"Come on! Let’s see whether we blow up together first, or your bloodline gets squeezed dry by me as time goes by and you die from that. No matter which one it is, I don’t seem to be losing out!"

"Heh heh heh, whether I attack or just let you do your thing, I’m the one who loses in the end. Truly a spell that’s perfect in both offense and defense. No wonder you’re confident you can use it to wipe me out." After listening to Depeo’s explanation, Pei Yan raised his hand to decline his sister Pei Jin’s attempt to step in, gestured for her to retreat outside the safety zone, and continued, "Then let’s see which of us can hold out to the very end."

With that, Pei Yan slowly closed his eyes, relaxed his arms, and stood there with his hands behind his back as if he had given up resistance. Depeo certainly wasn’t naive enough to think Pei Yan was just resigning himself to fate. He had no idea what trick Pei Yan was going to pull, but there was no way he’d let such a golden opportunity slip by, so he immediately sped up the rate at which he was absorbing Pei Yan’s bloodline.

Outside the field, Pei Jin and the group of Investigation Bureau agents watched the scene inside with tense expressions. In this smoke-free duel, Pei Yan hadn’t made a single move since saying those words, while Depeo, stuck to his body surface, soon began going through a series of changes. At first, the layer of blood membrane was only giving off slight, irregular twitches, but later Depeo began to let out pained grunts. When those grunts shifted into screams he could no longer suppress, the shuddering of that blood membrane grew increasingly violent.

"Ugh—ah—! Ugh—ah!" It wasn’t long before Depeo’s uncontrollable screams echoed endlessly through the arena. When the pulsing frequency of the blood membrane on Pei Yan’s body became like boiling water, Depeo could no longer endure the agony of clinging to him. Like pulling away from scalding sheet metal, he sprang off Pei Yan’s body and darted into the distance.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! A dozen-odd iron needles flung out from Pei Yan’s palm, pinning Depeo, who had just coagulated into human form, in place. Only after layering more than ten Space Seals to reinforce the lockdown did Pei Yan withdraw the surrounding Source Energy Barrier. He then walked up to Depeo, smiled, and said, "What a pity. Neither of the outcomes you mentioned came to pass. Those dozens of lives ended up being wasted for nothing."

"What the hell is this ability? Why? Why isn’t your body hurt in the slightest? That’s impossible! The Blood Race’s spellwork doesn’t fail." The confusion in Depeo’s eyes far outweighed his fear as he roared in disbelief.

"Do you believe in karmic retribution?" Pei Yan crouched down, looked at Depeo’s face as it gradually solidified, and suddenly asked.

"What?" The inexplicable question stunned Depeo. He couldn’t understand what this had to do with what he’d just asked.

"There’s an ability that can influence another person’s consciousness, letting the Caster project whatever damage they imagine directly into someone else’s mind. The impact is extremely strong—so strong that the target truly believes they’ve suffered that damage, to the point their body responds with the same physical injuries as in their consciousness."

"So you used that kind of ability to hurt me?" Depeo seemed to have grasped something. He looked at Pei Yan and tested the waters.

"Yeah. I just made one tiny adjustment: I let this ability target only your consciousness. I recalled, one by one, all the pain I went through on my path to advancement—and then inflicted it on you."

"But—but even so, our bloodlines are connected. Whatever pain I suffer, you’ll suffer too!" Depeo pinpointed the crucial issue and shot back.

"Ugh, enough. Stop using the phrase ’bloodline connection’; it’s easy to make people think the wrong thing—and it makes me sick to my stomach." As Pei Yan spoke, he pulled out one of the silver needles stabbed into Depeo’s body, held it between his fingers, and poked it back and forth in Depeo’s mud-like flesh for fun. While he poked, he said, "You’re right, I did suffer the same pain. It’s just that once you’ve gone through something like that before, going through it again isn’t much of a big deal. The one who really let me down is you. You only endured a bit more than half the pain from my memories before you couldn’t stand it and ran for your life. I thought you’d last a little longer."

When he finished, Pei Yan pulled out the blood-smeared silver needle, brought it under his nose for a sniff, then flicked it aside in disgust. He looked at Depeo and sneered. "Know who this ability originally belonged to?"

"Who?"

"A little girl from a mortal family that was wiped out by a clan revered as gods. So yeah—good deeds really do get rewarded. If it weren’t for this ability, breaking your seal today would’ve cost me something, and I wouldn’t have walked away unscathed. That’s retribution. She probably never imagined her ability would perfectly counter yours. Oh! I get it now!" Pei Yan paused for a beat as realization dawned. "Maybe that bastard Little Vlad figured it out. That’s why he paid such a huge price to seize her ability."

"You mean Cai Peishen possessing that little girl." Depeo finally realized who Pei Yan was talking about. Then another thought struck him; he raised his head to glare at Pei Yan angrily. "Now that this ability’s ended up in your hands, that means Cai Peishen’s already been killed by you people?"

"There are plenty of ways to steal an ability. Don’t be so pessimistic. He’s still alive." Pei Yan clapped his hands, fastened his faceplate back on, then looked off into the distance and muttered, "And now what I need to do is grab his little brother and bring him back so they can reunite. Sis, he’s yours."

"Mm. Go."

After Pei Jin responded, Pei Yan no longer paid any attention to the motionless Depeo and stepped into the air, heading off into the distance. Watching Pei Yan’s figure disappear, Depeo slumped onto the ground in dejection. Having his overreaching Blood Race Secret Technique broken by Pei Yan, then suffering the backlash of that power on top of Pei Yan’s seal, left him with no strength to resist. Now all he could do was stare up at the sky and silently pray that Radu could use the opportunity he’d created to escape successfully. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

At this moment, Radu really wanted to respond to Depeo’s prayers. However, when he saw the black speck in the distance rapidly expand into that all-too-familiar figure, his heart held nothing but bitter helplessness and despair.

"Yo, looks like it wouldn’t have mattered whether I came or not. You guys really did a number on this kid." Stepping through the air, Pei Yan took in the scene before him and laughed out loud. The opportunity Depeo had bought with his own life and those of dozens of others had not been fully used by Radu. He’d only managed to flee the distance of three market districts; he hadn’t even reached the outskirts of Luocheng before being run down by Xia Yu and Zheng Jia Ru.

After a bout of cat-and-mouse skirmishing, not only had Radu failed to take another step in his escape, he’d instead been surrounded midair, three rings deep, by the Immortal Palace Law Enforcement Team who had rushed over on hearing the news. Even if Pei Yan hadn’t come now, Radu would have had zero chance of getting away.

"Do you even need to ask? Nabbing this kid is a piece of cake. You, on the other hand, showed up a lot later than I expected. Looks like Depeo gave you a pretty fun time." Zheng Jia Ru swept a glance at Pei Yan and teased.