"Changge, how much longer are we supposed to wait for this Sun Moon Empire person? Why was he taking so long?" Even Electrolux felt they had been waiting too long. Why did they have to wait this long?
"I can understand it. After all, the Douluo Three Kingdoms often sent many spies into the Sun Moon Empire, and 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, did to the Sun Moon Empire amounted to long-term infiltration and a chain of schemes.
(1) The "exchange students" were spies sent by Shrek in disguise.
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—the Sun Moon Empire had Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen at Shrek.
His true mission was to use the Spirit Eyes Martial Soul's spiritual detection sharing to copy the core formations of high-level Soul Tools and send the blueprints back to Shrek and the Tang Sect.
Along the way, he also sabotaged the Sun Moon Empire:
He probed Mingde Hall's defenses and core secrets.
He took away the Snow Empress embryo and the humanoid Soul Tool sample.
He extorted a large quantity of rare metals from Jing Hongchen, then traded his self-developed Soul Tools for the ninth-level Soul Tool, "Red Dust Protection."
He poached talent, luring the Eight-Level Soul Engineer Xuan Ziwen, the sword fanatic Ji Juechen, and others back to the Tang Sect.
Before leaving, he even used hollow Fixed Soul Cannon shells to fool Xuan Ziwen and successfully win him over.
As a result, Jing Hongchen was so enraged that he invited Long Xiaoyao to hunt down Huo Yuhao.
(2) Later on, there was also "military infiltration and covert operations."
After the war broke out, Huo Yuhao pulled off several more operations:
He disguised himself and infiltrated a frontline military camp, posing as the Holy Spirit Cult's "Masked Douluo" to enter the Sun Moon Empire and Holy Spirit Cult encampment and rescue Tang Ya.
During the Emperor-Slaying Operation, he led the Three Kingdoms' Titled Douluo, 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's Soul Engineer Legion through the Necromantic Demiplane to strike at the Sun Moon Empire's rear—burning supplies, bombing 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 on guard.
Before long, an exceedingly refined and handsome man appeared. This person was Jing Hongchen.
"My name is Jing Hongchen."
"You are the famous Hall Master Hongchen of the Sun Moon Empire? Hello!"
Xiao Changge naturally knew of this fool with too much money. This matter was simply too famous. Anyone who had lived through, heard of, or participated in the era of The Unrivaled Tang Clan had heard about this fool's story.
"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?"
"???"
Hall Master Hongchen, what was the point of asking that? Why were you asking about my mother? I did see my mother in this life, but that was when I was a baby. She had abandoned me outright.
You were an important figure in the Sun Moon Empire, yet you were asking me this? What were you after? What meaning did this question have?
I thought you would ask 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 would ask about that.
"Changge, it seemed that your background might 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 was, because I was an abandoned child. Back when I was in the village, some people had indeed seen what my mother looked like.
I don't remember what my mother looked like. I think I may have seen her when I was born, but the problem was... I was still a baby then."
Xiao Changge had always known that this lie detector had not been taken away, so what he said was half truth and half lie, making it impossible for the lie detector to distinguish. Soul Tool lie detectors also had flaws; there were certain lies they could not detect.
"...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 alongside merchants, earning money for them in the hope of awakening my Martial Soul.
You should also know that in the Douluo Three Kingdoms, basically no one helped others awaken their Martial Souls for free. There used to be a Spirit Hall in the Douluo Three Kingdoms that helped people awaken their Martial Souls for free, but Shrek destroyed Spirit Hall."
"I know that. However, the history books of the Douluo Continent paint Spirit Hall in an extremely poor light."
"That was because Spirit Hall touched the nobles' share of the pie, so they joined forces to destroy it. Think about it—how terrible could an organization that helped commoners awaken their Martial Souls for free really have been?
Did the Douluo Three Kingdoms have anyone who helped people awaken their Martial Souls for free now?"
"That did make sense." Jing Hongchen was not particularly concerned about the forces of the Douluo Three Kingdoms anyway. 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 the age of twelve because of that, correct?"
"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 seemed you truly had a favorable impression of the Sun Moon Empire. Then could you tell me some of your mother's characteristics? For example, had anyone in your village mentioned what she looked like or any distinguishing features?"
"That happened a long time ago, but I remembered some of my mother's characteristics. 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 what she looked like when he was a baby, so he spoke of it.
Moreover, those villagers really had mentioned her appearance and distinguishing features, so saying that the villagers had told him was not exactly a lie.
"So that was how it was... It matches that woman's characteristics. It matches too well. It seemed he really was that woman's child. If that was the case, then Xiao Changge's identity..."
Jing Hongchen then brought up another topic.
"Then I would like to ask, why is your surname Xiao?"
"This is the name and surname I gave myself. Since I had no idea who my parents were, I chose my own surname and name, and took Xiao as my surname. *I couldn't exactly say it was because my surname had also been Xiao in my previous life.
But that wasn't really a lie either. There were loopholes and gaps to exploit.*"
After Xiao Changge finished speaking, Hall Master Hongchen looked at the lie detector, whose red light had not come on. 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 was probably true.
It seemed this person truly was that woman's child. If that was the case! And if he had Innate Full Soul Power...
Before you continue