A Talk Between Two Parents, Snowy Wind City
Xue Bai was only allowed to leave after he tried on the dozen dresses Li Rou had recently tailored for him.
The process was long and annoying, but since Xue Bai still felt some guilt toward Xue Feng and Li Rou for possessing Xue Bai's body, he didn't complain during it and let Li Rou do as she wished.
At the end of the session, while Xue Bai could still confidently say that he wasn't a fan of cross-dressing, the dresses his mother had tailored for him were pretty comfortable.
Xue Bai might've even worn one of them if they weren't so blatantly women's clothing.
But the overall experience was still extremely annoying, so after he tried on the last dress, Xue Bai quickly left her courtyard, fearing that Li Rou would pull out old clothes for him to try on.
Seeing her son leave so quickly, Li Rou sighed to herself.
He was growing up, and she wouldn't be able to continue her hobby much longer. Xue Bai was right that she liked to dress him up but was wrong about the first part. She never thought of him as her daughter.
Li Rou just really liked using Xue Bai as a mannequin to try on new clothes.
Smiling slightly to herself, Li Rou stopped thinking about that and then remembered something.
Placing the pail in her hand down, Li Rou stood up, left her courtyard, and started to make her way to Xue Feng's office. It was still early in the day, and Li Rou knew he would be there.
With long and masterful steps that each let her travel several meters, Li Rou quickly crossed the mile-long distance between the two and arrived at her husband's office.
Then without even bothering to knock, she entered.
Inside, her husband, Xue Feng, sat at his desk slumped over as he read reports.
When someone dared to barge into his office, Xue Feng stood up, ready to yell at the rude intruder, but once he stood up and saw the culprit, his anger extinguished and was quickly replaced with love and gentleness.
"Honey, what brings you here?" Then, putting his work to the side, Xue Feng asked.
Usually, during the day, the two would each do their own thing, then they would congregate at night, where they talked about their day.
During the day, Li Rou would either be in her garden tending to her medicinal herbs or leading the maids, while Xue Feng led the dukedom.
Once Li Rou entered the room before she started to speak her mind, she quickly scanned her surroundings with her Spiritual Sense. Then, and only after making sure that they were alone, she finally started talking.
"Husband, have you noticed anything strange from Bai'er? He seems different, almost like he's planning something."
Not expecting his wife to detect so much from her short meeting with Xue Bai, he asked how she noticed.
"Besides him asking us to train, which he never would've done before, he seemed to enjoy our session today. While I still had to drag him into my courtyard to do our session, before, he would struggle every time I put on a dress for him. Yet this time, he was so cooperative." Li Rou explained.
Not expecting such an answer, Xue Feng was momentarily speechless.
'Maybe he just finally accepted his fate. You've been doing this twice a week for the past four years. If anything, I'm surprised he was still struggling.' However, Xue Feng would never bring these thoughts to light.
So, after regaining his composure, he explained what happened to Xue Bai yesterday. From the fall to the scroll, Xiao'er had copied from his room.
Li Rou became silent as she began to process the information.
Xue Feng knew that it was a lot to digest, and he also stayed quiet as he didn't want to rush her.
Two were silent as minutes quickly passed until Li Rou eventually broke it with a dramatic proposition.
"What if Xue Bai was possessed? You've surely heard of those stories, a powerhouse taking advantage of a young dying child, and then they proceed to steal their bodies." Li Rou asked solemnly.
However, even just the mention of such a horrible situation made Xue Feng instantly furious. Just the possibility of an old fossil stealing the body of his only child made him livid.
"Bai'er had only fallen. It was nothing even remotely life-threatening. While I had speculations of my own, such a dramatic event is impossible. Besides, if such an expert wanted a body, why would he choose Bai'er? Even though our identity is prestigious to such a person who could do that, it would mean nothing to him!" Xue Feng yelled angrily.
The more he spoke, the angrier he got, and towards the end of his sentence, he subconsciously released some of his aura and almost turned the inside of his office into an igloo.
Realizing that he had almost destroyed his office, Xue Feng withdrew his leaking aura and took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself down.
After a few deep breaths and a cup of tea later, Xue Feng felt better and took a seat before he continued his sentence, this time a lot less angry.
"Besides, even if it were a possession, in those cases, the old fossil doesn't get the memories. And even if there was an old man with hundreds of years of social experience, there was no way Old Lu or I wouldn't have noticed something. Bai'er is my son. How could I not know his personality and temperament? And why would an expert ask permission to train from us tiny Domain Lord realm Ants." Xue Feng carefully analyzed as he shook his head.
Li Rou had just said the worst-case scenario, and while he did get extremely angry at first, once he thought about it further, Xue Feng realized that the theory was full of holes.
