The attack came at midnight, precisely when tactical analysis had predicted.
Lin Feng stood in his reinforced chamber at Celestial Dawn's center, his spatial perception extending to maximum range, his consciousness divided into nine streams plus four-perspective unified awareness. Through the formation-linked communication network Elder Wei had established, he could sense the positions of all two hundred allied defenders throughout the sect.
Everything was ready. Defensive formations charged to full capacity. Cultivators positioned in coordinated groups designed for mutual support. Escape routes prepared and verified. Emergency protocols established for every anticipated scenario.
And then the Crimson Empress's forces arrived.
They didn't announce themselves. No dramatic declaration, no visible approach that defenders could track and prepare for. One moment, Celestial Dawn's outer boundary was secure and empty. The next moment, one hundred demonic cultivators materialized simultaneously at seventeen different positions around the sect's perimeter.
Mass teleportation. Lin Feng's tactical consciousness immediately recognized the sophistication required—coordinating one hundred individual spatial transitions to arrive simultaneously at precise positions without any arriving inside defensive formations or solid matter. That level of coordination required either a formation network of unprecedented complexity or personal control from someone with Sovereign Monarch level spatial mastery.
The Crimson Empress had announced her presence without showing herself.
"All units, engage defensive positions," Patriarch Cloud Heaven's voice came through the communication network, calm and authoritative despite the sudden assault. "Pattern Delta-Seven. Lin Feng remains at center position. Do not allow enemy forces to penetrate inner sect."
The battle began immediately. Seventeen separate engagements as allied defenders moved to intercept demonic cultivators at each breach point. Through his spatial perception and the communication network, Lin Feng could track the combat's progression—not in perfect detail at this range, but enough to understand the overall tactical situation.
The demonic cultivators were coordinating with disturbing efficiency. Groups of five to seven attacking in perfect synchronization, their techniques complementing each other to create combined effects that exceeded their individual capabilities. Blood-element techniques weakening defenders, then shadow-element attacks exploiting the vulnerability, followed by direct assault from physical combat specialists.
Sophisticated tactical coordination that spoke to extensive training and practice operating as unified force.
But the allied defenders were holding. Frozen Sky's hundred cultivators had trained together for years, their coordination equally sophisticated. Azure Sky's fifty-cultivator rapid response force was arriving in waves, reinforcing positions where demonic cultivators were gaining advantage. Celestial Dawn's own defenders knew the terrain intimately, using defensive formations and environmental advantages to offset the demonic cultivators' aggressive techniques.
After five minutes of intense combat, the tactical picture was clear: The allied defenders were winning the overall engagement. Demonic cultivators were being pushed back at twelve of seventeen breach points, holding steady at four positions, and gaining ground at only one location.
Which meant the Crimson Empress would intervene personally.
Lin Feng's four-perspective awareness detected her arrival before any other defender noticed. Through his primary viewpoint, he saw nothing—she hadn't entered his thirty-five meter spatial perception radius. Through Qingxue's perspective via their dao companion bond, still nothing. But through his abstract tactical overview perspective, he detected a massive distortion in the battle's spiritual energy patterns—a presence so overwhelming that it created visible disruption in the ambient energy flow.
She's here, Lin Feng conveyed through the communication network. Sovereign Monarch level presence detected. Location: approximately three hundred meters north of center position. Moving toward inner sect.
All defenders, withdraw from northern positions, Patriarch Cloud Heaven commanded immediately. Create corridor allowing her passage to center chamber. Do not engage directly.
The northern defenders pulled back in coordinated withdrawal, creating an open path from the sect's perimeter straight to Lin Feng's position. It was a calculated gamble—giving the Crimson Empress what she wanted (direct access to her primary target) in exchange for removing her from the main battle where she could devastate allied forces.
Through his spatial perception, Lin Feng tracked her approach. She moved at walking pace, not rushing—a Sovereign Monarch who knew that no defensive formation in Celestial Dawn could stop her, that no cultivator here could challenge her directly, that she controlled this engagement absolutely.
Two hundred meters. One hundred fifty. One hundred.
