But I Refuse

"Five Copper Soul Coins... All right, here are fifteen Copper Soul Coins. Little brother, catch."

Tang Ya handed the Copper Soul Coins to Huo Yuhao, but Wang Dong, standing behind him, snatched them first.

"I'm his roommate. I'll collect the money for him." Wang Dong spoke haltingly as she tried her best to avoid letting her clothes come into contact with Huo Yuhao's little stall.

Tang Ya glanced at Huo Yuhao. Seeing that he had no intention of refusing, she handed the Copper Soul Coins to Wang Dong.

In truth, although nothing showed on Huo Yuhao's face, he was somewhat bewildered inside.

Wang Dong's behavior had completely exceeded his expectations. It was as though getting beaten up by him had awakened some strange trait in her, and now she followed him around like a little tagalong.

Xiao Xiao's eyes shifted as she stepped over to Huo Yuhao's side.

"Yuhao, I'll help you."

Wang Dong, who was sorting through the Copper Soul Coins, stiffened slightly.

Meanwhile, the girl buying grilled fish accepted the three skewers Xiao Xiao handed her and passed one of them to the blue-haired youth beside her.

The girl herself took the remaining two grilled fish and sat to one side, eating them carefully.

"Are you new students recruited this year? My name is Tang Ya, and he's Beibei. We're both fourth-year students, so we're your seniors!"

Tang Ya spoke as she ate her grilled fish.

Beibei looked helpless beside her, but he said nothing.

Xiao Xiao said, "Yes, Senior Tang Ya. We're all new students this year."

"Which class are you in?" Tang Ya asked curiously.

"First-year Class One." Wang Dong rubbed a Copper Soul Coin between her fingers as she answered glumly.

"First-year Class One?" Tang Ya and Beibei exchanged a glance, surprise creeping into their voices.

"If I remember correctly, the homeroom teacher of First-year Class One is that freakish old hag, Zhou Yi, right?"

Beibei nodded. "Yes. Teacher Zhou originally taught third-years. I heard she was demoted to the freshman classes after students repeatedly reported her to the academy for being too harsh."

Tang Ya looked at Huo Yuhao and the other two with pity in her eyes.

"Since you've ended up with that freakish old hag Zhou Yi, your days ahead won't be easy."

"Um..." Xiao Xiao hesitated, carefully glanced at Huo Yuhao, then said to Tang Ya, "Senior Tang Ya, Teacher Zhou... Well... Yuhao has already... won her over."

"What?"

Not only Tang Ya, but even Beibei turned to look at her, shocked by what Xiao Xiao had said.

Wang Dong chose that moment to make her presence known. "Teacher Zhou's teaching philosophy and methods are all wrong."

"It was Yuhao who exposed her true nature."

"But..." Beibei seemed about to say something, but the excited Tang Ya cut him off.

"Hehe, little junior, you're pretty impressive! I've long found that freakish old hag Zhou Yi unbearable too."

"Beibei keeps saying that freakish old hag is a good teacher. I think he's just been fooled!"

"Xiao Ya, you... Sigh, forget it." Beibei sighed.

Tang Ya glared at him. "What did you call me?"

Before Beibei could answer, Tang Ya turned back and fixed Huo Yuhao with her beautiful eyes.

Seeing Tang Ya like this, Beibei felt inexplicably irritated. Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao also kept glancing at Huo Yuhao, each with an equally indescribable feeling in their hearts.

"Little junior, do you want to join my sect?"

After staring at him for quite a while, Tang Ya quickly finished the grilled fish in her hand and asked Huo Yuhao seriously.

"My sect was once the number one sect on the continent! You definitely won't lose out by joining! The two of you can join too, junior brother and junior sister. You're both welcome if you want in!"

Seeing Tang Ya start recruiting people, Beibei quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

However, after hearing Tang Ya say, "once the number one on the continent," Wang Dong's expression became strange. She pressed, "Senior Tang Ya, may I ask what your sect is called?"

Tang Ya's expression turned solemn at Wang Dong's question. "The Tang Sect. Once the continent's number one sect."

