The Demon General continued feeding more power into the next layer. His fixed point was beginning to lose the measured stability Haotian had observed earlier, with the sacrificial current pulsing unevenly as the General tried to maintain the dimensional relationship, defend himself, and compensate for the dead General's missing contribution at the same time.
Haotian could see that the remaining fixed points were all under similar strain. The other Generals had not waited for the coalition to reach them, and each had already increased his contribution to a level that would have been impossible to sustain during ordinary cultivation. The faster they weakened, the more of their cores, foundations, and bodies became exposed to the sacrificial relationship.
Xuanyin received another report from behind while the coalition continued pressing the second fixed point. "The demonic army throughout the stronghold is collapsing faster. Several sectors have stopped sending any organized resistance at all."
"That means the formation is taking more from them too," Haotian said.
"The Generals increased the drain everywhere?"
"They need more raw power to compensate for the damaged fixed point. The formation is drawing harder from everything still connected to it."
Xuanyin glanced across the convergence. "Then the entire stronghold is being consumed faster because we killed one General."
"The ritual was already moving toward that point. We forced them to accelerate."
The distinction mattered. Leaving the Generals untouched would only allow them to complete the sacrifice more safely, so killing them remained the only useful way to damage the structure even if each interruption forced the surviving Generals to burn themselves and the remaining army faster.
The coalition reached the second defensive layer as the sacrificial channels beneath the ground began overloading around them. Stone split along one side of the road when a buried line expanded under pressure, and the structure above shifted enough to weaken the barrier the defenders were using. Sixth Legion exploited the instability immediately and drove through the damaged section before the Demon General could redirect enough energy to restore it.
The trusted elites around the fixed point gave ground in controlled steps. They no longer possessed enough soldiers to hold every approach, so they concentrated around the paths leading most directly toward their General and allowed the coalition to occupy the rest. Their attacks remained disciplined, but the shrinking space made it harder to exchange depth for time.
Haotian moved with the advancing center while Lianhua and Yinxue covered the strongest defenders. Yueru and Ziyue remained close to the formation supports, striking whenever the sacrificial current was forced through damaged relationships, while Xiangyin and Yanfei prevented local elites from establishing a new stable line around the fixed point.
The General attempted to change the shape of the engagement by redirecting a larger surge of sacrificial power through the ground beneath Sixth Legion. Abyssal energy rose through several old formation channels at once, not as a direct attack against individual cultivators but as broad pressure intended to disrupt the coalition's footing and force the leading teams apart.
Haotian sensed the movement before the current reached the surface.
"Hold the formation. Do not scatter."
Marephoros cultivators reinforced the ground beneath the mixed teams while Blue Sphere barriers absorbed the energy erupting around them. The pressure still forced several formations to slow, but it failed to create the gaps the Demon General needed.
The cost to the fixed point was more severe. Haotian followed the diverted energy backward and saw several stabilizing relationships weaken as the General used power that had been maintaining the dimensional distortion. The remaining Generals compensated from their own positions almost immediately, but that required another increase in the amount being taken from them.
The second General had bought only a short delay while making the wider sacrifice accelerate again.
"The fixed point lost support when he attacked the ground," Haotian said. "Push through before he restores it."
Fresh mixed teams moved forward as those that had absorbed the eruption shifted backward, maintaining the front without forcing exhausted cultivators to remain in the most dangerous position. Lianhua cut through a barrier relationship before it could recover, Yinxue struck the exposed defense behind it, and Xiangyin entered the opening with the Blue Sphere cultivators before the trusted elites could rebuild the line around the fixed point.
The coalition reached striking distance.
The second Demon General was in worse condition than the first had been when Haotian reached him. Blood ran from the corners of his mouth and down one arm where the sacrificial formation had damaged the meridians beneath his skin, while the Abyssal energy around his armor flickered rather than forming a continuous protection. He remained upright because the fixed point beneath him continued supporting enough of his body to hold him in place.
Haotian examined the relationship before approaching.
The General still had not been fully transferred into the formation.
There was time, though not much.
The General understood what Haotian had seen. Instead of strengthening the outer defenses again, he stopped redirecting power away from the convergence and allowed the fixed point to draw more aggressively through his cultivation foundation. The barriers around him weakened as a result, but the dimensional relationship beneath his feet became more stable.
