The Demon God crossed the broken ground before the deeper currents inside its body had fully settled. One of the larger pathways remaining from its former True God foundation flooded with power through the right leg, and the sudden acceleration carried an already faster Immortal Emperor across the distance before Haotian could complete the movement he had begun at the end of the previous exchange. The Eyes of the Universe showed him the attack early enough to understand its route, but understanding could not make his Lesser Immortal Lord body move at the same speed. Cloud-Sundering Steps carried him outside the center of the charge just as the Demon God's fist arrived.
Haotian caught the forearm from the outer side and turned with it instead of trying to stop the blow. The redirection kept the fist away from his chest, but the force traveling through the arm still drove across his guard and lifted both feet from the ground. He landed several paces away, boots sliding through loose stone while pain tightened around the ribs already bruised from the earlier fighting, and changed his rhythm with Thousand Mirage Steps before the Demon God could follow the same route.
The shifting footwork created several plausible continuations from the same retreat, enough to make the Demon God delay the pursuit for a fraction of a breath while its perception separated false movement from the real body. Lianhua used that fraction before Haotian could turn it into anything himself. Cloud-Sundering Steps carried her behind the Demon God's advancing shoulder, and Voidpierce Sword Sutra drew Space tightly along her blade as she cut toward the joint rather than the heavily protected chest.
Abyssal Dao pressure gathered before her sword reached flesh. The spatial relationship around the blade twisted under the heavier cultivation, forcing Lianhua to change the cut before the opposing Dao could trap her weapon within the clash. She moved through the failed attack instead of contesting it, letting the momentum of Cloud-Sundering Steps take her beyond the Demon God's shoulder as Yinxue's Sword Dao descended against the opposite arm.
The Demon God's Dao answered with greater weight. Yinxue's pressure bent, fractured, and dispersed before it could settle fully around the limb, but she had already widened the distance rather than feeding more power into a direct contest she could not win. The Demon God started after Lianhua and found Xiangyin's spearhead waiting beside the rear foot it wanted to use for the turn.
Xiangyin did not plant the weapon and challenge the step. Her palms were already split, and the Immortal Emperor's strength would travel through the shaft faster than her injured hands could absorb it. She placed the spear only where the simplest movement would fall, forcing the Demon God to change the step after its balance had already begun moving in that direction.
Yanfei caught the correction before the Demon God completed it. Frost spread into the fractured stone beneath the new landing point, contracting the surface and tightening every existing crack before Frostfire reversed the temperature and widened those weaknesses from within. The Demon God landed with enough force to crush through the altered ground anyway, but the foot sank deeper than intended and turned the hip several degrees toward Ziyue.
Ziyue's sword was already moving. The Dao Palace of the Sword supported a narrowed Tenfold Elements: Severing Arc, not the broad sweep she had used against armies but a concentrated line meant to test a single region of the Demon God's defense. Metal strengthened the severing edge, Wind carried it through the resisting pressure, and Lightning entered the Abyssal protection before Fire and Ice struck the stresses opened behind it.
The defense buckled without collapsing. Ziyue's blade reached the flesh beneath it and left a shallow line across the flank, but the Demon God's elbow returned faster than she could complete a clean withdrawal. She abandoned the second half of the cut, dropped beneath the center of the counter, and still took the surrounding pressure across the shoulder hard enough to tear apart part of her protective energy and send her sliding over the stone.
Haotian had already returned.
Heaven-Piercer Step replaced the deceptive rhythm of Thousand Mirage Steps with a direct burst toward the Demon God's exposed side. Seraph Shatter Palm struck the outer arm and compressed the defensive layer around the joint, forcing the limb farther across the torso while the Eyes of the Universe followed the circulation beneath the movement. The old Sky Piercer scar remained wrapped in Abyssal power, but the reconstructed pathways around it had not settled cleanly after the deeper channel in the Demon God's leg had just carried more energy than the repaired foundation could comfortably support.
Haotian changed his second strike toward the weakness. A close-range application of the Demon God Killing Martial Arts narrowed the force of his palm toward the old penetration route instead of spreading it across the healthy portions of the chest. The Demon God recognized the change before contact, twisted its torso, and brought the reinforced forearm between Haotian's hand and the scar.
