Before the blade wind reached him, the sea beneath Qing Linyun's feet had already been pressed into a deep trench.
The fourth black Soul Ring beneath his feet lit up.
"Evil God Shield."
Fourth Soul Skill.
A dark golden shield appeared around Qing Linyun's body.
Death God's Blade struck the shield with a piercing metallic screech, then stopped just like that.
The force on the blade churned like rivers and seas overturned, but the shield did not budge.
Three seconds.
Nothing below god level could break it.
A bug skill comparable to Invincible Golden Body.
The Dark Hummingbird's eyes went wide.
He wanted to run.
Bro, I was joking just now. My mom's getting married today, actually. Could you let me go?
Obviously, there was no way Qing Linyun would let him go. Qing Linyun had already seized his wrist.
At some point, Qing Linyun had closed the distance and was standing right in front of him, one hand clamped around his wrist like an iron vise. He still wore that same faint expression, and even looked a little bored.
"My turn."
The red Soul Ring at the very top above his head burst into a blinding red light.
"Martial Soul Avatar."
Seventh Soul Skill.
Boom.
Dark purple light exploded outward. Qing Linyun's form swelled rapidly within the light, and within seconds, a hundred-meter-tall Dark Demon Evil God Tiger stood above the East Sea.
When those tiger eyes swept over him, the Dark Hummingbird felt he was no person at all, but a mouse pinned by the scruff beneath a cat's paw.
Behind the tiger beneath him, a long dark purple hook formed from the Evil God's power slowly rose into the air.
The tip pointed at his chest.
"Goodbye."
Puchi.
The long hook pierced straight through the Three-Word Battle Armor without resistance and emerged from his back.
The Dark Hummingbird opened his mouth, and a mouthful of bloody froth welled up.
He looked down at the purple hook in his chest, then looked up at the pair of indifferent eyes on the tiger's head, eyes that regarded him like an ant.
He could not accept it.
He truly could not accept it.
He had yet to reach the very top of the Titled Douluo threshold, had yet to see the day the Holy Spirit Cult unified the world, and had yet to have the Ghost Emperor make his dream of becoming a god come true.
How could he die here, die at the hands of a fifteen-year-old brat?
Even now, he had yet to realize that he had long since become a discarded pawn in the Ghost Emperor's eyes, nothing more than a whetstone for testing a blade.
His body began to fade, falling from the tiger head's claw and returning to human form in midair.
His eyes were still wide open.
He had died with his eyes open.
Qing Linyun returned to human form and landed on a reef.
He reached out, stripped the Three-Word Battle Armor, already more than half shattered, from the Dark Hummingbird's body, and tossed it into his Storage Soul Tool.
Then, with a casual flick, he flung the corpse into the East Sea.
A few bubbles gurgled up on the surface.
Before long, the seawater in the distance began to churn.
More than a dozen enormous shapes swam over: Demon Soul Great White Sharks.
For these overlords of the sea, the corpse of a Super Douluo was a highly nourishing meal.
A few minutes later, not a trace of blood remained on the surface.
Qing Linyun stood on the reef with his arms folded, watching coldly.
As expected of a level 98 Super Douluo, truly terrifying! If he'd been a little tougher, or if he'd been a Power Attack System Super Douluo, I probably wouldn't have won so easily today.
Qing Linyun thought.
Just now, it had looked as though he had been in complete control of the battle. In reality, however, unleashing that string of Soul Skills had also cost him a terrifying amount of Soul Power.
If the Dark Hummingbird had been a little tougher, the situation might have turned around in the end.
Besides, the Dark Hummingbird had only been careless because he underestimated his opponent. If he had dared to use his Ninth Soul Skill right from the start, with a Super Douluo's reserves of Soul Power, it was hard to say whose hands the deer would fall into.
After all...
Qing Linyun silently lowered his head and looked toward his shoulder blade, where a large hole pierced by a blade was slowly seeping blood.
But a green, shimmering substance immediately surged over it and began repairing the wound.
Although Evil God Shield had blocked the Ninth Soul Skill's direct attack, after the shield dissipated, the aftermath of the Ninth Soul Skill had truly injured Qing Linyun.
If it had been even an inch lower, Qing Linyun might really have died here.
Even so, Qing Linyun did not mind.
He looked at his right arm, where a piece of dark purple bone was glowing faintly.
That was his right arm bone.
A 700,000-year-old Dark Demon Evil God Tiger Right Arm Bone. One of its Soul Skills was called Undying Body, which could forcibly take the place of its owner's death once, with a cooldown of three months.
That was precisely why Qing Linyun had dared to step forward alone and challenge the Dark Hummingbird.
He truly had what it took to cheat death.
Just then, a crack opened in the void behind him.
A dark purple door slowly opened, its hinges turning with a sound as soft as a sigh. A woman in a black skirt suit stepped through, holding a cup of steaming coffee.
She glanced at the calm sea, then at the blood-spattered youth on the reef.
"Boss, have you taken care of everything?"