"The Tang Sect..." Wang Dong's expression was somewhat odd, but no one paid it any mind. They only assumed she knew the Tang Sect's legends.

Only Huo Yuhao knew why Wang Dong had reacted that way.

Clear Sky Sect... Sooner or later, I'll slaughter those two beasts and count it as interest on Tang San's debt.

Everyone suddenly felt a chill around them, and Wang Dong snapped back to her senses.

Just as Tang Ya waited expectantly for Huo Yuhao's answer, he finally spoke.

"I refuse to join the Tang Sect."

Wang Dong, who had just been about to speak, looked at Huo Yuhao in astonishment. Then, as if she had thought of something, she did not say anything further.

Tang Ya's eyes dimmed slightly. "That makes sense. The Tang Sect's foundation has already been taken from us. Beibei and I are the only ones left. A Tang Sect like this truly holds no appeal for you..."

Tang Ya's words seemed to move Wang Dong, who was clearly tempted.

"Why was the Tang Sect's foundation taken away?" Xiao Xiao asked.

Tang Ya, whose mood had been low, was instantly left speechless.

However, she quickly composed herself and said, "More than four thousand years ago, the Sun Moon Continent collided with the Douluo Continent. That was also when our Tang Sect began to decline."

"Our Tang Sect became famous through hidden weapons, and selling hidden weapons was our main source of income. But after that, the Sun Moon Empire's Soul Tools completely surpassed the Tang Sect's hidden weapons."

"From then on, the various nations that had always bought hidden weapons from the Tang Sect began reducing their purchases..."

Tang Ya recounted the Tang Sect's rise and fall. When she finally spoke of her parents, tears welled from her eyes and she clenched her fists tightly.

Wang Dong could not help murmuring, "Are the Tang Sect's hidden weapons really inferior to those Soul Tools?"

Beibei sighed. "From certain perspectives, that is indeed true."

"No. In every sense, hidden weapons are completely inferior to Soul Tools."

Huo Yuhao's sudden interjection made everyone turn to look at him.

Though Tang Ya knew Huo Yuhao might be stating the truth, she was still somewhat angry. However, she did not let it show.

Xiao Xiao's eyes, on the other hand, seemed to light up with stars. She could sense that the boy beside her was about to show off!

"All the Tang Sect's foreign trade consisted of equipment known as mechanical hidden weapons. At most, such hidden weapons could only threaten Soul Masters at the Soul Ancestor level."

"But Soul Tools are entirely different. From Titled Douluo down to ordinary Soul Masters, anyone with Soul Power can use them, and they are more powerful than hidden weapons of the same level."

"Although Soul Tools cannot be used by commoners without Soul Power, those commoners likewise lack both the strength and means to use hidden weapons."

"Given that, isn't it only natural that hidden weapons cannot compare to Soul Tools?"

"The Tang Sect's decline cannot be blamed on Soul Tools. If anyone is to blame, it can only be the Tang Sect's predecessors for being conservative and arrogantly complacent."

After taking a closer look at the original work, the power scaling in Douluo really was baffling. In Douluo Dalu 1, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's full-force strike could not kill the Hell White Tiger formed by eight-ring Dai Zhu. Yet when Titled Dai Zhu fused into a god-level Hell White Tiger and unleashed a full-force strike—one that Oscar had even strengthened—Golden Crocodile took that enhanced god-level blow head-on without using a single skill. Then he was hit with another god-level light bomb, got back up, continued directing the battle, and merely lamented that he was old and recovered too slowly.

Earlier, they had been holding back the Fourth and Fifth Worshippers. Those two Worshippers were extremely powerful. Although the Hell White Tiger's strength was astonishing, they had still barely withstood its attacks and preserved themselves while being steadily forced back.

Two level-96 Worshippers could barely hold off a god-level Hell White Tiger. Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo would be crying themselves unconscious in the bathroom.

In Douluo Dalu 2, eight-ring Grilled Fish and Tang Wutong's Martial Soul Fusion could not defeat level-97 Yan Shaozhe; they could merely put up a fight.

It was far too confusing.