Chapter 84: 101. Tang Hao — This Isn't My Fault
Tang Lie stood on the ridge, consumed by fear and sorrow as he gazed down into the valley below. Three Titled Douluo elders and all their accompanying Soul Douluo and Soul Saint followers had perished in this battle to eliminate Tang Hao.
That was sixty percent of the Clear Sky Sect's high-end strength—gone. Their blood soaked the canyon floor of Sky Valley Ridge. Could the sect still call itself the number one sect in the world after such devastation?
Suddenly, Tang Hao turned his head. His crimson eyes locked onto Tang Lie, and his blood-red aura lifted him into the air, carrying him directly up to meet the trembling man.
Facing that overwhelming killing intent, Tang Lie's legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees on the spot.
"You… do you also want to harm my son and Ah Yin?" Tang Hao demanded.
"N-no! I wouldn't dare!" Tang Lie stammered, gulping down his fear. At the edge of death, his resentment and grief were swallowed by sheer terror.
"I never wanted to do this!" Tang Hao roared. "You forced me! This isn't my fault! I didn't do anything wrong—right?!"
Blood vessels bulged in his eyes, steam blowing from his nostrils as his fury boiled over. He shoved the head of his Clear Sky Hammer directly in Tang Lie's face and shouted again, "Right?!"
Tang Lie's entire body trembled. The hammer that had slaughtered half the sect hovered inches from his skin. Cold sweat poured down his back as he nodded frantically. "Y-yes, yes! You're not wrong—it's our fault! All our fault!"
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Tang Hao hurled the hammer aside, beating his chest with his forearms and howling like a mad beast. His roar echoed through the mountains, shaking the rocks until his voice became hoarse and broken.
"Even though you forced me to this," Tang Hao said at last, eyes bloodshot and hollow, "I've still committed a great sin. I don't want to deepen it further. So go—leave."
Tang Lie froze, then realized he had been spared. Without looking back at the bodies of his fallen sect brothers, he turned and fled in terror.
When he was gone, Tang Hao returned to the valley floor. He looked around at the mangled remnants of his sect—their blood pooling densely across the ground—and heard the dying curses of his elders echo in his mind.
"Tang Hao! Even as a ghost, I will haunt you!"
"Tang Hao! You can dye the seas red, but you'll never wash off the blood of your kin, the sins you've committed! For generations they'll remember you as the butcher of your own brothers!"
"Tang Hao! Don't you hear your hammer weeping? When you die, how will you face the ancestors of the Clear Sky Sect?"
Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face. He fell to his knees among the corpses and kowtowed again and again, smashing his forehead against the ground until it bled.
"I… Tang Hao… have wronged the sect," he whispered hoarsely. "One day, I will give the sect an answer."
His gaze then settled on Tang San. The sight of his infant son calmed him slightly. As long as his child one day became a god, those he'd slain could be revived, and all could be made right again.
Holding Tang San close, Tang Hao turned to Ah Yin. "Ah Yin, let's go," he said in a low, solemn voice. His obsession with restoring the timeline to match his past life grew stronger than ever.
In his mind, the Clear Sky Sect's tragedy was not his fault—it was Spirit Hall's. If Qian Xunji had arrived on time to block his escape, he never would have been cornered by his own sect and forced to slaughter his kin.
No, all of this was Qian Xunji's fault. Spirit Hall's fault.
Tang Hao clenched his fists, a dark resolve forming in his heart. Once he left Sky Valley Ridge, he would destroy the Spirit Hall outpost on the Lihma Plains. He would collect his "interest" in blood—and force Qian Xunji to come to him.
Thus, the next stage of Haozi's bloody journey began.
In the Divine Realm, within the Asura God Palace—
The Asura God watched the blood-soaked valley below without the faintest flicker of emotion.
Ever since the birth of his "Precious Child," the Clear Sky Sect had simply been a tool—a convenient foundation for the child's future.
But now, those same sect members had dared to insult his treasure, to call him a filthy beastman, a mongrel like the Wolf Thieves … and they'd even tried to kill him. From that moment, they lost the right to exist.
"Very well," the Asura God mused coldly. "The next part of this plan is to handle the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Empress. Now that my Precious Child has been born, it's time for her to make room. The title of Blue Silver Emperor shall pass to my treasure—it's his destiny, and the honor of all Blue Silver Grass across the continent."
"To ensure this soul beast's value is used to the fullest," he continued, "she will sacrifice herself to Tang Hao, granting him a hundred-thousand-year ring as the guardian of my Precious Child. Her soul bone will go to the child, and the Blue Silver Emperor lineage will be his to inherit."
Within a few words, the Asura God had completely scripted Ah Yin's end—her role reduced to a mere tool.
At present, two factions were converging upon Tang Hao—one led by Tang Tian of the Clear Sky Sect, the other by Spirit Hall's Pope. Spirit Hall's force was still distant, but Tang Tian's group was close.
"Fine," said the Asura God. "Let the Clear Sky Sect play its part. Tang Tian will be the one to drive Ah Yin to sacrifice herself."
Then his gaze shifted to Ah Yin herself. The soul beast's greatest flaw, he noted, was that she didn't truly love her son.
"How can that be?" he sneered. "A mother who doesn't love her child will never sacrifice herself willingly. That won't do."
He raised his hand and sent a streak of divine power from the heavens, embedding it unseen into Ah Yin's body.
"No resistance. You will love my Precious Child. You are a mother—how could you not love your own flesh and blood?"
Once this was done, the Asura God turned his gaze back toward the mortal world, ready to watch the next act unfold.
In the Divine Realm's Eternal Temple—
Huo Yuhao observed as a thread of godly light descended from the heavens onto Ah Yin's body. "So, that's Asura God's power," he mused. "He plans to deepen her love for the child, so that when the boy is in danger, she'll willingly sacrifice herself. Classic Asura—working the 'self-sacrifice' plotline again."
He leaned back and smirked. "But you've underestimated love, Asura. Love isn't that predictable. A tired old plot like that needs a rewrite."
Then he flicked his pen, sending his own divine power down to Douluo Continent, merging with Ah Yin's body—but without dispelling the Asura God's influence. He merely altered its focus.
"Love is fickle, my friend," Huo Yuhao murmured with amusement. "True love conquers all. Children? Accidents of emotion. And especially a child born from a man she didn't truly love." He laughed lightly. "Tell me, Blue Silver Empress—don't you agree with me?"
Thus, the grand director Huo Yuhao, dissatisfied with his co-director's script, made his own "small adjustment."
The next stage of Haozi's great slaughter had officially begun.
(END CHAPTER)
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