The clearing was a tomb of silence. The only sounds were the ragged, pained gasps of the unconscious and the rustle of leaves in a breeze that suddenly felt deathly cold. Zhang Tian stood over the broken form of Tang San, his face a placid mask, the storm of his rage having passed, leaving only a cold, chilling calm in its wake.
Then, the world changed.
"HOW DARE YOU HARM MY SON?!"
The voice was not a sound. It was a physical force, a cataclysmic roar that seemed to emanate from the very heart of the forest. It slammed into them, a shockwave of pure, unadulterated fury that made the ancient trees groan and the very air tremble.
An aura, so immense and oppressive it felt like the sky itself was collapsing, descended upon the clearing. It was a pressure that went beyond spirit power; it was the weight of a sorrowful, murderous will, the presence of a being that had once stood against the world and bled for it.
Elder Shi and Elder Li, the two powerful Spirit Douluos, felt it first. Their calm, professional demeanors shattered in an instant. Their faces went pale, and a jolt of pure, instinctual terror shot through them.
'This power… it's not a normal Titled Douluo!' Elder Shi thought, his mind reeling. 'This pressure… it's on par with the pressure from the Sword Douluo or The Bone Douluo! This individual…He is a Super Douluo! At least Level 95!'
Without a word, without a moment's hesitation, they moved. They flickered into existence, positioning themselves in front of Zhang Tian, Ning Rongrong, and Zhu Zhuqing, their own powerful auras flaring to life as they formed a desperate, protective barrier. They would stake their lives to protect the future of their sect.
From the deepest shadows of the forest, a figure emerged. He wore tattered, grimy robes, a crude hood concealing his face. He looked like a beggar, a vagrant. But the object he held in his right hand dispelled any such notion.
It was a hammer. A colossal, black hammer, its surface etched with intricate, domineering patterns. It radiated an aura of pure, tyrannical power, as if it were forged to shatter mountains and sunder the heavens.
And behind the man, nine spirit rings blazed into existence, a terrifying, mesmerizing halo of power. Two yellow. Two purple. Four black.
And one, the final, innermost ring, was the color of blood. A deep, pulsating, horrifying crimson. A hundred-thousand-year spirit ring.
The figure reached up and threw back his hood. The face revealed was haggard, lined with grief and rage, his eyes burning with an unholy light. It was Tang Hao.
"A brat like you," he growled, his voice a low, rumbling thunder, his burning gaze locking onto Zhang Tian. "You dare to try and kill my son. You are courting death."
On the sidelines, a wave of varied reactions swept through the Shrek contingent. Dai Mubai, who had just managed to sit up after vomiting, felt a surge of pure, malicious glee. He wiped his mouth, a triumphant smirk spreading across his face.
'I don't know who this monster is, but he's Tang San's father! Zhang Tian is dead! Absolutely, completely dead! Good! Let him be torn limb from limb!'
Ma Hongjun and Oscar just stared, their faces ashen with terror, their minds unable to process the sheer scale of power before them.
Flender and Zhao Wuji exchanged a grim, knowing look. They knew this man. They had felt a fraction of his wrath before.
Yu Xiaogang, however, was trembling with a different emotion. It was reverence. It was awe. It was the pure, unadulterated excitement of an academic seeing his life's greatest subject in the flesh. 'The Clear Sky Douluo! He's really here! This is perfect! Let him kill this arrogant brat! Let him avenge my disciple!'
The two Spirit Douluo elders, Shi and Li, recognized the hammer instantly. Their faces grew even graver. 'The Clear Sky Hammer. It's him. The legendary Clear Sky Douluo.'
Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing felt the crushing pressure and huddled closer to Zhang Tian, their faces pale with fear, their eyes wide with worry for his safety.
Amidst this storm of fear and fury, Zhang Tian remained an island of impossible calm. He even allowed a faint, mocking smile to touch his lips.
"A pity you arrived so late, Clear Sky Douluo," he said, his voice as level as a placid lake. "If you had been just a few moments sooner, you might have been able to save your son from being castrated."
