Yu Xiang slowly rose to his full height, straightening his back, bent down by the weight the Heavens had pushed on both his spirit and body.

His hands still desperately clutched at his wonderful creation, caressing its crystalline surface as he gazed at the distorted reflection of his own face shining on its clear surface.

He looked terrible.

His eyes had sunken in and darkened, heavy bags had formed under his eyes, making him look like he hadn’t caught a wink of sleep in weeks. Red lifeblood flowed freely from his ears, nose, mouth, and eyes, giving his vision a pinkish tint.

Some of the blood had even gotten into his hair, which had come undone from its loose tail during his struggles, staining his light brown mane a dirty dark red.

His chest heaved in strain, his limbs trembled in exhaustion, and his brain swam confusedly and felt muddled as if his every thought had to crawl through a swamp to reach the forefront of his mind.

Honestly, he felt even worse than he looked. And yet…

His spirit soared, his soul roaring in victory as something took root deep within his being, the exact meaning of his actions escaping him, but not their significance.

His hands that had been clutching desperately at the crystalline spear tightened even further and shifted in a more natural grip. With an effortless pull, Yu extracted the spear from the earth, the dirt sliding off of its multi faceted surface without leaving behind a single speck of dust.

Today, for the very first time, the young cultivator had defied the Heavens.

He’d brought into existence something impossible, something unnatural, that could only exist due to his spiritual energy and the force of his will. A stream of lightning frozen in place, with a crystallized flame at its core.

Power thrummed through the golden crystal like construct, more power than the green eyed cultivator had ever put into a single spiritual art.

However, whatever he’d done to create this miracle had not just drained him of most of his energy and Intent. Something had shifted, and instinctively Yu Xiang knew he would be able to recreate this technique in the future, if without the burning imprint of Su Rong’s own Intent.

The young reincarnator had no idea how he knew that, and he figured it didn’t really matter right now. What was important at this moment was finally finishing what they’d started.

His eyes fell to the shivering form of Su Rong, who was currently trying and failing to pick himself up from the ground.

He didn’t look quite as terrible as the young reincarnator, but none the less he had been obviously left exhausted by the ordeal. Yu Xiang briefly lamented in his mind over the fact that he’d taken the brunt of the Heaven’s displeasure by himself, after which he went to Su Rong’s side to help him pick himself up.

“Come here you heavy bastard.” He commented as he lifted him effortlessly.

Yu was surprised when the fiery cultivator did not protest at being manhandled or even tried to push him away, simply chalking it up as Su Rong just being far too tired to even complain.

Finally, the young reincarnator's gaze swept around him, noting the position of his companions as he shifted Su Rong around to make both of them a little bit less uncomfortable with their position.

The perimeter held by the young cultivator's companions had tightened while he was busy, the sheer number of opponents pushing them back bit by bit, and making Yu suddenly realize that he had no idea for just how long he had been in the throes of his defiance.

Fortunately, it seemed that the stalemate between Chun Dai and the beast lord had not been broken while he'd been busy.

With his rival draped over his shoulder, Yu Xiang approached Huang Lei's position, who seemed to be the one most in control of her section of the battlefield.

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"I won't ask you if you are well." She told him before he could say anything, her eyes never leaving the mass of beasts trying to get past her guard, and her battle fan never stopping its intricate movement. "Because I can clearly see that you are not. What I am going to ask you is if you succeeded in your endeavor." She briefly looked his way then, before her attention returned to her task. "I saw that brief flash of light, and I felt some kind of disturbance coming from your position..."

Yu Xiang gave her his best reassuring smile, which wasn't all that good considering just how messed up he look at the moment. "We made it. But now comes the next part of the plan."

Huang Lei raised one of her slender eyebrows questioningly, her voice still sounding as silky and smooth as usual despite the situation. "Which would be what exactly?"

Yu Xiang looked away, towards one of the many rock formations which had been destroyed during the core disciple's fight, taking a moment to find one that was still relatively intact.

His hand that wasn't busy keeping Su Rong steady rose up then, pointing at his chosen destination. "I need you and the others to escort me there."

