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With the sacrifice of the Third Elder of the Clear Sky Sect, the Spirit Hall's force of 12,000 warriors split into six units, scaling the sect's defensive walls and launching a ruthless assault. Any Clear Sky Sect disciple caught in their path—regardless of rank—was swiftly slaughtered.
The Clear Sky Sect stood atop a 1,000-meter-high mountain. The upper 500 meters—where spiritual energy was densest—were reserved for direct disciples of the sect. The lower 500 meters housed outer sect disciples and inner disciples. However, the title of core disciple was an exclusive status, something only the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect officially recognized.
Suddenly, cries of alarm rang out:
"Enemy attack!"
"Enemy attack!"
As the slaughter progressed, the mountain reverberated with the booming tolls of warning bells, echoing through the heavens. Those still in slumber awoke in a panic, some so unprepared that they rushed out in nothing but their undergarments, immediately taking up their pre-assigned defensive positions.
Near the peak of the mountain, in front of the sect's grand hall, stood Tang Xiao, gripping his colossal Clear Sky Hammer, its head as large as a water tank. Around his feet, nine soul rings floated in sequence—two yellow, two purple, and five black—marking him as an elite spirit master.
Suspended in midair, he watched as the Spirit Hall's forces pushed beyond the 300-meter mark, leaving countless sect disciples dead in their wake. His fury surged.
Just then, a calm voice cut through the chaos:
"Rank 96… Not bad, Tang Xiao. As the sect master of what was once the number one clan in the world, you've done decently."
Tang Xiao's pupils constricted sharply as he looked up. Floating in the empty sky not far away was a man dressed in black, his long silver-white hair neatly combed, cascading behind him. Despite his ageless, youthful features, which made him appear no older than twenty, Tang Xiao felt an overwhelming pressure from his presence.
"Qian Renhan! You dare launch a sneak attack on my Clear Sky Sect?!"
Tang Xiao's voice dripped with venom, his gaze filled with fear and wariness. Qian Renhan had appeared right in front of him, yet he hadn't sensed a single trace of his presence.
Worse still, Qian Renhan wasn't even using his martial spirit—he was merely standing there, blending into the void as if he were one with it.
Could the gap between us truly be this vast?
Still, Tang Xiao steeled his resolve and roared:
"All disciples of the Clear Sky Sect, activate the Clear Sky Formation!"
Immediately, forty core disciples, already in their designated positions, formed a circle, raising their Clear Sky Hammers in unison. As their soul power surged, black light flickered, thunder crackled, and a formidable barrier enveloped them.
A massive formation materialized, 20 meters in diameter and 10 meters high, its surface brimming with lightning and the sacred inscriptions of the Nine Supreme Clear Sky Techniques.
With the support of this formation, Tang Xiao's aura rapidly surged, pushing his Rank 96 spirit power to a level comparable to Rank 97 Titled Douluo.
Qian Renhan's scarlet eyes gleamed with interest as he observed the defensive formation.
"A turtle shell of a formation… But I must admit, it is formidable."
The Clear Sky Formation worked by allowing the main formation bearer—in this case, Tang Xiao—to absorb soul power from the disciples below, thereby enhancing his cultivation and combat strength. The dual-layered barrier not only boosted his power but also protected the contributing disciples from harm.
To break the formation, one had to either defeat the formation bearer (Tang Xiao) or shatter the barrier and eliminate the supporting disciples below—a method known as breaking the formation by force.
But if one was already powerful enough to break the formation by force, then the formation bearer was irrelevant.
With the formation reinforcing him, Tang Xiao's confidence soared. He bellowed:
"Qian Renhan! If you have the guts to launch a sneak attack on my Clear Sky Sect and slaughter my people, do you have the courage to fight me in a one-on-one duel?!"
Qian Renhan let out a mocking chuckle, waving his hand. Instantly, the clouds behind him shifted, morphing into a majestic throne. He sat down, overlooking the entire Clear Sky Sect, his blood-red eyes filled with disdain.
"You? Challenge me?"
"If your ancestors, Clear Sky Douluo or Sword Douluo, were here, I might have some slight interest."
"But you?"
"You are unworthy."
Tang Xiao nearly spat out blood in fury at the sheer arrogance and humiliation of those words.
But Qian Renhan was not done.
"Elder Thorn Dolphin."
His voice was calm, almost indifferent.
From behind, a short, stocky spirit master clad in golden armor stepped forward. His face was grotesquely ugly, a twisted expression fixed in place.
"Your Holiness," he responded, bowing.
This explained why the attack on the Clear Sky Sect had included eight Titled Douluo—one of them was Elder Thorn Dolphin.
