They looked directly at Jin Huang as the demonic energy thickened visibly, coiling near the ground like mist. Jin Huang rolled his shoulders and stepped forward into it, his golden aura burning brighter still.
"Human boy," the horse-like beast said, standing tall. "Your arrogance and foolery have disturbed the Ancestors. We have been sent to punish you for your rowdy behavior-"
"SHUT UP! DADDY NEVER SAID YOU COULD TALK!" Jin Huang kicked up a shard of obsidian, sending it hurtling toward the horse beast's face.
In a split-second, the horse beast opened his mouth and bit down on the obsidian shard, shattering it before spitting out the pieces.
"Very well," the horse beast said before motioning to his companions.
The one-eyed beast attacked- much faster than the outer beasts. Its clawed hands raked down with enough force to carve trenches in the obsidian without even touching it.
Jin Huang ducked, golden energy compressing into his legs before detonating upward. He drove his shoulder into its abdomen, lifting the creature clean off its feet. The smoky beast then struck from the side- its red eye flaring.
Hei Shisan flicked two fingers, and a piece of obsidian disturbed its form. The beast seemed to stumble for a fraction of a heartbeat, which was more than enough time.
Jin Huang threw the one-eyed beast onto the floor and pivoted, smashing his palm into the smoky beast. The impact sent a circular shockwave tearing outward, blasting lesser beasts off their feet.
The ground trembled as more and more of the mid-tier beasts attacked.
They roared, and Jin Huang answered.
"IS THIS THE BEST THAT OBSIDIAN CITY HAS TO OFFER! YOU FOOLISH BEASTS ARE BEGINNING TO BORE ME!"
At that moment, a deep vibration pulsed outward from the lowest region, more oppressive than anything Jin Huang had ever felt.
The rain slowed as if the air itself hesitated.
Xu Ye swallowed. "Did you feel that?"
Hei Shisan grinned as pure delight ignited in his eyes, "You bet I did."
Jin Huang felt it too. The demonic energy around him surged- drawn toward its source like rivers toward a sea.
His heart pounded, and his energy spiked on its own, the chaotic turbulence settling into a solid, roaring current. He could feel the bottleneck before him, and also something vast- something potent- something that would push him forward if he dared to reach for it.
He wiped murky blood from his cheek and smiled.
Around him, dozens of mid-tier beasts and thousands of outer beasts shifted, forming a widening circle as the deeper presence pressed closer.
Jin Huang stepped forward once more, golden aura blazing against the abyssal dark, daring the beasts around him to attack.
The horse-like beast reared, hooves striking sparks from obsidian.
"Enough of this! You have disturbed the Ancestors for the last time!"
Its body expanded in presence, dense, coiling demonic energy wrapped around its limbs like armor. The ground beneath its hooves cracked as it stepped forward.
"This is higher than Dao Integration," Jin Huang said, grinning as he soaked in that presence. Of course, he rushed in.
They collided with a thunderclap. A hoof smashed into Jin Huang's crossed forearms and sent him skidding back, boots carving twin trenches into the black stone. The force numbed his arms as the golden energy inside him wavered for half a breath before resurging with a vengeance.
The horse beast did not relent. It charged again-- this time faster than before.
Jin Huang met it head-on, driving a punch into its flank. The impact landed solidly, but the beast barely budged. Its hide was dense, layered with compressed demonic energy thicker than steel.
A second hoof caught Jin Huang in the ribs.
The crack echoed. He flew- slamming through two lesser beasts before crashing into a jagged pillar, the obsidian spidering behind him.
Jin Huang coughed, spat blackened blood, and laughed.
"Good!" he rasped, forcing himself upright. "That's more like it!"
The horse beast snorted, steam pouring from its nostrils. "You rely on brute strength alone," it said coldly. "No discipline."
Then it moved. Too fast.
Its body blurred, reappearing in front of Jin Huang with crushing inevitability. Hooves hammered down like falling mountains. Jin Huang blocked one- barely- but the second clipped his shoulder and sent him spinning.
The mid-tier beasts surged in to capitalize. Claws tore at his back. Fangs snapped at his legs. Shadow-wreathed limbs struck from blind angles.
For the first time since ascending the slope, Jin Huang was overwhelmed.
