Li Hua's combat instincts took over instantly. Her twin spirit daggers materialized in her hands, wreathed in erald flas as she slashed through the creature's attacking limb. The blade passed through its form without resistance, as if cutting through mist. Yet instead of dispersing, the severed portion simply reattached, the entire appendage reforming without damage.
After several attempts, Li Hua's frustration boiled over. "Physical attacks are useless!" she called to Mo Xing, already adjusting her strategy. Without hesitation, she channeled her fire essence into searing streams, powerful enough to reduce any ordinary being to ash. Flas engulfed the creature, roaring with intensity—only to pass through its form like mist, vanishing into the air as if they had never existed.
The entity recoiled briefly from the flas before its amorphous body transford, limbs elongating into razor-sharp blades that slashed toward her with unnatural speed. Li Hua twisted away, but not quickly enough to avoid a glancing blow that opened a shallow cut across her forearm, the wound imdiately burning with unnatural cold.
"Fuck!" Li Hua shouted, pressing her hand against the wound as black ichor seeped from its edges.
She jumped away, scanning the chaotic battlefield. A quick glance confird that the disciples were all in the sa predicant, constantly evading blows since none of their attacks seed to land.
Yang i had summoned her spirit beast, a silver bear, though it was still clearly an adolescent. i Lin had also released hers—a striking red ferret that darted around with fiery energy. The other eight disciples had ford into paired combat units, the stronger ones shielding the weaker as they attempted coordinated strikes that dissipated harmlessly through their targets. Two junior disciples were already bleeding from similar black-edged wounds, their faces pale with shock and pain.
Elder Fu had sohow regained consciousness and struggled to his feet, his face lined with determination as he supported himself on his spirit beast, a large silver tiger. Despite his depleted state, he managed to project a golden barrier around the most vulnerable disciples, though the effort clearly taxed his remaining reserves. Elental essence crackled through the battlefield as they relentlessly tried to strike their elusive enemies, desperation growing with each failed attempt.
From the corner of her eye, Li Hua noticed that Mo Xing was faring better than the rest, his movents sharp and effortless. But even with his skill, he wasn't having any luck landing a hit either.
More of the entities erged from the lake, surrounding them with unnatural speed. Li Hua cycled rapidly through her elental affinities—water essence to bind, earth to crush, wind to disperse, lightning to paralyze. Each powerful technique manifested with perfect execution yet passed through the creatures without effect.
"What the fuck are these things?" Li Hua gasped, her voice tight with both exertion and growing horror. Even with her multiple spiritual energies had no impact on the approaching entities. They absorbed her attacks as if feeding on the very spiritual energy she directed against them.
Mo Xing appeared beside her in a blur of motion, his hand closing around her wrist. "Conventional cultivation can't affect them. We need to retreat—now."
A larger entity rose from the lake's center—a massive form that towered over the others, its body composed of what appeared to be hundreds of lded faces, all contorted in silent screams. It raised appendages like massive scythes, each edge glowing with sickly purple energy that seed to cut through the fabric of reality itself.
The color drained from the faces of their entire group, a collective realization dawning as they stared at the massive entity. Li Hua knew precisely what they were thinking, because the sa chilling thought had crystallized in her own mind: If we can't harm these smaller ones, how could we possibly stand against sothing of that magnitude?
Li Hua attempted one final technique—combining all eight elental affinities into a concentrated burst that should have generated enough power to shatter mountains. The resulting energy sphere struck the massive entity directly, only to be absorbed completely. Worse, the creature seed to grow in response, its form expanding as it consud her spiritual attack.
"Fuck!" She shouted, profanity bursting from her lips as the full implications hit her. "The entire expedition—"
"Would be consud within minutes," Mo Xing confird grimly. His form began to shift slightly, golden eyes taking on an unearthly glow as he prepared to reveal capabilities beyond his usual limits.
As he spoke, three smaller entities launched themselves toward Li Hua simultaneously, moving so quickly they left distortions in the air. Her daggers flashed in desperate defense, passing harmlessly through their forms as they reached for her with limbs that seed designed specifically to extract spiritual cores from living bodies.
For the first ti in both lives, Li Hua faced opponents that completely nullified her formidable abilities—entities that existed outside the natural laws she had mastered across two lifetis. The sensation of absolute vulnerability was entirely foreign to her, a stark reminder that for all her power and knowledge, so threats transcended conventional understanding.
"Stormy," Mo Xing's voice carried strange harmonics as his power built around them, "behind . Now."
The command carried such authority that Li Hua responded instantly, moving into position as Mo Xing began forming gestures she had never witnessed—movents that seed to fold space itself like paper, creating patterns that defied conventional spiritual techniques. The air around them began to shimr with golden-black energy as reality itself seed to bend to his will.
Mo Xing's barrier shimred against the onslaught, energy interwoven with threads of obsidian—a defense more sophisticated than any formation Li Hua had witnessed in her experience.
She surveyed the disciples huddled within Mo Xing's barrier, their faces taut with residual terror yet marked with awe at the protection that had saved them. Most bore only minor injuries—shallow cuts and abrasions that posed no imdiate threat.
"Heal yourselves, quickly," she commanded, her voice steady despite the chaos outside. "Do you all have your own thods?"
They nodded, already beginning their personal healing techniques, but Li Hua supplented their efforts with a precisely controlled stream of wood essence that filled the protective do. The vibrant erald energy accelerated their recovery, nding flesh and restoring depleted spiritual pathways.
As the disciples regained their strength, Li Hua turned her attention outward and felt her heart sink. The entities had completely surrounded them, their impossible forms pressing against every section of Mo Xing's barrier in relentless waves. There was no opening, no path of escape—they were trapped.
To her growing horror, she noticed faint cracks beginning to appear in Mo Xing's masterful technique, spiderwebbing across the do's surface as the entities pressed forward, hungrily consuming the spiritual essence that maintained it. She turned to find Mo Xing's face had lost its color, the usual healthy glow replaced by an alarming pallor that spoke of dangerous depletion.
No! The silent cry echoed through her mind as her eyes t his across the shrinking safe space. We need another way out of this, she thought desperately, her mind racing through every technique, every alliance, every scrap of knowledge from two lifetis of survival.
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