After a very brief talk with the member of the Great Family, both the Keepers of Groves and the Flood Kings of Shi had departed in search of the worshiper of Primordial Cosmos. To those that had no clue who the Greats were, such a speed of departure when they were previously more than content to sit around and wait might seem strange, but they obviously had some influence in each of the districts. So long as these groups, who were both part of the families they were from, had been told to be prepared for something like this in advance, none of them even needed to question it.

With them gone, the Perpetuals of the Worm being rather far away and seemingly not bothered by the typical activities of the other groups so long as they did not get involved, and the Hammers doing their usual thing, whatever that was, the 7^th Legion had nobody standing in their way of their intentions.

As it turned out, their intention had been to attack, and to do so without a single word of explanation, so it wasn’t even possible for Great Dark or any of the others to confirm whether their reasoning behind this had been due to their false identities, some fault in those identities, or something else entirely. All that they were able to do was stand and fight.

Group movement techniques were powerful and versatile, but one thing that they lacked as a result of their excessive cohesion was a degree of individual flexibility.

Whenever they attacked, it had to be in some way that maintained their flow, whereas individual members of the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and most forces that didn’t heavily employ such extreme movement arts, were able to move separately and act in accordance with their own perception of the situation. Individuals didn’t always make the best decisions, whether as normal people or cultivators, but at that time, it was the best that they could do.

The weakest members of the Arbiters, those in the lower third realm, immediately fled from the front of the battle, for they would do nothing but obstruct those stronger than them, and those that had the ability to fight against the fourth realm power of the 7^th Legion, while Great Dark naturally didn’t hesitate to draw on his power of the sixth realm to push them back.

He lacked Wei Yi’s expertise in an excessive number of topics, so he had no idea whether this had been prompted by something or someone or if it had indeed been their plan from the start, and so he wasn’t interested in killing all of them before there was a chance to ask a single question. Furthermore, while his cultivation was in the sixth realm, he was a little like Yi Shi Ming in that his power was not entirely present when it came to combat, especially when he lacked the proper time to prepare inscriptions and tactics.

Although Great Earth had been the leader of the movement that had then brought about the War of Yin, that did not mean that he had to have been an incredible combatant himself. In fact, most of the capabilities in that field that he did have went to Great Light, who had also inherited any of the brashness that Great Earth had once had tempered by his calmer side, which had become Great Dark.

There had been no real opportunity to set up proper inscriptions without them being potential oddities for the other forces to discover and thus suspect their identities, especially if the Hunters of the Cosmos did not tend to specialise in inscriptions like those used by Great Dark.

Thus, his combat ability was effectively in the upper fifth realm at best, while the 7^th Legion was only in the fourth realm. However, their combat arts and the flow that they had been building up even the previous day, during the brief fight with the Golden Lords that had targeted them specifically, effectively brought their individual power up to the lower end of the fifth realm. When their group combat arts were added into this strange equation, they were effectively able to go against Great Dark on their own, but the presence of the other Arbiters did tip the balance slightly against them.

They were able to focus either on keeping Great Dark from making any moves, defensive or offensive, or land small hits on the others, but they were unable to push the battle in any direction.

Some time into it, a minute or two of struggling, a series of impossibly bright explosions suddenly illuminated not just the Arbiter camp, but every other camp in the area, completely overwhelming the otherwise blinding sun above them as if the very stars had fallen onto them.

For a moment, neither side could stop themselves from looking.

 

Wei Yi, to put it extremely mildly, had never gotten over the first meeting with the Greats, or, more precisely, everything that they had done and led to prior to her imprisonment.

They had likely killed her parents due to them straying from the usual order of the Great Families, they had placed her in a home intended to prevent her from achieving anything, and when she did have the fortune of recovering, they tried to dash her hopes yet again. Just for that, they had burned not only her home, but the homes of all that had any relation to her, and countless other residences just to darken the horizon and the skies.

In the past, her control had been partially tempered by caution. She had been in the third realm, without her full range of abilities, lacking the methods to guarantee her own success. To go against the third generation was already risky, forcing her to make use of such things as the Arrow of Artemis.

That was no longer holding her back.

