Pei Mianman and the other girls found it difficult even to remain standing—there was no way they would be able to help Zu An out. The massive pressure blew them all backwards, and they could only look on with worry.

Sang Qien retreated with her family to a safe distance as well, before turning back around to observe the battlefield. Will that man be able to conjure up another miracle?

Zu An wasn’t faring much better. He was up against a massive dragon, and was bearing the brunt of its tremendous force.

Any other fifth rank cultivator—no, even any other sixth rank cultivator would have been completely overwhelmed by the power, and they wouldn’t have even been able to move.

Zu An’s body had been tempered twice by the Primordial Origin Sutra. Furthermore, he had faced many powerful opponents previously, strengthening his willpower immensely. Even he was just barely able to hold on.

He used the Sunflower Phantasm to split into three copies, all of them darting away with intricate and unpredictable movements. Even though he managed to avoid the dragon’s powerful swoop, the two copies were ripped apart by giant claws, and his real body was almost caught in it as well, the sharp claws missing just a few inches wide.

Zu An’s expression immediately grew awful. Even though his Sunflower Phantasm was a miraculous technique, this dragon was just too large. It only required a small movement to cover a large area, which rendered his dodging meaningless.

He had believed that his opponent’s massive size would hinder its agility and flexibility. He was hoping to dodge to the side or around it somehow, and then find an opening to use his Poisonous Prick to inflict the same fate upon this dragon as he did its kin.

However, he soon discovered that his analysis was completely flawed. The dragon’s massive bulk did seem to hinder its agility slightly, but this would only have mattered to experts with cultivations of the same rank as its own!

The gap between their cultivation ranks was just too great for Zu An to take advantage of any of this. To him, his opponent was as slippery as a loach, and there were absolutely no openings for him to exploit.

Finally, there was an instant where Zu An was unable to evade in time, and he was struck by the massive dragon’s tail sweep. He felt as if he had been rammed into by a fire truck! Pain radiated along his entire body as it flew through the air. Blood poured out of him, drawing a red arc across the sky.

“Ah Zu!”

Judging by the terrifying speed at which he was falling, most of his bones would break upon impact with the ground. Heedless of whatever danger they might be in, Pei Mianman and Zheng Dan rushed forward to catch him.

The tremendous force on impact dealt serious injuries to the two girls. Blood gushed out of their mouths.

It seemed that even dealing with the aftermath of a master rank cultivator’s attacks was beyond them.

Ao Quan laughed maliciously. “Who would have expected a despicable fellow like you to have such close female friends who care so much for you? Since that’s the case, all of you can die together!”

He swiped a massive claw at them, threatening to smash them to pieces.

“Be careful!” Sang Qien cried out in alarm. She didn’t know why either, but she didn’t want to see Zu An meet his end in this place. Perhaps it was because they had fought side by side earlier, or perhaps it was the warm smile he had displayed when he held her…

Sang Qian snorted, unimpressed by how worried his sister was for that man. He was clearly displeased by her show of concern.

Sang Hong gave his daughter a surprised look. If he’d known that things were going to turn out this way, he would have brought his daughter along with him to Brightmoon City instead! Unfortunately, there was no way to go back in time. What a pity…

That massive dragon claw descended, as large as a mountain. Zu An quickly shoved the two girls out several tens of feet away. With the help of the reaction force, he activated Grandgale and teleported in the opposite direction.

*Boom!*

A tremendous noise sounded. Everything surrounding the place they had just been standing on was utterly destroyed, and only a deep and terrifying claw mark remained.

Noticing that his strike had missed, Ao Quan didn’t take off pursuit of Zu An. He sneered and said, “Do you think I’ll run after you? I can tell that those two women matter a lot to you. You even risked your life to save them! In that case, you can just look on helplessly as I kill them! Their blood will be on your hands!”

With that, he swooped down at the two girls.

