Purgatory-like Evolution

After a long while.

The Killing Intent around Tang Hao receded like the tide.

He reached out and grabbed the jar of Hundred Herb Brew.

Tilting his head back.

Gulp, gulp!

He drained more than half the jar.

"Ha—!"

Tang Hao exhaled a breath reeking of medicinal wine, and an unprecedented light erupted in his eyes.

That light had a name—wildness.

"Good wine!"

"Good kid!"

Tang Hao slammed the wine jar down onto the table.

A savage yet bold grin spread across his lips.

"Deal."

"Tonight, I'll be a blacksmith for once."

"As long as you can endure it."

"I'll hammer this piece of scrap iron of yours into refined steel!"

[Black World]

Shrek Academy, rear mountain.

Hei Tang San was holding a piece of wood as he practiced carving.

He was making a new smoking pipe for his father.

He remembered that his father liked smoking, but his old pipe had become worn out.

"Dad will definitely praise me for being filial when he gets this."

Hei Tang San foolishly grinned as he carved.

However.

The scene upon the Sky Curtain was like a sharp blade stabbing viciously into his heart.

He saw Bai Tang San confronting Tang Hao.

He saw that jar of Hundred Herb Brew.

And he saw the father and son's final, bold exchange of smiles.

That was...

An understanding shared between two men.

They were comrades-in-arms.

They were partners.

Anything but father and son.

"Why..."

The carving knife in Hei Tang San's hand slipped and cut his finger.

Blood dripped onto the unfinished pipe.

"Why can they talk like that?"

"Why does Father look at him... with that kind of admiration?"

Hei Tang San recalled every time he went home.

Other than indifference, his father's gaze toward him held a kind of... gentle affection one might show a pet.

"Xiao San, be good."

Those were the words his father said to him most often.

He used to think that was affection.

But now.

Looking at Bai Tang San, who could laugh and converse with a Titled Douluo.

He suddenly felt that the word "good."

Was the greatest insult to a man.

[White World]

Bai Tang San sat cross-legged, bare-chested.

His skin was pale as jade, glimmering with a cold sheen beneath the dim candlelight.

It was the calm before the storm.

Before him floated the Ten Thousand Year Black Gold Whale Rubber, wrapped in the inner force of the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Dark golden light surged madly within the rubber, like the beating heart of a demon.

"Huu..."

Bai Tang San slowly exhaled.

It was his final steady breath that night.

Without the slightest hesitation.

He tilted back his head.

Swallowed it!

Gulp.

As his Adam's apple bobbed, that terrifying heat, enough to burn mountains and boil seas, slid into his stomach.

One second.

Two seconds.

Dead silence.

Boom—!

Without warning, Bai Tang San's body suddenly shuddered.

Immediately afterward.

A scalp-numbing crimson color spread from his stomach throughout his entire body in an instant!

Like a live shrimp thrown into boiling water.

Bright red.

Scalding hot.

White steam even gushed wildly from all eighty-four thousand pores across his body!

"Urgh—!!!"

Bai Tang San threw back his head, the veins on his neck bulging one after another like earthworms about to burst.

Pain!

Indescribable pain!

This was not medicine nourishing him at all.

It was Magma rushing through his blood vessels!

The terrifying blazing fire contained within the Ten Thousand Year Whale Rubber rampaged through his body, wantonly tearing apart his Meridians and scorching his internal organs.

Every inch of muscle spasmed.

Every bone wailed.

After only three breaths, black blood began to seep from Bai Tang San's seven orifices.

Those were capillaries instantly destroyed by the extreme heat.

His consciousness teetered on the brink of collapse.

"Make... your move!"

Bai Tang San forced out those two words through clenched teeth, his voice hoarse as though he were swallowing charcoal.

Tang Hao, standing behind him, had an extremely grave expression.

He was an expert at wielding fire as well.

At a glance, he could tell that his son's body had already reached its limit. One second later, and he would explode to death.

"Good kid, you've got guts!"

Tang Hao shouted.

He did not carefully send Soul Power into Bai Tang San's body like an ordinary Soul Master to protect his heart meridian.

Instead, he suddenly raised his large, callused hand.

Boom!

