The colossal wooden fist hung in the air above Guo Xinyi like a judgment from the heavens themselves, its massive shadow engulfing nearly half the plateau. I could see her looking up at it, and for just a moment, genuine terror flickered across her features.

But then her expression hardened, and she opened her mouth to sing.

"Gale winds rise, tempest born supreme,

Shatter wood and break the dream,

Hurricane's might, typhoon's call,

Bring the giant's crushing fall!"

The technique she unleashed was unlike anything I'd seen from her before.

The air itself became a weapon, condensing into visible blades of compressed wind that struck the wooden fist with the force of siege engines.

Each impact sent splinters the size of tree trunks flying in all directions, carving deep grooves into the plateau's stone surface. The massive construct actually rocked backward under the assault.

But I wasn't concerned.

The Titan Fist Harmony had been created from a tree that had stood for centuries, one that had weathered countless storms and grown stronger with each passing season. A few wind blades, no matter how powerful, weren't enough to destroy something with that much accumulated life force.

More importantly, I was only just getting started.

I released the Guardian Grove Aria technique, feeling the dome of protective trees around us dissolve back into ordinary vegetation. But instead of letting that blue sun energy dissipate harmlessly, I gathered every last drop and channeled it directly into the Titan Fist technique.

The wooden construct, which had been simple brown timber moments before, suddenly erupted with azure light, and I could feel its connection to me deepen from a basic technique into something approaching a genuine extension of my will.

"Master," Azure said in my mind, his voice carrying a note of caution, "you're pushing the blue sun energy far beyond safe limits. The spiritual link can't handle this much power transfer for long."

"It doesn't need to be long," I replied internally, watching as the empowered fist resumed its descent with renewed force.

Guo Xinyi's wind techniques struck the enhanced construct again, but this time they might as well have been trying to cut down a mountain with kitchen knives.

Her song faltered as she realized her attacks were having no effect.

The giant fist continued its descent, unstoppable as an avalanche.

But instead of crushing her outright, the fingers began to spread open and wrap around Guo Xinyi like a cage, careful to not accidentally kill Liu Wenqing.

With Mo Yuhang now relegated to passenger status in our shared consciousness, I took full control of his body and began walking forward.

The ancient wooden hand lifted Guo Xinyi until she was suspended about ten feet off the ground, positioned at eye level with me as I approached.

Up close, I could see the strain this battle had put on Liu Wenqing's body: blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and there were minor stress fractures in her skin.

"It's over," I said. "You're outmatched, outmaneuvered, and out of options. Give up and leave the vessel."

For a moment, something that might have been relief flickered across her features. Liu Wenqing's face was pale and strained from the techniques Guo Xinyi had been forcing through her body, and I could see the exhaustion weighing on both of them.

"You fought well," I continued, hoping to give her a face-saving way out of this situation. "Liu Wenqing is an exceptional vessel, and you made good use of her abilities. But this is a battle you can't win."

"You're right," she said quietly, her voice carrying none of its earlier arrogance. "I... I pushed too hard."

She looked down at her hands, and I noticed they were trembling slightly. "I don't want to permanently damage her cultivation base just to win a tournament match. She…she doesn't deserve that."

I released a sigh of relief, feeling the tension in my shoulders ease slightly. For a moment there, I'd been genuinely worried she might choose a slight chance at victory over an innocent girl's future. It was good to see she still had some moral boundaries, even in the heat of competit—

"Master," Azure whispered urgently, "the way she's..."

That was when her mouth opened wide and she screamed.

The sound that emerged wasn't human.

It wasn't even recognizably musical, despite originating from what should have been a harmonic essence technique. This was pure destruction given voice, a technique that seemed designed specifically to inflict maximum damage regardless of the cost to the user.

The scream struck me like a physical blow, sending me staggering backward as the sound waves carried enough force to crack stone.

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But that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was what it was doing to Liu Wenqing.

