Chapter 226: Despair

Qin Wanru was shocked to hear those words. She couldn’t have imagined that a random intruder who barged into the Chu clan in the middle of the night would actually be an eighth rank cultivator!

However, it was already too late to take back her attack.

“Forget it! So be it if I die!”

Such a thought flashed across Qin Wanru’s mind.

Shi Lezhi quickly responded with a punch on her palm. Out of fear that he would reveal his identity, he chose not to use any cultivation techniques or moves that could potentially identify him, using just the raw strength of an eighth rank cultivator.

“Ahhh~” With a cry, Qin Wanru was sent flying backward before falling onto the floor.

“Is this all you got?” Zu An’s lower jaws nearly fell to the ground. 

Based on how she was able to keep Chu Zhongtian in line, he figured that she should at least be an eighth rank cultivator at the very least. Perhaps, out of respect for her own husband, she might even have intentionally suppressed her cultivation so that her husband could be known as the number one expert of Brightmoon City.

But as the saying went, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

Way too weak!

Seeing how Qin Wanru was still struggling to get to her feet, Zu An reckoned that she should be fine for the time being and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, he turned to Shi Lezhi and shouted, “Stinky old man, you sure are useless! For an eighth rank cultivator to be unable to catch up with a mere third rank cultivator, I feel sorry for your mother for giving birth to someone as useless as you!”

“…” Shi Lezhi.

You have successfully trolled Shi Lezhi for +1024 Rage!

He finally understood why even the young master would end up losing his cool before this fellow. How could anyone not lose their temper at this?!

“You bastard! Once I get my hands on you, I’ll tear off your limbs one by one and torture you for life!” bellowed Shi Lezhi as he darted straight for Zu An.

His movement was so quick that his figure morphed into a blur. It took him only an instant for him to arrive right beside Zu An.

Qiao Xueying’s face paled in horror, but it was too late for her to do anything.

But fortunately, Zu An was already prepared. He summoned Grandgale once more and moved tens of meters away once more.

With the rise of his cultivation, he could summon Grandgale more than once per day now, and the distance he could move each time had greatly increased too. Unfortunately, he knew that this wasn’t enough for him to escape from an eighth rank cultivator. Once he used up his three uses of Grandgale, he would be completely helpless before Shi Lezhi.

Shi Lezhi also had the same thoughts in mind. As an eighth rank cultivator, he could tell that Zu An was using some sort of secret art to escape from him. Such powerful techniques definitely had a limit to it, or else Zu An would have already fled by now.

If so, all he needed to do right now was to wait for Zu An to deplete himself, and that would be the end of that bastard.

Just thinking about how his initial plans were foiled due to Zu An’s interference made him gnash his teeth in anger. I shan’t allow him to die that easily later on!

Just like that, Zu An and Shi Lezhi vanished once more.

Qin Wanru’s body trembled in fear. She wasn’t severely injured as the intruder seemed to have gone easy on her, simply pushing her away without inflicting much damage. Nevertheless, her ki was still shaken up by the impact, causing her body to go limp. She wouldn’t be able to gather any strength to fight at least in the short-term.

She thought about what Zu An did earlier, and a thought surfaced in her mind. Could he have intentionally lured the enemy away for my sake?

That left her with a conflicted look on her face. However, she quickly realized that Zu An was still in danger and hurriedly summoned the guards over.

… 

Meanwhile, Zu An was just fleeing with Qiao Xueying in hand. At the same time, he quickly called out for Mi Li’s help. “Big sis empress, big sis empress! Hurry up and save me!”

However, no matter how he called her, Mi Li refused to answer at all.

“Could she have gone back to sleep after guiding me on the acupuncture earlier?” Zu An was scared out of his wits. One must know that most times he dared to act boldly was because he knew that he had trump cards he could resort to if things went awry, such as the skills he had received from the Keyboard and Mi Li.

Yet, who could have thought that his trump card would fail at this vital moment?!

It was then that he noticed that Qiao Xueying’s speed was getting slower and slower. He turned around to look at her, only to notice that her face had become as red as a cooked lobster. Her eyes were glistening brightly, looking as if she would tear up at any moment.

“What’s wrong?” asked Zu An anxiously.

“Shi Lezhi poisoned me. He was intending to have me serve Shi Kun.” Qiao Xueying bit her lips indignantly as her breathing began to grow a little unstable.

Had it been half a month ago, when she was still filled with admiration for Shi Kun, she would have been more than willing to accede to Shi Kun’s request even without any medicine. However, when she saw how Shi Kun was willing to abandon her as a pawn just so that he could survive back at the dungeon, all of the feelings she harbored for him died at that very instant.

She would rather die than be taken advantage of by Shi Kun right now.

So, she fled desperately as soon as an opportunity arose. She had no idea what was going through her mind—it could be because she had lived there for many years or that she knew that Chu Zhongtian had the means to deal with Shi Lezhi—but she instinctively ran toward the Chu Manor. 

“…” Zu An fell speechless upon learning of her situation.

He never thought that Shi Kun would exact vengeance on Qiao Xueying so quickly. He had stopped Qiao Xueying from stepping forward to testify for him earlier despite the bad situation in order to avoid this situation.

However, it seemed like he had overestimated Shi Kun’s decency as a human.

And it seemed like Shi Lezhi was someone without a shred of dignity too. Despite being an eighth rank cultivator, he had no qualms about poisoning a young lady. Those of the Shi clan were really worse than beasts!

Qiao Xueying felt her body slowly growing weaker and weaker. Soon, she was no longer able to keep up with his footsteps anymore and ended up tumbling onto the floor.

Of course, there was no way Shi Lezhi would let this opportunity slip past him. He immediately charged forward and exerted his terrifying pressure on the two of them, rendering them immobile.

It was so powerful that Zu An even had difficulties trying to breathe, let alone summon Grandgale. All of a sudden, a thought surfaced in his mind, and he shouted, “Whatcha staring at?”

“I’m staring at you, shithead!”

The moment those words came out of Shi Lezhi’s mouth, he fell into a daze. Why would I suddenly say those words?

He had never even heard of such a comeback before!

Wait a moment, I think I heard of something similar back at the Clans Tournament. It was during a crucial moment in the fight when Zu An suddenly shouted ‘Whatcha staring at’ and Yuan Wendong oddly replied ‘I’m staring at you, shithead’. It was this lapse in attention that caused Yuan Wendong to lose the match and end up crippled.

Back then, everyone thought that Yuan Wendong was a fool for making such a foolish mistake… but now I look at it, it seems like Zu An possesses some sort of mysterious skill!

But why would there be such a skill in the world?

Shi Lezhi was utterly confused, but he would make sure to report this upwards in the future lest the young master fell for this trick in the future.

Meanwhile, Zu An made use of the opportunity where Shi Lezhi released his pressure due to his lapse of attention to summon Grandgale and move tens of meters away once more.

By this point, Qiao Xueying was already on the verge of losing consciousness. She grabbed Zu An’s collar and said, “Kill me.”

“What?” Zu An was baffled.

“Kill me! Otherwise, I’ll only be humiliated once I fall into the hands of the Shi clan!” exclaimed Qiao Xueying with the final shred of her rationality.

Zu An shook his head and replied, “Don’t you know that I’m a gentleman? How could someone like me possibly kill you? Don’t worry, I’ll definitely find a way to save you.”

“How do you intend to save me in such a situation?” Even in her state of grogginess, Qiao Xueying could see Shi Lezhi coming closer and closer to them, gripping her with despair.