Zu An’s expression changed. He naturally couldn't just watch such a thing happen. He charged at the woman, thinking, The one who starts trouble should end it.

The beautiful woman seemed to have already prepared herself for his retaliation. The floor suddenly split apart and thick saplings sprouted one after another, growing large in almost an instant. Then, they became like tree soldiers that blocked Zu An’s path.

“Boss, be careful not to get caught!” Wei Suo quickly warned him.

Many wood element cultivators were capable of summoning treants. Even though treants were a bit sluggish, they were as tough as oxen. After being caught by them, one wouldn’t be able to use one’s skills freely anymore. For example, when Wei Suo had been caught earlier… 

Zu An remained calm and used his Flame Blade. Fire was the bane of plants, after all.

The treants immediately became extremely alarmed, screaming miserably. The beautiful woman frowned slightly. She waved her hand slightly, and a ball of water condensed in her palm. Then, she tossed it at the treants, quickly creating a light drizzle.

However, her expression quickly changed again, because the water should have been able to put out the flames, but they seemed completely undeterred! On the contrary, it was as if oil had been poured onto them, making them burn with even greater ferocity.

The large, tall treants were burned to ashes almost instantly. Zu An didn’t stop and charged forward. Qiu Honglei also moved, taking out her Empress Lantern. The light surrounded the woman, supporting Zu An’s attack.

The beauty’s hair turned into numerous fine tree vines and quickly formed an umbrella-like shape, blocking the Empress Lantern’s light. She wasn’t affected by it at all.

Qiu Honglei voiced her surprise. She hadn’t expected the woman to actually neutralize her skill like this!

Just then, countless vines surged in front of the beautiful woman and shot toward Zu An. Compared to the vines Great Sister had used, they were clearly thicker, and they swirled with brilliance. They were clearly special.

Zu An’s entire body erupted into flames. He turned into a Fire Phoenix and rushed at his opponent.

“This isn’t normal fire!” the beautiful woman muttered with a frown. She suddenly backed up, her hands forming a series of complicated seals along the way. “When faced with the enemy, one should step forward courageously and join the battle formation!” 

Zu An was completely confused now. He had heard such a proverb before and knew that it was normally used for exorcism. And yet it was a tree monster speaking an exorcism incantation… Is there something wrong with this world?

The beautiful woman shouted again, “The formation is in the south; the vermilion bird obeys its orders!” 

As soon as she spoke, a loud and clear bird cry suddenly rang out behind her. A bird covered in flames rushed into the air and charged at Zu An.

Bang!

A blinding flash of flames erupted. Both sides took several steps back. Zu An noticed that his own flames couldn't burn through the woman’s vines anymore either.

Is that fire bird the legendary vermilion bird? The vermilion bird and phoenix are both fire-type sacred birds. If she has the vermilion bird protecting her, trying to attack her with flames probably won’t be so easy.

But why would a glorious sacred vermilion bird protect a monster? Also, isn’t she chanting daoist proverbs?

The beautiful woman took to the air. Countless vines rose and attacked the two of them from different directions. Wherever they passed, the nearby chairs, tables, and even pillars ruptured.

Qiu Honglei’s body suddenly shone with brilliance. She formed a wall of light in front of herself and Zu An to block the vines. This was the light element’s most powerful defensive skill: The Wall of Sighs!

The beautiful woman was shocked. She hadn’t expected her large-scale attack to be blocked just like that. Her hands quickly formed seals again as she chanted, “Face…”

Unfortunately, Zu An had already begun moving. A resplendent streak of sword light flashed past, forcefully cutting open a path through the endless vines. Then, under the woman’s stunned gaze, he arrived in front of her. He grabbed her neck, stopping her from chanting any more proverbs.

The woman still wanted to retaliate, but she suddenly felt a wave of power seal her major acupoints. Strangely, there also seemed to be some kind  of suction force coming from Zu An’s palm. It was like a black hole, ready to suck away all of the blood essence within her at a moment’s notice. Thus, she no longer dared to do anything. The vines that had previously filled the room shrank back, disappearing without a trace.

