The Sixth Legion began taking over the northern advance before the Second had completely withdrawn from the front. Fresh mixed squads moved through the openings left by exhausted fighters and occupied those positions while the battle was still unfolding around them, so the pressure on the remaining Abyssal defenders never truly eased. The Second had carried the attack through too many consecutive engagements to maintain its earlier pace indefinitely, and the strain showed in slower footwork, longer recovery between techniques, and wounded cultivators being supported toward the rear while companions stayed long enough to keep the line from thinning. By the time most of the Second had cleared the leading pressure, the Sixth was already fighting in its place.
Haotian remained close to the transition rather than withdrawing behind it. He could distinguish exhaustion from collapse, and the Second had never approached the latter, but keeping them at the front simply because they had begun the northern push would have wasted strength that could still matter later. Xuanyin had ordered the rotation early enough that the demons gained nothing from it, leaving Haotian free to concentrate on whatever threatened to slow the fresh legion instead of supervising every exchange between squads.
A heavy Abyssal cultivator tried to force itself between two mixed teams as the last members of the Second moved out. Its broad black weapon descended toward a Blue Sphere fighter who had not yet finished changing position, but Haotian stepped inside the arc before the strike reached full speed, caught the haft near the demon's hands, and turned it past his shoulder. His other palm struck the center of the demon's protection immediately afterward, driving the defensive layers inward and throwing the body backward into the remains of a damaged stone wall while the Sixth filled the space it had occupied.
Pyrelith cultivators struck the heavier defenders trying to brace behind the fallen demon, while Veridian fighters destabilized the broken ground beneath their feet and denied them the stable footing needed to absorb those impacts. Marephoros cultivators moved through the openings created by that pressure, Celestara attacks descended wherever the demons tried to mass enough bodies to stop the advance, and Umbrel fighters remained along the edges of the engagement where ruined walls and collapsed roofs gave them the shadows they preferred. The six worlds no longer moved as separate armies that happened to share a battlefield; after everything they had fought through together, each group had learned to expect the strengths of the others and use them without waiting for detailed instruction.
Haotian no longer needed to dictate every local combination. Alter had helped establish the principles behind the mixed formation, Haotian had refined them with the commanders through repeated battles, and the legions now understood how to keep pressure moving even when the individual squads changed places. That maturity allowed Haotian to remain mobile, entering only where the coalition encountered something that could not be removed quickly enough by the forces already there.
Tianlan fought farther to the right with the Celestara contingent and the two Frost Rainbow Falcons assigned to him. His movements were shorter than they had been earlier in the assault, and the arm strained by Ninefold Thrust and Rotating Spears no longer extended farther than necessary. He kept the spear between himself and the nearest demons, relying on timing, leverage, and the reach of the weapon rather than trying to force another high-output technique through muscles that had already given him enough warning.
One Falcon swept across the front of two charging demons and spread frost over the ground beneath their feet, while the second descended behind Tianlan when another attacker tried to close from his flank. Tianlan used the delay without overcommitting, placing the spearhead into the leading demon's route and turning its step outward so a Celestara cultivator beside him could attack the opening. When the demon retreated, Tianlan did not chase it; he shortened his grip, returned to the mixed squad moving beside him, and continued north.
Haotian watched long enough to confirm that his son was obeying the restriction he had been given. Tianlan could still have forced more power through the injured arm if pride had mattered more than judgment, but he had already learned the difference between being capable of releasing a technique and being wise enough to save it. Satisfied, Haotian returned his attention to the Sixth Legion as it reached another defensive position built across a damaged military road.
The demons had chosen the location because two partially collapsed support structures narrowed the approach, reducing the number of coalition cultivators who could enter at once. The same damage also left the ground beneath them unstable, and the Veridian members of the Sixth began working on that weakness before the Pyrelith fighters committed themselves against the heavier defenders at the center. When the demons shifted to compensate, Marephoros attacks entered through the opening while Celestara pressure prevented the rear ranks from tightening around the same point.
Haotian moved after the first shift. A spear came toward his ribs from the left, and he caught the shaft near the head, turned it past his body, and struck the demon's elbow before the attacker could recover the line. The movement forced the demon toward a Marephoros fighter already entering from that side, leaving Haotian free to continue forward and drive Seraph Shatter Palm into the next defender before the demon could bring both arms up.
The impact compressed several layers of Abyssal protection and forced the demon backward into its own formation. Haotian did not stay to finish it once the line behind it opened, because the Sixth was already moving through the gap. The surviving defenders withdrew toward the north and several side structures, but the coalition maintained the direction of advance rather than scattering after them.
