He looks good when he smiles… Wait what is happening to me?

Sang Qien rubbed her cheeks. Why did they feel much warmer than usual?

Sang Qian didn’t miss his little sister’s reaction. Rage flooded his mind. Zu An, you bastard! Not only did you fool around with my fiancée, you’re after my sister as well?!

Absolutely preposterous!

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for 666… 666… 666…

Ding Run snorted. “Let’s see which is harder, then—your body or my blade!”

His blade flashed out at once. Even though he was injured, his ultimate move was still active, and his speed was more or less what it had been when he was uninjured.

This sudden assault was almost impossible for the naked eye to follow. Ding Run had learned from his past experiences and completely blocked off all of Zu An’s possible escape routes. He was confident that he could finish him with this blow.

He had already wasted way too much time here. In his entire career, he had never encountered such a situation. He felt an incredible sense of unease.

“Be careful!” Pei Mianman and Zheng Dan cried out at the same time. They clearly saw how dangerous this attack was. Neither of them believed that they would survive this blow if they were the ones facing it.

Unfortunately, both of them were in terrible condition, and the speed of Ding Run’s attack was just too fast. There was no way for them to render aid even if they wanted to.

Even Sang Qien looked on nervously. For some reason, she was starting to worry for that man. Was it because of that warm smile?

Only Sang Qian was secretly delighted. He obviously couldn’t be happier if Zu An were to be diced up! However, he suddenly remembered that, after Zu An met his end, they would be next. This left him feeling quite conflicted.

Ding Run’s eyes suddenly widened. His guaranteed strike had missed.

No, he hadn’t missed—he had clearly struck his opponent!

However, his blade had cut into a mirror image. Looking more closely, he noticed that there were two Zu Ans in front of him.

“Body-cloning technique?” The experienced Ding Run frowned.

Zu An sighed in relief. Once again, he felt indebted to big sis empress for her modified Sunflower Phantasm. It was a truly reliable technique. Her hellish training had also forced him to learn how to split into three, without which, he might not have been able to evade that lethal strike.

Ding Run remained silent, continuing to hack away at Zu An with his blade.

Zu An evaded with his Sunflower Phantasm while looking for a chance to counterattack. Usually, there would have been no way for him to dodge these attacks, given the huge gap in cultivation between them. However, his injuries were severe enough that the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra was giving him a substantial buff. His speed and ki strength had both been markedly increased.

Of course, Ding Run was seriously injured as well. If not, there would have been no way for Zu An to keep up with him once he unleashed his purple tiger. This was now a war of attrition. The difference between their relative strengths was actually no longer that great.

Ding Run felt his astonishment growing as the battle wore on. What kind of monster was this? His movement technique was unbelievably strange! With it, Zu An was able to cause most of his attacks to miss, and it even gave Zu An opportunities to counterattack now and then.

His opponent’s sword techniques seemed extremely simple, at times even appearing to be rather flawed. However, when paired with that strange movement technique, the flaws were no longer flaws, and it became difficult to ward off these attacks.

Everyone else on the battlefield was stupefied. Even though they knew that Zu An was talented, fighting toe-to-toe with one of the world’s best killers was surely a stretch too far.

Zheng Dan’s eyes were fixed on him, her eyes burning with love. The man I’ve chosen really is awesome.

In that instant, she even began to regret getting married to Sang Qian out of consideration for the Zheng clan’s reputation. Eloping with Ah Zu was beginning to seem like a great idea.

Pei Mianman was already blown away. Out of all of them, she was probably the one who understood Zu An’s strength best. Not much time had passed since they last saw each other—wasn’t this sudden leap in strength just a little too crazy?

No, his strength has always shown an unbelievable improvement each time we met. She was a cultivation genius herself, yet she was nothing compared to Zu An.

How did that girl Chu Chuyan discover such an incredible talent? She’s always a step ahead of me… Wait a minute, they aren’t husband and wife anymore…

Sang Qien found herself constantly flabbergasted. If she hadn’t just fought against Ding Run, she would have suspected that he was way past his limits, and that his strength had somehow dropped significantly. However, the truth was that he had easily defeated the three of them together just moments ago.

She thought of herself as one of the best among her peers, yet this man wasn’t much older than her! How is he doing this?

Sang Qian’s astonishment grew by the second. He quickly turned to look at the three women. He caught sight of his fiancée’s bewitched expression, and he suddenly felt as though his lungs were about to explode.

The other stunning beauty was also looking at Zu An fondly, and even his little sister was looking on in adoration. Just what sin did he commit in his past life, for him to run into someone like this?

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for 555… 555… 555…

Ding Run was also furious. The battle had dragged on for so long, and yet he couldn’t take down this miserable kid! He already felt himself weakening from his injuries, and there was no way he could maintain his ultimate technique forever. Things would start to get ugly if this continued.

He flew into midair. The blade in his hand was no longer as fast as before, but instead slowed down.

Zu An had no intention of growing careless. As the blade slowed, the air surrounding it seemed to fold in on itself.

Ding Run’s blade became extremely slow. For every inch it moved, it left behind a silhouette of a blade. Ding Run continued to dance about in the air, and he was soon surrounded by dark red blade silhouettes.

“Rain of Carnage!”

He roared out. Blades poured out of the sky, as if it was raining blood.

Since you’re so good at dodging, I’ll fill this entire place with blade ki! Let’s see where you can hide then!

He made sure that the three women were well within the radius of the attack, to prevent Zu An from using his strange instantaneous-movement technique.

You can run, but these women will die for sure.

He had seen Zu An shield Zheng Dan earlier, so he knew that, despite his frivolous appearance, he was a man who treasured deep emotional connections. Such people were not willing to just save themselves.

All of you can die together, then!

The three women stared at the ‘blood rain’ formed by the innumerable dark red swords that shrouded the sky, the cruel crimson luster mirrored in their eyes.

All of their faces turned pale. How in the world were they supposed to avoid this?

The only thing they could do was to gather their remaining ki and produce as strong of a defense as they could.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of them. Zheng Dan panicked. “Ah Zu, run away! You don’t have to worry about me…”

Pei Mianman’s expression also softened. “She’s right! I’m already satisfied to see you here. Please don’t sacrifice your own life! If you do, Chuyan will really kill me…”

Sang Qien opened her mouth, but no words came out. The other two women were close to him, and it didn’t seem appropriate for her to say anything.

Zu An chuckled and said, “What’s up with all the gloomy looks? I still have trump cards to play.”

Up in the sky, Ding Run sneered. He was just a pathetic kid at the fifth rank! The fact that he had lasted this long was already a miracle. What trump cards could he possibly have left?

The three girls were stunned. They didn’t believe that he had anything else to play, but his confidence was strangely infectious, and they instinctively chose to trust him.

Zu An put away his smile. He stabbed his sword into the ground and faced the incoming sword rain. His arms moved in a strange manner, and then he said with a grave voice, “Dragon… Slaying… Eighteen… Palms! Dragon’s descent!”

The terrifying cry of a dragon split the sky, and a massive red dragon appeared in midair, its body stretching for several zhang, giving off a tremendous pressure.

The blood rain seemed puny compared to the massive bulk of the dragon, which blocked almost all of it.

The blood rain—formed by the sharp blade ki—scattered harmlessly as it made contact with the red dragon’s scales.

When all the blades were blocked, Zu An immediately returned the red dragon corpse back to his Brilliant Glass Bead. He coughed lightly and said, “I will now show you the second movement of the Dragonslaying Eighteen Palms—Dragon’s ascent!”