Even from more than ten meters away, Su Chen could smell the pungent stench of cheap ale mixed with sour sweat.
And yet this man looked like a down-and-out beggar.
In his right hand, however, he held an enormous black iron hammer upside down!
Its head was covered in ancient, mysterious dark-gold patterns.
Though he held it casually, the air around the hammer seemed unable to bear its terrifying weight, humming in waves.
The greatest Tool Spirit in the world, the Clear Sky Hammer!
The newcomer was none other than the Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao, who had once shaken the entire continent!
At that moment, Tang Hao stood with his back to the cold moon hanging high above, looking down at Su Chen on the balcony.
"You're Su Chen, the Storyteller who spoke onstage this afternoon."
At last, Tang Hao spoke, his tone unbearably condescending.
"Were you the one who threw my son out of this window today?"
Tang Hao slowly raised the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand, pointing its head at Su Chen's face.
"Zhao Wuji is a useless piece of trash. He couldn't protect my son."
"So I beat him half to death."
Tang Hao spoke as if recounting some trivial little matter.
"But half the bones in my son's face were broken, and he lost more than a dozen teeth."
"He was hurt that badly."
"So you won't live to see tomorrow's sun."
As Tang Hao finished speaking, the pressure of a Titled Douluo swept toward Su Chen.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red!
A full nine dazzling Soul Rings rose from beneath Tang Hao's feet!
The last one, in particular, was a red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!
The moment it appeared, it unleashed the suffocating pressure of a hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast, bathing the night sky above the entire rear courtyard in blood-red light!
At the same time, killing intent solidified into a domain and locked onto Su Chen.
Divine Slaughter's Domain!
In Tang Hao's eyes, an ordinary person who hadn't even awakened his Martial Soul wasn't worth a second swing of his hammer.
Even if he'd used some strange trick to drive off that poison-wielding piece of trash, Dugu Bo, earlier that day—
before the Clear Sky Hammer, the symbol of ultimate strength, and under the absolute suppression of a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring,
all those flashy tricks were utterly useless.
Yet even while facing the mighty Clear Sky Douluo, Su Chen below didn't so much as furrow his brow.
He didn't even release his protective aura. He simply let that frigid Divine Slaughter's Domain wash over him.
"Tomorrow's sun?"
Su Chen looked at Tang Hao, who was putting on airs, and suddenly smiled.
"Tang Hao, have you been hiding in that lightless sewer for so long that it rotted your brain?"
At those words, Tang Hao first froze, then flew into a rage.
He'd never expected this man to dare speak to him like that, brazenly mouthing off!
And he'd accused him of hiding in a sewer?
"Are you asking to die?"
With that, Tang Hao wasted no words. He gripped the hammer's handle, ready to strike.
The already enormous Clear Sky Hammer swelled with the support of the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, growing in the wind until it was the size of a small mountain!
"Die, you bastard!"
The next second, Tang Hao plunged down from the air, swinging the black giant hammer as if Mount Tai were crashing down, and brought it straight down on Su Chen's head!
Tang Hao didn't use any fancy Soul Skills in that strike.
There was no need!
He would use pure strength to smash that wretched Storyteller, along with the top floor of Listening Rain Pavilion, into a pulp!
As the black hammer loomed larger and larger in his pupils, Su Chen still stood where he was.
He didn't dodge or retreat.
He merely lifted his right hand and slowly spread his fingers.
The next moment, brilliant golden blood-and-qi burst from Su Chen's palm!
No Martial Soul, no Soul Ring. He simply met the blow with an easy, open hand.
"You bring a piece of scrap metal and dare to put on a show in front of me?"
As Su Chen's voice fell, his bare palm collided with the mountain-sized Clear Sky Hammer in midair with a thunderous crash!
Meanwhile, in another secluded, quiet inn courtyard in Heaven's Dou Imperial City,
the room was filled with the intensely pungent smell of strong wound medicine.
The dim candlelight flickered, stretching the room's several battered figures into long shadows.
"Ow, this hurts like hell..."
A pained groan came from beside the bed. The Immovable Bright King, Zhao Wuji, was sprawled across a wicker chair.
He was nothing like the swaggering figure he'd been at Listening Rain Pavilion that afternoon.
