After Zun Gon yelled out the order for us to begin using our Core Techniques. Despite everything, a flicker of excitement sparked in my chest. I was about to witness dozens of Core Techniques unleashed for real.

Song Song smiled, and her Qi burst out in a tidal crimson wave. The murderous aura wrapped around her like a living entity. A dark crimson armor formed over her body, its surface consuming the sunlight, and the air around her warped, heavy with murderous intent. Her helmet resembled a demonic crown, with fang-like spikes protruding from the top, pointed at the sky.

A whirlpool of blood formed on her palm, and from it emerged a massive crimson axe. The marble wall beneath her cracked at her feet from its sheer weight.

“Hold one down for me,” Song Song said, her voice distorted by her helmet.

I wanted to argue, but she’d already airborne, and I didn’t want her getting hurt. I activated my Foundation Technique, and time around me slowed, halting briefly to let me think.

I calculated her trajectory. She was aiming for one of the Core Formation beasts that looked like a giant bear.

I targeted it and instantly encased the creature in a translucent jade barrier. Stationary jade armor formed around its body, with flaming chains binding it in place.

The bear froze for a split second. I wasn’t sure if it was confusion or if the array actually worked. My technique didn’t function as well against physically powerful creatures.

Still, it held for just long enough.

The beast swung its arms and shattered the barrier, chains, and array in one powerful motion.

But by then, Song Song was already in front of it. She brought her axe down in a devastating arc. The beast opened its mouth, ready to roar, but it never got the chance; the axe tore through its flesh from shoulder to hind leg. Blood sprayed everywhere, and Song Song’s bleeding curse activated.

The bear collapsed, losing too much blood in an instant.

Without hesitation, she decapitated the beast in a single swing. Its head flew skyward while its body twitched on the ground.

Her Core Technique had an obscene level of attack power. Even beasts known for raw durability couldn’t withstand it if they didn’t defend in time.

But Song Song had struck a beast near the front of the army, and while she killed it, the rest hadn’t slowed. In seconds, she was surrounded.

Shit.

The beasts pounced without hesitation. She swung her axe in wide arcs, cleaving through them by the dozen. Then she spun, twirling the weapon like a whirlwind. A tornado of crimson energy erupted from her, butchering everything in its radius.

Yet the beasts were endless, crashing toward her like a tide. She would soon be buried in corpses.

That’s when a massive Qi surge erupted on our side.

It was the Song Clan Leader. His dark hair swirled as he watched Song Song with a cold, detached, and calculating gaze.

He bit his thumb, drew blood, and leapt from the wall. Landing outside the sect, he slammed his hand against the ground.

A massive pentagram-like crimson array formed beneath him, easily the size of a football field. Two colossal crimson eyes blinked open behind the symbol.

What in the Cthulhu fuck was that?

A titanic serpent emerged from the pentagram, its tongue flickering as it scanned the battlefield with a chill-rending stare. Its gaze landed on the Song Clan Leader, and then as if understanding something, it shot toward the battlefield like lightning.

It was swift for its size.

The serpent slithered through the enemy ranks, dodging flying beasts as they tried to claw at it.

Meanwhile, the Song Clan Leader calmly returned to his position atop the wall.

The giant serpent reached Song Song, opened its jaw so wide it seemed to dislocate, and swallowed all the beasts surrounding her in one monstrous gulp.

But the commotion drew the attention of a more dangerous enemy.

A lion-like beast the size of a cruise ship roared. It opened its maw and launched a barrage of fireballs at Song Song and the serpent.

The crimson snake coiled tightly around her, forming a massive guard. Even in that position, it was the size of a public swimming pool.

The fireballs landed with brutal force, each one a blazing explosion.

The lion didn’t stop. It advanced, step by step, bombarding the serpent and Song Song with unrelenting force.

When it finally stopped, the air was thick with smoke and ash.

The lion roared, clearing the dust with a blast of Qi.

And there stood the crimson serpent, completely unharmed. It had protected Song Song flawlessly.

But the lion didn’t give up. It pounced, each step shaking the earth like a meteor strike.

The serpent was faster.

It uncoiled, struck, and wrapped around the lion before it could blink. Then it struck, sinking its fangs into the creature’s neck.

With the snake moving, Song Song was once again visible, covered in blood but unharmed.

She didn’t have time to rest. Foundation Establishment beasts were already charging toward her.

Meanwhile, red blotches spread across the lion’s skin, like a plague rapidly infecting its body.

The lion roared, shaking its head and body. The snake tried to hold on, but the lion pinned part of its body under one massive paw and yanked away. The serpent lost its grip, tearing off long strips of scaled flesh with a wet, ripping sound as it was forced to release the lion’s neck.

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The two titans circled, battered and snarling. The snake hissed, fangs bared. The lion responded by breathing a barrage of fireballs straight into the snake’s open mouth, blasting them down its throat.

The impact was brutal. The snake plummeted to the ground, the resulting crash so violent it made the entire mountain tremble. It felt like the very walls beneath our feet were about to crumble.

But the lion wasn’t done. It continued hurling fireballs, each the size of a ten-story building.

Boom!... Boom!... Boom!

Seeing this, Song Song finally had enough of an opening to disengage. She darted back, using the snake's collapse as a distraction to escape the beast wave.

She ran toward the wall, moving so fast I could barely track her.

But before she could reach us, a rabbit-like beast slightly taller than a human intercepted her. Despite its fluffy white fur and adorable face, this rabbit was a Core Formation beast.

It was fast. Too fast.

It lashed out with a powerful kick to her ribs, sending her flying through the air.

