Book 17 - Chapter 45: The Second Fortress

2/2 this week.

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The fiendish fortress was of peculiar construction, in that it was built downward into the Northern Abyss instead of on a horizontal plane like they were used to. Its only entrance was a circular door built of a strange bronze alloy aligned with earth, gold, space, and destruction.

Their group was not lacking in powerhouses. Oster Fireblight, Cao Wenluan, and Xing Tianlong had broken through to middle law stitching or equivalent, and the rest, all save Cha Ming and Huxian, had broken through to early law stitching.

They were able break down the door with little problem – but only after they signed a binding agreement with Xing Tianlong and confirmed that he was free of fiendish influences.

Though they still had reservations about the man, the agreement was especially one-sided and would likely kill him should he plot against them. Their doubts furthered eased up when he started disclosing sensitive otherworldly information.

“I’m less concerned about the existence of otherworldly entities, and more concerned about where they come from,” Wei Longshen said. “How do they cross over to our reality? How do they persist? How is the existence of another reality possible?”

“Why shouldn’t it be possible?” Xing Tianlong said. “They say there are infinite possibilities in the universe – why not infinite planes? Just because our functions on one set of rules, it doesn’t mean others can’t exist using an entirely different set.”

A wave of fiends appeared before them in the vertical stone passage. There were hundreds of rank 12 fiends, and even a dozen rank 13 fiends. Having signed an agreement, they were much less wary of each other, and therefore able to cooperate on a deeper level. It only took them a few minutes to clear up the group before proceeding deeper into the fortress.

They encountered a second wave on the tail of the first, then a third, then a fourth. “It seems my knowledge isn’t up to date,” Xing Tianlong said after the fifth wave. “This facility’s incubation chamber must have gotten an upgrade. Destroying the fortress will be extremely troublesome.”

“I’ve never fully understood the nature of fiends,” Cha Ming said. “Most of the ones we’ve encountered appear to be cloned flesh golems, but some are more intelligent than others. The one that tried to possess you is a prime example.”

“According to my knowledge, there are three types of fiendish entities,” Xing Tianlong explained. “The first type appears in a collapsing world situation. We call this type a will-type entity, because they appear when the will of a foreign world is carried over from the other side as a result of planar collapse.

“Will-type entities are chaotic, alien, and unreasonable, and their only purpose is destruction. They will continue to rampage until the universe’s native inhabitants purge them.

“The second type of fiend are the ones we are currently encountering. They are called manufactured fiends. Producing them requires high-level technology and adapting to local materials. The advantage is that they require a much small portion of fiendish will, which is locked inside their essence or fiend blood, as you might call it.”

“I take it the third type is what we fought in the last fortress?” Cha Ming asked.

“Correct,” Xing Tianlong said. “I already explained the details to you previously. The one who tried to possess me was a badly wounded immortal king pulled over by coincidence. Such beings would be armed with superior knowledge of laws, among other things.”

“You’re obviously lying,” Cao Wenluan cut in. “Why don’t you just be honest with us? You said there were five fortresses in total, counting the one that was already destroyed.”

“And how did I lie, pray tell?” Xing Tianlong asked.

“You lied about the motivation,” said Cao Wenluan. “What are the odds of five powerful immortal kings armed with knowledge on how to conduct planar warfare just happening to get sucked through to the other side by a collapsing transcendent plane?”

Xing Tianlong grimaced. “You were correct to doubt me. Not all universes are ignorant of other universe. In the universe these five came from, it is common for higher level entities to initiate planar battles. They purposefully locate unstable points with collapsing worlds and force entry.”

“But why do that?” Jadefall asked. “Crossing over nearly killed one immortal king and suppressed four others. It’s obviously a very risky process.”

“I imagine it has something to do with those Dao origin fragments,” Oster Fireblight said. “But I’m just guessing.”

“That’s a big part of the reason,” Xing Tianlong said. “Dao Origin Fragments from another world are very useful, and immortal kings are able to use them as reference to force through to the immortal emperor level. They can do this without attracting the ire of their home plane. But there is another, much better reason to cross over.”

