Tang Hao's voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable air of dominance.
Bibi Dong stood on the high platform, a cold smile appearing on her stunning face.
"Take her away?"
"Tang Hao, what do you think this place is?"
"This is Spirit City, right in front of the Pope's Palace!"
"Do you think you can take this Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast from me with nothing but your own strength?"
As soon as Bibi Dong finished speaking,
several terrifying auras surged skyward from within the Pope's Palace.
They belonged to the Spirit Hall's worshippers and elders.
The pressure of several Titled Douluo faintly rose to meet Tang Hao's.
Yet when Tang Hao saw this, he showed no fear. Instead, he burst into laughter.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"Spirit Hall may have plenty of Titled Douluo, but if I, Tang Hao, want to leave, who can stop me?"
With that,
Tang Hao drew a deep breath. The Soul Power in his body began to churn wildly.
The nine Soul Rings beneath his feet suddenly shuddered violently.
The ninth ring in particular—the red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring—shone so brightly that it hurt to look at.
He beckoned with his right hand, and the enormous Clear Sky Hammer returned to his grasp.
"Great Sumeru Hammer!"
Tang Hao bellowed.
As Soul Power poured into the Clear Sky Hammer in his hands, it expanded several times over.
The hammer, originally pitch-black, now glimmered with a faint, dark-red light.
For this strike,
Tang Hao gathered every ounce of his vitality, spirit, and energy.
He knew he couldn't stay long. He had to break through and carve out an escape route as quickly as possible, then take Tang San and Xiao Wu with him.
So this strike was the very peak of his power!
"Take my hammer!"
Tang Hao roared and leaped high into the air.
Gripping the impossibly massive Clear Sky Hammer with both hands, he brought it crashing down on the people below in front of the Pope's Palace!
His targets:
the entrance to the Pope's Palace, as well as Bibi Dong and... Gu Sheng, standing atop the high platform!
The instant the hammer came down, it was as if the air had been sucked away.
The crushing force of its weight made many low-ranked Soul Masters at the scene cough up blood and crumple to the ground.
Even Ning Fengzhi and Sword Douluo Chen Xin turned pale.
"The power of that strike... Tang Hao's gotten even stronger."
Chen Xin stared at the hammer, his expression grave.
Faced with this world-shattering blow, Bibi Dong's gaze also turned solemn.
She was about to circulate her Soul Power and block it.
After all, this was Spirit City. If Tang Hao smashed the Pope's Palace in front of everyone, Spirit Hall would lose all face.
However,
before Bibi Dong could act,
a pale, slender hand with long, distinct fingers gently settled on her shoulder.
"Your Holiness, there's no need to trouble yourself."
Gu Sheng's clear, calm voice sounded softly beside Bibi Dong's ear.
Bibi Dong paused in surprise.
She turned to look at the youth beside her.
A faint smile still played on Gu Sheng's face. His expression was like that of someone looking at a trivial little toy.
"You..."
Bibi Dong hesitated.
"Allow me."
Gu Sheng smiled.
His body slowly floated into the air.
He released no Martial Soul, and no Soul Rings appeared.
Dressed in simple black clothes, he advanced to meet the enormous Clear Sky Hammer, a weapon that seemed capable of shattering an entire mountain.
"Has that kid lost his mind?!"
Ning Fengzhi watched from the stands, utterly dumbfounded.
As far as he could tell, Gu Sheng had displayed strange and powerful light-based abilities in the earlier matches.
But he was still only a Soul Master in his twenties!
No matter how unusual his Martial Soul was, or how wondrous his Soul Skills might be,
what chance did he have against a level-97 Super Douluo famed for his attack power, wielding the Great Sumeru Hammer?
Wasn't that just asking to die?
"Hmph, arrogant fool!"
Tang Hao had naturally seen Gu Sheng flying toward him.
A flicker of disdain crossed his cloudy eyes.
"You snot-nosed brat, you dare stand in the way of my Clear Sky Hammer?"
"Since you want to die, I'll grant your wish!"
Tang Hao put another thirty percent of his strength into the blow.
The Clear Sky Hammer blotted out the sky, bearing the power to destroy heaven and earth as it slammed into Gu Sheng's slender frame.
