The Demon God gave them no room to recover from the last exchange. Its foot struck the broken ground and drove fractures outward through the stone, while the body behind that step crossed the distance before the loosened debris had finished settling. Haotian read the gathering force through the Eyes of the Universe and shifted away from the direct line rather than trying to stop an initial Immortal Emperor with the strength of an initial Lesser Immortal Lord. Lianhua was already moving at the same time, not following Haotian but cutting toward the side the Demon God exposed when it committed to him.
The fist passed close enough that the pressure around it struck before the knuckles did. Haotian caught the forearm from the outside and turned with the motion, allowing the force to travel through his shoulder and down his stance instead of trying to lock the limb in place. His boots scraped across the fractured stone, but the redirection moved the strike far enough from his ribs for Lianhua to cross behind the Demon God's extended arm and bring Voidpierce Sword Sutra toward the exposed side. The spatial edge of her sword compressed the Abyssal protection without reaching flesh, and she was already leaving the angle when the Demon God turned.
Yinxue's Sword Dao descended against the opposite shoulder during that turn, forcing the Demon God to carry two threats through the same movement. Xiangyin's spearhead appeared beside the rear foot before either sword attack ended, while Yanfei hardened one patch of ground beneath Xiangyin and weakened another beneath the Demon God's next possible step. None of them waited for Haotian to decide where they should move. They had seen the same shift in balance and acted on it from different positions.
The Demon God drove through the inconvenience instead of respecting it. Its rear foot came down against the Frostfire-weakened stone and crushed through the unstable surface, sending fragments across the battlefield while the force of the step still carried the body forward. That change in footing rotated the torso enough for Ziyue to enter beneath the nearest arm and strike the flank, though her sword met protection dense enough to stop before reaching flesh. She withdrew before the elbow could catch her at close range, and Haotian reentered from another side without allowing the Demon God to settle.
Fist of Ruin struck the outside of the Demon God's arm. Haotian did not expect to break the limb or even penetrate the protection deeply; he used the compression of that defensive layer to change the route of the next attack and moved away before the Demon God could convert contact into a grab. The Demon God shortened its missed strike into a shoulder and drove forward anyway, forcing Haotian to bring both forearms across his body and accept the impact through his guard.
Pain ran through his ribs as he slid backward over broken stone. He allowed the force to carry him rather than resisting until something inside his body failed, then recovered his footing while Lianhua filled the space the Demon God had created by driving him away. Her sword did not chase the chest or any obvious centerline; she cut toward the shoulder that had just committed to Haotian and forced the Demon God to decide whether to continue pursuing him or turn toward her.
It turned.
Yinxue's Sword Dao arrived from farther out before the shoulder completed the motion, while Ziyue changed sides and Xiangyin's spearhead appeared along the route the Demon God would need if it wanted to close on Lianhua cleanly. Yanfei altered only the ground immediately involved in those movements rather than trying to control a broad section of battlefield. The Demon God answered by striking through the spear's influence, allowing Yinxue's pressure to reach its outer defense, and forcing Lianhua to abandon her attack before she could finish the line.
The difference in cultivation remained present in every exchange. Even redirected attacks jarred bones and joints, while defensive layers the family could compress repeatedly recovered before any one of them could exploit them alone. The Demon God's body also carried a density that felt wrong for its current realm, something heavier beneath the active Immortal Emperor circulation, though Haotian did not yet have enough information to determine why. He stored the observation and kept fighting.
Lianhua changed direction with Cloud-Sundering Steps as the Demon God came after her again. She cleared the first strike cleanly, but the second arrived during her turn and caught the edge of her guard before she could fully leave the line. The impact threw her sideways, and she landed hard on one foot before turning the remaining momentum into another step that carried her out of immediate reach.
Yinxue pressured the attacking arm with Sword Dao rather than closing directly. The Demon God turned through the pressure and struck the flat of her sword when she moved too near on the next exchange, driving the weapon outward before she could completely withdraw. Yinxue yielded with the blade instead of locking her shoulder against the impact, but the shock still tightened the already strained pathways in her sword arm and forced her to open her fingers once before closing them again.
Her next attack came differently. She widened the distance on her own, allowed Sword Dao to reach the Demon God before the weapon did, and brought the blade into the exchange only after Lianhua forced the torso to turn away. Haotian noticed the adjustment without saying anything. Yinxue had felt the strain herself and corrected before it became damage that could remove her from the fight.
Xiangyin made the same kind of adjustment when the Demon God struck her spear. She released tension in both hands before the force could travel fully through the shaft, allowing the weapon to slide through her grip rather than trying to hold the Demon God's movement in place. Even so, the skin across one palm split, and blood darkened the shaft as she recovered the spear farther down and moved the head back into the Demon God's next route.
Yanfei hardened the stone beneath Xiangyin's recovery step and weakened another patch two paces ahead of the Demon God. Xiangyin did not need to look down to know the support was there. She changed the spear's line as the Demon God approached and used the weapon as a threat against the next foot placement rather than as a wall that had to stop the body.
The Demon God noticed the family changing around its strength. Its next attack did not follow Haotian simply because he had intercepted the previous one. It turned toward Xiangyin, then changed targets halfway through the movement when Yanfei altered the ground beneath the approach. The Demon God was not merely striking whoever stood closest; it was testing how quickly the family read one another and which movements mattered most to the larger battle.
