But by the time everyone realized that, Long Shenyu was no longer inside it.
No one saw him move.
There was no trail of light.
No footstep.
No ripple.
One moment, Ning Huang stood beneath the descending beast claw, trapped by the red-black blood shadow.
The next, Long Shenyu was beside her.
His arm wrapped around her waist.
His palm pressed lightly against the spreading blood mark on her body.
Ning Huang froze.
The battlefield around her seemed to stop.
Her Aurora Judgment Lightning had been struggling wildly against the Bloodmoon art. Gold, violet, blue-white arcs lashed from her meridians in violent bursts, each one trying to burn away the corruption invading her circulation. But the blood shadow was vicious. It did not clash head-on with her lightning. It hooked into the gaps between pulses, sinking into places where exhaustion, anger, and panic made her rhythm uneven.
It was a filthy art.
It did not seek to kill first.
It sought to claim.
Long Shenyu's palm rested over the mark.
His Qi entered her body.
Ning Huang's first instinct was to resist.
She was Heaven's Edict's war-heiress. She had been raised among verdict lightning, battlefield commands, and the crushing pride of an upper Noble Domain power. Her cultivation art taught her to never allow another's power to enter her circulation without permission.
But this power did not invade.
It guided.
Long Shenyu's Primordial Dragon Soul flowed into her like warmth after winter. It did not force her lightning aside. It listened to it. Matched it. Found its rhythm and steadied it with frightening precision.
Where the blood-shadow tried to coil deeper, his soul force erased its grip.
Where her Aurora Judgment Lightning nearly turned against her own meridians, his Origin Qi smoothed the flow.
Where the corruption had hooked into her dantian pathway, the faint devouring law in his palm opened like a dragon's mouth and swallowed the hook whole.
Ning Huang's breath caught.
The pain that had been tearing through her body faded one layer at a time.
Not gone.
But no longer ruling her.
She looked up at him.
His face was close.
Too close.
The battlefield still raged. The sky still trembled. The enormous beast claw was still descending above them. Blood still stained her lips.
And yet, for one absurd moment, the only thing she could see clearly was Long Shenyu's eyes.
He looked down at her.
The coldness in his expression softened by a fraction.
"Sorry for taking too long."
Ning Huang's fingers curled around the front of his robe before she realized she had moved.
"I didn't call you."
"No." His mouth curved slightly. "You only thought of me with your whole heart. I felt it with my soul."
Color rose in her face despite the blood at her lips.
"This is not the time."
"It is always the time when you blush that nicely."
Her eyes widened.
"You—"
The blood-shadow screamed.
Not metaphorically.
A shrill spiritual cry tore out from inside Ning Huang's body as Long Shenyu's soul force wrapped around the corruption and tightened. The sound made nearby cultivators stagger, their faces turning pale. It was like hearing a parasite realize the body it had entered belonged to something far more terrifying than itself.
Long Shenyu's fingers pressed lightly against Ning Huang's waist.
"Hold still."
"I am holding still."
"You are glaring."
"That is not movement."
"It is very distracting."
Ning Huang almost choked.
Then the last strand of blood-corruption was torn free.
A red-black mark rose from her skin like a living worm dragged from flesh. It twisted violently, trying to split apart, trying to flee into mist, shadow, aura, anything.
Long Shenyu closed his fingers.
The mark vanished.
Dozens of miles away, Xue Moren's blood formation exploded upward in black-red flames.
The barren hill where he and Luo Xuechen hid shook violently. The formation flags around them burst one by one, each collapse sending blood-fire into the ground. The carved beast skull at the formation's center split down the middle.
Xue Moren's face changed.
"He touched the mark!"
Luo Xuechen's expression twisted.
"Impossible. The Bloodmoon hook was already rooted in her circulation!"
Then both of them vomited black blood.
The backlash tore through them like hooked knives. Xue Moren fell to one knee, fingers clawing into the dirt as veins bulged across his neck. His blood art had always been cruel, but cruelty became dangerous when it was reflected back through the wrong medium.
Long Shenyu had not merely removed the mark.
He had followed it back.