Lin Feng's consciousness streams worked through final preparations. His spatial anchoring technique was ready—emergency extraction to a prepared position five hundred meters away if combat went catastrophically wrong. His real-time formation deployment capability was primed for immediate use. His four-perspective awareness was actively monitoring for reality manipulation.
Yun Qingxue's consciousness touched his through their dao companion bond. I'm here. I'm maintaining anchor. Whatever happens, I can pull you back.
I know, Lin Feng responded. Trust me to survive long enough that pulling me back isn't necessary.
Fifty meters. Twenty-five.
The Crimson Empress entered Lin Feng's spatial perception radius, and his consciousness immediately began analyzing every detail of her presence. She was suppressing most of her cultivation aura—making herself appear "only" Cloud Transformation Level 9 rather than revealing her full Sovereign Monarch power. A tactic designed to appear reasonable, to avoid completely overwhelming his consciousness with the reality of facing someone two full cultivation realms above him.
But Lin Feng's void-enhanced perception could sense the suppressed power beneath the surface—spiritual energy so dense it distorted space itself, consciousness so vast it seemed to extend beyond her physical body into surrounding reality, capabilities that transcended anything Divine Domain cultivators could achieve.
She entered the reinforced chamber where Lin Feng waited, her crimson robes flowing with spiritual energy that created visible ripples in the air. Her expression was serene, almost sad, as she regarded him.
"You chose to face me rather than flee," the Crimson Empress said. Her voice carried no anger, no hostility—just statement of fact. "I respect that courage, even as I recognize it as futile."
"Fleeing would mean abandoning my sect to your assault," Lin Feng replied, his consciousness maintaining perfect tactical awareness despite the psychological pressure of her presence. "That contradicts my core values more severely than facing impossible odds."
"So you understand the odds are impossible." She moved further into the chamber, her spiritual perception scanning the defensive formations Lin Feng had prepared. "These formations are sophisticated—void-enhanced spatial structures rather than traditional arrays. Your two weeks of preparation were well-spent. But they won't save you, Lin Feng. Nothing you've prepared can bridge the gap between Divine Domain and Sovereign Monarch."
"Perhaps not," Lin Feng acknowledged. "But I don't need to defeat you. I just need to survive long enough that my sect's defenders eliminate your subordinates. Once your force is destroyed, you lose operational capability even if you kill me afterward."
The Crimson Empress smiled slightly, genuine appreciation showing in her expression. "Tactical thinking even in the face of certain death. That's exactly the capability I wanted to recruit. Since you refused recruitment, I'm forced to eliminate you—but I want you to understand that I genuinely regret the necessity."
"Your regret is noted," Lin Feng said. "But it doesn't change the situation. You came here to kill me. I'm here to prevent that. Let's see which of us accomplishes our objective."
"As you wish."
The Crimson Empress attacked.
There was no warning, no visible preparation—one moment she was standing calmly across the chamber, the next moment Lin Feng's spatial perception detected five simultaneous reality distortions converging on his position from different angles.
His four-perspective awareness saved him. From his primary viewpoint, he saw only empty space where the attacks originated. From Qingxue's perspective through their bond, slight spiritual energy fluctuations. From his tactical overview, the attacks were obvious—massive power being channeled through spatial manipulation to strike without visible approach. From his temporal analysis perspective, he could see where the attacks would converge in the next half-second.
Lin Feng teleported fifteen meters backward, deploying a defensive formation in 1.8 seconds that reinforced the space around him. The five attacks struck the position he'd just vacated, their combined power creating spatial distortion that would have killed him instantly if he'd remained.
"Impressive reaction time," the Crimson Empress said, her tone carrying genuine praise. "Most Divine Domain cultivators wouldn't have detected those attacks until impact. Your multi-perspective awareness is more sophisticated than I anticipated."
She attacked again, this time with twelve simultaneous spatial strikes. Lin Feng's consciousness streams went into maximum coordination mode—three streams maintained spatial perception tracking all twelve attacks, three analyzed their trajectories and convergence points, two coordinated his evasion response, and one maintained overall tactical awareness.
