His face remained calm, but inside, he seethed with rage, like a volcano about to erupt. Fang Ruxue was inside the house, right behind him, peeking out a window. He could no longer see her face, yet its image was branded into his mind. Her cheeks were red and swollen from handprints, almost making her slender face unrecognizable and ttreaks of blood stained her chin. He remembered using his Eye of Lightning to see that several of her teeth had been knocked out.

Liu Xing's gaze shifted among the five enemies before her as she tried to determine who had slapped her. It would have been easy to see, if he had not been distracted. As he had told Fang Ruxue, the Qing clan had divided their forces into multiple teams. Three teams came straight for the place where Qing Lian and Qing Yuan lived. They weren't too tough, but fighting them had distracted him, resulting in Fang Ruxue's injury. He was angry, not just at the cultivators huddled together for reassurance, but at himself as well. Had he not been so focused on how to handle those attacking Qing Yuan, he could have prevented Fang Ruxue from being harmed. He could not imagine what would have happened if her attacker had shown no restraint and killed her on the spot.

"Who slapped her?" Liu Xing asked, his eyes narrowed and his voice laced with qi.

The man in front, who wore a permanent smile, replied, "It's not important who slapped her. What's important is, who are you? How dare you stand before us?"

Liu Xing cycled his qi faster, flaring it out. Though it was his normal qi, as a Core Splitting realm cultivator with two cores, it was enough to convey how pissed he was. "I ask you once again, who slapped her?"

"And as I said, it's not important," the man lowered his stance, and the white sword glinting under the sun began to be shrouded by orange fire. "The important thing is that you dare to stand in front of us. We know you're slightly stronger than us, but you're outnumbered. With me, a cultivator at the sixth stage of the Lock Opening realm, and my underlings at the fifth stage, you'll be dead soon."

Liu Xing cycled his qi further, doubling its circulation speed as he activated his Lightning Cloak Technique. He felt a Pull from his gun in a faraway place, but he instantly hardened his will and activated the technique without it. Arcs of electricity surrounded him, some lashing out and burning blades of grass. With his gun occupied, the Lightning Cloak felt a bit lukewarm. However, the technique was second nature to him; it was no exaggeration to say he had mastered it.

Activating the technique without his gun was a new experience. It seemed that the stronger he became, the more flexibly he could utilize the gun's abilities. If he could turn invisible without pointing his weapon at a specific place or person, then it made sense that he could resist the pull of his gun.

Liu Xing spoke. "I will repeat this for the last time. Who slapped Fang Ruxue? If you won't say, then I will punish all of you."

The biggest man snorted at him. "You're courting death!"

"No," he shook his head, his Lightning Cloak flaring as his eyes sharpened. "You are the ones courting death."

At his words, all of them took a stance. The big man pointed his sword toward him. It glowed blue and vibrated, creating a hum similar to an electric razor. To the fire swordsman's other side, a slender man with a feminine face made his sword glow with purple fire. Behind him, a man with long hair and a fierce expression pushed qi into his sword, causing it to split into two blades that crackled with yellow electricity. The last man, positioned behind the others, took a simple yet elegant stance. His blade had no outward effect, but Liu Xing could feel the qi that coated it.

"Fine then," Liu Xing continued, "I've decided that all of you are guilty of hurting her."

"Big words for a dead man!" the man with the permanent smile and fire sword shouted. "Attack!"

With a war cry, the burly man with the humming sword lunged, the ground cracking beneath him as he shot forward like a cannonball. At the same time, the man with the sword coated in purple fire also lunged from the right. His speed was comparable to the big man's, though he moved like a graceful arrow. The smiling man sliced his sword downward, sending a crescent of fire straight toward him.

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Seeing the three attacks, Liu Xing coated his right palm with his Lightning Palm Technique, lowered his stance, and moved toward the crescent of fire. The attack was heading straight for him, and with Fang Ruxue behind him, he could not simply dodge. He needed to destroy it.

In an instant, he was in front of the fiery crescent. He cocked his hand back and struck the attack with his Lightning Palm.

