y the time Haotian looked back again, Xuanyin had one hand on Lianhua's shoulder. He gave Lianhua a small nod, not because he believed the gesture could reassure her, but because there was nothing left between them that either one failed to understand. Xuanyin pulled her farther inside, and the opening of the Dao Palace of Creation closed behind her.
The absence of the others reached Haotian through the battle rather than through silence. The Demon God shifted its rear foot and there was no Frostfire waiting beneath it; when the shoulder turned, no Sword Dao settled over the joint to slow the arm; when the lower body opened, no spear entered from the side, and when sacrificial reinforcement shifted around the Sky Piercer wound, there was no Lightning gathering nearby to disturb the crimson current buried beneath it. Every space the family had once occupied now belonged either to Haotian or to the Demon God, and the difference immediately changed what he was willing to do.
He no longer had to turn every attack away from someone else.
When the Demon God drove a fist toward his chest, Haotian moved diagonally inside the arm rather than redirecting it away from the space behind him. Cloud-Sundering Steps carried him close to the ribs, where he struck beneath the arm and pivoted around the hip before landing a second blow against the inner shoulder, using the first contact to change the torso and the second to delay the arm long enough for his knee to drive into the exposed flank.
The Demon God turned sharply and swept the backhand through the place he had been, but Haotian had already shifted through another short step and entered closer on the opposite side. His hip protested each change of direction, and the left shoulder could no longer contribute full force to every strike, so he shortened the motions until the attacks came from the body rather than the damaged joints. A palm beneath the ribs changed the torso, an elbow against the upper arm changed the shoulder, and a low kick against the ankle made the Demon God move its weight before Haotian crossed behind the resulting turn.
The Demon God followed him with increasing precision. Haotian feinted toward the Sky Piercer wound and watched sacrificial reinforcement gather there, then changed immediately to the flank Ziyue had opened earlier, striking through the thinner protection before the dark essence could redistribute. Blood burst from the wound, but Haotian was already moving before the Demon God's hand reached the space, allowing the Immortal Emperor's strength to pass beside him rather than trying to contest it directly.
The Eyes of the Universe remained fixed on more than the attacks. Haotian followed the old pathways around the demon core, the sacrificial essence moving into damaged structures, the crimson lightning that still resisted complete stabilization around the Sky Piercer scar, and the subtle delays created whenever the Demon God had to shift reinforcement from one region to another. Rather than trying to overpower the reinforced chest again, he began making the Demon God protect several places in succession, touching the scar long enough to draw reinforcement inward before attacking the side, then shifting to the shoulder when the side thickened.
For several exchanges the method allowed him to stay inside the Demon God's reactions instead of merely surviving them. He struck where protection was moving away, changed the stance before the larger body could commit its full weight, and used the Demon God's own attempts to trap him as opportunities to move beneath the arms rather than around their full reach. The injuries throughout his body remained present in every movement, but without the need to cover another fighter's retreat or hold a route open for someone else, he could choose positions that would have been unacceptable while the family stood beside him.
When Haotian threatened the chest again, sacrificial reinforcement did not immediately gather there. The Demon God kept the protection distributed and waited for Haotian to change toward the flank as he had done before, then altered the fist above him halfway through the attack. The Eyes of the Universe showed Haotian the correction as soon as the shoulder changed, but his body could not obey quickly enough and the knuckles struck the left shoulder before he cleared the altered path.
Stone cracked beneath him as he hit the ground, and the arm remained numb for several breaths while the Demon God stepped toward him rather than waiting for him to recover. Haotian rolled beneath the descending foot, using the impact beside him to hide the movement of his own leg as he kicked the inside of the ankle and forced himself upright through the healthier side. His left arm still hung lower when he turned around the Demon God's stance, but he no longer tried to make the damaged shoulder participate in every interception, instead staying close enough that the enlarged attacks had less room to build speed before reaching him.
The next fist passed beside his head as Haotian stepped inside the elbow. He struck beneath the ribs, turned around the rising knee rather than retreating from it, and used the Demon God's leg movement to carry the hip farther than intended before slipping beneath the hand that reached down for him. The distance was so small that one mistake would leave him inside the full strength of an Immortal Emperor, but the same closeness reduced how far his injured hip had to move and allowed him to keep attacking through compact motions that the damaged shoulders could still support.
