Tang Hao Fled!?

Ring Detonation!

It was a secret technique unique to the Clear Sky Sect: by detonating his own Soul Ring, a Soul Master could gain terrifying power beyond his limits for a short time!

Its might could shake heaven and earth, enough to kill enemies above his level.

But the price was just as terrible: the Soul Ring could be destroyed or lose years of cultivation, while the Soul Master's foundation suffered grievous damage. At best, his cultivation would regress. At worst, his Martial Soul would shatter, leaving him powerless!

Had Tang Hao truly been driven to use such a forbidden technique?!

Flender had gone deathly pale. His lips trembled, but no sound came out.

A Titled Douluo detonating a Soul Ring—especially a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring... What kind of world-ending sight would that be?!

Shrek Academy might not survive the night!

Even Cao Kun's calm eyes finally showed a trace of surprise.

As far as he knew, Tang Hao's old internal injuries had not fully healed.

He should not have been capable of Ring Detonation.

"He's actually going all out..."

Cao Kun murmured to himself. Understanding flashed through his eyes, then gave way to detached indifference.

"Fine. Let me see just how much this so-called Clear Sky Secret Arts is worth."

He neither stopped Tang Hao nor stepped aside.

He simply stood there, watching Tang Hao gather his strength.

His white robes billowed in the violent hurricane of Soul Power, but he stood as steady as a rock. The apocalyptic scene before him might as well have been a slightly noisy fireworks display.

"Great Sumeru Hammer... Sky-Piercing Strike!!!"

"Die!!!"

Tang Hao's eyes were blood-red as he let out a heart-rending roar!

He raised the enormous phantom Clear Sky Hammer with both hands. All his Soul Power, blood, and even life essence surged into the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, which blazed with unbearable brilliance!

Rumble...!!!

The sky changed color! The clouds and winds reversed!

A blood-red sphere over a hundred meters across erupted around Tang Hao, packed with destructive energy!

Inside it, countless bolts of thunder seemed to roar, volcanoes to erupt, and stars to collapse!

Space twisted and tore, groaning under the strain!

The ground was ripped up and obliterated as easily as tofu!

The trees still standing in the distance collapsed like paper and crumbled to dust!

Driven by Tang Hao without regard for the cost, the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring exploded!

This was no mere release of energy. Its very essence burned and perished!

Destructive power far beyond that of an ordinary level-ninety-five Super Douluo burst forth.

Joined with the Clear Sky Hammer's domineering intent to break all techniques with a single blow, it became a dark-red pillar of destruction spanning heaven and earth, hurtling toward Cao Kun...

No, toward Cao Kun and everything behind him.

It came crashing down!!!

This strike was no longer aimed at one person. It was an attack meant to destroy everything in its path!

Even in the depths of his frenzy, Tang Hao still had such power left to unleash!!!

"Damn it...!!!"

Zhao Wuji and Flender roared and tried to stop it, but beneath that world-ending pressure, they were as helpless as ants!

Before the attack even landed, its pressure sent the ground sinking.

Zhao Wuji and Flender spat blood. Pinned to the ground, their bones cracking, they could not even lift their heads!

The aura of death enveloped everyone.

At that instant!

Cao Kun finally moved.

He sighed softly, as though in regret—or perhaps in wonder.

Then he extended one finger.

The index finger of his right hand.

He pointed it gently at the dark-red pillar of destruction, a strike powerful enough to reduce an ordinary Titled Douluo to dust.

His movement was slow and light, utterly effortless.

It was as though he were not facing a world-ending blow, but brushing a speck of dust from his sleeve.

"Stasis."

One simple word left his lips.

His voice was quiet, yet it seemed to carry supreme authority, as though his words were law.

It cut through the roar of thunder and the din of shattering space, reaching the ears of everyone present.

It even seemed to ring through the very fabric of the world's laws!

The next moment...

A miracle—or perhaps a divine act—occurred.

The pillar of destruction, roaring forward with Tang Hao's lifetime of cultivation, the power of Ring Detonation, and the Clear Sky Hammer's domineering intent, abruptly froze ten paces from Cao Kun's fingertip!

It was not blocked. It was not canceled out.

It froze.

Like a rushing river turned to ice in an instant, like a raging fire reduced to ash in a heartbeat.

Time, space, energy, matter, even the will to destroy contained within it...

Everything,

Before that seemingly fragile finger, an incomprehensible, irresistible Power of Rules that stood above all things held it fast!

The pillar remained poised to destroy, yet hung motionless in the air.

Its raging energy ceased to flow. Twisted space smoothed out, and even its dark-red glow seemed to lose its color, turning dim and lifeless.

It was like a painting frozen at the instant of destruction.

Silence.

A silence deeper than any before it.

Even the wind, their heartbeats, and the flow of blood seemed to vanish.

Zhao Wuji and Flender lay on the ground, forgetting their pain and fear. They stared blankly at the frozen pillar of destruction and the white-clad young man before it, who had halted its world-ending might with a single finger.

Their minds had gone utterly still.

What they had seen surpassed understanding, overturned everything they knew, and shattered all the beliefs they had built over decades about power, Soul Masters, and the world itself.

Could... could a human truly do this?

Tang Hao felt as if five bolts of lightning had struck him at once!

He remained frozen with both hands raised around his hammer, pouring all his strength into Ring Detonation. The frenzy, fury, and resolve on his face stiffened, then slowly gave way to boundless horror and... despair!

Ring Detonation...

The power of Ring Detonation!

His strongest strike, carrying a lifetime of cultivation and delivered at the cost of his own life!

It had... it had been stopped by a single finger?!

What kind of power was this?!

What Martial Soul was this?!

What level of cultivation was this?!

A god?!

Only a god could so easily erase a mortal's desperate, all-out strike, couldn't he?!

"Urgh...!!!"

The devastating backlash, the utter collapse of his hopes, and the unimaginable blow to his spirit overwhelmed Tang Hao. He spat out a great mouthful of blood.

He knew he could not stay. He had to leave.

And so...

The next second.

Tang Hao roared, "I'll take you down with me!"

"Great Sumeru Hammer!!!"

"Explode!"

Before the word had finished leaving his mouth, the phantom Clear Sky Hammer exploded.

For a moment,

Winds howled, clouds churned, and sand and stones flew everywhere!

Seizing the opening, Tang Hao burst forward at unprecedented speed and fled into the distance.

At the sight,

Zhao Wuji and Flender froze.

They watched Tang Hao's receding figure and said in disbelief:

"The mighty Clear Sky Douluo... Did he just... run away?"