228. Gilded Imperial Longhouse

Before Elder Aylesfort’s lessons, Alistair would have been confused about the setup of the competition. In his prior unlearned opinion, he would have assumed that since the top hundred inner disciples were in the Profound realm, there was nothing they could do.

Learning about how mixed-realm combat worked disabused him of that idea. The difference in realms was enormous, but there was an important distinction between fighting up a realm and helping your fellow higher realm fight against an enemy higher realm.

Domains were meant to be supported. A force of an Early Profound with a bunch of talented and powerful Adepts could defeat a Middle Profound with weaker Adepts.

If this was what Norman was going for, Alistair wasn’t sure if that would work. Even with the restrictions on the Endless Horizons sect, they were clearly stronger.

The fifteen members of his and Jin Toba’s squad made their way to the Domain clash in the sky. Alistair looked up in awe at the power of the two Profound realms.

Norman’s Gilded Imperial Longhouse manifested as an impossibly vast hall of burnished metal that stretched for miles. Pillars of pure gold rose like ancient columns, their surfaces inscribed with tapestries that touched upon the ancient Dao History of the world. The very air within shimmered with metallic dust, each particle responding to Norman’s will.

Above him, Long Yan’er’s “Shrine of the Eternal Flame” screamed against the golden longhouse. A temple of white fire burned without fuel, sacred braziers floating in perfect geometric patterns, each one containing flames that reached temperatures approaching stellar cores. The heat was so intense that even miles below, Alistair felt his skin prickle.

The two Domains crashed together with a sound like thunder mixed with the ringing of a thousand bells. Where gold met flame, reality itself seemed to strain. Norman’s metallic constructs—spears, shields, chains, and pillars of gold—surged upward to meet cascading torrents of white fire that fell like burning rain.

The two inner disciples fought miles above the western slums of Proctori, careful to keep the aftermath of their Domains clashing away from the civilians.

Alistair led his troops from the vanguard, using [Reality Sense] to watch out for any Endless Horizons’ disciples. His perception sphere extended to 1,700 feet now, and he sensed many Clear Water disciples converging upon Norman’s Domain.

However, they weren’t alone. The disciples of the Endless Horizons Sect chased them with reckless abandon. The whole situation had devolved into an enormous melee taking place across nearly the entire western slums, which itself stretched for dozens of miles.

Everywhere, they sensed miniature clashes, where fire met water and sword met spear. A mile ahead of their position, five of their fellow disciples fought against four opponents.

“Jin Toba, take half and flank left. I’ll go straight through,” Alistair commanded, switching into Bodhi Consciousness as his hair stood on end and lightning flashed over his skin.

The enemy disciples barely had time to register the new arrivals before Alistair was among them, [Force Fist] connecting with the nearest opponent’s solar plexus. At the last second, he felt the disciple’s body substituted for a wood clone, similar to George’s Subversion Through Ice.

While that was happening, Jin Toba’s burst of desiccation Mana created a withering field of superheated air that forced two more enemies to retreat, while Riyord’s dream phantoms materialized from pink and purple mist to charge the remaining fighter.

The Endless Horizons disciples were simply too far outnumbered. After narrowly escaping Alistair’s punch, the wood cultivator was assaulted on all sides by their combined forces.

In less than five seconds, they cleaned up the four of them.

“Thanks for the assist,” gasped one of the rescued Clear Water disciples, a woman with singed robes and a bleeding cut across her cheek. “They came out of nowhere.”

The pulse of Norman’s gold dust inside of him felt more insistent than before. Looking up at the sky, he saw the golden longhouse beginning to descend. Norman was calling his forces to him.

With no time for words, Alistair ran toward Norman’s Domain. With Bodhi Consciousness, he intercepted any long-range threats, switching to Dualist Impermanence for brief flashes to freeze fireballs and grenades while calling down [Lightning of Justice] on any hidden threats.

Alistair’s [Monk Motionlessness] suddenly fluttered in a warning. “Above!”

A meteor of condensed white fire plummeted toward their formation. However, it wasn’t just them. Ivory flames touched down everywhere there were Clear Water disciples. Long Yan’er intended to obliterate them then and there.

All at once, millions of particles of gold dust exited their bodies and streaked up to the flames. In an instant, over half of their power was snuffed out.

