A hundred miles beyond the Silent Bone Forest.
Because Li Xingtian's earlier clash with Donggua had obliterated the dense woods surrounding the forest, the forces had to position themselves much farther out if they wanted to assemble without being detected.
They were all cultivators, after all. While they wouldn't scan with divine sense every single moment, their eyes were always open.
Keeping their distance also reduced the chance of being spotted by patrol sentries.
Being spotted wouldn't have been catastrophic — silencing a lowly sentry made barely any sound — but fewer complications were always better. There was no telling what methods the blood-aura demonic cultivator might have planted inside his patrol units.
Dozens of cultivators stood in silent formation behind Donggua.
Cui Hao and Lin Luoyu stood at her sides.
The battle plan had been finalized before departure. All that remained was to wait for Donggua's order, after which each unit would move on its assigned objective.
Announcing the plan at the very last moment was asking for trouble — if anything unexpected disrupted things, or if there were even two subordinates who couldn't follow simple instructions without repeated explanation, the entire mission could collapse.
Cui Hao scanned the assembled forces but didn't spot a single new face. He couldn't help asking.
"Did you actually request reinforcements?"
"Mm." Donggua replied without looking up.
"Then you didn't get any?"
"I did."
"Then where are they? I don't see a single new person. Did you station them somewhere else?"
"I don't know where they are either. They have their own arrangements."
"Since when does that work? We're about to move. What if they're still asleep at home right now? Is this actually reliable?"
Donggua shot him a sidelong glance. "If not reliable, should we rely on you?"
"I'd say we'd be better off relying on me." Cui Hao's expression was one of open disdain.
"Forget it. You're the one charging into the fight — I'll stay back and coordinate. If you want to gamble with your own life, be my guest. But if your reinforcements don't show up, don't blame me for leaving you behind."
"Suit yourself." Donggua couldn't have cared less.
If she died, did Cui Hao really think he'd survive?
The arrow was already nocked on the bowstring. Regardless of whether the higher-ups had actually sent anyone, Donggua had no choice but to press forward.
Half a Xigua felt the lingering trace of blood aura drifting from further away. The phantom pain in his ruined half flared up once more without warning.
That day — the merged-realm cultivator's mocking gaze, that casually swung yet devastatingly powerful blade — it all flashed before his eyes again.
He pushed aside both the physical discomfort and the unease in his heart. His eyes found Donggua's ice-cold expression.
"I'll take my people and prepare on the other side. I'll command according to the plan."
Donggua gave a small nod. "Follow the plan. Wait for my signal."
Half a Xigua nodded and departed with his forces.
Since half a Xigua was the only person she truly trusted, Donggua had opted to split their forces. She placed more than half the troops under Xigua's command, operating according to her own genuine plan.
Not the plan she had discussed with Cui Hao.
Only the commanders she trusted received her real strategy. The ones she didn't trust were placed in positions designed to get them killed.
Cui Hao didn't press the matter further. He glanced at the branch commander standing behind Donggua, raising an eyebrow in silent inquiry.
The branch commander lowered his gaze slightly — a signal that everything was in order.
They were all their people.
Reassured, Cui Hao quietly guided his senior sister a few steps back, positioning them closer to their own side.
Donggua noticed Cui Hao's odd movements but assumed the boy was simply afraid of dying. She didn't dwell on it.
She steadied herself and waited.
The sun crept across the sky.
Noon.
Donggua waited a little longer. Still, the reinforcements her superiors had supposedly sent had made no contact. They hadn't even shown their faces.
A flicker of unease passed through her — but she didn't hesitate any longer.
"Move out!" Donggua's voice cracked like a whip.
She surged forward, leading the charge toward the Silent Bone Forest.
Behind her, dozens of cultivators rose as one and followed.
Cui Hao's expression remained calm as he watched the streaks of light bolt into the distance.
"Tch. Now that's a spectacle," he remarked.
Lin Luoyu let out a soft sigh. She didn't say much.
——————
Donggua made no effort to conceal her approach. Spiritual energy and willpower churned around her in equal measure.
