PtM Book 17 - Chapter 16: Bloodwood Moore

1/2 chapters this week. Because this one is super long. Still moving. Will be more active soon.

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Thanks to the Hallowed Turtle Ox Teleportation Network, it only took a few hours to assemble the elites. Huxian then bunched everyone up on his ten fastest void ships, which included his own flagship, a miniaturized version of battlecruiser. Then they entered the void via an oversized gate.

“So that’s what you’ve been up to all this time,” Twisted Horn muttered as they flew through a relatively uncluttered spatial corridor. “These walls weren’t there before. And neither were those teleportation nodes. Do those lead to where I think they do?”

“Always be constructing, Twisted Horn,” Huxian said. “It’s a way of life. It took me a year to finish a network in enemy territory. It’s not perfect, but it’ll get the job done. Then it’ll only take a bit of renovating to convert into an actual teleportation network.”

“Where shall we be heading first then, Lord Eight Directions?” asked Enclave Lord Hallowed. “Lord Winter Moon’s territory, I presume?”

“Nope,” Huxian said. “We’re heading straight to Bloodwood Moore.”

“Isn’t that –“

“Blood leech’s territory,” Huxian confirmed. “Out of all our enemies, he’s the trickiest, so he has to go first. And to make sure we actually kill him, I’m going to need all of your cooperation. First things first - speed. I need the hundred fastest cultivators in our army, excluding enclave lords and elders.”

Twisted Horn bellowed out a few commands, and soon, there were ninety fusion-realm demons, eight law stitching cultivators, and two shell marking cultivators lined up in neat rows. “These are the fastest we have,” he said. “They’ll obey all your commands.”

“Here you go,” Huxian said, handing them each a box. “You are not to look at the contents until I instruct you.”

They continued flying until they arrived at a relatively empty stretch of space, where they stopped at Huxian’s orders and waited. A few minutes later, they were joined by another fleet of ships. These ones were bulky, black, and significantly slower than Huxian’s, but they bore heavy armor plating, cannons, and had much higher carrying capacity. They were filled to the brim with warriors, and bore dark flags emblazoned with a green flame.

A trio flew out from their flagship, accompanied by a few dozen powerful warriors in the law stitching realm. The strongest of them were not Daoists, but rankers. Their leader wore a tailored suit, a rimmed hat, and a bright red tie.

“Eight Directions,” the Oster Fireblight greeted.

“Oster,” Huxian said. “I see you haven’t dropped dead. A pity.”

“Alas, I still live, and what’s worse, you’ve lowered yourself to my level,” Oster said. “Please, call me General Fireblight during this joint operation,” Oster said. “And call my companions War Priestess Undine and Shield Guard Martin.”

The war priestess wore flowing white robes and had an otherworldly aura about her. She had silvery hair and bright green eyes. As for Shield Guard Martin, he looked the stereotypical meat shield. He was a mountain of a man, though nowhere nearly as tall as Twisted Horn. He carried an oversized shield on his left arm and wielded a long sword with his right.

“Whatever floats your boat, General Fireblight,” Huxian said. “Did you bring what I asked for?”

“I did,” Oster said. “You brought the goods?”

“I did,” Huxian said. He summoned several dozen chests of holding from his tail space.

Oster did not check the contents of the chests physically, but Huxian could sense the war priestess probing. She wasn’t a normal priestess, and Huxian knew for a fact that much of Oster’s success hinged on her ability create otherworldly altars that allowed the creation of rankers without fiddling with the realm’s Dao Origins.

Oster looked over Huxian’s ship. Numbers flew across his eyes as he calculated and tabulated their contents. “I’m assuming I shall be free to command your troops?”

“Absolutely not!” Twisted Horn shouted, interposing himself between both sides. The two other enclave lords flew over and stood behind Twisted to support him.

“Eight Directions, it seems we’re going to have a problem,” Oster said.

“We’re not,” Huxian said. “Enclave Lords, this is a general I hired called Oster Fireblight. These people are his mercenaries, and I paid them to come help out. Now, I know it’s a big ask, but if he commands our troops, it will improve our chances of success in this operation.”

