Chapter 491: Mosquito Taoist

With his cultivation level, Ice Cultivator wouldn't have been instantly killed in a direct confrontation, even if he were outmatched. Had he activated his ice shield, the Daoist nun would have needed considerable effort to break through it.

Unfortunately, most of his attention was focused on eavesdropping on the conversation in the room below. Coupled with his overconfidence, he believed no sound or movement around him could escape his notice.

Unbeknownst to him, an enemy of unfathomable cultivation approached silently and launched a direct attack, leaving him no chance to resist.

In the animal kingdom, even two equally matched predators can achieve an instant kill if one is caught off guard and the other ambushes. This was even more true for Ice Cultivator, whose cultivation was already inferior to the Daoist nun's.

In the room below, Qiu Honglei looked up in confusion. "Ice Cultivator, is everything alright?" she called out.

Although Ice Cultivator offered no effective resistance during the entire process, there was bound to be some noise on the rooftop. Qiu Honglei, being a master herself, easily detected the subtle sounds.

She didn't think much of it, of course, merely asking out of habit. After all, no one would have imagined that one of the esteemed Eight Dispersed Cultivators of the Demonic Sect would be instantly killed.

Receiving no response, Qiu Honglei walked to the window, calling out again with a puzzled expression, "Ice Cultivator?"

Just then, the window suddenly shattered, and an apricot-yellow figure burst into the room, their pale hands striking towards her chest.

In her haste, Qiu Honglei had no time to think. She swiftly raised her palms to block the attack across her chest. As their hands met, she felt as if struck by lightning, spitting out a mouthful of blood and her aura weakening significantly.

The newcomer was, of course, the Daoist nun. "Oh?" she exclaimed. "The Demonic Sect's Saintess certainly has some skill."

Although her tone was filled with praise, her hands did not pause, continuing to strike directly at Qiu Honglei's vital points.

It was already a miracle that her opponent, caught completely off guard, had managed to block her first strike. This time, she would not escape.

Seeing those pale yet murderous hands, a flicker of despair crossed Qiu Honglei's face. The previous strike had completely disrupted her internal vital energy. With her cultivation, she would normally recover her combat strength after three breaths, but her opponent gave her no such opportunity.

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared in front of her, a warm arm embracing her. "Quick, leave!"

In this critical moment, it was naturally Zu An, using his "Great Wind" skill, who snatched her back from the brink of death.

The Daoist nun's palm missed its target, striking directly onto the pillar where Qiu Honglei had just stood.

It made no earth-shattering sound; in fact, there was no sound at all, which seemed completely out of sync with such a powerful palm strike, creating a jarring sense of contradiction.

However, when she withdrew her hand, the pillar, thick enough for a person to embrace, instantly crumbled. It didn't break into pieces; instead, the entire pillar turned to dust and scattered.

Zu An and Qiu Honglei watched, their faces pale. If that palm had connected, they would likely have been reduced to nothing but a bloody pulp.

Only then did they get a chance to examine their opponent: a Daoist nun in an apricot-yellow robe, holding a horsetail whisk. Her face was quite ordinary, yet her entire being exuded a seductive charm.

Upon seeing her attire, Zu An paused. "Li Mochou?" he mumbled.

Her appearance was strikingly similar to Li Mochou's attire from *The Return of the Condor Heroes*, though her face was considerably less beautiful.

"Oh?" The Daoist nun did not continue her attack. Instead, she looked at Zu An curiously. "What was that move of yours, young man? Why were you so fast?"

Zu An snorted. "Why should I tell you? How about you tell me the name of your palm strike first?"

The Daoist nun sneered, "Brat, you're asking for death!"

The moment her words faded, she struck at them with a palm. It was so fast that the force of the blow seemed to arrive even as her hand began to move.

Zu An was horrified and hastily activated "Sunflower Phantasm," creating three illusions that dashed in different directions.

The Daoist nun struck an afterimage, and the surprise in her eyes deepened. "This movement technique..."

Zu An dared not be careless. He quickly embraced Qiu Honglei and attempted to rush out the door.

The Daoist nun wouldn't let him escape. With a flick of her horsetail whisk, the several-foot-long strands instantly expanded to dozens of feet, forming a barrier across the doorway.

Zu An was startled and quickly changed direction.

Unfortunately, the white strands seemed to be alive, each one like a long snake, relentlessly coiling around the two of them.

Zu An's peripheral vision caught the strands gliding lightly over a nearby bench. The hard bench was sliced into two as if by a laser, leaving incredibly smooth cuts. He certainly dared not let those strands entangle them.

He pushed "Sunflower Phantasm" to its limit, constantly dodging the flying strands around them. But these white strands seemed endless, continuously extending and growing, soon filling the entire room like a series of spiderwebs, leaving him less and less space to maneuver.

A cruel, cat-and-mouse smile appeared on the Daoist nun's face. "Brat, you truly surprise me. Your cultivation is extremely low, yet the marvel of your movement technique surpasses that of many grandmasters. I'm growing increasingly interested in you."

"If you're so interested, why are you so ruthless?" Sweat beaded on Zu An's temples. Looking at the dense network of threads around him, he could foresee that he would likely be caught within half a minute.

The Daoist nun smiled. "Precisely because I'm interested, I'll capture you and toy with you slowly. I'm fond of young, robust men like you."

A shiver of disgust ran down Zu An's spine. He couldn't help but retort, "Unfortunately, I'm not interested in old women like you."

"What did you say!" The Daoist nun shrieked in a fit of rage, and the strands on her horsetail whisk expanded even more rapidly.

Rage value from Mosquito Daoist: 678!

"Mosquito Daoist?" Seeing that rage value in the system, Zu An was startled. He had thought she was a spider demon.

Unfortunately, the cost of enraging her was steep. The rapidly expanding horsetail whisk strands left him no more room to dodge, and he could only watch helplessly as the threads coiled around them from all directions.

Just then, Qiu Honglei, still in his arms, suddenly produced a lantern. As its pale yellow light spread, the rapidly approaching strands froze in place as if under a stasis spell.

Although Zu An had been dodging for some time, his extreme speed meant the actual duration was short. This allowed Qiu Honglei to finally regulate her chaotic vital energy and make her move.

"Oh? The Longevity Palace Lantern!" Mosquito Daoist stared intently at the lantern in Qiu Honglei's hand, a greedy glint erupting in her eyes.

Qiu Honglei was drenched in sweat. "Quick, leave! I can't hold her for long!"

Zu An held her, looking around, and inwardly groaned. *I want to leave too, but now her horsetail whisk has turned the entire room into a web-filled cavern. I can't get out even if I wanted to.*

Mosquito Daoist giggled. "Your cultivation is too low; you can't fully utilize this lamp's power. I'll recover very soon, and then this lamp will be mine."

She hadn't expected such good fortune today. First, she had drained a naive young man in the wild; though a bit foolish, his cultivation was decent, and his youth made him taste excellent. The one on the rooftop was older, so he tasted a bit worse, but his cultivation was higher.

She had initially planned to kill the Demonic Sect's Saintess and then abduct Zu An to slowly extract information about the *Phoenix Nirvana Sutra*. However, she never expected to discover the Longevity Palace Lantern. Although it wasn't as powerful as the lamp in her memory, she believed that was simply because Qiu Honglei's low cultivation prevented her from unleashing its full potential.

The thought of such exceptional gains today made her want to laugh out loud. For years, her notorious reputation had forced her to hide, but once she cultivated the *Phoenix Nirvana Sutra* and refined the Longevity Palace Lantern, who in the world could stand against her?