Blood qi, snow, and little dots of darkness surrounded Liu Xing. Before, they had been spread evenly, but now the blood qi began to congregate around him, as did the snow dotted with darkness. Liu Xing took two steps to the side, his heart drumming in his chest as he tried to rein in his panic. He channeled the feeling into alertness. His muscles were taut and ready to move.

  Yan Yu's eyes were at first locked on his original location, but the moment Liu Xing stopped and his body touched one of the black spots, she adjusted her gaze in his direction. At that, Liu Xing narrowed his eyes. Yan Yu possessed darkness too. As far as he knew, only he and demonic cultivators possessed it, which could mean that Yan Yu was also a demonic cultivator. It was not a far-fetched possibility, considering her explosive growth.

  "I know you are there, Liu Xing," Yan Yu said. "It is futile to hide."

  Liu Xing did not reply. Yan Yu seemed intent on talking, which was different from what he knew about her. However, Liu Xing had no intention of chatting with her. She was an enemy.

  "No mercy", Liu Xing thought, his brain beginning to take account of his surroundings. Almost half of the dark spots were spreading throughout the room, while the other half were clumped around him. While this darkness could detect him, and avoiding all of it was impossible, minimizing his contact with it was possible.

  "It would be wise for you to surrender," Yan Yu stated, her expression flat. "Otherwise, I will have to kill you."

  Again, Liu Xing did not reply. Instead, he began to walk to the side, purposely hitting the spots of darkness with his body, and Yan Yu followed his movements. His gun was ready. It was filled with Lightning Palm bullets, and he had already sent stable qi to Harmony of Two Seas. Once he had a chance to create a circular water saw on it, he would need to engage her in close-quarters combat.

  "You must be wondering how I countered your invisibility," Yan Yu continued. "Or how I advanced so much in such a short amount of time. I am willing to share my secret to power with you as long as you cooperate with me."

  At that, Liu Xing stopped walking. He thought that if he cooperated with her, she would then enslave him. He didn't want that, so he ignored her. However, her statement gave him an advantage. It seemed that Yan Yu either wanted to recruit him, as she had done with Shen Ye and Yu Yongrui, or enslave him, as she had done with Yang Liangyu. In any case, she seemed to prefer him alive. Liu Xing, however, was the opposite. He intended to kill her no matter what.

  Liu Xing swiped his invisible sword slowly, trying to touch the darkness with it. The moment it did, Yan Yu's eyes moved slightly, indicating that she had noticed the darkness movement. Liu Xing focused his attention on the darkness the sword had touched and saw that it bounced away, indicating that these dark little spots were physical and could thus be moved.

  Yan Yu opened her mouth again, clearly intending to talk him into joining her. However, before she could say her words, the sound of rushing footsteps echoed from behind.

  The wooden humanoid puppet and the bone puppet burst into the room.

  The moment they arrived, the wooden puppet opened its mouth, gathered blood qi, and shot a thread of blood directly at him. The bone puppet, which had the lower body of a horse and the upper body of a human with six arms, charged toward him, splintering the floor in its wake.

  Liu Xing's feet instantly kicked the ground, propelling him into the air as the blood thread passed below him. The bone puppet seemed to have predicted his movement and cocked its fists, raining down six punches at once. In response, Liu Xing reactivated his Lightning Cloak Technique and summoned a circular saw to slash at the incoming fists. The moment his sword met the bone puppet's hands, a spark ignited. Instead of cutting through, his sword was pushed back. Realizing his sword was not sharp enough, he summoned his shield, kicked it, and launched himself higher into the air.

  As he soared, Liu Xing saw that Yan Yu's face was still flat and calm, yet her electric-blue eyes were tinged with a little anger, as if she was pissed by the situation and trying to conceal her emotion.

  Seeing her, Liu Xing aimed his gun and shot six Lightning Palm bullets directly at her. His six bolts of lightning soared, their speed tremendous, yet Yan Yu materialized ice arrows and shot four of them down in mid-air, while the other two met a wall of ice, exploding into ropes of electricity that bound nothing.

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  At that moment, the wooden puppet slashed its blood thread toward him. Liu Xing rotated his body in mid-air. Then, as he was willing his invisibility to swallow the circular water saw, he swung his sword downward, intending to cut the blood thread. When they met, sparks ignited as if the blood were made of steel. Liu Xing gritted his teeth and pushed down harder. A fraction of a second later, the blood thread was cut, albeit with more hardship than he was comfortable with.

  The wooden puppet closed its mouth, cutting the blood thread with its teeth. Then it reopened its mouth and began gathering blood qi. At the same time, the bone puppet, shaped like a centaur with six arms, stomped its hooves on the ground. Jagged bones that looked like sharp poles began growing from the floor and extending into the air toward him. At the same time, Yan Yu shot tens of ice arrows at him.