“Karma,” Cha Ming and Cao Wenluan said at the same time.

“Whether its angelic or devilish cultivators, those who fight fiends are blessed with good fortune,” Xing Tianlong said. “Such fortune is very useful in facilitating breakthroughs. Any tribulations they might face would also be eased by a large margin.” This reminded Cha Ming of his confrontation with the will of Huxian’s tribulation. He had angered it by using erasure, ensuring that his next tribulation would be difficult. If that were possible, why not the opposite?

“The one who possessed me was desperate,” Xing Tianlong continued. “A powerful immortal tribulation was imminent, so he had no choice but to take a risk.” He then went on to explain accelerating the collapse of planes and demiplanes and how it was as good way to accumulate good fortune. The rifts created during the destruction of a world were also the only way to return to the other side.

It took some time to descend deep into the fortress, even with their superior power. The constantly flow of fiends was exhausting, and in this fortress, their powers were greatly suppressed. All save Cha Ming’s, Xing Tianlong’s and Cao Wenluan’s were pushed down by almost a half level.

Fortunately, the traps they encountered were easily disabled. The fortress was not completely cut off from their universe’s will, and as such, the foreign law runes that were used to construct them were relatively simple and easy to resolve.

Xing Tianlong played a huge part in their rapid progress. Thanks to his otherworldly knowledge, he was able to emit soul fluctuations that fooled many of the fiends, stunning them long enough for their group to break through or cut them down.

Finally, they arrived at the deepest point of the fortress. As expected, this was where a large pool of fiendish essence was located. “The fiendish general should be around here somewhere, as should the connection room,” Xing Tianlong explained. “Now careful of what you touch, otherwise –“ His voice cut off as a door slammed shut behind them, completely sealing off the chamber.

“Huxian, can we teleport out?” Cha Ming asked. They’d placed a spatial anchor outside the fortress just in case.

“This place is completely cut off,” said Huxian. “I can teleport inside this giant room, but that’s about it.”

They flew downwards towards the bubbling pool, with Xing Tianlong leading the way. “Automatically sealing off the fiend pool isn’t standard procedure, as these fortresses rarely get attacked. But perhaps the leader of this fortress thought it wise to reinforce the place, given what happened in the southern blight.

“And how do we stop this disgusting thing?” Jadefall asked. Out of all of them, she had the strongest distaste for all things fiendish. “The sooner we get rid of this essence, the better.”

“I think another batch is almost finished,” Huxian said. Several figures were emerging from the pool.

“That’s not just a batch,” Cha Ming said. “Retreat!” He used Bloodstorm Evasion to dodge a blade cutting upward from the fiend pool, then used his staff to deflect several dozen other attacks. A host of fiendish creatures rose up from the pool, much larger than any of the prior waves.

“To me!” Oster called out, activating a retreat skill that bolstered their defences. A wave of black spines shot out from the pool’s depths.

“Aegis of the Goddess!”

“Heavenly Shell!”

“Purelight Aura!”

They unleashed one technique after another to stave off the literal flood of creatures rising up to pull them down. Petros fired clusters of arrows, but was having a difficult time to retreat, so Cha Ming coiled a Clear Rune Constriction serpent to pull him backwards.

The distraction of saving Petros cost Cha Ming. He left himself open to a half-man-half-scorpion fiend. Whose battle axe cleaved him in two. By the time he regenerated, he discovered that Jadefall had adopted her fusion transformation, and was currently stomping the fiend responsible to death. The battlefield weas filled with hundreds of hellfire devil-oxen.

Wu and Undine were well protected, as their survival was critical to making it through this tough situation. To make that happen, they’d all made sacrifices. White Mirage and Baleful Vision had also adopter their fusion transformations to become two armored white tigers. Their purelight aura held back a good quarter of the rising fiends and was even burning away at the fiendish will in the pool.

