Qian Renxue had just taken a sip of bitter tea when she heard this and immediately spat it out.
"?" The tea drinker looked at her with a strange expression. What was she doing?
Qian Renxue gave an awkward smile and hurriedly wiped the water from the corner of her mouth, putting on an utterly harmless expression. Only then did the other tea drinkers turn their gazes away.
Qian Renxue breathed a sigh of relief, perked up her ears, and continued listening.
"Forget about him. He's a weirdo. Go on."
"Where was I? Oh, right. His Highness the Crown Prince beat the Fourth Prince with a thorn whip at the palace yesterday! He was whipped until his flesh was torn and his skin split."
"Whoa! Is that true? Isn't His Highness the Crown Prince known for being benevolent and magnanimous?"
"Benevolent? That was before! I think he's trying to establish his authority! His Highness Xue Beng had it coming, too. He's always bullied men and seized women..."
"Shh! Keep your voice down! You're talking about a prince. Do you want to get yourself killed?"
Qian Renxue's fingers tightened slightly around her teacup.
Ye Yang... or rather, that fellow posing as the Crown Prince, was really this brazen? He'd whipped a prince?
That was absolutely not her style! What was he trying to do? Wasn't he afraid of provoking Xue Ye's fury and suspicion?
She forced herself to calm down and kept listening.
The conversation soon turned to other things: the new deacon at Nuoding City's Spirit Hall Branch, a scandal in some minor noble's family, and... Nuoding Junior Spirit Master Academy.
"...If we're talking about the most famous place in Nuoding City, it has to be that Soul Master Academy! It may only be a junior academy, but everyone who gets in is a future Lord Soul Master!"
"Isn't that the truth! I heard two remarkable work-study students enrolled a few years ago. One was called Tang San, with a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul and Innate Full Soul Power! The other was a little girl called Xiao Wu, with a rabbit Martial Soul. She had Innate Full Soul Power, too!"
"Blue Silver Grass? A Trash Martial Soul with Innate Full Soul Power? Now that's a rarity..."
Tang San? Xiao Wu? Qian Renxue's heart stirred.
As the young mistress of Spirit Hall, she kept an eye on information about promising young Soul Masters across the continent.
Innate Full Soul Power with a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul? That was certainly unheard of. And that Xiao Wu... Innate Full Soul Power with a rabbit Martial Soul was extremely rare, too.
"What were Spirit Hall's awakening Soul Masters doing? How could they fail to report something as important as Innate Full Soul Power?" Qian Renxue frowned, feeling displeased.
Even if the Martial Soul was Blue Silver Grass, the person still had Innate Full Soul Power. There weren't many people across the whole continent with Innate Full Soul Power.
Qian Renxue shook her head. If she got the chance later, she would have to tell her grandfather about this. If they'd failed to report these people just because their Martial Souls were low-ranked, wouldn't that mean letting countless geniuses slip through their fingers?
She set down a few Copper Soul Coins and left the teahouse.
It seemed Nuoding Junior Spirit Master Academy was worth visiting.
She could also take a look at how these two geniuses with Innate Full Soul Power were doing now.
But before that, she needed to go somewhere else first—the Nuoding City Spirit Hall Branch.
She had only a few Silver Soul Coins to her name right now, so she needed to get some money. Every month, Spirit Hall gave a decent allowance to the Soul Masters registered with it.
A Soul Master received one Gold Soul Coin, a Soul Grandmaster ten, and a Soul Elder fifty. After that, Spirit Hall stopped providing support. A Soul Elder was the highest rank Spirit Hall would subsidize.
After all, by the time someone reached Soul Ancestor, there was no way they could starve to death.
As for whether her Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring would be exposed, she wasn't worried. Spirit Hall judged people by their Soul Power, not their Soul Rings. She only had to avoid releasing her Soul Ring.
With a simple bundle on her back, Qian Renxue stood before the somewhat weathered yet still imposing gate of the Nuoding City Spirit Hall Branch.
Compared with the magnificent Spirit Holy Hall in Heaven Dou City, this place looked small and cramped.
She took a deep breath and walked inside.
The light in the hall was dim, and the air was filled with the stale smell of old wood and dust.
The clerks, dressed in standard gray robes, sat behind high counters. Their faces bore the numbness peculiar to small-town officials, along with a hint of barely concealed arrogance.
Qian Renxue walked up to an unoccupied counter. The middle-aged clerk behind it was looking through a yellowed register without even lifting his head. In a matter-of-fact tone, he asked, "What do you need?"
"I'd like to register as a Soul Master and claim my allowance," Qian Renxue said softly. With none of her familiar companions around, she didn't need to imagine how Ye Yang would have said it. She felt rather at ease.
Only then did the clerk raise his head languidly.
When he saw that the person standing before him was merely a shabby young man in coarse clothes, washed pale and patched in several places, a trace of disdain quickly flashed in his eyes.
Registering at this age? His Martial Soul probably wasn't any good, and he'd only just broken through to level ten.
"Name? Age? Martial Soul? Soul Power Level?" The clerk picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and asked in a cold tone.
"Ye Yang. Age... eighteen." Qian Renxue paused briefly before giving Ye Yang's age. "Martial Soul... Light Dragon. Soul Power... level thirty."
"What?!" The quill in the clerk's hand fell onto the register with a clatter, splashing a few drops of ink.
He jerked his head up, eyes wide as saucers, as if he'd heard something utterly absurd. "Level thirty? At eighteen? Kid, are you messing with me?!"
His voice suddenly rose, brimming with doubt and reproach.
Ye Yang reaching level thirty at eighteen might not seem impressive, but that was only because he was being compared to the geniuses in the original story. For an ordinary person, reaching level thirty at eighteen was already a remarkable talent.
The villagers waiting nearby and several other clerks were drawn by the shout, and all eyes turned toward Qian Renxue.
Level thirty? At eighteen? That was incredible!
"I'm not joking." Qian Renxue furrowed her brows slightly, and for an instant, the authority of a superior weighed down on the clerk.
"Gulp." The clerk had never faced the pressure of the Crown Prince. Confronted by Qian Renxue's soul-piercing gaze, he swallowed instinctively, breaking into a cold sweat.
The commotion finally drew the attention of a senior official inside the branch.
An amiable old man with white hair, dressed in a white deacon's robe, hurried out from the inner hall at the sound.
He was Ma Xiunuo, the deacon of the Nuoding City Spirit Hall Branch.
"What's going on? Why all the noise?"
Ma Xiunuo furrowed his brows slightly. His gaze swept over the silent, fearful crowd before settling on the young man at the counter. He wore coarse clothes, but stood tall and carried himself with uncommon poise.
"L-Lord Ma Xiunuo!" The clerk looked as if he'd seen his savior. He hurriedly pointed at Qian Renxue, his voice still trembling.
"This... this Soul Master wants to register. Eighteen years old, and l-level thirty Soul Power! I... I was careless and offended the lord..."
"Eighteen? Level thirty?!" A startling light suddenly flared in Ma Xiunuo's cloudy old eyes.
He hurried over to Qian Renxue and looked her over carefully.
The young man before him wore shabby clothes, but stood straight as a pine. His features were handsome and resolute, his gaze deep and composed. He looked nothing like an inexperienced country bumpkin. Instead, he seemed to possess a noble bearing and composure that were difficult to describe.
At a glance, he was clearly no ordinary person.
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