Rescuing Someone, Fighting Tang Hao?

Notting City.

A blood moon hung high in the sky.

Inside the City Lord's Manor, blood flowed everywhere. Corpses lay strewn across the ground, their flesh mangled as though they had been brutally crushed by some heavy object.

"Tang Hao, you've gone too far!"

The middle-aged man's eyes were bloodshot. In his martial soul possession state, his three soul rings—one white and two yellow—looked as though they could barely hold on.

"Hmph! Xiao Yuanshan, daring to investigate my identity means you have brought death upon yourself."

Tang Hao looked down at him from above, his voice cold and emotionless, the massive Clear Sky Hammer resting on his shoulder.

"Enough. It's time for you to go."

"As for your son, I'll find him slowly. Then your father and son can be reunited."

Tang Hao raised the Clear Sky Hammer toward Xiao Yuanshan and the entire City Lord's Manor.

Bang!

The tremendous impact shook all of Notting City, but the overwhelming pressure of soul power terrified everyone into not daring to step outside.

The City Lord's Manor collapsed with a crash, rubble scattering across the ground.

Tang Hao was about to leave when he suddenly turned his head and glanced toward a low storage shed in the corner that had not been fully affected.

Sensing something, he sneered. "So that's how it is. No wonder you managed to hide."

With a light swing of the hammer's handle, the Clear Sky Hammer stirred up a whirlwind.

In an instant, the distant storage compartment flew straight into the sky before exploding.

Pfft!

The young man who had been sent flying landed on the ground. He barely managed to activate his martial soul before coughing up blood.

Two hundred-year soul rings shone brightly in the night, yet they gave him not even the slightest sense of safety.

"An eighteen-year-old Great Soul Master at Rank 24. Not exactly a genius, but quite decent in a small city like this."

Tang Hao walked forward step by step without attacking immediately. His voice was indifferent. "What you used just now wasn't a soul skill. It should have been a soul bone, right?"

"I never expected a little brat like you to possess a soul bone."

If he had not sensed a fluctuation of soul power somewhere when Xiao Yuanshan died, he likely would never have noticed that someone was hiding nearby.

"Our Xiao Family clearly helped you so much. Why are you determined to wipe us out?"

The young man was Xiao Chenyu, the city lord's son. His voice was hoarse, and his expression was on the verge of collapse.

Yes, they had been investigating Tang Hao's information, but they had not reported it to the higher-ups!

A few years ago, his elder sister had helped Clear Sky Douluo's son obtain his first soul ring.

Three years ago, his third uncle Xiao Li, the headmaster of Notting Academy and a Soul Ancestor, had also helped Tang San obtain his second hundred-year soul ring.

You walked your broad sunlit road, and we crossed our narrow single-plank bridge.

If you wanted to leave, then leave. Why did you have to destroy the Xiao Family?

"Feeling indignant?" Tang Hao shook his head and sighed. "Blame yourselves for knowing too much."

"Damn it..."

Xiao Chenyu staggered to his feet.

"First Soul Skill: Rend!"

But Xiao Chenyu was sent flying by the soul power around Tang Hao the moment he charged forward.

Pfft!

Scarlet blood spilled from his mouth once more.

"Second Soul Skill—"

"Useless. A Titled Douluo is not someone a little brat like you can contend with."

Soul power surged forth, and powerful pressure bore down on Xiao Chenyu.

Blood flowed from Xiao Chenyu's eyes, nose, and ears.

"D... damn it!"

His parents had died before his eyes, yet he could only watch helplessly, unable to do anything.

He had never known such despair. The entire Xiao Family had already been slaughtered by Tang Hao.

Xiao Chenyu's consciousness began to blur.

"Grab it."

"You may yet have a chance for revenge."

Revenge!

A familiar voice echoed in his mind, but he no longer had time to distinguish whose it was.

In a daze, he saw a streak of emerald-green light descend before his eyes.

"Revenge... I want revenge!"

Xiao Chenyu struggled to raise his hand. Blood seeped from his pores, yet he still reached forward with all his strength.

In an instant, wisps of storm began converging from every direction.

The powerful impact actually dispersed Tang Hao's pressure.

