As if to answer Liu Xing's questions, Fat Lin's rock suddenly emerged from the river and floated higher and higher. The water on top of the inverted pyramid fell from its sides, creating a temporary waterfall. Soon after, the inverted pyramid floated several meters above the surface of the water. As it floated in the air, Liu Xing realized how big the pyramid was.
The pyramid then began to segment, multiple lines appearing as if the pyramid was slashed horizontally several times with a long sword. Then, each segment started rotating clockwise, making it look like a giant spin top. But there was one segment that wasn't spinning, and it opened itself, revealing a giant yellow eye bigger than Liu Xing.
That yellow eye observed Liu Xing silently, then narrowed. Suddenly, it transformed into a yellow grotesque mouth, with hundreds of black tongues, thousands of razor-sharp teeth, and in the roof of its mouth, thousands of little yellow eyes. Each eye looked like it hated Liu Xing from the depths of its heart.
Seeing this giant inverted pyramid with a bizarre mouth and eyes, Liu Xing's heart started beating faster. Fat Lin's rock was a spirit beast! Liu Xing tried to sense the qi of this spirit beast, trying to gauge its power, but when he sensed nothing, he felt his heart trying to leap from his chest. He couldn't feel a thing! It was as if this spirit beast had no qi, which was absolutely wrong.
The inverted pyramid began to scream. Its scream was horrible, like thousands of wailing children, and a shockwave spread in every direction.
Then, a yellow ball of light formed in front of its mouth. Seeing this, Liu Xing activated his Lightning Cloak and jumped. A yellow laser that exploded when it touched the ground obliterated the spot where Liu Xing had stood.
Liu Xing landed on top of a big boulder several meters away. He observed the newly created hole. It was deep and wide, and it glowed with a red hue like the ground had melted to become lava. Seeing this, Liu Xing concluded that its attack was strong, but not too strong. It at least confirmed for Liu Xing that this spirit beast's cultivation was not so high he couldn't sense its qi. More likely, it had a mechanism to hide its qi.
Liu Xing licked his lips. It was obvious this spirit beast was angry because he took the Ethereal Pearl. To think a thing with the name Fat Lin's rock would be a spirit beast. In hindsight, it was really obvious.
Liu Xing had two options here. Fight or flee. The easiest choice was to flee. After all, Liu Xing already had the Ethereal Pearl. But it wasn't wise. This spirit beast would follow him, and it would rampage, endangering Second Gray Cloud City. Moreover, this slumbering spirit beast had woken up because of him, so he needed to be responsible and put it to sleep again.
Liu Xing began to smile, his heart racing. He wasn't a fighting junkie, but he wanted to test how strong he was now, especially with his new shield and Thunderstrike Gauntlets.
"All right," Liu Xing nodded. His heart started beating faster and faster. "Let's dance!"
With his Lightning Cloak active, Liu Xing kicked the boulder as hard as possible, making it explode into smithereens. Liu Xing launched himself like lightning striking from a dark cloud, his right hand gleaming with a lightning blade.
In the air, Liu Xing extended the blade and slashed vertically, trying to split the spinning inverted pyramid in two. When his blade was only several meters from touching it, it suddenly bent. Instead of a straight blade that would cut the spirit beast, it bent around it, as if the lightning blade didn't want to touch it.
The spinning pyramid created a yellow ball in front of its mouth the size of a barrel. Thousands of black tongues held it like tiny babies hands holding a burning sun. And then, with a mighty push, that yellow ball flew like an arrow toward the flying Liu Xing.
Liu Xing retracted his lightning blade and swung his hand, splitting the ball in two. Liu Xing knew that the ball would explode, so he rotated his body, summoned his shield, and jumped as hard as he could. He flew straight like a rocket to the sky when the ball really exploded. That explosion created a shockwave that made the river churn, and yellow light made the bending trees and toppling boulders glow yellow.
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Gravity pulled Liu Xing downward, and seeing that strong attack, Liu Xing's mind suddenly reminded him about Xia Hongyi and Xia Shizi. He didn't know what their intention was, but Liu Xing didn't want them dead and becoming collateral damage.
