Everything went white.
Not like light.
Like erasure.
For a moment, there was no battlefield, no formation, no sect, no wind, no sense of direction. Even perception itself seemed to lose reference points, as if the world had temporarily forgotten how to define itself.
Then reality snapped back.
Li Feng stood in the center of a shattered zone.
The ground was gone in a wide radius, replaced by unstable fragments of spatial residue that flickered like broken glass. The sky above the sect trembled slightly, as though something underneath its structure had been disturbed.
Li Feng's breathing was uneven.
Not heavily.
But incorrectly.
His body stood, yet something inside him refused to stabilize fully.
[Warning: Host structural integrity compromised]
He looked at his hand.
It was there.
But his sense of it was delayed.
As if his body and his perception were no longer perfectly aligned.
"…So this is collapse," he muttered.
A few meters away, the leader stood intact.
Not untouched—but stable.
His robes were slightly disturbed, his stance adjusted, but his internal flow remained coherent.
He observed Li Feng silently.
"You released everything," the leader said.
Li Feng slowly raised his head.
"…I released too much."
The leader nodded once.
"Yes."
A pause.
"And not in a controlled form."
Around them, the remaining hunters struggled to reestablish formation integrity. But the field itself was no longer reliable. Every attempt at stabilization collapsed within seconds.
The suppression system had failed.
Not completely.
But functionally.
Li Feng took a step forward.
It was slower than before.
The system flickered violently.
[Dao Fragment Count: 9/10]
[Warning: Fragment synchronization failed]
[Warning: Host state unstable]
Li Feng exhaled slowly.
"…Still active."
The leader's gaze sharpened slightly.
"You should not be."
Li Feng smiled faintly.
"…And yet I am."
He moved again.
This time, the step was heavier.
Not in weight.
In resistance.
His own body resisted his intention.
The leader noticed immediately.
"You are no longer in control of your internal flow," he said.
Li Feng didn't deny it.
"…It's fragmented."
The leader raised his hand slightly.
"You cannot continue like this."
A pulse of stabilized energy expanded outward.
Not an attack.
A correction field.
Li Feng felt it immediately.
His internal instability increased under its influence.
"…You're trying to force me to collapse," he said.
The leader nodded.
"Before you evolve into something unmanageable."
Li Feng tilted his head slightly.
"…Unmanageable for who?"
No answer.
The silence itself was the answer.
The remaining hunters regrouped behind the leader, but they no longer advanced. Their role had shifted again—from attackers to containment support.
Li Feng exhaled slowly.
Inside him, the 9/10 fragments were no longer stable components.
They were overlapping.
Competing.
Fighting for integration.
And failing.
His vision flickered again.
Not splitting this time.
But compressing.
Everything around him felt closer than it should be.
He looked down.
The ground beneath him was no longer stable.
It was flickering between existence states.
"…This is bad," he muttered.
The system responded instantly.
[Emergency Stabilization Required]
[Host cannot maintain current fragment load]
Li Feng closed his eyes briefly.
Then reopened them.
"…I don't have time to stabilize."
He stepped forward again.
The leader moved at the same time.
Their clash was immediate.
No buildup.
No delay.
Contact.
But this time—
Li Feng didn't initiate consumption immediately.
It failed before activation.
The leader's stabilized flow suppressed the attempt at its origin point.
Li Feng's eyes narrowed.
"…You blocked it at the source."
The leader's voice was calm.
"Yes."
A second strike followed.
Li Feng blocked.
But his reaction was delayed.
Not slow.
Misaligned.
The impact pushed him back.
One step.
Then another.
His internal flow stuttered again.
[Warning: Synchronization failure increasing]
Li Feng exhaled sharply.
"…I'm losing coherence."
The leader stepped forward.
"You are losing structure."
A pause.
"And structure is what keeps you alive."
Li Feng looked up.
For a moment—
Something in his gaze sharpened beyond normal focus.
"…Then I'll stop relying on it."
The leader's expression changed slightly.
"That would kill you."
Li Feng smiled faintly.
"…Maybe."
He raised his hand again.
But this time—
He didn't target the leader.
He targeted himself.
The remaining fragments inside him reacted instantly.
The leader's eyes narrowed.
"…Stop."
Too late.
Li Feng forced the fragments into forced resonance.
Not stabilization.
Not control.
Compression.
The system screamed internally.
[WARNING: Forced convergence detected]
[WARNING: Host integrity critical failure imminent]
The battlefield trembled again.
And this time—
The instability didn't spread outward.
It collapsed inward.
Everything folded toward Li Feng.
Then—
Silence.