Xiangyin felt the hesitation immediately.
She drove her spear into the formation field itself, not at the energy but at one of the physical anchors supporting it. The stone post had been reinforced against direct impacts, so she did not waste cultivation trying to shatter it in one blow. Instead, she struck the base twice from different angles, forcing the formation to compensate for the displacement while the Veridian pair in the nearest mixed team attacked the damaged ground around it.
Roots and hardened wood entered the cracks opened by Xiangyin's strikes.
The foundation shifted.
The array flickered across one side of the intersection.
Pyrelith fighters released their pressure through that weakened section. Fire and concentrated force struck the demonic front after the formation field failed to distribute the impact evenly, forcing several defenders backward into the ranks behind them. The Blue Sphere anchors advanced immediately, preventing the demons from regaining the lost space.
The enemy officer saw the intersection beginning to fail.
He did not order his soldiers to die around the formation posts.
The ranged cultivators inside the western building increased their fire while the front ranks began withdrawing through the northern side of the intersection. The remaining formation specialists kept the weakened array active long enough to make direct pursuit costly. The isolated flank group abandoned its attempt to reach the coalition's side and retreated through another alley rather than trying to force its way back across Yanfei's damaged road.
Xiangyin did not chase.
"Take the intersection first," she ordered. "Check the buildings before we continue."
The mixed detachment occupied the ground in layers.
Umbrel cultivators entered the western structure through separate approaches, forcing the ranged demons to withdraw from the upper floors rather than allowing them to continue firing into the road. Veridian teams inspected the remaining formation posts and severed the relationships that could be reactivated against the coalition. The array was disabled without anyone wasting time pulverizing every carved stone.
Yanfei walked to the western side road and examined the damage she had created.
The route remained passable to individuals, but no organized formation could move through it quickly without clearing debris first. She left it that way. The road might become useful later as another obstacle for the force coming from six.
The detachment resumed moving south.
Resistance became thinner after the first intersection.
Several groups attempted to hold individual buildings or road junctions, but none possessed enough manpower to create the layered defense encountered farther north. One local formation had only a fraction of the cultivators required to cover all of its supporting positions, forcing the operators to choose between maintaining the barrier across the road and powering the ranged array above it. When Yanfei froze the mechanism controlling one section of the barrier, the defenders diverted energy to restore it and lost enough output from the upper array that Celestara cultivators seized the nearby rooftops.
Another defensive group attempted to abandon a narrow street and draw Xiangyin into a larger formation field beyond it.
Umbrel scouts found the active nodes before the detachment committed.
Xiangyin redirected the main force through a parallel road instead of accepting the prepared battlefield. A smaller group remained visible near the original street long enough to keep the demons watching it, while the main detachment moved around the formation and struck the defenders from a direction their array did not cover effectively.
The demons withdrew again.
Each engagement confirmed the same thing.
Seven o'clock still possessed enough soldiers to punish careless movement, but not enough to resist a concentrated mixed detachment led by two Lesser Immortal Lords. The surviving defenders compensated through terrain, formations, and disciplined withdrawals, yet every position they abandoned shortened the distance between the coalition and the roads leading toward six.
Xiangyin refused to let speed become recklessness.
Whenever defenders withdrew, she allowed Umbrel and Celestara observers to confirm the next road before the detachment followed. Veridian cultivators examined underground passages when they crossed known access points, and Marephoros teams maintained enough control over the roads behind them that a sudden counterattack could not easily cut the detachment away from eight. The operation moved quickly because the enemy was thin, not because the coalition stopped checking what lay ahead.
Yanfei began paying increasing attention to the terrain rather than the defenders.
The first purpose of the detachment was nearly complete. Seven was being cleared faster than six could reach it, which meant every road they crossed might soon become part of the battlefield in the opposite direction. She memorized damaged walls, cracked paving, narrow intersections, partially collapsed military structures, and surviving formation foundations that could be turned into obstacles during the withdrawal.
Some roads were unsuitable.
One broad military avenue had too many parallel side routes. Blocking the center would merely cause the six-o'clock force to spread around it, potentially threatening several portions of the detachment at once. Another street narrowed beautifully between two heavy structures, but the damage to those buildings made them unstable enough that collapsing the route could trap coalition fighters along with the pursuers.
