Chi Yang stared, utterly dumbfounded. A tribe they had only heard of in passing before had just entered the fray, shouting the Shopkeeper's name like a holy mantra. They had come to their aid to ensure that they would reach their destination.
Venom Master Xun, for the first time, looked genuinely surprised. Then, a pleasant smile spread across her face.
"Shopkeeper… you magnificent, terrifying man. So these are your new patrons. How quickly can you move when you have yet to open a branch in this region?"
With the Ironbone Clan suddenly locked in a vicious melee, a path to the Blazing Ridge was momentarily opened.
"Now!" Venom Master Xun gave her command as she nodded at Akasha when they passed by each other. "Move! Go!"
Their small column surged forward, spiders crawling past the raging battle.
The Spirit Haze Sect, seeing the unexpected turn of events, hesitated slightly. They turned back into their misty forms and receded into the shadows, choosing to observe rather than commit.
Once again, a store product showed that it could be a life-saving tool. A divine blessing in this hellscape.
Marrow Weaver, bringing up the rearguard, spun around. "Mistress, it is too fast! We cannot outrun it! We must hold the line here!"
Venom Master Xun's eyes narrowed. "Hmph. Fine! A final performance it is! Priests, form the Venomous Cocoon array! Little Bird, unleash your Bone Colossus!"
Their retreat ground to a halt. The Arachnid Branch priests leaped from their mounts, their hands weaving intricate signs.
Thick, viscous, poison-green webs shot from their hands, intertwining to form a massive, pulsating dome that sealed them inside. Chi Yang and the trembling villagers were at its center, watching in terror as the world outside turned into a green, murky blur.
Marrow Weaver slammed her hands onto the ground. "Rise!"
A torrent of necrotic energy poured into the earth. The bones of fallen beasts and long-dead warriors, buried for centuries beneath the red rock, were pulled from their slumber. They flew through the air, assembling with sickening cracks and snaps into a monstrous, hulking giant of bone and rage. The Bone Colossus. It was a twenty-meter-tall abomination, its eyes burning with black fire as it turned to face the oncoming Tyrant.
Different from the Ashborne Golem that her previous organization, the Bone Ash Syndicate, used as a trump card during the defense against the cult, this colossus was something she came up with after coming into contact with a manual from the Divine Convenience Store. It was extremely taxing for her current cultivation base but Marrow Weaver didn't mind it at all. She just produced a whole pack of [Energy Replenishing Candies], popping them into her mouth every few seconds.
A blissful expression appeared on her face as she munched and sipped its sweetness. And then, a gush of spiritual energy furiously gets converted to her necrotic energy, refilling what she's using to maintain the colossus.
Venom Master Xun watched in satisfaction as she waved her hand, ordering the Doom Broodmother to assist the colossus. "Little bird, hold the line and allow my precious to pin that arrogant tyrant down."
Outside the cocoon, the battle between the Blazing Maw and the Ironbone Clan was a storm of fire and lightning sparks.
Akasha wielded her bone spear like a whirlwind of crimson fury. She had activated her own [Spirit Embodiment Sticker Seal], one depicting a snarling tiger, from the support pack that Lin Mo provided for them.
Her speed and strength were amplified, allowing her to go toe-to-toe with the strongest Ironbone Clan warriors that they intercepted. With her cultivation of the peak Core Formation Stage, the sticker seal allowed her to face four warriors of the same stage at once.
"For the Convenience Saint and his chosen!" Her warriors chanted, their voices a unified roar.
They were fewer in number, but their fanaticism and the enhancements from their store-bought [Card Talismans] made them a terrifying force.
One Blazing Maw warrior, empowered by a [Stoneskin Talisman], took a direct hit from a lightning axe that would have split a lesser man in two. He merely grunted before his skin glowed like granite. With a sneer, he drove his spear through the wyvern's neck.
The Ironbone Clan was shocked. These were the outcasts that the Emberfall Tribes had dismissed for generations, yet they fought with a ferocity and resilience that was utterly alien. They were not just fighting; they were fighting with the clear, tangible blessing of a higher power.
"How can this be?!" An Ironbone Clan Elder exclaimed, his lightning-charged axe deflecting a flaming spear that nearly took his head off. "Since when did the Blazing Maw whelps become so difficult to kill?!"
Akasha answered his question with a roar, leaping from a rock and bringing her spear down in a devastating arc. "We are no longer mere whelps! We have become the guardians of convenience!"
The Ironbone elder was forced back as a deep, bleeding gash appeared on his shoulder plate. His eyes widened in pained disbelief. This was not the desperate, scrabbling tribe he had heard from their recent intelligence reports regarding the Emberfall Tribes. And the Blazing Maw was supposed to be an outcast. They're not even on par with one of the main tribes that consists of it.
But now, they have become a disciplined, fanatical fighting force.
Chi Yang watched all of this unfold from the relative safety of the Venomous Cocoon while her heart beat like a frantic drum in her chest.
Every faction on this battlefield… The monstrous Tyrant, the ruthless cultists, the savage Ironbone, the ghostly Spirit Haze, the fanatical Blazing Maw… They were operating on a level of power she couldn't even begin to comprehend.
And she, a mortal, was somehow the linchpin of it all.
The ground shook violently as the Crystalweb Tyrant finally reached them. It slammed its full, fortress-like weight against the Bone Colossus.
BOOM!
The impact was cataclysmic. Marrow Weaver's colossal construct groaned, cracks appearing across its bone-plate armor.
The Tyrant then shrieked as its own crystalline carapace fractured slightly from the force.
The Doom Broodmother seized the opportunity, its massive form dashing in to spray a torrent of acidic venom at the Tyrant's exposed joints.
The battle of behemoths had begun.