The Hope of the Entire Village

"Clear Sky Hammer? A mutation? And you knew to deal with the Blue Silver Grass first. Were you afraid it would send a message to that old woman?

"You know me well enough. Looks like Tang Hao sent you to kill me. But he definitely doesn't know that what I'm best at is actually the Sword-Drawing Technique.

"And get ready. If I tell you to explode, you explode. If I die, no one will save your emperor. Remember to leave yourself a root. I'll still need you to show me the way."

Studying the large iron hammer in the middle-aged man's hand, which somewhat resembled the Clear Sky Hammer, Tian Hao knew this had to be Tang Hao's doing. He did not know why that uncle had acted this way, but that was not important.

The problem now was how to stay alive. Looking at the blood flowing from the man's chest, he could not help complaining inwardly.

Damn, my luck can't be bad enough to run into someone whose heart is on the right side, can it?

While most people's hearts were on the left, it was not absolute. There were always those unconventional people whose hearts grew either in the center or on the right.

This man was clearly one of those unconventional oddballs. That supposedly fatal sword strike had failed to take his life. What a damn trap!

The youth's final words made Tang Jue even more vigilant. His eyes swept over the surroundings, searching for another enemy.

Unfortunately, he found nothing. Only then did he realize that the boy opposite him might have fooled him.

When he had made his move earlier, he had secretly observed the area. Only after confirming there was no one else nearby and no other soul masters in the village had he attacked. There could not possibly be another enemy hiding around here.

"Die!"

No longer wasting time, he expended another thirty percent of his Soul Power to activate the soul skill of his sixth soul ring again, using his strongest current technique to blast the boy to death.

It was the same devastating strike he had just used against that strange Blue Silver tree.

He stepped forward in a charge, swinging the Vajra Hammer, now several times larger, down for a crushing blow. A domineering force locked onto and suppressed Tian Hao, making it difficult for him to evade.

But Tian Hao had no need to evade.

"Explode!"

When Tang Jue's burly body rushed within three meters of him, Tian Hao shouted.

Countless blue fragments exploded from the bottom of the crater that had been smashed out earlier. Several of them pierced Tang Jue's back, while Tian Hao, shielded by him, remained completely unharmed.

"There really is someone?"

Though shocked, Tang Jue did not panic. He directed a large amount of Soul Power to his back to bolster its defense while continuing to swing his hammer down without hesitation.

The person behind him was a threat, but the boy before him was no less dangerous. He had to deal with one first, lest he end up attacked from both sides.

Besides, once a soul skill was activated, it could not be withdrawn.

Yet at that moment, a pale-blue curtain of light abruptly spread outward. An immense force suppressed and locked down his body, making him unable to move.

"Scht!"

At the same instant, Tian Hao had already grabbed the Steel Spear leaning against the wall behind him. He thrust it forward in a swift stab, accurately piercing Tang Jue's breastbone. The force then traveled through the spear shaft into his chest, severely injuring his heart and lungs.

Having done that, Tian Hao decisively pulled out the spear and retreated rapidly.

His choice was correct. Because it had already been badly damaged by Tang Jue, the Thousand-Year Blue Silver Grass could only maintain the Blue Silver Domain it guided into eruption for a very short time—just an instant.

After that instant passed, Tang Jue's gigantic Vajra Hammer, carrying the power of his sixth soul skill, smashed down and forcibly blasted a deep crater into the ground.

Immediately afterward, a violent Soul Power shockwave spread outward, collapsing all the wooden houses in the courtyard into ruins.

Even Tian Hao had to retreat. He had no way to press the advantage and attack.

Yet before he could deliver a finishing blow, Tang Jue, whose chest had been pierced and who should have been dead beyond doubt, suddenly sprang out of the courtyard and vanished into the orchard at tremendous speed.

That strike had clearly not been fatal.

"Which side is his heart even on?"

Tian Hao was dumbfounded. Did that guy even have a heart?

"Wait, maybe it isn't his heart. Maybe he has some special soul skill that can move his heart, or one that makes him immune to fatal injuries."

A possibility suddenly occurred to him, and Tian Hao felt that was probably the reason.

For example, he himself could now use Soul Power to manipulate the shape of his internal organs and even shift them slightly.

