You Didn't Think I Hadn't Prepared Anything, Did You?!

Blacksmith Association headquarters, top floor.

Yin Hongye stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, the curtains pulled open only a crack.

Heaven Dou City lay as quiet as a stagnant pool beneath the night, but he could sense something swimming swiftly beneath the surface, drawing closer and denser by the moment.

At least three powerhouses above the level of Super Douluo, along with three Titled Douluo.

And behind them came a whole swarm of small fry.

He had never bothered to give these scraps a second glance. Whoever came would die.

The auras of those small fry were packed densely together. There had to be hundreds of them, scattered across several blocks surrounding the association building as they slowly tightened their encirclement.

Yin Hongye closed the curtains and directly warned Qian Renxue, "Evil Soul Masters are here—the Fallen Soul Masters you people call them. Deal with the lackeys yourself. I'll probably have to handle those Titled Douluo."

"You alone? Against how many?" Qian Renxue could not help asking.

"Three above Super Douluo. I'm not sure whether any of them are Limit Douluo. As for the three Titled Douluo, they're minor characters. They don't matter."

Yin Hongye had no particular feelings toward these Evil Soul Masters. He would just kill them. There was only whether he could beat them or not.

"You're that confident in your strength?"

"If they're not Limit Douluo, I'm confident I can defeat them. Even if a Limit Douluo comes, the two helpers I called for have arrived."

Before his words had faded, the night outside the window suddenly split apart.

A ghostly green light exploded in the darkness. At first, it was merely a point of light, but then it rapidly expanded, surging into the phantom image of a gigantic skull.

Miserable green flames burned in the skull's eye sockets. Its jaw opened wide, releasing a silent shriek.

The entire floor-to-ceiling window shattered in an instant. Glass fragments were swept inward by the blast, glittering under the lights like a flashing rainstorm.

The shockwave crashed in right after. The sofa was overturned, and the coffee table was sent flying.

The light tubes in the room exploded at once. Electrical sparks flashed twice before going out, leaving only that ghostly green light outside the window reflected on every wall, turning the entire room into a realm of ghosts.

A hoarse roar cleaved through from the direction of the skull phantom, shaking even the shattered glass on the floor into bouncing.

"Zhen Hua, die!"

The ghostly green skull phantom still hovered outside the window as Ghost Emperor's true body slowly emerged from behind the light.

Yin Hongye took one look at him and guessed that he was the Ghost King Douluo.

This was a Limit Douluo. There were only a handful in the Federation who could contend with him.

As a level-ninety-seven Super Douluo, Yin Hongye was not worth his notice at all.

He turned his head and told Qian Renxue, "Go deal with the others. This one is a Limit Douluo."

Qian Renxue's brows tightened, and her hand was already on her sword hilt. "Then you—"

"I'm fine." Yin Hongye cut her off. "This guy can't kill me."

Qian Renxue looked at him for two seconds. It was not as though she had never doubted his strength, but an Evil Soul Master who was a Limit Douluo was not someone she could take part in fighting.

She said no more. Angel wings abruptly spread from her back, golden light bursting from their edges and illuminating half the shattered room.

She leaped into the air and flew out through a window on the other side. Her wing tips cut across the night sky, leaving behind a brilliant arc.

Less than two hundred meters from the headquarters building, she saw them.

A group of Evil Soul Masters hid in several dark alleys around the Blacksmith Association, clinging to the walls like cockroaches. There were Soul Kings, Soul Ancestors, and Soul Sages among them, densely packed, at least dozens in number.

They looked up and saw that golden light descending from the heavens. Before they could react, Qian Renxue had folded her wings and dived. Her sword light drew a white line through the darkness. The foremost Soul Sage had only just raised the bone staff in his hand when the sword pierced his chest.

These Evil Soul Masters were utterly restrained when facing the Six-Winged Angel, as though they had come simply to offer experience.

