Toying with Tang Hao

Tang Hao was so thoroughly suppressed that even speaking had become incredibly difficult. He could only watch helplessly as Tang San struggled in Gu En's grasp.

Gu En gripped Tang San by the throat, then turned to Tang Hao with a cruel smile curling across his lips.

"Tang Hao, I told you before—leave some room when you act. Since you dared attack me, you must pay the price."

"Y-you... what do you want?" Tang Hao gritted his teeth, forcing the words through clenched jaws.

"Very simple."

Gu En spoke calmly.

"I'm interested in your Clear Sky Sect's Grand Sumeru Hammer and Ring Detonation secret techniques. Hand over the manuals, and I'll spare his life."

"Impossible!"

Tang Hao refused without a second thought.

Though he was a sinner expelled from his sect, the loyalty and servility toward the Clear Sky Sect embedded in his bones ran far too deep.

The Grand Sumeru Hammer was the Clear Sky Sect's greatest secret. Only successive sect masters and Clear Sky Douluos could cultivate it. How could he possibly hand it over to an outsider?

"Even if it means watching your son die?"

Gu En tilted his head slightly, apparently unsurprised by Tang Hao's answer.

"You wouldn't dare!"

Tang Hao's eyes turned bloodshot, like a beast driven into a corner.

"What wouldn't I dare do?"

Gu En sneered and abruptly tightened his grip around Tang San's throat.

"Urgh... let... let go..."

Tang San's face instantly turned purple-red. His legs kicked weakly through the air as both hands desperately tried to pry apart Gu En's fingers, but against the strength enhanced by a hundred-thousand-year spirit bone, his struggle was like an ant trying to topple a tree.

The sensation of suffocation surged over him like a tide. Tang San's pupils began to lose focus, and his consciousness gradually blurred.

He could even hear his cervical vertebrae creaking under the unbearable strain.

"Brother!"

Xiao Wu covered her mouth in terror. Though she had been full of doubts about Tang San moments ago, seeing that he was truly about to die made her cry out despite herself after all these years together.

"Ten seconds."

Gu En looked at Tang Hao and began a cold countdown. "Nine, eight, seven..."

As Tang Hao watched his son's face twist from lack of oxygen and saw the whites of his eyes gradually roll upward, the string called reason in his mind finally snapped.

Sect secret techniques? Bullshit!

He had failed to protect his wife. If he could not even protect his only son now, what face would Tang Hao have left to cling to life?

More importantly, Tang San was his only hope for revenge against Spirit Hall.

"AAAAAHHHH!!!"

Tang Hao threw back his head and let out an agonized roar.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Without any warning, Tang Hao's first through sixth spirit rings exploded simultaneously beneath his feet!

Ring Detonation! The ultimate essence of the Grand Sumeru Hammer!

The terrifying energy produced by the shattering of six spirit rings instantly flooded back into Tang Hao's body.

His blood and vitality, originally depleted by old injuries, surged wildly at that moment as though in a final burst before death.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!"

Tang Hao gripped the Clear Sky Hammer with both hands and swept it fiercely around him with force capable of destroying heaven and earth.

"Not good! This lunatic is risking his life!"

Gu Rong's expression changed drastically. Before the power of Ring Detonation, the spatial shackles shattered like paper.

He grabbed Dugu Bo and retreated rapidly.

Chen Xin also furrowed his brow. The Seven Killings Sword traced a flower of sword light before him as he forcibly withstood the hammer wind, borrowing its force to drift dozens of meters backward.

After driving back the three Titled Douluos, Tang Hao became like a crazed primordial beast. His eyes locked onto Gu En as his body transformed into a streak of black lightning and charged straight at him!

"You little bastard, die!"

Before Tang Hao's hammer even arrived, the terrifying Death God Domain and crushing pressure had already cracked the ground around Gu En inch by inch.

Yet faced with this fatal strike, Gu En showed no trace of panic. He did not even make a move to evade.

He merely casually tossed the half-dead Tang San toward Xiao Wu nearby.

"BOOM—!!!"

The Clear Sky Hammer smashed viciously into the spot where Gu En had been standing. Nuoding Academy's entire back mountain trembled violently beneath the blow, while dust soared into the sky and obscured all vision.

Tang Hao panted heavily. The backlash from Ring Detonation had left all five of his viscera and six bowels bleeding.

But he paid no attention to it, staring fixedly into the heart of the dust cloud.

The dust gradually settled.

Tang Hao froze.

At the edge of the massive crater, there were only Tang San, collapsed on the ground and coughing violently, and Xiao Wu, trembling beside him.

The youth with violet-gold eyes, along with the three Titled Douluos, had completely vanished into thin air as if they had never existed, leaving behind not even the slightest trace of their aura.

Within the dust-filled crater, Tang Hao looked wildly in every direction like an enraged lion.

"Come out! Get the hell out here!"

He frantically swung the Clear Sky Hammer, smashing the surrounding ruins to pieces. The Death God Domain spread without restraint as he tried to catch even the faintest fluctuation of spirit power.

Yet there was nothing.

At that moment, Tang Hao looked like a fool wildly throwing punches at empty air—ridiculous, deranged, yet permeated by profound helplessness.

He had no idea that less than twenty meters above him, a transparent triangular shroud glowing with an eerie blue light perfectly concealed Gu En and the three Titled Douluos.

The Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud's first skill: Vast Sea Body Shield!

Invisibility, with complete isolation of all auras.

Combined with Gu Rong's masterful spatial barrier, not even Bo Saixi would be able to see through this disguise anytime soon, let alone Tang Hao.

"What kind of method is this? It's simply the ultimate treasure for assassination!"

Inside the shroud, Dugu Bo watched Tang Hao below scurrying about like a headless fly and could not help sucking in a sharp breath.

Gu En's gaze turned icy as he looked at the trembling Xiao Wu in the distance. A cruel smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Let's go to the little rabbit. Since he likes smashing things so much, let him pay a price in blood."

Gu Rong immediately understood. The power of space began to circulate silently.

The next second, the eerie blue shroud vanished without warning behind Xiao Wu, and Gu En and the three Titled Douluos appeared out of thin air like ghosts.

"Tang Hao, what are you looking for?"

Gu En's cool voice suddenly rang through the empty woods.

Tang Hao abruptly turned around, his eyes bloodshot. He raised the Clear Sky Hammer and prepared to charge in for another kill.

But Gu En moved faster.

The blue trident mark between his brows blazed brightly, and the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud in his hand erupted with dazzling divine light.

Gu En drove his spiritual power to its limit and aimed it directly at Tang Hao!

"Vast Sea Cosmic Anchor!"

"Bzz—!"

A pillar of eerie blue light instantly crossed space and enveloped Tang Hao without obstruction.

In an instant, Tang Hao's wildly charging body seemed to have been paused, freezing rigidly in midair.

To his horror, he discovered that the space around him seemed to have turned into indestructible abyssal sea ice. Not only could his body not move an inch, but even the surging spirit power within him had fallen into absolute stagnation at that moment!