Lianhua entered to prevent it from following. Her ribs seized before she completed the turn, and although the sword still reached the forearm, the shortened movement left her too close when the arm returned. Yinxue tried to hold the shoulder long enough for her to leave, but Sword Dao broke beneath the Abyssal pressure before the opening fully formed, freeing the arm while Lianhua was still inside its reach.
Haotian reached her first.
He caught Lianhua by the upper arm and pulled her beneath the returning strike rather than trying to redirect the full force with his shoulders. His compromised hip nearly folded when he changed direction, but he kept moving through the imbalance and shifted toward Ziyue and Yueru as the Demon God planted another foot. The fractured ground beneath that step still carried the remnants of Yanfei's fading Frostfire, and Haotian changed how the Demon God's weight met the unstable surface just enough to turn the advancing shoulder away from Ziyue.
The enormous shoulder struck Haotian instead, slamming across his upper body and driving him backward into the space between the injured women. Ziyue and Yueru separated before the collision could carry all three of them together, while Yanfei tried to restore Frostfire beneath the Demon God's next step and Liora moved closer behind her.
"Yanfei."
"I know."
Cold entered the broken ground anyway, but the heat followed unevenly and Yanfei's repaired shoulder began trembling before the circulation reached the far edge. She narrowed the technique at once, leaving one side of the Demon God's approach without enough Frostfire to influence the footing.
Xiangyin had already forced herself back up and drove the spear toward that side with the healthier hand. The weapon moved too slowly, and Haotian crossed in front of the point before it reached the leg, striking the Demon God's wrist with his left forearm and entering beneath the elbow to carry the attacking side away from Xiangyin. The turn placed him directly in front of the Demon God, and the fist from the opposite side drove into his chest before his damaged shoulders could complete another redirection.
Haotian gave ground with the blow without leaving the space between the Demon God and Xiangyin. When the next arm turned toward Ziyue, he entered that one as well, using the hip and forearm to carry it outward before her injured shoulder could fail beneath another late guard. The Demon God immediately changed toward Yueru, whose healthy hand brought the sword up while the numb arm remained useless beside her body, and Haotian crossed her line before the strike could reach her.
Behind him, Lianhua tried to move beside his left shoulder and stopped when the ribs tightened during the first turn. Yinxue gathered Sword Dao to help him hold the next attack, but the damaged meridians contracted so sharply that the restraint dissolved before it settled. Yanfei spread Frostfire toward the Demon God's rear foot and pulled it back as the repaired shoulder began failing again, while Xiangyin shifted the spear with one hand and could not bring the point across before the Demon God had already changed direction.
Haotian moved into every one of those spaces before they could remain open.
The Demon God drove a fist toward his head. Haotian slipped inside it, struck the inner arm with his elbow, and turned through the hips to carry the limb away from Yinxue before the Immortal Emperor could redirect. The second hand was already moving toward his ribs, and he took the strike across the forearms while stepping backward with it rather than allowing the pressure to stop against his damaged shoulders.
His heel struck broken stone as Lianhua started toward his left again, and Haotian crossed her route before she could reach him. He entered the Demon God's descending arm alone, caught the wrist against his forearm, and turned the attack farther from the others while forcing the next step toward the open ruins beyond them. Lianhua stopped when his movement left no safe angle beside him, and when Xiangyin tried to bring the spear through from the opposite side, Haotian shifted the Demon God's stance again and carried the exchange beyond the shortened reach of her one-handed thrust.
The Demon God followed him.
Haotian continued giving ground in that direction rather than returning toward the others. Yanfei's Frostfire formed behind him but no longer beneath his feet, while Ziyue moved forward with the sword in her healthier hand and found Haotian already occupying the route she needed. Yueru tried the other side, only for the Demon God's turning shoulder to follow Haotian farther away before she could enter, and Yinxue and Lianhua remained several paces behind them, neither able to cross the widening distance quickly enough without forcing their existing injuries.
The Demon God swung again, and Haotian met it alone. He drove his forearm into the wrist, stepped beneath the arm, struck the supporting hip with his other hand, and changed the advancing weight so the Immortal Emperor's next stride carried both of them farther from the compressed line of injured women. The Demon God resisted the turn and brought the opposite arm down, forcing Haotian through the narrow space between them while the altered step crashed into the ruins where Ziyue and Yueru had been standing moments before.