She knew that she was still no match for the second and first generations of the Great Families, as there was no chance for her to go toe to toe with someone above her realm and with such a nonsensical power as the countless anchors of the Greats, not without another miracle like the otherworldly gift that had defeated Luo Zhong. However, she now exceeded the realm of the third generation, was close to advancing her bloodline power to the second realm, and had a list of methods she could employ that hadn’t been as developed in the past, or were held back in some way.

Thus, in a flash, she vanished from her position at the dune, where the powdered sand burst up and joined the sandstorm a moment after her disappearance.

The moment after, she was already at the wall of anchors, her clawed fingers slashing down at it with the full power of her fourth realm physique, her claws surrounded by bloodline power to inflict even more damage.

In the instant of collision, the entire area about them suddenly became clear of sand, all of it being thrown away by the same force that fragmented the stable barrier created by Ping Wu, although it failed to damage any of the anchors visibly. Not even a second later, her claws had already ignited with the energy of Eclipse Ire, which she brought down upon the anchors in front of her.

At the same time, she motioned with her other hand, which she slowly brought into the killing will state as well as to balance out the current excess of killing intent rampaging within her body.

Dawn light and moonlight exploded from the tips of her claws, throwing the barrier of anchors into complete disarray and breaching past to Ping Wu, who desperately recalled the many anchors to his own position and protected himself with the combination of them and his planar energy. Unlike many of his fellow members of the Great Families, he was not so keen on taunting or threatening, especially when he saw that the start of the battle had not gone in his favour, and so he quickly tried to turn and retreat, only to find countless small totems forming from the sand.

“YOU WILL NOT!” she shouted, her body suddenly being coated in flame and ice, “RISE!”

The totems also turned both white and gold, the one-eyed figures rising from them being echoed by a second set that both seemed to contain a glimmering heart and a star in place of their usual spectral eye. A glowing gold and silver emblem on their chest shone upon Ping Wu, and a moment after their complete manifestation, their illusory skin was coated in dense gold.

Both the typical totem and the Titanic Demolisher replica behind them drew back their flaming left fists, a vast quantity of energy forming up around them as their ethereal states also brimmed with bloodline power, further empowering the mad combination that she had created.

“All of you always wanted to be the lights to guide people, no? HERE YOU GO!”

She, the totems and, under her careful manipulation, the Titanic Demolishers as well as moved at once, punching at the Great Family member who still appeared to be unable to act in retaliation. The vast power instantly formed a ring around him that rapidly compressed, each moment making it more akin to the familiar light that usually illuminated the world. Even without the aid of a weaker world, Wei Yi forcefully manifested a star.

At that moment, Ping Wu suddenly waved his hands, thirty-six points of focused energy appearing around him, before they spun and fired out concentrated and continuous beams.

They shot beneath the gathering star and each cut at one of the totems, piercing the hardened sand easily as they rotated and severed totem after totem, obliterating the vast majority of them in mere moments, the rest only being able to maintain of the previous absolute degree of power that had been forming into a celestial object.

Before they even stopped firing, their target changed to Wei Yi, the Great Family member clearly intending to damage her while the beams were still active, but she merely gathered energy in both of her hands and threw it out, the spheres of cosmic light splitting into countless smaller projectiles that met the beams and scattered them. All that landed upon her body were a few thin strands of the original powerful beam from each point, and while they did make weak incisions into her, she would not be stopped by something that insignificant.

“You are the Rebel, aren’t you! You will pay for your-”

“Isn’t that fucking rich? You are the ones that must pay! YOU! Your fucking families, your bullshit order of the world, all of that shall fall, do you understand me?” she shouted, slamming her Endless Monolith behind herself without hesitation, “If you think you’re strong enough to be speaking, you are wrong!”

In an instant, her power multiplied immensely, the Monolith being twice as effective as a normal anchor, and with the crystalline core around it, all of her forms of energy multiplied in intensity by several folds. Before the Great Family member could do a single thing, she set down a dozen Destruction Brands around herself, vanishing from the spot the next moment and releasing an enormous storm of gold, violet, crimson and silver, all colours of lightning and clouds around it uniting into a mad yet logical cacophony that instantly enveloped Ping Wu, striking his thirty-six anchors every instant that he remained under it.

However, it was not enough to pierce it, nor would it be if he was to remain within it for the rest of its duration, forcing him to expand his spiritual perception to find her location.

