A Parting Gift

Beneath the night sky, the three Soul Emperors suddenly felt their feet grow heavy.

"Buzz!"

The staffs in [Nandou Immortal] and [Beidou Immortal]'s hands struck the ground in perfect unison.

A deep-purple circular formation instantly lit up across the ground, like a gaping maw that had long been waiting to snap shut.

"What... what kind of technique is this?!"

"Damn it! I can't move!"

"My Soul Power... is being suppressed?!"

Terrified cries rose one after another.

The three Soul Emperors, along with the dozen or so Soul Kings and Soul Ancestor confidants they had brought, were frozen in place in the midst of fleeing or defending themselves.

This was the absolute binding of the North-South Sages among the Nine Mask Svāhā.

"Since you came, don't be in such a hurry to leave."

Behind his mask, Huo Yuhao's voice was cold as ice.

"The feast begins."

Roar—!

[Azure Dragon] spiraled down and opened its jaws, spewing a stream of dark-blue Chakra dragon breath that instantly turned two Soul Kings into ice sculptures before shattering them.

[White Tiger] turned into a streak of white lightning. With every swing of its paws came a bloody gale, and every strike took a life.

[Vermilion Bird] beat its wings, pouring down an overwhelming torrent of blazing Chakra fire that transformed the battlefield into purgatory.

Most terrifying of all was [Black Tortoise]. It did not attack directly. Instead, it flew high into the sky, drew in its limbs, and plummeted like Mount Tai.

Boom!

The earth split apart. A Soul Emperor at the point of impact was crushed into pulp before he could even scream.

Meanwhile, the [Golden Snake] weaved through the crowd. Whenever its golden body coiled around an enemy, it tightened with savage force.

This was a massacre.

"Stop... stop it!"

The sole remaining Soul Emperor was covered in blood. Looking at the scene around him, like an Asura's slaughterhouse, his mind finally broke.

He roared at Huo Yuhao in the sky:

"You lunatics! How dare you cause trouble in Heaven Dou City!"

"This is the capital of the Heaven Dou Empire! We are registered sects of the empire! The imperial consecrators and army of the Heaven Dou Empire will be here soon! You won't escape!"

"When that happens, the empire will definitely tear you to pieces!"

At that threat, Tang Ya, standing amid the ruins, suddenly laughed.

She laughed so hard that her body trembled, tears streaming down her face.

"The empire? Consecrators? The army?"

Tang Ya raised her head, her eyes filled with mockery.

"How ridiculous."

"When the Iron Blood Sect slaughtered my Tang Sect, where were the laws of the Heaven Dou Empire? Where were the imperial consecrators?"

"If the empire could stand by and let the Iron Blood Sect destroy my Tang Sect, why can't it stand by and let us destroy you?"

She slowly raised her hand, and the grotesque Dark Blue Silver Tree behind her swelled once more.

"This chaotic world is what ruined you all!"

"You... can go to hell!"

Pssh! Pssh!

Countless black branches shot out like a torrential downpour, piercing the still-shouting Soul Emperor along with every remaining survivor.

Their life force was instantly drained away.

At last, the world was quiet.

Just then, several black figures darted out from the surrounding shadows and landed beside Huo Yuhao.

They were his Shadow Clones.

Each of them held several heavy Storage Rings.

They contained everything looted from the treasuries of those sects and the Iron Blood Sect.

Huo Yuhao accepted the rings and gave them a brief sweep with his spiritual power, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Not bad."

"It seems all the valuable things have been taken."

Poof! Poof! Poof!

All the Shadow Clones vanished in puffs of white smoke.

Huo Yuhao turned and looked at Tang Ya beside him.

"Then leave behind what can't be taken."

"Zetsu, let's go."

As he spoke, Huo Yuhao wrapped his left arm around Tang Ya's waist.

"Vermilion Bird, return!"

The enormous firebird in the sky gave a clear cry, turning into a streak of red light that instantly entered Huo Yuhao's body.

Then Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise... all the Masked Beasts transformed into streams of differently colored light and returned to their host.

Huo Yuhao's aura began to rise steadily.

That was the Soul Beast Cloak form brought about by White Zetsu Possession and the return of the Nine Masked Beasts.

Using the Vermilion Bird's power of flight, he held Tang Ya and slowly rose into the air.

The sight beneath their feet gradually shrank.

Nestled in Huo Yuhao's arms, Tang Ya lowered her head and gazed at the ruins below.

The corpses of the Iron Blood Sect lay there, as did the corpses of those who had kicked her while she was down.

That place had once been her home, the ancestral grounds of the Tang Sect.

But now, it was nothing more than scorched earth filled with sin and filth.

She watched Huo Yuhao raise his right hand.

There, a dark-purple sphere of energy was rapidly condensing.

It was only the size of a fist, yet several brilliant white rings of light circled around it, like a miniature planet.

The fluctuations radiating from that energy sphere this time far surpassed those when he had instantly killed the Blazing Wing Elder.

Tang Ya seemed to realize what Huo Yuhao intended to do.

Destroy it completely?

Erase that land and those memories along with it.

That was fine too.

Tang Ya closed her eyes, a relieved smile appearing at the corners of her lips.

The humiliation she had suffered as a child, the rainy night when her parents had died so tragically, tonight's bloody vengeance...

It was all like a mirage, flowers reflected in a mirror, the moon reflected in water.

Like a fairy tale born of an illusion.

Let it end like this.

I have no attachment to this place anymore...

High in the air.

Huo Yuhao had already risen several hundred meters into the sky.

The dark-purple sphere in his hand had been compressed to its limit. Its immense energy even caused a dazzling cross-shaped white light to bloom across its surface.

Huo Yuhao looked down upon this land of sin, his voice behind the mask utterly calm.

"This is a parting gift."

He lightly turned his right wrist and lowered his palm.

The sphere containing world-destroying power slipped gently from his hand.

"Great Spiraling Ring!"

Whoosh—

The dark-purple meteor tore through the night sky and crashed into the earth.

One second of dead silence.

Then—

Boom—!!!

A blinding white light instantly devoured the night, illuminating all of Heaven Dou City as brightly as day.

The earth shook violently, as if a magnitude-twelve earthquake had struck.

An enormous mushroom cloud surged upward with apocalyptic force.

Thanks to the barrier Huo Yuhao had set up beforehand, the terrifying power of the explosion was forcibly compressed within the Iron Blood Sect and the several nearby sects.

Not a trace of it leaked out.

But for that very reason, the destructive power within the barrier was multiplied severalfold.

Everything was vaporized by the intense heat and crushed by the shockwaves in an instant.

When the light faded.

A massive crater several hundred meters wide had appeared in what had once been the bustling eastern district.

Nothing remained there.

It truly had been flattened.

Crack.

The barrier shattered.

Only then did several overwhelmingly powerful auras arrive belatedly from the direction of the imperial palace.

They were the royal consecrators of Heaven Dou City, Title Douluo-level powerhouses.

Staring at the enormous smoking crater before them, every one of them stood dumbfounded, their faces pale.

"What... what kind of power was that?!"

"Where are they? Where is the culprit?!"

However.

The night sky was silent, and the bright moon hung high above.

Other than the mushroom cloud that had yet to fully disperse, where was there even a trace of a person?

Huo Yuhao had long since vanished into the vast night with Tang Ya.