Haotian reached the others while the Demon God was still forcing its way through the ground Xiangyin and Yanfei had tried to deny. The spear had already changed the direction of one step and Frostfire had weakened the next, yet the enlarged Immortal Emperor crossed both obstacles without surrendering the momentum of its advance, leaving Ziyue and Yueru to widen around the pressure before its reach could divide them. Haotian entered before that space grew farther apart, his left side taking most of the work while the right arm remained close enough to his body that the injured shoulder would not be forced into another direct contest. The healing pills circulating through him kept the ribs from locking and restored enough feeling to his hand for brief contact, but the medicinal warmth no longer hid how much damage remained beneath it.
Xiangyin adjusted the spear as the Demon God came through, shortening the distance between her hands and resting more of the shaft along her forearm so the repaired wrist did not have to control the weapon alone. Liora's treatment had restored the damaged tissues and meridians enough for the spear to move properly again, and the medicine she had taken earlier had closed the worst cuts across her palms, but none of that changed the weight behind the Demon God's forearm when it struck near the middle of the shaft. Xiangyin yielded immediately, allowing the spear to slide through her grip instead of letting the full impact travel through the joint, yet the repaired wrist still bent before she completely released the pressure. She recovered through the hips and healthier hand, keeping the point between herself and the Demon God even as the enlarged shoulder crowded into the space she had intended to use for retreat.
Yanfei filled the ground beside her before that pressure could become a direct pursuit. Frost hardened the fractured stone around the Demon God's descending foot, heat entered the same cracks, and the surface failed exactly where its weight settled, forcing additional power through the leg merely to preserve the step. The technique had regained much of its density after Liora's treatment, and for the first several breaths Yanfei's shoulder carried the circulation without the hesitation that had appeared before she withdrew. When she extended Frostfire toward the next landing point, however, Haotian saw a faint tightening return around the same meridians Liora had only recently stabilized.
He moved before Yanfei had to force the technique farther. His left palm reached the outside of the Demon God's knee while the Dao of the Universe followed the relationship between the foot, joint, hip, and weight travelling through the enlarged body, turning the step just enough for Xiangyin to bring the spear against the route of correction. Yanfei concentrated her remaining Frostfire beneath the only clean footing left to it, and the three pressures overlapped without anyone needing to call the change.
The Demon God forced through them anyway. Its foot crushed into the weakened stone, the hip drove through Haotian's alteration, and one hand struck the spear aside before Xiangyin could settle it fully against the leg. The resistance did not stop the advance, but it disturbed the body enough for Ziyue to enter along the flank without crossing the center of its reach, and her sword opened one of the wounds that had never completely closed during the previous chapter.
Dark blood followed the blade. The sacrificial reinforcement beneath the cut reacted more slowly than it had immediately after the Demon God consumed the army, allowing the wound to remain open while Yinxue placed Sword Dao across the upper shoulder and made the turn toward Ziyue more difficult. The Demon God answered by forcing heavier Abyssal pressure through the same region, breaking most of Yinxue's restraint while continuing to rotate, but the expenditure drew dark essence upward from the opposite ribs just as Yueru began moving toward the Sky Piercer scar.
Haotian followed the shifting currents while remaining close enough to feel the wind of the Demon God's movement against his clothes. Sacrificial essence still gathered rapidly around threatened regions, especially the old wound Alter had left at Marephoros, but there was less abundance in those transfers now. When the chest protection thickened around the Sky Piercer scar, the shoulder Ziyue had opened remained thin, and the wound across the flank continued bleeding instead of disappearing immediately beneath another dense layer of dark reinforcement.
He attacked the weakness that already existed instead of forcing his way toward the chest. Fist of Ruin drove into the flank beneath Ziyue's cut, compressing what remained of the sacrificial covering and forcing the Demon God to pull more protection toward the ribs. Yueru continued approaching without releasing Lightning, keeping the scar dangerous enough that the chest could not be stripped of protection to answer Haotian completely.
The Demon God turned into him before he could leave. Haotian saw the forearm coming, guided the wrist outward with the left palm, and allowed the injured right hand to touch beneath the elbow only long enough to begin the redirection. His damaged shoulder could no longer support a prolonged close-range contest, so he released as soon as the line changed and tried to move with the arm rather than against it.
The fist passed outside his ribs. The shoulder behind it did not.
Haotian turned enough to keep the center of the collision away from the injuries along his side, but the enlarged body still struck him hard enough to send him across several paces of broken ground. He remained upright through the first two steps and regained balance before the third, though the right arm hung lower afterward and required a deliberate pulse of cultivation before the fingers responded cleanly again. By then the Demon God had already gone back toward Xiangyin.
