Liu Xing summoned his shield, kicked it, and punched the abomination's chest. When his balled fist landed, he felt the same sensation of hitting a wall with bare knuckles, but this time, the punch made the abomination take two steps back and out of the barrier.

Liu Xing punched again and again, forcing it to take several steps away from the barrier and the gate. The abomination howled and swung its two hands. It was fast, but not too quick. With Lightning Cloak, he could track the attack, and using his shield, he maneuvered around it.

When he reached its back, he activated his lightning blade and swung it like a whip at its neck, trying to decapitate it from behind. But when his lightning blade hit its neck, once again, he felt like he was attacking a steel wall. If he pushed the lightning blade any harder, he knew it would break.

The abomination turned its body and swung its arm toward Liu Xing. Liu Xing jumped into the sky. In the air, he looked down and aimed his gun. He activated his Exploding Fist, and the gun absorbed it. He then fired six exploding bullets at his enemy. When they hit the abomination's face, six explosions occurred simultaneously, leaving its face smoking.

It roared, dispersing the smoke, and Liu Xing saw that the abomination's face remained unchanged. Its two eyes still looked crazed, the five human heads glued to its forehead didn't even budge, and it began to growl like a wild dog.

Seeing this and processing their brief exchange, Liu Xing realized he couldn't win this fight, but as long as he was careful, he couldn't lose it either.

The elder had said this abomination was as strong as a Core Splitting cultivator with five cores, but it seemed the elder was wrong. Its power and durability might be at that level, but its speed and intelligence were not.

A cultivator usually has balance: their amount of qi, quality of qi, control of qi, power, and speed are all above a certain threshold when advancing to the next realm. That's why someone with a lower realm usually can't win against those with a higher realm. They're outclassed in every aspect.

But this abomination wasn't balanced. It had strong power, evident when it successfully broke through the elder's barrier, but it also couldn't catch three Core Splitting realm cultivators who ran away, which meant it was slow.

The abomination whipped its long hand toward him. Seeing this, Liu Xing summoned his shield and dodged to the side. Its ribbon-like ears moved like cobras at him, faster than its arms, but not impossible to dodge.

Liu Xing kicked his shield to maneuver, then lunged toward the abomination. He activated his Lightning Palm Technique, this time using it as intended, and hit its torso with his palm. When the attack connected, its growl deepened, but there was no hole or even a scorch mark on it. Its fur wasn't even singed.

Liu Xing rotated his body and kicked the torso with both feet. His feet, coated with stable qi, successfully made it take two steps back while also launching Liu Xing several meters backward.

He rotated his body in the air and then planted his feet on the ground. His feet created a trail, and he stopped dozens of meters from the abomination right on top of a small hill.

The abomination came at him on all fours, jaws wide open, revealing large, sharp teeth and a black, hand-shaped tongue.

Liu Xing decided to fill his gun with bullets converted from Exploding Fist, and he pulled the trigger repeatedly. The bullets hit its face, creating smoke, but while it made it unbalanced for a moment, they didn't really work. When the abomination tried to eat him, Liu Xing moved to the side, filled his gun with bullets converted from Lightning Palm Technique, and fired several lightning bullets. The bullets hit its side, and when they connected, arcs of electricity surrounded it. Its movement stopped, and it let out a pitiful sound, like a dog that had been kicked. But as soon as the arcs of electricity surrounded it, they soon dispersed, and the abomination turned its body and lunged at him.

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At this point, he realized that this fight was more or less equal. Liu Xing was fast; the abomination couldn't land an attack, but his attacks didn't work either.

But a tiny bit of confidence began to surge in his heart. After all, while none of his attacks worked, he had many opportunities to probe and poke the abomination, trying to find its weak spot. This abomination wasn't a true being with cultivation at Core Splitting fifth cores; it felt unbalanced, and he hoped that this imbalance meant it had at least one weakness.

He also hadn't unleashed attacks from his Thunderstrike Gauntlets, which were his trump card. He would wait until he found a weak spot to unleash them, possibly to defeat it.

***

Yang Liangyu rushed toward the clan gate. There were no people around, which meant all the clan members were either fighting or in the shelter. She was weak and needed to be in the shelter, and she had been there earlier, but when she heard that her brother had finally arrived, she couldn't help but sneak out.

She ran as fast as possible and soon found herself near the gate. The gate was now closed, and most people were standing atop the wall, observing something with wide eyes, as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

She spotted her brother on top of the wall and leaped toward him as hard as she could.

"Brother!"

As she shouted, her brother, as well as other clan members, even Elder Yang Zhaoyan, turned their heads toward her. Some of them lowered their heads and bowed, but she ignored them. Instead, she focused on her brother. He was sitting on top of the wall, a servant tending to him. When he saw her, his eyes widened, and a small smile bloomed on his face.

She landed beside him. "Are you all right, brother? Do you have any injuries? Have you already eaten a Restoration Pill?"

"Yes, I'm alright. I have some injuries, but I've also eaten a Restoration Pill." Then, her brother hugged her, and she hugged him back.

As they embraced, Yang Liangyu's emotions burst forth, and tears began to fall from her eyes. Yesterday, everything had still been all right. Her father, while not as strong as last year, could still eat and laugh heartily. Her older brother still trained and learned diligently to become the next emperor, and her younger brother, while still bitter because he failed the Purple Moon Sect entrance exam, still gave her a smile.

Yang Liangyu was a sheltered girl; she knew it. While her father always said that her fate was her own, she knew that someday she would be married off for the benefit of the empire and to strengthen bonds with their allies. She had already accepted this fate, and to make up for it, she tried to live happily every day. It's just that trying to make every day happy had blinded her to the darkness beneath the castle roof.

Just this morning, when she saw her brother plunge his hand into their father's chest and rip out his still-beating heart, his face contorted with rage and madness, the veil that had always blinded her finally lifted. She suddenly realized how restless, vengeful, and angry her brother was, how treacherous the clan and the nobles who always smiled and praised her father were, and how naive and weak her father had become. Everything was already crashing down, and she desperately wished for all of this to be just a nightmare.

"Don't cry, little sister. Your brother is here." Yang Jinyan hugged her tightly, trying to make her stop crying, but she couldn't stop. She was glad her brother was alive, but everything else was not alright.

Her brother stroked her back, and she felt a kind of warmth begin spreading through her body, then her heart. Everything was bad today, but it didn't mean it would be this bad forever.

"Granny is dead," Yang Liangyu said.

"Is that so?" Her brother's voice sounded weak. "Many people died today. Our uncles, aunts, senior sisters and brothers, our cousins and friends, they also died."

Her brother whispered, "And it's all my fault," so low that she almost thought she had imagined it. Her heart began to ache more, but her brother hugged her more tightly.

"But it's all right, I will right all the wrongs that happened. I will kill Lihuo and Wei Yi and kill every abomination that ravages our empire. While I can't promise tomorrow will be better, I promise that later, every bad thing that happened today will be over."

When she heard his intent to kill her younger brother, a pang of sadness stabbed her heart, but to be honest, she too felt a grudge toward her younger brother. That kid had lived happily under a prospering empire. Sure, the Twelve Sun Empire wasn't a giant empire. Their empire was tiny, only having around twenty provinces, and the only reason they had Earth-lower tier resources was merely luck. But nonetheless, it was a nice and kind empire, and instead of enjoying and making the empire more prosperous, her younger brother had become a fool who worked with a demonic cultivator and tried to become stronger in the worst possible way. That kid needed to be punished, and the most fitting punishment for him was death.