“And what exactly is the operation,” Hallowed Owl said. “You mentioned going to war, and nothing else.”

“Bad communication,” Oster agreed. “Especially with those on the level of an enclave lord. Apologies, enclave lords. It was an oversight on my part not to clarify the chain of command.”

“That’s well and good, but we still need clarification at this point, I think,” Hallowed Owl said.

Dragon Turtle bobbed his turtle head. “Especially if it’s going to be a collaborative effort.”

“Fine, fine,” Huxian said. “But we need to wait until one more party shows up.”

It was then that thirty people in black robes arrived on a tiny ship. All of them wore white masks and deep hoods to cover up their identities. One of them, however, stood out from the rest. His hair was golden, and eyes sharp.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” Oster said. “You know how I feel about him, Eight Directions. Did you have to hire him?”

“I didn’t, but I think he’ll be a good fit for the mission,” Huxian said. “And our contract specifically states that you need to collaborate with others, even if you don’t like them.”

“Even so…” Oster said, then a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. “You know what, this might be a good thing. If he’s here, he can’t ruin the operation.”

“All right, here is the plan,” Huxian said to the enclave lords. “We are going to strike hard and fast. We aren’t going to fight a traditional war, but a war using void space as a springboard. Today, we are going to kill Dao God Blood Leech and two other high-profile targets.”

“Two?” Twisted Horn asked.

“Is that even possible?” Hallowed Owl asked.

It was Oster who replied by taking out his soul-bound artifact, the Mirror of the Blighted Coin. “Answer the question, mirror,” he said. “What are our odds.” Script began appearing on the mirror’s silver surface. “Not bad. Seventy percent!”

Twisted Horn’s eyes lit up. “Seventy-percent? I’ve known much worse odds.”

Dragon Turtle squinted. “I don’t like those odds.”

“Don’t mind the turtle,” Hallowed Owl replied. “Seventy percent odds are acceptable, assuming you’re not pulling numbers out of the air.”

“Not at all,” Oster said. “My soul bound treasure if quite reliable. But please note that these odds only apply if I’m commanding. Mirror, please revise and display the odds if I’m not commanding this joint activity.” The odds immediately dropped two forty percent. “Go ahead and make your decision. My price remains the same.”

It took quite a bit of convincing and a few promises, but eventually, Huxian was able to get the enclave lords on board. Oster proceeded to organize everyone and set up a command structure. Only then did he seek out Huxian again. “Eight directions, do you have the materials, we require?”

Huxian took out three boxes and handed them over to War Priestess Undine. She began muttering prayers to her dark goddess from across the aether. She was not strictly a war priestess. Her skillset involved space and karma.

In this case, she used her sills to creating tracking stones. Tracking stones that would cut through standard protections people from the Heartforge Realm carried. Only very rare materials empowered by very potent abilities would make the cut.

“So that’s why you wanted the full moon dousing flower cores,” Twisted Horn mutter.

“Obviously,” Huxian said. “What, did you think I was asking for random things for fun?”

Twisted Horn snorted. “Are you going to tell me the bonsai trees have some secret usage as well?”

Huxian coughed lightly. “It was necessary to mix things up. You know, for deception purposes.”

Each tracking stone required not only a tracking core, but also a focus that could be used as a connection to the target. Undine already had one for the first target, courtesy of Oster. “How did you even get a piece of his robes, Oster?” Huxian asked. Isn’t attacking people in the Heartforge Realm against the rules?”

“You need to think outside the box, my friend,” Oster said. “Attacking, robbing, or even damaging someone’s clothes might be against the rules - but something like a mishap by a seamstress repairing a cultivator’s robes? Or maybe a little too much excitement at a pleasure house?” He smirked. “There wasn’t much left of that specific robe set, so it’s only natural he abandoned it.”

A few minutes of heavy praying was all it took Undine to complete a black dousing needle that would always point straight towards its target when injected with qi. “Please provided the material for the second pearl,” Undine said to Huxian. The fox proffered a vial of blood and monitored her carefully as she worked. It was very important that he return anything that wasn’t used.

