The other members of the Shrek Seven Devils also looked excited.
Tang Hao was their idol, the legendary Clear Sky Douluo.
The Golden Ranking List began to change.
It was no longer a static display of text. One scene after another began to play.
These were Tang Hao's "legendary moments."
The scene showed a stormy night.
The young Tang Hao was covered in blood, holding a newborn baby in his arms.
Facing him stood Qian Xunji, the Pope of Spirit Hall, accompanied by numerous Titled Douluos.
A desperate situation.
A truly hopeless one.
Just when everyone thought Tang Hao was doomed, the gentle and beautiful Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin, chose to sacrifice herself.
Amid a sky full of blue-gold light, Ah Yin's figure gradually faded away, transforming into a scarlet Soul Ring that settled around Tang Hao.
"Ah Yin—!!!"
In the scene, Tang Hao threw back his head and howled in grief.
It was the kind of pain that tore at the heart.
Then came the battle that shook the world.
Tang Hao, newly ascended to the rank of Titled Douluo, fought alone against three Titled Douluos from Spirit Hall.
Great Sumeru Hammer, Ring Detonation!
That single hammer strike shook the heavens and earth, severely injuring Pope Qian Xunji.
Watching this scene,
countless people atop Jialing Pass's walls were moved to tears.
"How tragic."
"The Clear Sky Douluo had it so rough."
Ma Hongjun wiped his tears and sniffled.
"Those beasts from Spirit Hall! They've done every vile thing imaginable!"
Oscar's face was filled with indignation too.
"They tore a couple apart and forced Senior Ah Yin to sacrifice herself. No wonder the Clear Sky Douluo would fight Spirit Hall to the death over a grudge like that."
Tang San was crying even harder.
As he watched his father fight desperately to protect him, his admiration and love for him reached its peak.
"Dad..."
"You've suffered so much."
"Your son swears I'll destroy Spirit Hall and avenge you and Mom!"
At that moment, in everyone's eyes, Tang Hao was a tragic hero—a great father who had stood against the powerful for the sake of his beloved and his child.
Even many people on Skywater City's side were moved by the scene.
However,
the Sky Screen's broadcast wasn't over.
The scene changed.
It was no longer the storm-lashed battlefield.
Now it showed a damp, shadowy cave.
The timeline seemed to be not long after that battle.
Tang Hao sat on a rock, his body wrapped in bandages.
He still held the baby in his arms.
But the expression on his face was no longer sorrowful.
He was smiling.
His shoulders shook with laughter.
"Heh heh heh..."
"Ha ha ha ha!"
The laughter grew from a low chuckle to a frenzied cackle, echoing through the empty cave and sending chills down everyone's spines.
Audiences across the continent were stunned.
What... was going on?
Had grief driven him mad?
Then Tang Hao stopped laughing.
He reached out with a rough hand and gently stroked the sleeping baby's face.
A chilling glint flashed in his eyes.
He spoke.
Not to the baby, but to the empty air, muttering to himself.
"Ah Yin, oh, Ah Yin."
"You were so foolish."
"Did you really think I hadn't noticed Spirit Hall's spies?"
His words exploded in everyone's ears like a thunderclap.
On the walls of Jialing Pass, Tang San's body stiffened. The tears on his face seemed to freeze in place.
Tang Hao continued speaking in the scene.
His lips curled into a sinister smile.
"I'm the most talented genius the Clear Sky Sect has ever produced. My spiritual perception is incredibly keen."
"Those rats followed us for three days. How could I not have known?"
"But I couldn't say anything."
"Because I'd been stuck at the Level 90 bottleneck for too long."
"My elder brother, Tang Xiao, had also reached Level 90."
"If he got his ninth Soul Ring first, the sect leader's position would be his."
Tang Hao stood up and paced back and forth through the cave, speaking with a chilling calmness and calculating certainty.
"A hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form."
"What a temptation."
"Normally, I couldn't have brought myself to do it. After all, you did truly care for me."
"But I refused to live in anyone's shadow!"
"So I deliberately kept leading you around. I deliberately exposed our whereabouts. I deliberately drew Spirit Hall's people to us."
"Only if I drove you into a desperate situation—only if you saw that both the baby and I were certain to die—"
"would you willingly sacrifice yourself for me."
"Only then would you pour all your hundred-thousand-year cultivation into me without holding anything back."
Tang Hao clenched his fist and felt the surging power within him. His face was filled with rapture.
"This power... it's exquisite."
"The youngest Titled Douluo."
"The Clear Sky Douluo with a hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring."
"From now on, the whole continent will sing my name."
"As for the sect?"
Tang Hao gave a disdainful scoff.
"Let them deal with Spirit Hall's wrath."
"That's the old man's and Tang Xiao's problem, anyway."
"I only need to grow stronger."
"That's enough."
The scene froze on Tang Hao's face, alight with ambition and calculation.
Silence.
The entire Douluo Continent sank into deathly silence.
Everyone stared with mouths agape, feeling a chill shoot from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads.
So this was... the truth?
The devoted lover praised by countless people.
The tragic hero who had defied the world for the woman he loved.
He was actually a schemer through and through?
For a Soul Ring. For the position of sect leader.
He had used the trust of the woman he loved and pushed his entire sect toward the Abyss.
"Pfft—!"
Atop the walls of Jialing Pass,
Tang San could no longer take the devastating blow. He spat out a mouthful of blood and fell backward.
"N-no... that's impossible..."
"This can't be real..."
"Dad... how could he be that kind of person?"
The other members of the Shrek Seven Devils were dumbfounded too.
They looked at one another, seeing fear and confusion in each other's eyes.
All this time, they had thought they were on the side of justice, resisting Spirit Hall's tyranny.
But now,
this so-called "justice" seemed like an enormous joke.
Outside Skywater City,
the real Tang Hao remained frozen, still holding his hammer aloft.
But his face, usually weathered and imposing, was now pale as paper.
His body trembled.
Not with fear, but because his deepest secret had been laid bare for all to see.
"It's over."
That was the only thought in Tang Hao's mind.
In the City Lord Mansion of Skywater City,
a delicate porcelain teacup struck the table with a sharp clink.
Tea splashed everywhere.
"Shameless!"
"Absolutely shameless!"
Furina's face flushed with anger, fury burning in her mismatched eyes.
She enjoyed a good spectacle and loved dramatic twists.
But this kind of plot—trading his wife's life for his own future, then pretending to be a devoted husband—was utterly revolting.
It was like watching an opera that seemed to be a tragic love story, only for the leading man to rip off his mask at the end and admit he'd done it all to trick the heroine out of her inheritance.
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