He disabled his invisibility and glanced down at his clothes. His newly acquired blue robe now had a line of blood on its left side, and he sighed. This robe didn't have an auto-cleaning system, which meant he'd need to wash it later.

He walked slowly toward the girl and observed her from afar. He suspected something significant had happened to her. Was her family part of a merchant group and those three men bandits? Was she a cultivator from a nearby clan? Or perhaps from a nearby sect? A noble?

As he approached, the girl gently laid the old woman on her back and began to speak to her.

"Granny, please wake up. The bad guys are dead."

She shook the woman's body, making several flowers move around her as if they were shaking their heads in pity.

Liu Xing soon arrived behind her, and from this close, he knew about the condition of the old woman. Her eyes were closed, her chest wasn't rising and falling, and if he put his ear to her chest, he wouldn't hear a heartbeat.

Liu Xing looked at the young woman. Tears began to fall from her eyes and trickled down her red cheeks as she shook the old woman and called out to her. He knew that this old woman was already dead, and so did this young woman.

As she cried, Liu Xing decided to sit and turn his body, checking his surroundings and preparing for any potential pursuers.

She cried for about ten minutes before finally stopping.

"Young mister, what is your name?" the woman asked Liu Xing with a hoarse voice. He could hear rustling clothes and imagined her wiping tears from her cheeks or straightening her clothes and hair.

"My name is Liu Xing. I'm a disciple from Purple Moon Sect."

He heard a gasp from behind him but decided not to turn around.

"Truly?" she asked. "More importantly, I'm very grateful to you. If you hadn't come, I don't know what they would have done to me. So thank you, thank you. I just wish you had come sooner. That way, my grandma might not have died."

"There was nothing I could do about it. I was sleeping in a cave on that cliff and woke up when I heard some commotion."

At this point, he decided to turn around. He was now face to face with a woman whose eyes were still red from crying. "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "Yes, physically, but my heart is hurting." She looked at the old woman sleeping peacefully for eternity, blood began to pool on the ground. "She may not have been my real grandma, but she raised me since I was a child. We've been through a lot, and it pains my heart that in the end, she died in my arms."

Liu Xing nodded. He suspected that this young woman had a complicated situation, and while he was curious about what had happened, he decided not to ask about it.

He glanced at the old woman, then at the young woman. "Do you want to bury her? I can help you."

"That's a good idea. Yes, I want to bury her. But I want to do it myself. Is that all right?"

"If you want to do it yourself, you can."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Would you stay with me while I bury her?"

Liu Xing thought for a moment, then nodded. "Sure."

If there was no special ritual, burying her shouldn't take too much time. After all, this young woman was a cultivator at Lock Opening realm fifth stage, and for a cultivator, digging a hole was as easy as scooping jelly.

She nodded, then carried her grandma in her arms. She asked where the most beautiful place around was, and he observed his surroundings.

"There," Liu Xing pointed at the highest flower-covered hill nearby.

Liu Xing and the young woman walked up this flowery hill, and soon arrived at the peak. Here, the young woman began to dig into the dirt with her bare hands, and he decided to check his surroundings and let her do what she needed to do.

He realized he had some downtime for a moment and thought about the most productive way to use his time. The first thing that came to mind was to measure how strong he was. Obviously, he was now stronger than an ordinary Lock Opening cultivator, but he didn't know his exact strength. Perhaps he was as strong as a Core Splitting cultivator at the peak of their first core, or even less. Wei Gang was a Core Splitting cultivator, and he could kill him easily, but there was a high chance that Wei Gang had a shaky foundation and couldn't advance further.

As Liu Xing glanced at the golden castle in the distance, he realized he couldn't measure his strength now. There was no one he could spar with. So he ended that train of thought.

Instead, when he heard the rhythmic sound of the young woman's hands digging through the dirt, he thought of the woman statue he had used as bait to escape. He decided to summon her and see if he could still summon her or not.

As he successfully activated the technique, he expected at least something to appear in front of him. Yet, nothing appeared. He tried several times, and when the statue didn't appear, he concluded that he had lost it. It was probably destroyed now, and he felt a pang of guilt in his heart. After all, the one who made this statue had probably poured their heart into creating her, and he had used it as bait.

He sighed. There was nothing he could do, so he just accepted this loss. Now, he only had two statues remaining. One was his trusty shield and the last one was the turtle.

He activated the technique and a turtle the size of a bear appeared right before him. The rhythmic sound of digging behind him suddenly stopped; she must have been curious about his statue, but not long after, the rhythmic sound could be heard again.

Liu Xing then sent some potent qi toward the turtle, wondering what this turtle could do. After all, his shield was a normal shield before he sent it potent qi, and there was a high chance this turtle, as well as that woman statue, also had unique ability. It made him regret not testing them sooner, but he crushed the regret that began to spread in his mind and accepted that he had made a mistake.

After sending the potent qi to the turtle, its green eyes began to glow. He looked down and saw that the turtle still had its feet on the ground, so this turtle couldn't fly.

"Hmm," Liu Xing pinched his chin and willed the statue to do many things. To walk, to transform, to shoot a laser beam out of its mouth, but nothing works.

He could feel the statue's eagerness to do something, so he ordered it to do what it could do without any instructions. Suddenly, the statue began to shrink. At first slowly, but the rate of its shrinking became faster each second, until it was finally only the size where he could carry it in his palm. Seeing this, he bent down to grab it, but to his surprise, it was actually very heavy. He was super strong now, he could probably shoulder a bus easily, but he needed to exert himself just to lift it from the ground.

Liu Xing decided to let go and nodded. This statue was now small and heavy, and he could think of several things to do with this heavy statue.

Liu Xing willed it to become big again, and it grew slowly at first and then faster and faster. When it was the size of a bear, Liu Xing thought it would stop growing, but to his surprise, the turtle could go bigger. When the turtle was so big that several children could play beneath it, he willed it to stop growing. Then, he ducked down below the turtle and tried to lift the statue with his two hands. As he pushed upward, the four feet of the statue successfully lifted from the ground, but he had to use all his strength until his face turned red, and even then, he could only lift it for a moment.

Coming out from below the turtle, he observed the statue with a grin on his face. This turtle could shrink and grow. When small, it was heavy, and when big, it was super heavy. While this turtle wasn't as versatile as his shield, he could think of several things to do with this statue.