"Fine, Tang Hao. You're still talking tough with death staring you in the face. Whether you've recognized this old woman or not, I'll introduce myself anyway." A shrill voice rang out above Tang Hao's head. "Yue Guan, level ninety-five, title Chrysanthemum, Martial Soul: Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum!"
Yue Guan gracefully raised a hand and plucked a drifting petal from the air. A gigantic chrysanthemum appeared before his chest, its stem upright and resilient, its petals exquisitely delicate, golden light flowing through the veins of its leaves. When his slender, pale fingers unfurled, the air itself seemed to solidify. Nine rings bloomed in succession—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—pulsing downward one after another. Chrysanthemums began to drift all around them, filling the air with a faint, elegant fragrance.
The scent was sweet and intoxicating, refreshing at first whiff, but in an instant it made one's head swim and Soul Power sluggish, as though they were trapped inside a beautiful yet deadly greenhouse filled with poison gas.
"Gui Mei, level ninety-five, title Ghost, Martial Soul: Ghost!"
After Gui Mei announced his title, the light around them dimmed, as if an invisible veil of shadow had screened it off. An intensely frigid cold radiated from him, the absolute chill of the world of the dead. Nine Soul Rings appeared beneath his feet, their configuration identical to Yue Guan's.
He transformed into an intangible shadow and appeared beside Yue Guan the next instant. His Martial Soul seemed to connect to the underworld. A gigantic black hand rose from beneath the ground; the tormented outlines of human faces occasionally appeared across its shadowy surface, only to vanish at once.
"Guang Ling, level ninety-seven, title Guangling, Martial Soul: Guang Ling Divine Bow!"
Unlike the others, this one was a woman. She had a signature mane of silver hair, with an ice-crystal ornament in her hair. Her skin was cold and pale as snow, translucent and flawless. Her features were exquisitely perfect, untouched by worldly dust. Long blue-white lashes fluttered with each blink. Her left eye was an icy blue prosthetic, which did nothing to mar her perfection; if anything, it gave her a captivating beauty that stole the soul. Her right eye, however, held a clarity and indifference tempered by the passage of time.
"Qiangu Qian Jun, level ninety-seven, title Qian Jun, Martial Soul: Coiling Dragon Staff."
"Qiangu Jiang Mo, level ninety-seven, title Demon Subduing, Martial Soul: Coiling Dragon Staff."
The two who spoke were brothers. Not only were their Martial Souls identical, but their appearances were strikingly similar as well.
They had classic square faces, with rugged, resolute features. Beneath thick brows, their tiger-like eyes shone brightly, flashing with keen light whenever they opened or narrowed. A bold, unrestrained smile tugged at their lips—the confidence their Martial Souls gave them.
They came from the legendary Qiangu Family, and both wielded Coiling Dragon Staffs. As the name suggested, each was a staff, but with the imposing bearing of the Ruyi Jingu Bang. A Break Evil Dragon was attached to every Coiling Dragon Staff—a gigantic blood-red dragon, though it was different from Gu Tian's Dragon God Martial Soul.
According to Ao Linxi, the dragon belonged to the Azure Dragon branch of the Auspicious Beast lineage. It had been formed from the righteous energy of heaven and earth. In battle, the Break Evil Dragon could activate the Indomitable Domain, greatly increasing its wielder's strength.
"Hmph! Two elders and three enforcers, all for a half-dead cripple like me. Spirit Hall, you certainly think highly of me, Tang Hao." Tang Hao snorted.
"But you've fallen for it! I only asked you to state your names to buy time, while I waited for my Dawn to hit the climax!"
"That's what makes a hero~"
"Look up, where chaos and war never cease!"
"It's here!"
Hearing the melody reach its climax, Tang Hao stamped his right foot hard against the ground. As it came down, a long-handled, heavy hammer as black as ink and radiating a terrifying aura appeared with a roar in his right hand. Its head was enormous, engraved with intricate dark-gold patterns. Its domineering, violent will, powerful enough to shatter all things, instantly met the pressure of the five Douluo head-on.
"Sound System Douluo paired with that Clear Sky Hammer! It really is the same loathsome feeling as before!" Demon Subduing Douluo snorted, sweeping his Coiling Dragon Staff through the air. A surge of dark-red energy directly pulverized a boulder nearby.
"Keep the barrier up. Don't let any civilians get hurt!" Guang Ling signaled to the dozens of Soul Saints and Soul Douluos behind her.
"Everyone, attack together! Go straight for the big moves!"
"Ninth Soul Skill: Chrysanthemums wither, carpeting the ground in wounds; petals fall, and hearts break!"
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan shrieked as the gigantic chrysanthemum in his hand burst open. Its petals filled the sky. In the next instant, every golden petal became a blade, thin as a cicada's wing yet sharp as a weapon. Their splendid golden hue shifted to a dark red, as though they were burning with life itself. Thousands upon thousands of petals gathered into a radiant red dragon. With a shriek that tore through space, it whirled toward Tang Hao to rip him apart.
"Ninth Soul Skill: Hellish Specter!"
Ghost Douluo Gui Mei moved as well. He sank into the ground, and countless enormous black hands reached out from the shadow beneath Tang Hao's feet. They carried a frigid chill that corroded the soul, trying to bind him completely. One hand was so huge it could swallow Tang Hao whole. Its five pale fingers slowly closed around him.
Faced with the combined killing moves of the two elders, Tang Hao showed no fear on his weathered face. Instead, a vicious grin appeared.
"You think that's enough? Get lost—!"
Tang Hao roared and swept out with the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand, unleashing a black gale with a brutally primitive, savage swing.