Haotian saw that too and resisted the instinct to make himself the answer to every attack. Lianhua could handle her own angle. Yinxue could read when her sword arm should stay out of direct contact. Xiangyin knew what her hands could still take, and Yanfei did not need him to tell her which ground mattered. Haotian entered only when the Demon God committed enough of itself to create something useful.
That happened when it went after Yanfei.
The Demon God drove through a Frostfire-weakened ridge instead of moving around it, accepting the broken footing to close the distance before Yanfei could prepare another section. Xiangyin's spearhead entered the route first, but the Demon God struck the shaft and forced her to release one hand. Haotian came in behind that contact, caught the approaching forearm from the side, and redirected the strike far enough for Yanfei to retreat.
The Demon God followed Haotian instead.
Its next fist compressed the air between them. Haotian shifted outside the centerline, but the attack still clipped his guard and drove him several steps sideways. Lianhua used the opening to strike the shoulder with Voidpierce Sword Sutra, and Ziyue reached the opposite flank before the Demon God could restore both sides of its defense evenly.
Haotian moved back into range while the Demon God answered them. He had no intention of standing outside and watching his wives create openings for him like pieces on a board. The Eyes of the Universe worked while his body moved, following the Demon God's circulation through each block, turn, acceleration, and defensive shift as he struck wherever the immediate exchange allowed.
Most of the currents behaved exactly as he expected from an Immortal Emperor. The pathways through the arms, legs, back, and abdomen were dense and efficient, carrying power cleanly before returning toward the demon core. Protection shifted with each attack, thinned briefly where power moved elsewhere, and recovered as soon as the Demon God finished redistributing its circulation.
The upper chest behaved differently.
Haotian first caught the irregularity when a current rising toward the sternum bent around a region it should have crossed directly. The Demon God attacked before he could follow it farther, forcing Haotian under one arm and away from the second while Lianhua entered behind the turning shoulder. By the time Haotian returned from another angle, a second current had reached the same region and diverted around it as well.
He compared those pathways with the healthy circulation surrounding them while continuing to fight. The difference did not belong to anything the family had inflicted during the current battle. Several meridians had been rerouted long before the Demon God crossed into Blue Sphere, and healed flesh covered spiritual structures that had never regained their original shape.
The Demon God turned toward him again, perhaps noticing where his attention kept returning. Haotian caught the attacking arm near the wrist, let the Immortal Emperor force move past his shoulder, and struck the upper arm before releasing. Lianhua crossed behind him at the same moment, forcing the Demon God to turn toward her rather than pursue Haotian.
She saw his attention return to the chest during that movement. "You found something?"
"An old wound." Haotian shifted with her as the Demon God turned back toward them. "Its meridians and energy flow were repaired around the damage instead of through it."
Lianhua changed the line of another strike with her sword rather than trying to stop it. "How deep?"
Haotian followed the narrow penetration path farther inward while Ziyue forced the Demon God to protect its flank. "It stops short of the demon core, but the impact cracked the spiritual structures around the core and damaged several pathways connected to it."
Lianhua's eyes passed briefly over the Demon God's chest before returning to its hands. She did not ask what she should do with that information. She was already fighting differently by the next exchange.
Her next Voidpierce Sword Sutra attack threatened the shoulder above the scar instead of the wound itself. The Demon God reinforced the region, and Ziyue struck the opposite side where protection had thinned. Xiangyin caught the resulting shift in balance with her spearhead, forcing another change of footing that Yanfei immediately complicated with Frostfire.
Haotian remained inside the exchange and followed the old damage deeper.
Beneath the active Immortal Emperor circulation lay channels far broader than the amount of power currently moving through them. Some had collapsed or narrowed around the chest, while others remained dormant despite being structurally capable of carrying far more. He had encountered enough cultivation systems across enough worlds to recognize the difference between a body slowly developing toward a greater realm and one that had already possessed it.
The Demon God's body belonged to the second kind.
Its current cultivation moved through surviving pathways like water occupying part of a much larger riverbed. Several old channels remained usable, but the structures around the chest had been cracked, rerouted, and bound together by repairs that restored function without restoring what had existed before.
Haotian followed the penetration route again while the Demon God struck toward Xiangyin. She gave ground instead of taking the blow through the spear, and Yanfei changed the landing surface beneath the Demon God just enough that its next step landed at a different angle. Ziyue attacked that angle without waiting for anyone to call it out, and Yinxue pressured the opposite shoulder from farther away.
The shape of the old wound became familiar as more power moved through the chest.
Haotian had not made it.
But he knew the attack that had.
Marephoros returned through memory with enough clarity that he could almost feel Starsever in Alter's hand again. Alter had taken control of his body there, gathered crimson destructive lightning around the weapon, and released Sky Piercer through the rift toward the Demon God waiting on the other side.
The wound in front of Haotian followed the same path.
Lianhua passed close during another change of position and saw the recognition in his face. "You know what caused it?"
"That is the wound Alter left at Marephoros when he used Sky Piercer through the rift." Haotian turned aside a strike and allowed the Demon God's momentum to carry it past before continuing. "This is the same Demon God he hit."
Lianhua's attention returned to the chest for only an instant. Haotian had given her the piece she could not have known from observation alone, and she needed nothing else explained.