Luo Xuechen staggered two steps. The charm around her body shattered like cheap glass. Her demonic allure, usually enough to blur the minds of weaker men, scattered beneath the backlash. Blood streamed from the corner of her lips, dark and thick.
Her eyes were no longer playful.
They were frightened.
Xue Moren raised his head with difficulty.
"That was not Sky Qi."
Luo Xuechen wiped her mouth with trembling fingers.
"No," she whispered. "It was soul force."
Xue Moren's pupils shrank.
Soul force that could follow a Bloodmoon hook across dozens of miles?
From an Origin Core boy?
The thought was absurd.
The pain in his organs said otherwise.
Above River Ridge, the massive beast claw continued descending.
It had already come close enough that its shadow swallowed half the battlefield.
The claw was not flesh, but condensed beast pressure. It carried the weight of mountains, the savagery of horned bloodlines, and the ruthless force of a killing art meant to crush everything beneath it at once. Even those not directly targeted felt their bones ache under its pressure.
Mei Qingxue stood below with her face pale, frost Qi flickering around her fingers.
Shen Lanyue's sword was already drawn, her cold eyes locked on the claw. She knew she could not stop it. Not fully. Not from that distance. Not with that amount of pressure already descending.
But she would still strike.
Beside them, Ning Huang felt the shadow fall over her and instinctively tried to turn.
Long Shenyu's arm held her in place.
"Don't move."
Her pride flared.
"I can still fight."
"I know." He looked upward. "But this is mine."
His tone was calm.
Too calm.
Ning Huang followed his gaze.
The claw descended.
The air shrieked beneath it. Buildings below cracked before it even touched them. A tower in the distance collapsed from the pressure alone, spilling stone and dust into the street. Cultivators screamed and fled, but the suppression field made every movement feel sluggish.
Zhao Chuan, still coughing blood in the distance, saw Long Shenyu standing beneath the claw with Ning Huang in his arms.
For a brief, bitter instant, a complicated light flashed in his eyes.
Even if the cage failed, even if the blood mark failed, that beast claw was already falling. It carried power from outside the battlefield, from experts hidden beyond the city's immediate range. It was not something a mere sword slash could casually—
Long Shenyu looked up.
He blinked.
Then he flicked his fingers.
For an instant, the world lost color.
No thunder.
No mist.
No screaming.
No wind.
A thin line appeared across the center of the beast claw.
Then another.
Then hundreds.
The enormous manifestation stopped in midair.
Every watching cultivator saw the impossible happen one breath at a time.
The claw did not explode.
It was divided.
Cut into fragments so thin and so clean that the pressure inside it could not maintain form. The savage beast force, which had been strong enough to suppress Sky Lords and crush the weaker people below without effort, broke apart like dry clay struck by a hammer.
Even the aftershocks did not escape.
The storm waves that should have rolled across River Ridge were erased before they spread. Long Shenyu's power passed through them like invisible teeth, devouring the force, cutting the pressure, severing the rhythm that allowed the attack to continue existing.
A silence fell over the city.
Not peace.
Bewilderment.
It was the silence of people whose minds had reached the edge of what they could understand and found nothing to hold onto.
A damaged Saint Artifact had trapped him.
For a moment, everyone had believed the Noble Domain still had rules that could contain him.
Then he cut it open.
A Bloodmoon demonic art had caught Ning Huang.
He erased it with a touch.
A hidden beast expert's attack had descended from above, carrying enough force to crush the battlefield.
He destroyed it with a flick of his fingers.
No chant.
No technique name.
No strain visible on his face.
Just one movement.
One careless movement.
And something that had made Sky Lords tremble became dust.
Miles away, Gu Man's old eyes widened.
The horned elder spat blood and fell backward onto the barren ground. His white horns rang with cracks of spiritual backlash, the sound sharp and ugly. Blood ran from his nostrils into his beard.
The formation platform beneath him collapsed.
Gu Yaohe dropped beside him, one knee smashing into the earth. Her own aura lurched violently, half from backlash and half from instinct. Blood ran down her chin, but her eyes were not only full of pain.
There was excitement there.
Savage.
Bright.
Dangerous.
"He saw us," she said.
Gu Man's expression turned grim.
"No." He forced himself upright, one hand pressed against his chest. "Worse."
