"Damn it!"
Tang Hao dared not let his guard down and immediately tightened his grip on the Clear Sky Hammer.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red-nine Soul Rings bobbed around him.
Cracks spread across the surfaces of the first four Soul Rings, accompanied by a continuous series of faint cracking sounds. Clearly, he was preparing to unleash Ring Detonation.
"Deto-"
Before he could finish, a cold, sharp shout abruptly cut him off.
"Luan Jin Tuo!!"
Chen Yang held two fingers upright before him like a sword, an eerie blue glow shining from his eyes. Tang Hao froze in place, the time governing his movements stretched out infinitely.
Holy shit, did Tang Hao's destiny really carry that much weight?
"Huff-huff-"
Chen Yang panted heavily, his stamina and Soul Power draining at a terrifying rate. Without the physical constitution Da Ming and Er Ming provided, he might have collapsed from exhaustion already.
"Er Ming! Let's do this!"
Chen Yang switched to the Ground-type Z-Crystal and crossed his hands before him.
Ding-
A clear crystalline chime rang out. The Z-Crystal erupted with a dazzling, dense earthen-yellow radiance. Several thick streams of earthy light surged and churned like torrents of energy rushing through the veins beneath the earth, pouring into Er Ming's enormous body beside him.
Dark golden patterns spread across the Titan Giant Ape's rocky, earthen fur as Earth Power surged wildly within him.
Chen Yang shouted at the top of his lungs, "Draw upon the crushing might of earth and mountains! Gather the primal power that rends the depths! Let's give it everything we've got! Continental Crush!!"
"ROAR!!!"
Er Ming's earthshaking roar resounded through the clouds, and the ground beneath his feet instantly split into a web of cracks.
A savage shock wave surged through the earth toward Tang Hao.
Just before the attack reached Tang Hao, Chen Yang immediately released Luan Jin Tuo, allowing the skill to strike his actual body.
"-nation! Pfft-"
The terrifying dark golden shock wave hurled Tang Hao into the air, and he spat out a great mouthful of blood.
Before he could recover, he saw the Titan Giant Ape above his head, gathering power in his golden-light-wreathed right fist.
"Detonate all nine rings!"
Crack-bang!
All nine Soul Rings shattered, their violent power flooding into Tang Hao's body at once.
"Sky-Piercing Strike!!"
The Clear Sky Hammer abruptly expanded to the size of a school building and hurtled toward the Titan Giant Ape with savage force!
BOOM!!
The massive hammer collided with the fist.
An enormous shock wave instantly exploded outward. The entire stretch of ground sank, and fierce winds flung dirt and shattered rocks into the sky. A thick, earthen-red shock wave spread outward in successive rings.
The nearby buildings of Nuoding Academy cracked and collapsed. Everyone inside the academy fled in all directions, utterly terrified.
Man and beast remained locked in a stalemate, their two forces grinding against each other, neither able to overwhelm the other.
Fortunately, Chen Yang had hidden behind the Sky Azure Bull Python beforehand, sheltering himself from the battle's aftershocks.
His eyes widened in disbelief. A half-crippled Titled Douluo could be this strong???
"Holy shit, is Tang Hao using cheats?!"
He immediately turned toward the Sky Azure Bull Python and shouted:
"Da Ming! Use Sky Azure Annihilation Thunder!!"
"MOO!!!"
The Sky Azure Bull Python gathered thunder between his horns. Azure-blue lightning instantly transformed into an enormous azure dragon and charged straight toward Tang Hao's back.
"Not good!"
Tang Hao's pupils abruptly contracted. An overwhelming sense of danger instantly engulfed him, and a bone-piercing, painful numbness rapidly spread from his back.
Caught off guard, he had no time to withdraw his strength and defend himself!
"AARGH!!!"
A shrill howl of agony burst from his lips. The fierce, overbearing azure lightning instantly pierced his chest, blasting a hideous bloody hole clean through him.
His flesh curled outward, his skin charred black. The lingering force of the lightning continued to rampage through his body, tearing at his meridians and bones.
