Coward

In the brief pause between regulating his breath, Tang Hao unconsciously reached his left hand toward his chest.

There was a specially made inner pocket there.

A place to keep the most precious thing in his life.

The Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone Ah Yin had left behind had always been kept close to his body.

It was his wife's keepsake, and the spiritual support that had kept him going all these years.

Yet when his rough fingers touched the place where the pocket should have been,

all he felt was empty, sunken fabric.

Tang Hao froze.

His breath caught for half a beat, and his eyes flew wide.

His left hand frantically tore open the tattered lapel of his shirt.

The inner pocket was empty.

There was nothing inside.

Not even the faintest trace of the Blue Silver Emperor's aura remained.

"No... That's impossible!"

Tang Hao's lips trembled uncontrollably, his voice so hoarse it was barely recognizable.

In a panic, he searched himself, turning out every pocket and checking every corner.

Nothing.

It was all gone.

An invisible hand seemed to squeeze his heart, and he plunged into an abyss in an instant.

His memory returned to the moment Gu Qing had severed his right arm.

That brat had moved incredibly fast. The vines of his Life-Type Blue Silver Grass hadn't merely severed flesh and bone.

In the instant of excruciating pain, when his defenses had crumbled, he had also stolen the things on him.

"Gu Qing!"

His shrill roar thundered through the cavern.

The powerful sound waves shook the stalactites loose from the ceiling, sending them crashing onto the waterlogged ground.

Tang Hao's eyes bulged with fury as two streams of cloudy tears mixed with blood ran down his face.

He hadn't just lost an arm. He hadn't even managed to protect the last thing his wife had left in this world.

That was Ah Yin's Soul Bone!

"How dare you take Ah Yin's Soul Bone!"

Tang Hao knelt in the mud on one knee, his remaining left hand clutching the filthy ground.

His fingernails had peeled back from the force, and blood streamed from them.

The pain of losing his right arm was not even one ten-thousandth as great as the pain of losing the Soul Bone.

His hatred for Gu Qing soared to an unprecedented peak.

No amount of water from all the rivers and lakes could wash away this blood debt.

"I swear!"

Tang Hao raised his head and stared at the pitch-black rock ceiling, his teeth grinding together.

"No matter the cost, I'll tear you to pieces!"

"On the day of the wedding, I'll make the entire Spirit City pay for Ah Yin!"

His killing intent spread like a tangible force, grinding the stones around him into dust.

Spirit City, the new Holy Son Mansion.

The underground chamber blazed with light.

It was a private space built specifically for cultivation and healing.

Precious light-attributed crystals studded the walls, illuminating the entire chamber as bright as day.

A faint fragrance of grass and trees hung in the air.

Gu Qing sat cross-legged on a white jade cushion in the middle of the chamber.

His expression was perfectly calm.

He wore a well-tailored, moon-white robe, immaculate and spotless.

The contrast with Tang Hao, who was stranded outside the city in a wretched state, could not have been sharper.

Just half an hour earlier,

Qian Renxue had brought him pastries she had made with her own hands.

The two of them had shared tea in the mansion's courtyard and discussed their plan to make an example of someone during the finals.

The wedding date had been set for dusk, after the finals concluded.

Bibi Dong would preside over the ceremony in person.

Gu Qing knew full well that the undercurrents of every faction had converged on Spirit City.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's Thunder Prison Formation Disk, and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's secret preparations.

And then there was Tang Hao, one arm gone, lurking in the shadows like a rabid dog.

Everyone was waiting for that moment.

And Gu Qing was waiting, too.

He slowly raised his right hand and opened his palm.

With a gentle ripple of Soul Power, a mass of blue-gold light appeared in his hand.

As the light faded, its solid form was revealed.

It was a crystalline leg bone.

Its surface was a deep blue, while golden flecks of light shimmered within.

It was the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone he had taken from Tang Hao.

Gu Qing lowered his eyes and silently examined this peerless treasure.

The Soul Bone radiated an exceptionally pure aura of life.

Even after being separated from its original body for so many years, it still brimmed with vitality.

It was the essence left behind by the supreme being among Plant-type Soul Beasts.

"A hundred thousand years of cultivation, sacrificed for a false-hearted human, only to end up a dead thing."

Gu Qing spoke softly, his voice echoing through the empty chamber.

There was a note of scornful mockery in his tone.

He slowly curled his fingers, feeling the faint warmth emanating from the Soul Bone.

