With a cold voice, she said, "Found you!"

As her dagger came toward him, Liu Xing's mind spun, wondering how the hell this woman had successfully located him. But while his mind was busy thinking, his body was busy trying to survive. In a fraction of a second, he took a step to the side, and the dagger passed several centimeters from his left ear. The woman instantly changed the trajectory of the dagger and swung it to the side, trying to slash at his neck. Liu Xing reacted by hitting her wrist with his palm as hard as he could, making her extended arm point to the air while her airborne body became unstable. She snarled as she swung her feet toward his chin, which Liu Xing dodged by tilting his head to the side. Then, Liu Xing unleashed a palm strike right toward her chest. A moment before it hit, however, the woman dissolved into shadow and circled behind him.

From there, a rapid exchange happened. Their movement was so fast that the group of women behind them could only see blurs and hear rapid thuds. The woman lunged and stabbed, using her technique of dissolving into shadow to reposition rapidly. Liu Xing matched her speed, although with each strike, he grimaced, and anxiety began to bubble in his stomach.

He needed to control his stone blade to deflect attacks that came toward it and his gun to fly toward the tree, yet his control wavered because he needed to spare mental energy to contend with this woman. If he could activate his Lightning Cloak Technique, he would be okay, but activating it needed a little more effort, and his mind was currently at maximum capacity.

"Who are you?" the woman asked while unleashing a kick toward his head.

Answering her question would mean sparing another part of his mind for the task, so he ignored her, moved aside, and lunged toward her. She pulled her kick and dissolved into shadow, then came out from behind his shadow and tried to slash his ankles. Liu Xing moved his foot to the side, but at the same time, his stone blade was hit by a ball of burning blood, making it fall to the ground while his gun struck a branch and spun out of control. Only his shark was okay, because it had been independent from the start.

Gritting his teeth, Liu Xing tried to stomp the woman who was still trying to emerge from the shadow, but before his foot could crush her, she once again dissolved into shadow and began to move around on the surface of his turtle statue. His eyes followed that pool of shadow moving around as he realized that if this situation continued, he would make a fatal mistake that would result in someone dying, and there was a chance that someone would be him.

He needed to do something, soon and fast.

At that moment, he only knew one thing to do to improve the situation, and so, he dropped control of his shark and the eye that followed it, as well as control of his gun and the eye that followed it. Freed from this burden, he dismissed his gun and resummoned it to his left hand. Then, in the blink of an eye, he activated his Lightning Cloak Technique. Suddenly, lightning enveloped him, hundreds of strands arching around him.

The situation was not ideal. His shark was now rampaging on its own. He could not guarantee the little shark would not play around and attack carelessly, and one of the sources of the mist had evaded danger from his gun.

Coming out of the shadow, the woman's eyes narrowed a little when she saw him cloaked by lightning, and shadow began to shroud her as she kicked the ground and flew straight toward him like an arrow. Still in the air, she threw her dagger toward him, which flew even faster than she did.

With Lightning Cloak active, he tilted his head to the side to let the dagger fly away, and in a fraction of a second, lowered his stance and unleashed a blindingly fast palm strike toward her. When she was mere meters from being hit, she suddenly dissolved into shadow and vanished. Turning his head, he saw the woman catch her dagger in the air and try to stab the back of his head. But, while the woman's movement was fast and her dagger sharp enough to pierce diamond, Liu Xing, with his Lightning Cloak active, was faster.

In a movement that could not be seen if someone blinked, he rotated his body so smoothly that in an instant, he and the woman were face to face, her dagger moving straight toward his face. He saw the woman widen her eyes, but in an instant, he struck upward with his palm, aiming for her chin. The woman could have decided to pull back and dissolve into shadow once more, but instead of doing so, she bet that her dagger would be faster than Liu Xing's palm strike. But, when the dagger was merely a centimeter from piercing the place between his eyes, his palm connected with her chin. A thunderous clap reverberated, the place where his palm met her chin creating sparks of lightning, and a moment later, the woman shot into the air vertically like a cannonball.

Following her with his eyes, Liu Xing crouched and kicked his turtle as hard as possible, shooting toward the woman, who spun in the air while letting out a pitiful cry. In the air, as wind rushed around him, he cycled his qi and activated his lightning blade. Then, with a roar, he swung his lightning blade toward her, intending to split her in two.

When his lightning blade was mere centimeters away from her, she brandished her dagger wreathed in shadow in front of her, trying to defend against his attack. When the lightning blade hit the dagger, a loud "ping" reverberated in the air. Instead of being split in two, the woman was shot down like a smashed volleyball. A moment later, she hit the ground, a cloud of dust and debris flying around her, and he saw the petite woman spit out a mouthful of blood, as if she had internal injuries. Her right wrist bent at an unnatural angle, likely broken from his attack, but though injured, she was still alive.

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The woman glared at him hatefully.

Without wasting any time, he filled the gun with Lightning Palm bullets, pointed the gun at her, and began shooting. Upon seeing his attacks, the woman got up, dissolved into shadow, and moved around on the ground.

