The Spiritual Sovereign's paw descended with the slow inevitability of a moving glacier. This was no mere physical strike; it was a surge of Dominant Qi, compressing space itself.
"Shatter!" Mo Xi roared—not with his voice, but through a massive pulse unleashed across his Mana circuits.
Under the impact, the Eclipse Rampart dome contorted. Azure cracks spread across the structure of dark magic. Mo Xi's knees buckled, the astral marble beneath his boots pulverizing. His Inner Tree spun at a suicidal velocity, struggling to bridge the gap in rank.
[ Ye! Inject all your Mana into the central pivot! ]he commanded through their telepathic link.
Ye, at the [Ascending Bud] stage, pressed his trembling hands against the jade scepter embedded in the ground. His elemental essence began to feed the barrier. Sweat streamed down his forehead, evaporating instantly under the heat of energetic friction.
The beast released a low growl—a vibration that rattled the mages' organs.
[ Your tenacity is… amusing. ]
Then, a shadow peeled away from the frost-laden mist, right behind the creature's massive shoulder.
Tanglon.
As a [Major Branch], he had slipped into the blind spots of the Absolute Domain. His body was reduced to a blurred silhouette, his tracker Mana condensed into a strand of spatial wind—thin as a hair.
"Soul-Piercer: Wind Fracture!"
The blade struck the back of the beast's neck. The Qi explosion that followed should have decapitated any lesser predator. Against the Sovereign, it merely carved a shallow line across its frost-coated fur.
Yet, it was enough.
The beast's focus wavered for a fraction of a second. The pressure on Mo Xi's dome lessened.
"Now!" Mo Xi bellowed.
He had no intention of killing the creature. He aimed to break the mountain's Defensive Formation that imprisoned them. With a sharp motion, he redirected his Mana—not toward the beast, but into the ground, seeking the mountain's flux lines.
"Matter Alteration: Terrestrial Dissolution!"
The ground did not simply give way—it liquefied, forming a vortex of elemental energy.
The Spiritual Sovereign flared its nostrils, a denser demonic mist seeping from its horns.
[ You think you can escape my gaze? ]
The creature did not move its paw. It merely released its Crushing Aura. Mo Xi's dome shattered instantly. The shockwave hurled Ye and Mo Xi backward, their bodies slamming violently against the icy walls.
Exposed, Tanglon felt the beast's blood-red gaze lock onto him.
"Go…" Tanglon whispered, blood streaming from his eyes. "Go!"
The Sovereign lowered its pressure, savoring its prey's agony. Pinned to the ground by the Crushing Aura, Tanglon could not even lift his blade. His Mana faded, devoured by Demonic Frost.
"Chief!" Ye cried, his voice breaking. "We have to use the sealed box!"
Mo Xi froze, his jade scepter trembling in his bloodied grip.
"Ye… you know what that means…"
"We can't let Tanglon die!" the younger mage shouted, tears freezing on his cheeks. "His wife… she's expecting a child. He can't die without seeing his son born! We knew the risks when we accepted the Young Master's mission, but… we can't!"
A deathly silence fell, broken only by the void's shrill whistle. Mo Xi closed his eyes briefly, letting out a rough, almost feral laugh.
"Ah… ah ah… You're right, Ye."
He reached into the folds of his ebony robe and withdrew a black metal coffer, sealed with chains of violet Mana. The air around it seemed to scream.
"Once we use this, there's no turning back," Mo Xi said, his gaze turning pitch black. "Our Inner Trees will never be the same."
At the beast's feet, Tanglon's eyes widened in terror.
"Guys… what are you doing…?" he murmured weakly. "Run! Don't do this!"
The Spiritual Sovereign tilted its head, intrigued by the unstable energy emanating from the coffer. For the first time, a flicker of caution crossed its crimson eyes.
[ What is this insignificant toy? ]
"This is no toy, creature," Mo Xi replied as he broke the first seal.
An eruption of Death Essence saturated the air, colliding violently with the beast's Qi. The rising snow turned instantly into black ash.
"This is our death sentence."
