The box on the counter trembled, its surface rattling as the contents within broke free.
"The Rusted Sea Sword Sutra," his spirit intoned. Four daggers shot upward from their bindings, spinning in the air with a metallic shriek.
Meanwhile, Shi Yang's physical body commanded the vulture to weave blood-threads around the woman, crimson strings wrapping her limbs in constriction.
But she only laughed. Her eyes gleamed with a half-amused, half-hungry light.
"I'm impressed you can still move," she purred. The threads loosened, unraveling as though gravity itself had turned weightless.
"Do you truly think," her voice dropped to a silken whisper, "a Qi Refinement cultivator can deal with me?"
"Why don't we find out," Shi Yang murmured. His spirit raised its hand, sending the rusted daggers hurtling toward her head.
Rust. Rust. Rust. Rust.
The chant echoed like a curse, his blades spiraling in, each swipe shaving close enough to graze her skin.
At the same time, his body lunged into close combat, fists surging forward.
The woman caught his strike mid-air, her grip like iron. The daggers froze around her with the same ease, dangling uselessly in the air. She leaned closer, her words dripping disdain.
"It seems you've mistaken your worth. You alone have no chance of defeating me. Up until now, only your Foundation Realm ally has mattered—their strikes cut deeper than anything you've done. And that fleeting moment of three-element synergy…" she chuckled softly, "…was the only thing that held my attention."
With a casual step, she walked free of the frozen blades and brushed past his physical form, her gaze locking onto his spirit body.
"Is that so…" Shi Yang smirked, his voice cool. "Then as long as I keep Xiu Mei moving, and find a way to recreate that synergy… I can defeat you."
His words became weight. The atmosphere shifted, the world bending to his will. Indoors, clouds thickened, rolling across the rafters. Thunder cracked above, and blue-tinged rain began to fall. Droplets hissed against stone, carrying with them a metallic tang.
The woman's eyes glimmered with curiosity as the rusted daggers suddenly jerked back into motion, each blade now dripping with the storm's rain, their edges sharpened by nature's fury.
Yoke was the first to break free. The little beast shook violently, droplets spraying from its feathers. Its sharp teeth gleamed with a mad light as it roared from deep in its tiny chest. With wings beating hard, it launched itself forward, wind spiraling in feral gales.
"ROOOAR!!!"
The storm amplified its winds, weaving them tighter, sharper, deadlier.
Han Jie raised her hands, lightning sparking between her fingertips. The rain made her strikes more vicious, every bolt snapping louder, burning hotter as the water conducted her fury.
"Thunder—STRIKE!"
Blue arcs fell like serpents across the chamber, their paths twisting with precision, feeding into the chaos Yoke had created.
Xiu Mei's hammer lifted, her hair plastered to her cheeks from the downpour. Her eyes shone cold, resolute. She was the spearhead—the storm's vanguard. As the others wove chaos and support, she became its executioner.
Her hammer crashed down with the weight of mountains, water Dao surging in tandem with Shi Yang's storm. The spectral swordfish leapt once more, its blade-body flashing as it darted for the woman's throat.
The three—beast, thunder, and hammer—fought as one, each strike weaving into the next. Shi Yang's storm fed them all, synergy pulsing like a heartbeat.
And for the first time, the woman's smile faltered.
It looks like you've underestimated my adaptability, Shi Yang thought, his spirit and physical body tensing as he became one again. The glass of the mirror in his hand crunched between his fingers as he clenched it, grinding the shards into tiny fragments, ignoring the pain that lanced through his palms. With a sharp motion, he hurled the crimson-glinting pieces toward her.
Each shard flared, the image of a bloody waterfall rippling within before erupting. Blood-red water surged outward, forcing her to dodge—and then Xiu Mei's hammer came crashing down.
"How tricky~" the woman muttered, blocking the strike with her forearm before swinging again.
Her body floated midair, hanging there for a heartbeat before she regained control, using her own Qi to glide backward. Shi Yang's mind raced. This woman's Dao is difficult to contend with. Even now… I feel lighter than before.
Lighter? He paused, realizing something. She didn't fully freeze her attack this time—she eased the blow. His eyes narrowed as he observed her movements. What is your Dao… it has to be a minor variant of the Sheng Cycle, something that bends the rules rather than breaks them.
He studied her carefully. Every time she stopped them, their movements felt suddenly weighted, as though an invisible hand pressed them down. But when Xiu Mei struck from above, the force didn't drag the attacker downward as it should have—it softened, sharing half the impact instead.
Gravity… she's manipulating gravity.
Shi Yang's gaze flicked to the floor. At first, he considered metal, but that didn't feel right. Then his eyes drifted to the ground itself. Earth. She was using the planet's gravity to control the battlefield, bending the weight of space to her will.
His mind raced for a counter. Earth is weak to wood… but we don't have any wood elements here.
Then, almost instinctively, he reached inward, thinking of his inner world—the forests surrounding his blood rivers, the pulse of life that had once nourished him. He closed his spirit eyes, focusing. If I can forcibly awaken my second Dao ahead of time… maybe, just maybe, I can find a way to break her control.
