Spirit Hall's Surprise Attack

Salas, the Platinum Bishop who had originally planned to lead a team to Nuoding City himself and seize the credit, was halfway across the wilderness with a group of trusted subordinates when he unexpectedly ran into Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao, who was brimming with Evil Fire and had nowhere to vent it.

When enemies met, their eyes burned all the redder.

Tang Hao was so furious over his son being forced to absorb a useless Ten-Year Soul Ring that he was ready to cough up blood. Upon running into a senior member of his sworn enemy, Spirit Hall, he swung his pitch-black Clear Sky Hammer on the spot.

A few blows smashed the men and carriage alike into a spray of minced meat that filled the sky.

Salas died on the spot, his life and Dao extinguished. Spirit Hall's upper echelons flew into a rage. This was a provocation. They swore to flay Tang Hao alive.

The dossier Su Yuntao had submitted was naturally buried at the bottom of the archives, where no one paid it any attention.

The Spirit Hall position Cai Kun had originally counted on was consequently shelved indefinitely.

Cai Kun, however, was not the sort to sit around and eat through his savings.

He soon found an unconventional path to riches on the outskirts of the Soul Hunting Forest: "Kun's Express Soul Hunting No. 24 Chauffeur Service."

With the extreme speed that came with his High-Speed Train Martial Soul, he set up a small stall outside the forest's iron-barred gate.

He specialized in one-on-one safe escort services for low-level Soul Scholars.

His rates were cheap and charged per trip: a one-way or round trip cost just one Gold Soul Coin.

When they encountered a ferocious Soul Beast, Cai Kun would tuck his employer under one arm and take off at a top speed of two hundred kilometers per hour. Even a thousand-year Wind Baboon could only eat his dust.

In just over ten days, word of his efficient, lifesaving service spread like wildfire through Nuoding City's Soul Hunting circles. Cai Kun had saved up dozens of Gold Soul Coins and was living exceedingly well.

As for Yu Xiaogang, who had stayed in the forest to become a god that day, Cai Kun and Tang San had kept their mouths shut with remarkable tacit understanding. Outsiders knew nothing of what had happened and could only guess wildly.

After the Grandmaster failed to show his face for half a month, the academy assumed he had finally stopped living off their allowance and left. No one was willing to investigate the truth.

Someone-Cai Kun-even gleefully stirred the pot by spreading a rumor that he was dead, gnawed on by Soul Beasts as a snack.

One person told ten, ten told a hundred, and the story grew more serious and more outrageous with every telling.

When the rumors reached the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan in Heaven Dou City, the current clan leader, Yu Yuanzhen, sighed to himself. Apart from him, everyone in the clan, from the elders down to the younger disciples, ate and drank as usual. They did not even hang a single strip of white mourning cloth.

Yu Xiaogang was like an insignificant drop of rain falling into a muddy pool, failing to stir even half a ripple.

"Make way! What are you all crowding around the door for?!"

Cai Kun pushed past the students watching the spectacle and kicked open the battered door, which was ajar.

The room was a complete mess. Yu Xiaogang lay sprawled on the floor, his face looking as though he suffered from kidney deficiency, a faint trickle of white foam coming from his mouth.

"Grandmaster! Grandmaster, wake up!"

Xiao Wu leaned forward curiously and put a hand beneath Yu Xiaogang's nose. She found that his breath was still warm.

The girl blinked her large eyes, pulled out the half-eaten, rock-hard carrot in her hand, and roughly stuffed it into Yu Xiaogang's slightly open mouth, jabbing it hard:

"Have some carrot to perk you up! Wake up, quickly!"

"Mm... cough! Cough, cough, cough!"

The hard carrot jabbed sharply into his shriveled throat. Yu Xiaogang convulsed violently, choking so badly that his eyes rolled back as he woke.

He frantically dug the half carrot out of his mouth, clutched his throat, and retched desperately, tears and snot smeared across his face.

Cai Kun stepped forward and squatted beside Yu Xiaogang. Pressing both hands on his shoulders, he looked like someone eager to see the commotion grow as he hurriedly asked in a low voice:

"Grandmaster! You've finally come back to life!"

"Quick, tell everyone what the Divine Realm is really like! Are the floors paved with gold bricks? Do fairies pour your wine? And why did you come back?!"

"Was moving to the Divine Realm uncomfortable?"

"The... the Divine Realm?!"

