Tang Chen's Final Hour!

"Not here?"

Gu Sheng murmured.

His spiritual sense had detected no trace of Tang San or Tang Hao.

It seemed those two had been wounded too badly. They might still be healing somewhere secluded, or perhaps they hadn't yet made it to this innermost area.

"Meaningless."

Gu Sheng's lips curved into a faint smile.

Since he couldn't find those two stray dogs, he might as well deal with the ruler of Slaughter City first.

Before long, the two of them arrived at the very center of the inner city.

A magnificent circular building towered into the clouds, its outer walls a strange, dark red, as though they had been soaked in countless gallons of blood.

This was the Hell Slaughter Arena.

The heart of Slaughter City—and its bloodiest place.

At that moment, a brutal fight was underway inside the Hell Slaughter Arena. The thick stench of blood and frenzied shouts poured out without pause.

Gu Sheng didn't enter through the front gate. Instead, he shot into the sky and hovered in midair.

The Black Veil Maiden was startled at the sight.

"My lord, what are you doing?"

"Flying is forbidden in Slaughter City. It's one of the King of Slaughter's taboos!"

Standing in the air, Gu Sheng looked down at the circular building below, his eyes full of disdain.

"A taboo?"

"There are no taboos in front of me."

Before his words had even faded, Gu Sheng slowly raised his right hand. A brilliant golden light began to gather in his palm.

The light was sacred and powerful, utterly out of place beneath the dark red sky of this land steeped in corruption and bloodshed.

"Boom!"

With a casual wave, Gu Sheng transformed the golden light into a massive golden beam and slammed it into the dome of the Hell Slaughter Arena.

With a deafening crash, the entire dome was blasted to pieces in an instant.

Countless chunks of stone and rubble rained down amid golden flames, knocking the Fallen Ones fighting below off their feet.

Dust billowed everywhere, and the once-raucous arena instantly descended into chaos.

"Who dares to cause trouble here!"

A sharp shout suddenly rang out from deep within the Hell Slaughter Arena.

A dense blood mist, almost solid in appearance, rose from the ruins and formed the phantom of a gigantic scarlet bat.

Beneath the phantom, an enormous blood-red throne slowly emerged.

A middle-aged man in a blood-red robe sat upon it, his face pale as paper and his blood-red eyes filled with savage killing intent.

He was none other than the ruler of Slaughter City—the King of Slaughter.

And within his body slept Tang Chen, a peerless powerhouse of the Clear Sky Sect.

The King of Slaughter stared at Gu Sheng, hovering in the sky, his voice laced with suppressed fury.

"You dare destroy the Hell Slaughter Arena? You're asking to die!"

Gu Sheng looked at the King of Slaughter on his throne and gave a scornful smile.

"So you're the King of Slaughter?"

"You're nothing but a bloodsucking bat squatting in a pile of rotting flesh, and you still dare call yourself a king?"

At those words, the King of Slaughter's pale face twisted into a hideous mask.

"Arrogant whelp! I'll rip out your bones and peel off your skin, then turn you into the finest Bloody Mary!"

With a furious shout, the King of Slaughter shot off his throne and transformed into a streak of blood-red light, charging straight at Gu Sheng.

As he rushed forward, his hands turned into a pair of enormous blood-red claws. They tore through the air, trailing a foul, bloody wind.

Gu Sheng stood motionless.

"You overestimate yourself."

Just as the blood-red claws were about to touch him, Gu Sheng slowly reached out and caught the King of Slaughter by the wrist with pinpoint precision.

"Crack!"

A crisp sound of breaking bone rang through the air.

The King of Slaughter's blood-red claw, powerful enough to tear through a Titled Douluo's defenses with ease, was as fragile as a dead branch in Gu Sheng's hand. In an instant, it was bent at a grotesque angle.

"Ah!"

The King of Slaughter let out a shrill scream, pain and shock written across his twisted face.

He tried to summon the rules of Slaughter City to suppress Gu Sheng, but to his horror, the domain and rules he had always prided himself on melted away like snow the instant they drew near Gu Sheng.

"This... this is impossible!"

"Why aren't you bound by Slaughter City's rules?"

The King of Slaughter roared hysterically. His other hand gathered a torrent of blood-red Soul Power and slammed it toward Gu Sheng's chest.

Gu Sheng snorted. He raised his left hand, palm open, and met the attack.

"Bang!"

Their palms collided, and a terrifying storm of energy exploded in midair.

