Tang Hao's Soul Rings were still shattering.
The third, then the fourth.
With each one that shattered, the power surrounding him doubled.
The moment the fifth Soul Ring exploded, that overwhelming Clear Sky power pressed down until the entire plaza began to sink.
He forcibly pushed the Rakshasa Demon Scythe back with one hand.
Bibi Dong's body retreated three steps against her will.
Three steps.
Ever since she had become a Titled Douluo, she had never retreated three steps in a head-on clash.
A torrent of blood poured from Tang Hao's severed arm. His empty left sleeve whipped in the night wind.
Yet the aura he gave off continued to climb furiously—
Level ninety-five. Level ninety-six. Level ninety-seven.
It was still rising.
Bibi Dong's teeth ground together.
Ring Detonation used Soul Rings as fuel to grant power far beyond one's limits for a short time.
The price—each shattered Ring permanently set back one's cultivation. Once it was over, one would either die or be crippled.
Tang Hao didn't care if he lived or died.
He swung his lone arm, and the pitch-black Clear Sky Hammer coalesced out of thin air.
The remaining Soul Rings on its head flashed wildly, each one on the verge of collapsing.
Clang—!
The Clear Sky Hammer collided head-on with the Rakshasa Demon Scythe.
Bibi Dong retreated five more steps.
The shock wave sent Spirit Hall Soul Masters stumbling across the plaza. Some were hurled straight into the surrounding wall, their backs embedded in the stone, leaving them unable to pull free.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo advanced at the same time, attacking from either side.
Tang Hao didn't even turn around. He swept the Clear Sky Hammer across.
The hammer's wake swept Chrysanthemum Douluo aside. He staggered back ten steps, the skin across his palm splitting as blood trickled between his fingers.
Ghost Douluo's invisibility was no better than paper before that brute force. The gale kicked up by the hammer's tail flung him out of the fight, and he tumbled three times after landing at the edge of the plaza.
Two Titled Douluo had joined forces, yet they couldn't withstand a single blow.
Tang Hao wasn't even human anymore.
He was a wounded beast with one arm, five shattered Soul Rings, and blood covering his body, standing before his son with a hammer in hand and batting away everything that came near.
Bibi Dong was being suppressed.
Tang San saw his opening. While his father forced Bibi Dong back, he swung the Sea God Trident in a golden arc and attacked from the flank—
On the other side of the battlefield, Xie Yue was being beaten back step by step by Dai Mubai.
Deep within Pope Palace.
Hu Liena sat cross-legged in the Cultivation Room. The warmth of the Primordial Spirit Bead still flowed gently around her brow, while the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron's weighty power circulated steadily deep in her dantian.
Boom—!
A violent tremor came from above. The walls of the Cultivation Room shook, and the light patterns of the Spirit Gathering Array flickered twice, nearly breaking apart.
A battle was raging outside.
And one fought at the level of Titled Douluo—nothing below level eighty could create tremors that intense.
Hu Liena sprang to her feet.
She rushed out of the Cultivation Room, ran down the passage, and pushed open a side door of Pope Palace—
The night wind swept in, carrying the stench of blood.
The plaza was unrecognizable. Stone bricks had been torn up, most of the steps were shattered, and Spirit Hall Soul Masters lay scattered everywhere, thrown aside by the shock waves.
In the sky, Bibi Dong was battling a one-armed man.
The dark violet glow of the Rakshasa Demon Scythe and the pitch-black shadow of the Clear Sky Hammer clashed again and again in the night sky, each strike sending out ripples.
Bibi Dong was retreating.
Hu Liena's heart sank—was her teacher being suppressed?
There was no time to think.
Her peripheral vision caught the right side of the plaza, and she froze.
Xie Yue.
Her brother was battling a white-haired man.
The opponent had released his White Tiger Martial Soul. Tiger stripes covered his body as he hammered blow after blow into Xie Yue.
Xie Yue was already covered in blood.
The armor over his left shoulder had been torn apart, exposing a ragged wound. Blood continued to pour from it.
His right leg was trembling too, and he could barely maintain his fighting stance as he staggered. Each time he retreated, he fell back farther than before.
Dai Mubai. One of the Shrek Seven Devils, White Tiger Douluo.
A scorching fury surged from Hu Liena's chest, burned through her throat, and blazed into her mind.
There was no need to think. No need to judge.
Someone was attacking her brother.
Buzz—
Her Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox Martial Soul appeared. Six Soul Rings lit up one after another beneath her feet.