A third position was much better.
The road passed through a narrow intersection where the previous assault had damaged one side of an elevated bridge. Beneath it, a Veridian specialist identified fractured supports extending into the earth. The bridge remained safe enough for ordinary movement, but the structure would not survive deliberate pressure applied after the coalition crossed.
Yanfei stopped beside the damaged support and looked toward the Veridian officer.
"Can you bring this down after our rear formation passes?"
The officer examined the fractures before answering. "Yes. If we weaken the western support now, we can collapse the bridge quickly later without bringing down the buildings beside it."
"Prepare it, but leave it standing."
The officer nodded and assigned several cultivators to the work.
Xiangyin returned from the forward line while the Veridian team began altering the damaged support. "You want to use this during the withdrawal?"
"Yes. Six will have to clear the debris or move around it."
Xiangyin looked along the side roads. "There are two alternate routes."
"Marephoros can make the eastern one difficult. The western road is narrow enough for us to hold temporarily."
"Good."
They continued.
The next demonic position was the largest remaining concentration in seven.
Several local groups had gathered around a military compound near the southern edge of the sector rather than allowing Xiangyin and Yanfei to defeat them separately. The compound had a broad courtyard, intact walls on three sides, and two functioning formation towers that could support the defenders from behind. The road beyond it continued toward six o'clock.
The demons had finally chosen ground where their remaining manpower could cooperate.
Xiangyin stopped the detachment outside the direct range of the towers and studied the position. There were enough defenders to make a frontal attack expensive, but nowhere near enough to hold the compound against the entire detachment if the coalition attacked from more than one direction. The real question was whether spending time taking the position served the mission.
An Umbrel scout returned before she decided.
"Movement from the southeast," he reported. "Larger than the local groups. Still several roads away from this sector."
Xiangyin looked toward Yanfei.
"Six?"
"Likely their advance elements," the scout answered. "The main formation is farther behind them."
That settled the question.
They could not leave the compound intact behind them if they intended to use seven as delaying ground. The local defenders inside it would interfere with every withdrawal position and could guide the six-o'clock force through routes the coalition had prepared to obstruct.
Xiangyin raised her spear.
"We take this position, then stop pushing south."
The detachment reorganized immediately.
Blue Sphere teams moved toward the center of the compound's outer defense without charging the gate. Their purpose was to hold the defenders' attention and force the formation towers to reveal which areas they covered. Marephoros cultivators spread toward the eastern wall, while Umbrel teams moved west through damaged structures outside the compound.
Yanfei watched the two towers.
The first fired when the Blue Sphere teams entered range.
A concentrated abyssal beam struck the layered defenses and forced the leading cultivators back several steps. The second tower did not fire. Its operators were waiting for the detachment to respond to the first attack before revealing its direction.
Xiangyin saw the restraint and did not commit anyone toward the exposed tower.
The Blue Sphere formation advanced again.
The first tower fired a second time.
This time Marephoros pressure altered the ground beneath the leading teams at the moment of impact, allowing them to yield with the attack rather than absorb the entire force while stationary. The barrier bent backward but held. Pyrelith fighters behind them returned a concentrated strike toward the compound gate, forcing the defenders there to reinforce the center.
The second tower finally activated.
Its attack came from the western side toward the mixed teams preparing to move around the compound.
Yanfei answered before it reached them.
Frostfire crossed the gap and struck the tower below its firing array. Ice raced around the external inscriptions, interrupting several channels at once, while concentrated heat entered the cracks immediately afterward. The tower did not collapse, but the rapid expansion and contraction damaged enough of the exposed formation pathways that the attack above lost stability.
The abyssal beam veered away from the Umbrel teams.
They moved before the operators recovered.
Several disappeared along the western wall and reached a maintenance entrance the local defenders had left protected by only a small group. Celestara cultivators descended toward the same side from above, forcing the demonic soldiers there to divide their attention between the wall and the air.
Xiangyin chose that moment to attack the center.
She accelerated through the space between the Blue Sphere teams and reached the compound gate before the defenders expected a Lesser Immortal Lord to commit. Her spear struck the central barrier, but again she did not try to overpower the entire formation with one attack. The point traced across three active relationships in rapid succession, forcing separate sections of the barrier to draw power at once.