The words were a fistful of salt rubbed directly into Tang Hao's gaping wound. The Titled Douluo's eyes blazed, and the pressure in the clearing intensified, the very ground beginning to crack under the strain.
"You will not live to see another sunrise," Tang Hao snarled, taking a step forward. "Not even two mere Spirit Douluos can save you from me."
"Hold him back for as long as you can!" Elder Shi hissed, preparing to unleash his own spirit. "Young Master Tian, take the Young Miss and her friend and run! We will buy you time!"
Zhang Tian simply raised a hand, a calm, placating gesture. "That won't be necessary, Elder Shi," he said, his voice never wavering. He looked directly at the fuming Titled Douluo, his blue eyes showing not a flicker of fear.
"Do you really think you can threaten me right now, Tang Hao?" he asked, his tone almost conversational.
And then, everyone saw it. A single, slender crimson vine, which had been lying inert and unnoticed on the ground, suddenly rose up. Clutched in its tip, like a macabre flower, was one of his black shotguns. The muzzle was pressed firmly against the temple of the unconscious Tang San.
The move was so subtle, so silent, that no one, not even the great Tang Hao, had seen it happen.
Tang Hao froze, his forward momentum arrested, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"Do you really think you can do that while being suppressed by me?!" he roared, his pride wounded. He focused his entire will, his immense spirit power and his terrifying mental force, into a single, crushing beam aimed directly at Zhang Tian.
A normal Spirit Grandmaster would have been forced to kneel on the ground with no way to even utilize his Martial Spirit.
Zhang Tian felt the pressure, a mountain crashing down on his soul. In his spiritual sea, Ah Yin acted instantly. 'Blood Silver Domain!'
The invisible power of the domain wrapped around Zhang Tian like a shield, deflecting and dispersing the worst of Tang Hao's mental and spiritual assault.
To the outside world, it looked as though Zhang Tian was enduring the full force of a Super Douluo's pressure without even flinching.
Another crimson vine sprouted from the ground, waving lazily in the air. "Is this suppressive effect of yours really that useful?" Zhang Tian asked, his voice laced with a cool amusement. "Are you still willing to risk it?"
Tang Hao's furious gaze shifted, locking onto Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing. A new, dark thought began to form in his mind. To take them as his hostages.
Before the thought could even fully coalesce, Zhang Tian's cold voice cut through the air, sharp as a shard of ice. "The last person who dared to threaten them was your son. You can see how that ended for him."
The words were a stark, brutal reminder. Tang Hao's gaze flickered back to the broken, bleeding form of his only child.
"I have known from the very beginning that he was your son," Zhang Tian continued, dropping another bombshell that made Flender and Zhao Wuji's blood run cold. He offered a plausible lie. "I witnessed you beating Teacher Zhao on the night of the entrance exam. I heard you tell him who you were."
He smiled, a cold, knowing expression. "You've been watching me for months, Tang Hao. Do you really think I am the kind of person who would take such a thoughtless action without making my own preparations?"
The statement struck Tang Hao with the force of a physical blow. He was still furious, but a sliver of cold, rational thought pierced through the red haze of his rage. He had observed this boy. He was intelligent. He was calculating. He was not one to act on pure impulse. This meant… this meant he had a contingency. A hand he had yet to play.
"If you dare to touch a single hair on Rongrong's or Zhuqing's head," Zhang Tian's voice dropped to a low, terrifying whisper, a promise of absolute annihilation, "then a message, already sent, will be received by the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect. A message detailing the location of a very special person."
He let the words hang in the air. "Your sister. Tang Yuehua. The sect will be instructed to capture her. And they will not be gentle. She will be tortured. She will be thrown into the lowest, filthiest brothel in Heaven Dou City, where dozens, perhaps hundreds, of men will use her, break her, until she screams out the location of your precious, hidden Clear Sky Sect."
He smiled, a chilling, predatory expression. "And then, the full might of the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect, backed by the eager power of the Spirit Hall, will descend upon your clan. They will be exterminated. Every man, woman, and child. Wiped from the face of this continent."
