PtM Book 17 - Chapter 52: Gathering Strength

2/3 this week.

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A pulse of power filled the air as the eight largest planar fragments shattered, revealing gaping holes in space that tore apart their surroundings. The Chasewind Plane’s membrane shook and threatened to break apart while the adjacent debris field, having remained stagnant for many decades, began to move.

“This is bad,” White Mirage said, appearing beside Baleful Vision. “We were barely able to defend this gap, and now it’s widening.”

Baleful Vision nodded gravely. “The army of paintings we have left isn’t enough, even with Cao Wenluan in the vanguard.”

“That pulse of power…” White Mirage said. “It was Clear Sky, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Baleful Vision confirmed. “Be ready for eventualities.”

She vanished as though she’d never been.

“Baleful Vision, are you going to let me and Dark Tooth do all the hard work?” Cao Wenluan called out.

The fiends had turned highly aggressive and suicidal of late, and their front lines were falling apart. Should the front lines fall, Wu, Undine, and Oster would be exposed, jeopardizing the safety of everyone on the battlefield.

Baleful Vision had no choice but to throw himself back onto the battlefield, knowing full well that at any moment, his supposed allies might stab him in the back.

He activated his fusion transformation and became the Purelight Hegemon, a Godbeast that even Godbeasts would pledge allegiance to. In this form, he was able to draw upon the strength of every demon that he’d ever helped. Crushing rank-thirteen fiends became as easy as swatting flies.

He activated his Purelight Aura, filling the battlefield with a radiant light that burnt away all impurities, all poisons, and all otherworldly things. Every fiend in the nearest hundred meters began to disintegrate. Coupled with Cha Ming’s Crumbling Canvas, few fiends could last more than ten seconds in his proximity.

His appearance immediately stabilized their battle lines, relieving pressure on Cao Wenluan and Dark Tooth. But Baleful Vision wasn’t done.

“Purelight Army, I summon thee!” Baleful Vision called out. The stripes on his purelight armor peeled off and transformed into a group of early-fusion-realm demons, fifty strong.

“As per our pact, we lend thee our strength,” they said, then launched themselves upon his enemies.

This new wave of demons completely tilted the battlefield in their favor, as each one was a receptacle for Baleful Vision’s power. Normally, a good half of the fiendish blood on the battlefield would pour back into their allies, strengthening them, but with the appearance of Baleful Vision and his summoned army, less than a tenth of the blood survived until collection.

“Good job, Baleful Vision,” Cao Wenluan said. “You light them up, and we’ll take them down!” He erupted with strength. Three pairs of ochres wings appeared behind him, and his Wrathful Blade of the Conqueror began to glow with a strange energy that rippled across the battlefield. He slashed seven times, but each time, he felled tens of thousands of times that number.

The fiendish army, which had pushed them back inch by inch for so many days, crumbled instantly. But Baleful Vision took no pleasure in this fact, as it meant that the current push was just a ploy, and nothing more. They could have annihilated them any time they pleased. Instead, he’d activated his fusion transformation.

Another wave appeared not far away. This wave was real, if their reaction to his Purelight Aura was any indication. Dark Tooth stepped up. His aura rose to the next level, revealing his true cultivation, the middle shell-marking realm. A bloody aura converged on him and his axe, which he threw at an army of twenty thousand fiends advancing on them. Space shattered and tore as these fiends burst apart.

Others might be overjoyed, but Baleful Vision’s expression turned grim. In only a few seconds, they’d completely reversed the situation. Planar materials and fiendish materials poured into the remnants of the painted army still guarding the gap, but it all seemed so trivial.

White Mirage, run! he sent. He shed his fusion transformation, regaining his demon armor and his demon weapon, a bright white sword. He slashed the air around him, cutting apart tiny karmic restraints that had appeared without his notice.

“Nicely spotted,” Cao Wenluan said. “But don’t think it’ll be enough.”

A combination of killing intent and karma converged upon Baleful Vision’s location. Large chunks of debris they’d fought on for three full days lit up with bloody runes carved in stone. A kilometer-wide formation lit up, and under Dark Tooth’s direction, it pinned Baleful Vision in place.

