Chapter 2702 Surging Dead Spirits!
One of the main motivations for Du Xing’s action was his sense of responsibility. He had been the leader of the team that later joined forces with Yang Wenpeng’s team.
There was not much that Du Xing’s team could have done, given the strength in numbers that Yang Wenpeng’s team had.
But now, Du Xing needed to take responsibility for the team that he had decided would join Yang Wenpeng’s team.
Otherwise, he would never be sticking his neck out at such a moment!
Yang Wenpeng was fuming.
His rage had been mostly directed at the group of people who had challenged him. But now, they had blended into the crowd.
Yang Wenpeng’s fury had yet to be satiated, and what Du Xing said caused him to fly off the handle.
“Du Xing, don’t forget what you promised when you joined the team! I make the decisions for the team, and you have to listen to me! They were the ones causing trouble. But instead of helping me to quell them, you are trying to tell me what to do.
“Who gave you the right to do such a thing? If you continue running your mouth, you can leave this team and take on the waves of dead spirits up ahead on your own!”
Most of the people in the team did not want such a conflict to break out. Each youth who made it as a participant of the Radiance Hundred Sequence was the cream of the crop. They were grateful that Du Xing was trying to step forward to stop the conflict by preventing the confrontation from escalating.
Du Xing’s words were an olive branch to Yang Wenpeng.
Alas, not only did Yang Wenpeng reject the olive branch, but he even blamed Du Xing, who had offered it to him.
Yang Wenpeng’s actions did not sit right with the crowd.
When Du Xing heard what Yang Wenpeng said, he knew there was no point in trying to say anything else. Also, he did not want to fight with Yang Wenpeng in the first place. He never wanted to fight over the leadership position of the team.
Du Xing said decisively, “I will leave this team. Do any of you want to leave with me? I welcome anyone. I can’t promise that I will be of much help against the dead spirit waves, but I will definitely do my best and stick by you to the end. I will never abandon you just because the dead spirits prove to be too fearsome!”
While Du Xing spoke, he looked at Yang Nuanxin, and they locked eyes. He immediately looked away.
Du Xing knew of the position she was in. Regardless of anything else, he could not force her to do anything at such a time.
Du Xing came from the main branch of his family and knew of the influence that the main branch of the family had over a collateral branch.
If he insisted on inviting her to leave with him, it would undoubtedly put her on the spot. There was a high chance it would cause her to come under fire from Yang Wenpeng’s temper.
Yang Nuanxin continued to look at Du Xing even after he averted his gaze.
There was not a single part of her that wanted to remain with Yang Wenpeng’s team.
Firstly, she hated being coerced. This cousin from the main branch of her family couldn’t care less about her and saw her as nothing more than a tool.
Furthermore, she knew that if she stayed with Yang Wenpeng, her Cleansing Rain Sky Crane would only be allowed to clear the death aura around Yang Wenpeng and his cronies, regardless of how outstanding her fey’s death-aura-clearing abilities were. This would seriously affect her standing in the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection.
Du Xing’s words struck a chord with many people, and almost half of the team walked over to him.
Even the original team he had been leading before the union of the two teams had not consisted of this many people!
With almost 500 people clustering around him, Du Xing’s camp now rivaled Yang Wenpeng’s camp.
This tip in the scales caused Wei Haodong—the originator of the disgruntlement—to panic.
He had secretly caused trouble to drag Yang Wenpeng down and take over the team.
But now, the team had split, and he could no longer become the leader of a team of more than 1,000 people even after dragging Yang Wenpeng down.
This unanticipated outcome was completely the fault of Du Xing.
Wei Haodong redirected his hatred to Du Xing.
As long as he could get rid of Du Xing, the newly formed team would lose their leader and have no choice but to rejoin the other team. At that point, he would be able to make use of Yang Wenpeng’s selfishness and bad temper to cause conflict within the team and push Yang Wenpeng out.