This time, the resulting tracking needle turned white as bleached paper. It shivered and shook in several directions, forcing the priestess to add a second restriction to settle it down. “This blood points in several directions. I’ve forced it to point to the nearest target.”

“Baleful Vision’s blood, I presume?” Oster asked Huxian.

“Yep,” Huxian said. “And no, I’m not selling you the rest.”

“A pity,” Oster said. “I’d offer you a good price.”

“Alright, let’s move onto the last target,” Huxian said. “Hundred elites, you may look inside your packages now while we complete the last needle.” He took out a cage, and inside that cage was a blood leech. He squeezed it until only a bloody mess remained and pressed these remains into a small red pearl. “Since blood leech is the only one on the plane with the blood leech bloodline, it should do the trick.” The priestess accepted the pearl, and before long, they had a bright red dousing needle pointing frantically towards a spatial node not far away from their location.

“Have you all taken the time to inspect your storage treasures?” Huxian asked. “Any questions?”

One of the hundred elites raised a hand. “Are these…”

“Bath salts,” Huxian confirmed with a grin. “Bet you didn’t expect that, Twisted Horn! To be exact, they are hyper-concentrated life hexing salts used for body refinement. Great for demons. Awesome for demigods. But leeches…” he chuckled darkly. “Let’s move out!”

Huxian flew toward the spatial node and pressed his palm against it. A hidden gate appeared. The gate twisted open, and the hundred demons rushed through it without waiting for the entrance to stabilize.

Bloodwood Moore was not a picturesque location. It was filled to the brim with tall trees that oozed blood from their trunks and grew sharp leaves that could cut transcendent treasures in half. A blood-colored slime covered every inch of mulchy ground, and every blade of grass, and every rock.

This disgusting slime was the main problem with assaulting Blood Leech’s position, because to him, it served as an endless blood reservoir. Thus, the bath salts, which the hundred elites had already started spreading. A thin coating of rust-colored salt was just settling onto the forest floor, and the slime practically evaporated on contact, revealing barren earth and cracked soil, completely devoid of life.

Twisted Horn started. “That’s…”

“Genius,” Hallowed Owl said. “With my power, I could naturally purify this territory, but it would take a lot of energy. Salt is a much more efficient solution.”

“Salt is how you kill leeches,” Huxian said. “It won’t be enough to kill Blood Leech, but it should take care of most of the leech clones he planted everywhere.”

“I’m getting erratic behavior from the dousing needle,” Warp Priestess Undine warned.

A group of powerful demons appeared in the distance. There were thirty in total if you counted their leader, Dao Lord Blood Leech. Each of them wore an unsightly expression.

One of the demons had reached the middle fusion realm, and the rest were early fusion realm elders. It was one of these weaker demons who spoke. “Who dares provoke the wrath of the Dao Lord - argh!

Huxian blinked as the demon of the avian descent burst into green flames. The new arrivals recoiled, and the three enclave lords, including Twisted Horn, were horrified.

“Oster…” Huxian said.

“What?” Oster said. “This is an attack, isn’t it?”

“But you’re supposed to allow time for banter,” Huxian said. “And you just… killedthe guy.”

“It was uncalled for,” Twisted Horn agreed.

“Well I don’t get paid to banter,” Oster said. “On my mark, launch spells. Shoot your arrows. I’m not going to sit around while thousands of demons close in on our position. Shoot!” His ships unleashed hell on the high-level demons, as did the thousand or so demonic cultivators on Huxian’s ships.

“Hah!” one of Blood Leech’s minions scoffed. He was a rock-skinned monstrosity with six spider legs instead of the traditional bipedal structure. “Look! Ants have come to play! Let’s stomp on them!”

“Not ants,” another demon said. “There are a few strong ones, including three enclave lords.”

“True, but this is Bloodwood Moore,” said another. “As Enclave Lords, they should know better than to attack the heart of someone’s territory.”

“Eight Directions, we need to move,” Oster Urged. “We need to do it now.”

“Come now, didn’t you want banter, Eight Directions?” Blood Leech said. “And you, Oster. You wound me. Wasn’t my counter-offer quite lucrative? Why chose him over me?”

