Falling into the Trap

Xue Ye was stunned by these words. He glanced at the wine glass beside him, frowned, then picked it up and smiled.

"Haha, then This Lonely One shall share a drink with you!"

Clink!

The glasses touched, and both drank simultaneously. Chen Qi watched Xue Ye as he drank, and finding nothing amiss, he looked away.

"Chen Qi, why won't you let me eat?"

Chen Qi looked at the aggrieved Qian Renxue beside him and nodded.

"It's fine now, go ahead."

Qian Renxue thought Chen Qi's behavior was so abnormal that she wondered if he had been possessed; why was he acting so strangely?

He claimed to have social anxiety yet took the initiative to toast; she truly couldn't understand him.

The banquet proceeded smoothly for ten minutes, with everyone remaining silent, quietly eating the food in their bowls.

Qian Renxue, that little glutton, had already eaten a tenth of the food; anyone who didn't know better would have thought she was at a buffet rather than a banquet.

Seeing that the time was right, Emperor Xue Ye picked up his wine glass and looked at Qian Renxue.

"My guest, This Lonely One shall toast you personally."

Qian Renxue nodded upon seeing this and picked up her glass, but just as she was about to clink it, Chen Qi stopped her.

"Wait, Your Majesty, Miss Qian Xue is still young; drinking is not good for her health."

"Chen Qi, what are you saying? Don't I drink every day at ho—mmph..."

Chen Qi covered Qian Renxue's mouth and looked at Xue Ye.

Xue Ye was stunned; Chen Qi's words left him speechless. If he still tried to force Qian Renxue to drink, wouldn't the persona he had built be ruined?

He put down the glass and forced a smile.

"Hm, it is This Lonely One who was inconsiderate. Let us substitute tea for wine then."

Xue Ye swapped the wine for tea, leaving Chen Qi with no room to find fault.

He could only watch as Qian Renxue drank the tea, unable to do anything about it.

Seeing Qian Renxue finish the tea, Xue Ye smiled mysteriously and said to her.

"The meal has been eaten and the tea has been drunk; it is time to discuss matters with This Lonely One."

Qian Renxue pursed her lips, feeling that the tea was actually quite good—sweet and not bitter at all.

Hearing Xue Ye's words, Qian Renxue couldn't help but be curious about what he wanted to discuss.

"Speak, what is it?"

"It concerns the age of your soul rings. You must know that My Heaven Dou Empire is constantly suppressed by the Star Luo Empire, which prevents This Lonely One from realizing his grand ambitions. If the method you use to increase soul ring age were applied to my soldiers, the overall strength of the army would take a massive leap forward. At that point, the Heaven Dou Empire would surely be able to unify the world."

Xue Ye had said so much, all to tell Qian Renxue: hand over your method for increasing soul ring age and help me unify the world!

Even if Qian Renxue's mind wasn't fully mature, she could still discern Xue Ye's intentions.

"If it were a matter of giving me gifts or something similar, I might have agreed, but the matter of soul rings is my reverse scale. I will not tell anyone, no matter who they are."

Qian Renxue's tone was firm. This involved Chen Qi, and she shed her previous image of a weak girl, becoming mature and decisive.

Xue Ye shook his head upon hearing this. He had long expected Qian Renxue to say this, and with a wave of his hand, a group of armored soldiers rushed in.

"Since you are unwilling to cooperate, do not blame This Lonely One for being heartless."

Seeing that Xue Ye was resorting to force, Qian Renxue was not one to be easily intimidated; she immediately prepared to use her Soul Power to break out.

However, when she tried to channel her Soul Power, she found that the energy within her body seemed to have vanished; no matter how she tried to sense it, she could find nothing.

"What is happening? Where did my Soul Power go?"

Seeing Qian Renxue's distressed state, Xue Ye smiled and said.

"Do you not understand yet? This Lonely One drugged that cup of tea; your Soul Power has been temporarily sealed by that poison."

No wonder the tea had tasted wrong; it was drugged. Xue Ye was truly an unscrupulous old fox!

Meanwhile, Chen Qi felt his connection with Qian Renxue snap. He could no longer sense her presence; his mind went blank, and the world before his eyes plunged into darkness.

He did not know what happened next.

When his vision cleared, he found himself in a strange room.

Before him were cold, biting iron bars, and his hands and feet were shackled, making movement extremely difficult.

Chen Qi realized he had been thrown into a dungeon.

He took a deep breath, swept away his tension in a few seconds, and decided to play along with Xue Ye.

"Hey, kid, you're finally awake. You don't look like someone who committed a capital crime, so how did you end up in here?"

On the other side of the cell, a disheveled, barefoot old man lying on a straw mat was picking his nose as he asked Chen Qi.

"I'm not sure myself; I passed out and woke up here."

The old man chuckled upon hearing this, sat up, and said, "So you were framed and thrown in here? You're truly out of luck. By the way, little brother, are you interested in breaking out of prison with me?"

As he spoke, he deliberately pulled back a poster on the wall, revealing a bottomless hole behind it.

This scene reminded Chen Qi of those prison break movies where they used a poster of a beauty as a cover to secretly dig through the wall and escape; it was truly a classic.

Above the prison, in the interrogation room on the surface, Qian Renxue was tied up tightly to a chair, looking incredibly disheveled.

A young man dressed in royal attire swaggered in, and upon seeing Qian Renxue's state, he couldn't help but mock her.

"Haha, isn't this Miss Xue, who has been making such a splash at the Great Soul Arena lately? How did you end up in such a sorry state?"

The person who arrived was none other than Xue Qinghe, the very person Qian Renxue had replaced.

Qian Renxue glared at the gloating Xue Qinghe, grinding her teeth in anger; she wished she could kill this little brat whom she had never met before but who had mocked her the moment they laid eyes on each other.

"Ah! Just you wait until my Soul Power recovers, and I'll kick you to death!"

"Come on then! Kick me! I'll stick my butt out and pull down my pants just for you to kick!"

Xue Qinghe wasn't afraid of Qian Renxue in this state; she couldn't even protect herself, yet she was still trying to intimidate others—don't make him laugh.

"Qinghe, show some respect!"

Xue Ye stepped into the room at this moment and spoke to Xue Qinghe.

Seeing that his Imperial Father had arrived, Xue Qinghe immediately behaved himself, not daring to cause any more trouble, and left after offering a salute.

Xue Ye looked at Qian Renxue and said calmly, "Are you willing to tell This Lonely One your secret now?"

Qian Renxue ignored Xue Ye's words and asked anxiously, "Where did you take Chen Qi?"

"Is that important to you?"

"It is very important!"

Xue Ye waved his hand upon hearing this, saying indifferently, "He's dead."

In Heaven Dou City, Pufferfish Douluo and Snake Lance Douluo were mixed in with Qian Renxue's fans, moving forward with great difficulty, step by step.

"I say, Pufferfish, why aren't we using our Soul Power to fly?"

Hearing Snake Lance's words, Pufferfish Douluo finally realized.

Oh right, they were Title Douluos; why were they still squeezing through the crowd like mortals?

Had that idiot author thrown their intelligence into the sewer just to force the plot along?

The two of them wised up for once and used their Soul Power to quickly depart from the densely packed crowd.

"Snake Lance? And Pufferfish? Why are you two here?"

In an open space, Snake Lance Douluo and Pufferfish Douluo hadn't even had a chance to enjoy the peace before they were interrupted by a familiar voice.