An'umaru's black wings spread wide, and the incantations carved into the Storm Wings flared to life.
Above the canyon, thunderclouds roiled as though stirred by an unseen hand, arcs of blue-violet lightning dancing and weaving into nets at his wing tips.
With a single beat of his wings, a violent gale swept forth, shrieking as if countless blades of wind were tearing toward the Leopard Cat Tribe's Third Elder.
"Petty tricks!"
The Third Elder sneered, lightning surging across his entire body. The Crow tengu clinging to his tail was instantly scorched into charcoal.
Crossing his arms, he condensed a long halberd of thunder, its tip pointing skyward—immediately summoning a lightning pillar as thick as a barrel to crash down!
"The Wind and Thunder Gorge does not belong solely to you Crow tengu!"
Wind blades and thunder pillar collided midair, bursting into a blinding explosion of light.
The storm shredded through lightning, the thunder extinguished the gale—both forces locked in a stalemate, shaking the canyon walls until rocks rained down.
Seizing the chance, the Crow tengu formed a battle formation. Eight surviving commanders led hundreds of lesser clansmen, all flapping their black wings in unison.
The gales converged into a colossal tornado, trapping the Third Elder in its eye.
Wind blades spun like a giant shredder, cutting relentlessly—but the elder only grinned wickedly. His body swelled, transforming into a massive thunder leopard-cat more than ten meters long, smashing apart the wind formation with sheer brute force!
The violent shockwaves shredded Crow tengu into pieces, while entire rows of buildings near the Thunder Hall toppled into ruins.
"Raise the Grand Wind-Thunder Formation!"
An'umaru's eyes widened with fury. The runes on his wings fluttered, and the Storm Wings extended rapidly to either side.
The swirling storm absorbed the razor-sharp gales around it, determined to bind the Third Elder once more.
The Crow tengu howled in unison, pouring their demonic energy into the Wind Wings.
The thunderclouds above the gorge were forcibly dragged down, fusing with the storm into a titanic thunder-tornado that descended upon the Third Elder.
"Feel honored, Leopard Cat! This is the Crow tengu's mightiest formation!"
"Then watch me tear apart your 'mightiest'!"
The Third Elder roared, molten lightning spilling from his jaws, unleashing it at the crow tengu's greatest hidden weapon—passed down and preserved for centuries!
Thunder blazed across the heavens. Meanwhile, the Leopard Cat Tribe's Sixth Elder melted into water, slipping quietly along the canyon wall into the depths of the Thunder Hall.
Following An'umaru's scent, he searched for the most likely location of the crow tengu's treasure vault.
At the end of a dim corridor, he found several crow tengu guarding the younglings.
"So, An'umaru has another son… what a stroke of luck."
The Sixth Elder's claws silently reached for the boy's throat.
The guards beside him never even noticed the anomaly before water gushed into their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths—drowning them alive.
After a round of cruel interrogation, the Sixth Elder stared down at An'umaru's son, who no longer had any secrets left to tell.
With a casual squeeze, he crushed the boy to death. None of the young crow tengu survived.
The crow tengu had never considered the Leopard cats their mortal enemy, nor had the leopard cats thought much of the crow tengu.
"Opposite to the Storm Wings… forged deep beneath the cliffs, yet unfinished and immovable… the so-called Thunder Spear?"
"The crow tengu lingering in this gorge… perhaps it does have some truth."
The Sixth Elder pressed deeper, no longer bothering to conceal himself. He walked straight toward the canyon depths, the stench of blood growing heavier with each step.
Yet the twisted grin on his lips widened—every spark of static in the air testified to the Thunder Spear's existence.
"Hah, just as I was fretting over how to split the Storm Wings with the Third Elder… this solves everything."
From the altar, Nuyā silently watched the doorway explode open.
A figure cloaked in blood stepped inside, his aura seething with unrestrained malice and greed.
The young girl held her wrist over the Thunder Spear, blood dripping onto its jewel. The weapon shuddered violently, crimson patterns spreading like living veins.
"Hahaha! Heaven itself favors me!"
"Little girl, hand me the spear, and I'll leave you a whole corpse!"
Demonic energy surged from the Sixth Elder, forming countless chains of water that lashed toward the Thunder Spear—and the "insects" who stood in his way.
"Saved by my father's whim… I wonder if that is luck, or sorrow."
The enemy had already broken through this deep. The state of the battlefield above was clear without needing to be seen.
Facing the incoming torrent of water-demonic energy, Nuyā placed her fingertip upon the Thunder Spear she had fed with her own blood day after day.
In an instant, lightning erupted from the tip, flooding the chamber with blinding white.
The Thunder Spear howled, unleashing decades of sealed fury in a cataclysmic blast that shook the gorge itself!
On the battlefield above, the ground quaked as a thunderous explosion erupted from the direction of the Thunder Hall.
An'umaru's heart lurched. He spun midair toward the canyon depths, the disruption breaking the Wind-Thunder Formation.
"Die!"
The battered Third Elder, nearly ground down by the crow tengu's combined power, seized the opening. His lightning claws tore through the storm wall, piercing An'umaru's right wing.
"Chieftain!" the crow tengu wailed.
Blood spraying, An'umaru plummeted—yet in the final instant, he twisted his body, pouring all his remaining demonic energy into the Storm Wings.
The gale carried a last bolt of thunder, like a falling star, piercing straight through the Third Elder's chest.
Deep within the Thunder Hall, the roar of the Thunder Spear intertwined with the Sixth Elder's screams.
Bathed in blood, Nuyā raised the Thunder Spear high overhead, its tip stabbing skyward.
A thunder pillar spanning heaven and earth crashed down, transforming the very heart of the Wind-Thunder Gorge into a prison of lightning!
The Thunder Spear's rampage tore the heavens, alarming the last two great daiyōkai of the West.
Both the Dog General and Panther King flared their auras skyward, then quickly withdrew—sensing the other was not within the gorge.
Shakumyōmaru immediately dispatched scouts to investigate the site of the spiritual eruption, while also sending word to the Leopard Cat Tribe's Great Elder.
Even a high-level yōkai could not ignore an upheaval sensed from hundreds of kilometers away.
"Wind and Thunder Gorge… don't let disaster strike."
Shakumyōmaru muttered, glancing toward the Dog Clan's territory, his eyes full of hatred.
That wretched old dog had turned the Leopard Cats' western pastures into a chaotic mess.
Whatever he wished to do—he was shackled at every turn!
Meanwhile, within the Dog Clan's Tenshukaku…
"Such a heavenly upheaval can only be triggered by a high-level yōkai's self-destruction. That old crow, An'umaru, must have been driven to the edge by the leopard cats."
The Dog General weighed the situation carefully, confidence slowly building.
Within the Dog Clan's fortress, their three Elders were already in position.
The Leopard Cat Tribe's Great Elder, alongside the Second Elder, Fourth Elder, and many commanders, stood opposite in confrontation.
This was a restraint on the Dogs, and equally, a restraint on the Leopard Cats.
Three Elders against three Elders—the Leopard Cats dared not split their forces, unwilling to gamble that the Dogs would not strike from the fortress for an ambush or open battle.