It wasn't wind. It was the sound of something sharper tearing through the air.
He didn't have time to look back. Acting on instinct, he lunged forward, rolled half a turn across the ground, and dropped to one knee, bringing his warhammer across his body.
A pitch-black claw shadow sliced past where he had just been standing and tore a half-meter-wide gash through the already-frozen wall behind him. Bricks and ice chips sprayed everywhere.
The female guard stood at the supermarket entrance. The sleeve on her right arm had split open, and her entire arm was covered in pitch-black, bony armor.
Her Martial Soul was Dark Crow Ghost Claw, a type of Beast Martial Soul. Pitch-black bone armor stretched from her fingertips to her shoulder, and her five fingers had become five bony claws, each as long as a forearm. Their edges were as thin as blades, gleaming with a ghostly green light.
Six Soul Rings glowed beneath her feet: two yellow, two purple, and two black—the optimal configuration. Her Sixth Soul Ring was slowly turning. That first claw had clearly only been a probe; she hadn't used her full strength.
"Just an ordinary person?" She stared at the purple-gold demonic markings on Lin Qingzhou's body, her voice cold as shattered ice. "You're sneaking around with your aura suppressed, and the moment you strike, you use a power of destruction. And you still dare call yourself ordinary?"
Lin Qingzhou's gaze sharpened. A frigid killing intent radiated from his entire body.
"Evil Soul Master?!"
Lin Qingzhou's instincts couldn't be wrong. That cold, evil aura could only come from someone who had killed people or devoured them.
The woman didn't answer. She only stared at Lin Qingzhou, her expression icy.
Lin Qingzhou didn't waste his breath either.
He immediately activated his first Soul Skill, Power of End. Purple-gold demonic markings spread from his chest to his limbs, and the ground beneath his feet cracked like a spiderweb.
Though he hated Evil Soul Masters to the core, he knew the gap between their strengths was enormous. He had no intention of going head-to-head with a Six-Ring Soul Emperor, but with her blocking the entrance, he would have to survive the first exchange before he could get away.
The female guard's Second Soul Ring lit up.
Her figure wavered, then instantly split into three identical black silhouettes that lunged at Lin Qingzhou from the left, center, and right.
The five bony claws on each silhouette trailed ghostly green streaks, drawing shrill screams across the ground.
The sections of shelving swept by the claw winds were smooth as mirrors, without even a splinter.
Lin Qingzhou didn't bother trying to tell them apart. He compressed his second Soul Skill, Devour of End, around the head of his warhammer. A purple-black sphere of light spun around its face, and then he swung the hammer in a full arc at the silhouette in the center.
Hammer and claw collided. Destructive power and the Soul Power of Dark Crow Ghost Claw exploded together, and the shock wave squeezed the air in the supermarket outward in every direction. The ceiling lights burst all at once, and glass shards rained down.
The central silhouette was knocked back two steps by the hammer's force, its toes gouging two deep furrows in the floor.
The other two doppelgängers stiffened in unison, their movements delayed by a fraction of a second.
The mental shock that came with Devour of End had only hit the real one, but it disrupted the mental link between her and her doppelgängers, slowing their movements along with hers.
The female guard steadied herself and looked down at the tiny crack the destructive power had made in her bony claw. When she looked up again, the contempt in her eyes had given way to something far more dangerous: focused attention.
Her Third Soul Ring lit up, and ghostly green flames ignited at the tips of all five claws. The air didn't grow warmer. Instead, the temperature plummeted, cold enough to make a person's teeth ache. Dark Crow Ghost Fire had both corrosive and freezing properties; even a single touch could eat through flesh to the bone.
Lin Qingzhou tightened his grip on the warhammer, the muscles in both arms hard as iron. He didn't retreat. The old shopkeeper was curled up in a corner behind the counter. Lin Qingzhou could have left long ago; he could have slipped out the window amid the chaos. But he hadn't. He remembered that night in Aolai City. There had been so many people on the street, yet when the Evil Soul Masters' blades came down, no one had stood between them and their victims.
The female guard took half a step forward, and the ghost fire on her claws surged higher.