With this thought, Wei Haodong yelled, “You have to think carefully. The members of the team who are able to clear death aura are all on this side. If you leave, you will die from being infected by all the death aura you take in, even if you don’t encounter another wave of dead spirits!
“Yang Wenpeng’s management of the team does have many issues. We can reduce his authority and select a few people to co-manage the team together.
“Du Xing, it’s clear that you have great influence and can even tear apart the team with a raise of your hand. I’m sure you’ll be able to become one of the managers!”
Wei Haodong had brought up both sides of the coin and distorted the facts.
The one thing that Yang Wenpeng cared the most about was his authority in the team. His words undermined Yang Wenpeng’s authority and were no different from plunging a dagger into Yang Wenpeng’s chest, setting his fury alight!
At the same time, he used Du Xing’s leadership and protection over the team to subtly suggest that he was seeking to gain authority.
Those standing behind Du Xing felt the latter was manipulating them!
Du Xing realized what Wei Haodong was trying to do and was about to rebuke him when Yang Wenpeng snarled, “If you choose not to side with me, you will suffer eventually! Don’t come crying to me then!”
At this point, Yang Wenpeng took a deep breath.
“Yang Nuanxin is a distant cousin and has no choice but to listen to me. If you join me now, you will be able to receive the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane’s protection. I will give you 30 seconds to ponder your decision.”
Yang Nuanxin had been suppressing her anger, and it was bubbling within her.
She had already betrayed her friends and had been forcefully recruited by Yang Wenpeng.
But now, Yang Wenpeng was using her as a bargaining chip and even sounded as though he was looking down on her for coming from the collateral branch of the family.
Yang Nuanxin took two steps back and summoned her other fey, the Cutting-Wings Sword Swan.
She grabbed the Cutting-Wings Sword Swan’s feet, and it carried her over to Du Xing.
The Cleansing Rain Sky Crane moved over to join Du Xing’s side so it could follow its contractor.
Yang Nuanxin did not instruct the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane to protect only the side she was on. Instead, she instructed it, “Bring rain down on everyone. Try to cover every person!”
After giving her instructions, she said coldly, “Yang Wenpeng, I was wrong from the beginning. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to be threatened by you during the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection. I wasted so much time allowing my friends to be forced to join you and watch you go off your rocker. You are selfish and unsuited to control a team!
“As for those around you, none of you thought of sharing your resources in a time of crisis but are fighting over it instead. None of you are fit to become a member of the Radiance Hundred Sequence!”
Yang Wenpeng seemed easygoing but hit the nail on the head when she lost her temper. Naturally, she shocked Yang Wenpeng and all the people around him.
Yang Wenpeng never expected Yang Nuanxin to side with his opponent. She had even turned around to stab him by saying that he did not have the character befitting of a member of the Radiance Hundred Sequence!
Her words would definitely catch attention once it was broadcast.
But as angry as he was, Yang Wenpeng still had clarity of mind. Hence, he did not begin insulting and threatening her.
Du Xing understood Yang Nuanxin’s reasons for making her previous choice and did not blame her at all.
If she had sided with him, then Yang Wenpeng would definitely have used his status as a direct descendent of the main branch to make things difficult for her family.
This was a common occurrence. There were many collateral branches that were relegated to grunt work after offending the main branch. Some even ended up eliminated by the main branch.
Yang Nuanxin had just opposed Yang Wenpeng and thrown down the gauntlet.
This would become one of the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection’s biggest pieces of news.
As long as someone paid attention to this matter, the Yang family’s main branch would not make things difficult for Yang Nuanxin’s collateral branch, even if she did not manage to clinch a position in the Radiance Hundred Sequence.
Yang Wenpeng was easy to anger and could only see what was right in front of him. He was not capable of much higher-order thinking.
However, the other members of the Yang family’s main branch would not allow Yang Wenpeng to do as he pleased.
Moreover, Du Xing saw promising potential in Yang Nuanxin.
