***


    Outside Earthfire Pavilion, ck clouds sagged so low they seemed to crush the peaks, a city-wide weight of storm and smoke.


    Thousands of Malevolent Path Hall cultivators swarmed like locusts, hemming Earthfire Pavilion in an unbroken ring.


    Each invader wore an ink-ck robe and a snarling demon mask; the weapons in their fists leaked a stench of fresh ughter.


    The entire sky had curdled into dark crimson under theirher aura, choking even the sunlight that dared approach.


    Under the unceasing onught, the defense formation''s protective light shuddered violently, flickering like a candle struggling against the wind.


    Sparks danced where the shield mended itself, yet the wounds only widened with each heartbeat.


    "Hit it again! We''re about to break the formation!" a masked steward shouted as he sent his scarlet sword crashing against the barrier.


    Boom!


    At the impact point, the shimmering dome sagged inward, a fist-sized hole yawning open at its heart.


    The rent sealed itself a breathter, yet the defenders'' spirits plummeted with it, hope drowning in molten stone.


    Everyone knew that the defense formation could notst much longer.


    High above the gate, three ck-robed elders hovered in stately silence, each one a mountain of power no mortal could climb.


    They were none other than the three deputy leaders of Malevolent Path Hall— Soulbane, Bonefiend, and Annihilum.


    Soulbane''s face looked mummified, his crimson pupils sunk deep as dying coals. Sticky red mist coiled around him, and inside that fog floated countless human faces mouthing silent screams no mortal ear could bear.


    Bonefiend appeared next, little more than a skeleton wrapped in ck human hide. His fingers were long and corpse-white, and a singlezy swipe from those bone- bright tips could shear open the fabric of space itself.


    Annihilum was the strangest of the three-no body at all, only a shifting storm of gray vapor. Eyes winked in and out of that cloud, each one glimmering with a cold that made souls shiver.


    Theirbined auras locked together, weaving an unseen prison that swallowed the entire Earthfire Pavilion.


    It was the crushing might of Top Level Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Nine cultivators, like oceans and mountains pressing down, forcing every disciple to gasp for air.


    Soulbane''s rasp scraped across the pavilion. "Ignatius meheart, this is yourst chance. Hand over Gerald Earthfire''s soul remnant and Jared Chance. Do that, and Earthfire Pavilion will be spared from being annihted. Refuse, and we leave nothing alive-not man, beast, or bird."


    Inside the defense formation, Ignatius stood at the fore. His crimson-gold robe, once regal, was soaked dark with blood-some his own, and others from the enemies he had in.


    Behind him, a dozen elders, every one wounded and gray, braced themselves against pain and despair.


    Farther back on the za, fewer than one hundred disciples still clutched weapons; nearly all were bleeding, yet none stepped away.


    After three days of siege, Earthfire Pavilion had paid a heavy price.


    Out of nearly a thousand disciples, fewer than a tenth survived.


    Were it not for the defense formation drawing on the near-infinite power of the Heart of Earthfire, it would have copsed long ago.


    "Dream on!" Ignatius roared, eyes bloodshot yet unbowed. "For three millennia, Earthfire Pavilion has never birthed a traitor. Even if we must fight to the veryst person, we will never yield to your malevolent forces!"


    Bonefiend shook his skull-thin head, voice regretful but eyes knife-cold. "What a stubborn fool. Since you insist on death, I shall oblige."


    He lifted one pale hand, fingers spread, and slowly clenched toward the glowing defense formation. "Bone Hell—Myriad Manifestations."


    A brittle crackle answered.


    The earth convulsed. Tower-thick bone spikes burst from the dirt, each dozens of yards long.


    They writhed like living things, twining into a forest of terror outside the defense formation.


    Then the spikes attacked-ramming, drilling, wrapping.


    Every blow made the light shield shudder, fractures spider-webbing across its surface.


    "Hold the line-do not let it fall!" an elder screamed, his voice raw with desperation.


    Blood essence burned off him in ribbons, feeding fresh power into the trembling array even as his limbs shook from the cost.


    One by one, the elders bit through


    their tongues, and flung blood essence into the heavens. More than a dozen scarlet jets knifed through sank into the defense


    the night loss its crystal


    formation, ring


    dome like blood thrown against ss.


    For an instant, the fractured barrier steadied, trembling but whole. Yet everyone on the ground knew the truth: they had only poured poison into an open wound.


    Burning one''s own blood essence came at the price of life itself. At this rate, in less than an hour, everyst elder would fall like spent candles in the wind.


    Just then, Annihilum''s voice


    slithered into their minds, cold and steeped in dread. "This is all


    pointless you are cornered beasts, thrashing in a cage. End this farce, and will grant you a swift death. Wouldn''t that be better?"


    Before the echoes faded, a billow of pewter mist unfurled behind him. It split into countless hair-fine fments that seeped through the spider web fractures in the array, slipping inside like smoke through cracked stone.


    "Ah!"


    The cries tore from several Earthfire Pavilion disciples as the gray threads coiled around their limbs. Flesh shriveled against bone, life draining faster than breath. One after another, bodies copsed into papery husks.


    Pale souls were yanked screaming from those husks, reeled along the threads, and swallowed into Annihilum''s chest-fuel for his growing darkness.


    "You b*stard!" Ignatius roared.


    He smashed a palm outward, and a tidal bloom of crimson fire erupted, scalding the threads to sour smoke.


    But fresh strands flooded through every new crack-too many, too quick. Despair swept the courtyard like icy surf, drowning even the bravest hearts.


    A young disciple dropped to his knees, tears streaking ash-stained cheeks. "It''s over... We''re all going to die here..."


    Another elder, beard soaked with grief, whispered, "The defense formation won''tst... Mr. meheart, take Princess Lindsay and flee! We will fight to the death to buy you some time."


    Ignatius gave a brokenugh. "Flee? To where? Malevolent Path Hall has gone all out. What makes you think they''ll let us go?"


    His gaze drifted toward the inner peaks, sorrow flickering behind the mes. "All I hope is that Jared and Lindsay slip past this ughter."


    Just then, a sharp, crystalline snap echoed overhead.


    Crack!


    A jagged fissure zig-zagged from the very crown of the barrier to its base, spider- webbing into a dozen more. Soon, the defense formation—pride of Earthfire Pavilion -shattered like iced ss.


    "Kill!" Soulbane ordered, his eyes like twin wells of blood-red light. "Leave no one alive!"


    Thousands of Malefic Path cultivators surged through the broken gate, a ck tide bristling with des, banners, and shrieking war charms. "Kill!"


    Ignatius inhaled, fire wreathing every inch of his armor. "Earthfire Pavilion disciples —stand and fight to the death!"


    The remaining disciples, battered yet unbowed, raised their voices in a single, ragged cry. "Fight to the death!" The vow rippled across the shattered courtyard like


    a final drumbeat before oblivion.


    In that breathless instant, something vast and ancient awakened.


    From the depths came a roar-raw, primal, endless.


    A dragon''s cry, bright as molten brass, thundered out of Earthfire Pavilion''s inner


    sanctum.


    It rang with sovereign majesty, a sound that brooked no challenge, no doubt-a monarch announcing judgment.