As the battle continued, the rhythm of blows, blood, and elemental fury played out around him. Shi Yang's body moved with precision, but his mind was elsewhere—turning over the Sheng Cycle, calculating, searching for the element that could tip the scales.
Come on… awaken. Show me the path.
His fists clenched, his spirit burning. The answer, he hoped, lay somewhere deep within him, in the forested blood rivers, waiting for him to seize it before the fight consumed them all.
His consciousness sank, twisted, and reformed, plunging into a raging river beneath a sky heavy with storm clouds. He had returned to the hub of his spirit sea. The torrent churned violently around him, yet he paid no heed to the water or the rain. Instead, his gaze turned toward the distant shore.
If the river and storm lead into my other inner worlds… where does the forest lead?
Compelled by instinct, he pushed forward, the roaring water guiding him toward a thick expanse of trees. As he entered the forest, every sense heightened—the rustle of leaves, the whisper of hidden voices, and the subtle movements of animals that seemed to acknowledge his presence. He wandered, scanning for a way into the forest's inner world, searching for an unusual tree, a hollow, or a sign that marked the threshold between layers of his spirit sea.
After what felt like hours, he noticed a narrow gap between the trunks of two ancient trees. A small door, almost imperceptible, nestled in the space between them, its wood worn smooth and etched with faint, arcane patterns.
Shi Yang stepped closer, raising his hand to reach for the tiny knocker. Finally… a way in.
Just as his fingers brushed the cold metal, a sudden, crushing force slammed into him. The pressure was absolute, driving him to his knees. The river, the forest, the storm—all were ripped away as the woman he fought in the real world amplified her gravity output, forcing his spirit and body into submission.
"You shouldn't fall asleep while fighting me," her voice echoed, a chilling calm over the oppressive weight.
Shi Yang's teeth gritted against the pain, his hands digging into the ground, the door to the forest inner world only inches away yet impossible to reach. The battlefield of his spirit sea was no longer his own—her presence intruded, bending every natural law he had counted on.
The crushing weight of her amplified gravity pressed down on him, every movement a struggle, every thought slowed as if wading through thick mud.
But he refused to yield.
He began his mantra, threading his Dao through the indoor storm like molten iron, weaving the three-elemental synergy of wind, lightning, and blood into a counterforce. The oppressive pull weakened, the invisible chains of gravity loosening around him. Inch by inch, his limbs obeyed again.
Shi Yang pushed off the ground, rising, the mantra reinforcing his body and spirit alike, and he felt the battlefield finally tilt back in his favor.
With that, the battle outside flowed naturally into motion again.
—
The battle raged on, the air thick with wind, lightning, and blood-tinged water. Shi Yang's rusted daggers spun through the air, each blade aimed to pierce the woman's defenses, while his crimson threads snaked around her limbs, tightening with lethal precision. She laughed lightly, using her gravity manipulation to counter, bending the attacks, letting some slip through harmlessly while halting others midair.
Han Jie's fingers formed rapid seals, her meridians glowing as she completed the formation. A surge of gold lightning arced from the storm, striking the woman squarely across the chest. She staggered slightly, but only for a heartbeat, her smirk never fading.
Meanwhile, Xiu Mei and Little Yoke moved with uncanny synchronization. The hammer swings, the water swordfish, and the cub's whipping gusts of wind combined into a strange, chaotic harmony. Shi Yang's vulture darted in, weaving crimson threads that bound her once more, while the four rusted daggers spiraled in tandem, attempting to tear through her defenses.
Yet she remained unyielding. Gravity bent at her whim, and every attack that should have struck true was absorbed, redirected, or halted entirely.
Finally, she chuckled, a low, soft sound that carried a sense of amusement and inevitability. "It's getting late," she said, her gaze flicking toward the darkening horizon. "I should go before Hong Yan finds out I'm out… though, of course, she'll find out anyway."
Her eyes locked on Shi Yang, and her voice softened, a faint spice of mischief threading through the words. "I was just here to inform you… about something… before you attacked me."
She smiled—a predatory, teasing curl of her lips—and turned her attention fully on him. "Congratulations… your—"
Before she could finish, her form began to melt. Flesh and sinew dissolved, dripping into a puddle of gore across the floor. Her laughter echoed faintly as the scene warped around them.
From the puddle, her spirit coalesced, floating above the floor in translucent form. "Aw… I guess I was found out quicker than I thought. See you again next time." Her voice was calm, almost casual, yet it carried the weight of an unspoken threat.
She gestured lightly, and a faint shimmer revealed a storage ring beside her ghostly form. "Oh, and my storage ring has three hundred spirit stones in it. Buy two high-grade spirit beast pills for me with that… and you can use the rest however you like. That eighteen gold you earned today? It wouldn't have been enough anyway."
With that, her spirit faded into nothingness, leaving Shi Yang, Xiu Mei, Han Jie, and Little Yoke alone in the quiet aftermath of chaos—the air still trembling with residual energy, and the echo of her laughter lingering like a shadow.