The collision sent a heavy vibration through Haotian's shoulder. He released the strike rather than wasting power against the stronger limb and rolled with the contact, letting the Demon God's block carry his arm away while his body slipped outside the answering fist. Lianhua entered the space he abandoned and brought Voidpierce Sword Sutra toward the upper ribs from an angle the same guarding arm could no longer cover.
The Demon God shifted power into the threatened side. Ziyue saw the redistribution and cut lower, while Yinxue applied Sword Dao against the shoulder supporting the turn. The three attacks landed close enough together that an ordinary opponent would have been trapped between the competing demands, but the Demon God released a dense pulse of Abyssal power from the torso and broke the spatial pressure around Lianhua's blade while forcing Yinxue's Dao backward at the same time.
Ziyue's sword reached the outer defense before the pulse struck her. The force threw her away from the flank and broke the sequence before Haotian could enter again, and the Demon God used the cleared space to launch itself toward him with another surge through the damaged pathways in its legs.
Haotian saw the deeper channel flare.
The Demon God still reached him first.
Cloud-Sundering Steps carried Haotian outside the original line, but the Demon God changed direction after he had already committed to the movement. Its second step crossed farther than the first, closing enough space that Haotian had no room to evade without exposing his ribs.
He raised both forearms.
The fist struck the guard and drove through it.
Haotian was thrown across the battlefield, forearms numbing beneath the impact while the pain along his ribs sharpened hard enough to shorten one breath. He landed near the edge of Yanfei's Frostfire, found the hardened stone she had preserved beneath his path, and used it to stop the slide before turning back toward the fight.
The Demon God had already changed targets.
A dark pattern condensed beneath its feet, and its presence compressed into the first half of a step before exploding forward in the second. The movement technique did not make the Demon God merely disappear from sight; it shortened the interval in which its body had to travel normally, allowing its higher cultivation to convert a small motion into a violent forward burst.
Lianhua recognized the technique after the first transition and changed Cloud-Sundering Steps twice before it reached her. Her first change cleared the hand that came toward her throat, but the Demon God adjusted during the second and swept the other arm across the route she had chosen. Lianhua turned the sword across her side and allowed the impact to strike the weapon rather than her ribs directly.
The force still lifted her from the ground.
She landed several paces away, one foot slipping before Cloud-Sundering Steps carried her clear of the follow-up. Her breath tightened as the movement pulled across the injured ribs, and she shortened the next turn rather than forcing the body through the same range again.
Yinxue attacked from farther out. Sword Dao gathered along several crossing lines rather than descending as one broad pressure, forcing the Demon God to answer more than one angle even though she kept her injured arm beyond immediate reach. The first two lines shattered beneath the heavier Abyssal Dao, but the third arrived after the Demon God had already shifted part of its pressure and forced the shoulder to turn.
Xiangyin's spear appeared beside the rear leg.
The Demon God changed the step before the spear could close the route.
Yanfei had anticipated that possibility and changed the new landing point instead, spreading Frostfire through the stone only where the foot would come down. The Demon God looked at the altered ground once and struck downward with Abyssal force before landing, blowing the weakened section apart and erasing Yanfei's preparation beneath a crater of shattered rock.
The clean center of the blast became its next foothold.
The Demon God used it to change direction toward Xiangyin.
She withdrew the spear before the higher-realm hand could strike the head, sliding the shaft through her loosened grip while moving backward. The Demon God reached farther than the withdrawal expected and caught the shaft near the midpoint.
Xiangyin released her forward hand immediately.
Instead of pulling the spear away from her, the Demon God twisted.
The rotation ripped through the remaining grip and reopened the cuts across Xiangyin's palm. She released before the weapon could take the wrist with it, but the spear spun away through the air.
Xiangyin moved with the weapon rather than stopping to recover her balance. She stepped inside the edge of the Demon God's reach for a single instant and kicked the lower end of the falling shaft, sending the spear spinning across the ground toward Yanfei.
