Qian Renxue murmured to herself.
She had a feeling.
Her husband's arrival would overturn the entire order of the Douluo Continent.
And beside the ruins deep within Pope's Palace,
Yu Xiaogang, Flender, and Zhao Wuji sat slumped on the ground.
They watched the direction in which Xiao Wu and Tang San had disappeared.
Then they looked up at the young man hovering in midair, who seemed almost like a god.
Each of them was filled with complicated emotions and helplessness.
Shrek Academy...
Today, it could be said, had been defeated.
They had not only lost the match, but Xiao Wu's identity as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had also been exposed. They had nearly been wiped out.
"Let's go."
Flender shook his head with a touch of self-mockery.
He helped up the somewhat dazed Yu Xiaogang, then walked dejectedly toward the exit of Pope's Palace.
On the plaza,
the wind blew gently, gradually sweeping away the dust and rubble.
Only the black-clad youth remained, still standing calmly in the breeze.
High in the sky, the wind howled.
With Tang San tucked under one arm and Xiao Wu held in the other, Tang Hao raced through the clouds.
His face was drawn, and his intermittent coughs sounded heavy in the wind.
"Dad, are we out of the city?"
Tucked beneath Tang Hao's arm, Tang San anxiously watched the buildings rushing past below.
Tang Hao said nothing. He only pressed his lips together and drove his Soul Power to its limit.
He could feel the Soul Power within him draining away like the tide.
"Ge, let me go."
Xiao Wu's voice trembled in the wind, choked with tears.
"I'm the one who got you all into this. If it weren't for me..."
"Don't be foolish!"
Tang San interrupted her, his voice strained.
"I told you, if one of us dies, we die together. I'll never leave you behind."
Tang Hao listened to the two of them, a complicated look flashing in his eyes.
He took a deep breath, preparing to cross the final outer wall of Spirit City.
But then—
A faint white glow suddenly appeared in the previously empty sky.
It seemed weak, yet spread out in an instant like a vast net.
The strands of light wove together, forming a translucent barrier that blocked Tang Hao's path.
"Damn it!"
Tang Hao cursed under his breath and tried to turn back.
But he was moving far too fast. Inertia carried him straight into the white barrier.
"Thud—"
A muffled boom erupted in midair.
Tang Hao felt an irresistible force rebound against him.
The power was pure, yet carried an unshakable weight.
His throat tightened. He nearly spat out a mouthful of blood, and his body was hurled dozens of meters backward.
"Dad!"
Tang San cried out, staring at Tang Hao in alarm.
In Tang San's memory, his father had always been invincible.
Yet now, he couldn't even break through a barrier his opponent had put up.
"Trying to leave?"
A bored voice suddenly rang out in the air.
Tang Hao and Tang San whipped around.
Gu Sheng, who had been standing before Pope's Palace, had appeared in front of them without their noticing.
He still wore the same simple black clothes, his hands tucked casually into his pockets. With nothing beneath his feet, he simply hovered in the air.
Bibi Dong's figure slowly appeared beside him.
Purple-black Soul Power swirled around her, radiating an oppressive force that made it hard to breathe.
"Gu Sheng..."
Tang San glared at the black-clad youth before him, his teeth clenched.
His eyes burned with resentment and fury.
"What exactly do you want?"
Tang Hao shielded the two children behind him, his expression dark.
Although he was injured, his eyes still shone with an unyielding light.
"Nothing much."
Gu Sheng gave a slight shrug.
"His Holiness the Pope wants the Soul Ring of this Hundred-Thousand-Year rabbit."
"As for you and your son, I couldn't be bothered to get involved. But since you've walked right into my hands, don't be in such a hurry to leave."
Gu Sheng's voice was soft, yet rang clearly in every ear ten thousand meters up in the sky.
"Arrogant fool!"
Tang Hao snorted as black light flared from the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand.
"Even if it costs me my life, I'll get them out of here!"
A look of disdain flashed through Bibi Dong's eyes.
"Tang Hao, you owe Spirit Hall a debt from back then. Today, I'll collect some of the interest."
Before her words had even faded,
Bibi Dong vanished from where she stood.
In the next instant, she was above Tang Hao.
The enormous phantom of the Death Spider Emperor appeared behind her. Two black, Soul Power-forged blades swept toward Tang Hao's face with a piercing shriek that tore through the air.