To combat the rest of the fire, they rushed out of the way. Alistair carried two people with [Mindshift] while activating [Draconic Roar] and [Frozen Claw] to help mitigate the damage. Others helped him out, their attacks merging as the flames collided with the street.

Jin Toba’s quick thinking allowed her to create a cushion of superheated air that trapped and reduced the force of the flames.

Everyone survived. Alistair didn’t know if that was the case for everyone else, but it didn’t matter. The longhouse continued to descend, and they were now in reach.

“Jump!” he ordered. Even if they weren’t beasts in physical stats, any Adept could make the thousand-foot jump up to Norman’s Domain.

An onlooker would have been reminded of a nature documentary. Dozens of people jumped up to a descending golden longhouse, like they were Heaven’s Gate followers ascending to Comet Hale-Bopp.

Alistair used Dev'rox’s consciousness to slow down and magnify his perception, pushing [Reality Sense] to the limit.

Thanks to his smart thinking, he detected a hidden Endless Horizons disciple, near perfectly cloaked and blended into the shadows of a skyscraper. As they jumped, this disciple locked with as many of them as possible in an infinitesimally small window, his eyes darting back and forth with impossible alacrity.

A pattern appeared over his eyes, and it spread to all the victims he had gazed upon directly. Only Alistair remained unaffected, as his high Wisdom and Emperor Will bloodline characteristic protected him from the mental illusions.

Forming a [Frozen Claw] over his tongue, hands, and feet, he created as many ice senbon as he could and tossed them at his allies. Not to harm them, but to disrupt the foreign Mana and Dao energy circulating in the meridians surrounding their eyes and brain.

In an incredible feat of precision, he managed to target every single one of the disciples who were affected, freeing them to the great shock of the Endless Horizons disciple. The fifteen of them slipped into Norman’s Domain like returning home.

When they entered, they were greeted by Norman’s comforting voice.

“My Domain will guide you to the necessary targets. Fighting alongside me will feel natural. Just go with the flow and impose our will upon that arrogant Long Yan’er.”

Norman was right. The Domain itself guided them through feeling alone, careening the group toward the Shrine of the Eternal Flame. The world simply moved them upward, the internal world obeying its owner’s absolute will.

The two Domains clashed in a cascade of molten sparks. Norman’s golden pillars stretched upward to meet Long Yan’er’s descending flames, and where they touched, reality screamed.

But instead of simply defending, the longhouse consumed the fire. Golden tributaries channeled the white flames into Norman’s constructs, turning destruction into fuel. On the flip side, the liquid gold became kindling for the white fires, turning the temperature up.

In terms of the four Domain battle outcomes, it was Synthesis verging on Stalemate.

With the wrappings of Gilded Imperial Longhouse, they attacked the white flame. Alistair used a [Force Fist], Morris ejected a horrific shadowy creature from his chest, while Riyord activated [Dream Wave], an energetic burst of dream affinity Mana that washed away all enemies.

Their attacks were joined by dozens of other Clear Water Disciples, who had mostly entered the Domain battle before their Endless Horizons counterparts. While thirty Adepts would normally have never hurt a Profound’s Domain, their attacks were ratified by Gilded Imperial Longhouse, allowing Norman’s Domain to make ground.

That was the key. In both Synthesis, Stalemate, and Destruction, once you began to lose ground, it became a self-reinforcing cycle.

They pushed Long Yan’er’s Domain back a few hundred feet with their combined attacks. Flames got extinguished, their Dao energy exsanguinated.

Then, the Endless Horizons disciples arrived.

There was just one problem. Instead of clashing horizontally, with, say, Norman on the left and Long Yan’er on the right, Long Yan’er took the heaven and Norman the earth.

As such, the Endless Horizons disciples had to make it through the golden house before entering friendly territory. Their Adept realm Skills would do nothing against the naked spatial border.

Seeing this issue, Long Yan’er sent boats of flame out to draw in her allies, but Norman had predicted that. He changed the shape of his Domain rapidly, moving his golden pillars so that he began to envelop her spherical world.

The layer he created was very thin, so her flames consumed it like paper in a bonfire, but there was still a window of time. Norman’s gold dust violently vibrated. The message was clear—go for the kill.

Alistair reluctantly activated [Thousand-Armed Dragon Buddha Renewal].

