Clear Sky Sect, assembly hall.
The once-majestic main hall of the sect was now steeped in a suffocating gloom.
The battered tables and chairs had been carelessly piled in a corner, and bloodstains that had yet to dry remained on the floor.
Tang Xiao sat on the Sect Master's throne. His once-stern face now seemed ten years older, and his usually straight back had begun to stoop.
Below him, the only four remaining elders sat with grim expressions.
Tai Tan, covered in wounds, stood to one side, his face filled with shame and trepidation.
Behind him stood several of his clansmen.
"Bang!"
The Seventh Elder slammed a palm onto the stone table. His grief-stricken face twisted into a savage grimace.
"That bastard Tang Hao! Where the hell has he gone?!"
"The sect lost three elders for his sake! The Great Elder! So many gifted young disciples! My son... my only son!!"
By the end, the Seventh Elder's voice had become a piercing wail. "He'd only just broken through to Soul King! And that devilish Bibi Dong... left not even a corpse behind!!"
"Who, exactly, is going to answer for this?!"
"Seventh brother, calm down."
The Second Elder's voice was hoarse as well, but he still forced himself to maintain the dignity of the longest-serving elder still alive. "Now isn't the time to assign blame..."
"Not the time?!"
The Seventh Elder leaped to his feet, pointing at the Second Elder, then at Tang Xiao above him. "Second brother! Sect Master! Are you still going to protect that beast?!"
"If he hadn't offended Spirit Hall for the sake of a Soul Beast and killed the Pope, would we have suffered this calamity?!"
"And you, Tang Xiao!"
The Seventh Elder's eyes were bloodshot as he addressed him by name without the slightest deference. "If you hadn't stubbornly insisted back then that we couldn't abandon our affiliated clans, and dragged us straight into Bibi Dong's trap!"
"Would so many of us have died?!"
"Would the Great Elder have blown himself up to save you?!"
"You're the Sect Master, yet you let your feelings cloud your judgment. Not only did you fail to save the Speed Clan, you also sent half of Clear Sky Sect's elite to their deaths! What right do you have to sit in that seat?!"
Tang Xiao lowered his head and said nothing.
He couldn't refute it.
Because it was the truth.
He had been too confident, too attached to that so-called family bond and loyalty. He had thought that, with Clear Sky Sect's strength, they could rescue them even by force.
But reality had dealt him the cruelest slap in the face.
That Bibi Dong... was terrifying.
She had broken the Clear Sky Battle Formation as easily as snapping a twig! She had killed Soul Douluo just as easily!
If the Great Elder hadn't risked his life in one final strike and blasted Bibi Dong away, they probably wouldn't have escaped alive!
"Enough!"
Tai Tan finally couldn't take it anymore. He stepped forward and stood in front of Tang Xiao. "Seventh Elder! The Sect Master was only trying to..."
"Shut up!!"
The Seventh Elder roared. "Tai Tan! You old ape still have the nerve to speak?!"
"If we hadn't gone to face Bibi Dong to save your Strength Clan, would the Great Elder have died?!"
"Your Strength Clan is nothing but dead weight! You're accomplices in the deaths of our clansmen!!"
"I..." Tai Tan's face flushed, then went pale beneath the rebuke, but he couldn't find a word to answer with.
It was true: much of Clear Sky Sect's losses this time had come from supporting them.
"That's enough! All of you, hold your tongues!" the Second Elder said sternly. "What's the point of arguing about this now? The dead can't come back to life!"
"The urgent matter is deciding what to do next!"
"Though that madwoman Bibi Dong was blasted away by the Great Elder, judging from the news coming from Spirit Hall, she doesn't seem to be dead. She may even be regrouping her forces!"
"And besides..."
The Second Elder drew a deep breath, his voice steeped in despair.
"We just received word that she's issued an ultimatum to the Defense Clan and the Breaking Clan."
"She said... she'll give us three days."
"If they don't surrender, she'll bring that Samsara Death Realm and slaughter both clans!"
At those words, the hall fell into utter silence.
Samsara Death Realm.
Those four words had become a curse. Every survivor felt their soul shudder at the sound of them.
The terror of watching their Soul Power drain away before their eyes, of seeing their companions swallowed by the gray mist, was a nightmare no one could ever forget.
"Th-then what do we do?"
The Fourth Elder asked with a slight tremble. "Are we supposed to go save them?"
"Save them? With what?"
The Seventh Elder gave a bitter laugh. "Go die for nothing again? Become more fodder for that devil?"
"If we don't save them, are we supposed to stand by and watch both clans get wiped out?" Tai Tan gritted out.
"Then what else?!" the Seventh Elder glared at him. "We've already lost so many people saving your clansmen! Are we supposed to throw away the last of Clear Sky Sect's foundations for them too?!"
"I say we seal off the mountain!"
The Seventh Elder dropped back into his chair, his eyes filled with despair. "Shut the sect gates tight! Use the natural defenses to hold them off!"
"As long as we don't leave the mountain, Bibi Dong won't be able to breach Clear Sky Peak easily, no matter how strong she is!"
"As for those two clans..."