  A sense of peril washed over Liu Xing. His heart drummed in his chest and he began to sweat. Yan Yu was powerful, and so were the two puppets, who were at least on par with Core Splitting cultivators from great sects. Not only that, but it was also three against one. It would be difficult. However, Liu Xing thought he had a chance. This fight wasn't as impossible as his fight against Ye Xuanming. After all, he was good at fighting multiple enemies at once. When he successfully killed one, the rest would follow.

  Liu Xing summoned his turtle statue and kicked it down, shielding him from the bone pillars. He then contorted his body to dodge the blood thread. While doing that, he filled his gun with Exploding Fist bullets and shot them toward Yan Yu's ice arrows. Each bullet hit an arrow, and when they met, explosions bloomed in the air, creating shockwaves that pushed everything—including the snow and the darkness—away from him momentarily. At the same time, the turtle was not heavy enough to snap the bone pikes and was pushed up again. However, Liu Xing used the fact that the area around him was now free of the dark spots to make his move.

  He sent qi from his gun, absorbed it into his body, and then projected it outward. Soon, his potent qi began to surround him, and he willed it to push outward. When ordered, the qi immediately took the shape of butterflies on its own. Since the qi butterflies did as he commanded, however, he did not mind their shape.

  Yan Yu had countered his invisibility. However, since he now knew the mechanism, he could counter her counter.

  When he landed, Liu Xing began to zigzag around the area. His potent qi, now blue butterflies, began to fill the room, pushing the black dots outward. Immediately, the flow of the fight changed. The puppets stood guard, unable to sense him, while Yan Yu willed the black spots to push back against his butterflies.

  Liu Xing looked around. He had three opponents. He needed to improve the situation by killing them one by one. But he had to choose who to kill first. Logic told him to target the weakest opponent, and since he could not pinpoint the puppets' strength, the choice was easy.

  Yan Yu.

  Liu Xing kicked the ground and lunged forward. The butterflies had cleared a wide area of the black spots, and between him and Yan Yu, there were no spots in the way.

  Liu Xing intensified the movement of the circular saw and filled the gun with Lightning Palm bullets. He needed to land his attack, which meant he had to hold it as long as possible and release it at the perfect moment.

  When he was close enough, he entered an area where the floor was covered by a thin sheet of ice. At that point, Liu Xing swung his sword horizontally, aiming for her neck. He hoped this attack would land. However, at the last moment, Yan Yu turned and summoned a black sword to deflect his slash. The moment the black sword met the circular water saw around Harmony of Two Seas, the saw instantly froze and shattered into thousands of tiny fragments. Though his water saw broke, Liu Xing kept swinging his sword. He pushed back the black sword until his blade touched her. The angle was slightly off, though, and instead of cutting through, Yan Yu was lifted and thrown to the side like a cannonball.

  Gritting his teeth, Liu Xing aimed his gun at her. Six Lightning Palm bullets chased after her. She conjured ice arrows midair and fired them at the bullets. Four were destroyed, but two successfully escaped. Seeing the two remaining bullets, she rotated her body and swung her sword, intending to destroy them. She didn't quite get the timing right, though, and while she destroyed one, the other successfully landed on her, exploding into ropes of electricity that paralyzed her. As she was paralyzed by the ropes of electricity, Yan Yu hit the wall hard enough to crack it and let out a soundless cry. At that moment, Liu Xing chose to channel some of his potent qi into his sword. He was about to thrust Harmony of Two Seas and shoot a jet of water at Yan Yu when the six-armed bone centaur appeared behind him. With its fingers locked together, the centaur swung its arms downward at his head.

  Sensing the puppet, he gritted his teeth, rotated his body, and swung his sword diagonally up toward it. The jet of water was unable to cut the puppet, but it was enough to push it to the side, knocking the attack slightly off course. Liu Xing then aimed his gun, but instead of at the puppet in front of him, he aimed it to the side, right toward the enslaved puppet sitting on the bleeding throne. Truthfully, he wanted to spare him for now. Who knew? Perhaps he could talk after being freed from his burden. However, Liu Xing was in a tight spot right now, and killing him would give him six potent bullets.

  The moment the bullets hit, the enslaved human puppet exploded into smithereens along with the cables and tubes stabbed into it.

  The bone centaur, getting a chance to attack, swung its arms toward him, intending to crush his head. However, Liu Xing crouched, and the attack passed over him. Then, he jumped into the air, rotated, aimed his gun, and unleashed three bullets toward the bone centaur. The bullets hit the puppet, and three rapid explosions bloomed around it, creating an intense light and a blast loud and strong enough to throw everything nearby, including Liu Xing, aside.

  joining us!