“No matter what, keep up that Purelight Aura!” Huxian shouted. He activated his fusion transformation, becoming an armored, eight-tailed fox. Space cracked and shattered, destroying an entire wave of fiends that dropped down into the fiend pool for reincorporation.

But the fiends were endless, and they were losing ground. “Cao Wenluan, if you keep holding back, I’m going to beat you silly,” Cha Ming said. The warlord was currently fighting alongside all four of his companions, but only two of them were using their abilities. Dark Tooth the berserker was a powerful body cultivator that used killing intent and bones to fight. Violet Rose, on the other hand, did not directly do battle. Instead, she summoned violet flowers that marked specific fiends, overpowering their senses and forcing them to fight each other.

“Fine,” Cao Wenluan said. “Autumn’s Call! Soul Eater! No need to continue hiding.” A sigh swept across the battlefield as one of the two cloaked cultivators accompanying him shed his cloak.

“And here I thought I’d get to hide my abilities for a while longer,” said Autumn’s Call. He had the appearance of a sleep-deprived Daoist priest, and his weapon was a fan, which he used to attack a web of fiendish energy coming up from the fiend pool.

A putrid wind blew past the web, reducing it to ashes in a matter of seconds. “Time?” Huxian said. “He was supposed to a wood cultivator!”

“Yes, now you see why I kept him hidden,” Cao Wenluan said.

“What about that guy then?” Huxian said. “You called him soul eater?”

“Guess,” said Cao Wenluan. Soul Eater was much larger than the black robe he wore suggested. He was an obese man with a gaping mouth and wore three pairs of ochre wings at his back.

Soul eater took in a breath, and Cha Ming felt his soul shake as thousands of fiends collapsed. Their soul fragments were crushed as they flew into his mouth, where obsidian teeth tore up and crushed them. How many souls did he – what a monster! Cao Wenluan didn’t keep Soul Eater hidden because he was a trump card, but because he was an abomination!

“How can you harbor a monster like that?” Cha Ming asked Cao Wenluan.

“I think you forget which faction I’m a part of,” Cao Wenluan said. “Now are you going to bicker with me, or are you going to do your part?”

Cha Ming could only grit his teeth and fight back the increasingly violent tide. He called back Ninesky and used Bloodstorm Style to paint the battlefield. Wind, blood, and lighting smashed through fiend after fiend. Every collapse and regeneration was forced to yield a portion of its energy to Cha Ming’s bound energy canvas, replenishing not only his own energy, but those of his companions.

“We need an actual plan,” Oster said as they successfully completed their retreat. “Baleful Vision, how long can you keep up that Purelight Aura?” A fiendish miasma had filled the room, and without his aura, they would quickly succumb to the fiendish onslaught.

“Indefinitely, if Violet Rose and Clear Sky can keep feeding me energy,” Baleful Vision said.

“Xing Tianlong, we need specifics,” Oster said. “Is there any other way to leave the fortress.”

“Technically, there is, one level down,” Xing Tianlong said. “The portal room should lead out to void space, where we could – look out!”

A massive fiend appeared above them, suspended on a slick back web. It unleashed an attack towards Oster, which Xing Tianlong blocked. The force of the blow bowled him backwards towards Cao Wenluan’s group.

“Soul Eater, catch him,” Cao Wenluan commanded. The oafish cultivator was extremely quick, and moved to intercept him – only to catch a vanishing after-image.

A scream pierced the air, and they looked to find violet rose clutching at wound on her chest. Cao Wenluan rushed to her side and placed his hand on the wound. “Fiendish poison! Xing Tianlong, you bastard!”

But Xing Tianlong had already moved. He was much faster than anyone could have predicted, and he shared Wei Longshen’s uncanny ability to phase through matter. White Mirage’s dagger passed straight through him, as did several spatial daggers thrown over by Huxian.

Cha Ming used Bloodstorm Rush to close the gap and swung with the Clear Sky Staff. Xing Tianlong could not evade him in a similar fashion, because Cha Ming’s spiritual, divine, and law natures were fully fused.

