"Should be around here," Liu Xing muttered to himself. Above him, clouds blanketed the moon, plunging the night into cold darkness. Water Tower City was located on an island north of the Mirror Tide Empire, and he had been circling that enormous island for hours, his stone turtle flying under the cloak of invisibility.

He was finally approaching his destination.

As the invisible stone turtle flew above the dark sea, Liu Xing created more of his Eyes of Lightning. He currently had four of them securing the perimeter, but with an entire empire potentially hunting him, he knew he needed to be more prepared. Increasing his mental power would allow him to control a greater number of them and ensure nothing could ambush them. He also resolved to rely on his invisibility more, keep his gun materialized for the foreseeable future, and approach every situation with caution.

The situation was dire, so he prepared for the worst-case scenario. To him, that meant being hunted down by the Nether Lotus Sect, the Mirror Tide Empire, and perhaps other nations as well. Although it was unlikely, preparing for that possibility would address most of his anxieties.

"I need to be stronger," Liu Xing muttered as he faced forward. If he were not invisible, his eyes would have appeared sharp, a determined light glinting within them. Additionally, a bubble of qi shaped like a butterfly would have materialized above his head—right over the resting Tide Walker in his hair—before vanishing an instant later.

As the turtle soared at high speed, the sound of its flight dampened by the invisibility spell, Liu Xing reflected on what had happened earlier in the day.

"Was sparing them the right choice?" Liu Xing pinched his chin.

By now, he was sure the entirety of the Mirror Tide Empire knew about his presence. Since he had killed a general, even the Emperor might know about him, and depending on the emperor's nature, there was a chance he would use the killing of General Zhao Ming as an excuse to hunt him down, hoping to capture him and extract information about the Heaven Severing Pill. He knew the Mirror Tide Empire was in turmoil, and it would be foolish to unleash its full power to capture him. But sending a small, capable group was a realistic step they might take.

Liu Xing sighed. All of this was because he had decided to spare General Zhao Ming's army. If he had annihilated all the cultivators and their ships, he wouldn't need to consider the possibility of assassins coming for him. In the end, however, he concluded that his decision was not too bad. While taking more careful steps and annihilating them would have made him safer, his heart would not have been satisfied with spilling their blood. Who knew, perhaps a demon heart would have been born from such an action, and he would have suffered a qi deviation and hit a bottleneck he couldn't break.

However, while he accepted his decision wasn't bad, it wasn't good either. In an effort to make a choice he wouldn't regret, he had thrown himself and thirty women into more danger. The plan had been to drop them off on some random island, but that was now impossible. If thirty women suddenly appeared on an island, rumors would spread fast. It would only be a matter of time before cultivators from the Mirror Tide Empire captured them, and then they would be used as bait for him. His initial decision to save a crying girl the moment he entered the Wild Tide Region had now spiraled uncontrollably, to the point that he couldn't think of the best way to handle the women. He couldn't just leave them, but he didn't want to bring them along either.

While it was harsh, Liu Xing began to think of them as burdens, and he was afraid he would resent them for it.

Liu Xing inhaled deeply and reined in his emotions. He activated the Eye of Lightning technique, ordered the gun to absorb it, and then reabsorbed it into his body before activating it again, creating a light the size of a grain of rice floating in front of him.

He grimaced as an additional field of vision fought for his brain's attention, but with another deep breath, he centered his mind and managed the headache. Then, he ordered the fifth Eye of Lightning to float higher and higher. At this point, his five Eyes of Lightning had created a pyramid formation, and he planned to increase their number until he had no blind spots.

"I need a way to train my mental fortitude," he muttered. The more he advanced, the stronger he got, including his mental fortitude. But just as there were methods to train the body and control qi, there had to be methods to train his mental capabilities. He was sure methods like that were available in the Outer Library, and he decided to check for some later, after he finished his missions, got more treasures, and finished this race.

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The turtle statue soared through the air as Liu Xing reflected on his actions and trained his mental fortitude by controlling five Eyes of Lightning, all while absorbing the qi he had accumulated inside the Ethereal Pearl and trying to cultivate normally. It had been a long time since he had simply absorbed the ambient qi around him, processed it, and sent it to his consciousness. The last time he had cultivated normally after getting his gun, the experience had been relaxing, but right now, he felt as if absorbing ambient qi was quite difficult.

