High above, an all-encompassing cloud of smoke hung in the sky, covering almost the entire island. The smoke looked unnatural. It hung motionless, ignoring the strong wind that should have been blowing it away. This cloud of smoke looked more menacing than the thinning mist on the island. He anticipated the smoke had a special purpose and was ready to fight it, which was why he wondered if his ears had deceived him.

"I surrender!" Bewitching Princess shouted from the sky.

When he heard that exclamation, Liu Xing blinked several times. He clenched the weapons in his hands, loosened his grip, then clenched them again; confused about what she said.

At that moment, Liu Xing heard the sound of dozens of footsteps approaching. Looking around, he saw three groups converging on his position. Each group was led by a member of Lady Oracle's original group. Soon, around a hundred people gathered at the crater's edge, their eyes shifting between Bewitching Princess and Lady Oracle.

"Bewitching Princess, it is good that you surrender." Lady Oracle's voice reverberated outside as well as inside his mind. He saw the mental-attack cultivator cycling qi and, noticing the jerks of the people around him, realized she was broadcasting her voice to everyone. It seemed she wanted to broadcast her conversation with the demonic cultivator above. She gazed up with murderous eyes and snarled, "You need to come down, kowtow to us, and cripple yourself. That way, we will kill you as swiftly as possible!"

"Yeah!" a thunderous voice accompanied her declaration.

Bewitching Princess smiled alluringly, though she came down a little bit. "Isn't that a bit harsh? The heavens have blessed me with a pretty face and an alluring body. Would killing me mean disrespecting the heavens? How about you let me go, and I will never bother to return here."

Liu Xing decided to reactivate his Lightning Cloak. Then, for good measure, he activated his Lightning Palm Technique, let the gun absorb it, and sent the converted bullets toward his stone blade, making it shine with a blue color accompanied by purple light. He had done this once before, in his fight with Han Jiulao. He hadn't tried to activate it again after that, not because he didn't want to, but because the Eye of Lightning and his new battle style were more interesting. By sending the Lightning Palm Technique down to his stone blade, he could create a crescent attack that moved several times faster than his usual one, although this technique didn't have much firepower. It was essentially the same as his Lightning Palm bullets but with greater speed and reach. This technique was ideal for capturing an enemy.

"Scary," Bewitching Princess looked at him and said jokingly, though Liu Xing could see a bead of sweat forming on her forehead. "Not only did you kill my lovely assistant, the infamous Blood Moon, you even killed Graceful Phoenix that fused with the famed Elder Cangxuan Wutian. Moreover, you guys have destroyed my precious mummies," she sighed, "and while this smoke is precious too, I understand that there's no way for me to come out of this unscathed. How scary."

Lan Haishen snorted. "You should have thought about that before you came here! Ever since you and your disgusting demonic cultivators arrived, your fate has been sealed!"

The demonic cultivator began to laugh, as if finding his words amusing. Still, he observed her with all six eyes at the same time and knew for a fact that this woman was nervous. It seemed she truly could not win if she tried to fight them, and since she didn't bolt, it seemed she wasn't too confident about her speed or her tricks either. Still, the fact that she talked at all made Liu Xing think that she must be planning something.

"I am an elder of the Nether Lotus Sect. Sure, I'm not one of the Six Elite Elders, but I'm influential too and have lots of useful information. How about this? You let me go, and I'll give you useful information. You guys must hate the Nether Lotus Sect, right? I'm fed up with them too, you know. Additionally," she snapped her fingers. The sound was faint, yet it could be heard by everyone around Liu Xing, as if the remaining mist made sure its sound was heard. Then, from inside the smoke, several silhouettes could be seen. These silhouettes became more and more defined until finally, they emerged from the cloud of smoke.

It was people. Lots and lots of people. There were perhaps a hundred of them. Each was tied by ropes of smoke, and their mouths were covered by it. Most of them were women, some were children, and some were men. They hovered behind Bewitching Princess as if they were prey on a spider's web, ready to be killed and turned into nutrients. They wiggled their bodies, trying to break free, their expressions ranging from fearful to full of determination.

Upon seeing them, Liu Xing's eyes widened, his mouth opening slightly. Aside from a man with a familiar face, the rest were mortals. Not only that, but the majority of them were people he knew personally. There was the leader, the teen who cried and was almost struck by lightning, her mother, the woman who told him the story about the greedy merchant, and more.

The women he had brought here—all of them were up there, right behind Bewitching Princess.

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Liu Xing's heart beat furiously, panic spreading through his body. He was careless. He thought that since he had killed the woman who could turn into a shadow—Blood Moon—they were safe. Evidently, Bewitching Princess, who was hiding in the smoke above this entire time, had seen his fight with her as well as the fact that he had put them inside a temple.

