Haotian continued with the western side routes. Several narrow passages branched between the military buildings close enough to the square that Umbrel could reach them without leaving the first wave unsupported. One connected toward a wall stairway, another curved behind the storage buildings, and a third descended toward the maintenance level Haotian had already crossed during infiltration.
Xuanyin glanced toward the Umbrel cultivators waiting behind her. "You heard him. Stay close to the assembly district at first. I do not want scouts disappearing three streets away while the rest of the army is still trying to establish itself."
One of the Umbrel elders nodded. "We watch the nearby routes and anything that can bring people into the square. We expand only after the first lines move."
"That is enough."
Veridian Prime also needed to move earlier than the original plan had allowed. Haotian had examined the ground beneath the center-south portion himself, but several older formation relationships crossed closer to the northern road, and he had not traced every buried structure far enough to guarantee that thousands of cultivators could occupy the area safely.
The Blue Sphere elder looked at the revised first wave. "I will move the terrain readers forward. That means somebody else has to wait."
He removed two mixed teams and one support group from the initial formation.
Haotian noticed the change. "You are cutting the first wave again."
"The eastern side is tighter than what we practiced," the elder replied. "If I keep the same numbers, those people will cross only to stand around the opening while the front tries to make room for them. I would rather leave them inside for another minute and bring them through when they have somewhere to go."
Xuanyin looked over the revised arrangement and gave a small nod. "Do that. We already learned what happens when we solve every problem by throwing more people into the receiving ground."
Marephoros remained distributed rather than forming one broad layer. Most of its cultivators would support the northern approach, where a larger demonic response could arrive quickly, while a smaller group would help control movement through the restricted eastern road. Pyrelith would wait until Blue Sphere had created enough separation from the passage that concentrated attacks could be used without threatening the receiving area.
Tianlan stood farther back with the reserve officers and listened without approaching the connection. The two healthy Frost Rainbow Falcons rested near the reserve formations behind him, while the recovering third bird remained elsewhere inside Creation.
He studied the revised northern route for several moments before speaking. "Once the first line reaches that intersection, will there actually be enough room for my smaller reserve to move? I do not want to bring them through just to have them trapped behind everyone else."
"There will be room if Blue Sphere controls the first intersection," Haotian answered. "If they are still fighting for it, keep your people inside until the road opens."
Tianlan nodded. "Then I will wait for confirmation from the front. I am not moving the reserve just because the second wave has started."
"That is what we want," Xuanyin said.
She returned her attention to Haotian. "How crowded is the square right now?"
"It changes. Companies pass through, but most of them are being sent toward the walls. Supply wagons use the southern side for short periods, and formation workers move between the nearby military buildings. The center clears regularly."
"So we are not forcing the opening around their schedule."
"No. If the square fills again while you are reorganizing, I will close this connection and wait for the next interval."
Xuanyin looked toward the commanders beside her. "Nobody crosses unless Haotian says the ground is open. If this connection disappears, that does not mean something has gone wrong. It means we keep waiting."
The Blue Sphere elder folded one side of the map under his hand. "That will probably be harder for the people waiting than the actual deployment."
Xuanyin looked at him. "Then make sure their commanders understand why they are waiting. I do not want anyone gathering around this opening because they think being ready means they should already be moving."
The elder nodded. "I will handle it."
The first-wave cultivators began assembling farther back inside Creation rather than crowding around the small opening. Blue Sphere organized the leading groups according to the new north-east orientation, and the mixed teams adjusted around those assignments without needing Haotian to supervise every change. Veridian Prime brought its terrain readers forward, while Umbrel separated the scouts assigned to the nearby side routes from those remaining with the main formation.
Shuyue and Liora stayed with the larger medical body.
Embedded healers would cross with the combat formations instead, carrying only what they needed to stabilize injuries before casualties could be returned to Creation.
Yanfei also remained with the technical group.
Nothing Haotian had found required the first wave to spend precious space on heavy inspection equipment.
Lianhua, Yinxue, Ziyue, Yueru, and Xiangyin were distributed among the opening and immediately following formations according to the actual roads outside. None of them gathered simply because Haotian was already inside the stronghold.
Once Xuanyin finished checking the revised arrangement, she looked back through the connection. "Is there anything else we need before you close this?"
"No."
"Then take your time. We are ready when the ground is ready."
Haotian closed the small connection.
The room returned to darkness.
He moved back to the upper observation position and watched the district below.