Oster chuckled. “I’m afraid I don’t bet on losing horses, Blood Leech. “You were dead regardless of my intervention, so I figured I might as well cash in.”

The grin on Blood Leech’s face faded. “Is that so?” The earth trembled as hundreds of investiture realm demons crawled out from the ground. They were followed by hordes of monstrous worms, blood birds, and many other horrors. “How about now?”

Oster maintained his smile and issued a few orders straight into everyone’s mind. A map of their surroundings lit up in each of their minds. Rapid Reload. Rapid Spell Charge. Might of the Commander. Absolute Piercing Shot. War Priestess Undine!?

“Hell’s Furious Empowerment. Devil’s Luck. I Saw Through Time and Space!” Undine shouted.

Oster and Undine’s skills did not only target their own troops, but the demon elites as well. The previous barrage had just been a testing shot for calibration, and now, each spell and arrow was orders of magnitude stronger.

“Eight Directions!” Oster shouted, and without thinking, Huxian tossed a spatial bomb into the mixture. It was one of his stronger bombs. The bomb combined with the might of thirty-thousands ranged specialist rankers, forming a burst attack strong enough to threaten a middle fusion realm demon.

“They’re transforming,” Twisted Horn warned. “Should we execute our own fusion transformations?”

“Negative,” Oster said. “Don’t worry, I have a plan. Keep your most powerful attacks in reserve. Wu. Shields!” A large Xuanwu Shield came up, blocking their entire party just as a potent swallowing force picked up all the trees and grass and slime in the area and sucked them into a now much larger Dao Lord Blood Leech.

Blood Leech’s companions transformed as well, including a stone spider, and a middle fusion realm treant demon that had names on its branches instead of leaves.

“What about now?” Huxian asked Oster.

Oster held up a mirror and calculated, then nodded. “Elite squads, fusion transformation!” he commanded.

Huxian and company had brought all of their elites form their three combined territories into the heart of Blood Leech’s territory, so there was no shortage of firepower. Hundreds of initial fusion realm demons transformed.

“Vanguard’s Charge! Tooth and Nail!” Oster shouted, activating two addition skills.

“Dark One’s Wrath! Forbidden Strength!” Undine added, causing the elites to bulk up and grow by twenty percent even after their transformation.

Blood Leech’s people didn’t stand chance. The fusion-transformed demons tore into them with surprising ferocity, slaying half of them in an instant.

Then came the Enclave Lords, each of which possessed terrifying strength. Twisted Horn appeared beside the stone spider and smashed its rocky outer layer, and Jadefall, who’d also reached the initial fusion realm, became an ochre blur that executed a single Underworld Cleave that finished it off.

The enclave lord accompanying Dao Lord Blood Leech was an evil tree demon. He did not rely on physical strength, but curses. “How vicious and underhanded,” the tree demon said. “But I expected no better. Let’s see if you can bear my retaliation.” The ‘leaves’ on the tree shivered and fell, revealing hundreds of names, one for each of the demons present. “I am the name tree, and through your names will you bear my curse. I curse thee to perish!”

Dao Lord Blood Leech lumbered up beside him. “The blood you bleed is ours to devour,” he said. A demon Dao projection expanded across the battlefield, and Huxian, Oster, and Petros’s forces began to wilt.

More fusion realm demons rushed in from their surroundings, blocking the enclave lords and buying time for Blood Leech’s allies to regenerate their wounds. It wasn’t long before the battle became one-sided.

“Do it now!” Oster commanded.

Enclave Lord Hallowed Owl stepped forward and began to shine with a bright light. He wasn’t just a demon, but a Dao Lord as well. “First Law, Resistance!” Hallowed Owl shouted. “Afflictions be no more!” The effects of the name tree lessened substantially. “Second Law, Purity! Thought shalt drink no more blood!” Blood Leech’s demon Dao projection was heavily suppressed. “Third Law, Origin!” The weakest among the fusion realm demons opposing them suddenly reverted to their original forms. Hallowed Owl possessed the ability to cancel fusion transformations!

Dragon Turtle made his move next. He was of the Turtle Dragon Bloodline, and though most of his abilities were defensive, he had a few slow but powerful attacks.

