The Mysterious Father and Son; Tang Chen Discusses "God"

A sword-wielding old man in the crowd looked at Li Changsheng, who was departing, and said, "Such exquisite swordsmanship—this is the true path of the sword."

The middle-aged man beside the old man asked doubtfully, "Father, did you understand his swordsmanship? I don't see how I could, I just felt he was fast."

The old man snorted, "Hmph, what do you know? Don't you realize that during the earlier sparring match, Tang Chen started infusing his Soul Power from the few initial moves? He just did it very discreetly. But this Mr. Li, apart from that final burst of Soul Power, didn't use a single bit of Soul Power throughout the entire fight, relying solely on his own swordsmanship to contend with Tang Chen."

"What? Tang Chen used Soul Power! Mr. Li defeated Tang Chen relying on his own swordsmanship?" the middle-aged man exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, it's unbelievable, but isn't that proof of the height of his swordsmanship?"

"Then what are you waiting for? You should go challenge him to a duel!" the middle-aged man said excitedly, heading towards Forget Worries Pavilion as he spoke.

Seeing his son's foolish behavior, the old man slapped him on the back of the head, "Silly boy! He just arrived in town today, it would be very inappropriate to disturb him now. Wait until tomorrow to go, and don't cause unnecessary trouble!"

"Okay," the middle-aged man said, looking dejected.

"I'll go tomorrow to challenge him to a duel, and you should come with me too, maybe you'll gain some enlightenment." After saying this, the old man left without looking back.

"Heh, wasting my time with my old man." The man said as he chased after him.

The night was pitch black.

Tang Chen led Tang Hao through the night, finally arriving at the entrance of a small hut. Tang Chen kicked open the wooden door.

The Soul Master inside suddenly stood up, shouting at Tang Chen, "Who are you? Coming in and kicking the door down! Showing no respect at all. There's someone here, you should leave. If you don't leave, I won't be polite." He was about to sit down.

Tang Chen's heart burned with anger at this.

He had fought with Li Changsheng at noon today, ultimately losing the duel after his Self-Created Soul Skill—Exploding Ring—was broken, and had fled in disgrace under everyone's watchful eyes, losing face. He was even scolded tonight. Just thinking about it made him furious, so he pulled out the Clear Sky Hammer.

The Soul Master saw Tang Chen pull out the Clear Sky Hammer! Suddenly, he remembered Night Zifeng's warning at Forget Worries Pavilion, and was shocked. He was just about to say a few kind words to Tang Chen and ease the tension, but the Clear Sky Hammer had already struck him. The hammer crushed the Soul Master into a meat pancake.

Seeing the Soul Master crushed to death by himself, Tang Chen's face showed no emotion. He walked over to the fire and sat cross-legged, healing his injuries. He said to Tang Hao, who was lying nearby, "Stop acting, I knew you were awake a long time ago."

Tang Hao, who had been unconscious on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes and sat cross-legged beside Tang Chen, quietly watching the fire.

The grandfather and grandson remained silent for a long time. Then, Tang Chen suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. Seeing this, Tang Hao quickly said, "Grandfather, what's wrong with you? Are you injured too?"

"Hao'er, I'm fine, just a little hurt," Tang Chen said calmly, waving his hand.

"Are you injured? What happened?" Tang Hao asked, puzzled.

"After you fainted, I fought with a young man… in the end, I was injured by him," Tang Chen briefly explained the situation.

"A young man? Who could fight with you and injure you?" Tang Hao was surprised.

"Sigh, there's always someone better out there, it truly is as the saying goes. I met someone extraordinary today." Tang Chen sighed.

"After returning to Clear Sky Sect, I will go into seclusion and contemplate how to solve the flaw in the Exploding Ring."

"Mobilize all of the sect's intelligence network to investigate information about that person and those three siblings. I want to see their information when I emerge from seclusion. Also, keep those people in the sect in line and don't cause any more trouble. If they provoke them, it will be difficult to handle." Tang Chen said seriously.

Seeing his grandfather, Tang Chen, say this so seriously, Tang Hao knew that Clear Sky Sect had truly run into trouble. He said dejectedly, "I understand, Grandfather."

Tang Chen, seeing Tang Hao's dejected look, scolded him, "Cheer up! That person isn't invincible. We just had a friendly spar, it wasn't a life-or-death battle. If it were a life-or-death battle, we wouldn't necessarily lose with the Clear Sky Hammer, the world's first Martial Soul."

"Besides, the moment I saw him, I felt that he was extraordinary. His aura was perfect, it simply wasn't something that should exist in the Douluo Continent. Therefore, I suspect he has a Divine Trial." Tang Chen continued.

Tang Hao looked puzzled, "A Divine Trial? What is that?"

Tang Chen, seeing Tang Hao's puzzled expression, continued to explain, "From the time a Soul Master awakens their Martial Soul to cultivating to the 99th level Ultimate Douluo, there's only one way to further improve themselves—to ascend to God."

"And there are two methods for ascending to God—the first is to create a divine position. I once checked ancient texts in Clear Sky Sect, and found that there was only one person who succeeded in creating a divine position. That's the ancestor of the Martial Soul Hall—the Angel God. According to the ancient texts, she accumulated faith by constantly healing humans and killing Evil Soul Masters, eventually cultivating to level ninety-nine and creating a divine position through faith, thus transforming her Martial Soul into a divine-level Martial Soul."

Tang Hao heard about the existence of Gods for the first time, and asked with confusion, "Gods? How lucky is the Martial Soul Hall! What's the second method for ascending to God?"

"That method is—the Divine Trial. The Divine Trial is a test for the successors of the gods. Those who can participate in the Divine Trial are exceptionally talented individuals. Reaching level ninety-nine only grants you the qualification to ascend to God; I don't know any other knowledge about the Divine Trial. Of course, if you pass the Divine Trial and ascend to God, your descendants' Martial Souls won't become divine-level Martial Souls." Tang Chen finished explaining the second method and then continued to say to Tang Hao, "I'll settle this one matter and then I'll go look for the Divine Trial. It's too difficult to create a divine position."

After listening to everything Grandfather Tang Chen said about Gods, Tang Hao looked at the fire, his eyes reflecting the flickering flames. He didn't know what he was thinking, and his whole demeanor changed, becoming extremely gloomy.

Tang Chen felt Tang Hao's change but didn't think much of it, believing that his failure had spurred his grandson to improve his cultivation.

However, Tang Chen never imagined that from this moment on, Tang Hao would slowly transform into a selfish and unscrupulous person, willing to resort to any means to achieve his goals, ultimately leading to the downfall of Clear Sky Sect, the abandonment of its four affiliated sects, the betrayal of his wife's Soul Rings, and even the death of his own son. At that time, he had already become a sacrifice for the Asura Divine Trial and was powerless to stop such things.