The impact of the Void Touched entity against the Crimson Dawn Sect's defensive formations was unlike anything Yan Kai had experienced. The collision didn't produce a sound exactly. It was more like pressure suddenly appearing inside his head, making his ears ring and his teeth ache. The air itself seemed to shudder, and for a moment the world looked distorted as if he was seeing everything through rippling water.
The outermost formation held for approximately three seconds. Then it shattered like glass, fragments of spiritual energy dissolving into nothing as the darkness consumed them. The entity absorbed the formation's power, growing slightly larger and more substantial with each barrier it devoured.
"Second formation failing!" one of the formation masters called out from his position on the wall. "Third formation engaging!"
The third layer lasted five seconds. The fourth lasted seven. Each subsequent barrier held slightly longer as the formation masters adjusted their arrays to be less spiritually dense, providing less energy for the entity to consume. But the adjustments also made the formations weaker overall, less capable of actually stopping the creature.
Through the chaos of breaking formations and shouted commands, Yan Kai finally got a clear look at what they were fighting. The Void Touched entity was roughly spherical in its central mass, perhaps forty feet in diameter. But it extended tendrils in all directions, each one twenty or thirty feet long and constantly shifting and writhing. The entire thing was made from darkness that wasn't quite solid and wasn't quite liquid. It flowed and moved like smoke, but when the tendrils struck the formations they hit with the force of battering rams.
Eyes covered its surface. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands, appearing and disappearing randomly across the dark mass. Each eye glowed with stolen spiritual energy, displaying different colors that Yan Kai recognized as the elemental affinities of consumed cultivators. Fire element red. Water element blue. Earth element brown. Every shade represented someone who had died feeding this monster.
"Archers ready!" commanded Elder Feng. He stood on the eastern wall coordinating the defensive efforts while Sect Master Hua and the other high-level cultivators prepared their most powerful techniques. "Physical projectiles only! No energy techniques! Fire on my mark!"
Two dozen disciples raised crossbows loaded with steel bolts. No spiritual energy enhancement. Just physical projectiles propelled by mechanical force. Elder Han's research had emphasized this approach—the entity could only consume spiritual and life energy, not ordinary matter.
"Fire!"
The volley of bolts flew toward the entity. Most struck the central mass and penetrated several feet before being absorbed into the darkness. A few hit tendrils and passed completely through, emerging from the other side without seeming to cause any damage. The entity didn't react to the attacks at all, continuing its methodical destruction of the defensive formations as if nothing had happened.
"Physical attacks are ineffective," Palace Mistress Bai observed from her position beside Sect Master Hua. Frost gathered in the air around her as she prepared her technique. "As expected. The entity's physical form isn't truly physical. It's concentrated spiritual essence given shape."
"Then we test the Null Blades," Sect Master Hua decided. "Bai Huang, Liu Wei, Yan Kai. You three advance to engagement range when the last formation falls. Strike the entity's tendrils first to test the weapons' effectiveness. If the blades work as intended, we escalate to targeting the central mass."
"Understood, Sect Master," the three of them replied.
The final defensive formation was cracking now, spiderweb patterns of fractures spreading across its surface. The entity pressed against it continuously, darkness flowing over the barrier like water seeking any weakness. Formation masters were channeling their energy directly into the arrays, trying to maintain integrity for a few more seconds.
"Last formation at ten percent!" someone shouted. "Eight percent! Five percent!"
The formation shattered. For a moment, nothing stood between the entity and the sect except empty air and the cultivators brave enough or foolish enough to fight it.
The entity surged forward, tendrils whipping out toward the wall where the highest concentration of spiritual energy waited. Its movement was faster than before, accelerated by the energy it had absorbed from the formations.
"Now!" Sect Master Hua commanded. "Combat disciples, engage!"
Yan Kai activated his movement technique and launched himself from the courtyard toward the approaching darkness. Beside him, Bai Huang ran with earth-shaking steps, his massive frame moving with surprising speed. Liu Wei appeared to flicker in and out of visibility, his movement technique allowing short-range teleportation.
A tendril whipped toward Yan Kai's head. He ducked beneath it and drew the Null Blade in one smooth motion, slashing upward as the tendril passed overhead. The blade cut through the darkness like it was cutting through nothing at all, meeting no resistance whatsoever. The severed end of the tendril fell to the ground and immediately began dissolving, breaking apart into wisps of black smoke that faded into nothing.
