Chapter 1418: Human-Headed Snake Body

Zu An clearly noticed the other party as well and immediately looked in that direction with caution.

After all, he possessed the Blue Drake skill, and while he couldn't move as freely as in normal water, he could still maneuver much more easily than others in the water.

To his surprise, however, the red eyes quickly vanished. It was clear the other party was deliberately hiding, planning to ambush him in the darker depths below.

"Trying to ambush me using the darkness?" Zu An's expression became very strange.

The Weak Water was Yayu's home turf. Once it became completely dark at the bottom, rendering sight impossible, Yayu could still locate its opponent using its sense of smell and perception of water current changes. With the human's eyes useless, he would naturally become like a fish on a chopping board.

Recalling how miserably it had been beaten on shore by this human and his companions, who had shamelessly ganged up on it, Yayu now saw a chance for one-on-one revenge in the Weak Water.

Good, the light had completely disappeared. Now, to sense where he was.

But why couldn't it sense his presence at all?!

This shock was considerable. It even thought the human might have gone ashore early, but quickly dismissed the idea; Yayu had been watching the entire time, so there was no way the human could have gotten out without its knowledge.

Moreover, while it was easy to enter the Weak Water, it was extremely difficult to get out.

It swam around, searching everywhere for its opponent. It covered a large area but found no trace of him; the human seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Originally filled with excitement for revenge, it hadn't expected such a turn of events and became increasingly agitated.

Zu An, lurking at the bottom, silently observed everything. He had just seen through the beast's intentions, but the darkness was actually to his advantage because he possessed a skill like Dark Invisibility. In complete darkness, not even an Earth Immortal could detect his presence, let alone this monster.

Of course, he didn't rush into an attack but patiently waited for an opportunity.

Perhaps due to the Suihou Pearl, he found his spiritual perception to be several times keener than before. Even in the darkness, he could clearly sense everything around him.

Yayu grew increasingly agitated from not being able to find him, causing more and more noticeable water current fluctuations as it moved.

When the creature came within three meters of him, he suddenly moved.

Yayu also sensed danger and hastily turned to flee, but a wave of cold permeated the surroundings. Zu An plunged the Flying Snow Sword into the riverbed, and with the sword's tip as the center, a large area of the surrounding river water visibly froze into ice, as if forming an ice storm.

Seeing its escape route blocked by ice, Yayu was about to turn back and fight desperately when it saw a lamp light up.

Yayu had suffered greatly at the sight of this lamp before, and it was terrified. Had that woman in white with long hair also come down? While Yayu's movements were affected by the Changxin Palace Lantern, Zu An directly pulled out the Universe Ring and smashed it onto its head, dazing it completely. He didn't take its life, however, but instead used the Snowflake Divine Sword to freeze it in ice, then bound it with the Celestial Ribbon.

On the shore, Yan Xuehen felt the movement of the Celestial Ribbon and quickly pulled it and its contents ashore.

Seeing him capture Yayu alive so quickly, the three women's eyes widened. This guy was simply too formidable.

After returning the Changxin Palace Lantern, Flying Snow Sword, and Suihou Pearl to the three women, Zu An stood before Yayu and produced the White Lotus True Flame. "We couldn't kill you with weapons before, so this time, let's test the power of this White Lotus True Flame."

A hint of disdain initially flickered in Yayu's eyes, but then it quickly shifted to an expression of extreme fear.

Zu An was instantly amused. "You actually have a trick like that up your sleeve, you scoundrel."

Yan Xuehen commented, "Creatures with such high cultivation levels would certainly possess intelligence, at least normal ones. But this monster's state is unpredictable."

"Can you speak?" Zu An asked directly.

The monster stared with its large, bell-like eyes but did not respond.

At this point, Yun Jianyue said, "Since we can't kill it, let's not for now. We'll imprison it and make it suffer all sorts of torments without letting it die. Our Holy Sect has far more painful punishments than slow slicing. Perhaps I should try."

She spoke with an eager expression, strange lights glinting in her eyes.