The noble cultivator's eyes followed his directions, and a slight frown marred her pale features. "What exactly is your plan, Xiang." She said, dropping the playfulness.

The green eyed cultivator smirked evilly. "Once you get me far enough away I'm going to throw this bad boy," He hefted the crystalline spear up then which immediately caught Lei's attention. "And throw it at that son of a bitch over there, which hopefully will be enough for brother Chun to counterattack decisively."

Huang Lei blinked slowly. "That's not much of a plan."

"Best to keep it simple." He shrugged. "The more steps a plan has the more likely it is to crash and burn."

"Hmm, those are wise words."

Under Huang Lei's protection, the exhausted cultivators reached their other companions, before as one they all headed to where the green eyed cultivator needed to go.

Su Mei ended up relieving the young reincarnator from the burden that was her brother, picking him up easily while he grumbled to himself in humiliation, which made him smile in schadenfreude.

"Holy crap Yu, you look like complete shit!" Exclaimed Zhen Yin, as tactful as ever.

Yu Xiang snorted before he replied with heavy sarcasm lacing his tone. "Thank you. No, really."

The wild haired young woman winced, realizing what she'd just said, but then her smile returned in full force, which meant Yu was going to have to weather an onslaught of ribbing from her.

Before he could say anything else, a fistful of pills was shoved down his gullet with impunity by a preoccupied Lin Fen, the shorter feline almost hanging off his oldest companion's frame while he checked him over.

Once he was done choking on his medicine, Yu did his best to reassure the fussing alchemist, all while they ran as fast as they could.

Their defensive efforts were made considerably easier by the fact that most of the spiritual beasts simply were not able to keep up with them due to their lacking cultivation, which meant that only the non crippled spiders, which were only a handful at this point, could truly give them pause.

Despite this, the horde of beasts kept following them, as they seemed to instinctively sense that trying to attack Chun Dai would be futile, as the rippling space around him would mince them in a matter of moments.

"Keep going!" Huang Lei told Yu as she fought the strongest of the remaining full blooded beasts, a cart sized monstrosity that equaled her stage of cultivation.

The rest of his companions took on the other ones, keeping them away from him, as they had seeming figured out that he was important and needed to be stopped.

Yu Xiang didn't look back as he climbed a relatively intact rock formation all the way to the top, trusting his friends and fellow inner disciples to not only keep the beasts away from him but also to survive their fights.

As he set foot on the peak of the small mountain, Yu Xiang took a deep breath, steadying his nerves for what was to come.

The young reincarnator didn't know if any of his teammates aside from Lei had realized the danger he was going to put himself in. A direct attack on the beast lord would naturally attract its attention, which would mean retaliation.

His only hope was that Chun Dai would keep enough of its attention for it not to decide to strike back. But even if it did attack him... that was fine.

He'd died once already, and while he certainly wasn't eager to lose this life, he was willing to put it on the line to not only save himself but also the lives of his new companions.

"You stalled enough, man." Yu said to himself lowly.

With one hand, Yu Xiang raised the crystalline topaz spear like a javelin. Then he took a running start.

His heart pounded in his ears as he leaped from the peak of the mountain, his spiritual energy enhanced jump pushing him both a lot forward and upwards.

Swiftly, he reached the zenith of his rise. He hung there in the air, suspended motionlessly for a moment as if the laws of gravity had stopped affecting him.

His eyes swept over the distant forms of his companions fighting below him, holding back the tide. Then they settled on the distant pair still stuck in their stalemate.

He reached back with his right hand, then threw the crystalline spear with all of his power.

Lazily, he watched as a line of gold was traced over the blue sky, a beautiful sight that brought a smile to his lips. His breath slowed and his mind stilled as he peacefully watched his attack grow closer and closer to its target, the Intent embedded in both the technique and the throw steering it inexorably towards the beast lord.

An inhuman screech echoed all the way to his position.

An evil smile split Yu Xiang's face, and even as he summoned up his defensive art around him and curled up on himself he welcomed the big bastard's vengeful retaliation with a smug, mocking laugh before everything went dark.