Tang Hao: My Son Joined Spirit Hall?

The night wind was like blades, slicing through the vegetation of the wilderness, sweeping up fine dust from the ground, and tangling Tang Hao's already mottled black hair.

He suppressed the overwhelming terror surging within him and forcibly clung to his last shred of hope.

That was right. It had to be so!

All the Soul Beasts on the continent had been wiped out, but Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts that had taken human form had to be exceptions!

If Xiao Wu was safe and sound, then Ah Yin, who had once shed her beast form and transformed into a human, should also have escaped this undeserved heavenly punishment!

That thought was the only glimmer of light he could grasp in the darkness consuming his heart.

Ignoring the expenditure of his own Soul Power, Tang Hao let the violent black Soul Power swirling around him rage as he sped back toward Nuoding City.

He only wanted to be faster, faster still—to see with his own eyes whether that little rabbit Soul Beast was still alive, and to personally confirm the hope with which he was deceiving himself.

After racing for half a day, the ancient gates of Nuoding City finally came into view at dawn.

This ordinary little city was where his son Tang San had begun his cultivation, and where that Hundred-Thousand-Year rabbit had taken human form and made her home.

Tang Hao suppressed the hostility around him and reined in his terrifying pressure. Bent beneath the weariness of travel, he headed straight for Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy.

Bang—

Tang Hao barged directly into the work-study student dormitory.

The sound woke the sleeping students inside, and several pairs of frightened eyes turned toward the man at the doorway, who radiated a terrifying aura.

Tang Hao ignored them. After sweeping his gaze around the room, he found that Xiao Wu was nowhere to be seen.

Tang Hao's heart skipped a beat, and fear began to rise within him.

"Where is Xiao Wu?"

Tang Hao asked in a trembling voice.

All the work-study students were terrified. In the end, Wang Sheng, who had once again become the dorm leader, answered shakily, "Sister Xiao Wu left half a month ago..."

"You're telling me Xiao Wu was still at the academy half a month ago?"

Tang Hao's eyes instantly lit up.

"Yes!"

"Sister Xiao Wu was still here half a month ago!"

"That's right..."

The students' answers lifted Tang Hao's spirits.

He nearly burst into laughter.

Since Xiao Wu was fine, Ah Yin should be fine too.

Ah Yin's disappearance might have been caused by some other reason.

That was right. It had to be!

"Where's Tang San?"

Only then did Tang Hao ask about Tang San, because he had discovered that Tang San was not in the dormitory either.

"Tang San and Grandmaster also left half a month ago. I heard they went to Spirit Hall..." Wang Sheng answered again.

"What? Spirit Hall?"

Tang Hao was immediately stunned.

His good mood from moments earlier vanished in an instant.

His son had gone to Spirit Hall?

What kind of joke was this?

Whoosh~

He spun around and rushed out of the dormitory, heading straight for the Teacher Building.

Yu Xiaogang's room was empty as well.

Several sheets of discarded paper lay scattered across the desk. A drawer had been left half-open, its contents hastily packed away. Tang Hao picked up one of the scraps. It was covered in densely written derivation formulas, and in one corner was a line of messy handwriting: Self-Condensed Soul Ring, theoretically feasible.

Tang Hao could not understand any of it, nor could he be bothered to look.

He crumpled the paper into a ball and turned to go downstairs, only to run into the academy headmaster, who had hurried over after hearing the commotion.

"You are..." The headmaster's pupils contracted the instant he saw Tang Hao. Though he was only the headmaster of a junior Soul Master Academy, the undisguised pressure emanating from the man before him—enough to freeze the very air—was anything but ordinary.

"Where is Yu Xiaogang?" Tang Hao's voice carried obvious fury.

"Grandmaster... Grandmaster has already left Nuoding City." The headmaster forced himself to remain calm, but his voice still trembled. "People from Spirit Hall came to invite him. He took Tang San with him and went to Spirit City."

It was actually true.

Tang Hao's pupils abruptly shrank. The bloodshot veins in his eyes seemed to burst as his entire face twisted into a nearly feral expression.

"Spirit Hall?!"

His furious roar was like an exploding thunderclap, shattering every window in the Teacher Building at once.

The headmaster was blasted several steps back by the sound wave, his back slamming heavily into the wall. His blood and energy churned, and he nearly spat out blood.

Tang Hao's violent Divine Slaughter's Domain spread uncontrollably.

Little San... his son... had been taken to Spirit Hall!

That place that had taken everything from him! That place that had driven Ah Yin to her death! That place he wished he could pulverize inch by inch with the Clear Sky Hammer!

The son he had with Ah Yin had now been taken there.

Tang Hao wanted to rush to Spirit City immediately.

He wanted to kick open Spirit Hall's gates, smash the Clear Sky Hammer into the Pope's face, and then snatch Little San back.

Yet his feet seemed nailed to the ground.

What could he do even if he went?

How many Titled Douluo did Spirit Hall have? That old bastard Qian Daoliu was still seated in the Worship Hall, a level ninety-nine Peerless Douluo.

Even if he, Tang Hao, possessed the number one tool Martial Soul in the world, even if he was the youngest Titled Douluo on the continent, he could not possibly fight his way in and out of Spirit City.

Going there would mean courting death.

Not only would he fail to save Little San, he would lose his own life as well.

If he died, who would search for Ah Yin? Who would wait for Little San to return?

Tang Hao's eyes were bloodshot, and he panted like a bull.

He wanted to charge into Spirit Hall.

But he did not dare.

He could not die yet. He had not found Ah Yin!

He hated it.

But he felt even more stifled.

It felt as though countless dull blades were sawing back and forth through his chest. It was also like being held underwater for three days and nights, his chest filled with suffocating bubbles, yet unable to force out even a single roar.

In the end, Tang Hao still held himself back.

Because he knew that as long as he did not go to Spirit Hall, Spirit Hall might not discover Tang San's identity.

If he went, he would only be harming Tang San instead.

Besides, he still needed to stay alive to find Ah Yin!

As long as Tang San's identity was not exposed, he would not be in danger.

Then Tang San could stay in Spirit Hall for now!

"Why did the people from Spirit Hall take Yu Xiaogang away?"

Suppressing the fury in his heart, Tang Hao pressed the headmaster for answers.

How could the headmaster dare conceal anything? He hurriedly explained what had happened.

Only then did Tang Hao learn that Yu Xiaogang had been invited to Spirit Hall to conduct research.

But if you were leaving, why did you have to take my son with you?

If Yu Xiaogang had been standing before him right now, Tang Hao could guarantee that one hammer blow would not be enough to kill him.

Six years ago, he had watched helplessly as Ah Yin sacrificed herself, yet he had been unable to protect her.

Six years later, he could only watch as Tang San was taken to Spirit Hall, yet he did not dare bring Tang San back.

He, Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao, a dignified level ninety-five Titled Douluo and the record holder for the youngest Titled Douluo on the continent, could not protect either of the two people dearest to him.

"Ah Yin, wait for me. I will find you."

"Then we'll save our son!"

After silently swearing this oath, Tang Hao finally withdrew his Divine Slaughter's Domain and turned to leave.

Meanwhile, under Spirit Hall's announcements, news that Yu Xiaogang had joined Spirit Hall as the director of the Creation Institute, along with the work the Creation Institute intended to undertake, began spreading across the entire Douluo Continent.