Lu Mingfei starts from Douluo.

A deafening roar echoed across the wilderness, and terrifying waves of soul power spread outwards in layers.

Even within Wuhun City, many people were affected, with many civilians and even low-level soul masters collapsing and falling unconscious.

Tang Hao spat out a mouthful of blood, and the enormous Clear Sky Hammer vanished instantly. Although the figures of the four Spirit Hall Title Douluos swayed slightly, they ultimately managed to stand firmly on the ground.

"Holy crap, that's amazing?"

The enormous sound waves reached the front of the Papal Palace, and Lu Mingfei, quite rudely, started talking, having already activated his Golden Eyes to focus on the battlefield.

Tang Hao's hammer strike, a 100,000-year-old soul skill, was truly astonishing in its power.

The most advanced battle Lu Mingfei had ever witnessed was the one in the Star Dou Great Forest between the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon Emperor Tian and his other moves, which were so powerful they were almost capable of destroying the heavens and the earth.

Tang Hao's hammer blow was surprisingly powerful enough to reach that level. Although it was only a single strike, this guy had only been a Title Douluo for fourteen years. He truly deserved to be called a formidable man who could kill the previous Pope.

Even Qian Renxue, who had thought everything was foolproof, couldn't help but frown.

Last time in Notting City, even with Chrysanthemum and Ghost Douluo leading the team along with three Title Douluo, they could barely withstand an attack. But this time, the team was led by the two Elders of Thousand Jun Demon Subduing, yet they still didn't fare much better. This Tang Hao is just too abnormal.

Bibi Dong and Chrysanthemum Ghost Douluo took off and rushed to the battlefield immediately. No matter what, this was Wuhun City, her territory, and she couldn't ignore it.

At this moment, Wuhun City was in chaos, and the aftershocks of the battle between Title Douluo-level beings were terrifying.

The students from the Heavenly Dou Royal Academy looked at each other, stunned. The Pope had run away; was their award ceremony over?

As for the strongest, Bone Douluo and Poison Douluo, they were in a state of utter confusion. Bone Douluo was worried that Tang Hao had been killed so easily, so what was the point of their previous alliance?

As for Poison Douluo, Tang San promised that after returning to Tiandou after the competition, he would address the poison problem of his family's martial soul. He even promised to join the so-called Tang Sect for this purpose.

Now that the father and son have been completely exposed, everything is over.

At this moment, both of them involuntarily began to complain about Tang San, wondering why he had to get involved in the Soul Master Competition.

Isn't this just deliberately sabotaging people?

In the end, Lu Mingfei could only turn his attention to the Holy Maiden Qian Renxue, who remained in place. With the Pope absent, this Holy Maiden was, in principle, the one with the most say.

"Due to the interference of the madman Tang Hao, the award ceremony is now over. Everyone from the Heaven Dou Royal Academy may leave on their own. Of course, if you are going to return home, I suggest you leave tomorrow afternoon, after all..." Qian Renxue smiled and did not say anything more.

Her meaning was clear: there was something worth keeping by tomorrow noon, and what it was was self-evident at this moment.

"Hey girl, stop laughing. That's not how you plant a flag."

Lu Mingfei suddenly sighed. The moment he saw Qian Renxue's smug expression, he knew something was wrong.

These words were clearly an attempt to plant a flag, not to mention that Tang San over there was using the protagonist template, making him even more resilient than a cockroach.

Sure enough, before Qian Renxue's smile could fade, another commotion suddenly broke out on the other side of the battlefield.

Just as Demon-Slaying Douluo was about to step forward and completely subdue the heavily injured Tang Hao, a black-clad man completely covered from head to toe suddenly rushed out, wielding a huge Clear Sky Hammer with nine spirit rings floating up and down.

The hammer struck out with astonishing power. Although it couldn't compare to the power of Tang Hao's Blood-Red Clear Sky Hammer, it was still not to be underestimated.

"Who is it!"

The four Title Douluos had already suffered internal injuries from Tang Hao's earth-shattering blow, and now they were caught off guard by a Title Douluo-level Clear Sky Hammer Soul Master, and were directly smashed away.

In the instant they flew away, the figures of Grandmaster, Xiao Wu, Tang San, and Tang Hao had vanished without a trace.

