ing that arched and lashed around him, making them glow. He had changed his mind. While he had intended to leave, he could not let the black spear go. And since there was no way General Zhao Ming would willingly part with it, he would have to pry it from the man's dead hands. A sliver of doubt told him it might be possible to destroy the spear without killing the general, but that would be a risk. He was unwilling to put Fang Ruxue and the others in danger again.

"You can try—"

Before the general could finish talking, Liu Xing took a step. The world turned blurry. He knew the location of almost everyone on the ships, and they were all moving so slowly it felt as if he were moving through a world where time had stopped. In an instant, Liu Xing appeared right behind the general and, without hesitation, swung his stone blade at his neck, trying to sever it in a single motion. The general spun around, his eyes widening. He was a Core Splitting cultivator with at least five cores, but it seemed his cultivation scripture was inferior. He lacked the speed to block the attack.

Liu Xing's stone blade whistled through the air and, less than a second later, bit into General Zhao Ming's neck. One more moment, and the blade would have come out the other side. But then the black spear lashed out with an impossible movement. It moved like a serpent, twisting and turning until its head deflected the stone blade. With a sharp ping, the blade that should have decapitated a man was thrown back.

That single ping reverberated through the air as if it were the only sound in the world.

"I see," Liu Xing said, looking with calm eyes at the twisting black spear, its head now pointed at him. The general's eyes, on the other hand, were wide with shock. Beads of sweat appeared on his face, and he looked like a man who had just escaped a certain death. Similar expressions were set on the faces of many around him, as if they could not comprehend that it was Liu Xing standing right behind their general.

"What an interesting spear," Liu Xing said.

People began to brandish and point their weapons at him, though as he swept his gaze around, he could see their hands and feet trembling. It seemed they realized that while he was a Core Splitting cultivator with only two cores, he was far stronger than General Zhao Ming.

While their eyes were on him, his were locked on the spear. "It seems you don't own your spear, General. Your spear owns you."

As he said that, the spear lashed out at him like a cobra. Its movement was so swift it looked more like a black blur than a spear. The general's body was moved forcefully, like a marionette controlled by a puppeteer, his eyes wide with shock. Liu Xing swung his stone blade diagonally and deflected the spear sideways. A loud ping once again reverberated, though this time, instead of letting the sound die down, Liu Xing moved like lightning and repositioned himself right behind the general. This time, instead of swinging, he held the stone blade with both hands and pushed, intending to pierce the general body.

The spear lashed out to meet his stone blade, then the tip of his blade met the tip of the spear. When they connected, Liu Xing gritted his teeth and pushed with all his might. While the spear could meet the stone blade without being destroyed, General Zhao Ming's body was not ready to meet his full-powered push. Both of the general's feet were lifted into the air, and he shot like a cannonball toward the main mast. When he hit it, the base of the mast splintered, sending wood shards flying in all directions. The mast fell to the side like a felled great tree with people shouting in panic to get out of the way.

While the spear and the general were still in the air, Liu Xing jumped, the floorboards exploding under his feet. He appeared right in front of them and, with a shout, slashed downward, intending to split the general in two. The spear pulled General Zhao Ming's body to the side like a kite on a suddenly pulled string, allowing him to dodge the attack. However, the maneuver made the general hit the floor face-first, and the black spear lashed out toward Liu Xing like a snake.

Seeing this, Liu Xing deflected the spear, summoned his gun to his left hand, aimed at the downed general, and fired an Exploding Fist bullet. The spear instantly retreated and tried to cut the bullet down. While it succeeded, the bullet exploded on impact, creating a hole in the deck and throwing the general into the air. Before he could be thrown too far, however, the black spear shot toward Liu Xing like a sea serpent, its black tip aimed at his head, dragging the general along with it.

Liu Xing charged his stone blade with qi and, with a shout, swung it, letting out a crescent-shaped purple attack.

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***

A man clutched the ship's railing, his eyes wide with disbelief. His hands and feet trembled as he looked left and right, trying to understand what was happening. One moment, the disciple of the Purple Moon Sect had been standing atop his hovering stone turtle, his body wreathed in lightning. The next moment, he had vanished.

