After examining the Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's wounds, he immediately thought of another equally unusual soul beast: the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
Judging by the timeline, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger should currently have been prowling outside the Core Circle of the Star Dou Great Forest, increasing its strength by hunting and devouring soul beasts and soul masters.
One aspect of this world needed to be mentioned here: a soul beast did not necessarily grow stronger the longer it lived.
Soul beasts could cultivate too, and could attain a hundred thousand years of cultivation before reaching a hundred thousand years of age.
The reverse was also true. Living for over a hundred thousand years did not necessarily mean possessing a hundred thousand years of cultivation.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was even more of an anomaly among them. In theory, as long as it devoured enough soul beasts, it could possess a hundred thousand years of cultivation even if it had only recently reached adulthood.
For that reason, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was, in a sense, a creature that soul beasts and soul masters alike wished to eliminate as quickly as possible. It was exceedingly rare and would generally be killed instantly as soon as it showed itself.
Tang Mo felt that only such a mutant could possibly have driven the two Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears, one large and one small, into such desperate straits that they had been forced to flee the Star Dou Great Forest.
After tossing away the bear meat, Tang Mo turned and ran without lingering for even a moment. On his way out of the Soul Hunting Forest, he encountered the wealthy man who had given him a ride earlier, so he simply hitched another ride and returned to Nuoding City before nightfall.
Tang Hao, meanwhile, had been thoroughly screwed over back in the Soul Hunting Forest. Driven mad by the loss of its offspring, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear detonated the soul power within its body.
Its combat strength skyrocketed in an instant, directly surpassing Tang Hao in his current state. Faced with a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear that had completely abandoned any concern for its own life, Tang Hao gritted his teeth and detonated all his soul rings except the ninth in one go.
Boom, boom, boom...
A series of thunderous blasts came from the Clear Sky Hammer, and the hand with which Tang Hao gripped it could not help trembling.
The power produced by seven soul rings detonating was terrifying beyond measure. Even in his prime, he would have struggled to control it, let alone now, when the hidden injuries from his battle with Qian Xunji all those years ago still lingered within him.
Gripping the Clear Sky Hammer tightly, he unleashed his strongest strike at the oncoming Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear. In this state, he only had enough strength left for a single blow. If this strike still failed to bring down the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, he could only detonate his final soul ring and flee with the other two.
His insistence on taking Yu Xiaogang along had nothing to do with any code of honor, nor was it because Yu Xiaogang was Tang San's teacher. It was simply because Yu Xiaogang's theories had hoodwinked him too.
His martial soul was the Clear Sky Hammer, a weapon martial soul. Although Tang San had twin martial souls, his Clear Sky Hammer could not be exposed lightly, meaning that, for now, Tang San could only cultivate Blue Silver Grass.
Experience in cultivating a weapon martial soul could not be forcibly applied to the plant-type martial soul Blue Silver Grass, so he could only find Tang San a teacher.
Some of Yu Xiaogang's theories coincided with the contents of the Clear Sky Sect's books, which had given Tang Hao the mistaken impression that Yu Xiaogang's theories were unmatched and that he could teach Tang San well.
Without Yu Xiaogang, Tang Hao did not know who else could become Tang San's teacher, so he could only save them both.
With his back to Yu Xiaogang and Tang San, Tang Hao protected the two at his feet. Under these circumstances, he was only confident of protecting them both in one go if they stayed at his feet.
Boom!
Tang Hao's ultimate strike collided with the Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's enormous claw. An earth-shattering boom erupted, immediately followed by terrifying waves of air that spread in every direction, with the man and soul beast at their center.
Some of the airwaves shot into the sky, while others spread continuously along the ground, vaguely forming a field shaped like a top hat.
Crack, crack, crack...
The earth cracked inch by inch beneath the sweeping airwaves. Only the ground beneath the two remained completely intact.
The flowers, grasses, and trees rooted in the earth all disintegrated beneath the sweeping airwaves, reduced to dust.
Whether they were plant-type soul beasts masquerading as ordinary plants or insect-type soul beasts doing their utmost to conceal themselves, they too lost their lives beneath the sweeping airwaves.
The soul masters guarding the entrance to the Soul Hunting Forest felt the fierce wind rushing toward them. At the sight of the flowers, grasses, and trees being torn from the ground and the earth cracking apart, they shuddered, then began retreating frantically.
Even though the airwaves were some distance away and could no longer inflict any real harm on them, they still chose to retreat.
As the saying went, when immortals fought, mortals suffered. They could not be certain whether the mighty figures battling within the Soul Hunting Forest might fight their way toward the entrance.
At that moment, the guards' faces all bore the same terrified expression: Don't come over here!
"Run!"
They shouted to the other soul masters who wanted to enter the Soul Hunting Forest, then released a carrier pigeon to contact the nearest Spirit Hall.
Before long, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei, who were leisurely making their way toward Nuoding City, received a message from Nuoding City.
Their expressions shifted slightly, and they sped toward Nuoding City. They had originally assumed that the Titled Douluo sighting reported by the Spirit Hall Branch in Nuoding City had merely been a Titled Douluo passing through.
After all, Nuoding City was far too remote. Why would an exalted Titled Douluo possibly linger there?
And Nuoding City was a city, after all, with no shortage of people coming and going. Even Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao, who was wanted by Spirit Hall, would at most find a village to hide in. He could not possibly show himself in Nuoding City of his own accord.
Thus, neither of them had taken the Titled Douluo who appeared in Nuoding City seriously. But judging by the message from the Soul Hunting Forest, not only had that Titled Douluo not left, there was a very strong possibility that he was Tang Hao.
The reason was simple. Judging by the commotion he had caused, his strength was at least rank 95, already at the level of a Super Douluo.
There were only so many Titled Douluo on the Douluo Continent. The vast majority were registered in Spirit Hall's records and had limited areas of activity. Among unaffiliated Super Douluo with no fixed area of activity, Tang Hao was most likely the only one.
At that thought, how could the two possibly continue making their way leisurely toward Nuoding City? On the one hand, they did not want Tang Hao to kill Tang Mo, the genius Spirit Hall had its eye on. On the other, they also harbored thoughts of swooping in to pluck the ripe fruit.
Although they did not know whom Tang Hao was fighting, his strength would most likely decline after such an intense battle.
Once Tang Hao was trapped by their Martial Soul Fusion Skill: Two Extremes Stillness Domain, with other teammates assisting, they might just be able to take him down.
According to their intelligence, Tang Hao possessed soul bones passed down by the Clear Sky Sect. Not to mention, Bibi Dong would reward them handsomely if they took him down.
They could obtain soul bones for free and receive rewards as well. Why would they not do it?
However, there was no longer enough time to notify Spirit Hall and have it dispatch Titled Douluo. They could only notify the nearest Red-Clothed Grand Bishop to assist them.
As the two picked up speed and notified the nearest Red-Clothed Grand Bishop, an encirclement aimed at killing Tang Hao was quietly taking shape.
Tang Hao himself knew nothing of this. After all, he was still locked in a stalemate with the Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.
The power Tang Hao had gained through Ring Detonation was fading, while the power the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear had gained by detonating its soul power was likewise disappearing bit by bit.
For the two currently locked in this stalemate, the ultimate victor would depend entirely on whose power ran out first.
Before you continue