At that moment,
everyone's heart leaped into their throats.
Xiao Wu and Tang San stared at the scene in a daze.
In their eyes, Gu Sheng was bound to be reduced to a pool of pulp beneath that hammer.
"Rumble—"
The Clear Sky Hammer
finally struck Gu Sheng.
The resulting crash defied description.
The ground across half of Spirit City split open in countless spiderweb-like cracks.
The terrifying shockwaves surged outward in solid-looking rings of white air.
The already battered stands were instantly reduced to dust beneath the blast.
Soul Masters screamed and scrambled backward, afraid of being caught in the shockwaves.
In an instant, dust swallowed the figures of Gu Sheng and Tang Hao.
"Is he dead?"
Yu Xiaogang stared at the thickest cloud of dust, eyes wide.
"He should be... nothing but a mangled corpse by now."
Flender murmured.
Under that kind of attack, even Sword Douluo Chen Xin wouldn't dare claim he could take it unscathed, let alone a Soul Grandmaster.
In midair,
the violent surge of Soul Power continued.
Tang Hao's hand tightened around the Clear Sky Hammer, but suddenly went rigid.
Because
it felt as if his hammer had struck an immovable divine iron.
The force rebounding through it traveled up his arm and sent his blood surging through his chest.
"What?"
Tang Hao's pupils shrank sharply.
His stubbled face was filled with utter confusion.
The gale high above gradually swept the dust away.
The scene within was revealed.
As soon as everyone saw it,
the entire square sank into deathly silence once more.
It was terrifyingly quiet.
Gu Sheng was still floating calmly in midair.
His hands were even casually tucked into his pockets.
A faint, almost transparent white barrier glimmered before him.
Ancient runes flickered faintly across its surface.
It was the sacred Seal of Holy Light.
It was also a seal formed automatically by the power of Holy Spectrum Puni within Gu Sheng.
At that moment,
the face of the Clear Sky Hammer, powerful enough to smash mountains, was pressed firmly against that nearly transparent barrier.
Yet this thin veil of light
would not yield even a fraction, no matter how much Soul Power Tang Hao poured into it.
The barrier had not cracked.
It hadn't even rippled in the slightest.
Even the seals within his body
hadn't stirred at all.
Gu Sheng slowly raised his head.
Looking at Tang Hao's stunned face, he let out a bored sigh.
"So this is the famous Clear Sky Douluo?"
Gu Sheng's voice was soft, but in the silent night, it carried clearly to every person present.
"This strike..."
Gu Sheng reached out a pale hand and lightly tapped the enormous Clear Sky Hammer before him.
"Clang—"
A crisp metallic ring sounded.
The Clear Sky Hammer, formed from pure Soul Power and weighing a hundred thousand jin, let out a mournful groan and shuddered violently from a mere flick of Gu Sheng's finger.
"It's not even strong enough to make me itch."
Gu Sheng shook his head and said with disappointment,
"I thought this strike might loosen the seal inside me a little."
"But it didn't even raise the slightest ripple."
"What a... bore."
Gu Sheng's casual words, tinged with disdain,
sounded to Tang Hao like the most terrifying thunderclap.
Tang Hao froze in midair.
He looked at his trembling hands, then at the youth before him, whose clothes weren't even torn.
His mind went blank.
"This can't be..."
"It's impossible!"
Tang Hao screamed inwardly.
He had gathered all his Soul Power and unleashed his strongest attack with the Great Sumeru Hammer!
Across the whole Douluo Continent,
even if Qian Daoliu or Bo Saixi had been there, they would have had to defend against that strike with all their might.
Yet this youth before him
hadn't even released his Martial Soul.
He'd taken the blow with nothing but a nearly transparent defensive seal, as if it were nothing?
And from the look of him,
it really did seem as though that strike had only been scratching an itch.
"You... what kind of monster are you?!"
For the first time, Tang Hao's voice trembled.
His weathered face was now filled with boundless terror.
Down on the high platform,
Bibi Dong's usually calm, noble eyes widened.
She stared at Gu Sheng in midair, her jade hand gripping the scepter so tightly that her knuckles turned faintly white.
