Tang San raised his head and looked in the direction Shen Lian had left. The last trace of light in his eyes went out with him.
He slowly lifted Tang Hao's severed hand and gently wiped it against his lips, as though that could erase the bloodstains on it.
"Dad... Xiao Wu... Teacher..."
At that moment, even someone as strong as Tang San, a transmigrator, could no longer hold on mentally after the deaths of the three most important people in his life.
The sky suddenly began to pour with rain.
The torrential rain washed over Shrek Academy's broken walls and ruins, while mud carried splintered wood in circles around Tang San's feet.
Tang San knelt beside Yu Xiaogang's decapitated corpse, his knuckles white from clenching too hard. The lifeless Soft Bone Rabbit in his arms was stiff as ice, and the dried blood crusted in its fur pierced his heart with pain.
"Teacher..."
Broken syllables escaped Tang San's throat as his trembling fingers brushed over Yu Xiaogang's wide-open yet lifeless eyes. Then he continued murmuring:
"You still had so much Martial Soul knowledge left to teach me."
His memories suddenly flashed back to a morning at Nuoding Academy. Back then, Yu Xiaogang had crouched outside the blacksmith shop, patiently teaching him how to identify Soul Beast bones. Sunlight fell over master and disciple's shoulders, warm as though it belonged to another lifetime.
Tang San then pressed Tang Hao's severed hand against his cheek, and the icy touch of the skin made his entire body shudder.
His father's broad palm resting atop his head when he was six, his voice saying, "Little San, use your hammer to protect your grass," still echoed by his ears. Now, only this severed limb remained.
"Xiao Wu..."
Tang San suddenly let out a shrill