At Dai Lingfeng's level,
he didn't even need to make a special effort to help Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao could reap endless benefits simply by being his younger brother, and that was clearly not what Dai Mubai and Tang San wanted to see.
The White Tiger patriarch treated Huo Yuhao well out of consideration for Dai Lingfeng's feelings,
but Dai Lingfeng had to consider Dai Mubai's feelings...
"Remember what I said. If you help them, you'll only be harming them!"
"Steel your heart."
Dai Mubai's faint voice reached Dai Lingfeng through the Demon Tiger King Soul Bone.
What else was there to say?
The will of the God of War ancestor was hard to defy.
Rather than stand on ceremony, he might as well obey!
"There's no need for that."
"Yuhao's Innate Soul Power is only level 1, and his Martial Soul isn't the White Tiger. If you favor him with resources because of me, that would be unfair to every member of the White Tiger clan!"
"My birth mother is only a maid. She isn't fit for polite society and can't manage the Duke's Mansion, so there's no need to put her in a difficult position."
"Just keep their treatment as it was."
Dai Lingfeng spoke with a righteous air, his face expressionless.
Heaven be his witness,
he truly wanted to help Huo Yuhao and Huo Yun'er, but the innately evil Dai Mubai wouldn't allow it.
Being made to watch his mother and younger brother suffer while he enjoyed life pained him!
Dai Lingfeng couldn't defy Dai Mubai's wishes,
so much as he wanted to help Huo Yuhao and Huo Yun'er, there was nothing he could do.
"This..."
The White Tiger patriarch and several house heads exchanged glances.
What did he mean?
Was Dai Lingfeng forbidding them from helping Huo Yun'er and her son, Huo Yuhao?
Helping them would be unfair to the entire clan.
He had spoken with such lofty righteousness, so stern and impartial.
The White Tiger patriarch really wasn't sure what to make of it.
Who knew if their leader wanted to have his cake and eat it too? What if they really didn't help Huo Yuhao, and Dai Lingfeng got angry?
Surely the mother and her two sons couldn't be on bad terms.
Forget it. At the very least, for Dai Lingfeng's sake, he would show Huo Yuhao and his mother some goodwill and slowly sound out Dai Lingfeng's attitude.
"The Duke's Mansion's affairs can wait until that bastard Dai Hao gets back. He should be on his way now."
"Lingfeng, go eat first."
The White Tiger patriarch's heart ached when he thought of how Dai Lingfeng had lived these past years.
What good food could their qilin child have eaten at the Duke's Mansion?
He was lucky enough not to have gone hungry.
Now they had to make it up to the child.
Delicacies from the mountains and seas would all be available, whatever Dai Lingfeng wanted to eat.
"All right, let's eat first."
As it happened, Dai Lingfeng was hungry too. In the years since he had transmigrated, he had lived under someone else's roof at the Duke's Mansion. His life had been hardly fit for a human being.
He could finally have a proper meal.
Dai Lingfeng couldn't help getting excited. His steps were especially light as he followed the patriarch to eat.
After he had taken the Mystic Water Pill earlier, a maid had cleaned him up and dressed him in a set of exquisite finery.
His old, tattered clothes, covered in patches Huo Yun'er had sewn on, had naturally been thrown away.
Fine clothes made the man, just as a fine saddle made the horse.
Dai Lingfeng had awakened his Martial Souls and gained the Dai Family's distinctive evil double-pupiled eyes. After absorbing the Soul Bone and taking the Mystic Water Pill, he now gave off a faint air of regal nobility. He looked entirely transformed.
He was a completely different person from the frail, impoverished boy he had been before awakening his Martial Souls.
"Sit down and eat your fill."
The White Tiger patriarch had prepared a lavish spread, including quite a few dishes of Soul Beast meat. It was the finest fare the clan could offer.
They didn't stand on ceremony.
Only after Dai Lingfeng picked up his chopsticks did the group of old men take a few token bites.
