Even someone as thick-skinned as Demon Bear could...
Ghost Leopard Douluo stared fixedly at Demon Bear Douluo's rugged face. His eyes gradually reddened.
It was over.
Completely over.
Even that iron-headed fool, who had nothing in his brain but muscle and brute force, had such a... unfathomable look in his eyes now.
Those two lunatics had broken his brain, too!
It's all my fault, Old Bear!
I was afraid of getting beaten, so I left you in the hands of those two lunatics and ran!
"Old Bear—!"
Ghost Leopard Douluo could no longer hold back his despair. A heart-rending wail burst from him on the spot, so sorrowful that all who heard it grieved and all who listened wept.
"Waaah... I'm so sorry!"
With tears and snot streaming down his face, he looked at the utterly bewildered Demon Bear Douluo as if he were a dear friend suffering from a terminal illness and about to pass away.
"It's all my fault! If I hadn't run yesterday, how could they have... how could they have tortured you into this state?!"
"Just look at yourself! You used to look a bit dim and be kind of thickheaded, but now... your eyes have gone completely unfocused!"
"You big fool, you've turned into a real idiot! Waaah..."
Hearing this incoherent lament, Demon Bear Douluo's rugged face first showed confusion, then stiffened, and finally... turned liver-red right before their eyes!
The veins on his forehead bulged one after another, like writhing earthworms. The Soul Power throughout his body began to surge out of control!
That stupid leopard... what the hell was he blathering about?!
"You're the idiot!"
"Your whole family's full of idiots!"
Before the words had even left his mouth, Demon Bear Douluo clenched his fan-sized hand!
Vmmm—!
Amid a piercing metallic hum, a dense, dark-gold light instantly covered his entire right hand!
It was no longer a hand of flesh and blood.
It was a fearsome bear claw forged from the deepest dark gold, covered in mysterious patterns and radiating an edge capable of piercing anything and tearing through everything!
Each of its five claws was like a short sword forged from divine metal, its tip glinting with a cold light capable of effortlessly ripping open space!
Ghost Leopard Douluo's wailing stopped abruptly.
The grief and self-reproach on his face froze, replaced by a terror beyond words, rising from the very depths of his soul!
"If you dare let even half a word like 'idiot' out of your mouth again..."
Demon Bear Douluo spoke slowly, one word at a time, in a cruel tone that was almost boastful.
"I'll use this... External Soul Bone of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear to tear apart that lousy mouth of yours, tongue and all!"
Ghost Leopard Douluo's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets!
"An External Soul Bone of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear?! Where did you get that?!"
Wasn't that damn thing supposed to exist only in legends?!
Seeing Ghost Leopard Douluo's stunned expression, the pent-up frustration Demon Bear Douluo had been carrying all morning vanished in an instant.
In its place came a profound satisfaction unlike anything he had ever felt, enough to make him hold his head high!
He lovingly stroked his brand-new, invincible bear claw, savoring the power to tear through anything. Then he turned to Ghost Douluo, who stood nearby with an indifferent expression.
A complicated look appeared on his rugged face, one that was almost... "ashamed" and "grateful."
"Ghost Leopard, yesterday... did you think Ghost Bro was trying to harm me?"
Demon Bear Douluo asked in a rumbling voice. Ghost Leopard Douluo nodded without thinking.
"Yesterday... I thought so too!"
Demon Bear Douluo slapped his thigh, his voice full of regret!
He turned abruptly to Ghost Douluo and bowed his burly frame slightly. His sincerity was so startling that Ghost Leopard Douluo's mind crashed all over again!
"Ghost Bro! Your younger brother was wrong yesterday!"
"I thought you were going to stab me in the back, and I even cursed you in my heart!"
"But how could I have known... You weren't trying to harm me at all. You just couldn't stand how weak your brother was, so you dragged me along to witness a heaven-sent opportunity!"
Ghost Douluo, who had remained silent all this time, finally let a rare, almost gentle smile cross his perpetually gloomy face in response to Demon Bear Douluo's heartfelt "repentance."
He slowly raised a hand and gently patted Demon Bear Douluo's shoulders, which were thicker than a city wall.
"Come now, what are you saying?"
"You and I are both elders of Spirit Hall. We're family."
Ghost Douluo's voice was still hoarse, but now it carried an unprecedented, convincing air of a wise elder.
"When something this wonderful can transform a brother from the ground up, how could I, Old Ghost, keep it all to myself?"
Ghost Leopard Douluo listened, utterly dumbfounded.
An absurd thought, one that made his very soul tremble, slammed against his reason.
So...
This really was a heaven-sent opportunity?!
Just as his worldview crumbled and began to rebuild itself, a lazy, amused voice drifted over from nearby.
It was Spirit Kite Douluo.
Holding the "pork-headed" Yan, who had completely given up thinking, by the scruff, she regarded Ghost Leopard Douluo with interest, her eyes practically gloating.
"Come to think of it, Elder Ju, if it weren't for you yesterday, I really wouldn't have had this good fortune."
"I haven't properly thanked you for this opportunity to obtain the Ultimate Fire."
Before she had even finished speaking—
Vmmm—!
A wisp of pure, golden Divine Flame danced merrily on her pale fingertip, like a docile little spirit.
It was only a tiny flame, yet Ghost Leopard Douluo's soul instinctively shrieked and trembled!
He even felt that if the little flame drifted his way, he would instantly be burned away without leaving so much as a speck of ash!
Chrysanthemum Douluo raised his signature orchid fingers and used Yue Guan's Sigh to elegantly cover his mouth as he gave a pleasant little laugh.
"Oh, Ling Yuan, you're being too formal."
"Just like Old Ghost said."
"We're all one big, loving family."
"And family should stick together, going to see the senior and seeking a great opportunity as one."
Ghost Leopard Douluo: "..."
Ghost Leopard Douluo's brain had turned into a pot of mush.
He stared blankly at the fearsome bear claw glowing with dark-gold divine light in Demon Bear Douluo's hand.
Then he looked at the golden Divine Flame on Spirit Kite Douluo's fingertip, which made his very soul tremble.
So...
Yesterday, Chrysanthemum Douluo, that dead transvestite, hadn't been trying to beat me up?
When he grabbed me yesterday, was he... trying to force a heaven-sent opportunity down my throat?!
And I...
I fucking...
I thought he wanted to hurt me, so I activated my Martial Soul Avatar and ran like a stray dog?!
A rush of scalding blood, mixed with boundless regret and shame, shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head!
Ghost Leopard Douluo's face instantly turned liver-red, looking a hundred times worse than Demon Bear Douluo's had moments ago!
He remembered.
Yesterday, as he fled, he'd heard Chrysanthemum Douluo cursing furiously behind him.
Now that he thought about it—
That hadn't been a victor's taunt!
It had been the anguished fury of someone despairing over a hopeless fool!
So...
From beginning to end...
The clown had been me all along?