Haotian remained beside the passage while the first teams moved away from it. They did not turn immediately toward the nearest demonic soldiers or chase the first enemy they saw. The legion had rehearsed one purpose before entering: create room for everyone behind them. Blue Sphere cultivators took the positions closest to the exposed approaches, while the other members of each mixed team spread outward with them until the first layer around the Dao Palace of Creation possessed enough width that the next teams could emerge without colliding with those already outside.
The demons nearest the military ground noticed the change quickly, but not all at once. A pair of soldiers crossing between two low structures slowed when the first coalition cultivators appeared where no gate or road should have brought them. Another group farther across the open ground continued walking for several breaths because the angle of the buildings hid the spatial opening from them. By the time the first shout carried across the area, nearly four complete mixed teams had already left the Dao Palace of Creation.
Haotian did not move to silence the alarm.
The infiltration phase was finished the moment the passage opened. Killing one soldier before he shouted would accomplish nothing now that dozens of coalition cultivators were already appearing inside the sector. The only thing that mattered was whether the local defenders could reach the deployment area quickly enough to compress the passage before the Second Mixed Legion established the depth it had been chosen to create.
A demonic patrol rushed from the northern edge of the military ground before any larger formation arrived. They were not enough to threaten the legion, but their officer understood immediately that allowing the strange spatial opening to continue functioning would make the situation worse. Rather than spreading the patrol against the entire coalition line, he directed them toward the passage itself.
The first mixed team intercepted them before they reached half the distance.
A Blue Sphere cultivator met the leading demon directly, absorbing the first heavy strike without being driven back into the deployment area. The Marephoros pair beside him shaped the footing around the next two attackers, forcing one step wider than intended and slowing another just enough that their arrival ceased being simultaneous. Pyrelith pressure entered the opening immediately afterward, striking the separated demon before his allies could close around him.
The team did not pursue when the wounded patrol member fell back. Umbrel cultivators moved instead through the shadow of the nearest structure and cut across the route the patrol officer was trying to use to redirect his men. Celestara fighters took the higher angle above them, while the Veridian pair stabilized the ground beneath the mixed team after a demonic impact cracked the paving near the passage. The twelve cultivators fought as one small formation without stopping to announce whose world supplied each answer.
More teams emerged behind them.
The Second Mixed Legion spread according to the shape Haotian had chosen rather than forming a perfect circle around the Dao Palace of Creation. The low military structures protected one side naturally, allowing fewer cultivators to hold that direction, while the broader open ground ahead required more depth. Teams moved into staggered positions rather than standing shoulder to shoulder, leaving paths between them through which later formations could pass once the first layer was secure.
The passage continued widening as Haotian reduced the amount of attention needed to preserve its stability. Creation remained steady beyond it, and the space between the inner world and the stronghold no longer demanded the same careful formation it had during the first moments. The first company of the Second Mixed Legion was outside now, followed by another, and the military ground began changing from an enemy-controlled space into a defended deployment zone.
The local demons responded with increasing speed.
A warning horn sounded somewhere beyond the buildings to the north, followed by a second from farther east. The sound did not carry panic. It was a sector alarm, repeated according to an established pattern that informed nearby forces that an enemy had appeared inside the local defensive region. Doors opened along two military structures as soldiers rushed out already carrying weapons, while another group emerged from a side road in enough numbers to form ranks rather than charging individually.
Haotian followed their movement through the Dao of the Universe. The company he had noticed during infiltration was beginning to move exactly as expected, but it had not yet reached the road leading directly toward the deployment ground. Another smaller formation was assembling closer to the northeast, while the elevated platform overlooking part of the area had begun shifting its attention inward.
The defenders were reacting faster than they had during the first assault.
That was expected too.
They had been told that Haotian could release an army from inside the stronghold. The local officers might not have believed their own sector would become the point of entry, but they did not need time to understand what the spatial opening meant once they saw coalition cultivators emerging from it. The lesson of the previous attack had already given them the correct explanation.
The Second Mixed Legion commander recognized the changing pressure before the first organized company entered the open ground. He shifted several teams toward the northern approach while leaving the eastern side thinner for the moment, relying on the buildings and the Celestara cultivators above to provide warning before anything large reached that direction. No request for Haotian's approval was necessary. The legion had been given an objective, and the commander adjusted within it.
Another wave of mixed teams cleared the passage.
The first legion was approaching full deployment.
Inside the Dao Palace of Creation, the Sixth Mixed Legion began moving toward the opening before the last members of the Second had fully crossed. Their timing had been planned around exactly this overlap. Waiting for the entire first legion to finish reorganizing would leave unnecessary pauses in the deployment, while beginning too early would compress both formations into the same ground.
The Second created the room.
The Sixth began filling it.
