As the male puppet brandished its sword, the female puppet activated a technique, and a giant spider with the head of a human baby barreled toward him. Liu Xing cycled the qi around his body as fast as he could, trying to maximize the power of his Lightning Cloak Technique. He noticed that these three puppets were not particularly fast. The rotund elder scoffed at his action, though Liu Xing saw the man's eyes sharpen slightly, as if he had noticed something about the Lightning Cloak Technique.

  Liu Xing readied his stance and began to center himself. His goal was to escape. The decision annoyed him. He had almost killed Yan Yu, Shen Ye, and Yu Yongrui, but in the end, he could not kill them all. Was it fate, or merely bad luck? Whatever it was, it meant trouble for his future.

  "Come!" Liu Xing shouted.

  He needed to escape, but he could not simply turn and run. It would only become a chase. The elder and his three puppets were strong, and it was clear the elder wanted him dead. So, he needed to pretend to fight before finding a moment to sneak away. This meant he had to delay summoning his gun and becoming invisible. It would have been perfect if his Lightning Clone Technique were more sophisticated, but alas, he was not at that level yet.

  Liu Xing summoned his turtle right in front of the puppet spider. The puppet spider growled and lunged at the turtle, trying to grapple it with its numerous feet as its baby head opened wide as if it wanted to devour it. At that moment, the male marionette extended his left hand toward Liu Xing, his palm glowing with blue light. The dust and debris around Liu Xing began to tremble and float into the air. The technique took hold, and Liu Xing suddenly fell not downward but toward the male puppet, which thrust its sword forward to meet him.

  Pulled by gravity toward the puppet, Liu Xing's eyes widened. He instantly knew what had happened. It was a gravity technique. He remembered reading that such techniques were possible, though they were so rare that some people even considered them a myth.

  Liu Xing tried to rotate his body in the air, then summoned his shield in his path, automatically dismissing the turtle. As Liu Xing adjusted his direction and kicked the shield, he flew out of the area affected by the male puppet. His body and mind felt a little dizzy before he landed on the ground and bounced into the air again.

  At that moment, the male puppet thrust its sword forward. A sharp wind instantly shot out, creating a large, wide gash in the ground long enough to split an elephant in two.

  Still in the air, Liu Xing was suddenly pulled again, but this time to his side instead of down. He tried to adjust his body and saw that the female puppet was pressing her palms together. It also had a gravity technique, and he suspected that while the male puppet could only pull, she could control the gravity around her opponent more elaborately.

  Gritting his teeth, Liu Xing tried to rotate his body and summon his shield as a foothold. However, the gravity suddenly shifted, and Liu Xing missed his timing. A strong pull slammed him into the ground. The earth cracked, dust swirled, and Liu Xing felt his stomach churning as emotion and frustration bubbled up. This was bad. The combination of those two was troublesome.

  The spider puppet suddenly spat a glob of darkness from its mouth. The glob was pitch black and created a strong pull that drew debris, ice, and even Liu Xing toward it.

  Liu Xing planted his feet firmly just before the glob of darkness exploded. The shockwave was unnaturally strong. The blast threw Liu Xing into the air so fast it was as if someone had punched him in the gut, sending him flying like a cannonball. It was not a natural shockwave; it was probably laced with gravity too.

  At that moment, the male puppet jumped and pulled Liu Xing toward him. At the same time, the female puppet pointed at the male puppet, which sped up so quickly that it practically teleported toward Liu Xing. Liu Xing's eyes widened. He rotated his body, summoned his shield, and kicked it to move backward as the man swung his sword diagonally at him. Liu Xing was a fraction of a second faster. The tip of the sword cut through his clothes, skin, and flesh. While blood trailed behind the sword, the wound was not too deep. However, the female puppet performed hand signs, and a pull yanked Liu Xing back toward the sword, which pierced his stomach deeply.

  Surprise and pain shrouded his body and heart. The male puppet, whose sword was now inside him, pushed harder. If he did nothing, the sword would come out of his back. Gritting his teeth, Liu Xing summoned his turtle between himself and the male puppet. Before the sword could push through, he kicked the turtle. The turtle slammed into the marionette, and his action gave him enough momentum to throw himself back as the sword dislodged from his stomach.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  At that moment, Liu Xing saw the female marionette change her hand sign. He summoned his shield and kicked it, causing himself to fall. He rotated his body mid-air, pointed his feet forward, and landed. Before she could change the gravity around him again, Liu Xing moved, zigzagging around.

  As he ran, he looked down and pressed the hand holding Harmony of Two Seas to his stomach. It was painful. Blood fell from him like a small waterfall, and he grimaced. The full gravity of the situation finally dawned on him. He had underestimated them.