His bullets hit the ground rapidly, destroying it and creating sparks of electricity. Yet his bullets could not hit her. Additionally, as she moved here and there, he could see that she was trying to escape, a fact that made him pissed. After all, while she had failed to kill him, she had successfully accomplished her mission, which was to protect the tree that spewed mist from its roots.

As Liu Xing landed not far from the cliff, his gun still rapidly shooting, his mind puzzled over how the hell she could have located him. After she hit the gun, it was as if she already knew where he was. The gears in his mind spun, but after a moment, he got the answer, and in hindsight, it was rather obvious. His gun was connected to him with a tether of qi. This tether functioned so the gun could send him the qi it gathered from people it killed; additionally, it was the way for him to fill the gun with Exploding Fist or Lightning Palm bullets. It seemed the moment her dagger hit his gun, she had sensed that tether and hence followed him to his hiding location.

"This woman is formidable," he muttered, realizing the woman was already far away.

From their brief exchange, he knew that this woman was at the peak of the Core Splitting realm—the same as Elder Xia Juetian—yet her qi and the qi she emitted were far inferior to his. Comparing the late Elder Xia Juetian to her was akin to comparing a hill with a mountain. Yet, while weaker in raw power, she was a troublesome opponent with her unique techniques and her speed. Killing her was not impossible, but it would take too long without his full arsenal.

Liu Xing willed the turtle to float, carrying the women with it. Soon, Liu Xing jumped toward it and ordered it to move to the center of the island.

He turned and looked at the group of women huddled together. Their faces were full of fear and wariness. They were in danger. The mere fact that they had been seen with him meant that the woman who could turn into shadow could target them. He did not want to fight like he did with Han Jiulao, where his opponents tried to target the mortals while he defended them. He needed to drop them off somewhere safe before he could chase that woman.

A thought popped into his mind that the safest location was near him, but he knew that it was mere hubris. Unless he had overwhelming power and the enemies were weak, standing near a battlefield was dangerous.

As he thought so, he focused his vision through his sixth eye. Using that eye, he looked around to find a safe place and saw several candidates. The first and the closest one from his position was the edge of a city nearby, where a group of mortals huddled around a temple with a pagoda beside it. There was no fighting around there. Soon, the turtle was hovering tens of meters above the building, and without further ado, he encased the women with some of his qi and dropped them there in one swoop.

As their feet touched the ground, several dozen mortals pointed at him, some cowering and going inside the temple.

"Wait here for a bit, I'll come back," Liu Xing said.

Without waiting for an answer, he dismissed his floating turtle, summoned his shield, and kicked it. As the wind rushed around him, he clenched both his hands.

His plan to hide on the edge of the island while his weapons did the rampaging was shattered. However, just because this plan was in tatters did not mean the situation was hopeless. He could see that the side he supported was beginning to gain footing. The only thing making him anxious was the group of women he had left at the temple. He feared that the woman who could dissolve into shadow was on her way to the temple. He crushed that notion since he knew that the woman was going to protect the tree, but some anxiety remained.

While his stomach churned, he decided to stop and use the shield as a foothold. As he stood, he looked around with his two eyes. To the right, he could see the fire dragon; to the left, though he could not see it, he knew the tree that spewed mist was there. His mind tried to come up with an idea, and the first idea he got was to split up with his gun once again. It could fly and support the group of cultivators fighting the dragon, while he needed to target that tree as well as the woman who could dissolve into shadow once again.

Nodding, Liu Xing encased his gun with potent qi from his Ethereal Pearl and let it go. As he saw the gun rush toward the fire dragon, his stomach twisted, but he repressed this anxiety. His gun would be fine. While there was a scratch on its side—which indicated his gun was not indestructible—his gun was durable. Moreover, he could summon the gun to his hand in an instant. He knew the gun would be alright.

Liu Xing decided to send the sixth eye—which was closest to their position—to follow the gun, while the eye that had previously watched the gun flew into the air. Then, he focused on the eye that was in charge of watching his shark. It was floating calmly inside the mist with no shark around it. For a moment, he thought of making it search for the shark before finally deciding against it. Since he needed a lot of focus, he had to leave the eye there and ignore it. His shark, while playful, probably knew its assignment, and since it was the only one that could move on its own, it was the one that needed less monitoring.

Liu Xing inhaled deeply. "All right, let's begin."

After calming his mind, he kicked his shield toward the tree that was one of the sources of the mist. With his body covered by lightning and his trusty shield beneath him, he soon arrived at his destination.

Looking down, he could see the mist below was so thick that his eyes could barely pierce it, but he could see the silhouette of the tree that had become his target. He was sure the woman who could dissolve into shadow was down there, waiting for him.

He thought for a while about how to attack, then summoned his turtle, encased it with his qi, made it bigger and bigger and bigger, and swung it. Then, after it had gathered enough momentum, he threw the turtle statue—now as big as a mansion—downward like a meteor.

"Let's see how it goes."

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