Xiangyin intercepted one returning cultivator and forced him away from the center with her spear. Yueru and Ziyue kept another pair occupied long enough that they could not reach their commander, while Lianhua used Cloud-Sundering Steps to cross the final connection and cut through it with Voidpierce Sword Sutra.
The General was forced to release his attack with fewer supporting elites than intended.
The strike was still powerful enough to tear through the road. Haotian entered its range instead of withdrawing with the mixed formations, caught the supporting structure of the attack through the Dao of the Universe, and used Dragon Vein Collapse against the relationship between the General's body, weapon, and circulation. The General resisted much of the disruption through superior cultivation, but the attack lost enough of its line that it struck beside Haotian rather than through him.
Haotian remained close and used Seraph Shatter Palm against the General's defense. The barrier did not collapse immediately, but the force pushed him backward and forced him to redistribute cultivation around the damaged section. Lianhua and Yinxue reached him during that adjustment, one attacking the relationship supporting the barrier and the other striking where the defense shifted to compensate.
The General managed to turn away from the worst of the combined attack, but Xiangyin's spear reached his side before he regained his stance. The point struck through part of his protection and opened the first meaningful wound beneath his armor. Yueru's Lightning entered the damaged area before the circulation around it stabilized, and Ziyue attacked the same weakness from another angle.
The General forced them back with a burst of cultivation but emerged injured and farther from several of his remaining elites.
He began looking north more frequently after that.
The next defensive formation remained incomplete, but reaching it would at least give him access to more soldiers and formation support. Staying in the road while the family continued stripping away his elites would eventually leave him alone.
The withdrawal began gradually through several exchanges. The General gave ground while trying to keep Haotian far enough away to open a route north. Lianhua repeatedly moved across that path rather than trying to stop him physically, forcing him to change direction whenever the Voidpierce Sword Sutra threatened the route he intended to use. Yinxue and Xiangyin controlled the next available openings, while Yanfei used Frostfire across one damaged side road and made another possible escape slower than he could safely accept.
Yueru and Ziyue remained on the remaining approach.
The General could still move, but every direction required him to fight through one or more members of the family while Haotian stayed close behind. His elites attempted to reconnect several times, yet most were already fighting coalition cultivators or had been forced onto different streets. Some withdrew independently once reaching their commander required crossing too much of the coalition front.
Haotian continued pressuring him without forcing an immediate finish. By that stage, the General's defense had already been weakened through repeated attacks and his ability to move freely had been reduced. When he finally turned and launched another heavy strike to open the northern road, Haotian entered before the weapon reached full power, struck his arm, and followed with Fist of Ruin against the damaged defense around his torso.
The barrier broke.
The General twisted away from the center of the strike, but there was no longer enough protection to absorb what followed. Lianhua cut across his exposed side with Voidpierce Sword Sutra, Yinxue struck the same damaged area before he recovered, and Yueru's Lightning entered through the broken armor and disrupted his circulation again. Ziyue opened another wound as he tried to turn away, and Xiangyin's spear drove him back toward Haotian.
Haotian stepped into the opening and struck him again with Fist of Ruin.
There was no intact barrier between the technique and the General's body. The impact passed through the damaged armor and collapsed his remaining defense, sending him backward onto the broken road. Haotian checked him through the Dao of the Universe and confirmed that the strike had ended his life before returning his attention to the larger battle.
The surrounding fighting had never stopped.
Several of the General's elites continued resisting after his death, but they no longer had a commander around whom they could reform. Lianhua, Yinxue, Yueru, Ziyue, Xiangyin, and Yanfei returned to the main advance while the mixed legions dealt with the remaining groups. Those elites who could withdraw did so with the ordinary formations moving north, while others were overwhelmed before they could reorganize.
The death of the Demon General did not cause the demonic soldiers throughout nine o'clock to panic. Local officers continued giving orders, companies withdrew when positions became untenable, and formation specialists tried to preserve whatever systems they could before abandoning them. The practical difference was that the strongest cultivators who might have stabilized the next defensive line had already been committed around the General, and many of them were now dead or scattered.
The unfinished defensive position farther north was abandoned before the coalition reached it. Formation specialists shut down what sections they could and withdrew with local companies rather than remaining around a system that had not been fully connected. Veridian cultivators checked the abandoned structure as the coalition approached and identified which active sections still posed a threat. Those portions were destroyed, while the rest were ignored.
