The clearing was deathly silent, save for the hiss of corrupted spores curling through the night air. The Blood Beast shimmered before me, a pulsating mass of red and black flesh, veined with corruption, coiling like a liquid nightmare. Its form rippled with every breath, limbs appearing and vanishing in impossible ways, morphing with chaotic grace. And it's eyes were wide white jagged marks, with no observable retina or iris.
Felicity's voice cut sharply through my mind. "Master, do not underestimate it. Its morph-like ability can strike anywhere at once. Watch the flow of its spores—they betray its true movements."
I exhaled, making contact with my Firefly dantian , Firefly wisps orbited around my body like points of living fire. My raptor feathers shimmered with ember-gold light, amplifying my senses and speed. The Blood Beast struck first. A tendril erupted from its core, whipping toward me with a jagged, fluid motion that twisted through the air like a snapping fang.
But I was already moving, I pivoted midair, Dantian Firefly's spiraling around my forearms, feathers slicing the tendril in half. The beast twisted, splitting its form; another appendage erupted where none had existed before, smashing into the ground and sending splintered stones raining outward.
I scattered with the Firefly swarm, my body momentarily blinking out of existence as. Thousands of pinpoints of light navigated they're way through the incoming volley of stones my dantian swarm.
As we traveled through the air I heard Felicity's voice ''Master this new technique is amazing! I can also launch attack's from this spiritual state!" Felicity's silver tendrils lashed through the air, each blood blade tendril from each of my own Dantian wisp's, thousands of snaking tendrils ripped into the Blood Beast! Into the creature's corrupted mass, leaving tiny burns of silver light in their wake. "I can mark its core! Aim for its heart of corruption!" She urged.
I exited the dantian swarm, my body coiling like a spring. "Then we force it to reveal itself!" I thought back to her. I Channeled king intent through my legs and feathers, I spun into a blur, feathers catching fire in every rotation. My claws scored the air, trailing ember sparks that danced like molten meteors around the creature.
The Blood Beast shivered violently, its form convulsing, morphing, it generated three smaller duplicates. Each copy moved independently, tendrils lashing, eyes glinting with malevolence. Cultivators would be unable to track such chaos—but I did not rely on sight alone. My Spiritual perception rippled across the clearing, every spore's movement, every pulse of corrupted qi, a map to its heart.
Felicity's tendrils pulsed in response, silver-thread markers piercing the spore haze. Now! she whispered.
I swarmed forward, literally.
Weaving through a storm of shifting bladed limbs. From within the spiritual space of the dantian swarm my fists ignited with Embercoil flames, striking out from the swarm. The air hissed just before impact! It's Morphing tendrils couldn't reach me in my divided spiritual state, and I had just discovered a new technique.
"HOMING FIREFLY FIST!"
Hundreds of Firefly fists weaved through the slashing limbs and detonated on impact!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
The clearing was a storm of explosions, light and shadow. Ten thousand Firefly points of luminescence darted and split in every direction, each wisp striking in precise coordination. I was no longer just using the swarm to avoid attacks. I was maintaining the swarm!
My dantian swarm now had become a weapon and radar. Every movement of the Blood Beast—every spore, every pulse of corrupted qi—was a line in a map only I could read.
Felicity's voice cut through the chaos like a blade. "Master, mark its core! Every strike from within the swarm must converge there!" Her silver tendrils lashed outward, a thousand filaments slicing through the Blood Beast's writhing mass. Each tendril carved faint burns of silver light, illuminating sections of its shifting flesh and forcing it to reveal where its heart of corruption throbbed.
I reacted instantly. From within the swarm, I thrust a Firefly Fist forward—each strike a concentrated point of Vestigium-infused ember, glowing like molten homing stars. The impact screamed through the air, bombarding through a morphing tendril and blowing open gapping holes in the writhing mass of crimson flesh.In its place another tendril erupted in retaliation, "Firefly Mirage!" I caste out copies of myself to split and converge, a storm of blazing Ashs copies that had semi-sentience. They worked as a team redirecting attacks harmlessly away.
I summoned the Embercoil Serpent Spirit Beast. It's serpentine body arched in a wide coil, molten scales radiating heat that bent the very air. Its eyes glowed with an ancient intelligence, responding to the subtle cues of my Firefly swarm. With a whip of its tail, it struck the Blood Beast's flank, igniting corrupted flesh and leaving a trail of smoldering ember along the morphing mass.
