Chapter 70: Arrival at Heaven Dou City
"Teacher, I'm not confident."
Hearing Bibi Dong's expectant words, Hu Liena hesitated for a moment, then still chose to tell her teacher the truth. "Zhou Chen is someone with very strong opinions. Even if I persuade him to join Spirit Hall, he may not genuinely attach himself to us. However, I will do my best to try."
"I believe in you, Nana."
Bibi Dong slowly walked down the steps and came before Hu Liena, raising her fair jade-like hand to gently wipe away the tears on Hu Liena's face.
Then, she pulled Hu Liena into her embrace, looking at her like a mother looking at her daughter. With a smile, she teased, "With our Nana's charm, you'll surely make that boy lose his mind. When the time comes, won't everything be up to you?"
"Teacher—"
Bibi Dong's words, filled with ambiguous meaning, instantly made Hu Liena blush bright red.
She stomped her foot in a coquettish manner and buried her pretty face in Bibi Dong's chest, too shy to lift her head.
Sensing the joy in her disciple's heart, Bibi Dong let out a bitter smile.
In truth, earlier on, she had wanted to kill Zhou Chen to eliminate future troubles.
But the Hu Liena before her now made Bibi Dong think of herself more than twenty years ago, equally pure and innocent, equally filled with hope for the future.
She did not want Hu Liena to experience that heart-rending pain, nor did she want this disciple, closer to her than her own daughter, to repeat her past tragedy, fall into despair, and become someone as cruel, cold, and hateful toward the entire world as herself.
Thus, in the end, for Hu Liena's sake, Bibi Dong decided to spare Zhou Chen, changing from an attempt to hunt him down to trying to recruit him.
Gently patting Hu Liena's slender back, Bibi Dong murmured, "Silly girl…"
At the same time.
Heaven Dou City.
As the imperial capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou City lay at the very heart of the empire and was the political core of the entire realm.
It was noon, and outside Heaven Dou City, a young man and a young woman drifted over gracefully.
The youth wore purple robes and was handsome like refined jade, while the girl had jet-black hair like a cascading waterfall and an aloof, peerless bearing. Walking along the official road, the two attracted countless envious gazes from passersby.
"Hoo, we've finally arrived."
Looking at the city walls with banners fluttering atop them, Zhou Chen let out a long breath.
Silverstone City was more than two thousand li away from the Heaven Dou Empire. At first, he and Zhu Zhuqing traveled by carriage, but later, for the sake of sightseeing along the way, they abandoned the carriage and walked on foot, spending a full ten days before reaching Heaven Dou City.
Beside him, Zhu Zhuqing looked toward the distant city walls, somewhat astonished.
As one of the two largest and most prosperous cities on Douluo Continent, Heaven Dou City's walls rose to a height of one hundred meters, entirely constructed from solid granite.
Above and below the walls, soldiers clad in bright silver Heaven Dou armor and holding long spears patrolled back and forth. Their formations were orderly at a glance, clearly an elite force.
"The walls of Heaven Dou City are more than three times taller than those of our Star Luo City. They must have mobilized many Soul Masters to build them back then. I really wonder what the Heaven Dou royal family is so afraid of, to build such high walls."
Zhu Zhuqing said softly with a hint of amusement.
From her perspective, building walls this high was purely a reflection of the Heaven Dou royal family's inner fear and lack of confidence.
Hearing this, Zhou Chen smiled and said, "Of course they're afraid of your Star Luo Empire, and Spirit Hall as well."
Among the three great contending powers on Douluo Continent, Spirit Hall controlled tens of thousands of Soul Masters, with experts as numerous as clouds, and even had a level ninety-nine peerless Douluo overseeing it. Its strength could be called the greatest.
The Star Luo imperial family possessed the White Tiger martial soul, producing titled Douluo generation after generation, and their military power was even more formidable, with millions of elite troops.
With these two powers each far stronger than the Heaven Dou royal family, how could the Heaven Dou royals not be afraid?
