Seeing Tang Hao's agonized state, his eyes nearly splitting from their sockets, Xie Biyan nodded in satisfaction.
Since the man had offended the Young Master, he naturally could not be allowed to die too easily.
If not for his concern that the Young Master might encounter danger alone in the city, he would even have healed Tang Hao halfway before torturing him for seven days and seven nights with the sect's most brutal Ten Thousand Poison Heart-Devouring Array.
However, protecting Bai Shu was ultimately the most important matter in his mind. Thus, he could only abandon his usual habit of killing enemies, raise the Scorpion-Headed Wooden Staff in his hand, and aim it at the despairing Tang Hao.
As Soul Power poured into it, the purple poisonous light atop the scorpion head flared brightly. This wooden staff was actually a treasure as well. After being modified by the system, its power was no less than that of a seventh-grade Soul Tool. It might have been somewhat lacking against strong opponents, but it was more than enough against a cripple.
"Sizzle—!"
A beam of deep purple venom, so corrosive it could turn the air to white smoke, pierced through space like a sharp sword and shot straight toward Tang Hao's face.
The outcome did not exceed Xie Biyan's expectations. The instant the scorpion venom touched Tang Hao's flesh, it immediately produced a scalp-numbing sizzling sound of melting.
"Aaaaargh—!!!"
Amid a shriek so miserable it barely sounded human, the flesh on Tang Hao's face melted like wax, exposing gleaming white bone.
Tang Hao's vision fell into darkness. His eyes had been corroded away the instant they came into contact with the poison. Absolute darkness and unimaginable agony became the last things this generation's Clear Sky Douluo felt before his death.
In just three breaths, the screams came to an abrupt stop.
At the bottom of the crater, only a mangled remnant remained, giving off a pungent, rancid stench and utterly devoid of life.
Xie Biyan let out a long breath. Just as he was about to descend and collect the spoils, bringing the mission to a perfect conclusion—
The next moment, a sudden change occurred!
"Buzz!"
A terrifying bloody light that made every hair on Xie Biyan's body stand on end and caused his soul to tremble burst forth from deep within Tang Hao's corpse without warning!
The instant the red light appeared, the surrounding air temperature plummeted to freezing. A horrifying killing intent, pure to the extreme and seeming to come from a mountain of corpses and sea of blood, locked tightly onto Xie Biyan in midair!
"Not good!"
Xie Biyan's pupils contracted as Bai Shu's earlier warning flashed through his mind—the other side might have left behind a contingency from a God King!
Xie Biyan instinctively tried to flee.
Yet that bloody light was incomparably fast, almost ignoring the distance of space. Like a maggot clinging to bone, it could not be shaken off no matter how Xie Biyan pushed his Soul Power to its limit and left afterimages through the air!
The next moment, the red light entered his body. Carrying pure, icy killing intent, it plunged directly into Xie Biyan's brow and charged into his Spiritual Sea!
A tyrannical will far beyond his imagination descended upon his mental world, brutally tearing open his soul's defenses in an attempt to pry into every one of his memories.
Before coming to this world, the Ten Thousand Poison Sect had worked extensively with the Soul Hall. Thus, Xie Biyan immediately thought of the Soul Hall's insidious methods. His gaze hardened as he prepared to detonate his soul and perish alongside his enemy!
But at that moment, another change arose!
Just as that tyrannical will was about to wreak havoc within his sea of consciousness, a hazy white light quietly lit up from the deepest part of his soul—from a forbidden region that even he himself had never touched.
This white light differed from every kind of power Xie Biyan knew. It was more like a supreme "law."
It did not resist the force invading Xie Biyan's sea of consciousness. It merely swept past it calmly.
Before this white light, that divine will was like a lie meeting truth, snow and ice crashing into a blazing sun. It did not even have the right to struggle before it was completely erased and purified from the very concept of existence!
Silently, as though it had never appeared.
At the same time, in the distant God Realm, within a divine hall overflowing with bloody aura.
The Asura God, seated upon his throne, suddenly opened his eyes. His scarlet pupils were filled with shock and disbelief!
Just moments ago, the Divine Sense Mark he had left on Tang Hao, his pawn in the lower realm, had been triggered by Tang Hao's death. He had intended to trace the thread of karma, investigate the killer's soul, and discover who dared ruin his arrangements.
Yet the instant his divine sense entered the other party's soul, that divine sense connected to his mind... simply vanished into thin air!
There had been no warning, no resistance—not even the slightest feedback before it was obliterated!
"Who was it?!" the Asura God muttered uncertainly, a trace of cold sweat actually seeping onto his forehead.
Even the other God Kings of the God Realm Committee could not have erased one strand of his divine sense so easily and so silently!
That person in the lower realm was definitely hiding a tremendous secret.
After considering the matter again and again, the fury in the Asura God's eyes was gradually replaced by grave apprehension.
Tang Hao's death was certainly regrettable and would make his later plan of guiding Tang San far more troublesome. However, Destruction had been watching him closely lately, and he had no way to interfere excessively with the lower realm.
"Hmph, I'll remember this for now. As long as Tang San is safe, the plan has not failed..."
In the lower realm.
When the anticipated tearing agony of his soul did not come, Xie Biyan's taut nerves relaxed slightly.
He cautiously examined his Spiritual Sea inwardly, only to freeze on the spot.
Not only had his spiritual power suffered no damage whatsoever, but there was now an additional wisp of weak yet incomparably pure ownerless spiritual energy. It was slowly merging into his soul, causing his spiritual power to increase considerably.
"This..." Xie Biyan's expression became exceptionally strange.
The enemy's hidden contingency had not only failed to harm him—it had instead become a supplement delivered right to his door? Could anything be more absurd than this?
He had lived for over two hundred years and could be considered knowledgeable and experienced, yet everything that had happened today had somewhat exceeded his understanding.
"Forget it. This matter is far too strange. I must return immediately and report it to the Young Master!"
Unable to figure it out, he stopped dwelling on it. Xie Biyan held an almost blind trust in Bai Shu. He believed the Young Master would certainly be able to see through all of this.
Before leaving, he skillfully descended to the bottom of the crater and collected the two Spirit Bones stripped from Tang Hao's corpse. They were excellent spoils and had to be presented to the Young Master.
Elsewhere, after Bai Shu noticed that no more sounds had come for quite some time, he understood that the battle had most likely already been decided.
Bai Shu had great confidence in Xie Biyan. He believed that even if Xie Biyan could not kill Tang Hao, he would at least be able to leave deadly poison in his body. By then, Tang Hao's threat would naturally be greatly reduced.
A Titled Douluo was extremely fast. Bai Shu had barely warmed his seat when Xie Biyan's aged voice reached his ears.
"Young Master, this old servant has completed the task you assigned. However, some unexpected developments occurred afterward. I ask the Young Master to decide what should be done."
Xie Biyan then described in detail the course of his battle with Tang Hao, as well as that inexplicable red light at the end.
Before you continue