Three snowy-white fox tails unfurled behind her, each more than a zhang long, their tips wreathed in a faint purple-gold glow.
Hu Liena tapped her toes against the ground and shot forward.
"Get lost!"
All three fox tails swept across at once!
Every bit of an eighty-fourth-level Soul Douluo's Soul Power poured into them. The tails tore through the night sky with terrifying gusts that warped the air, lashing toward Dai Mubai's waist.
The hair on Dai Mubai's body stood on end.
He instinctively crossed his arms in front of him for protection and drove his White Tiger power to its limit—
Thud—!
A muffled impact.
Dai Mubai was sent flying. His feet carved two long trenches in the ground, and he staggered seven or eight steps before barely managing to stop.
Both his arms were numb. The skin on his palms had split from the impact, and beads of blood welled up.
He looked up.
Three snowy-white fox tails swayed gently behind the woman.
A faint purple Fox Seal glimmered between her brows. Her entire aura was nothing like it had been half a month ago.
"Hu Liena?"
Dai Mubai's throat tightened.
The intelligence report from half a month ago had been crystal clear—at the peak of level sixty-nine, with a Demon Fox Martial Soul.
The Soul Power pressure radiating from the woman before him was conservatively estimated to be above level eighty.
Fifteen levels in half a month.
What kind of monster was she?
Xie Yue took the chance to retreat to Hu Liena's side, clutching the wound on his left shoulder as he gasped for breath.
"Nana, how did you—"
"Brother, don't talk."
Hu Liena didn't look at him. Her three fox tails rose, ready to attack Dai Mubai.
Anyone who dared hurt her brother deserved to die.
Just then, a golden figure fell from the sky.
Tang San.
Holding the Sea God Trident, he broke away from the battle above and plummeted straight toward the plaza.
The instant he hit the ground, the shock wave sent a ring of shattered stone bricks flying. The golden radiance of the Sea God blazed especially brightly in the night.
His gaze locked onto Hu Liena.
More precisely, it was fixed on the pale purple Nine-Tailed Fox Seal between her brows.
The Fate-Suppressing Cauldron.
Because this woman had accepted that cauldron, his fortune had been suppressed, and he had failed the Eighth Sea God Trial.
For days on end, his fingers had cramped until dawn every night. His cultivation speed had been cut in half, and even the Trident trembled in his grip.
All his resentment, all his hatred, all the fear and humiliation he had bottled up for half a month fused into a single thought.
Destroy that cauldron.
"Hu Liena—!"
Tang San's furious roar exploded above the plaza.
He abandoned Bibi Dong, who had been entangled with Tang Hao overhead. He abandoned the Tang Sect elites arrayed behind him. Holding the Sea God Trident across his body as its golden light flared, he charged straight at Hu Liena.
"Hand over the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron!"
The Trident's blade gathered Sea God's Power, condensed to its utmost. Golden radiance ripped through the night sky.
"Otherwise, I'll make sure you have no place to bury your body!"
Hu Liena's fox ears stood straight up.
She didn't retreat.
Her lips curled slightly as she gave a soft snort.
"The Fate-Suppressing Cauldron?"
The three words came out evenly.
"You want it?"
Her three fox tails stiffened, the purple-gold glow at their tips suddenly swelling.
"Come and take it."
As soon as the words left her mouth, she moved.
Hu Liena transformed into a white blur. Her three fox tails, carrying all the Soul Power of an eighty-fourth-level Soul Douluo, collided head-on with the Sea God Trident.
Tang San thrust the Trident forward.
Fueled by his remaining Sea God's Power and all his fury, its golden blade-light carved a ten-zhang-long streak through the air.
Hu Liena didn't dodge.
Her three fox tails pressed together and twisted into a snowy-white cone before her, meeting it head-on.
Boom—!!
Gold and white collided violently in the center of the plaza.
The shock wave burst outward in every direction from the point of impact.
All the stone bricks within ten zhang shattered, and the billowing dust blotted out the sky.
The shock wave shoved Chrysanthemum Douluo five steps backward, while Ghost Douluo was knocked flat onto the ground.
Through the dust, both figures retreated at the same time.
Tang San retreated six steps, each one cracking the stone bricks beneath his feet.
Hu Liena retreated five steps. Her fox tails trembled slightly behind her, and several hairs at their tips had been scorched away by the Sea God's Power, drifting down onto the rubble.
Five steps to six.
An even match.
In fact—Hu Liena had even gained half a step.
Tang San stared at Hu Liena, disbelief filling his eyes!
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