The days that followed were quiet but packed. Every morning, Zhen Hua hauled Lin Qingzhou into the forging room and taught him everything from identifying metals to Thousand Refinement techniques. Each lesson lasted all morning.
In the afternoon, Mu Ye took over, bringing him to the training room to correct everything from the routes of Soul Power circulation to the fine details of releasing Soul Skills. He often kept Lin Qingzhou practicing until nightfall.
Lin Qingzhou slacked off on neither front. He forged during the day and trained at night, occasionally making time to deal with one or two cool reports from Zero in his mind about the Divine Realm's energy recovery progress.
Life was monotonous, but he was used to monotony. Compared with the nights in Aolai City, when he'd struggled on the edge of life and death, this monotony—where he could focus on growing stronger—was a pleasure.
A week later, Mu Ye received a message and had to go to Eastsea City to take care of some personal business. He didn't explain what it was, and Lin Qingzhou didn't ask.
Zhen Hua naturally took over Lin Qingzhou's entire schedule. But the very next morning, several important clients arrived at the Blacksmith Guild.
Zhen Hua had no choice but to receive them himself. He repeatedly reminded Lin Qingzhou to practice on his own that morning and promised to continue teaching him Thousand Refinement quenching techniques when he got back in the afternoon.
Lin Qingzhou spent the whole morning practicing basic moves alone in the training room, soaking through his clothes with sweat several times over.
He showered at noon and changed into clean clothes. Remembering that his refrigerator had been empty for two days, he decided to go out and buy some food.
His bargain-basement master, Mu Ye, really wasn't stingy. He'd given Lin Qingzhou a black card loaded with several million Federation Currency and told him to spend freely. But Lin Qingzhou wasn't much of a consumer, and he stuck to his usual frugal ways.
Heaven Dou City's central commercial district was not far from the Blacksmith Guild. It took about ten minutes to walk there. The streets were crowded with people, much livelier than Aolai City.
The shops along the road used holographic projections for their signs. Their colorful effects looked rather glaring in the sunlight.
Soul Tool parts, daily necessities, street food—shops of every kind crowded together in an unbroken row.
Lin Qingzhou stopped outside a store marked "Discount Supermarket." Just as he was about to go in, a harsh engine roar suddenly sounded behind him.
It wasn't the electromagnetic hum of a hovercar, but the growl of an old-fashioned combustion engine, rarely seen in a major city like Heaven Dou City.
A modified off-road vehicle swung around the corner at speed and pulled up beside the sidewalk in front of the supermarket. Its
doors opened, and four people jumped out.
The one in front looked about sixteen or seventeen. He wore expensive-looking dark blue Soul Master casual clothes, with silver thread trimming the cuffs and a Spirit Pagoda badge pinned to his chest.
Two boys about the same age followed him, one fat and one thin. From their clothes, both seemed to come from well-off families.
The last to get out was a young woman in her early twenties, dressed in the robes of a Spirit Pagoda mid-level steward. Her expression was cool and detached. She was clearly there to guard the others.
The boy in front swept his gaze over the street, then looked Lin Qingzhou up and down and curled his lip.
Lin Qingzhou wore an ordinary gray cloth shirt Zhen Hua had found for him earlier. It was clean enough, but the style was old-fashioned. On this commercial street, crowded with brand-name clothes and Soul Engineer robes, it certainly didn't stand out.
But what caught the boy's attention probably wasn't his clothes. It was the complete absence of any trace of Soul Power on him.
Lin Qingzhou was used to concealing his presence completely. It was an instinct he'd developed over the years in Aolai City: if he could avoid drawing attention to his Martial Soul, he would.
"Move." The boy walked to the supermarket entrance and spoke without looking back, his tone carrying the casual entitlement of someone who'd always gotten his way.
Lin Qingzhou stepped aside, too lazy to make an issue of it.
Still, he couldn't help feeling a little speechless. He'd also realized that these clothes were becoming more and more of a nuisance. He was starting to wonder whether he should buy something a little more upscale. It would probably save him a lot of trouble.
The four pushed open the supermarket door and went inside. The shop was small, with only enough room for two people to walk side by side between the shelves.
The boy said something to the clerk at the counter. His voice wasn't loud, but his tone was sharp. From what Lin Qingzhou could make out, he wanted a rare material called Sea Blue Crystal.
The clerk was an old man in his fifties. He looked troubled as he explained that this was an ordinary supermarket that didn't sell Soul Tool materials. The boy would have to go to a specialized Soul Tool materials store.
"I clearly saw it on your inventory list." The boy slapped a hand on the counter, raising his voice slightly. "Check again."
The clerk shrank back and searched through his terminal with his head lowered. Lin Qingzhou stood by the entrance without moving, watching with an expressionless face.
He'd seen plenty of scenes like this in Aolai City. Soul Master big shots ordering ordinary people around while the ordinary people could only bow their heads and take it. The Federation's laws might look pretty on paper, but reality was another matter.
"What are you looking at?"
The boy seemed to notice Lin Qingzhou's gaze. He turned around and looked him up and down, his eyes openly contemptuous. "Ordinary person? Stand farther away. Don't get in the way."
Lin Qingzhou said nothing.
