Shuyue crossed after enough of the legion had established itself that she could take the deeper position chosen for her without becoming part of the first combat layer. She immediately assessed the formations around her rather than extending the Dao Palace of Virtues across everyone in reach. The Second Legion was stable, and the Sixth was not yet under enough pressure to require broad support.
She preserved her cultivation.
Tianlan came through later with the same two Frost Rainbow Falcons. The birds cleared the passage above him and rose into the protected airspace already contested by Celestara cultivators, remaining close enough to the deployment that they did not expose themselves toward the occupied demonic platform. Tianlan moved away from the passage with his spear lowered and joined one of the inner combat layers instead of immediately searching for a powerful opponent.
The third Falcon remained inside Creation with the reserves.
Liora and the first Veridian healers followed only after the protected depth behind the combat formations was wide enough to receive them safely. They established a treatment point near one of the low military structures rather than directly beside the passage, keeping wounded cultivators out of the deployment stream. No one had suffered enough damage yet to overwhelm them, but the position was ready before the heavier local fighting began.
Haotian finally allowed himself to move several steps away from the Dao Palace of Creation.
The connection no longer depended upon his physical proximity, and the Second and Sixth Legions had created enough depth that a sudden local attack could not reach the passage in one charge. His perception remained attached to the spatial boundary while he looked across the widening battlefield.
The first stage of the deployment was working.
The local demons had responded correctly and quickly. They had sounded the alarm, assembled organized companies, attempted direct pressure, tested a flank, brought ranged attacks onto the deployment area, and changed from immediate suppression to containment when the first approach failed. None of those decisions had been foolish.
They simply had not possessed enough force close enough to stop the opening before the coalition established itself.
The northeastern formation station began changing that calculation.
Energy intensified through the buried channels Haotian had already mapped, and the structure's orientation shifted farther inward. The demons operating it were no longer merely preparing the system in case the coalition expanded toward them. They were aligning it with the deployment area.
Yinxue noticed at the same time.
She looked toward Haotian from across the protected ground, and neither needed to ask whether the structure now qualified as a target.
The formation station had chosen to enter the battle.
The northeastern formation station completed its turn toward the deployment area before Yinxue began moving. Energy traveled through the buried channels beneath the military district and climbed the pillars surrounding the structure, gathering into several connected arrays rather than one concentrated attack. The demons operating the station had learned enough from the first assault not to commit everything through a single discharge Haotian could dismantle at one point. They were preparing to pressure several portions of the coalition deployment at once.
Yinxue did not leave the coalition line immediately. She watched the formation station through the shifting bodies between them, following the way the separate arrays drew cultivation from the same supporting channels beneath the structure. The station could divide its attacks, but the additional flexibility did not make the underlying system independent. Every active section still relied upon the same physical network carrying power beneath the district.
Haotian saw the relationship through the Dao of the Universe at the same time. One channel fed the elevated firing structure, another maintained the protective barriers around the operators, and a third linked the station to formation nodes farther northeast. Destroying the entire complex was unnecessary if the coalition could sever its ability to influence the deployment area. The problem was reaching those supports without pulling too many cultivators away from the passage.
The first attack answered before anyone had to discuss the question.
Three bands of abyssal energy rose from the station and separated above the surrounding buildings. One curved toward the northern edge of the Second Mixed Legion, another descended toward the Sixth Legion formations still expanding eastward, and the third traveled farther behind them toward the protected depth where later formations were beginning to gather. The attacks had been deliberately distributed so no single defensive group could intercept all three.
Yinxue moved toward the northern discharge while Yueru shifted east. Haotian remained nearer the center and raised one hand toward the attack descending deeper into the deployment area. He did not answer it with a broad technique that would force the coalition around him to clear space. The Dao of the Universe exposed the internal relationship maintaining the condensed energy, and his palm struck the weakest point as the attack reached him.
The abyssal force split before reaching the protected depth. Its two halves curved away under the imbalance Haotian introduced and struck empty paving on opposite sides of the formation, breaking stone without touching the troops behind him. Haotian lowered his hand immediately and returned his attention to the wider battlefield. The formation station was dangerous enough to require action, but not dangerous enough to make him abandon the deployment point and personally destroy it.
Yinxue met the northern discharge with her sword. Rather than attempting to block its entire width, she cut through the section carrying the greatest load from the supporting formation, forcing the attack to divide around the failure. Blue Sphere cultivators beneath it raised defensive layers against the remaining fragments, and the weakened energy scattered across those barriers without breaking through. Yinxue continued moving before the last traces disappeared.