She wasn't trying to help Li Xingtian spot her, of course. She needed the reinforcements from above to be able to sense that she had genuinely entered the battle.
It was a show of sincerity. A demonstration of commitment.
The downside of this approach, however, was obvious.
Before she had even covered half the distance, an overwhelming tide of blood aura erupted skyward and came surging toward her.
"Cut them down!" Donggua drew her Bone Blade and charged headlong into the violent blood aura, carving a path through it for the cultivators behind her.
Her eyes locked on the front. From hidden positions, the demonic cultivators Li Xingtian had recruited came pouring out, moving to block her forces.
But these demonic cultivators were bottom of the barrel.
The clash lasted only moments before their formation collapsed entirely. Casualties among the enemy mounted rapidly.
Donggua felt a flicker of surprise — this was the first time her subordinates had fought with such ferocity and competence.
Then again, the opposition was almost comically weak.
These grunts were just warm-up acts, though. The real battle hadn't begun yet.
Li Xingtian hadn't even shown himself.
As the demonic cultivators' losses grew catastrophic and their momentum shattered, no longer able to slow the advance, that familiar blood aura finally erupted in full.
The tide of blood soared into the heavens, stretching endlessly across the sky.
Donggua looked up.
Li Xingtian hovered in the air, his spirit-treasure long blade in hand. His gaze was ice, and his voice dripped with mockery.
"You barely escaped with your life last time. What, had a change of heart today? Come back to die?"
Donggua's eyes narrowed. She leveled her Bone Blade at Li Xingtian and shouted.
"Who dies today remains to be seen. Hand over what you're hiding and I might just spare your life."
Li Xingtian scoffed. His spirit-treasure blade transformed into a streak of light and hurtled toward Donggua.
Donggua immediately mobilized her essence. Her Bone Blade darkened to pitch-black, and her spiritual energy and willpower were tainted as well, turning thick and murky like sludge.
She swung the darkened blade with all her might at the incoming streak of blood aura.
But Donggua's injuries had not fully healed.
Li Xingtian's devastating strike sent her crashing to the ground, blasting a deep crater into the earth around her.
Donggua lay at the bottom of the crater, her dense essence shielding her. Even so, a horrifying wound on her abdomen was being continuously eroded by the blood aura.
Li Xingtian said nothing. His figure shot toward Donggua with terrifying speed. His right hand rose, and an enormous blood blade materialized in the sky above, cleaving through the heavens. A suffocating pressure descended.
Li Xingtian's face was cold and emotionless. Blood aura buoyed him like a king of gore. His right hand dropped without mercy.
The blood-aura blade hurtled toward Donggua.
Donggua gritted her teeth, her eyes turning crimson. She gripped her Bone Blade with everything she had, fighting through the sensation of her body coming apart as she desperately forced her essence to its limits.
If she didn't, she wouldn't be able to withstand this blow.
And Donggua had no intention of entrusting her life entirely to someone else.
But there was another force — just as murky as ink — that moved even faster. It intercepted the blood-aura blade for a split second. Then a half-formed figure appeared in front of the descending edge.
Half a Xigua had thrown himself in front of the blade, wielding a scythe.
The shockwave of blood energy washed over him. In moments, his remaining arm was being eaten away, white bone already showing through.
He absolutely could not withstand this blow.
"What devotion." Li Xingtian's face was utterly void of feeling. "Then die together."
The blood blade's power surged even greater with those words.
But in the next instant, a terrifying pressure slammed in from the west.
It shattered the blood blade entirely, scattering it into ribbons of dissipating aura.
Li Xingtian's gaze snapped toward the source.
A figure stood atop a treetop — disproportionately tall, wearing an aesthetically grotesque mask that covered the entire face. The only visible features were a pair of eyes, pitch-black from lid to lid.
The figure tilted its head slightly. Its voice was raspy and indistinct.
"You look... delicious. So fragrant."
Li Xingtian's brow furrowed. His spirit-treasure blade returned to his hand.
Had his master really marinated him through and through without him even noticing the smell?
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