"This..."
Niu Gao and Yang Wudi exchanged looks, the muscles in their faces twitching violently.
The Sect Master they had just pledged themselves to was far too murderous!
Their cries of razing the Clear Sky Sect and hacking the bastards who had abandoned them into pieces had only been drunken nonsense, a way to vent their resentment.
Actually act on it? Even with ten times the courage, they would never dare court disaster so lightly.
Even a starved camel was bigger than a horse.
The fame of the Clear Sky Hammer, the "number one tool martial soul," had dominated the Douluo Continent for an entire era. Even with its mountain sealed and its people withdrawn from the world, even after losing a heaven-blessed genius like Tang Hao, more than one true Titled Douluo still lurked atop that snowy peak!
Seeing the icy look in An Jing's eyes and realizing he was not bluffing, Niu Gao swallowed and hurried forward to smooth things over:
"Sect Master, Old Goat and I are grateful to you from the depths of our hearts!
We know your talent is unparalleled, that even as a Soul Saint, you could smash through the gates of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and slay Yu Yuanzhen... but the Clear Sky Sect is no ordinary sect!"
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and earnestly continued:
"They've remained hidden for years since that battle. No outsider has any way of knowing how many secluded elders they harbor now, or how many Titled Douluo they've raised.
Two fists cannot beat four hands, and even a hero cannot withstand a pack of wolves. If the Clear Sky Sect has been quietly concealing its strength and nurturing four or five Titled Douluo, wouldn't charging in blindly be walking into their net, letting them catch us like turtles in a jar?"
"Sect Master, Old Rhino is absolutely right."
The corners of Yang Wudi's eyes twitched. Forcing down the towering fury stirred within him, he urged in a low voice,
"The blood feud between me, Yang Wudi, and the Clear Sky Sect runs as deep as the sea. If I lose this old life, so be it!
But you possess heaven-blessed talent, Sect Master. Your future is limitless.
Why not sheath your edge for now? Once you truly reach the realm of Titled Douluo, you can descend upon their gates with the force of ten thousand thunderbolts and demand an accounting. Who could stop you then? Why rush things now?"
As the two men took turns nervously urging retreat, a trace of helplessness crossed An Jing's eyes.
A moment ago, they had burned with righteous indignation, ready to eat their enemies' flesh and sleep on their skins. Now that it was time to act, they shrank back, weighed down by doubts.
In the end, the shadow left by Spirit Hall and the Clear Sky Sect together all those years ago had broken their spines, robbing them of the ferocity to fight until the fish died and the net tore.
An Jing was about to speak when a cold laugh suddenly boomed outside the hall like muffled thunder.
"What arrogance! A mere wet-behind-the-ears brat dares boast of marching up to the Clear Sky Sect and demanding answers?
Youngsters these days know less and less of how high the heavens are and how deep the earth runs!"
Heavy, ponderous footsteps followed, making even the hard flagstones faintly tremble.
A figure as burly as an iron tower strode across the threshold. His physique was no less imposing than Niu Gao's, his short beard bristled like steel needles, and his muscles knotted like pythons, radiating a fierce, brutal savagery.
The chief of the Strength Clan-Tai Tan!
"Old Gorilla? You're finally here!" Bai He's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly rose to greet him.
"Old White Bird, Old Rhino, Old Goat."
Tai Tan strode forward and casually cupped his fists toward his old brothers. Then his bronze-bell eyes locked onto An Jing among them.
Heavy mockery curled his lips. With his chin slightly raised, he looked arrogant to the extreme:
"The God of Slaughter of Heaven Dou? I heard your name on the way here.
But, junior, the waters of this continent run deep. The Clear Sky Sect stands at the pinnacle of tool martial souls, the number one sect whose might shakes the world. It is not something an arrogant child like you can afford to provoke!"
The air throughout the hall abruptly froze.
His gaze cool and clear, An Jing slowly turned to face the aggressive Tai Tan.
Rather than grow angry, he mocked him:
"I wondered who it was. So it's that old house slave from the Strength Clan who wears the slave collar around his neck like an ancestral medal."
"What did you say?!" Tai Tan's expression changed sharply, viciousness blazing in his eyes.
An Jing's voice was quiet, yet every word cut into the heart like a steel blade scraping bone, echoing endlessly through the courtyard:
"Who under heaven doesn't know that Tang Hao alone is your master?
Back then, the Clear Sky Sect withdrew into seclusion and shoved the Four Single-Attribute Clans beneath Spirit Hall's butcher's blade as expendable pawns. Old Goat lost his eldest son, the Defense Clan wandered homeless across the world, and the Speed Clan sank into destitution!
They hate the Clear Sky Sect to their very bones. Yet you, loyal dog that you are, showed not a shred of backbone after your entire clan was abandoned. Instead, you swallowed it like honey, waving banners and shouting for the master who discarded you, defending him wherever you went."
An Jing took a light half step forward. A chilling, sinister killing intent poured out, instantly locking down the vital points throughout Tai Tan's body:
"Do you really think everyone under heaven is blind, unable to see the servility in your bones?"