The first Sixth Legion teams crossed and immediately moved toward the western and southern portions of the secured area rather than reinforcing the northern side already receiving the heaviest pressure. Their task was to expand what the Second had established. Blue Sphere cultivators anchored the growing edge, Marephoros fighters helped control movement around the low buildings, and Pyrelith cultivators positioned themselves where they could answer a concentrated enemy push without releasing broad destruction back toward the spatial opening.
Umbrel observers emerged among them and disappeared almost immediately into the nearby streets. They did not spread deeply into the stronghold or begin hunting officers. Their assigned task was local awareness, so they moved only far enough to watch the roads leading toward the deployment area and determine which enemy groups were approaching, how quickly they were moving, and whether any hidden force was attempting to reach the passage from a route the coalition had not yet seen.
Celestara cultivators followed the first groups designated for elevated control. Several rose toward nearby rooftops rather than immediately attacking the occupied platform farther northeast. Height alone had value because it allowed them to see across the low military structures and relay approaching movement back to the mixed legions below. Only after those observation positions were secure did some begin shifting toward the elevated defenders already turning their weapons inward.
The Veridian specialists emerged more cautiously. Their first teams remained near the passage long enough to orient themselves according to Haotian's description, then moved toward the entrances leading into the underground service routes he had identified. They did not enter blindly. Wood and Life-based perception traveled through cracks, support structures, roots beneath the paving, and the physical spaces around the tunnels so the teams could confirm where movement existed before placing cultivators underground.
Haotian watched all of it while maintaining the passage.
The deployment did not need his hands inside every small engagement. That had been one of the central reasons the mixed legion system existed. He remained available for anything powerful enough to threaten the entire opening, but the first patrols and local soldiers were problems the coalition had prepared to handle without turning him into the answer to every attack.
The first organized demonic company finally entered the northern edge of the military ground.
They arrived in proper ranks rather than a disordered rush, with shielded cultivators ahead, heavier attackers behind them, and several officers maintaining enough separation that one strike could not remove the entire local command structure. The company commander saw the scale of the deployment and adjusted before reaching the Second Mixed Legion. Instead of driving directly at the Dao Palace of Creation, he divided part of the formation toward the side streets.
Haotian understood the purpose immediately.
The local commander had no reason to assume the passage could be crushed from one direction when so many coalition cultivators already protected it. By spreading around the military ground, the demons could pressure more than one edge at once and force the Second Mixed Legion to use its strength defensively rather than expanding. If enough local formations joined them, the deployment might be contained even if it could no longer be stopped outright.
The Second Legion commander adjusted his front.
The central teams remained in place while the outer formations curved slightly toward the threatened side approaches. The legion did not stretch into a thin ring. Instead, overlapping teams created several short defensive layers, each capable of giving ground into another without exposing a straight path toward the Dao Palace of Creation. The structure preserved depth even while widening.
The first demonic attack struck those layers moments later.
Heavy force crashed into the northern formation and drove several Blue Sphere cultivators backward a step, but the line did not break. Pyrelith fighters answered only after the demonic front compressed into the contact point, releasing concentrated force through the soldiers whose own forward pressure had brought them close enough together for the attack to matter. The impact disrupted the first rank without scattering destruction across the coalition's deployment zone.
Marephoros cultivators moved with the recoil. Water and pressure altered the ground beneath the demons trying to exploit the first collision, forcing their next steps away from the clean angles their officers had prepared. Umbrel fighters emerged from side positions only long enough to strike soldiers attempting to pass around the Blue Sphere anchors, then withdrew into the formation before a counterattack could isolate them.
The first exchange did not decide the battle.
It did establish that the local company could not simply push through the Second Mixed Legion before the Sixth finished emerging.
More coalition cultivators continued crossing behind the fighting.
The demons noticed.
Several officers changed their focus from breaking the forward line to reaching the opening indirectly. One formation shifted through a road west of the military ground, intending to come around the low structures protecting that side. The move was sensible because the coalition had placed fewer cultivators there precisely because the structures reduced the number of direct approaches.
An Umbrel observer reached the western Sixth Legion teams before the demons completed the turn.
The warning carried enough information to act upon: one organized group, moving around the buildings rather than through them, likely attempting to reach the deployment point from the side. The local Sixth Legion officer redirected two mixed teams toward the narrow exit without pulling anyone from the northern fighting. Veridian cultivators strengthened damaged sections of the ground around that approach while Marephoros positioned themselves to control the space the demons would have to enter.
The flanking group appeared moments later and found the route already defended.
Their officer did not order an immediate charge. He saw the coalition waiting inside the constricted space and redirected his formation toward another street instead. That decision preserved his soldiers rather than feeding them into a prepared position, but it also cost time. By the time the group found another route, another portion of the Sixth Mixed Legion had emerged.
The military ground continued filling.
Behind the passage, the family began moving forward inside the Dao Palace of Creation. They did not enter all at once or force themselves ahead of the legions already following the established order. Lianhua, Yinxue, Yueru, Ziyue, Xiangyin, Yanfei, and Shuyue remained positioned according to the deployment plan, with Shuyue deliberately held deeper than the others. Tianlan waited farther back with the two Frost Rainbow Falcons selected for the assault.