The Second and Sixth Mixed Legions continued north.
Fresh Sixth Legion teams increasingly moved into the front as companies from the Second reached the limits of what they could sustain. Shuyue supported that rotation from deeper in the formation, helping exhausted cultivators stabilize their circulation and leave the front safely. Liora and the other healers received a steady number of wounded but did not face the sudden mass casualties that would have occurred if the demons had managed to hold the coalition in place for a prolonged battle.
The defenses farther through nine were weaker after the General's death because the sector no longer had enough concentrated strength to establish another large position immediately. Demonic companies still occupied intersections, military buildings, and surviving formation stations, but most withdrew once the coalition reached them with greater numbers. Those that remained used terrain and existing defenses to buy time rather than attempting to defeat the entire army.
Haotian continued treating only obstacles that interfered with the advance.
An active formation station supporting ranged attacks from an elevated platform was destroyed because it could strike the mixed legions from behind if left intact. A local command relay inside a fortified building was attacked by one mixed company and several specialists after the Dao of the Universe revealed that it was still coordinating withdrawing forces throughout the surrounding streets. Once that relay failed, nearby demonic companies became even more dependent on officers physically reaching one another.
Other structures were left alone.
The coalition had no reason to clear every barracks, storage building, or abandoned defensive post in nine. The purpose of the assault remained to break the stronghold's ability to fight as one military base, not to spend hours occupying empty structures while the remaining demons regrouped elsewhere.
One supply compound farther north was abandoned before the coalition arrived. The demons removed what they could and destroyed part of the remaining stock, but they had left quickly enough that damaged equipment and ordinary military supplies remained scattered through several storage areas. Coalition officers marked useful material for later recovery and ordered unfamiliar abyssal resources left untouched or destroyed.
The main army did not stop.
At the captured junction farther south, the six-o'clock force continued attacking the coalition rear. Its commander had committed enough troops to keep several mixed formations engaged, and one outer road changed hands more than once during the fighting, but the demons still had not reached Xuanyin's command depth or the protected healer formations. Their original purpose had been to help close the coalition between six and nine. By the time they were fighting seriously for the junction, Haotian had already driven the main body well beyond the place where that pincer could have formed.
Xuanyin followed both fronts through the reports reaching her command position. Nine's markers kept moving north or disappearing as formations were destroyed, while the six-o'clock battle remained concentrated around the same southern approaches. When confirmation arrived that the Demon General had been killed, she updated the map and ordered the rear formations to continue holding their existing positions rather than trying to advance against six.
The coalition did not need another offensive behind Haotian. It needed six to remain where it was.
The rear formations therefore continued giving ground only when necessary, rotating fresh companies into threatened roads and refusing to pursue whenever the demons withdrew to reorganize. That prevented the six-o'clock force from drawing them into the damaged region around seven and kept the route back toward eight under coalition control.
The coalition's progress through nine became easier to maintain as the last substantial defensive groups in the sector began withdrawing. The mixed legions were still tired, wounded cultivators continued moving toward the healers, and the road behind the advance had to remain guarded against six, but the demons immediately ahead no longer possessed enough strength to stop the army in place. Most surviving companies chose to preserve themselves by giving ground through the deeper streets, leaving smaller groups to protect intersections, damaged formation stations, and routes used by their wounded.
Haotian did not change the coalition's method simply because the resistance had weakened. The Second Mixed Legion continued rotating companies that had spent too much cultivation, while the Sixth moved more fresh teams into the leading layers without trying to replace the entire legion at once. Umbrel cultivators checked the roads the demons abandoned, Celestara fighters kept watch over elevated positions, and Veridian specialists examined underground openings only when they presented a direct threat to the formations above.
That prevented the army from becoming trapped in clearing territory it had already rendered useless. Several barracks remained occupied by small groups of demons who withdrew through secondary exits rather than contest the main army, and Haotian allowed them to go when pursuing them would require turning companies away from the northern route. Other defenders stayed long enough to fire from upper floors or activate isolated formations, but nearby mixed teams suppressed them while the body of the coalition continued forward.