The King of Slaughter felt an overwhelming force crash into him. Like a kite with its string cut, he slammed into the ruins below.

The shock wave from that single blow brought down the entire Hell Slaughter Arena, reducing it to rubble.

Countless Fallen Ones who failed to get out of the way were blasted into pulp on the spot.

Amid the ruins, the King of Slaughter struggled to his feet. His red robe was in tatters, and dark red blood kept spilling from the corner of his mouth.

He looked up at the figure in the sky, who stood like a god. For the first time, fear showed in his eyes.

"Who are you?"

Gu Sheng slowly descended onto the ruins and walked toward the King of Slaughter, one step at a time.

"Who I am doesn't matter."

"What matters is that the Clear Sky Sect has been destroyed."

At the words "Clear Sky Sect," the King of Slaughter's body jolted. A flicker of struggle suddenly passed through his blood-red eyes.

"The Clear Sky Sect... has been destroyed?"

A hoarse, aged voice suddenly emerged from the King of Slaughter's mouth.

It was completely unlike the sharp, grating voice from before. This one was heavy with the weight of years.

Watching this, Gu Sheng knew that Tang Chen's suppressed soul had begun to awaken after being provoked.

"That's right. I personally destroyed the Clear Sky Sect."

"Your eldest disciple, Tang Xiao, died at my hands."

"Your most prized great-grandson, Tang Hao, is now a stray dog."

"And you're here, clinging to life like some kind of monster. How pathetic, Tang Chen."

Gu Sheng's voice was calm, yet each word struck Tang Chen like a heavy hammer.

"Xiao'er... Hao'er... the sect..."

Pain showed on the King of Slaughter's face. He clutched his head tightly with both hands, groaning in anguish.

"No! I'm the King of Slaughter! I'm the great Nine-Headed Bat King!"

The sharp voice rang out again, trying to seize control of the body.

Strange blood-red markings appeared across the King of Slaughter's skin, while the phantom of a gigantic nine-headed bat flickered into view behind him.

"Still putting up a futile struggle."

Gu Sheng sneered and vanished from where he stood.

In the next instant, he reappeared in front of the King of Slaughter. A hand wreathed in golden Holy Fire slammed against the King of Slaughter's forehead.

"Get out!"

Gu Sheng spat out the words.

In an instant, a torrent of Holy Spirit Divine Power surged from his palm and poured into the King of Slaughter's body.

For a being of absolute evil like the Nine-Headed Bat King, that sacred power, brimming with the aura of destruction, was a deadly poison.

"Ah! No!"

The Nine-Headed Bat King shrieked in agony.

Under the searing golden Holy Fire, a gigantic, blood-red bat with nine heads began to be painfully torn from Tang Chen's body, bit by bit.

Its enormous body writhed and struggled in the flames, trying to burrow back into Tang Chen.

A cold glint flashed through Gu Sheng's eyes.

"Die."

He clenched his right hand.

"Pfft!"

The Nine-Headed Bat King, which had lorded it over Slaughter City for countless years, was instantly crushed into nothingness within the golden Holy Fire. Not even a speck of ash remained.

As the Nine-Headed Bat King vanished, the blood-red markings on the King of Slaughter's body quickly faded.

His body began to change violently.

His formerly aged, sinister features gradually became dignified and aged, and his unruly hair turned silver-white.

His blood-red eyes finally cleared, revealing a profound, weathered gaze.

Tang Chen, once a Peerless Douluo who stood at the pinnacle of the Soul Master World, had finally regained control of his body.

Yet the moment he took it back, he also felt his life slipping away.

The Nine-Headed Bat King had been parasitizing him for too long. His body had long since rotted away, and he was now sustained by nothing more than his final breath.

Tang Chen looked at the young man before him and gave a bitter smile.

"I, Tang Chen, was a brilliant man all my life. I never imagined I'd meet such an end."

Gu Sheng looked at him expressionlessly.

"This is your fate."

Tang Chen drew a deep breath, pain flickering in his eyes.

"You said the Clear Sky Sect has been destroyed? Xiao'er and Hao'er..."

"Tang Xiao is dead. Tang Hao and Tang San are both in grave danger."

Gu Sheng replied calmly.

"I came here not only to kill you, but also to destroy Slaughter City."

At Gu Sheng's words, Tang Chen trembled slightly, then threw his head back and laughed.

