The mental wave released by the Illusion Bell silently pierced every physical barrier.
This mental wave worked in a completely different way from Hu Liena's Charm.
Charm was an invasion. It forced open the door inside someone else's mind, then shoved its own will inside.
Memory Kill was like rummaging through a drawer. It carried no aggression at all. It simply found the memories buried deepest in its target's mind, pulled them out, and laid them before their eyes.
They were your own memories, your own feelings. You couldn't tell yourself they were fake.
The mental wave traveled countless times faster than sound. Before Tang Hao's Clear Sky Hammer came crashing down, that invisible force had already burrowed into his mind.
Tang Hao's body suddenly froze.
The Clear Sky Hammer stopped in midair, less than a meter above Qin Chuan's head.
Tang Hao's eyes changed.
The bloodshot eyes, brimming with killing intent, lost focus in an instant. His pupils dilated, his mouth fell slightly open, and the muscles in his face went from contorted with rage to slack with daze.
What had he seen?
Memory Kill didn't choose its memories. It always dredged up the one that cut deepest into its target's heart.
For Tang Hao, there was only one answer.
Ah Yin.
The images surged forth.
They weren't what he wanted to see, but he couldn't look away.
A sea of flowers. He didn't know what season it was. Flowers bloomed as far as the eye could see—blue, purple, and white, all mingling together. The air was filled with the sweet scent of plants.
Ah Yin stood in the middle of the flowers.
She wore a pale blue dress made of thin fabric that the wind pressed against her body, outlining her slender waist and soft curves. She had no shoes on; her bare feet rested on the petals, her toes soft and white.
She turned and smiled at him. That smile.
Tang Hao had lived for decades. He'd been hunted by countless people, fought for his life against countless experts, and witnessed all manner of bloody, brutal scenes. But the thing he remembered most clearly was always Ah Yin's smile.
Her eyes curved, her lips lifted, revealing two neat rows of white teeth. There was a tiny mole on the bridge of her nose, almost impossible to see unless you looked closely.
"Hao, you're daydreaming again." Her voice brimmed with laughter.
The scene jumped.
It became another place: a simple wooden hut, rain falling outside the window. Ah Yin sat beside it, holding a needle as she bent her head over a gray robe, mending it.
It was Tang Hao's robe. He'd torn it in a fight the other day, and Ah Yin had offered to fix it.
Her fingers were long and pale. The needle pricked one fingertip, and she pulled back, bringing it to her lips to suck on it.
"Ow." She muttered, then looked up at Tang Hao. "If you tear your clothes again, I'm not fixing them."
Tang Hao remembered what he'd said then. "Then I'll stop wearing clothes."
Ah Yin's face flushed.
The scene jumped again.
A night bright with moonlight. They sat on a tree branch, their backs against the trunk. Ah Yin's head rested on his shoulder, her breathing soft and shallow.
Tang Hao said nothing. Ah Yin said nothing, either.
They simply sat in silence, listening to the insects, the wind, and each other's heartbeats.
Tang Hao lowered his eyes to the head resting on his shoulder. Ah Yin's hair was long. It fell across his arm, tickling him.
Then all the images shattered. Like a mirror smashed to pieces, the shards came clattering down. Each fragment reflected Ah Yin's smile, Ah Yin's eyes, Ah Yin's voice. The shards multiplied, falling faster and faster.
Until, at last, everything turned black.
Only one voice remained in the darkness.
Ah Yin's voice.
"Hao, wait for me to come back."
Before that, when Qin Chuan had used his Fourth Spirit Ability, he'd shouted, "Everyone, run!"
Yue Guan froze for a second. He saw Tang Hao standing motionless, as if someone had pinned him in place, the Clear Sky Hammer raised in midair. The killing intent on his face had given way to confusion.
Yue Guan reacted quickly. He didn't know what method the mysterious young man had used, but he knew an opportunity like this wouldn't last.
"Run!"
Yue Guan grabbed Xie Yue, who was still slumped against the tree trunk, and carried him over his shoulder. With his other hand, he seized Yan by the arm. Then he sprang up, turned into a streak of white light, and sped off toward the dense woods to the south.
Qin Chuan turned and glanced at Hu Liena, still standing there in a daze.