Baleful Vision’s purelight was completely useless. This wasn’t poison or evil, but killing intent, which was neutral. Though their reasons varied, both good people and evil people killed.

“It appears Eight Directions was correct to warn me,” Baleful Vision said. “He said you’d turn on us in the end, but I didn’t believe him.”

“He’s a tricky fox,” Cao Wenluan said. “Xing Tianlong, are you coming out or not?”

Baleful Vision heard a loud sigh, then saw a flash of silver as the spearman appeared. “So that’s how it is,” Baleful Vision said. “You’ll rely on Xing Tianlong to break through our contractual restraints.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Cao Wenluan said. “He’s just here as insurance. A wise move, apparently. Watch your left flank.” There was a flash of white, a clank, and finally, a groan as White Mirage failed in her attempt to assassinate Xing Tianlong.

White Mirage kneeled on the ground, grasping her left arm. She was shaking, but not because of the poison on Xing Tianlong’s spear. Instead, it was the backlash from going against their contract hurting her.

“You two, keep her busy while I do this,” Cao Wenluan said. He threw his sword into the air, and for a moment, it was possible to see a golden web connecting everyone and everything in existence. He plucked at some strings, revealing over a dozen lines connected to a glowing piece of parchment, which he untangled from all other strings before sending into a second ritual circle. “Dark Tooth?”

“Right away, my liege,” Dark Tooth said. He pulled an object from beneath his leather armor. It was a bone—no, a tooth—malevolent and filled with a baleful aura. “With the death of a million innocents, I cripple thee!” The tooth drove itself into the contract, damaging its foundation. Three tears appeared on the document, but it managed to hold together.

The price Dark Tooth paid was high, and his blood essence dropped by a full level. “It is done, my liege. All that is left is for you to land the finishing blow.”

Cao Wenluan nodded. “Heartforge Realm contracts live up to their reputation. It’s a pity that they never intended for any agreements to be ironclad. If they had insisted on making them unbreakable, there is nothing we could have done.”

The Wrathful Blade of the Conqueror pulsed with a familiar aura, that of a conqueror. It drew energy through the void from the Chasewind Plane, borrowing a tiny piece of strength from each of his followers.

“Upon my name, I declare thee void!” His blade came down upon the contract, shattering the karmic connection joining them.

Baleful Vision chuckled when he saw how pale Cao Wenluan became. “It looks like that took a lot out of you both. Are you sure it’s a good idea work so closely with Xing Tianlong without a contract?”

“You’re awfully talkative for someone with seconds left to live,” Cao Wenluan said. “Well? Are you going to keep wasting time?”

Xing Tianlong shrugged. “I’m actually curious about their situation. Look at them. They look so calm. They clearly expected this to happen.”

Cao Wenluan frowned. His eyes flickered with a strange light. “Damn it all!” he shouted, throwing his saber at White Mirage.

Baleful Vision didn’t even blink. White Mirage was no longer there. For that matter, neither was he.

“Many thanks for taking on the burden of canceling the contract,” Baleful Vision said. “We had other ways, but they were all very exhausting.”

Cao Wenluan frowned. “This isn’t a purelight clone. White Mirage broke through to middle fusion, didn’t she?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Baleful Vision said. “I must say, though, you put on an awful good act. You hid so many things from your enemies. I wonder how many you hid from your allies?”

“Quit trying to sow dissent,” Xing Tianlong said. “We’ll fight it out once your entire faction is dead.”

“Of course, of course,” Baleful Vision said. “That’s how it works, isn’t it? Just like how we completely finished off the fiends before fighting.”

A spear caught his double through the head, and that was the last he saw through his mirage clone. It was indeed as Cao Wenluan suspected. White Mirage had drawn upon Baleful Vision’s bloodline to stimulate her growth and broken through to the middle fusion realm.

As for Baleful Vision, he’d not yet broken through. Like Cha Ming and Huxian, he’d chosen to suppress his growth to establish a greater foundation. He was stuck at the early fusion realm.

“Did you manage to get any more information out of them?” White Mirage asked, helping Baleful Vision up. They were now in a cave several tens of kilometers away from their enemies’ location.

“I didn’t,” Baleful Vision said. “They guarded their secrets too well.”

