Zu An immediately used the fake Sunflower Phantasm to dodge to the side, successfully surviving Mei Chaofeng’s first strike.

Unfortunately, Mei Chaofeng had seen his movement skill the other day, so he knew how to counter it as well. With a cold snort, he hurled another punch, but this time, he made sure to seal off Zu An’s escape route.

Cornered, Zu An had no choice but to use the real Sunflower Phantasm to dodge this strike. As he evaded the attack, he cried aloud, “Gorgeous Principal Jiang, I know my mistakes now! Save me! If I die here, there won’t be anyone to help you take over the Plum Blossom Sect!”

“Hm?” Mei Chaofeng had no idea how Zu An managed to dodge his attack. Perplexed, he quickly tried to follow up with another attack, only to recoil in shock in the next moment.

A woman had suddenly appeared right in front of Zu An.

Her long beautiful legs were as attractive as ever, but Mei Chaofeng’s attention was captured by the pencil she was holding in her hand. “P-Principal Jiang!”

Zu An heaved a sigh of relief. “Principal Jiang, you’re finally willing to come out!”

“Didn’t you say that someone in a position of power like you need not lift a finger at all? What a wonder it is for me to spot you in such a terrible position, isn’t it? Hmm?” Jiang Luofu remarked with an enigmatic smile.

“Hahaha, my useless mouth just can’t help bragging. Don’t mind it too much!” Zu An laughed it off sheepishly. This woman sure is narrow-minded. She actually got offended by those remarks.

However, Jiang Luofu wasn’t intending on letting him off the hook so easily. “Did I hear that you’re intending to mooch off me too?” 

“Of course I am!” replied Zu An matter-of-factly.

“What did you say?” Jiang Luofu frowned.

“I mean, I haven’t managed to mooch off you yet.” Zu An quickly changed his words. “Hey, Mei Chaofeng is getting away!”

While the two of them were busy chatting, Mei Chaofeng had sprinted off as fast as he could. From the moment Jiang Luofu appeared in front of him, he had already realized that there was no way he would be able to kill Zu An. In fact, under normal circumstances, he would have already been a goner, but thanks to a miraculous stroke of fortune, she had ended up getting distracted, creating an opening for him to escape.

Jiang Luofu raised her head calmly before casually swiping the pencil in her hand horizontally through the air with a cold snort.

Mei Chaofeng felt a chill pass through his legs before he abruptly tumbled forward.

“What happened?”

Bewildered by this mystifying situation, he turned around to take a look, only to see his legs standing upright on the ground several meters behind him. He lowered his head to take a look at himself, and saw that both his legs had been amputated halfway down. It was then that the pain finally set in, and he let out a shriek of agony.

Zu An swallowed. He secretly glanced at Jiang Luofu’s side profile as he quietly patted his chest in relief. 

Holy shit! I didn’t know she was this strong! If she really held a grudge against me for all the remarks I’ve made, wouldn’t I have already died several times over? 

Just look at what happened to Mei Chaofeng!

Ah, but then again, he isn’t as good-looking as I am. It might just be the disparity in our looks.

“I’ll leave the rest to you.” Jiang Luofu couldn’t even be bothered to talk to Mei Chaofeng. She took a seat in the gazebo and naturally rested her legs on the bench.

Zu An gleefully strutted over to Mei Chaofeng’s side and gazed down at him from above. “You thought that I was here alone, but it turns out Principal Jiang is here too! Are you surprised?”

Mei Chaofeng looked up at him, speechless.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 1024 Rage points!

He never expected the tables to turn on him so quickly. The words that he had uttered mere moments ago were returned to him right away.

“You son of a bitch! What are you acting so smug for? You’re nothing more than a weakling who relies on women!” Mei Chaofeng gritted his teeth furiously. 

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 1024 Rage points!

Zu An sighed deeply and said, “Don’t you think that it takes true skill to be able to tap into the strength of others?”

“How could you possibly have been able to secure Principal Jiang’s help? This is impossible…” murmured Mei Chaofeng in disbelief. He couldn’t accept how things had turned out.

