Just like that, under everyone's horrified gaze, the black pillar of light slammed down onto Tang Xiao, the Clear Sky Sect's sect master.
"It's actually me?!"
Tang Xiao's pupils contracted sharply, but as the sect master, he didn't lose his composure like the others.
On the contrary, the instant the golden light enveloped him, he straightened his back, and the pride of the world's number one sect burst forth!
"Good! Good! Good!"
"Since the old man has been chosen, then I'll go and meet this so-called new world!"
"My Clear Sky Sect has endured in silence for years. The world thinks my Clear Sky Hammer is weak and easy to bully? Today, I'll use the Clear Sky Hammer in my hands to smash a place for myself in that otherworld!"
"I'll show the people of that world what the number one tool-type Martial Soul is, and what pure strength means!"
As his words fell, the floor tiles beneath Tang Xiao's feet shattered at once. He transformed into a streak of light and vanished into the black pillar of light under the worried gazes of the elders.
Battle Through the Heavens Plane, Central Plains, Corpse Burial Mountain Range.
This place was shrouded year-round in black mist. Sunlight couldn't pierce it, and the air reeked of decay and death.
From time to time, ghastly wails echoed out from deep within the mountain range, sending chills down one's spine.
This was the location of one of the Soul Hall's important branch halls: Earth Fiend Hall!
As the gloomy wind howled, Tang Xiao's figure appeared out of thin air atop an enormous black altar.
The moment he landed, the bone-chilling cold made him shudder.
This wasn't the cold of ice and snow. It was a chill that struck directly at the depths of the soul!
"What the hell is this place—"
Tang Xiao looked around and saw countless enormous black stone pillars standing all around him. Thick black chains were wrapped around every one of them.
At the ends of those chains, countless translucent souls were actually bound!
The souls let out soundless cries of anguish as the chains tormented them, their faces twisted in unbearable pain.
"Th-this is... are they extracting people's souls to torture them?"
In an instant, Tang Xiao's scalp prickled, and a surge of righteous indignation welled up within him. "What manner of fiend are you? How dare you commit such a heinous act!"
"Clear Sky Hammer! Appear!"
With that, Tang Xiao let out a furious roar. Two yellow, two purple, and five black—nine Soul Rings rose beneath his feet!
Immediately afterward, an enormous black hammer shimmering with a dark gleam appeared in his hand.
He unleashed the full might of a ninety-seventh-level Titled Douluo, trying to dispel the black mist around him!
"Ke ke ke—"
Just then, a grating, strange laugh echoed around the altar, now near, now far.
"What a powerful soul..."
"His physical strength is decent, but the quality of his soul is purer than that of an ordinary Peak Dou Zong..."
"Heavens have truly sent me a gift."
As the strange laughter rang out, the black mist before the altar churned violently. Before long, a figure wrapped from head to toe in a black robe slowly emerged. His face was hidden, and only two ghostly flames danced beneath his hood.
He stood in midair, and the space around him warped faintly with every breath.
Soul Hall's Honored Elder, Old Man Mugu!
"Quit your theatrics!"
Tang Xiao had a fiery temper. How could he put up with such mocking taunts?
"Man or ghost, I don't care! Take this hammer!"
"Seventh Soul Skill: Clear Sky True Body!!"
Boom!
Tang Xiao didn't test his opponent at all. He went straight into his Martial Soul Avatar!
The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand swelled to a hundred meters, then hurtled toward the black-robed figure with enough force to destroy the heavens and shatter the earth!
This strike drew upon the essence of the Clear Sky Sect's Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique. It was powerful enough to flatten a mountain!
On Douluo Continent, there wasn't a single Titled Douluo who would dare take this strike head-on!
Yet in the face of this earth-shaking attack, Old Man Mugu merely let out a disdainful sneer. "Ke ke. Brute strength? The most useless thing there is."
"Let me show you what it means to toy with souls."
With that, Old Man Mugu flicked his sleeve.
Rattle, rattle!
In an instant, countless pitch-black chains etched with strange runes shot out of the void from every direction, like venomous snakes!
"Soul Hooking Chain!"
The chains didn't try to meet the Clear Sky Hammer's physical attack head-on. It was as though they existed in another dimension—they passed straight through the enormous phantom of the Clear Sky Hammer!
"What?!"
Tang Xiao was stunned. His Clear Sky Hammer hadn't blocked them?
Worse still, before he could react, countless black chains had already wrapped around his limbs and torso like maggots burrowing into bone.
"Get away! Break!"
Tang Xiao roared. The muscles throughout his body bulged as he tried to shatter the chains with his ninety-seventh-level Soul Power.
But then something happened that filled him with despair.