  He had regarded the elder as someone as strong as Ye Xuanming, but he had also subconsciously thought of him as a mere Outer Court elder. He had thought he could escape from him and his puppets. However, these puppets, while not too fast, were strong. Their danger was real. Liu Xing could die right here and now before he could even attempt to escape.

  At that thought, fear began to shroud him. He felt his heart beat faster, his breathing quickened, and his hand trembled. All the pain—in his hands, his left foot, his back, his stomach, and more—suddenly felt stronger, more painful. It was as if adrenaline had dulled it, but now, everything came crashing down.

  Liu Xing tried to rein himself in. He could not panic. He could escape. There was still a chance. However, to do that, he realized he could not play around. He needed to employ everything he could to escape.

  Liu Xing dismissed the lightning blade in his left hand and summoned his gun. If he waited too long, he could die.

  He willed invisibility to spread over him, and his left hand began to turn invisible.

  At that moment, the elder's eyes looked at him with a sharper gaze. He pinched his chin and muttered something. Whatever he said, it made the three puppets move at him at the same time, and all of them began to activate their techniques.

  "Shit," Liu Xing cursed.

  From there, he felt like a marble being shaken inside a jar. He moved left, right, up, and down without his consent. The sudden changes in gravity felt so different from merely maneuvering with his shield. His stomach churned, his eyes blurred, and he felt cold sweat drenching his back. Not only that, but the occasional gravity blast that threw him into the ground, walls, and roofs felt so hard to counter. The male marionette moved toward him with a slow yet fast movement. Its slashes were gracefully dangerous, and while Liu Xing successfully dodged, his body became covered in slashes. His torso, hands, feet, back, and even his neck all began to be soaked with blood. If this continued, even if the puppets landed no single killing blow, Liu Xing could die from a thousand cuts.

  Liu Xing did not just let everything happen to him. He tried to find a rhythm, a pattern, anything that could let him turn the tide. He slashed around using a jet of water extended from his sword and even rained hundreds upon hundreds of bullets on everything around him, the majority of them Exploding Fist bullets. However, while some occasionally landed on the back of the spider, eliciting it to shoot more gravity blasts that threw him around like a pinball, the majority of them landed harmlessly on the ground or the walls, forcefully curved away by the female puppet.

  Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Liu Xing became truly invisible. His stomach clenched hard as he cycled qi around the wound to stop the bleeding. The moment he did, however, the elder pointed his finger. The eyeball that was floating above Yan Yu, dropping pill after pill onto her, began to move. It hovered high in the air and blasted blood qi all around. The blood qi was so thick that even the air was tinted red.

  Liu Xing's mind trying to come up with an idea to escape. In truth, Liu Xing had been trying to run away for some time. There was another hallway in the room, the roof had a hole, and there were some holes in the ground he could use to slip through. However, the elder seemed to control the puppets with a strategy in mind. The puppets boxed him in. Every time he moved toward an exit, one of the three puppets stopped him.

  It was not just annoying. It was terrifying. Liu Xing honestly did not understand how the situation had turned this bad. The three puppets did not overwhelm him too much, and the pace of the fight was not particularly fast; rather, his enemies moved almost in turn. However, the result was so different from what he had expected.

  His heart hammered in his chest, but he knew he could not panic. He needed to think thoroughly. He thought of turning from escaping to destroying one of the puppets. But was that realistic? He did not know.

  "I need to do something!" Liu Xing said.

  At that moment, the male puppet lunged from behind. Its sword pointed forward, intending to pierce his back. His mind screamed at him to dodge. He had dodged so much, but the situation was only getting worse. So, Liu Xing decided to do the opposite. Instead of moving to the side, Liu Xing turned his body toward the male puppet, kicked the ground, and launched himself forward.

  In the air, Liu Xing thrust Harmony of Two Seas forward. Logic dictated that he would be overpowered. The qi they emitted was so immense. Their bodies must be tough, too. Fighting head-on would only bring him death.

  He saw the female puppet make the male puppet accelerate immensely. By instinct, Liu Xing tried to tilt his head to the side. The sword passed near his ear. It whistled loudly, and the wind from its passage cut deep into his shoulder. However, with his face twisted in determination, Liu Xing shouted and thrust his sword forward. His aim was its forehead. And his aim was true. In an instant, the tip of his sword slammed into the forehead. He imagined the sword cutting through and coming out the other side. However, what happened was the opposite.

  The moment he slammed the tip of his sword into his opponent, it shattered like a glass hammer hitting a rock. Seeing this, Liu Xing's eyes widened. The puppet then slammed into him, and Liu Xing was thrown backward like a cannonball. His hand clutched the handle of a broken sword.

  He suddenly felt despair, but the moment it came, his senses picked up something, and that gave Liu Xing hope in this precarious situation.

  joining us!