The strike team led by Barsha received an urgent distress signal confirming that Aji's group had engaged the dark army in open combat. Barsha immediately ordered her team to accelerate their pace toward the coordinates. Traversing the vast woodland required time, yet by tapping into their internal reserves and absorbing atmospheric mana, they surged forward at blinding speeds, gliding through the high branches like gale-force winds.

Thanks to their refined internal circles, they moved without strain or exhaustion, regulating their aura output with absolute precision.

Suddenly, Barsha signaled a halt. Sprawled across the forest clearing before them lay a horrific sight: hundreds of fresh corpses scattered across the bloody soil. Suspended mid-air directly above the fallen cultivators was a towering dark figure, while dozens of dark army operatives occupied the surrounding canopy and ground perimeter, maintaining a strict guard.

The dark entity hovering above was actively absorbing residual life force from the slaughtered martial artists, filtering the fallen aura directly into his own vessel.

As the Sky Squad team skidded to a halt, every dark operative in the clearing turned their eyes toward the seven newly arrived warriors.

"Everyone, guard up!" Barsha commanded her six teammates softly.

They knew Aji's team was likely engaged in a desperate clash elsewhere, yet they could not turn away from the atrocity before them. Their mission to safeguard the righteous sects had brought them face-to-face with the butcher responsible for the massacre.

"More prey arrives!" the giant entity boomed, his voice echoing through the woods like thunder. "You moved with impressive velocity to reach this sector so quickly. Bwahahaha! Splendid! Your refined parameters will provide exquisite nourishment—pushing my strength to the divine heights of Lord Demon Shura himself!"

The auditory shockwave of his bellow vibrated through the air. The speaker was a massive, hulking figure twice the size of a normal man, shrouded in a dense, suffocating aura of dark magic. He had just finished digesting the residual life force of the fallen cultivators around him.

Absorbing life force directly from the fallen... The operatives shuddered. Was this capability not exclusive to the Demon Lord? The seven Sky Squad members braced themselves. Were they truly standing in the presence of the ultimate nightmare feared by all martial artists?

If this was indeed Lord Demon Shura, they had to hold the line at all costs until reinforcements arrived.

"Ah, you drop into combat stances already," the giant sneered, his tone dropping to a sinister rumble. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Samoa—the most insatiable and greedy of the Five Gates! Bwahahaha!"

Samoa!

Barsha and her team exhaled in quiet relief, grasping the reality of the situation. While it was shocking to learn that another member of the Five Gates possessed the ability to harvest residual life force from the dead, they were not facing Shura himself. Still, the dark pressure radiating from the giant was overwhelming. In his hands, he wielded a massive war pike tipped with a broad, razor-sharp blade.

Barsha stood beside her six team members: Lao, Nanji, Yara, Samuel, Rosa, and Binto. Drawing their armaments, the seven operatives prepared for an unforgiving clash. From the moment they encountered the Gatekeeper, they had continuously drawn in atmospheric mana to saturate their cores.

Empowered by the purified essence of the Heart Dragon, their vessels integrated ambient energy effortlessly, achieving seamless harmony with the surrounding natural elements.

Discreetly, Barsha triggered a high-priority distress ping via her communication ring. Nearby military defense task forces immediately acknowledged the signal, altering their march vectors to converge on Barsha's coordinates.

"Before we crush you into dust, reveal which petty academy spawned you!" Samoa demanded, resting his war pike on his massive shoulder. "We shall record your names—though we will likely forget them soon enough, considering the thousands of fools who have perished by our hands!"

The team awaited Barsha's signal. Outnumbered by the surrounding dark horde, entering a chaotic melee where the enemy could swarm them simultaneously would prove extremely disadvantageous.

"Listen well, Gatekeeper of the abyss!" Barsha declared, stepping forward to buy precious time for incoming military task forces. "Inscribe our names deep into your mind, so you may depart this world without regret! We are the Sky Squad—and we have come to eradicate your dark army down to its very roots!"

"Bwahahaha!" Samoa's thunderous laughter shook the leaves. "So you are the pathetic Sky Squad that has been meddling in our grand design! Today, your journey ends! You shall suffer a gruesome death, and we will carve fatal wounds into your precious vanguard!"

The Sky Squad members immediately dropped into a tight defensive ring formation, standing back-to-back to cover every angle.

Whatever wave assault the dark horde unleashed, they stood ready to repel it.

"Gold! Silver! Bronze!" Samoa roared, summoning his three most loyal and powerful lieutenants.

In a flash of dark magic, three heavily armored figures materialized before Samoa. Clad in ancient gladiator-style plate armor, each lieutenant wielded a heavy broadsword and wore a ceremonial helm distinguished by a distinct metallic sheen: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

They were Samoa's elite vanguard—the formidable Three Metals.

"Obliterate these arrogant brats!" Samoa commanded.

