The first hammer blow, crackling with crimson lightning, struck down from above, Toji, with a sidestep, blasted a three-meter-deep crater in its wake.
The second hammer blow swept horizontally, stirring up a hurricane-like turbulent flow of Soul Power. He Toji leaned back to avoid it, but a row of ancient trees behind him was cut in half.
The third hammer blow rained down like a storm, blocking all escape routes. Toji weaved through the hammer's shadow, each step precisely avoiding fatal attacks.
"Hide? Let's see how long you can hide!" Blood flowed from the seven orifices of the gray-clad man, but he grinned maliciously and swung his hammer again.
The fourth hammer suddenly changed direction, its head curving in an eerie arc, aiming straight for Toji's heart.
Toji finally raised his hand to block, and his forearm collided with the hammer head, producing a metallic clang.
His feet sank half a foot into the ground, yet he remained completely still.
"The power of each strike is cumulative."
He decided not to give the man in gray that chance.
Toji swung his fist again, casually throwing a punch at the Clear Sky Hammer.
"Click--"
The surface of the Clear Sky Hammer was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
Before the man in gray could react, he felt an unparalleled force coming through the hammer handle.
A teeth-grinding shattering sound rang out, and in an instant, the Clear Sky Hammer shattered completely!
Countless fragments flew everywhere, and the gray-clad man's right arm, which was holding the hammer, exploded into a bloody mist on the spot.
His eyes widened as he watched Toji's fist, its momentum undiminished, slam straight into his chest.
"Puff!"
The fist emerged from his body.
The man in gray looked down and saw his heart beating between Toji's fingers.
In his final moments of consciousness, he heard Toji's faint voice:
" Martial Soul's a good Martial Soul, it's just a pity."
"Your cultivation level is a bit lacking."
The fist was pulled out, and the corpse collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Toji looked at his fist, which was as big as a sandbag, and muttered to himself:
"He took down a top-tier Soul Saint in this state without using Soul Tool. Tsk tsk, in the past, I would have needed Soul Tool to easily defeat him."
"We shouldn't be far from the sixth awakening."
"If I had known, I wouldn't have needed to do it myself." Di Qiu'er pouted, crossed her arms, and said calmly, "Let those four gray-clad men attack with all their might; that way, you'd feel some sense of crisis."
"Exactly, I shouldn't have ambushed you. You didn't put much pressure on me at all."
Toji so, he felt utterly helpless.
Killing these top-tier Soul Saint now is like slaughtering pigs.
It's hard to believe he's only at level 58.
"Yeah, I didn't put much pressure on you, so just keep having fun." Di Qiu'er rolled her eyes. "If you don't clean up the scene soon, once the Clear Sky Sect finds clues, you'll be surrounded by Soul Douluo and Titled Douluo."
"Uh, Soul Douluo is fine, but Titled Douluo is out of the question." Toji felt a sweat break out just thinking about it, but he immediately got to work on dealing with the situation.
"Come help us, turn all these corpses into dust, and then renovate the entire area, at least make a mess of this plot of land."
Di Qiu'er: "?"
"You're demolishing land? I've only ever heard of demolishing houses, never land."
"You try not cleaning up the ground, just you wait," Toji laughed. "With the scene so chaotic, it's obvious that someone with superhuman strength killed their men."
"Use some of your most powerful Soul Skill to cleanse the entire area."
"You can." Di Qiu'er stood helplessly in the middle and unleashed the Golden Dragon Blast.
A loud rumbling noise erupted, and it took about twenty minutes to clear the scene...
After finishing the task, Di Qiu'er finally had the opportunity to voice her doubts:
"With such a commotion, why hasn't anyone come out of town?"
"Guess why I left while you were confronting the Clear Sky Sect people?" Toji asked, keeping everyone in suspense.
Di Qiu'er lazily raised her eyes to look at him. "Guess whether I'll guess or not?"
"Guess if I guess, or guess if I guess?"
Di Qiu'er had a strong urge to strangle him, "... Stop fooling around, just tell me."
"I went and evacuated the people in the town, lying that there were Soul Master fighting here. Do you think those people would come closer?" Toji said.
"We also managed to find out the identities of that mother and daughter; they were the Ju Zi family."
"Now we have all the clues, let's go find her father."
"You're amazing." Di Qiu'er silently gave a thumbs up.
That's quite thoughtful.
Several days later, at dusk.
The wind in the forest carried a faint smell of blood, and the branches and leaves rustled as if whispering about the fierce battle that had just taken place.
A group of gray-clad men arrived in the area with heavy steps. The leader was a middle-aged man with a cold face, and seven Soul Ring rose from his feet, clearly indicating that he was a Soul Saint- level expert.
Behind him were five disciples at the Soul Emperor level, each with a solemn expression, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.
"According to intelligence, the four of them disappeared right here," a disciple said in a low voice, his fingers lightly tracing the scorch marks left on the ground. "Judging from the situation, they've probably met with some misfortune."
The middle-aged man did not respond. He simply squatted down, picked up a bit of dirt with his fingertips, sniffed it, and frowned slightly.
"The smell of blood... is faint, but it's from more than one person."
He stood up, his gaze sweeping over his surroundings, when suddenly his pupils contracted.
"Here."
Following his gaze, everyone saw a huge crater not far away, a hundred meters in diameter, with churning soil and charred edges, as if it had been blasted out by some terrifying force.
"These are... the marks of the Clear Sky Hammer?" a disciple asked in surprise and doubt.
The middle-aged man did not answer, but slowly walked to the edge of the pit, placed his hand on the pit wall, and probed it with his Soul Power, as if sensing something. After a moment, his expression suddenly changed.
"No... this wasn't caused by an ordinary Soul Skill."
He looked up abruptly, a flash of horror in his eyes.
"This crater... was created by a powerful Soul Skill."
"Moreover..." the middle-aged man said in a low voice, pointing to several fine marks in the pit, "Look at these cracks, they look like fragments left after the Clear Sky Hammer shattered... They probably even had their Martial Soul Avatar shattered."
Everyone gasped, a chill creeping into their hearts.
The Clear Sky Hammer is the number one Tool Martial Soul in the world, known as invincible at the same level. It is by no means inferior to the Body Martial Soul, and may even be stronger.
"Someone is deliberately covering up the signs of a battle here, and their methods are extremely sophisticated. Based on my observations, I can't find anything more."
The disciples exchanged bewildered glances, their unease deepening.
"So what do we do now?"
The middle-aged man remained silent for a moment, then took out a token from his pocket and crushed it without hesitation.
"Immediately notify the sect and request that an elder come here in person."
The moment the token shattered, a streak of light shot into the sky, heading straight towards the Clear Sky Sect.
The middle-aged man stood up, his cold gaze sweeping across his surroundings as if searching for some clue.
"No matter who it is... anyone who dares to kill a disciple of my Clear Sky Sect must pay the price."