Oh Damn, the Bug Stood Up

How to describe the hidden injuries inside Tang Hao's body?

"Severe" no longer covered it. He was riddled with wounds.

Even Tang Hao himself had said that not even a healing-type Titled Douluo could cure his old injuries.

Through the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul, Xu Yuan could see the damage more clearly.

First, Tang Hao's organs had shifted out of place. They had also been scorched by angelic power, leaving many hidden injuries.

Next, large sections of the meridians throughout his body were shattered. Some had barely healed and were tangled together.

Last came what Xu Yuan considered the gravest problem: large amounts of stagnant blood and toxins had built up inside Tang Hao's body.

They blocked his meridians, preventing his Soul Power from flowing smoothly, while steadily eating away at his body.

As Xu Yuan watched, the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul stirred.

Dazzling white light became a gentle white current. It slowly entered Tang Hao's body, circled through his meridians, and flowed into his Dantian.

"Is that... the inner energy of the Mysterious Heaven Skill?"

Xu Yuan's eyes widened.

The Wish-Granting Tree was a Martial Soul born from Xu Yuan's body.

Its connection to him was closer than he had imagined.

The moment Xu Yuan switched to cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill, the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul had recorded its unique inner energy.

So instead of directly healing Tang Hao's hidden injuries, the Wish-Granting Tree converted a vast amount of energy into the inner energy of the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

As the white currents entered his body, Tang Hao's brow, furrowed for years, finally relaxed.

It was as though a crushing weight he had carried for years had been lifted from his shoulders.

So far, that seemed normal enough.

But what happened next made Xu Yuan close his eyes in despair.

The Wish-Granting Tree could produce vast amounts of the Mysterious Heaven Skill's inner energy to heal Tang Hao's hidden injuries, but it refused to part with a single scrap of its own power!

Which raised the question: where would the energy come from?

The Wish-Granting Tree's answer was... Aren't those Soul Rings full of it?

Lost in the soothing warmth of the Mysterious Heaven Skill's inner energy, Tang Hao never noticed his Soul Rings beginning to flicker.

His First Soul Ring faded from bright yellow to pale yellow.

Then from pale yellow to luminous white, and finally to a deathly white.

Tang Hao's Hundred-Year Soul Ring had become a Ten-Year Soul Ring.

As the First Soul Ring's power poured in, the Mysterious Heaven Skill's inner energy began pushing Tang Hao's organs back into place.

Immediately afterward, the Second to Fourth Soul Rings flickered together, all dropping to Ten-Year Soul Rings.

The inner energy converted from those three rings flowed continuously, untangling and healing his twisted meridians.

As the Fifth Black Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring flickered, the tangled meridians were severed, then reconnected and healed.

At first, Xu Yuan thought the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul was being responsible. At least it wasn't cutting corners; every bit of power was going where it mattered.

Then he saw two separate meridians joined together, and his composure finally cracked.

He checked them against the meridian diagram in the Mysterious Heaven Skill and realized the Wish-Granting Tree's connections were as mismatched as a donkey's lips and a horse's mouth.

Some meridians were supposed to loop around, but the Wish-Granting Tree had simply connected them to the nearest point.

Once it finished, Xu Yuan glanced at the Mysterious Heaven Skill's meridian diagram and found that seven or eight meridians were still missing.

By then, sweat was pouring down Xu Yuan's back.

But the Wish-Granting Tree was far from finished.

Perhaps it found the remaining stagnant blood too difficult to deal with.

This time, Tang Hao's Sixth to Eighth Soul Rings all dropped in rank.

What made Xu Yuan's vision go dark was that the Wish-Granting Tree neither dissolved the stagnant blood nor expelled it.

Instead, it spread the blood and toxins blocking his meridians evenly throughout his entire network—even the meridians in his brain.

If Tang Hao had once been liable to drop dead at any moment, he was now likely to die suddenly at any moment.

Finally, the Red Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring began flickering.

Xu Yuan sensed another mass of the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring Source appear inside his body.

Yet there was not a trace of joy on his face.

When Tang Hao woke and saw nine white Soul Rings hanging around him, wouldn't he kill Xu Yuan with bloodshot eyes?

