Hearing Tang San's plea, the Clear Sky Hammer in Tang Hao's hand paused for a moment.
His own son was begging a Soul Beast?
A complicated expression, hard to describe, surfaced on Tang Hao's blood-smeared face.
All his life, Tang Hao had stood tall and unyielding, preferring to break rather than bend.
Yet his son was begging a ten-thousand-year-old Golden Light Eagle.
He fell silent for a moment, then sighed.
He decided Tang San was simply too anxious. After all, the boy cared about Xiao Wu more than his own life; it was understandable that he would lose his composure.
He gave it no further thought, tightened his grip on the Clear Sky Hammer, turned around, and continued battling Bibi Dong.
Meanwhile, inside the spatial rift, most of the Titan Giant Ape's body had already squeezed through.
His arms braced against the edges of the rift as his enormous torso slowly forced its way out. Each breath stirred the surrounding air into visible whirlwinds.
Xiao Wu looked up, and at last, tears spilled from her eyes.
She shook her head frantically, her voice desperate. "Er Ming, go back! They're setting you up! Four people—four Titled Douluo are waiting for you! Go back!"
She couldn't let Er Ming die here too.
Her mother had already died at Bibi Dong's hands. If Er Ming also died here because of her, she would never forgive herself for the rest of her life.
But Er Ming merely lowered his head, his enormous, bell-like eyes gazing at Xiao Wu. A simple, honest smile appeared on his furry face.
"Don't worry, Sister Xiao Wu. I'll get you out of here without a scratch."
Xiao Wu froze. She knew Er Ming too well. He never lied, and he would never put on a brave face in front of her.
But the calm in his eyes now, that confidence radiating from deep within him, was something she had never seen before.
Er Ming's gaze swept across the entire battlefield.
Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, the four Titled Douluo worshippers, Bibi Dong battling Tang Hao in the distance, and the golden figure rapidly closing in...
He looked over each of these names, all of which were enough to strike fear into anyone on the Douluo Continent. Then a novel feeling, one he had never experienced before, rose in his heart.
Soul Beasts had an innate sense of danger.
The Titan Giant Ape clan was far more sensitive to it than ordinary Soul Beasts.
In the past, faced with so many Titled Douluo, even sensing their presence from far away would make Er Ming's fur bristle involuntarily. It was a survival instinct engraved in his blood.
But now...
Those beings he had once been afraid to even look at seemed, in his perception, no more threatening than a rowdy game of make-believe.
Even the strongest among them, Tang Hao and Bibi Dong, could hardly make him feel truly threatened anymore.
Er Ming subconsciously clenched his fist.
Fine threads of lightning leaped and crackled between his fingers.
On his back, the pair of unopened, dark-gold bone wings trembled slightly.
That lord had been right after all.
The modifications had been made in a hurry, but they were more than enough to deal with Titled Douluo!
As Er Ming was about to emerge, the first two Titled Douluo could no longer hold back.
They were closest to the spatial rift, and feared that Er Ming might see the four Titled Douluo waiting for him and retreat back into the rift.
If he got away, the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone already within their grasp would slip through their fingers.
Two figures shot forward almost simultaneously.
Their Soul Rings blazed to life, and their Martial Soul Avatars activated!
One worshipper's Martial Soul was a pitch-black giant scorpion. The other's was a bone longsword covered in blood grooves.
All nine Soul Rings around the two men lit up. They drove their Martial Soul Avatars to the limit, unleashing their raging Soul Power upon Er Ming like floodwaters bursting through a dam.
They gave it everything in a single strike. As long as it landed, they could pin down the Titan Giant Ape and leave him with no chance to escape.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan stood guard in the distance, the corners of his mouth already curling upward.
Ghost Douluo Gui Mei had transformed into a shadow and was rapidly closing in from the side.
They couldn't let those two take all the credit!
As long as he got in on the action, he could claim a bigger share of the rewards later.
Everything had gone according to their calculations.
The only thing they hadn't accounted for was the fist Er Ming swung.
"Thunderlight Fist."
Er Ming growled and casually swung his right fist.
Hearing the name, the two Titled Douluo worshippers nearly burst out laughing.
Thunderlight Fist?
What kind of lousy name was that?
It sounded less impressive than the first Soul Skill of a Hundred-Year Soul Beast!
Everyone in the Soul Master World knew that the more dazzling a Soul Skill's name, the greater its power.
But in the next instant, the heavens... changed!
There was no warning, no transition.
One moment, the sky was still churning with wind and clouds, stirred by the aftershocks of Soul Power. The next, it had become a blinding sea of lightning.
Countless bolts of lightning crashed down from the heavens all at once, each as thick as a barrel. They converged on Er Ming's mountain-sized fist, setting it ablaze like a miniature sun.
The fist swelled before their eyes, its might instantly surpassing the limits of what they could comprehend.
The scorpion Martial Soul's carapace was as flimsy as paper before the lightning. The bone longsword's edge was ground to dust.
Their Martial Soul Avatars shattered like glass smashed by a single slap, breaking apart piece by piece.
One punch.
Just one punch.
The two arrogant Titled Douluo worshippers lay on the ground like dead dogs, their bodies charred black and smoke curling upward. They couldn't even muster the strength to twitch.
Ghost Douluo Gui Mei had just rushed up to Er Ming.
He was moving too fast. By the time he saw what had happened, it was already too late to stop.
He came to a steady halt less than three zhang in front of Er Ming. He looked up, his gaze passing over his two comrades sprawled on the ground, their fates unknown, then over the enormous fist still trailing smoke, and finally settling on Er Ming's bell-like eyes.
The corner of Ghost Douluo Gui Mei's mouth twitched. His sinister face strained into a forced grin more painful than a sob.
"Great Ape, sir... If I said I was only here to collect their bodies, would you believe me?"
Er Ming said nothing.
He simply lowered his head to look at Gui Mei, the corners of his mouth slowly curving upward.
At the sight of that smile, Ghost Douluo didn't waste a single word. He turned and ran.
Without hesitation, without a trace of reluctance—so fast that he left several afterimages behind.
His mind raced.
No matter how powerful a Titan Giant Ape was, it was still a land beast. Its explosive strength might be terrifying, but it couldn't fly.
He only had to wait until Er Ming had squeezed completely out of the spatial rift and catch him in the instant between landing and regaining his footing. Then he could use his speed to put distance between them.
He refused to believe Er Ming could fly after him.
The next moment, he heard a furious roar.
The sound made his eardrums ache. Air surged behind him, carrying a destructive aura of lightning. Gui Mei instinctively glanced back.
Er Ming's body had completely emerged from the spatial rift.
Behind him, a pair of dark-gold bone wings was slowly unfolding.
Lightning coursed over their surfaces. Each wing bone radiated a heart-stopping aura of destruction. As the wings spread, the lightning in the heavens answered, and it seemed the entire sky trembled beneath them.
Ghost Douluo Gui Mei stared at those dark-gold Thunder Wings, vast enough to blot out the sun. His lips quivered violently.
"...What the hell!"
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