The entity noticed. Every eye on its surface suddenly focused on Yan Kai simultaneously. The attention felt like physical weight pressing against his mind, trying to paralyze him with fear.
Bai Huang's shout broke the mental pressure. "It works! The blades cut clean through!" He had severed two tendrils with his own Null Blade, the massive sword looking almost delicate in his hands despite its two-foot length.
Liu Wei moved like a ghost, appearing beside tendrils and cutting through them before disappearing again. His technique was precise and efficient, never staying in one place long enough for the entity to target him effectively.
But the entity adapted quickly. Instead of attacking with individual tendrils, it began sweeping multiple appendages through the same area simultaneously. Yan Kai found himself dodging three tendrils at once, unable to get close enough to strike. When he tried to cut through one, another would force him to retreat before he could complete the attack.
"It's learning our patterns!" Liu Wei called out. He had been forced back to the wall, breathing hard from the constant movement and evasion.
"Then we provide support," Elder Feng declared. "Formation masters, prepare binding arrays! Combat specialists, draw its attention away from the Null Blade wielders!"
Dozens of disciples surged forward, attacking the entity with conventional weapons and basic techniques. Their attacks did minimal damage, but they served their purpose by dividing the entity's focus. When a tendril turned to swat away a group of disciples, Yan Kai would dart in and sever it with the Null Blade. When the entity concentrated on him, other disciples would attack from behind.
The battle developed a rhythm. Attack, retreat, reposition, attack again. The entity was slowly being cut apart, losing tendrils faster than it could regenerate them. Black smoke drifted across the battlefield, the remains of destroyed appendages creating an obscuring haze.
Then the entity changed tactics. Instead of attacking outward, all its remaining tendrils suddenly wrapped around its central mass, forming a protective shell. The disciples' conventional attacks bounced off harmlessly. Even the Null Blades struggled to penetrate the layered defense, only cutting through one or two layers before being blocked.
"It's consolidating," Elder Han observed from his position in the command area. "Sacrificing mobility and reach for defense while it recovers."
The entity's surface began to ripple. New eyes appeared, these ones larger and more focused than before. They opened one by one, each revealing a different elemental color. And then beams of pure spiritual energy erupted from every eye simultaneously, shooting in all directions like a explosion of deadly light.
"Shields up!" Bai Huang roared. He positioned himself in front of a group of weaker disciples and activated his strongest defensive technique. A barrier of golden earth element energy appeared, absorbing three different elemental beams. The force of the impacts drove Bai Huang to one knee, but his defense held.
Yan Kai twisted between two beams, feeling the heat from a fire beam and the cold from an ice beam pass within inches of his body. Other disciples weren't as fortunate. A water element beam struck a Flowing River disciple in the chest, piercing completely through and dropping him instantly. A lightning beam caught two Shadow Wind scouts who were too close together, killing both before they could react.
The beam attack lasted only five seconds, but in that time twelve disciples died and twenty more were wounded. The entity's defensive shell unwrapped, revealing that its central mass had grown larger by consuming the spiritual energy from its own attacks. It had used the beams to create distance and opportunity to feed on the ambient energy released by dying cultivators.
"This isn't working," Chen Wu said breathlessly. He had pulled back to the secondary line with other disciples, all of them looking shaken by the sudden casualties. "We're losing people and barely hurting it."
"Sect Master, we need to escalate," Elder Feng called out. "Permission to commit elder-level cultivators?"
Sect Master Hua had been observing the battle carefully, analyzing the entity's capabilities and weaknesses. "Granted. Palace Mistress Bai, Ancestor Wu, and I will engage directly. All other elders maintain formation support and protect the disciples. Do not sacrifice yourselves unnecessarily."
The three highest-realm cultivators stepped forward. The spiritual pressure they released made the air feel thick and heavy. Disciples automatically moved away from them, creating space for techniques that would be devastating to friend and enemy alike at close range.
Palace Mistress Bai moved first. She gestured gracefully, and the temperature dropped so rapidly that frost appeared on every surface within a hundred feet. The moisture in the air crystallized into countless ice particles that hung suspended, glittering in the sunlight. With another gesture, the ice particles all shot forward simultaneously, forming a solid wave of frozen projectiles that struck the entity like a avalanche.
