Panic Gripped Notting City

Thud.

Blackened from head to toe, Chu Chen swayed and toppled straight into the deep crater, his mind full of questions. Then he lost consciousness completely.

What Chu Chen did not realize was that, as a traveler from another world, he had underestimated just how terrifying the words "Titled Douluo" were to ordinary Soul Masters on the Douluo Continent.

The disturbance was too great.

Great enough to send all of Notting City into a panic over its possible destruction!

More than half a quarter of an hour earlier, Tang Hao had intercepted Chu Chen on the Back Mountain. When he unleashed the immense pressure of a nine-ring Titled Douluo without restraint, that terrifying, domineering aura had swept across Notting City like an invisible storm!

At that moment, every dog in Notting City barked frantically before curling up in a corner, trembling.

At that moment, every Soul Master and Soul Grandmaster in the city jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat, as though a cold blade had been pressed against their throats!

It was a supreme pressure no ordinary person could ever hope to withstand!

Before the city's Soul Masters could recover from that suffocating sensation, a violent explosion tore through the night on the Back Mountain.

Rumble!

The ground shook violently. Roof tiles shattered across the city, and windowpanes rattled.

Blinding flames rose into the sky, staining the night above half of Notting City bloodred!

"What happened? What the hell happened?!"

Inside the Notting City Lord's Mansion, the disheveled city lord scrambled out of his room without even putting his shoes on properly. He stared toward the Back Mountain, pale-faced and trembling.

"City Lord! The Back Mountain... the Back Mountain behind Notting Junior Soul Master Academy exploded!"

A guard captain stumbled in to report, his face full of fear.

Meanwhile, at the Spirit Hall Branch Hall in Notting City.

The branch hall master's face looked especially grim in the moonlight. He gripped the sword at his waist, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Beside him stood Su Yuntao, the deacon who had joined Spirit Hall not long ago and overseen the Martial Soul awakenings in Holy Soul Village.

Su Yuntao was so frightened that his face had gone white. He could barely speak.

"Hall Master... that aura just now... was it a legendary Titled Douluo? How could there be a Titled Douluo in Notting City?"

"Not just one!"

The hall master drew a sharp breath. His voice was hoarse.

"That explosion was definitely caused by a collision between two forces beyond anything we can imagine!"

"A fight to the death... between Titled Douluo!"

A short while later, outside the gates of Notting Junior Soul Master Academy.

The city lord of Notting City, the Spirit Hall branch hall master, and the academy headmaster stood there.

These three figures, whose every move could normally shake Notting City, huddled by the gate with dozens of fully armed guards and Soul Masters, exchanging uneasy looks.

Not one of them dared take so much as half a step forward.

One step forward might put them in the path of a Titled Douluo's stray attack!

To a Titled Douluo, Soul Grandmasters, Soul Elders, and even Soul Ancestors like them were ants that could be crushed at any moment!

"Uh... Headmaster... that explosion seemed to come from behind your academy. Aren't you... going in to take a look?"

The city lord wiped the cold sweat from his brow and ventured the question.

The headmaster's face turned green. He waved his hands frantically, his voice shaking.

"Surely you're joking, City Lord! You felt that aura too. It was overwhelmingly powerful. What kind of terrifying beings must they be?"

"If those two esteemed figures really start fighting in earnest, going over there now would be suicide!"

"The headmaster is right."

The Spirit Hall master nodded in wholehearted agreement, his eyes full of dread.

"Judging by what happened, who knows which two reclusive Titled Douluo are dueling on the Back Mountain? We should wait and see. If we rush in and one of them mistakes us for enemies and kills us, who could we complain to?"

The Soul Masters who usually looked down on everyone else now clustered around the academy gate like frightened quails, muttering among themselves and sweating profusely.

No one dared go forward. They did not even have the courage to send a guard to scout ahead.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wu, who was waiting for Tang San outside Spirit Hall, clutched her skirt tightly. Her rabbit ears drooped behind her head, and her slender body trembled despite her efforts to stop it.

Titled Douluo...

Xiao Wu's face was deathly pale, her eyes filled with terror that rose from the depths of her soul.

As a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast who had taken human form to cultivate anew, she was extraordinarily sensitive to a Titled Douluo's aura!

That thunderous pressure had nearly sent the Soul Beast Origin inside her spiraling out of control!

A Titled Douluo was hiding in Notting City?!

And there was more than one?!

Could it be... had her identity been exposed?

Had Spirit Hall sent a Titled Douluo to capture her?!

Xiao Wu shrank into a corner and tried desperately to suppress even her breathing. She wanted nothing more than to flee this terrifying city at once.

Yet amid the citywide panic, the deathly silence and fear, one person was different.

Inside Spirit Hall's medical room.

Yu Xiaogang stood by the window with his hands behind his back, gazing at the wisps of smoke still rising from the distant Back Mountain. Beneath his mask, his face showed an indescribable mix of shock and fervor.

After carrying the gravely injured, unconscious Tang San back, he had used his connections to get him settled here.

"So this is the true might of a Titled Douluo?"

Yu Xiaogang's hands trembled with excitement. Of everyone in Notting City, only he "knew" who that domineering aura belonged to.

It was Tang Hao!

The youngest Titled Douluo on the entire continent!

The man Yu Xiaogang regarded as a legend!

"That little bastard Chu Chen... he's probably been reduced to ash by that earth-shattering power already, hasn't he?"

A cruel, cold smile curved Yu Xiaogang's lips.

How dare Chu Chen slap him?

How dare he steal his Soul Tool?

And how dare he force him to swear that vicious oath?

He was nothing but a backwoods brat who did not know his place!

However strange his talent might be, against absolute power he was no more than a mantis trying to stop a cart!

With Clear Sky Douluo taking action himself, the brat had no chance of surviving!

"A pity... that little bastard got off easy. I never got to settle the score with him myself."

Yu Xiaogang gave a low snort, then turned around.

As he looked at Tang San lying on the bed, weak but in no danger of dying, his gaze grew fervent and greedy once more.

Chu Chen's death did not matter. At least, it did not matter to Yu Xiaogang right now.

What mattered was that Tang San, the son of Clear Sky Douluo, a genius with Twin Martial Souls and the Clear Sky Hammer, was Yu Xiaogang's one chance to prove himself to the entire Soul Master world!

Yu Xiaogang looked at the unconscious Tang San on the bed, then turned toward the Soul Master Academy. His eyes burned with excitement.

"Twin Martial Souls, the strongest tool Martial Soul, the Clear Sky Hammer..."

"My disciple is destined to be no weaker than his... no, he's destined to surpass even his father!"

"One day, everyone who looked down on me will know that I, Yu Xiaogang, raised a peerless powerhouse!"