A supply wagon entered from the south-east several minutes later and stopped longer than the previous ones because one wheel had begun leaning badly under its load. Workers gathered around it while another cart waited behind, temporarily occupying part of the ground Haotian intended to use for the passage.
Haotian did nothing.
The army remained inside Creation, where waiting cost little.
The damaged wheel was raised, reinforced, and lowered again. Both wagons moved on once the workers finished, leaving the center-south portion of the square open only briefly before several soldiers crossed from the northern road.
They did not stop.
A formation worker entered the western communication structure carrying a replacement plate, while another worker left with damaged components under one arm. Haotian continued watching until the square settled again.
Another reserve group entered from the east.
An officer redirected them north after only a short exchange, and the soldiers crossed the assembly district without forming up. Haotian let the entire group disappear between the northern military buildings before he left his observation position.
Earth carried him beneath the structure and toward the southern edge of the square.
He emerged inside a recessed storage alcove close to the section he had chosen for the larger passage. Veil Shroud — Empty Silhouette remained wrapped around his cultivation, while Silent Flow — Soundless Crossing kept his movement from adding anything noticeable to the ordinary activity around the district.
The ground outside remained open.
Haotian directed his awareness inward again.
The small Creation connection appeared.
Xuanyin was waiting, but the ground behind her no longer stood empty. The first wave had assembled according to the revised plan, with enough distance between the formations and the connection that nobody would begin moving simply because they saw Blue Sphere World through it.
Haotian looked toward the square once more before speaking.
"The southern side has cleared again. The reserve company that passed through has already gone north, and there is no new group entering from the east."
Xuanyin looked past him as far as the narrow opening allowed. "Do you expect the interval to last?"
"Long enough to begin. Once the first formations are out, we stop depending on the square remaining empty."
She nodded and turned toward the Blue Sphere elder. "Bring the first wave up. Keep the return side clear."
The order moved through the waiting formations without shouting.
Haotian checked the nearby buildings while the first groups approached. The workers inside the western communication structure remained occupied. The nearest barracks contained soldiers, but none were moving toward the square, and the traffic on the northern road had already passed beyond the first intersection.
He widened the connection.
The opening expanded from the protected alcove across the center-south portion of the assembly district. Haotian increased its width gradually, letting the spatial boundary settle before widening it again. Nobody crossed until the passage had enough room for the leading groups to enter without squeezing themselves into a narrow column.
Blue Sphere emerged first.
The leading cultivators turned north-east as planned and immediately began creating depth away from the opening. They did not form a circular wall around the passage, because there was no reason to spend people defending directions where no enemy currently existed. Their job was to own enough of the assembly district that the next formations could leave Creation and move directly toward useful ground.
Umbrel crossed with them.
One group slipped between the western military structures, another moved behind the storage buildings, and the third descended toward the nearby maintenance level. None traveled farther than the routes necessary to warn the receiving formation about approaching soldiers or messengers.
Veridian Prime followed early.
Terrain readers spread along the northern edge and extended their perception into the paving beneath them. One cultivator stopped several mixed teams before they occupied a section near the eastern side.
"There is an old support line under this part of the road," he told the Blue Sphere commander beside him. "It is stable now, but I would not put three formations on top of it until we know what it connects to."
The commander looked at the approaching teams and waved them farther north. "Use the wider route. Leave this section open until Veridian finishes checking it."
Nobody asked Haotian to remove the problem.
The next teams changed direction and continued moving.
The first demonic reaction came from the western military buildings.
Several formation workers stepped out of the communication structure and stopped when they saw unfamiliar cultivators moving across ground that should have belonged entirely to the Abyss Netherworld Sect. One of them dropped the plate he had been carrying and turned toward the doorway.
Umbrel reached them first.
The exchange ended before any message left the district.
Haotian remained beside the passage while the nearby Umbrel cultivators entered the communication structure and checked what the workers had been doing. Three formation workers did not require him to abandon the opening when the people assigned to secure that side of the square were already handling them.
More coalition formations crossed.
Marephoros emerged and divided according to the revised deployment. Most moved north to support the broadest approach, while the smaller eastern group joined the mixed teams preparing to secure the road beyond the storage platforms.
An Umbrel scout returned from the communication structure and approached the Blue Sphere commander nearest the passage.
"The workers did not send anything before we reached them," he said. "But the relay itself is still active. It looks like it reports on its own whether anyone is standing there or not."
The commander frowned and looked toward one of the formation elders preparing to cross. "Can you tell whether shutting it down will send an alarm?"
"Not from here."
