The Demon God stepped into the space Yanfei had surrendered and immediately forced Haotian and Xiangyin to work closer together than either of them wanted. Xiangyin's spear still controlled the first angle of the lower body, but the recovering wrist could no longer shift the weapon freely once the shaft took a heavy impact, leaving Haotian responsible whenever the Demon God altered its movement after contact. He stayed nearer the hips where shorter movements demanded less from his damaged shoulders, while Yinxue, Lianhua, Ziyue, and Yueru compressed around the upper body and adjusted to the absence of the Frostfire that had previously shaped so many of the Demon God's routes.
When the Demon God struck Xiangyin's spear aside and changed direction before she could recover it one-handed, Haotian entered beside the supporting leg and drove a short palm into the hip crease. Rather than oppose the forward force, he changed how that momentum travelled through the planted foot and hip, carrying the Demon God farther toward Ziyue's side. She cut into the exposed flank with the sword kept below shoulder height, but the enlarged arm above her recovered before Yinxue could establish more than a momentary restraint and forced Ziyue to lift the blade into another high interception.
The healing pill had restored enough strength for her shoulder to rise, though the joint no longer received force cleanly. Ziyue caught the forearm at an angle and rotated with it, allowing the sword to carry part of the impact away from her body, but the shoulder weakened halfway through the motion and dragged the blade toward her chest before she could finish guiding the arm aside. Yueru stepped in from the outside with her healthier arm and struck the same forearm while Haotian reached the elbow from below, their combined movement carrying the attack beyond Ziyue without requiring her injured shoulder to hold it alone.
Ziyue flexed the fingers around the sword once as she recovered and lowered the weapon into a guard she could support without lifting the shoulder farther. The medicinal current from the pill was still circulating through the joint, suppressing swelling and giving the arm enough function to remain useful, but the newest strain had already layered itself over the earlier injury. Haotian caught the tightening beneath the skin while slipping toward the Demon God's flank and adjusted his position closer to the upper body because the next high strike could no longer be left to Ziyue without worsening the shoulder again.
Yinxue tried to reduce that burden before he reached her side. Sword Dao settled over the Demon God's shoulder and upper arm in shorter pressures rather than one prolonged restraint, each application delaying the limb long enough for Lianhua or Ziyue to move through the space it created before Yinxue released. The method kept the Abyssal backlash from remaining in contact with her recently treated meridians for long, yet every collision still tightened the damaged pathways, and the brief pauses between one pressure and the next grew longer as she circulated around the injury.
The Demon God drove an arm through one of those pauses while Lianhua was already cutting along the forearm. She shortened the attack and used Cloud-Sundering Steps to turn through the outside rather than continue deeper around the shoulder, keeping the motion through her ribs as shallow as she could. The recently healed side tightened during the second step anyway, slowing the turn enough that the Demon God's elbow caught her before she completely cleared the arm and threw her across the broken ground.
Haotian saw her strike the stone and roll, but the Demon God had already shifted weight toward Xiangyin before he could leave the lower body. The spearhead remained near the thigh, though her recovering hand had opened again after the last collision and forced her to control the entire weapon through the healthier side while the leg descended. Haotian stepped behind the planted ankle, struck low with his shin, and carried the disturbance upward through the Demon God's stance as Xiangyin swept the spear point across the outside of the knee.
The combined disruption kept the foot from settling cleanly, but the Demon God accepted the unstable stance and drove a knee toward Haotian rather than trying to correct it first. Haotian shifted inside the rising leg and struck beneath the ribs with a short elbow, using the torso and waist to carry the force so neither shoulder had to extend, and the impact opened the same region Ziyue had cut earlier. Dark blood came through the wound and sacrificial reinforcement began moving toward the side, but the Demon God's other hand caught Haotian across the upper arm during his retreat and forced him several paces away before he recovered his balance.
Yueru moved toward the chest as the reinforcement shifted. She gathered Lightning only after the protection around the old Sky Piercer wound thinned, keeping the current close to the sword while she crossed beneath the guarding arm. The Demon God turned toward her before she reached the scar, but Ziyue raised the pill-supported shoulder to intercept the forearm and Yinxue placed Sword Dao across the elbow at the same moment, creating just enough resistance for Yueru to continue rather than abandon the approach.
Her blade touched the outer edge of the scar and Lightning entered through the damaged tissue, waking the crimson current Alter had left behind. Thin violent filaments spread beneath the reconstructed pathways around the wound, disturbing the sacrificial reinforcement packed through the damaged structures and forcing the Demon God's chest to contract around the old injury. Yueru maintained contact only long enough to provoke the reaction, but the recoil returning through her own Lightning meridians struck an arm that had already been pushed through too many similar attempts, loosening her grip before she intended to withdraw.
