Outside the Star Dou Great Forest, the shattered remnants of the Alliance began to regroup.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect suffered grievous losses. Fortunately, with Gu Rong's space-shifting ability, Ning Fengzhi managed to escape swiftly.
Only after seeing Chen Xin leave the forest alive did Ning Fengzhi breathe a sigh of relief—yet he froze upon noticing that Chen Xin's right arm was gone.
He looked at Chen Xin, then at Gu Rong, and suddenly thought of a saying: "You two truly are my left and right arms." (Quite literally now.)
"Coward, what happened to your hand?" Gu Rong asked.
Chen Xin tilted his head slightly, gesturing behind him. Following his gaze, Fengzhi and Gu Rong saw a small flat-headed figure looking as if he had just crawled out of the jaws of death—Yu Xiaogang.
When Chen Xin used sound transmission to tell them what had happened, Ning Fengzhi's refined expression instantly collapsed, while a murderous gleam flashed across Gu Rong's face.
"This swine is truly useless—worse than useless! I can't stand it anymore. I want to butcher him right now."
"Wait—" Chen Xin quickly stopped him, speaking via sound:
"To save him, I already sacrificed an arm. If we simply kill him now, it's too cheap for him. If he must die, let him die when his death has meaning."
Ning Fengzhi nodded in agreement:
"Exactly. Killing this pig now would leave us in an awkward position with Tang San. Better to keep him alive until Tang San becomes a god—then we can use his head as a gift to Tang San."
Gu Rong took a deep breath to suppress his agitation:
"Fine. Let this swine breathe the air a little longer."
Yu Xiaogang had no idea he had just brushed past death's door. Seeing Fengzhi and Gu Rong, he only felt relief that he had survived.
But once people relax, trouble often follows. Yu Xiaogang's stomach suddenly gurgled, and his face twisted in discomfort.
Not again… Sweat poured down his flat forehead.
Though his cultivation had already collapsed to rank 3, those last three ranks were the result of years of bitter training—hard-won through two hundred times the effort of others.
Clenching desperately, Yu Xiaogang turned to Gu Rong for help. Seeing his expression, Chen Xin, Gu Rong, and Ning Fengzhi all covered their noses and backed away. They knew what was coming.
Yu Xiaogang begged:
"Quick, pass me your soul power, help me—my levels, my levels are about to—"
Before he could finish, the blocked energy surged upward into his mouth. He clasped his lips shut, trying desperately to hold onto his last bit of cultivation.
But the three of them pretended not to hear.
"Alliance Leader, what did you just say?" Chen Xin asked mockingly.
Gu Rong added, "The wind's too strong. Didn't catch that."
Ning Fengzhi said coldly: "Why don't you repeat it, Alliance Leader Xiaogang?"
Yu Xiaogang's body swelled, his face contorted beyond recognition. Finally, he could hold no longer.
"No—!"
A foul, yellowish gas spewed from both his mouth and rear. Within moments, a sickly haze spread in a ten-meter radius around him.
Yu Xiaogang's cultivation level: 3 → 0.
"My soul power… it's gone!" he wailed in despair.
He had become a complete cripple, no different from the powerless commoners he once scorned. His superiority as a soul master vanished in an instant.
Grief, rage, hatred, and despair twisted his expression hideously.
Meanwhile, the three from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, though spending soul power to disperse the stench, couldn't hide the pleasure on their faces.
Uncharitable though it was, watching this swine's misfortune filled them with a certain glee.
But as the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly.
Just after Yu Xiaogang lost his final trace of soul power, he suddenly felt something else leaving his body.
In the next moment, his martial soul—a spotted pig—burst free, squealing joyfully.
The pig looked at Yu Xiaogang, its eyes filled with disgust and a strange relief. Then, wagging its backside happily, it trotted into the depths of the forest. Its form grew faint, turning translucent, and finally dispersed into countless motes of light, vanishing into the world.
Yu Xiaogang, Ning Fengzhi, Gu Rong, and Chen Xin all froze in disbelief.
"What… just happened?" Chen Xin muttered.
Ning Fengzhi asked mockingly:
"Alliance Leader Xiaogang, why did your martial soul run away?"
Why… why did it run?
Yu Xiaogang's mind went blank. He frantically tried to summon it back, but nothing appeared.
Gu Rong sneered:
"Xiaogang… don't tell me your martial soul abandoned you."
Sweat poured down Yu Xiaogang's face. The truth had struck home.
After repeated attempts, terror filled him—he no longer had a martial soul. Not just a weak one, but none at all. Unlike the powerless commoners born with defective martial souls, his had truly left him.
"No, impossible… where's my martial soul? Where did it go?" he cried in despair.
Yes, he had always hated that pig spirit. In his eyes, if not for that wretched martial soul taking the place of his noble Luo Sanpao, he would long ago have been celebrated across the continent as the mighty Dragon God Douluo, Yu Xiaogang.
Whenever life frustrated him, he would summon the pig, curse it, whip it, kick it, and vent all his bitterness upon it.
He had wished for it to vanish—
—but not like this.
I wanted you gone, yes. But I wanted my Golden Dragon Spirit to return in your place. Not for you to leave me empty-handed. Every person on the continent has a martial soul. But now, with none… what am I?
"No, Pig! Come back! You're just a trash martial soul—how dare you abandon me?! Get back here!"
At the edge of the Star Dou Forest, Yu Xiaogang's despairing wails and impotent fury echoed endlessly.
For a long while, Yu Xiaogang sat in despair, forced to accept the reality that he no longer even had a martial soul. Even the lowest commoners now had a sense of superiority over him.