The Demon God brought both arms inward to crush that space. Haotian dropped before they closed, crossed beneath the chest, and drove both palms upward into the abdomen while his feet remained planted beneath him. The strike did not throw the Demon God backward, but it changed the center enough to widen the next step, and Haotian immediately attacked the compromised stance by kicking behind the ankle and striking the hip through the same turn.
The Demon God's weight shifted, and Haotian drove a fist into the flank as dark blood spread across his forearm. The descending arm above him was already moving before he finished the strike, and Haotian saw both the attack and the opening created at the chest when the Demon God committed to it. Defending would preserve his body but allow the sacrificial reinforcement time to settle over the Sky Piercer wound again, while entering the opening would leave him beneath the strike.
He chose the opening.
Haotian stepped through the descending arm and planted his palm directly against the reopened Sky Piercer scar. Concentrated force travelled through the damaged pathways while residual crimson lightning stirred beneath the contact, tearing at the sacrificial reinforcement before it could finish bracing the wound, but the Demon God's fist struck his shoulder and upper back almost simultaneously.
Haotian's body folded beneath the impact, yet he kept the palm against the scar for another fraction of a breath before the force finally tore him away. He hit the ground on his side and slid through broken stone while the Demon God staggered several steps in the opposite direction, one hand moving toward the chest as dark blood flowed more heavily through the reopened wound. Sacrificial essence immediately rushed into the damaged structures, but the Eyes of the Universe caught the delay spreading through the old pathways and the crimson lightning resisting the attempt to stabilize them.
Haotian pushed himself onto one knee.
The left arm barely responded when he tried to raise it, the ribs tightened around the next breath, and the hip resisted when he placed the foot beneath himself. None of that changed what the Eyes of the Universe continued showing him: the Demon God was still being forced to spend sacrificial reinforcement, the Sky Piercer wound was still widening beneath repeated disturbance, and the structures surrounding the demon core remained damaged exactly where Alter's old attack had left them.
The problem was no longer understanding how to reach those weaknesses.
Haotian already understood them.
His human body was becoming unable to execute what that understanding required.
He forced himself upright again, though the movement required him to shift most of his weight through the healthier leg and leave the left arm hanging lower than the guard he would normally have used. The Eyes of the Universe still showed him everything he needed to know about the Demon God's next approach: the heavier loading through one foot, the slight gathering of sacrificial essence near the chest, the damaged pathways surrounding the old Sky Piercer wound, and the brief delay that would appear when the upper body turned. What they could no longer give him was a body capable of reaching every answer they revealed, and when he tried to move into the opening before the Demon God's stride settled, the compromised hip responded late enough that he had to abandon the route and protect himself from the arm already coming across his position.
He moved closer rather than farther because the shortened distance asked less of the injured leg, caught the forearm against his own, and let the Demon God's strength turn his body instead of trying to stop it. The movement carried him beneath the shoulder and gave him enough space to drive a short strike into the flank, but the weakened arm could no longer add the same force through the contact and the Demon God barely shifted before its knee rose into Haotian's side. He turned enough to spare the center of his ribs and still left the ground, landing among broken stone with the breath driven from his chest while the medicine already inside him spread toward injuries it had been trying to stabilize for several chapters.
Haotian planted one hand against the rubble and remained there long enough to feel the difference between what he understood and what he could still perform. The Demon God's circulation remained exposed before the Eyes of the Universe, and the route toward the Sky Piercer wound was clearer now than it had been earlier in the battle because the family had forced so much sacrificial reinforcement to move through the damaged structures. His human body simply could not cross that route fast enough anymore, and continuing to shorten every movement would only postpone the moment when one of the Demon God's attacks reached him before his body could answer at all.
The Demon God advanced while he rose, each enlarged step breaking deeper into the remains of the stronghold, and Haotian allowed the battered human form to settle instead of forcing it immediately into another exchange. Cultivation moved differently through him as the Undying Dragon Body Sutra answered, not pouring outward as a separate manifestation but sinking through flesh, bone, meridians, and the Dao Avatar that had long since ceased to be something distinct from the path that created it. The transformation spread through his body until the scale of the battlefield itself began to change around him, the human form expanding into the colossal flood dragon born from the ninety-nine dragons of his Sovereign breakthrough and the Ten Elemental Body Physique that had remade them.
