The Disgraced Tang San and His Father

The temperature throughout Pope's Hall plummeted to freezing. The red-robed bishop was crushed to the ground by the pressure, coughing up blood.

"Xiaogang... was dead? Tang Hao... smashed him into pulp?!"

Bibi Dong's eyes instantly turned blood-red, and her exquisite face twisted with overwhelming grief and fury.

The man she had loved her entire life, the man she had silently protected from the shadows even after he had shattered her heart, had died just like that?!

"Tang Hao!!!"

A shrill, crazed scream, like a vicious ghost weeping blood, pierced through the dome of Pope's Hall and echoed across all of Spirit City!

"Deliver my Papal Decree! Mobilize the Elder Hall! Mobilize every red-robed bishop! Seal off the entire continent! Find him! Find Tang Hao! I will slice him into ten thousand pieces! I will make the entire Clear Sky Sect accompany Xiaogang in death!!!"

On that day, dark clouds blanketed the skies above Spirit City. The fury of the female Pope formally ushered in an era of blood and chaos across the continent.

The capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou City.

The bustling streets were filled with carriages and pedestrians, yet an utterly discordant scene had appeared before Moon Pavilion, the most luxurious and elegant noble etiquette academy in the city center.

A ragged, bloodstained ten-year-old boy was struggling to support an even more tattered, burly man missing his left arm as they slowly made their way beneath Moon Pavilion's gilded signboard.

The boy was Tang San.

His eyes were filled with confusion, humiliation, hatred, and profound exhaustion.

The truth that Xiao Wu was a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, the reality that his father was a Titled Douluo yet had been beaten into a fleeing stray dog, and the absolute suppression brought by that boy with violet-gold eyes... all of it had crushed the pride he had carried through two lifetimes into pieces.

Tang Hao, beside him, was in an even more pitiful state.

The pain of his severed arm, coupled with the terrifying backlash from detonating all his soul rings, had caused Tang Hao to fall completely unconscious not long after escaping Nuoding City.

Had he not stubbornly endured with the foundation of a Titled Douluo, he would likely have already breathed his last.

Before losing consciousness completely, Tang Hao had left Tang San with only one sentence:

"Go... to Heaven Dou City... find Moon Pavilion..."

Tang San gritted his teeth and carried his father's heavy body on his frail shoulders.

He raised his head and looked at the magnificent building before him, which stood in stark contrast to the misery of the father and son, then painfully climbed the steps.

Bang.

Tang Hao's heavy body could no longer hold on, and he dragged Tang San down with him as they fell disgracefully before Moon Pavilion's gates.

Heaven Dou City's Moon Pavilion was the empire's foremost noble etiquette academy. Those who came and went were princes, nobles, and members of powerful aristocratic families.

Even a single floor tile at Moon Pavilion's entrance exuded an unattainable luxury.

Bang.

With a dull thud, the ragged Tang San and the unconscious, one-armed Tang Hao crashed heavily onto Moon Pavilion's spotless white jade steps.

The pungent stench of blood and sweat instantly shattered the elegance and tranquility of the place.

"Where did these beggars come from? Don't you know what place this is? Get the hell out of here!"

The two guards at the entrance, dressed in crisp uniforms, immediately approached with furrowed brows and faces full of disgust.

One of them even drew the baton from his waist and rudely pointed it at Tang San's nose.

Tang San endured the aching pain and exhaustion throughout his body, struggling to rise as he shielded the unconscious Tang Hao behind him.

"We're not beggars."

Tang San gritted his teeth. His voice was hoarse, yet stubbornly resolute.

"My father told me to bring him to Moon Pavilion. We need to see the person in charge here."

"See the person in charge? You two country bumpkins?"

The other guard laughed in anger. He looked Tang San up and down, from clothes so tattered they were worse than rags to Tang Hao's bloodied severed arm, his eyes full of contempt.

"Do you know who our Pavilion Master is? Even imperial princes have to make an appointment in advance if they want to see her! You two hicks, get the hell out of here. Don't dirty Moon Pavilion's grounds!"

By now, the commotion outside Moon Pavilion had drawn the attention of quite a few nobles entering and leaving.

Several noble young ladies in gorgeous gowns covered their noses and mouths, circling around them as though avoiding a plague while letting out piercing laughter.

"Oh my god, it reeks! Has Heaven Dou City's security gotten this bad? Even beggars like these can come begging outside Moon Pavilion now?"

"Look at that big man. His arm is gone. He was probably some crippled trash who got beaten senseless in a low-class soul fighting arena."

"Let's go, let's go. Don't let their bad luck rub off on us."

As he listened to the undisguised mockery and abuse around him, an exceptionally dangerous glint flashed through Tang San's lowered eyes.

These lofty nobles, these guards who judged people by appearances... if this had been his previous life in the Tang Sect, or if he still had hidden weapons on him, he would absolutely have shown those foul-mouthed people what it truly meant to be courting death!

But now, he could not.

He had no hidden weapons. His Mysterious Heaven Technique had been exhausted in the earlier battle. Xiao Wu had been captured, and his father was severely injured and unconscious. He was now like a young wolf with its fangs pulled out, helplessly at the mercy of others.

What made him feel most helpless and despairing was that Tang Hao had fallen unconscious too suddenly during their escape.

He had left only the words, "Go to Heaven Dou City and find Moon Pavilion," without saying what they were doing here, whom they were seeking, or whether there was any token.

"Are you leaving or not? If you don't get out now, I'll break your dog legs and throw you out myself!"

Seeing Tang San standing there in a daze, the guard raised his baton and prepared to bring it down.

"Stop!"

Just as the baton was about to fall, a cool and elegant female voice, carrying an air of authority without anger, came from within Moon Pavilion.

Upon hearing that voice, the surrounding nobles and guards immediately stepped aside respectfully to open a path.

A stunning woman in a silver court gown slowly emerged.

Her bearing was noble and elegant, like a snow lotus blooming atop an iceberg. Every movement she made carried a flawless etiquette that made others feel ashamed of themselves.

She was Tang Yuehua, the master of Moon Pavilion.

Tang Yuehua had originally been teaching the harp on the second floor. Hearing the commotion at the entrance, she had instructed the steward to handle it, but seeing that more and more people had gathered, she came down to inspect the matter herself.

When she saw the two blood-soaked, foul-smelling "beggars" on the steps, her brows also faintly furrowed.

"Give them a few gold coins and send them to a clinic for treatment. Don't let them gather a crowd outside Moon Pavilion."

Tang Yuehua calmly instructed the steward. Though kindhearted, Moon Pavilion had its rules, and she could not bring two beggars of unknown origin inside.

"Yes, Pavilion Master."

The steward hurriedly took out several gold coins, intending to send Tang San away.

Tang San looked at the coins being offered to him and felt an immense humiliation.

He abruptly raised his head, stared fixedly at Tang Yuehua, and said word by word:

"I said we aren't here to beg! My father told me to come to Moon Pavilion!"

Tang Yuehua had already turned to leave, but upon hearing Tang San's stubborn voice, she instinctively stopped and glanced back.