Chapter 1435: Hope Shattered

Chapter 1435: Chapter 1435: Hope Shattered

"What, are you trying to tell me something like the rule of not killing envoys between two battling factions? Even if every plane shares the same custom, this agreement doesn’t apply to you. After all, I won’t let a single Vlad family member escape today. What’s the difference if you die sooner or later?"

"Bastard!" Billbom roared and turned to use the Blood Escape Technique to flee, only to find that his bloodline within had inexplicably congealed, and his half-transformed body was frozen mid-air. He looked in terror at Pei Yan not far away, whose body contained such a powerful Vlad family bloodline force.

This momentary pause deprived him of the last chance to flee. When he tried to escape by other means, he realized an invisible pressure had enveloped the surroundings, and his soul seemed to be nailed to the ground with steel pins, gradually losing control over his body.

He was under siege and yet powerless! Just as this thought flashed through Billbom’s mind, he saw the man who had been crouching on the ground fiddling with a model stand up, walk slowly towards him, and as a cloud of black mist emanated from the man’s body, a tall, imposing figure wielding a large blade appeared beside him. With multiple forces simultaneously controlling his entire being, Billbom despairingly widened his eyes, watching the man raise the large blade high and slash at his throat.

"Drag away the corpse! Inform all personnel involved in the operation to prepare for battle!" Pei Yan pointed at Billbom’s corpse, instructing others to throw it directly in front of the formation to show his stance. Just after giving the command, Mei Simiao approached and added, "If the Vlad family members break through later, team captains should lead their members, pick their opponents, and fight independently."

Pei Yan glanced at Mei Simiao after hearing this but did not object. Only after the mission orders were issued did Mei Simiao explain to Pei Yan, "This is the hall’s intention. Use this mission to train the team! You can’t always protect them. How can they grow without experiencing real combat? We just need to ensure high-level blood races don’t harm the team."

Pei Yan nodded in agreement with Mei Simiao’s assignment. A team must experience trials to grow, just like he did. Although Pei Yan didn’t want his colleagues to perish, given the inevitable battle looming, expecting everyone to come through unscathed was unrealistic. The intensity of the battle ahead is within his control, perfectly serving as the whetstone for the team, allowing core elite members to gain more combat experience before going back to lead other members.

As the pair issued orders, more people were dispatched to attack the Vlad family castle. Among the bombardment was woven a series of attacks by ability users, whose intensity paled compared to the artillery’s coverage, but their diverse types and sheer amount of source energy far exceeded the bombardment, inflicting greater damage on the Magic Array when used in tandem.

Billbom’s corpse showed Pei Yan’s stance, and after a brief silence, the Vlad family launched their first counterattack. Whether driven by an array or their family’s Divine Artifact’s augmentation, the sky above the Vlad family, already reddened by artillery fire, suddenly took on a blood-red hue, much like the Blood Moon Delacuri cast during his battle with Pei Yan, though much weaker in power.

Seeing this scene, Pei Yan knew the Vlad family was about to start their counterattack. He rose, stepped onto the battlefield, and ordered, "Do not stop artillery attacks! Fire-element attacks are effective in restraining blood race spells, Xia Yu, construct a defensive circle!"

After a series of orders were given, Jiang Feiyang pulled out a glass bottle from his pocket, unscrewed the cap, and drank it down in one go. Though he wasn’t the primary attacker, these models were activated by his ability triggering with source energy; maintaining each model’s attack continuously drained his source energy. Yet, not being at the Child of Origin level, still at the seventh stage of awakening without breaking through to the eighth stage, his source energy reserves were far from being as abundant as those like Pei Yan. Previously, this operation would leave him breathless even if his source energy wasn’t depleted. But thanks to Pei Yan’s excellent relationship with the Immortal Palace, Dragon Realm, and Holy City - the investigation hall acquired a wealth of resources from these planes. This type of short-time rapid source energy replenishment potion has almost become standard for high-level ability agents. Jiang Feiyang, due to his special abilities, received special allocation, so he didn’t mind using it like drinking juice, one bottle after another, feeling the endless source energy within energizing his abilities.

On the other side, receiving orders, Xia Yu unexpectedly didn’t engage in the attack but instead waved her hand to erect circles of bronze walls before the investigation hall’s position. Meanwhile, within the Vlad castle, a flood suddenly breached the walls, and a massive crimson liquid poured from them, forming a bloody torrent rushing toward the investigation hall.

Facing the Vlad family’s counterattack, Pei Yan stood proudly before the blood wave. He opened his arms to release the blood race spell learned from the Delacuri bloodline memory, instantly halting the seemingly unstoppable blood wave before it in mid-air, freezing the forward trend. As Pei Yan’s spell activated, strands of bloodline essence hidden in the blood wave were extracted, absorbed into Pei Yan’s body.

Watching the blood wave’s gradually fading color and declining form, Pei Yan felt puzzled, aware that the bloodline power he used had a suppressive advantage over the entire Vlad family. Yet, he hadn’t expected to thwart their counterattack so easily, and even extract blood essence from it to bolster himself. If not for triple-verifying the absence of issues in these blood essence, Pei Yan would doubt if this was a trap by the enemy.

While Pei Yan was puzzled, the many Vlad family blood races inside the castle were heartbroken – one wrong move resulting in the entire game being lost! Although Pei Yan, after absorbing Moira and Delacuri’s bloodline, possessed substantial mastery over blood race spells, completely suppressing the spells triggered by an array accumulated over years shouldn’t be easy. His seemingly effortless defense against the attack was due to Hope, Ordin, and others harboring fantasies about surrender earlier, allowing multiple assaults on the castle, thereby excessively draining the source blood essence meant to maintain the array through defense and self-repair. This led to the counterattack spell appearing so weak, allowing Pei Yan to easily thwart the assault and extract the blood essence for his use.

"Delacuri ruined our family! His blood essence let the other side take it to this extent! No wonder they could find us wherever we hid!"