Soundproofed... That Still Won't Do! It's Broad Daylight, and We're Still on the Road...

Less than a quarter hour after leaving Wangnan Tea Station, the carriage caught up with the blue-cloth carriage making all haste along the middle stretch of the official road.

Through a gap in the half-drawn curtain, Yu Xiaogang's grim, rigid profile could be seen inside the blue-cloth carriage, along with Tang San, who was clutching the corner of his clothes and keeping his head down to avoid his gaze.

In just a few breaths, the Eastern Palace carriage left them far behind in the billowing dust, until even their wheel tracks were out of sight.

In the outer compartment, Ning Rongrong had eaten her fill of steaming crab roe soup dumplings and drunk half a cup of sweet fruit tea. The sleepiness that had eluded her for most of the previous night, when she had been too excited to sleep in the carriage, finally washed over her.

Clutching her little pink cloth bag, she lay down on the cushioned couch to the left and pulled a thin silk blanket over her stomach. Before long, she fell asleep.

Qian Renxue, seated on the cushioned seat to the right, glanced at the sleeping Ning Rongrong. Her fingers tapped lightly on the folding fan in her lap, but her gaze kept drifting toward the tightly closed rosewood partition door in the middle.

Just then, the faint rustle of an oil-paper package being opened came from the inner compartment.

"Mmm! These cumin lamb skewers were freshly roasted in the tea station's kitchen. They still smell so good, even after sitting in the food box for a while!"

Paimon held three skewers of sizzling, oily roast lamb in one hand and a box of crispy flatbreads covered in sesame seeds in the other. She spun around in midair and suddenly found the inner compartment, with its light-blocking gauze curtains drawn, rather stuffy.

She flew over to the window and peeked outside. As far as the eye could see, golden wheat fields stretched across the heartland of the Balak Kingdom, with windmills in the distance along both sides of the official road.

"Lin Feng, Lin Feng! There are so many big windmills in the Balak Kingdom's fields! It's stuffy in here, so Paimon's going up on the roof to bask in the sun!"

Lin Feng was leafing through a volume on the customs and scenery of the Balak Kingdom. He said casually, "Go ahead. Just don't drop the bamboo skewers on the horses' heads."

"Hehe, Paimon wouldn't be that mean!"

Starlight flashed around Paimon as she slipped through the ventilation skylight above the window like a nimble little white bird. She settled happily behind the ridge of the gilded roof and began gnawing on her skewers.

After making sure Ning Rongrong was fast asleep in the outer compartment, Qian Renxue rose, pushed the sliding door open, and walked in.

The inner compartment was considerably more spacious than the outer one, but a low, cushioned couch covered with three layers of white snow-bear fur blankets took up most of the space.

Qian Renxue stopped two paces from the couch, straightened the moon-white brocade robes she wore as crown prince, and lowered her voice.

"Special Envoy, that master and disciple we met at Wangnan Tea Station just now-do you truly intend to leave them alone?"

Lin Feng closed the volume in his hands and looked up at her. "What else? Have She Long draw his Snake Lance and skewer two level-twenty-nine Soul Grandmasters like candied hawthorns in front of the hundred-odd merchants and travelers at the tea station?"

Qian Renxue frowned deeply and stepped forward, lowering her voice.

"That waste called Yu Xiaogang is hardly worth mentioning, but Paimon made it perfectly clear just now about the twelve-year-old boy in blue beside him. The boy has Twin Martial Souls. One is Blue Silver Grass, but the other is a small black iron hammer! Across the entire Douluo Continent, there is only one hammer-type Tool Martial Soul whose quality could match another top-tier Martial Soul to form a pair of Twin Martial Souls: the Clear Sky Hammer of the Clear Sky Sect, foremost of the Upper Three Sects, which has lived in seclusion for years!"

At that, a flash of icy sharpness befitting the young master of Spirit Hall crossed Qian Renxue's eyes.

"Twin Martial Souls are one in ten thousand. You should know better than I do what became of the last person to cultivate Twin Martial Souls successfully, and what position she holds in Spirit Hall today. Besides, the Clear Sky Sect and our Spirit Hall have a blood feud. That boy has reached level twenty-nine at such a young age, and he's traveling to Suutuo City with Yu Xiaogang. If we allow him to grow, he will surely become a grave threat to Spirit Hall in the future! Before he enters Suutuo City, I need only order She Long and Ci Xue to secretly double back ten li and intercept and kill him in the wild woods by the official road without anyone knowing. Then we can eliminate the threat once and for all!"

Qian Renxue said this partly out of the instinctive vigilance of Spirit Hall's young master, and partly to sound out Lin Feng's true attitude toward the Clear Sky Sect and Bibi Dong's faction.

At Wangnan Tea Station, Lin Feng had clearly seen through the truth about the boy's Clear Sky Hammer long ago, yet he had shown no reaction, as though he were watching a roadside street performance. His nonchalant attitude had left her unable to read him.

Lin Feng looked at Qian Renxue, who stood before the couch with a deadly serious expression, and said calmly:

"If you send She Long and Ci Xue back to make a move now, the two Titled Douluo you brought with you will lose their lives on the official road before half an incense stick has burned. Believe it or not?"

