Stunned, Shi Kun lost track of what he was about to say.

Before Zu An pointed it out, he hadn’t noticed that his name and Devouring (Shi) Kun were actually homonyms. However, despite the divine nature of the Devouring Kun, it was still a beast. By asking if it was his father, the other party was insinuating that he was a beast as well!

You have successfully trolled Shi Kun for 885 Rage points!

The other lackeys also stared at Zu An in astonishment. 

Wow, he dares to further rile up the young master even when he’s already in such a situation. He’s really going to die a terrible death later on.

Qiao Xueying was also surprised by Zu An as well. The latter might be hateful, but even she had to admit that he had guts. If she had been in his position, she wouldn’t have even dared to breathe loudly in the presence of such a powerful beast, yet Zu An was still able to maintain his composure. It was truly hard to tell whether he was feigning courage or if he really was that brazen!

“Talking tough even though you’re already on the verge of death, huh? You’ll soon regret having been born with that mouth of yours!” Shi Kun snapped.

“Who dares summon me?” 

A voice suddenly boomed out of nowhere. It was from the massive Devouring Kun above, and shockingly, it was actually capable of human speech!

“O great divine beast Devouring Kun, I, offspring of the Shi clan, beseech your help in eliminating my enemy!” Ever since Zu An pointed out that their names were homonyms, he couldn’t help but feel incredibly awkward calling out the divine beast’s name.

“Let me see just how powerful your enemy is that you were willing to use up your final chance to summon me!” The Devouring Kun directed its blood-red eyes toward Chu Chuyan and Zu An, then it bellowed furiously. “Audacious! How dare you summon me for mere sixth rank and third rank ants!”

“Sixth rank?!” Shi Kun turned to Chu Chuyan in shock. 

She has already reached the sixth rank! No wonder I’m no match for her. This woman sure hid her true ability well! If not for the fact that she has sustained severe injuries, I wouldn’t have stood a chance against her at all!

Qiao Xueying was dumbstruck as well. Despite being by Chu Chuyan’s side for so many years, she didn’t know that she had already made the breakthrough to the sixth rank. 

Did it happen recently?

“Honey, you’re more amazing than I thought!” Zu An remarked in awe.

Chu Chuyan let out a long sigh and said, “I improved too quickly, and I’ve compromised my foundation because of it. The battle with Wu Di left me with a lasting trauma. I wouldn’t have rushed things if I had known that things would turn out this way.”

Trauma? Was Faith in Brother Spring unable to cure her trauma?

Zu An was perplexed, but he knew better than to enquire about it in front of so many people.

Shi Kun looked at the massive divine beast above and said, “Those two might not possess high cultivation ranks, but their defeat is of utmost importance to me. I beseech you to curb the young lady for me, but please do not kill her. As for this man, do as you please with him, but leave a final breath in him, so that I can deal with him afterwards.”

He was afraid that the Devouring Kun would go overboard and take Chu Chuyan’s life, so he made sure to carefully remind it not to. It was worth summoning Devouring Kun this one final time, as long as he could settle this matter with Chu Chuyan and make her his.

As for Zu An, he had a weird movement skill and all sorts of bizarre skills, making him an extremely tricky opponent to deal with. He wanted the Devouring Kun to render him powerless so that he could slowly torture him afterward.

The Devouring Kun snorted coldly, causing a slight storm to stir in the sky. “You humans carry such depraved thoughts. Forget it! I promised three favors to the ancestors of your Shi clan for the graciousness they showed me, and this is the final favor. With this, my soul will finally be able to rest.”

As a divine beast who had lived for innumerable years, it could see through Shi Kun’s thoughts with a glance. 

Chu Chuyan stared at the massive beast in the sky intently as she finally figured out the reason for the dissonance between its aura and its true strength. 

It turns out that it’s just the manifestation of its soul, and not its true body. That makes perfect sense. In the first place, there’s no way a storage ring would be large enough to store such a massive lifeform!

“Ah Zu, run away,” whispered Chu Chuyan in a hushed voice.

Zu An shook his head and said, “I can’t leave you all alone in such a critical situation. If we must die here, we’ll die together.”