White bandages wrapped him from head to toe, making him look like a mummy that had just crawled out of its tomb.
His face was especially bad: bruised and swollen, with two enormous black eyes. Blood still seeped from the corner of his mouth, and even the slightest movement made his bones crack as if his whole body were falling apart.
Beside Zhao Wuji, Flender, the dean of Shrek Academy, wasn't faring much better.
His trademark crystal glasses had long since been smashed to pieces. One side of his jaw was swollen, and he was sucking in breaths through clenched teeth as he carefully smeared ointment on his face.
"All right, Wuji. Stop complaining for a bit."
Flender grimaced in pain and shot Zhao Wuji an annoyed look.
"The fact that we're still sitting here breathing today means our ancestors must have piled up a mountain of good fortune!"
At that, Zhao Wuji looked aggrieved and slapped his thigh hard.
"I've had the worst luck in eight lifetimes today!"
"This afternoon at Listening Rain Pavilion, that Storyteller brat who didn't even have Soul Power scared me into kneeling in front of everyone. I lost every last shred of face!"
"Then, as soon as I got back tonight, before I could even catch my breath, I got the tar beaten out of me again!"
As he spoke, a deep, lingering fear flashed through Zhao Wuji's eyes.
Half an hour earlier,
a black-robed man reeking of alcohol, looking like a beggar, had suddenly barged into the courtyard.
Without a word, he'd swung a black giant hammer and subjected Flender and him to a one-sided, crushing beating!
Before they could even release their Martial Soul Avatars, the two of them—mighty Seven-Ring Soul Sages—had been tossed around the courtyard like punching bags.
Only when the man's dazzling red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring lit up beneath his feet did they realize in horror:
that disheveled drunk was Tang Hao, the Clear Sky Douluo, renowned across the continent!
And Tang Hao's reason for beating them was simple: As teachers, they hadn't protected his son, and had let someone injure him badly!
"If Little San hadn't pleaded for us with his dying breath, that Excellency's hammer would probably have cracked our heads like watermelons." Flender sighed, still shaken.
At that moment, on the large bed at the far end of the room,
Tang San lay there weakly.
Half his face had caved in completely, and thick gauze covered it. Su Chen's slap had knocked out more than a dozen of his teeth, and every breath carried a heavy stench of blood.
Though Tang San had his eyes closed as he listened to Flender and Zhao Wuji talking, his thoughts churned like a storm.
His first reaction was delight!
Unprecedented excitement and pride!
Dad hadn't left!
And his dad, who'd done nothing but forge metal, drink, and waste away like mud back in Holy Soul Village, was actually the legendary youngest Titled Douluo in the Soul Master World—the Clear Sky Douluo!
That peerless ruthless man who even dared to hammer the Pope of Spirit Hall was his own father!
With such an insurmountable mountain at his back, who in this world did he still need to fear?!
At the thought, Tang San's heart burned with excitement.
But when he cracked his eyes open slightly and caught sight of Zhao Wuji and Flender groaning nearby,
a naked look of contempt quickly flashed through Tang San's eyes.
What Immovable Bright King? What Four-Eyed Cat Owl? They were a pack of hopeless good-for-nothings!
Mighty Seven-Ring Soul Sages, and that afternoon at Listening Rain Pavilion they'd just watched Su Chen knock out all his teeth, then throw him from the building like a dead dog.
They hadn't stopped him. They hadn't even dared to utter a damn word!
What use were teachers like that?
His dad had been doing them a favor by beating them. They deserved it!
The fact he hadn't smashed them to death on the spot was already a tremendous act of mercy.
Tang San thought coldly to himself.
If he hadn't needed to maintain his image as a respectful student, he wouldn't even have bothered pleading for those two when Tang Hao swung his hammer earlier.
Tang San also felt some contempt for Yu Xiaogang and Dugu Bo, who sat in the corner with equally pale faces—not just Zhao Wuji and Flender.
If he hadn't shouted, "Teacher, Old Monster," in time, Tang Hao's hammer might have crushed those two as well.
Though he cursed all of them as good-for-nothings in his heart,
on the surface, Tang San let out a very weak cough.
"Cough, cough..."
Hearing him, Yu Xiaogang hurried to the bedside, concern written all over his face as he looked at his one and only precious disciple.
