"Clang-ding! Clang-ding!"
The sound of the forging drifted in from the backyard right at that moment, each strike heavier than the last.
Xue Qinghe listened sideways for a moment, the corners of his lips relaxing involuntarily.
That sound...
Is far better to listen to than those strings and winds from the palace.
Lou Xu looked at him.
The setting sun had already sunk past the halfway mark, plunging the room into darkness with only a sliver of gold inlaid along the window lattice.
Xue Qinghe leaned within that line of light, his brows and eyes relaxed as though shedding a mask he had worn for too long-so long it was almost about to grow into his skin and flesh.
"Your Highness is the crown prince."
Lou Xu took a bite of food, casually taking up the thread.
"In the future, the burden of Heaven Dou... and even this realm, will ultimately have to be carried on a single pair of shoulders. Fatigue is only a matter of course."
"Indeed."
Xue Qinghe smiled, his gaze drifting far into the distance.
"The realm..."
He paused, then suddenly spoke as if unconcerned.
"Right, brother Lou Xu. I heard some commotion came out of Gengxin City the other days, and that... Clear Sky Douluo sneaked into the Blacksmith Association?"
Here it came.
Lou Xu understood clearly in his heart, yet remained nonchalant on the surface.
"Your Highness's intelligence network is certainly well-informed."
He set down his chopsticks, his tone flat.
"Better not to speak of it. A dignified Titled Douluo walked the path of a rat and did filthy deeds. My grandfather has a fiery temper and came into conflict with him."
"And then?"
Xue Qinghe watched him, his gaze gentle as if merely out of simple curiosity.
"I heard... the one who stepped in to settle the scene was an expert?"
"Your Highness sure has heard quite a lot."
Lou Xu laughed.
"Bearing the world in one's heart, one naturally casts their gaze across the world."
Xue Qinghe did not deny it either, his fingertips gently tracing across the tabletop.
"If Your Highness's words were to spread outside, aren't you afraid of being charged with the crime of great treason?"
Lou Xu asked as if joking. Without minding Xue Qinghe's stunned choking at being cut off, he picked up his chopsticks and grabbed a couple bites of vegetables.
His Highness the Crown Prince was not hungry, but having worked busily all afternoon, Lou Xu's stomach had long since begun to protest.
"Brother Lou Xu, please don't mock me."
"I am merely curious: why would such a powerhouse be willing to step in and help a half-grown kid like you?"
Lou Xu leisurely swallowed the food in his mouth, only then drawing out his tone to say.
"Probably because... he saw I had talent and cherished it."
"Cherished talent."
Xue Qinghe chewed on those two words, speaking with profound meaning.
"This actually reminds me of a place."
"Oh?"
"Spirit Hall."
When Xue Qinghe uttered those three words, his eyes watched Lou Xu without a single blink, his tone as gentle as though discussing the weather.
"When it comes to cherishing talent and nurturing talent, there is no one on the continent more attentive than Spirit Hall."
"Every year they send people across the entire continent to awaken martial souls for children of appropriate age free of charge, inviting good saplings to join. Once they agree, backgrounds are disregarded, and they are cultivated with all-out effort."
"They forced Heaven Dou and Star Luo to pay out money to issue subsidies for soul masters below the Soul Elder rank."
He abruptly shifted his tone.
"If they were to learn of brother Lou Xu's talent..."
"I'm afraid even the supreme elders would personally pay a visit."
Lou Xu met his gaze without dodging.
He understood.
This fellow was not having a casual meal and chat with him at all; he was probing his attitude toward Spirit Hall and trying to recruit him into the fold.
Thinking of that ambitious, crazy woman, Lou Xu couldn't help shivering slightly.
He could get tangled up with anyone, but with her... forget it!
Lou Xu fell silent for a few breaths, then suddenly smiled.
"Your Highness."
"Hm?"
"My grandfather often says that in blacksmithing, the two words that matter most are temperature control."
Lou Xu raised a hand, his chopsticks gesturing between a couple dishes.
"If the fire inside the furnace cannot be gathered, the metal cannot be melted."
"Spirit Hall's furnace embraces the world."
"Yet this fire is impure. No matter how brightly the uppermost cluster burns, it cannot withstand the reality that the furnace is on the verge of cracking open."
"Cherishing talent is fine, but if they want people to jump in and patch the furnace, I lack that ability."
Lou Xu's smile remained unchanged.
"I would rather guard my grandfather's achievements and hammer iron for a lifetime."
The room fell quiet for a moment.
"...Well said."
Xue Qinghe suddenly chuckled lowly, a trace of a relieved release seeping through his laughter.
"Wielding one's own hammer well is better than anything else."
He drew two jade boxes from his bosom, pressed them atop a roll of imperial silk, and gently pushed them toward Lou Xu.
Before Lou Xu could speak, he stood up and walked over to the window.
