Liu Xing disabled his invisibility and glanced down at his clothes. His newly acquired blue robe now showed a line of blood on its left side, and he sighed. This robe lacked an auto-cleaning system, which meant he would need to wash it later. He walked slowly toward the girl, observing her from a distance. He suspected something significant had happened. Was her family part of a merchant group ambushed by bandits? Was she a cultivator from a nearby clan? Or perhaps a sect? A noble?

As he drew closer, the girl gently laid the old woman onto her back and began speaking to her.

"Granny, please wake up. The bad guys are dead." She shook the woman's body gently. Nearby flowers seemed to tremble as if shaking their heads in pity.

Liu Xing arrived behind her. From this close, he understood the old woman's condition. Her eyes were closed and her chest still. He knew if he put his ear to her chest, he wouldn't hear a heartbeat. He looked at the young woman, tears now trickling down her red cheeks as she continued to shake the old woman and call out her name. He knew the old woman was dead, and he realized the young woman did too, despite her desperate pleas.

While she cried, Liu Xing sat down, turning his body to scan their surroundings, watchful for any potential pursuers as well giving her some privacy.

She cried for about ten minutes before finally stopping.

"Young mister, what is your name?" the woman asked Liu Xing, her voice hoarse. He heard the rustle of fabric and imagined her wiping tears or straightening her clothes and hair.

"My name is Liu Xing. I'm a disciple from the Purple Moon Sect."

"Truly?" He heard a sharp intake of breath from behind him but chose not to turn around. "More importantly, I'm very grateful to you. If you hadn't come, I don't know what they would have done to me. So thank you, thank you. I just wish you had come sooner. That way, my grandma might not have died."

"There was nothing I could do about that," Liu Xing replied. "I was sleeping in a cave on that cliff and woke when I heard the commotion." At this point, he turned around. He faced a young woman whose eyes were still red from weeping. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "Yes, physically, but my heart is hurting." She looked toward the old woman, lying still, blood pooling on the ground beneath her. "She may not have been my real grandma, but she raised me since I was a child. We've been through a lot, and it pains my heart that in the end, she died in my arms."

Liu Xing nodded. He suspected the young woman's situation was complicated, and while curiosity tugged at him, he decided against prying. He glanced from the old woman to the young one. "Do you want to bury her? I can help."

"That's a good idea. Yes, I want to bury her. But I want to do it myself. Is that all right?"

"If you want to do it yourself, you can."

"Would you stay with me while I bury her?"

Liu Xing considered for a moment, then nodded. "Sure."

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Assuming no special ritual was involved, burying her shouldn't take long. After all, this young woman was a cultivator at the Lock Opening realm's fifth stage; for someone like her, digging a grave would be as easy as scooping jelly.

She nodded, then carefully lifted her grandma into her arms. She asked where the most beautiful place nearby was, prompting him to survey their surroundings.

"There," Liu Xing pointed towards the highest flower-covered hill nearby.

They walked up the flowery hill together and soon reached the peak. There, the young woman began digging into the earth with her bare hands. Liu Xing kept watch, checking their surroundings and letting her grieve through the task.

He realized he had a moment of downtime and considered how best to use it. The first thing that came to mind was gauging his current strength. He was clearly stronger than an ordinary Lock Opening cultivator now, but he didn't know his exact level. Perhaps he was comparable to a Core Splitting cultivator at the peak of their first core, or maybe less. Wei Gang had been a Core Splitting cultivator, but Liu Xing had killed him easily.

As Liu Xing glanced at the distant golden castle, he knew he couldn't accurately measure his strength right now. There was no one to spar with, so he dismissed the thought. Instead, hearing the rhythmic thump-scrape of the young woman's hands digging through dirt, he thought of the woman statue he had used as bait to escape and decided to try summoning it.

He activated the technique, expecting something to materialize before him. Yet, nothing appeared. After several failed attempts, he concluded he had lost the statue. It was probably destroyed.

A pang of guilt struck him. The creator had likely poured their heart into making it, and he had sacrificed it as mere bait. He sighed, accepting the loss. There was nothing to be done. Now, only two statues remain. His trustworthy shield and the turtle.

He activated the technique again, and a turtle the size of a bear materialized before him. Behind him, the rhythmic digging stopped for a moment—she must have noticed the statue—but soon resumed.

Liu Xing directed the qi from the gun toward the turtle as he wondered about its capabilities. His shield had been ordinary before he infused it with potent qi, and he suspected this turtle and the woman statue that had been destroyed might also possess a unique ability.

After receiving the potent qi, the turtle's green eyes began to glow. He looked down; its feet remained firmly on the ground. It couldn't fly.

"Hmm." Liu Xing pinched his chin, mentally commanding the statue to perform various actions such as walk, transform, shoot a laser beam from its mouth and many more. Nothing worked.

He briefly thought the turtle could do nothing, but he quickly dismissed the idea. There was no way this statue was mundane. The turtle's green eyes shone brightly, as if conveying its readiness to act, to obey his command. So, he simply ordered it to do whatever it could without specific instruction. Suddenly, the statue began to shrink. It started slowly, but the rate accelerated until it was small enough to fit in his palm. Seeing this, he bent to pick it up but was surprised by its weight. He was incredibly strong now, capable of shouldering a bus, yet he had to strain just to lift the small turtle from the ground.

Liu Xing set it back down and nodded thoughtfully. The statue was now small but incredibly dense. He could already think of several uses for it.

He willed it to grow large again. It expanded, slowly at first, then accelerating. When it reached the size of a bear, he expected it to stop, but to his surprise, the turtle continued to expand.

When it was large enough for several children to play beneath its belly, he commanded it to halt its growth. Then, he ducked underneath the massive turtle and tried to lift it with both hands. Pushing upward with all his might, his face turning red with effort, he managed to lift the statue's four feet barely off the ground for only a fleeting moment.

Emerging from beneath the turtle, he observed the statue with a grin. This turtle could shrink and grow. When small, it was incredibly dense; when large, it was immensely heavy. While not as versatile as his shield, he could certainly think of several ways to utilize this statue.

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