The blood arc tore through the air. At the instant it lunged for the crystal pillar's core, the wound in Chen Wuya's palm suddenly burned hot.
The drop of blood hanging above the crystal vein trembled like a living thing, then silently seeped into the crack. No light erupted, no runes flashed, yet the moment the blood vanished, a line on the floor that had long gone dark quietly lit up. It bent three inches aside, like a misaligned channel, diverting that crimson arc by half a foot.
Boom!
Rubble exploded from the crystal pillar's base. The shield held for only an instant before shattering, but the core node remained completely unharmed. The shockwave sent everyone staggering back. Several guardians dropped to their knees, the true qi within them turning sluggish as a severed stream.
"Qi-Sealing Slash... it's still ongoing," Bai Zhi murmured, planting the tip of her sword against the ground to support herself, her breathing slightly heavy.
Chen Wuya did not answer. He stared at the line on the ground, briefly illuminated by his blood, but a sequence of unfamiliar symbols surfaced in his mind—not writing, nor a diagram of martial techniques, but more like the reflection of some operational pathway. He closed his eyes and tried to grasp it, only to find that the sequence faintly aligned with the circulation of his Misaligned Force.
His eyes snapped open, and he raised a hand to strike the converging array eye on the ground.
Misaligned Force flowed downward in reverse. The Returning Wave Force, meant for defense, was forcibly twisted around and transformed into a tremor that plunged underground. Runes flickered in succession. Several energy nodes the enemy had been drawing upon instantly fell into disorder. Two gray-robed men about to launch a joint attack stiffened; their palm forces