Tianjue might win. Yuming decided. It might not be time to end this battle.

  The Marrow Tempering boy was dead, and the saber-wielding girl was critically injured. The other two combatants grew desperate.

  Yuming parried another strike from the spearman, deflecting the shaft with his forearm.

  The dagger woman was slower now—his needles had done their work—but she pressed forward, enraged, her blades weaving delicate arcs.

  Yuming dodged the blows while his attention remained on the battle above.

  Tianjue’s cauldron released another burst. Streams of ember and ash poured toward Qin Yueshan. Yueshan formed a series of water-mirrors, but the impact drove her further back.

  Yuming watched carefully.

  Yueshan had hit Tianjue twice before the blast. But the cauldron’s output was stronger than either of her strikes.

  The spearman thrust again. Yuming sidestepped and planted two needles in the man’s wrist. The spear dipped.

  In the previous exchange, Tianjue took a water tendril to his shoulder. Then the cauldron flared brighter before releasing.

  Yuming ducked under the dagger woman’s slash, retreating a few steps toward the wall.

  Qin Yueshan formed an ethereal crane and sent it toward Tianjue, cutting his cheek, The cauldron pulsed, brighter than before.

  It accumulates. Yuming realized. The more damage he takes, the more it stores—then he releases it all at once.

  The cauldron erupted. A column of fire slammed into Yueshan’s barrier. She barely held.

  Wen Peng and Wen Yuanfeng desperately supplied her with more qi, giving her a brief reprieve.

  She doesn’t have an effective counter. She’s just hoping the formation can let her win a war of attrition.

  But Tianjue just needs to grab me. Once we’re away from the compound he’ll have a massive advantage if Qin Yueshan is tired.

  Yuming’s eyes traced the geometry of the battlefield. Tianjue hovered forty feet above the central courtyard, near the Ancestral Hall. Yueshan was being pushed back toward the eastern wall. The main formation nodes, anchored by Wen Peng and Yuanfeng, were east and west.

  If I move toward Tianjue…

  He dodged another thrust, letting the motion carry him away from the boundary wall—towards the compound's center.

  He heard a sharp sword cry overhead—Wen Lingling and Wen Mingchen were still fighting.

  If I get beneath Tianjue, or at least close enough that he can see me clearly—

  The dagger woman slashed. Yuming jumped back a few feet toward the courtyard.

  Tianjue won’t let his asset die, he’ll have to intervene.

  And if he intervenes at the right time, the battle could shift to Qin Yueshan's favor.

  The spearman lunged again, trying to trip Yuming with raised dirt. Yuming responded by sending a needle inches from the man’s face. He used the opening to retreat further.

  “Coward!” the dagger woman spat. “Stand and fight!”

  Yuming didn’t answer. He slipped past a stone lantern then through a gate that opened onto a garden path.

  I’m getting close to the range that Tianjue can intervene in.

  Tianjue’s gaze swept downward.

  Their eyes met.

  Yuming let the spearman's next thrust graze his forearm. The spear left a shallow cut, enough to bleed visibly.

  Yuming stumbled.

  Tianjue’s expression flickered between calculation and annoyance.

  Then he made a decision. He transmitted something to Liu MIngchen and returned to his battle with Qin Yueshan.

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  Yuming's head snapped toward the northern side of the compound. Liu Mingchen had been locked in combat with Wen Lingling.

  But Mingchen quickly disengaged. His movement technique activated, and he flowed downward toward Yuming.

  Not good!

  Mingchen descended quickly.

  He landed and drifted through the smoke and chaos, weaving past fleeing servants and crumbling buildings. His eyes locked onto Yuming’s crimson robes. The boy was stumbling, barely holding back two desperate Wen cultivators.

  Easy retrieval.

  He closed in, keeping part of his attention on the weakened Wen Lingling.

  Yuming saw him coming. Mingchen couldn’t tell if the boy’s face showed fear or relief.

  His fingers brushed against Yuming’s collar—

  Steel screamed behind him.

  Mingchen twisted, but it was too late. A sword edge drove into his calf, slicing through flesh. Blood sprayed against the garden stones.

  Wen Lingling stood in the air, ten feet above Mingchen. Her blade was extended, and her eyes burned with something that hadn’t been there moments ago.

  How—

  She’d been exhausted. How could this rural cultivator overtake him?

  “You’re not taking anyone!” she snarled, diving at him again.

  Mingchen abandoned Yuming and raised his sword to block. The two quickly ascended into the sky and continued their fight.

  Yuming let out a sigh of relief.

  How fortunate.

  But he didn’t let himself relax too much.

  He knew there was no such thing as good luck.

  Yuming knew he didn’t have time to think about it. He needed to quickly adjust his plan.