The ice wasn't enhanced with spiritual energy in the traditional sense. It was actual physical matter created through spiritual manipulation but maintained through natural forces. The entity couldn't simply absorb it. The frozen wave crashed against its surface, and for the first time, the creature recoiled.
Ancestor Wu's attack came next. Unlike the spectacular ice technique, his approach was subtle. Shadows that had been lying naturally across the ground suddenly came alive, reaching up like hands to grab the entity's tendrils. The shadows weren't spiritual energy constructs either—they were manipulated absence of light, physical phenomena given temporary animation through masterful technique.
The tendrils struggled against the shadow binding, thrashing and pulling. But for every shadow that broke, two more appeared to replace it. Ancestor Wu's wizened face showed intense concentration as he maintained the technique, his centuries of experience allowing him to perform feats that should have been impossible.
Sect Master Hua attacked last, and her technique was the most impressive. She raised both hands, and the ground beneath the entity cracked open. Magma erupted from the fissure, genuine molten rock from deep underground brought to the surface through earth element manipulation. The superheated stone splashed against the entity's lower surface, sticking to it and burning with intense heat that made the air shimmer.
The entity shrieked. The sound wasn't audible in normal terms. It resonated directly in everyone's minds, a scream of anger and pain that made disciples collapse clutching their heads. Yan Kai managed to stay on his feet, but his vision blurred and his ears were bleeding from the psychic assault.
"It can be hurt!" Sect Master Hua's voice cut through the mental interference. "Physical phenomena maintained through cultivation but not purely spiritual in nature! Continue the assault!"
Other elders joined the attack. Elder Feng created a windstorm using air pressure differentials rather than pure spiritual wind techniques. Elder Meng from Silver Moon Sect manipulated existing rock formations to crush against the entity from multiple angles. The Golden Lotus Sect's highest elder focused concentrated sunlight into beams that burned with actual heat rather than spiritual fire.
The entity was being damaged now, truly damaged. Portions of its surface were flaking away, unable to regenerate as quickly as they were destroyed. Its movements became more desperate and less coordinated. Several times it tried to retreat toward the ruins, only to be blocked by walls of ice or stone.
But the entity wasn't defeated yet. As its situation grew more desperate, it began taking greater risks. A massive tendril shot out with blinding speed, wrapping around Elder Feng before anyone could react. The elder struggled, channeling his energy to break free, but the tendril constricted tighter.
"No!" someone screamed. Multiple disciples rushed forward to help, but they were too far away.
Yan Kai was closer. He didn't think, didn't calculate odds or consider consequences. He simply moved. Three steps to build momentum. A leap that carried him fifteen feet into the air. And a downward slash with the Null Blade that severed the tendril completely, dropping Elder Feng to the ground gasping but alive.
The entity's attention fixed on Yan Kai. Every eye turned toward him, and he felt the full weight of its malevolent intelligence focusing on him specifically. A dozen tendrils converged on his position simultaneously.
He couldn't dodge them all. He knew that even as he tried. But then Bai Huang was there, his defensive techniques creating a barrier that blocked half the tendrils. And Liu Wei appeared beside him, his blade cutting through three more. And Chen Wu charged in from the side, his broad sword deflecting one tendril just enough to make it miss.
"Nobody fights alone!" Chen Wu shouted. "That's what being part of a team means!"
Liang Shu activated a formation she had been preparing, creating a barrier that trapped several tendrils in place for three crucial seconds. Jiang Mei's detection abilities warned everyone of attacks before they landed, her shouted directions allowing disciples to dodge strikes they couldn't see coming.
The battle transformed. It was no longer elders fighting while disciples watched. It was everyone fighting together, each person contributing what they could. High realm cultivators delivered devastating attacks. Low realm cultivators provided support and created openings. The Null Blade wielders struck at critical moments when gaps appeared in the entity's defense.
Slowly, gradually, the entity was being destroyed. Its central mass was less than half its original size now. Only a dozen tendrils remained, and those were ragged and weakened. The eyes covering its surface were dimming, the stolen spiritual energy within it being exhausted faster than it could consume more.
"Final assault!" Sect Master Hua commanded. "All forces, maximum effort! End this now!"
