Still, Qian Daoliu offered his niece a little advice:
"Qian'er, you don't have to be so rigid! I'll lend you a million Gold Soul Coins for now. Your research is still experimental, but you can start by selling it at a high price to some nobles!"
"With technology this miraculous, the nobles of both empires will go crazy for it. The Heaven Dou royal family's Swan Martial Soul is especially weak. If they find out it can boost Innate Soul Power, won't they be scrambling to buy it?"
The old fox Qian Daoliu let out a wicked "heh heh heh":
"When the time comes, sell it to them for a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins—or even a million. Isn't there an auction house in Heaven Dou City? You can auction it off and get the nobles bidding against each other!"
The little fox Qian Xunqian suddenly saw the light. As the saying went, ginger was spicier with age! She really had fried her brain with all that research. Why talk about scientific ethics with bloodsucking nobles?
The money was what mattered!
"Uncle, hurry up and give your niece that million Gold Soul Coins! Don't worry, I'll pay you back!"
Qian Daoliu looked awkward and said:
"Qian'er, wait a moment. I'll go see if your uncles can pool some together..."
At last, once she'd raised enough to cover the costs, Qian Xunqian built the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy on a vast grassland between several villages.
It was the first advanced academy for non-Soul Masters in the history of the Douluo Continent.
As long as you paid enough in wages, construction went quickly.
In less than a year, the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy was up and running.
At the same time, over the course of that year, Qian Xunqian became a regular at the Heaven Dou Empire Royal Auction House.
The Innate Spirit Power Cultivation Device fetched an astronomical price at auction. That tiny pill sold for a million Gold Soul Coins. Just one sale covered the costs, leaving Qian Xunqian utterly stunned.
Her uncle and the other elders had scraped and scrounged to put together a million Gold Soul Coins. Who would've thought that a mere member of the royal family in the tiny Heaven Dou Empire could produce the same amount without breaking a sweat?
It was enough to make you sick with envy. All you could say was that Qian Daoliu, a Limit Douluo, had wasted his life. He'd lived this long and still had to borrow a million Gold Soul Coins from old friends.
Now Qian Xunqian was a rich woman, but though the money came in fast, it went out just as quickly.
At first, recruiting students for the Agricultural Academy proved extremely difficult. Soul Masters looked down on it, while commoners didn't want to give up their jobs to study something as unappealing as agriculture.
Since no one wanted to enroll, Qian Xunqian paid people to attend.
Everyone who enrolled at the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy received free tuition, room, and board. Soul Masters received a monthly subsidy of five Gold Soul Coins, and commoners received ten.
Graduates with excellent marks could apply to the principal for work. The principal—Qian Daoliu—would send people to clear land in the Star Dou Forest, then assign the reclaimed fields to them to farm.
What's more, the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy would buy the students' crops at a high price.
With the addition of an aggressive publicity campaign, applicants poured in. They nearly trampled down the gates of the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy.
Once the school had plenty of applicants, it could be selective, and the quality of its students improved at once.
As the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy flourished, the Star Dou Forest gradually took a beating.
The Star Dou Forest was wonderful in every way. Its only flaw was that it bordered Spirit City.
Heh heh heh! Taking great strides into the industrial age required mountains of agricultural products, and mountains of crops required vast tracts of farmland. Qian Xunqian couldn't bring herself to seize the farmers' land, so she had no choice but to seize the Soul Beasts' land instead!
Soul Beasts: Woe is us! They're taking our land too!
That year, besides the founding of the Spirit Hall Agricultural Academy, another major event took place: the birth of the future second antagonist—Qian Renxue, the Demon Pill!
You could only marvel at the overwhelming power of fate's corrections. Qian Renxue was born, and, just like in the original story, she began suffering from a young age.
In the original, Bibi Dong didn't love her daughter. Now, it was Qian Xunji who didn't love his own daughter.
After all, he had been overcome by lust and fathered her with a lowly maid. From the very beginning, Qian Xunji treated neither mother nor daughter kindly.
Forcing himself on a maid and letting others find out was like a pope in medieval Europe forcing himself on a nun and having the public learn of it.
It was a terrible stain on Qian Xunji's image as the Pope.
The Spirit Hall worshipped the Angel God. No matter how wild its members got behind closed doors, they still had to appear pure and chaste in public.
And Qian Xunji had clearly failed at that.
He prided himself on his own purity. He'd rather reject his daughter than damage his image as a pure and chaste Pope!
But alas, spilled water could never be gathered up again!!!
Every time he saw his daughter, memories of the past surged through his mind, reminding him again and again that the Pope was a beast!
"Ahhh! What a disgrace! What a disgrace!"
Qian Xunji sat in the Pope's Palace, raging helplessly. His daughter was born that day, but he couldn't even be bothered to go see her.
Almost all the senior figures in Spirit Hall witnessed Qian Renxue's birth. All, that is, except for the unfortunate Azure Luan Douluo and Ling Yuan Douluo, who were still playing with Ice Jade Scorpions in the Far North!
Apart from the nurse, Qian Xunqian was the first person to hold her little niece.
"Goo goo ga ga! I'm finally not the youngest in Spirit Hall anymore!"
Qian Daoliu was the happiest of them all. Now he had another account to level up.
His main account, Qian Xunji, was ruined. His mid-level account, Qian Xunqian, had gone off course. But Qian Daoliu was convinced these were flukes, not proof that he was bad at raising children!
Starting today, he would carefully nurture this new account and restore the reputation of a level-99 Limit Douluo!
Qian Daoliu thought: Tang Chen, it's bad enough that my son can't compare to your grandson. Surely my granddaughter can't be worse than your great-grandson!
Qian Xunqian: Oh no! She really can! Hey, old man, why not admit you've failed at raising kids and let me, her aunt, teach her properly?
To be fair, Qian Daoliu was actually much better at raising children than Tang Chen. Why?
Because Tang Chen left his two grandsons alone, letting Tang Hao and Tang Xiao grow up as they pleased. He didn't teach them anything.
And Tang Hao, the future Clear Sky Douluo, inherited his grandfather's approach to child-rearing in full.
He also raised Tang San by leaving him to his own devices. In fact, he didn't just neglect Tang San—he made Tang San take care of him instead.
And in the end, Tang San became a god!
Tang Chen neglected Tang Hao, and Tang Hao became the youngest Titled Douluo. Tang Hao abused Tang San, and Tang San became a god!
Counting Legend of the Dragon King, Tang San not only left Tang Wulin to fend for himself, but wasn't even his father, and Tang Wulin still turned out great.
Old man Qian Daoliu, you should rethink your "encouraging" way of raising children. Kids need tough love! This is the age of raising them through abuse!
Qian Daoliu: That's on me. That's on me.
(The above is all a joke. Tang Jia San Shao's values are messed up, so don't copy his way of raising children. Of course, don't spoil your children like Qian Daoliu either. You need both authority and gentleness. Most importantly, treat children fairly, justly, and sincerely!)
Much like Liu Bang, Li Yuan, Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the moment Qian Renxue was born, the sky turned seven-colored, auspicious light descended, and a golden dragon seemed to coil around her.
Historical records even say that the nurse delivering Qian Renxue suddenly caught a delightful, intoxicating fragrance during the birth.
You could tell at a glance that this child was destined for greatness.
Qian Xunqian: Could it be that was just my natural scent?