“Our gains weren’t small, though,” White Mirage said. “We exposed Dark Tooth’s strength and weakened him and Cao Wenluan.”

Baleful Vision snorted. “That’s what he wanted you to think.”

“You mean…”

“Obviously,” said Baleful Vision. “Cao Wenluan was feigning weakness to bait Xing Tianlong. It didn’t work, though. He didn’t fall for it. Also, I sense that Dark Tooth has a recovery ability he hasn’t yet utilized.”

“I’m just happy Cao Wenluan didn’t use a karmic attack to strike at us through our clones,” White Mirage said. “That blade of his—it’s far too frightening.”

“He could have done it,” Baleful Vision said. “I think the only reason he didn’t was because such attacks are draining. He didn’t want to weaken himself, not with Xing Tianlong at his side.”

“He’d rather risk us escaping than give up a slight edge in battle?” White Mirage asked, surprised.

“Xing Tianlong is not to be underestimated,” said Baleful Vision. “How long until you recover your strength? Those clones weren’t easy for you to make or maintain.”

“I’ll be better within the hour,” White Mirage said. “Just relax and recover. We’ll be safe here. By the way, did Huxian get back to you?”

“He didn’t,” Baleful Vision said. “But we long expected such a scenario. Communication lines have likely been scrambled by either Oster or that priestess.”

“I’m worried,” White Mirage said.

“About Eight Directions?” Baleful Vision asked.

“About Wu,” White Mirage said. “You might not know how many shields she’s casted these past three days, but I do. And let me tell you, if it wasn’t for her corralling all those fiends the entire time, our ‘battle lines’ would have fallen on the first day.”

“I’m not worried,” said Baleful Vision. “Clear Sky is by her side. If he lets anything happen to Wu, Huxian will never forgive him.”

***

Cha Ming felt the contract’s karma unravel the moment it happened. Attacking each other without serious consequences became possible. But the first order of business was safety, so Cha Ming diverted his entire strength to his incarnation at the center of the battlefield and immediately used Clear Rune Step to appear beside Wu.

A violent ball of green flames came down on them moments later, tearing through Cha Ming’s hastily painted shield and exploding off a secondary shield summoned by Wu after his timely warning. Neither of them suffered any damage.

What did suffer damage were the eight shields she’d been using to seal off points in the debris belt. The army of fiends they’d kept at bay for so long came pouring in.

But neither Cha Ming nor Oster seemed concerned about this. “You made your move much quicker than I expected,” Cha Ming said to Oster. “One second later, and she’d probably be dead.”

“No matter,” Oster said, summoning chains of green flame that weaved their way around Cha Ming and Wu. “The two of you will die all the same.”

Cha Ming tried to store Wu in the Clear Sky World but found her locked in place. “What an insidious spell,” he said. “Otherworldly. Undine is behind this.” He summoned the Clear Sky Brush and drew a circle around himself and Wu using Eight Directions Style. The ring of green flames around them expanded until it shattered.

A consequence if this shattering was that space and karma were disrupted. Once again, Cha Ming tried storing Wu, but this time, his vision was obscured by a curtain of violet rose petals. A sword came slashing down at him, followed by a shield. Surprisingly, the shield was able to break through his defenses and stun him, exposing Wu to direct fire.

Three delayed fireballs of green flame detonated at point-blank range, filling Cha Ming’s entire Eight Directions Battlefield until it shattered. Thanks to his Divine Shell, Cha Ming was unaffected by the blast, but he was concerned for Wu.

Slice.

A sword pierced through the remnant green flames, completely capturing his attention. This was the effect of a provoke-type skill, courtesy of Martin. Unless he broke it, he would need to confront Martin, leaving Wu open to attacks by Oster, Violet Rose, and Undine.

Speaking of Undine, a dark portal appeared, summoning ten fallen angels. They, too, attacked Wu, who was still locked in place.

“I was mistaken,” Cha Ming said. “I thought I had you figured out, but I was wrong. It wasn’t just Oster who broke through, but all three of you.” He drew on his Crumbling Canvas and concentrated it into a single punch. Martin attempted to block the attack, but it proved too much for him. His fist first shattered Martin’s shield, then his chest plate, then blew a hole straight through his chest.