“Mountain… Sea… Decree…” Dragon Turtle said softly. A giant illusory mountain and a gaseous sea appeared above their enemies and crashed down atop them.

“Divine Astral Deluge!” Hallowed Owl called out, and suddenly, stars began to fall from the sky. They attacked not Blood Leech and his men but the entire forest and the corruption that had yet to dissolve due to Huxian’s life-hexing salts.

Yet another wave of Dao Lord Blood Leech’s minions fell, and Blood Leech finding himself isolated from any blood sources and unable to regeneration, chose to use a version of Blood Escape.

“We’re chasing him,” Oster said. “Forget everyone else. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint. War Priestess?”

“The dousing needle is still effective,” Undine confirmed.

They re-entered void space, but this time, they took their time.

“He’s slowed down,” Undine said. “I believe his blood escape technique has run out.”

“Eight Directions?” Oster asked.

“Here’s the nearest gate,” Huxian said. He found one of the many, many contingency gates that he’d built up over the year in preparation for this chase. Blood Leech was a tough and insidious cookie, and Huxian didn’t want to give him any chance at making a comeback.

The warp gate opened, but before anyone passed through, Oster waved them to a halt. “He’s going to run. Don’t bother.” And as predicted, the dousing pendant shifted. The chase developed into a game of cat and mouse.

They repeated the process a few more times. It soon wasn’t enough to simply open up a portal; they were forced to legitimately chase blood leech for a while.

“Darn it, I almost had him in my Mobius Labyrinth,” Huxian after the eight time.

“He’s very slippery, that one,” Oster said. “War Prietess, are you sure you cursed him?”

Undine looked at him coldly. “You doubt the great Harid Dej?”

“I also cursed him, after a fashion,” said Petros to Huxian. “The more he runs, the quicker his stamina will run out. But you should know his final destination just as well as I.”

“He’s going to bolt, obviously,” Oster said. “Retreat to his interplanar teleportation formation.”

“Nope,” Huxian said.

Oster frowned. “But my mirror…”

“Watch,” Huxian said. At first, the path adopted by Blood Leech was as Oster indicated, but suddenly, he took a turn and headed away from the teleportation formation.

“Oh I see,” Oster said. “You couldn’t cover his entire territory in a teleportation web, so you made sure you had a clear path to the teleportation formation. He used his many escape attempts to see how quickly you responded in every direction. When he saw that your response was slower tangentially, he realized that if he bolted towards the center, you could beat him to it. He could only give up on this escape route.”

They continued chasing Blood Leech, but it was like Oster said – Huxian had a lower void gate density, so their chase became more difficult.

“I got a report last time we surfaced,” Twisted Horn said. “From the hundred. They finished spreading the life hexing salts across Bloodwood Moore. They then went over the forest with their demonic senses and finished what Hallowed Owl started. All the blood leeches have been eliminated.”

“Thankfully there’s a limit to how many blood leech clones he can create,” Huxian said. “Otherwise, he’d be unstoppable.”

“I believe the limit is much higher than you think,” said Oster. “But he did not plant more blood leeches, because everyone blood leech he plants weakens him.”

The chase continued for three more hours. Battle reports flooded in from their other borders. The Paper Tiger Clan had clued in what was going on and were determined to win some territory from the Hallowed Turtle Ox Region during the chaos.

Most of the territory was Hallowed Owl’s territory. But Hallowed Owl was practical and did not give into his emotions. “Once this is all over, we’ll pay back the favor tenfold.”

“Didn’t we evacuate most of the important and powerful people out of there?” Huxian asked.

“We did,” Hallowed Owl said.

“Then don’t worry about it,” Huxian reassured. “They usually drain the color from those guys, then cascade everything downwards. Weaker demons aren’t even worth the trouble.”

Another hour passed before War Priestess Undine finally stopped them. “He’s not moving anymore.”

“About time,” Twisted Horn said grumpily. “This is blood escape we’re talking about. Most cultivators can only use it for minutes, and he’s lasted hours!”