Qianjun and Jiangmo Douluo had grim faces. They had never failed a mission when they worked together before, and this time they were really going to lose face in front of their brothers.

"Two Venerable Ones, can one of you tell me what exactly happened here?" Bibi Dong's tone was clearly accusatory; she had actually felt relieved when she saw the Master disappear.

In her opinion, neither Tang Hao nor Tang San of the Blue Silver Grass was a big deal and posed no real threat. As long as Grandmaster was alright, that was all that mattered.

Chrysanthemum Demon Douluo was furious as he watched Tang Hao disappear. He was so close, yet he still failed at the last moment.

"This matter has nothing to do with the Pope. We brothers will ask the High Priest to punish him." Qianjun and Jiangmo glanced reluctantly in the direction where Tang Hao had disappeared before turning back to Wuhun City.

Qian Renxue, standing in front of the Papal Palace, was dumbfounded. She never imagined that Tang Hao could escape under such circumstances.

Damn Haotian Sect, how could they be so dishonest!

A surge of anger rose in Qian Renxue's heart. How dare Haotian Sect break the agreement? Then they would not be polite!

Lu Mingfei shook his head and followed his teammates down Mount Papal. He had originally thought that there might be some butterfly effect that would allow the Spirit Hall to capture Tang Hao and Tang San in one fell swoop, but now it seemed that he had been overthinking it.

Today's events were entirely due to the factional infighting within the Spirit Hall, which dragged each other down. Come to think of it, with the Pope around, how could he allow anything to happen to his old lover?

However, this was somewhat of a good thing for him, at least he didn't have to worry about Tang Hao blocking him outside the city.

When they returned to their residence, representatives from various kingdoms and duchies, as well as the academy soul masters who remained in Wuhun City, gathered around to offer their congratulations. Prince Xuexing especially praised the Heaven Dou Royal Academy for its effective teaching.

Although Tang Hao's incident happened, it was clearly beyond their level to get involved with. It was more practical to try to win over Lu Mingfei, who was already much more talented than Tang Hao back then.

Especially after they learned that during the award ceremony, the Pope had even gone so far as to offer the future papacy to win over Lu Mingfei, their envy of Lu Mingfei reached its peak.

This is what is called having a good reputation; even the Pope says it's good, so it must be incredibly good!

Chapter 192 The Thief's Heart Remains Undiminished

A dense forest lies to the north of the Martial Soul Plain.

Tang Hao put Tang San and Xiao Wu down from his carrying pole. Before he could catch his breath, a mouthful of blood immediately spilled from the corner of his mouth.

"Brother Hao!" The man in black robes ripped off his mask, threw down the master, and quickly checked on Tang Hao's condition.

However, as soon as he inputted his soul power, he immediately frowned.

This was hardly the body of a Title Douluo! It was more like a tattered rag, riddled with holes. If Tang Hao hadn't been holding on with his immense soul power, he probably would have died long ago.

"Brother Hao, how did you get so badly injured!" Tang Xiao quickly channeled his soul power into Tang Hao: "I'll take you back to Tian Dou. Yue Hua will definitely be able to find someone to heal you."

Tang Hao had also recovered for the time being. He shook his head and gave a helpless bitter smile: "Brother, there's no need to worry Yuehua. These injuries are actually hidden injuries left from the battle with Qian Xunji more than ten years ago. They've been suppressed for so long that no one can solve them. But don't worry, I already have a solution. There's no danger to your life for the time being."

His body was almost beyond saving. If Tang San hadn't absorbed the right leg bone of the Blue Silver Emperor and obtained the 100,000-year recovery soul skill "Wildfire cannot burn it out, the spring breeze blows and it grows again" to help him heal some of his injuries, that Great Sumeru Hammer strike today would probably have been his swan song in this life.

Tang Hao breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "This time, we really owe you a lot. Otherwise, Xiao San and I might have really died in Wuhun City."

Although he was expelled from the Haotian Sect, he had maintained contact with Tang Xiao through Tang Yuehua all these years. This time, in order to completely eliminate the threat of Lu Mingfei, he specifically wrote a letter asking Tang Xiao to come down the mountain to help.

Even if Lu Mingfei had two Title Douluo-level protectors by his side, the brothers would still surely meet a gruesome end if they joined forces.

