Sacrifice Yourselves, My Loves

This scene was completely beyond anything Tang Hao had initially anticipated.

Tang Zhen looked down at his two sons from above and spat coldly, "Are these the bastards you two wretches sired with Soul Beasts?"

His icy words weighed on their hearts, and Tang Xiao and Tang Hao were filled with panic.

"Let them go!"

Tang Xiao's eyes turned blood-red. With a furious roar, he raised his great hammer and made to charge forward.

Tang Zhen's expression betrayed neither joy nor anger as he directed the pressure of a Super Douluo down upon Ah Rou and Xiao Wu.

The two women, already weakened from giving birth, bled from all seven orifices under the pressure. The infants in their arms could barely breathe.

"You two wretches, kneel before me!"

Tang Zhen's furious shout echoed through the valley. His posture was so cold that it seemed he would crush the mothers and children on the spot if the two made the slightest move.

Two dull thuds rang out.

Tang Xiao and Tang Hao fell to their knees. Jagged stones tore into them, and blood welled up.

The brothers lowered their heads and held back the fury in their hearts.

Seeing that his two sons had finally bowed their heads, Tang Zhen eased the pressure on the women slightly. As he looked at the bloodied brothers before him, an indescribable disappointment welled up in his chest.

"The sect spent its resources and took great pains to nurture you. I thought you would be able to hold up the sky for the sect. Instead, your heads are filled with nothing but such romantic entanglements."

"For the sake of two Soul Beasts, you betrayed the sect and slaughtered your fellow disciples. And now you dare put on this show of defiance unto death before me?"

Tang Zhen snorted coldly and threw two short knives down in front of Tang Xiao and Tang Hao.

"Swear it! Make a Martial Soul Oath before all the ancestors of our Clear Sky Sect. From this day forth, sever all ties of affection and loyalty with these two beasts."

"Pick up the knives on the ground and kill these two wretches with your own hands, before the entire sect."

"Tang Xiao, you have yet to absorb your Ninth Soul Ring. Kill this Mature Stage rabbit yourself today and absorb her Soul Ring."

"Tang Hao, though you have yet to reach Level 90, you will also kill this little rabbit yourself to show your resolve."

Silence reigned all around.

The elders and disciples stared intently at the two brothers kneeling on the ground.

Tang Zhen's expression was cold, but deep down, he had his own plans.

He was forcing the two to act only to make them submit an indisputable pledge of loyalty before the elders and disciples.

Otherwise, once the sect captured the two of them, even he, as sect master, would be unable to openly shield them.

Moreover, as for this little rabbit, as soon as Tang Hao swung his knife to kill her, Tang Zhen would intervene at the very last instant. He would seal her Soul Power and keep her captive within the Clear Sky Sect until Tang Hao reached Level 90, then have him absorb this Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.

When that time came, his eldest son Tang Xiao would reach Level 90 and obtain a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring today, and his second son Tang Hao would also obtain one in the future.

With two more Titled Douluo whose prospects knew no limits, who would dare whisper a single word behind their backs?

In Tang Zhen's eyes, this was the only path to survival he had secured for his two sons, and a broad, open road he had carved out for their future.

You bastards. I'm paving the way for you. As long as you nod and admit your mistakes, who would dare lay a finger on you? I truly don't want a white-haired man to send black-haired men to their graves.

Tang Zhen could not voice the words in his heart before everyone, so he could only bear down on them with an even sterner gaze.

But what answered him was refusal.

A bitter smile appeared on Tang Xiao's bloodstained face, and he spoke slowly in a hoarse voice:

"Impossible... Father, absolutely impossible..."

Beside him, Tang Hao also raised his head, his gaze firm as iron:

"If you want to kill them... you'll have to step over my corpse."

"You... you... unfilial sons! You truly won't shed a tear until you see your coffins!"

Tang Zhen was so furious that he was incoherent, and he shouted in rage.

Before hundreds of disciples and three elders, if he could not break his two sons' stubbornness, where would the sect's laws stand?

Where would the Clear Sky Sect's dignity stand?

Grief and anger at their failure to become steel mingled with his resolve to uphold the sect's greater interests. Tang Zhen summoned his great hammer and swung it fiercely into Tang Xiao and Tang Hao's chests.

Two cracks of breaking bone rang out, and the brothers flew backward, trailing arcs of scarlet blood.

Tang Zhen's violent force poured out in successive waves, shaking rocks loose and sending dust flying.

"Admit your mistakes! Kill them for me!"

Tang Zhen roared, yet the corners of his eyes quietly reddened, almost imperceptibly.

