Haotian was already moving when the Demon God committed to the next step, but the ground it had forced between Xiangyin and the others left too much distance for him to reach her before the enlarged body crossed the gap. Xiangyin did not wait for help. She lowered the spear, widened her bleeding hands along the shaft, and let the point travel with the Demon God's approach so she could change its angle without trying to stop an Immortal Emperor head-on. When the first hand struck near the spearhead, she released part of her grip and turned with the impact, preserving the weapon even as the force drove through her shoulders and forced her backward across the broken stone.
The Demon God never needed to pause after knocking the spear aside. Its longer stride carried the torso inside Xiangyin's effective range while she was still recovering the shaft, and the shoulder that followed the hand filled the space her retreat would normally have used. Xiangyin rotated around the weapon and kept the center of her body outside the collision, but the enlarged shoulder caught the edge of her guard before she cleared it completely, sending another shock through palms that had already been torn open several times. She gave ground with the impact rather than allowing the spear to become trapped between them, but one hand slipped far enough along the blood-slick shaft that the weapon dipped before she could restore its line.
Haotian reached her during that loss of control and struck the Demon God's forearm from the inside, using the Dao of the Universe to follow the relationship between wrist, elbow, shoulder, and the weight still moving through the step. The palm changed the fist meant for Xiangyin by enough to carry it past her body, though the Immortal Emperor's greater strength prevented Haotian from turning the entire limb as far as he wanted. The Demon God simply continued through the altered motion, rotating the forearm into Haotian's chest and driving him away before he could disengage cleanly.
He allowed the blow to move him, landing several paces away with the injured side turned enough to keep the ribs from taking the center of the impact. Pain still tightened beneath them when he drew breath, and the right forearm that had already absorbed too many strikes answered more slowly when he raised it again. Through the Eyes of the Universe, however, the Demon God remained clear to him: sacrificial essence had thickened around the arm that had just struck, drawing some of its support from the opposite shoulder even as the body continued advancing.
Ziyue reached that thinner region before the transfer finished. Her sword entered along damage Lianhua and Haotian had already opened, cutting through the diminished protection and drawing dark blood from the enlarged shoulder without spending the full force of another Severing Arc. The Demon God turned through the wound rather than stopping to answer it, forcing Ziyue to let the blade leave the cut early when the longer arm swept across the distance she would once have considered safe. She angled the sword against the strike and moved with the impact, but the force still carried her several paces away while the Demon God continued toward Xiangyin.
Yanfei compressed Frostfire beneath the next step instead of trying to control a wide stretch of battlefield. Cold tightened the cracked stone around the descending heel, heat followed through the same fractures, and the surface gave way as the Demon God committed its weight. The Immortal Emperor responded by driving power downward through the leg, crushing the altered stone into a crater and using the deeper footing as leverage for the next movement, which carried the enlarged frame forward before Yanfei could spread another layer beneath it.
Xiangyin had already recovered the spear. She brought the point up toward the hip, not attempting to pierce through the reinforced body but placing the shaft where the advancing leg and turning torso would have to cross it. The Demon God struck the weapon aside with the back of one hand, and although Xiangyin yielded immediately rather than contesting the force, the impact still tore the shaft through her damaged palms and sent a sharp ache into the wrist that had endured most of the earlier twisting strikes. Her grip closed more slowly when she recovered the weapon, forcing her to bring the spear closer to the body and guide it with the forearm and shoulder while the hand struggled to regain its usual control.
That delay was enough for the Demon God to enter again. Haotian saw the shoulder tighten before the fist formed and crossed toward Xiangyin, reaching the wrist from outside just as the strike began to extend. He could read the entire attack, from the pressure gathering through the back to the way the enlarged torso would carry additional weight into the arm, but there was no time to construct the perfect answer. He changed the line enough for the fist to miss Xiangyin, then took the forearm across his own guard when the greater force continued through the redirection.
The impact drove him sideways and sent pain across the ribs he had already protected twice in the same exchange. Haotian moved with it, found the ground beneath one foot, and used the turn to strike the Demon God's wounded flank with his left palm before the body could completely leave his reach. The sacrificial reinforcement compressed under the blow without giving way, and the Eyes of the Universe showed a fresh current moving from the torso toward the region while the old Sky Piercer scar remained heavily protected beneath a separate concentration of dark essence.