Mighty and domineering Haotian Soul Power condensed in his palm.

Not a gentle current of water.

But a fierce iron hammer!

Smack!

His palm slammed heavily into Bai Tang San's back.

If it had been an ordinary person, that strike would have shattered their heart meridian outright.

But under Tang Hao's precise control, that force transformed into countless tiny hammers that instantly rushed into Bai Tang San's body.

Since his Meridians were being burned apart.

Then smash them!

Smash the medicinal power into his bones!

Forcefully hammer the flesh and blood on the verge of collapse back together!

"Chaotic Cloak—Body Forging!"

Tang Hao's eyes widened, his beard and hair flaring outward.

His hands became afterimages, raining down upon Bai Tang San's body.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Dull impacts echoed through the sealed Blacksmith Shop.

Every strike carried the pressure of a Titled Douluo.

Every strike was accompanied by Bai Tang San's shrill screams.

"Ah—!!!"

That sound no longer seemed human.

It was more like the howl of a beast at death's door.

Too miserable.

Truly too miserable.

[Black World]

Shrek Academy.

Hei Tang San covered his mouth tightly, his face pale as paper and his body trembling violently beyond his control.

He watched himself on the Sky Curtain, bleeding from all seven orifices with the skin over his entire body splitting apart.

He listened to those heart-rending screams.

His psychological defenses collapsed.

"Madman..."

"How could he dare..."

"How is this cultivation? This is clearly torture! Death by a thousand cuts!"

Hei Tang San instinctively shrank his neck and hugged himself.

He was certain.

Even if someone beat him to death, he would never dare try this kind of "suicidal" cultivation.

Even if it could make him ten times stronger, he still would not dare.

Wasn't being alive good enough?

Why torture yourself like this?

And beside him.

Yu Xiaogang felt his hands and feet turn ice-cold as well.

The "theoretical knowledge" he had always been so proud of seemed utterly feeble at this moment.

"This is reckless..."

"This is gambling with his life..."

"How could a human body possibly withstand such devastation?"

"That Tang Hao is insane too! What kind of father beats his son like this?!"

[White World]

Inside the Blacksmith Shop.

The screams had continued for a full two hours.

Bai Tang San's consciousness had long since become muddled.

Yet his final trace of obsession stubbornly guarded a point of clarity within his spiritual platform.

"Can't... pass out..."

"If I pass out... everything before this will have been for nothing..."

"I want to grow stronger..."

"I want to... survive!"

Under Tang Hao's heavy hammering and the medicinal power of the Whale Rubber, his body was undergoing astonishing changes.

His once-fragile Meridians, torn apart and rebuilt time and again, became broad and resilient.

His once-pale bones, after absorbing the essence of the Black Gold Whale Rubber, actually began to gleam with a faint metallic sheen.

That was—Iron Bones!

Tang Hao was drenched in sweat.

This was even more exhausting than when he had hammered that piece of Deep Sea Sinking Silver on that mountain years ago.

Because what he faced was not an inanimate object.

It was his own son's life!

With every strike of his palm, he had to control his strength with absolute precision. A fraction too much meant death; a fraction too little meant crippling him.

"Xiao San, hold on!"

"The hardest trial is about to begin!"

Tang Hao roared.

The medicinal power had already completely seeped into his bone marrow.

Next.

Came the final step—blood replacement.

The Black Gold Whale Rubber's blazing, yang fire toxin would refine the blood of his ordinary mortal body into Precious Blood brimming with immense vitality.

Pfft!

Bai Tang San suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood.

When it hit the ground, it actually gave off a sizzling, corrosive sound.

Those were the impurities within his body.

Immediately afterward.

Bright red beads of blood began to seep from the pores all over his body.

The droplets rolled down, then evaporated into a bloody mist under the intense heat.

The entire room seemed to have turned into an Asura hell.

His screams gradually weakened.

Not because the pain had lessened.

But because Bai Tang San had already screamed his voice hoarse.

Yet he still did not collapse.

Like a nail, he remained firmly pinned to the Cold Jade Bed.

No matter how Tang Hao pounded him, no matter how fiercely the blazing fire within him burned.

His spine.

Never bent even the slightest bit.