Haotian came out of the movement with the Demon God facing him again. Behind him, he heard Xiangyin's spear scrape against stone as she tried to advance, followed by the uneven rush of Yanfei gathering another small Frostfire field. Lianhua shifted toward his left and Yinxue toward the right, but neither reached the distance before the Demon God committed its weight again.
Haotian stepped forward and closed both routes with his own body.
The Demon God came for him, and the others had no safe place to enter.
Haotian moved farther into the ruined stronghold before Lianhua could reach the position beside him, keeping the Demon God's body turned away from the others while its arm descended across the space he had deliberately opened. He entered beneath the shoulder rather than retreating from its reach, pressed his left forearm against the inside of the elbow, and rotated with the motion until the fist struck the broken stone several paces beyond him, the impact splitting the ground and throwing debris across his back as he continued around the Demon God's side. His injured hip tightened when he changed direction, but he shortened the next step and drove an elbow beneath the ribs before shifting toward the rear leg, using the difference between the Demon God's planted foot and turning torso to make it take another step farther from the family instead of returning toward them.
Lianhua followed anyway, though the distance Haotian had created forced her to use a longer stretch of Cloud-Sundering Steps than her ribs could comfortably sustain. Haotian heard her approach through the movement behind him and changed the Demon God's angle before she reached striking distance, slipping along the outside of its next arm and striking high against the shoulder so the upper body turned toward him while the legs continued carrying it deeper into the open ruins. By the time Lianhua reached the place where his flank had been, the Demon God had already followed Haotian several more paces, and she had to stop rather than force another deep turn through her injured side simply to chase the battle.
Xiangyin attempted to close from the opposite direction with the spear tucked beneath her healthier arm, but the shortened one-handed thrust no longer had the reach or speed to enter an exchange that was moving away from her. Haotian caught sight of the spearhead at the edge of his perception just as the Demon God shifted its weight toward that side, and instead of allowing the leg to carry it back within Xiangyin's range, he stepped close to the hip and struck the outside of the thigh before turning his own body through the contact. The change was small against the Immortal Emperor's strength, yet it was enough to redirect the next stride toward Haotian and leave Xiangyin several paces behind, her injured hand hanging beside the shaft while the Demon God's mass once again placed itself between her and the fight.
"Haotian," she called, but he could not turn toward her without giving the Demon God the opportunity to follow his attention back toward the group. Both of its arms were already descending from different angles, and Haotian passed between them with his shoulders pulled close to protect the damaged joints, letting one forearm scrape along his upper back as he crossed beneath the chest. He struck beside the old Sky Piercer wound on the way through, not attempting to break the reinforced scar but forcing sacrificial essence to thicken over it, and the Demon God responded exactly as he expected by protecting the chest and turning its upper body after him.
That turn placed the family behind the Demon God instead of beside it, which was all Haotian needed from the exchange. He yielded several more paces into the ruins while continuing to threaten the chest whenever the Demon God tried to look away, using short strikes and changes of position rather than committing enough force to trap himself inside a prolonged collision. Behind the Demon God, Yanfei began gathering Frostfire beneath the ground between them, but the distance Haotian had created forced the technique to spread farther than the repaired shoulder could safely support, and Liora caught the tightening in the joint almost as soon as the first cold lines reached the broken stone.
Yanfei let the technique collapse when Liora shook her head, though her attention never left Haotian. Ziyue had moved nearer Lianhua with the sword still held in the healthier hand, while Yueru remained on the other side with the Lightning arm close against her body and Yinxue stood between them without enough stability in the injured meridians to sustain Sword Dao across the growing distance. None of them had stopped fighting because they wanted to, but Haotian had stretched the battlefield far enough that rejoining him now required them to cross open ground through injuries that had already made their previous formation too slow.
The Demon God tried to end that separation by sweeping one arm across Haotian and turning its body back toward them. Haotian saw the change begin through the shoulder and hip before the arm completed its path, but his damaged leg no longer allowed him to clear the enlarged reach in a single movement, forcing him to catch the forearm across both arms and rotate with the blow instead. The force drove his boots through loose stone and carried him several paces sideways, yet he kept guiding the strike away from the family throughout the movement and used the instant the pressure began to lessen to step toward the Demon God rather than away from it.
