Chapter 481: Saintess

Feng Sanren was a middle-aged woman with a rather plain appearance. However, compared to Lei Sanren, who resembled a reincarnated Tyrannosaurus Rex, she could even be considered to have delicate features.

She held a feather fan, and with a gentle wave, the surrounding air rippled. These ripples advanced, forming small whirlwinds. The whirlwinds didn't directly rush towards Zu'an, which would have allowed him to easily evade them.

This is precisely why Zu'an was careless. By the time he reacted, he was already caught in the wind field she had set up around him.

Because his speed suddenly decreased, his Sunflower Phantom Steps technique momentarily faltered. Then, the golden abacus beads, clinging like maggots to bone, surged directly towards him.

Although Zu'an hurriedly swung his Tai'a Sword to block, there were so many densely packed abacus beads that he couldn't possibly defend against them all.

Soon, many parts of his body were struck. The abacus beads hit him with dull thudding sounds.

Seeing that he had struck his opponent, Jin Sanren smiled. Since the goal was to capture Zu'an alive, he had intentionally avoided vital points. Even so, the force within the beads was enough to completely incapacitate a peak fifth-rank cultivator.

It was important to note that, according to intelligence, Zu'an was supposedly only around fifth-rank.

However, his eyes quickly widened, as Zu'an not only didn't fall but even plucked the abacus beads off his body.

"Damn, that really hurt!" Zu'an weighed them in his hand—they were actually gold. "Isn't this guy ridiculously rich?" he thought.

So, without hesitation, he collected all the abacus beads into his Glazed Jewel, wondering how much money all that gold could be worth.

Jin Sanren, however, was dumbfounded. He tried to control his abacus beads to continue their assault, but to his dismay, he found that at least half of them had lost their connection to him.

He quickly retrieved the remaining beads, but the once dazzling golden abacus was now fragmented, with numerous holes where beads were missing.

"Where did they go?" Jin Sanren was on the verge of tears. This golden abacus was his proudest weapon, and he had spent a great deal of his savings to forge it. How could it inexplicably end up like this?

He glared at Zu'an. "Was that your doing?"

Jin Sanren's rage increased by 233!

Zu'an offered a shy smile. "I was injured by your trinkets; both physically and mentally, I suffered severe damage. So, taking some as compensation is quite reasonable, wouldn't you say?"

Jin Sanren nearly went mad with rage. "Severe damage, my foot! Do you have a single scratch on your body?"

Jin Sanren's rage increased by 999!

At the same time, he was filled with doubt and suspicion. He still remembered the sensation of the abacus beads hitting Zu'an's body; it felt completely different from striking flesh, more like hitting a solid wall. Why was his body so incredibly tough?

While he was momentarily stunned, Ice Sanren had already launched his attack.

Zu'an finally got a clear look at Ice Sanren. He was a tall, thin man with a snow-white cloak draped over his back and a white hat on his head, making him look like a complete pervert.

He saw Ice Sanren rush towards Zu'an, then directly exhale a breath towards him.

A visible wave of frigid air rushed forward; if struck by it, the outcome would surely be dire.

Feeling the restraint of the wind field, Zu'an quickly summoned a strong gust, instantly teleporting to a distant spot and escaping the whirlwind formation.

The instant he vanished, the frigid breath Ice Sanren exhaled struck the spot where Zu'an had just stood, and that patch of grass immediately froze into solid ice.

From a distance, Feng Sanren was somewhat bewildered. Her wind field had trapped countless heroes before, and while it wasn't unheard of for someone to escape, those individuals invariably possessed a higher cultivation level than her. For someone of Zu'an's fourth or fifth-rank cultivation, trapping him should have been easy—she could have trapped a hundred such individuals without issue.

While she was still stunned, Zu'an couldn't help but shout curses at Ice Sanren: "You damn pervert, didn't you brush your teeth this morning, always spitting like that? Don't you know your breath is terrible? Your wife must hate your smell!"

Ice Sanren: "..."

Ice Sanren's rage increased by 712!

"I'll kill you!"

Ice Sanren, enraged, spread his hands, and countless ice arrows formed behind him.

In the distance, Qiu Honglei's face turned pale, and she cried out, "Stop!"

But Ice Sanren, blinded by rage, did not heed her words, and the ice arrows behind him shot directly towards Zu'an.

"Hmph, no matter how powerful your movement technique is, with my full-range, no-blind-spot attack, let's see where you can hide!"

What's more, the angles he chose for these ice arrows were extremely cunning, launched precisely when Zu'an and Pei Mianman were in a direct line.

If Zu'an dodged, Pei Mianman, who was behind him, would most likely be hit.

Zu'an immediately realized the maliciousness of the attack. Seeing the overwhelming swarm of ice arrows, like a beehive, he found himself in a dilemma: he couldn't dodge, nor could he stay put.

Ultimately, he still lacked effective means against such large-scale area-of-effect attacks. He instinctively considered using the dragon's corpse to withstand the assault, knowing that ice arrows of this level couldn't pierce the dragon's scales.

However, revealing the red dragon's corpse before had attracted another dragon, and he realized that if word got out, he would surely be hunted by the dragon race.

Furthermore, his possession of a spatial artifact with immense storage capacity would also certainly be revealed. Judging by previous reactions, such an artifact might not be any less valuable than the "Phoenix Nirvana Scripture." There were already more than enough people hunting him; he didn't want to add to that number.

Just as he was at a loss for what to do, a pale yellow palace lantern suddenly rose into the air. Under its bright yellow glow, the countless ice arrows seemed to freeze in mid-air.

At that moment, a fragrant breeze swept past as Qiu Honglei appeared beside Zu'an, pulling him aside.

Pei Mianman, on the other side, also noticed the situation and quickly dodged away.

Immediately afterward, the ice arrows seemed to unfreeze, completely saturating and covering the large area they had been aimed at.

Zu'an watched, speechless. Even with his current physical toughness, taking those ice arrows head-on would likely turn him into a porcupine.

"Saintess!" Seeing Qiu Honglei intervene, Ice Sanren immediately grew alarmed.

Qiu Honglei raised a hand to stop him from speaking further, then turned to Zu'an. "Are you alright?"

The other wanderers had been about to rush forward, but seeing the Saintess nearby, they hesitated to make a move.

Smelling the sweet fragrance emanating from her, Zu'an felt his spirits lift. "With you personally coming to my rescue, how could anything happen to me?" he mused, then added, "But in this situation, are you truly not afraid I might take you hostage?"

Qiu Honglei smiled faintly. "Would you?"

Looking closely at her flawless face, he was even more struck by her incredibly delicate skin and her sparkling large eyes that seemed to speak volumes, enough to utterly captivate any man.

Zu'an secretly thought, "What an enchantress!" Then he said, "I'm a man who always distinguishes clearly between favors and grievances. You just saved me; how could I possibly repay your kindness with hostility?"

Qiu Honglei smiled, her face like a blooming flower. "It seems I was right about you after all."

Zu'an's gaze fell upon the lantern in her hand. "That's quite an artifact you have there. What's its origin?"

"That's a secret," Qiu Honglei said, blinking with a mischievous smile. "I recall you once had a saying, 'Secrets make a woman more womanly.'"

Zu'an was startled. He hadn't expected this woman to be so quick-witted, actually quoting Vermouth's classic line.

Just then, Pei Mianman's displeased voice came from nearby: "Zu, that's enough! We're fighting for our lives here, and you're over there flirting with a woman?"

Zu'an: "..."

Qiu Honglei pursed her lips and smiled. "It seems someone's jealous. Well then, let's get back to business."

Her expression immediately turned serious. "Surrender."