The freezing night winds of the northern skies whipped across the jagged mountain ridges, carrying with them a biting chill that could freeze the blood of ordinary men. Yet, the three towering elders of the Clear Sky Sect paid no mind to the plummeting temperature. Their wide, horrified eyes were locked entirely upon the solitary figure hovering just dozens of meters away. The blood-red trail of his arrival still burned faintly against the dark clouds, a violent scar across the heavens.
Zhang Tian floated effortlessly in the empty air. His dark aristocratic robes billowed gently, untouched by the chaotic gales his abrupt arrival had generated. His icy blue eyes swept over the three massive men with a chilling, detached amusement. He did not summon his martial spirit. He did not cause the sky to rumble with the dazzling light of his spirit rings. He simply existed there, projecting a suffocating, boundless pressure that forced the three Titled Douluos to tighten their grips on their massive hammers.
Tang Jianxing, realizing the terrifying reality of their situation, instinctively shifted his weight. Tucked tightly under his left arm was the unconscious form of Gu Chen, the captive Spirit Ancestor they had forcefully extracted from the tavern.
Zhang Tian's gaze shifted briefly toward the limp figure. A faint, almost imperceptible spark of emerald light flickered in his eyes. Without moving a single muscle, he manipulated the ambient flora residing deep within the snowy earth far below. A remarkably thick, soft vine of Blood Silver Grass shot upward with blinding speed, wrapping itself securely yet gently around Gu Chen's torso.
Before Tang Jianxing could even register the intrusion, the vine forcefully yanked the captive directly out of his grasp. The sudden, violent extraction nearly dislocated the elder's shoulder.
"What?!" Tang Jianxing roared, swinging his wind-wreathed hammer in a desperate, horizontal arc to sever the plant, but the vine had already retracted, pulling Gu Chen down toward the safety of the snowy plains.
As the unconscious man gently touched the ground, Zhang Tian utilized a concentrated sliver of his immense mental force, directly injecting a sharp, waking pulse into Gu Chen's spiritual sea.
'Run,' Zhang Tian's voice echoed clearly within the confused mercenary's mind. 'Run as far away from this ridge as your legs can carry you. Do not look back.'
Gu Chen's eyes snapped open, his body trembling violently. Recognizing the sovereign authority in that telepathic command, he didn't dare hesitate. He scrambled to his feet, ignoring the aching pain in his neck, and sprinted wildly into the dense, snow-covered pine forests, leaving the battlefield to the gods.
High above, Tang Boqin's face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. The eldest of the trio stepped forward, his ninety-four levels of spirit power causing the fiery aura around his hammer to blaze brighter, melting the falling snow into hissing steam.
"You possess considerable nerve, Zhang Tian," Tang Boqin growled, his deep voice carrying over the wind like rolling thunder. "To show yourself before us alone. What exactly are you doing here?"
Zhang Tian let out a soft, melodic chuckle that carried a profound, insulting condescension. He crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head slightly.
"What am I doing here?" Zhang Tian repeated, the corners of his lips curving upward into a mocking smile. "I should be asking you three brutes that very question. Did you truly believe you could brazenly kidnap a resident of my Frostfall Province, tear through the roof of a tavern in my territory, and simply fly away unnoticed? Your arrogance is only eclipsed by your breathtaking stupidity. For crossing my borders and laying hands upon my people, you will pay a very steep price tonight."
Tang Hongyi, his dark blue lightning crackling erratically around his shoulders, scoffed loudly. He raised his hammer, pointing the heavy, blunt head directly at the blue-haired youth.
"You speak grand words for a boy standing alone," Tang Hongyi sneered, his chest heaving with pride. "Do not be so arrogant, whelp. You might have built a fancy little city and acquired some status in this lowly empire, but you are facing three titled elders of the supreme Clear Sky Sect. If you dare to harm us, or impede our return to the Star Luo Empire, our Ancestor Tang Chen will personally march upon your gates and make you pay a price in blood. You cannot stand against a Limit Douluo!"
Zhang Tian burst into genuine, unrestrained laughter. The sound was not manic, but rather filled with a deep, profound pity that made the three elders grid their teeth in frustration.