The first Umbrel scout reached Haotian shortly after the road cleared. She came from the western side, keeping close to the shadow cast by a collapsed platform until she was near enough to speak without calling over the surrounding noise. Dust covered the lower half of her clothing and a shallow cut marked one sleeve, but her breathing remained controlled, so Haotian let the nearest squad pass before turning enough to hear her report.
"We found three support stations behind the western block," she said. "The structures are intact, but the reserves inside them are empty."
Haotian continued walking with the advance. "Were they shut down when the demons withdrew?"
"No. The formation lines beneath them are still carrying power."
He looked toward her. "Where is the current going?"
"Deeper into the stronghold. All three are feeding the same direction."
Haotian did not leave the front immediately. The Sixth had only just taken over, and he wanted the next local resistance broken before stepping away long enough to inspect anything beneath the stronghold. He told the scout to remain nearby, then stayed with the legion until a group of demons attempting to collapse another section of road had been driven away and the surrounding squads had enough space to continue without him.
The scout led him west through ground the coalition had already secured. Xuanyin noticed the change in his direction and sent two command guards after him without abandoning the broader flow of information from the legions. Haotian crossed a damaged support district where the battle had moved on several minutes earlier and reached the first station beneath the remains of an elevated defensive platform.
One side had been scorched, but the central formation plate was still intact. Dark lines remained visible through the stone beneath it, carrying a faint current even though the reservoir above had been emptied. Haotian crouched near the edge without touching the Abyssal device and let the Eyes of the Universe follow the surviving energy through the foundation.
The current descended beneath the station, joined a deeper conduit below the military road, and continued north and inward through sections the coalition had not yet reached. Several branches had been severed by earlier destruction, but every connection that remained intact carried power away from the local defenses rather than toward them. The station was still connected to the stronghold, yet whatever purpose it had originally served no longer determined where its power was going.
The second station showed the same pattern. The third made it clear that the first two were not isolated accidents, and Haotian remained still long enough to compare the three currents before standing again. Each disappeared deeper into the northern interior, bypassing nearby defenses that should have drawn from the same network.
Xuanyin arrived while he was still tracing the deeper relationships. "The scout said the stations were drained."
"They are. The power was not simply used here, though. Everything still connected beneath them is being pulled farther inside."
"Could they be reinforcing another defensive line?"
"I do not think so. If that were the purpose, some of the current should still be feeding the formations between here and the new line. These stations are sending everything past the nearby defenses."
Xuanyin glanced down at the dark formation line crossing the stone. "Do you want them destroyed?"
"Leave them alone for now. They are already empty, and I do not know whether breaking one changes anything except which surviving branch the current uses. Nobody operates them, and nobody interferes with the network until we know what it is feeding."
She turned to one of the command guards. "Pass that through the Sixth and the Umbrel teams. Report every intact station, formation well, and support node. No one activates anything and no one destroys it without Haotian's order."
The command began spreading before Haotian and Xuanyin returned to the front.
More reports reached them over the next several minutes. A formation well that had held power during the earlier assault was nearly empty. A barrier node remained physically intact but was no longer feeding the nearby wall. Another support structure farther east had stopped supplying a military district even though the coalition had never attacked it directly.
Haotian traced each location whenever the battle gave him enough attention to spare. The Eyes of the Universe followed the buried network while his body remained engaged with the advance, allowing him to redirect a weapon away from a wounded cultivator while watching an underground current shift beneath the road. He broke another demon's guard as three formation lines converged below him, then saw a defensive barrier ahead begin losing power before the Sixth had even reached it.
The demons behind that barrier noticed the change as quickly as the coalition did. Several turned toward the fading formation as if expecting someone to restore it, but the energy continued disappearing into the foundation beneath them. The Sixth struck before the defenders could reorganize, and what should have required a coordinated effort to dismantle became a weakening layer that collapsed under the first sustained pressure.
Haotian crossed through with the front and followed the last of the barrier's energy as it disappeared below. The same current joined the network already carrying power away from the western stations, showing him that the stronghold was surrendering functioning defenses while the coalition was still attacking them. Whoever controlled the deeper formation had already decided those defenses mattered less than what the power could accomplish elsewhere.
Xuanyin reached him on the other side. "Three of the Demon Generals have disappeared from their last confirmed positions. None were seen retreating toward the front gates."
"What about the others?"
"Two sightings farther north. Both moving inward, neither leading troops."
