"What brings you to me, Junior Brother?" Xuyang asked cautiously.
Seeing his expression, Qian Renxue found it amusing. She thought her senior brother was quite interesting—he seemed like a completely different person every time they met.
It seemed that this identity as Xue Qinghe was still very useful.
With a smile on her lips, Qian Renxue countered, "What, can't a junior brother seek out his senior brother just because he wants to?"
"Of course you can. Naturally. It's just that I've been focusing on my cultivation lately, and honestly, I don't have much spare time..."
"That's exactly why I've come here myself to wait for Senior Brother."
"You knew I was coming to the library…" As soon as he said it, Xuyang realized his mistake and smiled wryly. "Right. With your status, finding out my habits wouldn't be difficult. You probably knew I often come to the library to read and study theory."
Back when he was in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, he spent much of his free time buried in the library. Given Qian Renxue's status, it would be all too easy for her to learn that about him.
He felt foolish for asking such an obvious question.
"Senior Brother, are you really that averse to me?" Qian Renxue looked at him with a sorrowful gaze.
"It's not that I'm avoiding you, Junior Brother," Xuyang sighed. "It's just... I honestly don't know how to interact with you. You're a prince of the Empire, while I was just an orphan. If not for some talent and a bit of luck, I wouldn't even have the chance to sit here and speak with you."
Though he mentioned the status of a prince, what really concerned him was Qian Renxue's true identity. That status was secondary—after all, as Ning Fengzhi's disciple, his own position wasn't exactly low. If it were just about being a prince, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan could easily associate with such a person.
But Qian Renxue was, in truth, a person of the Spirit Hall—one of its core members. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and Spirit Hall had always been at odds, not only due to power struggles but also because of old grudges.
Take the fact that aside from Elder Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong, there were no other senior elders in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. That was quite telling. The clan didn't just become one of the upper three sects in recent decades—they had always held that position.
And the hallmark of an upper three sect? Titled Douluos.
Without them, how could you claim such a title?
Xuyang had once directly asked Ning Fengzhi why the previous generation of Titled Douluos was no longer around. He'd learned that the previous generation had been wiped out during battles with Spirit Hall—including Chen Xin's father. The two sides were already mortal enemies.
It wasn't just the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan—Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had also suffered. Only the Clear Sky Clan had managed to preserve much of its strength, largely because of Tang Chen, their Limit Douluo.
While it's often said that relationships between major powers are governed by mutual interests, whether or not they are willing to exchange those interests depends on human emotions. Given such a blood feud, it was highly unlikely that Ning Fengzhi would ever cooperate with Spirit Hall.
So before he had enough power, it was best to avoid getting too entangled with Qian Renxue. Even if she personally became infatuated with him due to martial spirit compatibility, there was no guarantee that those behind her wouldn't act against him.
After all, Qian Renxue was the destined inheritor of the Angel God. Qian Daoliu would never allow her to encounter any mishap.
That was why, aside from classes, Xuyang generally avoided any unnecessary contact with her and seldom left the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
"Well then…"
Qian Renxue nodded helplessly, assuming that Xuyang's hesitation stemmed from an inferiority complex—something quite common among civilians. Even if they were suddenly elevated in status, such mental barriers often lingered when facing someone of even higher standing.
"Still, I hope you won't dwell too much on our statuses. I want us to interact as equals."
"I'll try my best."
Xuyang gave a perfunctory reply, then shifted his gaze to the books laid out in front of Qian Renxue:
"Glazed Meditation Technique", "Visualization Method", "How to Accelerate Cultivation", and "The Benefits of Martial Spirit Fusion Techniques for Cultivation".
This piqued his curiosity. With her innate spirit power of level 20, and with the Angel Clan's inherited meditation methods, she shouldn't need these books. Curious, he asked, "Junior Brother, why are you reading these?"
"Oh, this?" Qian Renxue waved the book How to Accelerate Cultivation and explained, "It's nothing much. After reaching level 30, I've felt my cultivation speed drop drastically, so I've been looking for a solution."
"Your cultivation speed has slowed down?"
Xuyang furrowed his brows. Before the age of thirty, one was supposed to be in the golden phase of cultivation. The pace should accelerate with physical development—not slow down.
"What sets Qian Renxue apart from other soul masters?"
"Innate level-20 spirit power?"
"A divine-tier Six-Winged Angel Spirit?"
"No… it must be the ultimate attribute. The Six-Winged Angel Spirit possesses both Ultimate Light and Ultimate Flame attributes. If I remember correctly, ultimate attributes come with a built-in debuff—they develop very slowly between level 30 and level 70, and only after reaching Soul Sage (level 70) does the cultivation speed surge forward."
"If my memory is right, the reason for this slow development is that the body needs to adapt to the immense pressure of the ultimate attributes. The good part is, once a soul master's body adapts, they'll face no cultivation bottlenecks all the way to level 98."
"So that's why! No wonder in the original novel, despite Qian Renxue being born with level-20 spirit power, she was still behind Tang San in terms of level until much later. Besides her time spent undercover in the royal family, the greater reason was probably the slow progress caused by her ultimate attributes."
After coming to this realization, Xuyang felt an intense desire to pursue ultimate attributes himself. The mere fact that one could cultivate all the way to level 98 without a bottleneck made it worthwhile for him to push his Sun Martial Spirit—already close to Ultimate Light and Ultimate Flame—into true ultimate territory.
"Can I take a look at these books?" Xuyang asked, reaching out.
"Of course," Qian Renxue said, pushing the four books across the table.
Xuyang picked one up and began reading.
First of all, Glazed Meditation Technique, was a fairly standard high-level meditation method—one of the best in the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy's library. It used the imagery of turning one's body and spirit into pure, transparent glazed crystal to purify and stabilize cultivation. It was decent.
Xuyang skimmed through it and set it aside. It was useless to him—and likely useless to Qian Renxue as well.
Then he opened How to Accelerate Cultivation, but he threw it on the table after only flipping through a few pages. All the theories inside were nonsense, just empty imaginings. Using these theories would not only not accelerate cultivation, but would also cause irreversible damage.