"You disturbed my long slumber."
The echoes of those words had yet to fade through the secret realm when Chen Wuya's pupils contracted. He nearly instinctively growled, "Attack!"
Before his words had even fallen, Bai Zhi had already leapt forward with her sword. Her figure skimmed over the ground like wind, her blade tracing a chilly arc as it shot straight for the beast's right eye. Mo Feng followed close behind, his folding fan tapping rapidly against the ground. Moisture seeped from the cracks between the stones, gathering into a dense web of mist in the air. It obscured their sight even as it silently crept toward the beast's feet.
The three descendants of the guardians flanked it from both sides. One swung his blade at the joint of its hind leg, while the other two charged forward shoulder to shoulder, their palm force striking in unison at the old wound on its flank. Battle intent blazed in their eyes, as if that previous blow had truly exposed a flaw in this colossal creature.
Chen Wuya did not immediately follow up. Standing at the edge of the ruins, he slowly gathered Misaligned Force in his palm, yet held back from releasing it. He stared at the crack along the beast's left abdomen—black blood was still seeping out, but at a painfully slow rate, as if suppressed by some invisible force. What weighed on his heart even more was that the scales around the wound were visibly thickening and hardening.
"It's healing," he murmured.
But no one heard him.
Seven attacks landed almost simultaneously.
Bai Zhi's blade grazed the corner of the beast's eye, only to be knocked away by an invisible barrier. Her sword hummed and shook, numbing the web between her thumb and forefinger. The palm force of the