Cultivation is Creation-Chapter 186: Imperial Qi

The first wave of spirit wolves crashed against the defensive line like a tide of fangs and fury.

Liu Chang watched them break upon the formations and cultivator techniques with the detached analysis of a veteran commander, even as his own qi circulated through his meridians in preparation for combat.

"Hold the line!" he called out. "Don't let them draw you out of position!"

The advice wasn't really necessary: these weren't green recruits in their first skirmish. But sometimes people needed the comfort of familiar commands, even if they already knew what to do. It helped steady nerves, maintain focus.

Su Yue's steam barrier turned the first rank of wolves into cooked meat, their spiritual cores shattering under the combined assault of heat and hostile qi. The Heavenly Jade disciples' lightning techniques created a curtain of jade-colored death across the valley entrance, while the Yan Clan team...

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Liu Chang allowed himself a slight smile as he watched Yan Li's team work. They were being subtle by Yan Clan standards, which meant they were only destroying everything within twenty feet of their position instead of leveling the entire mountainside. The restraint was almost admirable.

"Incoming!" someone shouted. "Stage 8 on the eastern flank!"

Liu Chang turned to see a massive spirit wolf, easily twice the size of its packmates, charging through the steam barrier. Its fur was scorched black, but the beast itself seemed unharmed. Su Yue's fire techniques were impressive, but they weren't designed to stop higher-stage beasts.

"I've got it," Bing Lan, the other Azure Peak Stage 9 cultivator, called out.

She moved with the kind of grace that had earned her the nickname 'Dancing Blade' among the sect's disciples.

The wolf lunged, jaws wide enough to swallow a man whole. Bing Lan stepped forward, her sword leaving trails of azure light in the air, the technique looked almost gentle, like she was drawing calligraphy instead of fighting.

"Azure Moon's First Quarter."

The slash caught the wolf mid-leap, bisecting it so cleanly that both halves continued their forward momentum for several feet before the beast realized it was dead. Its spiritual core shattered with a sound like breaking glass, the fragments dissolving into pure qi that dispersed into the night air.

"Show-off," Liu Chang muttered, though there was no real criticism in his tone.

Bing Lan was a senior even to him, she earned her reputation through decades of dedicated practice. If anyone had earned the right to make combat look effortless, it was her.

A tremor ran through the ground beneath his feet, subtle enough that most wouldn't have noticed it. But Liu Chang hadn't survived this long by ignoring subtle warnings. He channeled qi to his feet, enhancing his perception of ground vibrations.

Something was moving down there. Multiple somethings.

He brought his foot down hard, sending a pulse of qi into the earth. The ground erupted twenty feet to his left, forcing up the mangled corpse of what looked like an oversized mole. Its flesh was torn and crushed, likely from trying to tunnel through the wrong section of Liu Chang's qi-enhanced earth.

"Earth Digging Moles!" he called out. "All earth-attribute cultivators, maintain ground awareness! Don't let them undermine our position!"

The warning came just in time.

More moles burst from the ground at various points along their defensive line, trying to catch the cultivators off guard. But now they were ready, and the burrowing beasts found themselves facing prepared opponents instead of surprised victims.

"Senior Brother!" one of the younger disciples called out. "More incoming!"

Liu Chang looked up to see the second wave approaching.

This one wasn't just wolves: he could see the massive forms of Ironclad Bulls mixed in with the pack, their armor gleaming dully in the moonlight. Behind them, the distinctive shapes of Blade Mantises appeared, their razor-sharp limbs clicking together in anticipation.

"Heavenly Jade, focus on the bulls!" he ordered. "Their armor is weakest against lightning techniques! Azure Peak, handle the mantises: they're too fast for standard barriers!"

The two Heavenly Jade leaders, Shen Xuanyu and Zhang Wei, moved in perfect synchronization. Their jade swords traced matching patterns in the air, creating a complex web of energy that spread across the valley entrance.

When the first Ironclad Bull charged into it, the beast's armor literally exploded, fragments of energized metal raining down as its core was exposed to the lightning.

Meanwhile, Bing Lan led the Azure Peak response to the Blade Mantises. The insectoid beasts were notorious for their speed and precision: their razor limbs could slice through standard defensive techniques like paper. But Azure Peak's sword arts while not famous, were anything but standard.

"Lunar Cascade Formation!" Bing Lan called out, and the Azure Peak disciples moved into position around her. Their combined sword techniques created overlapping waves of azure energy that caught the mantises in a deadly dance of blades.

In the middle of crushing the head of a Mantis in his palm, Liu Chang allowed himself a moment of pride at their coordination.

This was why the Azure Peak Sect excelled at beast wave defense: they understood the importance of teamwork over individual power. A Stage 9 cultivator fighting alone might be impressive, but a well-coordinated team could achieve far more.