"I naturally think the same, but it's always a possibility. The stronger you get, the more life matters. So possessing a dying child or dying themselves would be an easy decision for a powerhouse to make." Li Rou knew her theory had problems, but she just wanted to put the idea out.
Nodding at her words, Xue Feng then put forth his hypothesis.
"My guess is that he somehow had a glimpse into the future after the fall. Look at the scroll. For example, Both this 'Celestial Void Fruit' and Huo Long would only come to value in the future and not in the near future either. The Celestial Void Fruit, according to Bai'er, matures in 3 years, while Huo Long hasn't even awakened his Martial Veins. So he can only come to value in at least 5 or 6 years."
While it was undoubtedly an absurd theory, it was the most logical one, and things like this, while rare, have happened before. For example, a genius almost dying and awakening memories of a past life. Or a different timeline has happened before.
"Whether he has these memories or not, he's our son. Nothing could go wrong as long as we continue to raise him with all our hearts. Even if he has memories, he's still asking us for permission before doing things, so that means the memories couldn't have changed him much." Xue Feng finally said, bringing their conversation to an end.
Li Rou agreed, so she left Xue Feng alone so he could continue to attend to his work and returned to her courtyard.
Unaware that his parents were suspicious of him, Xue Bai left the Core Region and made his way out of the estate for the first time since he arrived in this world. His destination was Snowy Wind City, the central city of his dukedom.
Even though Xue Bai's father had arrogantly named the city after himself, he still had put his heart and soul into building it from the ground up.
And miraculously, even though Xue Feng had no talent in the business sense, and while being a newly enthroned Duke, Snowy Wind City was now quickly on the rise as one of the economic hubs of the Great Xuan Empire.
Sadly the city was still too young and had too weak of a foundation to enter the top 3. Still, for Xue Feng, a martial fanatic, it was still a great central city. And with time, it would easily crack into the top three.
Xue Bai's purpose for going to the city was simply to have fun. While it had only been a week since he transmigrated, he had been trying to dodge suspicions from the people close to him the entire time.
And as a result, Xue Bai had ignored the beautiful world around him.
So now, with nothing to do until next week, Xue Bai wanted to explore a little.
However, knowing he wouldn't be allowed to go unprotected, he first planned to make a stop at the Inner Region, where his bodyguards usually lived.
His bodyguards were a pair of twins who were at the peak of the Law Engraving realm. The twins were originally foot soldiers in his father's army.
However, after reaching their current realm at only 50 years of age and showing their exquisite combat talent, they were promoted and given the cushy job of bodyguarding Xue Bai.
Reaching the Law Engraving realm for the Southern Continent's standards was the marking of great talent. And since the twins both had peak Yellow-grade Martial Veins and were already on pace to reach the Domain Lord realm, Xue Feng wanted to make sure they did.
Now with more resources than they ever had before, and access to more Spiritual Qi in the Inner Region, the twin's cultivation speed took off.
As a result, with their confidence at an all-time high, the twins were preparing to attack the Law Manifestation realm within a decade.
Now with a better environment and an overwhelming desire to break through, the twins became shut-ins, and they usually spent their time cultivating in their courtyard.
While Xue Bai made his way to their courtyard and passed by someone, no matter if it was a maid cleaning up or a soldier, they would all greet him fervently by bowing deeply. Some even directly took a knee and called him Young Duke like he was a god amongst men.
But this was all rather confusing. Though Xue Bai didn't know much about Xue Bai, he knew for a fact that the Young Duke was a shut-in who rarely left his estate during his adolescent years.
So why was everyone so full of respect for him?
However, he quickly reached the answer. It was because he was the son of the legendary Duke of Snow. Therefore, everyone assumed that he would eventually become just as, if not greater than, Xue Feng. And because of that, they all put the father and son on the same level of worship.
And at first, Xue Bai felt extremely embarrassed seeing so many grown men and women bow to him.
Yet the feeling faded away after the 100th or so time, and Xue Bai soon became numb to it. Toward the end of his long journey to the twins, Xue Bai found himself only lightly responding with a nod of his head.
A few miles later, and with aching feet, Xue Bai eventually found where the two lived.
Most of the time he spent walking was him trying to reach the area where the twins lived.
After he reached the general area, it only took him a few minutes to reach their specific courtyard.
As his bodyguards, the twins had their own courtyard with beautiful scenery and rich Spiritual Qi. How could Xue Bai possibly miss it?
Reaching their courtyard, Xue Bai entered himself without knocking. He was their boss, after all, so why should he knock?
Waking inside, he found the two cultivating diligently in their own rooms.
'Look how diligent they are,' Xue Bai thought, 'These two sure deserve their position. However, I am bored, and my needs come first.'
And with such a train of thought, he woke the two up from their meditation and stated his purpose.
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