It was impossible to kill him with such an attack; Undine had already cast a healing spell on the shield guard, and Martin already had impressive regenerative abilities. But it was enough to take them both out of combat. But just to be sure, Cha Ming painted their worst nightmare—a slug that fed on dreams and completely bypassed physical defenses.

The duo was out of the equation for now, but Cha Ming did not step in to rescue Wu. Instead, he took a Clear Rune Step and appeared next to Violet Rose. Fighting her directly wasn’t wise, as she had many abilities that reflected or redirected damage, but by using Clear Rune Constriction to lock her in place, he was able to buy enough time for the Star Void Cauldron to absorb her, and the Heartforge Spirit Flame to begin refining her.

“Undine, freeze space!” shouted Oster. The clear runes he was in the process of mobilizing stood still. This was a weakness of his Clear Rune Field, one that he’d been very careful to hide. “Martin! I’ve shackled him, sacrificial attack!”

A chill ran up Cha Ming’s spine as Martin burned up his vital energy, pouring it into his blade before mercilessly chopping down on him.

The attack wouldn’t kill Cha Ming, but it would greatly deplete his energy. Cha Ming had no choice but to draw on nearby clear runes to divert a portion of the attack into the surrounding battlefield.

This single move reduced Martin’s attack by nearly fifty percent. Of the remaining half, a large portion was absorbed by Cha Ming’s Divine Shell, which was several times stronger than an early-shell-marking demigod’s had a right to be.

Undine had pre-cast a spell on Martin, so his life force was already on the mend. Cha Ming could attack him if he wanted to, but he spotted Oster’s layered trap. He pulled on his clear runes, pulling them back into his body, just as several dozen delayed green fireballs erupted in their surroundings.

“How clever of you, Oster,” Cha Ming said. “How did you figure it out?”

“Your Clear Rune Battle Art is simply too powerful,” Oster said. “It had to have a weakness, and since you could teleport despite spatial lockdown, I assumed it involved stretching yourself thinly over the battlefield. This would naturally make you vulnerable to large area attacks.”

“This isn’t the time for banter!” Undine snapped.

“Why not?” Oster said. “It’s not like we can stop them from getting away. By the way, good job suppressing your breakthroughs until now.”

The dust cleared, revealing Wu, who was completely unharmed. Like Oster’s allies and Violet Rose, she’d broken through to the middle fusion realm.

“We could never have done it if you hadn’t bought us so much time in the first place,” Cha Ming said. “Many thanks, Oster.” He withdrew the Star Void Cauldron and pulled back his Heartforge Spirit Flame. Violet Rose was no longer inside it—she’d teleported out in the nick of time. Since he didn’t see her here, he suspected she had the ability to teleport to Cao Wenluan’s side. “Shall we continue exposing each other’s secrets, or are we regrouping?”

Oster shrugged helplessly. “Alas, I don’t have any heavy hitters. We’re great at soaking up damage and controlling, but killing you two is out of the question.”

Similarly, Cha Ming and Wu wouldn’t be able to kill them in a reasonable amount of time. Martin’s shield guard abilities were especially troublesome. He could only sigh and scoop up Wu into the Clear Sky World, then use Bloodstorm Rush to retreat from the central area, which was likely littered with Oster’s mines.

“You could have taken them,” Wu said, looking aggrieved. “I can’t believe they attacked me. Me! After all I did for everyone!”

“That’s what people like them do,” Cha Ming said. “They repay kindness with enmity. As for fighting them, maybe we could have. But I wasn’t confident in your ability to maintain your false breakthrough.

Wu’s aura plummeted as the energy she’d borrowed form Huxian and Jadefall fell away. She also ceased burning her blood essence. It was thanks to her quick thinking and the support of her friends that she was able to survive, but the price she’d paid was significant. It would take her days to recover, and completing a breakthrough in the short term was out of the question.

“It’s not fair,” Wu mumbled.

“It never is,” said Cha Ming. “But we can only do our best.”

“Where are we going next?” Wu asked.

“You are going to rest in the Clear Sky World and prepare for the final battle,” Cha Ming said. “As for me, I need to find Huxian and help him break through to early fusion. Without him and Jadefall upgrading their cultivation, running will be our only option.”