Chapter 115: Within the Spirit Hall: A Dispute Between Mother and Daughter

Seeing Tang Hao leave and no longer being able to sense his aura, Lan Xue finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I truly didn't expect that after not seeing him for so many years, this Tang Hao's strength would have progressed to this point." Lan Xue gripped the long halberd in her hand, the web of her palm still continuously oozing blood, staining the shaft. "Mr. Dugu, if you weren't here today, I would have had no chance of winning in a one-on-one fight against Tang Hao."

Even though Tang Hao was covered in hidden injuries, his configuration was simply too overpowered.

Before his hidden injuries flared up, he could suppress her until she couldn't catch her breath.

During that battle back then, Tang Hao did not yet have a full soul bone set or a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring; even if there was a gap in their physiques, it hadn't reached this level. But today, every hammer strike from Tang Hao made her internal organs ache.

"Let's go, Mr. Dugu, we are returning to the small town," Lan Xue said.

"But Your Excellency Profound Ice, what about your injuries?" Dugu Bo asked worriedly. Lan Xue was not lightly injured; her lungs and viscera had already been shaken by the Clear Sky Hammer, and her shoulder bone was fractured, held together only by the freezing ice.

"It is of no concern; these minor injuries are nothing to me," Lan Xue said indifferently.

The hammer strike from Tang Hao back then, when he couldn't hold back his strength, had injured her far more severely than today. Moreover, times were different now; Lan Xue had consumed two Immortal Herbs. Although neither was for body tempering, the Hunyuan Immortal Grass among them was purely for increasing soul power and didn't even have the ability to improve her constitution.

However, the Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng had brought extreme resilience to Lan Xue's body. As long as she wasn't dead, her body's self-recovery speed was extremely fast, and it was difficult for hidden injuries to remain.

These minor injuries would heal after a period of time, and as for soul power, a single night of meditation would suffice.

Tossing the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone in her hand, Lan Xue appeared very happy; this was the first time in her life she had obtained such a precious treasure.

With this, it didn't matter if that little rabbit remained untouched for now. In any case, even if she and Dugu Bo didn't bother with her, it didn't mean no one else could plot against her.

She believed there was still one person here who could discover Xiao Wu's identity, and that was her own cub.

One of Nan Feihuang's External Spirit Bone skills, Ghost Eye, could see through the circulation of soul power. There were two major differences between a transformed Spirit Beast and a human: the first was the aura, but this was something only powerhouses above the Spirit Douluo level could perceive.

The second was that the flow of soul power was completely different from that of a human. Lan Xue believed this could not be hidden from her son.

On the other side, just as Tang Hao moved away from Lan Xue and Dugu Bo, in a forest where no one was around, he couldn't hold it back any longer. A sweetness rose in his throat, and a large mouthful of blood sprayed out, "Wah!!!"

"Cough, cough..."

This was followed by uncontrollable coughing.

In this battle, he had reached his absolute limit. If he hadn't been forcing himself to appear as if he still had some strength left, he really wouldn't have been able to bluff Lan Xue and Dugu Bo into leaving.

The claim that his Blue Silver Emperor Soul Ring could provide him with the life force for one last detonation of nine rings was purely him bluffing.

It was true that the Blue Silver Emperor could increase life force, but it couldn't possibly be strong enough to support a nine-ring detonation. If he had really detonated them, he might have perished before his opponent.

"Damn it, this Lan Xue's body is so strange. She clearly only has one soul bone, yet her toughness is unusually strong, far exceeding the Chrysanthemum and Ghost of the past. If I hadn't used the Clear Sky Hammer right from the start to seize the initiative and shock her with my momentum, I fear today would have been difficult."

Tang Hao's hidden injuries were truly a major problem. Fighting for a short time was fine and had little impact, but once he encountered a master of the same level and it turned into a war of attrition, he would easily be dragged down.

If it weren't for the hidden injuries on his body having recurred, he definitely wouldn't have lost to Lan Xue and Dugu Bo just now.

If he had won, he would definitely have killed them. Although both were people who valued their word, in Tang Hao's view, only dead people could completely keep a secret.

"Forget it, this outcome is already the best I can achieve for now," Tang Hao sighed to himself.

At least for the time being, there was no need to worry about Lan Xue and Dugu Bo causing trouble for Xiao Wu. These two valued promises highly; since they had agreed not to move against Xiao Wu again, they would not easily break their oath.

Unfortunately, his gaze was misplaced; there was someone else who truly intended to plot against Xiao Wu.

The bright moon hung high. In the devastated forest, which looked as if it had just experienced a magnitude ten earthquake, if it weren't for the fact that everyone had deliberately restrained themselves and none had used their Ninth Soul Skill or the Great Sumeru Hammer, the small town would likely not have been spared from the aftermath.

The three Title Douluos had all departed. In a room in the small town, Nan Feihuang looked at the red mane in his hand; this time, he was afraid he would need Red Mane to lend him a hand.

Relying on the sealing technique from back then, he didn't know how much of its own soul power Red Mane had sealed away. As long as it was over eighty percent, Nan Feihuang had the confidence to use the auxiliary skill "Man and Horse as One" to temporarily borrow the last less-than-twenty-percent of Red Mane's soul power in a short time, without causing it to lose control and break through, thereby attracting the Million-Year God Tribulation.

