Tang Hao Was Crippled

"Pavilion Master, this old man is powerless. This gentleman's injuries... are too severe, and too strange."

Tang Yuehua's face turned pale. "You are a healing-type Spirit Sage. As long as he still has a breath left, how can you be powerless?"

"Pavilion Master, you do not understand." Old Li looked grim as he pointed to Tang Hao's body and explained:

"This gentleman had already accumulated old injuries over several years. His internal organs and meridians were long riddled with holes, fragile as thin paper."

"That alone would have been manageable. If they were merely old wounds, this old man could spend several years using gentle soul power to slowly nurse him back to health and perhaps preserve his life. But..."

Old Li paused, and his tone grew even heavier. "The most fatal thing is that he seems to have just used some extremely tyrannical forbidden secret technique that drained his life essence."

Tang San's heart trembled. He knew that was the Ring Detonation his father had used to save him.

"That secret technique directly drained every last reserve of soul power from his body and completely shattered his already fragile meridians."

Old Li sighed. "His old injuries erupted, sword intent devoured his body, and his origin has been exhausted... These three death warrants have piled together."

"The only thing this old man can do now is use the Golden Needle Acupoint-Sealing Method to forcibly stop the bleeding from his severed arm and preserve his final breath."

Old Li shook his head and delivered the final verdict:

"His life can be preserved, but for the rest of his life, he will likely never be able to use even a trace of soul power again. Moreover, because he has lost too much vitality, his lifespan... is probably not much longer. Alas..."

That sigh was like a heavy hammer, smashing ruthlessly into Tang San and Tang Yuehua's hearts.

Tang San stood there blankly. His legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees beside the bed. The Clear Sky Douluo, who had just displayed peerless cultivation... had actually been beaten into a cripple who could not even use soul power?

"No... This can't be real... Dad..."

Tang San buried his head beside Tang Hao's bed and bit his lip so hard that blood streamed from the corner of his mouth, yet he could not feel even the slightest pain.

Spirit Hall had gone mad.

Over the past half month, that had been the most immediate feeling shared by every soul master faction across the continent.

Ever since news of "Tang Hao Furiously Kills Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang" spread through Spirit City as though it had grown wings, the lofty female Pope had displayed an unprecedented iron-blooded madness.

The Spirit Hall Enforcement Corps, dormant for more than a decade, surged forth in full force like tigers unleashed from their cages.

The first to bear the brunt were the four great affiliated clans that had once belonged to the Clear Sky Sect—Strength, Break, Agility, and Defense.

These four single-attribute clans, once ruthlessly abandoned by the Clear Sky Sect and struggling to survive in the cracks, never imagined that disaster would fall from the sky while they sat at home.

Bibi Dong's orders were simple and brutal:

Anyone connected to the Clear Sky Sect, kill!

Anyone sheltering Tang Hao's whereabouts, kill!

Any force that dared provide protection to the four great clans would be regarded as declaring war on Spirit Hall!

For a time, the already struggling businesses of the four great clans suffered devastating blows.

Their shops were smashed, their disciples assassinated, and even when they went out to purchase supplies, they would be surrounded and exterminated by teams led by Spirit Hall's red-robed bishops.

The skies of the continent had completely changed.

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

The morning mist had yet to disperse when a neat, chilling clatter of iron armor shattered the peace of the streets.

A squad of fully armed temple knights, the exclusive emblem of Spirit Hall stamped upon their chests, marched grimly through the busiest streets of Heaven Dou City.

Slap!

A parchment wanted poster bearing the Pope's distinctive blood-red seal was slapped viciously onto the most conspicuous spot on the city wall.

Such wanted posters not only covered every street and alley of Heaven Dou City, but also spread at a terrifying speed toward the Star Luo Empire and every town and village across the continent.

Before the city wall, early-rising commoners and soul masters soon gathered in a crowd.

"Gasp—my heavens! This is Spirit Hall's highest-level kill order!"

"A reward of one hundred thousand gold soul coins? And a ten-thousand-year soul bone?! Just providing a clue lets you join Spirit Hall's inner hall directly?!"

Gasps rang out from the crowd. Everyone's eyes reddened at the outrageously enormous reward.

Yet when they looked closely at the portraits on the wanted poster, strange expressions appeared on their faces.

The wanted poster was divided into two sides.

On the left were the words, "Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao."

Yet the portrait showed only an extremely vague, burly silhouette draped in a ragged cloak, holding a weapon that could barely be recognized as a hammer. There were not even any facial features, only a rough outline of his build.

There was nothing they could do about that.

Tang Hao had been missing for more than a decade. Very few people had seen his true face back then, and Spirit Hall's records contained only a portrait from his youth, which could not serve as a basis for capturing him now.

However, when everyone's gazes shifted to the right side, they all froze.

The portrait on the right was outrageously clear!

It depicted a boy of around ten.

He had neat short hair and ordinary features, but his eyes held a steadiness far beyond his age.

The artist's strokes were extraordinarily fine. Even the tiny mole at the corner of the boy's mouth and the slightly upward curve at the corner of his eyes had been rendered lifelike!

Several large lines were written beneath the portrait:

[Relative of major criminal: Tang San]

[Martial soul: Blue Silver Grass]

[Identifying traits: Work-study student at Nording Junior Soul Master Academy. Extremely dangerous. Report immediately upon sight!]

Among the crowd, a soul master could not help sighing.

"Tang Hao hid himself well enough that even Spirit Hall can't draw his face, but what's going on with his son? This portrait looks like it was traced inch by inch from the kid's face!"

"What do you know?"

A soul master beside him, who seemed to know the inside story, sneered.

"This kid is a commoner soul master. For the monthly subsidy, he goes to register at Spirit Hall's Nuoding City branch without fail every month!"

"In Spirit Hall's registration files, this kid's height, weight, soul power rank, and even his facial features are recorded more clearly than his own father knows them!"

A subsidy of ten gold coins.

At this moment, it became a fatal death warrant.

Heaven Dou City, Moon Pavilion.

Behind the concealed lattice window on the second floor, a pale hand gripped the edge of the curtain so tightly that its knuckles turned bluish white.

Tang San stood in the shadows, staring through the gap in the window at the wanted poster on a wall along the nearby street.

Though separated by some distance, he activated his Violet Demon Eyes and still saw the wanted poster bearing his high-definition portrait with perfect clarity.

"Spirit Hall..."

Tang San's teeth ground together with a creak, and a thick scent of blood filled his mouth.