Survive

Seeing this, Ah Rou knew the plan had succeeded and screamed, "Da Ming, Er Ming, kill them!"

Xiao Wu, who stood beside her, was dumbfounded.

"Mom, didn't we agree to let them become Seventh Granduncle's Ninth Soul Ring? Why are they fighting?"

Ah Rou was so furious at her own daughter's peanut-sized brain that she nearly spat blood. Exasperated by her failure to live up to expectations, she angrily transmitted her voice:

You idiot! They coaxed you back to the Clear Sky Sect so they could keep you penned up like livestock. Did you really think they accepted you as their young madam?

Hearing this, Xiao Wu's pretty face turned deathly pale. "Could human minds really be so vicious?"

The brothers Tang Xiao and Tang Hao were faced with the greatest dilemma of their lives.

On one side were the sect's three elders, who had watched them grow up and treated them like their own children.

On the other were their beloveds, whom they would protect even at the cost of their own lives.

The brothers' cerebrums and cerebellums began elbowing each other again. Their left brains said the sect's kindness in raising them was as vast as the heavens, while their right brains said a man could hardly abandon his beloved.

After several long seconds of inner turmoil, Tang Xiao and Tang Hao exchanged a glance and understood one truth-

As long as they did nothing, they couldn't make a mistake.

The brothers silently fixed their eyes on their noses and their noses on their hearts, going AFK on the spot and pretending to be blind.

"Tang Xiao! Tang Hao! You two beasts, why aren't you coming over to help?"

The second elder nearly spat blood in anger, but he had no time to think. Da Ming's attack came down on him again.

In barely a dozen exchanges, the three elders were already losing ground at every turn.

Da Ming's Slow Domain and Er Ming's Gravity Control Domain made the three elders swing their Clear Sky Hammers incredibly slowly. Moving at all was an immense struggle.

Muffled crashes boomed in succession. Tang Lie was the first to falter, sent flying by a slap from the Titan Giant Ape.

Immediately afterward, the third elder and the second elder were struck one after the other, repeatedly spewing blood.

Da Ming and Er Ming's cultivation was roughly equivalent to that of level ninety-five or ninety-six Super Douluo among human Soul Masters. With their two control-type domains added to the mix, the three elders, whose cultivation was inferior to begin with, could scarcely hope to protect themselves, let alone win. Defeat and death were only a hair's breadth away.

"Third sister, show mercy."

Seeing that the elders who had watched him grow up were about to lose their lives, Tang Xiao, who had been playing dead and going AFK, ultimately couldn't bear it. He came before Ah Rou and pleaded:

"They're my elders, after all. For my sake, please spare their lives."

Ah Rou looked at Tang Xiao's grief-stricken face, and her heart stirred slightly.

When faced with life and death just now, Tang Xiao's determination as he stood in front of her had not seemed feigned. The man was stupid, but he truly valued her more than his own life.

Ah Rou's eyes shifted, and an idea came to her. She ordered:

"Stop."

The two simp beasts held back their killing blows and stopped attacking the three elders.

Ah Rou looked at the three grievously injured men and said coldly:

"Get lost. For Xiao-ge's sake, I'll let you go now. However..."

"Remember this: the next time we meet will be the day you die."

The second elder and the other two went deathly pale. They shot venomous glares at Ah Rou and the others, then turned into three streaks of light and fled for their lives.

As soon as the three elders disappeared from sight, killing intent appeared on Ah Rou's face.

She had lived for a hundred thousand years. How could she not know the greed and cruelty of human nature? How could she fail to understand what it meant to release a tiger back into the mountains?

If she let those three old geezers return to their sect today and bring down the entire Clear Sky Sect, or even the high-level Soul Masters of the whole continent, she and her daughter would have no escape from death, even if they soared into the heavens or burrowed into the earth.

It was only for the sake of Tang Xiao protecting her earlier that Ah Rou had given them a little time to flee.

She counted down coldly in her heart. Three, two, one.

Ah Rou gave a shrill order: "Da Ming, Er Ming, after them! Kill them all-leave no one alive!"

Tang Xiao, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, cried out, "Wait, third sister! Didn't you promise to let them go?"

Ah Rou's eyes reddened, and her tone was three parts aggrieved and seven parts sharp:

"Tang Xiao, use that blockhead of yours and think this through. Our identities have been completely exposed. If they return to their sect, Xiao Wu and I will face utter disaster. Do you really think your elders' lives are lives, but Xiao Wu's and mine aren't? You keep saying you love me, but behind my back, are you just itching for us to die?"

Tang Xiao felt as though he had been struck by lightning. The thought process of a top-grade, one-hundred-percent-pure cuck was instantly welded shut, and he shook his head repeatedly.

"No, that's not what I meant at all. I don't want you to die. I never want you to die."

Tang Hao was conflicted too.

Xiao Wu was the great treasure he had reserved for his breakthrough to Titled Douluo. What if those old fogeys from the sect saw that his Eighth Soul Ring was white and decided not to give Xiao Wu to him?

Who could he, Tang Hao, go crying to then?

Besides, Ah Rou was right. Although he had reserved Xiao Wu's Soul Ring and Soul Bone, that didn't mean he didn't love her. How could he bear to let her die?

The current Tang Hao was severely polarized. Between loving Xiao Wu and loving her Soul Ring and Soul Bone, he chose to love them all.

