"Human, you killed one of our 100,000-year Soul Beasts and still expect to leave safely? Prepare to die."
The Ice Empress angrily rushed forward. Because Tang Hao had used Exploding Ring, his current power was severely depleted, which was why he had not sensed the presence of the Ice and Snow Two Emperors earlier.
When the Ice Empress suddenly appeared, Tang Hao was also startled. This Ice Empress clearly was not ordinary, and she even took a humanoid form. Furthermore, she had mentioned 100,000-year Soul Beasts-could she be a Humanoid Soul Beast?
Another delivered-to-my-door soul bone. Since you insist on blocking me as well, I will kill you to take your bone. Ah Yin, do not blame me; this is also to accumulate power for our son Tang San.
Seeing the Ice Empress in human form, evil intentions arose in Tang Hao. "Mere 100,000-year Humanoid Soul Beast, get out of my way at once, or else I will kill you."
Although Tang Hao currently lacked much power due to his Exploding Ring, he could still use hammer techniques and the like, and dealing with a Humanoid Soul Beast would be completely unproblematic.
However, he had chosen the wrong opponent, and the Ice Empress was no Humanoid Soul Beast. The Ice Empress had transformed into a human form only because she became Shangguan Li's Soul Spirit, whereas her true body was a 400,000-year Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.
The Ice Empress said indifferently, "Human, you too shall pay the price for your arrogance."
With that, bone-chilling cold qi radiated from around the Ice Empress, causing all the surrounding vegetation to frost over. The Ice Empress shot streams of icicles toward Tang Hao's direction.
Seeing the Ice Empress alter the surrounding aura so quickly, Tang Hao panicked. He had not expected this person to be so formidable, and he still did not want to die. Yet his soul rings had just been exploded away, leaving him with no surplus strength to fight the Ice Empress again.
Tang Hao did the most humiliating thing of his life. He dropped to both knees, pressed his entire body flat against the ground, placed his hands on his head, and said tremblingly, "My Lord, I beg you to spare me. Killing that soul beast was not my original intention; it wanted to kill me, and if I did not kill it, the one who died would have been me. I still have a son at home, and I cannot die right now."
This maneuver by Tang Hao left both Shangguan Li and Shaohua dumbfounded, and inwardly they even felt a trace of mockery. Never had they expected that the renowned Clear Sky Douluo would one day kneel and beg for mercy. Yet Tang Hao felt no shame, using a tactical retreat while secretly swearing a venomous oath in his heart.
If I can truly survive, then I will certainly kill you. If I fail to kill you, my son Tang San will definitely kill you to take your soul bone.
The Ice Empress had not originally planned to kill Tang Hao anyway. Seeing him kneel and beg for mercy, she playfully remarked, "A human wants this Emperor to let you go-on what grounds? What conditions do you have? Speak, and if I am not satisfied, you still die."
Seeing a chance, Tang Hao continued, "I do not have anything particularly valuable, only this soul bone which is rather precious. I obtained it from the soul beast I just killed, and I am willing to offer this to Milady, hoping that Milady can spare this lowly one's life."
The two people watching Tang Hao in this state from the shadows were discussing it at that moment.
Shangguan Li said, "Ah'Hua, do you think we should forgive Tang Hao this easily?"
Shaohua said, "How could we possibly forgive him so easily? He definitely still has quite a few good things. We must strip away all of his family fortune."
Shangguan Li smiled. "I didn't expect you to be so bad, but I like this suggestion."
Naturally, the Ice Empress had also heard the conversation between Shangguan Li and Shaohua, and she pretended to be somewhat angry as she said, "You think a single soul bone is enough to make me let you go? I can get this item by killing you anyway."
Anxious now, Tang Hao hurriedly reached out to take the soul tool from his waist and handed it to the Ice Empress. "Milady, all of my worldly possessions are inside here. Please inspect them."