The main family remained close to the leading formations. Lianhua and Yinxue stayed toward the western side of the road, where surviving formation relationships and narrow military streets still gave defenders opportunities to interfere with the advance. Yueru and Ziyue worked nearer the eastern side, while Xiangyin and Yanfei remained close enough to the center that either could reinforce whichever portion of the mixed formation encountered heavier resistance.
Tianlan had moved slightly deeper after the fighting around the Demon General. His forearm remained functional, but the accumulated strain had become strong enough that he no longer treated it as background discomfort. He kept the spear in both hands and used ordinary thrusts and short defensive movements when necessary, allowing the two Frost Rainbow Falcons and the Celestara cultivators above to handle most threats that did not directly reach the army.
Haotian noticed the reduced activity when the coalition passed another intersection.
"You are staying farther back."
"The arm is getting sore," Tianlan said. "I can still fight, but I am not going to keep forcing the larger techniques."
"Good. Stay where you are and let the Falcons carry more of the aerial pressure."
"I was already planning to."
Haotian left it there. There was no reason to remove him from the formation while he was controlling the injury responsibly, and no reason to encourage unnecessary strain.
Ahead, another demonic company attempted to hold a narrow military intersection long enough for several wounded groups to withdraw through the northern road. The position had one surviving barrier node and a small formation of shielded cultivators, but the defenders lacked the depth required to reinforce the line once it was pressured. Haotian studied the arrangement only briefly before leaving the engagement to the mixed legion.
Blue Sphere anchors advanced first and absorbed the barrier pressure while Marephoros cultivators stabilized the uneven road beneath them. Pyrelith fighters concentrated their attacks on the section where the shielded line had become too dense, and Umbrel cultivators prevented a smaller group from using a nearby alley to strike the coalition's side. The defenders held long enough for most of their wounded to clear the intersection, then withdrew before the mixed teams could surround them.
The coalition continued through without stopping.
Another formation station several streets farther north remained connected to two elevated platforms overlooking the route. The first ranged attack struck the leading companies before the station was fully visible, and the second began gathering while Celestara cultivators climbed toward the firing positions. Haotian used the Dao of the Universe to locate the physical relationship feeding both platforms and directed Lianhua and Yinxue toward the support rather than spreading the whole legion.
They reached it with several nearby elites while the mixed teams maintained the advance below. Lianhua used Cloud-Sundering Steps to cross the damaged ground around the station, and Voidpierce Sword Sutra opened the outer relationship long enough for Yinxue to strike the exposed support. The structure failed before the next discharge completed, leaving the platforms without enough energy to continue firing effectively.
Celestara cultivators drove away the remaining ranged defenders.
The coalition did not destroy the entire station.
Veridian specialists disabled the sections that could reactivate, marked the position, and moved on.
The demons who had withdrawn deepest into the sector continued trying to preserve enough manpower to join stronger forces elsewhere in the stronghold. Some moved inward toward the central regions while others continued north rather than remain in Haotian's path. Their withdrawals remained organized enough to prevent a complete rout, but they were no longer organized enough to restore nine as a coherent defensive sector.
Xuanyin could see the difference clearly from the command reports. Earlier messages had described defensive lines, reinforcements moving toward prepared positions, and companies trying to connect before Haotian arrived. The newer reports described groups leaving those positions, individual officers redirecting their own troops, and local commands operating without the Demon General who had previously coordinated them.
The coalition was no longer fighting through one defense after another.
It was moving through the remains of a defense that had failed.
Six o'clock continued to pressure the rear throughout that advance. The demons there had enough manpower to keep the southern junction contested, and their commander understood that withdrawing would allow the coalition to bring more formations north. He therefore maintained steady attacks on the roads leading into the captured position, alternating the strongest pressure between the center and east while smaller groups continued testing the western approaches.
The rear coalition formations did not try to drive them back into seven.
Blue Sphere cultivators held the most direct roads, while Marephoros and Pyrelith teams rotated around them according to where pressure increased. Umbrel observers remained near the outer streets and warned whenever demons attempted another movement through damaged structures, and Celestara cultivators continued denying the airspace above the protected portions of the junction.
Six gained part of one outer road and lost it again when a fresh mixed company rotated forward. Another attack pushed close enough to damage one of the coalition's secondary barriers before the line recovered. Neither result affected Haotian's advance.
