Wu Ling smiled, but his hands did not slow at all. The saying that villains died because they talked too much was a supreme truth. Although Wu Ling did not believe someone as handsome as himself could be a villain, being cautious was always correct. Besides, he and Tang Hao did not share a mortal feud. After defeating Tang Hao, verbal humiliation would not bring Wu Ling much additional joy.
Wu Ling swung the golden spear, intending to blast Tang Hao to death here. Tang Hao released his Clear Sky Hammer. After using Ring Explosion, he could not use Spirit Skills for a while. The lonely Clear Sky Hammer was gripped in his hand as he prepared for one final desperate resistance.
But suddenly, Wu Ling frowned. He urgently pulled back the descending golden spear and raised it instead. In the next second, the space behind Tang Hao shattered like glass. From the dark void, an arm wearing dark-red armor stretched out, holding a blood-red demonic sword.
"Brahmastra Kundala: O Brahma, Curse Me!"
Wu Ling's expression turned grave. He used the Noble Phantasm without hesitation. The arm swung its sword violently at Wu Ling.
The gold-red spear collided with the blood-colored sword aura. After a brief struggle, the golden spear pierced through the sword aura and charged straight toward that arm.
The arm that had originally reached for Tang Hao paused suddenly, as if it had not expected Wu Ling to break through the sword aura. It had no choice but to raise the sword to block the golden spear. At the same time, another arm stretched out from the side and dragged Tang Hao into the black void.
Once Tang Hao disappeared, the arm holding the sword withdrew without the slightest hesitation. Space restored itself. The golden spear, still full of remaining force, slammed into the inner wall of the cave.
With a violent explosion, the golden spear punched out from the other side of the mountain. A tunnel wide enough for vehicles appeared directly through the mountain's base.
Then the entire mountain began to shake. Creating a tunnel without reinforcement was already dangerous, and Wu Ling's method had been brutally rough.
Seeing that the mountain was about to collapse, Wu Ling's face darkened slightly. He glanced at the Blue Silver Grass beside his feet, casually pulled it up by the roots, and quickly left the tunnel, flying into the sky.
As Wu Ling departed, the mountain finally could not bear it any longer. With a boom, it collapsed completely, burying the quiet valley beneath dust and stone.
Wu Ling did not care about the valley right now. He had recognized who that arm belonged to: the Asura God.
That sword and that sword aura carried a killing presence Wu Ling knew very well, because the Deathgod Domain he once possessed carried that same aura. It was just that the aura on the sword and sword energy was countless times stronger than the Deathgod Domain.
"I never expected the Asura God to personally intervene for Tang Hao. Logically, that should not be worth it. If it were Tang San, maybe."
Wu Ling paused. "Wait. If I change the direction of thought, and his target was not Tang Hao but something on Tang Hao, then it makes sense."
Correct. Tang Hao alone was naturally not worth the Asura God's intervention. The Asura God's target was exactly what Wu Ling guessed: divinity, the remnant divinity from Vasavi Shakti left on Tang Hao.
Wu Ling's spear had directly alarmed the Asura God, who had been watching Soul Land from the Divine Realm. Observing from the Divine Realm, the Asura God discovered with alarm that Wu Ling's attack contained a tiny amount of a judgment-like power. Its quantity was extremely small, but its quality was terrifyingly high. Even if the Asura God himself were struck by Wu Ling's attack, he did not dare say with certainty that he would be unharmed. Because of that, greed had arisen in him.
A god coveting the possession of a mortal was a ridiculous joke, but that was exactly the truth. From that thread of power, he had seen the direction of his own advancement.
That meant the Asura God's first target had actually been Wu Ling's Vasavi Shakti. However, because Wu Ling had already broken it back down into the golden armor, the Asura God had settled for Tang Hao, who carried residual divinity.
After guessing the Asura God's approximate goal, Wu Ling raised a fiercely rude gesture toward the sky.
Then, while imagining himself stabbing the Asura God with Vasavi Shakti, Wu Ling shifted his gaze to the Blue Silver Grass in his hand.
The Blue Silver Grass with golden lines on its leaves kept twisting, as if trying to break free from Wu Ling's grip. Seeing this, Wu Ling directly raised flame in his hand. Under the extreme heat, the Blue Silver Grass lasted less than three seconds before turning to ash. At the same time, Wu Ling's Martial Soul True Form, the Throne of Heroes, quietly appeared behind him.
A short while later, Wu Ling sensed that something seemed to have appeared inside the Throne of Heroes. He directly summoned her.
A woman who appeared to be in her thirties materialized before him. She wore a blue-gold dress. Her noble and elegant aura framed a face that seemed beyond the mortal world. Her blue eyes were flawless like blue crystal, but the emptiness inside them made her look like an exquisite doll without life.
"So this is Tang San's mother, Ah Yin. A hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast is equivalent to a Titled Sage, so she qualifies to be recorded."
Wu Ling circled Ah Yin and studied her. At last, he stopped before that beautiful face.
"Because of the sacrifice, her soul has not fully recovered. Put simply, a weak soul is controlling a strong body. She has her own thoughts, but she cannot move at all."
"I could use her for a secondary Heroic Spirit summon, but she might become a special countermeasure against Tang San at some point. Keeping her for now is fine."
After saying that, Wu Ling returned Ah Yin to the Throne. Then his gaze shifted toward the Blue Silver Grass plain. There was still an eighty-thousand-year Blue Silver King waiting for him there.
Wu Ling flew directly above the Blue Silver Grass plain. Facing an intruder at the fifty-thousand-year level, the Blue Silver King did not even need to be found. It came forward on its own. The result had no suspense. Wu Ling burned it to ash with one Noble Phantasm.
He pulled the black Spirit Ring in front of him and murmured, "Blue Silver Grass. Plant or nature type? At eighty thousand years, it can only summon four-star or below. Then who will it call?"
The Throne of Heroes appeared. After absorbing the Spirit Ring, a Magecraft circle appeared before Wu Ling. As the light flickered, Wu Ling narrowed his eyes. Even he felt great anticipation toward this first normal summon.
Then a refreshing yet bold voice sounded within the light.
"Rider, manifesting here. This peerless body shall be yours to command from now on."
After seeing the Servant who had manifested, Wu Ling froze for a brief moment. Then he raised an eyebrow and asked, "I used Blue Silver Grass, not a carrot. Why did you come?"
The light faded. A heroic figure in armor appeared before Wu Ling. If one ignored the horse head and four legs, he looked truly impressive. As for Wu Ling's question, he answered like this:
"Neigh-heh! I like carrots. I very much like carrots. But I smelled something even more delicious than carrots, so I followed my instincts. In simple terms, I came along by scent."