"What is that?" Tang Hao noticed that Xiao Chenyu had grabbed hold of something just before death.

Yet that strange object glowing green seemed to have appeared in the blink of an eye.

A pale cyclone swept Xiao Chenyu up and carried him into the sky.

"Don't even think about running!" The tornado carried Xiao Chenyu hundreds of meters away, and Tang Hao hurriedly rose on soul power to pursue him.

He was a Titled Douluo. If he let a mere Soul Grandmaster escape, where would he put his face?

Watching his target fly farther and farther away, Tang Hao no longer cared about his injuries and swung the Clear Sky Hammer.

However, after the first swing, the Clear Sky Hammer's speed slowed.

"Damn it!"

Gentle winds surged in from all directions, gathering into ropes of restraint that coiled around Tang Hao's arms and even the joints of his limbs.

"Get lost!" Tang Hao broke free of the restraints around him, but Xiao Chenyu had already vanished from sight.

"Bastard!" Tang Hao flew into a rage.

He had planned to go to Notting City tonight, kill Xiao Li, then go to the City Lord's Manor and wipe out Xiao Yuanshan's entire family.

That way, no one should have known about how he had concealed his identity to enroll Tang San.

Besides, Tang San and Xiao Wu had already left Notting Academy.

He had never expected the other side to not only know his identity, but perhaps even have further plans in place.

"I underestimated you, Xiao Yuanshan."

He had never thought that a dignified Titled Douluo like himself would stumble in tiny Notting City.

"Hmph, if that's the case!" Tang Hao snorted coldly. "Whoever is hiding out there, if you refuse to show yourself, then Notting City has no reason to continue existing."

Tang Hao was beside himself with fury. Two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red—nine soul rings rose around him.

"This is bad!" Xu Qianqian's expression changed slightly.

Tang Hao really dared to do it!

"Domain: Thousand Winds, Myriad Clouds."

"First Soul Skill: Thousand Winds."

The Clear Sky Hammer descending from Tang Hao suddenly changed direction and smashed viciously toward Xu Qianqian.

Though he used no soul skill, the terrifying power of a level-95 soul master was not something Xu Qianqian could easily withstand.

Yet all that force passed straight through Xu Qianqian, striking nothing at all.

Terrifying energy poured out into the sky hundreds of meters away, and a faint tremor spread across the ground of Notting City.

"It's you!"

The instant he saw Xu Qianqian, disbelief appeared on Tang Hao's face.

"Tang Hao, we meet again." Xu Qianqian stood high in the air, confronting Tang Hao.

Xu Qianqian did not dare gamble on whether Tang Hao would truly smash Notting City, so she had deliberately leaked a trace of her aura for him to detect.

It would only be this once. Consider it repayment for her godfather's kindness, though perhaps it was merely a way to comfort herself.

"Six years have passed. Why haven't you changed at all?"

Tang Hao scrutinized Xu Qianqian. The girl before him looked exactly the same as she had six years ago, as though those six years had never existed.

Of course, that was not what concerned Tang Hao most. What truly caught his attention was the martial soul in Xu Qianqian's hand, radiating an emerald-green glow.

And beyond that, the black soul ring that had risen around her.

"How I am has nothing to do with you," Xu Qianqian said indifferently. "Tang Hao, one day, Chenyu and I will personally slaughter you."

With that, Xu Qianqian transformed into a streak of pale light and flew into the distance.

"You think you can leave after coming here? Who do you think I, Tang Hao, am?"

For Xu Qianqian to rescue someone from his grasp, she was certainly no ordinary person. If he failed to kill her this time, she would become a grave threat in the future.

Besides, someone who had broken the shackles preventing those without soul power from cultivating—if such a person truly escaped...

Tang Hao had no confidence that he would definitely be able to defeat her in the future.

"Clear Sky Nine Techniques: Heaven-Defying Strike!"

The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand manifested a massive phantom. A shockwave of soul power, accompanied by the hammer wind generated by his swing, crashed forward.

Yet after Tang Hao unleashed the skill, every hair on his body stood on end.

He looked in the direction his soul skill had been released, his pupils suddenly contracting as his voice trembled.

"What an enormous mobilization of heaven and earth's power... How could a mere soul master accomplish this?"