275: The Cage of Stars and Space
The world snapped back into focus, denser and more immediate. The air hummed with compressed energy and the distant, clearer sounds of conflict. Yao Xuan's team found themselves in a tighter grove of ancient trees, their trunks like pillars in a natural cathedral.
Thirty meters away, another team materialized, their formation tight and practiced. Yao Xuan's Eye of Insight activated instantly, painting a tactical overlay across his vision.
Frontline: Bai Juyi. Martial Soul: Barrier Holy Shield. Soul Power: 38. Threat: High (Defensive Anchor). Weakness: Mobility. Core Energy Node: Lower left quadrant of shield.
*Center: Luo Guixing. Soul Power: 39. Threat: Extreme (Control/Command). Aura: Spatial-element, high spiritual density.*
*Flanks: Jin Haiqian (Swift Thunder Leopard, 37) and Xia Qiu (Ghost Wolf, 36). Threat: Medium-High (Speed/Disruption).*
Rear Support: Ye Hui (Blessing Staff, 37). Threat: Medium (Force Multiplier).
*Artillery: Rong Dahuo (Blazing Firebird, 38) and Hong Jing (Thunder Mace, 37). Threat: High (Area/Single-Target Burst).*
A well-rounded team. Defensive anchor, control core, speed flankers, support, and ranged damage. Classic Shrek-level coordination.
"Contact. Full team. Defensive formation," Yao Xuan said, his voice low but carrying to his teammates. They shifted instinctively. Tang Wulin stepped forward, his stance widening, becoming the new frontline against Bai Juyi. Xie Xie seemed to dissolve into the deeper shadows of the grove. Zhang Yangzi's hands touched the ground, veins of Bluesilver Grass spreading silently through the soil. Xu Xiaoyan gathered stellar energy around her, a soft stellar radiance beginning to glow. Gu Yue stood slightly behind Yao Xuan, her silver eyes analyzing the enemy layout with cold precision.
Across the clearing, Luo Guixing's gentle smile didn't waver, but his blue eyes sharpened. "The forging committee leader himself. A privilege. Clear the board."
His team moved with the smoothness of a rehearsed drill.
"Blessing!" Ye Hui's voice was clear. Her third purple ring glowed, and the Blessing Staff in her hands erupted in soft white light. Beams of luminous energy lanced out, connecting with her six teammates. Yao Xuan's Eye of Insight saw their soul power signatures swell and stabilize, their auras gaining a cohesive, reinforced sheen. A 20% boost in soul power reserve and a minor all-around enhancement. A significant force multiplier.
The two agility-types were the first to move, blurring into action as the blessing settled.
Jin Haiqian became a streak of blue-white lightning, zigzagging with terrifying speed. Xia Qiu seemed to melt into a smoky, semi-transparent form, his movements silent and haunting, flanking from the opposite side.
"Fire Phoenix Assault!" Rong Dahuo roared. His third ring blazed, and from his outstretched hands, a magnificent, shrieking phoenix of pure flame coalesced and shot forth, its wings spanning meters, painting the grove in violent orange and red, aiming to engulf Yao Xuan's team in a wave of searing destruction.
"Thunder God's War Demon Mace!" Hong Jing bellowed, hefting his massive, sparking mace. Lightning crackled around him, converging into a single, colossal bolt of pure thunder that he swung like a physical weapon, a parallel spear of devastation to the fire phoenix.
Bai Juyi planted his feet, the colossal Barrier Holy Shield slamming into the earth before him and Luo Guixing with a ground-shaking thud, a literal immovable wall.
Luo Guixing himself raised a hand, his blue hair stirring in an unfelt wind. His first purple soul ring glowed with a deep, spatial violet. "Spatial Imprisonment."
The attack wasn't aimed at a person. It was aimed at the area in front of Yao Xuan's team. The space itself seemed to thicken, to congeal into a transparent, gelatinous barrier. It wouldn't stop the fire phoenix or thunder bolt from his own team—they were keyed to pass through—but it would slow any counterattack or movement from Yao Xuan's side, creating a perfect kill zone.
It was a devastating, layered opening salvo: area denial/slow from Luo Guixing, two high-speed flankers, two massive area-of-effect attacks, all backed by a defense boost and a nearly impregnable shield guarding their core. A textbook team wipe tactic.
"Gu Yue, the space!" Yao Xuan's command was instant.
"Disrupting." Her silver eyes flashed. She didn't counter the spatial compression directly; that was Luo Guixing's specialty. Instead, she manipulated the fundamental elements within that space. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a violent, localized wind shear and injected a surge of chaotic water vapor right where the fire phoenix and thunder bolt were about to converge. The elements clashed violently, causing the two powerful attacks to destabilize and partially detonate against each other before reaching their full intensity. The explosion was still massive, but it was pushed off-center, a roaring inferno of fire and lightning that scorched the trees to their left rather than consuming them.
"Zhang Yangzi, the flanks! Xie Xie, mark the support!"
As Yao Xuan spoke, he was already moving. He didn't target the frontline or the artillery. He targeted the strategy's brain.
"Ancestral Dragon Sky-Shattering Step!"
His body became a golden streak, not trying to brute-force through Luo Guixing's Spatial Imprisonment field directly, but angling his charge. His Eye of Insight had pinpointed the field's anchor points—the spatial "roots" connecting it to Luo Guixing. He aimed for the weakest one.
"You won't pass!" Bai Juyi grunted, seeing Yao Xuan's trajectory bringing him near the shield's edge. He began to pivot, the massive shield groaning as it started to swing to intercept.
"Tang Wulin!" Yao Xuan didn't break stride.
"On it!" Tang Wulin roared. Golden light erupted from him as he activated Golden Dragon Body. He didn't charge the shield; he charged Bai Juyi. With terrifying force, he slammed into the side of the Barrier Holy Shield, not to break it, but to halt its pivot, to bind the defensive anchor in place for a critical second. The impact sounded like a gong.
In that second, Yao Xuan reached the edge of the Spatial Imprisonment field. His right arm, sheathed in dragon scales, drew back.
"Ancestral Dragon Sky-Splitting Strike!" Concentrated into his fist, he punched not at the air, but at the specific spatial coordinate his Eye of Insight highlighted.
A sound like shattering crystal echoed unnaturally in the grove. A web of violet light flashed visible for an instant before crumbling. A section of the Spatial Imprisonment field, about the size of a door, disintegrated.
Yao Xuan shot through the gap.
He was now inside their operational zone, past the frontline shield, and on a direct line with Luo Guixing and Ye Hui.
Luo Guixing's gentle smile finally vanished, replaced by focused alarm. "So fast! Spatial Suppression!" His third purple ring glowed. A different kind of spatial force—a heavy, pressing weight meant to pin and crush—descended directly onto Yao Xuan.
At the same time, the two agility-types, having been harried by suddenly erupting tangles of Bluesilver Grass from Zhang Yangzi (slowing Jin Haiqian's lightning) and elusive, disorienting afterimages from Xie Xie (matching Xia Qiu's ghostly movements), broke off to intercept. Rong Dahuo and Hong Jing swiveled, aiming their next attacks at the isolated Yao Xuan.
Yao Xuan felt the spatial pressure trying to fold around him, to immobilize him for the finishing blows. He smiled, a fierce, golden light igniting in his eyes.
The soul power vortex in his heart spun to a crescendo. "You control space," he said, his voice carrying a draconic resonance. "I am the force that breaks it."
The final, decisive clash within the cage of stars and space had begun, and Yao Xuan was at its heart.