After leaving the Duke's mansion, Huo Yuhao followed Dai Hao all the way into the imperial palace.
Dai Hao led him to a room, coughed lightly, and reached out to knock on the door.
"Your Majesty, I've brought Yuhao."
"Come in."
Hearing the voice from inside the door, Dai Hao took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
By imperial standards, the room's decor could be described as extremely simple. There were no unnecessary decorations, and the room was very clean and tidy, reflecting the owner's character.
Xu Jiawei was sitting at a conference table. A girl sat to his left, her eyes closed, making it unclear if she was awake or dreaming. To his right sat his younger sister, Xu Jiujiu.
Seeing the two enter, he stood up and smiled.
"Dai Hao, I've read the explanation you gave me. Don't worry, I won't disappoint you. Wait outside for a while first, let me have a private chat with Yuhao."
"Yes."
Dai Hao glanced at Huo Yuhao with some concern, but ultimately walked out.
After the door closed, Huo Yuhao looked at Xu Jiawei warily.
"Your Majesty, hello."
As he spoke, he subtly glanced at the girl on Xu Jiawei's left.
The moment he saw her, the Ice Emperor in his mind suddenly spoke up.
"Yuhao, be careful, that human is very strong!"
For the Ice Emperor, who had nearly 400,000 years of cultivation, to give such an evaluation, this girl was definitely not as harmless as she appeared.
At the very least, an ordinary Titled Douluo would not be worthy of this level of praise.
This raised Huo Yuhao's vigilance to the extreme.
Xu Jiawei smiled kindly.
"No need to be so cautious. Can you tell me how you obtained your second martial soul?"
"Yes."
Maintaining his vigilance, Huo Yuhao repeated the story he had told Dai Hao to Xu Jiawei.
Afterward, at Xu Jiawei's request, he demonstrated the Ice Jade Scorpion martial soul to them.
A dense chill instantly emanated from Huo Yuhao's body, filling the entire room. If the people sitting in the room weren't all Soul Masters, they would feel incredibly cold just by being there.
Xu Jiawei looked at the girl beside him for confirmation. The girl opened her eyes and nodded gently at him.
Xu Jiawei let out a long breath, a helpless smile on his face.
"I never expected such a miraculous thing to exist in this world..."
Then, he looked at Huo Yuhao seriously and said sternly:
"Yuhao, I'll be direct. Do you hate me very much, and are you very dissatisfied with me stopping Dai Hao from killing the person who killed your mother?"
Huo Yuhao shook his head gently.
"No."
"Really?"
"Really."
Huo Yuhao pursed his lips and said in a low voice:
"At first, I did have that thought, but after learning about the relationship between you and the Duchess later, I calmed down."
Because he viewed the Duchess as an enemy, he also investigated Xu Jiawei, who had protected the Duchess at the time.
After the investigation, he discovered that Xu Jiawei and the Duchess's relationship was not as good as he had imagined, and could even be described as very poor.
During the struggle for the current Star Luo throne, the Duchess actually sided with Xu Jiawei's younger brother, who was Xu Jiawei's competitor, and caused Xu Jiawei a lot of trouble back then.
Their relationship was so distant that using the term 'enemies' to describe it was not at all an exaggeration.
Some even speculated that the previous Star Luo Emperor marrying her to Dai Hao was to prevent Xu Jiawei from settling accounts later.
After understanding their true relationship, Huo Yuhao was able to calmly think about and analyze the events of that year.
Why did Xu Jiawei protect the Duchess's life under those circumstances?
The way to get the answer was simple: think about the consequences if he hadn't done so.
Dai Hao was the current White Tiger Duke, and also a great general who held immense military power and had extraordinary control over the army. For such a person to personally kill the former emperor's most beloved princess for a woman who might not even be considered a concubine, regardless of the reasons behind it, carried extraordinary political significance.
Even if Dai Hao didn't have that intention in his heart, once he did such a thing, his intentions no longer mattered. Other ministers wouldn't listen to his explanations.
In the worst-case scenario, the Star Luo Empire would face full-scale internal strife, ultimately leading to its demise from a sneak attack by the Sun Moon Empire taking advantage of the chaos.
Xu Jiawei absolutely could not allow this situation to occur, so the Duchess could not die, at least not in that manner.
After understanding the reasoning behind it, Huo Yuhao's resentment towards Xu Jiawei had dissipated.
In that incident, Xu Jiawei was not so much protecting the Duchess as protecting Dai Hao.
If he hadn't done so, even Huo Yuhao might not have lived to this day.
A hint of surprise appeared in Xu Jiawei's eyes, and he couldn't help but applaud in admiration.
"Dai Hao told me before that you are very intelligent. At the time, I was a little skeptical, thinking he was too doting on his child. Now it seems he really didn't exaggerate, you are indeed very smart."
According to Huo Yuhao, he only hated Xu Jiawei in the very beginning, which meant he likely figured out the underlying reasons when he was seven or eight years old.
It was not easy to understand this principle at such a young age; many adults might not even have this level of thinking ability.
Huo Yuhao said in a deep voice:
"Your Majesty, I don't care about anything else. I just want to know if in the future you will also 'protect' me in a similar way to how you protected Dai Hao?"
Huo Yuhao knew that Xu Jiawei stopping Dai Hao was protecting him, but unfortunately, Huo Yuhao himself did not want this type of protection.
Xu Jiawei narrowed his eyes and said softly:
"Well, when I protected Dai Hao back then, it was fundamentally because of his and my weakness. But if you can truly possess strength that is sufficient to be called powerful, then I naturally won't need to protect you. On the contrary, I even want you to protect our Star Luo Empire in return."
"Okay, thank you."
Huo Yuhao nodded knowingly.
Xu Jiawei's meaning was simple: as long as Huo Yuhao possessed absolute power sufficient to disregard worldly matters, he would no longer interfere.
Getting this answer was enough; he only needed to strive in this direction.
With a top-tier second martial soul and a top-tier soul bone currently, Huo Yuhao was more confident than ever.
He believed that he would definitely reach that realm in the future.
Xu Jiawei smiled with satisfaction at this.
He gestured to Xu Jiujiu beside him, who took out a wooden box from her storage soul tool and placed it on the table.
He placed his hand on it and said seriously:
"Yuhao, I can roughly guess what you're thinking now. Thank you for notifying us before going to Shrek. Since that's the case, I won't beat around the bush."
With that, he suddenly opened the lid.
"This is my sincerity."
A jade-green soul bone lay quietly within the box.