"Hall Master Ye, you don't have to worry about us. If you've only reached the Divine King realm by the time the deadline arrives, please don't come back. We're more than willing to self-destruct. We won't let the Blood Spirit Clan humiliate us!"
"At that time, please avenge us, Hall Master Ye!"
At this point, Ye Chen was their only hope of resisting the Blood Spirit Clan. If he was not strong enough, it was better if he did not sacrifice his life alongside them a year from now.
At the very least, he would be able to avenge them in the future that way.
Now, the only thing that they could do was to cultivate diligently. Escaping was not an option, as they were too weak to venture into the Lingwu Continent anyway.
Perhaps surrendering might have worked before this, but now that the ultimatum had been issued, and given how tyrannical and ruthless the Blood Spirit Clan was, destruction was assured.