Chapter 382: Just Surrender

Chapter 382 Just Surrender

"When you used the terrain to trap me, you also trapped yourselves."

Watching Bu Ziran retreat all the way to the barrier, Zhang Yu sneered as four Formless Titans materialized, blocking his opponent two on the left and two on the right.

Seeing Zhang Yu charge forward like a wild beast, Bu Ziran desperately wanted to scream for him to stay away.

He was not afraid of Zhang Yu; he was afraid of his own teammates.

Especially as he watched Zhang Yu's body continuously endure a barrage of blood lightning, air blasts, and silver palms, as though he were merely taking a casual shower.

Bu Ziran possessed none of Zhang Yu's monstrous resilience to withstand such a pummeling.

Yet Ma Xuan consoled him through the competition chat group just in time: "Do not worry, we have enabled shared attack intent and marked each target. We will not strike you accidentally."

At that moment, within the ocular HUDs of Ma Xuan and the other three, four distinct markers flashed and shifted constantly—a palm, a blood droplet, an airflow, and a small sword—each representing one of their respective attacks.

Every time a marker flashed, it indicated the precise landing point of their trajectory.

Through this coordinated marking, their strikes could harmonize seamlessly, minimizing the risk of hitting Bu Ziran.

But no matter how careful they were, in a chaotic clash of this magnitude, collateral collisions were inevitable.

Sweeping away a bolt of blood lightning with a stroke of his sword, Bu Ziran felt a sharp pang of distress as he noticed his arm prosthetic's self-diagnostic report flashing at thirty-two percent durability.

"Watch it! Do not hit me!"

But in the next instant, Zhang Yu lunged once more, his Formless Cloud Essence dragging streams of air blasts with it as he slammed his palms brutally toward Bu Ziran.

Sword qi and astral essence collided, erupting in violent shockwaves.

As Zhang Yu engaged Bu Ziran in close quarters, he recalled all his humanoid astral essence. On one hand, this reduced his consumption of spiritual essence; on the other, without the cover of the humanoid figures, Bu Ziran was left even more exposed to the incoming crossfire.

"As expected, now that I am entangled with this fellow in close combat, Ma Xuan and the others have inevitably weakened their assault."

At this moment, Zhang Yu did not even employ his Nine Heavens Cloudforce, relying solely on his Formless Cloud Essence to redirect the incoming techniques, hurling them back toward Bu Ziran time and again.

Throughout these brief seconds of fierce combat, Zhang Yu was drenched in blood, his astral essence stained a deep crimson that swirled around his body like dynamic flames.

"Perhaps I can take this opportunity to replenish myself..."

With the rapid firing of blood lightning from the Finger-Flick Blood technique, the Formless Cloud Essence was pierced with gaping holes, though it successfully slowed the velocity of the attacks.

Zhang Yu thrust a palm forward, and a vortex formed of shifting mist channeled the scattered blood lightning into a single point. Spinning at high velocity, the bolts collided and condensed into a sphere of blood... which Zhang Yu then swallowed in a single gulp.

The next moment, Zhang Yu's eyes widened, and he could not help but remark, "How many pills did you people take? The medicinal potency is incredibly potent."

Feeling the medicinal energy being absorbed rapidly within his body, stimulating the swift recovery of his physical strength and spiritual essence, Zhang Yu laughed aloud. He suddenly swept up a handful of silver sand from the ground with another palm strike and swallowed it as well.

Zhang Yu tilted his head, baring his teeth in a grin. "Though it lacks nutritional value, it serves well enough to temper the physical body."

Seeing his own silver sand swallowed whole by Zhang Yu, Ma Xuan was momentarily consumed with fury and bellowed, "Keep striking! He cannot hold out much longer!"

Although Zhang Yu was continually consuming resources, absorbing the properties of the Goat Flame Blood and digesting the silver sand to strengthen his flesh, his surrounding Formless Cloud Essence was still being torn apart repeatedly, and the wounds on his body multiplied until he appeared a mangled mass of flesh and blood.