He teleported again, deployed two formations in rapid succession to create defensive layers, then used a third formation to create false spatial signature that drew six of the attacks toward a decoy position.
The remaining six attacks struck his defensive formations, shattering the outer layer and cracking the inner one. Lin Feng felt the backblash through his consciousness—these weren't normal attacks that his formations could simply deflect. They were reality manipulations that fundamentally disrupted his spatial structures.
"You're adapting quickly," the Crimson Empress observed. She hadn't moved from her initial position, fighting entirely through spatial manipulation that reached across the chamber. "But adaptation has limits. Every teleportation depletes your spiritual energy. Every formation you deploy requires concentration. Every evasion brings you closer to exhaustion. I, meanwhile, am barely exerting myself."
She was right. Lin Feng could feel his spiritual energy depleting with each defensive action. Two teleportations and three formations had consumed approximately fifteen percent of his reserves—sustainable for perhaps six more exchanges before depletion forced him to abandon this tactical approach.
But six more exchanges meant six more minutes of survival. And through the communication network, he could sense the main battle shifting decisively in the allied defenders' favor. The demonic cultivators were being systematically defeated, their coordinated assault falling apart as numerical advantage and superior defensive positioning overwhelmed their aggressive techniques.
The Crimson Empress seemed to sense his tactical calculation. "You're buying time for your defenders to win the surrounding battle. Clever. But I can end this engagement whenever I choose. I've been testing your capabilities, confirming that you're as exceptional as I suspected. Now I'll demonstrate why Sovereign Monarchs are called supreme."
The chamber's reality shifted.
Lin Feng's four-perspective awareness detected it immediately—all four viewpoints showing different versions of the same space. From his primary perspective, the chamber appeared normal. From Qingxue's perspective through their bond, the walls were dissolving. From his tactical overview, the entire chamber was being compressed into a smaller space. From his temporal analysis, he was seeing three seconds into the past.
Reality manipulation targeting his perception directly.
"You rely on multi-perspective awareness to detect manipulation," the Crimson Empress said, her voice coming from four different directions simultaneously. "But if I manipulate all perspectives differently, how do you determine which one shows truth?"
Lin Feng's consciousness streams worked frantically to reconcile the contradictory sensory information. Standard approach would be to trust the perspective showing the most stable reality. But the Crimson Empress was sophisticated enough to make the false perspective appear more stable than the true one.
Unless...
Lin Feng stopped trying to determine which perspective was true and instead accepted that all of them were partially true. Reality wasn't being distorted—it was being multiplied. He was simultaneously experiencing four different versions of the same moment, each one real in its own framework.
The Inverse Void Dao principle applied: Don't try to force a single truth. Accept the contradiction and exist in multiple truths simultaneously.
His consciousness expanded, his four perspectives no longer competing but complementing. He could see the chamber as it was, as it was dissolving, as it was compressed, and as it had been three seconds ago—all at once, all equally real.
"Fascinating," the Crimson Empress said, and now her voice came from a single direction again. The reality manipulation ended, the chamber returning to its normal state. "You resolved contradictory perception by accepting contradiction rather than seeking resolution. That's genuine insight into advanced cultivation principles. You would have made an exceptional student if you'd accepted my recruitment offer."
"I still decline," Lin Feng said, though his spiritual energy was now at sixty-five percent after maintaining that multi-reality awareness. "Though I appreciate the compliment."
"Then we continue." The Crimson Empress's expression shifted from appreciation to cold determination. "No more testing. You've proven your exceptional capability. Now I'll demonstrate the insurmountable gap between our cultivation levels."
She vanished from Lin Feng's spatial perception entirely—not through teleportation but through becoming spatially absent. His thirty-five meter perception radius detected nothing where she had been standing. His four perspectives all confirmed the same absence.
But his void cultivation techniques sensed something his other capabilities couldn't detect—a presence that existed outside normal spatial framework. The Crimson Empress hadn't teleported away. She had stepped sideways from reality itself, moving into a spatial configuration that normal perception couldn't access.