Contrary to what he expected, she had not distanced herself, fled, nor did she appear to be preparing a repeat of whatever method had permitted her and the countless totems to call down a star upon him. She had moved to a different direction, effectively rotating around him, and had gotten closer, but the totems were still absent and there was only so much energy gathered around her flaming and frost-covered form. Instead, the very moment that he had attempted to confirm her location, she grabbed something out of the air, directing a great quantity of her own energy into it before throwing it.

Ping Wu might have had a chance against a slower technique, but against an arm that was more powerful than most in the same realm, he could hardly do anything to stop the objects – for there appeared to be several small objects rather than a single one as he had assumed the moment before – so he simply strengthened his barrier at the point of imminent impact and prepared for it.

He had thought that he had a good idea of what kind of damage that would result in, but he was very much wrong.

The instant that the small objects, the metal beads that had been thrown at him, collided, he realised that they were cracking and bursting with immense light from within, one that surpassed even the star that he had nearly been enveloped by, and that was only within one. When all of the small beads were combined together, all of them striking his anchors at a great enough speed to push them back just a little, and when their state finally went beyond cracking, he felt that he already knew his fate.

 

Within a very brief period of time, one right after the other, with the delay only being sensed by the one attacking and the one withstanding it, a vast quantity of cosmic energy erupted from within the metal beads, some made only moments prior.

Explosion after explosion rocked the desert, shattering the cohesion of the storm once more and fully clearing it in a larger and larger area with each new burst of energy.

As the power of the explosion appeared to vary based on the power of the channels and the artefact combined, it meant that the material played a certain part in the final eruption of energy. Wei Yi naturally hadn’t hesitated to infuse every little drop of energy that would fit into the beads as she was making them to reinforce the materials with her Red Shaper’s Grasp, then boost the structure of the only channel inside of it, then using her planar energy to fill the things to the brim. With all of these things combined, she couldn’t say with absolute confidence that this would match most high-grade artefacts, but she remembered exactly how destructive the explosion of the one and only that she had been able to damage so far was.

What she witnessed now was hardly far apart.

Each explosion was of pure cosmic energy, somehow amplified by the structure of the artefact in other to vastly multiply the power that a single drop of her energy could produce, but that also meant that when more and more explosions occurred after another, the energy didn’t simply pass and dissipate, as it might in a regular explosion caused by any number of mundane factors.

Instead, the energy gathered and multiplied yet again, the anchors that desperately tried to keep it out cracking after only three bursts, some shattering with an incredibly satisfying sound after five, and when the tenth bead exploded, she was distinctly able to feel and see thirty-six individual particles of anchor energy floating in the air, and alongside the sudden explosion of sand some distance back, she knew that Ping Wu no longer stood where he had been at the time the explosions began.

Her change in position had been made expressly for the purpose of the displacement, one that she knew would occur whether she broke all of the anchors or not, to launch him into the right place.

The result of her investment was shown only a moment later, when a dozen crimson light shot into the sky then fell back down with the crackling of immense cosmic flame within them. Again and again, the Destruction Brands fell, and the Great Family member had no choice but to withstand each and every strike, his only pride and primary power having been obliterated.

Naturally, she did not wait to see the outcome, but first collected the anchor points, leading her current pool to grow all the way to seven hundred and eighty-two points after the previous killing of the Golden Lords combining with this plentiful bounty.

As soon as she did, however, she rushed around the still continuing explosions and to the brands that repeatedly fell on the frail body of the Great Family member himself, one that was barely still holding on by some miracle. Perhaps it was the result of the time he had to have spent in proximity with his own anchors, or perhaps it was the numerous amount of resources that he had consumed during his years that had built up his body to be stronger and more durable than that of the average person.

Whatever it was, it was either not enough for him to remain focused on doing anything beyond desperately shielding his face and groin from the repeated strikes, or the method that he had previously used to send a message required more than just the will to do so. Either way, she knew that it wouldn’t be good if he managed to send even the most slightest and smallest of messages, so after another series of brand strikes, he grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air, his feet being unable to touch the ground due to the difference in height between him. She also recalled her Monolith, just in case.

She held him there for just a little while, to allow him to see who had bested him in her natural state.