Her next attack went toward the healthy shoulder.
Yinxue saw the same choice and pressed the opposite side with Sword Dao. Ziyue took the flank that opened when the Demon God turned, while Xiangyin forced a change in the rear foot and Yanfei altered the ground beneath that correction.
Haotian attacked the arm guarding the chest.
The Demon God responded faster than before.
Its protection thickened around the arm while additional power remained wrapped around the scar. Haotian's palm compressed the first layer without breaking through, and the Demon God answered with a short strike toward his ribs.
Haotian moved with it.
The blow grazed his protection and sent pain through the already bruised side, but Lianhua entered behind the movement and forced the Demon God to turn before it could follow.
The family did not need to be told that the chest mattered now. They could see how the Demon God reacted whenever Haotian approached it, and they could see how much protection it refused to move away from the sternum even when other regions were threatened. Their attacks began changing around that behavior naturally.
Ziyue reached the flank and compressed the defense more deeply than before. The Demon God allowed the strike to travel farther into the protection rather than pull power from the chest. Yinxue's Sword Dao descended on the shoulder, and the Demon God reinforced only enough to stop the pressure from becoming a real wound.
Lianhua's Voidpierce Sword Sutra received more attention because its spatial component could threaten deeper structures. Even then, the Demon God preserved a dense layer around the old scar.
Haotian saw something else inside that scar.
A faint filament of crimson lightning remained buried within the reconstructed spiritual tissue, thin enough to disappear beneath the surrounding Abyssal current whenever the Demon God concentrated power there. The Eyes of the Universe separated it from everything around it and followed the residual current through the same route Sky Piercer had carved.
Alter's lightning had never fully vanished.
Haotian continued fighting while considering how to test it. Ordinary attacks against the chest did not disturb the residual current enough to matter, and attempting to force the repaired wound open with raw power would only tell the Demon God exactly what they had found before they understood whether the weakness could still be used.
Yueru gave him the answer without needing to be told.
She had been watching the same defensive behavior as the others. She could not see the residual crimson lightning as clearly as Haotian could, but she could see how the Demon God protected the scar and how Haotian's attention returned there.
Lianhua attacked the right shoulder and forced the Demon God to turn. Yinxue pressured the opposite arm while Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the route the Demon God had used twice before. Yanfei changed the next step, and Ziyue moved toward the flank as soon as the body adjusted.
Yueru saw the chest protection thin.
Lightning gathered along her sword as she entered from outside the Demon God's striking arm. She did not try to pierce the chest through raw strength; she let the blade strike the defensive layer above the old wound and drove Lightning through the contact when the steel stopped.
Haotian followed the current with the Eyes of the Universe.
Yueru's Lightning entered the disturbed Abyssal circulation.
The crimson filament inside the scar tightened.
Its glow sharpened through the reconstructed tissue, and several currents surrounding the old wound shifted out of alignment before the Demon God forced them back into place. The reaction lasted less than a breath, but the Demon God's upper body contracted around something Yueru's physical strike had not caused.
Yueru felt it too.
She withdrew before the Demon God's hand reached her.
Ziyue moved into the space behind Yueru's retreat without waiting for instruction, forcing the Demon God to protect its flank instead of following immediately. Haotian attacked the extended arm, turning the body farther away from Yueru while the crimson current inside the scar settled again.
Their gazes met once across the exchange.
Yueru understood that something inside the wound had answered her Lightning.
No words were necessary.
The family continued fighting without immediately repeating the test. Lianhua pressured an arm rather than the chest, Ziyue used a brief weakness in the flank, and Xiangyin forced another change in footing while Yanfei worked only the ground needed for the next few movements. Yinxue stayed farther from direct contact and used Sword Dao to keep the Demon God turning.
Yueru remained outside.
The Demon God watched her more carefully anyway.
Haotian noticed the change in attention, but he did not force a second attempt before the battle created one naturally. He remained active in the exchanges, striking the shoulders, ribs, and arms whenever the Demon God committed elsewhere and following the reconstructed chest pathways while his body moved.
Several attacks later, Lianhua forced the Demon God into a deeper turn with Voidpierce Sword Sutra. Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the step it wanted for the correction, and Yanfei weakened the alternative. The Demon God drove through both, but the movement pulled part of the upper-body defense away from the scar.
Yueru recognized the opening before Haotian moved.
She closed from the side and placed her free palm against the defensive layer beside the old wound, keeping the sword between herself and the Demon God's nearest arm. Lightning discharged through the contact.
The response was much stronger.
Alter's residual crimson lightning flashed through the old penetration path and disturbed the reconstructed tissue surrounding it. Several damaged pathways contracted at once, Abyssal circulation stuttered near the sternum, and the Demon God's upper body tightened around a reaction coming from inside rather than from Yueru's physical strength.
The Demon God answered with a burst of power.
Haotian saw the surge beginning and moved toward Yueru before it fully formed. He caught part of the leading force across his guard while she withdrew, reducing enough of the impact that she landed hard instead of being driven through the broken structures behind them.
Ziyue reached Yueru first. "Can you still use that arm?"
Yueru flexed the fingers around the hilt and moved the shoulder once. "The recoil numbed it, but I can still hold the sword."
She raised the weapon more slowly, but there was no hesitation in the movement.