The force behind the massive hammer, which had been holding its own in the clash, instantly collapsed.
"ROAR!!!"
The Titan Giant Ape roared furiously. The Soul Power within him instantly reached a boiling point, and the golden light around his right fist grew even more dazzling.
His enormous fist shattered the Clear Sky Hammer and slammed into Tang Hao, driving him brutally into the ground with tremendous force.
BOOM!!
The impact blasted a huge crater into the ground. Tang Hao lay inside in a wretched state, bleeding from all seven orifices and coughing up fragments of his internal organs.
"Spare... cough, cough... me..."
"ROAR!!"
The Titan Giant Ape still did not stop, hammering the crater with punch after punch.
Bang!
Bang!
After an unknown length of time, the light around the Titan Giant Ape faded, and he looked rather exhausted.
"Er Ming, how's it looking? Why don't you give him a few more punches, just in case he rises from the dead!"
Er Ming glanced at Tang Hao, who was now nothing but a puddle of mangled flesh in the crater, and scratched his head in bewilderment.
Still, he obediently delivered several more punches.
"Da Ming, don't just stand there either. Zap him with lightning."
Bzzzzzz-
Violent thunder power continued to rampage inside the crater.
Ding! Congratulations, host, on slaying Tang Hao, eliminating the early protector of the child of destiny, and plundering a large amount of fortune. Reward: Martial Soul Evolution Card ×1 Reward: Reversal Power ×1 (allows the host to create a Reversal Realm exclusively his own) Reward: Pokéblock Maker ×1 [The Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python defeated their opponent. Gained EXP +11836. Gained EXP 13394.]
"Phew-"
Chen Yang breathed a sigh of relief. Since the system notification had appeared, Tang Hao was definitely dead.
"All right, Tang Hao should be dead for good now."
He strode to the edge of the enormous crater. Once he saw the bloody, mangled mess inside, his stomach churned like an overturned sea, and he bent over and dry-heaved on the spot.
"Urgh-"
Clutching his chest, he forced down the roiling nausea and turned his head to call to Er Ming:
"I can't do this, Er Ming. Go down and collect his Soul Bones. I really can't look at that anymore. Urgh-"
"..."
Er Ming looked at his thick fingers, then at the tiny bones in the crater. Helplessly, he began carefully prying them out.
Just then, Xiao Wu's voice traveled through the Master Ball into Chen Yang's mind.
(Brother, is it over? Are you all okay?)
"Don't worry, we're completely fine. We just made a bit too much of a commotion. I reckon the entire academy will need rebuilding."
(That's good. As long as you, Da Ming, and Er Ming are with me, I don't mind where we go.)
Chen Yang smiled faintly. The little rabbit really was easy to please.
While the two chatted, Er Ming walked over carrying several Soul Bones and held them out to Chen Yang.
Holy moly, Tang Hao had a complete set of Soul Bones!
Their ages weren't low, either. No wonder he'd been so formidable after detonating his rings.
Now that the Soul Bones had been collected, it was time to check this round's rewards.
First, he extracted and fused with the Reversal Power.
A streak of eerie blue light shot straight into Chen Yang's body.
He could see it...
The Distortion World's endlessly twisted void, gray rock formations floating everywhere, and the omnipresent laws of gravity that turned everything upside down.
Chen Yang clenched his hand.
In the blink of an eye, he arrived on a platform in the Distortion World, bringing the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python with him.
A deep blue void surrounded them, with neither sun nor moon.
Countless gray rocks floated haphazardly in the air. Gravity was chaotic, leaving the rocks sideways and upside down.
Rivers flowed upward, and waterfalls surged into the sky. Withered trees grew here and there, sprouting from rocks suspended in midair.
Purple-black mist drifted through the space, which occasionally split with fine blue cracks.
The stone platform beneath their feet gave off a faint blue glow. In the distance, a black vortex spun ceaselessly.
Bang!
He released Xiao Wu from the Master Ball as well.
"Wow~ What is this place? It looks so eerie."
Before you continue