Standing on top of his shield, Liu Xing looked up at a giant qi construct a short distance away. It stood perhaps fifty meters tall, definitely big enough to crush him like a cockroach. Two glowing red eyes shone from its sockets, and its gleaming white teeth appeared to be made of bone. A long, lolling tongue formed from red qi hung from its mouth. Its head was bald, and its skin was cracked, dry, and ruptured. The qi that formed its skin looked rotten and desiccated, like a mummy's, and instead of clothes, its body was surrounded by a blackish-red aura resembling fire. The giant construct resembled a rotten corpse pulled from hell itself. It was menacing and terrifying. The aura it radiated was so heavy with death that the leaves, grass, and bushes on the upturned ground around it suddenly wilted.

  Liu Xing pressed his lips together. This technique was powerful. Perhaps it was a Heaven Grade Technique belonging to the Nether Lotus Sect. If improved, it could perhaps grow to the size of the white giant in the Twelve Sun Empire. However, despite the technique's strength and the menacing, heavy aura of the qi construct, it was not impossible to defeat. Liu Xing had plenty of experience battling giant enemies, such as a centipede formed from merged spirit beasts, a giant pyramid, a huge frog, a kilometer-high monster, and, most recently, ten gigantic spirit beasts at once.

  Gripping his stone blade, he narrowed his eyes. "This is nothing."

  "Die!" Ye Xuanhan shouted, his face twisted with fury.

  The giant qi construct swept its right hand, and a long, sharp sword materialized in its grip. The giant sword created a buzzing sound as it slashed horizontally through the air, right where Liu Xing stood.

  Leaping from his shield, Liu Xing watched the sword pass beneath him. The sheer force of the swing created a wind strong enough to uproot trees and send them flying. Without pause, Ye Xuanhan shouted again, and the giant pulled back its sword, trying to slash him from below. Liu Xing summoned his shield, kicked off it, and circled around to the giant's side. He aimed his gun, loaded with six Exploding Fist bullets, and repeatedly pulled the trigger. The giant was slow. It didn't dodge or duck, and the bullets struck home, blooming into six brilliant explosions of light. Furious, Ye Xuanhan swung his left arm—now encased in qi resembling black fire. Instantly, as if an invisible mountain had landed on his shoulder, Liu Xing fell to the ground. The impact of his body hitting the earth created a thunderous thump, and the ground trembled.

  "What the hell was that?" Liu Xing scrambled up just as the giant sword came down. He leaped aside to dodge, and the ground where he had been erupted from the impact.

  As he jumped backward, zigzagging around upturned earth and fallen trees, Liu Xing looked up at his enemy. Clearly, its left hand was capable of something mysterious. He guessed that it could control the qi that it was projecting—or perhaps leaking—from the giant, turning it into a simple yet versatile attack. To contend with Ye Xuanhan, Liu Xing needed to step up his game. And he had an idea.

  Encasing his gun with potent qi, Liu Xing released his grip of the gun. The moment the gun free, his invisibility instantly vanished.

  "You're finally revealing yourself" Ye Xuanhan said from inside the qi construct, then snorted. "You've finally realized that your invisibility is useless against me."

  The moment he finished talking, Ye Xuanhan slashed at him with the sword, stomped with his feet, and used his left hand to project qi, trying to press Liu Xing to the ground as if controlling gravity.

  Liu Xing didn't bother answering the taunt. Instead, he moved left and right before finally activating his Eye of Lightning technique. When a dot of lightning formed on his palm, he sent it toward his floating gun and attached the two. Then, he maneuvered the weapon away from him, and without stopping, he created another Eye of Lightning and encased his stone blade in potent qi. He attached the two and threw the blade away from his position.

  Ye Xuanhan snarled as the glowing eyes of the giant construct followed the stone blade, which, after sailing through the air for a few moments, turned around and soared back like a missile. What he needed now to complete his strategy was Tide Walker. He willed the shark to come, but he didn't know its condition and couldn't count on it showing up.

  "What trick are you trying to pull?" Ye Xuanhan shouted, raising his right foot and bringing it down. The air around Liu Xing rushed outward as he fled the massive limb.

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  "Fire!" Liu Xing shouted.

  Following his command, the floating gun, now positioned behind the giant construct, released six Exploding Bullets. Once the bolts hurtled toward their target, he mentally replenished the ammunition and willed the gun to spray the enemy continuously, firing like a machine gun. At the same time, his flying stone blade glowed purple, and with a slash, it sent a crescent of purple qi toward the giant's face.

