The journey from the Imperial Palace to the outskirts of Heaven Dou City was a silent, swift affair. Five figures, a hunting party of almost unimaginable power, streaked across the sky like vengeful comets, their destination the quiet, unassuming grounds of the new Shrek Academy.
Qian Renxue led the way, her six magnificent, angelic wings beating a slow, powerful rhythm, her golden hair a banner of righteous fury against the azure sky. Flanking her were her two grandfathers, the Mighty Lion Douluo a roaring, boisterous inferno of golden-brown energy on her right, and the Azure Luan Douluo a silent, vast ocean of wind on her left. Behind them, She Long and Ci Xue followed, their own Titled Douluo auras a pair of respectful, deadly shadows.
They stopped high above the dense woods that bordered the academy, their forms concealed from the world below by a shimmering, invisible layer of the Azure Luan Douluo's wind-element control.
"He is here," the Mighty Lion Douluo rumbled, his voice a low, excited growl. His golden-brown eyes, which had been filled with a happy, grandfatherly affection just an hour before, were now burning with a cold, predatory light.
"Yes," the Azure Luan Douluo confirmed, his own calm, blue eyes gazing down at the forest below as if it were a simple map. "Hiding. Deep in the woods. His concealment is… impressive. For a man of his rank."
A normal Super Douluo at the ninety-fifth rank, a being like Tang Hao, possessed a mental force and a density of spirit power that made him a ghost to the world. He could wrap himself in his own aura, erase his own presence, and become a whisper in the wind. To lesser beings, even to common Titled Douluos like She Long and Ci Xue, he was completely, utterly invisible.
But to the two men who now hovered in the sky above him, two ancient monsters who stood at the ninety-seventh rank, his impressive concealment was nothing more than a child's game of hide-and-seek. Their own mental force, vast and profound, swept over the forest like an omniscient tide, and they found him instantly, a single, dark, and sorrowful spark of power in a sea of green.
"Stay here, Xue'er," the Mighty Lion Douluo commanded, his voice a low, protective rumble. He gave her an affectionate pat on the head. "We have found the rat. Your grandpas will go and deal with him."
"Be careful," Qian Renxue said, her own voice a low, serious murmur. Her heart was a frantic, excited drum against her ribs. Vengeance. After twelve long, agonizing years, the moment of her vengeance was finally at hand.
She Long and Ci Xue moved to flank her, their own auras flaring to life, creating a protective, impenetrable barrier around their Young Miss.
The two Super Douluos did not waste another moment. They descended, two silent, beautiful, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly deadly harbingers of death.
Tang Hao felt it.
He was sitting in the deep, silent heart of the forest, his own presence a thing of shadow and sorrow, his senses a quiet, ever-watchful net cast over the academy where his son trained.
And then, he felt it.
It was not a sound. It was not a sight. It was a feeling. A sudden, overwhelming, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly powerful wave of pure, concentrated mental force that swept over him like a tidal wave. It was not a gentle probe. It was a declaration. A statement.
'We see you.'
His own, formidable mental force, a power that could have crushed a lesser Titled Douluo, was brushed aside by this new, immense power as if it were a mere cobweb.
He was discovered.
He was on his feet in an instant, his sorrowful, weary expression replaced by the cold, hard, and incredibly dangerous mask of a cornered beast.
He did not hesitate. He did not question. He acted.
"Clear Sky Hammer!" he roared, his voice a deep, guttural sound of pure, unadulterated power.
A colossal, black hammer, its head larger than a boulder, materialized in his hands. It was a thing of pure, unadulterated weight and power, its dark, metallic surface seeming to drink the very light from the air.
And then, his spirit rings appeared. Nine of them. A breathtaking, terrifying sight.
Two yellow. Two purple. Four black.
And one, the final, ninth ring, a deep, mesmerizing, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly blood-red.
A hundred-thousand-year-old spirit ring.
The full, unrestrained power of the Clear Sky Douluo erupted from him, a violent, chaotic storm of pure, destructive energy that sent the trees for a hundred meters around him groaning and bending away from his presence.
He knew, with a cold, hard certainty, that he could not fight. The two auras he had felt were vast, profound, and ancient. They were beings on a level that even he, in his prime, would have struggled to face. Now, with his old, unhealed injuries a constant, aching fire in his body, to stand and fight would be suicide.
He had to escape. He had to run. For his son.
He turned and, with a single, powerful leap that shattered the very ground beneath his feet, he shot into the forest, a dark, desperate meteor of pure, unadulterated power.
The chase was a short, brutal, and ultimately futile affair.
Tang Hao was fast. He was a blur of motion, his powerful body crashing through the dense undergrowth, leaving a trail of shattered trees and broken earth in his wake.
But his pursuer was faster.