"Tang Chen?" Zhang Tian asked, wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye. "You threaten me with that old, defeated dog? Tell me, were you three not told what happened during the siege of Seven Treasure City? Your precious Ancestor Tang Chen witnessed my strength firsthand. He saw exactly what I am capable of when he came to scoop up the broken, bleeding remains of Tang San, Tang Hao and Tang Xiao. He tucked his tail between his legs and fled through a spatial tear because he knew confronting me would result in the complete eradication of your entire lineage. He wouldn't do something as suicidal and stupid as coming back here to fight me over three dispensable elders."
The harsh, undeniable truth of the recent war stung the three men deeply. They had heard the whispers of that disastrous retreat, but hearing the enemy so casually dismiss their greatest pillar of strength was a heavy blow to their pride.
"Your insults will be your downfall," Tang Jianxing hissed, the wind around his hammer howling fiercely.
Zhang Tian ignored the threat, his eyes gleaming with a calculating, predatory light. "What truly fascinates me, however, is the pathetic nature of your mission. You broke into my province specifically to capture a low-ranking Spirit Master who possessed an Artificial Spirit Bone. I must admit, I am highly curious."
He uncrossed his arms, gesturing lazily toward them. "Who exactly orchestrated this clumsy theft? I know the brutish, muscle-brained elders of the Clear Sky Sect lack the basic intelligence required to recognize the shifting tides of the world. Was it that mediocre, self-righteous fool, Tang San, who realized the threat my creations pose to his fragile little destiny? Or did Tang Chen develop a shred of tactical foresight? Or perhaps... was it Tang Yuehua, using her pathetic little spy network in the capital, who figured out the secret and sent her older brothers to do the dirty work?"
The explicit mention of Tang Yuehua caused Tang Boqin's eyes to widen in genuine shock. His grip tightened on his blazing hammer. 'How could he possibly know about Yuehua's involvement? Does his surveillance stretch all the way into the Star Luo Imperial Court?'
"Our intelligence network is none of your concern, boy!" Tang Boqin roared, his patience entirely depleted. "We will crush your limbs, drag you back to the south, and extract every last secret of these fake bones from your screaming mouth!"
"Brothers, no more words!" Tang Hongyi shouted, his lightning flaring violently. "He is only one man! Take him down!"
The three elders moved with explosive, seamless synchronization forged through decades of fighting side-by-side. They did not underestimate the youth who had supposedly defeated their Sect Leader. They immediately drew upon their ultimate, most profound strength.
"Seventh Spirit Ring Ability: Clear Sky Avatar!" the three men bellowed in unison.
Their seventh, deep black spirit rings pulsed with blinding radiance. Their physical bodies merged entirely with their weapons. Three colossal, terrifying phantoms of the Clear Sky Hammer materialized in the night sky, each towering over thirty meters long, radiating their respective elements of furious wind, searing fire, and destructive lightning. The sheer gravitational pressure generated by the three avatars caused the snowy peaks below them to fracture and groan.
Zhang Tian remained perfectly still, his hands falling to his sides. He did not summon his Blood Silver God Tree spirit. He did not illuminate a single spirit ring. He simply allowed the dense, liquid-like aura of his level eighty-five Spirit Douluo cultivation to roll outward, meeting their overwhelming pressure with a calm, immovable resilience.
"Show me the pride of the Clear Sky Sect," Zhang Tian commanded smoothly.
Tang Jianxing struck first. His massive, wind-wreathed avatar swung in a brutal, plunging arc. He utilized one of the supreme, foundational techniques of his lineage.
"Absolute Pierce!"
The colossal hammer did not simply smash; it concentrated the howling, razor-sharp wind attribute directly onto the blunt face of the weapon, creating a hyper-focused point of aerodynamic pressure designed to cleanly bore through any defensive barrier. The attack screamed toward Zhang Tian's chest, carrying the momentum to shatter a citadel.
Zhang Tian didn't blink. He raised his right hand, his fingers casually weaving a complex, beautiful pattern in the air.
"Blood Silver Prison," Zhang Tian murmured softly.
