Douluo Continent: Peerless Angel Qian Renxue.

Chapter 17 What is this? Let's investigate.

A day later, Qian Renxue checked into an inn in Xingluo City, using the few gold soul coins she had scavenged. At this moment, she was idly rummaging through her storage soul tools, checking what was inside.

It has to be said, these students all seem to be quite wealthy. But thinking about it, it makes sense; after all, Shrek Academy is touted as the best in the world. Her hearing and mental abilities are exceptional; after entering Star Luo City, she overheard people talking about it, and at least six out of ten people would mention this place, intentionally or unintentionally. Those who can afford to study here are probably mostly either rich or powerful.

She twirled her golden hair, somewhat bewildered as to why. Talented individuals aren't limited to large families or sects; there are also those who rise from humble beginnings to extraordinary success.

And one thing was strange: along her journey, she noticed that there seemed to be quite a few ordinary people. By ordinary people, she meant that some of them didn't even seem to have awakened their martial spirit.

It seems that something extraordinary has happened in this world.

She noticed these changes while looking at the map, and she took out the map again.

Judging from this map, during the ten thousand years that I was asleep, the world map underwent tremendous changes. The area of ​​the entire continent nearly doubled, and a huge country called the Ming Empire appeared in the west of the original Douluo Continent.

Qian Renxue frowned slightly. What an awkward name! It would be better to call it the Great Ming Empire or simply break the character down and call it the Sun and Moon Empire.

"Hmm, something's not right." She scratched her head because she saw that the capital of this "Ming Empire" was called "Mingdu," followed by parentheses indicating "Mingcheng."

Something's not right, it's weird, let me take another look.

She looked at it carefully and realized that the publisher of this terrible map was probably not very good at it, as they had pasted the words "sun" and "moon" too close together. This empire was indeed called the Sun and Moon Empire.

She shifted her gaze to the upper right of the map. Had the Heaven Dou Empire, where she had once infiltrated, ultimately split into the Heaven Soul Empire and the Dou Ling Empire? This wasn't surprising, though. Heaven Dou had always been a loosely governed nation; even its victory over the Spirit Hall couldn't prevent internal corruption and division.

She overheard people discussing this matter on her way. Apparently, several kingdoms eventually united, stormed into Tiandou City, drove out the original royal Xue family, and established the Tianhun Empire. The Xue family, on the other hand, fled to the northeast of the continent and established the Douling Empire.

Qian Renxue was filled with mixed emotions. The Heaven Dou Empire had not been destroyed in her hands, but in the end it still ended up splitting up.

The situation in the Star Luo Empire was better, as they had a stable royal family.

At this time, Qian Renxue was unaware that the Star Luo Empire had already changed hands. However, she soon learned about this history.

She pulled out a book from her soul tool, opened it, and read it. It was a history book that recounted Shrek Academy's history from its founding ten thousand years ago until about a few decades ago. It was narrated from Shrek Academy's perspective.

Qian Renxue frowned, somewhat reluctant, but decided to take a look anyway.

"What kind of rubbish is this?" She finished reading the book in less than half an hour and then tossed it aside with disdain. Although many historical events were not described in detail, the book was still very thick, because nearly 70% of the content was about how Shrek Academy defended justice on the continent.

In Qian Renxue's view, this was Shrek Academy trying to glorify itself. Since you claim to be the guardians of the continent, shouldn't it be your duty to exterminate the fallen, or rather, the villains known as evil spirit masters in this era? Even the Spirit Hall didn't try to embellish its image like this in its previous life.

Something's not right. Qian Renxue narrowed her eyes.

Perhaps it was because of these guys' extensive propaganda that Shrek Academy established a tall and imposing image in the minds of the people. When people mentioned Shrek Academy, they felt as if they were talking about their own great father. But this father didn't seem to do much besides exterminating evil spirit masters, far less than when the Spirit Hall was around.