Yayu glared at her, thinking how venomous this woman's heart was.

Zu An chuckled, "I also happen to know some punishments for immortals, such as encasing them in a concrete sarcophagus and sinking them to the bottom of the sea, trapping them forever in claustrophobic darkness. Or perhaps suppressing them in a volcano, to be endlessly burned to death by lava, resurrected, and then re-engulfed by lava, over and over. And then there are..."

Having watched so many supernatural films in his past life, these methods came easily to him.

Yun Jianyue became even more delighted upon hearing this. She felt her methods inflicted more physical pain, while Zu An's were more psychologically tormenting. The two began exchanging notes on various "torture" techniques.

Yan Xuehen and Yu Yanluo exchanged glances. Yan Xuehen, in particular, mused that despite Zu An's philandering flaw, he was generally a decent person. She couldn't let him be led astray by this 'demoness' and resolved to guide him toward her righteous path in the future.

After conversing for a while, they noticed Yayu was trembling but still offered little response.

Zu An's face darkened. "In that case, I'll send you on your way."

"Send it where?" Yan Xuehen was startled. This creature was supposed to be unkillable.

Zu An smiled "shyly," "Although I'm not of the Daoist sect, I happen to be skilled in methods for dealing with ghosts and spirits."

He then directly activated the purification method from the second layer of the *Primordial Chaos Scripture*: "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. What should depart, shall not remain..."

As his words resonated, a vast, unseen hand seemed to materialize, pulling a ghostly, soul-like apparition from Yayu's body.

To their surprise, however, the soul was not in the form of Yayu, with its dragon head and cat body, but rather had a human face and a snake body.

The group exchanged glances, each recalling the human-faced, snake-bodied statue they had seen earlier in the small temple on Mount Shaoxian.

However, the faces of the two were quite different. Could it be that the soul's appearance had been distorted after transforming into a monster?

He couldn't help but ask, "Is that temple on the mountain dedicated to you? Is your name 'Er'?"

The soul, already struggling, became even more agitated and furious upon hearing his words, letting out a monstrous roar: "Erfu!"

"Erfu?" The group suddenly understood. So the missing character on the temple plaque was 'Fu,' and the remaining characters likely indicated 'Temple' or something similar.

"You... are as hateful as Erfu, even more insidious than Wei! Argh!" As the human-faced, snake-bodied soul roared, the entire Weak Water seemed to boil, and countless colossal waves crashed towards the shore.

At that moment, the three women finally understood what Zu An had meant by the massive waves he mentioned earlier.

With no time to worry about Yayu's body, the group quickly ran towards the nearby Mount Shaoxian. The Weak Water's immense waves washed over Yayu's body, and the human-faced, snake-bodied soul suddenly emitted bursts of light, gradually breaking free from the unseen hand's restraint. The ethereal hands then slowly shattered, finally vanishing without a trace.

Zu An's eyes nearly popped out. He had never imagined that the *Primordial Chaos Scripture* could actually fail!

Being well-informed now, he immediately realized it must be related to the missing laws of this world, which rendered the *Primordial Chaos Scripture*'s purification effect imperfect.

However, he had no time to ponder this, as the Weak Water was still rising, quickly submerging more than half of the mountain.

Their hearts sank. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before the entire mountain was submerged, and they would be completely dragged into the Weak Water.

Although their cultivation might protect them for a short time, without anyone to meet them from outside, escaping the Weak Water again would likely be impossible.

When the group retreated to the dilapidated temple they had seen earlier, they were surprised to find that the surging Weak Water could not rise beyond a certain point.

It remained consistently three feet below the temple steps.

"Erfu! Wei!" the Yayu monster roared towards the temple, its human-faced, snake-bodied soul's countenance twisted, seemingly filled with overwhelming hatred.

But no matter how hard it tried, the crumbling temple, battered by wind and rain, remained as stable as Mount Tai.

A thought sparked in Zu An's mind. He looked at the three women and asked, "Do you remember the missing main statue in the temple just now? Did the star chart at that statue's location show 'Wei, the Lunar Swallow'?"