Her spearhead reached toward the hip rather than the torso, using position to obstruct the advancing leg without asking the repaired wrist to hold against the Demon God's strength. The Demon God struck near the middle of the shaft and continued through the weapon, and even though Xiangyin opened the injured hand almost immediately, the remaining shock made the wrist tighten beneath recently healed tissue. She transferred most of the spear's weight to the other hand, recovered the point through her shoulder and hips, and kept moving instead of allowing the brief weakness to become an opening.
Yanfei altered the ground ahead of the next step. The first Frostfire pattern formed cleanly, but reaching the second forced more cultivation through the shoulder than the repaired meridians wanted to carry, and Haotian saw the circulation hesitate around the joint before Yanfei narrowed the technique herself. She abandoned the wider field before the strain could deepen, concentrating the cold and heat closer to the Demon God and giving up coverage in exchange for density.
The healing had returned her to the battle.
The battle was already beginning to take that recovery back.
Yinxue felt the same pressure through a different injury. She remained beyond the Demon God's physical reach and held the sword in her healthier hand while Sword Dao moved across the upper body, changing from shoulder to elbow and across the back instead of locking against one place. The damaged arm had not received another weapon strike, but every time the heavier Abyssal Dao pushed through her cultivation, part of that resistance returned through meridians that had already been injured once.
The first strong clash tightened her shoulder. After the second, a tremor passed down the resting arm before she shifted the Dao away and reduced the duration of the contest. She did not withdraw or lose control; she simply stopped asking the damaged network to hold Immortal Emperor pressure longer than necessary.
Ziyue used those shortened moments well. She moved into the flank whenever Yinxue's Sword Dao slowed the upper body and withdrew before the Demon God could bring its full reach against her, repeatedly cutting regions from which sacrificial reinforcement had been drawn toward the chest. Yueru remained on the opposite side, close enough to the Sky Piercer scar that the Demon God continued protecting it even when no Lightning appeared.
When Yueru finally gathered the current, she did so only after entering the outer edge of its reach. Sacrificial essence immediately thickened over the scar, and she recognized that the opening had already closed before committing the arm to another heavy discharge. She widened her path and let the gathered Lightning fade back through her cultivation instead of wasting it against the reinforced wound, but the fingers of that arm released the sword more slowly when she changed hands.
Haotian noticed.
He noticed Xiangyin flexing the repaired wrist once after recovering the spear.
He noticed Yanfei keeping Frostfire closer to herself than she had immediately after returning from Liora.
He noticed Yinxue shortening every direct clash of Dao.
None of those changes were large enough to take someone out of the fight.
That was what made them dangerous.
The Demon God did not need to cripple anyone in a single blow if every exchange returned damage to places that had only recently been repaired.
It drove through Xiangyin's next spear line and crushed the edge of Yanfei's Frostfire while the upper body forced through Yinxue's pressure. Ziyue entered where the reinforcement thinned and opened the flank again, only to have the returning arm follow farther than the distance she had judged safe. She angled the sword and let the weapon carry most of the impact away from her body, but the remaining force still reached her shoulder and pushed her several paces across the stone.
Ziyue recovered without falling and returned immediately. The shoulder moved properly when she raised the sword again, though Haotian could see a deeper strain beginning around the joint that had not been there before. She had been one of the least injured among them for most of the battle, which had also made her the one most often available to cover Yueru, fill the space Lianhua had left, or attack wherever Xiangyin and Yanfei could no longer reach cleanly.
The healthier fighters were beginning to pay for the injured ones.
Haotian moved before the Demon God could turn that small advantage into something worse. Its next step carried toward the space between Ziyue and Yueru, and he entered beside the knee, changing the angle of the weight rather than trying to stop the leg. Xiangyin placed the spear where the correction should have gone, but the Demon God drove an arm down toward Haotian instead of completing the step cleanly.
He saw the strike gathering through the torso and shifted outside the center. The forearm still reached his left shoulder.
Until that moment, the left side had carried most of the work his damaged right arm could no longer perform. The impact drove Haotian onto one knee and sent a deep ache through the shoulder into the upper back, forcing him to plant the same hand against the ground to keep from falling farther. The joint held, but when he rose again the arm felt heavier than it had a few breaths earlier.
He circulated the Heaven Sundering Trinity Scripture through both shoulders while moving, letting the synchronized cores support the damaged tissues and meridians without consuming another healing pill before it became necessary. There was no time to do more. The Demon God had already turned through Ziyue's next cut and driven back toward Xiangyin.
The spear took the impact near the head.
Xiangyin released the repaired hand almost immediately, but the force still bent the wrist farther than the previous collision had managed before the shaft slid free of the grip. She retained the weapon through her other hand and the forearm supporting it, yet the injured fingers did not close again at once.
The delay lasted only several breaths.
It had not existed when she first returned from Liora.