Lianhua entered through the opposite side while that redistribution was still occurring. Her ribs no longer tolerated the deepest turns of Cloud-Sundering Steps, so she kept the movement shorter and allowed Voidpierce Sword Sutra to create the angle her body could no longer reach as easily. The spatial edge passed through the thinner covering around the arm and opened flesh near the elbow, but the Demon God rotated the limb into her blade and used the contact to push her weapon farther from the chest. Lianhua followed the pressure rather than resisting it, letting the sword trace across the forearm before moving around the shoulder on the side that placed less strain across her ribs.
Yinxue's Sword Dao settled against the opposite shoulder during that turn. She remained farther from the Demon God than she had earlier in the battle, letting the Dao extend from the sword while the injured arm avoided another direct collision. The heavier Abyssal Dao pushed through most of her pressure, but the resistance forced the Demon God to spend power through the upper body at the same moment Lianhua was cutting the arm, preventing the reinforcement from returning evenly to both places.
Yueru moved when the imbalance appeared, keeping her sword quiet until she was already close enough for the old scar to become a real threat. The Demon God turned toward her before Lightning gathered, sacrificing part of the protection around the shoulder and upper back to thicken the covering over the Sky Piercer wound. Yueru recognized the response and widened her path without trying to force the attack, leaving the scar guarded while Ziyue reentered the side that had just lost reinforcement.
Her sword cut the flank where the dark covering had thinned, opening another wound along the enlarged torso. The Demon God accepted the damage and continued through it, turning the body toward Haotian rather than spending more sacrificial essence on flesh that did not threaten the deeper foundation. Haotian met the approach with the left side leading, using the slower right arm only to guide the incoming strike while Fist of Ruin drove into the already wounded ribs.
The blow reached deeper than his earlier palm and compressed the sacrificial layer around the side, but the Demon God caught the next movement before Haotian could redirect it toward the scar. Its hand closed around his forearm and stopped the joint hard enough that pulling away would have placed the elbow against the full strength of the grip. Haotian stepped toward the body instead, turning his shoulder with the captured arm and striking the wrist with his free hand while he followed the shift of weight through the Demon God's hips.
The grip barely loosened. Rather than twist Haotian's arm, the Demon God dragged him inward and raised a knee toward the ribs, forcing Haotian to turn the injured side away at the last instant. The knee landed farther toward the hip and lower torso than intended, but the force still lifted him from the ground and threw him backward before his captured arm could become a leverage point against him.
Haotian landed heavily, absorbed the first step, and nearly lost the second when pain spread through the lower side. Xiangyin had already inserted the spear between him and the next advance, but her injured wrist failed to turn the shaft as sharply as she wanted, leaving the point several inches outside the strongest line. She compensated through the shoulder and hips, driving the altered thrust into the Demon God's outer thigh rather than trying to correct the weapon with a hand that could no longer make the movement quickly enough.
The spearhead struck sacrificial reinforcement and reached only shallowly before the Demon God swept the shaft aside. Xiangyin released the forward hand before the collision could tear through both wrists, yet the weapon still kicked violently across the palm that remained on it and reopened the cuts Liora had not yet had any chance to treat. She retreated with the spear drawn close, the weaker wrist trembling as she shifted more of the weapon's weight toward the other hand.
Yanfei moved Frostfire into the space Xiangyin had surrendered, creating a narrow unstable band rather than attempting to lock down the Demon God's entire advance. The technique forced more power through the leg when the enlarged body crossed it, buying Xiangyin enough distance to recover the spear and Haotian enough time to return from the other side. Ziyue entered before the next step finished, her blade striking the arm while Yinxue's Sword Dao added pressure around the same shoulder, and the Demon God answered both with a compact surge of Abyssal force that pushed the attacks away without breaking its forward movement.
Lianhua came through the exposed side immediately afterward. Voidpierce Sword Sutra entered toward the ribs and slipped through part of the outer defense before the Demon God turned, but the larger body converted that turn into a compressed palm attack aimed across her retreat. Lianhua had already begun leaving when the dark force released, and she turned the sword with both shoulders so the weapon absorbed the center of the strike instead of being driven back into her injured side. The remaining pressure still threw her several paces, and she landed lower on the healthier side before returning to her feet.
The Demon God crossed through the opening her displacement left and went after Yanfei. Haotian reached the descending palm before it could settle and caught the wrist from outside, using the turn of the shoulder and the Dao of the Universe to shift the center of the blow beyond Yanfei's body. He succeeded in clearing her from the strike, but the Demon God continued through the same rotation and drove its other arm into him before his feet had completely settled.
