The roaring of beasts and the sound of song drowned out all else.
Snarling beasts, leapt, stalked and crawled over one another to get to the enemy. They were a veritable lake of fur and feathers and claws. Yet the shishigui was like an island in that lake, unmoved by the lapping of the waves.
But that was starting to change. Ling Qi could feel it, a burgeoning warmth, the notes of the her own melodies growing stronger and more pronounced, their volume rising. Below her, Ruan Shen strummed his instrument, and a second lute whirled wildly around him, playing itself, a one person duet.
From their supporters, twin flying swords, one carved of rock, the other of steel shot out, and were parried by whips of filth, carving sizzling arcs through the air. Yet, as the armored creature strode forward, a shadowy beast, eyes aglow with the light of spring lashed out, and scored a line across scorched armor with its claws.
Above her, Cai Renxiang's star blazed, and Ling Qi felt her dantian burn. Power rushed through her meridians, and she felt light rush through her. She knew at this moment, that she looked like no more than a wraith of liquid shadow, outlined by burning light.
She sang the Hoarfrost Refrain and the creature slid back on the frosted stone, patches of flesh on it's crossed arms blackening from the cold.
Roots lit by incandescent green light from within erupted from the caldera wall overhead, and the barbarians supporting it nearly crashed headlong as they tried to gain altitude, and instead met the same harsh refrain from a younger voice and missiles of stone and steel.
But the shishigui was hardly helpless. The air darkened and putrefied despite Cai Renxiang's scouring light. Black droplets sizzled and boiled under the radiance but did not evaporate. It burned Ling Qi's lungs with every breath, it sapped her qi, and left her skin itching. She heard the fan wielding girl below her cough, and her breath emerged as a mist of red.
Whips of frothing filth put all other thoughts from her mind. Even as she sang her Hoarfrost Refrain, she was spinning in midair, dodging, flying, to avoid their touch. The lashes had split, two becoming four, becoming eight, becoming sixteen. Ling Qi bit back a scream as one carved across her back, it's acid touch dissolving every defence to leave a line of blistered skin and tattered silk.
Everyone scattered to avoid the lashing tendrils, Ruan Shen scooping up the coughing girl under one arm and vanishing in a burst of flower petals, and the young man shielding himself beneath a dome of stone that burned with Cai's light. Zhengui rumbled and endured. Volcanic ash already drifting from his shell.
But Hanyi fell, her song dissolving into a scream as whip carved through the mass of snowflakes she had dissolved into. Hanyi rematerialized in an instant, clutching her neck and the ugly black welt that stretched across her throat.
The caldera shook with the stamping of paws and hooves, and the air vibrated with roars and brays of reveling beasts, a hundred voices raised not in cheer, but demand. Ling Qi's song rose into the shriek of a blizzard, rising until it became silence.
The Shishigui vanished in an explosion of snow and rime as every droplet of moisture within a dozen meters flash froze under the silence of the End.
The cloud of snow exploded outward. Steam rose from rippling armor of liquid filth that wrapped around the creature like a second skin. Chunks flaked off from it into mounds of filthy slush, revealing unharmed armor and flesh.
Cai Renxiang fell upon him even as he raised a hand toward her. Ruan Shen's melody rose to crescendo, and Cai Renxiang's colorless radiance blazed like a second sun. Liming's spiritual shriek reached such volume that Ling Qi felt her ears ring. Cifeng's edge met the beast's upraised bracer, and the floor of the Caldera shattered, the ground beneath the creature's feet sank downward three full meters, circular cracks and legs radiating outward from the point of impact.
And, deep in the smoke and dust, Ling Qi heard a thump as a single armored claw fell to the ground.
For just an instant, there was silence as the smoke cleared and revealed the shishigui, his right arm severed halfway to the elbow, black blood pouring from his stump. Cai Renxiang hovered overhead, sword already rising again. Ruan Shen and the others stood at the rim of the crater, on your right, and on your left, Zhengui hunkered down, surrounded by a writhing rampart of wood, Zhen curled protectively around Hanyi.