His eyes scanned everything, and he finally saw Xia Shizi running frantically with wide eyes, shouldering Xia Hongyi, whose eyes were open so wide they might pop. They must have been surprised, and Liu Xing was thankful they didn't die in that attack.
The inverted and spinning spirit beast flew toward him like a spaceship, and Liu Xing licked his lips.
"Since my lightning blade isn't working on you, how about this?"
Liu Xing pointed his gun toward the spirit beast. He infused the bullets with Exploding Fist and fired six bullets rapidly. These six bullets flew so fast they looked like they were flying together.
Seeing the bullets, the spirit beast shouted like thousands of hungry pigs, and it opened its grotesque mouth. Thousands of black tongues stretched outside like tree branches, creating a large shield to defend itself.
When the six bullets hit this newly created shield, six explosions occurred at the same time, creating six holes in that shield. It screamed again, yellow eyes located inside the roof of its mouth staring at him with hatred.
Liu Xing summoned his shield and launched himself from it. He flew through the hole he created and appeared in front of its mouth. From this close, Liu Xing realized the mouth was big, like the mouth of a wide cave.
Liu Xing aimed his gun toward the mouth and shot six bullets infused with Exploding Bullets. Before the bullets hit, he jumped toward the sky, eyes looking down, and saw the mouth explode. Yellow blood and remains of black tongues and yellow eyes flew everywhere, splashing in the river surface and painting the nearby boulders and trees yellow.
Liu Xing glanced at his gun, focusing on the six green strips on its side. When he didn't see a faint glow around the strips, Liu Xing knew that the fight was not over.
Ignoring the wailing of the spirit beast, Liu Xing shot six times again, this time infused with normal Lightning Palm. He aimed for the section on top of the spirit beast, where people thought it was an arena. When his six bullets were only several meters from the spirit beast, Liu Xing sharpened his eyes to see what would happen and saw that his bullets suddenly traveled alongside the surface of the spirit beast before shooting to the back of the spirit beast, as if there was a spatial barrier that made every attack bend around it.
Seeing this, Liu Xing understood that its defense mechanism was kind of strong. Liu Xing believed only attacks with great power could pierce it, but this spirit beast was not undefeatable. After all, while its body was protected, its mouth full of tongues and eyes was not. He suspected it didn't protect its mouth because it was the primary way to attack.
"If that's all the tricks it has, then the winner of this fight is already decided," Liu Xing smiled a ferocious smile.
The spirit beast, seeing Liu Xing smile, screamed again, but Liu Xing saw a hint of fear in its thousand eyes.
Liu Xing kicked his shield and moved like true lightning.
***
Xia Hongyi stood atop the highest branch in a tree, trying to see the fight that occurred, and his uncle stood beside him. His face was aloof as ever, but on this rare occasion, even he could see the fear in his uncle's eyes.
He looked into the distance, where a giant spin top was wailing and screaming and shooting condensed light from its mouth, sweeping everything around it. Trees, ground, river, everything was destroyed and flying and churning away like a deadly hurricane pulling all things toward it.
Seeing this, Xia Hongyi felt profound fear in his heart. His heart beat so fast that he felt his chest would explode, giant beads of sweat drenched his back, making him feel sick, like he had a fever. Even his teeth were chattering, expressing the true fear that he felt.
Around the giant spin top, blue lightning moved, as if to create a lightning prison. The sounds of explosions didn't stop even for a bit, like the rumbling of angry dark clouds, spewing thousands of thunderbolts. From afar, it looked like a hurricane fighting angry lightning. The spin top tried to ram itself into the lightning, shooting condensed light at it, even using its branch-like appendages that came out of its mouth to create a net to trap its opponent. Everything was ignored by that cultivator, Liu Xing. He moved so, so fast that the condensed light didn't even touch his afterimage, and the branch-like appendages were slashed by a long lightning blade that cut everything like tofu.