From every direction, voices rose. “The Lord of Reincarnation is real!” “With a mere gesture, he remade heaven and earth! He’s a real God!”
“We chose to follow the right person at last!” Morven pushed himself to his feet. The sneer that had once haunted his obsidian eyes was gone, replaced by reverence so complete it looked painful. He pivoted toward Malcolm and, with formal grace, bowed in salute. “Mr. Vayne, from this day forward, the entire Ninefold Nether Palace answers only to the Lord of Reincarnation. Command us; through blade or flame, we will not refuse.”
The other old elites, newly promoted and trembling with raw power, echoed the vow, bowing as dutiful children before a beloved teacher.
Malcolm swallowed the chill that still clawed at his heart and let a reassuring smile settle on his lips. “Fellow cultivators, you overstate my worth. Since we’ve all witnessed the power of the Door of Reincarnation, we are one family. Now, let us show the shortsighted what the power of reincarnation truly means.”
His gray-white pupils cut toward the distant silhouette of the Five-Element Range, and a blade of winter light flashed across them. “Issue my order! The army marches at once; we will raze the Anti-Demon Alliance to dust!”
“Raze the Anti-Demon Alliance!”
The cries rolled across the mountains like thunder, upending the clouds themselves.
***
Far within the Door of Reincarnation, in a silent world the color of ash, three ashen humanoids knelt before a Bone Tower that climbed past sight. At the pinnacle, a blurred silhouette withdrew its gaze from the mortal realm and released a sigh so faint it might have been a drifting thought.
“The aura of chaos thickens with every breath of the cosmos… That variable is growing faster than we anticipated. Looks like we’ll have to bring our plan forward,” the shadowed figure said, his voice as calm as a blade drawn in the dark.
“Master, do you need us to take action?” the nearest ashen humanoid asked, its words clattering out like gears grinding in an empty hall.
The blurred silhouette stood silent for a beat, then gave a slow, almost ceremonial shake of the head. “No, it’s not time yet. Let the insignificant beings outside the door claw one another first. When the chaos is ripe, that will be the hour we harvest.”
Pale currents coiled around the Bone Tower in a patient spiral, as though a nest of venomous serpents waited for the moment to strike.
***
Far away in the Five-Element Range, Jared snapped his eyes open, his breath sharp as a knife through silk. A heartbeat earlier, the nascent star anchored in his elixir field had shuddered. Unbidden, his chaotic celestial energy surged, warning of a threat vast enough to drown worlds.
He turned toward the Wailing Soul Plains. The five-colored sigil on the back of his hand pulsed with heat, each throb an urgent drumbeat no one else could hear.
“That aura just now… Is it the true master of the Door of Reincarnation?” Behind him, Blaine and the others had felt that same sky-rending pressure. Every face had gone the color of old ashes.
“Jared, what was that just now?” Blaine asked.
Jared drew a long breath, anchoring the thud of his heartbeat beneath a mask of resolve. “Time is running short for all of us…” His fingers tightened around the Dragonslayer Sword. Fire-steel resolve flashed across his eyes. “Send word… Every ally, every outpost, arm yourselves now. Malevolent Path Hall’s army is already on its way. At their pace, they will be at our gates inside three days.”
The true battle now loomed so close it pressed against the lungs of every defender. Three days—no more than the flick of a finger in a cultivator’s lifetime. Yet for the newly formed Anti-Demon Alliance, those same three days stretched into what felt like three centuries.
Blaine emptied Myriad Beast Valley of every creature still able to fight. Three thousand Ironback Earth Dragons, five thousand Gale Wolves, and eight hundred Thunderwing Golden Eagles gathered into a living legion nearly ten thousand strong. The army split into ten warbands, each commanded by an elite beastmaster. They fanned out to occupy the outer valleys, their roars rolling like distant thunder.
High atop the range, Oswald led nine hundred sword cultivators in raising the Nine-Heavens Sword Array. Nine hundred flying blades hung suspended, their intersecting light weaving a vast net that wrapped the mountains in razor-edge brilliance.
Aurelian rallied every disciple of the Five-Element Sect. Guided by the Five-Branch Elders, they buried three thousand six hundred Five-Element Origin Stones in the roots of the range. Once kindled, the stones would awaken a Heaven-Sealing Barrier five hundred kilometers wide, magnifying elemental law a hundred-fold.
Jared stood on the central peak, eyes sweeping across the land soon to become a slaughter ground. For those three days, he barely slept. He merely waited, sword across his knees, while dawns and dusks bled together. Deep inside Jared’s elixir field, a lone nascent star turned without rest. Each slow revolution drew threads of chaotic celestial energy into ribbons of gold, azure, vermilion, jade, and obsidian.
After merging the five elements into one, he now danced at the knife-edge between creation and oblivion. Yet it was still not enough. The memory of the Lord of Reincarnation, altering heaven and earth with a casual sweep of his sleeve, hung over him like a shadow too vast to escape.
“Report!” A distant sentry’s voice cracked the dawn silence.
A streak of sword light winged in and resolved into Winslow. Landing beside Jared, he pressed one palm to his heart, his face drawn tight. “Our scouts have returned. Malevolent Path Hall is closing in. Their vanguard consists of three thousand Soul Hunters, personally led by the Soul-Devouring Puppet. The main force is three thousand disciples of the Ninefold Nether Palace, with Morven overseeing them. The rear consists of allied forces from various factions. In total, there are more than twenty thousand of them. Malcolm is bringing up the rear.”
“Twenty thousand…” Jared closed his eyes for a heartbeat. “And our side?”
“Myriad Beast Valley can field nine thousand demon beasts. The Heavenly Sword Pavilion can spare nine hundred sword cultivators, and the Five-Element Sect stands with three thousand disciples. Including the wandering cultivators who answered our call, we have fifteen thousand in total… While our numbers are not far apart, they have six High Immortal Realm cultivators, whereas we have only three. In terms of top-tier combat power, the gap is overwhelming.”
Jared opened his eyes and looked toward the eastern rim of the world. There, the sky had not darkened with night but with the tide of bodies surging over the horizon—an unbroken black mass that blotted out the newborn light of dawn.
He turned, letting his voice roll across the Five Peaks. “My friends, do you still remember why we fight?”
For one fragile moment, the mountains stood mute, as though even the wind held its breath.
“For truth!” the disciples of the Five-Element Sect answered first, their cry ringing like bronze bells between the cliffs.
The swords of Heavenly Sword Pavilion rose in flawless unison, their points piercing the cloud-banks overhead. “For justice!”
From the ridges, nine thousand demon beasts of Myriad Beast Valley hurled a thunderous roar skyward, an answer older than language itself. “For life and death!”
Jared nodded once. The Dragonslayer Sword slid free of its scabbard, catching the newborn sun and scattering gold-crimson shards of light across the assembled ranks.
“Then, we fight!”
