Chapter 493: Right at the Edge

A sudden silence descended upon the battlefield. The Devil Sect fighters had approached the battle in an extremely arrogant manner, but now, their eyes were filled with fear.

The black swarm of mosquitoes merged together, coalescing into the mosquito daoist again. She held the horsetail whisk in one hand, while the other hand was behind her back. She held herself up proudly and said, “Since all of you know who I am, why don’t you back down quietly?”

She could tell from the earlier exchanges that these people possessed a decent amount of strength. Even though she didn’t fear them, dealing with them all would cost her a considerable amount of effort. Her main goal was to obtain Zu An’s Phoenix Nirvana Sutra, but now, she didn’t want to miss out on that pretty girl’s Empress Lantern either.

When he saw how the insufferably arrogant Solitary Eight had suddenly grown timid, Zu An immediately asked the beautiful woman in his arms, “What exactly is going on? Is this person extremely famous?”

Even though he knew from the start that this person was called Mosquito Daoist, he had never heard of such a name before.

Qiu Honglei blushed. “Can you let me down first? How much longer are you going to hold me like this?”

Only now did Zu An react. He laughed in embarrassment and said, “You were hurt pretty bad earlier, and I thought that you had yet to recover.”

He let her down as he spoke. He hadn’t realized it earlier while facing the threat of death, but her body really was incredibly supple, and she gave off a fragrance that made his inner beast go crazy.

Even after he let her down, he could still sense the lingering fragrance on his fingertips.

“I’m already almost fully recovered.” Qiu Honglei awkwardly tucked a few scattered strands of hair behind her ears. Her beautiful face seemed to have acquired a rosy complexion, perhaps as a result of the light emitted by the fire in the room nearby. She looked absolutely stunning. “Thank you for saving me earlier.”

Zu An’s expression was colored with disappointment. “Is that it? Just a ‘thank you’? Where’s the sincerity in that? Shouldn’t you be devoting everything to the one who saved your life?”

“Hmph! Shameless!” Qiu Honglei was clearly already used to his manner of speaking, so she didn’t get angry. She quickly explained the situation. “Mosquito Daoist is a powerful expert of the blood race who excels in drawing out and consuming her target’s blood essence. Many powerful individuals from various different clans have all fallen prey to her in the past. I never expected her to appear here.”’

“The blood race?” Zu An remembered Sang Liuyu’s  lessons in the academy regarding this race of people. He really couldn’t figure out how such a large living being could have evolved from mosquitoes.

He had loathed mosquitoes in his previous world. Now, he had the pleasure of running into an intelligent mosquito monster.

Solitary Metal spoke up, his voice dark and thunderous. “Our Holy Sect and your blood race have never crossed paths before. Why did you kill our men?”

Mosquito Daoist covered her mouth with her hand, her body shaking with laughter. “You must be joking! I’ve always done whatever I wished, and killed whoever I wished to kill. Why do I need to explain anything to you all? Get out of my sight, if you know what’s best for you. If not, then I don’t mind sucking a few more people dry.”

The remaining members of the Solitary Eight instinctively took a step back when they heard her words, clearly frightened by her vicious reputation. They had witnessed how easily she had taken out Solitary Fire, crushed Solitary Water’s ki armor, and neutralized their attacks, and concluded that her cultivation was at least at the master rank. Having now discovered who she was, and knowing the various rumors about her, they became even more fearful.

Qiu Honglei spoke up at this time. “Aren’t you just after the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra? Our sect master has demanded that it be brought back to the sect, so there is no way we will hand it over to you.”

She said these things mainly to strengthen the waning spirits of the Solitary Eight, and remind them that this was their sworn duty.

The members of the Solitary Eight were startled. Only now did they truly remember that they had dedicated their lives to this mission. It was one thing to be defeated by a stronger opponent, but if they lost Zu An because they surrendered in a cowardly manner, then only cruelty and torture awaited them back in the sect.

Qiu Honglei continued on. “In any case, I don’t believe that you really can do whatever you want. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been constantly pursued and forced to remain low-profile for so many years.”

Zu An was rather amazed. She fully deserved her reputation as the Immortal Abode’s courtesan queen, which she had held for so many days. She managed to completely transform the mood and boost the confidence of her allies with just a few words… She’s almost as good as I am!