From the empty, freezing air surrounding him, dozens of incredibly thick, crimson vines laced with glowing golden veins violently erupted. They did not grow from the ground; they materialized directly from his boundless, highly condensed spirit power. The vines intertwined with breathtaking architectural precision, forming a dense, multi-layered spherical cage around his body.
The 'Absolute Pierce' hammer strike slammed into the botanical prison.
CLANG!
The sound was not that of wood shattering, but of solid, tempered steel colliding with an immovable mountain. The razor-sharp wind ground furiously against the crimson vines, showering the sky with sparks, but the Blood Silver Prison did not yield a single inch. The inherent, supreme metallic toughness of his evolved spirit simply absorbed the kinetic shock.
"Impossible!" Tang Jianxing gasped from within his avatar, feeling the jarring recoil travel up his spectral arms.
"Do not let him breathe!" Tang Boqin roared, his fiery avatar descending from a higher altitude.
The eldest brother combined his searing flames with another devastating technique. "Absolute Quake!" followed instantly by, "Absolute Crush!"
He swung the blazing hammer in a rhythmic, oscillating pattern. The 'Absolute Quake' infused the heavy weapon with violent, destabilizing vibrations meant to shatter internal organs upon impact, while the 'Absolute Crush' maximized the raw, downward gravitational force. The flaming meteor descended upon the Blood Silver Prison, seeking to flatten the youth into paste.
Simultaneously, Tang Hongyi attacked from the flank. His dark blue lightning crackled wildly as he executed his own technique. "Absolute Shock!"
He swung his lightning-infused hammer in a wide, sweeping trajectory. The 'Absolute Shock' technique rippled with pure, paralyzing kinetic waves. With a single touch of the black light radiating from the strike, an enemy would be thrown backward, violently shuddering and convulsing as if struck by heavenly lightning, losing all ability to move or channel spirit power.
Zhang Tian stood within his crimson cage, surrounded by three incoming, apocalyptic strikes. A dark, genuinely entertained smile stretched across his face.
He unclasped his hands, letting the Blood Silver Prison dissolve into a flurry of red light. He did not retreat. He stepped forward directly into the overlapping zones of destruction.
"Frostfire Twin Dragons," Zhang Tian declared, his voice cutting through the roar of the elements.
He thrust both of his hands outward. He drew upon his flawless, unparalleled mastery over his diverse elemental attributes. From his left palm, a massive, roaring eastern dragon composed entirely of searing, Ultimate Fire erupted. From his right palm, an equally massive dragon forged from the bone-chilling, time-freezing power of Ultimate Ice surged forward.
He didn't need the guiding framework of a spirit ring to shape these elements; his immense mental force and profound comprehension allowed him to mold them perfectly.
The Fire Dragon slammed directly into Tang Boqin's descending, flaming hammer. The clash of ordinary fire against Zhang Tian's Ultimate Fire was a pathetic, one-sided slaughter. Tang Boqin's flames were instantly consumed and overpowered by the sheer, unadulterated purity of the ultimate element. The 'Absolute Crush' momentum was violently halted, the Super Douluo-level strike completely stalled in mid-air.
At the exact same moment, the Ice Dragon coiled rapidly around Tang Hongyi's incoming, lightning-wreathed hammer. The 'Absolute Shock' vibrations attempted to paralyze the construct, but the Ultimate Ice rapidly spread up the spectral haft of the avatar, freezing the dark blue lightning solid and completely neutralizing the kinetic shockwaves before they could even reach Zhang Tian.
"What is this?!" Tang Hongyi yelled, desperately trying to pull his avatar back as the freezing cold began to seep into his actual, physical body. "He isn't even using his spirit rings! How can his elemental control be this powerful?!"
Zhang Tian didn't give them time to recover. He blurred into motion, his physical speed terrifyingly enhanced by the passive benefits of his integrated Spirit Bones and his Life Spirit Core. He wove through the massive, sluggish hammer strikes with the grace of a phantom. His physical strength, condensed and refined to a level that defied human limitations, allowed him to casually swat away the glancing blows of the Clear Sky Avatars with his bare hands, the impacts sounding like distant thunderclaps.