Tang Xiao had been lying in ambush outside Wuhun City for the past few days, but unexpectedly, he ended up saving their lives.

"We're brothers, no need for such formalities." Tang Xiao sighed, stroking Tang San's blue hair on the ground. "This is your and Ah Yin's child, they look so alike!"

"Surely you should bring Xiao San back to the sect this time? Xiao San possesses twin martial souls and an external soul bone. Over the years, you've also obtained a large amount of funds from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and reorganized the four single-attribute sects. The elders have no reason to refuse the return of such a peerless genius who can lead the Clear Sky Sect to rise again." Tang Xiao looked at Tang Hao with hopeful eyes.

Tang Hao lowered his head. Returning to his sect was also his wish. His father's death and the decline of the Haotian Sect had always been his biggest regrets.

Over the years, he has been doing his best to pave the way for Tang San to be recognized as a member of his ancestral clan.

With Tang San's current strength, he would have had no problem if he were in a decade or so ago.

But that's not possible now.

"No." Tang Hao shook his head: "Big brother, you should have seen the battle this afternoon, right? The Qian family's six-winged angel martial soul bloodline, and... that Lu Mingfei!"

Tang Xiao was slightly taken aback, then slowly nodded. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he probably would have found it hard to believe that it was a battle between a Soul King and a Soul Emperor.

Both of them had clearly reached the threshold of Contra.

It can be said that the successor of the Qian family's Angelic Martial Soul is in no way inferior to Tang San's Twin Martial Souls.

As for Lu Mingfei, he finally understood why his younger brother Hao had made the decision to ambush a child.

If such a person were to join the Spirit Hall, the consequences would be unimaginable. Within twenty years, the Spirit Hall would possess the power to sweep across the entire continent.

“I have a blood feud with the Qian family. After the news of the birth of this Qian family girl reached the sect, the elders would be even less likely to let me return. But Xiao San is different. The elders are more likely to accept him.” Tang Hao said in a low voice, his eyes full of hatred and seriousness.

"But all of this is predicated on the fact that Lu Mingfei does not exist."

When Tang Hao spoke these words, his tone was incredibly cold and fierce. The killing intent he contained seemed to lower the temperature of the surrounding air, and Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Grandmaster, who were unconscious, couldn't help but shiver.

If before this afternoon, Tang Hao wanted to kill Lu Mingfei only to cheer Tang San up, now he truly has the intention to kill Lu Mingfei.

Watching the two fight high in the sky that afternoon, Tang Hao really wished he could go up and risk his life to eliminate these two threats.

He was truly frightened. Lu Mingfei might become someone who surpassed his grandfather. At that time, what would it matter if Xiao San's twin martial souls were fully developed?

It's likely that the mistress will not only fail to bring glory to the Haotian Sect, but will instead bring utter destruction.

In that case, we must not allow this threat to continue to grow.

Tang Xiao remained silent for a moment. He knew that Tang Hao was not an impulsive person. Since he said so, it meant that Lu Mingfei was irreconcilable with them and was destined to become an enemy. In that case, it was imperative to eliminate him completely.

"But where can we find him after he leaves Wuhun City?" Tang Xiao frowned. They were currently with the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled; they couldn't very well go back to stake him out, could they?

"No, no need." Tang Hao said quietly, his gaze fixed on the northwest direction. "We just need to go back to Tiandou City."

--

Damn it.

Lu Mingfei never expected that a joke by the Pope would cause such a sensation.

Not only the Tiandou camp, but also Xingluo Davis and others who lived in the east of the city came to join in the fun, and even talked about becoming sworn brothers and being crowned kings.

Lu Mingfei knew he was now a hot commodity, but he had to admit that the sheer scale of the operation was quite terrifying.

She finally managed to slip away under the pretext of needing to rest due to her injury and return to her room for some peace and quiet, but then Bai Baoshan from the Education Commission walked in.

"Mingfei, why don't you reconsider?" Seeing that no one was in the room, Bai Baoshan whispered to Lu Mingfei to hurry up and go to the Papal Palace to apologize, saying that there might still be a chance to salvage the situation.

After all, as the old saying goes, a Soul Master who doesn't aspire to be the Pope isn't a good Soul Master!

Lu Mingfei felt something was off, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Bai Baoshan was a member of the Heaven Dou royal family. It was already quite virtuous of him not to use his master's favor to recruit him into the Heaven Dou camp. Why would he seriously consider joining the Spirit Hall?