Tang Hao didn't dare take the attack lightly. He could only swing the Clear Sky Hammer with one hand to meet it.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The thunder of colliding Soul Power rang through the sky.
Bibi Dong attacked with ruthless precision, every strike aimed at a vital point.
With his Soul Power severely depleted, and forced to divide his attention between protecting Tang San and Xiao Wu, Tang Hao was quickly driven into an overwhelming disadvantage.
"Xiao San, take Xiao Wu and go the other way!"
Tang Hao struggled to block Bibi Dong's attacks as he hurriedly called out to Tang San.
"I'm not leaving!"
Tang San stubbornly shook his head.
"Go! You're just getting in the way!"
Tang Hao bellowed.
He knew that if the two children stayed with him, none of them would get away today.
Standing off to the side, Gu Sheng watched the father and son's "tearful parting" and yawned in boredom.
"What a touching display of fatherly love."
He slowly raised his right hand and pointed toward Tang Hao from a distance.
"Freeze."
It was only one word.
But the moment it fell,
Tang Hao felt the air around him harden instantly.
It wasn't an ordinary restraint.
It was as if the entire space had turned into a giant block of pig iron, crushing him from every side.
His movements slowed to a crawl. Even the flow of Soul Power within him became sluggish.
"What...is this?"
A storm surged in Tang Hao's heart.
He had never seen such a strange and powerful Soul Skill.
Not even a Titled Douluo's domain could make words take effect like this.
Bibi Dong naturally didn't let the opportunity slip by.
"Space-Rending Abyss Slash!"
Bibi Dong's ninth Soul Ring suddenly lit up. Two black blades of light crossed in midair to form a massive cross, then swept toward Tang Hao with an aura of destruction.
This was a killing blow.
Tang Hao looked at the oncoming black blades, then at Tang San beside him.
If he dodged,
the blades would surely tear Tang San to pieces.
"Xiao San!"
Resolve flashed through Tang Hao's murky eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, he turned sideways and wrapped Tang San tightly in his arms.
At the same time, he raised his left arm and poured all his Soul Power into it, trying to stop the blade with his own flesh and blood.
"Shhk—"
The sound of a blade cutting through bone and flesh rang out, especially sharp in the silent sky.
A great spray of scorching blood burst into the air.
"Ah—!!"
Tang Hao let out a piercing scream.
The purple-black blade hacked through his thick left arm at the shoulder, sending it flying through the air.
At the wound, purple-black poison frantically ate into his flesh, hissing as it spread.
"Dad!!"
Tang San watched the severed arm tumble through the air, his whole body struck as if by lightning.
He cried out in despair as tears streamed down his face.
"Tang Hao, now you know what it's like!"
Bibi Dong landed a short distance away. She gazed at Tang Hao's ashen face and trembling body, her eyes filled with satisfaction.
"The grudge from back then is only just beginning."
Tang Hao clutched Tang San tightly with his remaining right hand, gasping for breath.
His face had gone deathly pale, and beads of sweat the size of beans covered his forehead.
The agony of losing his arm tormented him relentlessly, but he gritted his teeth and refused to fall.
"Xiao San...don't cry..."
Tang Hao's voice trembled violently.
"Ge, let go!"
Xiao Wu was by now sobbing uncontrollably.
She looked at Tang Hao's empty left shoulder, at the blood still dripping from it.
Her guilt and self-reproach reached their peak in that instant.
"If it weren't for me...Da Ming, Er Ming, where are you..."
Xiao Wu called to them in despair.
"His Holiness the Pope, you're taking your time."
Gu Sheng's voice rang out once more.
He walked through the air at an easy pace, as if strolling in his own courtyard.
In an instant, he had reached Xiao Wu's side.
Gu Sheng looked at Tang Hao with a cold expression.
"She stays."
With that,
Gu Sheng reached out his right hand, curled his fingers into a claw, and gently beckoned toward Xiao Wu.
An irresistible force instantly seized Xiao Wu's body.
"No! Xiao Wu!"
Tang San's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He desperately thrust out his right hand, trying to grab hers.
But the force Gu Sheng released was like an invisible blade, forcibly tearing their hands apart.
"Ge—!"
Xiao Wu let out a piercing scream.
Her body flew toward Gu Sheng against her will.
"Bastard! Let her go!"
Tang San struggled wildly in midair, even trying to unleash his Hidden Weapons.
But Tang Hao held him tightly, leaving him completely unable to move.
