"Not really. Baers had already flown into a rage out of humiliation. If she hadn't run, she would definitely have been arrested too," Xuan Ming said.
"We were grasshoppers on the same rope. Neither of us was dragging the other down."
In that situation, abandoning Dugu Yan and running alone would have been courting death.
With the way he looked, how could he possibly escape Heaven Dou City alone?
Bringing Dugu Yan along at least gave him a chance to gamble on someone who knew her showing up.
"You're certainly frank," Xue Qinghe said.
"But from what you're saying, you and Yanzi don't seem particularly close. At least, that's how you feel about her."
"Yet from what I've seen, she doesn't feel the same way about you."
"She thinks I'm pitiful, and I happen to be good-looking. That's all," Xuan Ming said.
"A pretty girl with a tragic past can easily stir a man's sympathy and urge to protect her."
"Make that a man, and he can just as easily stir a girl's sympathy and urge to protect him."
"Surely you can't put it that way." Xue Qinghe's brows furrowed slightly.
"If I were ugly, do you think Dugu Yan would still defend me like that, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming asked.
"Well..." For a moment, Xue Qinghe really couldn't refute him.
After all, she was only disguised as a man. At her core, she was a woman too.
Xuan Ming's words might have been unpleasant, but they were indeed the reality.
Whether someone was good-looking really could have a considerable influence on people's decisions in many situations.
"Yanzi told me you were an orphan born in a small border village. How do you know so much?" Xue Qinghe asked.
"Have you ever been to the border, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming asked.
"No," Xue Qinghe said.
"If you went and had a look around, you'd understand. The more you see, the more you know," Xuan Ming said.
"That makes sense." Xue Qinghe nodded.
"I'll go have a look when I have time."
"Was there anything else?" As he spoke, Xuan Ming had already gathered the scattered stones and put them back in place.
"I'd like to experience your innate domain," Xue Qinghe said.
At the time, he had only caught a glimpse from a distance. Before he could enter the domain's range, Ge Long had struck Xuan Ming and sent him flying.
"My domain isn't fun," Xuan Ming said.
"Innate domains are exceedingly rare. They only appear in a handful of special Martial Souls. I'm very curious about what your domain is actually like," Xue Qinghe said.
She knew of only two innate domains: the Angel Domain of the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul, and that woman's Death Spider Emperor Domain.
From the descriptions given by the guards under Baers, this boy's white-light domain was extremely strange. She really was curious-which was stronger, this thing or her Angel Domain?
"My domain will make you very uncomfortable," Xuan Ming warned.
"That's fine. I'm the one who's curious," Xue Qinghe said.
Xuan Ming thought for a moment. "All right."
Before his words had faded, the tranquil white light silently spread, enveloping the completely unprepared Xue Qinghe.
In an instant, Xue Qinghe felt his sight and hearing sealed off. He could see nothing and hear nothing!
Breathing became extremely labored, as though his throat had been gripped, and even the flow of his Soul Power ground to a halt.
Hum!
Golden fire flashed. Almost instantly, Xue Qinghe broke free of the white light's suppression and stared at Xuan Ming, still shaken.
What the hell was that?!
She had instinctively activated her Angel Domain to resist it!
"Are you all right, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming withdrew his domain.
"I'm fine." Xue Qinghe caught his breath and recovered.
"Your domain really is overbearing."
No wonder this boy had dared to attack Baers back then. With a domain this terrifying, someone of Baers's meager ability wouldn't have had time to react at all!
He wasn't even a Soul Master, yet his innate domain already had this effect...
"Was there anything else, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming asked.
After a long silence, Xue Qinghe raised his head and looked into Xuan Ming's eyes. "You want revenge. You want to kill Baers, don't you?"
"Aren't you asking something you already know, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming said.
"What if I helped you kill Baers?" Xue Qinghe said.
"..."
"What do you mean, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming asked.
Xue Qinghe stood up. "Poison Douluo is now a guest elder of the Heaven Dou Imperial Family. Even if he learns of this, Dugu Yan has already decided to let it go. He has to consider the bigger picture, so naturally, he can't act on your behalf."
"Even if he did, could you afford to owe a Titled Douluo a favor?"
"..."
Xuan Ming said nothing, quietly watching Xue Qinghe put on his performance.
Earlier, he had spoken those words beyond his years in the tailor's shop not only to make his stance clear to Dugu Yan, but also to attract the first prince's attention.
After all, when it came down to it, he didn't trust Dugu Bo. That old poisoner was mercurial, and Xuan Ming didn't have a Titled Douluo for a father. Facing Dugu Bo, he had no confidence. His life wasn't in his own hands.
Dugu Yan's concern for him was merely sympathy for an unfortunate kid.
Moreover, Yue Guan and Gui Mei knew he existed and had experienced his domain. Those two would definitely report this to Spirit Hall.
Perhaps what Spirit Hall had done to Tang San and the others would soon happen to him.
If Chrysanthemum and Ghost attacked him, could Dugu Bo protect him?
Or rather, would that old poisoner face Chrysanthemum and Ghost again just to protect him?
He didn't think it was likely.
So his situation was still dangerous.
Even if Dugu Bo refrained from harming him for the sake of the hardship they had shared, there was still Spirit Hall. Perhaps Yue Guan or Gui Mei would appear at his bedside tonight and kill him with a single slap.
Under these circumstances, the only person he could count on was Qian Renxue, disguised as Xue Qinghe before him.
Only Qian Renxue had the ability to shield him from the danger posed by Spirit Hall.