Above only the barbarian musician remained battling a half dozen Argent Sect Disciples, who stood and leaped and fought from the platforms of wood that Zhengui had summoned from the walls.
It was at that point that the sky tore open.
Despite the danger, despite the anger and adrenaline and everything else, Ling Qi found her attention dragged upward, to the clear blue sky above the raggedly torn clouds.
The stars were falling. Ten thousand burning lights lit the sky and drowned out the sun. Her senses burned at the raw power born above her, each one fit to shake mountains and obliterate towns. The pressure that fell upon her, seeking to crush to the ground was so much worse than that day in the tournament, the will of a greater cultivator to kill far surpassing the power unleashed in a spar. The stars fell, and in that moment, Ling Qi knew fear.
She could not escape the light that would cleanse the mountain.
She could not endure the burning heat of the sun
She could not protect even a single thing.
All she could do was die.
A temple gong rang, and a corona of golden light consumed the sky. A tremendous palm, shining like liquid gold, large enough to cup White Cloud mountain it's grip rose into the sky, lightning fast, but made ponderous by it's bulk. The stars fell, and the titan of gold caught them in his hand.
He stood astride two peaks, one foot upon each mountaintop, vast and shining, stretching kilometers into the sky, there was Elder Bei Yongrui. His robes hung open, hundreds of meters of silk trailing from his waist, baring a body that was as thick with muscle as it was with fat. Around his neck, the thick prayer prayer beads he wore had transformed, each one a globe of liquid white flame a dozen meters across. His hands were clasped before him in prayer, and behind him floated one hundred titanic golden hands.
So that was what Gan Guangli was going for, Ling Qi thought absently.
Awareness of her own fight crashed back down as the Elder's presence shielded them from the mind blanking presence of the enemy's elder. Ling Qi's attention snapped back to her enemy, and she saw Cai Renxiang sailing backward, carried on a cresting wave of black sludge only slowly parting before Cifeng's edge.
Even as the world began to shake apart from the clash above, she saw the shishigui kicking his own severed arm up into the air, and felt another thrill of dread as she felt the power gather in the twitching severed limb.
Sacrifice. The shishigui's most powerful arts always involved sacrifice.
Atop Zhengui's shell, Hanyi, still cradling her wounded neck, dissolved, pulled back into her dantian. Around her she felt the disciples activating their defensive techniques. Cai Renxiang's radiance bloomed, and her features were lost, leaving only a silhouette of light as she plowed through the sludge and leveled Cifeng, a great bulwark of colorless light blooming between them and the blooming knot of corruption. Ruan Shen's fingers danced across the strings of his instrument so quickly that they trailed flames, and all the Caldera was filled with flowers and revitalizing qi. Ling Qi channeled the stillness of the lakes, and darkness bloomed as she summoned the Black Mirror.
It wasn't going to be enough.
Ling Qi's mist stirred.
Domain technique unlocked
[] Enlightenment's Unbreaking Mirror: B
Duration: Immediate
In the mist, even truth is blinding. Reduces the damage of spiritual arts within the mist by one rank, applied after other techniques and the user's armor. Enemies attacking the user during activation have their senses seared, reducing all Perception and Hit and Dodge by one rank for a short time.
[] Thousand Year Impenetrable Mist: B
Duration: Short
It is said that in some distant vales, the mist never clears, and the earth has never known the unfiltered light of the sun. Grant all allies within Mist C rank damage reduction against spiritual damage. In addition, affected allies may receive one attack which would remove them from battle and instead be reduced to minimum health
Ling Qi: Moderately wounded, Low Qi
Cai Renxiang: Wounded, Moderate Qi
Ruan Shen: Lightly Wounded, Moderate Qi
Zhengui: Moderately Wounded, Low Qi
Hanyi: Out of Battle