A crow-like monster swooped down toward her midair, its talons outstretched, ready to rip her apart.

But Song Song reacted quickly. She swung her axe toward the ground, using it as leverage to halt her momentum. The axe dug a deep trench through the earth, slowing her down. Her armor absorbed most of the impact, sparing her serious injury.

I prepared to cast an array, ready to stop the crow before it could carry her back into the beast wave.

But I didn’t need to.

As the crow reached her, Song Song swung her axe backward with brutal force, squashing the bird like a bug midair.

I looked for the rabbit, but it was gone. Completely. Even my Qi senses couldn’t pick it up. That thing was fast. Unreasonably so.

Then Song Song swung her axe downward, and the rabbit appeared right in front of her, sliced in two.

Except it wasn’t real.

The “rabbit” shimmered and vanished—an afterimage. The real one reappeared behind her, launching another kick aimed straight at her back.

Tendrils of blood began to seep from her armor, forming the start of a cocoon to protect her, but the rabbit struck before it could fully form. Its powerful kick landed on her helmet, blasting her away before the cocoon could finish forming.

She was sent hurtling toward the beast wave.

Damn! I have to do something!

I created two translucent jade daggers and prepared to use my spatial slash, the technique I’d developed while sparring with Song Song.

But then I noticed something strange.

A sword of blood pierced through the rabbit’s chest.

Song Song appeared from the half-formed cocoon, the one the rabbit thought had been left behind, and stabbed the beast through the back.

Right. She’d used her armor as a decoy. The rabbit thought it had kicked her away, but she had stayed behind, hidden in her own cocoon.

The armor the rabbit had launched away suddenly exploded. Blood sprayed across the nearby beasts, and sharp crimson spikes erupted from their bodies, impaling many of them on the spot.

The rabbit snarled and grabbed the blood sword impaling its chest, twisting with such force it distorted the ground. Song Song let go of the sword and jumped back.

The rabbit’s Qi combusted outward in a violent pulse, a clear sign it had activated its Core Technique.

But nothing flashy appeared. Instead, its eyes shifted color, turning from their usual dark hue to a burning yellow.

Monstrous beasts were easier to judge by element than humans. A rabbit? It could be grass, speed, or something similar.

The rabbit vanished, even with a sword running through its chest. Any human cultivator would have died from that. Not this thing.

Before Song Song could react, she was kicked square in the chest.

This one's element was definitely speed.

The rabbit’s leg was so massive it covered her entire torso. She flew back, smashing into the outer sect wall with a thunderous boom. Cracks spiderwebbed outward from the impact.

A rabbit with the element of speed. That was going to be a problem. Just like turtles personified defense, rabbits were perfect representations of speed.

Still, at least she was kicked this way and not back into the beast wave where she would’ve been torn apart.

The rabbit stared down at her, and Song Song groaned as she stepped out of the wall’s crater. Blood ran down from her forehead.

She glared at the rabbit with fury burning in her eyes.

“Go to purgatory,” she said, snapping her fingers.

The blood sword still embedded in the rabbit shrieked like a wailing woman, then twisted violently.

Spikes erupted from the blade, shredding the beast’s insides.

The rabbit dropped dead.

Okay. That one didn’t end up being as annoying to kill as I expected.

Song Song wiped the blood from her lip, then winced as a warm trickle slid down from her forehead.

“Damn it,” she muttered and leapt atop the wall, landing beside me.

Her robes were torn, her hair wild, her face streaked with blood. However, none of the wounds appeared to be deep. She forced a regeneration burst with Qi rippling across her skin in sharp pulses as the smaller cuts sealed shut.

“Be careful,” said the Song Clan Leader. His voice was low and cold, his words more ice than concern.

Song Song didn’t even glance at him. She just gave a slight nod.

“That was extremely reckless,” I said, my gaze fixed on the incoming wave and the motionless corpse of the massive crimson serpent, its body sprawled across the battlefield like a broken deity.

Was that serpent his Core Technique?

Before I could ask, the lion, the one that had been brutalizing the serpent’s body, suddenly froze. Its skin now covered in spreading red blotches.

“He’ll be immobilized for about half an incense stick,” the Song Clan Leader said. “Someone with long-range capabilities should finish him while they can.”

“I’ll handle it,” said a Core Elder, an old man with a single long strand of white hair on his otherwise bald head.

He inhaled deeply, and Qi surged from him like a burst dam.

A shimmering figure began to form behind him, a translucent warrior sculpted from glowing copper light. The figure grew until it towered ten stories high, its radiant presence distorting the air around it.

A flickering flame ignited in its massive hand, morphing into a long, curved bow. The warrior reached back, and the very sky shimmered as he drew a bowstring made of fire, forming an arrow that pulsed like a miniature sun.

He let it fly.

The flaming arrow screamed through the sky, vaporizing snow in its path. Trees in the distance burst into flame just from its passage, and frozen rivers hissed and boiled into steam.

It struck true, right into the lion’s eye.

The explosion rocked the earth. The snow within a two-mile radius vanished, revealing scorched stone and steaming ground.

A wave of heat slammed into us, even from this distance.

For a moment, all was still.

Then came the roar.

It shattered branches and sent avalanches tumbling from the mountainsides. The lion reeled, its mane ablaze, fire pouring from its ruined eye like molten tears.

And still. It did not fall.

Despite the inferno raging through its body, despite an arrow lodged deep in its skull, the beast remained standing. It howled, flames licking down its spine, skin sloughing off in blazing sheets.

Holy shit.

A Core Formation human hit in the eye with that would be vaporized.

But monstrous beasts?

They just didn’t die easy.