Tests and Probing by the Red Dust Hall Master

"Changge, how much longer are we supposed to wait for this Sun Moon Empire guy? Why's he so slow?" Even Electrolux felt it was taking a bit too long. Why did they have to wait this long?

"I can understand it. After all, people from the Douluo Three Kingdoms often sent a great many spies into the Sun Moon Empire. The Sun Moon Empire had been sabotaged by spies from the Douluo Three Kingdoms more times than anyone could count.

So it was understandable that they were deeply wary of me."

The Douluo Three Kingdoms and Shrek had sent spies into the Sun Moon Empire more than once.

What the protagonist group—mainly Huo Yuhao—had done to the Sun Moon Empire was long-term infiltration combined with a series of schemes.

(1) An "exchange student" on the surface, but actually a spy sent by Shrek.

After the Soul Master Tournament, Mu En agreed to the Sun Moon Empire's exchange student program and sent Huo Yuhao to study at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy and Mingde Hall for two years.

His public identity was that of an exchange student, with both sides effectively holding hostages—Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were at Shrek.

His actual mission was to use the Spirit Eyes Martial Soul's shared spiritual detection to copy the core arrays of high-level Soul Tools and send the blueprints back to Shrek and the Tang Sect.

While he was at it, he also screwed over the Sun Moon Empire.

He thoroughly investigated Mingde Hall's defenses and core secrets.

He took away the Snow Empress embryo and samples of humanoid Soul Tools.

He swindled Jing Hongchen out of a large amount of rare metals, then traded self-developed Soul Tools for the Class 9 Soul Tool, "Red Dust Protection."

He poached talent, luring the Class 8 Soul Engineer Xuan Ziwen, the sword fanatic Ji Juechen, and others back to the Tang Sect.

Before leaving, he even used empty-shell fixed-installation Soul Cannon shells to fool Xuan Ziwen and successfully turned him over.

As a result, Jing Hongchen was so enraged that he asked Long Xiaoyao to hunt down Huo Yuhao.

(2) There were also "military spies/infiltration operations" later on.

After the war broke out, Huo Yuhao pulled off several more operations.

He disguised himself and infiltrated the frontline camp, posing as the Holy Spirit Cult's "Masked Douluo" to sneak into the Sun Moon Empire and Holy Spirit Cult encampment and rescue Tang Ya.

During the Emperor-Slaying Operation, he led Titled Douluo from the three kingdoms, including Du Busi and Tianyang Douluo, into Mingdu to assassinate Xu Tianran and abduct Crown Prince Xu Yunhan. Although the plan changed after Huo Yuhao returned the child, it was still a joint infiltration and assassination operation by the three kingdoms.

In raids behind enemy lines, he led the Tang Sect Soul Engineer Corps through the Necromantic Demiplane to strike the Sun Moon Empire's rear—burning provisions, blowing up workshops, and cutting supply lines.

It could be said that the Sun Moon Empire had truly been frightened senseless by the spies of the Douluo Three Kingdoms. They had no choice but to be cautious.

Before long, a remarkably refined and handsome man appeared. This person was Jing Hongchen.

"My name is Jing Hongchen."

"You must be the renowned Red Dust Hall Master of the Sun Moon Empire. Hello!"

Of course, Xiao Changge knew about this sucker. This incident was simply too famous. Anyone who had lived through the era of The Unrivaled Tang Clan, or had heard of or participated in this matter, knew about this unfortunate fool.

"I have a question. You once said that you were an orphan. Have you ever seen your mother, or do you know anything about her?"

"???"

Red Dust Hall Master, what was the point of asking that? Why ask about my mother? I did see my mother in this life, but that was when I was a baby. She abandoned me right away.

You're such an important figure in the Sun Moon Empire, yet you're asking me this? What are you after? What meaning does this question have?

I thought you'd ask about how I got my Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings. After all, having Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings as both the first and second Soul Rings was indeed extremely difficult. I thought you'd ask me about that.

"Changge, it looks like your background may not be so simple. Answer with what you know first."

"Alright."

Xiao Changge then took a deep breath and began recounting what he knew.

"I don't know who my mother is, because I was an abandoned child. Back when I lived in the village, some people really had seen what my mother looked like.

I don't remember her appearance. I may have seen her when I was born, but the problem is... I was still a baby then."

Xiao Changge had always known that the lie detector had not been taken away, so what he said was a mix of truth and lies, making it impossible for the device to distinguish them. Besides, Soul Tool lie detectors had flaws. Some lies simply could not be detected.

"...You mean you were abandoned?"

"I lived alone from a young age, though the people in the village took care of me. Later, I worked with merchants, helping them earn money, hoping that I could awaken my Martial Soul.

You should know that basically no one in the Douluo Three Kingdoms helped others awaken their Martial Souls for free. There used to be a Spirit Hall in the Douluo Three Kingdoms that awakened Martial Souls for free, but Shrek destroyed it."

"I know that, but the history books of the Douluo Continent give Spirit Hall a terrible evaluation."

"That was because Spirit Hall had touched the nobles' share of the pie, so they joined forces and destroyed it. Think about it—how bad could a force that helped commoners awaken their Martial Souls for free possibly be?

Do the Douluo Three Kingdoms have anyone who helps people awaken their Martial Souls for free now?"

"That does make sense." Jing Hongchen was not particularly concerned about the forces of the Douluo Three Kingdoms. As long as they did not affect the Sun Moon Empire, what did Spirit Hall have to do with them?

"So you awakened your Martial Soul at twelve because of that, right?"

"That's right. I'm very grateful to the Sun Moon Empire. I don't know that Soul Engineer uncle's name, but he was the one who helped me awaken my Martial Soul. Later, Shrek killed him."

"It seems you truly have a favorable impression of the Sun Moon Empire. Then can you tell me some of your mother's characteristics? For example, did anyone in your village mention what she looked like or any distinctive features?"

"That was a long time ago. I remember some of my mother's traits. I heard people in the village mention things like..."

Xiao Changge then described the characteristics of his mother in this life. After all, he had seen her appearance when he was a baby, so he spoke of it.

Moreover, those villagers really had mentioned his mother's appearance and features, so saying that the villagers had told him did not count as lying.

"I see... They fit that woman's traits perfectly. Far too perfectly. It looks like he really is that woman's child. If that's the case, then Xiao Changge's identity..."

Jing Hongchen then changed the subject.

"Then I have another question. Why is your surname Xiao?"

"This is the name and surname I chose for myself. I had no idea who my parents were, so I picked my own surname and name. I chose Xiao as my surname.

I couldn't exactly say it was because my surname had been Xiao in my previous life.

But that wasn't really a lie. There were loopholes and gray areas to exploit."

After Xiao Changge finished speaking, the Red Dust Hall Master looked at the lie detector, whose red light had not lit up. Although the lie detector was not advanced enough to detect every lie, some of this information had to be true.

At the very least, much of it should have been true.

It seems this person really should be that woman's child. If that's the case! And with Innate Full Soul Power...