Tang Hao Awakens

Gu En looked down at Xiao Wu and said coldly:

"Yu Xiaogang was ten thousand times more useful alive than dead. As long as he lived, he was the best bargaining chip to keep Bibi Dong in check."

"Enough. Put away your whip."

Gu En loosened the bone chain, his tone returning to calm.

"There'll be plenty of time for you to torture him slowly later. We'll stop here today."

With that, Gu En turned and called toward the door:

"Guards!"

Two covert guards from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect swiftly pushed open the door and entered.

"Go fetch a healing-type soul master. Give him some casual treatment, keep him barely alive, and don't let him die."

"Yes, Young Master!" The covert guards accepted the order and dragged Yu Xiaogang away like a dead dog.

Meanwhile, in Spirit City's Pope's Hall, thousands of miles away.

Bang!

An enormous desk carved from top-grade rosewood was instantly blasted into powder by a terrifying surge of purple-black divine power.

Bibi Dong stood atop the high steps, her breathtakingly beautiful face utterly twisted at that moment.

The Nine-Curved Purple-Gold Crown atop her head trembled faintly as her scarlet eyes fixed viciously on the scout before her.

"Trash! You're all trash!"

Bibi Dong's voice had become shrill and piercing with extreme rage, echoing through the great hall:

"It's been ten whole days! I deployed half of Spirit Hall's enforcement corps and sealed every exit from Fasino Province, yet you still couldn't find so much as a hair from Tang Hao?!"

Her chest heaved violently. Yu Xiaogang's ordinary yet unforgettable face replayed endlessly in her mind, wrenching at her heart.

"Pass down my order! Send more men! Go to Heaven Dou City! Go to Star Luo City! Go to the mountain gate where the Clear Sky Sect retired! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, drag Tang Hao and that little bastard Tang San out for me!"

Bibi Dong gritted her teeth, every word dripping with an inescapable stench of blood:

"I'll slice the flesh from that father and son piece by piece, and use it to honor Xiaogang's spirit in heaven!"

Heaven Dou City, top floor of Moonlight Pavilion.

Heavy velvet curtains shut out the sunlight and clamor beyond, while the luxurious bedroom was permeated by an inescapable bitter medicinal scent.

Tang San sat blankly beside Tang Hao's bed like a puppet that had lost its soul.

Over the past few days, he had endured the darkest period of his life—darker even than anything he had experienced in his previous life.

At first, when he learned that his perpetually drunken father, who did nothing but forge iron, was actually the Clear Sky Douluo renowned throughout the continent, Tang San had briefly been overwhelmed by wild joy and pride.

He had thought that he finally had a powerful patron and would no longer have to fight alone as he had in his previous life.

But reality had given him the loudest slap imaginable.

Clear Sky Douluo?

Could that useless man, driven into a corner by three Titled Douluo of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect like a drowning dog, forced to sever one of his own arms and detonate every soul ring just to barely escape with his life, really be the legendary youngest Titled Douluo?

What suffocated him even more were the successive blows that followed.

Xiao Wu, the little sister he had sworn to protect with his life, was actually a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft-Boned Rabbit.

And the soul-piercing words spoken by that violet-gold-eyed youth and Poison Douluo in the small forest outside Nuoding City that day were like venomous thorns, piercing deep into Tang San's heart.

"Raising Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts in captivity..."

"For soul rings and Soul Bones..."

At first, Tang San absolutely refused to believe that his father could have done such things.

But after fleeing to Moonlight Pavilion and gradually recovering some of his senses under Tang Yuehua's attentive care, he could not help asking this aunt he had only just acknowledged the question that had been haunting him.

"Aunt... who exactly was my mother?"

When Tang Yuehua, her eyes reddened, helplessly told him that his mother, Ah Yin, had also been a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor, and that she had ultimately sacrificed herself to save Tang Hao...

Tang San's entire worldview completely collapsed.

His mother was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and Xiao Wu was also a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

His father had become the youngest Titled Douluo because of his mother's sacrifice back then, and now he had tacitly allowed Tang San to get close to Xiao Wu...

Could all of this really have been nothing more than coincidence?!

Tang San did not dare think any further. He feared that the answer looming before him would utterly destroy the last shred of familial affection in his heart.

"Little San..."

A soft call interrupted Tang San's thoughts.

Tang Yuehua approached the bed with a bowl of freshly brewed calming soup.

Looking at Tang San's sunken eye sockets, bloodshot eyes, and the way he seemed to have aged ten years overnight, her heart ached so badly that tears streamed down her face.

"Good child, stop staying awake." Tang Yuehua set down the bowl and gently stroked Tang San's dry hair.

"You haven't slept for three days and nights. Aunt will look after your father. Go rest for a while in the room next door. If you collapse too, how am I supposed to explain it to your father when he wakes up?"

Tang Yuehua's voice was full of pleading.

Over the past few days, news from outside had arrived like snowflakes. Spirit Hall's kill-on-sight wanted posters had already covered the streets and alleys of Heaven Dou City.

Most notably was the utterly absurd report that Tang Hao had flown into a rage and killed Yu Xiaogang because his son's martial soul had been crippled!

But Spirit Hall's madness was undeniable. The entire Heaven Dou City was on edge, and Moonlight Pavilion's situation had become increasingly precarious.

Tang San shook his head, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping together.

"Aunt, I'm not tired. I can't sleep. I have to wait for Dad to wake up."

Tang San raised his head. His once-clear eyes were now filled with gloom and confusion.

"I need to ask him myself... about Mother, about Xiao Wu, and... about Teacher."

At the mention of Yu Xiaogang, Tang San's hands clenched the bedsheets tightly.

No matter how hard he thought, he could not understand why Spirit Hall had spread the news that his father had killed his teacher.

Who was pulling strings behind the scenes? Was it Spirit Hall's scheme, or the poison plot of that violet-gold-eyed youth?

And more importantly, wasn't his teacher merely a genius who had broken through to rank 29 at the age of fifty?

Even if his father really had killed him, why would Spirit Hall target both Tang San and his father so fiercely?

"You child, why are you so stubborn..."

Tang Yuehua sighed, just about to continue persuading him.

Just then.

"Urgh... cough, cough..."

Tang Hao, who had been lying on the bed like a corpse, suddenly let out an extremely faint groan from his throat.

Tang Yuehua and Tang San both shuddered.

"Second Brother?!"

"Dad!"

The two immediately rushed to the bedside.

Tang Hao's muscles twitched faintly across his deathly pale face.

The fingers of his only remaining right hand struggled to clutch the bedsheet beneath him.

Then, after a fierce struggle, the eyelids that had remained shut for three days and nights finally slowly opened a narrow slit.