Decisive Action

Huo Yuhao held the hammer and tapped it against his palm for a full minute, but there was no response at all.

Huo Yuhao put the hammer away. "Looks like Tang Hao is still with Tang San."

His gaze fell on Xiao Wu in the distance, settling on her face. At this point, Xiao Wu was still in her juvenile stage, and there was little resemblance between her and the face in his memories. She would probably only start to look alike once she grew older.

Thinking of those two identical faces from his memories, Huo Yuhao felt his heart tighten uncontrollably.

He had lived in a muddled state for so many years, agonizing over nothing more than one sentence.

The scheme had been real, but so had the feelings.

Wang Dong'er had been born because of a scheme, yet he could feel how sincere those feelings had been. In Cosmic Love Inquiry Valley, Dong'er had willingly chosen death. It was precisely because of that willingness that Dong'er had vanished so completely.

As for Qiu'er's death, Tang San's scheme had only been one part of it. The greatest reason had been his own greed. If he had not greedily wanted to establish an attribute connection with Qiu'er, her Sea of Spirit would not have been breached, giving Tang San an opportunity to take advantage of it.

Lost in his memories for a moment, Huo Yuhao could not help staring blankly toward the horizon.

Meanwhile, several miles away, a battle with no suspense whatsoever was underway.

Tang San had eaten a Mushroom Sausage, so his flying speed was naturally not slow. However, the terrain of the Star Dou Great Forest was incredibly complex, so he naturally could not keep up with Er Ming.

But that was not his goal either. With Er Ming around, Xiao Wu's side was the safest place in the entire Star Dou Great Forest.

His target soon appeared: a gigantic spider with a main body over one and a half meters long, a savage ghost-face marking on its abdomen, and legs exceeding three meters in length.

The moment Tang San saw the creature before him, he was overjoyed. The Eight Spider Spears he had waited so long for had finally returned.

Tang San decisively summoned the Haotian Hammer, combining the Tang Sect movement technique with Dragon Beard Needles. Then came a full eighty-one strikes of the Chaotic Wind Hammer Technique, each movement clean and precise.

Very soon, a purple thousand-year soul ring formed above the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse.

Tang Hao, hidden in the shadows, was filled with gratification. He had not expected that after being apart for such a short time, his son would already be able to use all eighty-one strikes of the Chaotic Wind Hammer Technique so effortlessly in battle. With such combat talent, even he himself had not measured up to Tang San at that age.

With the experience from last time, Tang San naturally would not rashly absorb the soul ring as he had in his previous life.

Only after adjusting himself to his peak condition did Tang San retrieve the external soul bone curled up within the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse—the Eight Spider Spears.

He stored it in Twenty-Four Bridges Under Moonlight. Now that the Eight Spider Spears were in hand, whether or not he obtained this soul ring would make little difference to him.

At that moment, the Overlord Dragon and Snake's group of three finally arrived, drawn over by the commotion.

When Meng Yiran saw the Man-Faced Demon Spider lying on the ground like a pile of mush, she was practically furious enough to explode.

Then she saw the familiar figure standing beside it. In three days, the two soul beasts she had pursued had both been snatched away by the same person. Meng Yiran could no longer maintain her composure.

"It's you again!" Meng Yiran raised her hand and launched her first soul skill at Tang San—Snake Blade. With both her grandfather and grandmother present, she was not afraid of anything now.

Tang San's response was beyond her expectations. He merely extended two fingers and effortlessly crushed the Snake Blade spewed from her snake staff between them.

When Meng Yiran's attack failed, she wanted to continue fighting. However, her grandfather stopped her.

"Boy, did you kill this Man-Faced Demon Spider by yourself?" The Dragon Duke looked exceedingly old, but his eyes gleamed sharply, and there was even a trace of excitement in the way he looked at Tang San.

"Yes," Tang San replied calmly.

"Young man, I'll give you one more chance. As far as I know, your martial soul is not some heavy tool martial soul like a hammer." The Dragon Duke pointed at the Man-Faced Demon Spider, which had clearly been smashed apart by a hammer.

"That is not something you need to know," Tang San said coldly.

Teacher Zhao, Dai Mubai, and the others were not far away. Besides, his father should be nearby. It was only in his previous life, when Xiao Wu returned to the Star Dou Great Forest and he followed his father to train, that he learned the truth: before he had fully grown, especially when he went to dangerous places like the Star Dou Great Forest, his father had never truly been far from him.

"You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit." The Dragon Duke was a renowned figure. In all his years, this was the first time a junior had dared speak to him like this.

Just as he was about to act, a deep voice sounded from behind Tang San.

"Dragon Duke, please do not act." Zhao Wuji led the remaining Shrek students over.

Everyone still wore panicked expressions, while Dai Mubai's face was especially pale.

Tang San naturally knew why. Once he found Dai Mubai a Heaven-Connecting Velvet Chrysanthemum in the future, improved his aptitude, and helped him cultivate an indestructible body, he would understand that a mere Zhu Zhuqing was nothing. But this was clearly not the time to say such things.

Tang San wore an expression of deep sorrow as he stared only at the soul ring before him.

"Little San, Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing... they..." Dai Mubai stepped forward with a pale face, looking at Tang San as if he wanted to speak but could not.

"I haven't caught up to them yet. They'll definitely be alright!" Tang San cut him off decisively.

Over there, Zhao Wuji privately revealed Tang San's background to the Dragon Duke. The Dragon Duke had not expected Tang San to be Grandmaster's disciple. A useless man who could never break through level thirty was nothing, but that man happened to have a father whom everyone could only look up to—a level ninety-five control-attack Titled Douluo, someone he could never hope to reach in his lifetime.

Still, the Dragon Duke could not quite let go of his pride.

"How about this? You compete with my granddaughter. If you win, we'll admit our bad luck. If you lose, then pretend this soul ring never appeared," the Dragon Duke said with a smile.

"Compete in what?" Zhao Wuji asked. A peaceful resolution would be best. Shrek's losses on this trip had already been far too great.

Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing had little chance of surviving, and Dai Mubai had lost all his fighting spirit.

If Tang San were lost as well, then thinking of the protective Haotian Douluo, Zhao Wuji felt that his life was nothing but darkness.

"Compare soul power," Meng Yiran immediately suggested. This person had just killed the Man-Faced Demon Spider and must have expended a great deal. In any case, she could no longer absorb this soul ring. Preventing him from absorbing it would count as revenge.

"Fine." The instant Tang San spoke, he struck without hesitation.

Caught completely off guard, Meng Yiran was sent flying several meters. She only stopped after crashing into a large tree behind her.

No one had expected Tang San to act so decisively. He was practically a completely different person from his usual self. Yet the Shrek students could understand. Everyone had seen the relationship between Tang San and Xiao Wu. Anyone who stood in the way of him pursuing Xiao Wu was his enemy now!