A flash of golden light drew his attention to the Yan Clan's position.

Yan Li had apparently decided that subtlety had served its purpose. The air around him shimmered with a distinctive golden radiance that Liu Chang recognized all too well: Imperial Qi, the heaven-blessed energy that marked the ruling dynasty of the Eastern Continent.

Unlike normal qi, which flowed like water or wind, Imperial Qi moved with the weight of divine authority. It was said that when the heavens chose a clan to rule, they blessed them with this golden energy, a mark of their right to govern. Each continent had its own ruling family blessed with their own version of Imperial Qi, but the Yan Clan's golden variant was particularly potent.

"Heavenly Titan Manifestation."

A massive ethereal foot materialized above the battlefield, easily thirty feet from heel to toe. When it came down, it crushed a Stage 8 wolf beneath it with such force that the ground cratered.

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Liu Chang watched the display with complicated emotions. The technique was undeniably impressive: it was one of the reasons the Yan Clan had risen to rule the empire. But seeing it also brought back memories he'd rather have left buried.

The Liu and Yan families had been allies for generations. They'd fought together, traded together, even intermarried. Until that night...

He pushed the thoughts aside. This wasn't the time for old grievances. The beast wave was intensifying, and he needed to focus.

A series of explosions drew Liu Chang's attention towards where Chu Feng was fighting.

Three Stage 7 spirit wolves had cornered Chu Feng against one of the defensive formations.

"Gale Rend!" Chu Feng's voice carried clearly as he executed a perfect cross-slash. The vacuum blades caught the first wolf mid-leap, bisecting it diagonally. Before the beast's core had even finished shattering, Chu Feng was already moving to his next target.

"Skybreaker Dash!"

He seemed to blur, leaving after-images that confused the second wolf's tracking. When he reappeared, it was behind the beast, his wind-wrapped hand punching clean through its skull. The third wolf tried to retreat, but Chu Feng's next technique left it no escape.

"Stormfang Arsenal!"

Dozens of wind blades materialized in the air around him. With a gesture, he sent them all forward in a coordinated pattern that turned the wolf into precisely diced pieces, its core split into perfect quarters.

In the middle of his own battle with a Qi Condensation Stage 8 ironclad bull, Liu Chang sighed with relief. He'd been worried about Chu Feng ever since Ke Yin had raised concerns about his behavior.

But this... this was not the fighting style of someone working against them.

Chu Feng was putting himself at risk to protect their position. If he'd wanted to sabotage their defense, he'd had multiple opportunities. Instead, he was fighting with everything he had.

"Senior Brother!" Chu Feng called out, already engaging another group of high-stage beasts. "They're trying to circle around to the east! Su Yue's steam barrier is weakening!"

Not only fighting effectively, but keeping tactical awareness of the entire battlefield. Liu Chang felt a weight lift from his shoulders. They'd been wrong about Chu Feng. Whatever caused his strange behavior around the shrine, whatever caused his strange behaviour, it likely wasn't betrayal.

As Liu Chang stood over the corpse of his opponent, a scream of pain drew his attention.

One of the younger disciples had been caught by a Blade Mantis's strike. The creature's razor limb had sliced clean through his defensive technique, opening a brutal gash from shoulder to hip. He collapsed, blood spreading across his robes.

"Bai Chen!" Another disciple moved to help him, but Liu Chang's sharp command stopped her.

"Hold position! Su Yue, cover that sector! Bing Lan, get him out of there!"

The wounded disciple's cultivation was already falling, his qi fluctuating dangerously as his life drained away. Liu Chang had seen enough combat to know he wouldn't survive without immediate attention. But they couldn't compromise their formation to help him: that would just lead to more casualties.

Bing Lan moved like lightning, her sword techniques clearing a path through the beasts. She reached Bai Chen in seconds, scooping him up and retreating to the medical station they'd established behind the main defensive line. Whether he'd survive or not would depend on the healers now.

More casualties followed as the battle intensified.

An Ironclad Bull broke through the lightning web, its charge catching a Heavenly Jade disciple before she could fully raise her defenses. The impact sent her flying, her jade sword shattering under the beast's armor. She hit the ground hard and didn't get up.

The Earth Digging Moles were becoming more coordinated, their tunneling patterns suggesting some kind of hive mind control. They'd start to burrow under one section of the defense, then suddenly change direction, emerging where they weren't expected. Two more cultivators fell to their ambush tactics before the earth-attribute users fully adapted to their strategy.

But the Symphony Shield was proving its worth.

The formation didn't just block attacks: it learned from them, redistributing power to reinforce areas that came under heavy assault. Ke Yin's innovation was saving lives, giving their defenders crucial seconds to recover between waves of attacks.

"Brother Liu!" Yan Li's voice carried over the chaos. "They’re here!"

Liu Chang turned to see not just the Alpha Wolf, but four other massive beasts emerging from the chaos.