Lianhua passed near Haotian while the Demon God came after them again. "Her Lightning is waking something inside the scar."
"Alter's lightning is still there." Haotian caught the Demon God's approaching forearm, turned outside the strike, and released before the hand could close. "Yueru can disturb it, but the repaired wound is too strong for her Lightning to reopen by itself."
That was enough information.
Lianhua moved without asking what Haotian wanted next.
Her sword threatened the shoulder above the scar rather than the scar itself. Yinxue recognized the choice and pressured the opposite side, while Ziyue attacked a defensive layer the Demon God had allowed to thin. Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the rear step, and Yanfei weakened the ground beyond it.
The Demon God refused to surrender the chest.
It accepted more pressure through the shoulder and flank than it had earlier, trusting the density of its body to absorb attacks that did not threaten the old wound directly. Haotian saw the choice through the shifting circulation, but the wives could see it in the body itself.
Every time one of them threatened the chest, the Demon God responded more aggressively.
Every time they attacked elsewhere, it became willing to trade.
Their choreography changed naturally around that behavior.
Lianhua began threatening deeper angles with Voidpierce Sword Sutra without fully committing every attack. Ziyue punished whichever healthier region the Demon God left thinner to preserve the scar, while Yinxue used Sword Dao to force defensive changes from farther away and spared her injured sword arm unnecessary contact.
Xiangyin stopped trying to contest the Demon God through the spear shaft altogether. Her damaged palms no longer allowed repeated collisions, so she kept the weapon alive through distance and timing, placing the spearhead where the Demon God wanted to move and withdrawing before its strength could travel through the shaft.
Yanfei reduced the battlefield she controlled. Instead of spreading Frostfire broadly across the ruined ground, she worked in smaller patches, hardening footholds her family needed and weakening only the places the Demon God was most likely to use within the next few steps.
Haotian fought inside those changes.
When Lianhua forced a turn, he attacked the exposed arm. When Ziyue compressed the flank protection deeply enough to pull power away from the upper body, he entered toward the chest and tested how quickly the Demon God could restore the scar's defense. When Xiangyin changed the footing, Haotian used the resulting torso shift rather than waiting for someone to announce the opening.
The Demon God learned from those attempts.
It stopped reacting to their attacks as separate threats. When Yanfei altered the ground beneath one approach, it drove through the unstable stone and went after her before she could prepare the next section. When Xiangyin's spearhead appeared near a step, it struck the shaft directly and forced Immortal Emperor strength through her damaged grip.
Xiangyin yielded before the impact fully settled, but the skin across both palms split farther. Blood ran along the shaft, and she had to recover the weapon farther down rather than closing both hands around the same position again.
The Demon God did not wait for her to settle.
It drove toward Lianhua.
She used Cloud-Sundering Steps to leave the first attack, but the Demon God adjusted faster than before and caught her along the side with the edge of its forearm. Lianhua blocked enough to keep the strike from landing squarely, yet the force still threw her several paces across the fractured ground.
She landed, stumbled once, and used the next movement to clear the follow-up.
Haotian met her during the change rather than abandoning his position to check from a distance. "Can you still move normally?"
"It caught my ribs from the side, but nothing is broken." Lianhua drew a deeper breath and winced when the turn pulled through the injured area.
She shortened the next rotation herself.
Haotian said nothing more.
The Demon God had already gone after Yinxue.
She kept the sword away from the approaching hand and used Sword Dao to change the angle of the first strike, but the Demon God accelerated through the pressure and caught the flat of the blade before she could completely withdraw. The impact drove the sword outward and worsened the strain in her arm.
Yinxue did not repeat the mistake. She widened the distance herself, continued using Sword Dao from farther back, and waited until Ziyue forced the Demon God to turn before bringing the blade close again.
Haotian saw the adjustment and left her to it.
The family had fought too long and survived too much to need constant correction.
The Demon God understood that too.
Its attention stopped staying on Haotian simply because he possessed the greatest ability to read the fight. It struck whoever had just altered its movement most effectively, ignored lesser attacks when necessary, and accepted damage against stronger regions to prevent the family from building the same sequence twice.
That made the battle less orderly.
It also created more real openings.
Lianhua no longer waited for Haotian to create the first one. She used Cloud-Sundering Steps to appear where the Demon God's turn left a shoulder exposed and attacked before anyone else moved. Xiangyin caught the resulting change in footing and placed her spearhead along the escape route, while Yanfei adjusted the ground a moment later.
Ziyue saw the flank defense thin during the correction and struck it.
Yinxue's Sword Dao came down when the Demon God began reinforcing that side.
Haotian entered only then.
The Eyes of the Universe followed the currents gathering around the chest, and he struck the arm protecting the scar rather than wasting force against the strongest layer directly. The Demon God answered immediately and drove him backward, but Lianhua was already leaving the exchange from another side.
The pressure around the old wound did not disappear.
It did not need to.
The family was learning how much the Demon God was willing to sacrifice elsewhere to preserve it.
Yueru had learned something even more useful.
The Demon God watched her.
It had felt her Lightning disturb the residual crimson current twice, and now its gaze and upper-body circulation changed whenever she moved toward an angle that could reach the scar. She recognized the response before Haotian said anything and began using it.
She shifted inward once without attacking.