Those words struck Yu Xiaogang's fragile nerves like lightning summoned from the ninth heaven.

A moment ago, Yu Xiaogang had still been groggy. Now, every hair on his body stood on end!

Asura God's blood-red iron fists, each as big as a cooking pot, Sea God's slaps that blotted out the sky, and the endless beating replayed wildly in his mind like a surging tide!

"No! Don't hit me!!"

"I was wrong! I was wrong!"

The fright sent Yu Xiaogang into a panic. He wrapped both arms around his head, curled into a ball, and desperately burrowed into the shadows in the corner.

His feet kicked wildly against the floor as he let out a shrill, despairing wail:

"I won't become a god! You can beat me to death, and I still won't become a god!!"

"Let me go back to Douluo Continent! I don't want to become a god! Stop hitting me... please, stop slapping me in the face!!"

"I'm just trash! I'm not a genius! I'm begging you..."

His hoarse screams struck the walls, making the listeners' scalps tingle.

The dozens of academy students watching from outside the door exchanged looks. After a brief, deathly silence, the doorway erupted in a roar of laughter.

"Hahahaha! I'm dying! This freeloader really has gone mad!"

"And they call him a Grandmaster? Who even gave him that title?"

"Ascending to the Divine Realm? I'd say a Mandala Snake bit his brains to mush, and now he's talking nonsense!"

"Move along, move along. A level twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster dreams all day about going to heaven and becoming a god! The sun must be rising in the west."

The crowd shook their heads in contempt and dispersed amid laughter, leaving only a few mocking whistles drifting through the hallway.

Once all the outsiders had gone, Cai Kun leaned forward again and poked Yu Xiaogang's cheek, swollen like a pig's face, with one finger:

"All right, old man, stop howling. Your fans have all gone."

"Come on, what happened in the Divine Realm? How exactly did the God Realm Committee arrange your divine position?"

But by now, the Divine Realm's violent law enforcement had scared the guts out of Yu Xiaogang.

He buried his face between his knees, his body trembling like a leaf in the wind. Aside from repeating "don't hit my face" over and over, he could not get another word out.

Cai Kun straightened up and clicked his tongue regretfully.

It seemed the gods up there had really beaten him into schizophrenia. Cai Kun could not get a single answer out of him.

Just as Cai Kun was preparing to leave, Yu Xiaogang, huddled in the corner, seemed to hear footsteps.

He shakily raised his swollen eyelids, and his puffed-up gaze swept across the floor before settling precisely on Tang San's right hand, hanging beside his trouser leg.

"L-Little San?!"

"Is that you?!"

Yu Xiaogang looked as though he had found a lifesaving straw, yet also as though he had seen the King of Hell come to claim his life.

He lunged out on hands and feet and seized Tang San's legs, all ten fingers gripping his trousers tightly. He raised his terrifying, black-and-blue face, tears and snot streaming down it:

"Little San! Your teacher's good disciple!!"

The sudden lunge startled Tang San into taking half a step back. The mechanism deep inside his right sleeve instantly tightened. If he had not forcibly restrained himself, a Silent Sleeve Arrow would already have lodged in the crown of Yu Xiaogang's head.

"Wh-what were you just doing, Teacher?" Tang San frowned deeply, his voice icy, without a trace of warmth.

Yu Xiaogang raised his face, his whole body trembling violently as he sobbed incoherently:

"Little San! Your teacher was wrong! I was blinded by lard before!!"

"I'll never force you to absorb Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo again! From now on, I'll only find you hundred-year Solitary Bamboo, and I'll never force you to do anything! You can absorb whatever Soul Beast you want!!"

"You're a favored son of heaven! You'll surely break through level one hundred one day and become a Supreme God King whose name shakes the Divine Realm! Trust your teacher, you'll definitely become a god!!"

As Yu Xiaogang wailed, he pounded his own chest wildly, his eyes filled with utter terror of Asura God's divine punishment.

Tang San stood rooted to the spot, his entire body going rigid.

What was this old thing playing at?!

Half a month ago in the Soul Hunting Forest, this fellow had flaunted his level-one-hundred Soul Power, forced Tang San to cut down Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo, and even threatened to make him experience the strict rules governing a teacher's authority.

How had he come back after half a month looking as though his soul had been sucked out? Not only was he kneeling on the ground and weeping, he was also elevating Tang San to the heights of a "God King"?!

When things were out of the ordinary, there had to be a demon behind them!