An Ironclad Bull with armor plates that gleamed like polished steel.

A Blade Mantis that stood twice as tall as its lesser kin.

A Bone Gnawer the size of a small house, its teeth glowing with corrosive energy.

And from beneath the ground burst an Earth Digging Mole, its claws leaving traces of golden light as they cut through the air.

All of them Stage 9.

"This isn't natural," Liu Chang called out as the five beasts approached their line. "Stage 9 beasts never gather like this. Bing Lan, take the Mantis! Shen Xuanyu, the Bull! Zhang Wei, handle that Bone Gnawer! Yan Li, the Mole is yours!"

The Alpha Wolf moved first, crossing the distance to their defensive line with impossible speed. Its first strike shattered three overlapping barriers like they were made of paper.

Liu Chang intercepted it, his qi already flowing into the patterns of his Immutable Titan Scripture. His skin turned to living stone as he met the Alpha's charge head-on.

The impact was tremendous.

Even with his enhanced defense, Liu Chang felt bones creak under the strain.

The Alpha's spiritual pressure was incredible, its qi so dense it was like fighting against a mountain. They exchanged a flurry of strikes, each impact sending shockwaves across the battlefield.

To his right, Bing Lan danced with the Stage 9 Blade Mantis. Her sword techniques left trails of azure light in the air as she matched the beast's speed.

The Mantis's blades moved faster than normal eyes could track, but Bing Lan's "Azure Moon's First Quarter" technique kept pace, deflecting strikes that could have cut through mountains.

"Your speed means nothing," she taunted as she wove between the Mantis's strikes, her sword drawing blood from its carapace, "if you can't actually hit anything!"

The Mantis responded by splitting its blade-arms into dozens of smaller blades, each moving independently.

Bing Lan's eyes widened slightly: she'd never seen a Blade Mantis do that before. She was forced to unleash her "Thousand Moon Reflection" technique, her sword becoming a sphere of defensive strikes.

On the opposite flank, Shen Xuanyu faced the Ironclad Bull. His jade-colored lightning techniques seemed to slide off the beast's enhanced armor, barely leaving scorch marks. The bull charged, its horns tearing through Shen Xuanyu's defensive barriers like paper.

"Jade Thunder Empire!" Shen Xuanyu roared, his technique manifesting as a dragon of pure lightning that wrapped around the bull.

The beast's armor began to crack under the sustained assault, but it didn't slow its charge. If anything, it seemed to grow stronger as its armor degraded.

Zhang Wei was having his own problems with the Bone Gnawer. His jade sword techniques were precise and powerful, but the massive rat-like beast simply regenerated any damage he inflicted. Its teeth had already shattered three of his jade weapons, the corrosive energy eating through even spiritually enhanced metal.

"How do you like this?" Zhang Wei snarled, forming hand seals as he channeled more qi. "Heaven's Jade Burial!"

The ground beneath the Bone Gnawer crystallized into jade, trying to trap it in place. But the beast's teeth simply chewed through the transformed earth, its corrosive energy neutralizing the spiritual properties of the jade faster than Zhang Wei could maintain them.

Meanwhile, Yan Li faced the Earth Digging Mole. Golden light rippled around him as he channeled his imperial qi, the very air trembling in response to heaven's authority.

The mole dove underground, its tunneling ability allowing it to attack from unexpected angles, but Yan Li merely smiled.

"You want to play games?" he murmured, raising his hand. The golden light intensified until it was almost blinding. "Heavenly Titan's Divine Grasp!"

A colossal hand of pure golden qi materialized above the battlefield, each finger nine feet long. The imperial energy was so dense that the air itself seemed to crystallize around it, creating visible ripples in space.

When the mole burst from the ground behind Yan Li, aiming for a surprise attack, the massive hand moved with impossible speed.

The fingers closed around the beast before it could dive back underground, the imperial qi nullifying its tunneling ability. The mole thrashed in the titan's grasp, its Stage 9 qi flaring as it tried to break free, but against the power of heaven's mandate, it might as well have been a normal rodent struggling against a steel trap.

"Insignificant," Yan Li declared, closing his own hand into a fist.

The giant golden hand responded in kind, crushing the mole with such force that the beast's spiritual core shattered instantly. As the Stage 9 mole's corpse fell to earth, Yan Li didn't even bother to watch it land.

"Behind you!" Someone shouted, and Yan Li turned to see a blur of motion.

A Stage 7 Blade Mantis had somehow slipped through their defensive line. Its razor limbs already striking towards...

Yan Ziheng.

The young formation practitioner was completely focused on maintaining his section of the Symphony Shield. He hadn't even noticed the threat appear behind him.

Yan Li moved to intercept, but he was too far away to make it in time. He could only watch as the mantis's blade descended towards his clan member’s unprotected back...