Lin Feng's tactical consciousness immediately understood: She was about to attack from a direction that didn't exist in normal three-dimensional space.
He deployed the most sophisticated formation he had developed during his two weeks of preparation—a void-enhanced defensive structure that didn't protect a location but protected him personally regardless of spatial framework. The formation wrapped around his consciousness rather than his physical position, creating defense that would follow him even if reality itself was being manipulated.
The Crimson Empress's attack came from impossible direction—simultaneously above, below, and inside his position. Spatial strike that should have been unavoidable because it originated from framework normal evasion couldn't address.
But Lin Feng's consciousness-anchored formation held. The attack struck the defensive structure rather than him directly, and while the formation shattered under the impact, it absorbed enough power that the residual energy only wounded rather than killed.
Lin Feng felt his left arm go numb as corrupted spiritual energy invaded his meridians, his spiritual energy reserves dropping to forty-five percent from the formation's destruction and the injury's impact. Blood ran down his arm from where the spatial attack had partially penetrated his defense.
But he was alive. Against an attack that should have killed him instantly, he had survived.
"Extraordinary," the Crimson Empress said, reappearing in normal space ten meters from Lin Feng's position. "That defensive formation shouldn't exist. Consciousness-anchored protection that functions across spatial frameworks—that's Immortal Emperor level theory being applied by Divine Domain cultivator. How did you even conceive of that approach?"
"Void cultivation teaches that emptiness isn't absence," Lin Feng said through gritted teeth, using his void techniques to purge the corrupted energy from his meridians. "It's potential that exists everywhere simultaneously. If emptiness exists across all spatial frameworks, then defense built on emptiness should function across all frameworks too."
"You're pioneering techniques that don't exist in any sect's archives," the Crimson Empress said. "Original cultivation methods being developed in real-time during combat. That's rarer than perfect meridians, rarer than consciousness division, rarer than anything I've encountered in three centuries of cultivation."
She paused, then added with what sounded like genuine reluctance: "I'm going to kill you now, Lin Feng. You're too dangerous to allow continued development. But I want you to know that I genuinely wish circumstances had been different. You would have been magnificent as my successor."
"Your succession plans are noted and declined," Lin Feng said. His spiritual energy was at thirty-five percent after purging the corrupted energy. His left arm was recovering but not yet fully functional. His consciousness was maintaining maximum coordination but the strain was accumulating. "Though I appreciate the sentiment."
"Then we end this." The Crimson Empress gathered her spiritual energy, no longer suppressing her cultivation aura. The full weight of Sovereign Monarch Level 6 power flooded the chamber, creating pressure that made reality itself feel heavy.
Lin Feng's consciousness streams recognized what was coming—she was preparing to use a technique that would transcend everything she'd employed so far. Not testing, not evaluating, not playing with her prey. A killing technique designed to end the engagement decisively.
He had perhaps five seconds before she completed the technique's preparation. Five seconds to do something that would allow survival against attack from cultivator two full realms above him who was no longer holding back.
Through the communication network, Lin Feng confirmed that the main battle was essentially won—the demonic cultivators had been defeated or scattered, with only isolated pockets of resistance remaining. The strategic objective had been achieved. His sect's defenders had survived and won.
Which meant his personal survival was no longer tactically critical to the operation's success.
But Yun Qingxue's consciousness touched his through their dao companion bond, her presence absolute and unwavering. Don't you dare accept death as acceptable outcome. I'm maintaining anchor. If you need extraction, I'm pulling you to the prepared position immediately.
Not yet, Lin Feng responded. One more gambit first.
He activated his spatial anchoring technique—not for extraction but for something more aggressive. The technique created a fixed point in space that he could return to instantly from any distance. But what if he created that anchor point not where he currently stood but directly behind the Crimson Empress?
Lin Feng channeled spiritual energy through his spatial perception, reaching beyond his normal range through sheer force of will and desperation. He identified the space directly behind the Crimson Empress—two meters behind her physical position, well within her own defensive perimeter—and created a spatial anchor there.
Then he deployed his most powerful offensive technique—Void Annihilation, the improvised attack that had won his first Frozen Sky tournament match—and anchored that technique to trigger at the spatial anchor point when he activated it.