In this world with a cultivation civilization, martial souls and soul skills came in all sorts of bizarre forms. He might very well encounter some strange thing with an absurdly odd function.

"Nice coordination!"

Having figured it out, Tian Hao glanced at the bottom of the crater and smiled. He then jumped down and dug out the roots of the Thousand-Year Blue Silver Grass.

That was right. His final words earlier had been directed at the Thousand-Year Blue Silver Grass—more precisely, at the Thousand-Year Blue Silver Grass that had fused with the Blue Silver Overlord Spear.

Seeing Tian Hao in danger, the Thousand-Year Blue Silver Grass, which Ah Yin had instructed to watch over him, naturally could not stand by and do nothing.

At first, it had merely been dazed by Tang Jue's hammer blow. Once it heard Tian Hao's words, it secretly began preparing. In the end, at Tian Hao's command, it detonated the Blue Silver Overlord Spear it had been attached to, fully activating the Blue Silver Domain sealed within and temporarily suppressing Tang Jue.

"You're just a grass root now too, same as me."

Placing the sole remaining Blue Silver Grass root in his palm, Tian Hao felt deeply moved. It had truly risked its life just now.

He converted the tiny bit of remaining Soul Power in his own grass root into Blue Silver Soul Power through the Blue Silver Soul Blood, circulating it through his body. This stimulated the Life Force hidden within him to emerge and merge into the Blue Silver Soul Power, strengthening it before channeling it into the Thousand-Year Blue Silver Grass root to help stabilize its injuries.

This was one of the characteristics of Blue Silver Soul Power. Like the Blue Silver Domain, it could convert different forms of energy into one another. However, his Blue Silver Soul Power could only stimulate and fuse with his own Life Force, turning it into Blue Silver Soul Power. Moreover, it could only be activated after the Soul Power in his body had been depleted to a certain degree, which was essentially consuming Life Force.

Fortunately, he had stored quite a bit of Life Force in his body before, so he could afford the expenditure. He had just used this method to accelerate the recovery of his chest injury.

"A guaranteed-hit soul skill!"

Thinking of the wound in his chest, he could not help grumbling.

That hammer had changed direction too suddenly, making it difficult for him to react in time.

Fortunately, although he could not evade due to the sneak attack, the enormous difference in their strength, and the fact that it was a locked-on, guaranteed-hit soul skill, he had gathered Soul Power in his chest cavity and shifted his heart into his left chest, squeezing it together with his left lung.

The lungs were among the few internal organs that could change size significantly. If the air in them was expelled, their volume could shrink greatly. The heart was the same.

Using this method, he emptied the center of his chest cavity as much as possible and supported it with Soul Power for defense.

Because of this preparation, only his breastbone and ribs had been shattered by that hammer. His heart and lungs had not suffered fatal damage, though it still hurt badly and had been extremely dangerous.

After all, while his current self-healing ability was decent, it was not omnipotent. If his heart had been completely smashed apart, his self-healing ability would have been unable to repair it, much less regrow another one.

At least, not yet.

"I need Old Li Tou to lead the villagers away as soon as possible."

With the Blue Silver Grass root clenched between his teeth, Tian Hao went to the ruins of the collapsed room and dug out a slightly deformed bronze gong from the edge.

He struck the gong, its sound spreading throughout the village and changing in a rhythmic pattern, as though it were some kind of signal.

When the villagers heard the gong, carefully recognized its special rhythm, and confirmed that it came from the orchard, their expressions changed. They hurriedly had the children and women hide in concealed cellars, while the men swiftly took out the plate armor and weapons forged from Iron Mother and rushed out toward the orchard.

Before long, the fully armed villagers arrived at Tian Hao's courtyard. They saw Tian Hao sitting on a stool missing one leg, a grass root clenched in his mouth.

"Second Dog, what happened?"

Tian Dagou was the first to rush in. Holding a long spear, he vigilantly watched the surroundings while shielding Tian Hao behind him.

More and more villagers rushed in and surrounded Tian Hao protectively. Armed with long spears, crossbows, shields, and other weapons, they likewise watched the surroundings with vigilance.

Tian Hao was their precious treasure. He had led them from poverty, where they could barely afford enough food, to where they were today. Any one of them could die, but Tian Hao absolutely could not come to harm. He was their village's hope and future.

Tian Someone: I've become the hope of the entire village now. Where are your votes?