The wind over the wasteland sounded as if it had been torn open.
The Yao-carriage tore across the plains at full speed, rune-trails dragging a blinding ribbon of light across the ground—until the chassis lurched and the driver slammed the brakes.
Ahead, a black rift spread like a wound in the world.
The Abyssal Deep.
Not a town.
Not a valley.
An entire region devoured by corrupted earth-veins—like a gigantic mouth bitten out of the land while it was still alive.
Mist drifted through the grit.
Not natural fog—
but thick haze, shredded and recomposed by soul-force.
The carriage screeched to a stop.
Si Mo Heng was the first to step down. His cloak snapped in the wind like an unfurling banner, and his gaze was sharp enough to slice the haze apart.
"Within five hundred paces—at least twenty presences."
Garo drew his blade with a single clean ring. "Remnant Rift-Yao troops. The scent is…" He halted mid-sentence, brows sinking like a mountain pressing down.
"…soaked through with Ye Yi's demonic qi."
Tutan raised his shield. With a dull boom, the massive slab struck the ground. "Imperial Daughter, stay back."
Youqing opened her mouth—
and Si Mo Heng glanced over his shoulder at her, voice calm as still water, heavy enough to silence everyone at once.
"Behind me."
Youqing held his gaze for two breaths, then nodded and took position half a step behind him.
In that instant—
the Five Yao didn't look surprised.
Didn't stiffen.
Didn't flare up.
They wore the expressions of people who had already seen this outcome coming.
Luo Ye's fire-breath flickered at the edge of eruption.
Cang Yuan's hand dropped lower on his sword hilt.
Lin Lie's talisman-counters shivered in his sleeve.
Sang Qi's fingers curled around his poison needles.
Li Yan shifted his shield forward as a wall.
Then—
"Skrr… skrr…"
From the depths of the rift came the sound of chewing bone.
The fog heaved.
More than twenty black shapes burst at once from cliff faces, fissures, and the rim above—
not fully human, but half-nightmare soldiers: sclera erased, eyes drowned in dead black, bodies warped by demonic saturation.
Luo Ye cursed under his breath. "Damn it… they're being used as roadblocks."
Lin Lie turned his palm. His staff unfolded with a metallic click. "Then we clear them."
Sang Qi's voice was colder. "Cut them down, but don't let the blood spray on you. Demonic residue clings."
Cang Yuan lifted his blade tip slightly, smiling like spring air hiding a knife. "Then let's be quick."
The first wave slammed down—
BOOM!
Li Yan stepped forward. His tower shield rose like a fortress, ramming straight into the front line and hurling four half-nightmares backward.
Si Mo Heng lifted one hand. His dark-patterned halberd slid free, killing intent pouring out like a physical force.
"Five Yao—take your angles. Garo—yours."
"Yes."
The wasteland exploded into motion.
Fire Yao — Luo Ye
Crimson heat surged. He shot forward, twin rings clanging together.
"Blocking my path? Move!"
A sweeping arc of flame tore outward—two full meters wide. Four half-nightmares' chests detonated with scorched cracks.
Water Yao — Cang Yuan
Cang Yuan slipped into the fog, steps soundless.
His blade flashed once—only once—
and two throats opened at the same time. They didn't even have time to scream.
He flicked blood from the tip, brow lifting. "Too slow."
Wood Yao — Sang Qi
Sang Qi snapped his fingers. The hairpin-whip lit open.
Three whip-shadows wove between bodies, their tails scattering soft pink toxin-sand. Three monsters lunged—
and their limbs went slack midair, collapsing like puppets with cut strings.
Sang Qi blew lightly over his fingertips. "Hmph."
Metal Yao — Lin Lie
Lin Lie embedded talisman-counters into the staff, runes shuddering awake—
and the weapon transformed, in an instant, into something like a cannon. A spear of gold erupted.
BOOM!
The ground five meters ahead split. Three half-nightmares were blasted backward, tumbling end over end.
Lin Lie's voice was flat. "Out of the way."
Earth Yao — Li Yan
Li Yan didn't speak.
