Qi Dao cupped his hands, neither servile nor arrogant.
"Greetings, Crown Prince!"
Xue Qinghe waved a hand warmly. "No need for ceremony."
"Please, sit. I've been waiting for you for quite some time."
With that, she gestured toward a seat.
Once they were seated, Xue Qinghe smiled. "I heard you traveled a thousand miles to seek me out. I'm truly moved!"
Qi Dao said evenly, "Your reputation as a wise Crown Prince has spread far and wide. Even in Notting City, I'd heard of you."
Xue Qinghe looked pleased.
Qi Dao's arrival proved that the image of a wise ruler she had cultivated all these years was working.
The Heaven Dou Empire?
Hmph. I have the whole situation under control!
She was delighted inwardly, but let nothing show. Instead, she turned the conversation to Qi Dao.
She asked, "The Earl Mei Luo's letter of introduction said that although you had only Innate Half-Level Soul Power, your extraordinary talent let you reach Level Twenty at eleven."
"Is that true?"
"Or has there been some misunderstanding?"
Xue Qinghe was giving Qi Dao a way to back down.
When she had received Mei Luo's letter, she had almost thought he was making sport of her.
Innate Half-Level Soul Power, yet Level Twenty at eleven.
How could those words even belong in the same sentence?
It was absurd.
If she hadn't known that Mei Luo, an Earl, would never dare make sport of her, she would have dismissed it.
And since she was known for treating worthy people with respect, she had decided to meet this fellow who had supposedly reached Level Twenty at eleven despite having Innate Half-Level Soul Power.
She wanted to see whether he truly was a prodigy or merely a fame-seeking fraud playing tricks.
But after meeting Qi Dao, Xue Qinghe began to question her suspicions.
Perhaps something else had happened, causing the Earl Mei Luo to put false information in the letter.
Qi Dao had made a good first impression. He didn't seem false or affected at all.
That bearing of his couldn't be faked!
Xue Qinghe trusted her judgment of people.
Yet Qi Dao shook his head. "I really did have only Innate Half-Level Soul Power. Everyone at my academy knows it."
Of course, some people didn't believe it!
Yu Xiaogang, for one!
Xue Qinghe froze.
Could a Soul Master with Innate Half-Level Soul Power really reach Level Twenty at eleven?
She might have thought Qi Dao was lying, but his expression was too open.
Besides, the claim would be easy to investigate.
In the end, Xue Qinghe chose to believe him, though she remained curious. "May I see your Martial Soul?"
Qi Dao drew the Peerless Sword from his waist.
"You wear your Martial Soul at your side?"
Xue Qinghe stared at him in surprise.
What weapon-type Soul Master carried his Martial Soul around all the time?
Qi Dao explained, "It's how I train!"
Then he added, "It takes talent, of course. I wouldn't recommend anyone else try it."
At Notting Academy, some had guessed that Qi Dao's rapid progress came from carrying his Martial Soul with him. They had rushed to copy him, even starting a brief trend.
The result?
It constantly drained their Soul Power and did nothing for their cultivation.
Xue Qinghe gave him an odd look. "You certainly have an unusual way of training."
She had thought the sword at Qi Dao's waist was just an ornament. Who would have guessed it was his Martial Soul?
It was ridiculous!
Then she looked more closely at the Peerless Sword in his hand.
Its blade was long and slender, its edge gleamed coldly, and the cracklike patterns across its surface gave it a certain beauty.
Xue Qinghe frowned.
"I recall the Earl Mei Luo's letter saying your Martial Soul was an Iron Sword Martial Soul that had undergone a harmful mutation. This sword hardly looks like a Martial Soul damaged by mutation!"
Qi Dao smiled faintly. "Surely you know that absorbing Soul Rings can evolve a Martial Soul to varying degrees?"
On the Douluo Continent, a Soul Master's Martial Soul evolved every time they absorbed a Soul Ring.
Even the most ordinary weapon could become a peerless divine armament if its wielder cultivated to the rank of Titled Douluo.
Qi Dao ran a hand over the patterns on the blade. "These used to be cracks. Later, I hunted a hundred-year Ironclad Turtle and used its metallic properties to mend the blade. That's how it came to look like this."
Of course, there was another major reason.
Qi Dao's First Soul Ring had exceeded the normal age limit for a first ring. Otherwise, the blade wouldn't have recovered so well.
Hearing this, Xue Qinghe believed him completely.
"I see!"
She looked apologetic. "I owe you an apology for doubting you."
"To be honest, before I met you, I thought everything the Earl Mei Luo had written about you was fabricated."
Qi Dao smiled calmly.
"A natural reaction."
His generosity made Xue Qinghe feel even more guilty. After a moment's thought, she summoned someone and gave him a few quiet instructions.
Before long, the man came running back with an exquisite box.
Xue Qinghe took the box and opened it.
Inside lay a deep blue ring.
Smiling, Xue Qinghe pushed the box toward Qi Dao. "Please accept this as my apology for doubting you."
Qi Dao glanced at it. "This is a Soul Tool, isn't it?"
"You're generous, Crown Prince!"
Xue Qinghe smiled. "You have a good eye. This Soul Tool is called the Deep Blue Ring. It has nine cubic meters of space inside."
A Soul Tool with nine cubic meters of storage was worth a considerable sum.
Tang San's Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges had twenty-four cubic meters in total, and Yu Xiaogang had praised it as a priceless treasure worth a fortune.
Clearly, this was more than an apology. It was also an overture from Xue Qinghe.
She didn't know how Qi Dao had reached Level Twenty at eleven with only Innate Half-Level Soul Power.
But it was a miracle, without question!
"I'll accept your gesture, Crown Prince."
Qi Dao didn't stand on ceremony. He took the box, removed the ring, and slipped it onto his finger.
Even if it hadn't been Xue Qinghe's apology, he would have accepted it without a qualm.
He had thrown in his lot with Xue Qinghe now. What was wrong with taking a few benefits?
The two went on talking for a while.
Most of the time, Xue Qinghe showed Qi Dao how well she treated worthy people—and handed out employee benefits in hard cash.
First came fifty thousand gold soul coins for pocket money, then a big house in a prime spot in central Heaven Dou City.
Finally, she said, "Since you've reached Level Twenty, there's no time like the present. I'll send someone to take you to the Sunset Forest to hunt a Soul Ring today."
The Sunset Forest lay a hundred miles east of Heaven Dou City, making it convenient to go there from the city to hunt a Soul Ring.
Qi Dao nodded. "Sorry for the trouble, Your Highness."
Xue Qinghe acted swiftly and assigned him a powerful escort at once.
Of course, it wasn't Snake Lance Douluo or Porcupinefish Douluo, who secretly guarded her in the original story.
Unless she had gone mad, she would never reveal those two hidden cards to Qi Dao.
Still, even if the escort wasn't Snake Lance or Pufferfish, he was a Soul Emperor.
As for whether Spirit Hall had assigned this Soul Emperor, Qi Dao didn't care.
As long as the man helped him hunt a Soul Ring, what did it matter whose side he was on?
Before you continue