Above the lava pool, heat waves roiled. Chen Wuya's palm was still pressed against the node at the base of the pillar of light, blood seeping through the cracks as his skin had already begun to blacken. Half his body hung in midair; the floating rock beneath his feet had completely shattered, and only the strength of his arm kept him from falling.
Bai Zhi stood at the edge, her sword tip aimed at the guardian, breathing hard. She had just blocked one of his strikes, and her shoulder was still numb. Then, without warning, her ankle tightened.
A jet-black vine burst from the lava, coiled around her left foot, and violently dragged her backward. She lost her balance, her knee slamming into the edge of a floating rock. Her flexible sword flew from her grasp and embedded itself in a crack in a distant boulder.
"A little girl from the Qingfeng Sword Sect—just right for a blood sacrifice." The guardian sneered from above, forming seals with both hands as he controlled the Demonic Vine and made it tighten.
Chen Wuya looked up and saw this. His fingers dug into the node's patterns as Misaligned Force rampaged through his body. He knew he could not keep forcing himself to hold on. His true qi was nearly spent, and his palm had almost lost all feeling. He closed his eyes and deliberately let the remaining Misaligned Force pour backward into his Eight Extraordinary Meridians, sending it where it was never meant to go.
A system prompt appeared:
[Error detected: true qi flowing in reverse, abnormal pathway. Initiating reverse reconstruction...]
A searing heat shot up from his spine and into his right arm. He abruptly raised his hand and hurled the last strand of Misaligned Force through the air into