The formation’s mirror projections shattered one after another as mountain leopards tore into the false positions. The real formation was already gone. Each collapse bought precious time. Fa Hua used those fleeting moments to stall the enemy, greatly reducing the Capricorn clan’s casualties and giving the formation a brief chance to recover.
Then, under the gaze of countless Capricorn warriors, a golden figure stepped into the position Fa Hua had just vacated.
It was Jin Yang.
She surged forward from the rear, seamlessly taking over the front line, while Fa Hua withdrew back into the formation. The handover was smooth, almost deliberate, like a calculated exchange on the battlefield.
“Mu Tong! Ha!”
Jin Yang raised her long spear. In the next instant, her expression grew solemn.
The spear trembled violently.
Brilliant golden radiance erupted from her body. The twin horns atop her head turned crystalline and translucent, as if carved from pure gold itself.
Liquid-like golden light streamed from those horns and poured into the long spear. At once, the mountain leopards ahead sensed something profoundly terrifying. They recoiled instinctively, unwilling to meet that power head-on.
Jin Yang narrowed her eyes and fixed her gaze on the central Leopard Shaman—the leader of the three.
Under her stare, the shaman felt a chill crawl up his spine. Alarm flared in his heart.
This is bad.
Jin Yang was about to risk everything.
The Shaman Leader urged the giant mountain leopard beneath him to retreat without hesitation, but Jin Yang had already prepared for this moment.
As a bearer of the Golden Bloodline, she possessed a trump card of her own—something Fa Hua had confirmed earlier through their mental exchange.
Like the two princesses of the Tiger Demon Clan, she carried a bloodline art passed down through the Golden Bloodline itself—an overwhelming battle technique reserved for decisive moments.
“Mu Tong!”
She threw her head back and roared.
In the blink of an eye, Jin Yang’s body expanded explosively. She grew to a towering height of ten meters, and her long spear enlarged in perfect proportion.
“Stop her!”
The three Leopard Shamans shouted almost simultaneously. They retreated in panic, driving more mountain leopards forward in a desperate attempt to block her.
Fa Hua, now back within the formation, watched intently. This single strike would decide everything. Whether Jin Yang truly lived up to the weight of the title Great would be proven here.
Jin Yang swung her spear.
Golden light detonated outward. The sky itself was washed in radiant gold.
The heavens seemed to split open as a beam of golden light descended from above, merging with the slash unleashed by her spear. Together, they formed a colossal golden sword more than a hundred meters long, crashing down from the sky.
BOOM—
Wherever the golden light fell, nothing could withstand it.
No matter how powerful a Leopard Shaman might be, they were still traitors—cast aside by the demon clans themselves. If they had truly been strong enough, they would never have coveted the Golden Bloodline of the Capricorn clan.
“Capricorn Asura Slash!”*
Pride blazed in Jin Yang’s eyes—pride in her bloodline, and pride in this strike born of justice and judgment.
Only those with righteous hearts could unleash the Capricorn clan’s innate power to its fullest.
Jin Yang did so without question.
Mountain leopards that attempted to block the blow were reduced to nothing. Hundreds vanished in an instant as golden light poured downward.
The leading Leopard Shaman fled at full speed. Seven flashes of light erupted from his body in succession—seven defensive barriers shattering one after another. Yet before the Capricorn Asura Slash, all resistance was meaningless.
Pop—
Along with the giant mountain leopard beneath him, his body froze mid-flight. A thin golden line traced down from the crown of his head, splitting both shaman and mount.
In the next instant, they turned to ash and vanished completely.
“Mu Tong! Ha!”
Thunderous cheers erupted from the Capricorn warriors. The death of the leading Leopard Shaman shattered the enemy’s morale, and fear flooded the hearts of the remaining two.
Jin Yang shrank back to her original size. She braced herself on her spear to keep from collapsing.
Fa Hua had ordered her to hold nothing back. She had done exactly that.
Her body felt hollow and drained, but her spirit was soaring.
Then, suddenly, a sharp sense of unease surged through her.
The air was growing violent.
This was not the aftermath of the Asura Slash. That technique embodied sharpness and judgment—not frenzy.
She spun around, eyes locking onto the center of the formation.
The two humans stood there, one behind the other.
Lan Ge was now in front.
Since unleashing the water pillars earlier, he had offered no further support—until now.
