The repeated compression forced Yanfei to use another wider Frostfire field before the medicine had fully settled through the shoulder. She layered cold into the broken stone, followed with heat, and narrowed the technique as soon as Haotian reached the nearest leg, but the extra expenditure drew her reserves down enough that the next gathering was noticeably slower. Yanfei continued anyway, keeping the technique close and allowing Haotian and Xiangyin to decide where the Demon God would step rather than trying to control every possible route herself.
Behind the fighting, Liora's Life Dao was still moving through Yinxue's arm, though the pattern had changed from active repair toward stabilization. Haotian caught the smoother circulation only intermittently while passing around the Demon God's legs, but the Eyes of the Universe showed the damaged meridians holding their shape without tightening every time Sword Dao passed through them in a small test. Yinxue was not fully recovered, and Liora had not restored the arm to the condition it had been in before the battle, but she was approaching the point where returning to the frontline would no longer immediately undo the treatment.
Xiangyin needed that change sooner than anyone could afford to say. The pill had kept the injured wrist from deteriorating further, yet the hand still could not support the spear, and the healthy arm had been carrying the weapon long enough that fatigue had begun entering the shoulder and forearm around it as well. When the Demon God struck the shaft aside again, Xiangyin recovered the point more slowly than before, leaving Yanfei to spread Frostfire farther and Haotian to move closer to the leg before the stride could break through both of them.
Haotian reached the knee as the step descended, shifted the weight toward Yanfei's denser field, and felt the left shoulder weaken before the adjustment had travelled as far as the Eyes of the Universe showed it needed to go. He completed the change through his hips and footwork rather than force the arm farther, but the altered movement left him inside the reach when the Demon God brought a forearm across the upper body. Xiangyin could not change the spear fast enough to interfere, and Yanfei was already releasing the wider Frostfire to protect her shoulder, so Haotian raised both arms and allowed the impact to drive him backward rather than resist until the joints failed.
The Demon God advanced with him, and the others closed around the movement before it could become a pursuit. Lianhua cut the shoulder from one side while Ziyue attacked lower from the other, keeping her sword beneath the painful range of the damaged joint, and Yueru moved near the Sky Piercer scar with enough sensation restored to make Lightning a real threat again. Xiangyin brought the spear back toward the thigh one-handed, Yanfei concentrated Frostfire beneath the only clean footing left, and Haotian recovered his stance inside their pressure with both shoulders aching and the right hand slower to answer than the left.
At the edge of his perception, Yinxue shifted under Liora's hands as the healer withdrew part of the Life Dao from the stabilized meridians and allowed Yinxue's own circulation to take more of the load. Haotian saw that change while Xiangyin stood only a short distance ahead of him with the spear still carried entirely through the healthier arm, the swollen wrist held close beneath the lingering effect of medicine, and he understood that the moment Yinxue could return, Xiangyin would finally have the chance to reach Liora for the second treatment that joint now required. The Demon God gave none of them time to arrange that exchange, driving its next step through the edge of Yanfei's Frostfire while Haotian was still bringing his arms back into position, and he moved toward the knee again as Xiangyin shifted the one-handed spear beside him.
Yinxue returned before Liora had finished restoring everything the damaged arm had lost. The Life Dao around her shoulder had already withdrawn from the deeper meridians and settled into a thinner layer of support when she rose, testing the sword once in the healthier hand while the injured arm remained close to her body. Liora kept one hand against the shoulder for another breath and looked up at her. "It's not done." Yinxue glanced toward the frontline, where Xiangyin was still controlling the spear with one hand while Haotian and Yanfei worked around the routes she could no longer close. "I know."
Liora released her only after the circulation through the repaired meridians remained stable beneath Yinxue's own cultivation. The arm was better than it had been when she withdrew, but Haotian could see the difference between that condition and the one she had carried into the battle much earlier; the pathways were open again, the swelling had subsided, and Sword Dao could move through them without immediately aggravating the injury, yet too much strain remained for another prolonged contest against the Demon God's Abyssal Dao. Yinxue did not test that limit as she crossed back toward the others. She entered from farther out, placing Sword Dao across the Demon God's shoulder in a short pressure that slowed the turning arm just long enough for Lianhua to leave the reach without forcing another deep twist through her ribs.