The white astral essence, which had originally resembled mist, gradually turned pale red, then deep crimson, until it now manifested as a dark violet-red. It billowed incessantly, burning violently like an ominous fire.

Yet, compared to Zhang Yu's seemingly severe injuries, Bu Ziran was the one whose heart truly bled.

Engaged in close combat, Zhang Yu continuously redirected the incoming blood lightning, air blasts, and silver arms straight toward him.

Compounded by the strikes from Ma Xuan and the others that accidentally brushed against him... despite supposedly besieging Zhang Yu alongside his allies, Bu Ziran felt as though he were the one being besieged by both Zhang Yu and his own team.

Under such intense fighting, the spiritual prosthetics across his body continuously issued notifications of declining durability, causing a chill to grip Bu Ziran's heart—a chill far more freezing than the icy intent within Zhang Yu's astral essence.

"Damn it all..."

Bu Ziran furiously unleashed waves of sword qi. Staring at the bloody, faltering figure of Zhang Yu before him, he roared inwardly, "Why? Why do you refuse to fall? Why do you refuse to surrender?"

The same question echoed in Yang Yan's mind. As he discharged bolts of blood lightning, he glanced at the accumulating billing statement of his spiritual prosthetic and could not help but slow his offensive.

Staring at Zhang Yu, who was completely enveloped in a bloody mist, Yang Yan thought to himself, "This guy must be at his limit. I should spend fewer spiritual coins on continuing the attack. Furthermore..."

On the other side, Ji Susu thought to herself, "This fellow refuses to surrender. What if we actually kill him?"

"We cannot kill anyone; the compensation for a death is far too exorbitant."

The Zhang Yu before them clearly looked heavily wounded, yet he stubbornly endured amidst their encirclement.

The more faltering Zhang Yu appeared, the more the four of them slowed their attacks, terrified that an stray blow might accidentally end his life.

Ma Xuan could not help but bellow, "Zhang Yu! If you do not surrender now, do you truly wish to go bankrupt in this competition?"

"Look at the injuries on your body. Do you even have the money to treat them?"

Zhang Yu grinned, gesturing for them to come forward. "Hurry up. There is not much time left for you."

Although Zhang Yu appeared covered in wounds and entirely battered, under the blessing of the Civil and Architecture Sacred Physique, he could feel his various resistances soaring dramatically, and the enemy's attacks felt increasingly feeble to his senses.

The injuries on his body stopped worsening; instead, under the vitalizing effects of the Remnant Ox Life-Sacrificing Mind Sutra, they were continuously healing themselves.

Another round of fierce combat ensued. Accompanied by the sweeping of supersonic shockwaves, the astral essence and spiritual force of the five individuals clashed hundreds of times in an instant.

The bills continued to rise, durability continued to drop, and another massive gulp of silver sand was consumed...

At this moment, Ma Xuan and the other three felt as though Zhang Yu were a black hole. They kept pouring money into the fight, yet they could never completely eliminate him, causing their distress to grow deeper by the second.

It was during this process, seeing that Zhang Yu refused to fall, that the four of them gradually cast aside their hesitation and intensified their assault.

However, they quickly discovered that even when they escalated their attacks to their absolute limits, though the wounds on Zhang Yu's body multiplied, he still refused to collapse.

Meanwhile, Bu Ziran looked at his arm prosthetic, which had now dropped to twenty-one percent durability, and finally reached his breaking point.

His prosthetic, specifically designed for high-speed sword techniques, was inherently unsuited for direct, brutal clashes.

Now, under the friendly fire of the four-man encirclement and the repeated collisions with Zhang Yu, its durability was plummeting. It was on the verge of a severe malfunction, and repairing it would cost an astronomical sum.

Bu Ziran yelled, "Enough! Who is going to replace me?! Otherwise, you will have to split the repair costs of my prosthetic with me!"

Faced with Bu Ziran's demand, Ma Xuan and the other two simply feigned deafness.

Bu Ziran flew into a rage instantly. He took a step to flash to the side, only to be tightly pursued and entangled by Zhang Yu. In the blink of an eye, his durability reached twenty percent.