"Then come look at it before we break anything."
The elder entered with the next group and disappeared into the structure with two specialists.
Haotian kept the passage open.
A demonic squad appeared along the northern road before the specialists returned.
The soldiers were not responding to an alarm. They had been traveling south through the stronghold and entered the assembly district according to an ordinary route, only to find Blue Sphere cultivators occupying it.
The leading demons slowed as they recognized what stood ahead.
The coalition formation moved first.
Blue Sphere struck before the squad had enough room to spread across the road, forcing the front backward into soldiers who were still emerging from behind them. Marephoros adjusted immediately behind the leading teams, restricting the limited space the demons could use to widen toward the side structures.
Several demons tried to retreat.
Umbrel already controlled the nearest routes.
The fight remained confined to the northern approach while the next coalition groups continued entering the square.
Pyrelith crossed with them but did not immediately release broad destructive force into the road. Blue Sphere already controlled the engagement, and the surrounding military structures had not yet been inspected well enough to justify destroying them simply because demons stood nearby.
The Pyrelith cultivators waited until the squad compressed around one section of the road.
Their first concentrated strike landed there.
The demonic formation broke locally.
Blue Sphere advanced through the opening, and the fighting shifted farther from the assembly district.
Activity began increasing in the buildings around the square.
Doors opened.
Voices carried between structures.
Several soldiers appeared on an elevated walkway and stared toward the receiving ground as they tried to understand why unfamiliar formations were already moving through the district.
Celestara still remained inside Creation.
There was not enough reason yet to fill the upper space merely because defenders had begun looking down from it.
Yueru crossed with one of the eastern mixed formations.
A group of demons emerged from a nearby barracks and immediately turned toward the passage once they saw where the coalition was coming from. Their officer tried to gather them into a single push before Blue Sphere could block the road.
The eastern formation intercepted them first.
Yueru remained with her group until the officer committed himself toward the center. Stormwind Lightning Step carried her through the side of the demonic formation, and Thunderclap Returning Sword struck into his weapon before the soldiers around him could adjust to her change in position.
The officer recoiled toward the barracks.
Yueru did not chase him.
She returned to the mixed formation while Blue Sphere and Marephoros drove the remaining soldiers backward through the road they had just entered.
Haotian kept his attention on the larger deployment.
The northern front still had room.
The eastern road remained connected to the receiving ground.
The communication structure remained under coalition control.
The southern return lane had not been obstructed.
Nothing required him to change the passage.
The Blue Sphere formation elder eventually emerged from the western structure with one of the specialists.
"We can stop the local relay without making the deeper formation react immediately," he told the commander. "But somebody farther inside will notice when the next report fails to arrive."
The commander glanced toward the fighting already moving beyond the northern edge of the square. "How much time does that give us?"
The elder shook his head. "I cannot give you an exact number. Probably less time than we would like."
"That is fine. They are going to know we are here soon anyway."
Haotian looked toward the structure. "Can you shut it down without affecting the other formations around the district?"
"Yes. We only need to break the local frame."
"Then do that."
The specialists returned inside.
Several inscriptions faded a short time later as the local communication relationship ceased functioning. Nothing else in the district reacted, and no broad alarm passed visibly through the stronghold.
The deeper command network would eventually notice the missing report.
By then, the battlefield would have changed again.
The last formations assigned to the first wave crossed from Creation.
Blue Sphere now possessed enough depth to maintain the receiving ground without filling the square unnecessarily. Fighting along the northern road had moved beyond the immediate district, while the eastern formation controlled the route through the storage platforms.
Umbrel held the nearest side passages.
Veridian had marked the ground safe enough for later formations to use.
Haotian kept the passage at its current width.
The first successful deployment did not mean he should enlarge it and pour more people through faster than the roads could receive them.
A Blue Sphere commander approached after checking the northern and eastern routes.
"We have room for the second wave now. North is still fighting, but they are past the square, and the eastern road is holding."
Haotian opened a smaller connection beside the main passage so the commander could report directly into Creation.
Xuanyin listened from the other side.
"Is the return lane still open?" she asked.
"Yes. Nobody has had to use it yet, but the southern side is clear."
"And the eastern route?"
"We have the road through the storage buildings. Veridian is still checking one section of paving, so we are keeping formations off it."
Xuanyin looked at the map beside her. "How far has the northern fighting moved?"
"Beyond the square and into the first road. They are not pressing the intersection yet."
"What happened to the communication relay?"
