The battle among the Nascent Souls had completely stalled, but the fight among the fifth rankers had taken a drastic turn. All this while, Baozhai had been searching for an illusion and with the sudden turn for their side, she finally found it. Jiyao, the cocky Diamond Eyed Sandpiper, flitted through the air, waving his clawed feet back and forth, releasing a constant stream of hard to avoid slashes through the air. He had already adapted Black Saber’s signature technique in order to use it with his claws, and Baozhai was ready to pounce. As soon as his diamond eyes caught sight of that tiny fluctuation he twittered at her and the large Copper Skinned Jacanas dashed forward. Her legs were many times larger than the rest of her body, holding her ten feet in the air and allowing her to high step it through the enemy cultivators.

After pointing out the disturbance, Jiyao turned his attention to protecting Baozhai, sending slashing waves to either side of her to clear the way. Her stilt-like legs didn’t make her less of a target, but unfortunately for those enemy cultivators the coppery scales on her legs were extraordinarily tough. Their attacks that struck her legs did little more than make them glimmer slightly or ring out with the sound of metal striking metal. The name of her Mother’s breed was no joke, and trying to get past those long tough legs to strike at her small body was no easy feat. She rushed forward and one of her legs lifted up high, it swung around behind her and then rotated forward at high speed. The four large toes on her clawed foot spread out nearly three feet wide, the same size as her whole torso. The copper scaled leg swung forward towards empty air, but then there was a loud bang and the air shimmered.

There was a sound of glass shattering and the shimmering air revealed a group of eight people. The team of six drummers were continuously carrying on with their dreadful beat, while a pair of beautiful women in red kimonos stood between them and Baozhai. She trilled at them and rushed forward, not seeming to care one whit how lovable or gentle the women might seem. One of the two women was sitting on an embroidered cushion and holding an Erhu, a type of two stringed fiddle, while the other had an extremely long, white silk scarf around her shoulders. It wrapped around her arms and dangled from her wrists. She spun and swirled in place, starting a twirling dance with lean and graceful movements. The ends of the scarf followed her motion, creating an elegant swirl of white silk around her. The other woman accompanied her, playing a stirring tune that combined with the motion to hypnotise and distract the mind.

Their power of illusion was redoubled and focused completely upon the two large birds that had come to attack them. Jiyao flew back and forth keeping the other enemy cultivators from ganging up on Baozhai, but she had to take on the two women by herself. Sadly for them, as a female herself she was less affected by their beautiful performance and stomped towards them brandishing her huge legs. She kicked the air and dispelled the illusions as soon as the two women formed them and after a couple attempts Baozhai was right upon them and they had to give up on their usual method of attack. The dancer came to a sudden stop and threw her arm forward, shooting out one end of her silk scarf towards Baozhai and causing it to suddenly wrap around one of her legs. Then she threw the other end towards the ground and it remarkably punched through the earth, stabbing deep and securing itself like a stake. Another scarf appeared in her hands and she threw it out to capture Baozhai’s other leg, this time she held onto it and pulled upon it to throw off the bird’s balance.

Then the woman with the Erhu jumped up and rushed towards the large bird. They had seen the conflict earlier and knew the bird’s legs were tough. She ran forward to build up speed and then leaped into the air holding her Erhu in her hands. Then she twisted on the head near the long tuning pegs and the neck of it came apart. She drew a long blade out of the body of the Erhu, one with strings still coming from the pommel and leading to the body of the instrument. The hidden dagger was glistening with a green liquid, and it shot towards Baozhai’s body with a fierce stab.

Clang!

The Erhu player was blasted backward, hitting the ground and skidding across the dirt. She had a terrified expression on her face, and her teammate, the dancer, looked over at her with surprise. The woman’s own dagger was stuck in her chest and she didn’t stir from the ground. Her face started to blacken and she let out a pained shriek. The dancer was flabbergasted. In front of her, the long legged bird should have been trapped, but when she looked now she saw what had happened.

Baozhai’s long stilt-like legs had bent into an unusual shape. Somehow, she didn’t just bend at the hips, knees and ankles. The bird’s legs curved and twisted like they’d become tentacles or cords. They had rippled upwards and whipped the dagger into the Erhu Player. Then they rippled in front of the dancer and her upper body swept down. Her beak snipped through the pair of scarves and she lifted her leg into a high axe kick, swinging it down towards the surprised dancer.

Suddenly, the beat stopped. The thunderous background music to the battle suffered a sudden interruption. The chubby gong operator started to move, but he was too slow. Out of fear, the three drummers rushed forward coming to the aid of the beautiful dancer. They each held two sticks that were glowing with light which they brought to bear towards Baozhai. Her huge leg smashed down incisively, but was easily stopped by the combined might of their six sticks. She was pushed back a step, but merely fluffed up her wings and rushed forward again. She stomped and kicked, releasing a furious flurry of strikes upon them. To make it worse, she seemed to be taunting them, targeting all of her attacks upon the dancer and forcing them to struggle to the woman’s defense.

She didn’t have much hope of breaking through the three other’s full out defense very quickly, but it didn’t matter. With only the bass drummer and the man with the wooden clappers, the power of their army wide enhancement was drastically reduced. The two of them did all they could to simply maintain the red glow around their allies, but the effect was only a shadow of what it once was. The sudden drop in capability surprised their allies and they died in droves to the high morale and furious charge of Sage’s reinforcements.

At that moment, the round gong operator appeared behind Baozhai, swinging a large spherical headed hammer over his head in an attempt to smash against her back. Then there was a sudden shift in the light and an even larger and rounder figure appeared behind his back. The thick and fluffy Violent Shadow Grouse, Songji, appeared in a flutter of jet black feathers, stepping out of the man’s shadow and pecking the back of his neck with exacting precision. There was a loud crack and the hammer fell from the man’s hands. He felt himself stumbling towards the ground, unable to control his body any longer and struck with sudden terror.