"You little bastard, you're courting death!"
With his shame stripped bare in public, Tai Tan's eyes instantly flooded with blood. In his fury, his martial soul nearly manifested outright, and heavy soul power surged around him like a storm.
But before he could move, An Jing's utterly indifferent eyes met his gaze.
"If you don't want the Strength Clan's bloodline to end here, get out of my sight while I still have some patience left today."
"Otherwise, before I set foot at the Clear Sky Sect's gates, I wouldn't mind taking that head off your shoulders to consecrate the battle flag of my new sect!"
"Good! What an outrageously arrogant God of Slaughter of Heaven Dou!"
Tai Tan laughed in his fury, the thick flesh of his face twitching violently as savage rage surged in his eyes:
"Do you think everyone in the world is a fool? You made your name by stepping over Yu Yuanzhen's corpse, but heaven only knows what vile, underhanded tricks you used! Others may respect and fear you, but I won't swallow that act!"
"Today, I'll personally weigh you and see just how much this so-called God of Slaughter of Heaven Dou is really worth!"
Before his words had faded, the muscles all over Tai Tan's body swelled wildly like coiling dragons, his bones cracking in a barrage like beans bursting over a fire.
His raging, earthen-yellow soul power became a visible gale, instantly overturning the surrounding structures!
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black!
Eight dazzling soul rings thundered upward from beneath his feet. The seventh, pitch-black as ink, flared brilliantly with a shrill beastly roar!
Seventh Soul Skill, Great Strength Gorilla Avatar!
His already towering body expanded several times over, his fur standing upright like steel needles as he radiated a terrifying ferocity capable of tearing hills apart.
He knew that, although An Jing was a Soul Saint, he had a reputation for killing Titled Douluo. In this furious attack, he held nothing back. Carrying savage power refined to its purest extreme, his right fist blasted straight toward An Jing's face like a heavy adamantine cannon firing from its barrel!
There was nothing fancy about the punch. Its explosion of raw strength tore through the air with a piercing sonic shriek!
Fast! Ruthless! Violent!
"Old Gorilla, stop!" Niu Gao went pale with horror, hastily manifesting his Plate-Armored Giant Rhinoceros martial soul.
"No!" Bai He and Yang Wudi's expressions changed just as sharply. Neither had expected Tai Tan to erupt into a lethal attack with such decisive brutality.
Even if they wanted to intervene, the distance was too short. There was no time to stop this all-out blow!
"A mere house slave, stupid beyond saving."
"To deal with a dog whose bones have gone soft as mud, I don't even need my martial soul."
An Jing's eyes narrowed slightly, a cold gleam flashing within them!
No soul rings rose, no soul skill radiance shone, and there was not even the slightest sign of Martial Soul Possession.
Yet within a hundredth of a second, the air pressure throughout the hall plunged. An utterly domineering will forcibly drained and compressed the heaven and earth vital energy within several dozen feet!
Boom!
Tai Tan's massive body, charging with crushing momentum, abruptly stiffened. The air around him seemed to turn into a mire of cold iron weighing millions of tons. Pressure capable of overturning mountains and seas squeezed madly from every direction, and even his bones groaned beneath the unbearable burden.
"Die!!"
But Tai Tan was, after all, one of the world's foremost pure-strength Soul Douluo. Beneath the pressure of life and death, the fierce wildness honed over many years erupted completely.
His eyes bulged with fury. Forcing his way through the terrifying pressure that could crush metal and stone, he drove his right fist through layer after layer of air barriers until it was only half a foot from An Jing's forehead!
The wind of his punch whistled, lifting the white hair above An Jing's brow.
Got him!
Wild joy surged through Tai Tan's heart, his killing intent climbing to its peak.
Yet, in the instant before that heavy fist touched its target.
Hiss!
An exceedingly soft, faint sound of something cutting through the air brushed past his ear, as tranquil as a breeze slicing through thin paper.
The vicious grin at the corner of Tai Tan's mouth had yet to fully bloom when it suddenly froze on his face.
He felt none of the recoil he had expected from striking flesh. Instead, the world in his vision tilted strangely for an instant.
Then, without warning, a scorching spray of scarlet blood erupted from his right shoulder joint. Like a blood-red waterfall bursting through a broken dam, it splashed across the cold flagstones!
Thud!
A thick, furry arm, still poised in its punching posture, crashed heavily to the ground. The severed surface was as smooth and flat as a mirror. Even the jade-colored bone beneath the skin had been sliced into a perfectly even cross section!
The wind of the punch aimed at An Jing, together with its savage shock wave of pure strength, vanished soundlessly the instant the severed arm hit the ground, dissolving into a breeze three inches before him.
"Ah... ah?!"
Tai Tan stared blankly down at his empty right shoulder, then at his own severed arm lying on the ground.
Before his nerves could even carry the agony back to his brain, an overwhelming chill and horror froze his very soul.
His eyes bulged, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. He staggered several steps backward, clutched his spurting shoulder stump, and let out a shrill scream like a pig being slaughtered:
"You... what did you do to me?! My hand!! My right arm!!"
Before you continue