The next instant, Gu Qing's thoughts stirred.

The Soul Power within his body surged without restraint.

A pure, intensely vivid emerald-green light burst from him.

It was the power of life at its source, far beyond that of an ordinary Plant-type Martial Soul.

Behind Gu Qing, the phantom of a vast Blue Silver Grass slowly appeared.

This was not ordinary Blue Silver Grass, nor was it simply the Blue Silver Emperor.

It was a unique Life-Type Blue Silver Grass, transcending the rules themselves.

Its vines looked as though they had been carved from jade, and every leaf bore sharply defined veins.

Vast vitality coursed through them. Even the potted plants in the corners of the chamber began to grow wildly.

"Come out."

Gu Qing gazed at the Soul Bone in his hand.

He channeled his own pure life force through his palm, feeding it into the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone bit by bit.

The vines of the Life-Type Blue Silver Grass stretched over as well, gently winding around the blue-gold bone.

As vitality continued to pour in, the once-quiet Soul Bone began to tremble violently.

Its blue-gold light grew brighter and brighter, almost enveloping Gu Qing entirely.

Nourished by this life force, which shared its origins but stood on a higher level,

a faint consciousness deep within the Soul Bone was forcibly awakened.

Specks of blue-gold light drifted from the Soul Bone and gathered in midair.

Gradually, they interwove to form a hazy silhouette.

It was the outline of a woman.

Her blue hair fell to her waist. She had a graceful figure and an air of gentleness and sorrow.

This was a trace of Ah Yin's original life force, left within the Soul Bone.

When a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast sacrificed itself, most of its soul dissipated with it.

But the Blue Silver Emperor, with its tenacious vitality, had left behind a trace that could not be erased.

Now, under the unrestrained infusion of life force, that trace had been rekindled.

The hazy Ah Yin did not seem to have fully regained her awareness.

She only instinctively sensed an intimate, overwhelming presence.

It was a source of life purer than the one she had possessed as the Blue Silver Emperor.

The phantom trembled faintly, as though she wanted to draw closer to Gu Qing.

Gu Qing looked at the pitiful figure before him, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes.

"Can you feel it?"

"This is true life force, not something that worthless husband of yours could ever give you."

Gu Qing stopped the flow of Soul Power, keeping the vitality at a steady threshold.

He had no intention of resurrecting Ah Yin.

This was merely a way to verify the level of his Martial Soul and, as a bonus, gain leverage over someone.

"That coward, Tang Hao."

Gu Qing leaned against the jade chair and studied Ah Yin's phantom.

"He went on and on about how much he loved you, about how he'd risk everything to fight Spirit Hall for your sake."

"But what happened?"

"He couldn't protect you. He could only watch as you sacrificed yourself."

"Afterward, he took your original body and found a cave with no light at all."

"He planted you in that dank, sunless hellhole."

Gu Qing's words struck deep, mercilessly tearing away the guise of Tang Hao's devotion.

"For Plant-type Soul Beasts, sunshine, dew, and pure soil are the keys to restoring vitality."

"He's a Titled Douluo. He could've found a blessed place teeming with spiritual energy on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest."

"That would've been a thousand times better than stuffing you in that wretched cave."

Ah Yin's phantom swayed faintly in midair.

Though she had no clear awareness, the words seemed to stir some instinctive response in her.

The blue-gold light on the Soul Bone flickered fitfully.

Gu Qing snorted and reached out to pull over a vine of Life-Type Blue Silver Grass.

"He doesn't understand plants at all."

"All he knows is how to swing that broken hammer and smash people."

"He hid you away in some remote place like Holy Soul Village, got drunk every day, and put on the airs of a man wasting away from grief over his lost love."

"This self-indulgent devotion is nothing but cowardice at its most hypocritical."

Gu Qing laid the Life-Type Blue Silver Grass against Ah Yin's phantom.

Pure life force surged into her again, steadying the phantom as it began to waver.

"If he truly wanted to save you, there were so many rare treasures across the continent, so many Soul Beasts with life attributes."

"With his strength, he could've seized them, stolen them, fought for them. He could've found some way to help you grow faster."

"But he did nothing."

"He only guarded your little seedling, wallowed in his own sorrow, and ran from reality."

The scorn in Gu Qing's eyes grew ever more pronounced.

In his eyes, Tang Hao's actions were nothing short of laughable.

A man with any sense of responsibility would never let the woman he loved endure such hardship, then mourn her in such a passive way.

