Being Honest with Each Other

Qian Renxue gestured for Zhao Ming to sit down, then began explaining her plan.

Her voice was calm and clear as she laid out every step of her plan to steal the nation.

She told him everything without holding back: how she had disguised herself as Xue Qinghe, how she had killed the two competitors, how she had maneuvered through the Heaven Dou royal family, how she had arranged matters among the various powers, and even her long-term plans for the future.

Zhao Ming listened quietly. Qian Renxue's plan to steal the nation was far grander and more meticulous than what he had learned from the original story in his previous life.

Zhao Ming raised his head and looked at Qian Renxue.

The girl's profile was veiled in a gentle halo beneath the lamplight, yet a blazing fire burned in her violet eyes. It was something called ambition—a determination to truly change this world.

Qian Renxue had been watching Zhao Ming's reaction the entire time.

She had deliberately revealed the entire plan because she wanted to see how this child would react.

If he showed fear or hesitation, it would mean he could not bear this trust. She would not hesitate to have Snake Spear send him back to Spirit Hall and make other arrangements.

Yet from beginning to end, Zhao Ming's expression did not waver in the slightest.

His gaze remained clear and resolute. At crucial points, he would furrow his brow slightly in thought; at ingenious points, understanding would dawn on his face. But he showed not the slightest fear or hesitation.

The last trace of doubt in Qian Renxue's heart vanished as well.

"Zhao Ming." She leaned forward slightly, her gaze gentle as she looked at the child before her. "You already know my entire plan. Now let me ask you: are you willing to stay and walk this path with me?"

Zhao Ming raised his head and met those violet eyes.

He remembered that blood-soaked night three years ago. He remembered the fallen soul masters shrouded in bloody, baleful aura, his parents and villagers lying in pools of blood, and the angel soul master who had descended from the sky.

And the martial soul of the girl before him was the Seraphim, born of the same lineage as the angel soul master who had saved him.

Thinking of that, Zhao Ming nodded heavily without the slightest hesitation.

"Big Sister has the same angel martial soul as the person who saved me. I trust you, Big Sister. I'm willing to stay."

Qian Renxue was slightly taken aback when she heard how Zhao Ming addressed her.

The words "Big Sister" carried a natural sense of closeness when they came from Zhao Ming's mouth. There was no deliberate flattery, nor any restrained distance.

It was as though, in his eyes, she was not the young mistress of Spirit Hall or the Crown Prince of Heaven Dou, but simply an older sister worthy of trust.

A softness she had never felt before spread through Qian Renxue's heart.

She was Qian Daoliu's granddaughter, the young mistress of Spirit Hall, and the "Crown Prince" of the Heaven Dou Empire. She bore far too many identities and responsibilities.

Since childhood, those around her had either been subordinates who revered her, powerful nobles who sought to use her, or enemies who feared her.

Never had anyone looked at her with such pure, trusting eyes and called her "Big Sister."

Qian Renxue smiled. Her smile was like melting snow, like a spring breeze brushing over one's face. It washed away all the perpetual chill between her brows, and her violet eyes filled with tenderness. She reached out and gently patted Zhao Ming's head.

"Good." Her voice was soft yet solemn. "From today onward, you will remain by my side."

She withdrew her hand, and her tone returned to its usual composure. "I'll have Uncle Snake Spear and Uncle Porcupine teach you the basics of being a soul master. Your talent is exceptional—you have innate full soul power... By the way, how old was your first soul ring? And what is your soul skill like?"

Hearing Qian Renxue's sudden question, Zhao Ming did not conceal anything. He told her about the Golden Armored Earth Dragon soul ring of more than nine hundred years that he had absorbed, as well as his first soul skill.

Qian Renxue froze for a moment, then immediately took out a crystal ball and held it before Zhao Ming. "Come, Xiao Ming, test your soul power. You absorbed a first soul ring more than nine hundred years old, so your soul power level must have risen considerably."

Zhao Ming placed his hand on the crystal ball. The next instant, a suction force came from it. Fourteen slots of the crystal ball filled up, and it was not far from filling the fifteenth.

"Level 14, and you're not far from Level 15. A soul ring over nine hundred years really is incredible!" Qian Renxue could not help praising him.

Qian Renxue then personally examined Zhao Ming's body again. Afterward, she looked at him as though he were a monster. "Xiao Ming, your physical constitution far surpasses that of others your age. Once you cultivate to the second ring, you'll definitely be able to absorb a thousand-year second ring!"

Zhao Ming hesitated and did not immediately tell Qian Renxue about the effects of whale glue.

Once Qian Renxue learned of it, she would certainly write to inform Consecration Hall. If the information were accidentally leaked by Consecration Hall and Bibi Dong found out...

Yu Xiaogang's Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls might become the Eleven Core Competencies of Martial Souls.

That was only a minor matter. Zhao Ming did not want that Xiaogang, who had broken through Level 29 at the age of fifty, to use whale glue to strengthen Tang San's body and make Tang San even stronger.

To be fair, setting aside his double standards and his "pure and spotless" act, Zhao Ming felt that Tang San in Douluo I was still a decent person.

From Tang San's perspective, Spirit Hall had killed his mother, his wife, and his mother-in-law, and had forced his clan into sealing itself away from the world. The two sides were naturally locked in a fight to the death.

But from Spirit Hall's perspective, killing soul beasts to obtain soul rings was perfectly justified. Soul rings could only be acquired by hunting soul beasts. Moreover, relationships between humans and soul beasts had never been accepted by the world. Though soul beasts could take human form, their essence remained that of soul beasts.

In fact, it was not just Spirit Hall. In the eyes of most people on Douluo Continent, a human developing improper feelings for a soul beast was something that could not be accepted.

In Zhao Ming's view, the greatest conflict between Tang San and Spirit Hall in Douluo I ultimately came down to their differing positions. It was not a matter of who was right or wrong.

What disgusted him most about Tang San was that he killed without cleaning up the aftermath.

First, he destroyed the City of Sin, where fallen soul masters had been imprisoned, leading to the rampant spread of evil soul masters in Douluo II.

After that, he destroyed Spirit Hall, which considered and served the common people, all while representing the interests of the nobility.

Then those people patted their asses, became gods, and left, abandoning a complete mess for no one to clean up. No organization remained to capture fallen soul masters, fallen soul masters had nowhere to be imprisoned and committed evil everywhere, and the two great empires fought endlessly without anyone to restrain them.

Noble clans monopolized the means of martial soul awakening. Commoners either paid to awaken useless martial souls or had nowhere to awaken their martial souls at all. The noble class treated commoners like pigs and dogs.

By the era of Douluo II, even the soldiers of the Star Luo Empire did not know what martial souls were.

Some might think that the inspection corps of Shrek Academy in Douluo II, whose duty was to eliminate evil soul masters, was the remedial measure Tang San had left behind.

But in truth, the inspection corps was more like a means for Shrek Academy to interfere in the internal affairs of the three nations of Douluo Continent.

In Zhao Ming's eyes, Shrek Academy was, at best, a Spirit Hall with no burden of social responsibility.

Zhao Ming was not a saint, but he had received nine years of compulsory education. He firmly opposed Tang San's practice of killing without cleaning up the aftermath.