The Demon God turned a shoulder toward her.
Ziyue attacked the opposite flank immediately.
Later, Yueru allowed Lightning to gather faintly around her sword while remaining well outside striking range. The Demon God thickened the chest protection before she had even taken a step, and Lianhua's Voidpierce Sword Sutra reached a shoulder whose defense had just become thinner.
Haotian saw what Yueru was doing and let her continue.
The others picked it up quickly.
Yinxue began timing Sword Dao pressure for the moments when Yueru's Lightning drew the Demon God's attention. Xiangyin stopped forcing the same foot twice and instead occupied whichever route became easiest after the Demon God turned toward Yueru. Yanfei watched Xiangyin's spear more than Haotian, changing the ground around the movements it created.
The family's cooperation stopped looking like a formation being commanded from the center.
It looked like seven experienced cultivators reading the same opponent from different sides.
The Demon God adapted again.
It stopped merely watching Yueru and went after her.
A fist crossed the distance faster than the previous attacks, forcing Yueru to move before her Lightning could finish gathering. She cleared the first strike, but the Demon God followed with the other arm and caught her sword near the middle when she placed the blade between herself and the attack.
The weapon snapped outward.
Yueru's shoulder followed.
Ziyue caught her upper arm before the movement became a full spin and helped her recover her stance. The Demon God was already continuing toward them when Haotian struck the outer arm with Seraph Shatter Palm and forced the body to turn.
Yueru regained her grip while moving.
She did not need anyone to tell her that the Demon God now considered her dangerous.
That recognition became part of the battle.
When the Demon God looked toward her, she sometimes moved closer and sometimes moved away. When she allowed Lightning to gather, the family watched the chest. When she did not, they attacked whatever the Demon God still chose to protect in anticipation.
Haotian remained physically inside those exchanges, repeatedly reaching the old wound only to find the Demon God restoring protection before he could commit fully. He attacked shoulders, arms, ribs, and sides without wasting strength trying to force every opportunity into the same objective.
One attempt came when Lianhua drove Voidpierce Sword Sutra against the left shoulder and forced the Demon God to turn harder than expected. Haotian entered toward the chest, but the Demon God had already drawn the guarding arm across and reinforced the scar from beneath. Haotian changed the strike before contact, drove his palm into the elbow instead, and used the resulting turn to leave rather than throwing power into a closed defense.
Another came when Ziyue struck the flank and Yinxue pressed Sword Dao against the opposite shoulder. Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the rear step, and the Demon God had to shift forward. Haotian reached the chest during that movement but saw the inner pathways close before the outer defense did, so he struck the sternum above the scar and moved away without committing the killing force.
The Demon God recognized those aborted attempts.
It began using the weakness as bait.
During one exchange, the chest protection thinned more than it had at any point since the Lightning tests. Haotian saw the opening but also saw the Demon God's shoulder and hip already arranged around the counterattack waiting behind it.
He did not enter.
Lianhua saw the same thing from outside the Eyes of the Universe by reading the Demon God's posture. Her sword went toward the arm instead of the chest, and Ziyue attacked the opposite side while the Demon God's prepared counter found no target.
The Demon God changed the trap immediately.
This time it allowed Yueru a cleaner angle.
Yueru approached far enough for Lightning to begin gathering, then stopped when she saw how the Demon God's rear foot had planted and how little the guarding shoulder had actually relaxed. She changed direction and let Ziyue take the side instead.
The Demon God struck after her anyway.
Haotian intercepted from the flank and turned the attack away.
No one needed to say they had recognized the feint.
The battle simply moved on.
That forced the Demon God to work harder for every advantage.
Its attacks became less exploratory and more violent. It drove through Yanfei's terrain rather than letting her shape the route, struck Xiangyin's spear whenever the weapon threatened to restrict its movement, and repeatedly forced Lianhua and Ziyue to abandon attacks before completion.
Haotian took another heavy strike across the guard when he entered too close during one of those exchanges. The impact sent him backward over uneven stone and tightened pain through the bruised ribs, but Yanfei had already hardened the ground beneath the direction of his recovery. He used the support to turn back into the fight before the Demon God could settle.
Lianhua attacked the right shoulder.
Yinxue pressured from the left.
Ziyue entered beneath the nearest arm and struck the side.
The Demon God reinforced all three while keeping the chest protected.
Xiangyin's spearhead appeared beside the rear foot.
The Demon God shifted.
Yanfei weakened the landing point.
The Demon God drove through it and turned toward Haotian.
Yueru moved along the outside.
The Demon God's attention followed her.
Haotian noticed the upper-body circulation adjust even though Yueru had not attacked.
That reaction had repeated often enough to become useful.
He moved toward the Demon God's chest.
The Demon God brought an arm across immediately.
Haotian changed the attack and struck the elbow rather than trying to beat the guard through raw speed. Seraph Shatter Palm compressed the protection around the joint and shifted the arm just enough for Lianhua's blade to reach the opposite shoulder.
The Demon God turned.
Yinxue's Sword Dao pressed against the back.
Ziyue struck the exposed hip.
Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the rear step.
The Demon God continued protecting the chest.
Yueru stayed outside.
The Demon God checked her position anyway.
Yueru saw the glance and moved farther away.