Zu An looked at Mei Chaofeng with eyes filled with pity. “This is the privilege awarded to good-looking people like me. Hideous beings like you will never understand it.” 

Mei Chaofeng felt his blood boil.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 666 Rage points!

Blood spurted out of Mei Chaofeng’s wounds as his emotions got the better of him, and Zu An deftly sidestepped the sudden fountain of red.

Wow. The people in this world sure are as tenacious as cockroaches. Even in such a state, he still hasn’t fainted yet.

“This reminds me of my encounter with Plum Blossom Twelve. He also hung on for a very long time before he finally collapsed,” remarked Zu An cheerily.

“So you were indeed the one who killed Twelve!” Mei Chaofeng glared at Zu An furiously. He thought about how the tables had turned on him the day before despite having spoken the truth, and again, blood rushed to his head in a fit of anger.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 999 Rage points!

Zu An walked up to Mei Chaofeng and squatted down in front of him. “Plum Blossom Twelve tried to kill me, so I returned the favor. It’s justified self-defense. Now that I’ve satisfied your curiosity, it’s time for you to spill the beans. Tell me where your account book and assets are. Not forgetting your connections with other officials, your supply routes, and all of the vital information concerning your businesses.” 

Mei Chaofeng had chosen to lie down on the ground, seemingly having accepted his fate. Nevertheless, Zu An’s words were so ridiculous that they still made him laugh. “Just how foolish do you think I am to tell you all of those?”

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 730 Rage points!

“Don’t you know that being granted an easy death is a blessing as well?” Zu An sighed deeply as he gazed down at Mei Chaofeng, his eyes filled with sympathy.

“Hmph! Try your worst then! I won’t be considered a man if I let out even a single squeak!” The Plum Blossom Sect had tortured innumerable people over the years for information, so Mei Chaofeng was familiar with how interrogation worked.

“It looks like the people in this world really do lack imagination. Well, let me educate you a little.” Zu An pulled a nearby boulder closer to himself and settled down on it, just as a bard would get himself into a comfortable position before launching into a long story. 

“You should have heard about how eels and loaches dive into any holes that they see, right? If I strip you naked and throw you into a barrel filled with eels and loaches, where do you think they’ll crawl into?

“If that isn’t enough for you to talk, we could have you buried in the ground, right up to the neck, with just your head showing. I’d make a little cut on your scalp and pour some mercury in. Before long, you’ll find yourself itching from head to toe. It would be so unbearable that you would be wiggling desperately, hoping to alleviate the itch, but of course, what could you do when you’re stuck in the ground with nowhere to go? Eventually, you’d be left with no choice but to leap out, tearing your own skin off your body in the process. Hmm, would a person without skin start bleeding profusely? I guess we could put that to the test.”

… 

These bizarre methods of torture made even Jiang Luofu’s heart skip a beat. Where in the world did someone as young as him learn of all of these vicious means?

“Brat, kill me if you want to! There’s no use talking such crap with me!” Despite Mei Chaofeng’s words of bravado, his quivering voice betrayed the depth of his fear. It suddenly occurred to him that the Plum Blossom Sect was positively benign when compared to the great villain standing before him.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 444 Rage points!

“I’m not done yet. From what I’ve learned, you’ve fooled around with quite a few women over the years. You don’t harbor any feelings for most of them, but it seems there’s an exception. If my memory doesn’t fail me, there’s a woman living in the northern part of the city who goes by the name of Wang Cuihua. She bore twins for you, didn’t she? Ahh, you must be relieved to depart with the knowledge that your bloodline continues to exist in this world even after your death,” remarked Zu An with a smile.

Mei Chaofeng’s eyes immediately reddened. He quickly turned to Jiang Luofu and cried out anxiously, “Principal Jiang, is the academy going to condone such actions? ‘Never bring one’s family into the picture’—that’s a rule that even those in the underworld like us observe!”

Before Jiang Luofu could respond, Zu An had already cut right in. “Who says that I’m going to harm them? I just want to reassure you that you don’t have to worry about them after your death. I’ll make sure to take good care of your wife and raise your children as if they were my own. Ah, I should probably call them my wife and my children now.”