"Little San, you're awake? How are you feeling? Does it still hurt?"
Tang San managed a very difficult shake of his head. Beneath the gauze covering his face, he forced himself to look full of guilt and remorse.
"Teacher... I'm fine."
Then he turned to Flender and Zhao Wuji, his eyes reddening and his voice catching.
"Dean Flender, Teacher Zhao, this is all my fault..."
"I dragged you into this and got you beaten so badly by my dad for no reason."
"Once I've recovered, I'll personally kneel and beg both teachers' forgiveness!"
His words, choked with tears and full of magnanimity, instantly dispelled every trace of resentment in Flender and Zhao Wuji.
"Ow, Little San, what are you saying?"
Zhao Wuji struggled to sit up and waved his hands repeatedly. "How could this be your fault? You're our student. We failed to protect you, so it was only right for His Excellency Clear Sky to teach us a lesson."
"That's right, Little San. Rest and recover. Don't dwell on it," Flender quickly added.
Seeing that no one blamed him and they were instead even more concerned, Tang San sneered inwardly.
Then he changed the subject, his face full of resentment.
"But, Teacher, if Su Chen hadn't relied on some strange brute strength to act so arrogantly and attack people without reason this afternoon..."
"How would things ever have come to this?"
"He didn't just insult you, Teacher. He also injured Senior Dugu. He clearly has no regard for the rules of our Soul Master World!"
The moment Su Chen was mentioned, the atmosphere in the room changed.
A venomous expression appeared on Yu Xiaogang's face, too.
That afternoon at Listening Rain Pavilion, in front of so many people, Su Chen had exposed all his secrets and called him a plagiarizing good-for-nothing. He still couldn't swallow that bitter humiliation!
"Little San, don't worry!"
Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back and raised his chin slightly, once more putting on the airs of the greatest theoretical master under heaven.
Then he sneered.
"Su Chen is nothing but a jumping clown who knows a little body-tempering technique. Does he really think he can strut across Douluo Continent just because he drove Dugu Bo back?"
"Your father already took the Clear Sky Hammer to Listening Rain Pavilion to settle the score."
At that, Yu Xiaogang spoke with complete confidence.
"The Clear Sky Hammer is the greatest Tool Spirit in the world, the bane of all brute strength!"
"And on top of that, your father has a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and the supreme secret technique of Ring Detonation."
"Before absolute power, whatever he calls an Ancient Sacred Body or a hundred thousand jin of strength is nothing but a paper joke!"
"By now, that brat has probably already been smashed into a puddle of mud by your father's hammer!"
In the corner, Dugu Bo, who hadn't spoken all this time, nodded in deep agreement.
Su Chen's sheer physical strength had indeed shaken him earlier that day, but now that he'd calmed down and thought it over carefully—
without Soul Power, he was still without Soul Power.
Against a lunatic like Tang Hao, who stood at the very peak of the continent's power, Su Chen was absolutely doomed!
"Teacher is right."
A gleam of satisfaction flashed through Tang San's eyes on the bed.
Su Chen, Su Chen, weren't you so high and mighty this afternoon?
Didn't you say I wasn't even qualified to challenge you?
Now my dad has stepped in personally. Let's see whether that brute strength you're so proud of can withstand the Clear Sky Douluo's fury!
You dared to knock out my teeth. My dad will knock the bones in your body apart, one by one!
"Hmph, it's too good for him if he just gets smashed to death. That wouldn't be nearly satisfying enough!" Zhao Wuji snarled, shaking a bandaged fist.
"Everyone, no need to rush."
Flender pushed up the lone lens still perched on his nose and grinned.
"His Excellency Clear Sky always knows where to draw the line. He won't let him die that easily. Most likely, he'll cripple him and leave him alive so he can wish he were dead."
"First thing tomorrow morning!"
"First thing tomorrow morning, we'll all head to Listening Rain Pavilion together!"
"I want to see with my own eyes how that Storyteller, who was so arrogant this afternoon, ends up sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, kowtowing and begging our forgiveness!"
"Right! We'll all go tomorrow! Let's see if he can still run his mouth then!" Zhao Wuji eagerly chimed in.
"Then this old man will go with you as well and see how that brat meets his end!" Dugu Bo hesitated for a moment, then voiced his agreement.
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