"It seems you have already completed your intelligence work, which saves me the trouble of an introduction."
Receiving an affirmative response, the cold glint in Tang Hao's eyes intensified.
"As long as it's you."
He snorted coldly, wasting no more words.
The Clear Sky Hammer, heavy as a mountain and obsidian black, appeared in his palm with a low hum. Dark red divine power rose around him like leaping flames, and the terrifying pressure of a god erupted, causing the surrounding clouds to churn violently.
"Where are Mubai and Zhuqing? Hand them over."
"Oh, so you've come for the God of Speed and the God of War."
Lu Jingming acted as though he couldn't feel the pressure capable of crushing mountain ranges. The smile on his face remained unchanged, though it now held a hint of playfulness.
"Rest assured, they aren't dead yet," he said leisurely.
"After all, deities descending from the God Realm are very precious experimental materials. They have great research value. It would be such a pity if they simply died."
"What do you mean?!"
Upon hearing the words "experimental materials" and "research value," Ning Rongrong's face instantly turned deathly pale.
She recalled records she had occasionally encountered in the God Realm concerning other planes. Those records were filled with mad scientists who possessed no reverence for life; they viewed powerful or unique lifeforms as lab rats, subjecting them to cruel live experiments that shattered the boundaries of human ethics.
Dissection, genetic modification, soul slicing... a string of horrific terms surfaced uncontrollably in her mind.
Could Boss Dai and Zhuqing be...
The thought made her shudder, and a soul-deep chill instantly spread throughout her body.
Oscar thought of the same thing. He clenched his fists, his face so darkened it looked like it could drip ink. The Shrek Seven Devils were as close as brothers; he could not imagine what kind of inhuman torture Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing were currently enduring.
"Do you have any idea what you are doing?!"
Ah Yin, who had remained silent, finally erupted. Her usually gentle and kind face was now covered in frost, her voice sharp with extreme indignation.
"To insult gods in such a way, to treat them as playthings—do you wish to provoke the God Realm and make an enemy of its entirety?"
Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing were her juniors and Tang San's siblings. They had come to this peril-filled lower realm specifically to help Tang San find the missing Xiao Wu. Now, because of that bond, they had fallen into the enemy's hands and might even be reduced to experimental subjects. This caused her maternal compassion to be instantly replaced by a raging fire.
"The God Realm?"
Lu Jingming couldn't help but chuckle at the word, his laughter filled with undisguised mockery.
"The God Realm should be quite preoccupied with its own problems right now, shouldn't it? Otherwise, it wouldn't have sent just a few Second-Class Gods to solve the troubles of the lower realm."
He looked at Ah Yin and said playfully, "After all, Sea God Tang San should be the one most anxious to find your missing daughter-in-law, Xiao Wu, right?"
How does he know about Xiao Wu?!
How does he know about the internal turmoil of the God Realm?!
Lu Jingming's casual words were like a clap of thunder exploding in the hearts of the four.
"Xiao Wu?!"
Ning Rongrong didn't have time to wonder how he knew the inner workings of the God Realm; she immediately pressed for answers.
"How do you know we are looking for Xiao Wu? Have you seen her? Where is she?!"
This concerned Xiao Wu's safety; she couldn't afford not to be anxious.
"Of course I've seen her."
Lu Jingming watched their urgent and wary expressions, the smile on his face growing more brilliant.
"Sigh, though you've come with such thick hostility, I have always been a very hospitable person." He sighed with feigned regret, then changed his tone to one of lighthearted amusement, as if sharing an interesting anecdote.
"I've not only seen her, I also know that she is living very well right now. Oh, by the way, she even bore another son for that high-and-mighty God King of yours. He lost a daughter, but he has a son now."
"Though, this son might not be his biological child. Poor Lord God King, to be cuckolded like that."
Lu Jingming laughed happily—a pure, genuine joy from the bottom of his heart. He loved watching these self-proclaimed noble gods crumble and lose their composure the moment they heard the cruel truth.
"What... are... you... talking... about?!"
Tang Hao's head buzzed, his mind going blank. At the mention of being cuckolded, all his reason and capacity for thought were swallowed by a rage capable of incinerating the heavens and boiling the seas.
That was his daughter-in-law. She was the beloved whom his son, Tang San, had used his life to protect and resurrect. Now, this man was using such frivolous and insulting language to defile that sacred bond.
"AHHHHHHH!!!"
Tang Hao let out a roar filled with brutality and murderous intent.
His eyes instantly turned blood-red, veins bulged on his face, and his knotted muscles swelled until his robes threatened to tear. He didn't say another word; all his fury, humiliation, and killing intent converged into the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand.
"DIE!!!"
He swung the Clear Sky Hammer.
The moment the massive black hammer was swung, its volume exploded. In an instant, it transformed into a gargantuan magic hammer a hundred meters large, seemingly capable of blotting out the sun.
Upon the hammer's body, dark red divine power intertwined with the bloody aura of the Deathgod Domain, condensing into savage, roaring patterns of ghosts and gods.
This strike was the unreserved, full-force blow of the god Tang Hao in his state of extreme rage. He even surpassed his normal limits, his strength achieving a breakthrough.
Everywhere the giant hammer passed, space wailed under the unbearable weight. The compressed air formed visible white shockwaves, and fine, pitch-black spatial cracks even appeared in front of the hammerhead.
Facing this terrifying strike that could level a mountain range, the smile on Lu Jingming's face didn't even waver.
He simply raised his right hand slowly and casually.
With that simple movement, he used his fair, slender, and almost delicate-looking palm to meet the world-destroying giant hammer.
The next second.
Under the horrified gazes of Tang Hao, Ah Yin, Ning Rongrong, and Oscar, the hundred-meter hammer slammed heavily onto Lu Jingming's seemingly tiny palm.