Yanfei widened Frostfire to cover the route that the weakened spear could no longer deny. The extension forced cultivation through her recovering shoulder more quickly than the narrower patterns had, and the first section of the technique formed properly while the second took a fraction longer to establish. The Demon God drove toward that weaker section, compelling Yanfei to abandon the broader pattern and pull the cold and heat back into a smaller area before the joint could deteriorate farther.
Xiangyin regained enough feeling to return the injured hand to the shaft.
The Demon God came again before the wrist had settled.
Yinxue increased Sword Dao pressure across the upper body to compensate for the smaller spear and Frostfire coverage, and the heavier Abyssal response travelled through her damaged meridians deeply enough that the resting arm shook before she released the contest. Yueru moved toward the chest at the same time, drawing reinforcement toward the Sky Piercer scar and giving Ziyue another weakened flank to attack.
The family still moved together cleanly. When Xiangyin shortened the spear line to protect the wrist, Yanfei expanded Frostfire into the route she could no longer reach; when the strain in Yanfei's shoulder forced that field to contract again, Haotian crossed the uncovered ground himself before the Demon God could use it. Yinxue no longer held her Dao against the Immortal Emperor longer than the damaged meridians could tolerate, so Ziyue entered earlier whenever that pressure began to give way, while Yueru kept enough attention on the Sky Piercer scar that the Demon God could not simply gather all of its remaining reinforcement around the limbs attacking them.
Haotian kept moving through those changes instead of standing apart from them to measure the deterioration. The Eyes of the Universe showed him the next pressure gathering in the Demon God's knee while he was still leaving the previous arm, and he reached the lower body just as Xiangyin's weakened grip forced the spear several inches outside the route she wanted. His left palm corrected the remaining distance, Yanfei laid Frostfire beneath the altered step, and Ziyue used the disrupted turn to open the flank once more.
The Demon God forced its weight through the attack and brought the opposite arm down toward Haotian. He shifted away from the center and tried to guide the wrist with the left side, but the shoulder that had just been struck no longer carried the same strength through the movement, forcing him to let the injured right hand remain in contact longer than he wanted. Pain crossed both shoulders as the arm passed him, and although he succeeded in keeping the strike away from his ribs, the Demon God continued the rotation until the forearm caught him from behind and sent him stumbling into the broken ground beyond Yanfei's Frostfire.
Haotian recovered without falling completely and turned back before the Demon God could take the space. Xiangyin had already stepped in with the spear braced closer to her torso, her injured wrist contributing only enough control to keep the point aligned while the healthier hand and hips carried the weapon. Yanfei shifted the Frostfire under the next landing rather than extending it across another broad field, and Yinxue spread Sword Dao over the shoulder to keep the upper body from turning freely toward either woman.
The Demon God struck the spear first. Xiangyin's injured hand opened under the shock, leaving the weapon momentarily controlled by the other hand and forearm, and Yanfei immediately widened the Frostfire because the route the spear should have closed remained open. The larger technique forced cultivation through her recovering shoulder until the meridians tightened and the second half of the field began forming more slowly than the first, which made Yinxue deepen her Dao pressure to buy the missing fraction of time.
The heavier Abyssal Dao answered her.
Yinxue's injured arm trembled as the backlash travelled through it, but she held only long enough for Yanfei's Frostfire to settle before releasing the contest herself. Ziyue moved through the opening that appeared when the Demon God pushed the Dao away, her sword cutting the side from which sacrificial reinforcement had shifted upward, while Yueru approached the chest and gathered Lightning through fingers that had already begun losing sensation again.
Haotian reached the flank beside Ziyue as the scar protection thickened. His left shoulder resisted the final extension of Fist of Ruin, so he shortened the strike rather than forcing the damaged joint farther and drove the blow into the wound her sword had opened. The impact still reached flesh and forced more dark essence toward the side, but the reduced motion kept him within the Demon God's reach for a fraction longer than he intended.
The Demon God turned.
Haotian saw the arm.
Ziyue saw it as well and began withdrawing from the flank, but the enlarged reach forced her to angle the sword into the movement before she could clear it completely. The strike travelled down the blade and reached the shoulder that had only recently begun carrying strain, pushing her farther aside while Haotian caught the lower edge of the same rotation across his already injured left arm.
Neither of them went down.
Both had to give ground.
Yueru abandoned the scar when she saw the protection had fully settled and used the space their retreat created to leave before the Demon God could turn the same attack toward her. Lightning faded without being released, but when she shifted the sword back to the healthier hand, the fingers of her Lightning arm remained partly curled for several breaths before sensation returned.
By the time Haotian moved back in, Xiangyin had recovered enough control to place the spear against the Demon God's next step, but the angle was shorter than before and Yanfei had already begun preparing Frostfire beyond it. The two women were compensating for each other before either limitation became large enough to break the defense, yet doing so required Yanfei to spend more cultivation every time Xiangyin's wrist failed to cover its previous range. Yinxue supported them from outside, allowing her Dao to touch and release rather than remain beneath the Demon God's full pressure, while Ziyue returned with the sword held slightly lower on the side of the shoulder that had just taken the impact.