He deeply inhaled that scent mingling metal with agarwood, his shoulders relaxing by an almost imperceptible margin.
Lou Xu picked up one of the jade boxes, his fingertips tracing the seam of the box as his soul power quietly probed inside.
That was actually a left arm bone nearing fifty thousand years.
He picked up the other, briefly sensing it, and it was another left leg bone of comparable age.
As for that roll of imperial silk, it was much simpler.
That was a land deed located in the western outskirts of the city. Though the area was not small, compared to two soul bones, it still paled in significance.
"As for the fief promised to brother Lou Xu, His Majesty had me bring the deed, and specially picked out two soul bones from the treasury to hand over to you together."
Lou Xu looked toward Xue Qinghe's back, a trace of surprise flashing through his gaze.
That Heaven Dou Empire's treasury possessed soul bones, he believed.
That Xue Ye was willing to send him soul bones, he truly did not believe.
If there was any faction on the continent capable of silently coughing up two high-quality soul bones above forty thousand years, it was only Spirit Hall.
Still, for the sake of the two soul bones, Lou Xu did not expose his lie.
Xue Qinghe did not see the surprise flash across Lou Xu's face; he turned around and stood with his hands clasped behind his back.
"However, none of those things truly matter."
He paused, his tone suddenly growing somewhat solemn.
"What truly counts is that I, Xue Qinghe, wish to make a friend of you."
"..."
Lou Xu's hand, mid-reach for a dish, froze in midair.
He pointed at a blanket nearby that had not yet been put away, pulling out a perfunctory smile.
"Your Highness, sharing a meal and drinks together, we are already friends, aren't we?"
Xue Qinghe gazed leisurely at Lou Xu, trying to read something from his eyes.
Yet there was no approval, no trust, and not even that sliver of a well-meaning smile looked anything other than forced.
Xue Qinghe's gaze darkened for an instant before he sat back down, his voice very soft.
"Brother Lou Xu."
"Please speak, Your Highness."
"Today's words..."
"Consider that I never asked, and you never answered."
"Deal."
Outside the window, the final streak of sunset sank below the horizon.
The sound of forging continued, strike after strike.
Rhythmic, steady, as though it would never cease.
After Xue Qinghe left, Lou Xu sat in place for a while before tucking the items from the table into his bosom one by one.
He walked over to Xiong Jun's room and asked the question he cared about deeply.
"Big Bear, how high was that crown prince's soul power level just now?"
Xiong Jun tilted his head and shot him a sideways glance, his dark golden pupils narrowing slightly.
"Crown prince? Reeking of deeply hidden winged-man stench."
"She is level forty-four."
"There's also a stinky snake and a fat fish guarding outside-one at level ninety-three, the other at level ninety-four."
"Since they didn't harbor any killing intent toward you anyway, if you hadn't asked, Bear Lord would have just pretended they didn't exist."
Level forty-four...
Lou Xu did not pursue the matter further; he simply couldn't figure it out.
Why would his Primal Fire react to the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul?
Late at night, the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace.
Xue Qinghe stood quietly before a bronze mirror.
The crown prince in the mirror had gentle features and snow-white robes, revealing not a single flaw.
Six years-she had been trapped inside this skin for six years.
She raised a hand and slowly unbuttoned the first clasp at her collar.
Golden light rippled, and that gentle crown prince visage peeled away bit by bit in the light and shadow, revealing a true appearance that was breathtakingly ethereal yet as cold as frost.
The elegant and noble crown prince who had looked like jade before the bronze mirror transformed in the blink of an eye into a sanctified, noble, and peerlessly beautiful woman.
She turned her head to gaze fixedly behind her at those three pairs of pristine white wings.
Her cold face still carried a trace of lingering doubt.
That stirring of the heart...
What on earth was going on?
She sighed, her fingertips sliding over the shallow scar upon her collarbone.
Having already promised Xue Ye, could she really keep hiding from him?
"Your Holiness, the poison has already been administered."
The ethereal beauty in the mirror did not turn back.
"How much longer can he hold on?"
"Fastest is five years, slowest is ten."
Ci Xue's voice was laced with panic.
"Your Holiness, His Holiness the Pope's side has yet to make preparations..."
The room remained quiet for a long time.
Her melodious voice was bone-chillingly cold, extremely soft.
"Understood, you may withdraw."
The shadows scattered.
Qian Renxue retrieved a magnificent palatial gown from a hidden compartment.
Rustling sounds echoed.
The long, luxurious golden dress outlined the perfect curves of her figure.
Clearly the dead of night, yet her appearance seemed like the very first ray of dawn spilling across a temple dome, beautiful beyond compare.
She admired herself in the mirror, the image of that extraordinary youth's words suddenly echoing in her mind.
Lou Xu... you are right.
Yet the fire in this furnace will sooner or later be...
Rekindled by me!
Before you continue