When he saw twenty people emerge from the centermost building of the Jin clan wearing black and red robes, his first thought was that they must be alchemists. After all, Jin Wuyi wore the same colors, which was strange, since the Jin clan's color scheme was not black and red. However, as Liu Xing focused his attention through the Eye of Lightning, he noticed things that were a little off. The men, women, and children of the Jin clan were either watching from the side with trembling hands and feet or were hurriedly but carefully closing their windows and doors. The two remaining important people of the Jin clan, the girl and a man who didn't look too old, followed behind the group, both of them grimacing and looking at each other as if they didn't know what to do.

Liu Xing raised his eyebrows, something nagging at his mind, as if he was forgetting something terribly important. "Who are they?"

They didn't seem to be part of the Jin clan, yet they were emerging from the heart of the clan. Were they perhaps guests? Where had they been when he was there? At that thought, a bad premonition pressed down on him, as if the air had grown heavy and cold. In response, his heart began to pound, and he knew it would soon be hammering against his ribs.

He focused his eye and observed the faces and expressions of the group. The man leading them was tall and handsome. His eyes were the color of charcoal, and his black hair gleamed in the light. He had an easy smile and walked with a confident stride. To his right was a man with white hair. His expression looked annoyed, though Liu Xing could see an eagerness in his eyes, as if he was ready to finally meet his enemy and kill him. He swept his gaze across the group and found they wore various expressions, ranging from mad grins to stoic faces. Looking at them made him more and more anxious, and the large bonfire in front of him began to flicker, as if a great gust of wind had disturbed its flames.

He racked his brain, trying to figure out what about this group gave him such a bad feeling, and his gaze fell on the robe of a woman closer to his perspective. This woman, too, wore a black and red robe, identical to what everyone else wore—except for the man in front, who had a purely black robe. He realized that her robe had a subtle red pattern adorning it. As Liu Xing squinted, trying to see more clearly, he finally realized what the pattern was. A spatter of red that looked exactly like blood. At that, his heart began thumping frantically, and his eyes widened.

"No way! No way!"

The group arrived at the open gate of the Jin clan, and their leader stopped, turned, and addressed them. He began to speak, and Liu Xing could not discern what he was saying. However, it was a short speech, and he knew the last sentence the man said.

"Let's. Have. Some. Fun!" He said it syllable by syllable, his lip movements clear. Then, the man turned right toward the floating Eye of Lightning, met its gaze, and waved. Waved! As if he knew the Eye of Lightning had been observing them from the start. The man smiled, and then, Liu Xing's vision of the Jin clan vanished, accompanied by a sharp pain that assaulted his brain. The pain itself wasn't severe, but the implication of what he had seen made his head spin.

"Nether Lotus Sect," he muttered, eyes wide, unable to believe what he saw. "They finally arrived! How?"

Their appearance was so sudden, and he felt stupid for not realizing it at first glance. He soon reasoned it wasn't because he was stupid, but because it was truly unexpected. Not long ago, he had been sitting right in front of the building from which the Nether Lotus Sect had emerged. As far as he knew, they had not been there.

"The Jin clan has ties to the Nether Lotus Sect," he muttered, then narrowed his eyes. The one who connected them was obvious. Liu Xing looked to the left, toward Jin Wuyi's painting, and shot it a hateful glare. In his journal, Jin Wuyi had come into contact with demonic cultivators, and it seemed they were from the Nether Lotus Sect. The fact that they had emerged from the center of the Jin clan meant that the clan was cooperating with that demonic sect. He knew that one of the Nether Lotus Sect elders could teleport, and perhaps there was some kind of teleportation array in the center of the Jin clan's compound.

Liu Xing shook his head. "No need to think deeply about them. Focus on the important part," he muttered.

He inhaled deeply, digesting the information he had gathered. The Nether Lotus Sect was here, in Water Tower City. What was their goal? It was obvious. It was probably either him, Fang Ruxue and her group, or the Heaven Severing Pill. Perhaps all of them at the same time, and coincidentally, all of them involved him and the people on his side.

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A cold focus settled over him. Liu Xing resummoned his gun to his left hand and grabbed the stone blade with his right. He never thought his clash with the Nether Lotus Sect would be this sudden, but a fight with them was inevitable. There was no way he would let them rampage within the Wild Tide Region unchallenged, and he had every intention of fighting them head-on.

