Martial Soul Hall's Siege

"Well now, Tang Hao, still talking tough when death is at your door. Regardless of whether you recognize this old lady, I shall announce my name." A sharp voice rang out from above Tang Hao. "Yue Guan, level ninety-five, title Chrysanthemum, Martial Soul, Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum!"

Yue Guan elegantly raised a hand to pluck a drifting petal from the air before him. A massive chrysanthemum manifested before his chest, its stem upright and resilient, carved like jade, with golden halos flowing through the veins of its leaves. As his slender, pale fingers unfurled, the very air seemed to solidify. Nine rings bloomed in unison—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—the nine soul rings pulsing downward in sequence as chrysanthemum blossoms began to drift through the surroundings, emitting a delicate, elegant fragrance.

Though this scent was sweet and intoxicating, refreshing at the first whiff, it instantly induced dizziness and stagnation of soul power, as if one were trapped within a beautiful yet lethal greenhouse of toxic gas.

"Gui Mei, level ninety-five, title Ghost, Martial Soul Hellish Specter!"

After Gui Mei announced his name, the surrounding light dimmed as if an invisible filter of shadow had obscured it. A chilling, low temperature radiated from his body—the absolute cold of the world of the dead. Beneath his feet, nine soul rings emerged, matching the configuration of Yue Guan's.

He transformed into an intangible shadow, appearing beside Yue Guan in the next instant. His Martial Soul seemed connected to the underworld, as a massive black hand emerged from the ground. Upon the shadow, the outlines of faces wailing in agony occasionally surfaced, only to be extinguished in an instant.

"Guang Ling, level ninety-seven, title Guang Ling, Martial Soul Guang Ling Divine Bow!"

Unlike the others, this person was a lady. She possessed iconic long silver hair, with an ice-crystal-like ornament atop her head. Her skin was the cold, translucent white of ice and snow. Her features were exquisite to the extreme, pure and untainted, her long blue-and-white lashes fluttering. Her left eye was a prosthetic of ice-blue, which, rather than marring her perfection, imbued her with a soul-captivating beauty, while her right eye revealed a clarity and indifference born of the passage of time.

"Qiangu Qianjun, level ninety-seven, title Thousand Jun, Martial Soul Coiling Dragon Staff."

"Qiangu Xiangmo, level ninety-seven, title Falling Devil, Martial Soul Coiling Dragon Staff."

The two who spoke were brothers; not only were their Martial Souls identical, but their appearances were also strikingly similar.

With standard square faces and firm, rugged contours, their thick brows sheltered tiger-like eyes that shone with brilliance, flashing with every blink. A wild, unbridled smile played at the corners of their mouths—the confidence granted to them by their Martial Soul.

They hailed from the legendary Qiangu Family. Their Martial Souls were both Coiling Dragon Staffs, which, as the name implied, were staffs that possessed the aura of the Adamantine Staff. Within each Coiling Dragon Staff resided an Evil-Breaking Dragon, a blood-red giant dragon, though this dragon differed from Gu Tian's Dragon God Martial Soul.

According to Ao Linxi, that dragon belonged to the lineage of the auspicious Azure Dragon. It was formed from the condensation of the righteous energy of heaven and earth. In battle, the Evil-Breaking Dragon would activate the Indomitable Domain, which could significantly enhance the user's strength.

"Hmph! To use two elders and three honorary elders for a half-dead cripple like me. Martial Soul Hall, you truly think highly of me, Tang." Tang Hao let out a cold snort.

"However, you have been deceived! I let you announce your names only to stall for time, waiting for my Dawn to reach its climax!"

"Only then are you called a hero~"

"Look up, chaos and war never cease!"

"It's here!"

As Tang Hao heard the melody reach its climax, he slammed his right foot into the ground. With that stomp, a long-handled heavy hammer, pitch-black as ink and radiating a terrifying aura, crashed into his right palm. The hammerhead was immense, engraved with intricate dark-gold patterns. That overbearing, violent will, capable of crushing everything, instantly stood its ground against the pressure of the five Douluos.

"Sound System Douluo, paired with this Clear Sky Hammer! It really is that detestable scent!" Falling Devil Douluo snorted coldly. He swung his Coiling Dragon Staff, and a dark-red air current instantly pulverized a nearby boulder into dust.

"Maintain the barrier, do not harm the civilians!" Guang Ling signaled to the dozens of Soul Saints and Soul Douluos behind her.

"Attack together! Use your ultimate moves directly!"

"Ninth Soul Skill: Chrysanthemum Withers, The Ground Is Full of Wounds, Flowers Fall and Hearts Break!"

Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan shrieked. The giant chrysanthemum in his hands suddenly exploded, and all its petals danced across the sky. In that moment, every golden petal transformed into a blade as thin as a cicada's wing yet sharp as a weapon. The gold on the petals shifted from a gorgeous, brilliant yellow to a dark red, as if burning with life. Thousands of petals converged into a dazzling red dragon, shrieking as it tore through space, spiraling toward Tang Hao.

"Ninth Soul Skill: Hellish Specter!"

Ghost Douluo Gui Mei also moved. He sank into the ground, and countless massive, pitch-black ghostly hands reached out from the shadow beneath Tang Hao's feet. Carrying a chilling cold that corroded the soul, they attempted to bind Tang Hao's body completely. Among them, one giant hand, large enough to swallow Tang Hao whole, reached out with five pale fingers and slowly closed in.

Facing the combined lethal strikes of the two elders, Tang Hao's weathered face showed no fear; instead, a savage grin appeared.

"Just you? Get lost—!"

Tang Hao roared. The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand whipped up a black gale, sweeping outward in an incredibly primitive and brutal motion.

"Great Sumeru Hammer!"

