Thirty minutes had passed since Liu Xing had killed the abomination with green coconut ears, and it was the most intense thirty minutes that he had ever experienced.

He moved swiftly among the abominations, slashing and shooting at those that charged him. He streaked through the sky like a lightning tribulation, attacking and crippling the abominations he would need later. The battle escalated; the abominations' attacks grew more violent, and they hurled gigantic strikes more frequently. The cohesiveness they had displayed at the start of the battle vanished, and now each abomination raced to kill him first.

Purple crescent qi gouged the earth and slashed through abominations. His rapid shots of Exploding Fist bullets carpet-bombed everything around him. Amidst the chaos, Liu Xing glanced at the golden castle.

Throughout the battle, he had killed dozens of abominations. Most died by his blade, though some fell to his gun. His Ethereal Pearl brimmed with qi, and while moving and fighting, he absorbed qi into his consciousness, channeling it into his sole core.

Their numbers had been reduced, though not by much—he hesitated to kill more, as he would need them later. They were not easy to kill in the first place, though. Even with his new stone blade and his gun, some possessed bloodlines that made them particularly resilient, and the regeneration ability of the original type made them especially difficult to eliminate.

"I think it's time to meet up with Prince Yang Jinyan." Through this battle, he never forgot his plan, which was to bring all of these abominations down into the Emperors' Tomb.

Liu Xing summoned his turtle, channeling enough qi into it to grow it to the size of a small hill, encased it with potent qi, and climbed onto its back. This turtle was amazing. Its defensive capabilities were absurd, and while moving it was quite difficult—impossible without his potent qi—it could be used as a bludgeoning weapon. Though manually moving it was slow, he could circumvent this limitation by dismissing and summoning it wherever he wished. As expected, his summoning range had widened after he broke through to the Core Splitting realm.

As he rode the giant turtle toward the golden castle, many abominations climbed onto the turtle's back to attack him. Liu Xing stood atop the turtle and unleashed his ranged attacks. His gun no longer functioned like a traditional weapon—instead, it operated like a tank turret, sending explosive rounds in all directions. While these explosions could not kill most abominations, they were enough to knock them back repeatedly. His stone blade had become his primary weapon, and he slashed repeatedly with swift motions. The blade's shape felt somewhat unfamiliar to him; any master watching would probably weep at his poor technique, but its sheer power compensated for his lack of skill.

Liu Xing turned his head. He was close to the golden castle, its massive form looming like a mountain. Seeing this, Liu Xing shouted, "Ram it!"

The turtle—or rather, the qi encasing it—accelerated, and the hill-sized statue slammed into the golden castle. The collision produced a tremendous rumbling sound. Dust spread from the impact point as sections of the walls cracked and collapsed.

This signal would be felt by all Yang clan members inside. Still, to be certain, while his gun sprayed paralyzing lightning bullets and his stone blade unleashed crescent purple qi, his left hand reached for his communication orb to connect with the prince. Liu Xing hoped the prince had retrieved the Twelve Sun Armor and that other clan members had looted the treasure rooms—they would need everything for their venture into the Emperors' Tomb. His communication orb connected, but to his surprise, it was not Prince Yang Jinyan who answered, but rather an unfamiliar voice.

"Are you Prince Yang Jinyan?" the voice urgently asked.

"Who are you?" Liu Xing replied instantly.

"Shit! You're not Prince Yang Jinyan!"

"I'm not. I'm Liu Xing! Where is he? Why are you the one answering my call?" Liu Xing realized he could encase the communication orb with his qi, so he did, making it float near his mouth. Ten giant earth snakes surged from the ground and circled his turtle, lunging at him simultaneously. Seeing this, Liu Xing jumped from his turtle's back and dismissed his statue. The ten giant snakes struck the ground, and both the ground and the golden castle trembled again.

"You're Liu Xing? Thank the heavens! My name is Yang Suyin. I have good news for you! I have confirmation about Elder Yang Zhaoyan. He is indeed controlled by Wei Yi, but he's still resisting the control. We have to save him right now if we want any chance to fix this mess!"

Hearing the news, Liu Xing smiled. So the elder was not completely lost. That was good. Very good.

