The group moved through the dreamlike horror of the Forgotten Realm, leaping from one floating island of ruin to the next. Gen, using his enhanced senses and a desperate, angry application of **Shidow**, tried to trace the fading, corrosive stain of Nix's null-energy. It was like trying to follow the scent of blood in a thunderstorm. After a frustrating while, they found themselves back at the inverted waterfall of glittering sand, its impossible flow a mocking landmark.
"This is infuriating," Gen spat, his voice tight. "This place is mixing everything up."
Duo Yi nodded, her glasses catching the weird light. "The energy here is tangled. It pulls at your own Qi, makes it hard to feel anything clearly." Her usual confident assessment was tinged with unease.
"No matter what," Lorel said, her voice a quiet anchor, "Nix cannot have gone far in his state. He couldn't fly anymore. I saw it when we were chasing him." It was a small, sharp observation. A hopeful one. It meant he was gravely wounded.
"Shut up," Li Zhan said, his voice a soft command that cut through their speculations.
Gen's head whipped towards him, a frown etching his face. "What are you even doing here, following after us?"
Li Zhan didn't answer. Instead, he raised a hand. His **Wheel of Shidow** flared, not as a burst, but as a deep, resonating hum that made the misty air thicken. Then, he invoked **Zhidow**. From the dense, manipulated energy before him, he **created** a being.
It was formless yet shaped, an arching silhouette that resolved into an animal walking on four elongated limbs. It had a long, sniffing nose and sharp, twitching ears. It looked both real and ephemeral, a ghost of intention given temporary flesh. A creation bound by absolute control.
Li Zhan waved a hand, and dozens of fine, shimmering threads of **Shidow** connected his fingertips to the creature's back, puppeteering it with silent precision. The creature lowered its nose to the non-ground of their rock and sniffed. It turned its head, its sharp ears twitching towards a specific direction in the chaotic void.
Li Zhan glanced at them. "Follow me. It's this way."
Gen's eyes narrowed with apprehension. "How can you be sure?"
"My mastery of **Shidow** is not something the likes of you can understand," Li Zhan stated, a cold amusement in his eyes. "You can follow, or you can keep running in circles until the Divine General heals enough to slaughter you. Your choice."
Gen bit his lip, the muscles in his jaw bunching. He shot forward, the golden light of his **Jingdao** flaring as he followed Li Zhan and the sniffing creature. He had no trust, but he had less time.
Duo Yi looked at Lorel behind them. A silent, tactical understanding passed between the two young women without a word.
"We need to be careful with him," Lorel murmured, her gaze fixed on Li Zhan's back. "The Despair Smile left me with a… bad impression. His art seems to be about manipulating everything."
Duo Yi nodded, adjusting her glasses. "Gen is too blind to see it now. But in this realm, Nix might not be our only problem." In her thoughts, the vow was clear: *Gen cannot see clearly right now. I will have to be his lens.* They were in this together. Furthermore, she hated the Divine General with a cold, personal fury. The love and respect for Immortal Jiang that had pushed her, and so many others, to move despite the fear—that memory demanded vengeance. Maybe, just maybe, they could take Nix down.
With Li Zhan's creature guiding them, they still took numerous detours, weaving through the labyrinth of floating debris. Gen's patience, already a thin thread, frayed further. But he bore it. His goal was to get Nix. How he got there didn't matter.
In his heart, a clock ticked. *It has been about an hour since the fight with Varja. Even if he hasn't fully recovered, he's regaining strength. We have to be fast.*
Suddenly, Li Zhan stopped on the edge of a wide, flat rock. He crouched, his body poised like a predator. In the distance, across a gulf of drifting mist, they could see it: a large, flat piece of stone that looked like an ancient altar. It pulsed with a terrifying, sword-like energy that made the air vibrate. And seated in the center, in a painful lotus position, was the unmistakable, armored silhouette of Nix.
Seeing the figure, Gen's heart skipped a beat. Anger and frustration overrode caution. He shot forward, a golden streak, before Li Zhan could utter a warning.
He was mid-air when a blade of condensed, annihilating light materialized from the empty space before the altar. It sliced straight for his heart.
Alarmed, Gen twisted his body in a violent contortion, using **Shidow** to solidify a pocket of air to his side and shove himself sideways. The blade of light grazed his ribs. It didn't just cut; it *unmade* the reinforced golden light of his **Jingdao**, leaving a searing, blackened wound on his side. Surprised and wounded, Gen kicked back, retreating quickly to the relative safety of the others' rock.