The shock of narrowly escaping death still lingered on her face. Her eyes were red, her lips trembling. Dust covered her purplish-red dress. The strap on her left shoulder had slipped halfway down, exposing her smooth, fair shoulder. Loose strands of hair clung to her cheek and neck, and her golden earrings swung back and forth as she trembled.
Qin Chuan didn't waste words. He reached out with his left hand and seized Hu Liena by the wrist.
Her wrist was slender, her skin slick and smooth, her bones firm beneath his grip.
Qin Chuan tugged her in front of him and guided one of her hands onto his shoulder.
"Hold tight."
Hu Liena hadn't even had time to react when Qin Chuan pushed off the ground with his toes. Heavenly Dao Power surged, and both of them shot into the air, flying after Yue Guan.
Hu Liena's body was yanked upward by the sudden force. Instinctively, she clutched Qin Chuan's shoulder, her nails digging into the fabric of his black robe.
The wind roared against her face.
Her long hair streamed behind her like a flag. Her skirt fluttered in the rush of their flight, exposing her long, slender legs.
Qin Chuan wasn't flying especially fast, but it was enough. He followed Yue Guan's aura south, soaring over several mountain peaks.
There were no sounds of pursuit behind them.
Qin Chuan breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
[Memory Kill] had worked.
Tang Hao was a man ruled by his feelings. The person he cared about most in this life was Ah Yin. When Memory Kill dredged up the tenderest moments and slapped them straight into his mind, he hadn't been unable to resist. He simply hadn't wanted to.
The memories were too beautiful. After losing Ah Yin, it had been a long, long time since he'd seen them.
He'd lost himself in them, even if only for a minute.
The others from the battlefield had already fled far away, their whereabouts unknown.
By then, Tang Hao had come to his senses and was on his knees.
The Clear Sky Hammer was stuck upside down in the dirt. He braced both hands on the ground, his head lowered until his forehead nearly touched it. His gray robe was covered in dirt and crushed grass, and his back heaved.
He was crying.
The effects of Memory Kill had passed. Like the sea receding at low tide, those images had withdrawn from his mind, leaving behind a desolate emptiness.
Ah Yin's smiling face was gone. Her voice was gone. The sea of flowers, the wooden hut, the great tree beneath the moonlight—all gone.
Everything was gone.
All that remained was the muddy ground of the Star Dou Great Forest, ravaged by a battle between two Titled Douluo. Broken trees, shattered stones, scorched earth—ruin everywhere.
Tang Hao kept his eyes shut as tears squeezed through his closed lids, falling one drop at a time onto the dirt.
He could have resisted that Soul Skill completely.
With the spiritual power of a ninety-fifth-level Titled Douluo, he could have shattered a mental wave from a white Soul Ring just by focusing his spiritual power for a moment.
But he hadn't. When those images appeared, he'd willingly let go of his resistance.
He wanted so badly to see Ah Yin.
How long had it been? How long since he'd seen her face?
During those years in Holy Soul Village, he drank every day, drinking until he was dead drunk, then lying on the cold floor of the blacksmith's shop and staring at the ceiling. Ah Yin's face would appear in his mind on its own. But as time passed, those images grew blurrier and fainter.
He was afraid he'd one day forget what Ah Yin looked like. But that Soul Skill had restored every detail.
Ah Yin's eyebrows, her eyes, the little mole on the bridge of her nose, the pout she made when the needle pricked her finger.
Clear as if it had happened yesterday.
Tang Hao slammed his huge fist into the ground.
Boom. The earth caved in.
Then he struck it again.
Boom.
He didn't know how many times he'd punched it. Only when the ground before him had been pounded into a crater more than a dozen meters across did he stop.
Tang Hao wiped the tears and dirt from his face and stood.
He looked in the direction Yue Guan and the others had fled, his expression complex.
His anger remained. He wouldn't forget that Spirit Hall had stolen Ah Yin.
Tang Hao took a deep breath, bent down, and pulled the Clear Sky Hammer from the ground. He patted the dirt from its surface.
The people from Spirit Hall had fled, and the mysterious young man had gone with them.
Should he pursue them? Tang Hao stood at the edge of the crater and thought for a while. Pursuing them now would clearly be unwise. By the time he caught up, they would probably already have reached Spirit Hall's territory.
With that thought, Tang Hao turned and flew back toward Holy Soul Village.