"This is the place, right, Brother Gu Tian?"
In the dense woods outside Holy Soul Village, Na'er patted her fair hands as her silver skirt swayed gently in the breeze. Just moments ago, Gu Tian had used Na'er's Spatial Teleportation to bring her and Gu Yue nearly a hundred miles in an instant, arriving outside this little mountain village ahead of time.
Gu Tian stepped out from behind a tree, his gaze fixed on the road ahead.
The thick fog had been scattered by much of the battle between the Titled Douluo, leaving the ground in ruins.
"How awful," Gu Tian murmured.
At the entrance to Holy Soul Village, the stone stele carved with the words "Holy Soul" had split down the middle, as if smashed apart by a giant hammer. At the western end of the village, the blacksmith's shop that had belonged to Tang San's family had vanished completely.
All that remained was a patch of charred rubble, with broken tiles and stones scattered everywhere. Even several centuries-old trees nearby had been snapped in half.
At that moment, village chief Old Jack was standing outside the ruins with more than a dozen strong villagers. Their faces were etched with fear.
"Chief Jack, what in the world happened?" one villager asked, still shaken. "I've never heard anything like that in my life. The whole mountain was trembling. I thought it was an earthquake."
Old Jack leaned on his cane, his hands trembling badly. He'd lived in this village his whole life. When had he ever seen anything like this?
"That's strange." Old Jack shakily pointed around him. "Look, everyone else's houses are fine—not even a crack in them. Was this earthquake really so particular that it only came after Tang Hao's house?"
The villagers exchanged bewildered glances, but no one had an answer. After all, only Tang Hao's home had suffered such heavy damage. No one else had even gotten a scratch.
Hidden in the shade of a tree, Gu Tian listened to Old Jack's guess and couldn't help pursing his lips. This wasn't an earthquake. It was Tang Hao turning over in bed. Still, those Titled Douluo from Spirit Hall had been quite decent; they'd kept every attack precisely within the blacksmith's shop and hadn't hurt a single civilian.
"Brother Gu Tian, that bad man's coming." Na'er tugged at Gu Tian's sleeve and pointed toward the end of the road.
A gray figure was sprinting toward them like a madman. Tang San's Purple Demon Eye was operating at full capacity. He'd spotted the smoke above his home from far away, and now his young face was twisted with terror.
"Grandpa Old Jack! What happened? What's going on?!"
Tang San rushed to the ruins, his voice so hoarse he was nearly sobbing.
"Xiao San? You're back for the break?" Old Jack looked at Tang San with sympathy. "Son, try to stay calm. Last night... there must have been an earthquake. When we came to look this morning, your house had already collapsed like this."
Tang San didn't even wait for Old Jack to finish. He shoved past the others and charged into the rubble like a madman.
"Dad! Dad! Where are you?!"
With his right hand, which had only recently recovered from an injury, he frantically moved the charred beams. His fingernails dug into the splinters, and blood ran freely, but he didn't care. Blue Silver Grass grew wildly from his hand, trying to push the heavy rocks aside.
Yet there was no answer from the empty ruins.
There was no sign of Tang Hao's breathing—not even the heavy Forging Hammer could be found.
Just as Tang San was on the verge of despair, he spotted something beneath the Forging Table, which had broken into several pieces.
It was a letter, weighed down by a stone.
With trembling hands, Tang San opened it. The page held only a few hurried but weighty lines:
"Xiao San, by the time you read this, I'll be gone. Something unexpected has happened at home, and I need to leave to deal with it for five or six years. Don't look for me, and don't try to ask around about what happened. Train hard at Nuoding Academy. If one day you think you're strong enough, I'll come back for you. Take care of yourself. —Tang Hao. Don't worry about me."
"Gone... Dad's gone..."
Tang San clutched the letter and slumped among the rubble, as if his soul had been drained from his body.
To him, the world seemed to collapse in that instant. The reunion he'd been eagerly anticipating had become a cold farewell letter, and the only shelter he'd ever had was now nothing but charred ruins.
"An earthquake... Why did it have to be an earthquake?"
Tang San looked up, his eyes clouded with a feverish confusion. He thought back over everything that had happened at Nuoding Academy.
Gu Tian! It was Gu Tian again!
Ever since Gu Tian had appeared at Nuoding Academy, Tang San's life had gone downhill. His First Soul Ring had turned white, Xiao Wu had been taken from him, his Martial Soul had suffered a setback, and now he'd lost his home too.
In his warped, obsessive reasoning, Gu Tian's terrifying Martial Soul, which could control the elements, had to be connected to this earthquake. He even wondered if the forces behind Gu Tian had discovered his father's identity and brought this catastrophe down on them.
"Gu Tian... you bastard!"
Tang San sprang to his feet and let out a piercing roar at the sky. "It was you! You hurt my dad! You destroyed my home! I, Tang San, swear that if I don't kill you in this life, I'm no man!"
Up in the treetops a hundred meters away, Gu Tian heard the remarkably loud curse and jolted in fright, nearly falling out of the tree.
"Good grief!"
Gu Tian's eyes widened as he stared blankly at Gu Yue beside him. "Yue'er, did you hear that? He was cursing me?"
Gu Yue gave a cold snort, killing intent flashing in her dark green eyes. "Young Master, Tang San has lost his mind. He's not only ignorant; he doesn't even have the most basic grasp of logic. Should I kill him?"
"No, don't do anything yet."
Gu Tian rubbed his nose, looking at the boy roaring like a madman in the ruins with an exasperated smile. "I've been sitting quietly at the academy. I haven't even set foot in Holy Soul Village, and he still manages to pin the blame on me? That talent for passing the buck is maxed out."
"Brother Gu Tian, the way he's looking at you is so scary. He looks like a rabid stray dog." Na'er nestled against Gu Tian, clearly disgusted.
Gu Tian gave a cold laugh as he watched Tang San kneeling on the ground, his teeth clenched.
"Curse me all you like. The worse things get for you, the richer my Godhood Trial rewards will be. Since you love blaming everything on me so much, then from now on... I'll show you what a true catastrophe looks like."
Gu Tian took one last look at the ruins, then signaled to the two girls.
"Let's go to a hotel in Nuoding City and book a presidential suite. We can enjoy the vacation that came early. As for Tang San... let him stay here among the ruins, dreaming up his own miraculous comeback."
A silver door of space opened, and the three of them vanished in an instant, leaving behind only the cold wind of Holy Soul Village and Tang San's desperate, obsessive roar.