The Blood Beast convulsed violently, generating yet again three smaller duplicates, each as deceptive and unpredictable as the original. Tendrils whipped outward, eyes glinting with jagged white malice. Spore clouds erupted, obscuring portions of the battlefield. But I did not rely on sight. My Spiritual perception, coiled through the swarm, traced every micro-motion, every quiver of energy, and every subtlest distortion in the air.
Felicity's tendrils danced with precision, threading through the spore-laden haze, marking the most volatile points. "Now, Master! Converge!" she whispered into my mind.
I let the Firefly Mirage swell, all ten thousand points of light compressing into a single, synchronized assault. My body phased out of existence, then reformed midair with full Embercoil intent. Flames streaked along my feathers, igniting the air itself. I spun in a blur, a spiral of fire and motion, each clawed strike punctuated by ember sparks that danced like molten meteors. The Firefly Fist followed, a sequence of strikes so rapid and precise it cut through six clones at once.
The Blood Beasts shrieked, convulsing, tendrils lashing outward in wild arcs—but every attack met either a mirage or a burning fist. The Embercoil Serpent coiled lower, mouth opening, releasing a searing torrent of embers that enveloped the morphing duplicates. Sparks and corrupted ichor hissed violently as the serpent's flames seared into the creature's shifting mass.
I dove, spinning and striking with Firefly Fists from every angle, and Felicity's silver tendrils guided every attack, threading directly into its corrupted core. Each precise impact left scars of glowing silver and ember, forcing the Blood Beast to reveal its true form—its heart of corruption pulsing faintly beneath the writhing, morphing flesh.
The beast convulsed again, a primal scream shaking the clearing, as the Firefly Mirage, Embercoil Serpent, and Silver-Blooded tendrils combined in a perfect, coordinated strike. Every strike, every flame, every guiding tendril converged simultaneously on the revealed core.
The first clash had ended—but even in its agony, the Blood Beast writhed and morphed, its eyes wide, white, and jagged, hunting for weakness. And I was ready.
The Firefly Mirage ignited in a thousand points of light, each Ash phasing and leaping with impossible speed across the battlefield. Embercoil flames trailed every step, feeding the motion with raw Animus, but my core essence remained high up in the swarm, controlling and guiding each dantian copy of myself.
the Embercoil Serpent twisted and coiled in the skies above. Its scales glowed like living magma, and its jaw opened wide, releasing a torrent of ember-fire that seared the air. The illusions amplified my strikes; every dantian cop clawed, kicked, or leapt, forcing the Blood Beast to defend against impossible angles at once.
And then the beast retaliated, with a cackling hiss it cried out its technique!
"MAXIMUM CARNAGE!"
With a horrifying fluidity, its body surged upward, expanding in all directions. In seconds, it had transformed into a dome-like net hundreds of feet across, thick as night and dripping with acidic ichor. The structure began to descend slowly, hissing as it corroded the earth below, eating stone, wood, and whatever dared linger beneath it.
"Acid net!" Felicity shouted sharply in my bloodstream. "Watch out, Master!"
I reacted instinctively. The closest target—a massive elm tree—loomed at the edge of the acid's descent. I sent a copy to it, my copy dropped like a comet, feathers slicing the wind. The copy slammed a karate chop into the trunk. The bark exploded off along with the leaves and limbs, and the tree itself splintered violently. My copy caught it on his shoulders mid-fall, I had my copy launch the elm like a javelin toward the acid net.
The collision came with a thunderous crack—and then nothing. The Blood Beast twisted, morphing its net with inhuman precision. A gap opened in the acidic lattice, allowing the elm tree to sail harmlessly through, splintering into harmless pieces on the far side.
The net continued its descent, hissing, steaming, and burning everything it touched. I could feel the Animus within the plume of spores, the corrosive qi—a deadly symphony meant to overwhelm any cultivator.
But I was not just any cultivator. I let the Firefly Mirage amplify my perception. Ten thousand points of golden light flitted like living fireflies, each mirage a moving distraction, luring the acidic strands in unpredictable paths.
The Embercoil Serpent rose above, eyes blazing. With a sudden whip of its tail, arcs of molten flame seared into the acidic net, superheating portions of the dome. Fizzing steam hissed and etched holes in the surface, but the Blood Beast's adaptive physiology allowed it to reform almost instantly.
Felicity's silver tendrils weaved in tandem with my illusions, marking weak points in the morphing lattice, feeding my Animus the threads of vulnerability. Every strike I made, every embered claw or spinning kick, was synchronized with her guidance. The copies circled, converged, and split again, striking multiple points simultaneously, keeping the Blood Beast off balance.