“What’s the point of dying together?” Chu Chuyan frowned. “If you live through this ordeal, you’ll at least be able to inform my father and have him exact vengeance on the Shi clan on my behalf.”

“You should leave, then. I’ll help you hold them here!” said Zu An. 

Even though he didn’t mind mooching, he couldn’t leave his wife to face such a precarious situation alone.

“How are you going to hold them here?” Chu Chuyan was getting agitated by Zu An’s obstinacy. Not wanting to waste time with him, she nudged him lightly, and Zu An was immediately pushed several li away.

[1]

Shi Kun and the others were astonished by her sudden action. They immediately tried to give chase, but a blue barrier suddenly appeared in front of them, blocking their path.

“Lord Devouring Kun!” Shi Kun exclaimed, looking to the heavens.

The body of the massive divine beast in the sky flickered. Despite its bulky physique, it was able to move with astonishing alacrity. Before anyone present could even see it move, its tail had already struck the blue barrier.

Chu Chuyan’s Blue Guardian had been able to withstand the barrage of wind blades from Shi Kun earlier on, but it shattered immediately under the force of the Devouring Kun’s strike, dissipating into thin air.

“Pu!” Chu Chuyan spurted out a mouthful of blood as she was sent helplessly flying through the air. 

“Lord Devouring Kun, don’t hurt her!” exclaimed Shi Kun. If Chu Chuyan were to die or lose a limb here, all of the effort he had put in over this period of time would have been in vain.

Devouring Kun turned its massive head towards him, and a ferocious glint flashed across its red eyes. “Are you teaching me how to do things?”

“I dare not!” Shi Kun quickly lowered his head as he subconsciously retreated several steps. Even though he was the one who summoned the divine beast, he wasn’t certain if it would refrain from attacking him if he got on its nerves. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll curb her and leave her for you to deal with,” said Devouring Kun. “Even though we are of different races, I have to admit that this woman does look beautiful. If I were still in possession of my body, I might just be unwilling to leave her to you.”

Shi Kun was left speechless. 

So what if you have a real body? Even a single strand of your hair is wider than Chu Chuyan’s waist. What could you possibly do to her?

However, he soon remembered that some divine beasts gain the power to take human form upon reaching a certain cultivation rank. The thought of the Devouring Kun getting steamy with Chu Chuyan ruined his mood right away.

Shit, this really annoys me. Why does it have to be such a perverted kun?

By this time, Chu Chuyan had found her feet again. She wiped off the bloodstains at the corners of her mouth and uttered coldly, “I might be defeated, but I won’t be humiliated. You’ve forced me into this.”

In the sky, the Devouring Kun burst into laughter. “So what if I’ve forced you into doing anything? Lass, your strength is nowhere in comparison to mine. Struggle all you want―it’ll all be in vain. Just surrender! Young master Shi will treasure you well.”

“Hmph!” Chu Chuyan’s face turned cold as she slowly rose into the air.

The eyes of Shi Kun and his lackeys widened in disbelief. 

While cultivators were able to leap through the air upon reaching the fourth rank, only ninth rank cultivators possessed the ability to truly fly in the air. This was common knowledge in this world.

What was with the sight before them, then? Chu Chuyan was definitely not a ninth rank cultivator, so how could she rise up in the air in such a manner?

“Hm?” The Devouring Kun was also taken aback by what it was witnessing. It reassessed the lass in front of it, wanting to see what she was up to.

Chu Chuyan’s hair and her dress fluttered freely in the air, accentuating her slender figure. She gave off a noble and lofty aura that mesmerized everyone present, and even Shi Kun’s lackeys began eyeing her blatantly, not bothering to hide their gazes from Shi Kun. 

Only Qiao Xueying sensed a whiff of danger. However, her side held the overwhelming advantage at the moment—there was an incomparably gigantic kun on their side, after all. She couldn’t understand her inner feeling of unease

“Absolute Freeze!” Chu Chuyan cried out.

Blue light gushed out from her body, causing the surrounding temperature to plummet swiftly. Snow began to descend on the surrounding area, blanketing the earth in white. Even the sky had taken on an eerie ice-blue hue.

