Liu Xing swung both of his blades down. One was Harmony of Two Seas, a circular water saw rotating around it; the other was his lightning blade, which shone with a bright blue light. Normally, these two blades would not be strong enough to slash at Yan Yu. She had tanked his attack before. However, with blood gushing from her pores and drenching her in red, her qi and presence felt weak. Liu Xing assumed this attack would be enough.

  He shouted as he swung his swords. Harmony of Two Seas aimed for her neck, while his lightning blade slashed at her torso. Not far behind, a normal variant bullet whistled through the air, aimed at the crown of her blood-drenched head.

  Her eyes were glazing over, as if she were seeing a distant place and no longer present in the moment. In a corner of his heart, he felt a pang of pity for her. She was strong and talented, and she would die right here, right now, because she had chosen the wrong side. He crushed the thought. No mercy.

  Yan Yu opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her lips started to move when his blades were mere centimeters away, and they stopped at the same time they connected. Though no voice escaped her, Liu Xing could read her bloodied lips, not because he had the skill to do so, but because Yan Yu did not try to hide her unspoken words.

  These were her words: “If I die, you will die too.”

  Harmony of Two Seas cut through her skin; likewise, his lightning blade tore through her robe and bit into her flesh. He felt the sensation of his swords cutting into her, and while there was some resistance, it was not strong. He could kill her.

  “Die!” Liu Xing shouted, putting as much force as he could into his weapons. The blades sliced through skin, bit into flesh, and drove deeper, intending to cut clean through to the other side. At that moment, his mind churned. The world slowed as if time had suddenly begun to crawl. His body still moved to finish the act, but his mind raced to decipher her message. What the hell did that mean? He was sure there was no way he would die if she did. Yan Yu had never marked him, nor had she stabbed a frozen blade into his heart; he was not her slave. Her words made no sense, unless she had not said them to him.

  As his swords cut deep into her throat and torso, and blood burst around the blades, Liu Xing realized for whom that warning was intended. Though only the two of them were there, another person could perhaps see this place. He was the same person who had spoken to Yan Yu before, the master of this cruel island, an elder of the Purple Moon Sect who had decided to back the Nether Lotus Sect.

  Just then, as if Liu Xing had cut a gas pipe, a white and frozen mist of ice suddenly burst out of her, pushing his blades backward. It was as if all of her blood had turned into frozen mist, and she was about to explode. Liu Xing strengthened his force, intending to cut through her, and he successfully pushed back. However, that simple burst of frozen mist gave her a single second.

  In that single second, something burst through the side of the ark. It was small, but the impact was enough to shatter the wall and the ice that layered it. Not only that, it was incredibly fast. Shaped like a long, brown pill, it aimed right for Liu Xing.

  His first instinct was to dodge. However, in that short span of time, he pushed harder, intending to kill Yan Yu, and summoned his turtle to intercept it. The moment he summoned his turtle, the pill suddenly accelerated, a burst of qi pushing from behind it. Its speed was great enough to pass his turtle before it materialized, as if the one who shot the pill-shaped attack knew that Liu Xing would try to intercept it by summoning a defensive measure.

  In a single blink, it was already upon him. Liu Xing had no choice but to pull back his swords and cross his arms to shield himself. The moment the attack connected, an agonizing pain shot through both of his arms, as if their bones had been shattered into dust. The impact threw Liu Xing like a cannonball. His speed was so great that the world turned into an uncomfortable blur, and he rotated crazily before his back slammed into a wall. The layer of ice covering it shattered, and a mouthful of blood leaped from his mouth. The impact created a crater behind him, lodging him firmly into the wall.

  His whole body hurt, but his eyes looked forward, trying to see the other form that leaped into the room and caught Yan Yu in mid-air before landing gracefully on a pillar of ice she had created. Soon, the tilted ark righted itself. The wall behind Liu Xing was, in fact, the floor. The moment it stabilized, Liu Xing tried to stand, while Yan Yu and the newly arrived man moved toward the edge of the room. The throne where the puppet he had killed had been was only several meters away from Liu Xing, while both of his enemies stood near the entrance.

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  The man put Yan Yu on the ground. A wooden eye the size of a bat floated near him. He opened Yan Yu’s mouth roughly, and the wooden eye dropped a pill into her mouth. When it was done, the man looked toward Liu Xing.

  He looked old, like a mortal of around fifty. His hair was short and wavy, his mustache was bushy, his cheeks were chubby, and he had a rotund belly and a body that did not look fit. However, in this cultivation world, appearances could be deceiving. There were plenty of chubby or even fat cultivators, but it was not because they were unfit; most of the time, it was the consequence of using a specific method of cultivation.