As the two chatted and laughed, they had already arrived before the city gates.
The gates of Heaven Dou City were ten meters high and ten meters wide, extremely imposing. Just as Zhou Chen and Zhu Zhuqing were about to enter the city, they noticed a sea of people on the right side of the gates, filled with cries and commotion, with the sound of people sucking in cold breaths from time to time.
"Let's go take a look."
A girl's curiosity was always strong, and Zhu Zhuqing pulled Zhou Chen over to the side as well.
Looking over, they saw a huge notice posted on the bulletin board beside the city gate.
"To the citizens of Heaven Dou City:
"Mourning! Imperial Prince Xue Haicang, the third prince of the empire, passed away last night. He will be buried at noon seven days from now. Citizens of Heaven Dou City are requested not to block the roads at that time, so as not to delay the prince's funeral procession."
Seeing this notice, Zhu Zhuqing said in surprise, "The third prince of Heaven Dou is dead? I remember that two years ago, he even went to our Star Luo City as a royal envoy. He was only in his teens!"
"Dying in one's teens is even easier," Zhou Chen sneered.
In the original storyline, Emperor Xue Ye of the Heaven Dou Empire originally had four sons and one daughter.
Among them, the second prince and the third prince were the most outstanding, one skilled in governing the nation, the other possessing extremely high cultivation talent. Emperor Xue Ye had always wanted to choose one of these two sons as the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Then, these two unfortunate brothers were both poisoned to death.
The one who administered the poison was the eldest prince, Xue Qinghe.
More precisely, it was Qian Renxue, the daughter of the former Spirit Hall Pope, the inheritor of the Six-Winged Angel martial soul, who had impersonated Xue Qinghe.
That's right, Xue Qinghe was actually dead as well. Poor Emperor Xue Ye had three of his four sons die, which was indeed rather tragic.
Zhou Chen shook his head and pulled Zhu Zhuqing away.
"Don't, let's look a bit more, just a bit more."
Zhu Zhuqing, who was usually aloof and cold, behaved completely out of character. She listened very intently to the discussions of the onlooking crowd, her face full of excitement.
This left Zhou Chen utterly speechless.
A prince had died, and setting aside the lack of mourning, she was actually so excited?
If not for knowing the original storyline, Zhou Chen would have thought the third prince of Heaven Dou had been killed by her!
"Alright, alright."
Zhou Chen grabbed Zhu Zhuqing's jade-like hand and forcibly dragged her out of the crowd.
"Just let me look, why the rush…"
Zhu Zhuqing pouted and complained coquettishly.
"Alright, alright, I'll take you to have a grand feast in Heaven Dou City. That should be fine, right?"
Zhou Chen said indulgently, rubbing Zhu Zhuqing's head.
Hearing this, Zhu Zhuqing's eyes immediately lit up, curving into two beautiful crescent moons as she said happily, "Alright! I want to eat shadow-sliced beef, golden ham…"
"Fine, you can eat whatever you want."
Zhou Chen nodded, finally satisfying Zhu Zhuqing. He then led her through the city gates and into Heaven Dou City.
Inside Heaven Dou City, everything was extremely bustling. The streets were paved with large stone slabs, extraordinarily wide, enough to accommodate six carriages traveling side by side.
At this moment, the pedestrians on the streets were all looking at this golden boy and jade-like girl, most of them wearing friendly smiles.
"Zhou Chen, are we still going to Sunset Forest today?"
After calming down, Zhu Zhuqing asked softly.
Living together with Zhou Chen day and night, she had vaguely sensed that Zhou Chen was going to Sunset Forest to look for some precious treasure.
"No, tomorrow morning. Today we'll first enjoy a proper feast and arrange our lodging."
After speaking, Zhou Chen stopped a passing passenger carriage, flicked a silver coin to the driver, and headed toward the most luxurious hotel in Heaven Dou City.
There was no helping it—having money meant being this willful.
End of Chapter
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