The first of Haotian's wives crossed only after the Sixth Legion had enough presence outside that their arrival would not interfere with the formation.
Lianhua emerged first among them and immediately stepped away from the passage. She did not rush toward the northern company simply because fighting was already underway. Her attention moved instead across the deployment area, measuring the pressures forming around it and identifying where stronger interference might become necessary. Yinxue followed, then Yueru, Ziyue, Xiangyin, and Yanfei in intervals short enough to keep them available without creating a cluster of Lesser Immortal Lords around Haotian.
They spread naturally through the secured depth.
Lianhua moved toward the side from which the local company's heavier cultivators were beginning to gather. Yinxue positioned herself where she could see the northeastern formation station that might soon become a problem. Yueru and Ziyue remained close enough to respond to either the main northern engagement or the roads leading inward, while Xiangyin found space where her spear could operate without forcing mixed teams to open around her. Yanfei remained where Frostfire could support the deployment without crossing the passage itself.
No one attacked the formation station yet.
It had begun redirecting energy, but the structure had not released anything toward the coalition. Several demonic formation specialists were clearly altering its orientation, and Yinxue watched their work while remaining inside the coalition-controlled ground. Destroying it now would remove one potential threat, but Haotian had already made the principle clear before the assault: they would not scatter toward every enemy system simply because it existed.
The demons would decide whether that structure mattered.
The coalition would answer if they made it matter.
The second organized demonic formation reached the eastern side.
This group was smaller than the company pressing from the north but included more ranged cultivators. Rather than rushing the mixed teams, they stopped beyond immediate melee distance and began gathering techniques intended to strike into the deployment area while the first company held attention elsewhere. Their positioning threatened the Sixth Mixed Legion teams still expanding toward that side and, if left unanswered, could eventually force cultivators near the passage to devote too much strength to defense.
Celestara reacted before the techniques completed.
Light and Shadow arts crossed from the nearby rooftops toward the ranged formation, not attempting to destroy the entire group but forcing the cultivators maintaining the largest techniques to defend themselves before release. Several demonic attacks broke apart incomplete, while others fired early and struck the outer edge of the coalition rather than the passage. One attack reached a Blue Sphere barrier and shattered against it with enough force to drive the defenders back but not enough to open a path.
Yueru moved toward that side only after the enemy techniques proved capable of pressuring the deployment. She did not cross the full distance to fight the ranged formation alone. Her sword rose while another large abyssal technique gathered between several demonic cultivators, and she watched the energy relationships drawing their combined power into one attack.
The supporting streams converged through a shared point.
Yueru cut there.
The large technique failed before release, its gathered energy spilling apart through the formation instead of traveling toward the coalition. The demons maintaining it lost several breaths stabilizing their own circulation, giving the Sixth Legion enough time to widen the eastern edge and place another defensive layer between the ranged group and the passage.
Yueru lowered her sword and remained with the formation.
The objective was not to chase.
The objective was to deploy.
Haotian felt the Second Mixed Legion complete its emergence.
The last teams cleared the Dao Palace of Creation and moved immediately toward positions already prepared for them. The entire legion was now outside, no longer divided between two spaces, and its commander began shifting from passage protection into broader containment of the local response. The Sixth Legion continued crossing behind them, its leading formations already occupying enough ground that the passage was no longer exposed from any direct approach.
That changed the balance of the opening battle.
The local demons still outnumbered the coalition forces immediately visible in some directions, but they no longer faced a small force protecting a vulnerable portal. They faced a full mixed legion already established on enemy ground, another growing behind it, several Lesser Immortal Lords now positioned inside the deployment, and Haotian standing beside the connection through which more troops continued to arrive.
The local company commander recognized the same change.
He stopped feeding soldiers into the northern pressure and ordered the formation to pull back several paces while maintaining its shields. The retreat was controlled rather than desperate. He had tested the first defensive layer, failed to collapse it before the Second Legion completed deployment, and understood that continuing the same attack would only exhaust his soldiers against a position that became stronger with every breath.
The demons began widening their own line instead.
Their purpose shifted from breaking the passage immediately to containing the coalition long enough for heavier reinforcement to arrive.
Haotian followed the change and extended the Dao of the Universe farther through the sector.
The nearest local company he had tracked during infiltration was already moving toward them. More distant signals were beginning to travel along the formation network, and several communication points had activated in rapid succession. The eight o'clock sector was no longer dealing with a mysterious intrusion. Its commanders were reporting an interior coalition deployment.
Farther away, the heavy reserves had not moved yet.
The message still needed to reach the surviving command structure, be understood, and become an order capable of redirecting forces that had been assigned to entirely different threats. That interval was the advantage Haotian had created by choosing eight o'clock.
The Sixth Mixed Legion continued emerging.