The formation could compensate for one breach.
It struggled to compensate for three.
Pyrelith struck immediately behind her.
The gate barrier distorted.
Blue Sphere cultivators drove forward as one body.
The center opened.
Xiangyin entered with the first mixed teams, her spear working through short thrusts and controlled sweeps rather than the large rotations that would force allies away from her. A demonic officer attempted to rally several defenders around the inner gate, but Xiangyin pinned his weapon aside long enough for two coalition fighters to pass him and strike the formation specialists behind.
The compound defense began failing from both sides.
Umbrel and Celestara cultivators breached the western interior at almost the same time, forcing the local demons to turn part of their remaining strength away from Xiangyin. Marephoros pressure reached the eastern courtyard and prevented another group from moving cleanly into the center. Yanfei entered last among the high-level fighters, spreading Frostfire across selected sections of the ground to divide the compound without filling the entire space with indiscriminate destruction.
The defenders recognized the outcome before they were surrounded.
Those nearest the southern road began withdrawing toward six, while others abandoned the towers and escaped through smaller exits. The local commander did not sacrifice the remaining soldiers to hold a compound that had already lost its gate, western wall, and formation support.
Xiangyin let them retreat.
They would warn six that the coalition had reached the southern edge of seven, but that information no longer mattered. The larger force was already coming.
The detachment secured the compound and stopped there.
No one advanced onto the road leading toward six.
Xiangyin stood near the southern gate and watched the last local defenders disappear between the distant structures. Seven o'clock had not required the strength Haotian was taking north, exactly as expected. The remaining resistance had been cleared or driven south before the larger reinforcement reached the sector.
Now the nature of the mission changed.
Yanfei joined her near the gate.
"We should not defend this compound," she said.
Xiangyin glanced back at the walls.
"No. Too many ways for them to pressure us once their full force arrives."
"The northern intersection with the damaged bridge is better."
Xiangyin nodded. "We use this place only long enough to confirm their route."
She sent Umbrel observers south and southeast while the rest of the detachment reorganized. Celestara cultivators took elevated positions around the compound without traveling far beyond it, and Veridian specialists began reviewing every road between the southern edge of seven and the damaged bridge they had prepared earlier.
The reports returned quickly.
Six was moving north in more than one body.
The first formation consisted of advance companies moving faster than the main force behind them. Their purpose was obvious: reach seven, determine where the coalition detachment had gone, and secure enough road for the heavier formations following from six. A second group traveled through a parallel eastern route, likely intended to prevent Xiangyin and Yanfei from using the sparse sector to disappear entirely.
The main force remained farther south.
Xiangyin studied the reported distances.
"They are not trying to fight us with the scouts."
Yanfei understood. "They want the roads open before the main force reaches seven."
"Then we make them deploy before they can open anything."
The detachment began withdrawing from the compound before the advance companies arrived.
This was not a retreat caused by defeat. They had never intended to hold the southern edge of seven once six reached it. The compound had served its purpose by removing the last substantial local force from the coalition's lower flank and giving the scouts enough time to identify the reinforcement routes.
Xiangyin placed mixed teams at the first northern intersection while the remainder continued toward the damaged bridge. The position was strong enough to force the first six-o'clock companies to slow, but open enough that the coalition could withdraw without passing through one narrow exit. Yanfei examined the side roads one final time and marked where Frostfire would be most useful once contact began.
Veridian cultivators prepared the fractured ground behind them.
Marephoros fighters studied the drainage channels and broken paving along the eastern route.
Umbrel observers remained south.
Celestara cultivators watched the air above the roads leading from six.
The detachment had finished clearing seven.
Now it began turning seven into something else.
Not a fortress.
Not a second front.
A sequence of delays.
Farther south, the first demons from six entered the sector and found the abandoned military compound with its broken gate, disabled tower, and emptied courtyard. Their advance officers slowed only long enough to inspect the damage before continuing north.
The coalition was already waiting at the next position.