While it was a surprise, he also saw an opportunity within this crisis. After all, they were adversaries, and while he thought that viewing human beings as resources was wrong, he could not deny that this crisis would strengthen and sharpen him.

As he thought that, the Alchemy Hall began to rumble. Dust fell from the ceiling, the paintings shook, and the potted plants created a distinct clanking sound. It was as if an earthquake was suddenly shaking the deep water, threatening to crumble the entire place. However, Liu Xing knew this rumble was not on his side. Outside, there were twenty spirit beasts, but his total enemies here were twenty-three. He finally understood what the Jin clan had planned all along and whose side they were on from the start.

As the rumbling intensified, to the point that paintings began to fall from the walls, Liu Xing cycled his qi, turned, and kicked the ground as hard as he could. The stone beneath him cracked, dust and debris flying, and he rocketed forward with such speed that the air whistled. In front of him, the door through which he had entered was still open, but the fluctuating barrier looked more chaotic, as if it could burst at any moment. Liu Xing gritted his teeth, summoned his shield, and accelerated. Behind him, a long crack appeared on the wall, and water gushed in like a roaring beast.

In a fraction of a second, he hit the barrier with full power, hands crossed in front of his face to protect his head. At first, it felt as if he was hitting a sturdy wall, but soon a popping sound echoed, and he was suddenly rocketing through the water and out of the tunnel. A bubble formed around his head, one that had enough air for him to function underwater for a long time if he conserved it, or a short time if he needed to do something reckless.

As he shot out from the Alchemy Hall, he stopped his momentum with his shield and turned his head. The electric eel was roaring; however, instead of a high-pitched scream, its roar manifested in the rumbling of the water. Electricity coursed through its body wildly and it coiled around the tower like a python trying to suffocate its prey, resulting in the Alchemy Hall cracking and breaking, with dust clouding the water. The Alchemy Hall, which had stood for three years against the assaults of spirit beasts, was now breaking as if it had no shielding whatsoever. The eel's actions were agitating the other spirit beasts. He could feel the prickling qi around him stirring like boiling water.

Liu Xing activated his invisibility as he shot a glare toward the shipwreck in the distance. He tried to sense the qi on it, and while faint—as if they were suppressing their presence—he could sense three sources. The leaders of the Jin clan were still there.

As he stood on his shield, its central green gem shining with a faint light that would no doubt invite spirit beasts to his location, he considered his next action. He had only two choices. He could go to the shipwreck and defeat those three, or he could move upward, get out of the sea, and head directly toward Qing Yuan and the others. One was logical, while the other stemmed from his annoyance. In the end, his logic won. Protecting his people from the Nether Lotus Sect was his utmost priority.

Nodding, Liu Xing activated his Lightning Cloak Technique. His gun was eager to absorb the technique, and he let it before reabsorbing it and activating it himself. Soon, he was coated in electricity, but then he suppressed it and willed his invisibility to swallow the arcs of lightning around him. Then, once he was fully invisible, he looked up and kicked his shield. As he dismissed the shield, Liu Xing rocketed upward, creating a trail of bubbles behind him. Soon, he felt his momentum begin to slow, so he summoned his shield once again and kicked it with all his might.

He needed to move fast, and while his shield and the trail he made would give away his position, there was nothing he could do about it.

As he moved up and up, he noticed that three of the spirit beasts circling atop the Alchemy Hall began to descend. One, a giant humanoid being with a massive sword jutting from its face, was practically on his track. However, he knew that while it was in his way, its main target was the eel, as if it was surprised and angry that the creature had successfully crushed the Alchemy Hall.

He had intended to move aside and let the spirit beast pass, but suddenly, he felt two enormous amounts of condensed qi appear in two places. One came from the shipwreck where the Jin clan patriarch and elders were, and the other came from several hundred meters above. Liu Xing looked up to the nearest spot and saw a giant formation appear in the water. It was made purely of qi, with complex lines forming circuits inside the circle. In the center of the formation, there was an illustration of a lotus flower that shone red as if made of blood. An instant after the formation appeared, a dome formed beneath it, cascading down like a falling curtain with tremendous speed.

Seeing this barrier spread downward, he widened his eyes, but his instincts made him send qi to his stone blade. It shone with purple light, and its heaviness slowed his momentum. He slashed his stone blade, unleashing a five-meter-long crescent of purple qi. It was the most he could send in such a short amount of time.

"Destroy it!" he shouted toward the purple crescent. When it clashed with the falling curtain of qi, the point where the two met exploded with blue and purple light.

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