As Shen Ye was thrown into the air and spun around like a top, Liu Xing focused his attention on Yu Yongrui. He shot Exploding Fist bullets from his gun like a machine gun. Each blast upturned the ground, creating a loud explosion that made the earth tremble. While Yu Yongrui zigzagged around, his body shrouded by a dark aura as if emitting ink vapor, he was clearly struggling, though he was trying to approach the floating gun.

  Finding a moment, Liu Xing looked behind him. Yu Heng was looking at him with wide eyes, but then his eyes snapped toward Tide Walker, which could not sit idle and launched itself toward the still-airborne Shen Ye.

  "Sharky," he whispered, his eyes full of disbelief, before he turned to Liu Xing and snarled. "You! It's you! You're the one who stole my shark!"

  "I didn't steal your shark," Liu Xing instantly replied, and he was about to say that Tide Walker had approached him willingly. However, he realized that it was not a productive conversation. "More importantly," he continued, "you and your sister need to go. These guys' aim is your sister. She is important for the ritual that Ye Xuanming is about to do. Go, I'll cover for you."

  He flared his Lightning Cloak Technique, adding more potent qi to the technique and readying his feet to kick the ground. Making sure Yu Heng and Mi Lian escaped was his utmost priority, and he intended to kill Yu Yongrui and Shen Ye right here and now.

  At the mention of his sister, Yu Heng grimaced. The expression made Liu Xing's heart skip a beat.

  Liu Xing turned around, then cycled his qi to create an Eye of Lightning. The instant the eye formed, it shot high into the air, surveying the area. Not satisfied, Liu Xing created another one and willed it to follow Shen Ye and Tide Walker, who were currently trading blows. Tide Walker was shooting condensed qi balls toward him, while Shen Ye replied with fireballs of such a deep orange color that they looked red.

  Since he had lost his spatial bags, he could not conveniently store his Eyes of Lightning. It seemed the way spatial bags and spatial rings worked was different, since his Eyes of Lightning were destroyed the moment he put them into his spatial ring. Liu Xing created more, until another four Eyes of Lightning surveyed the air.

  "Mi Lian, your sister, where is she?" Liu Xing asked, his focus switching between his Eyes of Lightning, instinctively looking for Mi Lian.

  Yu Heng gritted his teeth and clenched both of his fists.

  "Has the Nether Lotus Sect captured her?" Liu Xing continued, his tone flat, but his heart beating faster and faster inside his ribs. At that moment, a thought came to his mind. Yu Heng was also moving southeast. Initially, he had thought that Yu Heng was perhaps looking for other treasures left behind by Bone Singer, but what if his goal was actually to rescue his sister?

  "No!" Yu Heng shouted. "She wasn't captured by the Nether Lotus Sect."

  "Then where is she?" Liu Xing took several steps forward, until his masked face was right in front of Yu Heng.

  "Why do you care?" He snorted, though Liu Xing understood that this gesture was merely for hiding his feelings. "You must be targeting her too, right?"

  They were in the middle of a fight. Shen Ye and Yu Yongrui were no problem. Those guys were strong, but he still had confidence in defeating them. After all, he had won his fight against Wang Miau. However, it would be a different case the moment the Verdant Mountains Sect finished off the disciples of the Heavenly Lightning Sect.

  Liu Xing inhaled deeply and reined in his emotion. As he controlled the gun to shoot six Exploding Fist bullets, switched to Lightning Palm bullets, then switched to Lightning Missile bullets, he said slowly to Yu Heng, "Listen, if you remember me, you must remember that your sister was not captured alone. She was together with twenty-nine others. You and I worked together to kill the elders of the Nether Lotus Sect. The current situation is technically the same as before. We're on the same side," Liu Xing paused. "So, let me ask you once again. Where is your sister? Is she captured again?"

  Yu Heng's expression flashed several times as he heard his words, but in the end, he settled on a grave expression. "She is not. However, her condition is not good."

  "That's good," Liu Xing said, which prompted Yu Heng to glare at him. That came out wrong; however, Liu Xing ignored the glare. "As I said earlier, you guys need to go. I'll cover you."

  "I can't." Yu Heng pushed his hands against the whale beside him. "I need to make Whaley recover first."

  "Leave it here," Liu Xing stated.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The whale's current situation was similar to Tide Walker's after it was defeated and captured. It was not dead, and it had already recovered a bit; however, it needed more qi and more time to recover fully.

  "I cannot," Yu Heng said between gritted teeth. "I… I fused my sister with it."

  At his words, Liu Xing's heart skipped a beat. The gears in his mind spun as hard as they could, trying to digest what Yu Heng had just said. Then, Liu Xing looked at the whale, saw its broken horn, saw its closed eyes, and his own eyes widened.

  "What do you mean by that?" Liu Xing asked.

  "It's a long story! It's not like I wanted to do it!" Yu Heng shouted.

