Resolve

Lu Yang's answer left Qian Renxue momentarily at a loss for how to respond.

She had anticipated the topics they might discuss when they met, and naturally, she had imagined his answers as well. Yet his answer was completely different from anything she had expected.

Only then did Qian Renxue fully realize that Lu Yang was simply an orphan from a small backwater. However gifted he might be, his knowledge could never compare to that of someone with her background.

Once she understood this, Qian Renxue felt at ease. Setting aside all the expectations she had brought with her, she asked directly, "Then is there anything you want? As long as it's within reason, I'll grant it."

This time, her words left Lu Yang unsure what to do.

The cultivation system of the Douluo Continent revolved around martial souls, and the cultivation methods in the original story were very limited-essentially just meditation.

Aside from the very best opportunities, such as Divine Trials and immortal herbs, there was practically nothing that could rapidly improve one's cultivation. Pills like the Mystic Water Pill and Soul Ascension Pill would not begin appearing and circulating on the Douluo Continent until ten thousand years later.

After pondering for a long while, Lu Yang finally said, "I want money!"

"Everyone in the village took good care of me. Without them, I might have starved to death long ago. But their lives are hard too, so I want money! With money, they could live better lives."

Since Qian Renxue could not provide the very best opportunities, he might as well secure some benefits for everyone in the village first.

Windbreath Village, where he came from, was small, with an even smaller population than Holy Soul Village. Yet Lu Yang had suffered little hardship growing up there. He had been raised on meals from a hundred households, and the villagers had never treated him as an outsider. Whatever their own children ate, he ate alongside them.

He had even gotten a bite of meat during festivals and holidays. Without everyone's care, even if he had survived to six and awakened his martial soul with a frail body, he probably would not have possessed the constitution needed for innate full soul power.

So, unable to think of a suitable request, he simply chose money.

This was also because Lu Yang genuinely had no idea what ordinary cultivation resources existed on the Douluo Continent. The only one he knew of was the Mimicry Training Ground. Yet the trait granted by his martial soul allowed him to meditate and cultivate faster simply by sitting beneath the sun, far surpassing the effects of a Mimicry Training Ground. He did not even know whether he still needed one.

His answer surprised Qian Renxue as well. But once she considered his background, she understood. In her view, a common-born orphan might not even know what could improve his cultivation speed, so naturally, he could not make any particularly worthwhile requests.

Still, Lu Yang's answer made Qian Renxue feel that he was a decent person. He had left his remote little village without forgetting it. If she could bring someone like that into her camp, he would become one of her most capable assistants in the future.

At that thought, Qian Renxue made her decision.

For a while afterward, Qian Renxue chatted casually with Lu Yang. Then she told him that if he encountered any problems with his cultivation, he should have a servant pass along a message, and she would send Douluo She Long to clear up his doubts.

As for anything deeper, Qian Renxue was in no hurry. Lu Yang was only six years old; saying too much might instead leave him unable to take it all in.

After leaving Lu Yang's little courtyard, Qian Renxue said to She Long, "Uncle She Long, pass down the order to improve his provisions. At the very least, increase his supply of soul beast meat and the like."

"Yes, Young Mistress," She Long answered.

He had listened to the entire exchange between Qian Renxue and Lu Yang. Qian Renxue was not the only one pleased with Lu Yang's conduct; he was equally satisfied.

"I want to see whether better provisions will allow his talent to shine more fully. I keep feeling that there's more to him than meets the eye," Qian Renxue said.

It was merely a feeling, one that had come out of nowhere. Even Qian Renxue herself could not explain exactly why she felt that way.

But to Qian Renxue, it meant nothing more than spending a few resources. If it helped her see Lu Yang clearly for who he was, she felt it would all be worthwhile. Besides, she did not think winning him over would be particularly difficult.

That was because she had seen astonishment in Lu Yang's eyes at their first meeting. If he reacted that way upon first seeing her, then once they spent more time together, the outcome would naturally be no different.

Qian Renxue was very confident in her looks. While she would not go so far as to actually use her beauty to seduce him, she would think nothing of it if he truly found himself drawn to her beauty. It was an advantage she already possessed. If she could put it to use, why shouldn't she?

After seeing Qian Renxue and She Long off, Lu Yang returned to his room. He went over everything that had just happened from beginning to end. Only after deciding that he had neither acted out of keeping with his current age nor let anything slip did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Truthfully, if Yu Xiaogang had not interfered, Lu Yang had never intended to join Spirit Hall's camp. Even setting everything else aside, the internal division within Spirit Hall was an extremely destabilizing factor.

Pope Bibi Dong was immensely ambitious. Because of what Qian Xunji had done, she harbored a grudge against the angelic lineage and had never even accepted her own daughter.

Within the angelic lineage, Great Enshrined Qian Daoliu lived in seclusion in the Worship Hall, taking no interest in outside affairs, while Qian Renxue had infiltrated the Heaven Dou Empire to carry out the nation-stealing plan.

Despite being Spirit Hall's true young mistress, Qian Renxue held pitifully little authority within its public hierarchy-even less than Bibi Dong's disciple, Hu Liena.

Without those few men in the Worship Hall, Qian Renxue's life would probably have been even more miserable than that of the real and fake heiresses in those novels full of inhuman characters Lu Yang had read in his previous life.

Yet even with their support, Qian Renxue herself was stubborn to a fault. For the unattainable maternal love she sought, she had wasted her talent by coming to the Heaven Dou Empire. Meanwhile, because of his own misgivings, Qian Daoliu had never dared tell her the truth, allowing her to carry on this way.

Truthfully, Lu Yang had originally wanted to keep a respectful distance from a Spirit Hall like that. But now that he had chosen this camp, there was no turning back.

Whether or not he had joined Spirit Hall, however, one fact remained unchanged: only by becoming strong enough himself could he change his fate.

As long as he was strong enough, he could change both Bibi Dong's ambition and Qian Renxue's stubbornness. But if he was not strong enough, never mind changing his fate-he would not even qualify to serve as cannon fodder.

Knowing full well how the Douluo Continent's future would unfold, Lu Yang had no desire to become cannon fodder, left standing like a clown atop the walls of Jialing Pass during the battle between two gods, only to die from the poison Dugu Bo scattered.

"I still can't afford to slack off in my cultivation."