Encouraged by the leader's story, more women shared theirs. Some were quite far-fetched, and he could not glean any insight from them, like a story about a woman trying to seduce two men simultaneously, resulting in both falling in love with her, or a woman talking about two pretty yet worthless rocks that, in the end, were just rocks and did not need special attention. Still, some shared relevant stories that made him ponder.

A woman talked about how they rotated the plants on their farms. She tried to convey that a field could not be continuously planted with a single kind of plant. Rather, the best way to ensure a successful harvest was to rotate between different kinds of plants, a way to let the earth rest. After all, each plant needed different nutrients from the earth.

From this story, he thought that for this new battle style idea, other than making all his arsenal compete blindly, he also needed to ensure each of them bloomed. This meant he needed to place them at specific times, or rather, in specific places, so each could flourish. It was like trying to place the right man in the right place.

Another story that made him ponder was from a woman who shared a rather ominous tale. She made up the names and situations to mask it, but he knew a true story when he heard one.

The story told of a merchant who suddenly came to a city. This merchant's specialty was spices. He came from a faraway land with a spice that smelled good, had a spicy taste, and was rich in flavor. This spice was believed to have invigorating properties and many health benefits. The merchant successfully sold this spice to several kitchens in famous restaurants, even to the local lord. But this success also came with greed.

Many merchants also sold spices in this city, but this specific merchant wanted to control the entire spice trade in the city. So, he used every kind of method—subtle, forceful, even sinister—to further his business. In the end, he became the king of herbs and spices in this city, controlling every major trade related to it.

He was quite successful.

But the merchant's greed knew no bounds. After successfully controlling the herb and spice trade, he wanted to branch out, and the first thing that caught his eye was wine. This merchant had no deep knowledge about wines—the art of making it, who the target market was, or anything. He was blinded by greed and tried to amass wealth as much as possible.

But, in the end, even before he could sell a single bottle of wine, he died with his skin purple, his mouth foaming, and his tongue black.

When Liu Xing asked about the connection between his problem and this story, the woman smiled sharply, apologize if the story was of no use, and did not elaborate further, even when he asked repeatedly.

In the end, Liu Xing ended the meeting and pondered deeply about the last story.

The context of all these stories was how he could utilize his arsenal better, mainly how he needed to plan the use of his gun and his stone blade.

The story from the leader gave him an exciting idea to unleash all his weapons simultaneously. The story about fields from the farmer woman made him realize he needed to ensure his arsenal was in the right place at the right time to be effective and efficient. But the story from that last woman was not intended to further this idea; rather, it served... as a warning.

If he branched out too much, there would be a time when he would be out of his depth.

Perhaps the woman noticed his eagerness to try the leader's idea and was trying to warn him not to be too greedy in branching out. Rather, he needed to be calm and composed, plan his moves, plan his fights, so he would not die like that greedy merchant.

Liu Xing tried to digest all the ideas that had come to mind and in the end, the idea from the leader of the group—to make his gun, stone blade, and even himself and Tide Walker compete—was worth trying.

It was a great idea. Thinking about his opponents fighting not only him but also his gun, his stone blade, and even his shark at the same time make him excited. He wondered how terrifying he would be if he successfully implemented this battle style.

But he could not try this idea too eagerly and nonchalantly. He needed to be purposeful about it so he did not end up dead.

With calm eagerness, Liu Xing willed one of his lightning orbs—the one that had become the point of the formation—to fall back. At the same time, he also let his stone blade fly toward that lightning orb.

"I need to try it with my stone blade first," he muttered.

When the lightning orb and his stone blade met, he tried to attach the lightning orb to the stone blade. At first, he tried to attach the orb to the handle of the stone blade, but the resulting view was rather weird. This specific vision was not like him holding a blade; rather, it was as if his nose were the stone blade. He tried to move both of them. To his surprise, the orb stuck to the blade naturally, so moving the stone blade was enough to move the lightning orb as well.

He moved them left and right and rubbed his chin.

"This position is not good."

His vision from the lightning orb was quite wide, yet the sword was sticking too close. He could not see it fully; hence, he could not control it to move as freely as possible.

"Let's change the position a bit."

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He split the orb from the stone blade and made the lightning orb fly quite higher than the stone blade.

He rotated his Eye of Lightning and the stone blade, making them facing the upside-down turtle statue and himself. He currently wore a robe the color of the blue sky—he had changed before they departed. His hair waved in the wind, his dark eyes were sharp, and both of his eyebrows were straight. Additionally, he could also see the group of thirty women behind him. They had stopped talking and looked at his back. Then he decided to rotate the remaining two of his lightning eyes so they too could see the stone blade.

Instantly, he felt as if the current position was not good either. He felt like a security guard sitting behind a CCTV monitor. While he could see everything with clarity, it felt as if he were also an outside observer. It felt as if he could not control the stone blade freely.

Since too close and too far were bad, he decided to try a middle range. He positioned his Eye of Lightning around one and half meters from the stone blade. For good measure, he decided to create a string of qi that extended from the eye toward the stone blade so his eye would follow the stone blade no matter what happened. This position was rather comfortable. He felt as if he were a man walking his dog with a rather long leash. But that string was not a leash, and he was not walking a dog either.