The Demon God moved through them again, and Haotian entered with the rest.
Behind the fight, Liora's Life Dao continued flowing through Lianhua's ribs, gradually restoring the movement that had forced her from the frontline. At the same time, the wrist Liora had already treated bent under another spear collision, Yanfei's repaired shoulder tightened as she widened Frostfire to cover it, and Yinxue released a Dao contest early when the backlash reached the meridians Liora had not yet had the chance to treat at all. The recovery system had not failed them; every treatment and every pill had restored exactly what it was meant to restore, but the Demon God never gave those repairs enough time to become lasting recovery before another exchange placed the same bodies under Immortal Emperor force.
Haotian felt that truth most clearly when Xiangyin's spear shifted several inches late and Yanfei's Frostfire had not yet finished spreading into the opening. He crossed the exposed route before the Demon God could take it, struck the outside of the knee, and felt the left shoulder strain as the Dao of the Universe carried the adjustment upward through the larger body. The Demon God corrected through raw strength and drove its forearm toward him, forcing Haotian to turn away from the ribs while Xiangyin recovered the spear and Yanfei completed the Frostfire behind him.
The blow struck across both of his raised arms and pushed him backward into the ground they had just managed to control. He stayed upright, though the right shoulder burned and the left arm remained heavy when he brought them back into position, while Xiangyin stepped beside him with one hand still struggling to close fully around the shaft. Yanfei shifted the Frostfire closer rather than widening it again, Yinxue moved her Dao toward the Demon God's shoulder without holding against the pressure, and Ziyue circled toward the flank as Yueru remained close enough to keep the Sky Piercer scar protected.
The Demon God advanced into all of them before any of those injuries had finished settling, and Haotian moved with the others to meet it.
The Demon God did not allow the pressure around it to settle before forcing another step through Xiangyin's spear and the Frostfire gathered beyond it. Xiangyin shifted the shaft rather than trying to hold the leg in place, letting the repaired wrist guide the angle while the healthier arm and hips supplied most of the strength, and Yanfei narrowed the Frostfire around the footing the spear left available. Haotian moved with both of them, entering beside the knee only after the Demon God committed enough weight for the Dao of the Universe to carry a small change farther through the hip and torso. The altered step was still strong enough to crush through Yanfei's weakened stone, but the correction prevented the enlarged body from driving cleanly into Ziyue and gave her enough room to cut through the flank before the upper body finished turning.
Yinxue pressed Sword Dao across the shoulder supporting that turn while Ziyue withdrew, and the Demon God answered with the same heavier Abyssal pressure that had been aggravating her arm since the previous chapter. She did not try to hold it in place. The Sword Dao shifted with the movement, burdening the elbow for a moment before sliding toward the upper back, keeping the pressure useful without letting the damaged meridians remain directly beneath the full weight of the Immortal Emperor's cultivation. Yueru used the resulting turn to move nearer the chest, and sacrificial essence immediately thickened around the Sky Piercer scar, leaving the shoulder Ziyue had cut with less protection than the Demon God could restore at once.
Haotian saw the transfer and changed his route before the arm guarding the chest completed its movement. He struck the exposed shoulder instead of the scar, driving his left palm into the weakened layer while the right hand remained close to his body, useful only for brief contact and redirection. The blow forced more sacrificial essence toward the shoulder, which in turn exposed part of the lower ribs, and Ziyue returned through that opening without needing Haotian to call her toward it. Her sword reached flesh again, widening a wound that had already begun bleeding before the reinforcement could fully return.
The Demon God responded by driving through both of them rather than trying to restore every damaged region first. Haotian saw the forearm coming and moved with its turn, but his left shoulder no longer carried the redirection as freely as it had earlier, forcing him to release the contact before the enlarged arm finished crossing. Ziyue had already withdrawn from the flank, and the forearm passed between them before the Demon God used the same rotation to bring its shoulder into Haotian's chest. He turned enough to keep the ribs from taking the center of the collision, yet the force still sent him backward and left both shoulders heavier when he regained his footing.
The space he surrendered did not remain open. Xiangyin's spear entered near the Demon God's hip, and Yanfei shifted Frostfire into the route beyond it, compelling another correction through the lower body while Yinxue moved her Sword Dao back toward the arm that had just struck Haotian. The coordination remained as clean as it had ever been, but the injuries underneath it continued showing themselves in small adjustments. Xiangyin released the repaired hand sooner whenever the spear received a hard impact, Yanfei no longer spread Frostfire farther than necessary unless someone else failed to close a route, and Yinxue allowed every direct clash of Dao to last only as long as the others genuinely needed.