The effect on the frontline was immediate, not because Yinxue returned at full strength, but because even a brief restraint at the correct moment removed work from people who had been carrying too much of it. Ziyue no longer had to raise her injured shoulder into every returning arm, Lianhua could leave after the first cut instead of staying close enough to cover her own retreat, and Haotian gained enough room to move back toward the lower body rather than remaining between the Demon God's hands. Xiangyin saw the change from beside Yanfei and shifted the one-handed spear farther toward the thigh, using Yinxue's pressure above to recover a portion of the space she had lost since the wrist failed.
The Demon God still broke through the arrangement, but it had to spend more power doing so. Abyssal Dao pushed against Yinxue's Sword Dao and forced her to release earlier than she once would have, while the lower body drove through Yanfei's compact Frostfire and knocked Xiangyin's spear away from the knee. Haotian moved into the correcting step, struck the outside of the joint, and carried the relationship toward the weakened ground, but the left shoulder gave less than the Eyes of the Universe told him he needed, forcing him to complete the change through his hips and footwork instead of the arm. The Demon God turned with the altered stance and drove an elbow toward him, and Yinxue's returning Sword Dao touched the shoulder only long enough to slow the blow before she withdrew from the Abyssal pressure climbing back through the newly treated meridians.
That fraction was enough for Haotian to avoid the center. The elbow still caught his upper arm and turned him sideways, but he remained on his feet and used the movement to return toward Xiangyin rather than letting the Demon God separate him from the lower line. Her spear was back in position, though the injured wrist remained pressed near the body under the effects of the recovery pill, and when Haotian came within reach she shifted the shaft far enough for him to see the swelling that had returned around the joint.
"Your wrist?" he asked while the Demon God was still recovering its step.
"Can't grip."
Haotian moved closer to that side without answering. Xiangyin did not need him to tell her to retreat, and he did not need to explain why she had to; they both knew Liora had only just released Yinxue, and the first safe opening that reached the backline now belonged to Xiangyin.
The Demon God forced them to wait for it.
It stepped through Yanfei's Frostfire before the path toward Liora opened, knocking the spear farther aside and turning the upper body toward Yueru when she moved near the Sky Piercer scar. Yinxue burdened the guarding shoulder long enough for Ziyue and Lianhua to attack from opposite sides, and Haotian followed the movement of sacrificial reinforcement away from the ribs, striking beneath Lianhua's cut instead of trying to reach the chest. The Demon God bled from all three regions, yet the strike that followed still carried enough force to drive Ziyue's sword down and make the injured shoulder buckle under the impact.
Ziyue turned with the arm rather than hold it, but the joint did not recover as quickly afterward. Her sword remained lower when she returned, and Yueru widened around her before gathering Lightning, keeping enough space between them that Ziyue would not have to raise the blade into another high interception merely to protect the approach. That longer path gave the Demon God more time to reinforce the Sky Piercer scar, so Yueru abandoned the attempt before reaching contact and let the current fade through a hand that had only recently regained reliable sensation.
Yinxue took the arm that turned after her. Sword Dao settled across the elbow and shoulder, but instead of holding beneath the Demon God's full pressure, she shifted the technique with the motion and released before the Abyssal backlash could settle into the repaired pathways. Lianhua used the brief restraint to cut the forearm and leave through a shorter Cloud-Sundering Step, while Ziyue attacked the flank from below with her shoulder kept beneath the painful range. Haotian stayed close to the ribs and let their pressure above draw the Demon God's protection upward before striking again.
The combined attacks forced enough of the Demon God's attention away from the lower body for Xiangyin to begin moving toward the outside. She did not turn her back or lower the spear; she passed the weapon's line toward Haotian and Yanfei as she moved, keeping the point between herself and the Demon God until the ruined ground widened enough that the Immortal Emperor could no longer reach her without first breaking through the others. Yanfei tightened Frostfire around the nearest foot, Haotian shifted the next step toward it, and Yinxue added a short line of Sword Dao across the shoulder just as the Demon God tried to follow Xiangyin's withdrawal.
