"Tang Hao, you've come as expected!"
Seeing Tang Hao suddenly appear and knock Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo back with a single strike, the Lion Douluo showed no anger. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his lips.
In the eyes of Lion Douluo and the other Spirit Hall worshipers, with Qian Renxue, the hope of their entire sect, on their side, their greatest enemies were not genius soul masters but the current powerhouses.
After all, in terms of potential, Qian Renxue—born with innate rank 20 soul power and inheriting a divine position—was leagues ahead of the entire continent, completely unmatched.
It was the current powerhouses who were the true obstacles to Spirit Hall's ambition of unifying the continent.
For this reason, Lion Douluo never considered Tang San, an innate full soul power genius, a real threat. In his view, even if he were to kill ten Tang Sans today, it would not compare to eliminating one Tang Hao.
Even if those ten Tang Sans all grew strong enough to rival Tang Chen in the future, they would still be powerless before Qian Renxue, who had ascended to the Angel God's position. She could crush them with a mere flick of her hand.
'Lion, Thousand Jun, Demon Subduing, Chrysanthemum, Ghost…'
Although Tang Hao's strike against Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo appeared dominant on the surface, he was deeply alarmed inside.
It seemed he had gone too far this time!
Tang Hao couldn't quite understand. Smashing the Heaven Dou Spirit Temple was indeed a major slap in Spirit Hall's face.
But compared to when he had killed Qian Xunji back then, was this really that big of a deal?
What was going on here? When he had killed Qian Xunji, even Qian Daoliu hadn't mobilized such a grand force against him!
Could it be that, in Spirit Hall's eyes, Qian Xunji's life wasn't even worth as much as a Heaven Dou Spirit Temple? That was ridiculous!
What Tang Hao didn't know was that, years later, he would boast to Tang San about this incident: that the peak half-god, rank 99 Qian Daoliu had personally hunted him down, yet he had escaped every time using the Great Sumeru Hammer technique.
Of course, this was a huge exaggeration.
Joking aside, unless a god intervened, the fastest person in the soul master world was none other than Sky's Undefeated Qian Daoliu.
Forget his barely rank 90 self at the time—even if it were peak-level Tang Chen instead, he wouldn't have been able to outrun Qian Daoliu.
A half-god Six-Winged Angel—unless one could fight him head-on, no one could escape from Qian Daoliu's grasp.
Similarly, Tang Hao had no idea that when he had killed Qian Xunji back then, Spirit Hall had not sent a massive force to hunt him down. Instead, they had turned their focus on forcing the Clear Sky Sect into seclusion.
And it wasn't to avenge Qian Xunji but simply to seize political and strategic benefits.
In a way, Qian Daoliu was a straightforward man. Despite being rivals with Tang Chen in the past, the two had actually shared a decent relationship.
Otherwise, when Spirit Hall failed to conquer Sea God Island, Qian Daoliu wouldn't have invited Tang Chen to join him, and Tang Chen wouldn't have agreed to go.
The true culprit behind Qian Xunji's death wasn't Tang Hao but Bibi Dong.
Moreover, Tang Hao had been a tragic figure in that event.
Because of Tang Chen, Qian Daoliu had chosen not to seek revenge on Tang Hao. Instead, he simply placed Tang Hao on Spirit Hall's wanted list as a mere formality.
Yet, from Tang Hao's perspective—completely unaware of the truth—it all seemed like Qian Daoliu had been intimidated by his grandfather's reputation and had chosen to back down, not daring to avenge his son's death.
This inevitably led Tang Hao to a false assumption:
"I killed Qian Xunji back then. Now I've just smashed one of your Spirit Temples—so what? If you have the guts, come at me!"
Well, the ones who had come for him were here now.
The number of people was small—only five—but their strength was incredibly high.
Rank 97 Lion Douluo, Rank 96 Thousand Jun and Demon Subduer Douluo, Rank 95 Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo—and Chrysanthemum and Ghost also had their martial soul fusion technique.
This is bad. Really bad.
Had he been in peak condition, Tang Hao wouldn't have feared them at all.
Even though he was currently only a rank 95 Titled Douluo, his powerful Clear Sky Hammer, a hundred-thousand-year ninth soul ring, full soul bone set, and mastery of the Clear Sky Nine Absolutes made him nearly equal to a rank 97 powerhouse like Lion Douluo.
On top of that, if he unleashed the Great Sumeru Hammer or even detonated all nine rings at once, it wouldn't be him running—it would be the five of them.
Unfortunately, he was nowhere near peak condition.
His body was riddled with old injuries, and while he could use the Great Sumeru Hammer to channel his soul ring power into raw strength and attack, detonation was absolutely out of the question.
If he dared to use the self-destructive ring-exploding technique, he would be ascending straight to the heavens himself.
"Old Six, Old Seven—move! Third Soul Skill: Blazing Lion Transformation!"
Calling out to Thousand Jun and Demon Subduer Douluo, Lion Douluo's third soul ring lit up, flames surging around him as his soul power roared to an even greater peak.
"Coiling Dragon Staff, appear!"
Thousand Jun and Demon Subduer Douluo were not far behind. Blue and red light shone as they summoned their top-tier assault-type tool soul—Coiling Dragon Staff.
Despite its lack of fame, in terms of raw quality, the Coiling Dragon Staff ranked among the most powerful tool souls in the continent's attack-type category.
At the same time, below them, Ning Fengzhi made his move. Flipping his right hand, a miniature seven-story glazed tower materialized.
"Seventh Soul Skill: Seven Treasures Avatar!"
As his seventh soul ring shone, Ning Fengzhi activated his martial soul avatar without hesitation.
Although the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda's avatar didn't enhance its auxiliary abilities, it drastically reduced the consumption of soul power when using support skills.
For a rank 70 soul master like Ning Fengzhi to support a rank 96 Titled Douluo like Chen Xin, without the martial soul avatar's energy conservation, he wouldn't last long.
"Seven treasures turn into glazed light. Second—Speed. Third—Soul. Fourth—Attack!"
Chanting his incantation rapidly, multicolored light surged from the massive Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda projection behind him, shooting into Chen Xin in midair.
In an instant, Chen Xin's speed, soul power, and attack attributes surged by a massive 80%.
Strength, speed, soul power, defense, and attack—these five were the core attributes every Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda soul master had to enhance.
As for the remaining soul skills among the first six rings, they could be customized, such as healing, spiritual power amplification, or further enhancement of their strongest attribute.
Among the five core attributes, strength and defense were of little use to Chen Xin.
Defense was unnecessary—he wasn't a defensive-type soul master.
Strength and attack might seem similar, but they were different.
Strength boosted physical attack power, while attack increased energy-based offensive skills.
For Chen Xin, strength would enhance his normal sword strikes, but attack would amplify the power of his aggressive soul skills.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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