Haotian took the impact across the left side of his guard and was thrown farther than before. The healing from earlier injuries had long since been overtaken by repeated collisions, and when he landed, the ribs tightened hard enough that he needed two shortened breaths before they would expand normally again. He did not remain there long enough for the pain to settle, because the Demon God had already turned toward Ziyue and forced her sword across her own body with another heavy strike.
Yinxue's Sword Dao pressed against the attacking arm while Lianhua approached from the opposite side, allowing Ziyue to let the force carry her outward without having to stop it herself. The Demon God pushed through Yinxue's pressure and kept the chest turned away from Lianhua's blade, using the greater reach to maintain offense even while three separate attacks forced its protection to shift around the upper body. When Yueru moved toward the scar, the answer came immediately, and the nearest arm dropped across the chest before Lightning had fully gathered.
Yueru did not challenge the reinforced guard. She changed hands as another wave of numbness moved down the arm she had repeatedly used for Lightning and left the direct line before the enlarged hand could close the remaining distance. Haotian saw the Demon God follow her movement and forced himself back across the battlefield, the right arm responding more slowly than the left while the Eyes of the Universe showed him exactly how the pursuit would develop.
He reached Yueru before the hand closed around her and drove his left palm beneath the Demon God's wrist. The redirection carried the fingers outside her body, but the arm itself possessed too much mass and momentum to stop, and Haotian was swept away with it while Yueru escaped the reach. He crossed several paces and hit the ground hard enough that the right shoulder finally stopped answering cleanly for a moment, the fingers flexing without the strength he expected from them.
Ziyue started toward him, but Haotian was already rising and reached into his robe with the hand that still closed properly. The Demon God's attention had shifted back toward Lianhua, giving him only a few breaths before he would need to enter again, so he swallowed a healing pill while moving and used the Heaven Sundering Trinity Scripture to guide the medicinal energy through the ribs, shoulder, and damaged forearm. Warmth spread through the battered tissues and eased the worst constriction around his breathing, restoring enough sensation to the right hand that the fingers could close again, though the accumulated damage beneath that relief remained.
Xiangyin made the same choice when Yanfei disrupted another approach and gave her enough distance to breathe. Her weaker wrist shook when she tried to reach for the pill, forcing her to transfer the spear entirely to the other hand for a moment. She swallowed the medicine without leaving the battlefield and returned both hands to the shaft as soon as the first medicinal current entered the torn palms and swollen wrist.
The cuts began closing enough to slow the bleeding, and some of the stiffness eased from the joint, but the spear still did not answer exactly as it had before. Xiangyin adjusted without hesitation, narrowing the distance between her hands and keeping the weapon closer to the torso so the stronger shoulder and hips could compensate for what the wrist could no longer manage cleanly. The pill allowed her to remain useful; it did not make the previous damage disappear.
The Demon God drove through the center before either healing process had settled completely. Haotian, Lianhua, and Ziyue happened to be closest when the enlarged body crossed the broken ground, and all three responded without needing to establish another formation first. Lianhua slipped around the first sweep and cut the forearm, Haotian turned a lower strike away from his chest while allowing the force to push him backward, and Ziyue entered the exposed flank as both arms became occupied.
Her blade reached flesh again. The Demon God took the wound, rotated toward her, and forced Ziyue to abandon the cut before the returning hand could trap her weapon. Xiangyin's spear arrived near the rear leg during the turn, Yanfei altered the ground beyond it, and Yinxue's Sword Dao settled against the shoulder while Yueru approached the chest without allowing Lightning to appear until the last possible moment.
For several breaths their pressure began resembling the coordination that had troubled the Demon God before the sacrifice. Xiangyin restricted one step, Yanfei weakened the route that remained, Yinxue burdened the upper body, and Lianhua and Ziyue attacked the regions from which sacrificial reinforcement had been drawn. Yueru's late Lightning forced the chest protection to thicken, giving Haotian the opening to enter the wounded ribs with Fist of Ruin.
His fist landed deeply enough to force dark blood through Ziyue's earlier cut. The success lasted only until the Demon God turned, and Haotian saw the answering fist before it reached him but could not remove his body from the range quickly enough. He raised the correct guard, angled the torso to keep the damaged ribs away from the center, and was still driven backward by the impact.
Ziyue entered behind him and cut the shoulder, only for the Demon God to drive her away with the returning arm. Xiangyin placed the spear against the knee and yielded when the enlarged leg powered through the line, while Yanfei caught the correcting foot with Frostfire and watched the Demon God crush the altered stone beneath its weight. Lianhua attacked the opening created by that step, but the longer elbow met her sword before Voidpierce could settle deeply enough to matter, and Yinxue's Sword Dao was forced backward beneath the heavier Abyssal pressure when she tried to preserve the angle for Lianhua.