However, this was normal. After all, it was an incredible feat that he could cultivate at all, considering how much his brain was juggling at once. However, he knew his mental state was also one reason why cultivation was difficult. To put it bluntly, he was filled with worry and anxiety.

The mission Elder Zhang Zhenking had given him was time-sensitive. What if he failed to retrieve the item on time and couldn't get back to the sect because he was afraid an elder would kill him? The mark inside his consciousness—that foul darkness creature—was now undisturbed because he could not let go of his gun since he needed it to stay invisible. What about Han Jiulao? He had vowed to kill him; would he suddenly pop up and attack him, Fang Ruxue, Su Nian, and the others? What if a mist appeared in front of him and the Bewitching Princess suddenly emerged? What if the Mirror Tide Empire decided to hunt him? What if the Nether Lotus Sect also came at him? And so on and so forth.

Worry began to fill his heart until he felt his lungs shrivel. But before his focus shattered and the turtle statue fell from the sky, he recognized the spiraling thoughts and tried to rein in his emotions. It was hard; his stomach felt like a raging sea shaken by a storm. The turtle statue began to shake slightly, like a plane entering turbulence, and he almost thought he needed to land to regain his calm when he suddenly heard a whimper.

He instantly snapped his invisible head back. While he couldn't see a thing, he knew the women were huddled in the center of the turtle's shell. He heard the rustle of clothes and limbs, a panicked voice, and then a soothing one, like a mother trying to comfort a child having a nightmare. In that moment, he decided to dispel the invisibility, revealing the source of the whimper. It was Su Nian.

As the invisibility receded, Fang Ruxue and the others breathed a collective sigh of relief. They must have been tense the whole journey. Being invisible was disorienting, especially while flying at high speed. He knew several of them had already thrown up.

They were, as he expected, huddled in the center of the turtle shell, hands linked, as if trying to make sure everyone was there. Su Nian, her mother, and her sister were in the center of the group, hugged by almost everyone. Su Nian was lying on her mother's lap, face buried in her stomach, whimpering like a small child while her mother patted her back. She was fast asleep and whimpering from a nightmare.

Liu Xing moved closer to the group and said, "She's having a nightmare. Would it be better to wake her up?"

The mother lowered her head to him as if paying respect. But then her eyes returned to her daughter, and she began to trace a circular pattern on her back. "My youngest daughter is having a nightmare. It is indeed wise to wake her up, but she is tired, and there's another way to make the nightmare go away." She looked at Liu Xing and flashed him a smile. It was bright yet gentle, like morning sunlight warming the air and making the world a little more pleasant. "I'm sorry in advance, I'm not very good, but my daughters love it when I sing. It can chase away any nightmare."

She cleared her throat and began to sing.

"Little moon, don't cry,

The clouds will sing you by.

Fireflies dance, so small and bright,

They'll guard your dreams all night."

Her voice was soft and gentle, like a cool breeze on a hot summer day. When she said she wasn't very good, she lied. Her voice was so kind and gentle that it touched even Liu Xing. Although his anxiety and fear lingered, her voice had successfully soothed him.

Liu Xing closed his eyes, enjoying her voice and her song. As his ears catched the pleasant song, the shaking of his turtle began to recede until, a few minutes later, the statue was flying across the sky with a movement so smooth it was as if it wasn't moving at all. At one point, Fang Ruxue asked him for a flute, which he fished out from his spatial bag and gave to her. From there, a soft melody accompanied the song, and the wary faces of the women began to melt away, replaced with soft and content expressions. Some of them even fell asleep and began snoring, which elicited a few chuckles from him. At this point, he realized that while his worry was justified, he was not the only one experiencing it. All the people here had their own share of fear and worry. When he realized it, his heart felt a little lighter. Knowing he was not alone reassured him.

The moon accompanied them as they sailed across the night sky, and when Su Nian stopped whimpering, an interesting idea came to him.

One of his worries was about the group of women before him. They were indeed burdens, and it was not an exaggeration to say they were currently his most glaring weakness. Since his original plan to drop them on a random island could not be done, he needed another way to resolve the situation. The problem stemmed from their need for his protection. And so, he thought, what if they became strong enough to protect themselves?

Coincidentally, this also aligned with their goal. While they had wanted to be dropped off in the Mirror Tide Empire, the reason they wanted to be there was so they could cultivate and become strong.

Strength.

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