The sword slipped from the Lightning hand and she caught it with the other before it fell, but the injured arm dropped close to her side and failed to rise when she tried to bring it back into position. Yueru changed hands without wasting another attempt on the numb arm and began withdrawing while Haotian moved into the chest opening she had created. Residual crimson lightning was still moving beneath the scar when his compact palm struck the disturbed region, following the old damage instead of trying to force a new path through untouched Immortal Emperor flesh.
The impact drove unstable reinforcement inward and tore part of the reopened Sky Piercer wound farther along the damaged pathways. Dark blood ran down the Demon God's chest before its forearm swept back toward Haotian, and although the Eyes of the Universe showed him the exact route required to leave cleanly, his body could not reach it in time. He turned the damaged ribs away from the center and let the forearm catch his left shoulder and upper back instead, using the blow's momentum to carry himself sideways rather than resisting with the weakened joint.
The impact still sent him several paces across the ruined ground, and by the time he regained his footing the Demon God had already turned toward Ziyue and Yueru. Ziyue stepped into the approaching arm before Yueru could move completely clear, but the healing pill no longer gave the shoulder enough stability to hold the sword beneath heavy force. The joint folded inward before she completed the turn, dragging the blade down with the arm and leaving the Demon God's strike free to continue through her failing guard and into Yueru, sending both women tumbling across the rubble together.
Yueru kept hold of the sword in her healthy hand as she rolled and began pushing herself upright, the Lightning arm hanging close to her body rather than helping. Ziyue rose beside her and tried to bring the injured arm forward automatically, only for the shoulder to stop before the elbow reached the height she needed. She shifted the sword into the other hand while Haotian crossed between them and the Demon God, catching the attacking wrist against his forearm before stepping beneath the elbow and rotating his entire body through the movement.
The altered relationship between the arm, shoulder, and forward momentum carried the strike past Ziyue and Yueru, but the pressure travelling through Haotian's left shoulder weakened the joint before he completed the turn. He released early and dropped beneath the remaining arc instead of continuing to resist, then struck the ribs with the heel of his palm as he moved. Lianhua returned from the opposite side despite keeping one arm closer to her injured ribs, cutting the forearm before it could descend again and leaving immediately after the first contact rather than trying to continue around the body.
Yinxue formed Sword Dao across the opposite shoulder to give Lianhua room to clear the reach, but the Abyssal response struck the repaired meridians harder than before. The pressure shuddered beneath the collision and dissolved as Yinxue released, her injured arm tightening close to her body while the Demon God's shoulder recovered sooner than any of them wanted. Haotian was forced back into the upper body before Lianhua had completely reset her stance, using a short forearm strike against the elbow to shift the returning arm away from her.
Xiangyin was still holding the lower side with one reliable hand. The recovering wrist rested lightly against the shaft when she needed to guide the weapon, but every significant collision forced the fingers open again and left the healthier arm carrying the spear alone. When the Demon God stepped toward Haotian, Xiangyin thrust across the thigh and changed the point toward the knee as the leg moved, only for the Demon God to strike the shaft aside hard enough that the recovering hand went slack before she could release it voluntarily.
The spear swung wider than she intended, and Haotian entered the space before the weapon had finished moving. He drove his shoulder low against the hip, planted one foot beside the Demon God's ankle, and shifted the center of mass across the unsupported leg. The Demon God answered before the imbalance could travel through the torso, driving a knee upward into Haotian's side and compressing the ribs hard enough to lift him from the ground.
He landed several paces away and rolled through the impact before forcing himself onto one knee. Xiangyin recovered the spear with the healthy arm and brought the point back toward the leg before the Demon God could follow, making it turn rather than advance directly and buying Haotian enough time to stand. He reached her as the Demon God came again and saw the injured hand hanging near the shaft without closing around it.
"Your hand?"
"Gone."
"Wrist?"
"Same."
Xiangyin shifted the spear farther beneath the healthy arm. "I can still thrust."
"Keep it short."
She moved with him.
Behind them, Liora remained focused on Yanfei's shoulder. Life Dao had already reduced the swelling and reopened the damaged meridians enough for cultivation to move through them again, but healing the joint had not replenished the energy Yanfei had spent maintaining repeated Frostfire fields. Liora kept the treatment concentrated where the tissues and pathways had been damaged again, the aura around her hands thinner than during the earlier rounds of healing and sweat gathering along her face as she forced stable circulation through the same region another time.
