Tang San Won?! Puni's Seal Broken! Holy Light Descends!

The golden light began to dissipate.

The sacred phantom of Puni behind him, as if having completed its mission, slowly dissolved into specks of light and vanished into the air.

Gu Sheng lowered his head to look at his chest.

There, a distinct golden crack was emitting a faint glow.

That was the mark left by the successful breaking of the Second Seal.

He had bet correctly.

On the Heaven Dou Empire royal dais.

Qian Renxue, disguised as Xue Qinghe, had originally been sitting upright in her chair.

But the moment the Clear Sky Hammer descended and the golden light erupted, her pupils suddenly constricted.

She bolted up from her seat, lips parted, on the verge of crying out.

Yet, as the words reached her throat, she suddenly remembered her current identity.

She was the Crown Prince of the Heaven Dou Empire, not the Young Mistress of the Martial Soul Hall.

Qian Renxue forcibly swallowed that exclamation.

Her hands, hidden beneath wide sleeves, clenched tight; her fingers gripped so hard her knuckles turned white, and her long nails dug deep into her palms, drawing beads of blood.

Yet, as if she could not feel the pain, she stared fixedly at the center of the rising dust.

At the highest point of the Martial Soul Hall.

Bibi Dong also stood up.

She gripped her scepter, her stunning face devoid of expression, making it impossible to discern her mood.

Seeing this, Chrysanthemum Douluo immediately leaned in, lowering his voice.

"Your Holiness, that Gu Sheng, he..."

Bibi Dong raised a hand, cutting off Yue Guan's report.

Her eyes remained fixed on the dust cloud below that had yet to settle, attempting to pierce through to the situation within.

In the stands, tens of thousands of spectators could no longer contain themselves.

Heads surged as everyone stood up, craning their necks, desperately trying to see the final outcome of the match.

On the Heaven Dou Empire royal dais, Emperor Xue Ye braced his hands against the table, his body leaning forward, his gaze grave.

On the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect dais, Ning Fengzhi gripped his scepter tightly, his usually refined face now filled with tension.

The lead teachers of the various high-level Soul Master Academies and representatives of every faction all stood up at this moment, their gazes focused on the same point.

Under the anxious watch of tens of thousands of people.

The dust in the center of the arena finally drifted away under the breath of a light breeze.

After seeing the scene on the field, the entire venue fell into a deathly silence.

A massive crater had appeared in the center of the arena.

Gu Sheng lay in a pile of rubble at the heart of the crater, his eyes tightly shut.

His black robes were shredded, hanging off his body like strips of cloth.

A large, charred mark covered his chest, clearly the result of taking a massive destructive force head-on.

His exposed skin was covered in wounds of all sizes, and fresh blood stained the rubble beneath him.

He lay there, motionless, his chest barely rising and falling.

"Did he win?"

In the stands, someone swallowed hard and asked in a low voice.

"He... he looks dead, doesn't he?"

"Nonsense! That was the Weapon Soul Avatar unleashed by the fusion of seven Soul Ancestors! An attack like that would kill even a high-level Soul Emperor on the spot; how could a mere youth possibly survive it!"

The murmurs grew louder.

At the edge of the crater.

Tang San knelt on both knees, gasping for air.

His hands gripped the handle of the Clear Sky Hammer, holding it inverted against the ground to support his teetering body.

The massive Clear Sky Hammer had already shrunk back to its original size.

Because he had forcibly unleashed the Weapon Soul Avatar beyond his level, he had endured an unbearable energy backlash.

Dense, spiderweb-like cracks had appeared on the black surface of the hammer.

The soul power within Tang San's body was completely exhausted; he could not squeeze out even a single drop.

The wave of exhaustion washing over his body made him want to collapse and sleep, ignoring everything else.

Yet he did not close his eyes.

He forced himself to hold onto his final shred of spirit, staring at the motionless Gu Sheng at the bottom of the pit.

One second.

Two seconds.

Ten seconds passed.

Gu Sheng still lay quietly amidst the rubble, showing no reaction whatsoever.

Seeing this, Tang San's originally taut face finally relaxed.

A surge of irrepressible joy welled up in his heart.

He had won.

He had actually hammered this arrogant monster into the ground!

Tang San turned his head to look at Xiao Wu, who had also collapsed in the distance, and pulled a weak yet gratified smile onto his lips.

"Xiao Wu..."

Tang San's voice was hoarse and trembling.

"Did you see? I defeated him."

"I avenged you!"

Having said this, Tang San could no longer hold on; his body tilted, and he collapsed into the ruins along with the cracked Clear Sky Hammer.

In the VIP seating area.

Hearing Tang San's words and seeing the unconscious Gu Sheng in the deep pit, Qian Renxue's heart gave a violent twitch.

She gripped her fingers even tighter, her knuckles turning deathly pale from the pressure. Blood dripped from between her fingers, splashing onto the red carpet.

Before the papal throne at the highest point.

Bibi Dong watched the scene in the pit, her eyelids drooping as she slowly closed her eyes. No one knew what the iron-blooded Pope was thinking at this moment.

In stark contrast to the deathly silence on the side of Martial Soul Hall.

In the Shrek Academy preparation area, after a brief moment of shock, a heaven-shaking cheer erupted.

Flender was so excited he grabbed Liu Erlong beside him in a hug.

Zhao Wuji slapped his own thighs hard, his eyes rimmed with red.

Though Yu Xiaogang's face was pale, he wore a look of pride.

"We won!"

"We won! Shrek won!"

The teachers ignored their dignity, shouting and rushing toward the center of the arena.

"Champions!"

"We are the grand champions of the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament!"

The cheers from Shrek Academy sounded particularly jarring in the silent arena, yet like a prairie fire, they quickly ignited the emotions of the Heaven Dou Empire camp.

A sincere smile appeared on Emperor Xue Ye's face.

Regardless of everything else, the Heaven Dou Empire had secured this supreme honor.

The referee swallowed hard.

He looked at the wounded scattered across the ground and the unmoving Gu Sheng at the bottom of the pit.

He knew that this unprecedented, brutal final was finally coming to an end.

The referee took a deep breath and once again raised the sound-amplifying Soul Tool in his hand.

He raised his right hand high, preparing to announce the final victor to the entire continent.

Just then.

The referee's raised arm froze in mid-air.

The sound-amplifying Soul Tool in his palm was squeezed until it emitted a faint creaking sound.

The referee's entire body was tense, his muscles locked.

He could neither raise it further.

Nor put it down.

What was going on?

What had happened??

Everyone was bewildered.

A gust of wind blew through the ruins, kicking up a sky full of dust that hit the referee's face, but the man didn't even dare to blink.

In the massive stands, over twenty thousand spectators craned their necks.

The entire Martial Soul City arena was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

In front of the Heaven Dou Empire royal seating area.

Emperor Xue Ye held an exquisite celadon teacup in his hand, his arm suspended in mid-air.

The old emperor had actually forgotten to set the cup back down on the table.

The scalding tea sloshed slightly, spilling a few drops onto his luxurious robes, yet Emperor Xue Ye remained completely oblivious.