Li Zhan let out a short, dry laugh. "Too reckless. It's a formation. A powerful one."
Gen scowled, pressing a hand to his bleeding side. He knew formations. They could be set with any Wheel, or a combination of all five. The Jiang Mountain's shield, the one Kirin had used against Madame Su—they were testaments to their power. They couldn't just charge.
Lorel's voice was firm. "We can't be careless. We need a way to break it before we can reach him."
Duo Yi nodded. "I am not versed in formations, but I learned some principles at the College. Given time, I might find a way."
"We don't *have* time," Gen snapped, shaking his head. He didn't even look at her. "The longer we wait, the harder it gets." His gaze was fixed on the distant altar, burning.
On the altar, Nix opened one eye. He couldn't see them clearly at this distance through the distorting energy of his protective formation, but he recognized the blazing golden signature that had just tried to breach it. A slow, vicious smile spread across his ruined face. *The little Jiang. Again.* The worry that had gripped him moments before evaporated. *What was I even concerned about? This is perfect. I'll get to repay the humiliation from his father.* He closed his eye, focusing. He had regained about ten percent of his strength. Just a little more, and he could force his way out of this prison and turn it into a killing ground.
Li Zhan, still smiling, looked at the altar as if it were a display case and Nix the prize. "He is right. Waiting is suicide. But running into the formation is also suicide, at our level." He turned to Gen. "The best we can do is force it to break at one point, then barge inside."
Duo Yi shook her head. "That is too risky. If we miss our chance, we all die. And that's not the worst part. Even if we get inside, how do we get out?"
Gen didn't even look at her. He met Li Zhan's gaze. "Let's break it. How we get out after is my problem. Show me how to get in. You all have no need to risk your lives."
He understood their reasons well enough. Lorel followed out of loyalty and fear for him. Duo Yi followed out of duty to her elder's order and her own debt. Li Zhan… he had no idea. None of them were here for the same burning reason he was. This was his chance for vengeance. How could he step back? Yet, he would never ask Lorel to die for it. He couldn't even bring himself to look in her direction.
That subtle, deliberate avoidance was a small, sharp knife to Lorel. She had rushed here thinking she could help, that he might need her. Now, he wouldn't even acknowledge her. Being with him always made her happy, yet it was so often filled with this quiet hurt. She didn't know what to think.
She stepped forward, her voice quieter but more determined than ever. "I will go with you. I made a vow back then. I will respect it. Nix will die today, for Immortal Jiang's memory."
Li Zhan nodded. "Since everyone agrees," he said, his laugh a soft, chilling sound. "I will pave the way through the formation. I will force it to react to my direction, which will weaken certain areas. You will use that opportunity to breach it. But as a warning… once we are inside, there may be no way out."
Gen just nodded, his body thrumming with readiness.
They all settled into a loose formation, determination hardening their faces. Duo Yi sighed inwardly. *He has grown so much in such a short time. Is it the influence of Varja? Before and after his death?* She didn't know. But in the past, she had been a hundred percent confident she could defeat Gen. Now, after watching his evasion of the formation's attack, that confidence was slowly dwindling. *Could he have already surpassed me since the Tower of Wonder? That was barely a month ago.*
Li Zhan took the lead. He summoned another being, this one manipulated by a complex web of **Shidow** threads but born from **Zhidow**. It was a glowing, mournful ghost that floated beside him, a sword in its hand, chains dragging from its legs—the apparition of a rogue cultivator. It emanated an aura of such profound, heavy sorrow that even Gen felt his heart grow heavy, his breath catching.
Disturbing as it was, Gen had no time for questions. He activated the **Eternal Body – First Door**, pushing it to its limit. A dense, golden hue erupted from his skin, sending visible waves of solid light pulsing outward.
Lorel turned serious, shaking away all conflicting thoughts. Her only focus was the formation and Nix. With a wave of her hand, she summoned her **Supremacy Swords**. All seven of them materialized in a humming, pink array behind her back, their light cutting through the realm's gloom.
Duo Yi, her usual analytical calm replaced by grim focus, did not hold back. She summoned the **Doom Dragon** not as an outburst, but as a sentinel. It coiled around her body in a tight, thrashing spiral of violent grey and black force, its jaws of condensed malice snapping silently at the air.
They stood ready, a disparate group bound by circumstance and vengeance on the edge of an ancient, deadly trap.
Then, they began to move.