In the forest, a red lotus took shape.
Tang Hao's figure still held dominance, and his once slovenly appearance had greatly changed.
This time, he did not use a crutch. Even with only one leg, he stood tall like a spear, and his bright eyes no longer held the decadence of the past.
Purple, black, black, black, black, red—six spirit rings rose from beneath Tang Hao's feet, and surging soul power erupted from him.
It was still level 75, no change.
Yu Xiaowei nodded unconsciously, confirming Tang Hao's current soul power level.
However, he was still a bit surprised. He had initially thought Tang Hao's soul power had dropped to Soul Saint because he broke two spirit rings, but unexpectedly, he had broken three.
That was good news. With only six spirit rings remaining, Tang Hao now had only six soul skills, which slightly reduced the pressure.
"You little brat, do you think you have a chance of defeating me now that I'm crippled and my soul power has fallen?"
Seeing Yu Xiaowei unafraid of him, a trace of anger flashed across Tang Hao's face.
Just two years ago, the title "Clear Sky Douluo" still made people tremble.
But now, even small spirit sects dared to look down on him like this.
The culprits were the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect and the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect—once the top three sects alongside Clear Sky Sect.
When Tang Hao thought of the Blue Silver King telling him that it was a group of people with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial spirit who had taken Ah Yin after Tang San awakened the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, he became furious.
Thinking carefully, all the incidents where he and his son were pitted against each other pointed back to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
It was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect and the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect who forced him to explode his spirit rings twice when fighting for Xiao Wu.
Later, Ah Yin was also taken away by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
Although Ah Yin's spirit bone was traded by Yue Guan, it was hard not to suspect whether the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect had already submitted to Spirit Hall.
But the problem was that Ah Yin's spirit bone wasn't in Spirit Hall—it was with Yu Xiaowei. The more Tang Hao thought about it, the more horrifying the truth seemed.
Therefore, he had to eliminate all elite descendants of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon and Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sects in the Blue Tyrant Academy.
According to the Blue Silver King, Yu Yuanzhen and Chen Xin—who were responsible for protecting Blue Tyrant Academy—were both severely injured now. This was the best opportunity.
Moreover, to ensure they couldn't stop him, he had even left a backup plan. No matter what, the students he had captured from Blue Tyrant Academy would not survive.
"Tang Dachui, have your wounds healed? Or have you recovered from the poison?"
"Nothing's healed—why are you pretending to be so high and mighty in front of me?"
"Do you really think I can't kill you??"
Seeing the furious Tang Hao, Yu Xiaowei grinned, then displayed his spirit rings.
Yellow, purple, purple, black, and red.
This bizarre combination of rings made the furious Tang Hao freeze on the spot.
He had never even heard of a ring ratio like this, let alone seen it.
He did know that there had been a title battle near Xinghu before, but the Blue Silver King hadn't dared go there to investigate. Could this be how Yu Xiaowei obtained his fifth ring?
Also, when did this kid become a Soul King?!!
By the waterfall, Tang San sat atop a large rock at the edge of the pool, holding a flower pot, watching everyone in the Blue Tyrant Academy.
The past two years in Clear Sky Sect had not been easy.
Especially after being targeted by Spirit Hall, which made even basic buying difficult—the members of the sect took out all their anger on him and his father.
So his cultivation resources were repeatedly cut.
If not for his uncle's pity and sharing of resources, he might never have reached Spirit Sect level.
Seeing these people in fine clothes—even Oscar and Zhu Zhuqing, whose power hadn't been that great two years ago—were now far stronger than him.
With a severely unbalanced heart, Tang San gave them all the strongest poison he could make at the time.
He was sure no one in the world could cure this poison, called Jasper Fragrance, except himself.
Its strongest feature: slow-acting toxicity. But the longer it took to activate, the more lethal it became.
He wanted the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect and Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect to watch helplessly as their most talented members died in agony, one by one.
Only this inescapable despair could release his rage.
After imagining the desperate faces of both sects, Tang San couldn't help but laugh.
That laugh was terrifying.
After being stunned, Tang Hao calmed down.
No matter how strong Yu Xiaowei's rings were, he was still just a Soul King. Even if Tang Hao was no longer at his peak, he was still a Soul Saint and the world's strongest tool spirit master—Clear Sky Hammer.
With a loud shout, Tang Hao stomped with his lone foot and launched his attack. The Clear Sky Hammer in his hand spun rapidly, and his whole body became a black whirlwind.
Facing this fierce attack, Yu Xiaowei looked serious.
His second spirit ring lit up, and instead of retreating, he charged forward, raising his left leg and kicking hard at Tang Hao's waist.
Countless golden lights lit up. Under this kick, they turned into innumerable sharp blades. If powerful enough, the kick could've broken Tang Hao's waist.
But Tang Hao, a battle-hardened warrior, accurately struck Yu Xiaowei's left leg with his Clear Sky Hammer.
With a loud bang, their attacks clashed violently.
What shocked Tang Hao was that Yu Xiaowei was able to withstand the Clear Sky Hammer—even wrapped in Chaos Cloak Power and weighing over a thousand pounds.
Yu Xiaowei's left leg was covered in thick spirit bone armor.
The Chaos Cloak strike was stopped. Taking advantage of Tang Hao's momentary distraction, Yu Xiaowei swung his right fist, a layer of flame bursting from it with a loud sonic boom, and struck Tang Hao's face.
From the very start of the fight, the unexpected occurred.
No one imagined that Yu Xiaowei, a Soul King, would land a hit on Tang Hao right away.
Though strong, the punch only caused Tang Hao's head to jerk backward, not much more.
"Shameless."
Seeing Tang Hao uninjured, Yu Xiaowei muttered, quickly retreating to dodge Tang Hao's next strike.