One step. One shield.
When the shield-face slammed into a monster's chest, the sound was like bone snapping through stone—
the half-nightmare was driven ten meters, then pinned into the cliff like debris nailed by a mountain.
Li Yan exhaled low. "Next."
Garo moved like a phantom across the battlefield—one clean kill per swing, no excess, no hesitation.
Lianyu hooked his fingers, soul-threads snapping joints apart with surgical cruelty.
Tutan stood like a moving wall, intercepting anything that slipped through, anything that dared angle toward Youqing.
Five breaths.
That was all it took.
More than twenty bodies hit the dust.
Fog recoiled beneath blood and rune-light, peeling back to reveal a massive arch of dark stone.
Under the arch, Rift-Yao soldiers were hauling something—assembling, positioning, anchoring.
Lin Lie's pupils narrowed. "...That's—"
Lianyu's voice sank. "A Soul-Sealing Sacrificial Array."
Luo Ye's face changed instantly. "Ling Dang is inside that gate!"
Si Mo Heng's gaze cut across the scene like a blade.
"Lianyu—break the formation. Garo, Tutan—hold the rear. Five Yao—follow me."
His halberd pointed straight at the stone arch.
Black wind rolled out of the Abyssal Deep like a howl.
Youqing lifted her eyes; her Crimson Eyes flared bright enough to pierce the mist.
She whispered, "Ling Dang… we're here."
The world opened deeper inside.
The ground wasn't soil anymore, but black obsidian crust—melted and cooled again—split with deep fissures. Dark-red soul-fluid pulsed in those cracks like sluggish blood.
At the center—
the Sacrificial Array.
A circle nearly three meters wide. Sixteen soul-pillars stood in a ring, each wrapped in blood-cloth and carved with curses.
The moment the intruders crossed the threshold, the array reacted.
Pillars trembled. Blood-cloths snapped in the wind.
A blinding black-and-crimson glow ignited around the circle.
Lianyu surged forward. "It's activating!"
Garo's eyes narrowed. "The wardens are coming."
He finished speaking—
WHAA—!
Dozens of elite Rift-Yao soldiers poured out from behind the pillars, from cracks in the ground, from shadows clinging to the cliff walls.
Not ordinary troops.
Bloodline Bearers.
An advanced form—half-nightmare soldiers reinforced by Ye Yi's demon-vein.
Cang Yuan's eyes narrowed. "...Trouble."
Luo Ye's voice turned lethal. "Bloodline or not, I'm blowing them apart—"
Lin Lie cut in, low and sharp. "Break the array first."
The Five Yao adjusted instantly, shifting formation.
Si Mo Heng's halberd pointed forward, voice low like the Abyssal Deep itself was breathing through him.
"Garo, Tutan—front pressure. Lianyu—find the array's eye. Five Yao—enter the ring with me."
He tilted his head, looking only at Youqing.
"Qing'er—within three steps of me."
Youqing wanted to argue—
but the backlash pressed down again, heavy.
The Black-Yao bracelet shuddered.
"…Qing'er…"
A broken, hissed whisper burst from within it.
Ye Yi's residual soul—its hatred like needles in her heart-meridians.
Youqing's shoulder jolted. Her knee dipped.
Si Mo Heng's eyes turned winter-black. "Ye Yi's remnant soul still dares move?"
Garo cupped a fist. "Your Highness, we'll stabilize the front—Imperial Daughter should—"
Si Mo Heng's voice sliced across him, cold as snapped steel.
"She stays behind me. That's safest."
Youqing clenched her teeth, forcing the stabbing pain down.
"I can fight."
Si Mo Heng's gaze darkened even further—but he only lifted his arm, folding her into the half-circle covered by his halberd's shadow.
"Then we fight together."
Tutan's shield struck like a mountain, meeting three Bloodline Bearers head-on.
Garo moved like a serpent's shadow, blade spearing through a seam in soul-armor.
Lianyu retreated fast, bone staff slamming down. Pale skeletal hands fanned out, crawling across the formation as if "feeling" for the core.