Tang San had lived two lives and understood the treachery of the human heart better than anyone.

As he saw it, there was no way Yu Xiaogang's groveling could be sincere.

This old fox must have guessed that Tang San resented him after absorbing the Ten-Year Soul Ring and feared that Tang San would poison or assassinate him in secret. So he was deliberately putting on this act of self-torment in front of Cai Kun and Xiao Wu!

He wanted to lull Tang San into dropping his guard so he could secretly lay an even more vicious trap to deal with him! To enslave him!

He already had a way to die!

"Tra... Teacher, you're overstating things."

Tang San took a deep breath and quickly forced a respectful smile onto his face. He used both hands to help Yu Xiaogang up from the floor:

"A teacher for a day is a father for life. You were thinking of your disciple's foundation that day. How could your disciple dare harbor the slightest complaint?"

"You're weak now, and your mind has been overtaxed. You should stop worrying and rest well in your room. That's what you ought to do."

As Tang San exchanged pleasantries, he unobtrusively pulled back the hem of his robe.

He did not want to spend another second beside Yu Xiaogang, who was wrapped in mysteries.

"Teacher, roll call for morning class is about to begin. Your disciple will take his leave and bring you some 'medicine' later."

Without waiting for Yu Xiaogang to respond, Tang San cupped his hands, turned, and quickly left the wrecked office.

Xiao Wu looked at the jittery Yu Xiaogang, then at Tang San, whose face was as dark as water. She pursed her lips and hurried after him.

In the empty room, only Cai Kun remained, arms folded as he smiled at him.

"Grandmaster, stop acting. The stage has already collapsed."

Cai Kun looked down from above at Yu Xiaogang, who was slumped on the floor:

"You scared Tang San away. Now it's just the two of us in this room."

"Come on, who was it that hit you in the Divine Realm? Which mighty figure slapped you into looking like a pig's head?"

At the words "Divine Realm,"

Yu Xiaogang panicked again.

"Don't hit my face! Stop slapping me! This lowly one knows he was wrong!!"

Yu Xiaogang screamed until his vocal cords were nearly torn, his body shaking like a broken sieve as tears and snot poured out:

"Lord Asura God! This lowly one won't dare do it again!"

"I swear! When I return to the mortal world, I'll worship Tang San like an ancestor! If I ever force him to absorb Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo again, I'll cripple my own cultivation! My sons will be born without assholes! My daughters won't look human! Please stop hitting me!!"

Cai Kun raised an eyebrow and clicked his tongue inwardly.

Judging by that reaction, he had clearly been slapped into an extremely severe case of postwar trauma syndrome.

Had there been a war in the Divine Realm? Had Gangzi been sent to the front as cannon fodder, survived by luck, and only then returned to Douluo Continent?

Cai Kun bent down and waved a hand in front of Yu Xiaogang's eyes, tentatively twisting the knife:

"Grandmaster, stop howling. There's no God King in this room. Which gods did you meet up there? Did you announce your title of Spring Bamboo Douluo and astonish them?"

"G-God King?!"

The moment those words came out, the flesh all over Yu Xiaogang's body twitched violently, and he made a rasping gasp:

"I saw them! Both Lord God Kings... I saw them both!"

"This lowly one is guilty! I shouldn't have snuck in! I'll do everything in my power to help Tang San become a god, without the slightest disloyalty! Please spare my life, Lord God Kings!!"

Seeing his pathetic state, Cai Kun understood everything.

This fellow had definitely never become a god. He had plainly been caught red-handed by Asura God and Sea God, strung up and beaten viciously because he had mistreated Tang San, then tossed back like garbage.

Cai Kun could no longer hold back the wicked grin at the corners of his mouth.

Such a rare spectacle—if he did not squeeze out more inside information while the old fellow was out of his mind, he would be betraying his conscience as a spectator.

Cai Kun cleared his throat and launched into a series of soul-searching questions:

"Grandmaster, did you show them your Martial Soul up there? Did that god-bestowed Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo open the God Kings' eyes?"

"And your theory of the Ten Core Competencies, which you studied all your life-where does it rank in the Divine Realm? Did the God Realm Committee give you an academic award on the spot?"

"Or perhaps a Divine Realm literary prize?"

"Oh, right, was there a goddess of devastating beauty in the Divine Realm who fell for your Grandmasterly bearing and wept and begged to become your divine companion? Then the two of you could be together forever, wrapped in endless affection?!"