"He is abandoning the defense," Lianhua said.
"He knows we are going to reach him."
"Then he is trying to finish the sacrifice first."
"Yes."
The remaining trusted elites moved into the space the weakening barriers could no longer protect. They attacked the family and Sixth Legion directly, abandoning any attempt to preserve themselves once the General stopped supplying the local defenses. The road around the fixed point filled with close fighting as the demons tried to replace missing formation strength with their own bodies.
Haotian went through them with the coalition.
A heavy cultivator attacked from the front with a broad weapon technique intended to occupy enough space that Haotian would have to stop or divert. Haotian entered inside the widest part of the strike, broke the man's protection with Seraph Shatter Palm, and allowed the advancing mixed teams to carry the fight past him instead of remaining to finish a separate duel.
Lianhua and Yinxue kept the neighboring elites from closing around Haotian while Yueru and Ziyue attacked the last active formation supports between the coalition and the General. Xiangyin remained embedded with the Blue Sphere front, using her spear to prevent stronger demons from fixing themselves in the road, while Yanfei's Frostfire disrupted the groups trying to reinforce from the sides.
The formation around the General gave way under the combined pressure.
Haotian reached the fixed point.
The General had already lost most of the strength required for normal combat, but enough remained for one final attempt to delay him. Rather than step away from the sacrificial relationship, the General attacked from within it, drawing Abyssal energy around his body and forcing the formation to support the technique.
Haotian met him without giving the man enough distance to build the attack fully. The General's first strike carried more sacrificial power than personal cultivation, but the fixed point could not shape that energy with the same precision he would have possessed at full strength. Haotian moved through the edge of the attack, struck the General's arm aside, and entered close enough that the next technique could not expand.
The fixed point tightened around the General, and Haotian saw the same relationships he had used against the first one, though they were already more deeply integrated into the man's foundation.
He did not waste time testing them.
Fist of Ruin struck the General's damaged protection and broke through it. The General staggered but remained inside the fixed point, and the sacrificial formation immediately tried to draw more power through him to compensate for the damage.
Haotian attacked again.
The second strike drove through the remaining protection and damaged the General badly enough that his cultivation could no longer sustain the relationship.
He died before the formation finished consuming him.
The second fixed point lost its living reference, and several relationships tied to it recoiled hard enough to fracture the formation lines beneath the surrounding stone. The dimensional distortion at the center shifted more violently than it had after the first General's death, because two fixed points were now missing from a structure originally designed to distribute the burden among all of them.
For several moments, the passage destabilized significantly. The pressure between Blue Sphere and the Abyss weakened across one side of the convergence, and several distorted spatial relationships began returning closer to their natural positions.
Xuanyin reached the damaged position with Sixth Legion still fighting around them. "Did we weaken it enough to collapse?"
"Not yet."
She looked toward the remaining Generals. "They are increasing the flow again."
"Yes."
The survivors responded to the second loss the same way they had responded to the first, but on a much larger scale. Each remaining General stopped preserving more of his cultivation foundation and allowed the sacrificial current to reach deeper, forcing the surviving fixed points to carry portions of the dimensional relationship that had once been distributed among more positions.
Their bodies deteriorated visibly as the formation compensated. One General dropped to both knees but remained connected to the fixed point beneath him. Another's armor split along the chest as the Abyssal energy sustaining it was stripped into the formation, while a third could no longer remain upright without bracing one hand against the stone.
Lianhua watched the change. "They cannot keep compensating like this for long."
"No," Haotian said. "But they do not need to."
Xuanyin looked toward him. "What do you mean?"
"They only need to survive until the formation has taken enough from them. Every time we destroy a fixed point early, the remaining Generals make up the loss by allowing the network to consume them faster."
"So we are weakening the structure while they are shortening the time we have left."
"Yes. Killing them is still damaging the passage. The problem is that the remaining sacrifice is accelerating faster each time."
Haotian extended the Dao of the Universe across the convergence again and compared the surviving relationships. The next nearest General remained alive, but the sacrificial current around him had already reached deeper into his foundation than either of the two Haotian had killed. The fixed point beneath him was beginning to retain more of the relationship independently, as though the formation had already transferred part of what it needed from the living cultivator into the structure itself.
