Chapter 114 - 82 : The Cage (3)

Chapter 114: Chapter 82 : The Cage (3)

Ethan moved.

The Early Qi Refining cultivator was already waiting for him. Qi surged along the man’s weapon as he swung, the blade cutting through the darkness with enough force to make the air tremble. Ethan raised his short dao and caught the strike head-on. The impact jolted through his arm, making his fingers tighten around the hilt, but he pushed through it instead of giving ground. The crude layer of Qi surrounding his dao flickered under the pressure, uneven and thin, yet it held together long enough.

That was all he needed.

Ethan stepped inside the man’s reach.

The cultivator’s expression changed.

Ethan’s dao flashed across his chest. The man’s weapon slipped from his fingers and struck the stone before his body followed it down.

Ethan was already moving again.

More figures were rushing toward him from between the rocks, their footsteps mixing with shouted warnings and the scrape of weapons being drawn. A blade swept toward his side. Ethan twisted, but not quite far enough. The edge tore through his robe and opened his flesh. He felt the hot sting of the wound for barely a breath before Living Blood surged toward it, pulling the torn flesh back together as he moved.

Another strike came from the front.

Ethan ducked.

A spearhead cut through the space above his head, close enough for him to feel the wind of it against his hair. He stepped forward instead of retreating, drove his shoulder into the spearman’s chest, and sent the man tumbling across the rocky ground. Ethan followed with a single slash.

Another body fell.

Then another.

The valley erupted around him.

Shouts bounced between the slopes. Steel rang against steel and stone. Qi burst against the rocks in flashes that briefly lit the darkness before disappearing, while the cold wind carried the noise through the mountains and threw it back from the cliffs. Somewhere beyond the fighting, the mournful wail rose again, almost lost beneath the violence.

Ethan kept moving.

He had fought groups before, but this was different.

There was no clean end to the battle. Every time he broke through one section, more people were already moving into the space he had created. They weren’t throwing themselves at him all at once. They were taking turns, forcing him to deal with one attack before another came from somewhere else. A Body Tempering cultivator rushed him from the front. Ethan cut him down. Two more closed in from the side, and he turned into them, killing one before driving a kick into the other’s chest and sending him crashing against the ground. Ethan finished him before another burst of Qi struck from behind.

He twisted too late.

The attack slammed into his back and drove him several steps forward. Pain spread across his ribs. Ethan caught himself, spun around, and found another Early Qi Refining cultivator standing between the rocks.

The man’s expression was tense. He had seen what Ethan had done to the others, and the knowledge clearly weighed on him, but he still tightened his grip on his weapon and stepped forward. Whatever hesitation he felt, he forced it down and attacked anyway.

Their weapons collided with a sharp clang that rang through the valley. Qi flowed along the cultivator’s blade, brightening its edge, and Ethan forced his own Qi into his dao in response. The layer around his weapon flickered unevenly, threatening to collapse under the strain, but he kept it together.

The other man’s blade slid against his.

Ethan stepped inside.

The cultivator twisted and caught him with a second strike. Pain tore across Ethan’s thigh, but he ignored it. His dao drove across the man’s chest before he could recover. The cultivator stumbled backward, blood spreading across his chest as his footing gave way. Ethan stepped in and delivered the finishing strike before the man could recover.

He barely had time to straighten before another attack came at him.

A spear grazed his shoulder. A Qi blade cut across his forearm. Ethan turned with the pain and drove his dao into the spear wielder before another cultivator struck him across the back. He spun, his dao following the movement, and the attacker fell.

Another came almost immediately, followed by another from a different direction. Ethan barely had time to finish one before the next attack was already upon him, forcing him to keep turning, blocking, and striking without a moment to settle. The fight no longer had any rhythm he could follow. It was a constant rush of movement and attacks, with pressure coming from every direction and no room to breathe.

Every time Ethan found a moment to breathe, someone was already coming for him. Every opening he created was filled almost immediately. His speed still gave him an advantage, allowing him to slip between attacks that would have caught an ordinary cultivator, and his body continued to endure injuries that should have crippled him. But each wound demanded something in return.

A blade tore across his abdomen.

Ethan staggered.

Living Blood rushed toward the injury, pulling the torn flesh together, but another strike came before the wound had fully closed. It slammed into his shoulder and sent a fresh burst of pain through him.

He forced himself forward, driving his blade into the attacker’s throat. The man collapsed, and Ethan stepped over the body without slowing, his breathing growing heavier as he pressed on. It wasn’t because his body was losing strength. He was simply spending too much.

Qi.

Living Blood.

Every burst of speed, every recovery, every wound his body repaired was drawing from something within him. And no matter how strong his body was, that reserve was not endless.

He killed another cultivator, then another, but the valley refused to give him space. He angled toward the mountain wall, hoping to force the surrounding cultivators into a narrower approach, only for a group to appear ahead of him. Ethan changed direction.

Another group was already moving into that path.

Ethan turned again, his eyes narrowing as more presences entered the edge of his Blood Perception, spreading through the darkness around him. He had already killed so many of them, yet they kept coming. Every time he broke through one group, another appeared to take its place. For a moment, the pattern puzzled him. Did they not see what was happening? Hadn’t the others already shown them what happened when they came too close? Why were they still walking straight into the same situation, knowing that the people before them had already been cut down?

Then another possibility occurred to him. Maybe they weren’t coming because they believed they could win alone. Maybe they simply believed that if enough of them kept coming, they would eventually wear him down.

Ethan’s jaw tightened as he looked into the darkness. Whatever the reason, the result was the same. They had no intention of letting him break away, and the number of presences around him was still growing. The cage was tightening.

He surged forward anyway, pushing through the pressure as he drove toward the nearest opening.

His body became a blur between the rocks. Three Body Tempering cultivators barely had time to raise their weapons. Ethan passed the first and his throat opened. The second went down beneath a slash across the chest. The third turned and tried to retreat.

Ethan caught him before he could take three steps, but an Early Qi Refining cultivator was already moving in. Ethan turned just as the man’s attack came down and caught the weapon with his dao. The impact drove him backward, his boots scraping against the stone as the force traveled through his arm and into his shoulder.

He twisted his body to avoid the next strike coming from the side, but he was a fraction too slow. The blow slammed into his ribs, and Ethan immediately felt one of the bones give beneath the force. Pain shot through his side as he staggered away, his body already drawing Living Blood toward the damage.

Pain tore through Ethan’s side as the broken rib shifted beneath his skin. Then Living Blood surged toward the injury. He felt the damaged bone being pulled back into alignment, the two broken ends grinding against each other before drawing together under the rapid healing. The sensation was sharp and deeply uncomfortable, like the bone was forcing itself back into place while the surrounding tissue tightened around it. The pain spiked as the fracture closed, then quickly began to fade. Ethan used that brief window to drive his dao into the cultivator standing in front of him.

The man fell.

Another attack came before Ethan could fully recover. He twisted away from the incoming strike, feeling the weapon pass close enough to brush his robe, and immediately moved to counter. But as he did, another figure was already closing in from the side. Ethan narrowly avoided that attack as well, and the realization finally settled into place.

They weren’t trying to defeat him quickly.

They were deliberately keeping him under pressure, forcing him to spend Qi, Living Blood, and physical strength with every exchange. Every burst of Qi drained what he had cultivated. The weaker cultivators kept him occupied while the stronger ones waited for the moments when his attention was elsewhere.

And it was working.