Smash It!

Hu Fangyuan looked at the corpses strewn across the ground. Fortunately, things were much as he had guessed.

Evil Soul Masters were, after all, rats crossing the street that everyone in the Sun Moon Federation wanted to kill. Though they stripped every place they visited like a swarm of locusts, they would never dare linger too long.

They were afraid-afraid the Sun Moon Federation's army would arrive.

Lingbi City, where the Hu Family lived, was a pushover.

Lingbi City was only a small, remote city. Its city defense force numbered only a few hundred, and even its strongest cultivator, the city commander, was merely a Soul Ancestor. Such strength was nowhere near enough against Evil Soul Masters.

But neighboring Changhuo City was no pushover!

Changhuo City was a major military stronghold in the southern Sun Moon Federation, garrisoned by a Mecha Brigade from the Southern Legion and a full-strength Soul Master Regiment!

The Mecha Brigade was equipped with the Sun Moon Federation's most advanced Third-Generation Soul Guidance Mechas, each possessing combat strength at least equal to a Soul Elder's. Deployed in full, the brigade could contend with a Soul Douluo.

The full-strength Soul Master Regiment had over two thousand Soul Masters, including dozens of officers ranked Soul King or higher, and its Soul Emperor commander was no slouch either.

Once such a force arrived, never mind the few dozen Evil Soul Masters here-even a hall master of the Holy Spirit Cult would be scared into pissing and shitting himself.

The Evil Soul Masters were slaughtering and plundering so frantically precisely because they knew time was running out. They had to grab enough spoils before reinforcements from Changhuo City arrived, then flee far away.

At that thought, Hu Fangyuan quickened his movements as well.

The Evil Soul Masters feared the Soul Master Regiment's arrival, and so did Hu Fangyuan!

He now possessed a sinister means like the Blood Skull Gu. If anyone from the Soul Master Regiment discovered it, the consequences would be unthinkable.

The Blood Skull Gu was a Rank 4 blood path Gu worm. It could devour living beings' blood essence and analyze their bloodline foundations, thereby improving a Gu Master's cultivation aptitude. On the Douluo Continent, such a method was virtually identical to how Evil Soul Masters cultivated.

Who could see it without shouting, "Evil Soul Master, you have already given us cause to kill you!"

When that happened, never mind the Soul Master Regiment from Changhuo City-even Lingbi City's defense force would kill him without hesitation.

So he had to gather enough resources before the reinforcements arrived, then leave Lingbi City immediately and flee far away!

Hu Fangyuan drew a deep breath, suppressed his anxiety, and kicked open the broken gate.

Clang!

The crooked ironwood gate went flying from his kick and slammed heavily into the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

Hu Fangyuan strode into the Hu Family courtyard, his cold gaze sweeping his surroundings.

Along the way, he saw more corpses.

There were old people, children, men, and women.

Every face bore an expression of terror and despair.

As Hu Fangyuan looked at his clansmen's corpses, a trace of bewilderment flashed through his eyes.

Though these people had never been close to him, and some had even frequently bullied and mocked him, they were still his clansmen-kin who shared his blood.

Now they were all dead.

They had died beneath the Evil Soul Masters' butcher knives.

And the chief culprit behind all this was his own father, Hu Heming!

If Hu Heming had not joined the Holy Spirit Cult, if Hu Heming had not hidden those things, if Hu Heming had not washed his hands of that life and returned to the Hu Family...

Perhaps none of this would have happened.

But now, anything he said was too late.

Yet that bewilderment was instantly shattered by an even firmer conviction!

My clansmen are dead. There is no longer any need to distinguish right from wrong!

At most, once I, Hu Fangyuan, become a Title Douluo, I will avenge them!

Holy Spirit Cult!

Hu Heming!

I, Hu Fangyuan, will remember this debt!

One day, I will make you repay this blood debt in blood!

Blazing flames ignited in Hu Fangyuan's eyes.

Without further hesitation, he mobilized his soul power, which had just reached the one-ring peak.

His level-twenty soul power circulated rapidly through his meridians, pouring into the Heaven Refining Furnace in his dantian.

The Heaven Refining Furnace shuddered violently and gave a low hum.

Hu Fangyuan's face turned rather pale.

With his current cultivation, activating the Rank 4 Blood Skull Gu was still something of a strain. Each activation consumed a great deal of his soul power and Spiritual Power.

But thanks to the Heaven Refining Furnace's absolute control over Gu worms, Hu Fangyuan successfully activated the Blood Skull Gu nonetheless.