Those questions were viciously cruel, every word striking precisely at Yu Xiaogang's most humiliating scars.

Yu Xiaogang stared with swollen, bloodshot eyes, his lips trembling. His defenses collapsed completely.

"No... none of it happened!!"

Yu Xiaogang clutched his head and wept bitterly. With his emotions out of control, he screamed everything out at random, like beans spilling from a bamboo tube:

"That damned bamboo was fake! It had something about genuine fruit carved on it. The moment I took it out, Lord Sea God tore it to pieces!"

"My Soul Bones are gone! They were all ripped out while I was alive! All my Soul Power leaked away!"

"What bullshit trials? The written test was slaps in the face, and the combat test was nothing but slaps!"

"They didn't give a damn about my theory! All they cared about was Tang San! They had already picked Tang San to become a god while he was still in his mother's womb! I was nothing but a stinking bug for him to step on!"

"It's so unfair! I'm so outstanding, so why does no one appreciate me?!"

"Boo-hoo-hoo~"

By the time he finished shouting, Yu Xiaogang's Qi and blood had surged backward, and white foam bubbled up in his throat.

His eyes rolled back, and the truth he had spoken made him so angry that he fainted on the spot.

"Tsk. Some Grandmaster. You really can't take much."

Cai Kun straightened up and smacked his lips, still wanting more.

The Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo had been pulled out, the trials to become a god had all come to nothing, and Tang San was a choice morsel personally selected by the God Kings.

There was plenty of information, but it was all within expectations.

Dusk spread across the land, and the setting sun burned the western horizon dark red.

A cold wind howled over the roof of Dorm Seven at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.

Tang San sat cross-legged behind the roof ridge, sheltered from the wind. His hands formed a seal, and his eyes were tightly shut.

His daily grind had begun.

Fine beads of cold sweat covered Tang San's forehead as the faint internal force of his Mysterious Heaven Skill surged madly through his meridians.

Ever since he had been forced to take Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo as his First Soul Ring and gained Blue Silver Pole Vault as his Soul Skill, an immense sense of crisis had gnawed at his heart day and night.

He had to seize every second to grind at his cultivation. Only by desperately honing his body and Hidden Weapons could he erase the disadvantage brought by that useless ten-year ring!

"Phew-"

Tang San exhaled a breath of turbid Qi and had just prepared to circulate through the next major cycle.

Suddenly, a bone-chilling killing aura silently enveloped the entire roof.

The temperature in the air plummeted.

The hairs on Tang San's body stood on end. His right hand instinctively reached for Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist, and he shot backward!

But before his toes could touch the roof tiles, a broad, rough hand reached out without warning and clamped onto his right shoulder!

An immense surge of Soul Power instantly crushed the inner force within Tang San into complete stillness.

"Who?!" Tang San barked, his left Sleeve Arrow about to fire.

"It's me."

A deep, hoarse voice rode the cold wind into his ears.

A tattered black robe whipped in the wind. Its hood slipped back, revealing an aged, stubbled face, its expression as grave as iron.

"Dad?!"

Tang San's pupils contracted sharply, and he froze on the spot.

Wasn't his father supposed to have starved to death with no one to cook for him? How could he suddenly appear on the academy roof like this?

"There's a lot to explain. I'll tell you on the way. Come with me."

Tang Hao gave Tang San no chance to ask questions. He hoisted him up with one hand and tucked him under his arm.

Tang San's ribs ached from the grip. Gasping for breath, he cried:

"Wait! Dad, what on earth happened? Where are we going?"

"Spirit Hall is on our tail."

Tang Hao stamped his foot, transforming into a black shadow:

"Half a month ago, Salas, the bishop of Heaven Dou Temple, died on the main road heading south."

"Pope Hall has been searching everywhere for the killer like mad. They followed the clues to Nuoding City and found out I have a son hidden here!"

"This place has become a death trap. If we don't leave now, we won't even be able to get through the city gates tomorrow!"

At the words "Spirit Hall" and "the bishop's murder," a towering wave of shock surged through Tang San's heart.

"Dad! Can we take Xiao Wu with us?!"

Tang San clutched the tattered hem of Tang Hao's robe, his voice urgent:

"She's an orphan, with no one to rely on in the city! If Spirit Hall seals off the city and searches it, the students in Dorm Seven will surely get caught up in it!"

"Nonsense!"

Tang Hao snapped coldly. Far from slowing, his speed surged even higher:

"If we take that rabbit, neither of us will get out!"

