When Liu Xing saw a severed head clinging to Prince Yang Jinyan's neck, his first instinct was to summon his shield and kick it as hard as he could. He accelerated, appearing beside the prince in a move as fast as lightning. Then, he released the stone blade from his right hand, balled his fist, and punched the head with all his might. As the punch sent the head flying, Prince Yang Jinyan shouted, his voice gurgling.

"What the hell? Where did that head come from?" Liu Xing said.

The fight against the former emperor had blindsided him to his surroundings. Still, the fact that an abomination's head had managed to sneak past the entire Yang clan, including Yang Hongyin, to attack Prince Yang Jinyan spoke volumes about its stealth.

Liu Xing shouted for Yang Suyin, who arrived swiftly and immediately began stuffing pills into the prince's mouth as he lay on the ground.

The wound was severe, with half his neck gone, and blood blocked his throat and flooded his lungs, causing him to cough uncontrollably. As Yang Suyin slapped talismans on his body, shoved more pills into his mouth, and even tore flesh from her own thigh to wrap around the prince's neck, a warm blue glow enveloped his neck. The prince would recover. Liu Xing had no doubt about it. The question was how long it would take and whether Prince Yang Jinyan could still fight effectively. After all, nearly all his attacks involved blowing fireballs.

"Come!" Lihuo shouted.

Liu Xing snapped his gaze toward Lihuo. The head he had punched bounced like a rubber ball and launched itself into Lihuo's hand. It was the head of the former emperor. Liu Xing had assumed the unaltered body was just an animated corpse, but he had been wrong. The head was clearly controlling the body from a distance. The former emperor's head then spat a mouthful of meat into Lihuo's palm.

"Haha! With this, my preparation is complete!"

Liu Xing gritted his teeth. So, the purpose of this fight was not only for Wei Yi to obstruct their advance but also to collect Prince Yang Jinyan's body parts.

"Lihuo, you bastard!"

Liu Xing turned to see Prince Yang Jinyan sitting up, blood still gushing from his throat. He glared at Lihuo with hatred. "How despicable of you to defile our father like this!"

"It's a small price to pay for my greatness!" Lihuo smirked. "Did you know that our family has a hidden bloodline, one that lies dormant and cannot be awakened by effort or talent alone? Do you want to know why? Because its only function is to host other bloodlines!" He laughed. "Isn't that incredible? A bloodline that can only host others is useless on its own, but if you fill it with many, it becomes the ultimate bloodline!" His face contorted with rage. "And it went dormant because of that idiot, the Second Emperor. He diluted our bloodline with fire affinity until there was almost no trace of it! Fortunately, I have a strong trace of the bloodline, and with Wei Yi's help and you and Father's... donations, I will become immortal and possess everything in this world! I will become the ultimate being after awakening my Infernal Sun bloodline!"

Upon hearing Lihuo's explanation, Liu Xing pressed his lips together. A bloodline that could host others was a concept both terrifying and valuable, which made Lihuo's actions disturbingly logical. He knew without a doubt that many cultivators would do the same as Lihuo to secure such a prize.

His mind raced with questions about its existence, its power, and its weaknesses. But those questions were useless right now. The only thing that mattered was that this snail-faced man wanted to awaken that bloodline, and Liu Xing would not let him.

"Prince, I'm sorry," Liu Xing said, his eyes laser-focused on Lihuo, "but I think I have to be the one to kill him."

He wanted to let Prince Yang Jinyan take his own revenge. He deserved it. But in the prince's current state, it would be foolish to let him face Lihuo. He hadn't forgotten about the huge ball of flesh floating in the sky, Elder Yang Zhaoyan below, or Wei Yi either. Time was of the essence.

The prince coughed again, gritting his teeth. "Alright, do what you must."

Liu Xing nodded. "Yang Hongyin, support me. Yang Suyin and the rest, be careful."

Yang Hongyin nodded, while Yang Suyin replied, "Alright."

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The snail-faced Lihuo smirked. "You think you can defeat me? Did you forget you couldn't even kill my father?"

As he said this, a loud boom echoed. The former emperor's body rocketed through the air with a whistling sound and landed roughly beside Lihuo, causing the jellyfish they stood on to topple before righting itself. The emperor's body turned, and his muscular hands grabbed the head in Lihuo's left hand like a man grabbing a helmet. He placed it atop his torn neck, twisted it slightly, and muscles like worms locked the head into place.

The former emperor had a head again. The red light around him intensified, and a wild, battle-ready smile spread across his face.

Beside him, Lihuo began his own preparations. He moved behind the three-headed Sun Refining abomination and, with a lazy vertical swing, split it in two. He ate the flesh from Prince Yang Jinyan's neck, causing the qi around him to surge like a rampaging tornado. Then, the two halves of the abomination merged with him as if they were not flesh but wearable armor.