Buzz!

The Heaven Refining Furnace's Kirin Fire Gate opened, and a streak of bloody light gushed out, manifesting in midair as a Gu worm shaped like a crystal skull.

It was none other than the Blood Skull Gu!

The crystal skull flew out of the furnace and hovered above Hu Fangyuan's head. The scarlet, blood-thread patterns between its bone seams glimmered faintly, giving off a series of soft clattering sounds.

The next moment, as though it had automatically sensed something, the Blood Skull Gu abruptly turned its hollow eye sockets toward the Hu Family corpses in the courtyard.

Buzz!

An invisible suction erupted from the Blood Skull Gu.

Immediately afterward, a bizarre scene unfolded.

Wisps of blood rose from the corpses of the clansmen who shared Hu Fangyuan's bloodline!

The threads were bright red. Like living things, they wound and swam through the air, then flew toward the Blood Skull Gu, finally pouring inside through its eye sockets, mouth, and nose.

As the blood threads poured in, the dark-red, jade-like sheen on the Blood Skull Gu's bone surface grew brighter and richer. The scarlet, blood-thread patterns between its bone seams also grew thicker and more vivid.

Meanwhile, the clansmen's corpses shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye.

First, their skin lost its luster, becoming dull and loose.

Then their muscles withered, leaving their bones jutting out.

Finally, each corpse became a dried husk, its skin stretched tightly over its bones, all its flesh, blood, and blood essence drained away.

In barely any time at all, the Blood Skull Gu had devoured every last drop of blood from more than twenty Hu Family corpses.

More than twenty dried corpses lay scattered across the courtyard, a bizarre and terrifying sight.

Hu Fangyuan stood where he was, his face as pale as paper and his forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.

Activating the Blood Skull Gu took far too much out of him.

He let out a small breath and felt the feedback coming from within the Blood Skull Gu, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Still a little short!"

Indeed, it was still a little short.

The Blood Skull Gu had devoured the blood essence of more than twenty Hu Family clansmen and analyzed their bloodline foundations, and it had indeed improved Hu Fangyuan's cultivation aptitude. But that improvement was still far from its limit.

The Blood Skull Gu needed more blood from his kin to achieve its greatest effect.

Hu Fangyuan's gaze swept over the shriveled corpses.

These bodies had already been drained dry. They no longer held any value.

Without further hesitation, Hu Fangyuan continued deeper inside.

He crossed the courtyard, passed through a long corridor, and reached the entrance to the Hu Family's inner courtyard.

The inner courtyard was where the Hu Family's core members lived. His mother, his brothers and sisters, and Hu Heming's wives and concubines all lived there.

There were certain to be more Hu Family corpses there.

Hu Fangyuan drew a deep breath and stepped into the inner courtyard.

The inner courtyard was likewise a scene of devastation.

Corpses and blood covered the ground, and a thick stench of blood filled the air. Most of the pavilions and towers had collapsed, while the few buildings still burning gave off sharp crackles.

Hu Fangyuan crouched low and moved swiftly through the shadows along the courtyard wall.

His target was clear: the Hu Family's main courtyard!

The main courtyard was where Hu Heming and his principal wife lived, and it was also the most heavily defended part of the Hu Family estate. There were certain to be quite a few Hu Family corpses there as well.

But just as he passed a side room, he heard a painful cough.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..."

The sound was very soft and faint. Without listening carefully, one would not have heard it at all.

But after the Blood Skull Gu's improvement to his aptitude, Hu Fangyuan's hearing already far surpassed an ordinary person's. He heard the cough clearly and identified where it had come from.

It was in the side room just ahead!

A sharp glint flashed through Hu Fangyuan's eyes. Without hesitation, he drove the Heaven Refining Furnace forward in a crushing strike!

Buzz!

The Heaven Refining Furnace flew out of his dantian and rapidly expanded in midair. In the blink of an eye, the little palm-sized cauldron became a large cauldron half a person's height!

An octagonal base; patterns of cloud dragons, the eight trigrams, and auspicious cranes; the Kirin Fire Gate; handles shaped like twin dragons playing with a pearl; and three legs shaped like a lion, a tiger, and a leopard.

At that moment, every pattern lit up, radiating dazzling light!

"Smash it!"

Hu Fangyuan gave a low shout, and the Heaven Refining Furnace hurtled toward the side room with a howling rush of wind, smashing down hard!