Steel rods descended like rain. But imagine if each droplet were the size of a person and as heavy as an elephant. Every second, hundreds of them slammed into the ground. Each impact erupted, blasting trees standing or fallen into splinters. Stone and boulders shattered with deafening cracks, and a colossal cloud of dust billowed into the air, like the stampede of a million horses. Liu Xing found himself inside this deadly storm. With his full attention, he looked left, right, up, and down, twisting his body to survive. He was lucky the rods did not fall uniformly but rather like a true downpour, each one hitting at a slightly different time, creating narrow gaps where he could zigzag.

  Though he could move between the steel rods and the explosions and shockwaves they created, doing so was brutally difficult. He had to focus completely and rely almost entirely on instinct to move. He was not unscathed, either. One of the rods grazed his back, leaving a long, sword-like wound. The upper part was deep, nearly touching his spine, while the lower part was shallower. Though part of the wound was shallow, blood gushed from it as if from a severed artery. The wound on his back was not the only one. His left hand, which was holding the gun for dear life, was covered in lacerations, each of which was weeping blood. His right shoulder bore a large gash that bled profusely. As he kicked off his shield to move higher, Liu Xing zigzagged between the descending rods, sometimes using them as walls to change direction. Each time he did so, pain shot through him as his wounds bled more and the blood rushed toward the metal as if drawn by a magnetic force.

  Liu Xing shouted as he moved. When there was no gap for him to pass, he fired Exploding Fist bullets from his gun or slashed at the rods with his stone blade. But the sheer power and speed of the rain were overwhelming. Attacking the rods was possible, but it took slightly longer than simply dodging, and that fraction of a second could decide whether he survived or was impaled.

  During one maneuver, twisting his body to slip through a diagonal gap, he found himself looking toward Water Tower City. At that moment, Liu Xing saw the man who had conjured this ferocious attack. Ye Xuanming was standing lazily, his crimson eyes surveying the devastation he had wrought upon the island. Whether by coincidence or not, the moment Liu Xing looked at him, Ye Xuanming’s gaze met his. The man didn't smirk or gloat or change his expression at all, as if he were watching a desperate ant dodging a rain of fire.

  At that, Liu Xing swallowed hard and pushed himself higher. After what felt like an eternity, he finally passed the last of the falling steel rods. High in the sky, he summoned his shield, landed on it, pressed his arms against his knees, and breathed heavily. His body was covered in wounds, and the fact that he was still bleeding indicated that they were not ordinary wounds. Even now, he could feel them slowly sapping his vitality. The more time he wasted, the more blood he would lose, and the weaker he would become.

  Finding a brief respite, he pulled out a single Blood Pill and consumed it. As it began to replenish his blood, he realized that while he was safe from the devastating rain, he couldn't just sit still. Without wasting more time, Liu Xing peered into his consciousness and focused his attention on the mark that was diligently spewing black smoke. Gritting his teeth, he recalled the gun into his consciousness, and with a heart filled with fear and anxiety, he decided he needed to yank the mark out in a single attempt. His brain warned him of the risk. What if the damage was too severe? It would mean certain death! But what else could he do? This was the only option he had.

  As he prepared the gun inside his consciousness, Ye Xuanming spoke, and the air carried the sound to his ears. Liu Xing realized it was a technique, one he didn't understand, since he could feel no qi in the voice, yet it traveled perfectly. After a moment, he decided that the how was not important, but what he said was.

  "This is only a fraction of my power. I will show you something more impressive," he said.

  Liu Xing thought the words were meant for him, but the next sentence proved it was for the disciples of the Nether Lotus Sect. "All of you, secure the targets. I don't want any of them to be too damaged. After it's done, look up and try to understand my technique. It will benefit you."

  A resounding "Yes!" could be heard from a distance, and Liu Xing gritted his teeth, his attention shifting to the Eye hovering above his friends. There were no demonic cultivators there yet, but they would arrive soon. They would capture them. And who knew what terrible things these people would do to his friends, the people he had decided to protect.

  As panic, anxiety, anger, and fear mixed in his heart, he inhaled deeply. "I need to be calm," he muttered, trying to rein in his emotions, but he knew, deep down, that calm alone would not help him. He needed a solution, and fast.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  His first thought was to rush to his people and protect them from the disciples trying to capture them. Logically, however, that action would waste this precious time. Going to his friends felt right, but it was not a good move. His only hope right now was his invisibility. It was not a normal technique but an ability from his gun. Using it would make him invisible and harder to trace, and if he could extend it to his friends, perhaps they could sneak away from this nightmare.