"Your technique is rigid. Your reliance on these ancestral forms makes you entirely predictable," Zhang Tian mocked loudly, his voice echoing from every direction as he danced between them. "Did Tang Chen teach you nothing of adaptability? Or is the Clear Sky Sect truly just a gathering of mindless brutes swinging heavy rocks?"
Tang Boqin gnashed his teeth, his pride burning hotter than his flames. "We will show you the true power of our lineage!"
"Formation! Absolute Shield!" Tang Boqin commanded.
The three elders rapidly converged, rotating their massive avatars in a synchronized, overlapping pattern. They utilized the 'Absolute Shield' technique, spinning their hammers to create a torrential, defensive hurricane of fire, wind, and lightning that sought to disrupt Zhang Tian's rhythm and repel any incoming attacks.
"A shield?" Zhang Tian chuckled softly, coming to a halt in the air. "Let us see if your little spinning rocks can defend against the true essence of Death."
Zhang Tian closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. He tapped into the profound, necrotic depths of the eighth spirit ring he had condensed. He did not activate the ring itself, but merely drew upon his newly acquired, flawless comprehension of the Death Attribute.
He raised his right hand, pointing his index and middle fingers together like a blade. A swirling, pitch-black energy laced with a sickly, pale violet hue gathered at his fingertips. The very air around his hand seemed to wither and die, the ambient moisture instantly turning into grey, lifeless ash.
"Deathly Wither Strike," Zhang Tian announced casually.
He slashed his fingers horizontally through the air. A thin, crescent-shaped wave of pure, concentrated Death Attribute shot forward. It made no sound. It produced no flashy explosion. It simply glided silently toward the rotating, elemental shield of the three elders.
The moment the dark wave touched the spinning avatars, the effect was immediate and horrific.
The roaring flames, the howling wind, and the crackling lightning didn't just scatter; they decayed. The Death Attribute actively invaded and rotted the spirit power sustaining the 'Absolute Shield' technique. The massive, spectral forms of the Clear Sky Hammers turned a sickly, rusted grey, their structural integrity crumbling like ancient, weathered stone.
The wave passed entirely through their defensive formation, striking the three elders residing within their avatars.
Tang Jianxing, Tang Boqin, and Tang Hongyi gasped simultaneously, a bone-chilling, necrotic cold seeping directly into their meridians. Their skin turned pale, a wave of profound, debilitating weakness washing over their muscles as the death energy began to actively consume their vitality.
"Death... Death Attribute?!" Tang Jianxing stammered, his eyes widening in pure, unadulterated horror as his avatar flickered dangerously.
Tang Boqin stared at the young man, his mind reeling. "How?! Only the Young Lord... only Tang San possesses the Death Attribute! How can a plant-type Spirit Master wield the power of the Dead?!"
"Your ignorance is truly staggering," Zhang Tian sneered, lowering his hand. "Do you believe your precious Tang San holds a monopoly on the laws of the world? His understanding of death is minuscule to the point of being inconsequential. This is the true, unyielding strength of Death Attribute."
Panic, cold and sharp, finally pierced through the arrogant bravado of the three elders. They realized they were vastly, hopelessly outmatched. This youth was not just a genius; he was a monster whose comprehension of the elements and raw physical power completely eclipsed their decades of rigorous cultivation.
"He is too strong! We cannot fight him with orthodox methods!" Tang Boqin roared to his brothers, clutching his chest as he fought to expel the lingering death aura. "Utilize all your strength!"
The three elders hastily disengaged their crumbling avatars, reverting to their human forms to conserve their rapidly depleting spirit power. They reached into the deepest reserves of their strength, activating the precious, high-tier Spirit Bones they had harvested during their bloody hunts in the ocean.
Tang Boqin's right arm erupted with a blinding, molten orange glow. He activated the Right Arm Bone of the Deep Sea Magma Turtle, a beast renowned for surviving in the boiling, pressurized vents of the ocean floor.
"Boiling Geyser Shield!" Tang Boqin bellowed. A massive, spherical barrier of superheated, churning liquid magma enveloped him, providing a defense that was highly resistant to both physical strikes and elemental penetration.
Tang Hongyi's left leg pulsed with a deep, abyssal black light. He drew upon the Left Leg Bone of the Abyssal Terror Orca, an apex predator of the lightless depths.