During the battle, as to not waste her mental energy on the upkeep of things that would soon lose their necessity or value, she dispersed everything she had used to disguise herself, and so he could now see her silver eyes, crimson hair, and the killing intent side of her killing will state glaring at him.

Whether or not he knew a single thing about Wei Yi, or if that had been settled by the Great Yi Family alone, she didn’t care and directly asked, “What is Testament?”

“You… shall suffer it in time, I assure y-” his voice could hardly continue to leak out of his worthless throat when it was crushed, breaking his neck with the sheer might of her clawed fingers pressing down upon his flesh.

She allowed his body to fall back onto the ground, reverting her killing will state as soon as she was able to influence it, and collected the ember from his body while it still burned brightly, feeling a small increase in her strength that did not in any way overcome the degree to which she had hated this man, and how she still hated the rest of the Greats with enough passion to easily light the world aflame so long as it had a chance to escape her mind and body.

The moment that she regained a basic degree of calmness, she turned back to the camp and rushed to it, having scanned over it a moment prior only to find things in a rather poor state.

Nobody from her Ascendant’s Arbiters had perished, fortunately enough, but some had endured rather unfortunate wounds that would greatly benefit from some lifeforce to force them to close more quickly, while Great Dark was clearly struggling to figure out the best way to resolve the current conflict. Both of these would be helped by her presence, so she didn’t hesitate to appear.

 

Another weakness of individual forces that could, at times, be a strength, was the way in which individual morale and tactics were very much separate, while those in a group combat technique unified by flow would maintain a roughly equal level of morale and be able to coordinate any individual movement perfectly so long as it was properly maintained. That meant that individual members of the Arbiters would be becoming tired or afraid after a time, but the 7^th Legion did not face the same issue, being able to strike fast and strike confidently whenever they wished to do so.

As a result, over the duration of the battle, they were slowly making more ground as they were uncovering faults in the line of defenders on the side of the Ascendant’s Arbiters, and more and more were getting near to landing some fatal strike on one of the defenders.

At one point, when they nearly landed a proper strike on Great Dark, their united minds almost concluded the battle as being won by their side.

Whatever that explosion of cosmic light had been, it wasn’t immediately going for them, and it wouldn’t help the very Hunters of the Cosmos that should be going against whatever is able to produce such a thing, so the only thing on their minds was the imminent conclusion and victory of the battle, as well as how they would either get away or justify this to the forces that had left into the sands.

It was then that a stygian green light suddenly burst out of the ground between them, forcing the two forces to take a step back just as the 7^th Legion were certain of being able to land a fatal strike on an opponent.

The light quickly grew as the sand it shone through rapidly sank into the ground, revealing a strange dark objects of some unknown material rising from the ground, arriving at the surface as it shook for several moments, seemingly doing nothing of particular note. However, the moment that the legion considered that it might be a reasonable idea to move forward, the top of the black object burst outward, several shapes and terrifying monsters made of blackened bone and darkened flesh rose out of it.

At the same time, several more pits suddenly appeared around them, similar monsters as well as simpler humanoid skeletons and various vermin rising from within and all turning to the 7^th Legion.

They did not need to be told that whatever had summoned those things was not on their side, especially not when that person emerged from yet another sudden pit, this one appearing behind the lines of the Ascendant’s Arbiters, holding a blackened eye.

Although they were not able to recognise her due to the change in her outfit and appearance, the Arbiters would be hard-pressed not to recognise their saviour as being their very leader, Wei Yi, who pocketed the Abyssal Eye the moment that she had been able to confirm that the entities she had conjured would not need nor be able to receive any further commands.

This eye was one of the items that she had purchased at the Chao District auction, and while it didn’t get the opportunity to be used against Ping Wu, whose blood she had long cleaned from her body, it did offer her both the ability of rapid transportation through those strange darkened pits and the tunnels that formed to connect them, and provided her with a small supply of additional, albeit temporary, forces. Each entity was conjured from her killing will, allowing them to vaguely resemble their intended state if manifested through planar energy, but that also meant that they were effectively at the peak of the fourth realm of planar cultivation in terms of their strength.

She had found the time to get changed while in the tunnels, although it did force her to hurry quite a bit.

“Everyone, attack the 7^th Legion! You shall not die at their hands, and you shall not die today!” she shouted, reaching everyone on the battlefield, simultaneously removing another item that she had purchased at the auction from the House of Gold behind her back as to cover up the spatial fluctuations, “The primary foe has already fallen!”

