The gap in the formation barrier closed behind Qi Wu like a curtain being drawn, shutting the dark red glow of Ten Thousand Demons Return to the Void out of sight.
He continued forward without looking back.
The sounds left behind had already been swallowed by the barrier.
He passed through the narrow passage. The clusters of Demons on either side remained as they were, neither approaching nor dispersing.
Inside the barrier, the four figures had already repositioned themselves.
The third clash between Gale's blade and the bone-spiked figure burst into a brief arc of azure light in midair.
This time, the figure did not retreat. Instead, they forcibly braced against the blade's point of impact. A fine crack spread across the black bone spike at the contact point, but it did not break.
Gale sensed that their rhythm had changed.
In their earlier exchanges, they had mostly dodged, occasionally counterattacking. Now, however, they lowered their center of gravity and pressed forward, like a branch slowly bending under pressure, storing up force to spring back.
Gale neither withdrew her blade nor stepped back.
The blade slid sideways along the bone spike's surface, leaving a scorch mark where the azure flames touched it.
She adjusted her stance, lowering the tip of her blade. Her gaze left the movements of her opponent's shoulder and focused on a single detail:
Before exerting force, that bone spike always drew inward by half an inch.
Gale was waiting for that half inch.
At another node of the formation, Jiang Qingyue's chain had already locked down the third boundary like a taut line, causing the rotating patterns to visibly stutter.
The node caught by the chain tried to break free, but deep purple curse mark patterns emerged on the chain's surface and seeped along it into