Chapter 857: Manifestation

“What the hell?” Zu An exclaimed, startled. Even though he occasionally ‘partook’ in the tentacle play category, it wasn’t so fun when he became the target instead.

He kicked outward, quickly bringing Bi Linglong aside to evade the round of tentacles… Wait, no, crazily growing weeds. But there were weeds everywhere, and the weeds were still growing. The two of them had nowhere to escape to at all.

Bi Linglong drew her sword and slashed at the weeds as well. A sword fit for a crown princess was naturally exceptionally sharp, quickly chopping through the many weeds. However, it didn’t stop their growth at all. They were growing way too fast, so fast that they were outpacing the rate at which they were being cut!

Bi Linglong’s attacks became slower and slower as she faced the endless weeds. Eventually, two weeds from one side wrapped around her wrist. She slowed down further, and during that delay, her other arm and both legs were bound by more weeds.

She cried out in alarm, having already lost her center of gravity. The weeds swung her into the air, spreading her limbs out into a humiliating spread-eagled position. Even more weeds rushed over, wriggling up her legs and quickly reaching her thighs. Still others wound around her arms up to her neck. They were already about to reach her face.

The strange weeds wrapped around her body tightly. She normally wore reserved clothing, so they revealed a strangely seductive side of her. When had Bi Linglong ever experienced such a thing? She was embarrassed and scared, and her head went blank.

Zu An was furious when he saw what was happening. Even if we’re going to do this, I have to be the one doing it to her!

A Flame Blade slashed outward, severing the weeds that wrapped around Bi Linglong. The flames continued to eat at the weeds, instantly burning away all of the weeds tangled around her body.

These weeds weren’t actually living things and shouldn’t have feared flames, but his flames had been created with the Fire Phoenix’ powers. How could they possibly withstand the power of pure phoenix flames?

Miserable screams filled the air, as if the weeds were in scorching pain. Their crazy growth paused for a moment, then they quickly withdrew into the ground.

Bi Linglong dropped from above. Zu An kicked off the ground and flew over to catch her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m… okay.” Bi Linglong felt as if she had been embarrassed more times that day than in her entire life up to that point. Being played with by those despicable weeds was just too humiliating. She couldn’t even face Zu An.

Zu An consoled her. “It’s fine; it was actually pretty nice to look at.”

Bi Linglong wanted to bite him when she heard that. But thinking back, he had already seen everything anyway, so hanging up there like that didn’t seem to be that big of a deal…

Zu An had already turned around to look in a different direction. “I’ll deal with those monsters that bullied you in revenge!”

A giant flame blade appeared in his palm and cleaved outward as he finished speaking. He had already noticed that the weeds were shrinking back in a single direction. With a loud explosion, the massive flame blade blasted open a huge groove in the ground! A dark figure leaped out from underneath, patting away the embers on its body.

“An elf? A dryad?” Zu An exclaimed, shocked. He saw that the creature resembled a human.

Back then, Snow could grow vines from her head as well. The two skills resembled each other. But Snow was so pretty; who was this ugly fellow in front of him? It was hard to call it a humanoid creature. Its entire body was covered in green fur, and he could only barely make out a torso and four limbs.

“Huff huff huff…” After it put out the flames on its body, it gave Zu An a look of resentment.

You have successfully trolled Han Zhong for +111 +111 +111…

“Han Zhong?” Zu An was startled when he saw the name. It really was a person!

“What? Did you just call him Han Zhong?” Mi Li knew Zu An’s system could collect the soul force created from anger, and that it would never make a mistake.

“Yeah. What’s wrong?” Zu An’s expression became strange when he saw how startled Mi Li was. He asked, “Don’t tell me you recognize this monster too?”

Mi Li had a conflicted expression as she replied, “Did you forget that I told you that all kinds of formidable individuals responded to the call when Ying Zheng declared that he was pursuing immortality? There were four who were the most outstanding among them. Apart from Xu Fu, there was also Lu Sheng, Hou Sheng, and… Han Zhong.”

