Tang San: Which village was annihilated, you say?!

"This place is called Holy Soul Village. We inquired about it as we passed by earlier; there are over two hundred households in the village. While not a large village, it is certainly not a tiny settlement of a dozen families."

The Soul Master speaking stood on the hillside, overlooking the shocking ruins at his feet, his voice kept very low.

"For a village of this scale to be reduced to ruins in a single blow, without a single standing house left—this level of destructive power is not something a Soul Saint could achieve."

He took a deep breath and slowly voiced his assessment.

"At the very least, it must be a Title Douluo level. Or even—"

He paused, leaving the sentence unfinished.

But the crow-like Soul Master understood.

His pupils constricted slightly as he interjected.

"Could it be a Titled Douluo?"

His companion nodded in silence. The morning light spilled over the eastern ridge, illuminating the radial, spiderweb-like cracks etched into the ground across the ruins.

Those fissures spread from the very center of the village in every direction, the deepest ones wide enough to fit an entire palm inside.

There were no traces of scorching flames, no marks of blades or swords; it was pure, crushing force that had forcibly driven the village of over two hundred households into the earth.

"To be able to make a Titled Douluo take action... could it really be a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone?"

Regret flickered across the crow-like Soul Master's face as he licked his dry lips.

"What a pity."

His companion sighed and patted him on the shoulder.

"A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone is not meant for us."

The two men did not linger, unfolding their forms and darting off into the distance.

The morning breeze swept across the deserted hillside, lifting a few tufts of thatch that had been carried halfway up the slope by the shockwave, swirling them away into the distance.

Yet, what they did not know was that they had once been only a step away from death.

If they had ventured a few dozen miles deeper into the mountain range last night, or if they had arrived at this valley an hour earlier, it would not have been just Holy Soul Village turned into ruins.

The commotion at Holy Soul Village could not be concealed.

In less than half a day, the news grew wings, flying out of the Balak Kingdom and spreading from the borders of the Heaven Dou Empire deep into the interior.

Outside Suotuo City, on the dirt road leading to Shrek Academy.

Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai had just spent half the night finding amusement in Suotuo City, and were now swaying as they walked toward the academy, treading on the morning sunlight.

A lipstick stain that hadn't been fully wiped away still lingered on Ma Hongjun's face.

As he walked, he spoke with great eloquence, sharing the latest news he had just heard in the city.

His small eyes, squeezed into slits by his fat, shimmered with the light of gossip; his hands gestured wildly, and specks of saliva sparkled in the morning light.

"You wouldn't believe it. I heard the entire village was wiped out. Not a single living soul was left; they died such a miserable death."

"The scene, tsk tsk tsk, according to the Soul Masters who went to investigate, all the houses collapsed, and the ground sank several feet."

"In the very center of the village, the stone slabs were shattered into bits the size of fingernails; you couldn't even find a single intact tile."

"Could it be that the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone everyone is making such a fuss about was really hidden in Holy Soul Village?"

He spoke with great animation, completely unaware of Tang San, who had suddenly stopped in his tracks not far away.

"Fatty."

A voice suddenly came from the side.

He turned his head, coming face-to-face with Tang San's slightly gloomy expression.

Tang San's eyes were fixed directly on Ma Hongjun, and in that gaze was something Ma Hongjun had never seen before.

It was a deeper, heavier emotion that Ma Hongjun couldn't quite put a name to for the moment.

"Which village did you just say?"

"Holy... Holy Soul Village."

Ma Hongjun felt a chill from being stared at and repeated it subconsciously.

Tang San's gaze was too strange, like two red-hot needles pricking his face, making all the fat on his body feel uncomfortable.

He swallowed hard and added another sentence.

"It's just an obscure little mountain village outside Nuoding City. I heard all two hundred households in the village were gone in one night, not a single survivor left. They died a truly miserable death."

"They all died?!"

Tang San's right hand shot out like lightning, grabbing Ma Hongjun by the shoulder.

The grip was absolute; as his knuckles tightened, his five fingers nearly embedded themselves into the fat on Ma Hongjun's shoulder.

"Hiss—"

Ma Hongjun gasped, his round face instantly twisting in pain.

He felt as if his shoulder had been clamped by a pair of iron pliers, and the pain was so intense that tears were about to well up in his eyes.

"Third Brother! What are you doing?! You're hurting me! Let go!"

His cry of pain hit Tang San like a bucket of ice water.

Tang San snapped back to reality, his fingers stiffening before he slowly released Ma Hongjun's shoulder.

His lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but his throat felt clogged with cotton; he couldn't squeeze out a single word.

Then, saying nothing at all, he simply turned and began walking down the dirt path toward the edge of the village.

His pace was slow at first, but it grew faster and more frantic, until he was practically running.

The morning light shone on his thin back, casting a long, trembling shadow along the dirt road.

"What's going on?"

Ma Hongjun rubbed his aching shoulder, watching Tang San's retreating figure with a look of utter confusion.

"He grabs me for no reason, and then leaves without even an apology? Is this even the Third Brother I know?"

The more he spoke, the more aggrieved he felt, and his voice grew louder.

"Who told you to run your mouth and hit a sore spot?"

Xiao Wu's icy voice cut in.

She stood by the side of the road with her arms crossed, a flicker of anger on her pretty face.

Her eyes were slightly red; clearly, she had also caught the implication in Ma Hongjun's words.

"When did I hit a sore spot?"

Ma Hongjun retorted, feeling unconvinced.

"I didn't say anything about Tang San. I was just talking about Holy Soul Village. How does that make it a sore spot?"

"And you call yourself his classmate."

Xiao Wu rolled her eyes at him, her voice laced with dissatisfaction.

"Don't you know that Third Brother's home is in Holy Soul Village? That's where he grew up! You stood right in front of him and treated the news of his home being destroyed like some casual joke. And you still think you did nothing wrong?"

Ma Hongjun opened his mouth, the grievance and defiance on his face fading, replaced by a stunned, speechless silence.

He truly hadn't known.

Tang San rarely spoke of his family. He only knew that Tang San came from Nuoding City, but he had no idea which specific village near it.

Xiao Wu gave him no time to process this; her voice continued, each word landing like a sharp slap across Ma Hongjun's face.

"It's only because Third Brother has a good temper. If I heard you mocking my home like that, I would have used my Waist Bow to throw you from this very road all the way to the walls of Suotuo City."

With that, Xiao Wu ignored him further and turned to chase after Tang San.