Tang Hao faced the blood-red pillar of foul wind rushing toward him, his eyes bloodshot to the extreme, his gaze splitting with rage.
Old wounds, combined with the strange poison that had entered his body during the sneak attack, had already pushed his body to the brink of collapse. If not for the Great Sumeru Hammer's cultivation method greatly strengthening his physique, he would have long since become a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
But Tang Hao was Tang Hao after all. Even in the face of death, he refused to meekly await execution!
"You want my life? Then trade yours for it! Even if I die today, I'll drag you, you old poison freak, down to hell with me!"
"Great Sumeru Hammer—explode for me!!"
Accompanied by Tang Hao's shrill roar, like a lone wolf driven into a corner, the last two abyssal black soul rings beneath him, along with the blood-red ninth soul ring symbolizing one hundred thousand years, shattered simultaneously!
"Crack—boom!"
The instant the three high-level soul rings exploded, they transformed into the wildest, purest energy of destruction and surged madly into his ruined body.
He had not used his final few soul rings earlier because of his injuries. Once he did, even if he won this battle, he would not live much longer.
He had yet to see Tang San grow up. He had yet to see the Clear Sky Sect rise again. He did not want to die.
But now, if he did not risk everything, he might not even get the chance to do so. Tang Hao finally made up his mind and unleashed his strongest final counterattack.
As the soul ring energy poured back into him, every blood vessel across Tang Hao's body burst. Yet the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand rapidly expanded, its hammerhead swelling in the blink of an eye until it was even larger than Xie Biyan's Martial Soul Avatar.
Tang Hao did not retreat in the slightest. Bathed in blood, he forcibly swung the mountain-like giant hammer and smashed it fiercely into the blood-red beam that corroded everything in its path!
"Die for me—!!"
"Rumble rumble rumble—!!!"
A world-shaking sonic boom, ten times more terrifying than before, exploded above the barren mountains. Violent energy shockwaves spread outward as tangible ripples, tearing up several layers of earth across hundreds of meters! Dirt mixed with countless particles pulverized by the blast surged back into the sky, blotting out the sun. The entire wasteland seemed to have been struck by an apocalyptic catastrophe.
The explosive aftermath, enough to effortlessly erase anyone below the rank of Titled Douluo, raged for more than a dozen breaths before gradually settling in the air.
As the dust dispersed, it revealed the two men at the very center of the explosion.
"Cough, cough... No wonder the Young Master repeatedly warned this old servant to be careful. This old man was actually injured by that fellow..."
Xie Biyan panted heavily in midair.
He had already withdrawn from his Martial Soul Avatar state. His tattered robes hung from his body, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Yet he had not fallen. With his Soul Core continuously supplying Soul Power, those injuries were recovering at a visible speed.
Tang Hao, lying on the ground, was in a far more miserable state.
Every bone in his body had been shattered by the backlash. He lay sprawled like a lump of mud amid the rubble in a deep crater, his once-vigorous life force now like a guttering candle in the wind, faint to the extreme.
"You... the Young Master... you spoke of... who... is he?"
Tang Hao's one remaining eye stared fixedly at Xie Biyan as he stepped through the air toward him. A hoarse, rasping voice squeezed out an incredulous question from his throat.
He could not accept it. Back then, even Qian Xunji, the former Pope of Spirit Hall, had joined forces with the two Douluo, Ju and Gui, yet failed to fully withstand the strike he unleashed by detonating his ninth soul ring. How could this obscure old poison freak before him possibly have survived?!
Xie Biyan looked down from above at Tang Hao, who resembled a dead dog. A cruel curve slowly formed on that wrinkled, orange-peel-like old face.
Nothing pleased him more than seeing regret and unwillingness on an enemy's face.
"Hehe, you know my Young Master very well. He is the six-year-old child whom you, the mighty Clear Sky Douluo, once threatened—Bai Shu!"
Although Bai Shu had not told Xie Biyan the entire story of what happened before, he had roughly explained the cause, allowing Xie Biyan to understand his attitude toward the matter.
Upon hearing the name "Bai Shu," Tang Hao's ashen pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints. He let out a roar as though experiencing one final flash of vitality:
"Impossible! How could it be him? He's just a little bastard born to lowly country trash! You're lying to me... cough, cough, cough! You old beast, you must be lying to me!!!"
The more Tang Hao spoke, the more agitated he became, and he could not stop another mouthful of black blood from spraying out.
"How dare you! At death's door, and you still dare insult the Young Master!"
Xie Biyan's expression instantly darkened, and killing intent surged in his eyes. But when he saw Tang Hao's life force rapidly fading, he began to laugh sinisterly once more.
Tang Hao had also exhausted the last of his strength in that outburst. He no longer had the power to retort. His heart brimmed with unwillingness and towering hatred, but before such absolute strength, everything seemed so pale and laughable.
He could only pray despairingly in his heart: I only hope that one day, Little San can uncover the truth and avenge me.
Unfortunately, Xie Biyan seemed to have seen through his thoughts, and his laughter became increasingly amused.
"Hehe, let this old man guess. Are you hoping in your heart that the little brat who passed by earlier will avenge you someday?"
At those words, Tang Hao's single eye instantly filled with ghostly terror and horror. Fury and fear intertwined, nearly spilling from his eye socket. Yet apart from twitching helplessly like fish on a chopping block, he could do nothing.
"Oh? Want to know how I know about your relationship? It's quite simple. You carry similar bloodline auras."
As the former true ruler of his sect, Xie Biyan was not only proficient in all kinds of Poison Attribute combat techniques, but also controlled countless unorthodox secret arts.
Small tricks like identifying bloodline auras were known by nearly all powerful figures in the Chu Yun Empire. After all, their nation specialized in capturing people to refine poison, so naturally they valued eliminating every last trace.
If Tang Hao's eyes had previously held only fury and despair, then Xie Biyan's next words completely destroyed the final psychological defense he had as a man.
"Oh, right, I should also thank His Excellency for his generosity. My Young Master previously absorbed a high-quality one-hundred-thousand-year plant-type Spirit Bone. Interestingly, the aura on that Spirit Bone actually shared the same origin as the bloodline aura on your son... Tsk, tsk. Could that little brat be the bastard child of you, the mighty Clear Sky Douluo, and a Spirit Beast?"
"Puh—!!"
Tang Hao threw back his head and sprayed out a column of blood. His eyes instantly turned lifeless.
Ah Yin! That was his Ah Yin!!
Tang Hao did have feelings for Ah Yin after all. Though there might have been ulterior motives behind taking Ah Yin, who could not fully conceal her aura during pregnancy, around everywhere, it was undeniable that he had deeply loved Ah Yin in his youth.
Now, learning that the only remains his wife had left behind after death had been absorbed by the "lowly country trash" he despised most, even becoming nourishment that strengthened his enemy, filled him with such extreme regret that it was like ten thousand poisoned blades twisting his heart to pieces.
He hated it! He hated himself for giving Bai Shu a chance to catch his breath! Even more, he hated himself for not sending Ah Yin's Spirit Bone back to the sect sooner!
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