Yueru remained outside the chest, waiting for the protection to thin.
It did not.
The Demon God continued pressing through them, and the battlefield shifted under the weight of every exchange. No single retreat carried anyone far, but each collision cost another pace before the family could rebuild its pressure, and the enlarged Immortal Emperor kept taking those paces away faster than they could reclaim them. Haotian repeatedly returned to whatever opening appeared, the Eyes of the Universe still showing the cracked pathways beneath the sacrificial reinforcement and the old Sky Piercer wound hidden behind the dark covering, but seeing the weakness no longer meant he could force the battle toward it whenever he wished.
The reinforcement remained finite, and the Demon God remained wounded beneath it. Those truths persisted even while the family gave ground, just as the medicinal warmth moving through Haotian's ribs did not erase the pain waiting beneath it and the pill in Xiangyin's body did not restore the grip she had brought into the battle. By the time the Demon God drove through another combined attempt and forced the seven of them farther across the ruined stronghold, the difference was no longer in whether they understood what had to be done.
They understood.
The problem was surviving long enough to keep doing it.
The Demon God gave them no pause after forcing the entire line backward. It crossed the newly opened ground with the same relentless Immortal Emperor pressure, but the distance it had created also gave Haotian enough room to see the whole approach rather than respond from inside its reach. The medicinal energy from the healing pill continued circulating through his ribs and right shoulder as he moved, easing the worst of the accumulated strain without restoring what repeated impacts had already damaged. Across the battlefield, Xiangyin's own pill had sealed enough of her palms for the spear to remain steady again, though Haotian could see from the way she carried the shaft closer to her body that the wrist beneath her forward hand had not recovered fully.
The Demon God drove first toward the space between Xiangyin and Yanfei, where the earlier retreat had stretched them farther apart than they preferred. Xiangyin shifted the spearhead across the approach while Yanfei sent Frostfire into the ground beyond it, not trying to stop the larger body at either point but giving it fewer clean ways to continue its stride. The Demon God struck the shaft aside and shortened the step before reaching Yanfei's altered stone, yet the adjustment turned the torso enough for Lianhua to enter along the side that had repeatedly lost reinforcement whenever the chest remained protected.
Her ribs still limited the deepest turn of Cloud-Sundering Steps, so she did not try to circle behind the Demon God as she might have earlier. She used the shorter change to bring Voidpierce Sword Sutra across the outside of the shoulder, allowing the spatial edge to cut where sacrificial reinforcement had already been thinned by repeated damage. The Demon God turned the arm into the blade before it could sink farther, but that defense brought the shoulder across Yinxue's line, and Sword Dao settled against the movement from outside the enlarged reach.
Yinxue no longer attempted to hold the whole upper body beneath her Dao. She concentrated the pressure along the same arm Lianhua was already forcing outward, making the Demon God spend more Abyssal power to recover the limb while the sword in her healthier hand remained ready farther back. The heavier Dao eventually broke through hers, but Haotian had already seen the transfer of sacrificial essence toward the shoulder and watched the protection over the opposite ribs grow thinner.
Ziyue entered there before the redistribution could reverse. Her blade carried Metal and Wind through the damaged flank, with Lightning disturbing the dark current immediately beneath the outer layer while Fire and Ice widened the stress once the sword had already reached flesh. She did not try to finish a broad Severing Arc across the entire torso. The narrower cut was enough to reopen the wound that had repeatedly bled during the previous exchanges, forcing the Demon God to draw reinforcement back toward the side at the same moment Yueru began moving toward the chest.
Lightning did not appear along Yueru's sword until she had already crossed most of the distance. The Demon God still recognized the threat before the current fully formed and pulled sacrificial essence toward the Sky Piercer wound, abandoning part of the protection it had just begun restoring over Ziyue's cut. Yueru did not rush the final approach. She continued along the edge of the enlarged reach, forcing the Demon God to keep the chest guarded while Haotian followed the shifting currents beneath the surface and waited for enough of them to move away from the leg and shoulder.
Xiangyin reached the lower body first. Her spearhead slid toward the knee carrying most of the Demon God's weight, and rather than close both injured hands around the shaft, she used her hips and rear shoulder to guide the thrust while the recovering wrist provided only enough control to keep the point aligned. The Demon God turned the leg away before she could trap the joint, but Yanfei had already altered the stone beneath the correcting foot and forced more power through the opposite side of the stance.