The Demon God's attention followed her for a fraction of a breath, and part of the current feeding the upper body shifted in anticipation of Lightning coming from an angle that was no longer closing.
Haotian was already inside the guarding arm.
His palm struck the sternum above the old wound rather than the scar itself, forcing the upper torso backward and making the reconstructed pathways compensate for a direction they had not prepared to receive. The Demon God struck toward him, but Lianhua's sword caught the wrist from the side and changed the line before the hand reached Haotian's head.
The movement opened the chest only slightly.
Yueru recognized it.
She reversed direction without being called.
Lightning gathered along her sword as she crossed the edge of the exchange. The Demon God recognized her approach and pulled power back toward the chest, but the current had already been divided across Haotian, Lianhua, Ziyue, and the footing Xiangyin continued to threaten.
Yueru entered close.
She did not stab the scar.
Her free palm struck the defensive layer beside it, and Lightning discharged through the contact.
The Demon God's hand came toward her immediately.
Haotian intercepted the wrist.
The force of the collision drove pain through his shoulder and ribs, but he stayed with the arm long enough for Yueru's Lightning to penetrate the disturbed circulation around the scar.
Alter's crimson lightning answered.
The residual current flared through the old Sky Piercer path with far more violence than either of the earlier tests. Reconstructed spiritual tissue contracted around it, several compensating pathways lost coherence at once, and Abyssal current rushed toward the wound from multiple directions while the foreign Lightning moved through damage that had never completely healed.
Yueru felt the reaction beneath her palm and withdrew before the Demon God's power erupted outward.
Haotian released the wrist at the same moment.
The surge still caught both of them.
Haotian took the leading edge across his guard and was driven several steps backward, while Yueru landed hard enough that one foot slipped on broken stone. Yanfei froze the surface beneath her before the second step failed, and Ziyue reached her from the side as the recoil traveled through Yueru's Lightning arm.
"Can you still use it?" Ziyue asked.
Yueru flexed her fingers around the hilt and raised the sword more slowly than before. "The recoil numbed it again, but I can still move it."
Haotian was already moving toward the Demon God.
The scar had not opened, but its circulation no longer resembled healthy repaired tissue. Crimson lightning remained bright inside the penetration path while several surrounding currents crowded toward the same region and interfered with one another before the Demon God forced them back into order.
The added protection left other parts of the body thinner.
Ziyue reached the flank first and struck deeply enough to compress the defense almost to the flesh. The Demon God ignored her and tried to continue toward Yueru, but Lianhua attacked the opposite shoulder while Yinxue used Sword Dao to pressure the turning arm.
Haotian entered through the conflict.
Fist of Ruin struck the healthy side of the torso rather than the scar. The thinner protection collapsed farther than it had in earlier exchanges, forcing the Demon God's body several degrees away from the direction it wanted to move.
Xiangyin caught the changed footing with the spearhead.
Yanfei weakened the next landing point.
The Demon God forced through both, but the adjustments accumulated.
Haotian stayed close.
The Demon God tried to drive past him through strength, and Haotian allowed the initial momentum to develop rather than contesting it. The Dao of the Universe followed the relationship between that forward force, Lianhua's pressure against the shoulder, Xiangyin's spear near the leg, and the unstable ground beneath the next step.
Haotian struck from the side when the Demon God committed its weight.
The blow did not stop it.
It changed the route.
Yueru and Ziyue cleared the path while the Demon God turned back toward Haotian with Abyssal power thickening over the chest.
The Eyes of the Universe followed the repaired structures beneath that protection. Several channels had not recovered from Yueru's Lightning, and the old Sky Piercer path remained visible through the disruption as a line of damaged tissue and spiritual structure reaching toward the demon core.
Haotian approached again.
The Demon God knew what he wanted now.
Its hand came down toward his head while the torso turned to move the scar away. Lianhua's blade caught the wrist before the strike settled, changing the line enough for Haotian to stay inside instead of retreating.
The Demon God shifted its rear foot.
Xiangyin's spearhead was already there.
It changed the step.
Yanfei weakened the new landing point.
The Demon God drove through the unstable surface anyway, but the forced correction turned the chest back across Haotian's approach.
Haotian entered with it.
He gathered the killing force of the Demon God Killing Martial Arts into the close-range strike without trying to overwhelm the Demon God's entire defense. The Eyes of the Universe held the reconstructed penetration path in his perception, and Haotian concentrated his power through that weakness instead of spreading it across healthy Immortal Emperor flesh.
The outer Abyssal protection compressed around his fist.
The reconstructed tissue beneath resisted.
Crimson lightning flashed through the old scar.
The spiritual structures around the penetration path lost their alignment, but the Demon God forced additional power toward the chest quickly enough that Haotian felt the opening beginning to close before his strike could travel deeper.
He withdrew.
The wound remained closed.
The Demon God countered immediately.
Haotian turned the first fist away but caught the second across his shoulder, and the impact drove him back toward a broken wall. He rotated before reaching it, allowing the force to carry him along the stone instead of striking it squarely.
Lianhua and Ziyue prevented the Demon God from following.
Haotian regained his footing and looked toward the chest.
The first serious attempt had failed.
It had also shown him something important.
The repaired tissue itself was beginning to lose coherence when Alter's crimson lightning remained active long enough, but the Demon God could still rush Abyssal power into the region and close the weakness before Haotian completed the strike.
