Qian Renxue Exhausted

"Brother, that's what happened." Xue Xing told Emperor Xue Ye everything that had occurred earlier.

As he listened to Xue Xing's account, Emperor Xue Ye shot straight up from his throne in excitement.

"A hundred-thousand-year soul beast sacrifice, martial soul evolution, healing Sword Douluo, all ten-thousand-year soul rings, solo-killing a ten-thousand-year soul beast! Good! Lin Ya has truly given me a huge surprise!"

Xue Ye was so delighted he could barely contain himself. Any imperial dignity had long since been tossed to the back of his mind.

With a sweep of his hand, he declared, "I'll grant every one of Lin Ya's requests. Go to the treasury later and select some of those ores and soul beast materials to deliver to him. Then make a trip to Gengxin City, the City of Metal, and find a suitable group of blacksmiths and workers. Conduct background checks—make sure their backgrounds are spotless."

"What?! Brother, I just got back! You won't even let me rest for a few days?" Xue Xing looked utterly aggrieved.

But Emperor Xue Ye glared at him, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Rest for what? Once you're dead, you'll have all the time in the world to rest! Lin Ya is waiting for you. Hurry up and deliver the things. Oh, and this too."

As he spoke, Xue Ye's expression suddenly turned solemn. From his personal soul tool, he took out an exquisitely luxurious brocade box carved with dragons and phoenixes, its surface shimmering with flowing light, and carefully held it out before Xue Xing.

"Hand this to Lin Ya personally. Be extremely careful—there must not be the slightest mishap!"

Prince Xue Xing was full of doubts as he gently lifted the lid—

In an instant, a crystalline seven-colored radiance shot into the sky, dazzling him so badly that he could not open his eyes!

"This is... a soul bone?!"

Inside the brocade box lay a bone that seemed sculpted from crystal. Sunlight fell upon it, refracting brilliant rainbow light. It was so breathtakingly beautiful that it stole one's breath.

"Brother, this is..." Even Xue Xing's voice trembled.

"An eighty-thousand-year Mirror Beast soul bone. Its soul bone skill is either replication or mirror-image clone." Xue Ye's eyes were full of fondness. "I searched for this thing for a very long time before finally finding it!"

The Mirror Beast might not sound as imposing as the Titan Giant Ape or the Dark Devilgod Tiger, but its abilities were utterly heaven-defying!

In the original story, Oscar's twenty-thousand-year Mirror Beast soul bone could summon a clone with eighty percent of the original body's strength for one minute.

And this one was eighty thousand years old!

It could create a clone with ninety percent of the original's strength and sustain it for a full two minutes!

"How powerful this soul bone is depends entirely on its host." Xue Ye grew increasingly excited as he spoke. "In the hands of an ordinary soul master, it would at most be a support tool. But in the hands of a twin martial soul genius like Lin Ya... its value might even surpass that of a hundred-thousand-year soul bone!"

Although soul masters could possess twin martial souls, they could only use one martial soul at a time in battle.

This limitation was not broken until the era of Douluo 2, when Huo Yuhao condensed three soul cores, allowing multi-martial-soul soul masters to use multiple martial souls in battle at once.

For Lin Ya, with this soul bone, he could control the Outcast in battle with his true body while having his clone wield the Emerald Swan to provide support from the rear!

The result would definitely be far more than a simple 1 + 0.9 = 1.9!

Even after Lin Ya condensed three soul cores in the future and could activate both martial souls simultaneously, this soul bone would never become useless. It would only make his clone's combat power even more terrifying!

The instant Xue Xing heard this, he understood the weight of this soul bone. He hurriedly stored the brocade box in his soul tool, straightened his back, and said, "Rest assured, Brother! I'll set off immediately and won't waste a moment!"

Xue Ye nodded in satisfaction and waved his hand. "Go early and come back... late!"

Prince Xue Xing: "..."

Brother, you really don't treat me like your own little brother.

Filled with helplessness, Xue Xing bowed to Xue Ye and trudged out of the palace. Just as he reached the palace gates, a staggering figure entered his sight head-on.

The man's face was pale as paper, his eyes bloodshot, and among his originally jet-black hair was a glaring streak of white. He was exhausted to the extreme, as though he might collapse at any moment—

It was "Xue Qinghe"!

Or rather, Qian Renxue, who had infiltrated the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace!

Seeing Qian Renxue in such a state, Xue Xing immediately put on a kind and amiable smile and approached her. "Qinghe, you're here so early to pay your respects to your father? What a filial and sensible child."

"Greetings, Uncle Xue Xing." Qian Renxue first bowed, then said with tears nearly spilling from her eyes:

"Uncle Xue Xing, could you please speak to Father for me? Every morning, I have to get up at dawn to study the history of the Douluo Continent. I don't even get a bite of breakfast before I have to study postnatal care for soul beasts. When I want to rest in the afternoon, Father sends people to take me to Moon Pavilion to study music! I'm a prince! Why do I need to study music?!"

Qian Renxue's face was full of grief and indignation. She had expected Heaven Dou to be dangerous, and she had expected that she might die—but that would have been a heroic death after her cover was exposed! Not being worked to death by a pile of useless nonsense!

"Ah, this... Brother has gone too far!" Prince Xue Xing looked righteously indignant, repeatedly nodding in agreement.

Qian Renxue's eyes instantly lit up, as if she had grasped a lifeline. "Uncle! You think this is wrong too, right?!"

But Xue Xing's next sentence froze her where she stood—

Prince Xue Xing said with righteous indignation, "What about noon? Don't you still have two hours then? Have someone tell you about the customs and local conditions of our Heaven Dou Empire while you eat. Wouldn't that make your meal more enjoyable?"

Qian Renxue: !!!!

Are you even human?! I'm already exhausted enough, and now you want to pile on even more lessons! When am I supposed to have time to study?!

"And at night." With his hands behind his back and the air of a learned scholar, Xue Xing patted Qian Renxue on the shoulder. "A junior of mine once said that a spiritual-type soul master named Ebbinghaus developed a forgetting curve. When people learn something, they forget quickly at first and then more slowly. If they don't review for a day, only thirty-three percent of it remains."

"When you return at night, write a study journal too. Record everything you learned during the day—review the old to gain new understanding!"

Qian Renxue: "!!!"

More?!

The little time I have left at night is supposed to be for cultivating my soul power! If this keeps up, I'll really be stuck as a low-level soul master for the rest of my life and never complete Spirit Hall's mission!

Qian Renxue clenched her teeth in fury and said, word by word, "Uncle, where is this Ebbinghaus? I'll send someone to make sure he dies horribly right now!"

"Ahem..." Xue Xing coughed awkwardly twice and hurriedly changed the subject. "Qinghe, remember—you are the one who will inherit the throne in the future!"

"Being an emperor relies on brains and wisdom. Look at your father—his soul power was only at Soul Sage rank, and he was among the weakest of them. Did that stop him from becoming a wise ruler?"

Qian Renxue opened her mouth, wanting to argue, yet she could not find a single word to say.

She only felt dizzy, as though all the strength had been drained from her body. In the end, she could only sigh weakly. "...I understand, Uncle. I'll go back and do my homework."

"Mhm, mhm, mhm." Prince Xue Xing nodded hurriedly. "Study hard! Improve every day!"

"Yes, Uncle!" Qian Renxue secretly glared at Prince Xue Xing, then dragged her exhausted body as she turned toward Moon Pavilion.

Yet as Xue Xing watched her retreating figure, he somehow felt that she had become a little more hunched over. Hopefully, he was wrong...