Jin Huang's fists buried into the horse beast's skull, and instead of a simple detonation, his golden aura compressed inward like a starving vortex. The demonic armor that had wrapped the creature in crackling darkness peeled away in strips, dragged screaming into the spiral of light.
The horse beast thrashed, hooves gouging trenches into the obsidian plain.
"You will not desecrate--!"
Jin Huang headbutted it mid-sentence.
The crack resounded like a bell struck by a hammer.
Hei Shisan appeared above them, upside down for no reason other than dramatic flair, and drove his heel into the back of the horse beast's knee. The joint snapped sideways.
"Sorry, buddy," Hei Shisan grinned.
Xu Ye called out, "Two heartbeats!"
Jin Huang didn't ask why. On the second heartbeat, he shifted his weight and wrenched his arms outward. The golden spiral tightened to a pinpoint at the horse beast's chest, right where the lightning had destabilized it before.
Then he inhaled, the demonic energy tearing free.
Not gently or cleanly. It ripped out of the horse beast in a violent stream, howling as it was dragged into Jin Huang's nostrils and mouth. The beast's massive body convulsed as cracks spread across its obsidian armor.
"You…" it rasped again, but this time there was no fury left in it- only dismay.
Jin Huang's grin widened, eyes shining like twin suns. "Yes. Me."
He drove one final punch downward, caving in the beast's skull.
The horse beast collapsed and, for half a breath, the battlefield was silent.
Then the mid-tier beasts broke.
A clawed guardian backed away, trembling, then another turned and fled. The outer beasts followed in chaotic waves, trampling each other in their desperation to escape. Thousands scattered across the obsidian flats, vanishing into cracks and protrusions, dissolving into smoke.
There was no rallying cry, no seeking of vengeance.
Just fear now that the strongest of their number had perished.
Jin Huang stood in the center of the devastation, golden aura flaring violently as he absorbed the final remnants of the horse beast's demonic energy. The power was thicker than anything he had taken in before- denser and older.
His bottleneck trembled, and the ground responded. A deep vibration rolled outward from the heart of Obsidian City.
However, this was not any tremor. It was a heartbeat.
The shallow descent of land around them- like a vast basin carved from ancient impact- shivered as if something colossal had shifted its weight beneath the city's foundations.
Obsidian spires throughout the city hummed in resonance. Cracks along the ground glowed faintly with inner darkness.
Xu Ye's pupils flickered with fractured light before he recoiled sharply, then ran out of hiding to join the others.
"I can't see past that," he said hoarsely upon arrival. "It can only be the Old Ones. Their karmic power overshadows my own."
Hei Shisan folded his arms, standing side by side with the panting Jin Huang and Xu Ye who was likely wishing for a bed.
"Then we stand together against the Old Ones. Eh, Number Fourteen?"
Jin Huang shook blood from his fists and spat some out, too.
Another vibration came, heavier, carrying sound with it.
Carrying a voice- no- two voices, layered over each other like grinding mountains.
"Golden... one..."
"Come."
The air thickened instantly. From the heart of Obsidian City, massive silhouettes shifted behind the forest of black towers. Titanic things moved slowly- deliberately.
"Come. Speak with us."
The command was less of a command and more of a law. At this point, they were at the mercy of those who spoke.
Jin Huang's aura reacted immediately, his golden energy surging forward instinctively, drawn like iron to a lodestone. The demonic energy in the atmosphere bent toward the city's center in spiraling currents.
Hei Shisan's smile faded for once- not into fear, but into sharp calculation.
"We have no choice now," he said quietly.
Xu Ye smiled wryly, knowing that Hei Shisan was right but still asking, "You sure?"
Hei Shisan gestured excitedly toward the titanic shadows beyond the city spires. "After you, Number Fourteen."
Another thud shook the basin. The city itself seemed to bow as those gigantic beasts stirred.
Xu Ye rubbed his temples, grimacing. "I tried to look, just now. Anything related to them…" His voice tightened. "It's like staring into a sun made of knives. I'm not strong enough. Not yet."
Hei Shisan glanced at him sideways. "Good. Remember that feeling for future reference the next time you decide to slack off."
A silent tear fell from Xu Ye's eye.
Jin Huang wiped blackened blood from his jaw, still staring into the heart of the city that they were slowly approaching. His breathing had changed without him intending it to.
It was both slower and hungrier, more intent on getting as much as it could in a single breath.
The demonic energy he had just absorbed was already stabilizing and condensing, pushing his cultivation forward. Yet, compared to what was calling him now… that energy might as well have been crumbs.
The voices rumbled again.
"So... Yongqi Mojun has perished... at your hands."
The last words rolled outward like a ruthless accusation, and Jin Huang forget his hunger for a moment.
Around them, the last fleeing beasts vanished into crevices and shadow. Now, nothing and no one stood between Jin Huang and the heart of Obsidian City. They were practically upon it, the thick miasma obscuring vision but giving way to the enormous, indiscernible shapes ahead.
Hei Shisan cleared his throat, "Just to be clear, Old Ones," he made a grand gesture toward Jin Huang, "This was all his idea."
Jin Huang shot him a look and they both had to stifle their laughter.
Xu Ye stared toward the distant silhouettes, his eyes useless for the first time since they came. Only now was he beginning to feel unease. "I am just an innocent bystander. I was dragged into this."
Jin Huang cracked his neck and kept walking forward. Each step led to his golden aura diminishing bit by bit, almost vanishing by the time they approached what felt like the center of the entire city.
He flexed his hands, feeling the last bit of the horse beast- Yongqi Mojun's- power settle within him.
To his left, Hei Shisan strode up to the center grin returning in full force. Xu Ye exhaled shakily, and arrived at his right.
Mere feet ahead of them, two enormous somethings shifted again, their movement alone sending space itself into nigh-disarray. Their bodies felt the threads of reality straining to contain the gigantic beasts ahead of them.
The worst part of the experience, however, was that no matter how hard they looked, they could only vaguely perceive the Old Ones that were surely standing in front of them.
Again came their ancient and terrible voices.
"Tell us your name, Golden One."