The Mysterious Woman Awakens

Before Lin Qingzhou could make a move, the Evil Soul Master had already surged forward, his sharp claw-blades striking once again at Lin Qingzhou's vitals.

Lin Qingzhou tilted his body slightly to dodge the strike, seizing the momentum to kick the Evil Soul Master in the abdomen.

But this Evil Soul Master was no pushover; he used the force of the kick to propel himself in mid-air, slamming his right leg fiercely toward Lin Qingzhou.

Lin Qingzhou let out a muffled groan as he took the blow head-on, then swung his hammer backhand toward the short man's knee.

The short man clearly hadn't expected such a swift reaction and couldn't retract his leg in time; the hammer head struck his kneecap squarely, causing his entire leg to bend at a gruesome angle.

He let out a shrill, miserable scream as he lost his center of gravity and tumbled forward.

Lin Qingzhou took the opportunity to stomp on his back, swinging the war hammer in a full arc toward the back of his head.

"Bang!"

The short man twitched once and then went completely still.

Seeing this, the tall man's expression shifted drastically; he roared in anger, waving his hands repeatedly as two more dark purple soul power orbs hurtled toward Lin Qingzhou.

Lin Qingzhou didn't try to block this time, instead rolling to the side; the orbs smashed into the spot where he had just been standing, blasting out a basin-sized crater and showering him with gravel and concrete shards.

He knelt on one knee, quickly pressing the launch button at the end of his war hammer's handle.

"Whoosh..."

An Armor-Piercing Fixed Soul Missile trailed a pale blue exhaust as it streaked straight toward the tall man's chest. The tall man reacted with lightning speed, condensing a soul power shield in front of him in an attempt to block the strike.

But the armor-piercing round's penetrative power far exceeded his expectations; the soul power shield held for only a moment before being pierced, and the missile, its momentum barely diminished, punched straight through his right shoulder.

The tall man stumbled backward with a scream, his right arm hanging limp. Lin Qingzhou seized the chance, grabbed his war hammer, and rushed forward, slamming it into the man's chest.

"Boom!"

The tall man slammed into the wall and slowly slid down, never to stand again.

Lin Qingzhou gasped for air, his lungs feeling as if they were being seared by fire.

Having dealt with three Evil Soul Masters in succession, he had won, but the toll was far greater than he had anticipated.

His arm began to go numb, and the webbing between his thumb and forefinger had split open, blood seeping out.

He tore off a strip of his hem, wrapped it haphazardly around his hand, and bent down to quickly search the bodies of the short and tall men, finding two more magazine pouches. The ammunition caliber matched his own, providing him with eight more rounds in total.

Three Shock-type, two Explosive-type, and three Incendiary-type. It seemed these fellows used a standardized ammunition supply, which worked out in his favor.

He dumped all the ammunition into one pouch, stuffed the bulging bag into his coat, and continued running toward the villa district.

Lin Qingzhou gritted his teeth; every movement tugged at the wounds all over his body, the pain nearly unbearable.

What terrified Lin Qingzhou even more was that he could feel his physical condition slowly deteriorating.

Seemingly realizing something, he ripped open his clothes, only to discover that ink-black lines were slowly creeping upward from the wounds on his abdomen.

Lin Qingzhou's mouth twitched, his heart sinking as he let out a soft sigh. There was nothing he could do for now, so he hurriedly rummaged through the medical kit in his storage soul tool for medicine.

He pulled out a needle-like vial, though he had no idea what effect this medicine might have on the toxins currently in his system.

Regardless, he had to treat a dead horse as if it were still alive.

Hardening his heart, he plunged the needle into his carotid artery and gently injected the medicine. The speed at which the black lines were climbing was slightly suppressed, but they were still slowly spreading.

Lin Qingzhou breathed a slight sigh of relief; at least he could continue moving for now. There was still hope, wasn't there?

The End-of-All Divine Realm, a god-level battlefield that Lin Qingzhou feared, was undergoing a strange transformation.

Sizzling electrical currents darted through the mist as if searching for something.

At first, there were only sporadic flashes of silver, but then they began to converge, rushing in from all directions to entwine and weave, gradually outlining the silhouette of a female form.

First, the faint light traced the slender line of a neck, and the currents flowed downward like veins, illuminating the collarbones, shoulder blades, and arms...

The light paused at every joint, as if performing a precise calibration.

The waist slowly took shape amidst the swirling currents, and the legs emerged soon after. A pale blue halo pulsed faintly on the skin, as if learning the rhythm of breathing bit by bit.

When she stood complete in the center of the mist, only those tightly closed eyes remained silent.

Then...

She opened her eyes. In that instant, the entire mist was dispersed, and everything in the plane was reflected deep within her pupils.

The awakening was complete.

The further east he went, the more tragic the scenes on the streets became.

Several buildings had been half-demolished, the road was littered with gravel and glass shards, and corpses lay scattered here and there—some civilians, others city defense soldiers in uniform.

The air was thick with a pungent, charred stench mixed with the smell of blood, a combination that was nauseating.

The blood-red mist in the distance grew thicker, and faint sounds of fighting and explosions could be heard; it was likely the city's soul masters engaging the main force of the Evil Soul Masters.

Lin Qingzhou tried his best to take side streets, avoiding the battles on the main thoroughfares.

He climbed over a collapsed wall and took a shortcut through an abandoned parking lot. Just as he was about to turn a corner, he suddenly heard a faint, whimpering cry from ahead.

He softened his footsteps and peeked around the corner.

A little girl of seven or eight was huddled in the corner of a wall, trembling all over, her face covered in tears.

Beside her lay the corpse of a woman, presumably her mother. The little girl clutched her mother's arm, using every ounce of her strength to try and pull her up, her voice raspy and hoarse from incessantly calling out "Mama."

At the other end of the street, an Evil Soul Master dressed in black was walking slowly toward her, a long blade dripping with blood held in his hand.

"Stop!"

Lin Qingzhou didn't have time to think; he instinctively leaped out, raising his warhammer to aim at the Evil Soul Master.

The Evil Soul Master tilted his head, eyeing him with an expression that was almost playful.

The aura emanating from this man was a cut above the previous few; the dark red soul power swirling around him was visibly dense, wrapping around his body like a thin mist of blood.

His eyes were not the dark red of the others, but a deep, abyssal ink-green that glinted coldly in the dim street.

"Oh?" The Evil Soul Master saw the blood still dripping from Lin Qingzhou's warhammer and narrowed his eyes. "So the Hong Family Three Brothers fell at your hands. Interesting. A mere mortal without soul power actually managed to kill three official Soul Masters."

His gaze shifted slowly from Lin Qingzhou's face to the warhammer, then landed on the launcher at the end of the handle, a cold, sinister smile curling his lips.

"You're a blacksmith? Then you deserve to die even more. In our line of work, blacksmiths are the ones we hate the most."