A cultivator sat, leaning against a fallen tree. The tree was covered by green moss and damp, making his robe feel wet and uncomfortable. As the man breathed roughly, he looked down at his lower body. Upon seeing that both his feet had been severed and his stomach was leaking his innards, the numbness that covered his whole body lessened, and he suddenly felt agonizing pain all over his body. His whole body was covered with bruises. His right hand, though still attached, was mangled beyond belief, blood dripping from it, while his left hand, its skin and muscle turned purple, could not be moved. He was, for all intents and purposes, a sitting duck, and as he heard footsteps approach, he knew his killer was coming.

Looking forward, the man could not see the full extent of the battlefield. Mist covered everything he could see. Occasionally, flashing fire and explosions could be observed, but in this mist world, the most prominent thing he could see was the silhouette of the demonic cultivator he had tried to fight.

Upon seeing her silhouette, anger welled in his heart, and he gritted his teeth.

"You have deceived me," he said through gritted teeth. "From the start to the end, I was nothing to you."

The girl continued to walk forward. Soon, her silhouette became more and more visible, until he could see the face of his soon-to-be killer. She was pretty. Her eyes were black, her hair was silky, her face was round, and when she smiled, dimples appeared on both her cheeks. They had met around six months ago. He, a disciple of one of the three great sects; she, a simple shopkeeper in the new treasures shop in the city. To think that shop had been sent there to gather information, and the shopkeeper who always made his heart flutter… was now trying to kill him.

"Why?" he asked.

The girl's face was impassive and expressionless. She wore a black robe of the Nether Lotus Sect, her hair was tied back, and her face was as pale as a ghost while her eyes were as sharp as blades. The question meant nothing. He hadn't even expected her to answer, but to his surprise, she stopped several steps from him. She rested the black spear—the one she had used to make a hole in his stomach and sever his legs—on her shoulder.

"Isn't that obvious? I want to advance. There's nothing more or less to all of this."

He felt as if someone had stabbed their hand into his heart and squeezed as hard as they could. "You felt nothing when we were together? That smile was a lie? Your past that made your eyes gush with tears, that too was an act?"

He hoped that she would say yes, that she had somehow been blackmailed into being part of the demonic sect. Yet, he knew in his heart that it was nothing like that. He knew that the girl he had known was fake. The one standing before him was the original.

"You're nothing but a stepping stone for me." She pointed her spear toward his heart. Her expression was cold, as if her face were sculpted from ice. Then, with a swift motion, she thrust her spear, intending to shred his heart to pieces.

As the spear whistled through the air, the man closed his eyes. His fight would finally be over. He wouldn't need to scramble every day to survive. There were no sect points he needed to earn anymore, no enemies he needed to be wary of, no scrambling for treasures, no need to deepen his mastery of his techniques.

But then, a loud explosion sounded, and the splash from it wet his face and body.

Instantly, he opened his eyes, realizing that much of the splash had landed on his face. He blinked several times, wondering what that splash was and why he was still alive. Shouldn't his heart have already been destroyed by the woman who had made him fall in love?

He lifted his eyes, and when he saw that the girl who had been trying to kill him was now a corpse standing without a head, her neck a jagged stump, blood spurting from it and drenching her, his eyes widened.

For a moment, he thought this was a mere illusion, but after two, then three heartbeats, as the view of her headless body persisted, the man realized it was reality. He was alive. The girl who had tried to kill him was dead. Perhaps a senior had seen his pitiful state and saved him. Perhaps she had stepped on a trap. There were many possibilities, yet, even though he was still alive, he felt… numb.

A gust of wind pushed the headless corpse, and it toppled forward, right toward him. The man moved his body as if trying to catch hers, but his state was too pitiful. All he did was twitch. Still, in the end, the headless corpse landed right on his chest, its hands spread around his body, as if trying to embrace him.

The man looked at the bloody stump right before his face, and then tears began welling in his eyes. A moment later, two rivers of water flowed from them, drenching his face, already covered with mud, soot, and blood, and streamed toward his chest, as if the tears wanted to dilute the blood that came from her severed neck.

The man cried silently. His emotions were mixed, yet within that turmoil, he understood one thing, that his love for her… had been true, and he… he would not be complete without her.