The Mighty Lion Douluo was a roaring, boisterous inferno of golden-brown energy, his movements powerful, direct, and earth-shatteringly destructive. But he was a creature of the earth. The dense, tangled forest, for all his power, was still an obstacle.
The Azure Luan Douluo, however… he was a creature of the sky.
He moved not through the forest, but above it. He was a silent, beautiful, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly swift phantom of the wind. The trees, the terrain, they were not obstacles. They were simply… irrelevant.
After a half an hour of a desperate, grueling chase that had taken them to the very outer edges of the vast Sunset Forest, the Azure Luan Douluo finally descended. He landed in a quiet, sun-dappled clearing, his feet touching the ground with the soft, silent grace of a falling leaf.
He stood there, a calm, beautiful, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly deadly roadblock.
Tang Hao burst into the clearing, his breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps, his face a grim, stony mask. The air here was clean, the sunlight dappled and gentle, a world away from the suffocating press of the forest he had just torn through. He saw the handsome, blue-haired man standing before him, calm and serene as a mountain lake, and he knew.
The chase was over. The battle was about to begin.
"Tang Hao," the Azure Luan Douluo said, his voice a calm, even sound that held not a hint of malice, only a profound, almost pitying, finality. "I finally meet this generation's Clear Sky Douluo."
"Who are you?" Tang Hao growled, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the haft of his colossal hammer, the weight of it a familiar, comforting anchor in a world that had just been turned upside down.
"My name is of no consequence," the Azure Luan Douluo replied with a faint, almost sad, smile. "All you need to know is that today, you will pay the price for the death of Qian Xunji."
Tang Hao just let out a short, bitter, and humorless laugh. The sound was raw, like grinding stones. "So, the Spirit Hall has finally sent its old monsters after me," he snarled, his eyes blazing with a familiar, hateful fire. "I was wondering when they would get serious."
He did not waste another moment on words. He was a creature of action, of violence, of a grief so profound it had become a physical force. He acted.
"Deathgod Domain!" he roared.
A wave of pure, unadulterated, and almost physically tangible killing intent erupted from him. The beautiful, sun-dappled clearing was instantly transformed into a grey, misty, and soul-crushingly oppressive battlefield. The vibrant greens of the leaves, the rich brown of the earth, it all just seemed to drain away, replaced by a monochrome, lifeless palette. The very air grew cold, thick, and heavy, filled with the ghostly whispers of the thousands of souls he had slain in the Slaughter City.
The Azure Luan Douluo felt the power of the domain wash over him, a cold, cloying tide that sought to weaken his will, to slow his movements, to fill his heart with a primal, instinctual terror. He felt his own power, the vast, boundless ocean of his spirit, being suppressed, reduced by a full ten percent.
But he was a Level 97 Super Douluo. He was a being who had lived for over a century, who had seen things that would have shattered the minds of lesser men. He was not impressed.
"A fine domain," he said, his voice a calm, analytical murmur, his handsome face holding only a flicker of academic interest. "Impressive in its purity and its intensity. But it will not be enough."
Tang Hao did not respond. He knew this was a battle he had to end quickly. He could feel the familiar, treacherous ache in his old wounds, a low, simmering fire that was already being stoked by the immense strain of his full power output. He stamped his foot, and his first spirit ring, a simple yellow one, flared with an earthy, solid light.
"First Spirit Ability: Earthen Might!" he bellowed.
A deep, resonant hum vibrated up from the ground beneath his feet. A thick, brownish-yellow light surged from the earth, flowing up his legs and into his body, finally concentrating in his colossal hammer. The weapon, already impossibly heavy, seemed to gain a new, crushing weight. The air around it visibly distorted, the ground groaning under the sudden, immense gravitational pressure.
'His first ring isn't an attack,' the Azure Luan Douluo observed with a detached curiosity, 'It's a pure amplification skill. It draws power from the earth itself to increase his physical strength and the mass of his hammer. A solid foundation. No wonder his presence feels as heavy as a mountain.'
Tang Hao roared, a sound of pure, unadulterated fury, and swung his empowered hammer. It was not a fancy technique, not yet. It was a single, devastating, and brutally direct blow, a test of his opponent's mettle. The hammer head, now glowing with an earthy light, didn't just move through the air; it crushed it, creating a vacuum in its wake, a silent, screaming vortex of pure, gravitational force that sought to pull his enemy into its path.
The Azure Luan Douluo just watched it come, a faint, almost bored, expression on his face. He didn't try to block. He didn't try to counter. He simply… moved.
His second spirit ring, another yellow one, flickered. "Second Spirit Ability: Azure Luan's Shadow Flash."
His body dissolved into a blur of azure light, a phantom of wind and motion. He sidestepped the devastating, earth-shattering blow with an ease that was almost insulting, the hammer smashing into the empty air where he had been a fraction of a second before.
BOOM!