The mosquito daoist was furious. “You annoying bitch, I detested you from the moment I first set my eyes on you. Die!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she launched herself at Qiu Honglei, intent on killing her.

The remaining members of the Solitary Eight were fully prepared. With a flick of her fan, Solitary Wind sent out a gust of wind, pushing Qiu Honglei and Zu An away. Several tornadoes quickly surrounded their attacker.

Mosquito Daoist narrowed her eyes. She brandished the horsetail whisk and swung it about a few times to forcibly destroy those tornadoes. However, Solitary Wind’s attack still managed to shave off a portion of her momentum.

With a roar, Solitary Lightning smashed her massive hammer down on her. Lightning swirled around the hammer, and it was easy to imagine just how much power was contained in this savage blow.

Not even Mosquito Daoist dared to face such a ferocious attack directly. With a snap of her wrist, the horsetail whisk wrapped around the shaft of Solitary Lightning’s hammer, using a firm, flexible force of her own to deflect the power of the blow to the side.

Solitary Lightning felt a strange force run up the length of the shaft. She lost control of the direction of the hammer, and could only send it flying into the inn next to her.

With a loud boom, the inn came crashing down, throwing out smoke and dust in all directions. Almost half of the entire inn had collapsed instantly, and streaks of lightning continued to flicker about the ruins.

Zu An even saw some chickens fly out from the kitchen. Unfortunately for them, they were caught by the crackling lighting and instantly roasted. 

He gulped. This woman is truly a T-Rex! That was some serious power… What a pity it didn’t hit Mosquito Daoist.

Mosquito Daoist continued her charge. However, a tall and sturdy figure leapt to block her path. “You’re courting death!”

Mosquito Daoist smiled in a sinister fashion. In that instant, her grin seemed to stretch all the way to her ears. The strands of the horsetail whisk in her hands spread out and stabbed towards him like steel needles.

The threads of this horsetail whisk had been carefully crafted from her own mouthparts over these past few years. They were both flexible and incredibly strong, and could suck the blood out of whatever they pierced. Even an elephant would be sucked dry in a few short breaths, as long as they penetrated it’s body, let alone a single human male.

It was truly a pity that a third of it had been burned up by Zu An’s oil lamp. Just thinking about it made her burn with grief and fury. It had been a difficult task to refine every single strand from her mouthparts!

You have successfully trolled Mosquito Daoist for 731 Rage points!

“Be careful!” Zu An quickly shouted a warning to Solitary Earth. This Mosquito Daoist definitely loathes me… she didn’t forget to contribute some Rage points to me even while she’s fighting someone else! If I fall into her hands, I’m done for.

Solitary Earth let out a roar. A massive shield as tall as himself suddenly appeared in front of him. The countless needle-like strands crashed into it.

Mosquito Daoist was unimpressed at first when he created the shield. After all, her horsetail whisk could split boulders, and it wasn’t all that difficult for it to pierce metal and jade either. What use was a shoddy shield like this?

However, the next moment, her eyes grew wide. Her horsetail whisk was actually unable to pierce through this massive shield!

“An earth element cultivator?” She quickly realized what was going on. This shield was rather extraordinary, and together with the protection that the earth offered, it indeed became quite difficult to break through.

She reacted quickly as well. With a flick of her hand, the horsetail whisk went around the shield, striking at her opponent from three different angles—from the left, the right, and up above.

Solitary Earth was already prepared. He reached out his hand and pressed against the ground. The ground suddenly swelled, and several massive figures crawled out through the surface.

“Gargoyles?” Zu An’s eyes went round. The things that had just crawled out from underground looked similar to the gargoyles featured in the movies from his previous world, yet there was something slightly different about them, although he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was. It seemed to him like these gargoyles lacked the cold and eerie aura of the gargoyles he remembered.

Those gargoyles surrounded Solitary Earth, blocking the attacking strands from the horsetail whisk.

Mosquito Daoist chuckled. With a flick of her wrist, the strands fanned out, slicing through the gargoyles in an instant.

However, her smile quickly froze, because the gargoyles didn’t seem to care that they had been cut apart at all. The cuts quickly closed, and then the gargoyles charged towards her from all directions.