Instantly, the Three Metals unleashed a dark, crimson-tinted aura. Channeling intense killing intent, they surged toward the seven Sky Squad operatives in a synchronized assault.

Samoa folded his massive arms, confident his three lieutenants were more than enough to crush the arrogant youths. Within minutes, he anticipated feast upon their harvested life force. The prospect made his dark core throb with pleasure.

Meanwhile, in the northern sector of the Tulisma Forest...

The third Sky Squad team—led by Astro and accompanied by Grandmaster Jinho—pressed forward through the dense woodland. As they advanced, they continued broadcasting evacuation warnings to any independent sects they encountered.

However, Grandmaster Jinho soon detected the massive isolation array encompassing the entire forest. The boundary wall was reinforced by high-tier defensive magic, rendering it utterly impenetrable to standard energy strikes. It was an ancient, legendary 8th-tier array—or perhaps something even higher.

Jinho recognized the horrific reality: the entire Tulisma Forest was a sealed slaughterhouse designed to trap orthodox cultivators so their life force could be harvested as divine nourishment for the Demon Lord. He could sense the continuous, widespread absorption of dark magic as life signatures across the forest flickered out one after another.

The dark army was systematically hunting down every martial artist trapped within the woods.

"Hold!" Jinho abruptly called out.

Astro and the six operatives halted instantly. Jinho closed his eyes, sensing violent energy shockwaves echoing across multiple quadrants of the forest. These were no longer minor skirmishes—the explosions indicated high-tier combatants clashing with absolute parameters.

The Five Gates have taken the field!

Realizing the severity of the crisis, Jinho stepped forward. Astro's team awaited the veteran master's instructions. Raising both palms toward the sky, Jinho released a brilliant flare of elemental aura that shot above the canopy, detonating into a shimmering web of energy that spread across the heavens.

Closing his eyes, Jinho channeled his sensory perception through the overhead energy web while pressing his right palm against the soil to read the earth's vibrations. As a high-tier elemental support master, his understanding of natural forces was absolute—allowing him to manipulate and sense air, earth, water, and wind seamlessly.

"That way!" Jinho pointed toward a dense sector directly ahead. He had detected a massive, high-density confrontation occurring at close proximity. Intervening now would allow them to relieve the orthodox forces engaging the dark army.

"What do you perceive there, Master?" Astro asked.

"A full-scale battle," Jinho reported gravely. "Massive numbers are engaged!"

Nodding in agreement, the Sky Squad members readied their weapons. Surging forward at maximum velocity, they absorbed atmospheric mana on the move to keep their cores saturated. Watching them glide through the trees, Jinho marveled at how flawlessly the young warriors commanded their internal circles.

The younger generation is truly remarkable, Jinho thought warmly. At their young age, these operatives had already achieved total resonance with the natural world—a peak domain he had reached only after decades of arduous cultivation.

This time, history will not repeat itself! Renewed vigor burned within the old master's chest. Falling into step behind the Sky Squad, he drew in environmental energy to ensure his reserves remained at full capacity for the coming clash.

Sure enough, after sprinting a single kilometer at full velocity, the trees parted to reveal a chaotic battlefield enveloped in smoke and flames. Explosions detonated continuously as blinding aura strikes collided with volatile dark magic.

It was a major engagement between a regular military defense division and a heavy dark army vanguard. The military task force was being pushed back—not due to inferior numbers, but because the dark operatives had deployed their full Demon Transformations, raging through the ranks with brutal savagery.

Regular military combatants fought valiantly, supporting one another while combat healers worked tirelessly to restore the wounded. Yet the transformed dark operatives pressed their assault with increasing ferocity. Hovering mid-air above the chaos was the dark commander leading the vanguard, his arms folded across his chest as he monitored his troops' progress.

The dark commander instantly picked up the approaching energy signatures of Astro's team and Grandmaster Jinho.

Recognizing that elite reinforcements were arriving, the dark general drifted forward to intercept the small group before they could alter the tide of battle.

"Halt! Who dares interrupt my grand display?"

Astro halted, hovering in mid-air alongside his six teammates, their weapons drawn.

Grandmaster Jinho stepped past Astro, his eyes fixing on the dark commander. "Are you one of the Five Gates?"

"Bwahahaha!" The dark general's laughter rattled the surrounding trees. "So an old fool recognizes my glory! You possess some martial experience, it seems! Indeed! I am Zagar—ruler among the Five Gates and the absolute strongest of our elite!"

The speaker possessed a tall, slender frame, a long black beard, and an ornate, glowing crown resting upon his brow. His voice boomed with arrogant pride.

Zagar was notoriously the most boastful member of the Five Gates, constantly proclaiming himself the supreme combatant among the dark generals. Jinho recognized his description immediately from ancient historical ledgers.

A brutal, uncompromising battle was at hand—and Grandmaster Jinho resolved that this time, he would not take a single step back!