Haotian looked through the battlefield ahead rather than toward any single structure. "Have the scouts stop searching from the old positions. Tell them to follow the deeper formation currents instead."
"You think the Generals are connected to the drain."
"I think they know where the power is going."
Xuanyin accepted that distinction and redirected the scouts while the Sixth continued forward.
The next major resistance formed around a broad military court where the demons still possessed enough numbers to support one another. Heavy cultivators anchored the center, faster fighters moved along the edges, and several ranged techniques began gathering behind them before the coalition reached the open ground. Haotian saw how the formation depended on timing between those groups and attacked that relationship rather than throwing himself directly against the strongest bodies.
A demon on the left began releasing a large-area technique. Haotian struck the ground beneath its forward foot before the formation stabilized, shifting the cultivator half a step and pulling it out of alignment with the two fighters supporting the release. Celestara pressure descended into the broken relationship while Pyrelith cultivators hit the center and Veridian fighters disrupted the footing beneath the heavier defenders.
Haotian moved through the opening with them. Seraph Shatter Palm struck the protection around the largest cultivator holding the middle, but he did not remain there once the demon concentrated its defense against him. A Marephoros attack entered from the exposed side, and when the heavy cultivator turned toward that threat, an Umbrel fighter appeared along the opposite angle.
The central defense began losing its ability to support both edges. Lianhua was visible farther left, her sword entering one engagement and leaving before surrounding demons could trap her, while Yinxue's Sword Dao pressed down on a group attempting to reinforce the court from behind. Xiangyin and Yanfei controlled another section farther east, Xiangyin using the spear to influence the routes the demons could take cleanly while Yanfei's Frostfire altered the ground behind those decisions.
Yueru and Ziyue appeared only intermittently through the movement of the mixed squads. Haotian did not try to pull any of them toward himself, because the coalition needed their strength distributed across the northern advance more than he needed every member of the family within sight. The defensive court began failing once the center could no longer support both sides, and the Sixth resumed moving north without pursuing the demons retreating through secondary routes.
Haotian felt the deeper current strengthen beneath the abandoned court before the Eyes of the Universe confirmed it. More energy had entered the buried network while the coalition was fighting, and several previously weak channels now carried enough power for him to trace them farther into the northern interior. One of Xuanyin's aides reached them with another report before he finished comparing the new flow.
"The eastern scouts found a formation well and watched it empty while they were there."
Haotian used the reported location to identify another branch of the same system. The current joined the deeper routes he had already been following, and the increased flow exposed several regions farther ahead where the energy stopped behaving like ordinary transit through a formation network. It gathered, changed, and continued only after passing through those locations.
He counted the stable regions twice.
"There are five places holding the deeper flow together."
Xuanyin waited until he looked toward her. "Structures?"
"I cannot see enough yet to know. The current changes around all five before continuing."
"The number matches the Generals."
"It may be them."
That possibility became more convincing as scout reports continued arriving. One General had vanished from a position close to one of the stable regions, and another had been seen entering a northern command district corresponding to a second. The pattern remained incomplete, so Haotian kept the conclusion provisional while the Sixth advanced.
The first living demon collapsed before the scouts could confirm more.
A Blue Sphere swordsman had been driving an Abyssal cultivator backward when the enemy's knees gave way and the weapon slipped from its hands. The swordsman raised his blade to finish the opening, but Haotian saw dark energy leaving the demon's body before the strike descended.
"Hold your attack. The formation is already taking him."
The swordsman stopped and shifted toward the next enemy.
Black-red streams pulled from the fallen demon's chest, arms, and legs and sank through cracks in the road beneath it. The demon tried to push itself upright, but each attempt to circulate more power only fed more energy into the current drawing through its body.
Another collapsed farther ahead, followed by several more.
The rest of the battle continued around them. Some Abyssal cultivators still possessed enough strength to attack normally while soldiers beside them lost half their cultivation between one exchange and the next. One demon drove a weapon toward a mixed squad and felt the technique supporting the strike weaken before the blade reached its target, while another tried to retreat and stumbled when dark energy began leaving its legs.
Haotian moved close enough to one active channel to examine it without interfering with the Sixth. The current passed beneath him without touching his cultivation, ignored the Blue Sphere fighter standing nearby, and continued pulling only from the Abyssal cultivator connected to the stronghold's network. The extraction was not searching for bodies by proximity; it was using a relationship already present inside the demons' cultivation.
Xuanyin reached him as another group began weakening. "Is the drain only affecting them?"
"So far. It is following their Abyssal cultivation rather than reaching for everyone near the formation."