"I also have bad news. I heard that Lihuo already has his hands on the Twelve Sun Armor. I'm on my way to the prince's location, but there are hundreds of worms here. I've had to change my route several times, and now parts of the castle are falling down!"

That last part was probably his fault. His turtle grew heavier as it expanded, and while the castle still seemed to be standing, there might already have been internal damage, which his turtle had worsened. But the important part was not that—it was that Prince Yang Jinyan's main objective was already lost. This was bad.

"Where are you right now? How many people are with you?"

As he asked this, Liu Xing twisted his body in midair, dodging attacks that had slipped past his gun's barrage. He glanced upward to the upper floors of the golden castle, thinking that if Prince Yang Jinyan was still alive, he would be up there. They needed to retrieve him before descending to the Emperors' Tomb, and it would be better to regroup with as many Yang clan members as possible. He now had more confidence in fending off this army of abominations, so having others move with him seemed the better option.

"I'm alone right now. Believe it or not, there's a traitor in our midst. He successfully got people in my group killed and scattered, and now I'm alone. Also, I can actually see you from my position, and holy shit, are you really a Core Splitting cultivator?"

As he jumped around using his shield, dodging and slashing, he processed this information. To think that people still chose to side with Yang Lihuo instead of Yang Jinyan was unthinkable, especially after seeing what Yang Lihuo had done with their own eyes. As for Yang Suyin's observation, Liu Xing probably appeared as nothing more than a blue blur at that moment. After all, his Lightning Cloak technique, while not upgraded, was still enhanced by the potent qi he poured into it, and since his breakthrough, his physical movements had become much faster.

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"If you can see me, that's good. Regroup with me. We'll meet the prince together!"

Just after he said this, a stray attack—a large steel ball with two eyes and two human ears—ricocheted from his shield toward him, cackling as it flew. Liu Xing twisted his body, letting the steel ball pass mere centimeters from his nose. But while Liu Xing could dodge this attack, his communication orb floated directly in its path. His eyes widened as he realized this, and he tried to order it to move aside, but the steel ball smashed through his communication orb, reducing it to fine powder.

"Shit!" Liu Xing cursed. He had been careless—admittedly, talking while manipulating objects with his qi control was quite challenging. His turtle was durable enough to withstand many stray attacks, but the communication orb was not. He should have cut through that steel ball instead of dodging it!

Still, nothing could be done about it now, so he gritted his teeth, wielded his stone blade in his right hand and lightning blade in his left, and spun like a tornado. His stone blade cut through everything that came at him: projectiles, tongues, elemental balls, even several snake punches. While his lightning blade could not cut through many of the attacks, since he had made it more durable and encased it with stable qi, it deflected several strikes.

After rotating for a full second, Liu Xing spotted ten giant earth snakes coming at him from below. Seeing this, he resummoned his turtle, channeling enough potent qi into it until it grew to the size of mansion, then let it fall toward the snakes. It plummeted like a giant meteor as the ten snakes opened their mouths. When his turtle smashed the earthen snakes into the ground, the impact sent tremors through the earth, a tremendous sound reverberated, and both ground and castle trembled once again.

Liu Xing landed atop the turtle's back, his gun firing continuously around him. Above him, a castle-sized abomination plummeted toward him, one of its snake arms outstretched to crush him as it fell. He slashed with his stone blade, sending a giant crescent of purple qi that split the massive creature in two. This giant abomination was tremendously troublesome—this was not the first time he had split it in half, but it kept reappearing.

Liu Xing scanned his surroundings as his gun repelled abominations like a turret repelling zombies. Then, Liu Xing channeled a large amount of qi into his gun, which converted it into potent qi. Using this, he fully encased the turtle with it, commanded it to float off the ground, then sent it soaring upward toward the upper floors of the golden castle.

"Yang Suyin, come here!" Liu Xing infused his voice with qi and shouted as loudly as possible.

His shout made many abominations snarl at him as if he had done something unthinkable. But to his surprise, not only did the snake-limbed abominations come for him, but hundreds of flying worms also burst from the castle like a swarm of bees. Each worm bore a human face, ranging from elderly men and women to babies and animals. They opened their mouths, screeching as they flew at him at full speed, their wings buzzing.

A flash of yellow light appeared beside him, and reflexively, he swung his lightning blade toward it.