Qian Renxue's expression froze. "What do you mean, Special Envoy? Yu Xiaogang is nothing more than a level-twenty-nine waste. Could there be a Titled Douluo accompanying that boy to protect him?"

"He's the only son of Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao. Do you think Tang Hao would dare leave him out there without anyone watching over him?"

Lin Feng's mildly spoken words made Qian Renxue's fingers freeze on her folding fan.

Tang Hao's son?

The Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao who had gravely wounded the previous Pope, Qian Xunji, more than a decade ago and intimidated Spirit Hall with a single blow of his hammer had actually fathered a son with Twin Martial Souls—and that son had even become the disciple of Yu Xiaogang, Bibi Dong's old flame?

Qian Renxue immediately grasped the danger behind this.

Back then, Tang Hao had gravely wounded several of Spirit Hall's Titled Douluo single-handedly. She Long and Ci Xue were both powerhouses around level ninety-two, but if they ran into Tang Hao secretly protecting his son without being prepared, they would probably struggle even to retreat in one piece!

"So he's Tang Hao's bastard... No wonder you didn't let anyone act rashly at the tea station, Special Envoy."

Qian Renxue took a deep breath and was just about to ask whether Tang Hao was also nearby when Lin Feng's gaze fell on her slightly tense shoulders and the area beneath her left ribs.

"Tang Hao isn't in the Balak Kingdom at the moment, but he left a spiritual mark on that kid. There's no fun in killing him too early. Keeping him alive to be a treasure-delivery boy at Shrek Academy is just right."

Lin Feng changed the subject and looked at her. "As for you, you rode a fast horse at full gallop for more than a hundred li yesterday, then sat bolt upright in the outer compartment all night. You didn't loosen that dark-gold chest-binding soft armor even half an inch, not even to sleep. Don't your left ribs hurt when you breathe now?"

Qian Renxue instinctively raised a hand to cover the front of her moon-white brocade robe and took half a step back.

To perfectly disguise herself as Xue Qinghe, the Heaven Dou Crown Prince, she used that precious head disguise Soul Bone to alter her bone structure and voice. She also wore a custom-made chest-binding soft armor woven with Deep Sea Sunken Silver Thread under her clothes every day, to avoid giving herself away when she came into close contact with court officials or Ning Fengzhi.

She normally took the armor off each day to let herself breathe when she returned to rest in the Eastern Palace's secret chamber. But ever since she had ridden after Lin Feng and caught up with him yesterday afternoon, she had spent half the night in the cold wind on the mountain behind White River, then shared the front compartment with Ning Rongrong. She had had no chance to be alone and undress.

The taut sunken-silver armor had bound her tightly for an entire day and night. When she had spoken a little too quickly just now, a dull ache had throbbed beneath her ribs. She hadn't expected Lin Feng to see through it at a glance again!

"I've been undercover in the Heaven Dou Imperial Family for more than ten years. I'm used to it by now, so there's no need for you to concern yourself, Special Envoy."

Qian Renxue forced herself to maintain the crown prince's dignified bearing and turned to pull open the rosewood sliding door behind her. "Rongrong could wake up at any moment. I'd better return to the front compartment and keep an eye on the journey..."

Her fingers had only just touched the edge of the wooden door when Lin Feng rose and came up behind her, his five fingers closing precisely around her right wrist at the pulse.

Hum-!

With a thought, Lin Feng drew directly on the Martial Soul authority of Paimon on the roof, instantly deploying [Time Menu: Soundproof Barrier] in the carriage's inner compartment!

A ring of pale-gold, translucent clock ripples silently spread along the four walls, completely enclosing the inner compartment, which measured about a zhang across.

Before Qian Renxue could react to the force on her wrist, Lin Feng gently swept his left hand through the air.

Pop!

A soft sound like a bursting bubble rippled through Qian Renxue's body.

The dual disguise Soul Bone Skill she took such pride in was forcibly dispelled in an instant!

The black hair bound in her jade crown turned inch by inch into dazzling golden locks that spilled over her shoulders and down her back. Her tall, slender figure instantly regained the incomparably graceful curves of an eighteen-year-old girl!

As the world spun around her, Qian Renxue's legs went weak, and Lin Feng pulled her down onto the thick, soft white snow-bear fur couch.

"Have you gone mad?!"

Qian Renxue was scared out of her wits. Her first reaction was to cover her mouth and force her cry down to a breathy whisper. Her beautiful golden eyes widened as she cast a terrified glance at the wooden door just a stone's throw away!

Ning Rongrong was sleeping right behind that thin wooden door, less than three chi away!

And outside the window on the right side of the carriage, She Long and Ci Xue were riding alongside the shafts as guards!

If the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's little princess pushed the door open now and saw the reigning crown prince, Xue Qinghe, transformed into a golden-haired woman lying on Lin Feng's couch, her plans in Heaven Dou, for which she had spent more than ten years undercover, would go up in smoke on the spot!

"Why panic? There's a soundproof barrier around the inner compartment. As long as you don't kick that wooden door open yourself, no one outside can hear what's happening in here."

Lin Feng leaned over the golden-haired girl nestled in the white fur blankets, raised a hand to undo the crown prince's jade-inlaid leather belt at her waist, and casually tossed it onto the corner of the couch.

"Soundproofed... that still won't do! It's broad daylight, and we're still on the road..."