"Why don't you put the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring Source back?"

"If you can't do that, at least paint his Soul Rings their original colors!"

The Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul's antics had left Xu Yuan numb.

The instant that thought crossed his mind, the nine deathly white Ten-Year Soul Rings regained their original colors.

But only their colors.

Had the wish come true this time?

Xu Yuan reviewed the wish Tang Hao had made.

He had wished for the hidden injuries inside his body to be healed and for his body to withstand the full force unleashed by Ring Detonation.

As for the first part, everything had been healed—apart from the meridians connected at random and the stagnant blood spread evenly throughout them.

As for those two problems... well, had he been treated or hadn't he?

Tang Hao had only wished for treatment. He hadn't said anything about being restored to his original condition.

And making his body withstand the full force of Ring Detonation was even simpler.

All nine Soul Rings together didn't hold enough power to make one Hundred-Year Soul Ring.

How could his body fail to withstand a Ring Detonation at that level?

When the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul's white light faded completely, Tang Hao, clad in a coarse robe, threw back his head and howled!

"Spirit Hall! I, Tang Hao—the Clear Sky Douluo—have returned!"

The vast pressure of a Titled Douluo's Soul Power blanketed Nuoding City.

Xu Yuan was forced two steps back, sweat covering his forehead.

To his surprise, though, Tang Hao wasn't angry.

Or rather, Tang Hao hadn't noticed the problem with his Soul Rings at all.

It seemed unreasonable, but after a moment's thought, Xu Yuan understood.

The power contained within a Soul Ring did not belong to the Soul Master himself.

Only when using a Soul Skill could one notice a change in a Soul Ring.

And throughout his life, Tang Hao had seldom relied on conventional Soul Skills. He favored the power of the Clear Sky Hammer itself.

In the original story, Tang Hao had used only his Seventh Soul Skill, Clear Sky True Body. Otherwise, he had relied more on hammer techniques and Ring Detonation.

In other words, as long as Tang Hao didn't use Ring Detonation, he would never discover that his Soul Rings had been dyed.

But Tang Hao had said it himself: Ring Detonation was a technique for fighting with one's life on the line.

Naturally, he would use such a technique only when his life was on the line.

"Good! Good! Good!"

"No wonder Grandmaster called you a one-in-ten-thousand exception!"

"With Grandmaster's theory about your wish-granting Martial Soul, I haven't lost even a trace of Soul Power!"

Even Tang Hao was stunned by the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul's ability.

He had thought it might work, but he had never imagined it would work this well.

"However..."

Tang Hao's tone shifted, and Xu Yuan's heart leaped into his throat.

"Hahaha, it's nothing. My head just feels a little itchy..."

Tang Hao burst out laughing and casually scratched his bird's-nest hair.

Of course it itches. Your meridians are connected at random, and blood could pool in your brain at any moment...

Honestly, the fact that Tang Hao could still stand made him superhuman.

Xu Yuan now looked at Tang Hao with solemn respect.

The man standing before him was not just a Titled Douluo. He was a bug that had stood up.

"Now that I've recovered..."

A fierce glint flashed in Tang Hao's eyes.

When he had gone to smash the Spirit Hall Branch earlier, he had happened to overhear the whereabouts of Chrysanthemum and Ghost, the two Titled Douluo.

By his reckoning, if he hurried there through the night, he could still ambush them.

At the thought, the corners of Tang Hao's mouth lifted slightly.

He could hardly wait to make that Chrysanthemum and that Kid pay for hunting him down!

"I'll mark Tang Hao's return with the blood of two Spirit Hall Titled Douluo!"

Tang Hao made no attempt to hide his intentions. He said them outright.

As far as he was concerned, the Wish-Granting Tree Martial Soul was already in the Clear Sky Sect's grasp!

"Kid, your Martial Soul is good! Very good!"

"Unfortunately, I have urgent business to attend to. When I get back, we'll talk about you in detail."

With that, Tang Hao's figure abruptly vanished.

Xu Yuan had thought he was dead for sure. He hadn't expected his luck to turn.

I hope you can still make it back then... Actually, it'd be best if you never came back.