***

All over Blue Emerald Island, many things happened at the same time.

There were fights charged with hatred, rage, fury, and cold, dangerous killing intent. There were fights charged with complex emotions. There were fights so lopsided that one party was like a beast and the other was like prey. There were many more fights like these. Even the mortals who escaped the fighting had their own problems. One mortal ran while carrying his grandmother. A group of fiendish mortals decided that chaos was the best time to enact revenge. Others tried to unleash their depraved imaginations. A cowardly man found his bravery and saved his loved one. A seemingly brave mortal became selfish and abandoned those who believed in him in the face of danger. A woman in an abusive relationship discovered that she was a natural-born leader, and many more. Each battle was fought differently, and each had different adversaries. While some were successful, others needed help. And in their time of desperation, three unexpected reinforcements came to their aid.

One was an invisible and silent killer. No one saw or felt it, but there was no doubt this killer existed, and it moved so swiftly it might as well have been a ghost.

The other was a little white shark shrouded in silver light. The shark was awesome and ferocious. Oftentimes, it unleashed myriad attacks from its toothy mouth, saving mortals, killing demonic cultivators, and creating distractions for the resistance to counterattack. Other times, it moved so swiftly that it tore the necks of demonic cultivators in the blink of an eye.

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The last reinforcement was a long blade seemingly made from stone. This stone blade was in the center of the main battlefield, where hundreds upon hundreds of cultivators fought and retreated for their lives. Its glowing purple light was akin to a beacon in the terrifying white mist. Its sharpness was without match, capable of cutting, severing, and beheading many cultivators at a rapid pace. Not a single cultivator could dodge or deflect that sword. Each shield they erected, each movement technique they used, even their techniques were cut by this blade. It was as if the blade were wielded by a death god. Moreover, its crescent attack was so wide and fearsome that everyone who saw and felt its presence trembled uncontrollably.

"What's happening? What is that blade?" A man from the resistance said from atop a big boulder. Within the eerie white mist of Bewitching Princess, the field of view was too short, but even then, he could see that glowing purple blade clearly. It moved within the mist akin to a fish in the sea. Five demonic cultivators encircled it, each unleashing techniques in the hope of stopping that stone blade. But that stone blade was too fearsome. It cut a fireball in two, destroyed a fire beast made from blood and fire even before it could form, and then severed the head of a cultivator before moving on to unleash a crescent purple attack so wide it cut all its opponents at their waists.

"I don't fucking know!" Surprisingly, a voice to his side answered him. He snapped his head and saw a man drenched in blood, also from the resistance. "First, all the demonic cultivators were suddenly on fire, then we were pushed back, and now a flying sword decimates our enemy. This fight is madness, madness, I tell you!"

"Don't stop moving!" Another cultivator shouted at them. He wore a blue robe, and his sword glowed with blue light. "Whatever that sword is, the important thing is that it's an ally, a reinforcement! We need to support it!"

At that time, a loud explosion reverberated not too far from them. They looked that way and were surprised to see the exploded corpse of a Nether Lotus Sect disciple.

"That was the annoying enemy who vanished each time I unleashed my killing blow! What the hell killed him?"

"I don't know," the man standing atop the boulder said. "But that guy was right." He looked toward the man in the blue robe, who shouted and began to follow the stone blade. "We need to follow it. Bewitching Princess was controlling Elder Cangxuan Wutian and had enhanced the whole Nether Lotus Sect. We should have been crushed. But with that stone blade, we... we could win this fight!"

At that time, a little white shark suddenly descended from the sky, opened its mouth, and began unleashing a barrage of condensed balls of qi.

***

On a tall shore cliff at the edge of Blue Emerald Island, there was a peculiar sight that would make people who saw it pause. It was the sight of a giant turtle statue, upside down, its massive body pressed against the cliff, perched on a precarious protrusion. The position was absurd, as if the giant turtle were prey trying to hide from a predator. Atop its belly, a group of women huddled, while a lone man stared at the cliff wall mere centimeters from his nose. Liu Xing thought his position was indeed a bit absurd. He was like a kid punished by his parents to stare at the wall, but there was a purpose to his position, although the purpose was simple. He wanted to limit his field of vision as much as possible without closing his eyes.