Yanfei redirected it with the outside of her boot.
Xiangyin reached the weapon on the next step and caught it with her hands farther apart than before, reducing the pressure concentrated through the damaged palms as the spearhead returned toward the Demon God's route.
Haotian reached the opposite side while the Demon God was still turning from Xiangyin.
Fist of Ruin struck the ribs where Ziyue's Severing Arc had stressed the defense earlier. The outer layer compressed almost to the flesh before the Demon God moved power into the region, and Haotian changed his follow-up into Seraph Shatter Palm against the forearm that came to catch him.
The palm technique fractured part of the protection around the limb.
The Demon God's own palm drove toward Haotian's head.
Thousand Mirage Steps broke the rhythm of his retreat and produced several possible continuations as he slipped outside the attack. The Demon God's perception followed the false movements instead of committing immediately, but this time it separated them more quickly than before.
Yueru used the moment before it found Haotian.
Lightning gathered around her sword as she moved toward the chest.
The Demon God abandoned the pursuit before she crossed half the distance.
Abyssal circulation surged around the old Sky Piercer wound, drawing reinforcement from the shoulders and upper back while the Demon God turned toward Yueru. The reaction came so quickly that Yueru stopped approaching before she reached the range where its greater speed could trap her.
She widened her path.
The Demon God still kept the scar reinforced.
Lianhua cut toward the shoulder that had just surrendered part of its protection.
Voidpierce Sword Sutra reached deeper than before, the spatial edge slipping through the outer layer and cutting into the flesh beneath before the Demon God restored enough power to the region. Yinxue's Sword Dao pressed against the opposite side during the same turn, and Ziyue followed with another concentrated Severing Arc against the flank.
The Demon God chose not to pull power away from the chest.
Ziyue's attack split the defense more deeply.
Metal and Wind carried the edge through the opening while Lightning disrupted the Abyssal current holding the damaged layer together. Fire and Ice followed through the same line, forcing the already stressed protection through opposing changes before Ziyue's sword opened another shallow wound.
The Demon God accepted it.
Its next movement went directly toward Yueru.
The choice changed the fight more clearly than any declaration could have. The Demon God had begun treating injuries to healthier regions as acceptable if taking them prevented Lightning from reaching the scar again.
Yueru saw the pursuit coming and moved outside rather than trying to finish the attack she had never started. The Demon God accelerated after her, closing more distance with every step because the difference between their realms remained too large for footwork alone to erase.
Ziyue crossed toward the pursuing arm.
Her sword struck the reinforced limb and failed to stop it.
Yinxue's Sword Dao hit the same shoulder from farther away, adding enough resistance to change the angle by a small amount. Yueru used that difference to slip outside the fist instead of taking it across her body.
Lightning flashed from her blade as she passed the Demon God's chest.
The sword did not stab.
Its edge scraped along the defensive layer over the old wound for less than a breath, and Yueru released Lightning through the contact before continuing past.
Alter's crimson current answered inside the scar.
The reaction traveled deeper than the surface flash. Several reconstructed pathways around the sternum contracted at once, and one of the larger channels connected to the Demon God's upper body shuddered as the foreign Lightning disturbed the damaged structures surrounding the demon core.
The Demon God turned after Yueru.
Haotian intercepted the movement with Heaven-Piercer Step.
He reached the arm before it could close on her and drove Seraph Shatter Palm against the elbow, not trying to overpower the entire limb but forcing the joint away from the direction Yueru was moving. The Demon God struck with the other hand while Haotian was still inside.
Haotian saw the fist.
There was not enough time to leave completely.
He turned the shoulder, caught part of the blow across the upper arm, and allowed the impact to throw him rather than resisting until the joint failed. Pain spread from his shoulder into the already bruised ribs as he crossed several paces of broken ground.
Lianhua passed him going the other direction.
Voidpierce Sword Sutra entered toward the chest while the Demon God's arm remained extended from the strike. The Demon God's defense thickened around the scar before her sword arrived, and Lianhua changed the cut toward the upper arm instead of throwing her technique into a closed defense.
Her blade opened another shallow wound.