  So, against all his instincts, Liu Xing ignored his friends who were about to be captured and focused his attention wholeheartedly on the black creature inside his consciousness. Preparing himself, he inhaled deeply before letting out a firm order. "Uproot!"

  Instantly, the gun—in the shape of a small dot of light—pulled at the creature like a gardener yanking a stubborn weed from the ground. The moment the gun pulled, the black creature latched onto his consciousness, and pain exploded through his entire body. It was agonizing. It felt as if his whole body were bruised and raw, as if he had been submerged in a pit of lava while being pummeled by hundreds of relentless fists. Liu Xing's face twisted in pain, but he gritted his teeth and thought, "Don't stop!"

  The gun followed his order diligently. It sucked at the black creature with even stronger force, making Liu Xing want to scream. He bit down on his own hand to stifle the sound. It was excruciating. The longer he pulled, the stronger the pain became, to the point that his vision blurred, and he felt himself about to faint. Some scholars said that consciousness was the soul, and if that was true, then what he was doing was akin to shredding his soul in a blender. However, Liu Xing didn't stop, and he forced himself to remain conscious. He needed to survive this, and it would not do if he was knocked out cold.

  "Pull!" Liu Xing willed the gun, and it obeyed, pulling harder and making the pain intensify by several magnitudes.

  An agonizing second passed, feeling like an eternity, but then, the black creature was suddenly ripped free and sucked into his gun, as if the roots latched into his consciousness had finally given way. In that moment, his gun consumed it like a hungry beast, and the pain instantly lessened, as if he had been lifted from the pit of lava. The pain still lingered, making the physical wounds and the broken bones in his body feel so agonizing that tears threatened to spill from his eyes, but he had succeeded. The black creature was swallowed by his gun, and the black smoke gushing from his stomach suddenly stopped, like a leak that had been successfully plugged.

  A sense of triumph emerged in his heart, but he shook his head, summoned his gun, and willed the invisibility to surround him once again.

  "Interesting," a voice suddenly reached his ears. Liu Xing looked toward the direction where Ye Xuanming had been standing. However, when his eyes arrived at that place, he saw only devastation. The one who brought it was gone. Instantly, a chill ran up his spine, and Liu Xing looked back, expecting to find the man floating behind him, but he wasn't there. He scanned his surroundings, and when he turned his gaze down, he finally saw the Patriarch of the Nether Lotus Sect. He was standing on top of a steel rod, right in the middle of the forest of metal that was lodged in the earth, hands behind his back. Upon seeing him, Liu Xing willed the invisibility to spread faster and kicked off his shield, launching himself away from the man.

  "An interesting technique," the man stated calmly. "Or perhaps an ability from your treasure?" He glanced at Liu Xing's left hand, which made him swallow hard. He had a feeling the man would pry the gun from his grasp. "It conceals your presence quite thoroughly. Not that it will matter in front of my technique."

  Liu Xing kicked his shield and accelerated more. The direction wasn't important. He just needed to get away until he was fully invisible.

  But of course, Ye Xuanming wouldn't let things go his way. As Liu Xing moved, he could feel an intense pressure as Ye Xuanming cycled the qi in his body. Then, deciding to look back, he witnessed something truly chilling. All the steel rods embedded in the ground were pulsing, emitting a red light, and the veins that crawled along their surfaces expanded and shrank repeatedly, as if they were breathing. At that, Liu Xing finally realized what those steel rods truly were. If they were merely an attack, they wouldn't need the veins that made them look alive. They were something more. They were, perhaps, a conduit for Ye Xuanming's technique, like a formation.

  Liu Xing kept moving while his head was turned back, and then, Ye Xuanming activated his technique. At that moment, each of the steel rods began to sprout thousands, perhaps millions, of red threads made from blood, like hair suddenly growing from the metal. They grew so fast that in an instant, they painted the dark sky red, as if a giant crimson waterfall had suddenly emerged. Each thread emitted a strong, malevolent aura, each felt complex and so unfathomably powerful it seemed a single one was enough to kill him. Yet, Ye Xuanming had decided to show him millions of red threads that blotted out the sky. When the numerous threads curved in the air, his heart skipped a beat. When all of them rushed toward him, making it seem as if he were being chased by a giant red river that could drown an entire island, it felt as if his soul had left his body. Still, his body moved on instinct alone, trying to dodge the attack. However, the threads were so, so fast. They were faster than him, and in a single moment, they slammed into him. But instead of knocking him to the ground, the threads diced him into tiny little pieces.

  Liu Xing was thoroughly dead.

  But then, he was revived.

  keep the lights on.