Liu Xing leaped from the sea and landed on his turtle statue. It was large once again, its shell able to accommodate thirty people and more. Tide Walker was currently floating around a group of women, its eyes curved into a smile and it tilted its head up, floating like a happy child as Fang Ruxue and the others showered it with praise. Liu Xing smiled. Tide Walker deserved the compliments. In the sea, it was swift and reliable, and in no time, it had killed the small, humanoid seaweed creatures and saved most of the women.

As he landed, people looked at Liu Xing, and when they saw Meng Qiaolian on his back, they cheered and rushed toward them.

"Qiaolian, thank the heavens you're back! We were so worried," Su Nian said.

Liu Xing put Meng Qiaolian on the ground, letting her join a group hug with the others. "I thought I was going to die again! It was scary!"

Fang Ruxue stepped away from the group and bowed to him. "Thank you once again for saving us, esteemed cultivator.""

"You can call me Liu Xing, you know. And it was not a problem. I promised to escort you all to a nearby island. It's a shame the last one was not ideal." Liu Xing paused, remembering Blue Emerald Island and his defeat at the hands of Bewitching Princess. "Is everyone accounted for?"

"Yes, with Meng Qiaolian, we're all here. Thirty people," she paused for a moment, "but that doesn't include your… friend. You didn't find him?"

Liu Xing turned his head and looked toward the still-fighting spirit beasts. The octopus was winning. While saving people, he had counted its tentacles and was surprised to realize it had sixteen. Each tentacle had dozens of tiny mouths, and the teeth in each were razor-sharp, able to bite and chew the seaweed creature, essentially eating it while killing it. The seaweed creature had many minions, and it was clear that while they had some degree of freedom, their purpose was to support the giant one. But since they had decided to capture Fang Ruxue and the others—probably to regenerate some of their energy—he and Tide Walker had decimated them swiftly and silently. Hence, the giant seaweed creature had no support anymore.

"No, I didn't find Yu Yongrui," Liu Xing said. He was not his friend, though he decided not to correct Fang Ruxue. "After saving Meng Qiaolian from a particularly large humanoid seaweed creature, I circled both of them." He pointed forward. "I sensed a trace of his qi, but he was nowhere to be found. It seems he regenerated enough qi to protect himself and decided to go on his way."

"Is that so?" Fang Ruxue said.

When Liu Xing didn't continue the conversation, she asked if he had any spare clothes or anything that could be used to warm them. Luckily, he had more spare dresses and something that could be used to warm them. Though it wasn't firewood, he had several planks of wood that Yang Suyin had given him at his request. Their purpose was for making makeshift coffins, though he hoped that time would never come. He pulled some out, ignited them with lightning, and the group tended to the fire.

Liu Xing walked to the head of his turtle statue. While his eyes were locked on the gigantic battle not far from him, his mind was on Yu Yongrui. As a cultivator merely at the peak of the Lock Opening realm, these two spirit beasts were deadly to him. Yet, not only had he decided to leave, but he had also left only a faint trace of qi behind as if he had just turned invisible. Thinking about invisibility inevitably made him remember his gun, which in turn reminded him of Silver Saint.

As the group circled the fire, changing their clothes behind him, Liu Xing summoned the gun to his right hand. When it appeared, he pulled it closer to his face and looked at it more thoroughly. Its black surface was smooth and shining, to the point that it reflected the sunlight, which was strange since it was invisible by default. He flipped it, looked at the stripes, then peeked down the barrel, trying to discern more information.

He was not familiar with guns. He had never seen one in real life, let alone touched one. If he had a hobby of collecting them, he would probably know the type, the caliber, and more details about his gun, but he did not. All he knew was that if he pulled the trigger, some mechanism would launch a bullet. His comprehension about guns was that shallow.

"What are you?" he asked the gun. It obviously didn't answer.

Still, while he didn't know the details, the gun was a precious gift. For him, it was the most valuable treasure in the world. Even if it lost its abilities and became a piece of scrap, he would still treasure it. But the gun was also mysterious. It could absorb darkness, and recently, it had even broken a dream a saint had conjured. Clearly, this gun had another ability that he had not yet discovered. Perhaps it was an ability that anchored him to the gun, which would ensure that it always answered his call and had the side effect of breaking dreams and possibly any illusions that trapped him.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As the gun glittered under the sun, he spread his feet and held it with both hands, aiming for the space between the giant red eyes of the seaweed creature. Both spirit beasts had a lower cultivation than he did; still, they were precious resources that could fuel his cultivation, so he decided to kill them both. After all, it seemed he was a saint candidate, which meant that if he truly became a saint later, he would be handling troublesome matters. While power couldn't solve everything, it could help immensely.