"Let fate decide their lot."
"I agree with sealing off the mountain."
The Third Elder, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke in a low voice. "Bibi Dong is at the height of her power, and her strength is unfathomable. We can't afford any more losses."
"Besides... Tang Hao still hasn't shown his face. That means he's either dead or hiding somewhere, too afraid to come out."
"We have no reason to fight Spirit Hall to the death for that coward."
As the elders one by one declared their support for sealing the mountain, Tang Xiao's hands clenched the armrests so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
Seal off the mountain.
It meant giving up their dignity, abandoning their allies, and huddling away like a turtle.
For Clear Sky Sect, once so invincible, what a humiliation!
But...
Looking at the faces below him, some furious, some despairing, some terrified, Tang Xiao knew he had no choice left.
Their hearts had scattered; he could no longer hold the ranks together.
"Fine..."
Tang Xiao closed his eyes. Two trails of tears slid down his cheeks, and his voice rasped like sandpaper.
"Pass down the order..."
"Recall every disciple currently outside..."
"Abandon all our outlying businesses..."
"Clear Sky Sect..."
"Seal the mountain!!!"
"..."
"That won't be enough."
The Second Elder's icy voice shattered the brief silence once more.
Tang Xiao jerked his head up. His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice trembled. "Sealing the mountain won't be enough? Second Uncle, do I have to die here in this hall and atone with my life before it'll be enough?!"
"Whether the Sect Master dies or not won't solve the problem." The Second Elder's expression remained impassive. "Spirit Hall has a just cause for attacking us. The whole world knows it's because Tang Hao killed the former Pope, Qian Xunji."
"As long as Tang Hao remains a member of Clear Sky Sect, Spirit Hall will have a reason to keep attacking us. They can even claim they're seeking justice."
"Sealing the mountain shows our own intentions. But if we want Spirit Hall to withdraw and the whole world to know that this matter has nothing to do with Clear Sky Sect..."
The Second Elder paused.
"We must announce to the world that Tang Hao has been expelled from Clear Sky Sect and struck from the clan register!"
"And declare that Tang Hao's actions were his own, and had nothing to do with the sect! If Spirit Hall manages to capture him, Clear Sky Sect will not interfere!"
"You..." Tang Xiao's body shook violently as he clenched both fists.
Expelled from the sect.
For members of a sect who valued their bloodline and honor above all else, it was a punishment more painful than death.
And Tang Hao was his own younger brother, Clear Sky Sect's most dazzling genius in a century!
"I won't..."
"Sect Master!"
The Seventh Elder cut him off sharply. His eyes were bloodshot as he shouted, "Do you want the entire sect buried alongside that unfilial wretch?! Do you want our ancestors to find no peace even in the underworld?!"
"If you refuse to give the order, then we old bones will do it for you!"
Under the elders' coercive gazes, laced with hatred, Tang Xiao's proud backbone was finally crushed bit by bit by the cruelty of reality.
"Fine..."
Tang Xiao slumped in his seat, his voice hollow.
"Pass down the order..."
"From this day onward, Tang Hao is no longer a disciple of Clear Sky Sect."
"Strike him from the clan register, and revoke... the Clear Sky name."
"Proclaim it... to the world."
After uttering those words, Tang Xiao closed his eyes, as if he couldn't bear to look at this suffocating world anymore.
"There is one more thing."
The Second Elder did not stop despite Tang Xiao's concession. His expression remained grave.
"Second brother, what else is there?" the Fourth Elder couldn't help asking. "We've already sealed the mountain and expelled Tang Hao. Is that still not enough?"
"Not enough."
The Second Elder shook his head, then said something shocking. "We must prepare for the worst. Activate the backup clan grounds near Heaven Dou City at once."
"What?!"
The words sent shockwaves through the hall.
Even Tang Xiao, who had been on the verge of collapse, abruptly opened his eyes and stared at the Second Elder in disbelief. "Second Uncle, what do you mean? The backup clan grounds? That's the last refuge, to be used only when the sect faces annihilation!"
"Are you saying we should abandon Clear Sky Peak? Give up our thousand-year legacy?!"
"This is a natural fortress! As long as we seal the mountain and break the chain bridges, how could Spirit Hall possibly climb up here?!"
"A natural fortress?"
The Second Elder gave a bitter laugh, a deep fear flashing in his eyes.
"If this had been before, I would have believed Clear Sky Peak was an impregnable fortress too."
"But..."
"Have you forgotten Bibi Dong's domain, the one filled with gray mist?"
At those words, every elder's face turned deathly pale.
"That domain... can corrode Soul Power, devour life, and even corrode space!" the Second Elder said, his voice trembling. "Our natural defenses are meant for armies, for ordinary Soul Masters. But what are cliffs and precipices against power almost like a divine skill? What good are chain bridges across the gorge?"
"If Bibi Dong brings that domain to Clear Sky Peak, even if she's the only one who climbs up here, she only needs to release that gray mist..."
"Of the several thousand people in Clear Sky Sect, those above Soul Saint might barely hold out, but those below Soul Saint..."
"They'll probably all be devoured by that gray mist without a sound!"