“You shouldn’t underestimate people form the Heartforge Realm,” Huxian said. “He’s a blood cultivator, so he probably has a lot of high quality blood essence pills. Expect him to not be tired or warn out. Oster?”

“I’ve already scanned the opposing encampment,” Oster said. “This time, we’re not attacking a forest but a fortified position. Enclave Lord Twisted Horn, would you be interested in the vanguard?”

It was like an early birthday gift to Twisted Horn. “Would I ever!”

“Wait,” Enclave Lord Dragon Turtle said. “Wu, you go first, and I will overlay.”

“Yes!” Wu said. She concentrated her power into a single Xuanwu shield, which was also backed up by a fledgling demon-Dao domain.

That’s right. The lazy Wu had taken to cultivating laws, and so had Jadefall, for that matter. The hard part had been convincing Wu, but with Enclave Lord Dragon Turtle’s gentle urging, she’d ultimately given in.”

A bright Xuanwu Shield appeared on Twisted Horn. “Acceptable,” Dragon Turtle said. “Fortress armor.”

“What - “ Twisted Horn’s words were cut off as he was completely encapsulated by a shielded ball.

Dragon Turtle kicked the ball and nodded to himself. Very solid. “Hallowed Owl?”

“Launching!” Hallowed Owl confirmed. He kicked the ball through the spatial node, directly shattering space.

“Let’s go!” Oster said. Three of his heavier ships activated formations and followed behind twisted horn alongside the biggest, baddest demons in their entourage. Enclave Lord Dragon Turtle was already a walking fortress, and so was Wu. They both walked out and began covering their forces in shields. Then came Hallowed Owl, who activated a star-fall-type ability. Chaos ensued.

“Ready?” Huxian said to Jadefall.

“Ready,” Jadefall said. She activated her fusion transformation and became a fallen jade ox queen, complete with black fur, black armor, and ochre horns and dreadful hooves. “Hell Crushing Charge!” she shouted. Hellfire spewed out form her mouth and transformed into a herd of devil ox that charged alongside her.

“Defensive Charge. Beachhead Invasion. Go!” Oster shouted. His skill enveloped them all as they poured through the rift.

They arrived amidst pandemonium in the middle of an army encampment. “Fools!” Blood Leech shouted as they arrived. “Did you think I didn’t know about your capabilities? That I wouldn’t prepare for such an ambush?”

“Oster, I think you’re right about the banter,” Huxian said. “He’s not worth it. Do your thing.”

“Just do your job,” said Oster. “And take the hunters. I don’t want to deal with them.”

The hunters were naturally the fifteen black-cloaked figures led by none other than Petros Sullivan, who wore a mask just like everyone else.

“Where are we going?” Petros asked Huxian.

“We’re going to go bag ourselves a blood leech, stuff it, and stick over our fireplace,” Huxian said.

“I don’t think you can stuff a leech,” said Petros.

“Why do you have to be such a kill joy?” Huxian asked. “Now be quiet. I need to concentrate.” He used Oster’s skill to pinpoint blood leech, then used those coordinates to tear open a rift in space.

They appeared right beside a surprised Blood Leech. There was no time to think, and Huxian acted on instinct. A cube appeared in his hand and began to expand infinitely in all directions, successfully establishing his Mobius Labyrinth!

“Foolish fox,” Blood Leech said. “Trapping yourself in here with me is the last thing you’ll do.” He concentrated his demon-Dao law projection and urged it to devour Huxian’s blood. Although his fundamentals were lacking compared to Cha Ming and Huxian, he was still a Heartforge Realm trained early law stitching Dao Lord.

Huxian began to bleed from his seven orifices. Blood ran down his face, his fur, and his skin, only to evaporate as Blood Leech devoured it. Huxian threw six sharp daggers at blood leech, but Blood Leech had no interest in crossing swords with him. He split apart into tens of thousands of bloody leeches that scrambled towards the fox, greedily lapping up the blood pooling at his feet.

“Petros?” Huxian said. “A little help here?”

“Volley!” Petros cried out from a far corner of the maze. He was so far away that Huxian doubted he could hit – but hit he did, thanks to the power of his domain.