He loaded the gun with Exploding Fist bullets, calmed his mind, and pulled the trigger. The bolt soared through the air and landed on the face of the seaweed creature. An explosion bloomed, creating a shockwave that made the sea ripple, and a rain of blood showered the water. The explosion tore away the shadow shrouding the creature's face and created a hole that gushed blood. It was so deep it destroyed almost its entire face.

He looked at the side of his gun, saw the stripes glowing, and nodded. It seemed his simple attack was enough to end it. He pulled the bullet to his body and then sent it to Ethereal Pearl—to this day, it was still inside his stomach—and then aimed at the octopus and pulled the trigger again. When his bullet hit, its bulbous head exploded and then deflated like a giant balloon, sending a fountain of red liquid gushing out. Its tentacles began to spasm, whipping left and right as they loosed their grip on the seaweed creature. A moment later, its giant body peeled away and fell into the sea. The seaweed creature, likewise, fell, though in a different direction.

A moment later, both landed on the water, creating huge waves that made the sea churn and turn red with blood.

Liu Xing absorbed the bullets into his Ethereal Pearl once again. Then, activating the Flowing Meditation Method, he sent it all straight to his consciousness. His twin cores, still circling each other like sharks, began to absorb the qi greedily. As expected, his second core was getting more qi than the other. Only when the second core was fully saturated would the main core freely absorb qi. When it was saturated, he could begin the process of splitting it in two once again, creating a third core.

As the cores absorbed the qi, he observed them and wondered when he would fully saturate them both. Normal cultivators could spend decades advancing from the second stage of the Core Splitting realm to the third, but he suspected that he would fully saturate both of his cores in less than a year. Hell, if there were enough adversaries, it could be mere months away.

"I think I need to read more about the Core Splitting realm," he muttered. The last book he had read about it was not a full guide, just a detailed overview. He suspected he was missing several key factors and intended to remedy his imperfect knowledge.

As he thought about it, the two spirit beasts finally sank into the sea, leaving ripples in their wake. "That will have to wait, though," he said, pinching his chin. "I'm still busy."

He had finally remembered everything. He had come here on a mission from Elder Zhang Zhenking to retrieve a pill called the Heaven Severing Pill. He also needed to deliver a Spirit Flower to the widow that Moon Flower wanted to help. And before any of that, he needed to find a safe island to leave the group behind him.

He wrapped the turtle with his qi and began to lift it. After it hovered tens of meters above the surface of the sea, he looked around, trying to find a landmark. The guiding star that Lady Oracle had suggested he follow was truly furthering his quest, but it was not his current mission. Rather, it was about his main mission concerning the darkness.

As he looked around, he thought about visiting Silver Saint later to talk more about corruption and to show her his gun, when he suddenly saw something in the distance. At first, he hoped it was an island, but he could soon discern that it was not. The shadows in the distance were sailing ships, around ten of them, and as he narrowed his eyes, he realized that all of them were coming straight toward him.

Liu Xing rotated his turtle to face him, and then he tried to expand his senses. Those ships were filled to the brim with cultivators. He could sense almost a thousand people across all the vessels. As he realized this, he wondered if they were hostile. "Hopefully not," he muttered, though he needed to be ready if they decided to attack. Still, he could discern one thing that was quite certain. They were not from the Nether Lotus Sect.

Liu Xing looked back. The group seemed to have noticed the ships and began pointing at them while hurriedly putting on their drenched clothes.

"Do any of you know a yellow flag with the character 'Reflection' on it?" Liu Xing asked, pointing to the distance. "Those ships are flying that flag."

Fang Ruxue took a step forward, her eyes gleaming. "Esteemed cultivator, are you telling the truth?"

Liu Xing nodded.

"Then it's certain that they belong to the Mirror Tides Empire!" she exclaimed.

"Mirror Tides Empire, huh," Liu Xing muttered. If those ships were truly from that empire, then there was a chance that the sea they were in belonged to it, and the distance to the empire was not too far. He wondered how long they had been inside the whale.

As the ships approached, Liu Xing felt a bit of unease in his heart. After all, ten ships full of cultivators were nothing to scoff at. He wondered where they were heading. Were they going to war?

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