Liu Xing spat the Ethereal Pearl from his mouth into his hand. "Former soldiers of the Twelve Sun Empire, listen to me. My name is Liu Xing. If you understand what I'm saying, put your weapons down. I stand with Prince Yang Jinyan, the rightful heir of the Twelve Sun Empire and enemy of Yang Lihuo and Wei Yi—the duo who transformed you into spirit beasts!"

The chance of them following his command was slim, and he wondered what he'd do if they actually lowered their weapons. After all, they were no longer human, and he doubted they could live normal lives in their current state. Still, if they put their weapons down, they wouldn't be his enemies, and he wouldn't have to kill them.

Their eyes darted left and right, and Liu Xing noticed most of their human hands trembling, muscles flexing, as if they wanted to drop their spears but couldn't. Their eyes were wide with terror, some bloodshot, others glistening with unshed tears. But they didn't lower their spears. One of them, a snail with long eyestalks, began to roar. Its cry was guttural, like a man waking from a nightmare. Green liquid spewed from its mouth. It actually managed to unclench its hand, making the spear clatter to the ground. Then, abruptly, its snail head exploded into a green and yellow mist, as if a bomb had detonated inside.

The rest of the army snapped their heads toward their fallen comrade. Its body slumped to the side. Their hands trembled more violently now, some looking like they wanted to flex their fingers and let go of their spears, willing to make their heads explode, but none succeeded.

Seeing this, Liu Xing inhaled deeply. A calm, deep anger bubbled in his stomach, threatening to explode.

So, Wei Yi actually had control over the people he'd transformed into spirit beasts and had even planted some kind of bomb inside their bodies, ensuring their loyalty.

That Wei Yi was more twisted than Liu Xing had imagined. Transforming people into spirit beasts was bad enough, but to control them and create a mechanism to explode their heads if they rebelled? It was worse than he'd thought.

Wei Yi needed to pay for what he'd done. Liu Xing vowed, right then and there, that he couldn't live under the same sky as such a monster.

"Former soldiers of the Twelve Sun Empire," he shouted again. "I know almost all of you want to put down your weapons, but you can't because of Wei Yi. I understand what you're feeling right now, and I sincerely want to help you all. But know that I can't do that. You're under my enemy's control, and your sheer numbers pose a danger to me and the rest of the Twelve Sun Empire. So, I must tell you this." He inhaled deeply. "I have to kill all of you."

Liu Xing clenched his right hand and gritted his teeth. Unless he knew how to revert them to their human form, killing them was the most logical thing to do. He doubted Elder Yang Zhaoyang knew how to change them back, or even Prince Yang Jinyan and his sect. Hell, he even thought Wei Yi probably couldn't reverse the transformation. The change was too fundamental, and they were under the enemy's thumb.

Some of them growled and shouted as if they were angry, but most looked calm, as if they accepted his decision, their right hands gripping the silver spears tightly. One of the spirit beasts, right in the middle, with a head like a gorilla and milky white eyes, nodded before his face went slack, his eyes lifeless, and the hand holding the spear relaxed.

This change began to spread from him as if a wave of wind had swept through, robbing them of their minds. Their shouts and growls began to cease, their movements stopped entirely, and soon, the thousands of abominations fell silent.

Now, Liu Xing faced an army of spirit beasts with empty eyes, their humanity wiped away, as if they were dolls.

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Then, they began to move. While their footsteps didn't land at the same time, and they soon lost their formation to become a shapeless blob of an army, they still moved as one, showing some cohesion remained.

Liu Xing took a deep breath and put the Ethereal Pearl back into his mouth. His eyes searched for something. He doubted that Wei Yi directly controlled this army, and there was only a small chance that it was Yang Lihuo. He suspected that some other abomination was in charge. Like an abomination with a giant eye for a head.

After searching for about half a minute, eyes darting here and there without finding anything, Liu Xing sighed. It seemed he needed to go with his original plan, which meant decimating this army.

Liu Xing gripped his gun tighter, created a lightning blade in his right hand, surrounded himself with stable qi, and began to send more potent qi into the Ethereal Pearl.

The qi pouring into his consciousness had already run out, and to his surprise, he still needed a little more to advance. So, Liu Xing aimed his gun, infused it with Exploding Fist, and fired repeatedly.

The six bullets flew through the sky, appearing instantly in front of the six spirit beasts at the front. He expected his bullets to hit them in the torso, but a moment before impact, all the front-row abominations struck the ground with their spears, and a wall of earth rose before them. This earthen wall was quite high and thick. But when his bullets hit it, they exploded, leaving six holes in it. Spirit beasts just behind the holes were blown into the sky. One particular abomination had its upper body destroyed, and the qi from it was absorbed by his gun.

Not stopping even for a moment, Liu Xing sent all the potent qi inside the Ethereal Pearl into his right gauntlet and shot a thick pillar of lightning toward the enemies. It hit the earth wall and destroyed it easily. Then, Liu Xing whipped his hand to the side as if he were wielding a giant lightning blade.

When the attack receded, the earth wall they'd erected to shield themselves had crumbled, and a sizable chunk of the army lay dead, but thousands still remained.

Seeing this, Liu Xing thought he couldn't spam the attack from Thunderstrike Gauntlets, afraid his qi would deplete before he dealt with the army. He needed to kill them with his gun so that he could get their qi for cultivation and also use it to attack them.

Nodding to himself, Liu Xing sent stable qi to his feet and shot toward the midst of the army like a blue and black lightning bolt. He moved through the air and instantly appeared right in their midst, surrounded by countless abominations.

Liu Xing slashed with his lightning blade and rotated his body, creating a circle with it. Instantly, the upper bodies of the abominations around him split in two.

Liu Xing then jumped into the sky, aimed his gun, and fired repeatedly. Six explosions bloomed in the middle of the army, and his gun refilled with six bullets. He summoned his shield and used it to jump down. His lightning blade moved like a whip, beheading and slashing opponents like a farmer cutting weeds.

He moved between the abominations, finding the fight surprisingly easy. The enemies, with their lifeless eyes, were like sitting ducks. Their reflexes were so slow that they only began to move their right hands after their heads were already flying or their bodies split in two.

He tore through the army from the inside, using his gun and lightning blade to decimate this broken force. Explosions occurred repeatedly. From the sky, it looked as if black or brown mushrooms bloomed and died over and over. His lightning blade grew longer and longer, splitting several enemies at a time. At one point, his lightning blade was so long that a single slash killed more than two dozen enemies.

As he destroyed this army, his mind focused on killing them as quickly as possible, while one part of his consciousness concentrated on sending qi to advance his cultivation. The seventh red lock slowly filled to the brim. And finally, it was full.

As he stood in the middle of a pool of blood and shot his gun, making six abominations' heads explode simultaneously, he stopped moving and gave his consciousness more attention. He allowed several dozen spirit beasts to circle him and thrust their spears toward him.

The world seemed to slow down. But this time, the sensation was different. Instead of knowing he moved faster than anyone else, it felt like the world was giving him time and holding its breath, as if granting him leeway to advance to the next stage.

For a moment, he felt the qi around him ripple, as if he had control over it. It was a small taste of what he could achieve when he crossed into the Core Splitting realm later.

He inhaled deeply and focused his thoughts on the last lock that bound his cultivation.

"Open," he commanded.