  Liu Xing was speechless. What kind of long story ended with a woman fused with a whale? His mind was churning with ideas and hypotheses; however, he put a brake on his thoughts and focused on the current situation. Mi Lian had fused with this whale. That meant this whale was important. It needed to be secured.

  "How long?" he asked.

  Beyond the three corpses of the Nether Lotus Sect disciples, Yu Yongrui was rooted to the spot. A purple shield hovered around him, trying to deflect as many projectiles as it could, while Yu Yongrui slashed at the bolts with his saber, a black aura surrounding him and his weapon. Not too far away, Tide Walker and Shen Ye were still locked in their battle of projectiles. These two simultaneous battles made the earth tremble; the sound must have traveled far.

  "Five minutes, no, one minute," Yu Heng said. "I'm sure you already know, but Sharky and Whaley were originally treasures."

  Liu Xing wanted to interject and say that the shark's name was Tide Walker; however, he shut his mouth and let the man continue.

  "This is the result of my special technique passed down by my ancestors. Only recently was it perfected. Anyway, I will try to revert Whaley's shape to its original form. A cauldron. In this form, it can recover faster."

  "How about your sister? What would happen to her if you reverted the whale into a cauldron?"

  "I don't know. The chance is that I cannot make it revert perfectly to its original form. However, there's a transition phase where its size would be smaller, easier to carry, and while not optimal, would make its recovery slightly faster and would also loosen the fusion between Whaley and my sister."

  "All right," Liu Xing nodded. In truth, he was confused about the logic behind this transformation. However, if a pill could gain consciousness and be born as a baby, then why not a treasure that could transform and fuse with a woman?

  "One minute, right? I'll give it to you."

  Yu Heng nodded, put his hands on the whale, and began cycling his qi.

  Liu Xing swept his eyes over the battlefield. Yu Yongrui was shouting now. His robes were torn in several places, and burn marks dotted his upper body. Shen Ye had actually successfully approached Tide Walker; his palms glowed orange like molten lava, and he was trying to catch the shark.

  Deciding his target, Liu Xing slammed another wave of killing intent toward Shen Ye. Once again, Shen Ye froze. Then, Liu Xing kicked the ground. The earth shattered upon impact, and Liu Xing flew toward Shen Ye like a jet, his right hand brandishing Harmony of Two Seas, while his left hand formed a lightning blade. Liu Xing crossed his hands in front of him, as if trying to create a pair of scissors with both weapons. Upon seeing this, Shen Ye's eyes widened with terror, but he was strong enough to shake off the killing intent and competent enough to duck his head at the last second.

  Liu Xing's lightning blade and sword, extended by a jet of water, passed over his head. Shen Ye tried to counterattack by aiming his glowing red palm in Liu Xing's general direction, as if trying to shoot a torrent of fire from his hand. However, Liu Xing summoned his shield to his side and kicked it. The moment he did, a jet of fire indeed shot from Shen Ye's palm. It was almost red and so hot that he could feel the heat on his skin. Liu Xing summoned his shield once again to reposition himself, then he swung his leg right toward Shen Ye's face.

  Shen Ye saw the kick and tried to dodge, but he was too late. In an instant, Liu Xing's foot landed on his face, and Shen Ye was lifted into the air, blood trailing from his nose.

  Seizing the opportunity, Liu Xing repositioned himself and swung the Harmony of Two Seas downward. The blade, elongated by a jet of water, was aimed at cleaving Shen Ye in two. Seeing this attack, Shen Ye held his hands out to the side and created an explosion with his right palm. He managed to dodge the slash. However, he was not quite fast enough. The jet of water sliced through his right arm near his shoulder. Blood gushed from the stump. His severed arm flew to one side while he flew to the other.

  Shen Ye snarled. His expression was a mix of terror, anger, and disbelief, as if he were in a nightmare.

  "You, how dare you?!" As he said that, he landed and rolled on the ground. His pristine robe was suddenly caked with dirt, and the blood from his right stump was splashing everywhere, including on the medal that dangled from his neck.

  "I dare," Liu Xing said.

  At his words, the man widened his eyes. "You! You're—"

  "Shen Ye, do you remember that we have a duel scheduled?" Liu Xing asked. At that moment, a bolt of lightning—a Lightning Palm bullet—pierced through the air. Its aim was Shen Ye's back, and its trajectory was true. While this little maneuver gave Yu Yongrui an opportunity to approach the gun and try to slash it, it was an acceptable risk.

  At that moment, Shen Ye looked behind him, his right stump wiggling, as if he were reflexively trying to do something with his right hand. However, nothing happened, and the Lightning Palm bullet struck true. The moment it hit his back, ropes of electricity surrounded and paralyzed him. Liu Xing instantly kicked the ground and launched himself toward Shen Ye as he swung Harmony of Two Seas, intending to sever Shen Ye's neck.

  "I didn't expect our duel to happen right now, but it seems the outcome is clear." His sword touched Shen Ye's neck. "It seems I'm the one who will bring you to your death."

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