Yanfei watched Haotian and Xiangyin struggle to contain the lower body without the Frostfire she had been providing.
"My arm works."
"Not enough."
"They need the ground."
"They need you able to hold it."
Another impact rolled through the ruins as Xiangyin's spear struck the Demon God's leg. Yanfei shifted forward, but Liora tightened her hand against the shoulder before she could stand fully.
"A little longer."
Yanfei stopped, though her attention never left the battle.
At the front, the Demon God had driven Xiangyin's spear downward and forced Haotian between the legs again. He moved around the planted foot instead of contesting the upper body, struck the outside of the ankle with the heel of his own foot, and turned immediately into the hip with a short palm, linking both contacts through the same disruption of balance. The Demon God spread its stance rather than let the lower body turn farther, and the wider position gave Lianhua enough room to enter from above.
She cut the shoulder and stepped across the returning arm without making the deeper turn she had used earlier. The shortened route protected the ribs, but it also left her closer to the Demon God when the limb recovered, and the back of the forearm caught her across the same injured side before she completely cleared the reach. Lianhua struck the ground and pushed up with one arm, only for the ribs to tighten before she could straighten fully, leaving her on one knee with the sword held between herself and the Demon God.
Ziyue moved toward her with the weapon already transferred into the healthier hand, cutting at the descending forearm before it could reach Lianhua. The unfamiliar side changed the angle of the blade but still forced enough of a response for Yueru to enter from the opposite direction, striking with the sword in her healthy hand while the Lightning arm remained close to her body. Their combined attacks diverted the Demon God long enough for Lianhua to move farther from the center, but Yinxue had already started gathering Sword Dao to prevent the shoulder from following.
The restraint settled briefly over the Demon God's upper body before Abyssal Dao pushed back through it and tightened Yinxue's injured pathways. She released at once, staggered a step as the damaged arm contracted, then abandoned the prolonged restraint and moved physically toward Ziyue instead. Her sword cut across the Demon God's elbow as it turned, but entering that close removed the distance that had previously protected the damaged arm, and the Demon God's shoulder clipped her during the withdrawal and sent her across the broken ground toward Lianhua.
Haotian saw both women forced away while the Demon God continued turning toward Ziyue and Yueru. Xiangyin's spear remained too far outside to interfere, and his damaged shoulders no longer gave him the reach he would have preferred, so he crossed directly into the upper body and used his forearm against the Demon God's elbow. His hips turned beneath the attack while he shifted the upper body away from Ziyue, but the Demon God's other fist reached his side before he could disengage.
Haotian turned before the center of the blow landed, yet enough of it struck the ribs to send him through a broken section of wall. Stone collapsed around his legs when he hit the ruins, and the healing medicine already circulating through his body spread toward the renewed damage without having enough strength left to restore any one injury completely. He pulled himself free while the Demon God continued forward, seeing Ziyue already move back into the fight with the sword held in the opposite hand.
Haotian crossed toward her as she tried to raise the injured arm for balance and saw the shoulder stop before the elbow reached chest height.
"Shoulder?"
"Can't raise it."
"Use the other hand."
"I am."
They separated as the Demon God reached them.
Ziyue attacked low from the healthier side while Yueru mirrored her with the only arm still answering properly. Xiangyin's spear threatened the legs from farther out, and Lianhua and Yinxue returned to the edges of the exchange despite being unable to use the same movements they had relied on earlier. Lianhua kept every turn short through the ribs, while Yinxue used her sword physically and reserved Sword Dao for brief interruptions she could abandon before the Abyssal response settled too deeply into the damaged meridians.
Their movements still created openings. Yueru and Ziyue attacked opposite sides of the forearm, forcing the Demon God to move the guarding arm away from the chest while Lianhua cut the shoulder during the turn and Xiangyin drove the spear into the thigh when the lower stance shifted. Sacrificial reinforcement spread toward the new wounds, and Haotian followed the redistribution until the covering over the Sky Piercer scar thinned again.
Yueru moved toward it out of habit before the numb Lightning arm failed to rise. She stopped rather than waste time forcing cultivation through pathways that were no longer responding and changed direction toward the guarding arm instead, leaving Haotian to cross through the opening before the sacrificial reinforcement returned. His short palm struck the reopened scar along the existing damage, tearing farther through the weakened tissue and disturbing the residual crimson lightning still buried in the pathways.
