Tang Chen's Defiant Rise: He Would Not Return Until He Became a God? The Clear Sky Sect Elders Wept!

On the Ranking Screen, the image finally shifted from black and white to color.

It was a crude awakening ceremony.

A six-year-old child, thin-looking but with exceptionally resolute eyes, slowly stepped onto the awakening platform.

[That year, he was six.]

In the image, the Soul Master in charge of the awakening listlessly injected Soul Power into the awakening stone.

Buzz!

A small black hammer, entirely dark and even somewhat crude, slowly condensed in the child's right hand.

"Another Clear Sky Hammer... Next."

The Soul Master sighed. Clearly having no hopes for this "blacksmith's hammer" with no additional attributes, he casually handed over a blue crystal ball.

"Come, test your Soul Power."

The instant the boy's hand touched the crystal ball—

Boom!

A dazzling blue radiance too brilliant to look at instantly illuminated the entire awakening room!

The crystal ball trembled violently, as though it might burst apart at any moment!

[Innate Full Soul Power, Rank 10!]

At that moment, the entire Douluo Continent beneath the Ranking Screen fell completely silent.

The scenes on the Ranking Screen rapidly shifted.

It was a simple blacksmith shop. The furnace blazed fiercely, and the bellows roared as they were pumped.

Only ten years old, Tang Chen was drenched in sweat. Gripping that crude little black hammer, he forged an ordinary piece of iron over and over again.

[At ten, he was a Grand Soul Master.]

[Because the sect lacked the money to buy information on high-level Soul Beasts, he ventured alone deep into the Soul Hunting Forest and nearly lost his life.]

[At the brink of life and death, inspiration struck him. He incorporated the technique of borrowing force against force from blacksmithing into the circulation of his Soul Power.]

[The "Ringing Wind Hammer Technique" was born.]

In the image, the young Tang Chen faced a ferocious hundred-year Soul Beast, his feet moving in strange, unorthodox steps.

His black iron hammer swung faster and faster with the rebounding force, eventually becoming a sky full of hammer shadows and smashing the Soul Beast into pulp!

Shrek Academy.

Tang San stared fixedly at the Ranking Screen, breathing rapidly as he could not help lowering his head to look at his right hand.

"So... the 'Ringing Wind Hammer Technique' really was comprehended through blacksmithing.

"Great-Grandfather actually created such a divine technique by himself when he was only ten!"

Yu Xiaogang's eyes brimmed with fervor and shock as his hands trembled while he recorded everything in his notebook.

"A miracle!

"This is simply a miracle of the Spirit Master World!

"Without divine guidance, he created a self-invented Soul Skill capable of changing the Spirit Master World's entire landscape through nothing more than insights gained from blacksmithing...

"Tang Chen's talent had already surpassed the limits of his era!"

Flander sighed and patted Yu Xiaogang on the shoulder.

"Xiaogang, stop writing.

"This kind of monstrous insight is simply not something ordinary people can replicate.

"What we should be worrying about now is Tang Chen's current condition in Slaughter City."

The scene on the Ranking Screen changed again.

By his youth, Tang Chen already stood at the peak of the Spirit Master World.

Holding the Clear Sky Hammer, now dark gold and profound, he faced the joint siege of several Wuhun Hall Title Douluo.

[At thirty-five, he broke through to become a Title Douluo.]

[Facing Wuhun Hall's attempts to recruit and suppress him, he stormed Wuhun City alone, with only his hammer.]

[In that battle, he discovered that ordinary Soul Skills alone could not contend against the deeply established Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul.]

[Driven into a desperate situation, he forcibly stripped away the power of his Soul Rings in reverse, compressed it, and fused it into a single hammer strike.]

[The Grand Sumeru Hammer and the method of Ring Detonation were born!]

In the image, Tang Chen threw back his head and laughed wildly. The nine Soul Rings around him shattered with a bang, transforming into energy of the purest extreme and merging into the Clear Sky Hammer.

When that hammer swung, heaven and earth lost their color, and the void trembled!

Several Wuhun Hall Title Douluo were blasted back by the terrifying aftermath, coughing blood before they could even scream.

Consecration Hall.

Golden Crocodile Douluo watched this scene, his face pale as he instinctively clutched his chest.

He had been present for that battle and had even nearly had his Martial Soul smashed apart by that hammer strike.

"'Ring Detonation'... So that was how it came to be."

Golden Crocodile Douluo's voice was hoarse.

"A madman. He truly was a madman back then.

"Shattering Soul Rings to gain explosive power in an instant—one small mistake, and he would have exploded to death.

"He actually succeeded."

Qian Daoliu closed his eyes, the scene of his confrontation with Tang Chen that year resurfacing in his mind.

"He was not a madman. He was a genius.

"He severed every path of retreat, and only then did he obtain the Grand Sumeru Hammer that stood above all else.

"Second Brother, our defeat was not unjustified. In terms of sheer courage, no one in this age could compare to Tang Chen."

Inside the Clear Sky Sect's main hall, everyone had broken down in tears.

"Ancestor... How much hardship did you endure back then?!"

The Second Elder wept openly as he dropped to his knees.

"For the sake of the sect, you alone opened a path forward and survived countless brushes with death.

"Yet we juniors only knew how to bask smugly in the glory you earned. We could not even protect the sect and were forced into seclusion!"

Tang Xiao's eyes were also red as he abruptly turned and looked toward the elders in the hall.

"First Elder, we cannot wait any longer!

"Great-Grandfather is being parasitized by that Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King and suffering in Slaughter City!

"As descendants of the Clear Sky Sect, how can we stand by and do nothing?!"

"Sect Master, please calm down!"

Though the First Elder's face was equally filled with grief and indignation, he remained rational.

"Slaughter City is a lawless place with bizarre rules.

"Moreover, Great-Grandfather is a Rank 99 Limit Douluo. Even he was parasitized. If we rush there recklessly,

"not only will we fail to save Great-Grandfather, we will be wiped out to the last man!

"Keep watching. Since the Ranking Screen has ranked Great-Grandfather, it will surely reveal a turning point!"

Slaughter City, underground throne.

"Aaaah—!"

The Killing King frantically tore at his hair. The skin on his face began cracking apart inch by inch, exposing the dark-red bat scales beneath.

"Shut up!

"Tang Chen, shut up!"

Within his body, an aged yet heavenly majestic voice was slowly awakening.

"Evil creature... How dare you... seize my body..."

"No!

"I am the Killing King!

"You are merely my host!"

The Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King shrieked, attempting to use Slaughter City's Fallen Domain to suppress that will once more.

However, the Ranking Screen was displaying the legend of Tang Chen's life.

Those countless scenes transformed into intangible spiritual imprints, madly awakening Tang Chen's consciousness, which had slumbered for decades.

On the Ranking Screen, the majestic voice suddenly became impassioned, and the image froze on the moment Tang Chen and Bo Saixi first met on Sea God Island.

[Invincible throughout his life, he lost only one wager—to a woman.]

[For that promise of "If I do not become a god, I will not return," he resolutely embarked on the path of seeking a divine inheritance.]

[Yet fate played a cruel joke on him.]

On the Ranking Screen, blood-red mist surged again, and the scene suddenly rewound to decades earlier.

Wuhun Hall's Papal Hall.

The one seated upon the papal throne at the time was the former Pope in his prime, Qian Xunji.

[Decades ago, the former Pope of Wuhun Hall, Qian Xunji, was in power.]