It was truly a pleasing sight to behold, especially when paired with Chu Chuyan’s immaculate beauty. Shi Kun’s lackeys were enchanted. Shi Kun himself gasped with wonder as well. 

Such a beautiful woman will soon be in my embrace. Ahh, what bliss!

Qiao Xueying was the only one who retained her sense of reason. She quickly grabbed Shi Kun’s robe and pulled him away. The other two fourth rank cultivators also noticed that there was something amiss with the situation, and hurriedly backed away as well. 

However, the remaining third rank cultivators reacted slower than the rest, and it didn’t take long for them to be cloaked in frost. Their movements grew slower and slower, and they eventually turned into ice sculptures. The inertia from their earlier motion caused them to fall forward and shatter into countless ice fragments. Eerily enough, their bodies were so thoroughly frozen that not even a single drop of blood was spilled.

Looking at the remains of his shattered subordinates, Shi Kun swallowed fearfully. “Th-this…”

The prowess Chu Chuyan was showcasing was clearly abnormal. This was definitely far beyond what someone of her cultivation rank was capable of.

“Mere tricks!” Devouring Kun sneered in disdain. It had seen what had happened on the ground, but it didn’t think that it posed a threat to him at all. How could those weak ants even be placed in the same category as itself?

It felt that it was beneath it to even dodge an attack of this caliber, so it stayed floating where it was without moving. It didn’t believe that Chu Chuyan had the means to freeze its three-hundred-meter long body.

It’s nothing more than a breeze to me.

However, its carelessness soon spelled its downfall. Its eyes widened when it realized that its body was actually beginning to freeze, and there was a hint of fear in its voie as it exclaimed, “No, that’s not right. This is… absolute zero!”

With an immediate swish of its tail, it tried to escape from this domain of ice, but it was already too late. Its massive body was already completely covered in frost, and the flames of its life had begun to extinguish.

“This is impossible! How could a cultivator as weak as you possibly know such a profound forbidden art?” The Devouring Kun howled in disbelief as it desperately tried to flee. However, as a manifested soul, it no longer commanded the great strength it did at its peak, and it couldn’t stop the frost from engulfing it.

“Stop! Someone of your rank can’t possibly sustain this forbidden art! You’ll die! Even if you somehow survive it by chance, all of your ki meridians would be destroyed as a result of this! Stop right now!”

Its initial lackadaisical and teasing voice slowly warped with horror and fury before finally weakening into desperate pleas. 

However, nothing it said was able to faze Chu Chuyan at all. She continued channeling the forbidden art with an impassive look on her face.

Slowly, the degree of the Devouring Kun’s thrashing grew smaller and smaller as it lost strength. Eventually, its blood-red eyes were coated in blue frost as well, and its massive body lost its ability to levitate in the air. It began to plummet to the ground.

An object of such massive size falling to the ground from such a great height was bound to crash with devastating impact. The Devouring Kun’s body immediately shattered upon collision, producing a mushroom-shaped cloud and sending out a massive shockwave that devastated the forests in the vicinity.

It was fortunate that the Devouring Kun was only a soul manifestation. Otherwise, if it possessed its original body and had fallen from such a height, the impact of it would have been as though the entire dungeon had been struck by a giant meteor.

“It’s finally over…” A poignant smile lifted the corners of Chu Chuyan’s lips as her body finally succumbed to the strain. She couldn’t sustain her flight anymore and began falling to the ground.

I guess it isn’t too bad to die like this. It’s just a pity that Shi Kun ran away too quickly, so I wasn’t able to kill him. I wonder if Ah Zu will be able to escape from their clutches… 

It was then that a nervous voice called out, a voice that sounded incredibly familiar. “Honey!”

She found herself falling straight into a warm embrace. She opened her eyes, and Zu An filled her field of vision. But his presence hardly brought her any relief at all; if anything, it only maddened her. “Why didn’t you run away!”

You have successfully trolled Chu Chuyan 520 Rage points!

She was already a cripple now, and the threat was far from over. She had failed to deal with Shi Kun and some of his lackeys, and there was no doubt that they would continue their pursuit of him once they returned to their senses!