"Give it up, You Haiyin," Gan Ruifeng sneered.
His words, "We assure you a whole corpse," resonated with ice-cold finality, perfectly matching his frigid expression.
Marks on his own visage stood as a testament to You Haiyin's desperate resistance.
"You Haiyin!" Cai Xueqing bellowed, further provoking him. "Cease your resistance, and we pledge to preserve a lineage for the You Clan!"
For clans of cultivators, the importance of safeguarding their bloodline even surpassed that of maintaining their cultivation traditions.
After all, what value would the passing down of cultivation methods hold if the bloodline itself were extinguished?
However, You Haiyin scoffed at the idea of surrender. "The offspring of the You Clan would rather die than submit!"
"Even if we are fated to die today, you will pay a devastating price!" His voice trembled but remained resolute, a trickle of blood escaping from the corner of his mouth as he spoke.
Gan Ruifeng's eyes flashed with murderous resolve. "In that case, I'll wipe out every member of the You Clanno survivors!" Turning to Cai Xueqing, he suggested, "Stop keeping your guard up against me. Let's finish off You Haiyin together!"
"Agreed," Cai Xueqing conceded with a nod, recognizing the hopelessness of the situation.
However, as the two prepared to strike down You Haiyin, shadowy figures suddenly materialized on the battlefield. One by one, they brutally attacked members of the Gan and Cai Clans!
Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!
Blades pierced hearts from behind, their bloody tips protruding starkly from chests.
Faces twisted in agony, and the acrid scent of blood filled the air.
"You Haiyin, are you ready to meet your end?" Liu Xiong's silhouette soared into the heavens, wreathed in boundless flames. He aggressively hurtled towards Gan Ruifeng and Cai Xueqing!
"What!" Faces of Gan Ruifeng and Cai Xueqing twisted in disbelief, filled with shock. They couldn't believe their own eyes.
Astoundingly, the Heavenly Gu Society, which had supposedly retreated, had inexplicably rejoined the battle. Even more astonishing, they were aiding the You Clan, their former mortal enemies! Can you believe it?
'The Heavenly Gu Society!' You Haiyin's eyes, once filled with despair, sparked with newfound hope. 'They've actually returned to the fray!'
He realized that the Heavenly Gu Society wasn't aiding him out of pure benevolence. However, at this moment, his only desire was for the Gan and Cai Clans to meet the same grim fate as him!
As for any other concerns, he simply didn't have the capacity to worry.
It was, indeed, a pitiful situation.
At that moment, as Liu Xiong lunged from behind, a bone-chilling sensation crawled up the spines of Gan Ruifeng and Cai Xueqing.
Instinctively, they pivoted sideways, steeling themselves for defense.
"Damn it, you intercept him!" Gan Ruifeng shouted in frustration.
"Why don't you take him on!" Cai Xueqing retorted irritably.
A rapid argument unfolded between the two, as neither was willing to confront Liu Xiong alone.
If one engaged Liu Xiong while the other tackled the weakened You Haiyin, only for the victor to then join forces with Liu Xiong, what could they possibly do?
Wouldn't their fate be sealed?
Faced with no other option, they had to abandon their pursuit of You Haiyin and join forces to charge at Liu Xiong!
His lips trembled slightly, but words failed him.
However, this time a seed of suspicion planted itself in his heart: Could it be that someone was intentionally targeting him, and it wasn't simply a case of bad luck?
Pondering deeply, he mused, 'If someone is truly after me, then they must know the secret of my "Endless Dark Blood Moon" bloodline!'
'They're stunting my growth, that's it!'
'Even more troubling, they seem to know exactly who I'm targeting, making my ability to hide utterly futile against them!'
Chilled to his core, Gu Ran thought, 'This person is terrifying; even my unique bloodline talent can't evade their detection.' His eyes gradually filled with a glimmer of realization, as well as deep-rooted terror and apprehension.
After repeatedly falling into Jiang Chen's snares, Gu Ran finally sensed that something was awry.
But immediately, new questions swarmed his mind.
'Who is after me?'
'Why are they deliberately hampering my growth?'
'If they're focused on me, why not simply kill me now when I'm weakest?' The clarity in Gu Ran's eyes faded, replaced by an inscrutable look of perplexity.
Mulling over it alone wouldn't help his situation.
Right now, the most pressing issue was to kill and absorb cultivation bases.
With teeth gritted in resolve, Gu Ran thought, 'Let's try this one more time!' He zeroed in on a cultivator from the Cai Clan in the Inquiring Journey realm and discreetly moved to execute him.
However, almost instantly, three death warriors from the Heavenly Gu Society deployed their power-boosting secret arts in coordination.
Joined by a genuine Inquiring Journey realm cultivator, they overwhelmed the cultivator from the Cai Clan, also in the Inquiring Journey realm!
'As I suspected, he can actually see through my stealth ability! Then he eliminates my targets to hinder my growth!' Gu Ran's eyes narrowed, his pupils shrinking to tiny dots, as he advanced once more toward another cultivator in the Inquiring Journey realm.
This time, he only feigned an attack.
And just as he had anticipated, nothing unusual occurred.
The cultivator he pretended to target wasn't killed, due to various reasons.
Feeling puzzled, Gu Ran thought, 'That mysterious entity didn't make a move this time!'
'Why didn't they act? Can they actually discern whether my intentions are genuine or a mere ruse?'
The realization hit him like a ton of bricks. 'They're actually this formidable!' He felt his entire body tremble, his hair seeming to want to leap off his skin, as if an ominous shadow had suddenly enveloped him.
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The first protagonist, armed with a system, takes the stage.
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