Tang Xiao's eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
"Rank 96…?! That's impossible!"
He recognized Elder Thorn Dolphin from a martial tournament decades ago, back when the latter had only been at Rank 93. Given his advanced age, breaking past Rank 95 should have been impossible.
Yet now, he stood before him at Rank 96.
Even more unsettling was the eerie, sinister aura emanating from him—one that reminded Tang Xiao of the venomous pressure he had once felt from Dugu Bo while traveling the continent.
Qian Renhan's lips curled into a smirk.
"Take care of these turtles in their shell and sweep out the rats beneath them."
Elder Thorn Dolphin bowed deeply.
"As you command, Your Holiness!"
Elder Thorn Dolphin grinned menacingly. Beneath him, nine soul rings flared into existence—two yellow, three purple, and four black. In an instant, his body transformed into a massive, pitch-black pufferfish, its bloated form covered in razor-sharp spines, each one dripping with oily black venom.
The moment a drop of poison landed on the ground, the vegetation below withered instantly, accompanied by the eerie sound of bubbles popping as the toxin dissolved everything it touched.
Originally, Thorn Dolphin's pufferfish martial soul had been scarlet red, but after consuming the Blood Swan Kiss, his toxic potency increased a thousandfold. The overwhelming venom mutated his martial soul into an absolute death-bringing pufferfish, turning it jet black—an embodiment of pure, lethal poison.
So deadly!
"Break the formation! Scatter at once!" Tang Xiao reacted instantly, realizing Thorn Dolphin intended to trap them like fish in a barrel. He roared the command.
But—
"Too late!"
Thorn Dolphin inhaled deeply, his bloated body swelling, then exhaled a thick cloud of deadly black gas, reeking of decay and death. The toxic miasma rapidly engulfed the mountain peak, and as Thorn Dolphin further intensified its potency, the fog grew denser, rolling downward like a tidal wave, spreading toward the lower half of the Clear Sky Sect's mountain stronghold.
Everywhere the black poison mist passed, all life perished—flowers, grass, towering trees—all reduced to lifeless husks. Even the wooden structures of the sect were rapidly corroded, their supports collapsing into rotten debris.
At the forefront of the deadly fog, Tang Xiao and the disciples within the Clear Sky Formation bore the brunt of the attack.
The disciples barely inhaled a single breath before their bodies melted into pools of pus, their bones dissolving into nothingness—leaving behind not even corpses.
Tang Xiao burst out from the toxic fog, his entire body charred black, his face twisted in sheer terror.
He hadn't inhaled the poison directly—not through his mouth or nose—but the toxin had seeped in through his skin, invading him through his pores. And yet, despite its indirect entry, the venom corroded his meridians and bones at a terrifying rate.
He was a Titled Douluo, a legendary warrior, yet his body was falling apart just from exposure to the toxin.
How could this be possible?!
Of course, it was possible.
The Yellow Spring Dew of Slaughter City, a potent but slow-acting poison, was terrifying enough on its own. Yet, after being catalyzed by the Blood Swan Kiss, it had been strong enough to kill Tang Chen—a Rank 99 peak Douluo.
Compared to that, Thorn Dolphin's poison was an even greater nightmare.
Even Qian Renhan, with his immense power, dared not inhale more than a few breaths of this venom. Otherwise, even he would risk death.
For Tang Xiao to survive for even a few minutes in this toxic hellscape was already a miracle.
A single man turning a thousand-mile radius into a land of death—if anyone deserved to be called a war god of mass battles, it was Thorn Dolphin.
"Spirit Hall! I'll take you down with me!"
Tang Xiao let out a furious roar, eyes burning with desperation. He charged forward, raising his Clear Sky Hammer, fully prepared to drag Qian Renhan into death alongside him.
But—
"How dare you raise your hand against His Holiness?!"
Thorn Dolphin's cold voice rang out as his sixth soul ring flared to life.
His already massive pufferfish form swelled to three times its original size, and in an instant, countless black poison spines shot from his body, filling the air like a rain of death.
"Clear Sky Protection!"
Tang Xiao spun his hammer, channeling his soul power into a pitch-black barrier, shielding himself from the incoming venomous spikes.
But—
He didn't realize that with each deflected spike, a few droplets of Thorn Dolphin's poison splattered onto his Clear Sky Protection.
The deadly toxin corroded through the shield effortlessly, and the moment it touched his skin, it burrowed into his flesh like acid eating through paper.
Tang Xiao was already heavily poisoned. Now, with his exertion accelerating his blood flow, the toxin spread even faster.
In mere seconds—
The mighty fortress of a man dissolved into a pile of bones, his lifeless eyes staring into the abyss.
(End of Chapter)