Although Er Ming did not want to admit it, the facts were the facts.
He could go toe-to-toe with the Level 98 Golden Crocodile Douluo without losing ground, but Level 99 Qian Daoliu was on another plane of existence.
What was more, Qian Daoliu was hailed as the strongest Titled Douluo in the sky.
Even with his Dark Gold Bone Wings, Er Ming could never outrun Qian Daoliu in the air, not when he had the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul.
"Golden Light Eagle!"
Er Ming growled.
Golden Light Eagle had already been poised to move.
Just as Qian Daoliu's next palm was about to land, Golden Light Eagle beat its wings.
Kunpeng Method, ultimate speed!
Its blue-gold feathers carved a streak of light across the night sky, moving so fast that Qian Daoliu could only make out a blurry afterimage.
His palm struck empty air. Er Ming had already grabbed the streak of blue-gold light, and together with Xiao Wu, he was swept up by Golden Light Eagle and shot toward the Star Dou Forest.
Qian Daoliu beat all six wings and turned into a golden shooting star, hot on their heels.
His speed was that of a Limit Douluo. With the added boost of the Angel's six wings, there was no one on the Douluo Continent who could match him.
Yet he pursued them for a full thirty breaths.
But the distance between him and the Golden Light Eagle did not shrink. It only grew wider.
That eagle was moving far too fast to make any sense, as if it were teleporting!
Every flap of its wings was a leap through space. Along the path of its wings, one could even see the faintest ripples in the fabric of space.
Qian Daoliu pushed the Angel Martial Soul's speed to its limit, yet could only watch helplessly as the blue-gold speck dwindled in the distance, then vanished into the endless darkness toward the Star Dou Forest.
Qian Daoliu stopped in midair.
He couldn't catch them!
In nearly two hundred years of life, he had never once encountered something he couldn't catch.
Qian Daoliu fell silent for a long while before finally speaking.
His voice was not loud, but it pierced through layer upon layer of space, reaching the streak of blue-gold light speeding away with perfect clarity.
"Something about what happened these past few days is strange."
"Our Spirit Hall never once schemed against you."
"From the very beginning, it was all Tang San's doing."
"I hope you won't come back."
His voice was calm and sincere, as if he were stating a fact he had already confirmed beyond doubt.
Golden Light Eagle slowed for a moment.
Not because it had been caught, but because it had heard those words.
On its back, Xiao Wu was about to argue.
Her first instinct was to say that Spirit Hall had hunted Soul Beasts first, and that her mother had died at Bibi Dong's hands afterward. How could such a blood feud be brushed aside with a lighthearted "we never schemed against you"?
But Golden Light Eagle spoke first.
"Princess Xiao Wu," Golden Light Eagle said, its voice carrying the worldly wisdom and slyness of someone who had seen it all, "do you remember what Tang San did at the Soul Master Tournament that day?"
Xiao Wu froze.
The scene from that day surfaced in her mind without warning.
The Lovesick Heartbreak Red had fallen from her collar twice, and Bibi Dong had exposed Tang San's scheme right to his face.
Then there was Tang San, kneeling on the ground and weeping as he begged Golden Light Eagle to take him to save her, only to push her toward a Titled Douluo's blade the instant he turned away...
Image after image flashed through her mind.
All the scattered pieces came together, forming a truth that sent a chill through her from head to toe.
Tang San had known all along that she was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
So he had plotted and schemed, driving her step by step into a dead end.
All so she would sacrifice herself!
Once she understood what Tang San had done, a dull ache spread through Xiao Wu's chest.
At Notting Academy, he had been the first roommate willing to talk to her.
At Shrek Academy, he had been Third Brother, the one who always stood in front of her.
She had once thought that this boy would be one of the people she trusted most in her life, second only to Da Ming and Er Ming, and to the father she had never met.
But the very person she trusted most had schemed against her step by step, pushing her toward her doom.
Xiao Wu clenched her fists.
But just as that anguish threatened to swallow her whole, the Second Martial Soul space she had only just opened within her suddenly lit up.
A bright full moon slowly rose in the depths of her consciousness. Silver moonlight flowed through her limbs like a clear spring.
The moonlight was not blazing, yet it peeled away the anger, pain, resentment, and confusion roiling in her heart, layer by layer, revealing the calmest thoughts beneath.
Laurel Martial Soul, Moonlight Clears the Heart.
This was the passive ability granted to her by the Moon Martial Soul.
Beneath the moonlight, her mind could not be swayed by any emotion or clouded by any illusion. She would always retain the cool, clear judgment of a bright moon.
Xiao Wu took a deep breath, and the tears in her eyes gradually dried.
Tang San and Bibi Dong: one was false goodness, the other, naked evil.
In essence, they were the same kind of person.
They would do anything to grow stronger, and pay any price to climb higher.
Tang San coveted her Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and Soul Bone.
Bibi Dong coveted any power that could bring her closer to that threshold.
They were all her enemies!
Fortunately, she still had a father.
A father willing to turn Spirit Hall upside down for her.
From now on, she would never be deceived or used by anyone again.
She would make Tang San pay for what he owed her with her own hands. And she would personally bring an end to what Bibi Dong had done to her mother!
At that same moment, in Spirit City.
Qian Daoliu stood on the highest terrace of the Worship Hall, his six white wings slowly folding behind him.
He had actually lost them...
Qian Daoliu, hailed as invincible in the sky, heir to the Angel Martial Soul, a Level 99 Limit Douluo.
Had actually lost his quarry!
The realization filled him with shock.
He recalled that incredible speed, and the Titan Giant Ape, whose body had surged with an unbelievable power.
Qian Daoliu's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
The Golden Light Eagle's speed and the strength that had burst from the Titan Giant Ape—both surpassed everything he knew.
Not even that old Tang Chen could keep unleashing such power without end, could he?
And then there was that little rabbit.
According to Golden Crocodile, she had been the reason behind everything today. Her strength had not been especially formidable either—at most, it was on par with the younger generation of Spirit Hall.
But tonight... that little rabbit had drawn over a hundred Soul Masters into an illusion domain all by herself.
How could her strength have increased so much in just one day?
He had only ever heard of such things in divine miracles!
Now, the Star Dou Forest seemed unfathomable to him.
Was there some unknown force hidden there?
A force far beyond anything the Douluo Continent currently knew?
"Pass down the order."
Qian Daoliu's voice was aged and commanding. It pierced the Worship Hall's rows of pillars and vaulted ceilings, echoing through every hall deep within Spirit Hall.
"Convene an emergency meeting. Apart from His Holiness the Pope, who is too badly injured to attend, all Titled Douluo are to report to the Worship Hall at once."
Before you continue