Yueru's response on the eastern side was more direct. She followed the converging relationships inside the formation attack until the streams supporting its front edge joined, then severed that point before the energy reached the Sixth Legion. The technique collapsed forward rather than exploding, sending dark fragments into the open ground between the two forces. The Sixth Legion continued expanding behind her without changing its deployment rhythm.
The demons operating the station began gathering another attack.
That was enough.
Yinxue looked across the military ground toward the structure and then toward Ziyue, who had already shifted closer to her side of the deployment area. No conversation was necessary before both women began moving. They did not take an entire company with them or demand that the Second Mixed Legion open a broad path, because the formation station lay close enough that two Lesser Immortal Lords could reach it while remaining within the battlefield the coalition was already securing.
Several mixed teams adjusted around their movement. Blue Sphere cultivators widened one section of the northern defense, allowing Yinxue and Ziyue to pass through without creating a gap, while Pyrelith fighters increased pressure against the demons attempting to exploit the same area. Umbrel cultivators moved through nearby shadows and prevented a small group of enemy soldiers from turning toward the two women once their direction became clear.
The local demon commander recognized the threat immediately. He redirected part of the nearest company toward the formation station rather than continuing to press the Second Legion, understanding that losing the structure would remove one of the few local systems capable of striking the deployment area without first breaking through coalition formations. The order was sensible, but every soldier diverted toward the station was one less soldier helping contain the Dao Palace of Creation.
Yinxue reached the first defenders before they completed the new line. Her sword struck the outer barrier once, not with enough force to destroy it outright but enough to make the formation supporting it respond. Energy shifted toward the point of impact. Ziyue watched that redistribution and attacked the newly weakened section before the defenders could balance it again.
The barrier split between their attacks.
Yinxue entered first. A demon with a heavy blade attempted to catch her at the opening, but she redirected the weapon rather than meeting its weight directly and cut through the cultivator maintaining the nearest defensive node. Ziyue followed through the same space and forced the remaining defenders farther apart with a narrower Severing Arc that struck only the section between the women and the station.
The formation operators accelerated their work.
Another barrage rose above the station, this time less stable because several cultivators responsible for maintaining its protection had already been forced to defend themselves. One attack curved toward Yinxue and Ziyue while the others continued toward the coalition deployment. The station commander was trying to preserve its battlefield function while protecting the structure at the same time.
Haotian allowed the Second and Sixth Legions to answer the attacks directed toward them.
The first legion had already been outside long enough to understand the rhythm of the station's discharges. Blue Sphere defensive cultivators raised layered barriers only beneath the portions actually threatened, while Marephoros redirected the ground pressure around formations that needed to shift several steps without losing alignment. Pyrelith cultivators struck one descending stream before it reached full concentration, breaking its front edge and allowing the defensive line beneath it to absorb what remained.
The coalition did not stop deploying.
That mattered more than whether every attack was destroyed elegantly.
The Sixth Mixed Legion completed its emergence while the formation station fired again. Its final teams cleared the Dao Palace of Creation and moved immediately toward prepared positions, leaving the passage open for the next combat formation waiting inside. The Second and Sixth now occupied enough ground that the local demons could no longer surround the deployment area without committing substantially more troops than they currently possessed.
The local commander understood the change and altered his containment plan again.
He stopped trying to maintain equal pressure around the entire coalition position. Instead, the northern company concentrated more heavily toward one road leading deeper into the stronghold while another formation gathered on the eastern side. The objective was no longer to crush the Dao Palace of Creation before the army emerged. That opportunity had passed.
Now the demons needed to prevent the coalition from expanding beyond the military district until heavier reinforcements arrived.
The first attempt came through the underground routes.
A Veridian specialist near the eastern edge felt movement through the service passage beneath the paving before the demons reached the access point. The warning passed immediately to the nearby mixed teams and then back toward the Veridian group already monitoring the tunnels. No one waited for the enemy to surface in the middle of the deployment area.
Several Veridian cultivators entered the nearest access route while others remained above. The passage was too confined for a large formation, which meant the demons below could not bring their full numerical advantage into contact at once. Roots spread through cracks along the tunnel walls and ceiling, not to collapse the passage immediately but to give the cultivators above a clearer sense of where movement was occurring.
The first demonic group encountered resistance before reaching the upward turn beneath the coalition position. They had approached expecting the tunnel to provide an unguarded route behind the Second and Sixth Legions, but the Veridian cultivators had already occupied the narrowest section. The resulting fight remained contained below the military ground rather than erupting beneath the healers or later formations.