Could it be that Bai Baoshan, you old man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, is actually an undercover agent planted by the Spirit Hall in the Heaven Dou Royal Academy?

"Alright, Lao Bai, I already know, you don't need to hide it from me anymore." Lu Mingfei sat down, casually poured two cups of tea, and spoke nonchalantly.

Bai Baoshan seemed to choke on his words, unable to speak for a long time: "Yes, you should have known a long time ago."

"Damn, this isn't a rooftop. You actually told me that?" Lu Mingfei's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't expected that his casual bluff would actually bring up Hua Zai.

Bai Baoshan, unaware of Lu Mingfei's thought process, simply sat down slowly, drank a cup of tea, and then said, "It must have been that Crown Prince Xingluo who told you, right? Nobody wanted something like this to happen to His Highness Xue Qinghe. But Mingfei, I know you value relationships, but I think you should really consider your future."

"Wait, wait, what's going on here?" Lu Mingfei quickly waved his hand to interrupt Bai Baoshan, asking with a blank look, "What happened to Xue Qinghe?"

Bai Baoshan then realized that Mingfei seemed to be talking about something else entirely. However, he had originally planned to tell him after the competition, so he should indeed tell him: "Mingfei, His Highness Xue Qinghe actually died suddenly more than ten days ago. It was said to be a deadly poison that kills on contact with blood. The imperial physicians couldn't even arrive in time before he passed away on his bed. Sect Leader Ning rushed back earlier because of this matter."

Chapter 193 Eating Jujube Pills

"Xue Qinghe...is dead?"

Lu Mingfei's first reaction was that he felt he had heard a very careless joke. Xue Qinghe, that bastard, had not learned his lesson after being poisoned once, and could actually be poisoned a second time.

Is the Heavenly Dou Imperial Palace some kind of sieve? It's clearly doomed to collapse sooner or later.

"With the passing of Prince Qinghe, Tiandou is left with only Prince Xuebeng as its sole heir."

“In the future, he and Prince Xuexing will control the government. You and I both know very well what kind of person he is. I suppose you don’t want to pay attention to his recruitment, so naturally I’m too lazy to bring it up.”

"That's why I asked you to seriously consider the Spirit Hall's suggestion. As your teacher, you should set aside your so-called stance. With your qualifications, joining the Spirit Hall is indeed much better than getting involved in that mess of Heaven Dou." Bai Baoshan sighed earnestly.

The thought of Avalanche becoming emperor filled Bai Baoshan with dread about the future of the Heavenly Dou Empire. If it weren't for the great favor they had received from the royal family, they might have already considered retiring.

"Mingfei, Mingfei?" Bai Baoshan waved in front of Lu Mingfei.

"Oh."

Lu Mingfei snapped out of his daze and simply nodded. He hadn't really listened to much of what Bai Baoshan said, nor did he care. The Heaven Dou Empire was a mess, and the Spirit Hall was just as bad.

Seeing Lu Mingfei's absent-minded appearance, Bai Baoshan could tell that he wasn't in the mood to listen to his nagging. Since things had come to this, he decided to let him be alone for a while.

"Mingfei, we're leaving now. You get some rest. We'll be leaving early tomorrow morning."

Having said all he wanted to say, Bai Baoshan left the room and closed the door.

Lu Mingfei was left alone in the room. He sat on the tea table and poured himself another glass of water, but he didn't move. He just lay on the table in a daze, and a sense of fatigue gradually washed over him, making his eyelids grow heavier and heavier.

The setting sun outside the window began to sink, and the room gradually became dim. He felt as if he were covered by a mosquito net, and the voices of people upstairs and downstairs were like tiny mosquitoes flying outside, neither piercing nor waking him, just vague sounds.

That's probably the downside of spiritual practice: if your senses are too sharp, you can't always find a moment of peace.

However, occasionally a refreshing breeze would blow in from outside the window, and his thoughts would drift further and further away as if carried away by that breeze.

Yeah, it's dead. I guess it's a fitting end.

That's just how the world is; anyone can die, and it's not surprising that anyone dies.

Xue Qinghe was ruthless, but now someone was even more cunning than him. It's not surprising that he died on the path to power he was pursuing.