In the square, the dust and smoke slowly cleared.
A dark figure plummeted like a meteor, slamming into the ground and gouging out a crater over ten feet deep.
"Cough, cough..."
Tang Hao knelt on one knee, his Clear Sky Hammer buried deep in the ground. Fine claw marks covered its head, and the blood spilling from his lips stained the front of his clothes red.
He raised his head and stared at Xiong Jun, who stood suspended in midair, his eyes filled with disbelief.
Xiong Jun had taken a strike from his Clear Sky True Body head-on, yet aside from a shallow mark on his chest, he was completely unscathed.
He was a Titled Douluo devoted entirely to strength!
The strongest of the Clear Sky Sect's current generation, the inheritor of the Great Sumeru Hammer!
Xiong Jun looked down at Tang Hao beneath him with arrogant disdain, his dark-gold pupils blazing fiercely in the moonlight.
He grinned, baring a mouthful of stark white teeth, contempt in his eyes.
"A rat is still a rat. Even swinging a hammer, you've barely got any strength."
"You're too feeble even to scratch the Bear Lord's itch!"
He slowly raised his right claw. Dark-gold soul power gathered and compressed at its tips, while the surrounding space let out a piercing shriek as his claws twisted and tore it apart.
"Sky-Rending Claw!"
Xiong Jun roared and swept his right claw forward.
There was no earth-shaking crash, only a thin dark-gold line spreading ever outward.
His claws swept silently through the night sky, slicing and rending space without a sound wherever they passed.
Tang Hao's pupils contracted sharply. The experience he had gained crawling out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood screamed a warning at him: he would die!
Even when Qian Daoliu, the Angel Douluo invincible in the skies, had hunted him across the continent with the Angel Holy Sword in hand, Tang Hao had never felt such a warning from him.
Tang Hao gritted his teeth and roared, straining to swing the Clear Sky Hammer in a full arc with both hands as the nine vivid soul rings behind him detonated one after another.
"Great Sumeru Hammer! All Nine Rings Detonate!"
His aura surged instantly, yet the Ring Detonation technique he unleashed with every ounce of strength only halted the Sky-Rending Claw for half a breath!
Clang!!!
The clash of metal rang through the night sky!
Tang Hao shuddered as though struck by lightning, blood bursting from the webs of his hands.
The Clear Sky Hammer flew from his grip, spinning before embedding itself in the distant ground. The dense claw marks across its head widened instantly into deep cracks, and his martial soul nearly shattered.
The claws swept onward without losing momentum. The thin dark-gold line cut across Tang Hao's chest, leaving a wound so deep it exposed bone and aggravating his old injuries. Blood gushed like a spring.
"Pfft!"
Tang Hao spat out a mouthful of blood. His body hurtled backward, smashing through three thick walls before crashing heavily to the ground with a muffled thud.
He struggled to rise, only to discover that he lacked the strength to move even a finger.
The Sky-Rending Claw had not only shredded the vibrating soul power defenses surrounding him as he swung the Great Sumeru Hammer, but also torn apart his martial soul and ripped open his body.
An attack capable of piercing Beast God Di Tian's astonishingly tough dragon scales and injuring his true body was far beyond what a level ninety-five Titled Douluo whose grievous wounds had yet to heal could withstand!
Xiong Jun slowly landed, looking down upon the Clear Sky Douluo who had been so insufferably arrogant moments before.
Moonlight fell upon Xiong Jun's right claw, revealing a faint scar along its dark-gold edge.
But that was all.
"You damned rat, do you admit you were wrong?"
Tang Hao raised his head with difficulty, his lips twisting into a miserable smile.
"The victor becomes king, the defeated a bandit... If you're going to kill me, do it..."
"Kill you?" Xiong Jun scoffed.
"The Bear Lord finds you disgusting."
He swept his hand, sending a howling gust from his claws. Tang Hao flew like a torn burlap sack and slammed down beside Lou Xu's feet.
The Flowing Fire Cloudburning Wings had been withdrawn, but a lingering gleam of fire illuminated Lou Xu's face, colder than the moonlight.
The Myriad-Era Catalyst Stone hanging against his chest had healed his injured eardrums, but the blood that had flowed out had already dried and clotted, making him look like a savage god.
"Boy Lou, his soul rings are shattered and his source is exhausted. He's no different from a dead rat now. Even a little kitten could eat him."