His laughter was filled with the sorrow and resentment of a hero in his twilight years.

"Hahahaha!"

"So the Clear Sky Sect is destroyed!"

"And now you'll destroy Slaughter City!"

As his laughter died away, Tang Chen looked at Gu Sheng. A fierce fighting spirit suddenly blazed in his eyes.

"Since the sect has been destroyed and my time is nearly up..."

"Today, I'll use the last of my life to experience your skill!"

Before his words had faded, a gigantic pitch-black hammer appeared in Tang Chen's hand.

Nine Soul Rings slowly rose from beneath his feet. Though dim, they revealed the full pressure of a Peerless Douluo.

"Great Sumeru Hammer!"

Tang Chen roared, gripping the Clear Sky Hammer with both hands. He leapt high into the air and swung it down at Gu Sheng with all his might.

This blow gathered all the Soul Power and life force left in his body. It was so powerful that the space around it twisted violently.

Facing the dying strike of a Peerless Douluo, Gu Sheng's eyes didn't waver.

He simply raised his right hand. A Sword of Holy Spirit, radiating endless sacred light, took shape in his grasp.

"A firefly dares challenge the radiance of the sun."

Holding the Sword of Holy Spirit, Gu Sheng faced the descending hammer and gave it a light swing.

A brilliant golden sword beam instantly tore through the void.

"Boom!"

The sword beam and the hammer collided in midair.

There was no earth-shaking crash, only a silence so strange it seemed unnatural.

Before the golden sword beam, Tang Chen's Clear Sky Hammer, forged from all his strength, began to crumble piece by piece the instant they touched.

Then the sword beam pierced through the hammer and passed through Tang Chen's body.

Tang Chen froze in place.

The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand disintegrated into fragments, and his body slowly fell from the sky, landing on one knee amid the ruins.

He looked at his hands as they gradually faded away. There was no anger or resentment in his eyes, only a trace of relief.

"So powerful... this strength has already surpassed the limits of mortals..."

"Bo Saixi... in the end... I still never got to see you again..."

Tang Chen murmured to himself, his voice growing weaker and weaker.

At last, his body became countless golden specks of light and vanished beneath the dark red sky.

One generation of Peerless Douluo had reached its end.

Gu Sheng withdrew the Sword of Holy Spirit and calmly watched the place where Tang Chen had disappeared.

At the instant Tang Chen vanished, a ball of dark red light appeared in the air.

It was the phantom of the Asura Demon Sword, radiating an endless aura of slaughter.

Gu Sheng beckoned, and the dark red light fell into his palm, transforming into a pure force of Divine Slaughter's Domain that merged into his body.

Feeling the new power within him, Gu Sheng gave a slight nod.

"Next, Slaughter City."

Gu Sheng's figure blurred, and he flew into the sky once more.

He looked down at the massive black city below and the fallen ones trembling amid the ruins.

This place should never have existed in the world.

"Be purified."

Gu Sheng spoke in a voice as cold as ice.

The Holy Spirit Divine Power within him erupted without reserve.

A colossal phantom of the Holy Spirit, radiating boundless light of Sanctity, slowly appeared behind Gu Sheng.

The phantom towered a thousand meters high, nearly blotting out the entire dark-red sky above Slaughter City.

"Boom!"

As Gu Sheng formed a seal with both hands, countless golden rays of holy light poured down from the sky like a torrential rain.

Where the holy light struck the earth, it instantly became a blazing Holy Fire.

Everything filthy, bloody, and evil was burned to ashes wherever the Holy Fire passed.

Countless fallen ones let out shrill screams in the Holy Fire, then crumbled into ash.

Moreover, Gu Sheng's vast divine power seeped deep underground and detonated the Blood Pool that had been accumulating for countless years.

"Rumble—"

The earth began to shake violently.

The walls of Slaughter City began to collapse, and countless buildings crumbled into ruins amid the Holy Fire and explosions.

At that moment, the entire underground world met its destruction.

The Black Veil Maiden stood in the distance, staring at the apocalyptic scene, utterly dumbstruck.

She sank to the ground, despair filling her eyes.

Slaughter City, which had existed for countless years, had been erased in a single day by one person alone.

Gu Sheng stood in the sky, watching it all with cold indifference.

As the Blood Pool detonated and the entire city was destroyed, a vast and pure energy of Sanctity began to flow back into him.

His aura became even more unfathomable.

"Tang San. Tang Hao."

"Your only way out is gone."