"Spirit bone?"
Seeing the white armor over Yu Xiaowei's scales and the kick and punch from earlier, Tang Hao's face darkened.
As a battle veteran, he could tell Yu Xiaowei's earlier attacks used spirit ring amplification, but their real strength came from spirit bone abilities. Just how many spirit bones does this kid have?!
Still, Tang Hao now had a good grasp of Yu Xiaowei's power—very strong. Normal Soul Saints were no match for him.
Unfortunately, Tang Hao wasn't just any Soul Saint.
He moved again, stomping the ground with his left foot.
With a bang, the ground cracked. Holding the Clear Sky Hammer in his right hand, he pulled it behind him, body bent like a bow, and powerful black light burst from the hammer.
A sense of impending crisis surged into Yu Xiaowei's heart. He instinctively knew he couldn't withstand the next attack.
Panicking, he stomped down, creating a large hole in the ground.
Buzz—buzz—buzz—
Blue crystal light lit from his tail fin, spreading to his dorsal fin, his eyes and mouth glowing intensely blue.
In a flash of black light, Tang Hao's Clear Sky Hammer struck—completely silent.
The air around the hammerhead seemed vacuumed away.
At the same time, thick blue light burst from Yu Xiaowei's mouth, colliding violently with the black light.
An explosive shockwave erupted from the collision point, and powerful waves spread in all directions.
From the sky, the forest looked like falling dominoes, collapsing row by row.
In just seconds of stalemate, black and blue light scattered together.
Tang Hao didn't stop. He charged and swept the hammer at Yu Xiaowei again.
Yu Xiaowei reacted quickly, swinging his thick tail to collide with the hammer.
They clashed again and again—hammer against tail.
Spirit ring light flashed in the forest as wounds began appearing on both fighters.
After dozens of exchanges, Yu Xiaowei found it harder to keep up.
A strange suction came from the Clear Sky Hammer. At the same time, the hammerhead grew larger and strikes more violent. No matter what he did, he couldn't escape the suction and had to keep receiving attacks.
He knew this was the Clear Sky Sect's secret technique—Chaos Cloak.
Once trapped in this move, escape was nearly impossible.
And the attacks grew stronger and stronger. With Tang Hao's current power, these hammer strikes approached Soul Douluo level.
Yu Xiaowei couldn't take that kind of hit.
"I underestimated Tang Hao."
With a sigh, Yu Xiaowei suddenly bent over, crossing his arms to block in front.
Soul power surged to his heart, and terrifying energy gathered.
His dorsal fin glowed blue again, and radiation energy gathered in his throat.
But this time, he wasn't going to fire a radiation beam.
Instead, he used a new memory gained from his fifth spirit ring—internal radiation.
Sensing the massive energy fluctuation, Tang Hao frowned and tried to finish him off before the technique launched.
Now, white bone armor covered both of Yu Xiaowei's arms. After taking two hammer blows, he opened his arms and roared—and in an instant, a giant blue energy sphere exploded from him.
The shockwave—stronger than before—blasted Tang Hao away.
Not only did it stop the Chaos Cloak attack and force internal bleeding, but the radiation energy began burning Tang Hao's skin.
The bare forest was now filled with a barbecue smell.
Huff—
Huff—
Yu Xiaowei, drained of soul power, half-kneeled on the ground, panting heavily. Sweat dripped from his forehead. His trembling arms throbbed, and hollowness spread through his body.
He tried activating the Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone to heal, but after such intense fighting, there wasn't much power left.
Tang Hao deserved his reputation. Even with soul power down by 20 levels, his fighting skill and soul compression far exceeded any normal Soul Saint.
And he still had exploding rings and the Sumeru Hammer.
The scales of victory were tilting.
"Ahem—"
At this moment, Tang Hao, just knocked back, coughed up blood and leaned on the Clear Sky Hammer to rise.
His clothes were in tatters, skin burned, and exposed muscles charred.
Looking at the boy before him, Tang Hao was shocked.
He never expected to be injured like this by a junior.
But he still held victory in his hands. He grinned at Yu Xiaowei.
"Your soul power's almost gone, right?"
"So what if you have a 100,000-year ring? A Soul King is still a Soul King!"
"I admit, you're the strongest genius I've ever seen—10,000 times stronger than I was. If nothing went wrong, you'd have been the youngest titled Douluo on the continent."
"Too bad, this genius ends with me."
Leaning on the hammer, Tang Hao limped toward Yu Xiaowei. His calm and confidence had returned.
Truthfully, during the fight, he really thought he might lose—especially when hit by that radiation, which triggered old wounds.
With double injuries, his power was now less than 30% of peak.
Being beaten like this by a Soul King filled him with frustration.
But thankfully, Yu Xiaowei was just a Soul King, and didn't have enough energy to repeatedly use high-powered skills.
Looking at his current state, Tang Hao knew he was almost done.
"Heh heh…"
"Ha ha ha—"
As Tang Hao approached, pale Yu Xiaowei suddenly laughed.
"What are you laughing at?"
Tang Hao narrowed his eyes, raising the hammer warily.
Yu Xiaowei pushed himself up on shaky legs and smiled confidently.
"I'm laughing at you, Tang damn Hao."
"You're already dead, don't you know?"
The words "damn Hao" made Tang Hao's eyes bloodshot. Seeing Yu Xiaowei smirk, he raised the hammer to strike again.
But Yu Xiaowei sneered, and his fifth ring—unused until now—burst into dazzling red light.
"One hundred thousand-year soul skill—Red Lotus Form, activate."
In Tang Hao's terrified eyes, destructive energy turned into orange-red flames and exploded from Yu Xiaowei's body.