The Veridian team did not attempt to hold the entire tunnel indefinitely. Once they confirmed the demons were using it as an approach route, they withdrew behind a prepared support point. Wood cultivation entered the damaged masonry after them, growing through existing fractures and forcing apart sections that had already been weakened by the stronghold's earlier internal damage.
The passage collapsed between the Veridian cultivators and the advancing demons.
Stone, soil, and broken structural material filled the tunnel before the enemy group could force its way through. The collapse was not deep enough to threaten the buildings above, because the Veridian specialists had chosen the section deliberately rather than destroying the route indiscriminately. The demons remained alive on the other side, but the underground path into the deployment area no longer existed.
Another subterranean route farther west remained open because no enemy movement used it. The Veridian teams marked it for observation rather than destroying it automatically. A usable route could still serve the coalition later, and there was no reason to remove infrastructure simply because it belonged to the enemy if leaving it intact did not currently create a threat.
Aboveground, the elevated battle intensified.
The demonic platform northeast of the deployment area had begun supporting the formation station with ranged pressure, while several aerial cultivators moved between it and nearby rooftops. Celestara fighters already occupying the lower structures rose to contest them, but they did not rush directly toward the platform's strongest defenses. They spread through the available height and forced the demons to divide attention across several angles.
Light and Shadow crossed repeatedly between the structures.
A Celestara cultivator used Light to force one demon away from the open air above the military ground, while another emerged through Shadow along the side of a damaged rooftop and struck before the defender could turn. The demons answered with condensed abyssal projectiles and broad pressure intended to drive the coalition fighters back toward the ground. Neither side immediately gained control of the entire airspace.
The two Frost Rainbow Falcons entered that contest only when Tianlan reached a position from which he could support them.
He did not send both birds directly toward the platform. One Falcon climbed above the immediate rooftops and remained there, watching the movement of the aerial defenders rather than committing. The second stayed lower and crossed behind the Celestara cultivators until one of their exchanges forced a demonic fighter away from the protection of the platform.
Tianlan saw the opening from below.
His spear thrust toward another demon on the ground and forced the cultivator backward into the path of a mixed team already pressing from the side. At the same moment, the lower Falcon folded its wings and descended upon the isolated aerial defender. The demon turned to protect his head, and the Celestara cultivator he had been fighting used the interruption to strike him from the opposite direction.
The Falcon climbed again without remaining close enough to be surrounded.
Tianlan returned his attention to the ground battle.
He did not need to watch the bird continuously or direct every movement. The same familiarity that had carried them through the previous assault allowed the Falcons to recognize when his pressure below created exploitable reactions above. Their contribution strengthened the local battle without requiring a sensory bond that neither side possessed.
The family remained distributed through the deployment.
Lianhua had moved toward the northern side where the local company was concentrating most heavily. Her corrected Cloud-Sundering Steps allowed her to pass through the mixed teams without disrupting their spacing, while the Voidpierce Sword Sutra broke defensive relationships whenever the demons attempted to construct a line strong enough to halt the coalition's expansion. She did not pursue enemies who withdrew beyond the immediate battle.
Xiangyin fought nearer the broad road leading inward. Her spear controlled enough distance that the demons could not approach the road cleanly without committing multiple cultivators at once, while Yanfei remained close enough to punish those attempts with carefully contained Frostfire. Neither woman pushed down the road yet. Their purpose remained protecting the deployment area until the army behind them was ready to advance as one body.
Shuyue stayed where Haotian had placed her.
The temptation to support the entire battlefield was stronger now that several separate engagements were developing, but the Second Mixed Legion remained stable and the Sixth had not yet begun losing cohesion. She allowed the Dao Palace of Virtues to remain restrained, using smaller applications only when abyssal pressure caused a nearby mixed team's breathing or judgment to deteriorate. The difference preserved far more cultivation than her broader support during the first assault.
Liora worked from the protected treatment area as the first wounded began reaching her. Most injuries were minor enough to stabilize quickly, because the coalition had not yet entered the prolonged close combat that had produced the heavier casualties of the previous assault. She closed a deep cut along one cultivator's shoulder, restored enough circulation through another fighter's stunned arm for him to withdraw safely, and sent both toward the deeper support area rather than encouraging them to return immediately.
