Tang Hao Sent Flying with One Punch!

Before the words had even faded,

Cao Kun's aura changed.

Boom...

A mighty force erupted from him and shot straight into the sky.

The next instant, Cao Kun made his move.

He looked at Tang Hao and considered his opponent. Tang Hao was a Super Douluo, terrifyingly strong.

Though Cao Kun was already a Limit Douluo, he had fought only a handful of real battles.

Fighting Tang Hao would give him a chance to test his strength in combat.

So

Cao Kun drew on the power of his Second Martial Soul, the Body Martial Soul, and quietly activated his Indestructible Battle Body.

But he used no Soul Skill.

"You went after one of my people..."

"Did you ask my fist first?"

As Cao Kun spoke, he took a step forward. It looked casual, yet it was as though space itself folded and compressed at his will!

The next instant,

a faint afterimage lingered where Cao Kun had stood, already fading. He himself appeared less than two meters from Tang Hao as if he had teleported!

Fast! Too fast for thought to keep up!

Tang Hao froze for an instant when Cao Kun vanished.

But the battle instincts of a Titled Douluo made him react almost the moment Cao Kun moved.

Soul Power surged instinctively through his body, adding force to his punch!

Yet he was still half a beat too slow!

In that fleeting instant, Cao Kun's right fist came down on him without a sound.

No Soul Ring shone. No Soul Skill activated. No earth-shaking energy erupted.

It was only a fist.

Yet as that fist swung, a sensation that made Tang Hao's soul tremble descended upon him!

It was strength in its purest form!

The terrifying might of a body tempered to its absolute peak!

The air before the fist compressed under its sheer speed and power, squeezed to the limit!

There was no whistle, no explosion—only a silent collapse that made hearts stop and eardrums ache!

Light and dust warped and blurred around the fist, as though space itself could not bear its raw power!

The punch was plain and unadorned, yet it carried a primal dominance that seemed capable of shattering the void and shaking the stars!

It locked onto Tang Hao, as though heaven and earth were bearing down on him along with it!

Tang Hao's expression changed sharply beneath the shadow of his hood!

A warning of mortal danger rose from the depths of his soul!

He had roamed the continent for decades and survived countless battles to the death, but never had he felt such pure, crushing pressure from the power of a physical body!

It was as though what hurtled toward him was not a fist but a star falling from beyond the heavens, driven by a savage will to crush every rule in its path!

It all happened in a flash!

Bang...

Their fists collided violently.

In an instant,

Cao Kun's blow shattered Tang Hao's attack.

Then,

his fist drove on with thunderous force, straight toward Tang Hao's chest.

"Roar...!"

Tang Hao let out a furious bellow, equal parts shock and disbelief!

The pride and battle instincts of a Titled Douluo would not let him sit there and take the blow!

Faced with a punch too fast to dodge,

he abandoned every elaborate Soul Skill and every thought of retreat...

At the last possible instant, he poured all his strength into his arms!

The pride of the Clear Sky Douluo drove him to meet the blow head-on!

He crossed his arms like two massive doors and braced them before his chest!

He would take that seemingly ordinary yet terrifying punch with his powerful body and the strength of his Martial Soul Origin!

"Hah...!"

The muscles in Tang Hao's arms bulged like steel, nearly bursting the sleeves of his tattered cloak!

"Thousand-Jun Barrier!"

At Tang Hao's shout, a dense, substantial layer of dark-gold light instantly covered his arms.

It was the eighth Soul Skill granted by his Clear Sky Hammer Martial Soul's Eighth Soul Ring: the ultimate defensive power!

He had not had time to unleash it fully, but it still offered the formidable defense of a Titled Douluo.

The next instant,

Boom...!!!

The fist struck his crossed arms squarely!

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

Only a deep, heart-stopping impact, as though two towering mountains had slammed together!

Time seemed to freeze.

Tang Hao's vision went black!

An unimaginable, irresistible force, as though born in a primordial age, drove through his arms and battered its way into his body!

Crack! Crack, crack!

Sharp, unmistakable cracks rang through Tang Hao's crossed arms like a string of firecrackers!

The dark-gold defense covering them, strong enough to withstand a Soul Douluo's full-force strike, fractured the instant it made contact.

Then it shattered completely, scattering into motes of light!

"Urgh...!"

A muffled groan of unbearable pain and disbelief escaped from beneath Tang Hao's cloak!

It felt as though two invisible hammers had smashed into his arms!

Pain swept through him like a tidal wave!

But more terrifying was the force behind it!

Overwhelming!

Unstoppable!

It lay beyond anything he had believed strength could be!

It was more than a physical impact. It carried a will to crush and destroy everything!

The power of his Martial Soul Origin and his Titled Douluo-level Soul Power defense were as fragile as paper before that pure, absolute strength!

Boom...!!!

Tang Hao's tall, mountain-like body could no longer hold its ground against that irresistible force!

He flew backward, faster than he had come, reduced to a blurred streak hurtling toward the dense forest behind him!

Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash...!

A string of deafening impacts and splintering blasts rang through the night!

The air tore apart around Tang Hao's body with a piercing shriek!

He smashed through several towering ancient trees, their thick trunks bursting apart like rotten wood.

Splinters whirled through the air!

At the same time, the tremendous impact plowed a terrifying trench through the ground, several feet deep and a hundred meters long.

Soil, turf, and stones flew high, rising in a muddy wave!

At last,

with a thunderous crash and the groan of trees breaking apart, Tang Hao vanished into a dust-choked ruin a hundred meters away, carved out by his own body!

Cao Kun slowly drew back his fist and casually brushed the dust from his sleeve.

He still stood where he had been, his eyes calm and untroubled.

As though sending the Clear Sky Douluo flying with one earth-shaking punch had been nothing more than a trivial task.

Zhao Wuji stared, his mind blank.

The scene kept replaying in his head:

The Clear Sky Douluo who had overwhelmed him had been sent flying so easily by Cao Kun's plain fist?

How... how was that possible?!

Was he dreaming?

Or seeing things?

Zhao Wuji stared fixedly at the young man.

Flender stood motionless too, as though turned to stone.

Only his lips moved, trembling with utter shock and fear.

What had he just seen?!

One punch!

Just one punch!

Without using a single Soul Skill!

Tang Hao, the Clear Sky Douluo—the youngest Titled Douluo on the continent, wielder of a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, a man even Spirit Hall had once feared...

Had been sent flying by Cao Kun, a student of his own Shrek Academy...

With one punch?!