The first serious pressure from nine o'clock reached the coalition before the Second Mixed Legion cleared the next major intersection. What had begun as ranged harassment from advancing demon elements became a coordinated defense as more soldiers arrived from the north and occupied the roads, upper structures, and surviving formation positions ahead. Unlike the sparse forces Xiangyin and Yanfei had encountered around seven, these defenders possessed enough manpower to build depth rather than rely upon isolated strongpoints. Their purpose was not merely to contest one street. They intended to stop the coalition's northward movement long enough for six o'clock to close from behind.
Haotian understood that purpose before the first full defensive line came into view. Through the Dao of the Universe, he could see the enemy's structure developing beyond the buildings: shielded cultivators holding the main road, ranged formations positioned farther back, smaller groups distributed through side streets, and several intact formation nodes being brought online between them. The nearest local defenders retreating from eight were not disappearing into the stronger force blindly. They were being absorbed into designated positions where their reduced numbers could reinforce the southern edge without disrupting the formations arriving from nine.
The demons had learned from the first assault. They were not piling into one enormous concentration that Haotian could strike before it organized, nor were they leaving every soldier exposed in open streets. Advance companies slowed the coalition while the larger force behind them constructed successive defensive layers, each one positioned to withdraw into the next if necessary. If the coalition spent too long breaking them one by one, six o'clock would eventually reach the lower flank.
Xuanyin received the same information from the scouts and shifted the forward map accordingly. "The nine-o'clock force is building three defensive layers between us and the stronger part of the sector. The first is already complete. The second is still taking in the troops withdrawing from eight."
Haotian looked toward the road ahead. "Then the second layer is the important one."
Xuanyin understood immediately. "If we break the first line slowly, they finish the next one before we reach it."
"Yes."
Haotian did not order the Second Mixed Legion to charge. Speed mattered, but throwing formations into a prepared defense without structure would cost more time once casualties and disorder began accumulating. Instead, he moved the Sixth closer until the gap between the two legions shortened enough that the Second could attack without waiting for reinforcements to travel through several streets.
The leading mixed teams entered the first defensive range.
Abyssal projectiles descended from three different elevations at once. Blue Sphere cultivators raised overlapping barriers over the center while Celestara fighters climbed toward the rooftops and higher walkways from which the demons were firing. The defenders had expected that response and immediately redirected part of their ranged pressure toward the aerial coalition teams, forcing them to defend before they could clear the upper positions.
The road itself became the more immediate problem.
A defensive formation activated beneath the intersection, spreading dark pressure through the paving in a broad pattern that made every forward step heavier than the last. The effect was not strong enough to immobilize the coalition, but it forced the leading teams to spend more cultivation maintaining balance while the shielded demons ahead remained inside the formation's protected relationship. Pyrelith fighters began gathering power behind the Blue Sphere line, but Haotian raised one hand before they released it.
"Do not strike the whole intersection," he said. "The formation is using the eastern foundation."
The nearest officers relayed the information without requiring further explanation.
Lianhua moved before the Pyrelith cultivators changed targets. Cloud-Sundering Steps carried her along the left side of the road, where the formation pressure was weaker because the active foundation lay farther east. Two demons moved to intercept her, but the Voidpierce Sword Sutra passed through the first defender's weapon relationship and forced him to abandon the block before his sword was broken from his grip.
The second demon attempted to use the formation itself to pin her movement.
Lianhua stepped through the shifting pressure rather than resisting it. The corrected movement art carried her across the altered footing in a way the demon had not anticipated, and her sword struck the physical structure supporting the eastern formation node. The first impact did not destroy it. It exposed the spatial relationship tying the node into the road beneath the defenders.
Yinxue saw the opening from the main line.
Her sword descended through the connection Lianhua had revealed.
The supporting formation tore apart along one side of the intersection.
The pressure beneath the Second Mixed Legion weakened immediately.
Blue Sphere cultivators advanced.
The demons did not wait for the full formation to collapse before responding. Their shielded front stepped backward in controlled order while the ranged units behind them increased fire, trying to preserve enough distance that the coalition could not turn the loss of the formation node into an immediate breakthrough. Several heavier cultivators entered the gaps and attempted to stop the Blue Sphere advance through direct force.
Haotian moved into the first of them.
