Besieged

"Tang Hao!"

Bibi Dong forced his name through clenched teeth, her dignified, elegant face twisted with resentment.

Her golden Martial Soul blazed behind her, and her nine Soul Rings hummed incessantly, yet her aura kept crumbling before Tang Hao's.

Tang Hao's Soul Ring Configuration was identical to Bibi Dong's.

Two yellow, two purple, four black, one red.

Nine Soul Rings circled him. The red Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring in particular radiated pressure even more violent than Bibi Dong's.

His hair and beard stood on end. His crippled left arm and right leg swayed faintly in the air, yet he stood there like a god of slaughter who had stepped out of an ancient battlefield.

He gripped the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand.

The hammer was pitch-black from end to end, its face covered in web-like red lines, each one slowly writhing.

A terrifying aura of destruction poured from the hammer, so suffocating that the air in the great hall let out a piercing hum. Fine cracks began to spread across the surface of several stone pillars near Tang Hao.

Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei exchanged a glance and came to a decision almost simultaneously.

Retreat.

Flender and the other two members of the Golden Iron Triangle were troublesome, but ultimately they were just minnows.

Tang Hao was different. This Clear Sky Douluo truly dared to fight to the death—and when he did, he could take others down with him.

The two Titled Douluo blurred, abandoning Flender and the others as they withdrew to Bibi Dong's side and took up defensive positions.

Standing in the middle of the crowd, Tang San watched it all unfold.

His fists slowly clenched beneath his sleeves. His nails dug into his palms, nearly drawing blood.

Damn it!

Tang Hao alone could put this much pressure on Spirit Hall?

Those two arrogant old monsters, Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo, were actually this wary of him. They were even willing to leave the Golden Iron Triangle alone.

If he was so strong, why wouldn't he help me?

It was as though Tang San's chest were filled with boiling magma. His resentment and hatred threatened to burn through his reason.

Why did Tang Hao get a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring? Why had that bastard ignored him all this time, only to come ruin his plans today?

Did I not deserve a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring?!

Tang San's teeth ground together, but he couldn't let a hint of it show on his face.

While everyone was looking toward the Shrek group, his face still wore the look of a dutiful son, eyes reddened with joy and emotion. He even shifted to stand in front of Xiao Wu, adopting a protective stance.

"Xiao Wu, don't worry." He turned his head, his voice gentle and certain. "My father is here. With him around, he'll get us all out safely."

Xiao Wu looked at his pale profile and the figure shielding her. Her eyes grew hot, and her lips quivered slightly, but she said nothing.

She didn't notice that as Tang San turned his head, his gaze remained fixed on the depths of Spirit Hall.

He screamed inwardly with wild abandon.

"Spirit Hall! Get your act together! You're the mighty Spirit Hall, a behemoth with a legacy stretching back all these years. Surely you have more than just a few Titled Douluo? Where are your elders? Those old monsters you keep hidden away? Get out here!"

As if they had heard his thoughts.

Bibi Dong suddenly threw back her head and let out a piercing howl.

The shriek was so sharp it was like an invisible steel needle piercing the great hall's ceiling and stabbing into the forbidden grounds deep within Spirit Hall.

The howl carried an overbearing surge of Soul Power. Every candle flame in the hall flickered at once, nearly going out.

Then came a response from the depths of Spirit Hall.

Four piercing howls sounded almost simultaneously, each carrying a surge of Soul Power no weaker than Chrysanthemum Douluo's.

The howls rose and fell, like a storm rolling in from deep within Spirit Hall.

Titled Douluo!

Four Titled Douluo!

Tang San lowered his head sharply, hiding the joy he could barely suppress.

His Soul Ring was saved!

Tang Hao alone couldn't possibly escape unscathed when seven Titled Douluo surrounded him.

As long as chaos broke out, Xiao Wu would surely be driven into a desperate situation.

And as long as she was cornered, his plan could continue!

Tang Hao, aren't you strong? Don't you have a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring? Then go on—hold off seven Titled Douluo for me!

A flash of cold light passed through Tang San's eyes.

Tang Hao, however, stepped forward.

Facing the terrifying auras of seven Titled Douluo, the Clear Sky Douluo didn't retreat in the slightest. He advanced another step.

The red lines on the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand suddenly lit up, like a web set ablaze, radiating a heat so intense it was suffocating.

He held his head high, his battered body ramrod straight. His voice crashed like thunder beside every person's ear.

"Xiao San, watch closely! This is—"

Before he could finish.

A violent spatial fluctuation suddenly swept through the world around them.

It came without warning, as if someone had carved open a slit in the void with an invisible blade.

The space inside the great hall twisted and warped in an instant. The glazed tiles above cracked without warning, and visible ripples appeared in the air, spreading wildly in every direction from the center of the hall.

The spatial fluctuation forcibly interrupted Tang Hao just as he was about to unleash his Martial Soul Avatar.

All seven Titled Douluo were briefly paralyzed at once.

That spatial force was too strange. It was unlike any ability known to Spirit Hall.

Bibi Dong, Tang Hao, Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, and the four elders who had just appeared—all of them seemed to have been frozen in place, suspended for the span of a breath.

If even the Titled Douluo were affected, everyone else was worse off.

The Soul Masters in the viewing seats were like reeds in a gale, swaying and stumbling. Many were thrown right off their seats.

Flender and Liu Erlong dropped to one knee to steady themselves, while Dai Mubai grabbed Ning Rongrong by the arm before she could fall.

And in the middle of the chaos, Tang San's eyes lit up.

An opportunity!

Almost without thinking, he circulated the Mysterious Heaven Skill. Keeping his right hand hidden in his sleeve, he formed that hand seal once more.

Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon.

A wisp of invisible force shot from his fingertips and struck the Lovesick Heartbreak Red tucked into Xiao Wu's lapel—the flower she had only just gotten back—with pinpoint precision.

Amid the confusion, no one noticed the faintest flicker of hidden force.

The Lovesick Heartbreak Red fell to the ground again.

The immortal herb's suppression of the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast aura within Xiao Wu vanished completely in that instant.

The breathing of a Soul Beast, its aura, every life sign belonging to the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Charm Rabbit—all of it was released without restraint into the great hall of Spirit Hall, within the perception of the seven Titled Douluo.

The gazes of the four elders who had just rushed over from the depths of Spirit Hall were drawn toward Xiao Wu at almost the same moment, fixing on her.