The atmosphere between Xu Yi and Wan Yanxue was tense, and the gazes of the crowd shifted between the two, finally settling on Wan Yanxue with hostility.
Even Xiong Zhuangzhuang and Wu Gewei, who belonged to the Imperial Beast Sect like Wan Yanxue, remained silent.
Wan Yanxue felt like spitting blood from anger.
In fact, her qi and blood had surged, causing blood to flow backward, but she swallowed it back down.
She could not show weakness in front of Xu Yi, even if no one supported her.
She lowered her head, concealing the venom in her eyes.
Shangguan Yuquan would arrive any moment now.
Seeing her bow her head, Xu Yi assumed she had backed down and saw no need to waste more words on her. She said to the crowd, "Let's go first!"
Delaying them for a while was better than nothing.
The others also remembered Shangguan Yuquan, the great danger behind them, and hastily prepared to retreat. However, before they could move, a massive pressure descended.
Everyone's faces turned pale instantly, their eyes filled with shock. Shangguan Yuquan had caught up.
"Pfft!"
Wan Yanxue had been suppressing her injuries, and under the immense pressure, she could no longer contain them, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
Her already pale face turned almost translucent, revealing the blood vessels, and her spirit suddenly sagged.
Deep within her eyes lay a trace of disbelief.
They were already far from the blood pool, but Shangguan Yuquan's strength had not weakened; instead, she felt him become even more formidable.
She had a bad feeling; her plan to divert the disaster might fail, and none of them would escape.
"Hahahaha, you are all here, and I don't need to waste any more time."
Shangguan Yuquan emerged from the darkness step by step, his blood-red eyes filled with excitement and amusement.
Upon hearing his words, Wan Yanxue's expression stiffened, and she then understood that Shangguan Yuquan had intentionally let her leave earlier to capture them all in one fell swoop.
Wan Yanxue almost spat out another mouthful of blood.
She bit her lower lip tightly, filled with unwillingness.
She would rather die at the hands of demons than at Shangguan Yuquan's.
Xu Yi found it difficult to breathe, her mind racing as she analyzed her chances of survival.
She still had two trump cards.
One was a mysterious and unfathomable strange power that she herself could not control.
The other was the sealed medicinal power within her, which could increase her strength by at least two levels in a short period after the seal was broken.
However, even with these two trump cards combined, she was no match for Shangguan Yuquan, who was in the mid-stage of the Integration realm.
She didn't know what trump cards the others held, but she suspected they were not enough to contend with Shangguan Yuquan in the mid-stage of Integration.
This was an unsolvable deadlock.
Xu Yi's heart pounded rapidly, and the roaring in her ears echoed. She pinched her palm, desperately trying to remain calm.
Just as Wan Yanxue thought, she also did not want to die at Shangguan Yuquan's hands.
But in the face of an absolute power disparity, how could she break this deadlock?
Xu Yi's thoughtful frown fell into the eyes of Lu Zaiye and Bei Xinghan, and a cold glint flashed in their dark pupils simultaneously.
This coldness was not directed at Xu Yi, but at the smugly smiling Shangguan Yuquan.
"Let me see, who shall I start with?"
Shangguan Yuquan chuckled softly, his sinister and sticky gaze crawling over everyone like a cold venomous snake, sending shivers down their spines.
Finally, his gaze landed on someone no one expected.
"Your name is Yu Xiaoyu, right?"
Yu Xiaoyu trembled all over, raising her head in terror, her eyes slightly red.
Shangguan Yuquan smiled even more smugly.
"Do you know why I chose you? If it weren't for you, the position of Young Sect Master of the Daqi Sect would have fallen to me."
Shangguan Yuquan's voice was filled with resentment.
Yu Xiaoyu vaguely recalled hearing that this Senior Brother Shangguan, who had been accepted into Kunlun Academy, held high prestige within the sect.
However, for as long as Yu Xiaoyu could remember, Shangguan Yuquan had faded from the sect, and she had no idea there was such a connection between them.
She mustered her courage and whispered, "Senior Brother Shangguan, if you want to be the Young Sect Master, I can give it to you."
This position of Young Sect Master was never something she had wanted.
Xu Yi's eyelids twitched upon hearing this, and indeed, Shangguan Yuquan's expression became even more ferocious.
"Give it? What I want, I will take back with my own hands!"
Shangguan Yuquan had been incredibly influential when he joined Kunlun Academy. At that time, the Daqi Sect had no suitable heir, so he was certain the position of Young Sect Master would fall to him.
Even ranking at the bottom of Kunlun Academy, he studied diligently, afraid of tarnishing the reputation of the Daqi Sect. Who would have thought that decades later, he would hear the title of Young Sect Master bestowed upon a young girl who had only recently joined the sect? How could he accept this?
But he also knew he was alone and outnumbered. No matter how unwilling he was, it was useless, so he could only work harder.
However, sometimes the gap between people could not be bridged by hard work, especially when the person more outstanding than him was equally diligent.
Wan Yanxue was such a person.
Wan Yanxue possessed excellent natural talent and had a similarly gifted demonic beast. The combined effect of the two was something Shangguan Yuquan could not catch up to even with all his efforts.
He could only look up at Wan Yanxue, his heart tormented by jealousy at all times.
His descent into demonic cultivation was not sudden but had been foreshadowed long ago.
Wan Yanxue would die a torturous death in his hands, while Yu Xiaoyu would become the first soul to perish under his command.
Shangguan Yuquan slowly opened his palm, and a mass of blood swirled in his hand, forming a small vortex.
Although the vortex was small, the pressure it exerted on everyone was immense.
The overwhelmingly strong smell of blood invaded everyone's senses in an extremely overbearing manner.
Yu Xiaoyu's pupils trembled, and the fear of death washed over her like a tide.
"Attacking a woman, what kind of man are you!"
In the deathly silence, Xiong Zhuangzhuang roared, his eyes burning with anger.
Yu Xiaoyu stared at him blankly, feeling a pang of sadness in her heart.
She considered her relationship with Xiong Zhuangzhuang to be not very deep, yet he stepped forward to protect her at such a moment, how could she not be touched?
Shangguan Yuquan was first angered, then suddenly seemed to have an idea, and his lips curled upwards. "A hero saving a beauty? Hahaha, good, good!"
He clapped his hands and laughed, finding the scene extremely amusing.
"Since you want to die for her, I will grant your wish."
As the words fell, Shangguan Yuquan aimed the blood vortex in his hand at Xiong Zhuangzhuang and flicked it away forcefully.
The blood vortex shot out at an extremely high speed, accompanied by a roaring sound, causing violent tremors in the air.
"No!"
Yu Xiaoyu screamed, struggling violently.
However, under the pressure of a cultivator in the Integration realm, her resistance was like a mayfly trying to shake a tree, causing not the slightest ripple.
She could only watch helplessly as the blood vortex flew towards Xiong Zhuangzhuang, and the tears that had been welling up in her eyes finally fell.