Fa Hua stood behind him, the Divine Codex floating open at his side, turned to the Fifth Page. A golden halo spread outward, forming an invisible pressure that descended from the sky, forcibly driving mountain leopards along both sides of the cliffs into the ravine below.
- Fifth Page (front): Imprison the World
- Fifth Page (reverse): Command Heaven and Earth
Jin Yang saw it then—a vortex swirling in Lan Ge’s eyes.
Blue. Purple. Red.
The same tri-colored vortex as before.
Lan Ge opened his mouth and exhaled, as if simply breathing toward the ravine.
Invisible. Formless.
Yet with that breath, the air’s frenzy ignited.
Wind feeds fire. Fire conceals thunder.
A torrent of green, red, and violet light surged into the ravine.
Only now did Jin Yang understand.
The ravine had never been an escape route.
It was a grave.
Mountain leopards were agile and cunning. Large-scale slaughter was notoriously difficult—they could sense danger and evade at terrifying speed. Only a few were ever caught at once.
All the earlier maneuvers—the reversals, the feigned breakthroughs, the blocked charges—had been preparation for this moment.
After the water pillars, Lan Ge had been gathering power all along. Fa Hua’s return to the formation had been to provide the final support he needed.
Wind. Fire. Thunder.
A three-element Combination Spell.
Heavenly Rupture.
At this moment, Lan Ge stepped into the Ninth Rank.
At this moment, the Blessed One reached perfection.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—
More than a thousand mountain leopards were packed into the ravine, compressed under the brief suppression of Command Heaven and Earth.
More than a thousand mountain leopards faced Lan Ge’s ultimate creation.
This was his spell.
The strongest combination technique he could currently wield.
He had yet to resolve the conflict between water and fire, and thus could not use a four-element spell. But among three-element techniques, none surpassed Heavenly Rupture.
Under the stunned gazes of the Capricorn warriors, the ravine transformed into a sea of wind, fire, and lightning. The mountain itself seemed to become a storm-forged inferno.
More than a thousand mountain leopards were completely swallowed by the devastation.
The remaining two Leopard Shamans shared the same fate. With only Eighth-Rank cultivation, they had no hope of escaping a Ninth-Rank combination spell unleashed jointly by Fa Hua and Lan Ge.
Explosions and flames raged for nearly a full minute. Even stone melted under the searing heat.
For a time, all life was reduced to ruin.
The Capricorn warriors stood motionless.
The mental link binding Fa Hua to the formation quietly severed.
It was over.
Of the three thousand mountain leopards, nearly two-thirds had perished. All three Leopard Shamans were dead. The survivors fled in terror.
A meticulously planned ambush against the Capricorn clan had been utterly overturned—by two humans.
**
One Hour Later — By the Lake
The Capricorn warriors sat in groups of ten around blazing bonfires. The mountain air was chilly, and though it was still afternoon, the warmth of the flames was welcome.
Large fish sizzled over the fire, oil dripping as their skins turned golden and crisp.
The Capricorn clan’s losses had not been light. Over eighty were dead, and nearly everyone was wounded. But compared to the devastation suffered by the mountain leopards, it was a result few could have imagined.
Mountain leopard corpses that remained intact were gathered nearby. Warriors skinned hides and harvested tendons. Leopard pelts were valuable because their patterns were striking. Though the meat was only passable, it also served as food all the same.
“Are we provoking them by grilling fish by the lake?” Lan Ge asked with a grin across the bonfire.
“Exactly,” Jin Yang replied coldly. “To provoke them. To see if they still dare to come out. Sooner or later, I’ll drag that big-headed fish out.”
No matter how decisive the victory, the fallen were not forgotten. These were her trusted guards. How could her heart not ache?
From this battle onward, Fa Hua and Lan Ge were no longer merely guests.
They were friends of the Capricorn clan—friends bound by life and death.
Through conversation, they learned that the fish in the lake were called Scarlet-Gold Fish, a rare species. The lake’s waters were bitterly cold, yet they nurtured fire-attribute fish—a natural contradiction.
Scarlet-Gold Fish were not only prized delicacies, but within their bellies formed fish pearls of immense value.
Also known as Ice-Fire Pearls, these beads balanced cold and heat. Carrying one could render water and fire harmless for a time, keeping the body at a stable temperature regardless of environment.
Within the two great empires of the Demon Domain, such pearls fetched staggering prices.
(T/N: Capricorn Asura Slash — Leaving this note at the bottom because it’s not required to understand what’s going on. I got excited here when I read this because this is a reference to Douluo Dalu 5!)