Infusing his bullets with Exploding Fist, Liu Xing fired six shots directly into the frog's right eye. Instantly, the bullets struck and exploded simultaneously. The frog let out a deafening wail that seemed to shake the world, its tentacles thrashing toward him as if it knew Liu Xing was right in front of its face.
Seeing the approaching tentacles, Liu Xing decided to take a risk. He created six bullets, absorbed the qi, and channeled this pure energy into the gauntlet on his right hand. He repeated the process three times until a white ball of lightning the size of a basketball materialized in front of his palm.
The blue tentacles were now just a few meters from tearing his body. He would die if he did nothing, but instead of dodging, Liu Xing unleashed a palm strike.
Instantly, an explosion of white light erupted, blinding the surroundings. A pillar of lightning, about ten meters in diameter, shot from his hand toward the frog. When it hit the creature's face, the frog's head jerked back, releasing a scream so loud that the world seemed to tremble, like the sound of a thousand frogs being boiled alive. The frog staggered, its massive body teetering as it began to fall. The tentacles that had been attacking Liu Xing changed direction, desperately trying to hold up the giant body to prevent its collapse.
As his attack finished and gravity pulled him toward the lake, Liu Xing caught a glimpse of the frog's face. The right side was gone, as if something massive had taken a bite out of its head. The flesh around the wound sizzled and burned, red blood gushing out, mixed with a slimy pink liquid.
The left side of its face twisted in fury. Its eye, with a distinct sun-like pattern, spun rapidly, resembling a miniature black hole. The frog croaked, and Liu Xing knew it was enraged.
Still, Liu Xing grinned ferociously. Though disappointed that the attack hadn't killed the frog in one strike, he now knew it was effective. A normal attack from the Thunderstrike Gauntlets would consume a third of his qi, but with his gun, the qi expenditure was drastically reduced. The key point was that Liu Xing could fire many similar attacks.
“Bastard!” the frog croaked. “I’ll tear you apart!”
The frog's tentacles writhed around its shoulders, solidifying and merging. Soon, instead of thousands of tentacles, the frog had four blue arms—two on each shoulder. The arms were scrawny, like limbs without bones, just meat, each hand sporting eight fingers. Seeing this, Liu Xing wondered what these hands could do. They looked weak compared to the thousands of tentacles. But then, the four hands began rapidly forming hand seals, with fingers interlocking and palms meeting.
Liu Xing’s heart raced. No way. No way!
There were many ways to activate techniques. The most popular was the qi cycling method, followed by talismans or formations, and more. Hand seals were usually used for complex techniques that the qi cycling method alone couldn't handle, or for activating ancient methods. Liu Xing had never imagined seeing a spirit beast using a technique, let alone hand seals!
The hands stopped moving, each pair of palms pressed together. The frog's eyes spun so fast and its long horn began emitting a red hue.
Instantly, the horn exploded into millions of pink leaves. Liu Xing noticed several red spots and realized they were hearts floating amid the swarm of pink leaves. The horn was gone, replaced by a barren tree atop the frog's head, as if it were dying.
Liu Xing focused on the million pink leaves growing denser, encasing him as he continued to fall. From the outside, it would look like a giant pink ball materializing above the lake.
Liu Xing was still invisible, but the swarm of pink leaves seemed to sense his general position, trying to trap him inside a shrinking prison. The leaves spun faster and faster, and Liu Xing suspected he would be shredded to bits if he didn’t act.
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Liu Xing filled his gun with qi bullets, reabsorbed the energy, and channeled it into his right gauntlet. Summoning the shield and standing on it, he adjusted his stance and unleashed a palm strike. A white light spread from his right hand and a concentrated bolt of lightning, several meters in diameter, shot out from his hand, scorching the pink leaves in front of him and tearing a huge hole in the prison.
Seeing a successful escape route, Liu Xing jumped through the hole and out of the pink prison.
As he successfully escaped, the frog took wide strides, crossing the small lake instantly. Its two upper hands were still connected, but the lower two were free. One of the hands formed a fist and came hurtling toward him.
Seeing this, Liu Xing summoned his shield and jumped. The fist passed beneath him as if he had leaped over a moving blue train. The fist slammed into the shield, then the pink prison, scattering the leaves like agitated wasps.
Rotating in the air, Liu Xing charged his Thunderstrike Gauntlets once more and fired a thousand lightning bolts at the frog’s face. The attack wasn’t concentrated, but when it hit, arcs of electricity danced across its face, causing the frog to croak in pain.
A pink leaf accidentally struck Liu Xing's right cheek. The impact snapped his head to the side, and he spat a mouthful of blood as he began spinning wildly. As the world spun around him, his brain rattled, Liu Xing realized these leaves were incredibly dangerous. Though they flew at the speed of a normal bird, their power was surreal—his cheek felt as if it had been hit by a rocket.
Liu Xing landed on the shore of the lake, his face turned toward the sky. The pink leaves swarmed the sky, searching for him. As they spread wider, a few drifted down, closing in on his position.
He stood up and zigzagged around, dodging the dangerous pink leaves. Liu Xing suspected his normal Lightning Palm would be enough to destroy each leaf, but he also knew that destroying some would likely reveal his position to the frog.
As he moved, Liu Xing tried to think of how to end this fight, and the only solution he could come up with was using his Thunderstrike Gauntlets. Still, seeing the frog still moving even after half its head was destroyed, Liu Xing realized its weakness wasn’t in its head.
While he pondered where to strike, the frog suddenly leaped into the sky. It soared so high that, for a moment, Liu Xing thought it was trying to escape. But soon, the frog began to fall and contorting its body like a giant cannonball and frog crashed into the lake. Water splashed everywhere, waves rippling from the center, and artificial rain began falling from the sky. The frog stood up and snapped its head left and right. When its gaze locked onto Liu Xing's direction, it stopped and croaked.
“There you are!”
The frog must have seen the water soaking Liu Xing's entire body, revealing his position even though he was still invisible.
The frog pointed at him, and the leaves sped toward him like thousands of military drones intent on killing him.
Liu Xing darted left and right as fast as he could. When ten leaves appeared in front of him, Liu Xing used a lightning blade to slash through them. He expected the slashed leaves to fall, but instead, they continued flying toward him, their numbers doubling.
Seeing this, Liu Xing aimed his gun at each leaf and started blasting. He used the normal variant, each bullet creating a hole in the leaves, finally bringing them down.
As he moved left and right, up and down, he fired relentlessly, but with each passing second, more leaves swarmed him. Until, at a certain point, when Liu Xing stood in a clearing in front of the lake, he realized he couldn’t run anymore. The pink leaves floated around him, leaving no gaps to escape.
Gritting his teeth, Liu Xing channeled absorbed qi into his gauntlet and unleashed thousands of lightning bolts, destroying some of the leaves and creating a gap to escape. Liu Xing shot toward the frog, which was swinging its index finger like a conductor orchestrating the leaves.
Liu Xing realized this situation was bad. If he kept dodging, eventually one of the leaves would hit him, and then the rest would swarm him. He aimed his gun at a floating heart nearby, thinking it might be controlling the leaves. He fired, and the bullet pierced the heart, causing it to fall—but nothing happened. The leaves kept coming. Liu Xing was pretty sure that heart was doing something, but he wasn’t sure what.
As he flew toward the frog, he fired several bullets infused with Exploding Fist. Each bullet hit the frog's torso, causing a series of explosions that pushed the creature back. But as the smoke cleared, Liu Xing didn’t see a wound or even a mark on its humanoid torso.