Chapter 1413: Human Face, Snake Body

Zuan also noticed the other party and immediately looked over vigilantly.

After all, he possessed the Blue Duck skill, which, while not allowing him to move as freely as in normal water, still made his underwater movement considerably easier than others.

To his surprise, the red form vanished. It was clear the other party was deliberately hiding, intending to ambush him in the darker depths below.

"Trying to ambush me using darkness?" Zuan's expression turned exceedingly odd.

The Weak River was Yayu's home ground. Once the bottom became completely dark and vision was impossible, he could still pinpoint his opponent's location using his sense of smell and by perceiving changes in water currents. Meanwhile, with the human's eyes rendered useless, they would naturally become like fish on a chopping block.

Recalling how he had been unfairly and miserably beaten on the shore by this human and his companion, he felt that now, one-on-one in the Weak River, it was truly a time for revenge and retribution.

Hmm, the light has completely vanished. Let me sense exactly where he is.

Eh?

How can I not sense his presence at all!

This shock was no small matter; he even wondered if the opponent had gone ashore early. However, he immediately dismissed that notion, as he had been watching the entire time, and there was no way the other party could have hidden their departure from him.

What's more, it was easy to enter the Weak River, but getting out was far from simple.

It swam around, searching everywhere for the other party, but after scouring a large area, it couldn't find a single trace. The opponent seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Originally brimming with excitement and ready for revenge, he never expected such a turn of events and couldn't help but grow increasingly agitated.

Zuan, lurking at the bottom of the river, silently observed everything. He had just seen through his opponent's intentions, but the darkness was actually to his advantage, as he possessed a skill like Dark Invisibility. In the dark, even an Earth Immortal would be unable to detect his presence, let alone this monster.

Of course, he did not attack blindly, but patiently waited for an opportunity.

Perhaps due to the Sui Hou Pearl, he found his spiritual senses to be several times keener than before; even in the dark, he could clearly perceive everything around him.

Yayu grew increasingly agitated from being unable to find him, causing increasingly obvious water current fluctuations as it swam.

When the opponent came within less than a *zhang* of his side, he suddenly moved.

Yayu sensed trouble and quickly turned to flee, but a wave of coldness emanated around it. Zuan plunged the Flying Snow Sword into the riverbed, and using the sword tip as a pivot, a large area of the surrounding river water visibly froze into ice, as if an ice storm had formed.

Seeing its path sealed by ice, Yayu was about to turn and fight desperately when it saw a lamp light up.

It had suffered greatly before due to this lamp, and its heart was seized with dread. "Has that white-robed, long-haired woman come down too?" While its movements were affected by the Changxin Palace Lantern, Zuan directly took out the Qiankun Circle and struck it on the head, leaving it completely disoriented. He didn't take its life then, but instead froze it with the Snowflake Divine Sword and then bound it with the Hun Tian Ling.

On the bank, Yan Xuehen felt the Hun Tian Ling move and quickly pulled it ashore.

Seeing him capture Yayu alive so swiftly, the three women's eyes widened in astonishment. "This guy is far too formidable!" they thought.

After returning the Changxin Palace Lantern, Flying Snow Sword, and Sui Hou Pearl to the three women, Zuan stood before Yayu and produced the White Lotus True Fire. "Weapons couldn't kill you before," he said, "but this time, let's test the power of this White Lotus True Fire."

Yayu's eyes first showed a hint of disdain, then quickly shifted to an expression of profound fear.

Zuan was immediately amused. "You cunning creature, you actually have such a trick!"

Yan Xuehen commented, "With cultivation at such a high level, it must possess intelligence. Of course, that applies to normal creatures; the state of this monster is hard to say."

"Can it speak?" Zuan asked directly.

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

At this moment, Yun Jianyue said, "Since we can't kill it, let's not for now. Let's imprison it and make it suffer all kinds of pain without dying. Our Sacred Sect has many tortures more excruciating than *lingchi*. Why don't I give it a try?"