The chains weren't affected by physical attacks at all. It was as if they were locked directly onto his soul.
"Zzzzt!"
The runes on the chains lit up at once, drawing in his soul power.
"Ahhhhh!"
Tang Xiao immediately let out a miserable scream.
It hurt—too much!
It was the agonizing pain of having one's soul forcibly torn from one's body!
"No! My soul! Don't pull out my soul—!"
The next moment, the Clear Sky Hammer fell from Tang Xiao's hand with a clatter and dissipated into specks of light.
His body convulsed violently in midair, his eyes rolling back as foam spilled from his mouth.
Above his head, a phantom silhouette identical to him was being forcibly dragged out by the chains!
"Ke ke. A ninety-seventh-level Soul Master? By this world's standards, your soul power has the potential to reach Spirit Realm Grand Perfection."
Old Man Mugu licked his lips, his eyes filled with greed. "Perfect. The Hall Master needs high-quality souls to refine Heaven Soul Blood-Melting Pills."
"Just be a feather in my cap!"
"Seize him!"
With that, Old Man Mugu clenched his hand.
Pfft!
With a soft sound, Tang Xiao's body crumpled limply to the ground, becoming an empty shell without a trace of life.
His soul, meanwhile, was bound up like a dumpling by countless chains and dragged forcibly in front of Old Man Mugu.
"L-let me go—"
Tang Xiao's soul was all that remained, his eyes full of terror and pleading.
What sect master of the number one sect? What Clear Sky Hammer?
In front of the Soul Hall, a force that specialized in countering and toying with souls, he was nothing but a fat lamb awaiting slaughter!
"Quiet."
Old Man Mugu casually took out a pitch-black jade bottle and drew in Tang Xiao's soul.
"Whoosh!"
The Howling Sky Douluo, once renowned across Douluo Continent, was sucked into that palm-sized bottle just like that.
Old Man Mugu plugged the bottle and even gave it a thoughtful shake. After listening to the faint screams from within, he nodded with satisfaction. "Excellent. Souls brimming with resentment and pride are the most delicious."
Meanwhile, on Douluo Continent.
Clear Sky Sect, Clear Sky Peak.
"Sect Master!!!"
The five elders looked at the soulless body lying on the altar in the otherworld and at the soul sealed inside the bottle. They beat their chests and stamped their feet in anguish.
"How could this happen? That was the Clear Sky Hammer!"
"Why was the sect master's soul hooked away before he could even touch his opponent?!"
The Second Elder collapsed straight to the ground, trembling all over. "That black-robed man's chains can actually ignore physical defenses!"
"Our Clear Sky Sect cultivates strength and physical attacks. Against monsters that target souls, we're sitting ducks!"
"It's over. Our Clear Sky Sect is finished—"
Elsewhere, in Sunset Forest.
Near the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
Tang Hao, who was hiding in the shadows and recovering from his injuries, watched his elder brother get sealed in a bottle on the screen. His eyes were bloodshot.
"Elder Brother—"
The next moment, the Clear Sky Hammer appeared in Tang Hao's hand of its own accord, smashing the surrounding trees to pieces.
"Soul Hall. Soul-Snatching Chain, huh—"
"That kind of attack really is impossible to guard against."
"Even I might not be able to block that move."
For the first time, Tang Hao felt a deep sense of helplessness.
The Great Sumeru Hammer could detonate Soul Rings to exchange them for ultimate power.
But what if his opponent refused to clash with him and instead threw a hook straight into his soul?
No matter how great his strength was, what use was it to strike cotton—or even empty air?
"What kind of place is that world?"
"They don't even spare souls. They take them to make pills?"
Shrek Academy, on the athletic field.
"The Clear Sky Hammer!"
Tang San stared at the black bottle, his face pale as paper.
He had always been proud of his Purple Demon Eye, which could cultivate spiritual power. But in front of Old Man Mugu, he felt like his spiritual power was no more than a drop of water facing the sea.
"Are soul attacks the real terror of that world?"
Tang San spoke in a trembling voice. "First came the crushing of our bodies; now they're harvesting our souls."
"We Soul Masters cultivate Soul Power, but we don't know how to cultivate our souls."
"In front of Soul Hall, we're a bunch of babies waving clubs around!"
"If they want to, they can hook our souls away and stuff them in bottles whenever they please—"
As he spoke, Tang San instinctively touched his neck, as if an icy chain were tightening around it too.
"Ah, just let the world end."
Battle Through the Heavens Plane, Central Plains.
Deep within Earth Fiend Hall.
There was no water in the pitch-black Soul Infant Pool, only black liquid flames formed from countless strands of resentment.
"Ahhhhh!"