The Demon God broke Yinxue's pressure and drove through the altered footing, but the interruption had already opened the route.
Xiangyin retreated.
Haotian remained close enough to hear Liora when she reached the healer behind them.
"Again?"
"Same wrist."
Liora looked once at the swollen joint and pulled Xiangyin down beside her. "Give me your hand."
Xiangyin opened the fingers as far as they would move, which was not enough to close around anything with strength. Liora placed one hand beneath the wrist and another over the forearm, sending Life Dao through tissue she had already repaired once before, while the medicinal current from Xiangyin's pill continued circulating beneath it. The healing met new swelling layered over recently restored fibers and meridians, and Haotian could see from the edge of the Eyes of the Universe that Liora had to work through the same region more carefully than before instead of simply repeating the earlier treatment.
The difference was not that Life Dao had become weaker. The joint had returned to the battle before the deeper repair completed, been struck repeatedly, supported by medicine, and then damaged again through the same tissues that Liora had only recently stabilized. Repairing it a second time required Liora to separate fresh damage from the healing already underway while her own reserves were lower than when Xiangyin first reached her.
The frontline adjusted to five wives and Haotian without waiting for Xiangyin's treatment to begin properly. Yanfei could no longer rely on the spear to remove one of the Demon God's lower routes, so she spread Frostfire farther than she had been allowing herself to use, while Haotian moved nearer the legs to keep the wider technique from carrying the entire burden by itself. Lianhua and Ziyue stayed around the upper body with Yinxue supporting from range, and Yueru remained near enough to the Sky Piercer scar that the Demon God could not move all of its protection into offense.
Yanfei's shoulder began resisting before the second wider field completed.
Haotian saw the circulation tighten and entered the outer edge before she had to force more cultivation through it. He shifted the descending foot toward the denser portion of the Frostfire, but the Demon God powered through the adjustment and brought its knee and hip across the movement in the same step. Haotian turned enough to keep the center away from his ribs, yet the collision still drove him several paces and left the left shoulder weak when he tried to raise the arm again.
Yanfei drew the Frostfire inward as soon as he recovered the route. The pill supporting the joint had kept the shoulder from failing outright, but it could not replace the reserves she had spent compensating for Xiangyin, and the next technique gathered with less density until she deliberately narrowed it around the Demon God's feet. Haotian moved closer to her because that choice left more open ground around the field, and the Demon God continued driving into those openings fast enough that he had to use the Dao of the Universe on nearly every step instead of waiting for the best ones.
Yinxue saw how often he was entering and began placing Sword Dao against the upper body sooner, trying to reduce how freely the arms could punish him while he worked near the legs. The first few pressures held long enough to matter, but each time the Demon God answered with Abyssal Dao, she released before the newly treated meridians tightened again. The shorter contests prevented another immediate collapse of the arm, though they also meant Lianhua and Ziyue had to remain close enough to finish whatever Yinxue could no longer hold.
Lianhua's ribs began limiting those finishes.
She entered beside the Demon God's shoulder after Yinxue slowed the arm, cut with Voidpierce, and left before the pressure recovered, but a deeper turn needed to avoid the returning elbow pulled hard enough through the treated side that her next breath came shorter. Haotian heard it when she passed near him while he was leaving the knee.
"Your side?"
"Hurts again."
"Bad?"
"Not yet."
That was all they had time for. Lianhua shifted farther outside before the Demon God's next turn and used the following Cloud-Sundering Step through the legs rather than the ribs, while Haotian moved inside the arm she no longer tried to circle completely.
Ziyue was forced to cover the opposite side more aggressively as Lianhua shortened her movements. She kept the sword low and used the waist to drive the cuts, preserving the injured shoulder whenever the Demon God's arms stayed below chest height, but the enlarged reach eventually forced another high guard when a forearm crossed toward Yueru. Ziyue raised the weapon, caught the attack before it reached her, and immediately lost strength through the shoulder as the pressure drove down the blade.
