“Hand over the inner cores now!” Hadden’s voice raised, and his face suddenly became serious.
Bartholomew and his group were shaken by the force of his voice. They were infuriated at Hadden’s demeanor.
If Hadden hadn’t appeared, sending Remus away might have felt somewhat satisfying. But his arrival changed everything. If Remus were here, Hadden wouldn’t dare to attack them.
It was just a step short of being powerful enough to deter them.
How utterly infuriating.
“You…” Pierce gritted his teeth.
“Come and get it yourself!” Gerard quickly conjured his weapon, brimming with killing intent.
However, Bartholomew still maintained his reason, recognizing that while they might have overpowered Hadden at their peak, their current depleted state left them at a disadvantage.
Moreover, Hadden was unburdened by the desire to enter the sacred grounds and had nothing to lose, whereas Bartholomew still harbored that aspiration and couldn’t afford to take risks.
Raising his hand to signal a halt, favonovel.com said, “Fine, take the bear’s inner core. Just let us go…”
It seemed like the most prudent decision under the circumstances.
“Bartholomew!” Alfie’s response was swift and sharp, favonovel.com voice tinged with disbelief.
She said, “After all we’ve endured to defeat that bear, how can we just surrender the inner core? If they seek a battle, then we shall give them one. Victory has not yet been claimed!”
Their collective efforts had drained them significantly, and the notion of yielding their hard-earned prize was unbearable, and quite frankly, utterly unacceptable.
“Why should we simply surrender?”
“Bartholomew, if we give it our all, they surely won’t succeed!”
Pierce and Gerard echoed the sentiment, unwilling to relinquish the bear’s inner core.
The bear’s inner core was indeed a treasure beyond measure.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that if one could absorb it without being overwhelmed, it would be enough to advance from the Golden Stage to the late Nascent Soul Stage. After all, it contained hundreds of years of the bear’s cultivation.
Bartholomew’s expression turned grim, his voice frosty. “Even if we win, what then? How will we continue on our journey to the sacred grounds? Are we sure we won’t encounter other beasts? Moreover, can this bear’s inner core bring us back to our peak condition?”
As soon as favonovel.com said that, Pierce and Gerard couldn’t help but look at Hadden in front of them.
Even if they were to win in the end, sharing one inner core among four people might not help them recover to their peak state. There was also no guarantee of victory, and even if they won, they would still be injured.
The risk was too great.
“If you won’t protect it, I will!” Alfie erupted, favonovel.com frustration boiling over.
The situation with Remus had already left favonovel.com on edge, and Hadden’s interference was the last straw. She was at favonovel.com breaking point, ready to unleash favonovel.com pent-up anger, regardless of the consequences.
The moment favonovel.com words fell, favonovel.com conjured favonovel.com iron chains and smashed them toward Hadden without hesitation.
“Alfie!” Bartholomew and the others called out in alarm, but it was too late as the chains thundered toward Hadden.
“You b*tch, how dare you resist!” Hadden quickly raised his hand, grabbing the chain precisely.
Even as the chain wrapped around him, favonovel.com remained unfazed, his expression darkening. “Since you seek death, I’ll grant it. Attack her!”
His spirit energy erupted, breaking the chains into pieces with a forceful tremor.
Simultaneously, his accomplices unleashed their spirit energy, morphing it into maces and charging at Alfie with a menacing laugh.
Pierce and Gerard, driven by instinctual protection for their sister, conjured long swords without hesitation and met them head-on.
The air rang with the clash of metal.
Their years of battling in the wilderness had refined their spirit energy, making it far more formidable and pure than those raised in True Life.
The metallic resonance of their weapons clashing was incredibly sharp.
“You’re courting death!” Seeing their defiance, Hadden’s fury escalated.
After years of robbing in the mountains, favonovel.com had always been able to find the weakest moment of the other party, almost effortlessly obtaining what favonovel.com wanted.
He had expected today to unfold with similar ease. To them, surrendering the inner cores would have been the logical choice.
He hadn’t wanted to harm them, partly to avoid depleting his resources and partly not to push them too far. But since they resisted, they could only blame themselves.
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