Molting the Mortal Coil

The two giant beasts immediately entered combat against each other. It was almost like they were immediately proving to the thousands gathered on this battlefield that their immense physiques were not just for show. The tiny Cultivators fled away from the Living Disaster and the Swamp Genesis Spider, scrambling back to their feet after being knocked down by the rumblings of the earth. The two giants ignored the tiny cultivators, having eyes only for each other.

The spider’s limbs moved rapidly, weaving silken nets that it threw towards the giant tortoise. In opposition, the tortoise wasn’t agile enough to avoid the spider’s webbing and bulled forward. It advanced steadily, ignoring the webbing that draped over it. The webbing collected on its back and draped down its sides. As it got thicker it started to catch on the trees and stick to the ground. The giant tortoise’s eyes flared up and heat veins appeared all over its body causing the silk to melt and drip off of it. It continued to soldier towards the smaller spider and opened its mouth. An immense column of flame shot forth, which the spider skittered to the side to avoid. It was no longer standing in the water so it couldn’t use its water attack, but it was still many times faster than the tortoise.

All the smaller cultivators seemed to come to an unspoken agreement, shifting the center of their battle away from where the two giant monsters had started to fight. Even with the support of the Tiankongs and the hundred Core Formation Cultivators, Sage’s side was drastically outnumbered. Unlike when they’d arrogantly assaulted Lionheart Town with only a hundred people, they had now assembled thousands against them. Even if more than half of them were only in the fourth rank, they were still outnumbered many times over. Sage’s side was completely surrounded, but they weren’t without hope. The many reinforcements that Sage had assembled stood their ground and upon each of their backs, a glowing symbol appeared. While they weren’t all wearing matching suits of armor, their robes had all been altered to the same specifications. Ruanfu had much time to prepare and the more than a hundred rank fives pooled their strength to create a defensive formation.

Blade lights, sword flashes, fireballs, ice shards, wind blades, water bullets, energy lances, and all manner of attacks rained down upon the defensive formation they formed. They weren’t using the formation that the Jade Horde Dragoons used, the Million Scale Shell. While that defensive formation could be used against anything, it was extremely inefficient and used to take advantage of the Dragoons immense quantity. Outnumbered as they were, they wouldn’t dare to waste their energy on the Million Scale Shell.

Instead, they used an obscure choice, the Shifting Swarm Formation. Most wouldn’t even consider it a defensive formation. It didn’t create a barrier or shield. It also didn’t create an area of illusion or misdirection. There were also no slaughtering arrays or traps. All it did was move energy. It could shift energy from one place to another with almost instant speed. These hundred cultivators had spent years practicing its use. Like one, the hundred of them shared their Qi between each other, sending it to the person most skilled at countering each attack coming towards them. Each time one of them acted, it was with the strength of a hundred, slapping dozens of attacks down with a swipe of their hand. Despite the rain of attacks upon them, they held strong.

Only, in a battle between Cultivators, high level power mattered more than numbers. While Sage had lost his body, so had the Violet Light Ancestor. The Swamp Genesis Spider faced off against the Living Disaster. Ruanfu was a powerful Demonic Beast with unusual abilities, but she was far from being a match for three Nascent Souls. With their disadvantage, they couldn’t let the enemy split them apart. The giant tortoise was just too destructive so they were forced to have the Swamp Genesis Spider battle it solo, but if they did the same with the other Nascent Souls, one of them would be drastically outnumbered.

Sage and Ruanfu couldn’t allow themselves to be overrun like that so they used their one advantage. Sage’s spirit form clung to Ruanfu’s back and they leapt into the air. Along with them came the other winged monsters. Even if Songji, Baozhai, and Baozhai’s mother weren’t great flyers, they were still better than the enemy Nascent Souls. Only those with certain law understanding or specialized magical tools could fly in the fifth rank. It was much easier at the sixth rank due to their greater strength, but it still had similar limitations. None of their enemies used laws that allowed them to easily traverse the sky which meant they could gain an edge in mobility.

Lifting into the sky, Sage, Ruanfu and the other giant birds engaged in a harassing battle. They couldn’t fight head on, two Nascent Souls against four, but they also couldn’t just run away. If they weren’t constantly keeping the enemy on their toes, then their own allies would be at risk. Despite their beautiful coordination, when the Nascent Souls attacked them, they had to focus their complete attention to resist and some of them took injuries from the army of rank fours and fives that surrounded them.

The weaker flying beasts spread out, diving down and causing havoc among the encircling army to reduce the pressure on the hundred rank fives. Even so they could only make a couple attacks before having to flee. As soon as they got targeted by dozens of others at their same level they would be in grave danger. They forced the enemy to split their attention which reduced the frequency of their attacks. Sage and Ruanfu did something similar, the two of them diving down at the four of their enemy.

A huge cloud of black smoke had formed, which the Fu Clan Nascent Soul used to conceal his actions and also give himself a method to gain altitude and mount a counter attack. The Swordsman chose to force them down by attacking the hundred rank fives from the Inner World. Due to his weakness at long distance attacks, Sage and Ruanfu had to constantly attack him to keep him from advancing. The Violet Light Ancestor and Hei Bai worked together with the Fu Clan Nascent Soul to attack back, causing a headache for Sage. The Yincha woman, who was always so serious looking, had started to laugh with a maniacal bent. Her hair was disheveled and she was throwing booming sound blasts into the sky to provide cover for the Swordsman.

“Haha, all you have done is spend lives to buy more time Lang Sheng! I don’t know where all these people came from, but we’re going to massacre them and you’ll spend the rest of your life in chains, lamenting over their needless deaths!”

The Yincha woman yelled with wild abandon, and the glowing red skull that was Hei Bai laughed along with her. That malicious sound was followed up by her own taunts, “Lady Diyin is right! You shall suffer for eternity. I will personally flay your soul for three decades at the very least!”

Some of Ruanfu’s giant feathers were burned up by Hei Bai’s burning eye beams, while the Violet Light Ancestor’s glowing finger strikes were blocked by bursts of Samsara Flame. They swooped down to try to deter the Swordsman, but Lady Diyin pushed them back. The hundred rank fives from the Inner World were thrown into disarray, turning their full strength to push back the Swordsman, but that meant they were struck by the attacks from the army surrounding them.

Boom!

Just as things were looking bleak, a booming noise came from the outside world. The red light they were all bathed in suddenly shimmered and faded.

Boom!

The formation that the enemy has placed was torn apart and the red hued world they were trapped in was gone. They were free once more and eager to see the sky. Only, there was no sky, only roiling black clouds. There was a brilliant flash and another loud boom of thunder followed.