Yueru moved with the strike instead of leaving Ziyue beneath it alone. Her healthier hand pushed the sword across the forearm while the Lightning arm supported for only a moment, enough for both women to turn the attack outside their bodies before Haotian reached the elbow and carried the movement farther away. The brief use was still enough to bring numbness back into Yueru's fingers, and when she released the Demon God's arm the hand remained partly closed until circulation returned.
"Your hand?" Haotian asked.
"Going numb again."
"Can you still use Lightning?"
Yueru flexed the fingers once while circling away from the Demon God. "Once. Maybe."
Haotian looked back toward the chest without replying. The scar was still the best place for her Lightning, which meant there was no reason to waste what remained unless the others opened it properly.
The opportunity came only after the Demon God forced Yanfei's Frostfire apart and drove Haotian away from the lower body. Its step carried too much weight onto the front leg, and Yinxue used the resulting upper-body correction to lay Sword Dao across the shoulder while Lianhua and Ziyue attacked opposite sides. The sacrificial reinforcement shifted toward both wounds, leaving the Sky Piercer scar thin enough that Yueru moved before the Demon God could gather it back.
She reached the chest with the sword already carrying Lightning. The current entered the edge of the scar and disturbed Alter's crimson residue beneath the reconstructed pathways, causing the damaged structures around the old wound to tighten and the dark covering to pull inward. Haotian saw the internal reaction immediately and moved toward it, but Yueru ended the contact before the guarding arm could catch her, preserving the hand from another prolonged discharge while the residual crimson current continued moving for several breaths inside the wound.
Haotian reached the scar after she left.
Fist of Ruin struck just below the opened edge rather than directly into the strongest remaining reinforcement, driving force through tissue already destabilized by Lightning and widening the wound enough that dark blood spilled down the Demon God's chest. The attack made the enlarged torso recoil, but the Demon God recovered before Haotian could add a second strike and slammed an arm across his upper body.
The blow lifted him from the ground.
Haotian hit the ruins on his side, rolled once, and came to rest closer to the backline than he had been at any point since the fight began. Pain spread through the left shoulder, ribs, and hip before he pushed one hand beneath himself, but the position gave the Eyes of the Universe a clear view of Liora and Xiangyin only several dozen paces away.
Xiangyin's second treatment was still underway.
The swelling had come down, and Life Dao was restoring movement through the damaged joint, but Liora's current around her was narrower than it had been during the first treatment. She concentrated the healing into the wrist and forearm instead of spreading it through Xiangyin's whole body, using the medicinal support already present to handle lesser strain while she repaired the joint deeply enough that the hand might grip again. Sweat had begun gathering along Liora's temple, and the rhythm of her breathing was heavier than it had been when Haotian first saw her treat anyone earlier in the battle.
Xiangyin noticed Haotian on the ground beyond her and tried to move.
Liora held the wrist in place. "Don't."
"He's up."
"I know. Hold still."
Haotian was already forcing himself onto one knee, so Xiangyin stopped trying to rise and let Liora continue working. The exchange lasted only a moment, but it told Haotian enough; Xiangyin was still not ready, Liora was spending more time and more of herself to produce less complete recovery, and there was no empty place behind them for the next person who needed treatment.
He saw Yanfei stagger as the Demon God broke another Frostfire field.
Yinxue's Sword Dao caught the arm that followed, but the pressure broke sooner than before and she released immediately rather than damage the meridians Liora had only just stabilized. Lianhua entered to cover the opening and shortened the turn when the ribs tightened, while Ziyue moved closer to Yueru with the sword still below shoulder height because the joint could no longer tolerate repeated high guards.
No one stopped fighting.
Haotian rose.
The Demon God crossed toward Yanfei again, and Haotian returned before the next step landed.
He reached the lower body as Yanfei pulled Frostfire inward around the approaching foot, struck the outside of the knee, and used the Dao of the Universe to shift the weight toward the denser part of her technique. The left shoulder nearly failed during the contact, but Yinxue burdened the upper body just long enough for Haotian to leave before the arm could strike him directly, while Lianhua and Ziyue opened the flank and Yueru stayed close enough to the Sky Piercer scar that the sacrificial reinforcement could not follow every wound at once.