“What kind of monster are you?” she exclaimed in horror. Wasn’t this guy’s cultivation a bit too frightening? That wasn’t all; he even seemed to be capable of sucking her dry at any time.

“I’m human, of course,” Zu An said, giving Wei Suo a look. He barked, “Get rid of the skill you used on him!” 

Wei Suo was practically about to cry. Boss is still the best! At the same time, he was also surprised by Zu An’s cultivation. It was actually higher than he had imagined!

And yet, the beautiful woman only said indifferently, “I, Jing Teng, have never listened to threats.”

Zu An frowned and reflexively tightened his grip. He thought, This woman is named Jing Teng? What a strange name.[1]

The beautiful woman groaned, a look of pain appearing between her brows. However, she remained stubborn, without any intent of bowing down.

Zu An asked seriously, “Do you really think I won’t kill you?”

The beautiful woman said calmly, “This is a world where the strong prey on the weak, anyway. Since I lost to you, I’ll accept my fate. However, you can forget about me begging for mercy!”

When he sensed the resolve in her voice, Zu An was briefly troubled. If he killed her, Wei Suo would also die with her.

Qiu Honglei smiled and asked, “Ah Zu, why don’t you leave her to me? Our Holy Sect is a bit better in matters of interrogation.”

The beautiful woman gave her a calm look, saying, “Your human race’s torture methods aren’t very useful against me. Even if I die, I won’t even make a single frown.”

Qiu Honglei walked up to her side, gently tracing a slender finger across her perfect face. She said with a smile, “You’re such a pretty woman. Sometimes, dying isn’t the scariest thing.”

The beautiful woman’s expression changed. She exclaimed, “What are you trying to say?!”

Qiu Honglei smiled in a bewitching manner, saying, “As a woman, you naturally know what I mean.” Her gaze passed over Zu An, but then moved past him and focused on Wei Suo. She asked, “Brother Wei, didn’t you want to experience romance with a female ghost? This woman is all yours.”

Wei Suo had been brought to the brink of death because of this woman, so when he heard that, his eyes immediately lit up. He replied, “Really?”

“Of course. If this lady doesn’t undo the witchcraft on your body, that means she’s really looking forward to being with you,” Qiu Honglei replied.

To their surprise, however, the beautiful woman sighed in relief and said, “He’s currently being restrained by my vines. Even if he has the heart, he doesn’t have the strength.”

Wei Suo’s face immediately fell. This was just too big of a blow to his self-esteem. Sigh, it’s such a great opportunity…

Qiu Honglei was stunned. The situation was a bit troublesome. She thus pushed Zu An forward and said, “Then we might as well let you go.”

Zu An was speechless. Why am I getting shot even when lying down?

A faint smile appeared on the beautiful woman’s lips as she said, “He’s your man. Would you be willing?”

Qiu Honglei’s expression remained natural as she replied, “It’s normal for a man to have three wives and four concubines. Furthermore, he’s even doing this to save a brother, so what’s the big deal with a bit of a sacrifice?”

Zu An was bewildered.

Tears almost poured out of Wei Suo’s eyes. If you had to do something like that to save a brother, I’d do it every damn day!

The beautiful woman frowned. Sure enough, her expression changed a bit, but she quickly calmed down and said, “He’s pretty handsome, so I’m not really losing out.”

Now, it was Qiu Honglei’s turn to be bewildered. She became upset and snapped, “A monster is a monster! What a shameless woman. We should just kill her and be done with it!”  She took out her sinister dual blades and prepared to attack the woman.

“Please have mercy!” someone suddenly cried out in alarm. It turned out to be the female ghost Little Ying, who ran inside while holding the hem of her dress.

She had previously run away because she was scared of Grandmother, but then she became worried about the handsome young master and secretly snuck back in. Who could have thought that the invincible Grandmother would be restrained?!

