Dong in spectacular fashion!
Her desire to win, coupled with the divine-grade reward, crushed her reason in an instant.
Qian Renxue forced down her humiliation and tore off her elegant white-and-gold outfit.
She opened the bottom of her wardrobe and dug out a coarse gray servant's uniform that smelled faintly of soapwort. She changed into it deftly.
She tightly coiled her waist-length golden hair and tucked it beneath a dusty cloth cap.
She took a deep breath and circulated her high-level Soul Power, concealing her aura until not a trace remained.
Like a lifeless ghost, she carefully slipped past the Judgment Knights patrolling the outer perimeter and soundlessly vanished into the night, heading straight for the inner city's northeast corner.
Inside the Library Pavilion.
Su Chen was resting with his eyes closed when the Eye of Omniscience suddenly gave a faint hum.
The radar on the Light Screen clearly marked a sneaky golden mass of energy three feet outside the window.
The holographic panel even showed Qian Renxue's heartbeat in full, slightly erratic from her nervousness and humiliation.
[Target state: Extremely resistant, guilty, highly focused]
Su Chen did not open his eyes, but the corners of his mouth curled into a meaningful smile.
Want to play at "secretly observing"?
Fine. Then let him give her a good taste of what it meant to be an "observer" crushed by a higher dimension.
There was one thing he never lacked: details.
Outside the window.
The early autumn night breeze carried a hint of chill. Crouching in the shadows, Qian Renxue looked just like an assassin sneaking around.
With extreme care, she peered into the room through a crack in the broken wooden boards.
The system's cold warning sounded again: [Warning: Only tiny actions with distinctive personal traits count as details. Ordinary habits don't qualify.]
Qian Renxue's phoenix eyes widened as she stared at the figure beneath the dim oil lamp, cursing inwardly.
What sort of damn "unknown little habits" could a lowly servant who swept and wiped tables in the Library Pavilion every day have?
Was she supposed to find out whether he picked his toes or sighed or some nonsense like that?
Inside the room, Su Chen moved.
He naturally pulled an old, yellowed book from beside him and began flipping through it beneath the oil lamp, appearing casual and unhurried.
But Qian Renxue's eyes were drawn to his right hand, resting on the edge of the page.
As Su Chen's gaze moved across the page, his right index finger unconsciously traced tiny, slow circles along the paper's edge.
It wasn't idle doodling. It was a highly focused motion, a peculiar, rhythmic muscle memory.
It was like the unconscious gesture of someone long accustomed to wielding great authority and directing affairs, lost in thought.
There was a composure in that rhythm that was utterly at odds with his servant's station.
Qian Renxue's gaze sharpened.
[Ding! Detail recorded: One. Traces circles with his index finger while thinking.]
The system's prompt made her pause. He really did have one?
Time passed, minute by minute.
Su Chen put down the old book, apparently tired of reading, tilted his head slightly, and yawned.
The instant he opened his mouth, he instinctively raised his left hand, the back facing outward, and covered half his face, shielding his mouth and nose with effortless grace.
The gesture was astonishingly swift, yet it carried a sense of decorum and restraint.
It wasn't the vulgar, wide-mouthed yawn of a laborer at the bottom of society. It was a refinement and self-protection etched into his bones.
Qian Renxue's heart gave a sudden jolt.
Crouched outside the window, she watched the thin profile outlined by the yellow lamplight, and her heart inexplicably skipped a beat.
How could a servant without even a Soul Ring have the restraint taught only by the core etiquette tutors of the Heaven Dou Imperial Family?
For the first time, her image of this man as a "crude good-for-nothing" developed a crack.
[Ding! Detail recorded: Two. A defensive habit of covering his face.]
The next half hour became a flawless one-man show put on by Su Chen.
As if he were a specimen with no defenses, he smoothly displayed several intensely personal little habits.
When he stood and straightened his clothes, both hands precisely folded the inner creases inward by a third. Damn it, that was the sort of habit a military commander had, to keep weapons from catching on his clothes!
When he walked to the table to pour water, he didn't touch the handle directly. Instead, he lightly tapped the side of the cup with the back of his finger, testing whether the water was hot.
When he set down the teacup, he first let one edge of its base lightly touch the table, then slowly lowered it flat, making not the slightest clink.
On the Eye of Omniscience's Light Screen, the data was undergoing a fascinating transformation.
Qian Renxue's emotional panel had started shifting uncontrollably from "wary" and "resistant" toward "curious" and "investigative."
Her favorability, which had been stuck stubbornly at [15], quietly ticked up to [16], then slowly climbed to [17].
Outside the window, Qian Renxue's legs had gone somewhat numb from crouching, but her eyes stayed locked on Su Chen, as if she couldn't pull them away.
[Current progress: 9/10]
Just one last detail.
Inside the room.
Su Chen suddenly set down what he was holding. He turned and slowly walked toward the broken window on the other side, facing the night sky.
He stopped by the window.
The next moment, the hunched, timid, shrinking shell around him seemed to scatter in a gust of wind.
Su Chen clasped his hands behind his back, his spine straightening inch by inch, like a spear about to pierce the night sky.
He slowly raised his head and gazed at the cold moon hanging in the night.
Pale moonlight spilled over him, outlining his entire figure with stark clarity.
At that moment, there was no fear or obsequiousness in his eyes. There was only a composure and loneliness so profound they made one's heart pound, as if he could see through the ages.
It was as if a god who had slept for countless epochs were gazing indifferently down at this continent through the body of a mortal.
This aura, something no lowly good-for-nothing could possibly possess, slammed into Qian Renxue's heart like a ten-thousand-ton hammer!
Crouched in the shadows, her pupils contracted sharply. She stopped breathing.
This was insane!
What kind of monster was he?!
Even her grandfather, Qian Daoliu, didn't have that kind of loneliness or the air of looking down from above!
[Ding! Detail recorded: Ten. A divine gaze hidden beneath a disguise.] [All ten details collected! Reward issued: Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul resonance +5%!]
The system's prompt exploded in Qian Renxue's mind.
An immense, pure, sacred force appeared out of nowhere in her meridians. It surged wildly through her body, cleansing her limbs and bones.
The Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul let out a joyful cry.
Her power was soaring, but Qian Renxue could hardly spare a thought for the changes within her.
On Su Chen's Light Screen, Qian Renxue's favorability, after that final double shock to her eyes and soul, settled firmly at [18].
Qian Renxue gripped the edge of the window frame so tightly that she snapped her nails and splinters pierced her flesh, yet she felt no pain.
Her phoenix eyes were filled with uncertainty and the shock of having her entire understanding overturned.
She took one last look at the upright, unfathomable figure beneath the moon.
This man was no pitiful plaything. He was a bottomless pool of still water, concealing a beast that could devour everything.
Qian Renxue carved that heart-stirring aura of composure deep into her mind.
With her head full of jumbled questions and her heartbeat beyond calming, she desperately concealed her aura and soundlessly vanished into Spirit City's night, just as she had come.
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