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

Tang Xiao lay in a pool of blood, coughing up great mouthfuls of it. His jaw was drenched in blood, and he could barely utter half a syllable.

He could only shift his gaze with difficulty and look longingly at Ah Rou, who was being held in the air.

The woman who was usually mature and alluring, who had spent years at his side, was now looking at him with reddened eyes.

Tang Xiao could not speak. Only in his bloodshot eyes was his pure, unalloyed concern reflected.

On the other side, Tang Hao lay in a pool of blood. When he looked at Xiao Wu, who was also being held captive, his whole body suddenly stiffened.

His chest trembled violently.

He had once thought he was merely weighing the costs and benefits.

He had once thought he was merely coveting the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring that could erase the humiliation of the Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo.

Even just now, he had been full of dark thoughts as he urged Xiao Wu to sacrifice herself.

But when he actually saw Xiao Wu bleeding from all seven orifices, still desperately protecting the newborn infant in her arms-

When he saw her staring fixedly at him with desperate, tear-filled eyes-

Tang Hao's heart felt as though it had been struck by a blunt blow, and an unprecedented panic surged within him.

He regretted it.

If Xiao Wu really died, if those clear eyes closed forever...

What would it matter if he obtained a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring?

What would he, Tang Hao, amount to?

His past selfish schemes seemed so utterly absurd and laughable at this moment.

"To hell with the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring..."

"To hell with the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone..."

He did not want them anymore.

He truly did not want them at all anymore.

Tears mingled with blood and streamed down his cheeks. At this moment, Tang Hao actually broke through again.

For nearly a year, he had deliberately leaked his whereabouts, constantly walking the line between life and death. Every time, he had carried three tagalongs while controlling the whole field with the Clear Sky Pole Vault.

This enormous pressure was like having his monthly period. It had driven him from Level 88, when he first exposed his whereabouts, all the way to Level 90.

Dragging his broken arm, he used every ounce of strength he had to stagger to his feet.

"Xiao Wu."

"I don't want anything anymore."

"I want you alive! You'd damn well better live!"

The Clear Sky Hammer appeared in his hand once more.

"Great Sumeru Hammer, Ring Detonation!"

With Tang Hao's grief-stricken, furious roar, all eight Soul Rings on his body shattered at once.

Tang Hao pushed off the ground with both feet and swung his hammer resolutely at Tang Zhen in the air.

Tang Zhen watched his son fight back with his life on the line. The veins on his forehead throbbed wildly, and he felt both shock and anguish.

He really had already done his utmost to protect them.

"Stubborn fool."

Tang Zhen shouted angrily, and the great hammer in his hand whistled out to meet the attack.

With a thunderous crash, his Level 95 Soul Power sent Tang Hao, despite his Ring Detonation, flying backward with a single blow, unable to rise again.

In midair, Xiao Wu's delicate body trembled violently.

She looked at the man who, to protect her, would rather have every bone in his body broken and shatter all his Soul Rings to swing his hammer at his father. Her tears burst forth like a breached dam.

"Brother Hao..."

"You're so foolish... so, so foolish..."

"If you died, could Xiao Wu go on living alone? Xiao Wu doesn't want Brother Hao to die... Xiao Wu wants you to live, to live well."

Beside her, Ah Rou was also looking at Tang Xiao, who lay in a pool of blood, still straining to reach out to her and looking her way.

A faint, relieved smile appeared on her once-alluring face.

So be it.

There were countless men in this world, but only this seemingly dull and honest fool before her was willing to risk his life and stand against the entire sect for her.

"Brother Xiao..."

Ah Rou's voice carried both relief and longing.

"Rather than let someone else have it... I'd rather let you have it. For me... take good care of our child..."

Mother and daughter exchanged a glance, and a layer of dazzling red light rose from their bodies at the same time.

Two pillars of blood-red light pierced heaven and earth. The Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts' Sacrifice domain unfolded, forcing even Tang Zhen, powerful as a Super Douluo, back so that he could not come an inch closer.

Amid the blood-red light filling the sky, Tang Hao and Tang Xiao were swallowed by endless scarlet.

Feeling the Soul Power surging through their bodies, the brothers watched their beloveds' forms dissolve into starlight that filled the sky, leaving only two dying rabbits and two infants in swaddling clothes where they had been. The grief in their eyes turned scarlet.

Blood and tears streamed down Tang Xiao's face as a hysterical, bitter laugh came from his throat. "Heh heh... hahaha..."

Tang Hao spoke, enunciating each word:

"Xiao Wu is dead. I no longer care to tell right from wrong."

"You, all of you... deserve! to! die!"