Gu Yaohe looked at him.
The elder's face had gone ashen beneath the blood.
"He marked us."
Gu Yaohe's excitement dimmed.
Only then did she feel it.
A faint sensation along her soul. Not pain. Not yet. It was lighter than a thread and colder than a blade resting against the back of her neck.
Long Shenyu had not simply destroyed the attack.
He had remembered where it came from.
For a moment, River Ridge City forgot how to breathe.
Zhao Chuan's face was bloodless.
Lei Yunhe's spear hand had gone stiff.
The Qin Family elders hidden in distant towers stared upward with frozen expressions. Some had already half-risen from their seats. Others remained standing with their palms pressed against the railings, fingers digging into polished stone until cracks spread beneath their hands.
No one cared.
No one even noticed.
Their eyes were all fixed on the same person.
If Long Shenyu had come out bloodied, panting, exhausted, the watching experts might have understood. If Long Shenyin had staggered beside him, wounded and enraged, the city might have accepted that the artifact had been broken at terrible cost.
But there was no cost.
The cage had shattered.
The two attacks meant to seize Ning Huang had been destroyed.
Even Mei Qingxue and Shen Lanyue were stunned despite the relief surging through them.
Mei Qingxue's hands pressed over her heart. Her face was pale from fear, yet her eyes shone so brightly that it seemed as if the shattered thunder was reflected inside them. She had known Long Shenyu was powerful. She had believed in him even when belief seemed absurd. But this was still beyond what her heart could bear in one breath.
Shen Lanyue's sword hand slowly relaxed.
A moment earlier, her fingers had been clenched so hard around her hilt that frost had crawled along the scabbard. Now the ice cracked and fell away. Her cold eyes remained calm on the surface, but her breathing gave her away.
Across the hidden ridges beyond the city, four figures felt Long Shenyu's gaze.
Xue Moren's blood went cold.
Luo Xuechen's smile vanished.
Gu Man's old eyes narrowed into slits.
Gu Yaohe's beast pupils shrank violently.
They were miles away, concealed by formations, terrain, demonic mist, and beast-source barriers. They had not stood inside River Ridge City. They had not revealed their real bodies openly. They had attacked through prepared means, using distance and timing to avoid exactly this sort of danger.
Yet the moment Long Shenyu looked over, each of them felt it.
Not ordinary sight.
Not divine sense.
Something colder. Sharper. More precise.
It was as though a blade had passed over their throats from across the world.
None of them hesitated.
Xue Moren crushed the Bloodmoon bone bead in his palm.
The bead was the size of a thumb joint, pale white on the outside and dark red within. The moment it cracked, a blood moon sigil opened beneath his feet. Demonic characters spun around him like severed veins. The space behind him darkened, forming a narrow tunnel of blood-colored light.
Luo Xuechen tore a strip of demon-skin talisman from her sleeve and burned it between two fingers. Red runes crawled across the strip like living insects. As the talisman turned to ash, nine blood-shadow fox tails unfurled behind her, each one pointing in a different direction.
Gu Man bit through his own tongue.
The old beast cultivator spat a mouthful of blood onto a curved horn charm hanging from his neck. The charm woke with a savage hum. Ancient yellow light spread across his body, wrapping him in the vague outline of a massive horned beast trampling through dust.
Gu Yaohe's hand shot beneath her collarbone.
There, hidden against her skin, hung a beast-shadow jade no larger than a coin. She tore it free so violently that blood ran down her chest. The jade cracked between her fingers, releasing a roar that seemed to come from a hundred beasts dying at once.
Four escape lights erupted at the same time.
Blood moon.
Demon shadow.
Ancient horn.
Beast phantom.
In four distant locations, the ridges outside River Ridge City trembled as the hidden experts burned through priceless Sage Ruler escape means without even looking back.
These were not ordinary fleeing arts.
A Sky Lord escape talisman could increase speed, obscure aura, or cross a short distance in a burst. A Sage Ruler escape means was different. It borrowed a fragment of law. Even damaged, even disposable, such a treasure touched authority beyond Sky Qi.
To the cultivators of River Ridge, such things were lifelines that could survive death itself.
To Long Shenyu, they were merely annoying.