In Gu Qing's heart, Tang Hao did not deserve to be called a strong man.

Much less to possess a supreme Plant-type Soul Beast like the Blue Silver Emperor.

"The one who truly rules over plants and bestows life is me."

Gu Qing sprang to his feet.

The aura of life in the chamber surged with him.

Tender green moss appeared on the stone walls, and tiny white flowers bloomed.

The Life-Type Blue Silver Grass radiated a pressure that made the heart tremble.

It was not destructive power. It was the absolute dominion of a being at the top of the food chain over the plants beneath it.

Under that dominion, Ah Yin's phantom bowed her head despite herself.

The blue-gold light was completely overshadowed by Gu Qing's emerald-green vitality.

In this chamber, there was no Blue Silver Emperor.

There was only Gu Qing, the true king of plants.

"Do you see, Ah Yin?"

"Your imperial bloodline is nothing before my Life-Type Blue Silver Grass."

"Tang Hao was using you as a fig leaf to cover up his fallen hero's disgrace."

"But I can give you a spark of life with nothing more than a wave of my hand."

Gu Qing slowly withdrew his hand, and the phantom returned to the hundred-thousand-year-old right leg bone.

The Soul Bone lay quietly in his palm.

After being nourished just now, it was no longer a lifeless bone.

It held within it a genuine spark of life.

If he wished, he could sever that thread of vitality at any time and turn it back into a dead thing.

Or he could use it someday to deal a devastating blow to Tang Hao's fragile heart.

"Tang Hao, oh, Tang Hao."

Gu Qing slipped the Soul Bone into his Storage Soul Tool and casually dusted off his hands.

"You swore to avenge yourself."

"You pinned all your hopes on the Soul Master Tournament, on those brats from Shrek Academy."

"You think you can turn the world upside down on the day of the wedding."

Gu Qing sat back down on the cushion and leisurely straightened his sleeve.

Qian Renxue's peerless face surfaced in his mind, along with her delighted expression when she put on the Life Grass Ring.

He would never let anyone ruin that wedding.

Tang Hao was nothing but a clown who knew how to deceive himself.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the Heaven Dou Empire.

These forces, secretly gathering their strength, would ultimately become nothing more than stepping stones at the wedding ceremony in the face of overwhelming power.

"I am the true king of Blue Silver Grass."

The sky gradually darkened. A travel-worn party approached the towering gates of Spirit City.

The green flag of Shrek Academy snapped in the wind.

At the front of the group, Tang San lifted his head to gaze up at the magnificent city.

His hands clenched into fists.

The journey, traveled day and night without rest, had done nothing to dampen the young people's fighting spirit.

If anything, with the finals drawing near, blazing flames burned in every one of their eyes.

Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back beside Tang San.

"Xiao San, Spirit City is nothing like Heaven Dou City."

"This is Spirit Hall's stronghold. Remember, you mustn't act recklessly."

Grandmaster patted his disciple's shoulder and gave him a solemn warning.

Tang San nodded firmly.

But the murderous intent deep in his eyes remained impossible to conceal.

The grisly sight of Teacher Zhao's body, left without a single intact piece, still haunted the Shrek Seven Devils.

Dean Flender had been so overcome with grief that he'd barely spoken throughout the journey.

Dai Mubai strode forward, the aura of his Evil-Eyed White Tiger stirring faintly around him.

"Don't worry, Grandmaster. We all know our limits."

"But Shrek is taking the championship this time!"

Oscar and Ma Hongjun nodded in agreement.

Soul Power surged around them, their fighting spirit high.

Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu stood to one side, gripping each other's hands.

The same determination filled both girls' beautiful eyes.

At that moment, these monstrous young geniuses displayed a unity they had never shown before.

Tang San looked around at his companions, his own blood rising with theirs.

"That's right. We're not just fighting for Shrek's glory."

"We're also here to avenge Teacher Zhao."

"Whether our opponents are the Golden Generation of Spirit Hall"

"or that Holy Son Gu Qing everyone keeps praising to the skies,"

"Shrek Academy will claim the championship!"

"We'll make the murderer pay the most terrible price!"

Tang San's forceful words rang out beyond the city gates.

Many passing Soul Masters from various factions turned to look.

Hearing this, several Spirit Hall knights guarding the gates

immediately gripped their spears and prepared to step forward and rebuke them.

But the captain of the guard gave them a look, forcing them to hold back.

This was right beneath His Holiness the Pope's nose.