Chapter 136

"Is Xue Ke the person you are reluctant to part with?"

A cold, clear voice rang out in the room.

Nan Feihuang was startled; he had been lost in his own thoughts and had not realized there was someone in his room.

"Who is it!" Nan Feihuang quickly looked toward the window in the direction of the voice.

This one glance left him stunned.

It was a young girl with long, flowing golden hair sitting on the windowsill; her golden palace gown shimmered under the moonlight, giving her a rather sacred aura, yet with one leg propped up on the window frame and her skirt slightly raised to reveal a segment of snow-white calf, while she drank from a bottle of fine wine, she added a touch of heroic spirit to her appearance.

It had to be said, this was definitely a woman who knew how to handle herself, and she had instantly struck both of Nan Feihuang's biggest preferences.

Even though Nan Feihuang considered himself a person of firm resolve, he was still dumbfounded for a few seconds.

"Xue Jie, why have you come here?" Nan Feihuang was both surprised and puzzled, with a hint of joy.

He did not understand why she would suddenly revert to her original appearance and come specifically to see him, having just parted from him in the identity of Xue Qinghe.

Nan Feihuang had spent the most time today looking at her, so when he said he was reluctant to part, Qian Renxue knew he was referring to Xue Qinghe, not Xue Ke.

"That is only natural. Your Brother Xue and those friends of yours all gave you gifts; since I have come to see you off, how could I come empty-handed? This is something I specifically found for you; see if it is of any help to you." Qian Renxue took a piece of paper from her bosom and handed it to Nan Feihuang.

There must be something she needed to tell him in the identity of Qian Renxue.

"Xue Jie, you coming here specifically this time cannot just be to see me off, right?" After finishing the wine, Nan Feihuang asked with a smile.

He and Qian Renxue actually met every day; he did not believe she had specifically changed back to her original form just to see him off again.

"Of course you are welcome," Nan Feihuang said quickly. "By the way, Xue Jie, please do not misunderstand; the reluctance I mentioned just now was not referring to Xue Ke, but to my Brother Xue."

He even explained it specifically, both to continue his deception and as if it were an instinctive action.

The diagrams above and the text below must have been drawn and transcribed by Qian Renxue herself; the handwriting was very elegant, yet carried a sharp edge.

He might treat Xue Ke very well in the future, but he would not love her the way he loved himself.

Nan Feihuang held the paper, which was stained with Qian Renxue's fragrance, and opened it curiously; inside was actually information about a Spirit Beast.

Seeing Nan Feihuang's flustered appearance as he explained himself, Qian Renxue smiled slightly. "Hehe, you don't need to explain so much to me. Don't I understand you? Was it because you were touched by how reluctant Xue Qinghe was to part with you today that you also felt sad about separating from him?"

Thinking of her two identities—one being Nan Feihuang's greatest love and the other his most respected—even though this girl kept saying she was only using Nan Feihuang, the joy in her heart could not help but well up.

For three years, she had interacted with Nan Feihuang under two different identities; it was clear that Nan Feihuang might like Xue Ke a little, but not much, and it was more out of a sense of responsibility.

The two clinked their wine glasses lightly and then drank them in one gulp.

At the hotel, it was not just Nan Feihuang who was paying attention to Qian Renxue; Qian Renxue was also paying attention to him.

Nan Feihuang took out two wine glasses, and Qian Renxue walked up and poured the fine wine from her hand into the cups.

"Demon Shadow Beast, a ninety-thousand-year-old Demon Shadow Beast. Yes, this is it, this is exactly it! With this, I won't need to go looking for that Clear Sky Sect anymore. Xue Jie, how did you know I was looking for information on this Spirit Beast?" Nan Feihuang was both excited and curious.

"What, are you not welcoming Xue Jie? I heard you were going home, so I came specifically from the Spirit Hall to see you." Qian Renxue told a lie without batting an eye; if one did not know she was Xue Qinghe, one would probably have believed her.

"Hehe, as expected of Xue Jie, truly sharp-eyed." Nan Feihuang scratched his head in embarrassment. "Since Xue Jie is here and brought wine, let's have a drink together."

"Feihuang, give me your hand!"

"The Clear Sky Sect?" Qian Renxue was slightly stunned, then smiled. "So that's it. According to the Spirit Hall's records on the experts of the Clear Sky Sect, the soul skill of that Seven Elders of the Clear Sky Sect does indeed contain what you want. You originally wanted to ask him what kind of Spirit Beast he hunted to obtain such a soul skill, right? Looking at it this way, the direction I found was not wrong."

Qian Renxue extended her right hand, and Nan Feihuang hesitated for only a second before taking it.

Then, the Peerless Fangtian Halberd appeared in Nan Feihuang's hand, while angel wings extended from Qian Renxue's back; the two god-level martial souls reflected each other.

The two were of one mind, and in their minds, they were practicing with their long halberds simultaneously; even though both were using the Single-Handed Eighteen Picks, Qian Renxue used them with grand, sweeping motions, full of domineering spirit.

Nan Feihuang, however, was ever-changing and unfathomably exquisite.