A report from the southern line reached Xuanyin as the coalition farther north passed another abandoned military compound.
"Six is increasing the number of ranged formations on the eastern approach."
"Is the current defense holding?"
"Yes. They have taken more injuries, but the line has not broken."
"Rotate the most exhausted company and keep the reserve behind it."
The officer waited.
"Nothing from the northern formations?"
"No. They are already through most of nine. Six has not done enough to justify slowing them."
Farther north, Haotian reached a large intersection connecting several roads from nine with routes turning inward toward the deeper stronghold. The demons had not abandoned it completely. Several companies remained around the approaches, but their deployment made it clear they were protecting withdrawals rather than preparing to fight the coalition until destroyed.
Haotian spread his perception through the intersection before committing the mixed legions. The defenders occupied two roads, with one formation positioned across the northwestern route and another holding the inward turn. Wounded soldiers and formation specialists were already moving behind them, carrying portable equipment and whatever resources could be removed quickly.
"They are buying time for the withdrawal," Lianhua said.
"Yes."
"Do we break both positions?"
Haotian studied the roads.
"No. The inward group is already moving away. We take the northern route and let them go."
Yinxue looked toward the demons holding the northwest side. "That group will have to fight."
"They chose the road we need."
The Second Mixed Legion shifted accordingly.
The coalition did not spread into both approaches. Its leading companies concentrated on the northwest position, leaving the inward defenders with no immediate reason to remain. The demons there continued protecting the retreat until the coalition had committed elsewhere, then withdrew with the final groups moving toward the central stronghold.
The northwest defenders lasted longer because their road directly blocked Haotian's advance. Their formation was smaller than those around the earlier compounds, but it had been established before the coalition reached the intersection and included enough shielded soldiers to resist the first push. Blue Sphere cultivators met them across the road while Pyrelith fighters searched for openings behind the front, and Marephoros cultivation prevented the demons from using damaged side lanes to widen their formation.
Haotian remained with the center.
The strongest defender tried to anchor the formation personally, but he was not a Demon General and lacked the cultivation required to hold against Haotian for long. Haotian broke the man's weapon line with one hand, struck through his protection with Seraph Shatter Palm, and left the mixed teams to exploit the opening rather than remain with the same opponent.
Xiangyin entered behind him and widened the breach with her spear. Yueru and Ziyue prevented the eastern side of the line from closing around it. Lianhua and Yinxue pressured the formation support farther west, while Yanfei used Frostfire across a damaged section of road when another company attempted to reinforce from behind.
The defense failed gradually under the combined pressure.
The demons withdrew once enough of the road had been lost that continuing to hold would trap the surviving companies against the intersection. The coalition allowed them to leave through smaller northern streets while taking control of the route it actually needed.
The larger intersection became the deepest secure position the second assault had reached so far.
Xuanyin moved the command markers when the report arrived, and the shift made the geometry of the stronghold easier to read. Eight remained the entry region. Seven had been stripped and damaged. Most of nine had fallen or been abandoned. Six remained active farther behind, but the distance between its forces and Haotian's front had grown enough that it could no longer participate in the same battle without moving through ground the coalition already controlled.
The demons had failed to contain the second attack near its point of entry.
They had also failed to create another stable line before the coalition drove through nine.
The surviving Demon Generals received confirmation of the lost intersection not long afterward. Their remaining command structure now had to account for territory that had changed hands faster than the original response plans assumed. Forces still stationed around six could not simply be moved north without abandoning the pressure on the coalition rear, while formations elsewhere in the stronghold needed time to travel toward the western side and integrate with defenders already withdrawing from nine.
One Demon General reviewed the available forces and rejected the first proposal to send another large body directly toward Haotian.
"They would arrive the same way the last reinforcements arrived. Separated, tired from the movement, and without a completed formation waiting for them."
An officer looked over the surviving routes. "Then we establish the next line farther inward."
"With what time?"
The officer did not answer immediately.
The General examined the positions again. "If we pull enough soldiers to build a proper line, we weaken another sector. If we move them in smaller groups, Haotian reaches them before they combine."
Another commander spoke from the opposite side of the chamber. "Six still has enough strength to threaten their rear."