Under the augmentation of Dawn, this strike possessed no frills, only extreme power and a vibration of astonishing frequency. Black energy ripples spread crazily, centered on the Clear Sky Hammer. The moment the golden petal blades touched these black ripples, they disintegrated like snow meeting a scorching sun, vanishing into a sky full of golden light. The pitch-black ghostly hands were likewise ground into powder by this pure force.

This was the dominance of the world's number one offensive tool Martial Soul—no matter how many soul skills you possess, I shall break them all with a single hammer.

"Yue Guan, Gui Mei, fall back! This attack cannot hurt him! I have already finished charging."

High in the sky, Guang Ling Douluo's cold voice rang out like a polar wind. She slowly drew the Guang Ling Divine Bow, the soul power within her body surging like a great river. A black ten-thousand-year soul ring behind her erupted with dazzling light.

"Ninth Soul Skill: Guang Ling Ice God Break!"

A massive, crystal-clear treasure-blue arrow pierced the sky. In flight, the main arrow instantly split into thousands of tiny ice-crystal clusters, each containing the power of extreme ice and light.

Simultaneously, Qianjun Douluo and Falling Devil Douluo on the ground moved as well.

The two brothers shared a single mind. Their figures crossed in mid-air, and their two Coiling Dragon Staffs fused into one, transforming into a dark-red pillar capable of supporting the heavens.

"Ninth Soul Skill: Salvation of All Living Things!"

"Ninth Soul Skill: Salvation of All Living Things!"

The red pillar brought forth a deafening dragon's roar, crashing down upon Tang Hao with the weight of ten thousand jun. With the rain of freezing arrows from above and the suppression of the giant pillar from the sides, Tang Hao was now trapped in a true death zone.

"Tang Hao, today is your death anniversary!" Seeing his colleagues unleash their power, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, no longer caring about saving face, shouted, "Gui Mei, let's use our Martial Soul Fusion Skill!!"

The figures of Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo overlapped, and two extreme forces—one gold, one black—fused perfectly in that moment.

"Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Two-Pole Stasis Domain!"

A silver ring of light capable of freezing time and space instantly expanded. Within the range of this domain, all things seemed to lose their color, and time was forcibly locked in that moment.

Tang Hao's half-swung Clear Sky Hammer stopped dead in mid-air, mere meters from the Falling Devil pillar. His body was frozen in a posture of exertion, muscles taut, his eyes filled with unwillingness.

As Guang Ling Douluo's thousands of cold arrows were about to turn Tang Hao into a sieve, and the Falling Devil pillar was about to crush him into meat paste.

"Damn it, I must break free before the Martial Soul Fusion Skill is fully unleashed!" Tang Hao's eyes turned blood-red in an instant. "You want to keep me... you are still far from it!"

Tang Hao's heart hammered wildly. He knew that if he did not risk everything today, not only would he die, but his son in Nuoding City would be eradicated by Martial Soul Hall.

"The ultimate mystery of the Great Sumeru Hammer: Ring Detonation--!"

This roar seemed to erupt from the depths of his soul, the desperate struggle of a trapped beast.

The nine spirit rings beneath Tang Hao's feet, already riddled with cracks, emitted crisp shattering sounds at this very moment.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black... the first six spirit rings shattered almost simultaneously in an instant. The exploded spirit rings did not vanish; instead, they transformed into an incredibly violent surge of energy, flooding madly into Tang Hao's body before converging upon that black Clear Sky Hammer.

Ring Detonation, as the name implies, is the act of self-destructing spirit rings to generate explosive power far exceeding a spirit master's limits. After using Ring Detonation, one cannot use any spirit skills for a month, but it allows Tang Hao to be strengthened to the level of a rank 99 Peerless Douluo for a short period.

This was a suicidal attack, and a god-level counterstrike.

"Boom--!"

The Two-Pole Stasis Domain, previously thought to be indestructible, was as fragile as a thin sheet of paper caught in a gale before this world-destroying power, instantly torn to shreds. Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo bore the brunt of the impact, letting out miserable screams as their bodies were sent flying hundreds of meters like kites with broken strings.

However, it was not over yet.

"Detonate again!"

The corners of Tang Hao's eyes split open, shedding two trails of blood-tears. He frantically controlled the divine power, detonating the seventh and eighth ten-thousand-year black rings simultaneously!

The volume of the Clear Sky Hammer surged once more, its pitch-black body now enveloped in a layer of dark red blood-aura.

"Break for me--!"

Tang Hao gripped the hammer with both hands, meeting the thousands of falling cold arrows and the giant Coiling Dragon Staff head-on!

The black hammer shadow collided with the red giant staff in the air, and the light produced in that instant made the entire Holy Soul Village as bright as day.

"Rumble--!"

The terrifying shockwave transformed into a circular white air mass that expanded in all directions, leveling several small hills behind Holy Soul Village to the ground in an instant.

Thousand Jun and Falling Devil let out muffled groans as the phantom images of the Coiling Dragon Staff in their hands shattered inch by inch. Guangling Douluo in the sky fared even worse; the divine power of the Ring Detonation contained within Tang Hao's hammer not only shattered her rain of arrows, but she also absorbed the full force of the aftermath.

Pfft--!

Guangling Douluo spat out a mouthful of blood, her protective divine power instantly collapsing as she plummeted from a hundred meters in the air, crashing heavily into a pile of jagged rocks.

Tang Hao did not linger. He knew his physical state had reached its absolute limit. By forcibly detonating eight spirit rings, his meridians were severed in many places, and the spirit power within him was nearly exhausted.

Taking advantage of the moment before the members of Martial Soul Hall could react, he immediately transformed into a streak of blood-colored light, fleeing madly toward the direction of Nuoding City in the north.