But he did not need to evade Cha Ming, because it seemed he’d been hiding his strength all along. A devastating spear strike shattered the Clear Sky Staff and severed Cha Ming in half, destroying a full quarter of his energy reserves.

“He’s after Baleful Vision!” Oster shouted. “Protect him!” Unfortunately, neither he nor his companions could act personally. The massive fiend from before had pierced their protective shell with six sharp legs. It was taking most of their strength just to stop him from digging in further.

“You think I’m weak?” Baleful Vision roared. He was still in his armored lion form. His stripes lit up one after another, drawing on the power of bloodlines. Once upon a time, these would have been stolen bloodlines, but thanks to his evolution, they were reciprocated gifts from those he’d helped.

“Yes, as a matter a fact, I do,” Xing Tianlong said. He appeared above Baleful Vision and stabbed downward with his spear. Spatial cracks appeared as he exceeded the limits of the plane.

“No!” White Mirage shouted. She placed her body in front of Baleful Vision’s.

“Then die together!” Xing Tianlong shouted. His spear tore through White Mirage’s shoulder before stabbing into Baleful Vision’s arm. Tendrils of black corruption spread out from both their wounds.

“Wenluan!” Baleful Vision shouted. He raised his arm, and a blade chopped it off from a distance. The karma between him and his arm was severed, and the corruption ceased.

Unfortunately, his aura weakened with the loss of his arm. “His powers should no longer be enough to interfere with the inverter,” Xing Tianlong said. “Do it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re not living through this,” Wei Longshen said, appearing in front of him. “Have a listen to my latest composition, Call to the Grave.”

He placed his flute to his lips and let out an unearthly melody, creating sound waves that took the shape of a coffin. Cha Ming appeared beside Xing Tianlong and assumed the shape of a Clear Rune Serpent. He used Triune Soul Burn to execute the most powerful Clear Rune Constriction he was capable of.

Petros appeared soon after with a nocked arrow. It burned with the black flames of nine darkened suns. “I never did like you,” the archer said. “Not before my rescue, and not after.” Yet just as he was about to release said arrow, he frowned. “Wait, why is the agreement still active?”

Cha Ming was confused, and so was Wei Longshen, but they had no time to probe further; their connection the plane’s natural laws was suddenly cut off. Their spirits numbed, and their bodies were suppressed. A strange field filled the entire cavern, shattering their defences. The fiend hanging from the ceiling ceased battering at their shields and watched as it faded on his own. It caught them in a web as they fell.

“Smediosh, Smediosh,” the creature said to Xing Tianlong, who was still pale from his near-death encounter. “You were always a good schemer, but you’ve outdone yourself this time. How in the Infernal One’s name did you manage to fool them into coming here?”

“Ygrash,” Xing Tianlong greeted, stowing his spear. “It’s been a while. As for your question, let’s just say they placed too much faith on their agreements. Our methods are beyond their comprehension and can easily dissolve such karmic bindings if a certain price is paid.”

“If your wounds weren’t so grievous, things would have turned out differently in the southern hemisphere,” Ygrash said. He directed his four eyes to Cha Ming and the others. “You signalled for them to be taken alive. I take it you have plan?”

“You know the nature of my research,” Xing Tianlong said. “I’ve always been confident in being able to produce a hybrid. I mostly failed, but as luck has it, I’ve been handed a batch of premium specimens. Take a look, Ygrash. These cultivators are all elites. Even the emperors of our world would want to take them as their successors. If we successfully corrupt them, there’s no telling what merits we might achieve.”

“That’s if you succeed,” said Ygrash.

“What if I told you I was confident?” said Xing Tianlong. He gestured towards Cha Ming and floated him over. Unlike his companions, Cha Ming was actually unaffected by the strange device that was used. After the initial bout of vertigo, his senses had automatically reoriented themselves. His Clearmist runes, it turns out, could adapt to otherworldly laws and ignore their suppression.