She looked toward the healer groups behind the advancing legions. "I do not want the wounded close to it even if that remains true."
"Neither do I. Move Liora and the healers farther behind the Second, and keep them away from the exposed lines until we know whether the formation changes when the flow grows stronger."
Xuanyin issued the order while the Sixth maintained the advance. Liora withdrew with the wounded without disrupting the front, and the third Frost Rainbow Falcon remained with the healer and reserve group as they moved farther from the active network. The Second Legion kept enough distance behind the Sixth to receive the wounded while remaining close enough to respond if the forward force stalled.
Haotian watched the demons being consumed only until he understood enough to change the coalition's behavior. "Do not spend strength finishing anyone the formation has already taken. Break the enemies still blocking the advance and keep moving."
The instruction spread quickly. Mixed squads stepped around demons already on their knees and focused on the fighters behind them who could still attack. A cultivator whose weapon had dropped from weakened fingers was ignored while two healthier demons attempting to close the road received the full pressure of the advancing squad.
The demons reacted less uniformly. Some continued fighting until their techniques collapsed around them, while others recognized what was happening and tried to leave the stronghold before the drain deepened. One ran south across the broken road and made less than twenty paces before the formation stripped enough power from its legs to send it falling forward.
Another demon struck repeatedly at the glowing line beneath its feet, breaking the surface stone without affecting the deeper current running below. The harder it tried to use its cultivation against the formation, the more energy the network had available to pull from it. Haotian stopped watching individual reactions after that, because the visible stations and exposed channels clearly no longer controlled the process.
He told Xuanyin as much while they continued north. "The outer systems are feeding something deeper. Destroying drained stations now will not stop it."
"Then we stop looking at the stations."
"We need the five stable points."
Xuanyin redirected the Umbrel scouts closer to the advancing routes.
The next increase in power was strong enough for Haotian to feel through the ground before another report arrived. The network tightened beneath the northern district, more demons weakened across the front, and several defensive structures dimmed at the same time as their remaining reserves entered the flow. Haotian followed the combined current through the five stable points and then farther outward, tracing what all of that power was being used to influence.
The pattern did not resemble an attack directed at the coalition. The energy was not compressing into a line or gathering into a single reservoir for release. It passed through the five stable regions and pressed against a relationship broader than the stronghold itself.
Haotian followed it through the Dao of the Universe and saw Blue Sphere's spatial structure pressing one way while something beyond it pressed from the other. The formation was forcing those two relationships closer together, using the growing current to reduce the separation between Blue Sphere and the Abyss rather than tearing open a conventional rift from a single point.
Xuanyin saw the change in his attention while they were still moving. "What did you find?"
"They are pressing against the boundary between Blue Sphere and the Abyss."
She looked toward the northern sky. "Are they opening another rift?"
"Not the way we have seen before. The formation is changing the relationship between the two realms first."
"Can you tell what happens when they finish?"
"Not yet."
"Can we destroy enough of the network to stop it?"
"Not from the surface. Too much of the active structure is already beneath us, and those five points are stabilizing the pressure."
Xuanyin looked toward the routes the Umbrel scouts had taken. "Then we find the points."
Three Umbrel cultivators returned from the western side soon afterward, moving at full speed once they entered ground held by the coalition. One of them pointed farther north as she approached.
"We found a General beneath a command structure. He is not directing troops. Most of the formation current under that district is converging on him."
Haotian matched the reported location to the nearest stable point and followed the energy entering the General. The current passed through the Demon General's cultivation, changed as it crossed his meridians and deeper foundation, and left the position more ordered than it had entered. The surrounding currents depended on that transformation to remain synchronized as they continued toward the pressure building between the two realms.
Xuanyin watched him follow the relationship. "The General is stabilizing the current?"
"Yes. The soldiers are contributing power, but the flow becomes ordered when it passes through him. The other four points are probably doing the same thing."
"If we kill the Generals, does the formation fail?"
"If we reach them before their connection finishes changing."
"What do you mean?"
"The current is entering deeper than their normal circulation. I cannot tell yet how much of the point remains dependent on the living body once that process completes."
Xuanyin looked toward the command structure identified by the scout. "Then we reach one before we have to find out."
Haotian began turning the Sixth toward the nearest confirmed General while the scouts continued searching for the other points. Xuanyin kept the Second behind rather than pulling both legions into the same route, maintaining enough open ground between them that the rear force could still maneuver independently.
Haotian noticed the spacing. "Keep the Second where it is."