He entered close enough that the Demon God had to look down to keep him within its immediate reach, placing one foot beside the outer ankle and striking the hip while the larger body was still recovering from the sweep. The change he forced into the stance was weaker than it would have been before his shoulders, ribs, and hip accumulated so much damage, but the Eyes of the Universe showed him precisely how little adjustment was required to make the Demon God shift another step into the open ruins. Haotian drove his knee beneath the ribs as the weight moved and turned around the descending elbow that followed, accepting the edge of the strike across his damaged shoulder because leaving completely would have allowed the Demon God to face the family again.
Pain spread down the arm and briefly weakened the fingers on that side, though Haotian continued through the turn and struck the flank before the joint could stiffen completely. The Demon God answered with a backhand that caught him before his injured hip could carry him beyond the reach, sending him across a stretch of broken masonry where he landed on the shoulder and rolled through fragments of stone. Healing medicine moved toward the renewed damage as soon as he forced himself upright, but the current divided through too many injuries to restore more than enough function for him to lift the arm again.
Lianhua had started toward him before he finished rising. Haotian saw her shorten the first step when the ribs tightened and understood that if she entered the battle now, she would have no margin left to escape the next exchange once the Demon God turned on her. "Don't," he said as he moved forward again, and although the single word stopped her for a moment, the Demon God was already between them by the time she answered.
"You can barely stand," Lianhua said, her sword still raised despite the hand pressed briefly against her side.
Haotian caught the Demon God's wrist against his forearm and turned his hips beneath the attack rather than loading either shoulder against the full force. "I know."
"Then come back."
The second arm forced him lower before he could answer, and Haotian moved under the fist while the first strike was still travelling past him, placing a palm against the inside of the elbow and shifting the motion downward until the Demon God's hand smashed through the ground instead of his chest. Stone burst around his legs, and Haotian used the debris and the Demon God's lowered posture to circle farther along its side, continuing to pull the fight away from Lianhua rather than wasting breath explaining something she could already see.
She took another step after him and stopped when the ribs tightened again, while Xiangyin moved toward the other side only to find herself facing the same widening distance with a spear that could no longer be shifted quickly enough through one hand. Haotian did not look back again because the Demon God had begun recognizing what he was doing, and the next change in its shoulders was not directed at him. The enlarged head turned toward the family, followed by the upper torso, and the first movement of the leg beneath it showed Haotian that the Demon God intended to stop following and simply return to the weaker targets.
He forced Heaven-Piercer Step through the compromised hip before the turn could finish. The movement tore pain through the joint and made the landing harder than it should have been, but it carried him alongside the Demon God's turning leg in time to strike behind the knee and drive his left palm into the hip above it. He used the contact to shift the relationship between the planted foot and the body trying to turn over it, and although the Demon God's Immortal Emperor strength resisted the manipulation, enough of the stance changed that the torso stopped short of facing the others and the next step crashed into broken ground at an angle.
Haotian attacked the exposed ribs before the Demon God could correct itself, then moved across the chest and toward the opposite side so the larger body had to turn after him again. The fist that followed came down across his back, clipping him because the damaged hip could not carry the final step fast enough, yet he allowed the impact to drive him farther in the same direction rather than falling toward the family. When he recovered, both he and the Demon God were another dozen paces deeper into the ruins, and the open ground between them and the others had finally grown wide enough that even Lianhua could no longer reach him without committing to a sustained pursuit her ribs would not tolerate.
Only then did Haotian divide enough attention to open the Dao Palace of Creation behind the injured group. The familiar connection unfolded close to Liora and Xuanyin rather than near Haotian, giving the wounded women access without forcing any of them to cross the Demon God's path, and Xuanyin understood the purpose before the opening had fully stabilized. She stepped toward them immediately and told them to get inside while Haotian remained occupied with the Demon God, his movements never pausing long enough to draw attention toward what was happening behind it.
Liora entered first so she could turn around and receive the others from within, then reached for Yanfei when the younger woman remained facing the battlefield instead of crossing. Yanfei hesitated only until another impact rolled through the ruins and the repaired shoulder tightened under the instinctive attempt to gather Frostfire again. "Go," Liora told her, and this time Yanfei obeyed, stepping through the Dao Palace of Creation while still looking past Liora toward Haotian.
Ziyue and Yueru moved toward Lianhua from opposite sides, but Lianhua resisted the first attempt to turn her toward the opening. "He's still out there," she said, and Yinxue reached them at the same moment with one injured arm pulled close to her body.
"So are we," Yinxue replied.
