"In that case... you can die."
Lu Xuan's voice held not a trace of inflection.
He slowly raised the dark red Asura God Sword in his hand.
Without the slightest hesitation, he slashed cleanly at Tang San's neck.
The sword light was like blood.
In that instant, time seemed to slow in Tang San's eyes.
Within his bloodshot eyes, his brief yet long life of thirty-eight years flashed madly like a revolving lantern.
The bottomless Ghost's Sorrow cliff of the Bashu Tang Sect in his previous life.
The clanging Blacksmith Shop in Holy Soul Village in this life, and Xiao Wu's sweetly smiling face before his eyes...
All his ambitions and attachments came to an abrupt end before that blood-red sword light.
Squelch-!
The next moment, Tang San's head flew into the sky!
Warm blood surged like a fountain freed of restraint.
It became a blinding pillar of blood, splashing wildly over the cold bluestone slabs.
Hundreds of li from Nuoding City, within a secluded mountain range near Holy Soul Village.
This place was like an earthly paradise cut off from the world.
A waterfall like the Milky Way plunged straight down, its drifting mist forming a natural barrier before the mountain wall behind it.
Behind the waterfall lay a hidden, tranquil cave.
From the cave's ceiling, a warm shaft of sunlight spilled through a crack in the rock, gently enveloping a delicate blade of blue-gold grass.
The little plant's leaves swayed softly in the light, giving off a gentle aura of life.
Seated on a stone chair, Tang Hao had been quietly watching the little plant.
Suddenly, he clutched his chest, his face turning deathly pale in an instant.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart seemed to be clenched tightly by an invisible hand and began pounding uncontrollably.
An inexplicable, suffocating sense of panic swept through his entire body.
This feeling was all too familiar, so familiar that it chilled him to the bone.
Back when Qian Xunji of Spirit Hall had driven him into a desperate corner, and he had watched helplessly as Ah Yin sacrificed herself before him, he had felt this same heart-rending premonition!
"Could it be... something's happened to Little San?!"
Tang Hao sprang to his feet, cold sweat soaking his back.
But Little San was clearly staying at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, with Yu Xiaogang looking after him.
He had even given Spirit Hall's Elder Token to Yu Xiaogang.
By all rights, there should have been no one who could threaten their safety.
Yet the palpitations in his chest grew more and more violent, as though frantically warning him.
To be safe, he had to go there himself.
"Ah Yin, I have to leave for a while. Something seems to have... happened to Little San."
Tang Hao murmured hoarsely to the blade of blue-gold grass.
Then his figure became a raging black shadow, bursting through the waterfall with a crash and racing toward Nuoding City.
Before Nuoding Academy's gates, the smell of blood filled the air.
As the saying went.
If you cut the grass without pulling out its roots, it would grow again when the spring wind blew.
Holding the dripping Asura God Sword, Lu Xuan slowly turned, his utterly cold eyes locking onto Yu Xiaogang, who lay collapsed on the ground.
"No... don't kill me! Please!"
Seeing the gruesome sight of Tang San's severed head and body, Yu Xiaogang broke down completely.
He could no longer spare a thought for the agony of his severed arm.
Bracing himself against the ground with his remaining left hand, he desperately squirmed backward like a dog that had lost its home.
A puddle of foul-smelling yellow liquid even seeped from his crotch.
Just as Lu Xuan raised his sword, preparing to finish this piece of trash for good-
"You brat!! How dare you-!!!"
A furious roar that tore through the sky exploded from the distant horizon like thunder from the highest heavens!
With that roar, the sky abruptly darkened.
An enormous black hammer, bearing the force to destroy heaven and earth, came like a meteor from beyond the skies.
It tore through the air with a piercing sonic boom, crashing down toward Lu Xuan's head!
At that hairbreadth moment, a dazzling golden light shot skyward from beside Lu Xuan!
Bang-!!!
A deafening metallic blast rang through the clouds, and a violent shock wave instantly hurled the surrounding buildings into the air.