"Orca's Paralyzing Sonic Wave!" Tang Hongyi shouted, stomping his foot into the empty air. A concentrated, invisible ripple of high-frequency sonic energy shot directly toward Zhang Tian. It was an attack designed to bypass physical defenses entirely, aiming to violently scramble the fluid in the inner ear and temporarily paralyze the brain's motor functions.
Simultaneously, Tang Jianxing's chest glowed with a pale, swirling azure hue. He activated the Torso Bone of the Hurricane Manta Ray.
"Vacuum Slice!" Tang Jianxing yelled, thrusting his chest forward. Two massive, crescent-shaped blades of highly compressed, vacuum-sealed water and wind tore through the sky, attempting to flank Zhang Tian and slice him into three pieces.
Zhang Tian watched the desperate, coordinated assault of the oceanic abilities with a look of profound boredom.
"You stole the treasures of the sea, yet you wield them like clumsy children playing with sticks," Zhang Tian mocked, not moving an inch to evade the incoming attacks.
The 'Orca's Paralyzing Sonic Wave' reached him first. It struck his body, attempting to invade his auditory canals. But Zhang Tian's mental force, standing proudly at the apex of the Limit Douluo realm, formed an impenetrable, passive barrier around his consciousness. The sonic wave shattered harmlessly against his mind, failing to induce even a fraction of a second of paralysis.
As the 'Manta's Vacuum Slices' closed in on his flanks, Zhang Tian simply extended both hands. His physical body, tempered flawlessly by his Life Spirit Core, possessed a density that rivaled divine metal. He casually caught the two massive, high-pressure vacuum blades in his bare palms. The razor-sharp water ground against his skin, hissing and spraying mist, but it failed to draw a single drop of blood. With a negligent squeeze of his fingers, he shattered the water blades into a harmless shower of rain.
Tang Boqin, seeing his brothers' attacks fail so miserably, turned and attempted to flee south, relying on his 'Boiling Geyser Shield' to protect his retreat.
Zhang Tian scoffed. He pointed a single finger at the fleeing elder. He utilized his supreme control over the Ice Attribute.
"Freeze," Zhang Tian commanded.
A pinpoint beam of Absolute, Ultimate Ice shot forward, striking the churning magma shield. The extreme, conceptual cold instantly overtook the boiling heat. The magma shield violently hissed, turning black, and then rapidly froze into a solid, brittle sphere of useless, heavy obsidian, trapping Tang Boqin inside his own defensive construct.
The three elders floated in the air, panting heavily, their oceanic trump cards effortlessly dismantled. Despair, thick and suffocating, finally began to set in.
"You... you monster," Tang Jianxing gasped, his wind-hammer trembling in his hands. "You think you have won? You think you can stand above the world? You can revel in your arrogance now, Zhang Tian, but your days are numbered!"
Tang Hongyi, his face twisted in a mixture of terror and furious defiance, joined his brother's desperate threats. "Yes! Laugh while you can! When our Ancestor Tang Chen and our Young Lord Tang San return, you will be begging us for mercy! They are currently gathering a power far greater than anything you can possibly imagine!"
"They will return with the might far beyond you can imagine!" Tang Boqin yelled from within his cracked obsidian shell, trying to project a confidence he no longer felt. "They will wash away your pathetic northern empire! You are nothing compared to the destiny of our Young Lord!"
Zhang Tian slowly lowered his hands, a genuine, highly entertained chuckle escaping his lips. He looked at the three desperate men, deciding it was time to completely, utterly shatter their fragile worldview.
"Might far beyond what I can image, you say?" Zhang Tian asked, his voice dripping with casual, aristocratic amusement. "Are you referring to their little vacation on Sea God Island?"
The three elders froze entirely. The blood drained completely from their faces, leaving them looking like pallid corpses. The wind around them seemed to stop howling.
"How... how do you know that name?" Tang Boqin stammered, his voice cracking violently.
Sea God Island was the ultimate, heavily guarded secret of the continent. Other than the highest echelons of the Clear Sky Sect and the Emperor and Empress of the Star Luo Imperial Family, absolutely no one in the world was supposed to know of its existence, let alone their current location.