Ah Rou took Xiao Wu by the hand and leaped onto the Titan Giant Ape's shoulder, then beckoned to the two brothers, who were standing there in a daze.

"What are you two standing there for? Hurry up and get on."

The brothers chose to stop thinking and fell back on their old method: doing nothing.

They followed her onto the Titan Giant Ape's shoulder, tacitly accepting the decision to kill them all.

The four people and two beasts set off in pursuit of the three Clear Sky Sect elders.

The wind howled as the Titan Giant Ape descended from the sky and cut off the three elders' path.

Da Ming followed close behind, cyan lightning crackling around him. He looked coldly at the three men before him.

"Hi, humans. We meet again."

The fleeing second elder, third elder, and Tang Lie came to an abrupt halt, both shocked and furious.

"Damn beasts, you have no martial virtue! Didn't you just say the next time we met? It's only been a fucking few steps!"

Da Ming said with a perfectly straight face, "That's right. Aunt Rou said the next time we met would be the day you died. So we came especially to meet you 'next time.'"

Tang Lie looked at Ah Rou, Xiao Wu, Tang Xiao, and Tang Hao standing on the Titan Giant Ape. His face turned ashen, and he made a sorrowful, indignant appeal to their feelings:

"Xiao'er, Hao'er. I watched you grow up from the days you wore split-crotch pants. The sect poured its resources into raising you. Are you really going to betray the sect and slaughter your elders for the sake of two vile beasts?"

Tang Xiao turned his head away in anguish, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

"Seventh elder, I don't want this either. Unless... unless you cripple your own Soul Power, third sister won't spare your lives..."

For Titled Douluo who had been proud all their lives, how was crippling their own Soul Power any different from being killed outright?

With no way out, the second elder gave a cold laugh. "Good, very good. You two spineless wretches, letting beasts ride on your heads."

He turned to the third elder and Tang Lie, his expression resolute. "In our current state, we can't keep fighting for much longer. I'll cover your retreat, or none of us will escape. You must get away!"

"Second brother-"

Before either of them could say anything, the level ninety-four Titled Douluo compressed the Soul Power around him into his body. A dazzling light erupted from within him.

"Peerless battle-soul hammer, towering Clear Sky Sect. Beasts, come to hell with me!"

Grief filled the hearts of the third elder and Tang Lie, but they fled for their lives again without looking back.

"Boom-"

The shock wave from the level ninety-four Titled Douluo's self-destruction swept through the area, forcibly flattening the forest for several li around.

Da Ming and Er Ming took the blast head-on with their massive bodies. Several bloody gashes split open in their scales and fur.

After the dust cleared, Ah Rou saw that the remaining two were nowhere in sight, and her heart sank.

Da Ming and Er Ming had just taken the self-destruction and couldn't pursue at full speed. The two old geezers might really get away.

Seeing that things had gone wrong and the men were about to disappear, Ah Rou cast aside all other concerns. She raised her voice and gave a shrill command in rabbit language:

"Squeak, squeak, squeak-"

Standing nearby, Xiao Wu heard what her mother had said in rabbit language. Knowing the gravity of the situation, she too let out a series of urgent squeals in rabbit language:

"Squeak, squeak, squeak-"

Then the entire Star Dou Great Forest boiled over.

Earth churned and shrubs were torn apart as countless rabbits poured out of the ground, tree hollows, and nests in the grass.

"It's the great ancestor, and the supreme great ancestor too."

"I heard the great ancestor's call!"

"For the great ancestor, tatakae! Tatakae, I say!"

"How dare they hurt the great ancestor? They truly have a path to death."

"Sons of the rabbit clan, devote your hearts-"

Ten-year, hundred-year, thousand-year, and even a few scattered ten-thousand-year rabbits surged toward the third elder and Tang Lie like a tsunami.

Though these rabbits were as fragile as blades of grass before Titled Douluo, their fearless charges became an endless succession of speed bumps.

"Damn it! Where did all these beasts come from?"

Tang Lie swung his great hammer wildly, sending blood and flesh flying, but his pace was forcibly slowed severalfold.

Before long, Da Ming and Er Ming's presences followed close behind.

The third elder sensed the commotion behind him and stopped.

He moved directly behind Tang Lie to shield him, his expression resolute.

"Seventh brother, you're our last hope. Get back to the Clear Sky Sect alive! Take word to the sect-Tang Xiao and Tang Hao have defied their masters and ancestors and openly betrayed the sect for two hundred-thousand-year transformed beasts!"

"Third brother-"

Tang Lie cried out in grief, then once again fled desperately without looking back.

"Third brother, go in peace. I will take care of your wife and children."

"I will bring word back to the sect."

"Boom-"

Another self-destruction rang out.

Da Ming and Er Ming had endured the self-destruction of two Titled Douluo in succession, and the disadvantage of their massive size was laid bare. To protect Ah Rou and the others, the two beasts had suffered grievous injuries and could no longer pursue.

Hearing the second muffled boom behind him, Tang Lie's eyes turned blood-red, and he panted like an ox.

Second brother was gone.

Third brother was gone too.

To cover his escape, both Titled Douluo had died without a trace of their bodies remaining.

Tang Lie gritted his teeth as he fled, looking back and swearing in a harsh voice:

"Damn Tang Xiao! Damn Tang Hao! Damn beasts!"

"I, Tang Lie, swear that I will destroy you at any cost!"