"Array-eye located—behind the third soul-pillar, where the earth-veins cross. But it's pinned by a Sealing Stone. I can't break it alone!"
Lin Lie stepped up without hesitation. "I can shatter the Sealing Stone!"
Luo Ye growled. "Then I'll blow those things off you!"
Sang Qi's hairpin-whip snapped out. "I'll clear the interference!"
Cang Yuan smiled coldly. "Then I'll—cut us a road."
They moved as one and stormed into the ring.
The Sacrificial Array sensed the intrusion.
All sixteen pillars flared with black light.
A ripple of black soul-waves surged from the ground, spreading outward like water-rings—only these rings ate spirit instead of space.
Sang Qi shouted, "Careful! The soul-wave corrodes soul-meridians—"
Too late.
The wave slammed into their feet.
Luo Ye's legs buckled—he dropped to one knee. "Damn—!"
Cang Yuan's body wavered. He jammed his blade into the ground to stay upright.
Lin Lie's wrist went numb; talisman-counters spasmed and cracked.
Li Yan held, but his shield-face shuddered—an ugly fissure splitting across it.
And Youqing—
The backlash inside her met the soul-wave like flint against steel.
Pain tore through her chest as if something inside her was ripped open again. Her knees nearly gave way. She forced herself not to fall.
Si Mo Heng caught her by the waist and dragged her fully into his chest.
His halberd stabbed down into the earth's core, anchoring force and crushing the surge.
His anger turned ice-cold. "This Sacrificial Array dares touch her?"
Killing intent surged.
He dropped his command like a guillotine.
"Five Yao—full force. No restraint. Break the array. Save her."
Luo Ye's rings ignited, flames roaring hard enough to push back the soul-wave.
"Get off—!!"
His burning arcs carved three Bloodline Bearers' curse-lines apart.
Cang Yuan became an afterimage. Blade-light layered like overlapping tides, severing two elite soldiers at the neck.
Lin Lie hurled two talisman-counters into the earth-veins; gold light detonated, and the Sealing Stone spiderwebbed with cracks.
Sang Qi's whip lashed out, toxin-threads wrapping three elites at once, weakening their soul-force on contact.
Li Yan turned into a moving bulwark, shield-slamming open the encirclement and taking a Soul-Shattering Palm meant for Lin Lie.
Blood burst across the shield.
Then—
the Black-Yao bracelet flared scorching hot.
Ye Yi's remnant soul slammed against the seal inside it like a beast in a cage.
"…Let me out… Imperial Daughter…"
Youqing folded slightly, fingers trembling, pain bending her spine.
Soul-wave and backlash stacked together until it felt like she was being torn in half.
Si Mo Heng immediately gripped the back of her neck and pressed her forehead to his chest.
"Qing'er—hold."
His voice shook—just once. Barely. But it was there.
Youqing bit down hard.
"I… can."
"I have to… save her."
She lifted her gaze. Her Crimson Eyes fought their way back to light.
Lin Lie shouted, "The Sealing Stone cracked—!!"
Li Yan roared and smashed two elites aside, voice shaking the ground.
"Lin Lie—NOW!"
Runes erupted beneath Lin Lie's feet. He charged the Sealing Stone and brought his staff down with everything he had.
BOOOOM!!
The Sealing Stone shattered.
The Sacrificial Array convulsed.
The formation broke.
And beyond the ring—
the great stone doors of the inner hall came into focus, becoming visible at last.
Five breaths to reap souls. Three steps to guard. The Yao-carriage's roar hadn't even faded, and the Abyssal Deep's sacrificial array was already cracking apart.
Beneath Si Mo Heng's halberd-shadow, Imperial Daughter Youqing's Crimson Eyes burned—unyielding.
Within Luo Ye's flames, a sliver of dawn sharpened into rescue—Ling Dang's freedom, finally within reach.
The remnant soul inside the bracelet screamed—
but it couldn't drown out that one steady command:
Hold.
The stone doors began to open.
And the rescue that crossed life and death had reached the brink of its final reunion.