The soldier thought he had simply turned invisible—like the rumored ghost that had been plaguing the capital these past few months—but before he could dwell on it, a harsh ping echoed through the air, and the battle between Liu Xing and the general commenced.

It was a battle beyond his comprehension. Their movements were so fast he couldn't follow them. All he could observe were the effects of their fight. The rushing panic as the main mast of ship number one fell, the ropes snapping, a flying attack in the shape of crescent moon, and the destruction erupting on the deck of the main ship.

The man looked around and realized that the fight was moving from one ship to another. The current battlefield was ship number three—a beautiful, swift vessel that maneuvered so gracefully it looked like it was dancing on the sea. Two blurs appeared in the air above the ship. One of them struck the other, sending him plummeting like a meteor onto the deck and scattering wooden planks. To his horror, he realized that the man thrown down to the deck was the general, because Liu Xing was spinning in the air with his long blade, and with a feral shout, he sent down a crescent-shaped attack once again.

The attack was enormous, nearly the size of a sail. It descended so swiftly that in a single second, it passed straight through the graceful vessel, splitting it in two.

As the man watched in horror while the ship began to sink and its crew scrambled in panic, he saw that the general hadn't died. Instead, the Eternal Night Spear lashed out toward Liu Xing. From there, their movements became a blur once again. He could see two indistinct forms shoot from the sinking ship and feel the wind from their clashes, knowing the fight was still raging on with another ship as its battlefield.

As the fight continued, and shouts and sounds of destruction echoed in the air, the man was horrified. Though he was an ordinary soldier, he had never felt so... small. He knew General Zhao Ming was so strong that he had few equals in the entire Mirror Tide Empire, but this was beyond belief. Still, as a soldier, he had to remain calm. He couldn't panic. He needed to take a deep breath and think.

The talk between the general and Liu Xing had been broadcast through the treasures the general possessed, and from that conversation, he had gathered the basics.

Liu Xing was a disciple of the Purple Moon Sect. He flew on a stone turtle. He had allowed an elder of the Nether Lotus Sect to die. He was looking for a heaven-defying pill, and it seemed General Zhao Ming wanted information about it.

It was a shame the General was not a man famous for his smooth talk and subtlety. If he could have lured Liu Xing in and poisoned him, this fight wouldn't have happened. His talk about the seawater crocodile wasn't subtle, either. It was a legend within the Wild Tide Region, where a gigantic crocodile was killed by a village working together, using its offspring as bait to lure it to its death.

As that thought came to him, he snapped his head toward the hovering stone turtle. At the same time, almost everyone on the ship did the same.

He looked around, nodded with each other, and everyone began to move.

This naval army was new. While they had commenced some training, they were not yet a cohesive unit. It would take time for the army to gather its strength and move as one.

"You!" a man suddenly shouted at him. The soldier looked forward, and when he realized it was the captain, he straightened his back. "Relay this message to all ships," the captain said, throwing him a communication orb. The man caught it and activated it, making it glow. "The general is currently engaging the enemy. It is clear that battle is above our ability. We can't help. So, we need to move swiftly and do what we can, which is to capture Liu Xing's women."

He nodded and relayed the message, paraphrasing it slightly. Soon, the vessels that could still move began to push forward toward the stone turtle. The man realized that while it was hovering, it showed no indication of moving on its own. It meant the stone turtle needed to be steered, and it seemed only Liu Xing could control it.

From above, the stone turtle looked as if it were being circled by sharks. The man looked up to see a group of frightened, unsure women, beads of sweat forming on their faces.

"Attack!" his captain shouted.

The man took a deep breath and looked up. The turtle hovered a considerable distance above the sea, too high for a normal jump. So, he began to climb the crow's nest, intending to leap from there. Since their targets were mortals, it shouldn't be too hard to capture them and force Liu Xing into submission. But as he climbed the mast, while men with higher cultivation leaped from the vessels straight toward the shell of the stone turtle, they were met by a small white shark with a wicked smile. The shark moved so swiftly that in a single moment, the jumping men were split in two in midair. They landed on the turtle's shell in pieces, their upper and lower bodies separated, staining its surface crimson.

The man's eyes widened, but then the shark looked straight at him with ferocious eyes. It opened its mouth, gathered qi in front of it, and shot it toward him.

The world turned dark.

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