The Crimson Empress would never expect an attack originating from inside her own defensive perimeter. She was focused on her own offensive preparation, her attention directed outward toward Lin Feng's current position.
It was a desperate gambit. If it failed, he had wasted spiritual energy he couldn't afford to lose. If it succeeded, he might create an opening for actual survival rather than merely delayed defeat.
Lin Feng activated the spatial anchor.
Void Annihilation manifested directly behind the Crimson Empress, its destructive power focused at point-blank range against her undefended back. For someone at Divine Domain level, the attack would have been instantly fatal—void energy reducing spiritual structure to emptiness before any defense could be raised.
But the Crimson Empress was Sovereign Monarch level.
She reacted in the microsecond between manifestation and impact, her consciousness recognizing the threat and deploying defensive technique faster than should have been physically possible. The Void Annihilation struck her hastily-raised defense, and for a moment, void energy contested Sovereign Monarch power in direct confrontation.
The chamber exploded.
Spatial distortion from the collision of incompatible energies shattered reality itself in a ten-meter radius. Defensive formations throughout Celestial Dawn triggered automatically, containing the explosion before it could devastate the surrounding sect. But within the chamber, everything was chaos—walls dissolving, floor fragmenting, space itself becoming unstable.
Lin Feng felt Yun Qingxue's anchor activate automatically, her consciousness pulling him forcibly through space to the prepared extraction position five hundred meters away. The transition was jarring—combat situation to safety in an instant, his body materializing in a reinforced chamber far from the battle.
He collapsed immediately, spiritual energy depleted to less than ten percent, his consciousness struggling to maintain even basic awareness. Through their dao companion bond, he felt Qingxue's overwhelming relief mixed with residual terror.
Is she dead? Lin Feng managed to convey through the bond.
Unknown, Qingxue responded. The explosion destroyed all spiritual perception in that area. Grand Elder Bingxin is investigating now.
Lin Feng forced himself to remain conscious, using void techniques to stabilize his depleted spiritual energy and begin recovery. He needed to know the outcome—had his desperate gambit actually killed a Sovereign Monarch level cultivator, or had he merely wounded someone who would now be enraged beyond reason?
Through the communication network, Patriarch Cloud Heaven's voice came with careful control: The chamber is destroyed. No sign of the Crimson Empress within the debris. Either she was killed by the explosion, or she evacuated before the spatial collapse completed.
Demonic cultivator status? someone else asked.
Eliminated or scattered, Patriarch Cloud Heaven confirmed. All seventeen breach points secured. No active threats within Celestial Dawn's boundaries. But we cannot confirm the Crimson Empress's fate until the spatial distortion settles enough for investigation.
Lin Feng processed this information through his exhausted consciousness. The strategic objective had been achieved—Celestial Dawn defended, demonic cultivators defeated, the Crimson Empress's assault repelled. His personal survival was confirmed.
But whether he had actually killed the Crimson Empress or merely forced her retreat remained unknown.
And that uncertainty was almost worse than confirmed survival or confirmed death.
Because if she had survived, she would certainly return—angrier, more prepared, and absolutely committed to his elimination regardless of cost.
Lin Feng allowed himself to collapse into meditation, his consciousness finally releasing the extreme coordination it had maintained throughout combat. Yun Qingxue's presence through their bond wrapped around him protectively, her spiritual energy helping stabilize his depleted reserves.
"You survived," she said aloud, her voice carrying emotions too complex for words—relief, pride, fear, exhaustion, and love all mixed together.
"I survived," Lin Feng confirmed. "The impossible made possible one more time."
"And if she survived too?"
"Then we prepare for next time. Because there will definitely be a next time."
But for now, he had accomplished what he set out to do. Faced a Sovereign Monarch level cultivator, survived longer than should have been possible, potentially killed her through desperate tactics, and protected his sect from devastating assault.
Not bad for a Divine Domain Level 7 cultivator who had been an invisible servant just months ago.
End of Chapter 69
Next: Chapter 70 - Uncertain Victory