"We shut down the local frame. The deeper network will notice eventually, but it did not trigger anything when we broke it."
Xuanyin took a moment to consider the report before looking back toward the waiting formations.
"Then send the second wave. I am staying inside until you have the southern command area and the road connecting it to the front under control."
The commander nodded. "Understood."
The second wave did not rush the passage simply because Xuanyin had released it.
Blue Sphere sent the formations forward according to the space already secured outside rather than the order in which they had assembled inside Creation. The northern groups moved first because the road beyond the western assembly district could already receive more cultivators, while the eastern formations waited until Veridian Prime finished checking the buried support line beneath the paving. Several mixed teams that had originally expected to cross immediately remained inside without complaint once their commanders learned that adding more bodies to the eastern route would only make the formation harder to maneuver.
Haotian maintained the passage at the same width.
The movement through it remained steady rather than dense. Cultivators emerged, found the commander responsible for their route, and moved away from the opening before the next groups reached the square. The rehearsals inside Creation had already taught them that receiving ground became dangerous when people treated arrival as the end of deployment instead of the beginning of movement.
The northern fight continued changing as the second wave crossed.
The demonic squad that had entered the district by accident no longer existed as one organized body, but the noise of fighting had drawn soldiers from nearby military structures and another formation from farther up the road. Those reinforcements did not stumble into the coalition as blindly as the first group had. They slowed before entering the contested section, spread across the available width, and sent several cultivators toward neighboring structures to keep the coalition from simply compressing them into the center.
Blue Sphere adjusted without abandoning the ground it already held.
The leading mixed teams stopped pushing forward long enough for the second line to widen behind them, while Marephoros cultivators shifted toward the side where the demons were trying to create more room. Umbrel remained inside the smaller passages and did not attempt to win the main road themselves. Their position forced the defenders to keep people watching those routes even when the central fight demanded more strength.
Lianhua crossed with the next northern group.
She did not move immediately to the front. The road already contained enough cultivators to fight effectively, so she remained behind the first line while the commander explained where the demons were reinforcing and which side passages Umbrel had already secured. Only after one of the Blue Sphere teams began losing space near a damaged military building did she move forward.
Cloud-Sundering Steps carried her through the formation without forcing the cultivators around her to break their spacing. She entered the threatened section, drew one demonic officer away from the group trying to widen the road, and used the Voidpierce Sword Sutra to break through the defense he had placed between himself and the Blue Sphere line. The opening allowed the mixed team beside her to recover the ground it had begun giving up.
Lianhua did not chase when the officer withdrew behind his soldiers.
She returned to the coalition line instead.
The commander beside her watched several demons move into the buildings along the road.
"They are trying to pull us off the main route," he said. "If we start clearing every room they use, we will spend the rest of the day inside these buildings."
"Then we keep the road," Lianhua replied. "Umbrel can watch the entrances. Anyone who wants to fight us can come back out."
The commander nodded and passed the instruction along the line.
The eastern side developed more slowly.
Veridian Prime found that the buried support relationship beneath the paving did not connect directly to a defensive formation. It reinforced part of an underground maintenance level that ran beneath several storage buildings. The structure itself remained stable enough for people to cross, but concentrating too many cultivators over the same section could fracture the older supports and collapse part of the road.
The terrain reader returned to the eastern commander and pointed toward the safer side.
"You can use this half normally. Keep the heavier formations away from the inner edge until we either reinforce the support or stop needing the full road."
The commander looked at the mixed teams waiting behind him. "Can you reinforce it without stopping traffic?"
"Yes, but it would take strength we may not need to spend."
"Then leave it. We have enough room on the outer side."
He moved the incoming formations toward the safer section and kept the weaker part open.
Yueru remained with that front.
The demonic officer she had struck earlier had returned with more soldiers from the barracks, but this time he did not attempt to force everyone directly toward the passage. He spread his formation between the road and the building entrances, trying to make the coalition choose whether to hold the route or clear every structure around it.
Yueru watched several demons withdraw through a doorway.
"They want us to follow them inside."
The eastern commander followed her gaze. "I know. We are not doing it."
He pointed two Blue Sphere cultivators toward the entrance. "Watch the door. If they come back out, stop them. Everyone else stays on the road."
Yueru remained with the main formation.
The decision kept the eastern front narrower than the demons expected. Instead of dividing itself across several structures, the coalition continued taking the road one section at a time while Umbrel scouts moved through the smaller connections behind the storage buildings. The defenders inside the barracks remained dangerous, but they had to leave cover and cross coalition-controlled ground if they wanted to reach the receiving district.