The hammer missed its target but struck the ground, and the entire clearing seemed to explode. The earth itself was torn asunder, a massive, thirty-meter-wide crater instantly appearing where the hammer had landed. Trees were uprooted, boulders were pulverized into dust, and a shockwave of pure, kinetic energy tore through the forest.
The Azure Luan Douluo reappeared twenty meters away, untouched, his blue and white robes not even slightly ruffled by the violent explosion.
"Impressive force," he commented, his voice still a calm, melodic chime. "But force without accuracy is just noise."
He raised a hand, and his first spirit ring flared to life once more. "My turn. First Spirit Ability: Wind Blade Array."
The very air around him came alive. A thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand tiny, invisible blades of pure, razor-sharp wind materialized in the air, a swirling, beautiful, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly deadly storm that shot towards Tang Hao.
Tang Hao saw the storm coming, and a grim, determined snarl twisted his lips. He was outmatched in speed, outmatched in control. But in raw, unadulterated power… he would not be so easily defeated.
He began to spin.
"Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer!" he roared, the name of the technique a clap of thunder in the grey, oppressive silence of his domain.
His colossal, black hammer became a whirling, black sun of pure, unadulterated destruction. It was no longer just a weapon; it was a defensive vortex, a grinder of immense power. The storm of wind blades smashed into the spinning hammer, and the air was filled with a high-pitched, screeching symphony of shattering energy.
The wind blades, each one capable of slicing through steel, were annihilated against the immense, spinning mass of the hammer. But they were endless, a relentless, grinding torrent of pure, cutting power that chipped away at his momentum, at his stamina.
He ignored the strain. He let the storm of his opponent's attack fuel the storm of his own. He spun faster, faster, the gravitational field of his hammer growing with every rotation. One spin. Two. Four. Eight. The power compounded, the momentum built, the air around him becoming a crushing, inescapable vortex.
He reached the sixteenth spin, his muscles screaming in protest, the old wounds in his body a raging inferno. He then let out a final, guttural roar and unleashed the accumulated power, his spinning form a blur as he shot towards the Azure Luan Douluo, his hammer a black, destructive comet.
The Azure Luan Douluo watched him come, and for the first time, a flicker of genuine, professional respect entered his calm, blue eyes.
'To combine a defensive maneuver with the build-up for an offensive one… he is not just a brute,' he thought. 'He is a true master of combat.'
But mastery was not enough to bridge the gap between them.
His third spirit ring, a deep, majestic purple one, flared to life.
"Third Spirit Ability," he said, his voice still a calm, almost bored, sound. "Sky Piercing Azure Luan Claw."
He raised a hand, and five long, ethereal claws of pure, azure-blue energy, each one as sharp and as hard as a diamond, materialized from his fingertips. He met the colossal, oncoming hammer, now at the peak of its sixteenth, devastating swing, not with a block, but with a strike of his own.
It was a clash of philosophies. The brute, overwhelming, and all-consuming force of the earth, against the sharp, focused, and irresistible power of the sky.
The clash was not a loud, explosive boom. It was a high-pitched, resonant SHIIING, the sound of two unstoppable forces meeting in a single, perfect, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly devastating instant.
For a single, heart-stopping moment, the two attacks were locked in a perfect, beautiful, and utterly, completely, and terrifyingly silent stalemate. The black, gravitational vortex of the hammer and the sharp, azure-blue light of the claws ground against each other, a screeching, silent symphony of pure, unadulterated power.
And then, the claws won.
They sliced through the gravitational field, they sliced through the momentum of the hammer, and they slammed directly into the massive, black head of the weapon itself.
A shockwave, a pure, visible ring of distorted air, erupted from the point of impact, tearing through the clearing, uprooting ancient trees, and shattering massive boulders as if they were made of glass.
Tang Hao was thrown backwards, his feet skidding across the ground, leaving two deep, long furrows in the earth. A sharp, agonizing pain shot up his arm, and he felt it. A deep, familiar, and soul-crushingly weary ache from the old, unhealed injuries that were a constant, painful reminder of his past. The very injuries that Qian Xunji himself had inflicted upon him, all those years ago.
He looked at his opponent, at the calm, handsome, and completely unscathed man who stood before him, a faint, almost sad, smile on his perfect lips.
And he knew.
His mind was a cold, hard, and brutal landscape of undeniable truth.
'I cannot win,' he thought, his heart a cold, heavy stone in his chest. 'In my prime… perhaps. I could have fought him. I could have resisted more fiercely. But now… with this broken body… to even withstand a single, direct blow from a man of his level is a trial in itself.'
This was not a battle. This was an execution.
And he… he was the one on the chopping block.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels like "Harem Master: Seduction System" and the "Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist" and I hope you like this story and those stories as well.
Check out more chapters on my P.atreon. The P.atreon will have 20+ Chapters ahead for this story. I hope you like it.
The link of p.atreon is: bit.ly/evildragon