Yu Xiaogang Could Not Believe It, Tang San Was Overwhelmed by Grief and Fury, Spitting Blood!

The Spirit Hall's Papal Edict swept across every corner of the Douluo Continent at incredible speed.

Naturally, it reached Shrek Academy as well.

Inside a dimly lit study piled high with yellowed books of every kind.

Yu Xiaogang sat at his desk, brows tightly furrowed as he wrote.

A thick notebook lay open before him, densely filled with records and conjectures concerning various soul ring combinations and martial soul mutations.

Recently, Tang San had encountered several bottlenecks in Soul Power cultivation and martial soul control. Yu Xiaogang was trying to find a breakthrough from a theoretical perspective.

Just as he was immersed in his complicated data deductions.

With a bang, the door was suddenly shoved open with brute force.

Headmaster Flender staggered over to Yu Xiaogang's desk and placed a poster on its surface.

Yu Xiaogang looked down at it, and his body suddenly froze.

The quill in his hand fell onto the open notebook with a clatter, ink quickly bleeding across the page.

Spirit Hall Papal Edict:

The Clear Sky Sect shall be erased from the continent as of today!

Let all under heaven bear witness! Those who submit shall prosper; those who defy shall perish!

It felt as if his heart had been seized tightly by an icy iron hand.

A tremor and chill rising from the depths of his soul made every hair on his body stand on end!

"The Clear Sky Sect... erased from the continent!"

Yu Xiaogang muttered those words repeatedly, all color draining from his face in an instant until it was utterly pale.

Those eyes once filled with the light of wisdom now held only boundless shock and confusion.

As well as a vast, absurd sense that the sky itself had collapsed!

As a theory Grandmaster, he knew the power structure of the continent's top forces like the back of his hand.

The Clear Sky Sect!

It was the sect that inherited the Clear Sky Hammer, the greatest tool martial soul under heaven.

It was a colossal force that even Spirit Hall feared.

It was a sacred ground that had once produced peerless experts like Tang Hao and Tang Xiao.

And more than that... it was Tang San's birthplace, the sect of his father, Tang Hao!

How was that possible?

How could it have been... wiped out by Spirit Hall just like that?

"No... impossible... This is impossible!"

Yu Xiaogang abruptly rose to his feet, knocking over the chair behind him with the force of his movement. It made a piercing scrape.

He roared in discomposure, his body trembling slightly from extreme shock and an indescribable terror.

Tang San was the first person he thought of.

Though Tang San knew little about the Clear Sky Sect, it was the origin of his bloodline, the root his father had always held close to his heart.

This news was no different from a bolt from the blue for Tang San!

Some time ago, the news of Pope Bibi Dong's dismissal had already caused Yu Xiaogang considerable shock.

He had even considered personally going to Spirit City to investigate.

But the Crown Prince's disappearance, the extermination of the Strength Clan, and a series of other events, along with Liu Erlong's presence by his side, had made him abandon that idea.

At that time, Yu Xiaogang had still been able to remain calm.

But now that the Clear Sky Sect had been destroyed, he could no longer keep calm.

If even the Clear Sky Sect had fallen like this, then if Spirit Hall moved against the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, it would be even easier.

Meanwhile, Tang San had just walked out of a blacksmith shop in Heaven Dou City.

Having commissioned another batch of hidden weapons, he wore a broad smile.

Just then, Tang San noticed a group of people gathered in front of a notice board, apparently reading something.

Curiosity immediately drove him closer.

Bzzzt—!

The Clear Sky Sect shall be erased from the continent as of today!

Those few words were like Divine Thunder from the ninth heaven, exploding directly within the depths of his soul!

Tang San's body jolted violently.

The Mysterious Heaven Skill Soul Power within him, which had already reached a bottleneck, suddenly went out of control.

Like a wild horse breaking free of its reins, it rampaged madly through his meridians!

"Pfft—!"

A mouthful of scalding blood suddenly sprayed from Tang San's mouth without warning.

Intense pain shot through his meridians, yet he seemed unable to feel it at all.

Every one of his senses had been completely seized by those cold, brutal words in his mind.

The Clear Sky Sect... had been erased?!

That sect his father occasionally mentioned with complicated emotions and deep longing?

That colossal force which had inherited the greatest tool martial soul under heaven?

That... origin of his bloodline?

It was just gone? Destroyed by Spirit Hall?

"No... impossible!"

Tang San let out a howl like that of a wounded beast, his voice hoarse and broken, filled with ultimate grief, fury, and disbelief.

Ignoring the churning blood and agonizing pain inside him, he sprinted toward Shrek Academy.

Father! Where was his father?

Did he know?

What was his situation now?

An overwhelming terror, like an icy tide, instantly engulfed Tang San.

He remembered the sight of his father, Tang Hao, leaving. He remembered the pain and resolve his father had kept deeply buried...

If the sect had been destroyed... then his father...

After returning to the academy, Tang San immediately noticed that everyone's expressions were off.

That meant they had all learned the news.

"Xiao San!"

Yu Xiaogang rushed toward him, his face deathly pale.

Behind him followed Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, and the others, their faces likewise filled with shock and worry.

"Teacher!"

As if grasping a lifeline, Tang San grabbed Yu Xiaogang's arm, his voice choked with tears and extreme panic.

"Th-that... that Papal Edict, is it real?"

"The Clear Sky Sect... the Clear Sky Sect really..."

Yu Xiaogang looked at the blood still lingering at the corner of Tang San's mouth and his bloodshot eyes on the verge of collapse, his heart aching terribly.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something comforting, only to find his throat seemed blocked.

In the end, he could only nod heavily, his voice dry.

"The Papal Edict... distributed across the continent on such a scale, it cannot be fake..."

"The Clear Sky Sect... I'm afraid..."

He could not force out the rest.

"Pfft!"

Upon hearing that, Tang San spat out another mouthful of blood.

His body swayed, and darkness repeatedly clouded his vision.

Grief, fury, hatred, worry, fear...

All sorts of emotions gnawed at his heart like venomous snakes!

His body already pushed beyond its limits, Tang San finally could not hold on any longer. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed unconscious.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away from Shrek Academy, in an inconspicuous little city on the border of the Heaven Dou Imperial Family.

This small city was known for its inferior ale and the noisy, chaotic lower district.

Deep within a dark alley permeated by the stench of cheap liquor, sweat, and low-grade perfume.

A small tavern called Drunken Dream Tavern sat embedded among the dilapidated buildings like a festering sore that concealed filth and corruption.

The tavern was dimly lit, and its air was unbearably foul.

Smoke from inferior tobacco, the sour stench of sweat, and the alcoholic smell of fermented ale mingled together into a strange odor.

Around several greasy wooden tables sat all kinds of down-and-out drinkers and mercenaries with shifty eyes.

They shouted loudly, cursed, or lay sprawled drunkenly across the tables, unconscious.

At the table in the farthest corner, covered in scratches and wine stains, a tall figure sat as still as a boulder.

He wore a coarse robe covered in dirt and wine stains.

His messy, tangled hair streaked with gray-white covered most of his face.

Only his hard-lined jaw and weathered neck remained exposed.

Several empty bottles of inferior liquor sat before him.

There was also a half-full large earthenware bowl, its murky liquid giving off a pungent smell.

It was Tang Hao!