Staring at the relentless Zhang Yu, Bu Ziran desperately wanted to ask him, "Are you putting your life on the line for a game?!"

But in the next instant, Zhang Yu's frame suddenly expanded as he simultaneously activated the Battle Demon Life-Consuming Technique and the Spring and Autumn Endless Zen, pushing his physical attributes to their absolute limits in one breath.

The negative effects of the Battle Demon Life-Consuming Technique worsened his injuries once more, which in turn triggered the Civil and Architecture Sacred Physique to elevate further, causing his various resistances to skyrocket.

Furthermore, under his fourfold consciousness, Zhang Yu activated every single defensive technique he possessed at that precise moment, raising his strike-endurance to an absolute pinnacle.

A heavy thud resonated.

Allowing Bu Ziran's cascading sword qi to brush against his skin, and allowing the attacks of Ma Xuan and the others to violently slam into his back, lower back, and thighs...

With a sudden sprint, Zhang Yu shattered the oncoming sword qi shattered by Bu Ziran, grabbed the opponent's head, and slammed him brutally into the ground.

Seeing Zhang Yu and Bu Ziran locked in a savage struggle on the ground, Ma Xuan and the other two hesitated, terrified of harming Bu Ziran.

But in the next instant, with a sharp snap, Bu Ziran's arm prosthetic twisted unnaturally, suffering a severe malfunction just as its durability dipped to nineteen percent.

Bu Ziran felt a violent backlash of spiritual force within his prosthetic, plunging his entire body into temporary paralysis.

Accompanied by a miserable shriek, Zhang Yu tore Bu Ziran's arm prosthetic completely off, then delivered a heavy blow straight to the opponent's dantian.

The streams of cold poison that had been injected previously erupted all at once, freezing Bu Ziran's entire body rigid.

Having temporarily suppressed Bu Ziran, Zhang Yu turned his gaze toward Ma Xuan and the remaining two. A grin spread across his blood-stained face as he spoke.

"Who is next?"

Staring at Bu Ziran's severed prosthetic arm and his severely frostbitten condition, Ma Xuan and the other two seemed to envision a mountain of upcoming bills, and a deep chill gripped their hearts.

Yet being locked by the ferocious gaze of Zhang Yu, who was drenched in crimson all over, gave them an illusion at this very moment, as if it were not Zhang Yu who was surrounded, but themselves.

Shaking his head to rid himself of this illusion, Ma Xuan suddenly frowned slightly.

"Hmm? The tremors from the outside have stopped?"

It turned out that during the fierce battle between the two sides just now, Ma Xuan had been able to feel the surrounding barriers vibrating faintly, bearing continuous attacks from the outside.

But now that the vibrations had ceased, he sensed the area slightly, only to find himself stunned.

"That fellow Shi Huaiyu... isn't attacking the barrier, she's reinforcing it?"

"She has thickened my barrier by many layers."

"What does she mean by this? To lock us up here with Zhang Yu? Just abandoning her teammates like this? Is there even a shred of sportsmanship left?"

Just as Ma Xuan was filled with astonishment, a plume of mud and sand surged toward the sky beside Zhang Yu, and Xiao Qingxuan crawled out from within it.

Watching this scene, Ma Xuan’s heart stirred: "Did he dig his way in?"

As Xiao Qingxuan looked at Zhang Yu’s heavily injured state, and then at Bu Ziran who was pinned beneath him, a look of shock surfaced in his eyes.

Pressing a palm onto Zhang Yu's shoulder, Xiao Qingxuan used his ocular remains to send a private telepathic message: "I'll give you some treatment, but remember, this is strictly limited to the arena, don't let anyone else know."

"Tre... treatment?" Zhang Yu likewise replied privately: "Have you taken courses in the medical department? Are you a doctor?"

Xiao Qingxuan replied indifferently: "My parents aren't doctors, so how could I be a doctor? It's just that the ancient Golden Core cultivator who possessed me before, in the era when he slumbered, cultivators learned many and varied things. It's said that every single cultivator knew methods of healing."