Yan Kai channeled the last of his spiritual energy into his movement technique, launching himself directly at the entity's central mass. Bai Huang ran beside him, and Liu Wei flickered in and out of visibility as he teleported forward. All three Null Blade wielders struck the entity simultaneously, their weapons plunging deep into its core.
The entity convulsed. Its remaining tendrils whipped wildly in all directions, no longer controlled or purposeful. The eyes across its surface began exploding one by one, releasing bursts of different elemental energies. Its shriek echoed in everyone's minds again, but this time the sound was filled with desperation rather than rage.
Palace Mistress Bai encased the entire entity in ice. Sect Master Hua surrounded the ice with molten rock. Ancestor Wu bound the whole mass with shadows. The three highest realm cultivators poured their remaining power into a combined sealing technique, creating a prison that would hold even if the physical barriers failed.
For ten seconds, nothing happened. The entity struggled within its prison, darkness pressing against ice and stone from every angle. Then, slowly, the struggling weakened. The pressure decreased. The stolen eyes stopped glowing one by one, their light fading like candles being extinguished.
Finally, silence. The entity stopped moving entirely. Its physical form began breaking apart, dissolving into black smoke that dispersed on the wind rather than reforming. Within minutes, nothing remained except scorched earth, broken formations, and exhausted cultivators.
"Is it dead?" someone asked quietly.
"Yes," Elder Han confirmed. He had been monitoring the battle with detection techniques. "The spiritual signature is gone completely. The entity has been destroyed."
A cheer went up from the assembled disciples and elders. Not a triumphant battle cry, but a relieved celebration of survival. People hugged each other, laughed, cried, or simply collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
Yan Kai stood with the Null Blade still in his hand, breathing heavily. His entire body ached. His spiritual energy was completely depleted. Blood ran from his nose and ears from the psychic shrieks. But he was alive. They were alive.
"Final casualty count," Sect Master Hua said, her voice carrying despite her obvious fatigue. "Report."
Elder Feng consulted with several other elders who had been tracking the battle. "Twenty-three disciples dead. Forty-one wounded, seventeen critically. Three elders seriously injured but stable. Overall... we lost fewer than I feared."
"Every death is one too many," Sect Master Hua replied. "But yes, it could have been far worse. We'll hold a memorial ceremony tomorrow for the fallen. Today, we focus on healing the wounded and securing the area. I want detection arrays monitoring for any residual corruption. Formation masters, check the defensive arrays for damage. Everyone else, rest and recover."
Yan Kai felt a hand on his shoulder. Elder Tian stood beside him, looking proud despite his exhaustion. "You fought well today. All of you did. The Silver Moon Sect will hear of your bravery and skill."
"Thank you, Master." Yan Kai's voice came out hoarse. "But I feel like I barely contributed anything. The elders did most of the actual fighting."
"You saved Elder Feng's life. You wounded the entity at critical moments. And you showed every younger disciple that courage and teamwork matter more than cultivation realm." Elder Tian smiled slightly. "That's a significant contribution."
Chen Wu walked over, supporting a limping Jiang Mei. Liang Shu followed, her normally immaculate robes torn and dirty. Bai Huang appeared from another direction, his armor dented and cracked. Liu Wei materialized from the shadows, bleeding from a dozen small cuts.
They stood together in silence for a moment, these cultivators from different sects who had fought side by side against a threat none of them had been prepared for.
"We should do this again sometime," Chen Wu said, then laughed at his own absurdity. "Actually, no we shouldn't. Let's never do anything like this ever again."
"Agreed," Liang Shu said emphatically. "One ancient monster per lifetime is quite sufficient."
But even as they laughed and joked, Yan Kai felt something strange happening in his body. A warmth that started in his chest and spread outward through his meridians. It wasn't painful exactly, but it felt wrong somehow. Foreign. Like something that shouldn't be there had taken root inside him.
He dismissed the sensation as exhaustion and spiritual energy depletion. After a battle like this, strange feelings were normal. Everything would return to normal with rest and recovery.
He had no way of knowing that the warmth in his chest was the beginning of something that would change his life forever.
Deep within him, in a place beyond his ability to perceive, a single drop of purple blood that had splashed onto him during the final attack was slowly beginning to merge with his spiritual core.