Ning Rongrong Seeks an Evolution Late at Night and Is Caught by Qian Renxue
Shrek Academy's so-called school buildings were nothing more than a few rows of dilapidated wooden huts deep in the village, reeking of mildew.
When Flender reluctantly pointed out two drafty thatched cottages, Paimon clapped a hand over her nose and flew three feet higher on the spot.
"Ugh! The wood in there is rotten and covered in mushrooms! There are cobwebs on the roof, too. It's worse than a storage room in Douluo Hall! Paimon isn't staying in a dump like this!"
Flender's old face burned with embarrassment. He was just about to make an excuse about it being an academy tradition to temper one's character when Lin Feng turned around and sent Snake Lance Douluo, She Long, to Azure Wave Lake, half a mile outside the village. There, he paid three thousand Gold Soul Coins in cash for a lakeside summer estate that a wealthy merchant of the Balak Kingdom had left vacant.
In just half an hour, the servants accompanying them furnished the entire lakeside estate with soft velvet blankets, bronze incense burners, and brand-new cloud-brocade bedding, making it look like a residence of the Eastern Palace.
Night fell. Frogs croaked across Azure Wave Lake, and the evening breeze stirred the weeping willows in front of the estate's main building.
In a guest room on the eastern side of the second floor, Ning Rongrong had finished her flower-petal bath and was staring blankly at the full-length bronze mirror on her dressing table.
She lowered her gaze and held up her right palm. A seven-story pagoda shimmering with flowing colors hovered silently above it, but no matter how she circulated her level twenty-six Soul Power, an invisible barrier always stood above the tip of its seventh story.
Traveling south with Lin Feng over the past few days, she had seen with her own eyes how the youth even ordered a Titled Douluo around as a coachman. At Wangnan Tea Station, he had recognized Twin Martial Souls at a glance, and that morning he had run Shrek Academy's level seventy-six Soul Saint, Zhao Wuji, around in circles.
Back at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Paimon and Lin Feng had casually mentioned that "adding two more stories to the seven-story pagoda wouldn't be difficult." Those words had long since become an obsession that occupied the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Little Demoness day and night.
What made her even more restless was that when Zhu Zhuqing, the black-leather-clad girl with a scorching figure, had emerged from Lin Feng's room that morning, not only had her skin been dewy and radiant, but Lin Feng had even personally instructed her in footwork!
"Hmph, even that icy black cat can win Lin Feng's favor. I'm the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and I'm no less pretty than she is. Why should she get ahead of me?"
Ning Rongrong bit her delicate lip. Her eyes darted, and she rummaged through the very bottom of her Space Soul Tool, pulling out a pale pink celestial silkworm silk slip she had secretly stuffed inside before leaving home.
After she changed into the silk nightdress, so thin it was almost translucent, the girl in the mirror had skin fairer than snow. The hem barely reached the tops of her thighs, revealing a pair of straight, slender legs, while the budding curves of her chest were faintly visible beneath the sheer fabric.
Ning Rongrong mustered her courage, stepped onto the carpet with her bare, pale little feet, and pushed open her door like a thief. She slipped into the master bedroom where Lin Feng was staying, at the end of the corridor.
Only a single dim, yellow glazed night lamp was lit in the master bedroom.
Lin Feng had just finished bathing. Wearing a loose robe, he leaned against the head of the broad rosewood canopy bed and leafed through a book on the sights and customs of the Balak Kingdom.
Hearing the soft click of the lock, Lin Feng looked up to see a petite figure in pink and white stealthily close the door behind her. Then she trotted over to the bed in tiny steps and, without a word, threw back the light cloud-brocade quilt and slid beneath his covers like a loach!
The faint scent of jasmine from her bath instantly reached his nose.
Once under the covers, Ning Rongrong wrapped her arms around one of Lin Feng's, tilted up her delicate, pretty face, and gazed at him with big, watery eyes.
"Brother Lin Feng, frogs keep croaking outside the window of the room on the east side. Rongrong is too scared to sleep. Can I sleep with you tonight?"
Lin Feng put down his book and glanced down at the pink silk nightdress she wore, with its pitifully scant amount of fabric.
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Little Demoness sneaks into my bed in the middle of the night dressed like that. I doubt you're here to hide from frogs. You're after the method to evolve the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, aren't you?"