Given that most feys were unable to do anything against death aura, Yang Nuanxin’s ability to clear death aura using the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane made her worth nurturing.
Yang Wenpeng glared at Yang Nuanxin maliciously, and she could not stop herself from feeling a chill run up her back.
At that moment, soft sounds could be heard in the distance. They were not coming from individual entities but were clearly coming from an enormous group.
“Oh no! There is a wave of dead spirits rushing here from the south! We must leave as soon as possible! There are millions of dead spirits in this wave, and there’s no way that our team will be able to handle such an army! Why is luck so bad? Why did we have to encounter such a giant wave of dead spirits?”
The scouts’ shrieks immediately halted the internal conflict in the team.
The millions of dead spirits would easily swallow a team of more than 3,000 people. Only teams that consisted of more than 5,000 people would be able to stand a chance.
However, trying to take them on by force would not lead to a positive result.
They were initially unaware of whether they were going in the right direction. Now, they had no choice but to go in the opposite direction from the wave of dead spirits.
Since this sudden disaster outbreak had stopped the conflict, Yang Wenpeng was still the team leader and had yet to be replaced.
However, those who chose to side with Du Xing would no longer listen to Yang Wenpeng’s instructions. They were only going to listen to Du Xing.
The team was only maintained because Du Xing took the high road and invited Yang Wenpeng to issue instructions.
Previously, Yang Nuanxin was helping Yang Wenpeng, and his main group of subordinates did not have to face the threat of the death aura.
But now that Yang Nuanxin was siding with Du Xing, the faces of Yang Wenpeng’s close subordinates were slowly becoming paler, and blood began oozing out of their eyes and noses.
All of them were participants of the Radiance Hundred Sequence selection. The people around Yang Wenpeng were willing to bootlick him when he was able to provide them with benefits. But now that he could no longer do so, all of them began thinking of betraying him.
Yang Nuanxin’s importance to the team heightened when they directly took on dead spirits.
Du Xing was well aware of this.
He did not ask Yang Nuanxin to protect him exclusively. Instead, he saw her as an important combat resource for the team. Thus, he assigned ten support-type spirit qi professionals to her to help her recover her energy.
The Cleansing Rain Sky Crane produced rain continuously and serviced the entire team.
This not only referred to the 500 people around Du Xing, but even those who had not decided to join him received Yang Nuanxin’s protection.
Regardless of how strong the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane’s cleansing abilities were, it was only a Platinum fey.
With the inclusion of Yang Nuanxin, many of the participants were affected by the death aura.
But with the Cleansing Rain Sky Crane around, the group could continue moving forward.
Du Xing led the group in assigning their positions. They managed to avoid the wave of dead spirits by moving in a C formation.
Given that the dead spirits were currently exploding out of the Dead Spirits Wells continuously, a wave of millions of dead spirits was insignificant.
The scouts in the team sent their avian-type feys further and discovered a few groups of millions of dead spirits. Once those groups of dead spirits encountered each other, they would fuse after a small scuffle.
After the scouts discovered the tens of millions of dead spirits, they immediately lost the courage to continue moving forward.
The team could already sense the violent tremors even before hearing the scouts’ reports.
When Yang Wenpeng said that he would do the same as Du Xing did to avoid the tens of millions of dead spirits, Du Xing suddenly felt the urge to leave the team.
Any person who had been part of an adventurer group knew how to use the C formation to avoid an enemy.
When an adventurer group was trying to avoid small groups of dimensional lifeforms, they often employed the C formation.
However, the C formation was only suitable for avoiding such small to medium enemy groups.
There was no way they could form a diameter large enough to cover a wave of tens of millions of dead spirits.
They would definitely end up clashing with the dead spirits.
The only way they could survive now was to try and charge directly through and pray that one of the leaders was nearby.
After Yang Wenpeng issued the order, Du Xing pointed forward and said, “If anyone wants to achieve better results in this test instead of dying here, charge forward with me! Try your best to coordinate your feys and prevent the dead spirits behind from catching up.”
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