The Spirit Pagoda Truly Colluded with Evil Soul Masters

It was not the wind, but the sound of something far more lethal tearing through the air.

He had no time to look back, instinctively lunging forward and rolling half a circle on the ground before dropping to one knee, his warhammer held horizontally before him.

A pitch-black claw shadow grazed the spot where he had just been standing, carving a half-meter-wide gash directly into the frozen wall behind him, sending shattered bricks and ice shards clattering across the floor.

The female guard stood at the entrance of the supermarket, the sleeve of her right arm shredded, her entire limb encased in a layer of pitch-black bone armor.

Her Martial Soul was the Dark Crow Ghost Claw, a type of beast Martial Soul; the jet-black bone armor extended from her fingertips all the way to her shoulder blades, her five fingers transformed into bone claws, each as long as a forearm, their edges thin as blades and shimmering with a cold, ghostly green light.

Six soul rings glowed beneath her feet—two yellow, two purple, and two black, the optimal configuration. The sixth soul ring was rotating slowly; the claw strike just now had clearly been a mere probe, not her full strength.

"A commoner?" She stared at the purple-gold magic patterns on Lin Qingzhou, her voice as cold as crushed ice. "Sneaking around, suppressing your aura, and using destruction-attribute attacks the moment you strike—and you dare claim to be a commoner?"

Lin Qingzhou's gaze sharpened, a cold, murderous intent radiating from his entire body.

"An Evil Soul Master?!"

Lin Qingzhou's instincts could not be wrong; that cold, evil aura was something that could only exist if one had killed or devoured others.

The figure opposite him did not answer, merely watching Lin Qingzhou with icy indifference.

Lin Qingzhou did not waste words either.

He immediately activated his first soul skill, Power of End, the purple-gold magic patterns spreading from his heart to his limbs, the ground beneath his feet cracking into spiderweb-like fissures.

Though he loathed Evil Soul Masters to the core, he knew the vast gap in their strength; he had no intention of clashing head-on with a six-ringed Soul Emperor, but since she was blocking the exit, he would have to survive the first wave if he wanted to leave.

The female guard's second soul ring lit up.

Her figure flickered in place, instantly splitting into three identical black shadows that lunged at Lin Qingzhou from the left, center, and right simultaneously.

Each black shadow dragged ghostly green light behind its five bone claws, carving shrill, piercing screeches into the floor.

The shelves swept by the claw wind were sliced with edges as smooth as mirrors, without a single burr.

Lin Qingzhou did not bother to distinguish the real from the fake. He compressed his second soul skill, Devour of End, onto the head of his warhammer, a purple-black sphere of light swirling around the striking surface, before swinging it in a wide arc toward the shadow in the center.

Hammer and claws collided; the power of destruction and the soul power of the Dark Crow Ghost Claw exploded simultaneously. The air inside the supermarket was forced outward in all directions by the shockwave, the fluorescent tubes on the ceiling shattering in unison, glass shards raining down like a downpour.

The shadow in the center was knocked back two steps by the force of the hammer, her heels carving two deep furrows into the floor.

The other two clones stiffened simultaneously, their movements suffering a delay of a fraction of a second.

Although the mental shock attached to Devour of End had only hit the main body, the mental link between the clones and the original had been disrupted, causing the clones' movements to lag by a half-beat.

The female guard steadied herself, glancing down at a faint crack in her bone claws caused by the power of destruction. When she looked up again, her eyes no longer held contempt, but a more dangerous focus.

Her third soul ring lit up, and ghostly green hellfire ignited at the tips of her five bone claws. The temperature in the air did not rise but plummeted, so cold it made one's teeth ache. Dark Crow Ghost Fire—a dual-attribute of corrosion and extreme cold; a mere touch could erode flesh down to the bone.

Lin Qingzhou gripped his warhammer tightly, the muscles in his arms tensing like iron blocks. He did not retreat. Behind him, the old clerk was huddled in the corner behind the counter; if he had wanted to leave, he could have done so long ago, slipping out the window during the chaos. But he hadn't. He remembered that night in Proud Arrival City, with so many people on the streets, and when the Evil Soul Masters' blades fell, no one had stepped in to block them for them.

The female guard took half a step forward, the ghost fire on her bone claws flaring higher.