Rainbow light moved across the emerging scales without leaving the body, flowing through the immense torso and lengthening limbs as Haotian's perspective rose above the ruined stronghold. His arms became clawed forelimbs large enough to split sections of broken fortification beneath their weight, his spine lengthened into the enormous body that curved through the devastated battlefield, and the injured hip, shoulders, and ribs remained present within the transformation rather than disappearing beneath it. When the Undying Rainbow Dragon Dao Avatar finished taking shape, the golden spirals of the Eyes of the Universe continued turning inside the dragon's eyes, and the Demon God that had towered over Haotian's human body was now facing something capable of meeting its enlarged form across the same scale.
The Demon God came into him before the transformation had been allowed any quiet moment to settle. Haotian lowered the dragon's head beneath the first reaching arm and drove the front of his body against the Demon God's hip, but instead of stopping there and contesting its Immortal Emperor strength directly, he let the rest of his length continue around the outside. His tail passed behind the Demon God's legs while one foreclaw reached across the torso, and the two pressures worked together to change the balance the same way his human body had once used an ankle and hip, except the relationship now involved hundreds of feet of coiling mass rather than a cultivator moving beneath a single limb.
The Demon God's planted leg tore through the ground as Haotian's tail swept behind it, but the greater cultivation kept the body upright and allowed one hand to close around the dragon's neck before the turn could carry farther. Haotian felt the grip sink through the scales and changed the movement rather than trying to pull free; the section of his body already passing around the Demon God continued forward, wrapping across the outside of the arm that held him while his nearest claw raked beneath the ribs. Talons tore through sacrificial reinforcement weakened by the earlier battle and entered flesh beneath it, drawing dark blood across the scales as the Demon God drove a knee into the lower portion of Haotian's chest.
The impact reached the same damaged region that had been struck repeatedly while he was human, and the Avatar's greater durability did not erase the pain already rooted there. Haotian let the body bend with it, using the curve to bring more of his length around the Demon God rather than allowing the blow to open the distance, and his jaws closed over the opposite shoulder while the lower coil tightened across the hips. The Demon God struck the side of his head with its free hand, then struck again when the bite remained, but Haotian did not depend on his jaws alone to hold the position; his claws were already shifting lower across the torso while the tail moved behind one leg, binding the upper and lower body into the same struggle.
The Demon God tried to turn out of the wrap and found the dragon's body moving with it. Haotian loosened the portion around the hips before the rotation could place too much stress through his spine, then tightened higher around the torso, allowing the lower body to slide rather than letting the entire bind become rigid. His tail caught the leg only long enough to interfere with the step, and the moment the Demon God compensated through the opposite side, Haotian shifted his nearest claw across the chest where sacrificial reinforcement had moved to support the shoulder he was biting.
The old Sky Piercer wound appeared beneath that redistribution, and Haotian released the shoulder before bringing the claw across the damaged chest. The talons did not try to pierce untouched Immortal Emperor flesh; they entered through tissue already broken by Alter's attack and repeatedly reopened by the family, tearing across reconstructed pathways that had been braced rather than truly healed. Crimson lightning flashed beneath the claw, and the Demon God's body contracted around the wound as sacrificial essence rushed toward it from the flank and shoulder.
The response opened other parts of the Demon God even while it protected the chest, and Haotian used the entire bind to exploit them rather than remaining fixed on the scar. His lower body tightened across the hips as the tail pulled one leg outward, forcing the torso to resist in the opposite direction while his claws changed from the chest to the ribs and shoulder. The Demon God hammered both fists into the coils whenever one arm came free, and each impact sent force through Haotian's old injuries, but he shifted the wraps after every blow so the same damaged section did not receive the full punishment twice in succession.
For a time the ruins beneath them disappeared beneath the struggle. The Demon God widened its stance and tried to tear the upper coil apart while Haotian's body dragged across broken walls and collapsed towers, the scales grinding stone beneath them as both enormous forms fought for leverage rather than distance. Haotian's jaws found the shoulder again when the Demon God turned too far into the bind, and the bite forced the upper body back while his tail climbed higher around the opposite thigh, preventing the legs from recovering a clean base.
The Demon God stopped trying to unwind him from the outside. One hand drove beneath a section of the coil already carrying pain from Haotian's injured ribs, and the other struck into the same region before the dragon could redistribute the pressure. Haotian tightened the body around the attack, but the second blow landed through the damaged side and made part of the wrap contract later than the rest, allowing the Demon God to force both hands into the opening until Haotian had to release the upper coil before the leverage turned against his spine.
He did not retreat when the bind opened. The lower body remained around one leg while the tail struck across the other, and Haotian used the Demon God's effort to separate the coils as the moment to pull its footing in two directions. The Demon God dropped partway toward one knee, and Haotian brought the front of the dragon down across its shoulders, claws digging through the protection while the weight of his body drove both of them through what remained of a fortified section of the stronghold.