Haotian continued monitoring both fronts from near the passage.
He used the Dao Palace of the Universe only in controlled ranges, following the relationships between the roads, nearby formations, and the movement of coalition groups rather than spreading his awareness through the entire stronghold. The western assembly district remained structurally stable. The southern side stayed open, and no enemy formation had reached close enough to threaten the passage itself.
The second wave continued.
Yinxue and Ziyue crossed with separate groups rather than together. Yinxue moved north where the demons had begun creating overlapping defenses between two military buildings, while Ziyue remained closer to the eastern road where a broader section would soon open beyond the storage platforms. Xiangyin followed with a central support group positioned to move toward whichever route developed the greater need.
Haotian saw no reason to redirect them.
The local commanders already knew where they wanted the additional strength.
A Blue Sphere officer near the passage looked toward the southern portion of the district and then approached Haotian.
"We can begin preparing the command area, but the road is not completely secure yet. The square itself is ours, though the connection turns behind two buildings we have not cleared."
"Then wait until the route is secure."
The officer nodded. "I will let Xuanyin know we are not ready yet."
Several minutes later the smaller connection toward Creation opened again.
Xuanyin appeared on the other side before anyone called for her.
"The command area still is not ready," Haotian told her.
"I assumed that when nobody asked me to cross."
The Blue Sphere officer explained the problem. Two buildings sat close enough to the southern route that demonic soldiers could enter the connecting road from either side. Neither structure needed to be destroyed, but the coalition had to control the entrances and the junction beyond them before Xuanyin brought the command formation outside.
Xuanyin listened and looked toward the officer. "Then keep the command group inside until you can tell me the entire route is under control. I do not want us fighting for the place where reports are supposed to arrive."
The connection closed again.
The northern front gained ground before the southern route was finished.
Yinxue reached the layered defenses the demons had begun building between the military structures. The first barrier occupied almost the entire road, while a second line behind it covered the openings where attackers might otherwise press through after breaking the front.
She did not strike the center.
The first cut tested the outer edge and forced the defenders there to draw support from the second layer. Her next movement shifted the pressure toward the opposite side before the transferred cultivation had settled, and the Blue Sphere team beside her attacked the weakened section rather than waiting for Yinxue to break the entire formation herself.
The barrier bent.
Several Pyrelith cultivators in the second wave had already reached the northern road.
They waited until the opening widened enough that their attack could strike the defensive structure without catching coalition fighters against it. Concentrated force hit the weakened section, and the outer barrier failed across only a portion of its width.
That was enough.
Blue Sphere entered through the break instead of spending another exchange destroying what remained.
The demons behind the first barrier had expected a broader collapse and were forced to turn toward the coalition entering from one side. Marephoros increased pressure along the opposite edge of the road, preventing the defenders from shifting enough people toward the breach without exposing another section.
Yinxue moved with the formation.
The fighting carried the northern front beyond the first cluster of military buildings.
Haotian watched the change through the reports reaching the assembly district rather than trying to examine every exchange himself. The first intersection now lay within coalition reach, but the northern commander had not declared it secure. Several roads connected there, and at least one still carried demonic movement from deeper inside.
Tianlan remained inside Creation.
That was correct.
His reserve would be far more useful after the intersection became a place from which it could actually move.
The eastern formation reached the end of the storage platforms not long afterward.
The road widened there and split around a larger military structure. Ziyue crossed before the commander committed more ordinary cultivators into the larger space, giving the eastern group enough high-level strength to respond if the demons had prepared something beyond the buildings.
They had.
A defensive formation activated across the wider road as soon as the first Blue Sphere teams entered.
Several lines of abyssal energy rose from inscriptions along the paving and connected to the military structure at the center of the split. The formation did not attack immediately. It created a controlled field that narrowed movement and forced anyone advancing through the road into the areas the defenders had prepared to hold.
The eastern commander stopped his people.
Nobody charged into it simply because the road beyond looked open.
Ziyue studied the active lines while Veridian Prime examined the paving.
Yueru stepped closer to one of the terrain readers. "Is the building carrying the formation?"
"Part of it. Some of the support runs through the paving."
Ziyue looked toward the central structure. "If we break the building, can you tell what happens to the road?"
"Not yet."
"Then we leave it standing until you can."
Pyrelith stayed behind the front.
Yanfei had not crossed yet, and no one pretended that the absence of the technical group meant the coalition had to solve the structure through destruction.