Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo Arrive—Is This Residual Aura the Haotian Hammer?

The place where Lu Ming and Tang Hao fought was not far from Saint Soul Village. The earth-shattering commotion caused by the Haotian Hammer naturally reached this peaceful little village as well.

"Rumble—"

The ground shook violently as if it were being sifted. Cracks instantly split across the walls of the village's mud-brick houses, while thatch rained down from the roofs.

"An earthquake! It's an earthquake!"

"Run!"

"Oh my god, the houses are going to collapse!"

The villagers, who had been working in the fields or resting at home, were terrified by the sudden upheaval. They scrambled out of their houses and gathered in the open space at the village entrance, staring fearfully toward the distant mountains.

The sky over there was one moment shrouded in eerie green light, the next torn apart by domineering black energy. Even from so far away, the terrifying energy fluctuations made their hearts pound.

"Heavens, has the mountain god become enraged?"

"Must be! How else could there be such a huge disturbance?"

The villagers fell to their knees and repeatedly kowtowed toward the mountains, praying for the elusive mountain god to calm his anger.

Only the village chief, Old Jack, stood leaning on his cane, his cloudy eyes filled with gravity and concern. At his age, he did not believe such nonsense about an angry mountain god.

A disturbance on this scale clearly meant that powerful soul masters were fighting!

And they were soul masters so powerful that he could not even imagine their strength!

Those damned soul master lords, couldn't they pick somewhere farther away to fight? Did they have to do it right next to our village?

Old Jack cursed the soul masters' ancestors for eighteen generations in his heart. Saint Soul Village had finally enjoyed peace for so many years; it could not withstand this kind of turmoil.

He looked again at the distant forest, which had nearly been razed to the ground, and trembled with heartache. There were plenty of medicinal herbs and prey in there that the villagers depended on to survive!

"No, it's too dangerous here. We have to get everyone to shelter immediately!"

Old Jack made a prompt decision and shouted at the panicked villagers, "Stop kneeling! The mountain is going to collapse! Hurry! Everyone hide in the cellars at the eastern end of the village!"

Under his direction, the villagers were frightened, but they still began evacuating in an orderly manner.

After evacuating people for more than ten minutes, Old Jack suddenly remembered something.

"Right, where's Xiao San?"

The old man's expression changed, and he hurriedly searched through the crowd.

That child Tang San usually loved running to the hill outside the village. With such a huge disturbance, surely nothing had happened to him?

And that drunkard Tang Hao!

At the thought of Tang Hao, Old Jack's anger immediately rose.

That irresponsible father! All he does every day is drink. Something this serious happened, and who knows where he ran off to! If anything happens to Xiao San, I'll break his legs with my cane!

The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became. No longer caring about organizing the villagers, he handed the matter over to several respected young men in the village. Then, leaning on his cane, he pushed against the flow of people and hurried toward the dilapidated blacksmith shop at the western end of the village.

He had to personally make sure that Tang San was safe!

However, when he arrived at the blacksmith shop, panting heavily, he found it completely empty. There were only a few rusty farming tools and wine bottles scattered across the floor.

"Tang Hao! Tang San!"

Old Jack called out anxiously, his voice echoing through the empty house.

No one answered.

Old Jack's heart sank straight to the bottom.

This was bad!

Could those two have really gone into the mountains?

Just as he was pacing in circles with anxiety, preparing to mobilize the villagers to search the mountains, a thin figure came running from the direction of the village entrance.

"Grandpa Jack!"

It was Tang San!

He looked somewhat disheveled, with a little dust on his small face, but he was otherwise safe and sound.

"Xiao San! Where did you go? You scared Grandpa to death!"

Old Jack pulled Tang San into his arms, and the worry hanging over his heart finally eased.

"I... I just saw Dad at the village entrance."

Tang San's voice was somewhat low.

"Tang Hao? That drunkard finally showed himself? Where is he?" Old Jack asked irritably.

"Dad..." Tang San pointed into the distance. "He said he was taking me somewhere very far away, and that afterward... we might not come back."

What?

Old Jack froze.

He looked into Tang San's clear yet slightly bewildered eyes, then at the devastated forest in the distance. Suddenly, an absurd yet bold guess rose in his heart.

Could that earth-shattering commotion just now have something to do with that drunkard Tang Hao?

While the villagers of Saint Soul Village were still shaken by the ordeal, and Old Jack was baffled by the departure of Tang Hao and his son, two figures silently appeared in the ruined valley like ghosts.

One was of average height, with an alluring, androgynous face. He wore a luxurious yellow robe, and every gesture carried a feminine air.

The other was entirely concealed beneath a wide black robe. His face could not be seen, and an icy, sinister aura seeped from his entire body.

They were Spirit Hall's two Titled Douluo—Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei!

"My, my, what domineering power. It turned this place into such a mess, without the slightest sense of beauty."

Chrysanthemum Douluo raised an orchid finger, pinched his nose, and looked down at the chaotic ruins beneath his feet with utter disdain.

The enormous craters smashed out by the Haotian Hammer, along with the shattered remains of trees torn apart by violent energy, all displayed the ferocity of the battle.

Ghost Douluo said nothing. He crouched down, pinched up a bit of dust from the scorched earth with his withered fingers, and lightly sniffed it.

A hoarse voice emerged from beneath the black robe. "It is the aura of the Haotian Hammer. There is no mistake."

"The Haotian Hammer?"

The disgust on Chrysanthemum Douluo's face instantly vanished, replaced by deep apprehension.

"Tang Hao? He had been hiding here all this time? Why would he suddenly start such a fierce battle here?"

"I don't know." Ghost Douluo rose to his feet and looked toward the other side of the valley, where another entirely different energy fluctuation still lingered.

"There is another very strange aura here. It is filled with immense life force, like some top-tier plant-type soul beast... but mixed with a trace of human scent."

Chrysanthemum Douluo also walked over and carefully sensed it.

"Hm? It really is. This aura... I seem to have smelled it somewhere before... It feels so familiar..."

He closed his eyes and carefully searched through his memories.

A moment later, he abruptly opened his eyes, an expression of extreme shock appearing on his face.

"I remember! This is... the Blue Silver Emperor!"

"What?" Even Ghost Douluo's voice wavered slightly. "The hundred-thousand-year soul beast, the Blue Silver Emperor? Hadn't she already sacrificed herself to Tang Hao during that great battle? And why would Tang Hao fight the Blue Silver Emperor?"

"That's right! I definitely won't remember it wrong!" Chrysanthemum Douluo's tone was exceptionally certain. "When we were hunting Tang Hao and A Yin back then, I fought against the Blue Silver Domain. It had this exact scent! Pure, vast, and filled with the majesty of nature!"

"But..." Chrysanthemum Douluo's face was full of confusion. "Why would the Blue Silver Emperor's aura appear here? And it seems to have become entangled with a human. In the end... it even violently collided with Tang Hao's Haotian Hammer?"

Ghost Douluo fell silent.

The situation before them had completely exceeded their understanding.

A hundred-thousand-year soul beast that should have been dead...

A Haotian Douluo who had vanished for many years...

A mysterious existence possessing the power of the Blue Silver Emperor...

What exactly had happened between the three?