Now was a prime opportunity to strike Xing Tianlong down, but Cha Ming did not dare act out of turn. He kept his strength suppressed to await an opportunity. It sounds like they want to do to us what they tried to do to Petros, he thought. That gives us time.

“This one is the key,” Xing Tianlong said, tapping Cha Ming’s chest. “He has the best foundation out of all of them and has managed to fuse his energies into Dao energy.”

“Impossible,” said the fiend. “Only emperors can create Dao Energy.”

“Because only with Dao Energy can one reach the Dao Realm,” said Xing Tianlong. “Examine him if you wish. You’ll find that I am correct. Moreover, he dual-cultivates creation and destruction, and can even comprehend our sacred runes.”

“Let me take a closer look at him,” Ygrash said. He lumbered over to Cha Ming and pierced his body with one of his sharp legs. “Indeed, he does cultivate dual energies. You’re hoping to use him as a bridge?”

“Exactly!” Xing Tianlong said.

They continued to discuss small matters, so Cha Ming took the opportunity think of a plan. Yet to his surprise, he received a private transmission. The source was none other than Xing Tianlong.

I didn’t realize it would be a trap until it was too late, Xing Tianlong said. It’s not that I revoked our agreement, but that striking down Baleful Vision and Violet Rose were in our best interest.

Don’t talk. Stay hidden. I know you’re not suppressed. His core is in his stinger, not his body, as one might expect. In one minute and thirty seconds, I will distract him. Take the chance to attack him with fused creation energy. Remember – the laws are inverted here. Your techniques might need adapting.

How did you… Cha Ming started, but Xing Tianlong silenced him.

Don’t speak, Xing Tianlong said. Ygrash is much stronger than I am. Let me do the talking. You only need to act.

“His body really is adaptable,” Ygrash said, pulling back his stinger. “I’m frankly surprised that the law inverter managed to suppress him.”

“It’s not easy reorienting yourself to another plane’s laws and energies,” Xing Tianlong said. “But that’s not the only reason I picked him out. Probe his inner world, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.” Ygrash obliged him. Several stingers poked into Cha Ming’s shoulders and knees and injected him with a strange form of law energy. The invasive energy inspected his foundation before working its way into the nodes linking his bones to his inner world.

“His inner world is massive!” Ygrash exclaimed. “Many true gods don’t have inner words so well developed.”

“Exactly,” Xing Tianlong said. “Though I don’t know the specifics of why that is, I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

“He appears to be assembling demiplanes in his inner world,” Ygrash continued. “That’s the reason why he can support so many lower worlds. It’s a daring plan. With enough resources, he might even be able to pull it off. In fact, I’m inspired to make some changes to my own – argh!”

Ygrash’s voice suddenly cut off as Xing Tianlong, now in prime striking position, summoned his spear and stabbed it into his torso, blasting a hole straight through it.

“I see… how it is…” Ygrash hissed. “You are not Smediosh. The possession failed.” The scorpion creature used one of its three remaining arms to pull out the remnants of Xing Tianlong’s spear. “Too bad for you I remade this body to fix that old flaw of mine. It was a good try, but in the end, you didn’t think things through well enough. You were doomed to fail.”

Spikes shot out from the fiend pool and stabbed into Xing Tianlong’s legs, arms and torso, injecting him with black, fiendish blood. “This body is not bad either. Perhaps I’ll continue Smediosh’s research. It would be a pity to waste such prime specimens.”

Xing Tianlong was not doing well, but Cha Ming did not rush to his aid. Nor did he immediately attack. He would only get a single chance. Moreover, Xing Tianlong didn’t seem too worried about the corruption rampaging throughout his body.

Cha Ming needed to distract Ygrash, but a small distraction wouldn’t cut it. He needed to strike something important, something he couldn’t ignore.

I’ve got it, Cha Ming thought. Ninesky, time to dig in.

These were exactly the words Ninesky had been waiting for. The moment he said the words, she shot out from his body and burst through the netting of fiendish energies before splashing into the fiend essence pool.

“What was that?” Ygrash asked.