Not all of her Ascendant’s Arbiters had personally seen one of the Greats, nor had all of them been able to tell right away that the person that had entered their camp not long ago had been from such a family, but when she declared that their primary foe in the battle had already perished, they hardly needed to know that kind of thing. All that it meant to them was that Wei Yi was now present, and she alone was worth far more than any one of them when it came to combat.

She said that they would not die at the 7^th Legion’s hands, and so they knew this with absolute certainty, not a drop less.

So, while they got back into the battle, their spirits fully rekindled and the stygian abominations going a long way to assist them with terrifying scythes, claws and teeth, Wei Yi raised the Blistering Tome and pointed it towards the enemy side before opening it up.

The book itself didn’t technically contain a single page, but when it was opened, one part would suddenly break apart and display a page that did not always remain the same, as she had learnt when she tried it out during a bit of spare time some time ago. When any page was chosen, the primary symbol on that page would ignite, and one of a number of effects would occur, ranging from a simple ball of fire being launched to, as she had seen once after a hundred openings of the book, a powerful scorching ray.

This time, the page that she had obtained was decorated with a simple rune that vaguely resembled half of a basic image of a tree united with a lightning bolt, effectively portraying the effect it created.

As the symbol burst into flame, the killing will that she had deposited into the artefact was quickly drawn upon to condense a volley of fireballs, all of which shot out at a slightly different angle, while each being linked by a burning beam that looked to contain enough heat to turn the sand beneath their feet to glass right away.

It struck the members of the 7^th Legion that had chosen to step forward and face the attack directly, blocking it from affecting anyone behind them so that their damage mitigation method could then effectively spread out the wounds and ultimately limit their effects upon them so that they could continue with the battle unharmed. The fireballs exploded, and the line of flame did not hit a single soul, but instead of ending there and then, part of the flaming explosion on each one soldier that had been struck reformed into two fireballs each, these ones still being linked with the flames, and just as the first, they continued onwards, this time flying directly at the next targets.

The 7^th Legion immediately shifted their defences to the line behind the front, but even with their flow such a rushed action led to a slightly inferior layer of protection, while their threats had multiplied.

While the fireballs struck the second line and the links of flame cut into and through some of them, mostly affecting clothing and thinner portions of their body such as fingers, the Ascendant’s Arbiters were hardly standing still, charging in to strike at the weakened front line with greatly improved vigour. They may not have been aware of the details of that item, but they knew that it was a mere artefact. Their boss had yet to place down her Monolith or use one of her own overwhelming techniques, so these were truly insignificant in comparison.

She hadn’t intended for it, but everyone present, Great Dark included, suddenly felt a great motivation to improve, whether to be able to fight on their own and be able to retain their life, but mostly so that they would not simply be worthless in any battles that Wei Yi is forced to participate in.

Once the fireballs exploded once more, their greater force condensed into an even greater quantity of fireballs, all of the previous projectiles splitting into two once again while the flaming links between them cut at them with even greater power and caught a number of them off-guard. Some had mistakenly believed that the first split had to be the last, given that the multiplication of power was already insane then, but they had clearly failed to take a proper look at the rune that created the attack.

Even on the burnt version of it, three distinct layers of branches could be seen on the simplistic tree.

The first two lines didn’t dare to move their wounds onto their allies, for that would only worsen the state of the third line when they received the attack of the flames, but that meant that they had to face the attack from the Arbiters with wounds and a decreased flow between them, dropping their effective combat ability to the peak of the fourth realm.

With that drop, they lost their chance for victory. A number of the 7^th Legion’s members fell at once, whether from the charge of abyssal monstrosities, the Ascendant’s Arbiters, or the last split of fireballs, and the rest were hardly in a condition to persist.

“Surrender right now, 7^th Legion, or else you shall be put down, regardless of your reasons!”

They had no time to reply before another call was heard from the distance, signalled by the sudden flood of water into the area that was echoed by the growth of countless saplings and trees all around them.

“The Hunters of the Cosmos are on the side of the Primordial Deity! Flood Kings, Keepers, we must take them down!” shouted one of the male leaders of the Flood Kings of Shi.