Tang Hao's Ruthlessness: Holy Soul Village Annihilated!

Old Jack's eyes widened, his cane nearly slipping from his grasp.

Though his eyes were dim with age, he would recognize this slovenly figure even if he were reduced to ashes!

Tang Hao, the disheveled drunkard who knew nothing but drowning himself in alcohol every day, was actually a Title Douluo?!

Old Jack felt his worldview crumbling.

But Tang Hao did not look at Old Jack.

His gaze swept slowly across every terrified face in the square—men, women, young, and old—one by one.

He spoke.

His voice was not loud, yet it carried a chill that seemed to freeze the very blood in one's veins.

"I, Tang Hao, have humbled myself in this remote village of yours for twelve years. The cold mockery and sarcasm you directed at me daily, I could have let slide."

His voice rose slightly, the blood-red hue in his eyes deepening.

"But you should never, ever have leaked the information regarding Ah Yin's spirit bone."

A blank expression crossed Old Jack's face; he had no idea what Tang Hao was talking about.

What Ah Yin? What spirit bone?

He looked at the surrounding villagers in bewilderment, only to find everyone else wearing the same look of confusion and terror.

But Tang Hao gave them no chance to plead their case.

His hand tightened around the handle of the Clear Sky Hammer, his knuckles cracking audibly. The blood-red patterns on the hammer's surface pulsed with excitement, as if they had caught the scent of the impending slaughter.

"The spirit bone is lost. I have no heart left to weigh right from wrong."

His voice shifted from a low growl to a tearing roar, the crimson in his eyes reaching an extreme intensity, nearly spilling from his sockets.

The blood-red Soul Power surged around his body, shrouding the entire square in a sanguine shadow.

He abruptly raised the Clear Sky Hammer high, and the blood-red patterns on the weapon flared, casting a pale, ghastly light upon everyone's faces.

"Today, every last one of you—you shall all be buried with my Ah Yin!"

Tang Hao held the Clear Sky Hammer aloft as his seventh soul ring suddenly ignited.

The moment the ring expanded, a suffocating pressure swept out in all directions like a tidal wave.

Immediately following, the black ring burst open, transforming into a thick, viscous darkness that blanketed the entire Holy Soul Village like the onset of night.

"Seventh Soul Skill—Martial Soul Avatar!"

Tang Hao's roar echoed throughout Holy Soul Village, laden with monstrous killing intent.

The blood-red Clear Sky Hammer in his hand flared in the darkness, its crimson patterns pulsing frantically.

Accompanied by a teeth-gritting sound of expansion, the Clear Sky Hammer grew rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the span of a single breath, it had grown to the size of a small mountain.

It blotted out the sky and sun, casting the village below into a shadow of death.

"Tang Hao!"

Old Jack forced himself to look up, his clouded eyes fixed on the blood-drenched figure in mid-air.

His legs trembled, his cane had long since fallen, and he felt as though he were being ground into the mud by that immense pressure, yet he gritted his teeth and shouted the name with every ounce of strength he possessed.

He did not know who the Ah Yin in Tang Hao's mouth was, nor did he understand how a blacksmith who had hammered iron for twelve years had become this god of slaughter.

But he knew that if he did not speak now, Holy Soul Village would truly be no more.

"Die!"

Tang Hao remained unmoved.

There was not a trace of hesitation in his blood-red eyes, only surging killing intent.

With a violent shout, he brought the hundred-meter-tall Clear Sky Hammer crashing down.

The hammer's friction against the air produced a piercing shriek; the air was torn asunder, and space itself warped slightly under the weight of the blow.

Terror, despair, weeping...

Every expression was frozen in the moment where firelight and blood-red light intertwined, reflected in Tang Hao's crimson eyes.

"BOOM—"

The Clear Sky Hammer slammed down heavily.

The earth shuddered violently, and gravel and debris sprayed outward like a torrential downpour.

Dust and smoke billowed, engulfing the entire Holy Soul Village along with the surrounding hills.

When the dust finally settled, everything returned to silence.

Holy Soul Village, which had once been home to over two hundred households, had been reduced to a flat plain.

Every trace of it had been wiped clean, leaving behind only cracked earth radiating outward in all directions and scattered, broken tiles and wood.

"This—is the price for betraying me, Tang Hao."

Tang Hao took one last look at the ruins of Holy Soul Village beneath his feet, his voice hoarse and devoid of any excess emotion.

He retracted his Clear Sky Hammer, a flash of blood-red light erupting from his body, and he vanished into the horizon like a shooting star, leaving behind only a faint, lingering scent of blood that slowly dissipated in the wind.

About ten minutes passed.

On the hillside at the edge of the ruins, a patch of empty ground suddenly rippled like water.

The air shimmered with transparent rings, and immediately after, a drenched figure tumbled out of the void with a thud, landing on the ground in a wretched state.

Shi Nian didn't care about his disheveled appearance; he simply lay on his back, gasping for air.

His chest heaved violently, his face was as pale as paper, and his clothes were soaked through with sweat, clinging to his body as if he had just been fished out of the water.

"Clear Sky Hammer... Tang Hao..."

His lips trembled as he muttered these two names, his pupils still reflecting extreme terror.

"It was Clear Sky Douluo!"

He suddenly flipped over to sit up and began to curse, his voice shrill and raspy, filled with the hysteria of someone who had just escaped death.

"Damn it! How could I run into something like this? It would have been one thing to not find the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, but to actually run into Clear Sky Douluo! I was close—so close!"

His fingers were still shaking.

When Tang Hao's hammer had come crashing down just now, the illusion he had constructed with all his might had nearly failed to hold.

The pressure from that Clear Sky Hammer was too terrifying, so terrifying that his Soul Power had almost collapsed in that instant.

If the illusion had cracked even a fraction, he would have been revealed by the shockwaves of Tang Hao's attack!

And the consequence of being revealed would have been to be smashed into dust along with the villagers of Holy Soul Village.

Fortunately, he had held on.

He had survived.

Having recovered a bit of his strength, Shi Nian climbed up from the ground.

He scrambled to identify his direction, then fled in the opposite direction without looking back.

Forget the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone; he didn't want it anymore!

Another hour or so passed.

The sky began to brighten, and a pale, fish-belly white appeared on the eastern horizon.

Scattered Soul Masters appeared one after another near Holy Soul Village.

They were the Soul Masters who had been in Nuoding City and had only just arrived at Holy Soul Village outside the city.

Standing on the hillside now, looking at the shocking ruins beneath their feet, their expressions were as grim as water.

"The Soul Power fluctuations are so intense; could it be the work of a Soul Saint?"

A Soul Master with wings on his back and a crow as his Martial Soul flapped down from the air, his words tinged with apprehension.

His perception was considered sharp among Soul Masters, but the lingering ripples of Soul Power beneath his feet made him tremble from the bottom of his heart.

"A Soul Saint?"

His companion, who was traveling with him, scanned the ruins that had been razed to the ground, his gaze falling on the radial cracks in the earth, his expression growing increasingly grave.