He did not explain that aloud.
Lianhua had seen him withdraw before committing fully and understood enough to know the opening had closed. Yueru had felt the crimson lightning react. The others could see the Demon God pouring more protection into the chest after every attempt.
They adjusted.
The next several exchanges never approached the scar directly.
Lianhua attacked the shoulders and upper arms. Ziyue punished the sides. Yinxue maintained Sword Dao pressure from farther out, sometimes forcing the Demon God to reinforce without ever bringing her blade within striking range.
Xiangyin's spear became almost entirely a weapon of positioning. The blood on her palms made repeated hard grips unreliable, so she allowed the shaft to move through her hands and used the spearhead to occupy routes rather than contest power.
Yanfei worked smaller and smaller sections of ground.
Yueru allowed Lightning to appear and disappear without committing.
Haotian fought wherever the immediate exchange took him.
The Demon God began spending more power away from the chest simply because the attacks elsewhere accumulated faster than before. Ziyue's sword finally reached the outer flesh along one flank and left a shallow line before the defensive layer closed around it. Lianhua's Voidpierce Sword Sutra cut deeper into the shoulder protection during another turn, forcing the Demon God to respond more heavily than it wanted.
Yinxue pressed Sword Dao against the same shoulder a moment later.
The Demon God turned toward her.
Haotian entered from the opposite side and struck the ribs.
The Demon God accepted the blow and went after Haotian instead of shifting chest protection.
That response told him the scar remained the greater concern.
The Demon God's next attack came faster.
Haotian moved outside it, but the pressure around the fist caught his side and pushed him toward Xiangyin's line. She changed the spear before he reached it, opening space for him without breaking her control of the Demon God's next step.
Haotian used the gap.
He turned back into the fight.
Lianhua appeared near the shoulder.
Ziyue was already at the flank.
The Demon God rotated toward Lianhua.
Xiangyin occupied the rear step.
Yanfei weakened the forward one.
Yueru shifted closer without gathering Lightning.
The Demon God still looked toward her.
Yinxue's Sword Dao came down from the opposite side.
The Demon God's circulation divided.
Haotian saw the chest current lag.
He entered.
This time he did not attack immediately.
He drove close enough to make the Demon God guard the scar, then changed direction and struck the arm instead. The Demon God answered, and Haotian used the counter to pull more of the upper-body circulation away from the chest.
Lianhua saw the change.
Her sword moved toward the opposite shoulder.
Ziyue struck the exposed side.
Yueru gathered Lightning.
The Demon God reacted to her.
Haotian entered again.
The chest protection tightened before he reached it.
He changed targets.
The fight continued like that, not as a repeated formation but as a series of decisions each fighter made from what the Demon God gave them.
Sometimes Haotian reached the chest and found it closed.
Sometimes Lianhua forced a turn only for the Demon God to abandon the movement and strike Yueru instead.
Sometimes Xiangyin's spear redirected a step into Yanfei's altered ground, only for the Demon God to crush through the surface and attack from an angle none of them had expected.
The family adjusted every time.
So did the Demon God.
The repeated pressure began showing in their bodies.
Lianhua's injured ribs limited how deeply she could twist through Cloud-Sundering Steps, forcing her to shorten several transitions she would normally have completed cleanly. Yinxue's sword arm remained steady enough to fight, but she increasingly relied on Sword Dao before bringing the weapon close.
Xiangyin's palms bled through every change of grip.
Yanfei's breathing grew heavier as she reduced the battlefield she controlled to conserve strength.
Yueru's Lightning arm recovered between exchanges but never fully lost the numbness created by the scar's recoil.
Ziyue remained the least visibly affected, which allowed her to keep pressing the weaknesses created by everyone else.
Haotian's ribs and shoulder accumulated their own strain.
None of them withdrew.
The Demon God also carried the reopened disturbance even though the scar remained closed. Alter's crimson lightning was more active than it had been at the beginning of the battle, and every time Yueru brought Lightning near the chest, the surrounding currents tightened sooner.
That earlier response created a different opportunity.
The Demon God was protecting the wound before the actual attack arrived.
Haotian watched it happen twice.
On the third time, he used it.
Yueru shifted toward the Demon God's left side with Lightning beginning to gather along her sword. The Demon God pulled power toward the scar immediately and turned a shoulder to reduce the angle.
Yueru saw the reaction and did not close.
She moved away.
The Demon God had already committed part of its circulation.
Lianhua entered against the shoulder that had just thinned.
Voidpierce Sword Sutra compressed the defense sharply enough to force a second redistribution.
Ziyue struck the flank.
Yinxue pressured the opposite side.
Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the next step.
The Demon God turned to answer all of them and exposed the chest only briefly.
Haotian was already moving.
He passed inside the guarding arm.
The Demon God tried to close it.
Haotian struck the elbow and continued through the opening.
Yueru reversed direction as soon as she saw him enter.
No one called her.
She knew what the movement meant.
Lightning gathered.
The Demon God recognized her approach and pulled power back toward the chest, but the family had already stretched the surrounding circulation farther than during the previous attempts.
Yueru reached the scar.
Her palm struck the protection beside it.
Lightning discharged.
Alter's crimson lightning erupted through the old path.
The reaction spread deeper than before.