How could Yu Xiaogang—who prided himself on his "noble bloodline" and had always lorded that over the masses of lowborn peasants to soothe the humiliation he endured in the soul master world—possibly accept this?
If he was now beneath even the commoners, then what was the point of living? He might as well die.
His eyes were dull, vacant, and lifeless as he sat on the ground. There was no light in them.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect trio were certainly delighted at Yu Xiaogang's misfortune. Yet, as Ning Fengzhi maliciously thought, endless hopelessness wasn't entertaining. True freshness came only when one saw light, only to then plunge into an abyss of despair.
So, Ning Fengzhi stepped forward and said:
"Alliance Leader Xiaogang, we truly sympathize with your plight. Though you've lost all your soul power and martial soul, don't forget—you have a disciple who is about to become a god! A god! With divine power, bestowing a martial soul is but a trivial matter. The Angel Clan's martial soul, after all, has been passed down for generations by the Angel God. Surely, once Tang San ascends to godhood, he will grant you a powerful martial soul and make you a peerless powerhouse."
Hearing Ning Fengzhi's words, Yu Xiaogang's eyes instantly lit up again—the light of hope.
That's right, he almost forgot! He had a disciple destined to be a god. Tang San had promised him: a teacher for a day, a father for life. Tang San had sworn that once he became a god, he would show Yu Xiaogang the utmost filial respect, raising him up as the God Emperor of the God Realm. God Emperor! An existence above even the God Kings!
I cannot die. I must live to see Tang San ascend. Once Tang San becomes a god, my life's tragedy will be reversed. I will become the supreme ruler of divine authority.
Yu Xiaogang quickly jumped to his feet, dusting himself off. Just as he was about to regain his pompous air, his stomach suddenly churned again.
He froze. His martial soul was gone. His soul power was gone. So why was this happening?
Pfffft!
Thankfully, it was just an ordinary fart this time.
It seemed that while his martial soul and cultivation had all been depleted by those repeated foul farts, the habit of frequent farting had been perfectly preserved.
Gu Rong gave him a strange look and said:
"Alliance Leader Xiaogang, perhaps this isn't all bad. At least you no longer need to worry about your cultivation or soul power dropping any further, isn't that so?"
At those words, Yu Xiaogang's heart twisted with hatred. He replied coldly, face stiff:
"You're right. Other than my beloved disciple Tang San, I have nothing left to lose."
"Then let's move and regroup with the other teams," Ning Fengzhi said.
So, Gu Rong, Chen Xin, and Ning Fengzhi walked ahead, while Yu Xiaogang trailed behind.
Gangzi's flat-topped head brooded over the massacre in the Star Dou Great Forest. His eyes burned with venom as he glared into the depths of the woods:
You damned soul beasts, just you wait. When my disciple Tang San returns as a god, I'll have him slaughter every last one of you in this forest.
Then he thought back to his own escape—how, because of Chen Xin's failure to save him in time, he had lost his "noble" status. Just now, when his final shred of soul power was about to be drained away, these three had pretended not to hear his pleas. Not only had they refused to channel their power into him to preserve his cultivation, they had watched with cold eyes as his soul power vanished completely, even his martial soul disappearing with it.
At that thought, Gangzi began to hate even the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Damn it, you'll pay. When my disciple Tang San becomes a god… His flat head twisted with a hideous grin, harboring venomous schemes.
Naturally, the two Titled Douluo of the sect noticed his change.
"This wretch probably hates us now," Gu Rong said through sound transmission.
"Hah, how amusing," Chen Xin replied. "If not for me, this wretch would have long since ended up in the belly of some beast in the forest. Because of him, I lost an arm—yet he dares to hate me?"
"Exactly. I wasted so much time channeling power for his meaningless cultivation," Gu Rong added. "And remember the last time on the Litlun Plains? I escorted this pig as he fled, only for Zhao Hengning to catch up. I lost an eye because of him. And this swine dares to resent us? Laughable. He doesn't even have a martial soul anymore. What right does he have to hate us?"
"Don't forget," Chen Xin said coldly, "he still has that oh-so-filial disciple. No doubt he's dreaming of the day Tang San becomes a god, plotting to sic him on us."
"This pig still lives in his own fantasy world," Gu Rong sneered. "He doesn't even know Tang San's true feelings. Tang San is simply waiting until he becomes a god to settle accounts with Yu Xiaogang for his mountain of crimes. I, for one, am looking forward to that moment."
When the God Sequence Alliance finally regrouped their remnants, they realized nearly sixty percent of their forces had perished in the Star Dou Great Forest.
The heaviest losses were borne by the Body Sect. From top to bottom, their strongest members had been entangled with the beasts. Their struggle alone allowed the other factions to escape.
The survivors wept crocodile tears over the Body Sect's sacrifice.
The other faction that suffered deeply was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. Their greatest hope, Yu Xiaomen, had also perished.
Yu Yuanzhen was devastated.
"Xiaomen, my pride and joy… You're gone. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan has only this old man left to carry the burden. Without you, how can I go on?"
Yu Xiaogang, hearing his father's grief, finally realized that Yu Xiaomen had died. His eyes flashed with both delight and regret.
Delight—because the one who had always overshadowed and humiliated him was gone.
Regret—because it hadn't been Yu Xiaogang himself who tormented him to death.
When the remnants gathered and assessed their current strength, Yu Xiaogang, Ning Fengzhi, and the others all felt their hearts sink.
Yes, they had betrayed the Body Sect to escape the forest alive. But now, without the Body Sect, they no longer had the qualifications to even be mentioned alongside the great powers like the Spark Alliance or the Spirit Hall.
The strongest left in their Alliance was a crippled Chen Xin.