"Threaten it, yes. Stop the main body, no."
The demons were not yet preparing to abandon the stronghold or move directly to the sacrifice that would later become their final answer. Too much of the base remained, and too many forces were still alive for such a decision. What had changed was their confidence that ordinary reinforcement and defensive rotation could restore control before Haotian reached the next position.
The General ordered the remaining sectors to preserve their strongest organized formations rather than feed them toward nine one company at a time. Six was told to continue pressuring the coalition rear so Xuanyin could not freely pull every reserve north, while commanders deeper inside the stronghold began gathering troops around larger positions that could support them properly.
Those instructions surrendered more ground in the short term.
Haotian saw the result as the coalition continued beyond the large intersection.
The next several roads contained fewer defenders than expected. Some military positions had already been evacuated, while others retained only small rear guards watching the coalition approach before withdrawing. The demons were giving up the damaged outer portions of nine and pulling their remaining strength toward locations where they believed enough troops could gather before another major battle began.
Haotian had no reason to object.
Every position they surrendered brought the coalition deeper into the stronghold without requiring another costly engagement.
He ordered the Second Legion to continue until the forward companies reached the next region where resistance became substantial again. The Sixth remained close enough to replace exhausted formations, while later legions secured the route and maintained enough depth to respond if six changed its approach.
Shuyue continued supporting the rotations rather than moving to the first line. Liora's healer groups shifted their treatment position farther north only after the roads between the new location and the previous station had been checked and secured. Wounded cultivators who could no longer continue fighting were moved back through the chain of controlled intersections toward safer treatment areas.
The family stayed with Haotian.
Tianlan's arm had become sore enough that he stopped using named spear techniques entirely, restricting himself to basic thrusts, guards, and short counters. The Frost Rainbow Falcons remained active above him and compensated for the reduced range of his fighting, repeatedly joining Celestara groups clearing elevated threats along the route.
Haotian did not ask him to test whether the arm could withstand more.
"Stay out of the next heavy engagement unless something reaches you."
Tianlan nodded. "I can do that."
"You have done enough for today."
"I know."
Tianlan shifted several formations deeper and continued with the army.
The coalition advanced another stretch before the leading Umbrel observers returned with the first indication of a larger force farther ahead. Unlike the scattered companies withdrawing through nine, this concentration was not moving toward them yet. The demons had begun gathering around a deeper position where several surviving roads met, and more groups were approaching it from outside the broken sector.
"How organized are they?" Haotian asked.
"More organized than the formations we passed after the General died," the observer answered. "They are still gathering. We could not confirm whether another Demon General is present."
"Do not move closer than necessary. Keep watching their routes."
The observer acknowledged and returned toward the forward scouts.
Lianhua glanced toward the deeper stronghold. "Do you want to attack before they finish gathering?"
"Yes, if the roads remain usable."
Yinxue looked over the mixed formations behind them. "The Second has been fighting since eight."
"We rotate more of the Sixth forward before the next contact."
The adjustment began while the army continued moving.
The Second Mixed Legion had carried much of the northward attack and was now too fatigued to remain the principal striking force indefinitely. Its strongest remaining companies stayed near the front, but more of the Sixth moved around them and took responsibility for the leading positions. The transition occurred gradually along the march so the coalition did not need to stop and rebuild its formation.
The coalition had not emerged from nine without cost. Many cultivators were exhausted, others were injured badly enough to leave the frontline, and Tianlan's recovering arm had reached the point where further heavy techniques would be irresponsible. Haotian's wives had also spent significant cultivation through the continuous fighting.
None of those costs changed the larger result.
The demons had suffered far more severely.
Nine o'clock had lost its local Demon General, much of its organized manpower, several formation positions, command infrastructure, and the ground needed to connect its forces cleanly with six. What remained of the sector was being abandoned while surviving companies withdrew toward deeper defensive regions.
The second surprise assault had done what it was intended to do. The coalition had entered where the stronghold was not ready, moved before the defenders could concentrate, and continued every time the demons attempted to rebuild their defense. Six had arrived too late to trap them, seven had never possessed enough strength to stop the detachment sent through it, and nine had been broken before its reinforcements could organize.
Substantial demonic forces still remained elsewhere in the stronghold.
The coalition continued toward them.