Chapter 1082: Chapter 1082: Choices
The urgency of time and Pei Yan’s urging once again drove Wu Xiuping’s legs towards the area representing surrender. Seeing this, Radu, with red eyes, angrily shouted, "Wu! Are you going to betray the pact between both sides? Do you have any sense of shame as a cultivator?"
"Shame? Haha!" Radu’s words only further convinced Wu Xiuping of his decision to betray. With a leap, he jumped in front of the investigators, raising his hands to show his sincerity in surrender, and sneering at Radu, "If I had any sense of shame, I would have broken ties with you long ago! A pact? Did you ever treat us as allies? All the way, treating my people with sarcasm and contempt, as if we were your servants! And in the end, you want me to die because of your foolish judgment! Don’t be ridiculous! Radu, Pei Yan just said he’d spare those he’s interested in, so you’ll live no matter what choice you make! What about us? As cannon fodder? Don’t blame me for looking out for myself!"
Wu Xiuping’s words rendered Radu speechless for a moment, and seeing their leader choose to surrender, most of the Blood Race members followed suit and ran to the surrender area. Only a few, involved in the heinous cases Pei Yan mentioned, knowing their past won’t bode well, stayed behind, hoping for a chance to escape during the chaos.
"Phew!" Exhaling a puff of smoke, Pei Yan discarded the burnt cigarette butt and extinguished it with his foot. He looked up and sneezed, asking indifferently, "Have you all made your choices?"
"We choose to surrender! You must honor the agreement not to kill us!" Wu Xiuping raised his hands, now shackled with confinement rings by the investigators, trying to please.
"Shameless scoundrel! Kill him!" Seeing that Wu Xiuping’s incitement wavered the morale of his Blood Race side, Depeo regretted his indecisiveness to execute him when he first showed signs of surrender, angrily issuing the command in shame and fury.
A loyal Blood Race member closest to Wu Xiuping rapidly collapsed into a pool of blood mud, rushing towards Wu Xiuping on the ground. Seeing this, Wu Xiuping, already bound and powerless, frantically retreated, shouting, "Quick! Protect me! I’m your prisoner! You have the responsibility to ensure my safety!"
"Hey, Xiayu!" Pei Yan cast a glance at Wu Xiuping, speaking impatiently.
"Understood!" Xiayu responded, slightly flicking her fingers towards the ground. In an instant, the blood mud was repelled skyward by a repulsive force, twisting and deforming in mid-air, continually trying to reshape into a humanoid form, the contorted face roaring in agony.
"Shadow Cut! Space Lock!"
Pei Yan uttered four words, and the shadows beneath the blood mud suddenly surged, transforming into shadow blades that sliced the mid-air blood mass into pieces. The severed blood clumps persisted in writhing, desperately trying to merge, yet another powerful force instantly fixed them in place.
The screams continued but seemed distant and hollow, as if from another realm. Amid these cries was the sound of people gasping. The blood clusters suspended before them were so close, yet they couldn’t merge, as if sealed within variously shaped glass bottles. Outside observers could see the blood masses writhing, the face segmented into parts by Pei Yan’s casual manipulation, expressing pain.
"Madman!" Even after surrendering, Wu Xiuping couldn’t help but mutter his inner judgment upon witnessing this scene. The moment he spoke, he felt a chill all over. Pei Yan glanced at him briefly, frightening him into silence, inching closer to the other investigators.
Those who surrendered were grateful for their leader’s wisdom and thankful for their choice, while those left behind were filled with complex emotions, a profound bitterness. A Marquis-level, eighth-rank Blood Race expert being tormented to the brink of death by two opponents with ease made them acutely aware of the disparity between the factions. The merging of six sources, coupled with the Power of Origin and the Divine Artifact, had turned the Child of Origin and ordinary cultivators into people of different worlds, with Pei Yan being the exemplar of this special group.
Only now did they remember the rumor: Pei Yan is the foremost under the Supreme!
"Ugh! Let me think! What does that old saying about surrender go like? Oh, right! ’A wise man submits to circumstances, and a fine bird chooses a good tree for a perch.’ Isn’t that how it goes? People have already made their choice, why force them? A twisted melon isn’t sweet, is it?" Apparently annoyed by the anguished screams, Pei Yan mocked his opponents, lightly clenching his hand while the space globes compressing the Blood Race person shrank, the screams gradually fading and finally disappearing.
"I respect your choice and courage to stay, and now I’ll fulfill my earlier promise! Are you prepared?"
"Protect the Patriarch! Breakthrough outward! Do not stop, do not look back!" For the first time, Depeo addressed Radu as Patriarch, though he was unworthy, but at this moment his words reaffirmed Radu’s status to the other Blood Race members, reminding them that if Radu died here, even if they survived, their families would face dire consequences.
Boom!
The previously compressed space blocks attacking the Blood Race were moved above the breakout group, and exploded under pressure, leaving swirling vortices in the air and showering blood rain from above.
"Ugh~ Ah! Ugh~ Ah!" Shrill screams erupted one after another among the people. Depeo never imagined, as a Blood Race member, he’d witness the day when Blood Race was defeated by blood. The falling blood rain linked into lines, slicing through those it touched, leaving their bodies pierced and limbs severed.
"How can he know Blood Race’s blood line slicing method!" Radu wiped the slight cut on his cheek, yelling at his disarrayed subordinates.
"That’s not the blood line slicing method, just pure Source Energy lines! Merely his Source Energy lines are finer, hidden within the blood rain!" Depeo’s extensive knowledge immediately saw through the technique, loudly warning, "Do not attempt to absorb the blood with Blood Race secret techniques! This is not our Blood Race attack method! Protect yourselves with Source Energy, unleash your potential to the utmost!"
Having said this, Depeo turned to Radu, eyes red, solemnly speaking, "This battle is nearly suicidal; escaping completely is impossible now! I’ll do everything to forge a path through for you, the chance exists only for a moment! Do not hesitate, no matter how severely injured you are, don’t stop, just run!"