Golden energy flared wildly as he tried to stabilize, but the horse beast pressed him relentlessly, forcing him into defense. Each exchange drained him. Each impact reminded him he was still newly stabilized in Energy Gathering.
He could feel the bottleneck, he could feel the pressure, but he could not break through while being trampled.
"Well, well," Hei Shisan muttered softly from the shadows. "Number Fourteen's finally met his match."
Xu Ye stared at the battlefield, eyes flickering faintly as fractured glimpses of possibility brushed his vision. "He's going to lose," Xu Ye said flatly.
Hei Shisan's grin widened. "Wrong."
Xu Ye blinked. "Wrong?"
Hei Shisan stepped forward, vanishing into shadow completely and leaving a dumbfounded Xu Ye behind.
The horse beast had drove Jin Huang to one knee.
"You sought challenge," it rumbled. "You have found it." Its hoof rose for a finishing strike.
And then...
The ground beneath it liquefied. Not truly, but an entire section of obsidian had been subtly fractured beforehand. Hei Shisan's earlier flicks of the finger had not been random.
Microfractures webbed beneath the battlefield.
The horse beast's weight triggered them, stone collapsing half a foot.
Just enough.
The hoof came down at the wrong angle, and Jin Huang's eyes flashed. He surged upward, golden energy compressing violently through his spine before exploding through his shoulder. He rammed into the beast's chest and forced it back three staggering steps.
At the same time, Xu Ye shouted, "Left!"
The smoky mid-tier beast struck from Jin Huang's blind side once again, and ran directly into a jagged obsidian spike that had not been there a moment ago.
Hei Shisan emerged behind it with a smirk, having kicked the pillar into place at precisely the right time.
The beast skewered itself, its smoky form finally attaining permanence as it cried out in pain.
"Dirty!" the horse beast snarled.
"Efficient!" Hei Shisan corrected cheerfully before vanishing from sight once again.
Jin Huang laughed and drove his elbow into the wounded guardian's skull, crushing it fully. More beasts rushed in.
Hei Shisan reappeared and snapped his fingers.
Shards of obsidian launched from the ground, not at the strongest beasts, but at the eyes of the weaker ones. Panic spread. Screaming outer beasts stumbled into mid-tier ranks, disrupting formation.
Xu Ye inhaled sharply, "Three breaths!"
Jin Huang didn't question it.
He dropped low as the horse beast charged again, and at the third breath, crimson lightning split the sky.
Hei Shisan had acted at that exact moment. He kicked a reflective slab of obsidian upright at the last instant. The lightning struck the slab and ricocheted.
It did not strike the horse beast directly, but it struck close enough.
The surge of natural energy destabilized its demonic armor for a fraction of a second.
A fraction was all Jin Huang needed.
He drove forward like a collapsing star, golden energy spiraling inward as he punched straight into the softened center of the horse beast's chest.
Once again, the impact imploded.
The demonic energy around crumpled violently, folding inward before detonating outward in a shockwave that flattened dozens of lesser beasts.
The horse beast staggered, its armor flickering. It stared at Jin Huang- at his golden aura- and the two figures manipulating the battlefield from the periphery.
"You… fight like cowards."
Jin Huang wiped blood from his mouth.
Hei Shisan leaned casually against a cracked pillar. "Correction. We fight like winners."
Xu Ye muttered, unheard, and pointed at Hei Shisan. "Mostly him."
The horse beast's breathing grew heavy. "You insult combat, hiding behind tricks. You desecrate the sanctity of battle."
Another shard of obsidian whipped past its eye, forcing it to flinch.
Jin Huang rolled his shoulders and stepped forward again. "I'm here for energy," he said brightly. "Not etiquette."
He lunged, and Hei Shisan popped up near a beast, sweeping a leg and tripping a mid-tier beast directly into the horse beast's path.
Xu Ye shouted another fractured warning.
Jin Huang used the collision as a stepping stone- literally- launching off the fallen guardian's back and slamming both fists down onto the horse beast's skull.
Golden light erupted as the beast crashed to one knee.
All around them, the hordes faltered.
The horse beast stared upward in unrestrained rage. "You have… no honor."
Jin Huang grinned down at it, golden aura blazing wildly in the abyssal rain. "Honor," he said, cracking his knuckles, "won't sate my hunger."
And he struck again.