For a moment, Liu Xing saw surprise in its eyes. When the lightning bullet hit, an arc of electricity danced around it, zapping it, making it freeze as if its nerves were fried.

It crashed into Liu Xing like a giant hammer. He felt his brain tremble, the world blurring for a second, but he soon recovered. When they landed on the grass, they rolled several times before Liu Xing found an opening and jumped away, landing several meters from the mantis, fully invisible.

His eyes focused on the mantis still in shock, arcs of electricity dancing around it, its feet, body, and sickles twitching, but it was still alive.

Liu Xing jumped to a high branch and assumed his position, his mind reeling from what had just happened.

"Holy shit, I almost died," he muttered.

While this wasn't the first time he had nearly died, it was one of the most terrifying. If that lightning bullet had hit one second later, its sickles would have connected before it stopped due to the shock.

Despite the near-death experience, his heart thumped aggressively, and a smile formed on his face. He had discovered another ability of his gun: Lightning Bullet! Though not stronger than a normal bullet, it had the ability to stun enemies like his Lightning Palm technique.

The bullet was probably his Lightning Palm converted by his gun.

A whole new world opened before his eyes. If this gun could convert a technique to a bullet, Liu Xing could change his fighting style entirely. He wondered how other techniques would function if converted to bullets. Could he shoot healing bullets? Curse bullets? The possibilities seemed endless!

The mantis below started to rise, and Liu Xing berated himself. He shouldn't have been distracted and used the moment it was frozen to land a killing blow. Still, Liu Xing took a deep breath and calmed himself. The situation is better now. He was fully invisible and had a bullet that could stun his opponent.

The creature moved its head left and right, looking confused. It seemed unable to see or sense Liu Xing's presence.

Liu Xing took aim, finger on the trigger, searching for the perfect moment to shoot.

This spirit beast's body was tough; his bullets wouldn't penetrate. But Liu Xing was sure there had to be a weakness.

"Should I aim for the eyes?" he wondered. The mantis had large eyes.

For a moment, Liu Xing thought its eyes might be just as tough, but finding no other weakness, he pointed his gun at its right eye.

The mantis stood still, its antennae twitching madly, its feet ready to spring at any moment. It didn't know where Liu Xing right now, but it knew he would attack.

Liu Xing adjusted his aim, and then pulled the trigger.

The almost transparent bullet struck like a lightning bolt, dead in the center of the yellow eye. The eye exploded, spraying blood onto the grass, and it screeched with antennae twitching wildly.

Seeing an opportunity, Liu Xing pulled the trigger again and shot the other eye. Another screech echoed as the mantis suddenly turned its body toward Liu Xing's direction. Its legs twitched, and Liu Xing realized his position was compromised.

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The mantis leaped straight at him, its yellow eyes now destroyed, blood and yellow fluid oozing from the wounds. Liu Xing steadied his heart and pulled the trigger again. The bullet flew straight to its remaining right eye, piercing the brain, and the head exploded.

Liu Xing crouched as the mantis passed above him, its body twitching like nerves waiting for signals that would never come. The mantis crashed to the ground beside a tall tree, its blood spilling near tree roots.

Liu Xing inhaled deeply, then a large smile bloomed on his face, and he jumped around like a little kid. He had won! Although he had almost died, his last execution was flawless. His invisibility worked like a charm.

Liu Xing wondered if he had unlocked all the gun's abilities when he felt qi from his gun. The sensation was similar to when he reloaded, but this time his qi wasn't being absorbed by the gun.

Liu Xing checked his gun, seeing the gray stripes on the side of the gun began to light up slowly, like a phone battery being charged. The first stripe glowed white, then the second, then the third, and finally the fourth.

Liu Xing raised his eyebrow. "Is it automatically recharging?"

He had a conjecture, so he jumped from his branch to the side of the mantis carcass.

He crouched beside it and tried to feel the beast's core. Not all spiritual beasts had beast cores, but strong ones did, and this mantis was certainly strong. However, no matter how hard Liu Xing tried, he couldn't sense the beast core.

Curious, he tried to pry open the remaining head of the mantis. But even after his hands were bloody, Liu Xing didn't find any beast core.

Glancing at the gun, Liu Xing realized it had absorbed the beast core and converted it into bullets. It was a useful ability but also a waste. Sure, the bullets would be powerful, but while Liu Xing couldn't absorb the core directly—since he practiced the Lightning Scripture Cultivation Manual—he could still sell the core and buy cultivation pills or items to cultivate faster.

Jumping from the side carcass onto a high branch, Liu Xing sat cross-legged and thought for a bit.

The gun was strong and powerful, but this ability seemed lacking, and there was a possibility he was missing something.

"Let's see. The gun killed the spirit beast and converted its beast core into four bullets. Is it because that mantis was at the Lock Opening fourth stage?"

Liu Xing pinched his chin, then his eyes widened.

"This gun converts beast cores into qi! Can I absorb these four bullets?"

Liu Xing's heart thumped wildly, anticipation filling him. If this was true, he would have another way to cultivate. Not only could he absorb qi from the air, but he could also hunt spiritual beasts.

If Liu Xing was right, many cultivators used beast cores to cultivate. Their growth was fast, but they struggled to advance to another realm because qi from beast cores was impure. They needed either techniques to purify the qi or pills to cleanse it. Even then, their bottlenecks were harder to overcome.

But this gun was different. Liu Xing had no doubt the bullet contained pure qi, compatible with him!

"Alright, let's test it."

Liu Xing shut his eyes and began to cultivate. But instead of absorbing qi from the air around him, he focused on the black gun in his lap. In his perception, he saw four glowing qi inside the gun. Liu Xing touched this light with his perception, and like lightning finding a lightning rod, it jumped into him.

Suddenly, the qi spread throughout his body, making him stronger, sturdier.

Liu Xing calmed his excitement and tried to absorb the qi into his consciousness. He focused all of the qi into a lock in his ball of lightning.

In this world, cultivators needed to open the locks sealing their cultivation. That's why the first realm was called the Lock Opening realm.

Liu Xing jammed the qi into the lock, and the qi happily obliged. This sixth lock was nearly empty, but after the qi settled, it was at ten percent capacity.

Liu Xing opened his eyes, exhaled deeply, and enjoyed the wind caressing his face.

"This is amazing," he whispered.

If his calculations were correct, he only needed nine spirit beasts to fully open the sixth lock and advance to the Lock Opening sixth realm. Usually, people with average talent needed one or two years to open a lock. This included Liu Xing, but now he was different. He could advance faster. What he needed to do was hunt more spirit beasts!

"Let's go hunt!" shouted Liu Xing.

He then jumped, his body, mind, and spirit eager to fight another spirit beast and get closer to the next realm!