Douluo Continent's True Villains Ranking-Number One, Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao

[Douluo Continent's True Villains Ranking—Number One, Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao.]

[What??]

[Who was number one?? Tang Hao??]

[Was I seeing things? That Tang Hao who fought Spirit Hall alone and smashed the former Pope to death with his hammer?]

In a secret chamber atop a towering snow peak, Seventh Elder's mouth hung open for a long time. Second Elder rose while gripping the edge of the table, then sat back down. Fifth Elder muttered something under his breath, but no one heard it, and no one asked.

The comment section erupted into a sea of white.

[How many people watched when he hammered Qian Xunji to death at Spirit Hall's gates? How many people cursed that the Pope deserved to die?]

[From that day onward, Tang Hao was the hero of the entire continent! Spirit Hall pursued him for twenty years without catching him or even finding him. How many people hoped he could give Spirit Hall another hammer blow?]

[A hero becoming number one on the list? That hammer blow landed on the face of the whole continent.]

Inside the underground cavern, Tang San stepped in front of his father. One hand pressed against Tang Hao's shoulder, while the other had already typed three lines into the comment box.

[Tang San: Sky Screen! Did you make a mistake?! My father was upright and honorable his entire life! My mother, Ah Yin—my father risked his life to protect her! To protect my mother, he fought Spirit Hall's three Titled Douluo alone, and in the end, his wife was taken from him, his son separated from him, and he lost an arm before living in seclusion for twenty years—was a man like that the continent's greatest villain? Is there something wrong with your system?!]

After the comment was sent, the Sky Screen did not respond to the argument.

[Basis for the True Villains Ranking's number one judgment: plotting against his first wife, using himself as bait, forcibly demanding a sacrifice, slaughtering his clan, deceiving his beloved son.]

The underground cavern fell silent.

Tang San stared at those five phrases. Plotting against his first wife? Using himself as bait? His mind buzzed, and the fingers above the comment box froze. He could not type a single word.

[Wait, plotting against his first wife? Who was his first wife?]

[Wasn't Tang San's mother dead long ago? Back then, the story was that she was surrounded and killed by Spirit Hall...]

[Deceiving his beloved son... wasn't that beloved son Tang San, the one defending his father right now?]

Spirit Hall, Worship Hall.

Qian Daoliu sat at the head of the hall, the prayer beads in his hand motionless. He stared at those words for so long that the worshippers beside him thought he had fallen asleep. Then the old man laughed, his shoulders shaking.

The comment box lit up.

[Qian Daoliu: Back then, Spirit Hall deployed all its forces to hunt a level ninety-seven Clear Sky Douluo. We pursued him for twenty years without touching even a single hair on his head. Yet during the years Tang Hao rose to fame, our scouts repeatedly found clues to his whereabouts and his wife's whereabouts, only to arrive a step too late—always just a step too late. Even then, elders within the hall said there were things about that pursuit that defied common sense. Today, the truth has finally come to light.]

[What did that mean? The Pope and Vice Pope of Spirit Hall were personally confirming that Tang Hao deliberately exposed his whereabouts back then?]

[Deliberately exposed them to whom? Using himself as bait—who was the bait meant for?]

[First wife... sacrifice... my God, read those words together.]

[No way?? A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring? When he became a Titled Douluo, he relied on...]

Star Dou Great Forest...

The instant two enormous hundred-meter-long bodies burst from the water, the Soul Power across the continent trembled. The Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape hovered above the lake, one on each side, their hundred-thousand-year pressure spreading without the slightest restraint. Soul Beasts within a hundred-mile radius lowered their bodies in unison.

[Da Ming: Sky Screen. Where is Sister Ah Yin.]

[Er Ming: Explain yourself. Is the first wife you mentioned Sister Ah Yin?]

This time, the comment section was truly deathly silent.

[Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts... two of them... beings on Di Tian's level from Star Dou Great Forest called a woman their sister??]

[Wait, that woman was...]

The Sky Screen answered for them. Brief golden words appeared.

[Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin.]

[Blue Silver Emperor?! Ah Yin was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor?!]

[Tang Hao's wife was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast?! Then when she fell into Spirit Hall's hands, was he protecting his wife or... hunting for a ring?!]

[The words "hunting for a ring" gave me goosebumps just saying them. Impossible, impossible...]

In the underground cavern, Tang San braced himself against the stone wall as his stomach churned. His mother was a Blue Silver Emperor—his father had never told him. Not one word. He opened his mouth, wanting to send another comment, but his fingertips hovered in midair and could not fall.

The Sky Screen gave no one time to catch their breath.

A point of blood-red light condensed above the underground cavern. Then, a massive map spread across the skies of Douluo Continent. Every mountain, river, and valley across the continent was clearly visible.]

[The current coordinates of the True Villains Ranking's number one have been announced to the entire continent.]

[Announced to the entire continent... the entire continent!]

[They even put up his coordinates. They were nailing Tang Hao to the chopping block!]

[Spirit Hall reacted faster than anyone—look!]

At the edge of the map, crimson-gold points representing Spirit Hall began to move. Twenty thousand elite troops and twelve Titled Douluo—the army that had originally been advancing toward Star Dou Great Forest wheeled around midair and charged straight toward Sunset Forest.

At last, Tang Hao moved in the underground cavern. He yanked Tang San behind him and snatched up the Clear Sky Hammer resting against the cave wall. Twenty years had passed, and the dust covering the hammer's body fell in a soft shower. He stared at the blood-red light overhead, then at the sliver of daylight streaming in through the cave entrance. A hoarse sound, suppressed for decades, rolled from his throat.

"Spirit Hall... good." Veins rose one by one across the back of his hand. "If you're coming, then we'll settle everything at once."

Standing behind his father, Tang San looked at the map shared with the entire continent. Somewhere in his heart, a pillar that had supported him for sixteen years cracked. Deceiving his beloved son.

The Sky Screen's image shifted again.

Within the blood-red light, a face emerged. She was young and frail, a woman on the verge of giving birth reclining halfway on an old wooden bed. Her bangs were soaked with sweat, and her face was frighteningly pale. One hand rested on the bedside as she smiled softly toward the window.

In the curtain of rain outside stood a young man.

The man turned around. The image slowed here, slow enough for the entire continent to see the curve at the corner of his lips. There was not the slightest joy of impending fatherhood in that curve. It looked more like an account finally reaching the day the net was drawn shut.

[Wait, why was he smiling??]

[His wife was about to give birth. Why was he smiling??]

[So cold... that smile was so cold...]

[Wait, what was that silver-white trail?]

[It was Ah Yin's trail. From three months before she gave birth.]

[Three hundred miles? Spirit Hall's scouts could get within fifty miles! This wasn't hiding, this was... delivering herself right under their noses?]

In Holy Soul Village, Yu Xiaogang's hands stiffened around the lecture notes he was holding. He had taught soul master theory for twenty years and explained tracking tactics within a thousand meters hundreds of times. No one being hunted would ever deliberately travel alongside the pursuers' supply line.

[The following content is Ah Yin's actual movements during her pregnancy, replayed simultaneously across the entire continent.]

The image shifted into a cave. Tang Hao sat beside a campfire while Ah Yin slept deeper inside, one hand resting on her swollen belly. Tang Hao was not asleep. He crouched at the cave entrance, his knuckles pressed to the ground, each word from his mouth falling into the fire.