"You really think a secluded island is a secret?" Zhang Tian laughed, shaking his head slowly. "I know exactly where they are. I know exactly what they are doing. You are putting all your pathetic hopes on Tang San, waiting for him to complete the Nine Trials and become the new, shiny successor to the Sea God, aren't you?"
Tang Jianxing's hammer nearly slipped from his grasp. His mind was reeling, spinning in a vortex of pure, unadulterated panic. 'He knows about the Nine Trials! He knows about the succession! This is impossible! How could he possibly possess such intimate, divine intelligence?!'
Zhang Tian took a slow step forward in the air, relishing the look of absolute, soul-crushing terror in their eyes.
"But let me ask you three fools a very simple question," Zhang Tian continued, his voice dropping to a dark, conversational whisper that carried perfectly to their ears. "If your precious Tang San becomes a God... so what?"
The elders stared at him, unable to comprehend his casual dismissal of true divinity.
"Do you honestly believe that your side holds a monopoly on the heavens?" Zhang Tian smiled a cold, terrifying smile. "Do you think that with my potential, with my intellect, and with a strength that already rivals your precious Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao... that I haven't acquired the legacy of a God myself?"
The revelation struck the three Titled Douluos like a physical hammer blow to the chest.
They staggered backward in the air. They were enraged by his insults, they hated him to the very marrow of their bones, but their seasoned, martial instincts could not deny the horrifying logic of his words. Zhang Tian's potential and raw combat strength were indeed far, far beyond anything their Young Lord Tang San had ever displayed. His effortless mastery over the elements, his monstrous physical body, his self-created skills... it was completely, undeniably logical that a God would have chosen this monster as an inheritor long ago.
And it made too much terrifying sense. How else could Zhang Tian possibly know the deepest, most guarded secrets of Sea God Island? How else could he know about Tang San's divine trials?
'A God told him,' Tang Hongyi realized, his entire body shaking violently. 'The deity backing him must have informed him of the Sea God's actions. He... he has a God backing him! Our entire sect... we have made an enemy of a monster!'
This realization plunged the three elders into the deepest, darkest abyss of despair. The fragile hope they had clung to—the hope of Tang San returning to save them—was violently shattered. They realized that their beloved Clear Sky Sect was walking blindly toward total, inescapable annihilation.
"We must escape!" Tang Boqin roared, shattering the remnants of his obsidian shell with a desperate burst of spirit power. "We must warn the Ancestor and Sister Yuehua! They have to know he is a divine successor!"
Driven by sheer, blind panic and the desperate need to transmit this catastrophic intelligence, the three elders abandoned all thoughts of fighting. They turned and flew frantically in three different directions, burning their life force to maximize their speed, hoping that at least one of them could slip past him in the darkness.
"Boring," Zhang Tian sighed softly, shaking his head. He had had enough fun playing with these broken toys. It was time to end the farce.
He raised his right hand, his icy blue eyes flashing with a sovereign, unyielding light. He did not summon vines. He reached into the very conceptual core of his Blood Silver God Tree spirit.
"Manifest," Zhang Tian commanded.
A brilliant, swirling vortex of crimson and silver light coalesced in his palm. The energy rapidly solidified, forming the magnificent, towering length of the Blood Silver Overlord Spear. The weapon hummed with a terrifying, absolute density, the smooth shaft gleaming with a metallic luster that drank the moonlight.
Zhang Tian gripped the spear, his posture shifting. The casual, aristocratic observer vanished, replaced instantly by a peerless Spear God.
He unleashed his Spear Intent.
It was not a simple, rudimentary aura. The three fleeing elders, possessing only the basic, foundational 'Hammer Soul' level of Weapon Intent, felt a suffocating, transcendent pressure wash over them. Zhang Tian's comprehension had reached the mythical, almost unattainable level of 'Spear Spirit'. His consciousness was perfectly, flawlessly merged with the weapon; the spear was not an object in his hand, but a living, breathing extension of his very soul. The subtle, meta-physical energy of his intent sharpened the invisible air around the spear, making the weapon feel capable of piercing the very fabric of reality.
