Ling Lingzi had no choice but to stop. Looking at the three before him, he knew he was no match for them. Zhang Yu's sharp, keen aura in particular filled his heart with alarm.
Yet he was unwilling to submit to death with his hands tied.
Especially now, he always felt there should still be a sliver of life for him, that he was not fated to perish here today.
But he would have to fight for it with everything he had. If possible, he too could bend and stretch as circumstances required. Yet people of the Three Upper Worlds like him were bound by Dao oaths, which simply would not permit them to submit to the enemy—not even as a temporary expedient.
Fortunately, some matters were not actually so rigid.
He steadied his mind and tried to communicate in a conciliatory tone. "Everyone, Origin Xia has lost this round, but there is no deep-seated hatred between us. Even if you kill me, Origin Xia can still send another in my place. But if you let me go, I can offer conditions that will satisfy you all."
Such satisfactory conditions could be treasure materials, the cheapest of all; they could be information regarding the Upper Three Worlds—Celestial Xia learning it would make little difference, for the gap between them would not be narrowed by a single piece of intelligence; or they could be certain secrets of the Two Halls. He felt even less burdened about the last.
He believed those conditions, if offered, would be worth more than killing him alone.
Yet beyond that, he also wished to use them to stall for time. If the Two Halls invaded the realm at this moment and Celestial Xia's treasure for suppressing the Dao could not attend to this place, a turning