Explosive arrows struck the labyrinth floor, filling Huxian’s surroundings with spatial glass dust and dead leeches. Lots and lots of dead leeches. They crawled onto his battle robes and tried to infiltrate the tiny flaws in their structure.

Fortunately, Huxian had expected such underhanded tactics. Any leeches that burrowed into his skin were soon forced out.

“You sprinkled yourself in life-hexing salts at the last minute,” said the swarm. “Clever. Let’s see how long you can keep it up.”

Huxian teleported out of Blood Leech’s range and appeared beside Petros. “We need a plan. This guy’s a lot harder to kill than I thought he would be.”

“Tell me about it,” Petros said. “He’s all spread out, so even if I fire arrows non-stop, I’ll never put a dent into him.”

“Do you have any blanketing attacks?” Huxian asked.

“Do I look like a mage to you?” Petros asked.

“They’re coming towards us,” one of the hunters said. “I suggest splitting up to cover more ground.”

Petros nodded. “Fine. Let’s split up. Watch your rears.” He and his fourteen helpers shot in different directions, leaving Huxian to act as bait. Arrow after arrow exploded onto piles of leeches as they gathered to attack, but it was as Petros said; their effects were limited, and Blood Leech’s regeneration and life sapping abilities far outstripped any damage they could deal.

The Mobius Labyrinth was great for tricking and confusing an enemy but attacking them while they were inside it was a whole other story. “Eight Directions, I’m going to need a plan,” Petros said.

“I’m think, I’m thinking,” Huxian said, all the while scrambling to find something that could work.

Void bombs? Too concentrated. Too much collateral damage. They worked best to break the void, and what’s worse, he’d just destroy his labyrinth?

Talismans? He didn’t have enough of them. Same with other consumables.

That only left a very experimental option. One that may or may not destroy his precious labyrinth. “Cover me Petros!” Huxian shouted. He set up spatial wards around himself, expelling all leeches in his surroundings before summoning different parts of a prototype device. It was bulky, but that was how it was with R&D. You made things stylish after you worked out the kinks in the design.

Huxian was a visionary. He saw things that worked and strived to make them better. In this case, he had taken a leaf out of Cha Ming’s book to pursue increasingly violent reactions. His train of thought was simple: Cha Ming had found a great way to unleash devastation, but ultimately, he was limited by his runic arts. Huxian’s attack methods and technology relied on spacetime, and as such, he had a lot more flexibility.

To that end, Huxian had come up with many violently explosive alchemical reactions. The trick was to keep the reaction in stasis until he needed them. The stasis chamber also needed to be compact. Larger stasis chambers required a much better understanding of laws than he currently had.

“Eight Directions, I suggest you hurry,” Petros said. “Those leeches can eat spatial glass!”

“I’m on it!” Huxian said. Okay Huxian. No time to anything fancy. Just smash a few things together and see if you can do it. Worst case, abandon the labyrinth.He picked up three large flasks of alchemical reagents and combined them. Then immediately activated a large stasis field that froze them into place.

Leeches were headed his way, so he didn’t have a lot of time. He compressed the stasis field and shaped a shell out of spatial glass. Unfortunately, the glass immediately began to fracture as his stasis began to fade. They had a handful of seconds at best.

The leeches attacking them suddenly recoiled as they sensed the dangerous aura in the sphere. “What have you done?!” Blood Leech shouted.

“Wasted a whole lot of money, that’s what,” Huxian grumbled. “Petros, let’s move!”

“I’m kind of busy,” Petros said. Two screams cut into their conversation. The blood leech swarm had found his hunters and were killing them one by one.

Huxian teleported next to two that were near death and sent them out of the Mobius labyrinth. He then found three others under bombardment, warped space around them, then forcefully teleported them to his side. The backlash caused them to cough up blood and collapse, but fortunately, they were professionals – a relatively unwounded hunter grabbed Huxian and the remaining hunters and found Petros.

“Let’s go! Run!” Huxian said, opening a gateway. Blood Leech’s swarm scurried towards the portal. Petros and his hunters hopped through the exit, and Huxian followed, but not before tossing a few dozen small spatial blade traps to obstruct the way.

