"Guang Ling!"
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo had no time to pursue him. They hurried toward the deep crater.
Guangling Douluo's usually neat silver hair was now a tangled mess. A huge palm-shaped dent had caved in the soft armor over her chest, and her face was even paler than Yue Guan's, though he wore rouge. Her life wasn't in danger, but the internal injuries from detonating her rings would take at least eight or ten years to heal.
"Damn it, Ring Detonation... He actually dared to risk his life!" Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan gritted his teeth.
"You two look after Guang Ling. We'll go after him! There's some strange song following him. He won't get away!" Qian Jun and Demon Subduing Douluo exchanged a glance. They had both suffered minor injuries, but nothing compared to Guangling Douluo's.
The two Titled Douluo shot off like streaks of red lightning. Guiding themselves by sound, they clung relentlessly to the bloody trail behind Tang Hao.
This life-or-death race spanned half of Fasinuo Province.
Tang Hao kept coughing up great mouthfuls of blood as he ran. His vision was beginning to blur, and every breath felt like swallowing flames. But he knew he couldn't fall. Before he lost consciousness for good, he had to find his son a way to survive.
By the time the ancient outline of Nuoding City's walls appeared on the horizon, dusk had fallen.
Tang Hao looked toward a brightly lit building ahead—Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy—and a look of grim resolve flashed in his eyes.
"Whoosh—!"
When Qian Jun and Demon Subduing Douluo had closed to within a thousand meters of the city, Tang Hao did something no one could have expected.
He suppressed every trace of his aura and switched off his Second Martial Soul, the Sound System. He crashed straight through the academy wall, then immediately plunged into the dense trees.
"Damn it! He went into Nuoding Academy!" Demon Subduing Douluo skidded to a halt. The Coiling Dragon Staff in his hand trembled with an angry hum.
"Big brother, what now? Do we go in?" Demon Subduing Douluo asked quietly.
Qian Jun fell silent for a long while. He looked at the quiet dormitories and the handful of young students strolling around the field.
As top powers of Spirit Hall, they might have acted with overwhelming force, but the Papal Palace had issued an explicit death order: when carrying out missions against Evil Soul Masters or rebels, if the operation involved large numbers of young civilians or an academy, they were forbidden to use destructive Soul Skills on a large scale. Violators would be charged with sacrilege.
What's more, quite a few of Nuoding City's guards had already been alerted by the commotion.
"That cur Tang Hao actually used children as a shield! What a shameless bastard!" Qian Jun angrily put away his Coiling Dragon Staff. "After taking those wounds and forcing a Ring Detonation, he won't live much longer. His wife and children shouldn't have to pay for his crimes. If we slaughter this whole academy, the entire Douluo Continent will drown Spirit Hall in spit. Come on. We'll take Guang Ling back for treatment first. As for this, let that woman Bibi Dong send people to infiltrate the place in secret."
The two streaks of red light departed in bitter anger, and the oppressive clouds dispersed with them.
At that moment, on the top floor of the faculty dormitory at Nuoding Academy,
Yu Xiaogang sat at his desk, frowning as he leafed through an ancient text by the dim glow of a Soul Guidance Lamp. It was about the "mechanism of Dragon-type Martial Soul mutations." He still hadn't discovered the origins of Gu Tian's Martial Soul.
"Crash—!"
Without warning, the window shattered.
A blood-soaked, disheveled man stumbled inside. With every step, he left a shocking bloody footprint on the floor.
"Who?!"
Yu Xiaogang jumped up from his chair in alarm. Though his Soul Power was only at Level 29, the wariness he'd honed over the years remained. He swept his right hand out, and the chubby Luo Sanpao appeared at his feet, letting out an uneasy growl.
"It's me..."
The man raised his head, revealing a face nearly drained of color. His wild hair was matted with blood, making him look both wretched and terrifying. But his eyes were fixed on Yu Xiaogang.
When Yu Xiaogang saw the small black hammer in the man's hand, covered in cracks yet still radiating a terrifying pressure, the steel pen in his own hand clattered to the ground.
"The Clear Sky Hammer... You're His Excellency Haotian?!"
Yu Xiaogang's voice trembled. Though he had been cast out of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, he knew the Clear Sky Hammer better than anyone.
Tang Hao said nothing. He strode forward and seized Yu Xiaogang by the collar with a trembling hand. His aura was wildly unstable, and the strain of Ring Detonation seemed to make blood seep from every pore.