  He traded another few blows with the dagger woman, retreating a few steps and falling into a standoff with the two Wen cultivators.

  Previously, Yuming's plan was to fall into danger, forcing Tianjue to save him at an inopportune time—thus changing the direction of the battle.

  But seeing how easily Mingchen recovered just now, Yuming realized that he couldn’t change the battle’s overall outcome in his current state.

  He was just too weak.

  He glanced over to the Ancestral Hall, thinking of his original plan—the plan he had devised before Tianjue swooped in.

  The Ancestral Tree—if I could just get to the Ancestral Tree...

  But there was a problem. Tianjue was floating above the Ancestral Hall. If Yuming casually strolled over, he’d be walking into Tianjue’s palm.

  He took another glance at the Wen cultivators opposing him.

  I can’t make Tianjue lose, but maybe I can force him to move.

  The spearman and daggerwoman closed in again, emboldened by Yuming’s apparent exhaustion. Yuming kept them at bay with more measured retreats and precise needles, but his attention remained fixed above.

  He realized that Tianjue’s cauldron was the key.

  Yuming had observed it a few times now. Every time Qin Yueshan landed a significant blow, the cauldron absorbed the impact and glowed brighter. Its bronze surface shifted from dull metal to deep crimson as it accumulated power.

  Then, when the glow reached a certain intensity, it would release. Tianjue would target it towards Qin Yueshan, and it would keep her reeling.

  That’s why she can’t win. She hits him, and he hits back harder.

  The formation keeps her alive, the cauldron keeps him ahead.

  Yuming dodged another spear thrust, giving the spearman a slap in return.

  Above, Qin Yueshan sent a group of water blades toward Tianjue. Most shattered against his aura, but two slipped through and cut him

  The cauldron pulsed. The color grew brighter.

  It’s charging again.

  Yuming knew what he needed to do. He needed to risk his life, to place it in Tianjue’s hands.

  But could he do it?

  If anything went wrong he would die. One misstep and eternal darkness.

  His fear was always with him.

  But death wasn’t his greatest fear. His greatest fear was to never exist at all.

  Yuming made his decision.

  He watched the cauldron from the corner of his eye. The crimson was turning white. Almost there.

  Now.

  He let the spearman’s next thrust come. At the last moment, he twisted. Not enough to dodge completely, but enough to turn a killing blow into a bloody gash against his ribs.

  The pain came immediately.

  He screamed and crumpled to the ground.

  Blood pooled beneath him. The wound was real, the danger was real. He’d calculated the depth carefully, but his calculation meant nothing if the spearman followed up.

  Yuming’s eyes drifted upward. He clenched his fists.

  Look down, look down!

  Never had he so badly wanted Tianjue to save him.

  Tianjue finally looked down. His eyes found Yuming—his crimson robes brighter with fresh blood, the spearman poised to kill.

  Tianjue’s cauldron was at the threshold: white-hot and screaming to release.

  Tianjue cursed in his heart. Those Xu bastards really taught him to fear us!

  For a brief moment, his gaze flickered between Qin Yueshan and Yuming.

  The boy can’t die. At worst, it’s a temporary setback.

  Then he let the cauldron release.

  It erupted, but Tianjue was already diving toward Yuming. His attention was split between the boy and the cauldron shot; his aim was ruined. The column of fire that should have slammed into Qin Yueshan’s center of mass instead blew wide left, finding no target.

  Yueshan didn’t waste the opening, thinking to herself: The Liu Family really values this Earth-grade prodigy!

  The formation surged. Wen Peng and Wen Yuanfeng poured everything they had into her techniques. Water Qi condensed from the air itself, forming a massive spiritual serpent that coiled and struck.

  Tianjue pummeled toward Yuming. His hand swept outward and a line of flame caught the spearman mid-thrust. The man didn’t have time to scream—he simply fell apart, his weapon clattering on the stones below.

  The dagger woman tried to flee, she barely made it two steps before fire found her back.

  Tianjue reached for Yuming—

  But the water serpent struck. It hit him from behind, coiling around his torso with crushing force. He snarled and released a burst of flames, evaporating the serpent’s head.

  But the impact had an effect. Tianjue stumbled a dozen feet through the air, past the courtyard. Blood poured from his mouth.

  He took one last deep look at Yuming.

  But Qin Yueshan pressed immediately. Water tendrils lashed toward him from three directions, forcing him to defend. The formation fed her relentlessly.

  And that useless Mingchen was still tangled up with Wen Lingling.

  Damn it!

  He tried to push back toward Yuming, but Qin Yueshan cut him off. Every step he took toward the boy, she punished with another strike.

  Yuming watched from the ground, one hand pressed to his bleeding ribs.

  He can't reach me. Not without taking his eyes off her.

  The path to the Ancestral Hall was open.