Thinking the position was comfortable, he decided to will the stone blade—which was flying at the same speed as his turtle—to suddenly dive down.

Instantly, his heartbeat quickened, and a small smile appeared on his face. The stone blade, encased by his qi, responded so quickly. It felt as if the stone blade had a will of its own.

The stone blade descended toward the blue sea below like a bird that had seen prey and dived down. The sea became closer and closer. The waves rolled, the sun shone on them, and his heart quickened more and more. When his stone blade hit the water, he felt as if his whole body had suddenly submerged in water.

For a moment, Liu Xing exhaled deeply. The sensation was as if he were there. It felt good. And it felt quite comfortable.

"It seems I have found the correct distance."

Some foam formed around his stone blade and his lightning orb, but soon the foam was gone, and his eyes could see the surrounding area. Currently, his stone blade was inside the sea, but not too far from the surface. The sun successfully penetrated the water, and the water... was full of breathtaking views.

There were thousands of colorful fishes—from red to blue, to orange, to purple, and many combinations of known colors. Each of the fishes reflected the sunlight, making the underwater world seem filled with gleaming jewels that could enrich the entire world. But there were not only fishes in the sea; he could also see carpets of colorful reef, anemones, seaweeds, and much more, each swaying with gentle waves. It seemed the sea below was coincidentally quite shallow. But, even shallow, he could see in the distance a group of several big whales swimming around. The whales were blue, each of them large, but with several stripes of colors on their bodies—red, white, green, blue, and many more. It was as if a cheeky painter had decided to dive down into the sea, follow a group of whales, and add beautiful colors to each of their bodies.

He let the long stone blade swim with the fish. The sword was like an extension of himself. He felt as if with each movement of his blade, he could feel the refreshing water below. The stone blade occasionally leaped from the sea like a dolphin, swam below the sand under the sea with octopuses, and even swam with the herd of whales like an excited little kid. Tide Walker, who seemed not to want to be left behind, also dived down into the sea and swam as if it owned the world, trying to catch up to his stone blade swimming freely in the ocean. Two orbs of lightning followed them, each like a cameraman trying to capture their best moment.

Even standing on his turtle flying above the sea, he inhaled deeply and felt a refreshing feeling fill his heart. The view was amazing, refreshing, and made the world suddenly feel better. This Wild Tide Region was currently in danger of being subdued by a demonic sect, but nature did not care. It was as if nature would endure whether a demonic sect tried to subjugate the world or not.

Yet, he knew it was not true.

Nature was, in the end, not the ruler of this world. Cultivators were. And cultivators could dictate how nature would live in this world.

As he controlled the stone blade to swim freely inside the sea—with Tide Walker following like an excited child—he began to get more and more control of both his Eyes of Lightning as well as the qi control necessary to make his stone blade look as if it were moving on its own. To his surprise, there were actually some limits he hit when experimenting with this kind of qi control: namely, on the range of his qi control as well as the maximum speed of things he controlled.

Granted, the limit was actually quite high. He could control the stone blade several kilometers from his position, and the movement of his stone blade controlled by his qi was so fast that he accidentally created great waves. The Eyes of Lightning likewise had a similar limit to their range and speed. But this limit was not the upper limit at all. This limit stemmed from his control of qi, which meant training—as well as advancing—would increase his speed and control over qi from a range.

Currently, Liu Xing was trying to widen the range of qi he could control, pushing the limit of how far he could control his qi from a great range. His stone blade now flew above the sea, slashing rolling waves as well as creating a long white trail on the surface as if the sea itself were going to open.

But soon, this experiment needed to stop. The reason was because his Eye of Lightning that followed his stone blade caught a glimpse of an island in the distance.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xing instantly turned to the group of women behind him.

"Prepare," he said calmly, "it seems that we will arrive soon."

As the turtle flew with greater speed, he looked to the sky and sighed inwardly. Truth to be told, while he had still not warmed up to them, he could at least admit their company was not that much of a hassle. Moreover, he had reaped some valuable insight from some of them, which made this whole ordeal, while still leaving some trouble behind, actually benefit him. He also understood their motivation and their desire for revenge. After all, in their position, he too would probably try to do the same. Still, he wished they could move on and find happiness in this dangerous world. To facilitate that, he was ready to part with several hundred spirit stones. With this amount of money, as well as the leader's insight for business, it was not hard to imagine them succeeding in life. The only problem would be the Nether Lotus Sect, but that was not their problem. Rather, it was the problem of the rulers within this Wild Tide Region.

But, as if the heavens were against his plan, Liu Xing saw a sight that made his eyes narrow.

"Are there any of you who know what the name of the island is? Is it perhaps some variation of a smoky island?"

The women looked at each other, and the one who answered was the leader. "I don't know an island with a name similar to that. Is there any problem?"

Liu Xing willed Tide Walker, who was still swimming under the sea, to come out of the water and catch up to the stone blade. Soon, his two Eyes of Lightning saw the same view.

It was a view of a burning island. Dark smoke billowed over the entire island. Some parts of the island shone with red light, as if the island were a burning coal.

As he saw this, Liu Xing's stomach suddenly twisted.

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