The holy light of the Angel Martial Soul naturally suppressed these Evil Soul Masters. Every slash was like a red-hot iron rod thrust into ice, hissing as it struck.

"Kill her, quickly! She has an Angel Martial Soul!"

"Damn it, why does this hurt even more than the holy light of a Sacred Angel?!"

"Don't panic! There are so many of us—she might not be able to kill us all! Attack together! Kill her!"

Beyond the sky canopy, Qian Daoliu was already dumbfounded. With so many Fallen Soul Masters, had the Angel Clan gone extinct after Spirit Hall's downfall? Hadn't they said there was a Yue Family before? Were they useless?

It was one thing if no Peerless Douluo had appeared, but surely that bunch of trash could suppress them. At level ninety-nine, they still could not suppress a level-ninety-nine Evil Soul Master? Were they useless?

Meanwhile, ghostly green soul power surged around Ghost Emperor's body. He stared at Yin Hongye with a cold smile of certain victory on his lips.

What could a level-ninety-seven Super Douluo do even if he stood in the way?

Zhen Hua was inside this building. The intelligence could not be wrong.

Yin Hongye looked at him, his gaze as calm as if he were watching prey walk into a trap without realizing it.

"You didn't think the Divine Blacksmith was still here, did you?"

The smile at the corner of Ghost Emperor's lips froze.

Yin Hongye tilted his head and added, "You didn't think I hadn't prepared anything, did you?"

The instant his words fell, the base of the entire building suddenly lit up.

Red flames surged from deep within the foundation, sweeping upward along the load-bearing pillars and stairwells like an awakened flaming dragon coiling upward and licking across every floor.

The windows exploded instantly under the intense heat, shards scattering outward like a rainstorm and reflecting the blood-red firelight.

Then came a deafening boom. Flames burst from every window of the building at once, the soaring blaze illuminating the night sky over all of Heaven Dou City. The clouds were stained dark red, as if even the sky were burning.

Ghost Emperor's figure was swallowed by the flames. He raised a soul power barrier, the ghostly green shield resembling a bead about to melt within the red sea of fire.

Blazing flames pressed in from all directions. The barrier's surface continuously hissed from the burning, its green wall of light trembling violently beneath the high heat.

"Despicable!" Ghost Emperor's furious roar exploded from the sea of fire, so shrill that his voice nearly broke. "Yin Hongye, you're truly despicable! You actually laid a trap to lure me in!"

"Thanks for the compliment! My moral boundaries are pretty flexible!" Yin Hongye stood amid the flames. The blazing fire could not harm him at all.

"But only one fool rushed in? That really disappoints me."

Before the firelight had dispersed, two figures stepped out of the darkness.

They had not arrived by tearing through the air from afar.

Guan Yue came from the left, still bearing the outline of the War God Hall's standard cloak, while the night condensed into a thin layer of frost over his shoulders.

Zang Xin drifted down from the right, his robes soundless, his landing as light as a leaf settling on water.

Three people, three directions, trapping Ghost Emperor in the middle.

Guan Yue raised his head toward the ghostly green barrier, his tone as calm as if he were stating a fact. "I didn't expect the Holy Spirit Cult to send even you personally just to kill a Divine Blacksmith."

"Still, Hongye, it seems your trap didn't hook all the big fish."

"Tch. One is enough."

A longsword appeared in Yin Hongye's hand. With a casual flick, he angled its tip toward the ground. The next second, flames ignited across the blade from guard to tip.

The flames were not ordinary scarlet, but a deep crimson somewhere between blood and fire.

At the same time, the karmic power around Ghost Emperor's body ignited without warning, like oiled paper struck by sparks.

Dark Blood Demon let out a muffled groan as he stumbled out from the shadows behind Ghost Emperor. No matter how he tried to put out the karmic flames, they would not extinguish. Instead, they burned even fiercer.

The patch of night where Dark Hummingbird hid was also illuminated through by the karmic flames.

Several Titled Douluo hidden in the darkness revealed themselves as well. The real battle began at once.