  Although this man did not appear intimidating, his qi and aura were the opposite. They felt thick, as if the air were water in the depths of the sea. His cold, heavy aura made Liu Xing’s hair stand on end, his body tremble, and his stomach churn. His instincts told him that he was a child in front of a tiger. The man was a Sun Refining cultivator, and not in the early stages. He was close to breaking through to the Sun Collapsing realm. Compared to Ye Xuanming, his qi felt slightly larger, but what was the difference between a thousand-meter-tall mountain and a thousand-and-one-meter-tall mountain? He wore a purple robe, not dissimilar to Yan Yu’s, with several modifications. The most prominent one—the blue, almost black color around his waist—indicated that he was indeed an elder of the Purple Moon Sect. However, it seemed he was an elder from the Outer Court. There were several elders in the Outer Court, all of whom were below Elder Zhang Zhenking.

  “You,” the elder said, looking at him. His eyes sharpened, and his lips twisted into a snarl. “What’s your name?”

  Liu Xing stood and reined in his expression. The man likely already knew his name, and he did not want to answer the question. This man was an elder from his sect, but he was a man who did not deserve his respect.

  Seemingly understanding his contempt, the elder glared at him. The air itself felt like it was trying to crush him. Liu Xing cycled his qi and reactivated his Lightning Cloak Technique to fend off the pressure.

  “First, it’s this girl,” he said, kicking Yan Yu lightly as she began to glow with purple light and her body began to heal. “Now, it’s you. I just needed a year, no, half a year, and everything would have been fine! Insolent pigs, all of you!”

  He kicked Yan Yu again. While he was not trying to kill her, his contempt for her was genuine.

  Liu Xing’s mind tried to come up with a reason, and the most likely one that came to his mind was that Yan Yu had somehow successfully enslaved the elder. However, since the power gap was quite large, he could act more freely than Yang Liangyu.

  He set aside that thought. Their relationship was of no concern to him. The most important thing right now was how to proceed. Liu Xing had spent all his potent bullets. Yan Yu was still within his grasp. While she was healing, she was still dying, and he still had a chance to kill her. However, killing her would not give him bullets that could kill the elder. He was a Sun Refining cultivator whose power rivaled Ye Xuanming’s, and for now, Liu Xing was no match for him.

  “Why would an elder like you backing the Nether Lotus Sect?” Liu Xing asked.

  An elder’s position within the Purple Moon Sect was a high one. Even as an Outer Court elder, he was still an elder. He had his hands on resources that a mere disciple could only dream of, not to mention people from outside the great sects. Surely, the Nether Lotus Sect was nothing compared to the Purple Moon Sect. Or was he the kind of man who would rather be a chicken’s head than a dragon’s tail?

  The elder flicked his wrist. Three creatures suddenly appeared around him, all of them likely puppets. The first was shaped entirely like a human marionette; it had long, womanly hair, and its wooden skin was pale. The second was likewise a marionette, but this one had brown wooden skin and looked like a man. The third, however, was shaped like a spider. It had fifteen feet and a body as large as an elephant. Its face was small and looked like a baby’s head, with its eye sockets wide open but with no eyes in them, only blue fires.

  “You don’t need to know my reason,” the elder replied. “In fact, you don’t need to know anything besides one thing.” At that, the pill-shaped thing that had hit Liu Xing suddenly floated atop the three puppets. From it, three threads descended and connected to each puppet, then the threads vanished as if darkness had swallowed them. The pill began to shine, and an ungodly amount of qi poured from it.

  “You, and her, and everyone that opposes me will die! You annoying little shit!” The elder pointed at him and ordered, “Attack!”

  The two humanoid puppets lunged at him. The male one unsheathed a sword from the scabbard at his waist, while the female one began rapidly chaining hand signs and started to glow. Behind them, the spider with too many feet and a small baby’s head screeched before it too began to run toward Liu Xing.

  His heart beat steadily. The elder was strong. Those three puppets were strong too. Fighting against these odds, Liu Xing realized that he would probably die. So, he did the wisest thing. If he could not win, he needed to escape. But not to Yu Heng. No, he intended to go to the underground base under Still Pond, where a treasure room was located. After all, the master of this island was here, which meant that place was more lightly guarded. At that, he nodded. He did not want the situation to be like this. However, he tried to think positively and look on the bright side.

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