"That was my plan. I do not want both legions standing over the same section of the formation, and I want the route behind the Sixth clear if the boundary changes faster than we expect."
"Keep it clear."
Xuanyin returned to the flow of reports.
The demons between the coalition and the command structure changed their behavior as soon as the Sixth altered direction. Forces that had been retreating toward side districts converged on the same northern route, and even cultivators already weakening from the sacrifice planted themselves between the coalition and the stable point. They were no longer trying to preserve a broad defensive line; they were trying to make the coalition spend time reaching one location.
Haotian increased his pace.
A broad Abyssal blade swept toward his neck as the first defenders reached him. He moved beneath the arc, struck the attacker's elbow, and drove his shoulder into the demon's chest while the mixed squad behind him engaged the next two enemies before they could close the opening. Haotian continued forward before the first demon regained its footing.
The Sixth followed the same principle. A demon knocked a coalition spear aside and tried to pin its wielder against a broken wall, but a Pyrelith cultivator struck the demon's arm, freed the trapped fighter, and moved on with him while another squad took over the exchange. Behind them, the sacrificial network began draining the wounded demon before it could return to the fight.
The route narrowed around the remains of a collapsed structure. Haotian struck through the center while Veridian cultivators disturbed the footing of defenders trying to brace around the debris, and Marephoros fighters followed each forced movement before the demons could settle again. Celestara attacks prevented the rear ranks from compressing into the same opening, allowing the Sixth to keep moving rather than becoming trapped in a prolonged fight over the ruined structure.
Tianlan remained farther right with the Celestara contingent and the two Frost Rainbow Falcons. Haotian caught sight of him only briefly, but the spearwork was still controlled and the injured arm remained within the limits already established. Tianlan did not attempt to leave his assigned force when the Sixth turned toward the stable point, which allowed Haotian to continue without dividing his attention between the objective ahead and his son's position.
The current entering the General grew denser as the coalition approached. Haotian could see that it no longer passed merely through ordinary meridians; strands of Abyssal power were beginning to settle into deeper structures around the core and foundation. The General was still alive and still maintaining the point consciously, but the formation was binding itself to more than his surface circulation.
A demon carrying a two-handed axe stepped into the center of the road. Haotian moved inside the descending weapon, struck both wrists before the blade gained full force, and drove Fist of Ruin into the protection covering the demon's chest. The body flew backward into the defenders behind it, and three mixed squads moved through the resulting disorder before anyone could restore the line.
While they passed, another one of the five points changed sharply.
Haotian followed the shift east through the buried network and saw the living presence inside that point weaken while the surrounding current retained its shape. The General's cultivation disappeared gradually into the stabilizing structure until the body no longer remained the primary relationship holding the point together, yet the flow passing through that location continued toward the boundary without dispersing.
Haotian quickened his pace.
Xuanyin matched him long enough to speak. "What changed?"
"One of the Generals has been consumed by his point."
"Did the point weaken?"
"No. The current is still stable. The formation finished replacing the living connection with something embedded directly into the structure."
She looked toward the command building ahead. "Then once that happens, killing the body no longer matters."
"That is what the completed point suggests."
Xuanyin turned toward the nearby commanders while still moving. "Increase the pace. Leave demons already being drained unless they are physically blocking the route. Second Legion maintains the same distance behind us."
The Sixth tightened around that instruction.
The defenders reacted by spending themselves more aggressively. One Abyssal cultivator overloaded its own body and began gathering power for a self-destructive release in the middle of the road, but Haotian struck the ground beneath its stance before the technique stabilized. The demon shifted just enough that the explosion tore sideways through a ruined wall instead of through the leading squads, throwing stone across the route without stopping the advance.
Another demon allowed a spear to enter its abdomen so it could seize the shaft and hold the coalition cultivator in place. A Pyrelith fighter shattered both forearms around the weapon, and the trapped cultivator pulled free while the formation beneath them began taking the wounded demon. No one remained to finish what the sacrificial network was already doing.
The battlefield grew increasingly uneven as the sacrifice deepened. Some demons still possessed enough power to fight normally, while others lost techniques halfway through forming them. Haotian stopped judging the enemy by posture or appearance and watched the actual circulation instead, passing those the formation had already reduced while attacking anyone who still possessed enough strength to delay the Sixth.
They passed a formation tower as the dark crystal at its center cracked from sudden depletion. The nearby defenders glanced toward it but did not leave their positions to protect the structure, confirming that whatever command they had received placed the stabilizing points above every other part of the stronghold.