"Besides, if she stays at the academy, she can draw Spirit Hall's attention and buy us time to escape their encirclement!"

Tang Hao's words were cold and cruel, leaving not the slightest room for compromise.

Tang San opened his mouth. He took one last look back at the windows of Dorm Seven as they receded into the distance. A trace of guilt flashed in his eyes, but the clear-headed instinct to survive quickly crushed it completely.

Early the next morning, dawn was just breaking.

The streets of Nuoding City, normally bustling with noise, were eerily silent today.

Beside the little grove outside Dorm Seven, Xiao Wu, her hair tied in a scorpion-tail braid, was stretching in the morning dew.

Suddenly, the pink fur on her ears trembled violently without warning.

This feeling...

Titled Douluo!

And more than one!

The blood in Xiao Wu's body seemed to freeze in an instant, and her face went as white as paper.

As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit who had taken human form to cultivate anew, she could not have been more sensitive to the presence of those who stood at the pinnacle of the continent!

"How did they get here so fast?!"

"How could they know I'm here too?"

Xiao Wu bit her lip, her heart pounding as she turned and raced toward the academy's rear wall, intent only on fleeing the city at once.

But when she cautiously peered over the wall, the sight before her plunged her into utter despair.

The walls encircling Nuoding City bristled with Spirit Hall battle flags, their black patterns standing out against gold!

The towering city gates had slammed shut, and a massive cast-iron bolt had been dropped firmly into place.

More than a hundred of Spirit Hall's elite temple knights, clad in heavy armor, sat astride their horses with sabers held crosswise, sealing off the entire road out of the city so tightly that not even a sparrow could hope to fly through!

Before the plaza of Spirit Hall's Nuoding City branch temple.

Ma Xiunuo, the branch temple master, knelt trembling at the very front, his forehead pressed hard against the cold stone slabs, his back long since soaked with cold sweat.

Before him stood two luxurious carriages carved with fearsome evil spirits and golden-thread chrysanthemums.

"Tap, tap, tap."

Soft, feminine footsteps sounded at an unhurried pace.

The man walking on the left had long, pale-gold waves of hair and wore an exquisitely beautiful robe embroidered with golden thread. His slender fingers held a Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, its blossoms vivid and lush, while a bewitching smile lingered on his lips, enough to chill anyone's heart.

It was none other than Yue Guan, Pope Hall's rank ninety-five Titled Douluo, Chrysanthemum Douluo!

At his side, an insubstantial pitch-black shadow followed him like his own, with no heartbeat and no breath. Only a pair of eyes flickering with scarlet ghost fire appeared and vanished within the black mist-Gui Mei, a rank ninety-five Titled Douluo!

Behind the two Titled Douluo stood exactly eight high-ranking Soul Douluo in blood-red cloaks, their hands resting on their sabers, their murderous presence soaring to the heavens!

"Tsk. A land of barren mountains and hostile waters. Even the air has a cheap smell to it."

Yue Guan held his fingers in an orchid gesture and gently brushed nonexistent dust from his robe. His voice was shrill and grating, setting one's very bones on edge:

"How is the investigation going?"

Ma Xiunuo raised his head shakily and said in a trembling voice:

"Your... Your Majesty Chrysanthemum Douluo! According to the secret report Bishop Salas sent back before his death, Lord Salas was ambushed on his way here. The killer's methods were fierce and overbearing, and there were concealed traces nearby of blows from a hammer. Nine times out of ten, it was Tang Hao, that remnant of the Clear Sky Sect!"

"The secret report also mentioned that two work-study students admitted to Nuoding Academy this year were extremely suspicious. One is called Tang San. He awakened Blue Silver Grass, yet possesses Innate Full Soul Power! Our investigation found that he is Tang Hao's own son, which is why Tang Hao attacked Bishop Salas on the way."

"The other is called Cai Kun. He awakened a strange box and also has Innate Full Soul Power..."

"Very good."

Yue Guan's fingers abruptly tightened around the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, its petals turning into streaks of golden light that danced between his fingers.

He turned his head slightly, his eyes flashing with a viper's malice. His shrill voice instantly carried across the plaza:

"By my order, seal all four gates and go on alert!"

"Take all the Soul Douluo and turn this little city upside down!"

"Anyone suspected of being an accomplice..."

A cruel smile curved Yue Guan's lips as he softly uttered two words:

"Arrest them all."