More stress fractures spread across her skin like a network of spider webs, and blood began flowing freely from her nose, ears, and eyes. Her body was literally tearing itself apart under the strain of channeling a technique that was designed to burn the vessel's life force to fuel a final, desperate attack.

The wooden fist that held her began to crack and splinter as the destructive sound waves worked their way through even the blue sun enhanced construct. But I didn't care about losing the technique.

I cared about the innocent girl whose life was being spent like currency.

Without hesitation, I used the remnants of the massive hand as shield to push forward, my right hand reaching for her face.

The moment my palm made contact with her forehead, I channeled every drop of red sun energy I could access through the spiritual link.

The crimson aura that erupted from my hand sent every particle of harmonic essence in Liu Wenqing's body into complete panic.

The energy that had been building toward a reality-destroying crescendo suddenly turned against itself, creating feedback loops that shattered the technique from within.

The scream cut off abruptly, replaced by a strangled gasp as Guo Xinyi lost control of her host body. The wooden fist, no longer sustained by blue sun energy and harmonic essence, crumbled into ordinary timber that scattered across the plateau.

But I barely noticed any of that.

Because something far more interesting was happening right in front of me.

Realising that she had failed, Guo Xinyi's spiritual manifestation was trying to escape. I could see it as a faint outline of light attempting to pull free from the vessel's spiritual channels.

But Liu Wenqing's cultivation base, damaged and destabilized by the suicidal technique, was no longer stable enough to maintain the boundaries between host and passenger.

What happened next was both fascinating and horrifying to watch.

The vessel's spiritual signature, acting on pure survival instinct, began to absorb Guo Xinyi's manifestation. Not gently, not gradually, but with the desperate hunger of a drowning person grabbing for air.

I watched in silence as Guo Xinyi's consciousness was pulled back into Liu Wenqing's body and systematically devoured, consumed by the very vessel she'd been trying to sacrifice for victory.

"Master," Azure said quietly, "is this what you were planning?"

"Not exactly," I replied internally. "I was planning to use the red sun energy to sever their connection, then destroy her manifestation myself once it was separated from the vessel. Clean, controlled, no harm to Liu Wenqing."

It was a calculated risk, but one based on solid understanding of how vessel possession worked. When someone's cultivation exceeded their spiritual manifestation level, the connection became inherently unstable. Add sudden red sun energy to that instability, and the whole arrangement would collapse.

"Liu Wenqing turning the tables wasn't exactly in my playbook," I admitted. "But I suppose it worked out."

The truly ironic part was that this was exactly why I'd been so careful to keep Mo Yuhang's advancement from surpassing my own spiritual projection level. I had no intention of ending up as spiritual food.

As for Guo Xinyi herself, this wouldn't cause any permanent damage to her main body back in the tournament arena. But the experience of having your consciousness devoured, even temporarily, was one of the most traumatic things that could happen to a cultivator. She'd be dealing with spiritual sense disruption for days, possibly weeks.

But honestly? I felt like she deserved it.

Back in the cultivation world, she'd been polite and friendly before the battle. But this realm had revealed her true character - someone willing to murder innocents for tactical advantage, someone who'd sacrifice her own vessel for a marginal chance at victory.

"Divine one," Mo Yuhang's voice whispered in my mind. "Thank you for not being willing to kill Liu Wenqing just to defeat your opponent."

I nodded silently. The truth was, the thought had never even occurred to me. Some lines you simply don't cross.

Liu Wenqing's body shuddered as the last traces of Guo Xinyi's spiritual manifestation were absorbed and the remnant qi integrated into her cultivation base, actually repairing the damage that had been done by the forced techniques.

The young girl's eyes fluttered open, and she looked up at me with exhausted but grateful eyes.

"Thank you," she said weakly. "For stopping her from... from destroying me to win."

Then her eyes rolled back, and she began to collapse.

I caught her before she could hit the ground, supporting her unconscious form as gently as I could manage.

The battle was over, the tournament round was won, and an innocent life was saved.

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