Zu An was speechless. He really was surprised this time. Why was Han Zhong here? And how had he survived until now?

“Was Han Zhong a fiend race individual, or some other type of weird creature?” Zu An really found it hard to associate the monster in front of him with a human.

“No,” Mi Li shook her head, “He’s human. But Han Zhong’s behavior back then was quite strange. I heard that he ingested sweet sedge for thirty years, and then grew green hair all over his body. After that, he obtained a highly retentive memory and became invulnerable against fire and water.”

“Even if he grew green hair all over his body, it shouldn’t be able to grow that long, right?” Zu An recalled the weeds everywhere. He had already burned up so much of them with his phoenix fire, yet there was still so much covering Han Zhong. Just how ridiculous was that?

“It wasn’t this long back then. It’s probably because a lot of time has passed since then.” Mi Li gave the long-haired monster a look. Her expression was extremely conflicted.

Zu An was horrified. You grew green hair all over your body?

Mi Li said, “I know what kind of poison that girl was poisoned by. Han Zhong always ate sweet sedge, and that plant is toxic. There’s a lot of sweet sedge among these weeds. If you were to get poisoned, you would experience powerful hallucinations. But, it doesn’t actually have aphrodisiac properties. If that girl ended up like that just because of some hallucinations, it looks like that’s really what she believes inside. It was just magnified by the illusion.”

Zu An couldn’t help but give Bi Linglong a look. He hadn’t been able to tell at all! She usually looked cold and arrogant. She actually lusted after my body deep down?

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Bi Linglong’s female intuition immediately made her realize that something was off.

“It’s nothing.” Zu An chuckled. “It’s just that if you ever miss me, just tell me. You don’t have to hide it like that.”

Bi Linglong was speechless.

Han Zhong rushed over with a roar. He swung his palm with power not inferior to that of a master rank cultivator. Zu An’s expression changed. He reached out his hand and blocked the attack. With a loud noise, he was forced back by one zhang. Han Zhong also tumbled backward.

Zu An was shocked when he sensed the numbness in his arm. This guy really wasn’t going to be easy to deal with. It would be really bad if their fight drew the emperor’s attention. As such, he shouted, “Han Zhong! Why don’t we have a chat first?”

The other person crawled to his feet and prepared to pounce again. However, he instantly froze when he heard his name. “Han… Zhong…” he began. His speech was quite inept, as if it had been far too long since he had last spoken, making him forget how to speak.

He grabbed his head in pain. “Han… Zhong, who is that? Who am I? Ahhhh…” He shook his head from side to side madly, hitting it with his fist. His head was soon covered in blood. Then, he looked up. “Eternal life… No, all dead, all will die…” After speaking those words, he charged furiously.

Zu An became sullen. They still had to fight in the end! Since the other party clearly had the wood attribute, he used his Flame Blade. Sure enough, he had a natural advantage.

After the fight went on for a bit, Mi Li voiced her surprise. “Something’s not right. It seems he only has his battle instincts left and isn’t using any battle skills or anything of the sort. Otherwise, there’s no way you would be able to fight him if he had cultivated all this time.”

Zu An had also realized as much. Han Zhong was fighting like a wild beast, perhaps even beneath the level of a beast. At least beasts had their innate skills.

Mi Li suddenly floated over. Her fair finger reached out, striking the monster in the lower rib acupoint. Han Zhong roared in unwillingness. Then, he collapsed to the ground.

Zu An looked at Mi Li in shock, exclaiming, “You actually helped me!”

“I didn’t do this to help you, but rather because I had some things to ask him,” Mi Li said. Then, she appeared in front of Han Zhong and asked “Han Zhong, do you recognize who I am?”

Bi Linglong was confused about why that monster had suddenly fallen, but then, a ridiculously beautiful red-clothed woman appeared out of thin air. Her eyes widened in shock.