That immensely powerful hammer was actually knocked away by the golden light!
A figure as burly as an iron tower stood firmly in front of Lu Xuan.
Golden Crocodile Douluo folded his arms across his chest, his gaze imperious.
Behind him, an enormous phantom of a golden crocodile king roared toward the heavens.
A terrifying pressure like that of a primordial beast instantly suppressed everyone present.
"Hmph, a surviving remnant of the Clear Sky Sect!"
Golden Crocodile Douluo stared coldly at the disheveled figure in midair, whose eyes wept blood, and sneered.
"This was a scuffle between juniors, yet you, their elder, had the gall to intervene. What are you trying to do?"
In midair, Tang Hao stared fixedly at Tang San's headless corpse on the ground, his entire body trembling violently.
His eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and like a crazed beast driven into a desperate corner, he let out a shrill roar:
"My son is dead!! Why should I care about rules anymore?! You old dog, today I'll make every last one of you join my son in the grave!!!"
As his words fell, the seventh deep-black Soul Ring behind Tang Hao blazed with light!
"Martial Soul Avatar!"
Hum-!
The Clear Sky Hammer swelled rapidly amid black light, becoming a heaven-propping hammer a hundred meters long in the blink of an eye!
The giant hammer blotted out the sky and sun, like a black mountain suspended in midair, its pressure making it hard to breathe.
Immediately afterward, his ninth Soul Ring, red and representing the hundred-thousand-year level, suddenly lit up.
The entire black Clear Sky Hammer was instantly coated in a heart-chilling scarlet.
Then a pure-white aura, cold and heart-chilling, spread outward.
The Slaughter Domain had also activated.
Terrifying slaughter pressure poured down like a tsunami.
Facing this heaven-and-earth-destroying strike, Golden Crocodile Douluo's expression remained unchanged. He merely tilted his head slightly and said to Lu Xuan behind him:
"Finish up your business first. Leave this man to me."
He had followed in secret all along the way and was extremely satisfied with Lu Xuan's decisive killing just now.
Fight when it was time to fight, kill when it was time to kill-this was the mettle Spirit Hall's future helmsman ought to possess!
Lu Xuan nodded slightly, his gaze indifferent.
Sword in hand, he stepped in front of Yu Xiaogang and, amid the man's despairing screams, drove his blade straight through his chest.
To be safe, and eliminate any possibility of resurrection.
Lu Xuan flicked his wrist, and violent Asura sword energy erupted inside Yu Xiaogang's body.
There was a muffled bang.
Yu Xiaogang's corpse was shredded into a cloud of blood mist and flesh that scattered through the air, leaving not a single intact bone.
Once all this was done.
Holding the unconscious Xiao Wu in one hand, Lu Xuan looked up at the clash of titans high in the sky.
By now, Tang Hao had gone utterly mad, completely disregarding the old injuries that had plagued his body for years.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The nine Soul Rings behind him actually began exploding one after another!
Ring Detonation! Great Sumeru Hammer!
The utterly violent energy backlash instantly ruptured the capillaries throughout Tang Hao's body, bathing him in his own blood.
Like a blood-red demon god that had crawled out of hell, he wildly swung his giant hammer at Golden Crocodile Douluo.
"Tang Hao won't hold out much longer."
Lu Xuan's gaze burned like a torch, seeing through the battle at a glance.
The successive Ring Detonations had already triggered all the hidden injuries suppressed within Tang Hao for years.
At this moment, Tang Hao's body was like a balloon covered in cracks, about to burst from within.
The hidden injuries inside him were countless tiny steel needles that could puncture that balloon completely at any moment.
"In that case, let me give you another little boost."
The corners of Lu Xuan's mouth curled upward.
He slowly raised the Asura God Sword in his hand, and an aura of slaughter purer and more terrifying than Tang Hao's shot into the sky.
"Asura Domain-Asura Hell!"
Before you continue