Stone disappeared beneath them as the Demon God caught one of Haotian's horns and used it to turn beneath the pin. Haotian felt the head being pulled into an angle that would expose the throat if he continued pressing forward, so he released one shoulder and rolled the neck with the grip instead of against it, allowing the Demon God to turn but keeping the tail wrapped long enough to prevent a clean rise. The fist intended for the underside of his jaw struck lower along the neck when he moved, and the force carried through the front of the Avatar hard enough to push him sideways across the ruins.
Haotian let the displacement lengthen his body rather than fighting to remain close. As the Demon God rose, his tail was already travelling through the wide arc created by the separation, and the returning sweep struck across the rear leg with the momentum of the entire dragon body behind it. The Demon God's stance buckled just enough for Haotian to come back from the opposite side, one claw dragging the guarding arm downward while the other tore across the ribs where sacrificial essence had thinned to support the chest.
When the Demon God reached for his neck again, Haotian lowered the head and caught the forearm between his jaws. His teeth entered through the reinforcement and held while the tail wrapped the same-side leg, allowing him to twist the arm across the Demon God's body without depending entirely on the strength of his neck. The position turned the torso and exposed the chest, and Haotian felt the old wound become reachable before he ever looked directly at it.
Elemental power gathered inside the dragon's throat while the bind remained intact. Haotian did not spread the breath across the Demon God's entire body, because intact Immortal Emperor defenses would waste most of the force, and instead released the torrent directly across the old Sky Piercer wound as soon as the protecting arm was pulled far enough aside. Ten elemental currents travelled together through the breath, their different properties tearing at the unstable reinforcement and damaged pathways while Lightning entered a region where Alter's crimson current had never fully disappeared.
The Demon God crossed its free arm over the chest and forced itself into the breath rather than allowing Haotian to maintain the distance. Each step broke the ground beneath it, and sacrificial essence poured toward the wound faster than Haotian's elemental torrent could strip it away completely, but the protection did not settle cleanly while the residual crimson lightning continued reacting beneath it. Haotian saw the fist gathering behind the guarding arm and ended the breath before the Demon God reached his open jaws, turning the head enough that the punch struck the lower side instead of entering the mouth.
The blow still snapped his head aside and broke the bite on the forearm. The Demon God immediately closed both hands behind the dragon's neck and drove a knee into the underside of Haotian's torso, reaching the injured ribs through the transformed body with enough force to make the front limbs lose pressure against the ground. Haotian allowed the upper body to rise with the impact and sent the tail around the Demon God's ankle at the same time, pulling the leg just as the Demon God tried to use it for another strike.
The instability prevented the next knee from landing with the same force, and Haotian rolled the dragon's body through the opening instead of trying to overpower the grip around his neck. His healthier foreclaw tore across the abdomen while the tail dragged the planted leg wider, forcing the Demon God to release one hand from the neck to restore its balance. Haotian used the loosened grip to turn his head back toward the shoulder, but the Demon God had already learned the movement and caught the jaw before the bite closed.
One hand pressed against the lower jaw while the other controlled the side of Haotian's head, and the Demon God tried to force the mouth open as its legs widened beneath the pressure. Haotian resisted through the neck only long enough to make the Demon God commit more weight, then deliberately yielded and rotated the head with the force. The change pulled the Demon God forward over the compromised stance, and Haotian's tail came across the ribs from the opposite side while his foreclaws drove into the torso.
The Demon God was forced several steps sideways, but the grip around Haotian's head did not disappear completely. It used the contact to remain close enough that the dragon's long tail could no longer build the same sweeping momentum, then stepped inside Haotian's front limbs and struck directly into the damaged side of the chest. The blow reached the old rib injuries again, and when Haotian tried to shift the weight through the opposite forelimb, the shoulder corresponding to his earlier human injury responded more slowly.
The Demon God changed targets as soon as it felt that weakness. Rather than continuing to strike wherever Haotian's coils were strongest, it drove its weight toward the compromised forelimb, forcing the claw to take more of the dragon's mass while one fist struck the shoulder and the other remained close enough to prevent the jaws from finding a clean angle. Haotian withdrew the damaged limb before it could be trapped completely and curved the torso around the Demon God's side, bringing the tail forward to replace the pressure the claw could no longer maintain.