Tang Xiao's soul was pinned in the center of the pool by dozens of Soul Hooking Chains.
This wasn't torment inflicted on the body. It was the tearing sensation of an attack that struck directly at the Soul Origin.
The so-called Ten Thousand Ghost Heart-Devouring Fire was a secret technique the Soul Hall used to process powerful souls.
Within the flames, countless twisted ghost faces crazily gnawed at Tang Xiao's soul. Every bite took away a fragment of his memories and sanity.
"I am the Clear Sky Sect's sect master. I am the Howling Sky Douluo."
"Let me go! If you have the guts, fight me head-on—"
Tang Xiao's screams gradually changed from furious shouts to wails, until nothing remained but mindless moans.
The once-imposing and mighty sect master of the world's number one sect, who claimed one hammer could break ten thousand techniques, was now like a lump of dough tossed into a pot of boiling oil.
By contrast, Old Man Mugu stood beside the pool, toying with a small bottle of the soul essence he'd just extracted. His withered, bark-like face wore a look of delight. "Tsk, tsk. As expected of a top-tier soul from another world."
"Although he doesn't know how to use soul power, his soul is actually a few grades tougher than an ordinary person's."
"If I refine him into a vicious soul and put him in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, he'll surely become a fierce general."
As he spoke, Old Man Mugu casually grabbed a handful of black powder and scattered it into the pool.
Zzzzt!
The flames in the pool instantly turned a ghastly green, and Tang Xiao's screams rose another octave!
"Enjoy yourself, ke ke ke."
"In Soul Hall, death is the greatest wish of all."
"You'll wail here for forty-nine days, until you forget who you are."
Douluo Continent, Clear Sky Sect.
Clear Sky Peak.
"Sect Master!"
Seeing this, the Second Elder knelt on the ground and clutched the earth with both hands. His fingernails turned back, and blood flowed freely.
But he didn't feel the slightest pain, because the agony in his heart was ten thousand times worse!
"How could this happen? How could this happen?!"
The Second Elder wept bitterly, staring at the soul twisting and struggling in the ghost flames on the screen.
"Our Clear Sky Sect closed its gates and withdrew into the mountains for twenty years!"
"We trained in the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique, studied the Great Sumeru Hammer, and tempered our bodies day and night—all so that one day we could rule the world again!"
"We always believed that before absolute strength, all those fancy tricks were nothing but paper tigers!"
"But why today?!"
The Second Elder pointed at the Sky Screen, his voice trembling like a candle guttering in the wind.
"They're not even fighting you with their strength!"
"Their chains go straight for your soul, Sect Master!"
"What good is being a Level 97 Super Douluo? In front of those black chains, your body is nothing but an empty shell. They just yank your soul right out!"
"They can squeeze it however they want!"
The Seventh Elder had the fiercest temper, but now he, too, slumped in his chair, his face ashen and his eyes vacant. "It's over. It's all over—"
"The world's greatest Tool Martial Soul? Hah. What a joke. What a colossal joke!"
Just as everyone across the Douluo Continent was weeping in grief, the familiar voice of the Sky Screen suddenly rang out again.
[ Ding! Tang Xiao, an explorer from the Douluo Plane, has entered the soul-refinement stage and is no longer a variable in the livestream. ]
[ The Sky Screen's random selection mechanism is activating again! ]
[ Number of people selected this time: one! ]
[ Keywords: holiness, ambition! ]
Buzz!
In an instant, a dazzling golden holy light suddenly descended from the sky.
This time, it didn't land in some desolate wilderness, nor at a sect's headquarters.
Instead, it fell straight into the Crown Prince's Mansion in the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace!
At the same time, in the Crown Prince's Mansion of the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace,
Qian Renxue was seated at her desk, reviewing memorials and maintaining her image as a virtuous crown prince. The instant she saw the golden light envelop her, the cinnabar brush in her hand snapped with a sharp crack!
"Oh no!"
Realizing she'd been chosen by the Sky Screen, Qian Renxue was horrified.
She'd been lying low in the Heaven Dou Empire for over a decade, and she was on the verge of stealing the throne. How could the Sky Screen choose her at such a critical moment?!
"I can't go. Absolutely not!"
"If I go to that world, my disguise will be exposed for sure! My whole plan will be ruined!"
Soul Power surged wildly within Qian Renxue as she tried to resist the pull.
But the Sky Screen's rules were supreme.
Forget a Soul Saint like her—even if her grandfather, Qian Daoliu, came, it wouldn't make a difference!
Whoosh!
In full view of the stunned guards and palace maids, their Crown Prince transformed into a streak of golden light and vanished on the spot!
Before you continue