Then, she stopped.

A low, whistling sound came from the end of the street, followed immediately by the shattered glass of the entire supermarket being blown inward by a gust of wind, clattering against the walls.

Mu Ye stood at the entrance, still wearing that oil-stained white apron, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, carrying a plastic bag he had just bought from the vegetable market, inside which several sea fish were still flopping about.

His gaze swept from the glass-strewn floor to the female guard's ghost-fire claws, finally resting on the purple electric arcs still dancing on Lin Qingzhou's warhammer, his lips pressing downward.

"Can't even buy groceries without running into this." He set the plastic bag on the only counter that hadn't collapsed and turned to face the female guard, his tone casual, as if haggling with a street vendor. "Are you a deacon of the Spirit Pagoda?"

The female guard did not retract her ghost fire, but after her eyes rested on Mu Ye for two seconds, she became visibly vigilant.

She did not recognize who this person was, but she could sense how deep the aura Mu Ye was deliberately suppressing truly was. It was so deep that she dared not strike rashly.

"I am performing official duties; bystanders, move aside." Her voice remained cold, but her speech quickened by a beat.

"You nearly crippled my disciple's hand, and you want to talk to me about official duties?"

Mu Ye pulled off his apron with one hand and tossed it aside. Before the apron even hit the ground, his eyes had already changed. The laziness and casualness had vanished, replaced by the fierce, cold edge of someone who had truly experienced countless life-and-death battles.

He did not release his Martial Soul, merely taking a single step forward.

An invisible but incredibly dense pressure expanded from his feet, tearing through the remaining ice on the floor, the ice shards shaken into mid-air before being blasted backward.

The female guard instinctively took a step back, the ghost fire on her bone claws suppressed by that pressure, flickering lower.

As a top-tier powerhouse of the continent, Mu Ye could naturally tell that the female guard before him was undoubtedly an Evil Soul Master.

However, she still wore the badge of the Spirit Pagoda; even Mu Ye could not kill her in public, as doing so would undoubtedly be an act of war against the entire Spirit Pagoda.

This was not because Mu Ye feared the Spirit Pagoda, but simply because he did not want the trouble; it was unnecessary. Of course, if his little disciple truly wanted to kill her, Mu Ye would be happy to do the deed.

However, Lin Qingzhou was clearly quite sensible; he simply stood honestly behind him without a word, though his scarlet eyes remained locked onto the Evil Soul Master.

She gritted her teeth, finally recognizing who stood before her.

Body Sect Master Mu Ye, a level 94 Power Attack System Title Douluo and a God-tier Mecha Master.

On the territory of the Heaven Fight City Blacksmith Guild, the only person who could stand there in an apron and make her ghost fire shrink like that was this man.

She retracted her ghost fire, her bone armor slowly receding back into her skin, and her six soul rings extinguished simultaneously.

"Sect Master Mu Ye, the Spirit Pagoda will seek an explanation from you regarding this matter."

Her voice returned to its formulaic coldness, but anyone could hear the apprehension buried beneath that chill.

She bent down to haul the still-dazed youth up from the ground, signaled to the fat man and the tall, thin one, and the four of them dove into the off-road vehicle without a backward glance. The engine roared, and the car fishtailed around the corner, vanishing into the street.

Mu Ye stood where he was, waiting until the exhaust from the vehicle had completely dissipated before turning around.

He looked at Lin Qingzhou, scanning him from head to toe to confirm he hadn't suffered any injuries, then picked up the plastic bag from the counter, pulled out a sea fish that was still twitching its tail, and shoved it into Lin Qingzhou's arms.

"If you wanted to kill her, that would have been fine too."

Mu Ye looked at Lin Qingzhou with a smile; his words didn't sound like he was talking about eliminating a powerhouse at the Spirit Emperor level, but rather like he was talking about slaughtering a chicken.

Lin Qingzhou simply shook his head. He knew clearly that the other party had the status of the Spirit Pagoda as a shield; killing her would undoubtedly be nothing more than inviting unnecessary trouble.

"Take this back. Make soup tonight; it'll help you recover." He brushed the fish scales off his hands, glanced once more at the jagged hole the female guard had torn into the wall, and let out a scoff.

"The Spirit Pagoda wants an explanation? Let them come!"