The Ice Empress glanced inside the soul tool. She wouldn't have known if she hadn't looked, but looking gave her a shock. This soul tool contained quite a few good things; there were actually six or seven soul bones-the most precious treasures in the Soul Master World-and all of their ages were above 50,000 years. To say nothing of gold soul coins, there were also various rare minerals and so forth, all of them items that were priceless.
"Fine, leave this behind and get lost." After accepting the soul tool, the Ice Empress gave a grand wave of her hand, telling Tang Hao to scram.
Hearing the Ice Empress grant him leave, Tang Hao said, "Many thanks, Milady, for not killing me," and then galloped at top speed toward the exit of the Star Dou Great Forest, running fiercely fast lest the Ice Empress renege and give chase.
After Tang Hao vanished from sight, Shangguan Li asked, "Ice Empress, what sort of things are in here?"
The Ice Empress said, "I do not know what they are either, but they always feel very precious, so I kept them. This is the soul bone you wanted."
The Snow Empress walked out from behind Shangguan Li and said with dissatisfaction, "Ice Sister, we agreed that both of us would strike together. Why did you attack all by yourself?"
Seeing the Snow Empress angry, the Ice Empress hurried right up in front of her. "Xue'er, don't be angry. I just couldn't hold back my anger, and besides, didn't I properly teach that human a lesson for you?"
The Snow Empress let out a soft chuckle. "Alright, Ice Sister, I am not angry. You did well."
Shaohua was puzzled. "Snow Empress, what did the Ice Empress do?"
The Snow Empress looked toward the Ice Empress. The Ice Empress glanced at Shangguan Li, who nodded in return, before the Ice Empress spoke. "In order to cultivate Ultimate Ice, our Ice Jade Scorpion Clan discarded our poison element. Ever since I became A'Li's soul ring and cultivated slowly within her sea of consciousness, my poison element has cultivated back out."
Shaohua said, "Could it be that you injected the poison element into Tang Hao's body?"
The Ice Empress nodded. "Although my poison element has not been cultivated to a very strong level yet, it is enough to make him suffer."
The time when the Ice Empress cultivated her poison element was half a year ago, and managing to advance the poison element to the Ice Empress's current realm in a mere half-year relied not only on hard work, but also on the help of the Primal Spirit Lake.
Listening to the two of them converse, Shangguan Li inspected the soul tool left behind by Tang Hao. Aside from soul bones and rare ores, it also contained some medicinal herbs, such as thousand-year snow lotuses. Although Shangguan Li had absolutely no need for these items, not needing them herself did not mean the people around her didn't need them!
Gazing at Shangguan Li, who was staring fixedly at the soul tool, Shaohua asked, "A'Li, are there any good things in here?"
Shangguan Li said, "Nothing all that valuable. After all, Tang Hao has been away from the sect for so many years; how could he possibly have so many valuable things? The items inside here should be the spoils from when he went on that rampage at the Spirit Hall Branch, right?"
Shaohua looked over the things inside the soul tool and nodded as well. "It must be. Otherwise, how could he have found so many soul bones?"
"This soul bone suits Dugu Yan, and this one suits Zhu Zhuqing. It seems Tang Hao did a good deed after all." Shaohua picked out two soul bones from among the six or seven pieces. One was a 50,000-year agility-attribute left leg bone, and the other was a 60,000-year strength-attribute right arm bone.
Shangguan Li looked them over. "I didn't expect a Spirit Hall Branch to actually have high-grade soul bones like these. Spirit Hall's foundation is truly not low."
"Spirit Hall has after all existed on the continent for so many years, and they have constantly maintained the balance between the Star Luo and Heaven Dou empires. It would be impossible for them not to have some foundation."
"Yet with Tang Hao acquiring so many soul bones, just how many Spirit Hall branches did he wreck?" Shaohua said in some disbelief. Although he had heard previously that Tang Hao had gone on a rampage at a Spirit Hall branch a few years ago due to certain reasons, no one could have guessed that he actually plundered so many treasures.
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(End of Chapter)
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