Still, he was very surprised that Qian Renxue had taken the bait so quickly, and so bluntly at that.
"Isn't Baers your cousin, Your Highness?" Xuan Ming said.
"It's precisely because he's my cousin that I've helped him so much," Xue Qinghe said.
"But you saw how utterly unrepentant he was. I've already done everything I could for him."
Xuan Ming paused. "You said I couldn't afford to owe a Titled Douluo a favor. Could I afford to owe you one, Your Highness?"
"It wouldn't count as a favor," Xue Qinghe said.
"Consider it a gift to mark our acquaintance."
Xuan Ming didn't answer immediately. He lowered his head, seemingly considering something.
Seeing this, Xue Qinghe walked over and crouched before Xuan Ming. "I can let you kill him with your own hands!"
Xuan Ming raised his head. "Wouldn't this gift be too valuable, Your Highness?"
"I'm afraid I can't accept it."
"No." Xue Qinghe raised his right hand, rested it on Xuan Ming's shoulder, and looked into his eyes.
"You can!"
"..."
Chapter 23: Deep Schemes, an Accidental Success
"Young Master, is this appropriate?"
After they returned to the first prince's residence, Snake Lance Douluo expressed considerable bewilderment at Qian Renxue's actions that day.
The Xue Qinghe Qian Renxue currently portrayed presented a benevolent image to the world. Yet today, she had directly offered to give Baers's life to that boy as a gift. This was far too risky.
It would have been one thing if it were someone else, but Baers was Xue Qinghe's cousin.
They had only poisoned the Heaven Dou Empire's second prince at the beginning of this year, and the Heaven Dou Imperial Family was still conducting an intensive investigation. At a time like this, if Qian Renxue made such a promise as Xue Qinghe and that boy told anyone, Xue Qinghe would be unable to escape implication in the second prince's death.
"Uncle She, I know what you're worried about." Qian Renxue shed her disguise.
"But I have my own considerations in this matter."
"Young Master, you've spent years undercover. You really shouldn't expose yourself to additional risk over something this trivial," Snake Lance Douluo said.
"You haven't experienced his domain. You don't know his worth," Qian Renxue said.
"He's worth taking this risk for. Most importantly, he's very clever."
"Clever?" Snake Lance Douluo was unconvinced.
"Dugu Bo is his greatest source of support right now, yet instead of doing his utmost to maintain his relationship with Dugu Yan, he even described their bond as simple sympathy in front of Xue Qinghe."
"If he were truly clever, he should have seized on Dugu Yan's sympathy for him and further strengthened the bond formed through this incident with Baers."
"But what he said not only made him and Dugu Yan seem somewhat distant, it also showed that his temperament was rather cold."
When being hunted down like that, instinctively bringing another person along while fleeing could easily have been used to present himself as someone who valued loyalty and affection.
Yet not only had that boy failed to take advantage of this, he had instead explained his intentions to Xue Qinghe so clearly.
Could that be called clever?
"But what if he did it deliberately?" Qian Renxue said.
Snake Lance Douluo froze. "Deliberately?"
"I told you, he's very clever. He knows what I want to hear," Qian Renxue said.
"Besides, you say Dugu Bo is his greatest source of support right now. I don't agree."
"Everything he said when mentioning Dugu Bo shows that their relationship isn't particularly good. At least in this matter, their bond isn't enough to make Dugu Bo kill this prince of the Balak Kingdom on his behalf."
Dugu Bo was indeed reclusive by nature, and when he fought, he showed little of a true expert's dignity. But likewise, that old poisoner didn't like making trouble for himself.
Baers was a prince of the Balak Kingdom, and he carried considerable weight. If Dugu Yan had truly been harmed in this incident, or if the girl had begged Dugu Bo to kill Baers, there would have been a strong chance that Dugu Bo would insist on acting regardless of the trouble it caused.
But Dugu Yan had already let the matter go, so Dugu Bo wouldn't invite that kind of trouble.
"Young Master, are you saying he thought Dugu Bo wouldn't help him in this matter, so he deliberately said those things to get Xue Qinghe to help him?" Snake Lance Douluo asked in confusion.
"That doesn't seem to make sense, does it?"
Baers was Xue Qinghe's cousin, and throughout this incident, Xue Qinghe had been doing everything possible to help Baers. Why would that boy think of asking Xue Qinghe for help?
"Normally, it wouldn't make sense. But back in the tailor's shop, what I said afterward as Xue Qinghe already hinted that I didn't care whether Baers lived or died. All I cared about was the war that might break out," Qian Renxue said.
At the time, the brainless Baers had angered Dugu Yan once again, so she had been forced to change tack and pressure Dugu Yan with the greater issue of war between the two nations. To strengthen the effect, she had also deliberately made it clear that she wasn't on Baers's side, and that everything she was doing was solely out of concern that war might break out.
That way, Dugu Yan's decision not to pursue Baers would stem more from her own unwillingness to see the two nations go to war and their people plunged into misery, rather than simply doing Xue Qinghe a favor. Dugu Yan would still owe her for saving her in this incident.
She simply hadn't expected Xuan Ming to pick up on that layer of meaning.
"Just because of a slight hint from Xue Qinghe, he said so many things that worked against him?" Snake Lance Douluo still couldn't quite understand.
"If Xue Qinghe refused to help him and told Dugu Yan what he'd said, wouldn't he end up displeasing both sides?"
Dugu Yan's current concern for that boy was largely due to his injuries, and she believed he had suffered them because of her.
But Xuan Ming's words had directly removed Dugu Yan from the equation.