Lou Xu slowly crouched, seized Tang Hao by the hair, and lifted his head. He stared into that ravaged face and pointed at himself.
"Take a good look. That manuscript you wanted-I wrote it."
Tang Hao's face was covered in blood. He tried desperately to open his eyes wide, his swollen eyes forcing open the narrowest slit.
Before him stood a delicate-featured boy, about the same age as his son, who had just awakened his twin martial souls and gone to school in Nuoding City.
Little San...
Daddy can't protect you anymore...
"Tang Hao."
Lou Xu's voice was soft, yet it struck his heart like a hammer.
"Thanks to you, my grandfather, my eldest senior brother Si Long, my second senior brother Siyu, my third senior brother Si Kai, and my fourth senior brother Si Di-
"They're all gravely wounded and unconscious now, their lives hanging in the balance...
"Tell me, how should I repay you?"
Hoarse, rasping cries rose from Tang Hao's throat. His windpipe had ruptured, and blood had already flooded his chest cavity.
His eyelids grew heavier and heavier. He had killed thousands in Slaughter City without ever blinking, yet now he increasingly struggled against the urge to drift into sleep.
He had arrogantly assumed that, with his strength, he could come and go freely in Gengxin City, seize the method of Runic Forging, and present it to his sect. Then he and his son could return to their ancestral fold.
He had never imagined...
At that moment, Lou Xu extended two fingers and pressed them against the wound at the side of his neck. A strand of primal fire burrowed into his flesh, forcibly cauterizing his ruptured windpipe shut.
Tang Hao coughed out the blood pooled in his lungs. With a sliver of airflow barely restored to his windpipe, he finally managed a hoarse voice.
"If you're going to kill me... do it..."
Tang Hao repeated himself, but his voice was already as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
A cold gleam flickered in Lou Xu's eyes. Listening to Tang Hao's steadily weakening breaths, he suddenly smiled.
"Tang Chen, Tang Xiao..."
"Tang Yuehua..."
"Ah Yin..."
"Tang San..."
Upon hearing those names, Tang Hao's eyes flew wide open.
He did not fear death, nor did he fear humiliation.
But upon hearing the name "Tang San," his broken body instinctively began to struggle.
Those eyes that had once struck terror into countless hearts revealed an almost abject plea for the first time.
"Hhh... hhh..."
His wounds tore open, and Tang Hao distinctly felt drowsiness surging through him-death was beckoning!
Lou Xu looked down at him and slowly held up five fingers.
"Five lives for five lives... That's fair."
"Every blood debt you owe, I'll collect, one by one!"
"I'll tell them these are the blessings you, Tang Hao, brought upon them!"
Tang Hao's pupils trembled violently, and blood surged from his chest cavity.
He stared fixedly at Lou Xu, seemingly still wanting to say something, but only broken, breathy sounds remained in his throat.
Lou Xu gave him no further chance to speak.
Wasting precious life energy on him was not worth it.
His rasping breaths grew weaker little by little.
Finally, they stopped altogether.
In the distance, the crack-riddled Clear Sky Hammer let out a mournful cry, then shattered with a crash into motes of light that filled the air.
Qian Xunji had failed to shatter it. Qian Daoliu had failed to stop it from escaping.
The strongest Clear Sky Hammer of this generation, whose might had shaken the continent, had ultimately shattered at the entrance to the Blacksmith Association.
Thus fell the Clear Sky Douluo of a generation.
The first light of dawn spilled over Lou Xu.
He looked up at the shattered window on the top floor, but felt none of the joy of vengeance fulfilled. His throat felt dry, and his whole body was icy cold.
At that moment, for the first time, he understood that in this world of extraordinary powers, strength was what mattered.
Only with strength could one decide who deserved mercy.
And so-called mercy did not apply to everyone.
Day broke.
Amid the ruins, two blacksmith apprentices erected a towering wooden frame in the center of the square.
Lou Xu flew into the air and personally fastened Tang Hao's corpse to the center of the frame, its arms spread wide, facing the entrance to the Blacksmith Association.
Sunlight spilled down, gilding the bloodstained corpse as though it were a god nailed to a cross in suffering.
Yet when the early-rising blacksmiths, the merchants entering the city, and the passing travelers raised their heads and saw that cross, they all understood clearly in their hearts.
That was not mercy. That was strength!
Before you continue