"You're all dead! Dead!" Lihuo exclaimed, cackling madly. Merging with the Sun Refining abomination had made him as large as the emperor, his body covered in exposed red muscles. The branch with eyes on his head grew longer, reaching a meter in height as the eyes tripled in size.

Liu Xing licked his lips. The difficulty of this fight had suddenly increased. Still, he believed they had a chance. They outnumbered the enemy. True, two of their foes were at the Sun Refining realm, but they had Yang Hongyin with her Twelve Sun Armor, and Liu Xing with his gun, his stone blade, the Ethereal Pearl brimming with potent qi, and the treasures he wore.

"Let's begin the massacre!" Lihuo said, opening his mouth to reveal a tongue as dark as night. A ball of yellow qi materialized in front of his mouth, and he shot it forward. The sound it made as it moved through the air was like an eagle's cry.

Liu Xing aimed his floating gun at the yellow ball, channeled a small amount of qi, and fired a standard bullet. The nearly transparent bullet whistled through the air and hit the yellow ball mid-flight, triggering an explosion that expanded into a yellow dome, bathing the world in light. Then, he charged his stone blade with as much qi as possible and sent a huge crescent of purple qi flying horizontally, slicing the yellow dome in two. A condensed yellow beam of qi, like a laser, shot from Lihuo's mouth, struck the purple crescent qi, and shattered it into thousands of pieces.

"Incoming!" Prince Yang Jinyan shouted.

Liu Xing looked at the former emperor, whose body was now bathed in a fluctuating, almost black light. Then, with a small jump, he disappeared.

He assumed it was invisibility, but less than a second later, a fist shrouded in blackish light materialized less than ten centimeters from his face. The punch was so fast his mind almost couldn't keep up, but instinct took over and he summoned a shield. The fist hit the shield, the shield slammed into Liu Xing's face, and the impact threw him back, creating space between him and the former emperor.

"Don't let him get too far from you, Liu Xing! The farther he is, the faster he is!" Prince Yang Jinyan shouted hoarsely.

Liu Xing gritted his teeth, rotated his body in mid-air, then dismissed and resummoned his shield and kicked it to propel himself toward the still grinning former emperor, stone blade in his right hand, lightning blade in his left. He slashed both blades like scissors, trying to cut the enemy in two, but the former emperor stopped the attacks with his hands. Upon seeing this, Liu Xing shot Exploding Fist bullets packed with potent qi at the emperor's face, which exploded on impact, throwing him back several meters.

Finding a brief respite, Liu Xing scanned the area. Yang Hongyin battled Lihuo in the air, encased in a bird made of fire with twelve heads, each attacking with a different technique. Yang Suyin led the group attacking the jellyfish dotted with human heads, while Prince Yang Jinyan used talismans to raise earth towers and platforms, manipulating the battlefield. He wanted to help them, but that was impossible while the former emperor was still alive. He needed to find a way to kill him.

The black light surrounding the emperor fluctuated more violently. Liu Xing kicked the ground, launching himself at his foe. The emperor vanished again and reappeared directly above him, rotating to kick his back. He rolled to the side. The emperor's kick hit the ground, and the earth surged like water struck by a giant boulder. Seeing this, Liu Xing charged his stone blade with as much qi as possible, encasing it in stable qi, and shot six lightning bullets. When the bullets hit his foe, it caged the former emperor in lightning as thick as ropes. Liu Xing then kicked the ground, arriving before him and swinging his blade diagonally with all his might.

His slash landed, creating a long, shallow gash from the emperor's left shoulder to his right hip. Liu Xing changed the trajectory of his blade and slashed upward, tracing the wound again. Then, before the paralyzing electricity could recede, he unleashed another slash. These three strikes, targeting the same wound, had carved a deep gash.

The electricity surrounding the emperor finally dissipated, and he unleashed a punch enveloped in fluctuating black light. Liu Xing dodged; the punch caused the air to explode and threw him a considerable distance away. The emperor then opened his mouth wide, materializing a ball of black fire and blowing it at Liu Xing. His gun fired an Exploding Fist bullet, detonating it in mid-air. The deafening explosion's shock wave hit him like a powerful punch and threw him back until his back hit a wall.

As the explosion subsided, Liu Xing's eyes followed the emperor. He finally understood what the prince had meant.

The emperor kicked the ground and jumped, but instead of moving through the air, he suddenly appeared right beside Liu Xing. His fist came straight for Liu Xing's face. His speed was now far greater than before.

Before Liu Xing could dodge, the emperor's punch landed.

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