The stone chamber's four walls shook violently, and a spiderweb of cracks instantly spread across their blue-black surfaces.
Rubble pattered down from overhead, striking Tang Hao on the head. He didn't even notice.
The entire chamber teetered on the brink of collapse beneath that furious roar. Cracks split the skylight in the ceiling, and fine stone dust poured down like rain.
The terrifying sound wave shot out through the skylight, briefly drowning out the roar of the waterfall as it spread across the surrounding mountains in every direction.
The sound waves reverberated through the valley, striking the cliffs and bouncing back to overlap in layers. Countless birds in the forest startled into flight, flapping wildly up into the sky.
Far off in the mountains, several Soul Masters who had come hoping to get lucky stopped in their tracks at the same time.
"Did you hear that?"
A burly man carrying a broad axe turned his head toward the direction of the sound.
"I heard it."
His companion narrowed his eyes and licked his cracked lips.
"That Soul Power fluctuation was so strong... Could there be a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone in that direction?"
They exchanged glances.
No one said a word, but the same glint of greed flashed in every eye.
The next moment, they turned as one and sped toward the valley.
Even farther away, more Soul Masters heard that roar which shook the mountains and forests.
Some stopped in the middle of their journey, while others emerged from makeshift tents. All of them looked toward the same direction.
After a brief silence, figures darted about and gathered into scattered streams of people, surging toward the valley from every direction.
Inside the stone chamber, the tremors grew more violent.
The already unstable structure finally gave way under the impact of Tang Hao's Soul Power. A boulder the size of a millstone fell from the ceiling, followed by a second, then a third.
Amid the rumbling, the entire chamber collapsed.
The next second, a streak of blood-red light burst out of the rubble.
Tang Hao stood atop the pile of stones, his entire body shrouded in crimson Soul Power.
The Soul Power was so dense it was almost tangible, like a roiling layer of blood mist that wrapped around him completely.
The fragments of stone beneath his feet kept rolling from the aftershocks of that power, grinding together with a series of dull, rumbling sounds.
His once-clouded eyes were now bloodshot.
His chest heaved violently, and every breath came out in a harsh rasp, like the wheeze of an old bellows.
A surging fury filled Tang Hao's entire heart.
With every beat, the fire inside him burned hotter.
He clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms. Blood seeped between his fingers, only to evaporate at once in the crimson Soul Power covering his body.
There was only one thought in Tang Hao's mind now.
Whoever had taken Ah Yin's Soul Bone, he would find them and tear them limb from limb.
Just as Tang Hao's emotions reached a breaking point, ready to explode at the slightest spark, movement suddenly came from the cliff face.
Several Soul Masters appeared on the cliff nearby.
They wore a mismatched assortment of clothes and carried all kinds of weapons. At a glance, they were clearly a band of unaffiliated cultivators who had thrown together a temporary group.
Their leader was a bald, burly man holding a ghost-head saber. He peered cautiously down below, muttering under his breath.
"That commotion just now came from down there, right?"
They hadn't even had time to figure out what was happening below.
Tang Hao abruptly raised his head.
His blood-red eyes fixed on the figures on the cliff, his gaze pinning them in place as if it had physical weight.
The bald man felt every hair on his body stand on end under that stare. Instinctively, he took half a step back.
Before they could react, Tang Hao moved.
He shot into the air in a streak of blood-red light, leaving a long trail of crimson flame as he hurtled toward the Soul Masters on the cliff.
As he flew, black light flashed in his right hand, and a Clear Sky Hammer appeared in his palm. It was pitch-black from end to end, its surface carved with countless blood-red markings.
The hammerhead was broad and heavy. Its handle creaked in his grip as the markings flared with blinding red light under the infusion of Soul Power. Trailing a meteor-like tail of flame, it cleaved the sky in two.
BOOM—
A deafening roar rang through the valley.
Rubble poured down the cliff like a rainstorm, and dust billowed everywhere. A huge, oval-shaped chunk of the cliff face had been blasted away.
The broken surface was terrifyingly smooth, its edges still traced with wisps of crimson Soul Power that slowly faded in the night wind.
As for those Soul Masters—
They hadn't even managed to let out a single scream.
Their mangled remains tumbled into the valley among the rubble, then were buried beneath the stones that followed, piled into a mound.
Only a few streaks of dark red liquid slowly seeped through the cracks.
Tang Hao hovered in midair, Clear Sky Hammer in hand.
The bloodstains on the hammerhead visibly faded and vanished, absorbed completely by the strange red markings etched into the hammer.
A few breaths later, the hammerhead was as good as new, smooth as a mirror and black enough to reflect a person's image.
Only the blood-red markings had grown brighter than before.
"Not enough."
Tang Hao forced the words through his teeth, his voice so hoarse it sounded like two sheets of sandpaper grinding together.
Those Soul Masters had been too insignificant. They hadn't even stirred the slightest ripple, let alone given him an outlet for the violent rage raging inside him.
His fury hadn't been vented at all. If anything, the sight of blood had made it even more uncontrollable.
He raised his head again.
The spiritual power of a Titled Douluo spread out in every direction, blanketing the mountains for dozens of miles around.
In his perception, the Soul Masters rushing toward the valley were like conspicuous fireflies in the dark, lighting up one after another, densely packed beyond counting.
It didn't matter whether the culprit who had stolen Ah Yin's Soul Bone was among them. What mattered was that they had come looking for a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone—
That alone was reason enough for them to deserve death!
"Everyone—"
Tang Hao spoke coldly. His voice was quiet, but carried a chill that could almost freeze the air.
The crimson in his eyes reached its peak, nearly drowning out his pupils.
The blood-red Soul Power surging around him swelled, casting his face in a light that made him look like Asura crawling out of hell.
"Had to die!!!"
As the words fell, he once more became a streak of blood-red light, cutting through the sky toward the next group of unlucky souls.
The Clear Sky Hammer trailed behind him. At high speed, its blood-red markings carved a long crimson streak of flame, cleaving the entire sky in two.
In the distance, a group of Soul Masters heading toward the valley suddenly came to a halt.
The middle-aged man at the front looked up, his pupils contracting sharply.