And then...
There was no world-shaking explosion.
There was no earth-shattering shockwave.
There wasn't even a single sound.
The giant hammer, which condensed all of Tang Hao's divine power and fury, seemed to strike into a void the moment it touched Lu Jingming's palm.
All the power, all the divine energy, and all the killing intent were silently swallowed, decomposed, and reduced to nothingness within 0.001 seconds.
The hundred-meter hammer dissipated inch by inch starting from the head. It didn't shatter; rather, it was like a pencil drawing being rubbed away by an eraser, turning into basic energy particles and returning to silence.
In a single second, the hammer that had carried such overwhelming might vanished completely.
Lu Jingming remained hovering in place, his right hand still held up, the gentle smile still on his face as if nothing had happened.
Silence fell over the world.
Tang Hao remained frozen in his swinging posture. In his blood-red eyes, fury was receding at a visible rate, replaced by shock and... fear.
He knew better than anyone how terrifying the power of his strike was. But that power had been like a drop of water falling into the ocean, failing to even create a ripple.
He felt no recoil, no energy conflict. He only felt that the moment his power touched the other's palm, it was completely severed from him, erased from existence by an incomprehensible, irresistible law of a higher dimension.
"Well, it's normal for you to be angry."
Lu Jingming slowly lowered his hand as if he had performed a trivial task. He looked at the despondent Tang Hao, his tone even carrying a hint of understanding.
"I admit my words were quite unpleasant, but... they are the truth."
He wasn't angry; after all, he had initiated the provocation. Tang Hao's attack was entirely within his expectations. And the result was also within his expectations.
"Seeing is believing, after all."
Lu Jingming decided to add one last straw to their fragile nerves. He wanted to destroy their hearts.
"I'll let you see for yourselves."
He smiled and snapped his fingers crisply.
Snap.
With that snap, the space beside him rippled like a stone thrown into water. Immediately following, a giant, clear projection screen made of pure light particles unfolded abruptly in the void.
The frame of the screen flickered with light blue data streams, filled with a sense of technology far beyond this era, creating a sharp, absurd contrast with the classical and divine aura of the four gods.
Tang Hao and the others instinctively took a step back, staring warily at the screen that had appeared out of thin air. Lu Jingming's effortless neutralization of Tang Hao's full-force strike had completely overturned their understanding, making them realize that the man's strength was beyond their comprehension.
Tang Hao especially understood Lu Jingming's terror. Though he didn't hold a Divine Seat, with Tang San's help over the years in the God Realm, his resources and understanding of laws were far beyond other gods. His true combat power had long since sat firmly in the realm of a Second-Class God.
Yet, his full-force strike, delivered without holding back, couldn't even shake the opponent in the slightest. This feeling was even more powerless and despairing than when he had faced the Angel God of the Spirit Hall as a mortal.
What kind of monster was this Lu Jingming?
On the screen of light, the image was as clear as reality.
It was an isolated, beautiful valley. The camera first panned over a clear lake where a young man and woman were sparring—the man valiant and the woman nimble. They were Beibei and Tang Ya.
The scene shifted, the camera passing through a lush forest path before finally settling on a warm, elegant wooden house by the water.
And the sight in front of that house was like a giant hammer slamming into the hearts of Tang Hao, Ah Yin, Ning Rongrong, and Oscar.
On the lawn outside the house lay a soft plush rug. A child about a year old, carved like jade and incredibly adorable, sat on the rug, babbling as he played with a toy.
Beside the rug, a figure they knew intimately—Xiao Wu—was leaning happily and tenderly into the embrace of a strange man.
That man had black hair and black eyes. His face was handsome, with a hint of gloom between his brows, but the look he gave Xiao Wu and the child was filled with undisguised doting and love.
Xiao Wu's profile was bathed in the warm sunlight. Those eyes that were once so spirited and filled with love for Tang San were now fixed upon another man. She even actively adjusted her position to lean more comfortably in his arms, a peaceful smile hanging on the corner of her lips.
Warmth, harmony, and domestic bliss. This was clearly the most standard and happy picture of a family of three.
"This... how is this... possible?"
Ning Rongrong let out an incredulous cry. She instinctively covered her mouth tightly, afraid she would scream out loud. Her beautiful eyes were wide with horror. Her mind went blank.
How could it be? That was Xiao Wu. That was the Xiao Wu who would sacrifice her life for San-ge, for whom San-ge would peel off his spirit bone and turn against the entire world. Their love was a legend that moved the entire God Realm, the most sacred bond in the hearts of everyone in the Shrek Seven Devils.
But now, what was she seeing? Xiao Wu was leaning in another man's arms, and there was a child... whose child was it?
The thought was like a curse, leaving her entire body cold.
"Impossible, absolutely impossible. How could Xiao Wu betray Tang San?"
Oscar also cried out, losing his composure. The color drained from his handsome face, filled with disbelief. No one knew better than these companions who had walked the path together that Tang San and Xiao Wu's feelings had long since transcended life and death, merging into each other's souls.
Betrayal? Using that word on them was a desecration in itself.
"Fake... this must be fake..." Oscar muttered to himself, but he couldn't even convince himself.
The image was too real—real to the point where the dust motes in the sunlight on Xiao Wu's hair were clearly visible.
As for Tang Hao, it was as if a divine lightning bolt had struck him from head to toe. He was frozen in place. He didn't cry out or roar; he only stared fixedly at the stinging scene on the screen.
Those tiger eyes, which were always filled with dominance and majesty, were now a hollow, blood-red void. In his mind, only one thought resonated wildly and repeatedly like a most vicious, demonic sound.
-----------------------------------------------
I handpick only the finest and most captivating novels for you. Don't forget to check out my other novels!
p@treon HongMengZi