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

Yayu glared at her, thinking, "This woman has such a vicious heart."

Zuan smiled. "I also happen to know some punishments for immortals. For instance, we could encase him in a concrete sarcophagus and sink him to the bottom of the sea, trapping him forever in claustrophobic darkness. Or suppress him in a volcano, to be constantly burned to death by lava, revived, and then re-engulfed by lava, repeating endlessly. And..."

Having watched so many superhero films in his previous life, these methods came to him effortlessly.

Yun Jianyue was even more delighted to hear this. She felt her methods inflicted more physical pain, but Zuan's were more psychologically tormenting, and the two began exchanging insights on various "tortures."

Yan Xuehen and Yu Yanluo exchanged bewildered glances. Yan Xuehen pondered to herself, "Although Zuan has some flaws, like being a bit lecherous, he is generally a good person. I can't let this demoness lead him astray. In the future, I must guide him properly onto my righteous path."

After chatting for a while, they saw that although Yayu was trembling, it still gave no significant response.

So Zuan's expression darkened. "In that case, I'll send you on your way."

"Send him how?" Yan Xuehen was startled, thinking, "This creature clearly can't be killed."

Zuan smiled "shyly" and said, "Although I'm not from the Daoist sect, I happen to be proficient in some methods for dealing with ghosts and monsters."

He then directly activated the purification method from the second level of the *Grandmist Primordial Scripture*: "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, what should leave, do not remain..."

As his words resonated, a large, unseen hand seemed to appear from the ether, pulling out a phantom-like image, resembling a soul, from Yayu's body.

To their astonishment, the soul was not in the form of the dragon-headed, cat-bodied Yayu, but rather had a human face and a snake body.

They exchanged glances, all recalling a similar human-faced, snake-bodied statue they had seen earlier in the small temple on Mount Shaoxian.

However, the two faces were quite different. Could it be that the face became 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 entity, already struggling, became even more agitated and furious upon hearing his words, letting out a monstrous roar: "Erfu!"

"Erfu?" The realization dawned on them. So, the missing character on the temple's plaque was indeed "Fu," and the full name of the temple likely included "temple" or similar characters after it.

"You... are as detestable as Erfu, even more treacherous than Wei, ahhh!" As the human-faced, snake-bodied soul entity roared, the entire Weak River seemed to boil, and countless massive waves crashed against the shore.

At this moment, the three women finally understood what Zuan had meant earlier about the massive waves.

Without time to attend to Yayu's corpse, they hastily ran towards the nearby Mount Shaoxian. As the Weak River's colossal waves washed over Yayu's body, the human-faced, snake-bodied soul entity instantly emitted bursts of light, gradually breaking free from the unseen large hand's restraints. That pair of ephemeral hands then gradually shattered, finally vanishing without a trace.

Zuan's eyes widened; he never imagined the *Grandmist Primordial Scripture* could actually fail!

Now, being more experienced and knowledgeable, he immediately realized it must be related to the incomplete heavenly and earthly rules in this region, which rendered the *Grandmist Primordial Scripture*'s purification effect imperfect.

However, he had no time to ponder these things, because the Weak River was still rising, and it soon submerged more than half of the mountain.

The hearts of the group sank. If the water continued to rise at this rate, it wouldn't be long before the entire mountain was completely submerged, and they would be entirely swept into the Weak River.

Although their cultivation levels might allow them to be safe for a short time, without external support, it would likely be difficult to escape the Weak River again.

As they retreated to the dilapidated temple they had seen earlier, they were surprised to find that the surging Weak River could not rise any higher.

It remained three *chi* below the temple steps.

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

Yet no matter how forcefully it tried, the dilapidated temple, seemingly on the verge of collapse from wind and rain, remained as stable as Mount Tai.

Zuan's heart stirred, and he looked at the three women. "Do you remember the missing main statue in the temple just now? Did the star chart at that statue's location show 'Wei Yue Yan'?"