The next group brought a more serious injury. A demonic ranged technique had pierced through a defensive layer and entered one cultivator's abdomen before losing enough force to stop inside rather than passing through. Liora placed both hands near the wound and used Life essence to control the bleeding first, refusing to spend cultivation rebuilding tissue while damaged energy still remained inside it. Another healer removed the residual abyssal force while she maintained the cultivator's condition.
The treatment continued even while the battle intensified less than a hundred paces away.
That was why the coalition had established depth before advancing.
The formation station fired again.
This time Yinxue and Ziyue were already inside its defensive perimeter.
The attack directed toward them never reached the sky. Yinxue cut through one of the channels transferring energy from the lower formation network toward the elevated array, while Ziyue struck the support pillar carrying the redirected burden. The station tried to compensate by drawing more power through the remaining side.
The imbalance exposed the central relationship Haotian had identified earlier.
Yinxue saw it from inside.
"Break the western support," she told Ziyue.
Ziyue shifted toward the support while Yinxue remained between her and the nearest defenders. Several demons attempted to close the space, but Yinxue's sword forced them to defend rather than coordinate, cutting one weapon aside and immediately changing direction before the next cultivator could exploit her movement. Ziyue reached the pillar.
Dao of the Sword — Tenfold Elements, Severing Arc entered through a narrowed path.
Metal reinforced the cutting edge, Lightning disrupted the active inscriptions, and the severing force passed through the already overloaded support before the formation could redistribute its energy elsewhere. The pillar split near its base. Power surged through the remaining network, briefly brightening the inscriptions surrounding the entire station.
Yinxue attacked the exposed central line.
Her sword crossed it once.
The formation station failed.
The upper arrays dimmed first, followed by the barriers protecting the operators. Several inscription channels cracked as energy attempted to travel through relationships that no longer existed, and the entire firing structure lost alignment with the deployment area. The demons inside abandoned the controls and shifted toward combat, but the station itself would no longer influence the battlefield.
Yinxue and Ziyue did not remain to dismantle every surviving component.
They had achieved what mattered.
Both women turned back toward the coalition.
The local commander saw the formation station go dark at the same time the report arrived that the underground approach had been blocked. His first containment plan had already failed, and the systems intended to give his reduced force additional angles were disappearing faster than reinforcements could reach him. The coalition now controlled enough ground that every new formation emerging from the Dao Palace of Creation entered behind established protection.
Another mixed legion began crossing.
The local commander did not throw more soldiers against the passage.
Instead, he ordered the northern and eastern formations to give ground toward positions that controlled the roads leaving the military district. The withdrawal remained organized. Shields stayed facing the coalition, ranged cultivators maintained enough pressure to discourage reckless pursuit, and officers rotated wounded soldiers away from the front rather than leaving them behind.
The demons were conceding the immediate deployment area in order to preserve their ability to contest the next stage.
Haotian recognized the decision and did not allow the coalition to ruin its own advantage by chasing.
"Hold the roads around the deployment area," he told the nearest legion commander. "Do not pursue the local companies beyond the positions we need."
The commander relayed the order through the formation.
Coalition cultivators stopped where the military ground opened into the surrounding roads. Those already fighting continued long enough to force the demons beyond effective striking range, then withdrew back into the established layers rather than following them into unfamiliar streets. The local defenders had not been destroyed, and Haotian had no need to destroy them before the deployment finished.
The purpose of the battle remained unchanged.
Bring the coalition out.
Establish enough depth that the passage could not be compressed.
Then advance with the army concentrated.
The local demon commander had failed to stop the first two objectives.
His next responsibility was to make certain the surviving Demon Generals understood what had happened before Haotian began the third.
Several formation messages had already been sent, but the commander no longer trusted one method after everything the first assault had done to the stronghold's communications. He ordered physical messengers onto separate roads toward the front reserve, the central command sectors, and the nearest surviving General. Each carried the same essential information rather than different fragments of the battle.
Haotian had entered the eight o'clock sector.
The Dao Palace of Creation had opened inside the stronghold.
Two mixed legions were already deployed, with more troops emerging behind them.
The local forces had failed to contain the opening.
The stronghold now had to turn toward eight o'clock.
The local defenders did not abandon the eight o'clock sector after failing to crush the deployment area. Their commander had given up the ground immediately surrounding the Dao Palace of Creation because continuing to fight there would trade soldiers for a position the coalition had already secured. He pulled the surviving companies toward the roads leaving the military district instead, using intersections, intact buildings, and the remaining local defensive structures to create several delaying positions between the coalition and the deeper stronghold. The withdrawal surrendered space, but it preserved enough men to make the coalition fight for whatever came next.