"Try to block this," Zhang Tian whispered.
He vanished. His physical speed, completely unshackled from his earlier, playful restraint, was instantaneous.
He appeared directly above Tang Jianxing. The elder hastily raised his wind-wreathed hammer in a desperate guard, attempting to use the 'Absolute Shield' technique to deflect the blow.
Zhang Tian didn't use a flashy elemental attack. He simply executed a flawless, straightforward thrust, utilizing his supreme Spear Spirit intent.
"Cloud Piercing Dragon Strike," Zhang Tian murmured.
The tip of the Blood Silver Overlord Spear struck the massive, dark head of the Clear Sky Hammer.
CRACK!
The sound was sharp and sickening. The profound, focused Spear Intent entirely bypassed the swirling wind defenses, driving the overwhelming, dense physical strength of Zhang Tian's body directly into the metal. Tang Jianxing watched in sheer, unadulterated horror as a massive web of jagged fissures spiderwebbed across the surface of his supposedly indestructible Martial Spirit. With a final, agonizing groan of tearing metal, the Clear Sky Hammer shattered completely into a thousand fading pieces of spirit light.
Tang Jianxing coughed up a massive spray of blood, his spirit violently broken, his eyes rolling back in his head as he plummeted toward the earth.
Zhang Tian didn't pause. He pivoted smoothly in the air, his spear becoming a blur of crimson light. He shot toward Tang Hongyi, who was frantically trying to unleash the 'Absolute Kill' technique, his hammer sparking with chaotic blue lightning.
"Heavenly Suppression Thrust," Zhang Tian declared.
He swung the spear in a wide, sweeping arc. The blunt shaft of the Overlord Spear slammed heavily into the side of Tang Hongyi's hammer. The sheer, overwhelming kinetic force of Zhang Tian's swing, amplified by his Spear Intent, completely overwhelmed the elder's grip. The hammer was violently ripped from Tang Hongyi's hands, spinning wildly into the distance before dissolving. The follow-through of the spear strike caught the elder solidly in the ribs, shattering bone and sending him crashing down into the snowy pines below.
Tang Boqin, the last remaining elder, didn't even try to fight. He flew southward with tears of despair streaming down his weathered face.
Zhang Tian appeared directly in front of him, hovering calmly.
"Your arrogance was misplaced, old man," Zhang Tian said softly, lowering his spear. "Your sect's pride in your so-called strongest Tool Spirit is nothing but a pathetic joke in the face of true mastery of a weapon."
Before Tang Boqin could even raise his hammer, Zhang Tian tapped the butt of his spear against the empty air.
Dozens of incredibly thick, diamond-hard Blood Silver Vines erupted from the snowy plains below. They shot upward with terrifying speed, completely engulfing Tang Boqin, wrapping tightly around his limbs and his throat, dragging him violently down to the earth.
Within seconds, the three mighty Titled Douluos of the Clear Sky Sect were unceremoniously dumped into a snowy clearing, securely bound in thick cocoons of crimson flora. They groaned in agony, their bodies battered, their martial spirits shattered, and their pride entirely, utterly destroyed.
Zhang Tian descended gracefully, his boots landing softly on the crisp snow. The Blood Silver Overlord Spear dissolved back into his aura. He walked over to the groaning men, his icy blue eyes devoid of mercy.
He raised a hand, sending three precise, highly concentrated spikes of his pure, dense spirit power directly into their dantians. He did not cripple them permanently, but he completely, securely sealed their Spirit Power pathways. They were now nothing more than heavily muscled, broken old men, entirely incapable of summoning even a spark of energy. They had absolutely no way to escape, and no way to warn their beloved sect of the impending doom.
"Enjoy the hospitality of the north," Zhang Tian murmured to the defeated elders, a dark, victorious smile touching his lips as he prepared to transport his new, highly valuable prisoners back to the depths of Crimson Zenith City.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels [Villain: Manipulating The Heroines Into Hating The Protagonist] and [Harem Master: Seduction System].
Also, check out 20 Chapters Ahead for this fanfic on my P.atreon. [Check Out Art Of Characters On My Patreon. It's Free To View btw.]
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