The Demon God responded with a compressed Abyssal palm technique that did not require the full swing of the arm. Dark force gathered against the palm and released across the short distance between them, striking Lianhua's sword before she could complete the withdrawal.
The impact forced the blade backward toward her body.
Lianhua turned with it, allowing the sword and her shoulders to rotate together so the weapon did not drive into her own ribs. The remaining force still threw her aside, and she landed with a visible tightening through her injured side.
Xiangyin caught the Demon God's next step with the spearhead.
The Demon God changed direction.
Yanfei altered the new landing point.
The Demon God crossed farther than the prepared ground.
Ziyue moved to intercept the new route.
The Demon God used the dark movement art again and burst past the angle before her sword reached it.
Haotian saw the entire progression through the Eyes of the Universe and abandoned the chest attack he had begun preparing. By the time his body reached the position that should have been useful, the Demon God had already broken the sequence and turned the battlefield into something else.
Its palm drove toward Yanfei.
She crossed Frostfire through the approaching line, cold seizing the outer Abyssal protection for an instant before heat expanded the same region and disrupted the smooth flow supporting the strike. The technique slowed the hand enough for Yanfei to move away from the center, but the remaining pressure still struck her side and sent her rolling across the fractured ground.
Xiangyin moved toward Yanfei.
The Demon God turned on her instead.
The spearhead rose toward the approaching torso, but Xiangyin kept the shaft mobile rather than bracing it. The Demon God struck the weapon with the side of its forearm, and Xiangyin released before the full Immortal Emperor force could reach her palms.
The spear spun away again.
Xiangyin did not chase immediately this time.
She moved outside the Demon God's follow-up and allowed Yanfei, already recovering from the ground, to send a narrow strip of Frostfire beneath the rolling shaft. The hardened ridge changed the spear's path back toward Xiangyin, and she recovered it without giving the Demon God a stationary target.
Haotian arrived during that recovery.
Cloud-Sundering Steps carried him across the Demon God's side while Fist of Ruin struck the outer ribs. The defense thickened before the full destructive force could sink through, but the blow made the torso turn far enough for Ziyue to reach the opposite side with an ordinary sword thrust instead of wasting another Severing Arc.
The Demon God blocked Ziyue's blade with the forearm.
Yinxue's Sword Dao descended toward the exposed back.
Abyssal Dao pressure erupted outward and crushed through her attack before it fully formed, sending enough backlash through the relationship that Yinxue's injured sword arm jerked and her fingers loosened around the hilt.
She withdrew before the Demon God could exploit it.
The Demon God did.
Its movement art compressed another step and released the stored acceleration toward Yinxue before her arm had fully recovered. She shifted away, using her own sword principles to change the angle of her body around the approaching strike, but the Demon God adjusted faster than she could complete the movement.
Haotian cut across the route with Heaven-Piercer Step.
Seraph Shatter Palm struck the attacking forearm and changed the fist by only a few degrees. It was enough for Yinxue to clear the center, but the edge of the pressure still struck her sword and drove the weapon outward.
She kept hold of it.
Her arm dropped for half a breath before she raised the blade again.
The Demon God turned toward Haotian.
Fist met palm.
Haotian had not intended a direct contest, but the Demon God shortened the attack after he began redirecting it and forced the collision before he could fully escape. Immortal Emperor power drove through Haotian's arm and shoulder, while his synchronized Trinity circulation kept the three Dao Palaces from losing balance under the impact.
The ground beneath Haotian's feet broke.
He yielded the stance before the force could travel deeper into his ribs and moved backward through Thousand Mirage Steps. The Demon God followed the real body almost immediately this time, its perception adjusting to the movement art after repeated exposure.
Haotian changed arts.
Cloud-Sundering Steps turned the retreat sideways.
The Demon God followed.
Heaven-Piercer Step suddenly drove Haotian forward instead of away.
The abrupt change brought him inside the Demon God's reach before the next fist fully extended. Haotian struck the upper arm with Fist of Ruin, stepped through the recoil, and brought a second close-range strike toward the old wound.
The Demon God deliberately opened the chest.
Haotian saw the posture before he committed.