He didn’t want to use it in front of everybody, but there was no other option. His fellow disciples also contributed their finishing Skills. The #46 outer disciple, Iona Plasternak, sent forth a five-hundred-foot-long foot made of crystal clear ice. The #155 outer disciple sent forth a conical sonic boom that felt like it could destroy the entire city.

The towering figure of a thousand-armed avatar materialized, shimmering with triadic energy. The Dragon Buddha’s form pulsed between pure golden light, coral radiance, and sky-blue luminescence.

The avatar’s thousand arms flew forth, each hand composed of force, blood, and lightning affinity Mana, and further coated with Norman’s Dao energy. As it began its devastating assault, the Dragon Buddha’s mouth opened in a thunderous roar carrying sutras that calmed the heart alongside raw nue that could arrest minds.

Each of the thousand hands dissipated fire like palms against a candle, but unlike his previous usage against the Old Man of the Lighthouse, these strikes lacked the Karmic energy wrapping due to his [Karmic Battery] burning it all passively.

While that was a minor loss, Norman’s Dao energy and Alistair’s further understanding of the Dao of the Fist more than made up for that. The red shimmer left behind by the palm thrusts adapted to everything it touched.

White fire, which Alistair now recognized as coming from a multivalent Dao of Memory and something that felt distant kin to his own Ghost, was systematically dismantled by the red shimmer. Her sacred braziers flickered and dimmed as the Dragon Buddha’s compassionate wrath imposed its will upon her reality.

The combined assault from all the finishing Skills was devastating.

Iona’s massive ice foot crushed through three floating braziers, while the sonic boom disrupted some of the geometric patterns holding the temple together. Norman’s Dao of Refinement carried in all their Skills, perfecting their Adept realm abilities beyond their normal capacity.

“Third Law: Pillars of the World Arraign the Lesser.” Norman’s voice boomed through the longhouse.

The effect was instantaneous and absolute. Every golden pillar throughout his vast Domain began to collapse inward toward her shrine. Hundreds of massive columns, each inscribed with the weight of history itself, fell like divine judgment.

The Third Law was ruthless in its simplicity. Once Norman held the advantage, his Domain would crush all opposition with the accumulated force of total refinement.

Long Yan’er’s eyes widened in desperation as she realized that the Endless Horizons disciples would not make it inside before his Third Law was finished. “Third Law: Reflection of Purgatory!”

She attempted to turn the collapsing pillars into fuel for an even greater conflagration, her white flames roaring as they tried to consume the falling gold. Incoming ancestral sin became fuel for a new era.

At least in theory. Norman’s advantage was too great—his refinement too complete. Alistair and the other outer disciples had chipped perhaps 10% of her Domain, but another 15% Norman battered away on his own in that aftermath. His Third Law won out.

The Shrine of the Eternal Flame was crushed utterly, sacred braziers extinguished beneath tons of golden judgment. White fire petered out as liquid gold splattered everywhere. Without Long Yan’er to protect them, the shockwave of his Third Wave annihilated the remaining Endless Horizons disciples.

For a moment, no one made a move. There was a certain feeling of shock. It wasn’t as if they had no faith in themselves, but they still were facing the widely considered top sect of the Empire.

“Victory to the Clear Water Sect!” Norman declared, his voice echoing triumphantly across the western slums. He repeated himself with more force. “Victory!”

And then the dam broke. As Norman reversed his Domain back into the soulcore, it became clear there were only thirty left out of the original hundred. They all cheered with jubilation.

Riyord tackled him in a hug, their previous spat forgotten. Their cheers were cut short by a sudden lurch. In one instant, they were in the slums, the next in an enormous mountain field divided by a flowing river.

Thousands of disciples populated the field, from both sides. Norman held them in place the moment they arrived, giving his disciples a look over.

“Behave yourselves,” he told them. “I received an instruction from the elder. This is the waiting area for the next round of the competition. Violence is absolutely prohibited; they recommend not even trying that rule. We have to wait for the last of the 100 vs. 100 to finish up before they announce what’s next. In the meantime, go rest and socialize.”

A set of familiar presences pricked the outside of [Reality Sense]. Red, Fuhao, and Pristine. Taking Norman’s words to heart, he gathered his remaining squadmates and waved to his friends.

Alistair smirked. Was there ever a doubt their teams would make it through?