The Demon God bled heavily from the chest and side, but its step still broke through the Frostfire.
Yanfei withdrew half a pace and gathered another field.
Haotian saw how slowly it formed.
"Your shoulder?"
Yanfei kept her eyes on the Demon God. "Getting bad again."
"Can you keep going?"
"For now."
Haotian shifted closer to her without saying anything else.
The next time the Demon God stepped beyond the Frostfire, he met it before Yanfei had to widen the technique. His palm turned the knee, the Dao of the Universe carried the correction upward, and the Immortal Emperor answered by forcing enough power through the leg to drive the strain back into Haotian's shoulder. He released before the joint gave, but the correcting elbow caught his back and sent him forward into the ground.
Yinxue pressured the arm while he recovered.
Lianhua entered along the shoulder.
Ziyue moved through the flank.
The Demon God forced its way through all three and continued toward Yueru, who gathered no Lightning because the numbness had not fully left her hand.
Haotian came back in from below.
Behind him, Xiangyin's fingers had begun closing under Liora's treatment, though not with the strength they had possessed after the first healing. Liora tested the grip against her own hand, watched the joint hold for a moment, then continued feeding Life Dao into the deeper tissues instead of releasing her immediately. Xiangyin looked toward the fight but did not try to rise again.
"Better?" she asked.
"Some."
"How long?"
Liora kept her attention on the wrist. "Not long."
That answer could have meant the treatment or the time the others could keep holding the Demon God without her. Neither woman clarified it.
Haotian had no chance to listen for more. The Demon God struck Ziyue's sword hard enough that the injured shoulder gave under the guard and forced her several paces backward, leaving Lianhua alone on the upper side while Yinxue tried to support from farther out. Haotian redirected the next arm away from Lianhua and took the remaining force across his left shoulder, while Yanfei altered the ground beneath the following step and Yueru moved closer to the chest despite the unreliable hand.
The fight pulled him away from the backline again.
He returned to the same space he had been occupying throughout the chapter, between injuries that could no longer cover one another completely, using the Eyes of the Universe to find every place the family could still make the Demon God spend more than it wanted. Xiangyin remained with Liora for a second treatment, Yinxue had returned but could not hold prolonged Dao clashes, Yanfei's shoulder was deteriorating again, Lianhua's ribs were tightening after their own treatment, Yueru had perhaps one reliable Lightning discharge left in the injured arm, and Ziyue's shoulder was now changing the way she wielded the sword.
Haotian carried all of that information while the Demon God moved toward them, not as a conclusion separate from the fight but as part of the same relationships the Eyes of the Universe had been following since the first exchange. Yanfei's Frostfire narrowed around the approaching foot, Yinxue touched Sword Dao against the turning shoulder without holding it, and Lianhua and Ziyue moved around the upper body while Yueru waited near the Sky Piercer scar for an opening worth the Lightning she still had.
Haotian stepped between the lower pressures and met the Demon God's advance again, his left shoulder heavy, his right arm unreliable, his ribs tight beneath the healing pills, and his hip protesting every sharp change of direction. The step still needed to be moved, Xiangyin was not yet back to help control it, and Yanfei could not afford another wide Frostfire field, so he struck the knee and carried the adjustment through the Dao of the Universe while the Demon God forced its weight against him.
The leg turned, carrying the shoulder with it before Haotian could completely clear the movement. He yielded through the impact and stayed close enough for Yanfei to draw the Frostfire beneath the altered footing, while Yinxue's Sword Dao settled briefly over the upper body and Lianhua and Ziyue moved into the openings created around it. Yueru remained near the Sky Piercer scar without gathering Lightning, preserving what remained in the strained arm as the Demon God forced itself through the pressure and Haotian shifted with the others to meet the next movement.
At the edge of his perception, Liora continued working through Xiangyin's wrist while the Demon God drove them farther across the ruined ground, and the Life Dao around the backline no longer felt inexhaustible. The healing continued to restore what it touched, but no one on the frontline was remaining restored long enough for that work to accumulate into recovery, and Haotian had already begun moving toward the next step before the injuries from the previous one had settled.