Lianhua looked at the trembling arm, then at Ziyue's altered sword grip and Yueru's numb Lightning side, and the argument died without anyone needing to explain further. The four women began moving toward the Dao Palace of Creation together while the Demon God forced Haotian into another close exchange farther ahead.
The Demon God reached down toward him with one enlarged hand, and Haotian caught the wrist only long enough to change the path before his shoulders began giving under the pressure. He released, circled beneath the arm, and struck the side of the knee while staying close enough to keep the Demon God's attention centered on him, but the larger body swept its other arm across the space before he could leave. The forearm caught his ribs and hurled him through a collapsed section of stonework, burying his legs beneath fragments while the Demon God finally turned its head toward the open Dao Palace of Creation.
Haotian pulled free as the first step shifted in that direction. He used Heaven-Piercer Step again despite the pain already running through the hip, crossing the distance before the Demon God could complete the stride and driving both palms into the side of its torso while its weight was still travelling toward the family. The Demon God's strength resisted the first adjustment, so Haotian forced more cultivation into the relationship until the upper body turned and the advancing foot landed several paces away from the route it had intended, drawing the Demon God back toward him before it could pursue the women.
The strain made both shoulders tremble when he separated, and his right arm remained lower as the Demon God looked down at him. Haotian did not give it time to decide whether to ignore him again; he struck beneath the ribs, moved around the recovering arm, and drove another short attack into the flank, forcing the Demon God to turn through him while the women continued crossing into the Dao Palace of Creation behind its back.
Xiangyin was the last one still outside when Haotian caught sight of the opening again. She stood beside the threshold with the spear tucked beneath one arm, the injured wrist limp and the healthy palm still bleeding where the shaft had torn through it earlier. Xuanyin was waiting inside, but Xiangyin remained facing the battlefield as though one usable hand and a shortened thrust might still be enough if Haotian gave her a route.
"Go," Haotian said while moving around the Demon God's next strike.
Xiangyin tightened the healthy hand around the spear.
The Demon God's forearm descended across Haotian's path before she answered, and he tried to redirect it with the left side only for the damaged shoulder to fail before the motion finished. The strike caught his upper back and drove him forward several steps, leaving Xiangyin enough time to shift the spear as though she intended to come after him.
Haotian recovered his stance and looked toward her once. "Your hand is done."
"I have another."
"You're too slow with one."
The words were plain because neither of them had time for anything else. Xiangyin's jaw tightened, but when the Demon God stepped between them and Haotian moved toward it again, the widening distance left her with no meaningful angle to attack without entering the same reach that had already destroyed her wrist.
Xuanyin pulled her backward through the opening.
Lianhua remained just inside.
Haotian knew she would.
The Demon God struck again, and he redirected the attack across its own body before taking the returning elbow against the right shoulder because the joint could no longer carry him completely free. The impact drove him down, but he rolled under the arm and rose on the opposite side, moving the fight farther from the Dao Palace of Creation before allowing himself to look back.
Lianhua stood at the threshold with one hand against her ribs.
"Close it," Haotian said.
"No."
The Demon God turned toward him again, forcing Haotian beneath the first arm and into the chest where he drove a short palm below the old Sky Piercer wound before circling away from the second. "Lianhua."
"You come inside."
Haotian moved around the hip as the Demon God tried to follow. "I'm not bringing it in there."
"Then we stay."
"No."
There was no anger in his answer because there was nothing to argue about. He caught another strike along the forearm and let it push him several paces farther from the opening, then recovered quickly enough to prevent the Demon God from turning its attention back toward the threshold.
Lianhua still had not moved when he looked again.
Haotian could see the shallowness of her breathing from where he stood, along with Yinxue behind her holding the injured arm, Ziyue carrying the sword with the opposite hand, Yueru unable to lift the Lightning arm, Xiangyin supporting the spear against one side, and Yanfei seated near Liora while the healer checked a shoulder she had already treated more than once. None of them needed a speech about what another exchange would do to them.
"You can't keep up anymore," Haotian said.
Lianhua stared at him. "Neither can you."
"I know."
The Demon God entered the space between them again, and Haotian turned away from the opening to meet it before Lianhua could say anything else. He moved inside the descending fist, redirected the elbow with his forearm, and shifted the Demon God's next step sideways so the larger body travelled farther into the ruins, keeping himself close throughout the exchange because the moment he created too much distance the Demon God would have room to turn toward the Dao Palace of Creation.
B