“Like I’d tell you,” Xing Tianlong said, laughing weakly. “You better watch out though. If you don’t act soon, your pool won’t last long.”

“What do you mean my pool won’t last long?” Ygrash said. “You’re trying to tell me whatever that was can destroy it? I’d like to see it try.

At first, it was only a small trickle, but then a small whirlpool formed on the surface of the fiend essence pool. Ninesky wasn’t directly consuming the blood. Instead, she was pulling it straight into the Clear Sky World for later consumption.

“This… this is impossible!” Ygrash said. “How is this happening? What kind of storage treasure is capable of doing this? Wait, what if- “

The time was now. Cha Ming’s body burst into a cloud of Clearmist, devouring all negative energies inside himself and his inner world and converting them into his own energy. He then reform atop Ygrash. The Clear Sky Staff appeared inside his hands, crackling with wind, blood, and lightning. Bloodstorm Crush!

Ygrash twisted, bringing up four pairs of scorpion legs came up to block the blow. One of them shattered, and two more were cracked. A fourth pierced directly through Cha Ming’s body, whichshattered into nine bloodstorm clones, who used the established Clear Rune Field to execute Bloodstorm Execution.

A storm of blood, wind, and lightning fought against a flurry of dark webs and talons and a deadly stinger. Ygrash’s attacks did not connect, while Cha Ming’s did, but could barely pierce its exoskeleton.

I can only use Triune Soul Burn, Cha Ming thought. Three pairs of wings lit up on the backs of his many clones as the Clearmist in his energy pool writhed and bubbled. Xing Tianlong said the stinger was where his core was, but there’s a strong possibility that this is also a decoy,Cha Ming thought. I need to use everything I have to probe out its weakness, then strike!

“Such weak attacks what can they do?” the scorpion creature said. It used a web of fiendish blood to block him. “Wait, what is this energy?!”

One of the properties of Cha Ming’s Clearmist was revealed. It could be become any combination of elements, and was spiritual, divine, and law all in one package. In this case, it manifested as pure creation energy, which, in this area of inverted laws, behaved like pure destruction qi.

There were pros and cons to this fact, as Cha Ming found out shortly. A nearby clear rune accidentally detonated, wiping out a portion of his energy, and others soon followed. My Clear Rune Field is unstable here,he thought. I’m not fully familiar with the local laws, which is leading to destructive resonance.

Ygrash soon caught onto this fact; he pressed the assault as Cha Ming suffered backlash from one rune shattering after another. He was wary of going anywhere near these detonating clear runes, however, as even the slightest bit landing near its core might cause irreparable damage.

This allowed Cha Ming to deduce where his core might be located. Originally, he was attacking me with his stinger, but now it’s pulled back, Cha Ming thought. It seems Xing Tianlong was right. But it seems that he has a second core, located where his humanoid upper body and scorpion lower body intersect.

To protect his cores, Ygrash would definitely have a few cards up his sleeve. He didn’t know what this cards were, but he could fore them out.

“Ninesky, Twin Mountains!” Cha Ming shouted. The Clear Sky Brush flew up from the pool and painted in jade and ochre. A large amount of Clearmist and paint materials and leftover planar materials poured out from the Clear Sky World and onto his Crumbling Canvas.

The twin mountains started shaking the moment Ninesky painted them. Creations were unstable here, and Cha Ming did not have sufficient time to adapt. But before they could fall apart, Cha Ming forced them down. Erupt! he commanded.

Twin explosions filled the air with debris, chaotic energy, and creation qi, distorting local laws. Cha Ming used the opportunity to attack Ygrash. He used Clear Rune Steps to appear beside his stinger and attacked with all his might using Bloodstorm Crush.

“You’re ten thousand years early if you think I’ll fall for that,” Ygrash said. A black metal covering appeared around the stinger. Not only was it rock solid, but it even reflected Cha Ming’s own attack back at him!