Yinxue saw his attention settle on the next position. "Is something different there?"
"The formation has already taken more of him than it took from the first two."
"Can we still interrupt it by killing him?"
"Yes, but the effect may be smaller if we reach him after the fixed point has absorbed too much of his foundation."
Lianhua looked toward the route between them and the next General. "Then we move now."
Haotian turned toward Xuanyin. "Shift Sixth toward the next fixed point. Leave enough of Second here to clear the remaining defenders, but do not stop to dismantle the damaged formation."
Xuanyin immediately began moving the front. The next route was narrower, and Sixth Legion shifted into it before the second Demon General's position had been fully cleared. Second remained behind only long enough to prevent surviving elites from reforming around the damaged formation, while Haotian and his wives stayed inside the forward movement.
The sacrificial transfer at the next fixed point had already progressed farther than at either of the two positions Haotian had successfully interrupted. More of the stabilizing pattern remained inside the structure itself rather than depending entirely upon the living cultivator standing over it, which meant the formation had transferred part of the Demon General's foundation into the fixed point.
That did not make the General irrelevant yet. Several relationships remained tied directly to his body, and the fixed point continued drawing from his remaining cultivation and life force, but killing him would no longer produce the same disruption as killing the first two.
Lianhua followed Haotian's attention toward the position. "Has the formation already taken enough from him to keep part of the fixed point stable without his body?"
"Yes. Not all of it, but more than it took from the first two."
"Then killing him still matters, but not as much as before."
"That depends on how much remains by the time we reach him. Keep moving."
The Demon General showed none of the defensive restraint the previous two had used. He was no longer redirecting much of the sacrificial current into barriers or attacks around himself, and the trusted elites protecting the route received almost no additional support from his fixed point. Nearly everything available at the position flowed inward toward the dimensional relationship.
That decision weakened the local defense while accelerating the sacrifice.
The surviving elites established compact groups around the narrow approaches and used the foundation structures to prevent Sixth Legion from bringing its full width forward at once, but they lacked the formation support that had made the earlier fixed points more difficult to reach. Blue Sphere cultivators pressed into the first group while Pyrelith attacks struck through the limited space behind them, forcing the demons to absorb pressure they could no longer redistribute through a strong local barrier.
The trusted elites had learned that challenging Haotian directly accomplished little, so most of their attacks targeted the mixed teams in an attempt to slow the coalition through repeated rotations. Xuanyin countered by feeding fresh teams into the narrow front before exhausted companies were fully forced backward, maintaining constant pressure through the limited space available.
"Do not let the road become crowded," she ordered. "Only the teams actually fighting move into the front. Everyone else stays in depth until there is room."
Sixth Legion advanced in layers, with one group fighting while the next remained close enough to replace it without compressing the entire formation into the same space. Second Legion followed at a controlled distance, preserving enough room for wounded cultivators to move backward without interfering with the advance.
The Demon General ahead continued losing strength. Haotian could see the fixed point stripping through what remained of his foundation while the coalition fought closer. His core had begun to destabilize as the sacrificial relationship reached deeper, yet he made no attempt to reduce the flow.
Yinxue looked toward the General between exchanges. "He is not preserving anything for a final defense."
"No. He is trying to finish the transfer before we reach him."
"Then the elites around him are only buying time."
"They know that."
The defenders fought accordingly. None withdrew from the route once their position was compromised, and those who lost formation support continued attacking until they were killed or physically forced aside. Their resistance remained organized for as long as enough soldiers survived to maintain it, but they no longer attempted the careful staged withdrawals the previous groups had used.
Several overloaded channels beneath the road ruptured as Sixth Legion crossed them, splitting the stone and releasing Abyssal energy through narrow fractures before the current redirected itself through neighboring paths. Haotian did not order anyone to remain behind and destroy the damaged network further. Every moment spent dismantling secondary channels would only give the Demon General more time to complete the transfer.
The fixed point ahead became increasingly independent of the body standing over it. Haotian could see that the formation had absorbed a substantial portion of the General's cultivation foundation and was using that transferred structure to maintain several stabilizing relationships directly. His body still supplied energy, but it was no longer the only thing keeping the point functional.