After he had unleashed his weapons, he had decided to land in a safe position. This protruding cliff had been the optimal choice he could find in a short amount of time. Although the place was not too comfortable—high on one side and low on the other, making his statue feel like it would slide off the cliff—it was an okay place. In truth, it would have been more convenient if he had dismissed his statue entirely, but in the spirit of caution, he decided not to dismiss it and still encased it with his qi. If an enemy found them, they could instantly move. The women must have been confused about his actions, but Liu Xing actually didn't have time to talk to them. After all, he was busy controlling his three weapons as they rampaged across the island.

"Come on," Liu Xing gritted his teeth. He willed his gun to zigzag swiftly between several trees to get as close as possible to seven demonic cultivators who were ganging up on a beaten and wounded cultivator, willed his sword to unleash a crescent purple attack, while at the same time trying to order Tide Walker to stop unleashing barrages of attacks since enemy and ally were mingling too closely.

He thought that since his weapons would compete to try to kill as many demonic cultivators as possible, he would be hidden and comfortable, but the truth was actually the opposite. Controlling his three weapons on merry flights was different from controlling them to fight. The mental strain he needed to endure was several times harsher than what he had expected, not to mention he needed to focus and process many things at the same time.

"Move right, move right!" Liu Xing muttered.

Surprisingly, the one that was most difficult to control was Tide Walker. At first, he had thought it would be the opposite. After all, the shark had a will of its own, so he wouldn't need to control it fully, yet reality was different from his expectations. Tide Walker was too playful. Sometimes it purposefully spared a demonic cultivator so it could chase it like a hunting predator; sometimes it would even playfully attack a tree or building, as if testing its capabilities. After saving people from a collapsing building and rushing toward the nearest battlefield, Tide Walker found itself surrounded by over ten demonic cultivators unleashing a barrage of attacks. Although he could see an opening to the right, it moved to the left.

It was annoying, but he couldn't get too upset. After all, it was his new weapon, and since it was sentient, he needed time to get to know it. Moreover, even though it wasn't under his full control, the shark played its role perfectly as a killing machine that tore demonic cultivators apart.

At the other end of the spectrum, his gun was easily controlled and a menace to the enemy. Since it was invisible, it could move easily through the misty terrain of the battlefield. It zipped left and right, flying silently like a ghost, and continuously unleashed barrages of bullets made from the demonic cultivators' qi. Each bullet it shot hit accurately; sometimes he targeted the head, sometimes the chest, and sometimes the back of an unsuspecting enemy. Moreover, with each kill, it created six bullets inside its chamber. While the process actually took some time, some of that qi had arrived in his body, and he then dumped all of it into his consciousness.

Upon seeing that lots and lots of qi entered his consciousness, he could not help but grin. These demonic cultivators were between the Lock Opening realm and the Core Splitting realm. Not a single demonic cultivator he had killed possessed seven cores. Most of them only had one core, but the qi his gun absorbed actually felt more potent and abundant than usual.

"Perhaps it was because of the fire that enveloped them," he muttered.

He didn't know the exact reason, but he knew his second core was steadily absorbing the qi. He knew that generating the third core from the qi he got from this battle was merely a pipe dream, but perhaps he could fully saturate his second core from this fight.

His heart beat with excitement, but Liu Xing inhaled deeply and reined in his enthusiasm. He needed to restrain himself. True, these were demonic cultivators. He had seen their savagery and what they had done to the mortals of this island using his latest Eye of Lightning—that sight of people boiling alive, drowned in blood, and mutilated while a demonic cultivator cackled happily was something he could not forget anytime soon. But still, he knew that if he became too greedy, he too could become like that. After all, while he could not perform their rituals and didn't know their techniques, the essence of their cultivation was similar to how his gun worked.

So, Liu Xing decided he would kill all these demonic cultivators and reap the benefits from them, but he would do so with the intent not to advance, but rather to help the other side of the fight. And to do that, he decided he needed to kill all his enemies swiftly and efficiently, trying to end this battle as soon as possible, so no more unnecessary deaths—either of cultivators or mortals—occurred.

As he controlled his three weapons, he wondered whether there would be a time when he would need to show himself and fight with all his might.

Hopefully, he didn't need to.

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