Dai Lingfeng took the imperial treatment in stride.
Before the meal was even over,
several clan elders brought Dai Hao back under guard.
They were travel-worn and haggard. Clearly, they hadn't delayed for a moment on the road, hurrying back as fast as they could for fear of keeping the patriarch and Dai Lingfeng waiting.
"You bastard, kneel!!"
The White Tiger patriarch put down his chopsticks, glared at Dai Hao, and cursed him.
"Yes, Patriarch."
Dai Hao still hadn't figured out what was going on. The clan elders who had fetched him hadn't told him a thing.
He had been dragged out of the military camp by force
and made to hurry all the way back.
The clan's most respected elders were all before him.
With such a grand scene,
Dai Hao had even suspected they were about to rebel.
Even if they weren't rebelling, something serious must have happened at the Duke's Mansion. He couldn't go wrong by kneeling first.
"Dai Hao, you little bastard, do you know who he is?"
The White Tiger patriarch stood, walked up to Dai Hao, and pointed at Dai Lingfeng.
Dai Lingfeng didn't pause in his eating for a moment.
It was his first good meal in the years since he had transmigrated. He had to fill his stomach before he had the mind to pay Dai Hao any attention.
Thanks to the Soul Bone and the Mystic Water Pill,
Dai Lingfeng didn't have to worry about his stomach, accustomed to bran and chaff, being unable to handle rich food. On the contrary, he had a huge appetite and could eat to his heart's content.
"I don't know."
Dai Hao looked at Dai Lingfeng, utterly baffled.
One look at the boy's face showed he was a child of their White Tiger Lineage. His looks and bearing were quite good, but Dai Hao really had no idea what the boy had to do with him.
Had the patriarch sent people thousands of miles to drag him back for this boy?
Smack!
The White Tiger patriarch slapped Dai Hao hard across the face. He struck with such force that Dai Hao staggered and nearly fell to the ground.
Dai Hao was a Soul Douluo,
but the White Tiger patriarch's cultivation was no small thing either, and he had put all his strength into that slap.
"You're a fool of a father."
"You don't even know that your own son awakened Twin Martial Souls, the White Tiger and the Hell Spirit Cat."
"If Tianli hadn't brought the child here, how much longer would you have remained in the dark?"
As a duke of considerable standing, Dai Hao had never been slapped before.
The patriarch had always been very courteous to him, too.
Struck without warning, Dai Hao's head buzzed.
It wasn't because of the slap,
but because of the patriarch's words.
The slap hadn't hurt him at all, but the patriarch's words had struck him like thunder.
The White Tiger and the Hell Spirit Cat as Twin Martial Souls!
His son!
Those two pieces of information made Dai Hao's mind go blank in an instant, leaving him unable to think.
The White Tiger and the Hell Spirit Cat appearing as Twin Martial Souls was simply unheard of. It certainly was a matter worth bringing him back for.
Such a heaven's chosen was his son, yet he didn't even recognize him.
He really had deserved that slap.
"Are you... Luoli?"
Dai Hao looked at Dai Lingfeng and narrowed his eyes, searching his mind for information about the boy.
He really didn't remember much,
and Dai Lingfeng's appearance had changed greatly after awakening his Martial Souls. Dai Hao hadn't associated him with Dai Lingfeng at all and thought he was his other son, Dai Luoli.
Dai Hao found it strange, though.
Dai Luoli shouldn't have been old enough to awaken his Martial Soul yet.
"I'm Dai Lingfeng."
Dai Lingfeng stopped eating. He had to admit, that old bastard Dai Hao had succeeded in getting his attention.
Damn it, he couldn't even recognize his own son...
"Oh, oh, Lingfeng."
Dai Hao felt awkward at having mistaken one son for another, but he found it even stranger.
As for the twins, Dai Lingfeng and Huo Yuhao,
although he didn't remember much about them, he knew a little about their circumstances.
That can't be right...
Dai Lingfeng shouldn't be so talented.