When his palm met the fire, the attack instantly disintegrated into hundreds of fragments. He could see the surprise on the face of the man who had launched it, though his smile did not falter. The big man and the slender man realized he had already moved from his initial position and tried to turn to attack him from behind.

The fire attack had looked menacing, but it was soft. Likewise, the men's movements behind him were swift, yet they were slow compared to him. It was clear these men were not the Qing clan's finest. The three teams that had attacked him and Qing Yuan and Qing Lian were stronger, faster, and more resilient.

"My turn," Liu Xing said, then he jumped toward the man with the permanent smile and fire sword. He arrived right in front of him. The man swung his fire sword frantically, his eyes wide with surprise. Liu Xing crouched, and the flaming blade whistled over his head. As it passed, he aimed a palm strike toward the man's chin. The Lightning Palm Technique he held vanished, not because his opponent had a trick, but because he dismissed it. That attack was potentially fatal, and Liu Xing still had business to settle with them. He hit his opponent squarely on the jaw, sending the man flying into the air.

"Captain!"

To Liu Xing's side, he saw the man with two swords lunging at him. The air whistled as his blades, coated in yellow electricity, crackled. Liu Xing jumped high into the air, following the captain and soon overtaking him and seeing teeth, blood, and saliva trailed from the man's mouth.

Liu Xing coated his arm with qi, making sure it would not be absorbed by his Thunderstrike Gauntlets, and slapped the man hard in mid-air. The sound was like a thunderclap. The man was thrown aside like a missile, hitting a tree so hard that it snapped in the middle.

"That's one," Liu Xing said. "Ninety-nine remaining."

"Die, you bastard!" the big man shouted, letting out a slash that sent a blue aura shooting toward him like a hundred tiny daggers.

Liu Xing instinctively wanted to summon his shield, but since that would dismiss his stone turtle—which, like his gun, was also busy—he fought the instinct. He activated his Lightning Palm technique and morphed it into a lightning blade instead. Then, he swung it to deflect the attacks, creating a cacophony like breaking glass. When he landed, he shot toward the big man, dodged his swing, and slapped him with his left hand so hard that he was thrown into the air.

"Another one," Liu Xing said as he turned. The man with the dual swords flinched when he realized he was the next target.

Liu Xing launched himself toward him. He appeared right before the man. His target tried to slash him, but Liu Xing swung his lightning blade, cutting through the swords and breaking them. As the man's eyes widened, Liu Xing moved to his side and slapped him as hard as he could, sending him soaring into the sky. Without a pause, he moved toward the calmest man, whose plain sword was the most dangerous. As Liu Xing appeared before him, the man shouted a war cry and swung his sword diagonally. Liu Xing deflected it with his lightning blade and felt the weight behind the blow. His opponent's sword was the sharpest and heaviest, but it was no match for him. Liu Xing twisted his body and launched a kick at his face. A loud thud reverberated as the kick connected, and the man was thrown aside. A kick did not count, though, so while he was flying through the air, Liu Xing kicked off the ground to catch up and slapped him with a downward swing, smashing him into the ground.

At that moment, the slender man with the purple-flamed sword appeared behind him and slashed down, attempting to slice open his back. He must have thought he could launch a sneak attack, but Liu Xing dodged, repositioned himself, cut the sword with his lightning blade, and slapped him across the face. The man was thrown sideways. He was not very durable; the slap sent several of his teeth flying.

A relentless beating commenced in front of the little house. Liu Xing's opponents had no chance. They were thrown aside by slaps again and again. Sometimes they crashed into a tree, destroying it. Sometimes they crashed into a bush. Several times, they were knocked into the river. When all their swords were destroyed, their faces twisted in fear, and they tried to escape, but Liu Xing did not let them. He caught them and slapped them. Sometimes he sent them soaring with a single blow; other times, he slapped their cheeks repeatedly before launching them into the air to deal with others who were trying to flee.

The beating lasted for ten straight minutes. Afterward, Liu Xing deactivated his technique and dusted his hands. The five Qing clan men were piled on top of each other in front of him. Each of their faces was red and swollen beyond belief, as if they had been stung by hundreds of bees.

Liu Xing inhaled deeply and nodded.

"That felt refreshing."

Now, he just needed to deal with the repercussions of beating these guys.

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