It's strange. Why didn't the Spirit Hall do these things in the previous life? As a result, everyone in the world thinks that it's only right to give them free spirit awakening and to pay salaries to spirit masters with four rings or below.

What Qian Renxue didn't know was that after she fell into a deep sleep, and after the Spirit Hall was destroyed, the world did indeed discover this phenomenon. As a result, over nine thousand years ago, a Spirit Master launched a rebellion, which was ruthlessly suppressed. Then Shrek Academy began to disguise its actions. Some works are like this: whenever the historian picks up their pen, they ruthlessly erase the ugly truth and unscrupulously praise non-existent virtues. This immerses the reader in a beautiful, illusory dream, making them feel that their world is wonderful, unaware that they have actually missed the best era.

After casually burning the book, Qian Renxue looked out the window and began to observe this new era. To her, the newly awakened angel, this new era was like a blank sheet of paper. She had much to learn.

……

At dinner time, Qian Renxue came out of her room, went downstairs to the inn, ordered a few dishes from the innkeeper, and then went to a corner by herself to eat while listening to the conversations of the people around her.

Teahouses and restaurants, places with high foot traffic, are often the easiest places to gather information, although it's also possible that these people are just joking around after drinking too much.

Qian Renxue ate while listening quietly. Around her, people were talking loudly, others were whispering sweet nothings to their sweethearts across the table; countless voices converged in her ears. She carefully sifted through the useful information.

At this point, she had transformed herself into an ordinary young girl, with a perfectly fitting appearance. Compared to her original self, she was reduced by two-thirds, which was just right.

"Hmm?" Her eyes suddenly flickered slightly.

Her mental strength was sufficient to detect soul power fluctuations below level 98; this was the effect of the wisp of divine thought in her sea of ​​consciousness. There were no high-level soul masters on the first floor of this inn, so she could cover the entire hall with her mental strength.

But just now, she suddenly noticed a package on a table not far from her. A faint fluctuation of soul power emanated from that package.

What is this? Let's investigate.

Qian Renxue was like a curious child, full of interest in the new era's soul tools.

She channeled her spiritual energy into the small package, inside which was a specially made box. Within the box, something emitted a pure white aura. This small box was clearly an item capable of concealing one's aura; it wasn't a soul tool. Qian Renxue recognized this type of item. It was a bone box made from the shell of a creature called the "Azure Crystal Conch."

Qian Renxue knew about this kind of soul beast. She had seen it in the Soul Beast Encyclopedia. The Azure Crystal Conch is a sea soul beast with extremely strong concealment ability. Normally, it can completely conceal its aura and even disguise its shell as the surrounding seascape to avoid natural enemies.

This box possesses the abilities of this spirit beast, thus concealing the aura emanating from its contents. Furthermore, the box's maker was cunning; he coated the outer layer with the exact same color as an ordinary box, further disguising the bone box.

If it weren't for Qian Renxue's spiritual power and that wisp of divine thought, she probably would have just thought it was an ordinary package.

She continued to probe the bone box with her spiritual power.

A reader raised a question: why did Xuezi arrive at Xingluo City so quickly? Huo Yuhao asked for directions along the way to the Star Dou Great Forest, taking about six days. At that time, he was still an ordinary Soul Master without Soul Rings. Qian Renxue, on the other hand, possessed an Angel Martial Soul, over level 20 Soul Power, and had Spiritual Detection abilities. She was familiar with the Star Dou Great Forest, so arriving at Xingluo City in a little over a day was no problem at all.

The text states that she arrived in Xingluo City a day later, and then ate dinner at an inn, so it can be assumed that it took her more than a day to arrive.

The Snow Empress was captured and imprisoned in the Conferred God Platform, which cannot store soul tools. After all, the Conferred God Platform is originally a level nine soul tool, and it would be highly unlikely that such a thing could be stored in a storage space.

The Conferred God Platform wasn't large. The original text described it as a white tray with a wooden stand inlaid with at least a hundred gems of various colors. A wisp of pure white energy gently rippled on this small wooden stand.

(End of this chapter)