"So that's how it is," Nan Feihuang laughed. "No wonder Xue Jie knew my thoughts."

When the two were of one mind, Qian Renxue felt Nan Feihuang's intentions as she used his halberd techniques.

At that time, she discovered that although Nan Feihuang had only practiced this set of Single-Handed Eighteen Picks.

He used them with two different stances: one was extremely domineering, using strength to overcome ten thousand techniques, and the other was about anticipating the enemy, ever-changing.

Combining the fact that he always used the long halberd with one hand, Qian Renxue understood that he likely wanted to obtain a special soul skill similar to that of the Clear Sky Sect's Seven Elders, which could split a martial soul into two without losing any power.

For a Tool Spirit, this was almost a top-tier skill; it could release another Tool Spirit identical to one's own to attack, which could be stacked with other skills. In a short time, the Tool Spirit Master's Attack would double.

At that time, using one type of halberd technique in each hand, if the two completely different sets of techniques could complement each other, the power would suddenly double again.

Qian Renxue's guess was very accurate; Nan Feihuang wanted to use the method of shooting with both hands to eventually use Lv Bu's Ghost God Halberd and Xiang Yu's Overlord Halberd at the same time.

By mastering the peak of technique and the peak of strength, even if he were not yet a Title Douluo, Tang Hao would not necessarily be his opponent even if he brought Tang Xiao along.

Both the Ghost God Halberd and the Overlord Halberd had finishing moves—the Unparalleled Skill from Dynasty Warriors—and their power far exceeded the Great Sumeru Hammer.

If both Unparalleled Skills could be opened at once, the power would be so strong that even Nan Feihuang dared not imagine it.

It was a pity that this type of Spirit Beast was truly very rare; the records in the Gulei Royal Palace only had something similar, the Mirror Shadow Beast, which was the one Oscar hunted for his sixth ring later on.

But the characteristic of that type of Spirit Beast was replication, which meant making one's own martial soul or soul skill the same as the opponent's, rather than creating an extra one that was exactly the same.

As for the others that could create martial soul clones, the clones produced would be much weaker than the original; so far, only one person could create a martial soul clone with power very close to the original, and that was the Clear Sky Seven Elders, Lieyang Douluo.

Therefore, he had always wanted to go to the Clear Sky Sect to get the Spirit Beast information from the Seven Elders, Lieyang Douluo, and then go to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to obtain Distraction Control.

Yet he did not expect that both of these needs had been fulfilled by Qian Renxue.

She really understood him well enough.

Fortunately, the quality of the Dunjia Heavenly Book seemed to be slightly higher than the Fangtian Halberd, and Qian Renxue could not sense it; otherwise, the secret of Nan Feihuang's Twin Spirits would not have been kept.

"Feihuang, this Demon Shadow Beast is an extremely rare Spirit Beast, and it is attribute-less, so you don't have to worry about it interfering with the Ice and Fire Power in your martial soul and causing a decline in attribute strength," Qian Renxue said. She was worried that Nan Feihuang would follow in his mother's footsteps and waste the powerful Ice and Fire Power within the Ice and Fire Peerless Halberd.

So when she was looking for a Spirit Beast, only three types were within her consideration: Ice attribute, Fire attribute, and attribute-less.

Qian Renxue continued, "Currently, there are only two or three Demon Shadow Beasts whose locations are clearly recorded by the Spirit Hall. One of them was hunted by the Clear Sky Sect's Seven Elders back then, and the strongest one has a cultivation exceeding ninety thousand years. My Spirit Hall has also tried to hunt it, but it is not only extremely strong in cultivation, it also possesses the ability to split into clones with the exact same strength as the original, as well as the magical ability to melt itself into shadows, making it extremely difficult to capture. Even when my Spirit Hall sent two or three Title Douluo, it still managed to escape by accident. Since then, there has been no trace of this Spirit Beast."

"For the past few years, the Spirit Hall has been tracking the whereabouts of this Spirit Beast, and in fact, there is already a lead; it is roughly in the very center of the Sunset Forest. Feihuang, if you want to hunt it in the future, you can come to the Spirit Hall to find me. My Angel Power is the nemesis of this kind of monster, and I will definitely be able to help you achieve a perfect hunt."

"Thank you, Xue Jie. You have always helped me so much that I don't know how to repay you." Nan Feihuang was a bit embarrassed; he had always harbored the intention of using this woman.

If only Qian Renxue also just wanted to use him, then he would have no burden.

At first, it did seem to be the case, but for these three years, he had been with Xue Qinghe day and night in the open, and had been exchanging letters with Qian Renxue in secret.

I do not know when it started, but this woman gradually began to truly care for him from the bottom of her heart.

This instead left Nan Feihuang not knowing what to do.

He wished that Qian Renxue would just properly maintain the mindset of using him; wouldn't it be better if she just dealt him a lethal blow once he had no value in the future?

Then he could also be more ruthless and vicious in his counterattack, but now...

To Nan Feihuang, if one were to say there is anything in this world more expensive than the word "free," it is sincerity.

(End of this chapter)