"HOW DARE YOU?!" Tang Hao roared, the sound a pure, primal scream of rage and disbelief.
Zhang Tian just stared at him, his gaze unwavering. "So, I ask you again, Tang Hao. Are you willing to take that risk? To trade a moment of revenge for the complete and utter destruction of everything you have left? Your son dies. Your sister is defiled. Your clan is annihilated. Or… you let us walk away."
The choice was a cruel, impossible one. Tang Hao looked at the broken body of his son, his heart a gaping, bleeding wound. He looked at the calm, merciless boy who held all the cards. He was a Titled Douluo, a being who could shatter mountains. And he was completely, utterly powerless.
His massive shoulders slumped. The fire in his eyes dimmed, replaced by the cold, dead ash of defeat. "Scram," he growled, the word a physical effort, forced through gritted teeth.
"It would have been better if you had never arrived," Zhang Tian snorted. "But leaving is not so simple now. A brute like you could easily go back on his word. I can't be sure you won't attack us the moment I release my leverage."
He gestured to the unconscious Tang San. "So, he's coming with us."
Tang Hao's fury flared again. "You dare to ask for the impossible?!"
"Do I look like I'm asking?" Zhang Tian retorted. "And don't worry, I have no intention of killing him. If I did, he would have been dead long before you arrived."
He laid out his final terms. "We are going to Heaven Dou City. I will leave his body, and this broken arm, somewhere easily found within Suotuo City. You can retrieve him from there. It's the best deal you're going to get."
Tang Hao stared, his chest heaving, his hands clenching and unclenching on the haft of his massive hammer. Every instinct screamed at him to attack, to obliterate this insolent brat. But the cold, hard logic of the boy's threat was a chain around his neck. He could not risk it. He could not.
With a final, guttural snarl of pure hatred, he gave a single, jerky nod.
Zhang Tian didn't waste another second. A massive cocoon of Blood Silver Grass erupted from the ground, enveloping Tang San's broken body completely. The cocoon then rose into the air, hovering beside him.
He turned to his companions. "Let's go."
With the two Spirit Douluo elders flanking them, and the rest of the sect's guards materializing from the woods, they formed a tight, protective convoy and moved away, leaving the fuming Titled Douluo alone with his defeat.
Back in the woods, the moment they were gone, Tang Hao's control finally snapped. He let out a roar of pure, animalistic rage and began to destroy everything around him. Trees were pulverized into dust by his hammer, the very ground split open under the force of his blows. It was a tantrum of world-shaking proportions.
Flender and the others could only watch from a safe distance, their faces pale with terror.
Hours later, in the central plaza of Suotuo City, a gruesome spectacle was unveiled.
A naked, bleeding boy was tied to the central flagpole. His right arm was a mangled stump, and the bloody, jagged bone that had once been inside it was now sticking gruesomely out of his stomach. His groin was a swollen, bruised, bloody mess. He was unconscious, but his face was frozen in a silent scream of agony.
And at the base of the pole, a crudely written plaque had been placed for all to see.
"The son of the Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao. This is the price for daring to threaten the heiress of the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect."
With their final, humiliating message delivered, Zhang Tian's group, without a moment's delay, boarded a series of luxurious, high-speed carriages and departed for Heaven Dou City.
It was several more hours before a cloaked, limping figure arrived in the plaza. Tang Hao saw the crowd of horrified onlookers. He saw the plaque. And he saw his son, his last hope, displayed like a piece of butchered meat for the world to see.
The last vestiges of his reason shattered.
A wave of black and red light exploded from him, a dome of pure, destructive power. Buildings crumbled. People screamed. The plaza of Suotuo City, and a significant portion of the surrounding city, was simply… erased.
He stood in the center of the crater he had created, the bodies of hundreds of innocent people strewn around him like broken dolls.
He gently took down the ruined body of his son, cradling him in his arms.
And then, with a final, sorrowful look at the devastation, he vanished, a ghost of grief and rage leaving a city of death in his wake.