Gu Sheng clamped one hand around Xiao Wu's shoulder. Holy power surged from his fingertips into her body, sealing her Soul Power in an instant.
Then, as if tossing away a piece of trash, he flung Xiao Wu behind him toward Bibi Dong.
Bibi Dong reached out and grabbed her, holding the motionless Xiao Wu in her grasp.
"Little San, we're leaving!"
Watching this, Tang Hao's eyes flashed with hesitation.
But he quickly made up his mind.
He knew.
If they stayed here any longer, not only would he fail to save Xiao Wu, but he and Tang San would die as well.
"No! Dad! Save Xiao Wu! I can't live without her!"
Tang San pounded wildly on Tang Hao's chest, bloody tears streaming from his eyes.
"Go!"
Tang Hao slapped Tang San on the back of the neck.
His violent Soul Power instantly knocked Tang San unconscious.
Then.
Tang Hao raised his head and glanced at Gu Sheng and Bibi Dong.
"Spirit Hall—and you, you monster..."
"I, Tang Hao, will remember this grudge!"
As his words fell.
The red Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring beneath Tang Hao's feet suddenly began to tremble violently.
Its circle of red light was so dazzling that no one could look straight at it.
"Great Sumeru Hammer—Ring Detonation!"
Tang Hao let out a thunderous shout.
It was the Clear Sky Sect's most powerful life-or-death secret technique.
It detonated a Soul Ring, releasing all the power within it in an instant.
"Boom!!"
An explosion more violent than any before it rang out.
The red Soul Ring beneath Tang Hao's feet burst apart.
Soul Power, violent beyond description, instantly shattered the Void Immobilization Technique Gu Sheng had laid down.
Tang Hao used the blast's recoil.
His whole body became a blood-red streak of light, carrying the unconscious Tang San with him as he fled into the distance at a speed the naked eye could not follow.
In the blink of an eye.
The streak of blood-red light had vanished over the horizon.
"Damn it, he got away!"
Bibi Dong gave an irritated snort.
She stared in the direction Tang Hao had disappeared, her hand trembling slightly.
She had never imagined that, despite his severe injuries and lost arm, Tang Hao could still escape with such decisive speed.
"Lucky for him he ran fast."
Gu Sheng looked utterly unconcerned.
He turned and looked at Xiao Wu, slumped in midair.
Xiao Wu had quieted down by now.
She stared toward the place where Tang Hao and Tang San had disappeared, her big eyes vacant, as if all life had left her.
"Brother..."
Xiao Wu murmured softly.
Her eyes, once so lively, now held nothing but endless despair and sorrow.
Tears rolled down her cheeks, one by one, dissolving into mist in midair.
She knew.
She was finished.
Tang San had been taken away by Tang Hao, while she had been left alone in Spirit Hall's hands.
Facing the high-and-mighty Bibi Dong and the black-clad youth Gu Sheng, whose strength was unfathomable,
she had no hope of surviving.
"Let's go. Back to the Pope's Palace."
Gu Sheng paid no heed to Xiao Wu's despair and merely said to Bibi Dong, "Let's go."
Then his figure blurred, and he descended toward the Pope's Palace below.
Bibi Dong gave Xiao Wu a somewhat sympathetic glance, but the coldness in her eyes soon replaced that fleeting sentiment.
Gripping Xiao Wu's shoulder, she turned into a streak of purple-black light and descended after him.
They returned to the Pope's Palace plaza.
By then.
The Soul Masters from the great sects and empires had yet to disperse completely.
When they saw Bibi Dong and Gu Sheng return to the high platform,
and the mighty Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao nowhere to be seen,
with only Xiao Wu left in Bibi Dong's grasp, limp as a doll,
the entire plaza once more fell into an eerie silence.
"Is that... that little girl?"
"Tang Hao ran? He took his own son with him, but left this Soul Beast behind?"
"Tsk, looks like even the Clear Sky Douluo has to make a choice when his life is on the line."
Low murmurs spread quietly through the crowd.
The Soul Masters who had been cowed by Tang Hao's might now looked at Xiao Wu in Bibi Dong's grasp, and greed surged uncontrollably back into their eyes.
A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!
Normally, they wouldn't even have the chance to see one.
But now.
This Soft Bone Rabbit was slumped there, helpless, right in front of the Pope's Palace.
If they could get their hands on her, her Soul Bone and Soul Ring would both be peerless treasures.
Before you continue