Then she stopped.
A deep whoosh came from the far end of the street. The next instant, a wave of force swept in from outside, blasting the supermarket's shattered glass inward. The shards clattered against the walls.
Mu Ye stood in the doorway, still wearing the same oil-stained white apron, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was even carrying a plastic bag he'd just bought at the market, with several sea fish still flopping inside.
His gaze swept from the broken glass scattered across the floor to the female guard's flaming bone claws, then settled on the purple arcs of electricity still crackling around Lin Qingzhou's warhammer. His mouth turned down slightly.
"Can't even buy groceries without running into this." He set the plastic bag on the only counter still standing and turned to face the female guard, his tone casual, as if haggling with a market vendor. "You an agent of the Spirit Pagoda?"
The female guard didn't withdraw her ghost fire, but after keeping her eyes on Mu Ye for two seconds, she grew visibly wary.
She didn't recognize the man in front of her, but she could sense just how deep the aura he was deliberately suppressing went. So deep that she didn't dare make a reckless move.
"I'm on official business. Bystanders, stand aside." Her voice was still cold, but her words came a beat faster.
"You nearly crippled one of my apprentice's hands, and you're telling me about official business?"
Mu Ye pulled off his apron with one hand and tossed it aside. Before it had even hit the ground, his expression had changed. All the languor and easygoingness had vanished, replaced by the ferocity of someone who had lived through countless life-or-death battles.
He didn't release his Martial Soul. He simply took one step forward.
An invisible yet incredibly solid pressure spread from beneath his feet, tearing apart the ice left on the ground. Ice chips shot into the air, then flew backward.
The female guard instinctively took a step back. The ghost fire on her bone claws was pressed down by the force, its flames shrinking by a third.
As one of the continent's top powerhouses, Mu Ye could tell at a glance that the female guard before him was unquestionably an Evil Soul Master.
But she still wore the Spirit Pagoda's insignia. Even Mu Ye couldn't kill her himself in full view of the public; doing so would undoubtedly make him an enemy of the entire Spirit Pagoda.
It wasn't that Mu Ye feared the Spirit Pagoda. He simply didn't want the hassle, and there was no need for it. Of course, if his young apprentice really wanted her dead, Mu Ye would be happy to do it.
But Lin Qingzhou clearly knew how to behave. He stood quietly behind Mu Ye without saying a word, though his blood-red eyes remained fixed on the Evil Soul Master.
She gritted her teeth, then finally recognized the man before her.
Mu Ye, Sect Master of the Body Sect, a ninety-fourth-level Power Attack System Titled Douluo and a god-level mecha pilot.
On the grounds of the Heaven Dou City Blacksmith Guild, there was only one person who could stand there in an apron and make her ghost fire shrink like that.
She withdrew her ghost fire, and the bone armor slowly receded beneath her skin. All six Soul Rings went dark at once.
"Sect Master Mu Ye, the Spirit Pagoda will seek an explanation from you for this."
Her voice returned to its formulaic chill, but anyone could hear the wariness beneath it.
She bent down and hauled the dazed young man to his feet, then gestured to the fat man and the tall, thin one. The four of them climbed into the off-road vehicle without looking back. The engine roared, the vehicle swung around, and it disappeared around the corner.
Mu Ye stood where he was, waiting until even the vehicle's exhaust had dispersed before turning around.
He looked Lin Qingzhou up and down, confirmed he wasn't seriously injured, then picked up the plastic bag from the counter. He pulled out a sea fish still twitching its tail and shoved it into Lin Qingzhou's arms.
"If you want to kill her, you can."
Mu Ye smiled at Lin Qingzhou. He made it sound less like he was offering to take out a powerful Soul Emperor and more like he was talking about slaughtering a chicken.
Lin Qingzhou only shook his head. He knew perfectly well that her Spirit Pagoda status was a shield. Killing her would only bring trouble.
"Take this back. We'll make soup tonight, get you back on your feet." He patted the fish scales off his hands, then glanced at the gash the female guard had torn in the wall and snorted.
"The Spirit Pagoda wants an explanation? Let them come!"
Before you continue