The Ancestor's new body raised its head. Its red eyes blazed like twin suns of blood. A voice that no longer belonged to any mortal throat erged, deep and resonant, shaking the air.
"You dared to destroy my children..." it said, the words echoing like roots breaking through stone. "Then I shall show you the true power of Ephera's Will."
The transford Ancestor paused, as if drawing the world into a single breath, and then pronounced, "Darkblood Treant Titan Form."
A storm of Qi and Dao insights followed.
The ground trembled with the force of it. From bark and bone the tree-born Titan stepped forward, each motion radiating the oppressive weight of the heavens. Roots dug and unmade the earth beneath its feet. Vines hung and writhed like living chains. The air itself bowed under the presence of the thing. Lin Mu frowned.
He had faced Tian Ning before and knew how devastating a Titan Form could be. A Titan Form did not rely amplify strength. It reworked the cultivator into a living being of Dao force. This was a Transcendent taking on that form. The multiplication of power was terrifying to imagine.
Titan Forms had been created in ancient ages by Qi cultivators who needed an answer to the world's most durable body cultivators. A Titan form boosted attributes, endurance, and raw destructive pressure until a single being could act like an army.
Now the frail, skeletal Ancestor had beco sothing like an ancient, walking forest.
Yet Lin Mu felt a nuance that set this Titan apart. It was not a plain wood Titan. The Treant na, the loops of roots and the leafy crown made it obvious that the Wood Dao was foundational, but there was more than sap and wood in the aura.
Baleful energy shaded the Titan's edges like oil on water. Unknown Dao traces drifted among the wood signatures. They slled of rot, of slow decay, and of blood. The mixture made Lin Mu's skin prickle.
The Abbot, who had been watching and analyzing in silence, spoke up with a tone like a monk delivering rare doctrine. "Everyone be careful. This is no normal Titan. This is a multi elental Titan form.""
'A multi elental Titan form?' Lin Mu had thought Titan forms were the ultimate expression of a single Dao.
The Abbot explained that, in rare cases, a Titan could be forged from two or more Daos, a fusion that multiplied benefits and complications in equal
asure.
From his reading of the aura, the Abbot continued, it appeared the Ancestor had fused Wood Dao with the Rot Dao, a Baleful Dao that eats living creatures, and had laced it with traces of Blood Dao.
The Blood Dao was weaker in the mix but present enough to sap vitality and bind the corruption.
"This will be harder than we thought," the Darkhan Emperor said, feeling the Titan's pressure in his bones.
The Ancestor's aura was several notches above the Emperor's own Transcendent presence.
The Patriarch did not bother with subtlety. "He might be able to face all of us at once," he said flatly.
At that mont the Treant Titan moved. Its arm unfolded like a hundred braided branches knitting into a single club. It swung with the speed of a falling mountain.
CLANG!
The Patriarch t it with a sword slash. His blade rang through the air and collided against bark that flexed but did not break. The sound was like tal striking living stone.
A notch appeared where the blade struck. It was shallow, like a scar on old oak. The Patriarch sensed the difference instantly.
"This is going to take everything," he muttered.
"Then we will give everything" Grand Elder Huo replied.
He unleashed his own surge of sword intent. The air around him ignited with a red heat as he combined fla with sword Qi and let both tear through space. SHING, SHING, SHING.
Red sword arcs cleaved the air and struck the Titan. One deep blow split a branch cleanly in two. For a heartbeat a shard of splintered wood hung in the air like a suspended thought.
Then the Titan moved.
The split seam knit itself shut. The two halves swam back together and the wound closed as if the tree were carving new grain. The Grand Elder's smile
froze into a hard line.
"Regeneration," he swore. "He regenerates fast."
"Amitabha," the Abbot said. "This will cost us dearly. The ritual is still
progressing"
Lin Mu felt the truth of that in his gut. Every second they spent tearing at bark was a second the ritual used to draw more life from its devotees. They needed to split focus: keep the Titan occupied while others broke the ritual.
HISS.
A tiny voice slipped to Lin Mu from his sleeve.
Xiao Yin, hidden and alert, hissed, "Master, the barrier at the back is weaker
than in the front."
Lin Mu turned his vision.
The rolling wall of Baleful Qi and corrupted arrays shielding the ritual did indeed thin to the rear. The Ancestor's body and its front-facing defenses drew the lion's share of power. If they struck the rear where the lattice was weaker, they might break the ritual's flow.
A plan ford in Lin Mu's mind like a blade taking shape.
He whispered instructions to Xiao Yin and then used his jade slip to send a ssage to the Darkhan Emperor as the Emperor hurled lightning bolts at the Titan, trying to strike where the brain-cluster might be contained.
"Darkhan Emperor, split your focus," Lin Mu wrote. "Concentrate lightning on the back of the barrier where it is weakest."
The Emperor hissed as a bolt grazed near his boots. He grunted and replied. "They will reconfigure. The barrier will split the currents."
"Only if they are given ti to do so, Lin Mu answered. He explained the
pattern he wanted: a tid barrage that would force the Ancestor's rituals to
reallocate, creating a temporary tearing motion in the barrier.
The Emperor hesitated. "Will your beasts be strong enough to hold that front?"
"They will hold," Lin Mu said. "Trust ."
A pause. Then the Emperor lifted his palms and accepted. "Very well."
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