  Liu Xing himself activated the necklace and encased his Thunderstrike Gauntlets with stable qi until a yellow spiral formed on his right one. He began channeling qi into the gauntlet, and instantly, a ball of white lightning the size of a chicken egg started forming in front of his palm. As he zigzagged around the giant's feet, he channeled more and more qi into the ball, while his gun sprayed bullets and his stone blade swam through the air, occasionally sending out crescents of purple. Feeling that he had a moment to breathe, he created a third Eye of Lightning on his left palm and sent it to check on his friends. This fight was for them. A victory would be meaningless if they were kidnapped.

  The Eye of Lightning sped off as Liu Xing landed on a patch of wilted grass. He looked up, aimed at Ye Xuanhan, and executed a palm strike.

  As a pillar of lightning shot upward, the giant looked down. For an instant, Liu Xing could see Ye Xuanhan gnashing his teeth in fury before the view was obstructed by the giant red sword cutting his lightning pillar in two. The lightning pillar branched into two streams, neither of which landed on Ye Xuanhan. Meanwhile, his flying stone blade, charged with potent qi, shone with a deep purple hue. Even encased by his potent qi, controlling it was so taxing that it pressed on his mind like a boulder. When the intensity of his lightning pillar lessened, he willed the stone blade to slash, letting out a giant crescent of purple qi that could cut a skyscraper. It shot from the stone blade so fast that its whistle against the air sounded like a screeching ghost. Ye Xuanhan used the giant's fiery left arm to catch it, but the sheer power of the attack pushed the construct back, its giant feet dragging through the earth.

  Liu Xing channeled qi to his left gauntlet. When the first lightning pillar was almost depleted, he unleashed another palm strike, sending a second pillar of lightning toward his opponent while his gun continued spraying Exploding Bullets all over the giant's surface. Whether it was its back, hands, feet, torso, head, or ears, he shot them all.

  The sight was terrifying. Explosions, light, whistling, rushing air, and shouts filled the night. He was sure that the people of Water Tower City could see the battle and would think that the apocalypse had arrived.

  As Liu Xing attacked the giant relentlessly, he moved and maneuvered around it. The construct was desperate to fend off attacks from three different sides at once. While all his attacks were serious and intended to break the construct's defense, his eyes were scanning the giant for a chink in its body, or even a crack.

  The giant construct was made from an enormous amount of qi, not a real being with a physical body. Even if this was a Heaven Grade Technique, he was sure Ye Xuanhan was still far from perfect mastery. So, there had to be a weak point within the construct, and once he saw it, he could use it to get to Ye Xuanhan.

  Sometimes, during his maneuvers, he could see Ye Xuanhan's face. It was twisted in fury, but he could also see worry in his eyes. From what he had heard from Qing Yuan, and from what he had briefly seen using his Eye of Lightning, this Ye Xuanhan was supposed to be strong, calm, and collected. While he was certainly strong, he didn't look calm at all. From his reaction, he just looked like a young master who was prone to anger, though Liu Xing admitted he was dangerous.

  Liu Xing continued his attacks, repeating them relentlessly. Though the qi inside his Ethereal Pearl gushed out like a river, he still had plenty left. He predicted that if the situation continued like this, he could defeat him with half of his Ethereal Pearl still full. It was a lot to expend, but he couldn't be ungrateful.

  The relentless assault continued for three minutes straight. During that time, his Eye of Lightning reached his friends' location, and he was relieved to find no demonic cultivators there. Then, in the instant one of his purple qi crescents sped toward the giant, as the construct tried to slash it with its sword while its left hand swiped at his flying gun, an Exploding Bullet landed near its left knee. There, near the kneecap, he saw a small crack. It was tiny, perhaps the size of his palm, but it was a crack like one in a punched mirror.

  Upon seeing it, Liu Xing's heart beat faster. This is it!

  Instantly, Liu Xing summoned his shield, kicked off it, and shot toward the crack. At the same time, he willed the gun to fly forward and spray the giant's face with exploding bullets to conceal his movement. For good measure, he launched a crescent of purple qi aimed right at its neck. This way, Ye Xuanhan would be focused on those attacks and not on him.

  As Liu Xing shot through the air like a missile, he activated his Lightning Palm technique without using his gun—so as not to occupy the already busy weapon—but still fueled it with potent qi. The feel of electricity gathering on his right palm was nostalgic; he couldn't remember the last time he had used this attack in a serious fight. For now, however, he decided this small Lightning Palm would be enough.

  Once in position, Liu Xing unleashed a palm strike right at the crack. When his palm landed, the sound of a thunderclap reverberated through the battlefield, and flashes of electricity spread around him. A moment later, as if it were merely a brittle tree, the giant's left leg exploded from his attack.

  keep the lights on.