"Yu Xiaogang... I know who you are. You're the man they call Grandmaster." A hint of pleading crept into Tang Hao's voice. For a once peerless overlord, it was a degree of humility he had never shown before.
"Help me... Take good care of Xiao San. I'm not asking him to become a god. I only want him to survive."
Tang Hao spat out another mouthful of blood. It splashed across Yu Xiaogang's white lab coat, stark and vivid.
"Spirit Hall has its eye on me. I have to leave and draw their attention away. Don't tell Xiao San who I really am, and don't tell him where I've gone. Let him... let him grow up safe and sound, like an ordinary child."
"Xiao San's location has already been exposed. I don't know whether people from Spirit Hall will come looking for him here." Tang Hao hesitated before continuing. "I hope you'll take Xiao San to another academy."
Yu Xiaogang hesitated. Here at Nuoding Academy, he'd been living off the dean's title, but if he left, he was afraid no other school would hire a Level 29 Soul Grandmaster as an instructor.
But then he remembered his friend Flender in Suotuo City. Flender was the headmaster there, and he ran an advanced Soul Master Academy—the Shrek Academy.
Though it was an advanced Soul Master Academy, that didn't mean it refused to admit lower-year students.
Soul Master Academies on the Douluo Continent were divided into junior and advanced academies. Junior Soul Master Academies mainly took in students who had just awakened their Martial Souls. Their graduation requirements were low: students only needed to reach Level 10 before their sixth year, obtain their First Soul Ring, and become Soul Masters.
The graduation requirements at advanced Soul Master Academies were much stricter. Before graduating, students had to break through Level 30, successfully obtain their Third Soul Ring, and advance to Soul Elder.
It might seem that all it took to graduate was reaching Level 30, but to Yu Xiaogang, that was an utterly unreachable goal.
Young Soul Masters with talent, or scions of powerful families, would generally skip junior academies and go straight into the lower-year classes at advanced academies to receive a better education.
So, with Tang San's talent and status, getting into Shrek Academy would be no problem.
"Fine! When the next term starts, I'll take Xiao San to Shrek Academy in Suotuo City. If you're worried, you can visit him anytime." Yu Xiaogang nodded firmly.
"Also, take Xiao Wu, who's with Xiao San. She's a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. If my son grows powerful someday, he'll need her Soul Ring and Soul Bone."
The reason Tang Hao had sneaked into Nuoding Academy, besides evading Spirit Hall's pursuit, was to deal with this. It was the second most important thing.
As a Titled Douluo, he had long since seen through Xiao Wu's identity as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit. And since she seemed to get along well enough with Tang San, perhaps one day she would willingly sacrifice herself for him.
As for how to make it happen? That was easy!
All he had to do was win Xiao Wu's favor, then take her near Spirit Hall and draw the pursuit of its Titled Douluo. Tang San could then play the hero and save the beauty. Xiao Wu would surely sacrifice herself willingly.
Tang Hao's trick never failed. Soul Beasts had simple minds, after all. That was how he had tricked Ah Yin into his hands back then.
Yu Xiaogang had only just learned that Xiao Wu was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and hadn't even had time to react.
Tang Hao reached into his clothes and pulled out a simple, ancient token made entirely of a special metal. Six symbols were engraved on it: a sword, a hammer, a dragon, a chrysanthemum, a ghost, and a crown.
It was the Clear Sky Sect's Sect Master Token, the highest credential signifying the identity of the Clear Sky Douluo.
"If... if one day he truly grows strong enough to face those storms, if he can protect himself, then give this to him."
After saying this, Tang Hao's body suddenly swayed. He took one last look at the star-speckled night sky beyond the window, in the direction where Tang San was.
"Take care."
The two simple, weighty words fell. Tang Hao forcibly suppressed the meridians in his body that were close to bursting, then shot through the window beneath the bright moonlight like a fading shadow. His hunched figure soon vanished into the vast night and distant mountains.
Yu Xiaogang stood there in a daze. He looked at the shocking bloodstains on the floor, then lowered his eyes to the heavy token in his hand, still warm and smelling of blood. His mind was in turmoil.
"What happened to you? How did my idol end up like this?"
Yu Xiaogang murmured to himself. He stared at the token, and beneath his fear, a trace of ambition began to surface.
With this token and the Clear Sky Douluo's charge, could he really use Tang San and the mysterious Gu Tian to fulfill his so-called dream of being a Grandmaster?
At that moment, Ao Linxi, in the advanced apartment next door, woke from her sleep. She sensed a faint but unmistakable trace of murderous aura in the air—the final song of the Clear Sky Hammer.