The moment Huxian appeared, Petros’ hunters began unloading into the portal with everything they had. “Oster, we have a situation here,” Huxian said. He transmitted information to the ranker, who cursed.

“Eight Directions, remind me to charge you double next time,” Oster said. “Wu! Containment! Enclave Lord Dragon Turtle, assist!”

A light barrier and a fortress appeared around Huxian’s maze, which began to break apart as the stasis around his reagents broke apart, releasing the explosive mixture it was trapping.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time Dragon Turtle - or Wu, for that matter - had dealt with such a situation. They promptly ignored Oster’s calls to completely enclose the area and built walls upward, channeling the explosion in a safer direction. A mushroom cloud appeared where Dao Lord Blood Leech had once been.

Yet even that wasn’t enough to extinguish his tenacious vitality. Thousands of tiny leeches shot out in every direction. They scurried not towards Huxian and Oster’s forces, but towards his own troops! Demons began exploding by the thousands, and the resulting mess of blood nourished the badly damaged leeches, replenishing a fraction of their strength.

“This is bad,” Huxian said, appearing beside Oster. “If any of those leeches escape, we’re done.”

“Well its a good thing I learned a few tricks in my off-time,” Oster said. “Do you have a live specimen”

“Here,” Huxian said, procuring a jar, in which he’d trapped five leeches that were scurrying for their lives.

Oster took the leeches and smashed them into paste, which he then stuffed into a marionette. He then began to stick needles inside said marionette.

“You learned curses?” Huxian asked.

“You never know when you’ll need a good curse,” Oster said. “Usually I use them against contract breakers, but this is a good opportunity. Now hurry up. We need a single attack. Preferably soul-based.”

“Let me do it,” Jadefall said. They gave her a wide berth as she hefted her axe, and it glowed a baleful ochre aura. A projection appeared behind her, that of a much stronger demon with bloody horns. It held a scale aloft that measured the puppet’s sins.

“Guilty,” the projection concluded, and Jadefall chopped, striking the puppet - and therefore every blood leech out there. The strike wasn’t physical in nature, but spiritual, and it struck according to the severity of their sins, which in Blood Leech’s case, proved quite lethal.

Oster whistled. “That’s a very frightening technique, Lady Jadefall. Remind me not to upset you in the future.”

“Underworld Judgment is perfect for executing filth,” Jadefall said. “If you ever want to try its power, that can be arranged. Free of charge.”

Undine, who wasn’t far from Oster, laughed. “You practically bathe in sin, and you dare judge us?”

Jadefall scowled. “Using evil to fight evil is very different than using evil for selfish purposes.”

Blood Leech’s death immediately changed the battle situation. “My link!” one demon cried out. “My link is gone!”

“That pesky blood leech is finally out!” another said, tossing their axe to the ground. One after another, their opponents began to surrender. Apparently, they’d all been coerced into fighting.

“But how do we know he’s dead?” Petros asked. “Do we have a way to check?”

“Oh, I got a notice on my mission jade,” Jadefall said. “He’s dead. Super dead.” Huxian heard a ping as a million points got transferred to his own jade - everything in their territory was split evenly among participants, according to their contract.

Huxian rubbed his hands together. “Nice! This is a good start!”

Oster quirked an brow. “Blowing up your maze was according to plan, then? My mirror says it was ridiculously expensive.” He then cleared his throat, loudly, and Petros did the same.

“Fine, fine. I’ll pay you guys too,” Huxian grumbled. He transferred over their portion, which amounted to 500,000 points. “Now give me a second, I need to do some fishing.” He shoved his hand into space and rummaged around the chaotic void before pulling out his raw and bleeding hand.

Inside his hand were a few unstable spheres. These spheres were Blood Leech’s personal storage space, which had been lost upon his death. But with Huxian’s mastery over space, he was able to retrieve them before they completely collapsed.

“I’ll put these collapsing storage treasures in stasis,” Huxian said. “You’ll get your shares. Fox’s honor.”

“I prefer contracts to honor,” Oster said.

“We already have a contract,” Huxian said.

“Right,” Oster said. “Which means I can draw upon the contract’s power to curse you should you even think of double-crossing me.”