"What is that?" Grim asked aloud, pressing both hands to his chest as the sensation intensified beyond anything he had experienced since Húxiān’s containnt training.
[Sothing catastrophically dangerous,] Caius replied with unprecedented urgency. [Soone is channeling power far beyond their ability to control. If it continues unchecked, the backlash could devastate not just this realm, but potentially breach the barriers that separate it from human territory.]
"Grim, what’s wrong?" Ruxi asked, her face showing imdiate concern as she watched purple energy crackling around his scar.
"Soone’s performing a ritual that’s gone out of control," he said, already turning toward the source of the disturbance. "I have to stop it before it destroys everything."
Without waiting for her response, Grim sprinted toward the forest. Channeling mana into his lower body to run faster than before. His cultivation allowed him to cover ground at a pace that left palace guards struggling to keep up.
The energy signature was unmistakable—fox spirit magic pushed far beyond its safe limits and spiraling into complete chaos.
"Wow, it’s been almost a month and it feels easier to move mana around. I’m also alot faster than before."
[Yes you are. This is a good thing. Just don’t go overboard with the mana. We don’t need a Jiaolong incident again.]
"Hah, you dont need to worry it won’t."
As he ran, he could see the effects spreading outward from the ritual site like ripples in a dark pond.
Trees in the distance were beginning to wither and die, their life force being consud by whatever was happening at the epicenter.
Even the palace’s protective enchantnts were starting to flicker as the chaotic energy interfered with their delicate magical foundations.
The ancient shrine ca into view as Grim got closer, and what he saw made his blood freeze.
Xùyán was suspended in a column of energy so intense it was painful to look at directly, his body beginning to dissolve at the edges as power that belonged to the realm’s infrastructure poured through him without any form of control or limitation.
"Fool!" Grim shouted.
[He’s channeling power directly from the realm’s magical foundation! It’s going to tear him apart and take half the forest with him!]
Xùyán’s eyes found Grim through the chaos of energy surrounding him, and for a mont, pure hatred flickered across his face.
Even facing imminent death and the destruction of everything around them, his first instinct was to reject help from the human rival who had humiliated him.
"I don’t... need... your help," he managed to gasp out between waves of pain that were clearly visible as energy discharges across his skin.
"Yes, you do," Grim replied, stepping closer to the energy column despite the obvious danger radiating from it in waves.
"And more importantly, I need to stop this before it destroys everything we both care about."
The ritual was already affecting the surrounding forest for dozens of miles in every direction.
Grim could sense through his enhanced perception that even the palace itself was starting to feel the effects, its defensive barriers flickering like candles in a hurricane.
[This is extrely dangerous,] Caius warned with genuine fear coloring his ntal voice. [Interfering with a ritual of this magnitude while it’s collapsing could kill you both instantly. The energy levels involved are comparable to what I used to wield at my peak.]
"Then we’d better do this right the first ti," Grim replied silently, drawing simultaneously on both his normal mana and the dark energy contained in his fourth heart.
"Xùyán!" Grim called out, his voice sohow cutting through the roaring chaos of uncontrolled energy. "I’m going to create a containnt field around the ritual, but you need to stop fighting the power and start redirecting it back to its source!"
"I can’t!" Xùyán scread back, his voice barely recognizable as his vocal cords were damaged and healed repeatedly by the energy flowing through him. "It’s too strong! I’ve lost all control!"
He stepped directly into the edge of the energy field, feeling the power tear at his body like invisible claws.
The sensation was unlike anything he had experienced—not pain exactly, but he could feel every muscle fiber in his body contracting and extracting in his body.
The dark mana in his fourth heart responded to the chaos by creating a buffer zone that allowed him to maintain coherent thought despite the overwhelming forces around him.
But even with that protection, he could feel his physical form beginning to destabilize under the assault of energies that were never ant to be channeled through mortal flesh.
"Listen to carefully," Grim said, his voice sohow reaching Xùyán despite the roaring energy that surrounded them both.
"The power you’re channeling isn’t yours to control—it belongs to the forest itself, to the realm. You need to give it back."
The dark energy began to leak from his fourth heart, drawn out by the massive power differential around them.
Purple tendrils of corruption snaked through the air, mixing with the silver column energy in ways that shouldn’t have been possible.
"What—" Grim started, but it was too late.
Xùyán’s eyes widened as the dark mana made contact with his overwheld spiritual channels.
Instead of adding to his problems, the corruption acted like a stabilizing agent, its chaotic nature perfectly complenting the ritual energy.
The dark mana flowed into Xùyán’s body, and suddenly the pain stopped.
The energy that had been tearing him apart mont before was now under his control, channeled and directed by the corruption that gave him the frawork he needed to handle such enormous power.
"I can feel it," Xùyán whispered, his voice filled with wonder and growing malice. "I can control it now."
"Xùyán, listen to ," Grim said urgently, recognizing the dangerous change in his opponent’s deanor. "That dark mana is dangerous. You need to release both energies before—"
"Before what?" Xùyán interrupted, his voice echoing now. "Before I beco powerful enough to do what I should have done from the beginning?"
The mixed energies swirled around Xùyán as he slowly descended to the ground, his feet touching the earth gently. The ritual circle’s symbols, which had been cracking and failing, suddenly flared back to life.
"You ca here to save ," Xùyán said, his expression mixing gratitude with renewed hatred. "And you have. But not in the way you intended."
"The dark mana will corrupt you," Grim warned, backing away as he felt the hostile intent. "Just like it did to . You don’t understand what you’re dealing with."
"Don’t I?" Xùyán asked, flexing his hands as purple and silver energy danced between his fingers. "I understand perfectly. This is what power feels like when it’s not held back by weakness and restraint."
The forest around them had stopped dying. Instead, the mixed energies were transforming it, turning the withered trees into sothing darker but more vibrant.
"You gave exactly what I needed to prove my superiority," Xùyán continued, his tails now glowing with the sa mixture of silver and purple energy. "How ironic that your attempt to help has given the power to destroy you."
"Xùyán, think about what you’re doing," Grim said, drawing his sword as he realized negotiations were over. "This isn’t you. The corruption is influencing your judgnt."
"Or maybe it’s finally allowing to see clearly," Xùyán replied with a cold smile. "All my life, I’ve held myself back with concerns about honor and propriety. But why should I show rcy to soone who humiliated ? Why should I accept the presence of a human in our sacred realm?"
The energy around him intensified, forming weapons of pure force that hovered in the air around his body. Unlike his previous illusions, these constructs carried real weight and cutting power, enhanced by both ritual magic and dark corruption.
"I challenge you, Grim van Ambrose," Xùyán declared formally, his voice carrying across the transford forest. "Not as a sparring partner or rival, but as an enemy who threatens everything I hold sacred. This ti, there will be no rcy. No restraint. No holding back."
"Then you’ll have none from either," Grim replied grimly, feeling his own dark mana responding to the challenge. The corruption in his fourth heart pulsed with anticipation, eager for the coming conflict.
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