Song Song stood frozen in shock, unable to move. Thick, tar-like streams dripped from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, sizzling faintly as they hit the scorched earth below. Her crimson armor pulsed unnaturally, veins of darkness spreading across its surface like a sickness taking root.
Her breathing hitched, shallow and irregular. Her axe, still held in one trembling hand, hung low and unsteady as if the weight of it suddenly beca too much.
The blood trailing down her face twisted her features into sothing grotesque. Even her wings faltered, twitching spasmodically before folding in close as if trying to shield her from a force she couldn’t fight.
She looked at Song San, or what was left of him, and then at her hands.
The black blood continued to ooze, thickening by the second.
Sothing was very, very wrong.
That was when Song San, breathing heavily and visibly trembling, forced himself upright. He clutched his chest as if trying to brace against or stop the bleeding caused by Song Song’s attack. But it was pointless. I was fairly certain she had a Foundation Technique that cursed any wounds she inflicted like a cut that would never stop bleeding.
“Damn,” Song San cursed. “I know as a poison cultivator, I might not be the best at defense. But to take out on one hit, you truly are talented, sister.”
For a split second, the thought of helping her crossed my mind. However, that was pure recklessness, driven by too much emotion that clouded reason. If I approached, I’d be dead before I could even blink.
So before panic could take root at the thought of Song Song losing, I forced myself to think.
Song San struggled to remain standing, his body shaking like a leaf in the wind. It almost gave the illusion that I could land a blow on him. But with his elent being poison, I’d be dead before I got within ten feet.
And my arrays, the ones capable of isolating against even the air itself? His elent was poison. I wasn’t about to assu I knew more about it than he did.
He walked toward the frozen Song Song and gently placed his hand on her stomach. His palm was so acidic that the clothes he was about to touch dissolved before he even touched them, revealing her fair midsection beneath.
Shit, I had to think of sothing!
But no matter how I looked at it, there was nothing I could do here; everything would just lead to a pointless death. I should’ve prepared for this scenario… but I never expected Song Song to show up so soon.
And when she said she was going to kill her brother... I should’ve stopped her.
Song San was smart. He’d chosen poison as his elent and knew how to wield it in so truly nasty ways. Carelessness wasn’t in his nature.
While my senses were decent for a Foundation Establishnt cultivator, as a Core Formation cultivator, his range was much greater. He had probably sensed his sister, her strength, and figured she’d be coming here to confront him.
He had prepared the battlefield while I’d been lost in worry over the Bloodstep Immortal.
I shouldn’t be trying to outsmart and outsche one person. I needed to do it against all of them and at the sa ti!
I took a deep breath, letting those thoughts drift to the back of my mind as I clasped my hands.
Imdiately, my Qi surged outward, forming the skeletal frawork of an array with lines of power weaving together like a spider’s web. The ground trembled faintly as it prepared to take shape.
But before the first barrier could solidify, a hand touched my shoulder.
Cai Hu.
In that instant, the entire formation didn’t just collapse; it shattered as though the very idea of it had never existed. The energy dispersed in a silent ripple, as if the world itself had rejected my attempt.
He hadn’t flexed any power. No burst of Qi. No grand display. Just precise, surgical interference and an understanding of arrays so complete he could end them before they even began.
This was Cai Hu’s mastery as a Level 7 Array Conjurer.
"What are you doing?" I said, my voice coming out much calr than I felt. Rage was not going to fix this problem.
"If you intervene in this fight, you will die," he said matter-of-factly. "Actually, the guy is hoping for you to intervene. With here, he knows he can't do anything against you. But if you stick your nose…"
"I don't care, Song Song just needs a second–"
But before I could even finish my words, a translucent silvery array snapped into existence around , its lines etched in the air like frozen lightning.
My limbs locked up instantly. It wasn't pain I felt, but resistance, like trying to move through concrete that thickened with every twitch. Even my Qi, usually flowing like water, now dragged behind it like it was towing boulders.
"Sorry kid, but you have the talent to surpass . I can't let soone like that die a aningless death," he said. "As for complaining, you can do that as much as you want, but I don't really care. Also, trust in Song Song. I rather despise that girl, but her talent is without a doubt the best the Blazing Sun Sect has ever produced."
I just stared at him for a second and decided to let it go. Complaining wouldn't fix anything, but this array…
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I activated my Foundation Technique to its fullest extent, and the world around slowed to a crawl… and then stopped.
Snowflakes froze mid-fall. A gust of wind paused mid-sway. Even the flickering light from the bright evening clouds overhead halted.
Everything was still.
My thoughts surged forward like lightning, racing through possibilities, calculations, and contingencies. I tried to make use of every piece of knowledge I had gathered. Usually, this technique didn't demand much Qi. It relied on control, not brute force.
But with my current reserves?
Every heartbeat drained . Every passing second chipped away at the core of my cultivation. I could feel my spiritual veins tightening, my Qi straining at the limit.
If I didn't act fast, this mont of clarity would collapse into exhaustion.
I pressed my ntal energy against the shimring silver wall, my movents loosening slightly as the technique’s hold lightened.