Don't look at it as only having a little over ten percent left; Red Mane's cultivation was profound, and that ten percent alone exceeded many Title Douluos.

At the same time, inside the Spirit Hall archives.

In the dead of night, someone was still there burning the midnight oil, checking data; it was none other than Qian Renxue, who had just rushed back.

On the desk lay dozens of Spirit Beast illustrated guides. Qian Renxue flipped through them rapidly, seemingly searching for something.

Having checked since the morning, she finally found what she wanted when she reached the twenty-seventh volume.

"That's it, this is it!" Qian Renxue was overjoyed and hurriedly took out paper and pen to draw the appearance of that Spirit Beast, and copied down its living habits, fighting style, habitats, and methods for identifying its age.

Her handwriting was elegant and upright, just like the person herself.

Qian Renxue copied with extreme seriousness, fearing any omissions. She didn't even notice that a figure was already standing at the door, looking at her with a complex gaze.

Not until Qian Renxue finished copying everything and began to tidy up the desk did she walk closer. "Found what you wanted? To go to such lengths for a young man."

"It's you." Qian Renxue turned back to look at the person who had arrived; it was actually Bibi Dong, her "sister."

"It's so late, what are you doing here? Is there something the matter?"

"Is that Nan Feihuang that important to you?" Bibi Dong said bluntly. "You actually went as far as to search through all the rare Spirit Beast data collected by my Spirit Hall for the soul ring he wanted. Are you trying to aid the enemy?"

"Aid the enemy? Heh, where does this come from? Firstly, Feihuang saved my life, so what is wrong with me repaying him a little? Secondly, Feihuang is not an enemy of my Spirit Hall; I have even more confidence in bringing him into my own fold, so how can you speak of aiding the enemy? If we are talking about aiding the enemy, I once heard someone say that when you were young, you brought a person from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family here and practically treated this archive as a dormitory. Who is the one really aiding the enemy?" Qian Renxue smiled mockingly and retorted.

Bibi Dong's expression turned ugly at her words, and she immediately countered, "Bring him into your own fold? You are truly naive. To be deceived by a man and yet self-righteously believe he likes you—if that Nan Feihuang truly had you in his heart, why would he hide things from you?"

"Feihuang is hiding things from me? What has he hidden from me?" Qian Renxue asked, feeling a bit uneasy in her heart. Could Feihuang really have deceived her somewhere?

"You don't know yet, do you? By his side, there has long been a childhood sweetheart. You are completely being played in the palm of his hand." Bibi Dong had long since obtained intelligence on Nan Feihuang through the traitor in the Gulei Kingdom, Xu Rong, but previously Qian Renxue had only been thinking of using Nan Feihuang, so this information was irrelevant.

But over these years, she had gradually seen that Qian Renxue seemed to be falling for him, so she had no choice but to let her endure a short pain rather than a long one.

"A childhood sweetheart, are you talking about Lv Lingqi?" Qian Renxue said subconsciously.

Bibi Dong was stunned. "You actually know? Nan Feihuang was so blunt with you?"

Qian Renxue smiled slightly. So this was what Bibi Dong wanted to say; she immediately set her heart at ease.

Just as Bibi Dong said, if Nan Feihuang had her in his heart, he wouldn't hide things from her.

Conversely, wasn't Nan Feihuang being so frank precisely because he liked her and was afraid she would misunderstand in the future?

It could be said that Bibi Dong had been played by Nan Feihuang without realizing it, providing a reverse assist.

"That's right, Feihuang even said he would introduce her to me next time. Actually, when we first met, he told me there were two types of people he liked; I am one type, and Lv Lingqi is the other. It's inevitable to have impulses in one's youth, and he told me without concealment that he had indeed been moved by that girl named Lv Lingqi, until he met me and realized what true love was. Sister, you said that if there is love, there shouldn't be deception; I acknowledge that, so what do you think of Feihuang's frankness?" Qian Renxue asked with great confidence.

It was just that this confidence was very glaring in Bibi Dong's eyes.

Nan Feihuang's various performances up to now had also gradually solidified in her mind.

Back when he didn't know that Xue Qinghe was Qian Renxue, he had expressed to Xue Qinghe that the type he liked was precisely a woman like Qian Renxue.

In the imperial court, they shared similar interests and political views, and were people of the same path.

Inside the Star Dou Great Forest, he risked his life to save her.

Within the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, he once again confessed his faults to Xue Qinghe, admitted he had fallen in love with Qian Renxue, and was even willing to break off his engagement with Xue Ke for her sake, not caring if he offended the entire Heaven Dou Empire; he had even confessed his feelings to Qian Renxue without realizing who she truly was.

Now, he had even confessed something like his first love to her without holding anything back.

From yearning in his heart, to sharing trials and tribulations, to relying on each other through Life and Death, and finally to an unintentional confession, they had made their feelings for each other clear.

And then there were the two years of uninterrupted correspondence.

If one were to say Nan Feihuang did not love Qian Renxue, even she would not believe it.

But why, when Qian Xunji had ruined her entire life, should she, Qian Renxue, be able to attain happiness?

(End of this chapter)