Cha Ming’s body burst apart from the impact, reverting to Clearmist. A full fifteen percent of his energy stores vanished in an instant. Normally, this was where he would reform, but in this case, it didn’t happen. After all, this was just a clone of his.

A second clone emerged form the fiend essence pool. Cha Ming could transform into anything now, and this included synthetic fiend blood. Ygrash reacted quickly, but before he could strike Cha Ming, the clone dispersed into black mists.

They transformed into rune-covered wrappings that resonated with the Clear Rune Field that had yet to collapse. A runic serpent coiled around Ygrash, immobilizing him, while Cha Ming sent a clone to each his two cores.

“Enough!” Ygrash shouted. Two more shields popped up, blocking his clones’ attacks and destroying them through backlash. “You think mere incarnations can damage me? Train another thousand years and we’ll see.”

By now, Cha Ming’s energy reserves were dangerously low. He couldn’t keep expanding clones like this. Fortunately, he hadn’t banked everything on this one attack. Space trembled as a massive eight-tailed fox appeared above the scorpion. “No! That’s impossible!” the scorpion creature shouted.

“Totally possible!” Huxian said.

Originally, Huxian had been paralyzed as well. Only Cha Ming and Xing Tianlong were completely free. But Cha Ming had sent a clone to Huxian whose sole purpose was to fight the corrupted energies paralyzing him and give him time to execute a single attack.

The air around the pool shattered, and the spatial fragments rearranged into sharp spikes of spatial energy. They plunged into Ygrash’s immobilized body, ignoring his pathetic shielding and harming the core of his essence.

Huxian’s sudden attack surprised Ygrash, but a powerful fiend was still a powerful fiend. It wrestled back control over local space from Huxian and pierced through the void, shattering Huxian’s chest plate and filling him with far too much0 fiendish energy to clear in a short amount of time.

But Huxian had done his job. Ygrash’s armor had peeled away. Cha Ming appeared beside one of these cores and attacked once more with Bloodstorm Crush.

Twin sabers appeared out of thin air this time, directly blocking Cha Ming’s staff. The recoil sent Cha Ming flying backwards, while the area of effect attack directly destroyed Cha Ming’s Clearmist Field in the area, harming him a second time.

Cha Ming had one arrangement left, however. It was his most important one. He was gambling a lot on this last attack, as he still didn’t fully grasp the laws here, but it just felt right.

Ninesky, Cha Ming commanded. Erasure! He painted a curved line using nothing but the purest creation qi. Where the white line passed, destruction-based materials evaporated. Half of Ygrash’s cores directly disappeared, and the remaining halves were too unstable to continue existing. They exploded, blasting apart Ygrash’s torso and stinger apart.

Ygrash was still a high-tier fiend, and his body was incomparably tough. Energy poured in from the fiend essence pool and started regenerating his body. Yet this was another miscalculation on Ygrash’s part. It wasn’t just Cha Ming and Huxian in this fight, but Xing Tianlong as well.

Xing Tianlong had not directly attacked as one might expect but had instead gone over to Baleful Vision and Cao Wenluan. A blade appeared between Ygrash and the fiend essence pool, severing their connection. Baleful Vision’s aura, no longer suppressed by Xing Tianlong’s poison, filled their surroundings with Purelight, destroying the remnants of Ygrash’s body.

“Vile creatures!” a voice suddenly boomed. “Perish with me!” A violent spiritual energy filled the room.

“He’s trying for a final suicidal attack with his soul!” Cha Ming warned.

“Wishful thinking!” Xing Tianlong said. A shell of spiritual energy appeared around them, blocking Ygrash’s final, suicidal attack.

There was no need to check if Ygrash had actually died, because his death had an immediate effect. The fiend essence pool was connected to the fiend’s soul. With his death, it reverted to a vegetative state.

“I think I’ll lie down and recover,” Xing Tianlong said, easing himself down. His body was still covered n holes bleeding black blood.

Baleful Vision had lost an arm, but to a demon like him, such a wound was nothing. He started purifying the corruption on White Mirage’s wounds before purifying the others. He reluctantly purified Xing Tianlong as well.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty sure you’d betrayed us there,” Wei Longshen said. “Did you intend this all from the beginning?”