Her thoughts exposed in a single sentence, Ning Rongrong felt her cheeks grow warm, but she didn't retreat. Instead, she boldly snuggled closer into Lin Feng's embrace.
Her soft, warm body pressed against his side beneath the silk nightdress. She reached out with two slender fingers, tugged at his robe, and shook it.
"You knew, and you still said it! Daddy and Grandpa Sword have been talking about it for half their lives. They both said that whoever could help the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda break through the level eighty limit would be given half the entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's storerooms. I don't care. Anyway, I became your number-one follower the day I ran away from home! As long as you're willing to teach me how to turn it into a nine-story pagoda, Rongrong will sign a contract to serve you at your side starting tonight. I'll bring you tea, massage your shoulders, and warm your bed, and I'll listen to you for the rest of my life. All right?"
To show her sincerity, the Little Demoness even took Lin Feng's right hand and, gathering her courage, pressed it toward the smooth, slippery shoulder strap of her silk nightdress.
But just as Lin Feng's palm touched the soft, delicate skin of the girl's shoulder-
Click!
The closed, carved mahogany door of the master bedroom was suddenly shoved open from outside without warning!
"Lin Feng! The bill for the late-night meal the kitchen just sent over was charged to my Eastern Palace again..."
The cool, indignant scolding stopped short the moment the door opened.
At the doorway, Qian Renxue had already removed the crown and chest-binding armor she wore during the day to disguise herself as the crown prince, Xue Qinghe.
She wore only a loose, snow-white silk nightrobe with a pale gold gauze cloak over it. Her brilliant golden hair cascaded down to her waist, and she had returned to her true appearance: a breathtakingly beautiful girl whose looks could topple a kingdom, sacred and inviolate.
Thinking Lin Feng was the only person staying in the estate's main building, she hadn't even bothered to activate her dual-disguise Soul Bone.
But the instant she pushed the door open, the account book in Qian Renxue's hand dropped to the floor with a smack!
By the dim light of the night lamp, she could see a familiar head with twin ponytails poking out from beneath the cloud-brocade quilt on the canopy bed!
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's little princess, Ning Rongrong?! How had the precious daughter of Ning Fengzhi, her nominal teacher, ended up dressed like that and tucked into Lin Feng's bed?!
What scared Qian Renxue's soul right out of her was that she hadn't activated her Soul Bone disguise at all. She was entirely in her true form as Qian Renxue, a stunning golden-haired girl! If Ning Rongrong turned around and saw that "Crown Prince Xue Qinghe" had become a golden-haired woman, her plans, for which she had spent more than ten years undercover in the Heaven Dou Empire, would collapse on the spot!
"Who's at the door?!"
Startled by the sound of the door opening, Ning Rongrong instinctively turned her head toward the entrance like a frightened little rabbit!
At that critical moment, Lin Feng curled the five fingers of his left hand slightly and directly called upon the authority accompanying the Martial Soul that Paimon had left inside him.
[Time Menu: Regional Clock Adjustment]!
An invisible, pale gold time scale instantly cut into the space of the master bedroom, forcibly slowing Ning Rongrong's movement as she turned to look back, along with her visual nerves, by a factor of ten!
As Ning Rongrong's view shifted with her snail-slow turn, Lin Feng swept his right hand upward. The broad, light cloud-brocade quilt at the head of the bed instantly arced through the air and fell over her, covering her completely, head and all, deep beneath the covers.
At the same time, Lin Feng pointed a finger at Qian Renxue's wrist from a distance as she stood frozen in the doorway, drawing her into the shadows of the curtains outside the canopy bed in a flash. With a sweep of his hand, he pulled down the translucent silk bed curtains!
One second later, the flow of time returned to normal.
"Mmph! Brother Lin Feng, why did you cover my head with the quilt?"
Ning Rongrong's muffled protest came from under the covers. Lin Feng had already laid an arm across the quilt and activated a soundproof barrier, completely isolating the space beneath the covers where she lay.
"A maid came to bring some calming incense."
Ning Rongrong immediately covered her mouth in fright. She curled up obediently beneath the warm quilt, not daring to show her head, and murmured through the covers, "Th-then hurry and send her away!"
On the edge of the canopy bed, separated from her by a single layer of cloth, Qian Renxue, whom Lin Feng had just pulled into the shadows of the bed curtains, had fallen into a sitting position beside his legs!