Xuanyin moved closer to the front as another defensive group collapsed. "How much of him is still necessary?"
"Less than before. The fixed point has already retained part of his foundation."
"If he dies through the sacrifice, will the relationship remain?"
"That is what I am trying to determine."
The General's core began failing while Sixth Legion was still breaking through the final defenders between them. The deterioration spread through his body without any attack from the coalition. Abyssal energy escaped through damaged meridians faster than he could contain it, and the sacrificial formation drew that leakage directly into the fixed point rather than allowing it to disperse.
His legs weakened first, forcing him onto one knee, but the relationship beneath him tightened and continued pulling from the remaining foundation without requiring him to remain upright.
Lianhua saw the change. "We are not going to reach him before the formation finishes."
"We keep moving."
The last trusted elites closed around the narrow approach. Their formation consisted of barely enough cultivators to cover the route, but they concentrated every remaining attack into the front of Sixth Legion rather than trying to survive. Blue Sphere barriers took the first collision while Yueru and Ziyue struck through the edges of the defensive line, Xiangyin prevented two heavier cultivators from closing the opening again, and Yanfei's Frostfire restricted the defenders trying to reinforce from the rear.
Lianhua and Yinxue stayed close to Haotian at the center, breaking the strongest remaining formation relationships whenever the elites tried to create enough structure to hold the road.
The defense gave ground.
Haotian could now see the General directly without relying upon the Dao of the Universe. His armor hung loose where cultivation had stopped sustaining it properly, dark cracks had spread across his face and arms, and the Abyssal energy around him no longer formed anything resembling a defensive layer. The fixed point beneath him remained active, however, and the formation lines surrounding his position had become brighter even as the man himself faded.
The coalition broke through the last defenders and entered the open ground around the position.
Haotian crossed the remaining distance with his wives and several mixed teams still close behind him. The General attempted no attack and made no effort to defend himself, because every fragment of strength he still possessed was being taken by the sacrificial network.
His core gave way before Haotian entered striking range.
The formation drew through the broken core immediately, stripping the remaining Abyssal energy before it could disperse and carrying it into the relationships beneath the fixed point. His cultivation foundation followed, and the final remnants of life force sustaining his body were pulled into the same network until nothing remained capable of maintaining consciousness.
The General died without Haotian touching him.
Haotian watched the fixed point through the Dao of the Universe as the body collapsed onto the stone.
The stabilizing relationships did not recoil.
When Haotian had killed the first two Generals, their deaths had interrupted the transfer before the formation could absorb enough of their foundations to preserve the complete relationships they were maintaining. Here, the sacrificial network had finished the process first. The General's body was dead, but the fixed point retained the structure, cultivation, and life force already transferred into it and continued supporting the dimensional pressure without him.
Lianhua looked from the corpse to the active formation beneath it. "The fixed point is still functioning."
"Yes."
"Then killing him now would not have changed anything."
"Not after the transfer completed."
Xuanyin arrived with the leading formations as Sixth Legion spread enough to secure the immediate area. "Can the fixed point continue indefinitely without him?"
"No. It is carrying a finite amount of what was sacrificed into it, and the wider formation still has to sustain the relationship. But the General's death no longer interrupts it."
She looked toward the remaining fixed points. "Then reaching the bodies is no longer enough."
Haotian extended the Dao of the Universe through the completed position and followed the relationships beneath it. The General's contribution had become embedded in several layers of the sacrificial foundation, leaving the fixed point capable of maintaining its portion of the dimensional pressure as long as the formation around it remained intact.
"We have to destroy the fixed points themselves," Haotian said. "If the formation finishes consuming a General before we reach him, attacking the body accomplishes nothing. The relationship remains until we break the structure holding it."
Xuanyin looked across the convergence. "Can we destroy this one now?"
"Yes, but not by striking the surface formation blindly. The stabilizing relationship is deeper than the visible lines."
"How much time will it take?"
"Less than trying to reach another General through a defensive position if we know where to hit."
