Spiritual Soul Skill: Worship Me!

Before Tang Hao had finished speaking, the Clear Sky Hammer Martial Soul appeared in his hand again.

A powerful aura erupted from him.

"The Clear Sky Hammer... will never fall!!!"

Tang Hao roared, his voice hoarse and twisted, like a curse from a demon in hell!

Then,

In the void,

The true form of the Clear Sky Hammer, long since shattered and dispersed into chaos,

Appeared once more!

As he made this desperate, frenzied move, a terrifying surge of unstable, destructive energy erupted from him!

The air around him warped violently. An invisible force pulled stones and dirt from the ground, sending them spinning wildly around Tang Hao!

At the edge of the deep crater beneath him, soil and rock began to disintegrate silently into dust!

He was burning his Soul Power!

He was sacrificing the power of his Soul Bones!

He meant to detonate every last scrap of power he had left in one final attack!

When two foes met head-on, the bolder one prevailed!

One of them would die!

This was the last, most resolute roar Tang Hao, the Clear Sky Douluo, could muster after his dignity had been trampled and every path forward cut off!

He would drag the enemy who had destroyed everything he had down to hell with him!

"Headmaster!"

Zhao Wuji had only just caught his breath when he felt that terrifying, self-destructive surge. His face changed, and he screamed toward Flender in horror!

He knew all too well what an eruption of this magnitude meant!

It would be a catastrophe!

All of Shrek Academy, perhaps even much of Suotuo City's outskirts, could be wiped out in this final frenzy!

Flender had gone deathly pale too. He trembled uncontrollably, despair filling his eyes!

However strong Cao Kun was, could he withstand a Super Douluo's ultimate, all-out explosion?!

Flender dared not imagine it!

He wanted only to flee!

But that destructive pressure gripped him like invisible shackles, making even a single step agonizingly difficult!

"Oh, going all out?"

Faced with Tang Hao's final frenzy, Cao Kun finally frowned slightly.

For the first time, a distinct trace of... impatience crossed his calm eyes.

It was as though he were watching an ant make one last attempt to pester a dragon.

"A dying struggle. You're only making a fool of yourself."

His cold words fell like a verdict.

Cao Kun did not even bother using the Chaos Bell again.

He merely raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and aimed at Tang Hao at the bottom of the crater. Soul Power burned wildly around Tang Hao, his aura climbing higher and higher like a human bomb about to explode.

Across the empty space,

Cao Kun gently closed his fist!

There was no earth-shaking display, no dazzling burst of light.

Only an invisible force, as though drawn from the rules underlying the world itself, descended the moment Cao Kun made that casual gesture!

"Worship Me!"

His voice rang out.

Boundless spiritual pressure engulfed Tang Hao in an instant!

"Humm...!"

The blood-red vortex spinning madly around Tang Hao, radiating destruction, seemed to be seized by an invisible hand vast enough to cover the sky!

Its rotation stopped at once!

The raging energy froze in place!

"Urgh?!"

For the first time, pure fear from the depths of his soul appeared in Tang Hao's eyes, where blood-red flames still burned!

His connection to the energy of heaven and earth had been severed in an instant!

The power of the Soul Core within him, raging on the verge of detonation, seemed bound and suppressed by countless invisible shackles!

Even the burning of his life force was forcibly halted!

He was like an insect trapped in amber. Every struggle, every trace of madness, every destructive impulse was frozen and crushed by that single gesture!

That invisible power lay beyond anything he understood about Soul Power. It carried an absolute will that commanded the rules themselves, as though its words became law!

"Pfft—!"

The backlash from having his self-destruction forcibly stopped was worse than any injury he had suffered before!

Tang Hao's body arched as though countless hammers had struck him from within. He spat another mouthful of dark-gold blood mixed with fragments of his organs and the essence of his Soul Power!

The frantic blood-red flames in his eyes flickered like candles in the wind, then swiftly dimmed and went out. Only endless pain, despair, and uncomprehending disbelief remained.

He had exhausted his strength and burned his Soul Power for one final stand...

And his opponent had so casually... closed a fist...

And snuffed it out?!

What kind of power was this?!

What kind of monster was this?!

The crushing gulf between them and his utter helplessness washed over Tang Hao's remaining consciousness like an icy tide.

The light in his eyes faded. His body lost all support and pitched forward, slamming into the mud at the bottom of the crater and splashing up a spray of bloody sludge.

This time,

He had no strength left at all. Like a dead dog, he lay motionless at the bottom of the crater.

Only the mud spreading beneath him, mixed with dark-gold blood, bore witness to his existence and his final struggle.

Cao Kun slowly lowered his right hand, as if he had merely brushed away a speck of dust.

Without a glance at the body in the crater, now utterly incapable of resistance, he calmly surveyed the devastated battlefield.

His gaze passed over Zhao Wuji and Flender in the distance, both standing frozen like statues.

The night wind blew, carrying a faint scent of blood and dust.

The Chaos Bell's lingering power had long since faded.

Once again, utter silence fell over the battlefield.

There was only the night wind moaning through the broken walls, the faint patter of dust settling in the distance, and... the painful, furious coughing and gasping Tang Hao could not suppress amid the ruins.

Zhao Wuji and Flender stood like statues, their minds utterly blank.

They stared at the boy's back. His face was pale as paper and his breathing slightly uneven, yet he still stood straight. To them, he looked like... a god descended to earth.

No,

Even a god might not have inspired such awe!

He had gravely wounded the Clear Sky Douluo, who possessed a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, with ease?!

Calling it a victory over a stronger opponent did not begin to describe it!

It overturned everything they knew about Soul Masters!

Cao Kun lowered his hand and gently let out a breath.

I held back... a little too much after all.

Cao Kun sighed inwardly.

Had he used even a little more of his true strength, that first punch might have left Tang Hao completely unable to fight.

But,

He had done it deliberately.

When he fought Tang Hao, he had treated him more as a whetstone.

He had tested his Soul Skills one by one.

And now,

The results looked good.

With only thirty percent of his strength, he had easily subdued Tang Hao.

Especially with that final move.

It was his spiritual Soul Skill: Worship Me!

Its inspiration came from Conqueror's Haki in the world of pirates!

It embodied the idea:

I alone reign supreme; even the gods bow to me!