Ignoring the blood streaming from his ears, Mo Xi shattered the seals one by one. With each crack, the air distorted, his Luminous Trunk groaning under the pressure of an energy alien to the mountain's laws.
Then—
A pink mist began to seep from the coffer's seams. Ethereal. Enchanting. Not mere vapor, but Soul-Flow Essence so dense it seemed alive.
The Sovereign, irritated, initially ignored it. With a casual swipe of its paw, it sent Tanglon flying like a ragdoll. The [Major Branch] mage slammed into the icy wall, his Inner Tree teetering on collapse.
"TANGLON!" Ye screamed.
But as the beast prepared to finish him—
It stopped.
Its nostrils flared. Its crimson gaze fixed on the pink mist now enveloping Mo Xi. It inhaled deeply, confusion twisting into something darker.
Recognition.
A fragrance of primordial flowers… laced with annihilation.
[ This aura… this jade scent… ]
Within the mist, a silhouette formed. Nine vaporous appendages unfurled behind Mo Xi, stretching like spears of light.
A Nine-Tailed Fox Demon.
Pure jade in color.
It was not a physical being, but a manifestation of supreme Essence. Its emerald eyes locked onto the Sovereign. The balance of dominance shifted.
The Jade Fox released a silent cry that reverberated through every mage's Inner Tree.
"Now…" Mo Xi whispered, his face pale as death. "There's no turning back."
The clash between the two spiritual forces would reduce the mountain peak to dust…
Or not.
The Imperial Jade mist rippled—but instead of retreating, the Sovereign burst into laughter. A sound of pure madness, scraping from the depths of its beastly throat.
"Ah… ah ah ah… AAAAH! My Mistress… my Mistress will be so pleased!" it howled, voice trembling with grotesque excitement.
Its burning eyes locked onto the coffer with ravenous greed.
"You miserable humans… this box… it came from the City of a Thousand Fragrances, didn't it?"
The three mages remained silent. Mo Xi's Luminous Trunk cracked audibly—like dry wood splitting under an axe—as he struggled to sustain the Jade Fox. Ye and Tanglon, exhausted, could only watch the abyss open before them.
"I see. So that's it," the beast muttered, ignoring the nine tails. "That changes things. I was going to play with you… then consume your Essence… Hm."
The atmosphere shifted. The Absolute Domain did not merely press—it contracted violently. The air burned, saturated with bloodlust.
"You will all die."
Then—
The beast began to transform.
Bones shattered within its flesh with a grinding roar. Its ribcage split and reformed. Frosted fur receded into dilated pores, replaced by gray, parchment-like skin stretched over root-like muscles.
Demonic plates burst through its body in sprays of black blood that froze instantly. Claws retracted into long, skeletal fingers tipped with obsidian nails. Its lupine skull flattened, twisting into a grotesque mockery of a human face—lipless, exposing rows of serrated fangs.
Its power peaked.
A wave of absolute darkness extinguished the Jade Fox's light.
This was not a battle.
This was an execution.
In a single instant, a surge of black Qi cleaved through space. The Jade Fox was torn apart like mist. Mo Xi did not even have time to scream—his head separated from his body before his eyes could blink.
Ye and Tanglon never saw death coming. Their bodies were crushed by the kinetic pressure of the beast's movement, their bones pulverized within their robes.
Silence returned to the peak. Thick. Suffocating. Broken only by the wet sound of three bodies collapsing into blood-stained snow.
Mo Xi. Tanglon. Ye.
Dead.
Their Inner Trees—once pillars of power—were now nothing but charred debris, rotting roots within shattered souls.
The humanoid beast approached the corpses with jerking steps, its joints cracking. Slowly, it opened its monstrous maw and inhaled the three Essences—faint orbs of light escaping their chests. It devoured them with a sickening slurp.
Then, it picked up the black coffer, a predatory grin exposing its dark gums.
"A perfect gift for Her."
It stopped.
An invisible barrier—ancient, primordial—materialized before it, blocking the path south. The air trembled, as if the universe itself denied passage.
[ The City of a Thousand Fragrances… I sense you, old man. But you cannot hide forever. ]
Then it vanished into the darkness of the ridge.