Zu An was a bit surprised. He asked, “Are you pleading for her life? Aren’t you scared of her?” Because of ‘A Chinese Love Story’, he reflexively thought that this Grandmother was oppressing such unfortunate female ghosts.

“Grandmother is really fierce and I’m scared of her, but she actually treats us really well,” Little Ying said timidly.

Zu An and Qiu Honglei exchanged a look. They hadn’t expected things to develop like this! 

When she saw that they didn’t believe her, Little Ying quickly said, “It’s because of Grandmother’s protection that I wasn’t captured by the Ghost King’s subordinates. Grandmother strictly ordered us not to harm others over the years and only allowed us to suck out yang energy from some greedy and perverted garbage men. We never threatened their lives! They were all able to recover after resting for a while.”

“That’s nonsense!” Qiu Honglei snapped, her expression cold. She continued, “I clearly heard that many people were found dead in Ruo Lan Temple. Do you think we didn’t know about that?”

Wei Suo nodded. He had accepted the villagers’ task and came here to deal with the ghost rumors precisely because he and the female ghosts could have a lover’s rendezvous… ahem, precisely because he could get rid of the village’s problem!

Little Ying quickly explained, “We really didn’t harm anyone! Those were all people killed by some bad people, and they were thrown near Ruo Lan Temple to frame us!”

Zu An and the others were stunned. They hadn’t expected things to be like this.

“Little Ying, there’s no need for you to explain these things to them!” the beautiful woman snapped, feeling a bit irritated. She clearly felt disdain toward such pleas for mercy.

“But that Great Sister of yours seemed to have sucked out blood essence more than a few times,” Zu An said coldly. That thing had clearly had a malicious look on her face. She had quite a bit of blood on her hands.

Little Ying said weakly, “Sometimes, Great Sister indeed couldn’t hold herself back and secretly sucked some people dry. But due to her misgivings toward Grandmother, she didn’t do it that much.”

The beautiful woman’s eyes widened as she exclaimed, “There was something like that? Why didn’t you ever tell me before?!”

Little Ying shivered. Grandmother’s accumulated prestige clearly had quite an effect on her. She said, “Because Great Sister and Grandmother are of the same race, so I didn’t dare to mention it.”

“The same race?” the woman replied, her expression cold. “I merely taught her a few things out of pity back then. How could she and I be considered of the same race? If I had known she was so vicious, I would have killed her long ago!”

Zu An said with a smile, “In that case, then, there should be no grudge between us any longer. As a favor for Little Ying, I can let you go, and you can save my friend. What do you think?”

The beautiful woman hesitated for a moment, but then she nodded and said, “Fine!”

“To show my sincerity, I’ll let you go first,” Zu An said, opening his hand and taking a few steps back. Qiu Honglei was a bit worried, but Zu An gave her a reassuring look. It wouldn’t be hard for him to restrain her again at all.

A look of surprise appeared on the beautiful woman’s face. Then, she reached her hand toward Wei Suo, and countless green lights flew out of his body. Afterward, the tree buds and flowers all vanished. Wei Suo rubbed his entire body. He was so happy that he began to laugh in a silly manner.

The beautiful woman turned around and began to walk away, saying, “Little Ying, we’re leaving!”

“Please wait!” Zu An called after her.

The beautiful woman suddenly turned around and said, “Humans can’t be trusted after all!”

Zu An said with a smile, “The lady has too many misgivings. We aren’t thinking of troubling you. We only wish to ask you some questions. Have you met any of these women…” He then described Yan Xuehen, Yun Jianyue, and Xie Daoyun’s appearances to her.

“I didn’t expect you to be such a romantic,” the beautiful woman said with a sneer. “I haven’t.”

Based on their previous interaction, it didn’t seem as if someone with her personality would tell lies. Zu An was disappointed, but he continued, “Right, what’s the deal with that Ghost King you mentioned?”