Night was as dark as ink.
The back hills of Notting Academy had once been a quiet forest.
But at that moment, the air here was so heavy it was suffocating.
There were no insects chirping, no birds calling.
Even the wind had stopped blowing.
A tall figure in a tattered black robe, with a scraggly beard, floated silently in midair behind the work-study students' dormitory.
He held no hammer in his hand, merely standing with his hands behind his back.
Yet the terrifying pressure, like a mountain bearing down from above, made every living thing within a hundred meters tremble.
Tang Hao.
The man who had once struck fear into Spirit Hall was now gazing down at the faintly lit entrance to the basement with a cold, utterly emotionless stare.
Just moments ago.
He had seen his pride and joy, his son, return with bloodshot eyes and bloodied hands, looking utterly lost.
Tang San had said nothing. He had simply locked himself in his room and hammered away desperately, as if he had gone mad.
No one knew a son better than his father.
Tang Hao didn't need to ask to know that Tang San had been bullied.
And thoroughly crushed—in body, mind, and dignity.
In this little city of Nuoding, who could have dealt such a blow to his genius son, a wielder of Twin Martial Souls?
"Whoever you are."
Tang Hao's voice was low and hoarse, like two rusted pieces of metal scraping together.
"You'll pay for laying a hand on my son."
He slowly raised his right hand.
Even without summoning his Martial Soul, a casual strike from a Titled Douluo would be enough to crush the fragile basement below, along with everyone inside, into a pulp.
"If you want to play, then you'll be buried underground forever."
Tang Hao suddenly pressed his palm down through the air.
"Rumble!"
An invisible wave of Soul Power came crashing down like a sledgehammer.
The ground instantly cracked, sending soil and stones flying.
The wooden door leading to the basement exploded into splinters.
Even several nearby trees snapped in half under the blast of air.
However.
Just as the force was about to completely destroy the basement,—
"Bzz—!"
A piercing alarm suddenly rang out.
Immediately afterward, the grass around the basement entrance flipped open.
Four dark barrels, crudely welded from thick steel pipes, thrust up into view.
The barrels looked makeshift, and tape was even wrapped around them, but their mounts were exceptionally sturdy, with several thick ammunition belts attached.
"What is this?"
Tang Hao frowned slightly.
Were these the strange Hidden Weapons?
Before he could react—
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!"
All four barrels spewed half-meter-long tongues of flame!
In the darkness, the four flames looked like Fire Dragons, instantly lighting up half the back hills.
The deafening gunfire merged into one continuous roar, as if countless bolts of thunder were exploding at once.
This wasn't a Soul Skill.
It was Metal Storm, firing at a rate of six thousand rounds per minute!
Although the machine guns Grey Wolf had made lacked rifling and had laughable accuracy,
at this range, accuracy didn't matter.
A dense hail of bullets sprayed toward Tang Hao in the sky.
Tang Hao snorted.
"Parlor tricks."
As a Titled Douluo, his reaction speed had long surpassed the limits of human ability.
Faced with the seemingly endless rain of metal, he didn't even bother to dodge. A faint Soul Power shield simply lit up around him.
Ordinary iron couldn't even break through his protective Soul Power.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
Countless sparks burst against the shield in front of him.
The copper-cased bullets slammed into the shield and were instantly flattened into copper discs, raining down to the ground.
A trace of disdain flashed through Tang Hao's eyes.
This attack wasn't even enough to tickle him.
However.
The next second, Qin Feng's calm voice came from inside the basement.
"Brother Wolf, switch to the second ammo belt!"
"Armor-piercing rounds!"
"Got it! I've been sick of that flying turtle for ages!"
The rhythm of the gunfire suddenly changed.
It grew deeper and more forceful.
The bullets were no longer ordinary copper-tipped rounds. They were custom-made, entirely black, with sharp points and dark red grooves.
Using the last of his Shock Points, Qin Feng had exchanged for a small amount of tungsten alloy, which Grey Wolf had processed with his black technology to make these—Tungsten Core Sabot Armor-Piercing Rounds (Budget Version).
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
These bullets didn't bounce off like the previous ones.
With tremendous kinetic energy and a spiraling force, they bored into Tang Hao's shield.
"Crack!"
A faint snap rang out.
A hairline fracture appeared in Tang Hao's supposedly indestructible protective Soul Power!
Then—
One bullet pierced the shield and grazed Tang Hao's cheek.
A thin streak of blood appeared on his weather-beaten face.
Pain.
A long-forgotten pain.
Tang Hao reached up and touched the blood on his cheek.
He... had been injured?
By a pile of scrap metal?
This was humiliation!
An insult to the dignity of a Titled Douluo!
"Die!!!"
His roar shook the heavens.
Tang Hao was truly furious now.
A colossal black hammer appeared out of thin air behind him.
The Clear Sky Hammer!
Its terrifying weight warped the space around it.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red!
Nine Soul Rings slowly rose beneath his feet. The scarlet Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring in particular radiated a blood-red light that made one's heart tremble.
The powerful Soul Masters throughout Nuoding City awoke at that moment, staring toward the back hills in terror.