"Even Tang Hao's full-force strike... couldn't shake his seal?"
Bibi Dong's heart surged like a raging sea.
She had always known Gu Sheng was strong, and had even known his origins were mysterious.
But she had never imagined—
Gu Sheng's strength had already reached such a terrifying level.
That was Tang Hao!
The peerless fiend who had gravely wounded the previous Pope, Qian Xunji, all by himself!
Yet before this young man,
his peak strike had been as fragile as a joke.
And in a shadowy corner not far from the Pope's Palace,
a small figure dressed in the robes of a prince of the Heaven Dou Empire was also staring fixedly at Gu Sheng in the sky.
Qian Renxue!
Although she was still disguised as Xue Qinghe,
her body beneath her clothes was trembling violently from sheer shock.
"Can this really be the kind of power a human can attain?"
Qian Renxue's golden eyes were filled with disbelief.
The blood of the noble Angel God flowed through her veins.
She had always considered herself the most talented person on the Douluo Continent.
But now,
as she looked at the young man in black standing in midair with his hands behind his back, whose clothes didn't even have a speck of dirt on them,
a profound sense of helplessness rose in Qian Renxue's heart for the first time.
Before this young man,
what did a God-Level Martial Soul or a sacred bloodline even matter? They seemed so laughable and insignificant.
"Brother, we..."
Tang San and Xiao Wu were both dumbfounded below.
Especially Tang San.
He had originally thought that with his father's arrival, they would surely be able to leave safely today.
But now,
as he watched the Clear Sky Hammer tremble after Gu Sheng had flicked it with a finger,
Tang San's heart sank to the bottom.
Looking at Gu Sheng in the sky, he felt that the other man's figure had become an insurmountable chasm.
In midair,
Gu Sheng looked at Tang Hao's ashen face and waved his hand dismissively.
"Forget it."
"If this is all the strength you have, there's no point in continuing to play."
Gu Sheng's voice rang out calmly.
He slowly extended his right hand.
A wisp of pale, pure white light quietly gathered at his fingertip.
It was the source of Holy Spectrum Puni's purifying power.
Though there was only a trace of it,
the instant this light appeared,
Tang Hao felt as if he had fallen into a bottomless abyss. Every hair on his body stood on end.
His instincts told him—
if this seemingly faint light touched him,
he would die without a doubt!
"Go!"
Tang Hao had none of his earlier arrogance or domineering air left.
He didn't dare hesitate for even a moment.
In an instant, he burst into the fastest speed of his life, snatching up Tang San and Xiao Wu below.
He didn't even have time to retrieve his Clear Sky Hammer.
He transformed into a streak of black light and fled frantically beyond Spirit City.
That panicked, fleeing figure—
where was the slightest trace of the "Clear Sky Douluo" who had once shaken the world?
He looked like a homeless dog scared witless.
Bibi Dong withdrew her gaze, and her usual pride and coldness returned to her eyes.
She looked over the Soul Masters from the various sects and empires below, still trembling in fear.
"The tournament is over."
"Anyone who reveals what happened today will be pursued to the ends of the earth by Spirit Hall!"
Bibi Dong's authoritative voice echoed across the plaza once more.
Hearing this, the powerful figures from the sects and empires felt as if they had been pardoned.
They hurriedly bowed to Bibi Dong and Gu Sheng on the high platform, then led their disciples away from this place of turmoil they would never forget, their faces stricken with terror as they fled in disarray.
Ning Fengzhi gave Gu Sheng a long look.
For the first time, his usually refined face was filled with solemnity.
"Fengzhi, this young man..."
Sword Douluo Chen Xin stood beside him, his voice still trembling.
"He cannot be opposed by force."
Ning Fengzhi softly interrupted Chen Xin and gave a bitter smile.
"Pass down my order. From now on, whenever any Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect disciple encounters him, they must treat him with the highest respect. Not the slightest neglect is permitted."
"Yes."
Chen Xin answered, his expression complicated.
The two of them then led the people of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect away from Spirit City, looking rather disheveled.
On the viewing platform not far away,
Qian Renxue watched Gu Sheng's departing figure, her beautiful eyes sparkling.
"Husband..."
"What kind of being are you, really?"
"..."
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