Array Conjuring wasn't the sa as cultivation when it ca to certain things. At the later stages of cultivation, it was nearly impossible for a lower-stage cultivator to defeat a higher one. But Array Conjuring? That was different.
Cai Hu had cast this array fast, and yet it was a powerful Level 6 Array, not weakened in the slightest by the speed. That alone revealed his true mastery.
However, my Foundation Technique, Ti De-Accel, was highly compatible with arrays.
For a Level 4 Array Conjurer, breaking this would have taken days.
But I had a certain experience…
After what felt like hours in that frozen world, fine cracks began to spiderweb across the translucent silver array.
I focused everything I had on a single point, willing my remaining strength to punch through.
I was almost there!
But just as the cracks started to widen, just as I nearly made a breach–
The Ti De-Accel Technique lost effect. I no longer had the Qi to sustain it.
Like a cord being cut, ti snapped back into motion. My heartbeat slamd into rhythm. The wind rushed past my ears. Numb prickles like neeedles stabbing into my skin blood across my limbs from the strain, and my knees nearly buckled.
The sudden return to real ti left gasping.
Cai Hu’s head whipped around. His eyes locked on , widening with sothing between shock and awe.
“This… How?” he muttered, voice low but laced with disbelief. “You were inside a full-bind seal…”
He stared at the fractured array, the visible cracks lingering like the ghosts of sothing impossible.
And I just breathed, trying to suppress the trembling in my muscles and trying not to pass out right there.
“How about we make a deal?” I asked with a strained grin, though I wasn’t sure I could even stay standing for another minute.
But I didn’t care what he had to say. My eyes were locked on Song Song, who had collapsed to the ground.
I turned toward Cai Hu.
“I know many arrays, even a Level 7 that the Sect likely doesn't have. If you help Song Song, I promise to give it to you,” I said.
But my words seed to fly right over Cai Hu’s head. He stared at while running a hand through his well-trimd beard. The shock faded, replaced by a smile.
“While that sounds interesting,” he humd, “I already have Level 7 arrays the sect has given , so that doesn't interest as much as you might think. How about you throw into that deal that you’ll beco my disciple too?”
“Sure,” I agreed. That wasn’t a bad thing for .
The man's smile widened, and he nodded. All that holier-than-thou attitude from before, like he’d not intervene no matter what, vanished.
“Well, there was no reason for to interfere,” he said. “But I’ll still take that deal. We can negotiate about handing over the Level 7 arrays because, while interesting, the Sect has already given so of those. But there’s no getting out of becoming my student, unofficially if you want. I don’t care about recognition or anything like that.”
I didn’t expect him to go on such a long rant, and I didn’t care about his life story at the mont. My eyes were glued to Song Song, still unmoving.
Song San's twisted smile stretched wider as he approached, his palm glowing with dark poisonous Qi. The air around it warped, hissing like acid against flesh. Each step he took left behind faint blackened footprints with the ground beneath rotting with every contact.
Victory was written across his mangled face…
Until it wasn’t.
Just as he raised his hand, close enough to deliver the killing blow–
Song San staggered, and his triumphant expression froze.
Then ca the sound. A wet, squelching rip.
SHUNK. SHUNK. SHUNK.
Blood spears tore out of his body, dozens of them jutting from his chest, back, shoulders, and legs like he’d beco a grotesque crimson porcupine.
The air grew heavy with the tallic stench of blood as the spears shimred, pulsing with Song Song’s Qi.
His body, already marred by the massive cut from earlier, resembled a failed science experint more than a human. His eyes widened, not in rage, but in the purest, most bitter disbelief.
His legs gave out first.
Then the rest of him collapsed, the spears dragging along the ground with sickening squelches as he crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut.
His hand twitched once… then stilled.
And the only sound that echoed across the battlefield was the low hum of blood Qi retreating back into the earth.
At the sa ti, the downed Song Song stood up. She didn’t struggle like he did, but her face had gone pale.
Her cheeks puffed slightly, then she vomited a mouthful of black sludge.
That was when I noticed the dark markings on her skin had vanished.
“Dumb of you to pick a fight with , brother,” she said, wiping her mouth with the sleeve of her robe and canceling the blood spears that had burst from him. Those spears had been blotting his bleeding, and now he was left to a slow death. “With my blood elent, I just changed and replaced all the blood before the poison reached my organs and waited for you to let your guard down. I kind of pulled your strategy on you.”
“Don't lie,” Song San coughed out, voice wet and soft, as if life were draining with each breath. “You figured that trick out last second. You had lost.”
Song Song's face didn’t twitch. But it seed like Song San had forgotten what his sister was like.
He was reminded soon enough.
There were two sudden flashes, blurs of crimson so fast it seed her arm disappeared for a mont.
Before anyone could blink, Song San’s legs were no longer attached to his body.
They spun through the air once, leaving twin trails of blood before crashing onto the shattered stone below.
A strangled, gurgling sound escaped his throat as he stared in shock at the empty stumps where his legs had been, fresh blood pulsing out in a panicked rhythm.
His body flinched, trying to roll as if it hadn’t quite caught up to what had just happened.
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