An Jing stood at ease with his arms folded, watching coldly as a flicker of amusement crossed his eyes.
He ignored the probing blades of grass. His gaze passed over the spirit grass and landed directly on an inconspicuous protruding stone in the wall behind it.
Click.
With a casual flick of his finger, An Jing sent out a burst of force, and the mechanism sank inward.
Amid the low rumble of machinery, the stone wall rotated, revealing an ancient lead box carved with profound soul tool runes.
Before the lead box had fully opened, an immense, boundless aura of life, gentle as spring water, had already filled the entire stone chamber!
Inside the lead box, a crystalline right leg bone floated silently, its entire form seemingly carved from blue crystal. Eight golden lines of light flowed faintly across it, radiating the soul-seizing divine pressure of a hundred-thousand-year relic!
"The Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone... what a marvelous windfall."
An Jing chuckled, his eyes blazing with greed.
Even among the upper ranks of the Soul Master World, a supreme treasure like this would be enough to make countless Titled Douluos slaughter one another until rivers ran with blood.
He reached out his right hand, ready to pocket the priceless treasure.
Buzzz-!
As though sensing the intruder's ill intentions, the blue silver grass in the soil below suddenly erupted with a faint blue glow unlike any she had ever produced before!
Several blades of grass turned into vines and wound around An Jing's ankles and wrists with all their strength. Their leaves trembled violently as they desperately blocked his hand from reaching the soul bone.
"Heh, so your intelligence hasn't faded. Still fiercely guarding your food, are you?"
Watching Ah Yin's futile attempt to protect the treasure, An Jing was not annoyed. Instead, he sneered as though he had discovered particularly amusing prey.
He slowly crouched down and gently stroked the trembling, tender blades with his cold fingers. His tone was as mild as though he were catching up with an old friend, yet the words he spoke carried a malice that made the skin crawl:
"Madam, you wouldn't want your husband and son to suddenly meet violent deaths out there, would you?"
At those words, the blue silver vines wrapped around An Jing's wrist abruptly froze!
Then, as though she had truly understood human speech and sensed the monstrous savagery within those words, the entire blue silver grass plant began to tremble uncontrollably, the blue light on her leaves falling into violent disarray.
After a brief, desperate struggle in her mind, the grass tendrils that had tried to resist finally slipped slowly and helplessly from An Jing's wrist,
Slumping into the damp soil, as though this silent surrender could buy her loved ones a little longer to live.
"Tsk, tsk. What a deeply touching display of maternal love."
The smile on An Jing's lips abruptly widened. He bent down beside the trembling blades and added softly, brimming with cruel amusement:
"-Hehe, I lied."
"To tell you the truth, that useless Tang Hao forcibly detonated six rings in Suotuo City just now to save that so-called son of yours. His meridians are completely ruined, and he's already half a cripple. Sooner or later, he'll die without even a place to be buried.
"And you... you're coming with me today, too!"
"Up you go!"
As his words fell, a vicious light blazed in An Jing's eyes. He gave Ah Yin no chance whatsoever to react!
Vast spatial soul power formed an invisible giant hand, tearing through every spiritual imprint and protective ward Tang Hao had left around the cave like a storm sweeping through rotten wood. It forcibly uprooted the entire blue silver grass plant from the stone platform, roots, soil, and all!
At the same time, another suction force swept past, and the lead box containing the hundred-thousand-year right leg bone snapped shut.
With two flashes of silver light, the true body of this hundred-thousand-year blue silver emperor and the world-renowned soul bone treasure were completely sealed inside the high-grade Living Storage Soul Tool An Jing carried with him.
Dust swirled through the stone chamber, leaving only an empty pit in the soil.
An Jing dusted off his hands and straightened his clothes, feeling thoroughly refreshed. He did not even bother concealing the signs of the struggle on the ground, striding brazenly through the waterfall's curtain and riding the wind away.
Meanwhile, deep in a rugged mountain wilderness several hundred li from Suotuo City.
The dark, cramped natural cave was filled with the thick stench of blood and rotting medicinal herbs.
"Dad, have a little water to moisten your throat first..."
Tang San carefully held a large, slightly curled lotus leaf, bringing the cool morning dew he had collected in the woods to Tang Hao's lips. His expression was filled with worry and guilt he could not conceal.
"Cough... mm."
Tang Hao's throat rasped with heavy, bellows-like breaths as he managed a few small sips of water.
He leaned weakly against the cold, hard rock wall. His once iron-tower-like frame was now slightly hunched from overexertion, his ashen face utterly bloodless and his cracked lips a ghastly, deathly white.
The Great Sumeru Hammer's "Ring Detonation" secret art was undeniably tyrannical, capable of unleashing terrifying power that could defy heaven and earth. Yet once that eruption passed, the devastating backlash of torn meridians and a shaken soul had nearly claimed what little remained of his life!
Had he not retained the foundation of a Titled Douluo, he would have died like any ordinary Soul Douluo, his body exploding the instant he detonated six soul rings in succession.
Seeing his father so listless and weak, Tang San's eyes flashed with irrepressible malice and confusion. He gritted his teeth and asked:
"Dad, that white-haired expert who ambushed the academy and injured you... just who is he?
"As far as I know, I've never offended a peerless expert like that. Why would he try to kill me the very first time we met?
"Why would he even go so far as to raze the entire Shrek Academy?!"
At his son's questions, Tang Hao lifted his heavy eyelids slightly.
He did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned his gaze and looked long and hard at Xiao Wu, who was curled up in the shadows at the deepest part of the cave, her delicate body shaking uncontrollably like chaff in a sieve.
The air inside the cave seemed to freeze at that moment.
Only after a long silence did Tang Hao exhale a stale breath tinged with blood and say heavily:
"Little San, from the very beginning... he was never after you."
"He wasn't after me?" Tang San froze and instinctively asked, "Then what did he want?"
"Her." Tang Hao raised a withered, bloodstained finger and pointed toward Xiao Wu in the corner.
"Xiao Wu?!"
Tang San's pupils contracted sharply. An explosion seemed to thunder through his mind, and the blood throughout his body almost reversed its flow. His gaze instantly turned as cold and piercing as ten-thousand-year-old mystic ice:
"How is that possible... Xiao Wu is just a powerless working student, and she's still weak. How could an expert with such heaven-reaching power have anything to do with her..."
"I originally intended to wait until you had truly grown and reached the Soul Saint realm before telling you this secret."
Tang Hao leaned against the stone wall, his voice as hoarse as two pieces of rusted iron scraping together:
"She isn't an ordinary human orphan at all.
"Her true form is a soul beast that cultivated for over a hundred thousand years, then chose to shed her beast body and begin cultivating anew as a human!"
"A hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form?!"
Those words struck like thunder from the nine heavens, shaking Tang San to the core. He stood rooted to the spot as though struck by lightning, his face filled with disbelief.
He whipped his head around to look at Xiao Wu, huddled in the corner.
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