“You!!!” Mei Chaofeng was so angry that he wanted to leap towards Zu An and tear his head off, but Jiang Luofu’s earlier strike had severed his ki meridians as well, leaving him utterly powerless at the moment.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 999 Rage points!

“Have you thought it through yet?” asked Zu An. “Do you want to just get it over and done with, or do you want to suffer a little first before caving in to my demands? I don’t particularly mind it either way.”

Why the hell did I get myself involved with this demon?!

Mei Chaofeng began sobbing sorrowfully. He was intending to grit his teeth through Zu An’s torture and die a valiant death, but he wasn’t even given that option at all. He knew deep down that he would never make it through the tortures Zu An spoke of, let alone the fact that he was even holding his own wife and children as hostages against him.

This wasn’t even a choice at all.

“There are two account books for the Plum Blossom Sect. One of them is in the secret chamber in my study room, and the other one is located in a secret compartment in my bedroom…”

Mei Chaofeng stared numbly at the blue sky above him as he monotonously revealed everything regarding the Plum Blossom Sect. 

“Fucking Zu An, you’ll die a horrible death!” Mei Chaofeng cursed through gritted teeth. He could already feel death’s embrace beginning to enfold him as blood continued to flow out of his legs.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 999 Rage points!

Zu An smiled in response. “My apologies, but according to my wife, good people tend to die prematurely, whereas vermin plague the world for centuries. It looks like I still have hundreds of years ahead of me.”

“Pu~”

Unable to take it anymore, Mei Chaofeng spurted a mouthful of blood.

Just like that, the powerhouse who had ruled Brightmoon City’s underworld for decades was angered to death. Even with his dying breath, his eyes continued to glower in indignation.

You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 1024 Rage points!

Zu An rushed over to the gazebo and exclaimed excitedly, “Gorgeous principal, I’ve accomplished my mission perfectly!”

Jiang Luofu looked at Zu An, her gaze swimming with a thousand different emotions. “It must be agonizing to be your enemy.”

Zu An flashed her an innocent smile in response. “I’m glad that you’re a friend as well.”

Jiang Luofu snorted softly before rising to her feet. “Let’s go. I’ll get someone to clean up this area afterward. As for the future takeover of the Plum Blossom Sect, I’ll send someone over to help you out with it later on.”

“You can leave it to me!” Zu An said firmly, patting his chest.

Just like that, the two of them returned to the academy.

… 

Two hours later, news of what had transpired finally reached Shi Kun. He dropped his cup to the floor. “Mei Chaofeng, dead? How can that be possible?”

Shi Lezhi replied grimly, “I’ve verified it personally. There’s no doubt about it.”

“This doesn’t make sense. Mei Chaofeng is a cultivator at the pinnacle of the fifth rank. Killing Zu An should have been a walk in the park for him. How could he have failed?” Shi Kun couldn’t understand what was going on.

Beside him, Snow said softly, “Young master, someone spotted Zu An returning to the academy in the company of Principal Jiang.”

“Jiang Luofu? Are you saying that she’s working with Zu An now?” Shi Kun was appalled. Jiang Luofu’s cultivation and standing made her a dangerous enemy. He had to seriously reconsider whether he really had the means to deal with her right now.

“It could just be a coincidence. Mei Chaofeng might have just been unlucky to run into her,” remarked Shi Lezhi. Not even in his wildest imagination could he fathom any sort of relationship between Zu An and Jiang Luofu.

Shi Kun shared the same thoughts as well. “Goddamnit! Why does that scoundrel have such good luck?”

This was not the first trap he had laid for Zu An, but the latter had been able to overcome every single one of them.

“Young master, the Ursae Dungeon will be opening three days from now. No one will know if we make a move against him there. When the time comes, I’ll move against him personally and destroy him for good!” said Snow.

Shi Kun nodded in agreement. “That’s the best we can do for now. I’ll bring in a batch of people who can aid you in the dungeon.”

As Zu An got stronger, the threat he posed would become greater as well. Every night that passed, there was a chance that the woman he had set his eyes on could lose her chastity. This was not something he could accept.