Haotian saw the reconstructed pathways convulse around the wound and watched one of the old damaged structures near the demon core lose alignment for a fraction of a breath.
The Demon God struck toward Yueru.
Haotian caught the wrist.
The force drove pain through his shoulder.
He held long enough.
Yueru withdrew.
The outward surge hit them both.
Haotian was thrown backward.
Yueru stumbled but stayed upright with Yanfei's hardened ground beneath her next step.
The Demon God turned toward Yueru again.
Ziyue intercepted the route.
Her sword struck the weakened flank.
The Demon God ignored the shallow damage and continued.
Lianhua crossed the shoulder.
Yinxue pressured the arm.
Xiangyin occupied the forward step.
The Demon God forced through them.
Haotian recovered and entered from the side.
Fist of Ruin struck the healthy torso.
The thinner defense gave way more deeply than before.
The body shifted.
The chest current stuttered.
Haotian saw the old wound still reacting.
He went in.
The Demon God brought its arm across.
Lianhua altered the wrist.
Xiangyin forced another step.
Yanfei weakened the landing point.
The Demon God drove through the bad footing anyway, but the resulting turn aligned the scar with Haotian's approach.
This time he did not hesitate.
He concentrated the force of the Demon God Killing Martial Arts into the same reconstructed weakness Alter had already created. The strike entered against the compressed outer protection, and Haotian kept the force narrow rather than allowing it to disperse across the stronger surrounding flesh.
The repaired tissue beneath resisted.
Alter's crimson lightning flashed through the scar.
Haotian drove deeper.
Abyssal power rushed toward the wound.
The reconstructed spiritual structures shifted.
The Demon God tried to turn away.
Lianhua's blade remained on the outside arm.
Ziyue struck the flank.
Xiangyin's spearhead occupied the rear foot.
The movement Haotian needed remained open for one more fraction of a breath.
He used it.
The old wound split.
Dark blood burst across the Demon God's chest as the reconstructed tissue opened along the same path Sky Piercer had carved through flesh, spirit, and the structures surrounding the demon core at Marephoros. Crimson lightning flickered through the exposed wound, not creating a new injury through healthy Immortal Emperor flesh but tearing apart repairs that had never fully restored the original damage.
The Demon God recoiled.
Its counterattack came almost immediately.
Haotian raised both forearms and took the blow across his guard. The impact threw him backward over broken stone, pain tearing through his shoulder and ribs as his boots dragged across the ground before he regained balance.
The family did not rush after the Demon God simply because blood had finally appeared.
Lianhua adjusted her stance around the pain in her ribs. Yinxue kept her strained sword arm farther from immediate contact, Xiangyin loosened her blood-slick grip on the spear, and Yanfei reduced her Frostfire to the sections of ground they were likely to use next.
Yueru remained beside Ziyue long enough for the numbness in her Lightning arm to ease.
Haotian drew a deeper breath and felt the bruised ribs protest without giving way.
The Demon God lowered the hand it had placed over the reopened wound.
Dark blood covered the palm.
It looked at the blood only briefly before its gaze returned to Haotian, but Haotian was already following the changes deeper inside the body rather than waiting for a reaction.
Abyssal current drew inward toward the demon core.
Then it continued beyond the circulation the Demon God had used throughout the fight.
The deeper channels Haotian had noticed earlier began receiving power.
They were the remnants of the Demon God's former True God foundation, broad pathways built to carry far more than the current Immortal Emperor circulation, but damaged badly enough around the chest and core that several had been abandoned during recovery. Some remained cracked, others had been narrowed or rerouted, and several crossed close enough to the reopened wound that Alter's residual lightning reacted whenever power entered them.
The Demon God forced the current through anyway.
Pressure gathered around its body.
The first old pathway opened unevenly, carrying more power into the upper torso than the Demon God had used in any previous exchange. Another followed through the legs, and the ground beneath the Demon God fractured before it had even moved.
The reopened scar began bleeding more heavily.
Crimson lightning brightened inside it when one of the deeper currents passed near the damage, forcing the Demon God to compress Abyssal energy around the chest until the flow slowed again.
Lianhua shifted closer while keeping her sword between herself and the Demon God. "Is it returning to the True God Realm?"
"No." Haotian followed another damaged pathway as power entered it. "Too much of the old foundation is still broken. It is forcing power through the True God pathways that survived."
Lianhua watched the Demon God's stance settle under the growing pressure. She did not ask how they should respond.
She could already see it.
When the Demon God moved again, the first step carried more speed than before but also sent a visible shudder through the reopened chest. Lianhua widened her angle immediately instead of trying to stop the charge, while Xiangyin moved the spearhead away from the center and placed it where the Demon God would need to turn.
Yanfei abandoned a broader field of Frostfire and hardened only the ground beneath the family's immediate routes.
Yinxue spread farther out.
Yueru and Ziyue separated.
Haotian shifted away from the direct line as the Demon God accelerated.
No command passed between them.
None was needed.
The Demon God crossed the distance with more force moving through its damaged foundation than at any point since entering Blue Sphere. Haotian saw the unstable currents trembling beneath the heavier output, turned into the approach without meeting it head-on, and attacked as Lianhua, Xiangyin, Yueru, Yinxue, Ziyue, and Yanfei moved with the same understanding.
The battle continued before the deeper pathways had fully settled.