Inside the basement, Yu Xiaogang saw the red Soul Ring on the monitor and crumpled to the floor.
"A... a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!"
"It really is the Clear Sky Douluo!"
"We're finished! We're all going to die here!"
Qin Feng, however, stared fixedly at the screen, his palms slick with sweat, but his eyes blazed with an alarming brightness.
"What are you afraid of?"
"A Titled Douluo is still a carbon-based life-form!"
"Anything carbon-based has weaknesses!"
He snatched up the communicator and shouted at Grey Wolf, who was frantically working the levers at the control panel.
"Brother Wolf! Stop holding back!"
"That old geezer's about to unleash his big move!"
"Bring out the big one!"
"Bring out that 'Super Ultrasonic Vomit Inducer' you used against Xi Yangyang!"
Grey Wolf was sweating buckets, and his battered top hat had slipped to one side.
He stared at the man outside, raising a giant hammer to smash his laboratory, and gritted his teeth in fury.
"You dare wreck my home?"
"You dare interrupt the Great King while I'm inventing?"
"I'll make you throw up everything you ate yesterday!"
Grey Wolf shoved open a red cover and slammed down hard on the huge button underneath.
"Bzzzzzz—"
The gunfire, which had been so deafening moments ago, vanished instantly.
In its place came a terrifying vibration, inaudible to the ear yet capable of making the heart stop.
The enormous horn-shaped device that had been ready at the basement entrance made no sound at all.
But visible ripples spread through the air.
It was infrasound.
Infrasound with a frequency below 20 hertz—inaudible to human ears, but able to resonate with a person's internal organs!
In midair—
Tang Hao had been about to swing the Clear Sky Hammer down, but suddenly froze.
His unstoppable momentum instantly ebbed away by half.
An indescribable nausea surged from his stomach to the crown of his head.
His heart began to pound violently, as if it were about to leap out of his throat.
His vision blurred, and he instantly lost his sense of balance.
His body, which had been floating steadily in midair, began to sway like a drunkard.
"Urgh—!"
At the critical moment, just as the Clear Sky Douluo—whose name shook the world—was about to unleash a devastating blow,
he bent over and let out an embarrassingly dry retch.
He nearly dropped the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand.
"What... what kind of sorcery is this?"
Tang Hao felt as if his internal organs were churning. The sensation was even more agonizing than an internal injury.
He tried to use his Soul Power to suppress it, only to realize the vibration ignored his Soul Power defenses and acted directly on his body.
"Sorcery?"
Qin Feng's voice came through the loudspeaker, tinged with amusement.
"This is biological resonance."
"The natural frequency of human organs is between 4 and 18 hertz."
"I just played you a high-intensity 10-hertz infrasound wave."
"Lord Tang Hao, does your heart feel like it's racing? Are you about to throw up?"
"Don't hold it in. You'll feel better once you throw up."
"You—!"
Tang Hao was so furious that blood surged through him. He nearly spat up a mouthful of blood.
He, the mighty Clear Sky Douluo, had been reduced to this pitiful state by such a despicable trick!
"I'll kill you!"
Tang Hao gritted his teeth against the discomfort, his eyes bloodshot.
He decided to stop holding back.
Even if he had to suffer an injury, even if he had to destroy half the academy, he would smash this bizarre place to pieces with one blow!
The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand glowed with black light once more.
This strike was the prelude to the Great Sumeru Hammer!
Terrifying energy began to gather, and fine cracks appeared in the surrounding space.
In the basement, the alarm blared so shrill it sounded ready to explode.
"Warning! Extremely high energy levels detected!"
"Energy index off the charts! Contact expected in three seconds!"
Grey Wolf stared at the indicators spinning wildly across the instrument panel and screamed.
"Qin Feng! I can't hold out! This old bastard's energy is too strong! The sound waves are about to be scattered!"
Qin Feng looked at the figure on the screen, as imposing as a demon god, and took a deep breath.
He knew ordinary methods were no longer any use.
He had to get serious.
"Brother Wolf, cut off all the power!"
"Route it all into that gun!"
Qin Feng snatched up the enormous rifle on the table, which had just been assembled and hadn't even been painted yet.
It was a heavily modified Barrett M82A1.
The barrel was twice as thick, and its surface was covered in intricate energy channels.
This wasn't gunpowder propulsion.
This was electromagnetic propulsion!
Grey Wolf might have been unreliable most of the time, but he never let them down when it mattered.
"Fine! Let's do this!"
He yanked down the main switch.
The entire basement plunged into darkness.
Only the Industrial Mother Machine and several enormous capacitors still gave off a faint blue glow.
In that instant, all the electricity was channeled into the gun in Qin Feng's hands.
Qin Feng hoisted the fifty-pound gun and aimed it at the hole blasted open in the ceiling.
Through the scope, he clearly saw Tang Hao's twisted face and the enormous hammer about to come down.
"Tang Hao."
"The times have changed."
Qin Feng's finger pulled the trigger.
"Electromagnetic Railgun, fire!"
Before you continue