"Of the immortal dao technologies mastered by ancient Golden Cores, ninety-nine percent of them have already been obsolete in modern times."

"It's just that his set of ancient medical techniques is still somewhat useful."

"Ancient medical techniques?" Zhang Yu couldn't help but reply: "History class said these are all scammers, unreliable, standardless, and reckless use will even worsen injuries..."

Zhang Yu was truly worried that this fellow would ruin him with some ancient medical technique.

Xiao Qingxuan, however, replied calmly: "That's just the ancient medical techniques being smeared by internet trolls hired by modern pharmaceutical companies to monopolize medical resources."

"Rest assured, by activating the generative power of the organs within your body with Five Elements true qi, I can nourish your physique, repair the trauma, and prevent your internal injuries from deteriorating... Hmm? Your constitution is so strong, it's actually striving to heal itself? That's even better, the treatment effect will be faster."

As Zhang Yu felt his heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, and lungs gradually accelerate their healing under the circulation of the other party's magic power, he asked in surprise: "What's the principle behind this?"

Xiao Qingxuan replied: "The principle of organ generation and restriction, don't ask me why either. I understand organ generation and restriction, and I also understand cells and bacteria, but I don't understand the relationship between the two, nor can I explain it to you."

"I can only tell you that ancient medical techniques and the medical technology of the modern immortal dao system... are completely different things."

The exchange between the two was completed in an instant, during the mere moment it took for Xiao Qingxuan to press Zhang Yu's shoulder.

And at the exact moment Xiao Qingxuan and Zhang Yu were communicating, Ma Xuan had also completed his exchange with Ji Yuanshu and Cong Na on the outside.

Ji Yuanshu: How is the situation inside?

Ma Xuan: Bu Ziran has been knocked down.

Ji Yuanshu: Then what about Zhang Yu?

Ma Xuan: Still fighting us.

Ji Yuanshu: ???

Seeing Ma Xuan's reply, Ji Yuanshu was shocked.

"The four of you have been besieging Zhang Yu inside for a full twenty seconds, four upperclassmen ganging up on a sophomore... and the result is one of you getting counter-killed?"

"Are you guys freaking throwing the match?"

Ji Yuanshu desperately wanted to hurl these questioning words at Ma Xuan's group of four, but he understood that he couldn't say things detrimental to unity right now.

He could only say: "Shi Huaiyu is leading people to hunt down Cong Na and me, Cong Na's speed is too slow and she is about to be caught, what do we do now?"

Ma Xuan had not expected that in a brief span of twenty seconds, the situation both inside and outside would change so drastically.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yu and Xiao Qingxuan before them had already charged toward them, and amidst the layers upon layers of barriers, a chaotic melee erupted once again.

Streaks of dragon-shaped astral qi erupted wildly from within Xiao Qingxuan's body, sweeping toward the crowd in front of him.

Zhang Yu, on the other hand, roamed by Xiao Qingxuan's side, continuously blocking onslaughts for him.

And as Xiao Qingxuan slapped a strand of Five Elements true qi into Zhang Yu from time to time to treat his injuries.

Combined with Zhang Yu's Residual Ox Sacrificial Mind Incantation and the Earth-Wood Sacred Physique, his injuries gradually stabilized within a certain range, maintaining an extremely high defensive power while bursting forth with immensely powerful combat strength.

Under the attack-and-defense pairing of Xiao Qingxuan and Zhang Yu, Ma Xuan's trio only felt their bills skyrocketing continuously, yet the two before them remained as fierce as dragons and tigers, showing not the slightest sign of decline.

And after Cong Na on the outside was also taken down by Shi Huaiyu, Bu Ziran spoke directly in the group chat: Just surrender, don't waste any more money.

Bu Ziran: Four against six, there's no way to fight anymore.

Yang Yan: Surrender.

Ji Susu: Surrendered.

Ji Yuanshu: ???

—

After this chapter, there is an Easter egg video of a song written by fans.

(End of chapter)