Haotian moved toward the center of the completed fixed point rather than continuing past it. The corpse of the Demon General remained beside the formation, but he ignored it and traced the embedded relationships beneath the stone. Several sacrificial channels had fused into one deeper structure after the transfer completed, using the General's absorbed cultivation foundation as part of the pattern maintaining the dimensional distortion.
Lianhua moved beside him. "Can Voidpierce Sword Sutra reach the relationship directly?"
"Once I expose the correct point."
Yinxue looked toward the surrounding formation lines. "Then we do not need to dismantle the entire structure."
"No. Only the relationship holding this fixed point to the convergence."
Haotian followed the connection farther down. The structure was heavily protected but also carrying enormous pressure, which made any disruption at the correct point more dangerous to the network than ordinary surface damage. He identified where the local fixed point joined the larger convergence relationship and marked the position for the family.
Yueru studied the ground. "If I destabilize the channel first, will it expose the deeper connection?"
"Yes. Do not try to overload the whole formation. Force this section out of alignment."
Lightning entered the formation at the point Haotian indicated, traveling through a channel already strained by the completed sacrifice. The energy did not overpower the Abyssal current, but it disrupted the timing between two adjacent relationships long enough for the formation to compensate.
That compensation exposed the deeper support.
Lianhua struck immediately.
Voidpierce Sword Sutra entered the distorted relationship rather than the stone above it, severing enough of the spatial and formation connection for the fixed point to lose alignment with the wider convergence. Yinxue followed with Sword Dao against the same weakness, widening the damage before the sacrificial network could redistribute the pressure.
The ground around the dead General fractured.
The fixed point resisted as its embedded relationship tried to transfer more of the load into nearby channels, but Ziyue cut through one of the physical supports carrying that redistribution while Xiangyin drove her spear into another exposed section. Yanfei used Frostfire along the surrounding formation lines, interfering with the energy moving back toward the damaged point and preventing the network from restoring the relationship immediately.
Haotian watched the fixed point strain beneath the combined attack. The dimensional relationship connecting it to the convergence narrowed, and he struck the exposed support with Fist of Ruin.
The accumulated damage passed through the formation rather than stopping at the surface. Cracks spread through the buried structure, and the relationship containing the absorbed foundation of the Demon General finally broke away from the wider convergence.
The dimensional pressure shifted sharply across the side supported by the destroyed fixed point. Several nearby relationships stretched as the surviving positions were forced to take another portion of the load. The completed sacrifice stored inside the fixed point had not disappeared, but without the structure maintaining its relationship to the convergence, that power could no longer stabilize the passage.
Xuanyin watched the change. "That weakened it more than killing the first General."
"The completed fixed point had already taken over his entire share. Breaking the structure removed that share from the formation instead of only interrupting the transfer."
"Then the fixed points are the real targets now."
"Yes."
Several Demon Generals were still alive, but their bodies were already being consumed so rapidly that reaching each one before death was becoming less realistic. Attacking them remained useful if the coalition arrived before the transfer completed, yet the formation itself could no longer be treated as something that would automatically collapse when its operators died.
Haotian extended the Dao of the Universe across all remaining fixed points. Some were still dependent upon their Generals, while others were approaching the same threshold the coalition had just witnessed.
"Xuanyin, keep Sixth with us. We attack the fixed points according to how close they are to completing the transfer. If a General is still necessary when we reach him, we kill him first. If the sacrifice finishes before we arrive, we destroy the fixed point itself."
"I will keep Second clearing behind us and move only enough formations forward to protect the family while you work on the structures."
Lianhua looked toward the remaining convergence. "Which position is next?"
Haotian followed the relationships one after another. Two Generals remained far enough from full transfer that killing them could still interrupt their fixed points substantially. Another was already close to the threshold, while one more had begun deteriorating so quickly that Haotian doubted the coalition could reach his body before the formation finished taking him.
"The nearest incomplete point first," Haotian said. "But from now on, we attack the structure as soon as the General stops being necessary."
Sixth Legion moved toward that fixed point while the shattered position behind them continued shedding unstable Abyssal energy into the damaged ground. The remaining positions were deteriorating at different rates, with two Generals still retaining enough cultivation that their bodies remained important to the structures beneath them while the others were approaching complete transfer.