I'll Flay You Alive!

Tang Hao grabbed Yu Xiaogang by the collar and hauled him bodily off the ground. "I'll flay you alive today!" he roared.

"Cough, cough... You ignorant peasant... You don't understand..."

Yu Xiaogang's eyes rolled back as Tang Hao choked him. His neck felt ready to snap.

But determined to prove his own greatness, he shouted with all his strength,

"She's too weak right now! Too fragile! If you keep her at home, she'll be ruined!"

Yu Xiaogang pried at Tang Hao's hand with both of his, his legs kicking in the air. He managed to draw a breath and continued,

"I have to take her away! Into a forest where there's no one else! Only I know what she needs!"

"Into a forest where there's no one else?"

The last shred of reason in Tang Hao's mind vanished.

Before he could crush Yu Xiaogang's neck, though, he heard him say,

"I've already picked one out for her. It's a thick, long, venomous snake!"

"Just let me take her away and put that venomous snake inside her body. Only then will she grow! It's her only way forward!"

"..."

Dead silence fell over the courtyard.

Only the breeze rustling through fallen leaves could be heard in the Blacksmith Shop's yard.

Inside, Huo Yuhao, Tang Sanmei, and Xiao Wu stood in a row, staring openmouthed at Yu Xiaogang dangling in the air.

"...A venomous snake... inside my daughter's body?"

Tang Hao's voice was hoarse and utterly devoid of emotion.

He slowly turned to look at the hundred-pound hammer in the corner of the yard, used for forging refined iron.

"Sanmei, close your eyes."

Tang Hao did not look back as he spoke.

"If I don't pound you into paste today, my name isn't Tang!"

"Uncle Tang, please spare him."

Seeing Tang Hao was about to kill Yu Xiaogang, Huo Yuhao could not help speaking up.

He would have loved to see Yu Xiaogang beaten to death on the spot.

But reason told him that if Tang Hao killed Yu Xiaogang here,

trouble would follow, wave after wave.

After all, everyone knew a dead first love was the most perfect first love.

With that thought, Huo Yuhao came out of the house, his hands in his pockets. Suppressing a smile, he said to Tang Hao,

"Uncle Tang, calm down. You misunderstood him. By 'body,' he meant Sanmei's Martial Soul. That venomous snake is a Soul Beast he found for her."

"My cousin's right! Mister, you really did misunderstand!"

Xiao Wu clutched her stomach, laughing so hard she shook, her rabbit ears twitching.

"Absorbing a Soul Ring does mean drawing a Soul Beast's energy into your body. But the way this man put it... so creepy."

Tang Sanmei nodded too, her face dark with embarrassment.

"Dad, he really was talking about Martial Soul Theory."

"Martial... Soul?"

Tang Hao froze.

He glanced at Yu Xiaogang, whose face had turned purple in his grip. His own weathered face flushed scarlet.

So... the bastard was talking about her First Soul Ring?

Bang!

Tang Hao tossed Yu Xiaogang to the ground like a piece of trash.

Even knowing it had been a misunderstanding, he still cursed irritably,

"He talks about Soul Ring theory like some filthy old pervert. No wonder he got hit."

"Cough, cough, cough... Cough, cough..."

Yu Xiaogang, who had barely escaped with his life, lay on the ground coughing violently.

He glared at Tang Hao and spat,

"You ignorant brute! I, Yu Xiaogang, swear... Once she goes to school..."

"Fuck, you still dare threaten me?"

Tang Hao froze.

Tang Hao was baffled.

Tang Hao grew angry.

Tang Hao flew into a rage!

He had only just put his heart back in his chest after that perverted misunderstanding, and now this old bastard dared announce to his face that he would keep harassing Sanmei at school!

Give him an inch and he'd take a mile!

"If I don't slap that filthy mouth of yours to pieces today, I'll—"

Tang Hao roared and gave Yu Xiaogang no chance to finish. He strode over and seized him by the back of his collar again, like a helpless chick.

"Going to school, are you? Proving your theory?"

Tang Hao's palm cracked twice across the one side of Yu Xiaogang's face that had escaped the earlier beating. Stars burst before Yu Xiaogang's eyes, and his teeth went flying.

"I'll break both your legs today! Let's see you walk to school and bother my daughter then!"

Feeling the almost tangible killing intent rolling off Tang Hao, Yu Xiaogang finally lost his nerve.

To hell with the core competitiveness of Martial Souls.

To hell with Grandmaster's dignity.

Before sheer violence, neither was worth a damn!

"Stop! Stop hitting me! I won't go! I won't take her as my disciple!"

Yu Xiaogang wailed as he tore free of Tang Hao's grip and scrambled out of the yard. He even lost a shoe in his flight.

As he sprinted through the mud, he looked back and shrieked, trying to salvage one last pitiful scrap of pride:

"You'll regret this! Without my theoretical guidance, that girl will be useless her whole life! You unreasonable country bumpkins—ow!"

Before he could finish, Tang Hao kicked a broken brick across the yard.

It struck Yu Xiaogang square in the backside. He screamed like a pig at slaughter and stumbled around the street corner, vanishing from sight.

"Pah! Grandmaster, my ass. He's a crackpot swindler."

Tang Hao dusted the dirt from his hands and spat hard toward the gate. More than half the Evil Fire that had been smoldering inside him for the past two weeks was finally gone. He felt wonderfully refreshed.

"All right. Forget that lunatic."

Tang Hao turned and strode back into the yard. He still did not like the look of Huo Yuhao, but after what had just happened, his tone was no longer quite so harsh.

He casually shouldered the great iron hammer from the corner, swept his gaze over Huo Yuhao and Tang Sanmei, and waved a broad hand.

"Come on! To the Soul Hunting Forest! I'll take you myself today and show you how a real Soul Master chooses a Soul Ring!"

In the carriage bound for the Soul Hunting Forest in the southwest of the Heaven Dou Empire,

Tang Sanniang rested her chin on her hand, watching Tang Hao doze across from her. Her delicate face was full of doubt and thought.

Ever since Tang Hao had sent Yu Xiaogang flying with one punch, then declared with such authority that he would take her to obtain a Soul Ring, a huge question had taken root in Tang Sanniang's mind.

"Dad."

Tang Sanniang could not hold back any longer. She gently tugged at Tang Hao's faded sleeve.

"What level Soul Master are you, exactly?"

"Hmm?"

Tang Hao opened his eyes and coughed twice, his gaze flickering away.

"Why do you ask?"

"Grandpa Jack always says you're the most useless drunkard blacksmith in the village. But you sent that Grandmaster flying with one punch. And if you're just an ordinary low-level Soul Master, how can you dare bring us to the Soul Hunting Forest by yourself?"

Tang Sanniang laid out her reasoning like a little adult.

Hearing his daughter's well-reasoned interrogation, Tang Hao's heart skipped a beat. A fine sheen of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.