The Demon God recoiled half a step as dark blood ran from the chest, then closed one enlarged hand around Haotian before he could leave. The fingers wrapped across his upper body and lifted him from the ground, compressing the ribs and pinning one damaged shoulder against his side. Haotian drove his forearms between the fingers and planted one foot against the wrist, but the difference in strength was too great for him to pry the grip apart directly.
Instead, he changed the structure of the hold, turning his hips and shifting the relationship between the Demon God's wrist, fingers, and his trapped body until the pressure no longer closed evenly around him. Xiangyin struck the forearm with the spear at the same moment, using the healthier arm to drive the shaft while Ziyue and Yueru attacked the elbow from opposite sides. The combined change loosened the grip enough for Haotian to twist sideways and drop free.
He landed on the compromised hip and the leg folded beneath him before he caught himself against the ground. The Demon God's foot was already descending, its angle telling Haotian that he would not clear the full step before it reached him, but Xiangyin entered first with the spear braced one-handed across the approach. She turned the point toward the ankle instead of trying to stop the entire leg, diverting the foot several inches and giving Haotian enough room to roll away.
The Demon God kicked the shaft aside as it recovered. The weapon tore through Xiangyin's healthy grip and dragged the injured hand against it when she tried to recover, folding the wrist under the sudden force before she could release. Both hands opened, and she caught the spear against her forearm and side before it struck the ground, the injured hand hanging limp while fresh splits opened across the healthier palm where the shaft had dragged through it.
Haotian reached her before the Demon God did.
"Can you hold it?"
"With one."
"Thrust?"
"Yes." Xiangyin tucked the spear beneath the healthier arm. "Just slower."
Haotian shifted into the next approach without asking anything else.
Yanfei was standing by then, Liora's hand still resting against the repaired shoulder while the last concentrated strands of Life Dao settled through the joint.
"Keep it small," Liora said.
"I will."
"If it starts again, stop."
Yanfei looked toward Haotian and Xiangyin as the Demon God forced them backward. "I'll try."
Liora released her.
Yanfei returned at an angle rather than heading directly toward the Demon God and waited until Haotian forced the next step into a predictable line before placing Frostfire beneath it. Cold spread through the fractured stone, heat followed through the same cracks, and the compact technique gave Xiangyin enough time to shift the one-handed spear toward the knee without asking Yanfei's shoulder to support another wide field.
The Demon God crushed through the Frostfire and continued forward. Yanfei formed another patch farther along the route, but the technique lacked the density it had carried earlier because Liora had repaired the shoulder rather than replaced everything she had already spent. Haotian used the weaker ground as part of the footing instead of depending on it to stop the leg, striking the supporting hip and forcing more weight onto the unstable stone while Xiangyin thrust from the opposite side.
The Demon God powered through both pressures and turned toward Yanfei before the next field finished forming. Ziyue moved first, attacking the forearm with the sword in her healthier hand because the injured shoulder could no longer raise the other arm into a useful guard, and Yueru joined her from the opposite side. The Demon God drove through both blades and forced Ziyue backward before Yueru could complete the second strike.
Lianhua crossed toward them, but the ribs tightened during the turn. Yinxue gathered Sword Dao just long enough to slow the shoulder following her, only for the repaired meridians to contract beneath the returning Abyssal pressure and force her to release before Lianhua had completely cleared the reach. Haotian abandoned the lower body and crossed toward the upper side, catching the Demon God's wrist against both forearms and stepping beneath the elbow so the hips could carry more of the turn than his damaged shoulders.
The attack moved away from Ziyue and Yueru, but the pressure compressed Haotian's ribs and loaded the left shoulder until the joint began weakening beneath the movement. He released before it failed and dropped beneath the arm, but the knee rising toward his side caught him before he could completely leave and hurled him across the ruined ground.
Yanfei widened Frostfire to cover the lower route Haotian had left open. The repaired shoulder tightened almost as soon as the technique spread beyond the compact range Liora had warned her to maintain, forcing Yanfei to reduce it before the meridians tore again and leaving the far side of the Demon God's step uncovered. Xiangyin tried to replace Haotian there with the spear, but one hand could not shift the weapon across fast enough, and the point reached the leg late enough for the Demon God to strike the shaft aside and continue through the opening.
The side of the leg caught Xiangyin and sent her sliding across the ruins with the spear trapped beneath one arm. Ziyue saw the Demon God turn toward Yanfei and brought the sword through the healthier side, but the altered grip and injured shoulder delayed the guard just enough for the Demon God's forearm to drive through her blade and throw her backward into Yueru. Yueru absorbed part of the collision with the healthy arm, but the numb Lightning side could not help brace the impact, and both women lost enough ground for the Demon God to regain the center between them.