The demon's weapon came down with enough strength to fracture the road beneath both men, but Haotian did not meet it head-on. He shifted inside the attack, caught the weapon arm before the strike completed, and drove Fist of Ruin into the cultivator's chest. The impact folded the demon backward through the soldiers behind him and created an opening wide enough for the mixed teams to continue advancing.
Haotian did not follow the body.
Another defender attempted to close the space.
He redirected the second attack with his forearm and struck the cultivator's shoulder joint, breaking the structure supporting the weapon side before the demon could recover. A Pyrelith fighter behind Haotian entered the same opening and finished the exchange while Haotian moved farther along the line.
That became the pattern.
He did not attempt to defeat the entire first defensive layer himself. Whenever the Second Legion reached a point where the enemy's structure prevented forward movement, Haotian attacked that problem and allowed the mixed teams to exploit the result. The coalition continued moving as an army rather than following him through a trail of individual kills.
Yueru and Ziyue worked farther east where several demonic formations were trying to preserve the connection between the main road and the side streets. Lightning gathered through Yueru's sword as she cut across the supporting relationships of one defensive array, forcing the operators to divert energy toward stabilization. Ziyue used the moment to sever the physical node that had been protected by the redirected power.
The side formation failed.
Umbrel cultivators entered the newly exposed street but did not run deep into the district. They moved only far enough to prevent the demons from restoring the connection or using the route to strike the Second Legion's flank. Once the road was secure, they returned closer to supporting distance.
The defenders began yielding the first intersection.
Their withdrawal was disciplined.
Shielded cultivators moved last while ranged fighters shifted northward between buildings and elevated walkways. Formation specialists abandoned nodes that could no longer be defended rather than wasting time trying to repair them under pressure. The coalition gained the intersection, but the demons preserved enough strength to strengthen the second line farther north.
Xuanyin received an Umbrel report before Haotian fully cleared the position.
"The local defenders from eight have reached the second line," she said. "The nine-o'clock commanders are integrating them now."
Haotian looked beyond the newly taken intersection.
"How complete is the second position?"
"Not complete enough."
That was all he needed.
"The Second continues. Sixth closes the gap."
The coalition did not stop to dismantle the abandoned formation anchors or search every building along the captured intersection. Veridian teams checked the underground access points that could threaten the rear, Celestara cleared the nearest elevated positions, and everyone else moved north. The stronghold could repair what remained later if it survived the campaign. Haotian cared only about systems that could still affect the current battle.
The second defensive line lay around a broader military road where three smaller streets joined from the west and east. The demons had chosen the area because it allowed them to draw additional formations from nine into the same battle while maintaining several withdrawal routes farther north. They had enough soldiers now to create a continuous front across the main road and still station reserves behind it.
Haotian saw the danger immediately.
If this position stabilized completely, the defenders would no longer need to trade space as quickly. They could hold the coalition in a prolonged battle while waiting for six to arrive.
A message reached Xuanyin from the southern detachment at almost the same moment.
Xiangyin and Yanfei had cleared the remaining organized resistance at seven. They had stopped short of six and begun withdrawing toward the first prepared delaying position after detecting the advance companies coming north.
The race had started.
Xuanyin relayed the report to Haotian without adding interpretation. "Xiangyin and Yanfei have finished clearing seven. The first six-o'clock companies have entered the sector."
Haotian's attention remained on the defensive line ahead. "How far is the main force behind them?"
"Far enough that the advance companies reach Xiangyin first."
"Then she has time."
Not unlimited time.
But enough.
Haotian moved toward the center of the Second Mixed Legion.
The demons ahead had built their strongest barriers across the broadest part of the road, expecting the coalition to concentrate where its formations had the most room. Several smaller defensive groups occupied the side streets, preventing easy bypasses, while ranged cultivators covered the spaces between buildings. The arrangement was competent because it forced Haotian to either fight through the center or spend time peeling away the side defenses.
He chose neither exactly.
"Keep pressure on the center," Haotian told the Second Legion commander. "Do not commit the reserve teams yet."
The commander nodded.
Haotian turned to Lianhua, Yinxue, Yueru, and Ziyue. "The western and eastern connections are supporting the center. Break the links, not the whole defensive line."
They moved in separate directions.
Lianhua and Yinxue went west.
Yueru and Ziyue shifted east.