“If you want to fool your enemies, fool your allies first,” Xing Tianlong said.

“Then we need to have a serious discussion,” Oster said. “Without a good plan, we won’t even be able to bring out half our potential in battle.”

Xing Tianlong rolled his eyes. “Then I admit it – I was taken by surprise. I’d originally planned on coming here alone to find an opportunity to betray and slay Ygrash, and destroy this fortress, netting a large number of points. With you all here, however, that became impossible, so I decided to try destroying the fortress with you all. Unfortunately, the fortress was much better defended than I anticipated. I had to improvise.”

With Ygrash dead, there was no one to stop Ninesky from devouring the reservoir of fiendish energy. She drank up half of it before stopping. Cha Ming was bout to destroy the rest of it when Xing Tianlong requested that they didn’t. He took a strange box he found elsewhere in the fortress and gathered up the rest of the fiend blood.

“Is this place going to collapse like the last one?” Huxian said. “Because if it is, we’re in big trouble.”

“Relax, little fox,” Xing Tianlong said. “I deactivated the self-destruct.”

“Is the setup similar to last time?” Cha Ming asked. “Is this fortress connected to an unstable planar fragment as well?

“That’s correct,” Xing Tianlong said. “Which is why we can’t destroy the fortress. Not completely. If we did that, the planar fragment fueling the fortress would collapse.”

He led them to the core of the building, where a spatial gate was located. A tether of energy and karma connected the building a demiplane three times larger than the last one.

The void out here was much different than in the southern blight. It was much more chaotic, and the demiplane in question was shape like glass shard that was wedged between two other similar pieces, making it impossible to remove without causing a large-scale collapse.

“So. What do you think, Clear Sky?” Xing Tianlong said. “Can you work some of your magic and clear up this mess?” The rest of them brightened at the prospect. Cha Ming and Huxian had obtained no small fortunate in points this way.

“It can’t be done,” Cha Ming said. “If we touch this planar fragment, the others will shift. The local void will shatter. Back me up on this, Huxian.”

“He’s right,” Huxian said. “This is a mess. I have no idea how they managed to stabilize it enough to use as an energy source.”

“A pity,” said Xing Tianlong. “I was hoping…”

“Our haul isn’t so bad,” Oster said. “For killing Ygrash, clearing out the fortress, and disabling the fiend essence pool, we got a quick 30 million points each. We’re well on our way to the top of the rankings.”

“I’m amazed,” Petros said. “Everyone, remember this moment. Oster… is satisfied!”

“I never said I was satisfied,” Oster said. “Greed is good. The question is, can we find more where that came from?”

“There are three other fortresses,” Xing Tianlong said. “Each one stronger than this one.”

“If it means attacking another fortress, I’m firmly against it,” Cao Wenluan said.

“I agree with you,” Xing Tianlong said. “A surprise attack like this one will only work on one of them. Now that they know I’m here and I’m hostile, they won’t let us sneak in like before.”

“What if we just skipped the fortresses?” Cha Ming suggested.

“What do you mean?” Xing Tianlong asked.

Cha Ming shrugged. “What if we travelled together through the void and ignored the battle for Dao fragments. Who knows? Maybe we’ll find a mess we can resolve. Maybe the other unstable cores can be reached.”

“Or maybe, just maybe, we can attack a fortress through the back door,” Huxian said, rubbing his hands together.

“Is travelling through this chaotic mess viable?” Cao Wenluan asked Huxian.

“If I’ve got Wu helping me, and maybe Oster, Undine, and… you know what, forget it,” Huxian said. “I’ll need everyone’s help, but I can manage it.”

“It’s worth trying out,” Cha Ming said. “At least, it’s better than fighting each other for a few measly points defending Dao fragments. At the very least, we should scope out the other locations. Worst case, we don’t find any risks worth taking, then we go back to fighting over Dao fragments.