Horror filled Pei Mianman. She quickly grabbed Zheng Dan and ran for their lives. Even Zu An, with his Sunflower Phantasm and Grandgale, could only just barely avoid this massive dragon’s attacks. How would either of them be able to? Even now, they could already clearly see their pursuer’s horrifying teeth and smell its foul breath.

“What a pity! If I were younger, I would definitely have taken the time to play around with the two of you properly. However, this old one no longer has that sort of inclination. The both of you can just die!”

His mouth open wide, he flew towards the two girls and closed his massive jaws around them. The flesh of these two young ladies will surely taste exceptionally good.

“Ah!”

Sang Qien cried out in horror. She had already turned her head away, unwilling to watch what was about to happen.

Sang Qian’s heart was full of regret as well. He hadn’t expected his fiancée to be the first one to die! That girl with the incredible body was also caught up in this. It’s all that bastard Zu An’s fault!

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for 452 Rage points!

Zu An’s eyes were open so wide, it felt as though his eyelids were splitting. Unfortunately, the difference between his cultivation and their opponent’s was way too great. There was no way he could save them in time.

Did he really have no choice but to watch them die?

No, absolutely not!

His mind began to operate at lightspeed. He ran through all of the skills he had, to see if there was a way to save them.

His eyes suddenly lit up. He roared out, “You old loach, you could’ve just told us that you couldn’t get it up! Why did you have to try so hard to make it sound so refined?”

“What?!” Even though he knew that Zu An was taunting him, Ao Quan felt his blood rushing straight to his head. The one overriding thought in his head was that he had to get rid of that annoying little shit first.

He gave up on killing Pei Mianman and Zheng Dan, and lashed out towards Zu An with his tail.

Zu An was afraid that Pei Mianman and the other girls would get caught up in this attack again, so he immediately used Grandgale to teleport himself further into the forest. As he ran, he continuously yelled out more taunts. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling insecure because what I said was true? You deserve it, you disgusting old prick.”

Indeed, for the sake of saving those two women, he had used his Fragrant Barf skill, pulling all of Ao Quan’s hatred upon himself. They were locked in now; this battle would not end until one of them was dead.

He really wouldn’t have used this ability if he’d had any other choice. However, he couldn’t just watch the two of them die. That was why he had to risk it all.

“I’m going to kill you!” Ao Quan’s eyes turned red. The only thing on his mind was to rip this fellow apart and slowly torture him to death. He didn’t even care about his Phoenix Nirvana Sutra anymore.

Now that his taunt was successful, Zu An showed no hesitation whatsoever. He used Grandgale to flee for his life. However, no matter how far he traveled, that dragon could easily catch up to him with simple, small movements, thanks to its massive body.

“Big sis empress! Big sis empress!” Zu An hollered for Mi Li, but there was no response.

This woman is so unreliable!

Zu An cursed. She never showed herself when he was in any real danger.

Then again, he knew that always calling on her like this was not acceptable. She had warned him before that he might become too reliant on her whenever he found himself in a hairy situation.

After several tries without success, Zu An finally gave up. He gave up on running away as well, because he had reached the limit of his Grandgale usage. It was time to do or die.

“Why did you stop running? Are you tired?” Ao Quan smiled malevolently as he pounced at Zu An.

Zu An dodged, raising his Tai’e Sword to stab this dragon. The two exchanged ten or so blows. On their final exchange, Zu An’s movement was just a little too slow, and he was struck by a dragon claw. Pain tore through his arm, and he lost his grip on the Tai’e Sword. It flew out of his hand, plunging blade-first deep into a nearby tree.

“That’s a fine sword! It’ll be mine once I finish you off.” Ao Quan’s claw descended towards Zu An's chest, intending to crush him flat.

The difference in our strength is just too great. In the face of absolute strength, any and all schemes really are useless. With an uncertain expression, Zu An quickly began to consider his remaining options.

Suddenly, there was a streak of purple. The instant before the dragon’s claw landed, A beautiful figure seized Zu An and dodged to the side.

Zu An’s heart erupted with joy and surprise as he smelled the familiar, sweet fragrance of this dazzling beauty. “What are you doing here?”