Lan Haishen snorted. "You think threatening to kill a bunch of mortals will save you? The verdict has been decided. You will be dead by our hands, whether you're willing or not. Isn't that right, people?"

"Yeah!"

Bewitching Princess began to laugh. Her voice was beautiful, like ringing bells. "You're overestimating yourselves. Isn't that right, Lady Oracle? You guys have no chance to kill me. Only if a key figure decides that he will kill me will I have no chance. Lady Oracle, you already know the outcome of this conversation, right?"

She threw a smirk toward Liu Xing, which, while accompanied by a nervous expression, still looked confident. It seemed his expression upon seeing them was confirmation enough that the women there were important to him.

"How about it?" Bewitching Princess addressed him directly. "If you let me go, I'll release all these prisoners. And I will give all of you important information about my sect. It's a good deal, right?"

To emphasize her point, she balled her fist, and the group behind her, whether they were terrified or trying to escape her binding, suddenly froze. Then their bodies began to bend backward, as if invisible hands were trying to snap them in two.

Liu Xing clenched both of his hands and gritted his teeth. The gears in his mind spun wildly, trying to find a solution. Obviously, he didn't want to let this woman go. Bewitching Princess was dangerous. Letting her go would be like setting a tiger loose in the city. He knew without a doubt that she would rampage in other places, killing people left and right. But he couldn't move and attack her either. While there was one cultivator up there, the rest were mortals. Their bodies were feeble. A casual punch from a Lock Opening cultivator would destroy them.

"Bastard," Liu Xing muttered through gritted teeth. He tried to calculate the distance between them. She was quite far up in the sky, around a kilometer from the ground. That distance was nothing for him. If he moved with full power, he could arrive right in front of her in less than a blink of an eye, yet distance was not the only factor. Bewitching Princess was a cultivator too. She was at the peak of the Core Splitting realm. Her natural speed was fast, and no matter how he thought about it, his movement would be slower than her movement to clench her fist and kill them all.

Lady Oracle, Lan Haishen, and every person there began to look at him. Their expressions hardened, as if urging him to choose the correct thing, which from their perspective was to let the mortals die and kill Bewitching Princess.

"What are you waiting for?" Lan Haishen began walking toward him, his face snarling. "Tell her that you will not spare her because she will kill a bunch of mortals! Aren't you here to help us? Are you considering betraying us?" He snorted. "Figures. To think that I had the slightest hope that you, a disciple of that despicable sect, would help us. What a moron I am."

The man who wore a green robe, one of Lady Oracle's guards, took a step forward from the crowd. "Do you know the people up there?" he asked with a neutral tone as he pointed up. "Are they your family?"

"No," Liu Xing answered, his eyes still gazing upward, right toward the smiling demonic cultivator.

"Your lovers?"

"No."

"Your friends?"

Liu Xing didn't answer for a while. Were the women up there his friends? Their meeting was brief, and while they had given him unique insights, it was a bit of a stretch for him to say so. Still...

"Yes, they are my friends," he answered.

After all, he couldn't let them die. While it was true that it was a stretch for him to start calling them his friends, Lady Oracle and the group of cultivators that began circling him as if he were a dangerous beast were not his friends either. Hell, they weren't even acquaintances. He just wanted to help this burning island, as well as advance and test his new battle techniques. He never thought he would be faced with such a dilemma.

"In the past," the man with the green robe began, "there was a wise emperor who had the entire sea as his. He was strong and kind. One day, he had the same situation as our current one. The enemy held his family hostage. They said that if the emperor surrendered his empire, they would spare his family."

"What did he choose?" Liu Xing asked after a moment.

"He chose to surrender his empire."

"Does his story have a happy ending?"

He shook his head. "He was stabbed in the back by his son. The son was ashamed of his father. He said that it would be better if the former emperor had let them die. In the end, the former emperor cried, and he died not because he was stabbed, but because he was sad and ashamed of his wrong choice."

Liu Xing gritted his teeth. What a convenient story.

The people Bewitching Princess used as bargaining chips bent backward more and more, until they almost looked like bows. If they were pushed any further, their backs would snap, and they would die.

He clenched his fists so hard that if the stone blade and his gun could talk, they would have told him they were hurting. His heart beat crazily, his mind dismissing the story and trying to come up with a solution. He thought about an ambush. While he, the stone blade, and the gun were together, Tide Walker was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the shark was hiding inside the smoke and could pounce at any moment. He didn't have any Eye of Lightning accompanying the shark, but he tried to reach it using their connection and willed the shark to pounce on the demonic cultivator. But as the seconds passed, Bewitching Princess kept her smile. The people behind her bent back until they looked as if they would snap like twigs. Tide Walker was pouncing on something, just not Bewitching Princess.

Soon, he made a choice.

It was his defeat.

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