People continued streaming along the street behind him. A few glanced curiously into the store before quickly looking away and hurrying on.
"I'm talking to you. Are you deaf?" The boy stepped forward twice. The fat one behind him edged closer too, a grin on his face that said he was eager to watch the fun.
Lin Qingzhou finally spoke, his tone flat, as if stating a simple fact. "This store doesn't sell what you're looking for. Giving the clerk a hard time won't help."
The boy froze for a moment, then laughed. There was a hint of showing off to his companions in that laugh. "An ordinary person thinks he can tell me what to do?"
He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the slight bulge of his arm muscles. A pale blue glow of Soul Power seeped through his skin.
His Soul Power was probably around the level of a three-ring Soul Elder. His Thousand-Year Soul Ring hadn't lit up, but the mere release of his Soul Power was enough to make an ordinary person's legs go weak.
The fat boy beside him stepped forward too. His Soul Power was weaker than the leader's, but he was at least a two-ring Soul Grandmaster.
The thin, tall one leaned against a shelf without moving. His gaze was calmer than the other two's, but he merely watched without trying to stop them.
The bodyguard remained beside the vehicle, watching what happened inside the store with an impassive expression. She probably didn't think a few young masters picking on an ordinary person was a big deal.
The atmosphere in the store grew oppressive. The old clerk huddled behind the counter, his face pale and lips trembling as he tried to speak but didn't dare. The customers who'd been browsing put down their things and quietly slipped outside.
Lin Qingzhou didn't retreat.
He glanced down at the blue Soul Power flickering around the boy's arm, then raised his eyes to meet the other's. His expression remained unchanged.
"I'll say it again. This store doesn't have what you want. If you're looking for Soul Tool materials, there's a specialized store two streets over." His voice was neither loud nor soft, as if patiently reasoning with someone.
Lin Qingzhou really didn't want to back down this time. Maybe before, he wouldn't have bothered himself with this kind of thing.
But ever since Na'er's sacrifice, his emotions had been in turmoil, and his temper had grown shorter. Naturally, he wanted to find someone to take it out on.
Of course, the boy clearly had no intention of listening to reason.
To him, an ordinary person refusing to bow his head in front of his companions was humiliating all by itself.
He snorted and spread the fingers of his right hand. Pale blue Soul Power gathered in his palm into a fist-sized sphere of light, which he thrust toward Lin Qingzhou's chest.
He didn't use his full strength, probably only thirty or forty percent. But when a Soul Elder attacked an ordinary person, the sheer surge of Soul Power was enough to send them flying several meters.
Lin Qingzhou stood where he was. His feet didn't budge.
He raised his left hand, fingers spread slightly, and caught the blue sphere of light just as it was about to touch his chest.
He didn't slap it away or block it. He caught it. The sphere of Soul Power pulsed twice in his palm, then silently dissolved into the air, as if something had eaten it from within.
The boy's pupils contracted sharply.
His Second Soul Ring lit up, and he drove a fist wrapped in shrieking ice spikes toward Lin Qingzhou's face. The Soul Power of a three-ring Soul Elder burst forth without restraint.
The shock wave sent the shelves inside the store clattering to either side, spilling goods across the floor.
Lin Qingzhou dodged to the side. The ice spikes grazed his ear and exploded against the wall behind him, spreading a patch of white frost. A thin layer of ice covered the entire wall.
He stepped forward.
He stomped straight across the ice. Cracks spread through the layer beneath his foot like a spiderweb, and shards scattered across the floor.
His right hand clenched into a fist. Purple-gold demonic markings spread outward from his heart, along his collarbone, shoulder, and arm, all the way to his fingertips. His First and Second Soul Rings lit up at the same time, their purple glow making the entire supermarket look like dusk.
First Soul Skill, Power of End: activated.
Every muscle in his body tensed to its limit. His bones emitted a faint series of crackling sounds.
The boost in strength, his own Innate Divine Strength, and the physical toughness forged by his Silver Dragon King Bloodline—combined, they were enough to make the ground beneath his feet begin to cave in and fracture, even as he stood perfectly still.
For the first time, instinctive unease appeared on the boy's face.
Lin Qingzhou didn't use any flashy moves. He simply raised his fist and punched. The force of the blow arrived before the fist itself, carrying searing destructive power and a barely perceptible mental shock. The air compressed with a sharp crack.
The boy instinctively crossed his arms to block, bringing his Soul Power barrier to full strength. But he'd forgotten one thing: the ice beneath his feet had cracked when Lin Qingzhou stomped across it, and it hadn't frozen solid again. He had no stable footing on the slippery surface.
The moment Lin Qingzhou's punch struck his arms, the penetrating force of Devour of End tore through his defenses. The boy flew backward as if struck head-on by a battering ram.
His feet left the ground, and he crashed through the shelves behind him, tumbling into a mess of scattered chip bags and bottled water. He struggled twice but couldn't get up right away.
He hadn't fainted. The mental shock had briefly robbed him of control over his body.
The air around them fell silent for an instant. The fat boy's grin froze before he could wipe it away. The tall, thin one straightened, his mouth hanging open as he stared speechlessly.
Lin Qingzhou had just withdrawn the glow of his Soul Skills when a sharp chill suddenly erupted behind him.
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