I swarmed low and dropped toward the dome, Embercoil Serpent coiling around me like a living weapon. Flames erupted from its scales, striking downward in a concentrated vortex. The acid hissed and steamed violently, burning holes in the net—but it still held.
The Blood Beast moaned, a wet, tearing sound, then reshaped again. Its entire form rippled, the dome elongating into spiked tendrils that whipped downward. I spun midair, wings folding into a compressive strike, and simultaneously split the Firefly Mirage into a dozen points of synchronized assault. Ten thousand copies became twelve, then twenty, each streaking across the air to hammer at the descending spikes.
"Felicity—lock on its core!" I thought, sensing the faint heartbeat of corrupted Animus that defined its true form. Her tendrils flared bright silver, piercing the morphing shadows, and I guided the Embercoil Serpent to twist downward, mouth open, fangs glowing red-hot with Animus-infused fire.
I hovered midair, watching the Blood Beast writhe, twisting in agony yet refusing to yield. Flames hissed against its corrupted flesh, and Felicity's silver tendrils lanced repeatedly into its mass—but even the Embercoil Serpent's molten scales barely slowed it. The realization struck me: fire alone, nor Felicity's silver essence, would be enough to end this creature.
A calm settled in my mind, the chaos of battle giving way to clarity. I began calling back every one of my ten thousand Firefly Mirage copies, each phantom blinking out of existence as their lower Animus-infused essence folded back into the swarm of my scattered dantian.
The world seemed to contract around me, the clearing quiet except for the hiss of spores and the faint roar of molten serpent. My right eye began to glow, a deep, icy azure that radiated from the core of the swarm. Firefly wisps of gold and ember dimmed, replaced by the swirling, cold-blue light of frozen intent. The dantian swarm itself shimmered, freezing into a luminous lattice of blue fire, an intricate web of Vestigium ready to strike.
Felicity's voice cut sharply through my mind. "Master… what are you—?"
"I have an idea," I replied, my voice calm, the heat of Embercoil retreating as a new essence took hold. "Lets give it a taste of my Glacial Soul Eye."
I exhaled slowly, letting all of my comprehension, all of my king intent, all of my vestigium force, coalesce into the swarm. The blue light sprad through out the swarm and pulsed, rippling outward, merging my dantian Swarm with the clarity of my Glacial Soul Eye. Every phantom copy, every embered wisp, every guiding thread of Felicity's silver tendrils fused into a single, unified stream of spiritual power.
The Blood Beast paused mid-twist, sensing the change, its tendrils quivering as a cold wind began to blow and howl from my dantian swarm. I focused the swarm, shaping it with my will, until it became something new—something alive: a gale of piercing, crystalline wind infused with absolute comprehension.
"GLACIAL SOUL WIND!" I roared, the dantian swarm erupting into a vortex of ice-blue energy, spinning outward with all the velocity and precision of ten thousand homing Firefly Fists multiplied. The force shattered the very air, freezing every spore it passed through, crystallizing them into shards that danced like stars in a storm.
I blew forward in Glacial Soul Wind form! Cutting through the Blood Beast's acid net. The corrosive ichor hissed and steamed as frost overtook it. As a wind enveloped and easily blew through the morphing creature, biting into its flesh, freezing tendrils and limbs in a crystalline lattice. Every spike, every whip, every shifting mass of its body solidified mid-motion.
The Blood Beast screeched, a distorted, wet howl that shook the clearing, yet its movements slowed, then halted entirely, trapped within the unstoppable cold. Its dome of acid cracked, fissures forming as the icy gale that I had become spread through its mass. Even the spore clouds froze into a sparkling haze, glittering in the moonlight.
I passed through its center, a living storm of Glacial Soul Wind incarnate, leaving a trail of frozen corruption in my wake. The clearing was deathly silent, save for the low groan of the Blood Beast, encased in ice, immobilized completely.
Felicity's voice rang out, awe-struck and triumphant. "Master… you!—this!- unbelievable!"
I exhaled, letting the wind dissipate around me, leaving only the frozen, crystalline husk of the Blood Beast behind. My dantian swarm glimmered faintly, reheating from the exertion, the Glacial Soul Eye still glowing softly in my right iris.
"Yes…" I muttered, the satisfaction of precision and power coursing through me. "This… this will teach even Lord Imperion the meaning of Sovereign intent."
The clearing glistened in the moonlight, ice and frost replacing the hissing corruption, and the first true victory in this battle had been claimed.