"Wait, wait, wait!" The light suddenly transformed into a man just before the lightning blade would have cut his body in half. "What the hell?! Weren't you the one who ordered me to come to you?!"

The man had a familiar face. He wore a red robe and had a gleaming bald head that shone under the sun, with narrowed eyes and a small but pointy nose that reminded Liu Xing of a rat's face. He held a steel blade in his right hand, a spatial bag hanging from his waist, and clutched a communication orb in his left hand.

"I'm sorry, you appeared so suddenly." It had only been a blink of yellow light before the man materialized.

"It's okay! But just do something about all of this!" He gestured broadly to the swarm of worms approaching from above and the abominations with snake limbs climbing Liu Xing's turtle statue.

"All right, hold tight!"

Liu Xing ordered his turtle to fly faster skyward, approaching the worm abominations above them. He concluded that while the worms were numerous, they were weaker than the abominations with snake limbs. Still, he would not hold back. Channeling potent qi from his Ethereal Pearl, Liu Xing fed it into his gun and commanded it to fire. A gleaming blue bullet struck a worm dead center in its forehead, and it exploded into a red mist. Absorbing the qi from that worm, his gun began rapid-firing.

"Duck!" Liu Xing ordered Yang Suyin, who obeyed swiftly.

Liu Xing gripped his stone blade with both hands, channeled potent qi into it, and slashed in a circular motion around him. He shouted as he created a circular purple qi attack. From above, it looked like a spiral of purple energy rotating and spreading around him like a reverse water tornado that repelled rather than drew things in. This circular purple qi spread splitting a dozen abominations in two and splattering the back of his turtle statue with red blood.

"What is that?" Yang Suyin shouted, pointing at a severed white arm that seemed to be melting as it scurried away.

"Kill it!" Liu Xing shouted.

In a blink of an eye, Yang Suyin appeared before the white arm and stabbed its eye with his steel sword. It thrashed like a worm being boiled alive before Yang Suyin kicked it off the side of the turtle and shot a fireball after it.

Liu Xing doubted it would die, but at least it would take longer to regenerate.

As he considered this, his turtle accelerated skyward like a giant lift. Some abominations tried to bombard them with projectiles, but his gun shot down each attack, its bullets like hounds intercepting their prey. His gun had become incredibly powerful, obeying him so naturally that it felt like an extension of himself.

Soon they arrived at their destination, his turtle floating beside the upper levels of the castle. Liu Xing scanned it. Through windows along the castle's side, he could see the interior and was shocked by its fleshy nature. It was like peering into an animal rather than a building, with flesh instead of walls and bloody, veined floors instead of marble. He could not spot Prince Yang Jinyan from this position, but they were close enough.

"Jump!" Liu Xing shouted.

Yang Suyin momentarily transformed into yellow light and, in the blink of an eye, appeared inside the castle.

Liu Xing, surprised by his speed, followed suit. He leaped from his turtle, smashed through a window, and ran as fast as he could after Yang Suyin.

"I know this room! It's before the throne room!" Yang Suyin shouted while blinking in and out of existence. His technique was so swift and impressive.

Before them stood a staircase, but both men bypassed it and appeared beyond it in a wide room supported by several flesh pillars, with octagonal nests covering the walls entirely. A throne dominated the space, entirely covered in black, rotting meat that emitted a nauseating stench. Before this throne, Prince Yang Jinyan knelt crying, offering something with both hands to it. It was Something red. So red. And so pale.

Seeing this, Liu Xing's heart clenched as he and Yang Suyin moved to the prince's sides. From this close, Liu Xing could see that the prince was covered in sweat and blood. The front of his robe was so drenched it looked as if it had fallen head first into a pool of blood. His face was bloodshot, and tears dripped from his eyes.

"Second Emperor, I beg you!" he shouted. "I'm a worthy successor, and Hong'er is my lover. Together we would make the Twelve Sun Emperor flourish again! So please, grant us the Twelve Sun Armor!"

He raised both hands, holding Hong'er toward the throne. Hong'er was dying, her face deathly pale, her heartbeat nearly imperceptible. She was missing her lower half and right side, as if something had bitten her twice. Liu Xing had no doubt the prince had already given her numerous pills, but unless there was a reviving elixir here, her chances of survival were slim.

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