"Great Sumeru Hammer!"
Empowered by Dawn, the strike had no flashy flourishes—only extreme power and vibrations of astonishing frequency. Black ripples of energy spread wildly in rings, centered on the Clear Sky Hammer. The golden petal blades dissolved as soon as they touched the black waves, like snow beneath the blazing sun, scattering into countless golden specks of light. The black hands were even worse off, shattered into dust by the sheer force.
That was the dominance of the world's foremost Power Attack System weapon Martial Soul: no matter how many Soul Skills you had, one swing of his hammer would smash them all.
"Yue Guan, Gui Mei, fall back! This attack can't hurt him! I've already built up my strength."
High above, Guangling Douluo's icy voice swept down like a polar gale. She slowly drew back the string of the Guang Ling Divine Bow, the Soul Power in her body surging like a great river. A black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring blazed behind her in a dazzling burst of light.
"Ninth Soul Skill: Guang Ling Ice God Break!"
A gigantic, crystal-clear, sapphire-blue arrow pierced the sky. As it flew, the main arrow split in an instant into tens of thousands of tiny ice-crystal shafts, each imbued with the utmost power of ice and light.
At the same time, Qian Jun Douluo and Demon Subduing Douluo moved on the ground.
The brothers were of one mind. Their bodies crossed in midair, and their two Coiling Dragon Staffs merged into one, becoming a dark-red pillar vast enough to prop up heaven and earth.
"Ninth Soul Skill: Salvation of All Living Things!"
"Ninth Soul Skill: Salvation of All Living Things!"
The red pillar carried a deafening dragon's roar as it crashed down toward Tang Hao with the weight of ten thousand jun. With a storm of icy arrows from above and pillars pressing in from both sides, Tang Hao had fallen into a truly deadly predicament.
Seeing his comrades unleash their power, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan disregarded any concern for his dignity and shouted, "Tang Hao, today is your death day! Gui Mei, let's use our Martial Soul Fusion Skill!"
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo overlapped, and their two utterly opposing forces—one gold, one black—merged perfectly.
"Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Two-Pole Stasis Domain!"
A silver ring of light capable of freezing time and space spread out in an instant. Everything within its domain seemed to lose its color, and time was forcibly brought to a standstill.
The Clear Sky Hammer, halfway through its swing and only a few meters from the pillar wielded by Demon Subduing Douluo, stopped dead in midair. Tang Hao's body was frozen in a pose of exertion, his muscles taut, his eyes filled with unwillingness.
Guangling Douluo's thousands upon thousands of icy arrows were about to turn Tang Hao into a sieve. The pillar wielded by Demon Subduing Douluo was about to pound him into a lump of flesh.
Damn it, I have to escape before their Martial Soul Fusion Skill is fully unleashed! Tang Hao's eyes turned blood-red in an instant. You think you can hold me here...? You're still far from it!
Tang Hao's heart pounded wildly. He knew that if he didn't fight for his life today, not only would he die—Spirit Hall would wipe out his son, who was in Nuoding City, as well.
"The ultimate secret of the Great Sumeru Hammer: Ring Detonation!"
The furious roar sounded like a trapped beast fighting back from the depths of his soul.
The nine Soul Rings at Tang Hao's feet, already riddled with cracks, let out a series of crisp snaps.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black...the first six Soul Rings shattered almost simultaneously. They didn't disappear; instead, they became an extremely violent torrent of energy, surging madly into Tang Hao's body before gathering in the black Clear Sky Hammer.
Ring Detonation was exactly what its name suggested: destroying one's Soul Rings to produce an explosive power far beyond a Soul Master's limits. After using it, Tang Hao couldn't use any Soul Skills for a month, but for a short time, it could strengthen him to the level of a level-ninety-nine Peerless Douluo.
It was a suicidal attack, and a divine-level counterstrike.
"Boom—!"
Before this world-shattering power, the seemingly indestructible Two-Pole Stasis Domain was as fragile as a sheet of paper caught in a gale. It was torn apart in an instant. Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo bore the brunt; they cried out as they were blasted hundreds of meters away like kites with their strings cut.
And that wasn't all.
"Detonate again!"
Tang Hao's eyes had split at the corners, and two streams of bloody tears ran down his face. He frantically controlled his divine power, detonating his seventh and eighth black Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings as well!
The Clear Sky Hammer swelled once more. Its once pitch-black body was now shrouded in a layer of dark-red blood energy.
"Break!"
Gripping the hammer with both hands, Tang Hao met the thousands upon thousands of falling icy arrows and the pillar wielded by Demon Subduing Douluo head-on!
The black shadow of the hammer collided with the red pillar in midair. The light that erupted in that instant illuminated all of Holy Soul Village as bright as day.
"Rumble—!"
A terrifying shock wave spread out in a circular cloud of white. Several small hills behind Holy Soul Village were leveled in an instant.
Qian Jun and Demon Subduing Douluo groaned as the phantom images of the Coiling Dragon Staffs shattered inch by inch. Guangling Douluo fared even worse. The divine power in Tang Hao's hammer, unleashed by Ring Detonation, not only shattered her arrows; the full force of the shock wave was absorbed by her as well.
Pff—!
Guangling Douluo spat out a mouthful of blood. Her protective divine power collapsed in an instant, and she plunged from a hundred meters in the air, crashing hard into a pile of rubble.
Tang Hao didn't stay to fight. He knew his body was already in terrible shape. Forcibly detonating eight Soul Rings had snapped his meridians in countless places, and the Soul Power within him was nearly drained.
Before the people from Spirit Hall could react, he immediately became a streak of blood-red light and fled toward Nuoding City in the north.