Chapter 1742: Nine-Word Mantra

Zu An's expression turned serious. He wouldn't stand idly by, knowing he had to confront the source of the problem directly. He charged straight towards the woman.

The beautiful woman seemed prepared. The floor suddenly cracked open, and saplings sprouted from the ground, growing rapidly and almost instantly into treant soldiers, blocking all paths forward.

"Boss, be careful not to get entangled!" Wei Suo quickly warned. Many wood-element cultivators could summon treants. Although treants were clumsy, they possessed immense strength, and once caught, one's abilities were easily suppressed—just like how he had been tangled by that 'Great World' earlier...

Zu An's expression remained calm. He unleashed a flaming blade, knowing fire was precisely the bane of these plants.

The treants immediately panicked, emitting silent screams.

The beautiful woman frowned slightly. She gently waved her hand, and a ball of water vapor condensed in her palm.

She then threw the water ball towards the treants, and it quickly transformed into a light drizzle.

However, her expression quickly changed. Logically, this water should have been enough to extinguish the flames, but to her surprise, the flames were completely unaffected. Instead, they blazed even fiercer, as if fuel had been added.

Those tall and mighty treants were reduced to ashes almost in the blink of an eye.

Zu An did not stop; he charged directly towards his opponent.

Qiu Honglei also made her move, conjuring a palace lantern whose light enveloped the woman, coordinating with Zu An's attack.

The beautiful woman's hair transformed into countless thin, dense vines, quickly forming the shape of an umbrella to block the light from the palace lantern, leaving her unaffected.

Qiu Honglei let out a sound of surprise; she had never expected her opponent to counter in such a way.

At this moment, countless vines rose from in front of the beautiful woman, surging towards Zu An. Compared to the vines cast by the senior disciple sister earlier, her vines were clearly much thicker and shimmered with light, indicating they were no ordinary creations.

Zu An's entire body burst into brilliant flames, and he directly transformed into the shape of a fire phoenix, swooping towards his opponent.

"That's no ordinary fire!" The beautiful woman's expression changed slightly. She suddenly retreated, and as she did, her hands rapidly formed a series of complex hand seals, chanting, "Lin, Bing, Dou, Zhe, Jie, Zhen, Lie, Qian, Xing!"

Zu An was full of questions at this moment. He had heard of this Taoist Nine-Character True Mantra in his previous life and knew it was generally used for exorcism.

But now, a tree demon was uttering this exorcism mantra. Was there something wrong with this world?

At this moment, the beautiful woman cried out again, "Array to the south, Vermilion Bird heed my command!"

No sooner had she spoken, a clear bird cry suddenly echoed from behind her. A fiery bird figure, radiating flames, shot into the sky and directly collided with Zu An.

*Bang!* A dazzling flash of fire erupted, and both sides staggered back several steps.

Zu An discovered that his flames could no longer burn away his opponent's vines.

He wondered if that fiery bird was the legendary Vermilion Bird. Both the Vermilion Bird and the Phoenix were sacred firebirds. With the Vermilion Bird protecting her, it would likely be difficult for him to harm her with fire.

But how could the dignified Vermilion Bird sacred beast protect a demon?

Furthermore, she was chanting a Taoist incantation.

At this moment, the beautiful woman soared into the air, and countless vines rose from behind her, attacking both Zu An and Qiu Honglei. Wherever they passed, the tables, chairs, and even pillars in the room shattered.

Qiu Honglei's body suddenly glowed brightly. A wall of light rose in front of them, blocking all the vines.

The light element's strongest defense—the Wall of Sighs!

The beautiful woman was startled; she hadn't expected her wide-ranging attack to be blocked.

Her hands rapidly formed seals again, "Lin..."

Unfortunately, Zu An had already moved. A brilliant sword light flashed, cutting a path through the countless vines, and then, to her shock, he appeared by her side.

His hand clamped around her neck, preventing her from uttering any more incantations.

She had initially intended to retaliate, but suddenly felt a force sealing her vital acupoints. At the same time, a strange suction emerged from his palm, like a black hole, capable of draining her essence at any moment.

With this, she no longer dared or was able to make a move.

The vines that had been flying everywhere all retracted and disappeared.

"What kind of demon are you?" the beautiful woman asked, somewhat horrified. "His cultivation... it's too terrifying, isn't it?"

Not only that, but her opponent seemed capable of draining her dry at any moment.

"I am naturally human," Zu An said, glancing at Wei Suo. "Remove the spell from him!"

Wei Suo was almost moved to tears, thinking, *Boss is indeed the best.*

At the same time, he was also somewhat shocked by Zu An's cultivation, which was even higher than he had imagined.

To his surprise, the beautiful woman calmly stated, "I, Jing Teng, have never in my life allowed myself to be coerced."

Zu An frowned and couldn't help but increase the pressure in his hand.

*This woman is called Jing Teng? What a strange name.*

The beautiful woman let out a grunt, a hint of pain flashing across her brows, but her expression remained stubborn, showing no signs of yielding.

Zu An said in a deep voice, "Do you really think I wouldn't dare kill you?"

The beautiful woman calmly replied, "This world is inherently about the strong preying on the weak. I was inferior and lost to you. Do as you wish, whether to kill or torture, but if you expect me to beg for mercy, forget it."

Feeling the resolve in her tone, Zu An found himself in a dilemma. If he killed her, Wei Suo would die with her.

Qiu Honglei smiled slightly. "Ah Zu, leave it to me. Our Holy Sect is more skilled at this kind of interrogation."

The beautiful woman cast a faint glance at her. "Your human tortures are useless against me. I won't even bat an eyelid, even if I die."

At this, Qiu Honglei walked up to her. Her slender fingers gently traced across the beautiful woman's smooth cheek, and she chuckled, "For a beautiful woman like you, sometimes death isn't the most terrifying thing."

The beautiful woman's expression changed. "What do you mean?"

Qiu Honglei gave a charming smile. "As a woman, you naturally know what I mean."

Her gaze flickered over Zu An, pointedly ignoring him, then she said to Wei Suo, "Brother Wei, didn't you want to have a night of romance with these female ghosts earlier? This girl is all yours."

Wei Suo, who had been tormented by the flowers almost to death, had his eyes immediately light up upon hearing this. "Really?"

"Of course, it's real," Qiu Honglei replied. "If this lady doesn't remove the demonic spell from you, it proves she's eager to be with you."

To everyone's surprise, the beautiful woman instead let out a sigh of relief. "He is currently restrained by my vine seeds," she said. "Even if he had the desire, he wouldn't have the strength."

Wei Suo's face immediately fell. *That's too hurtful to my pride.*

*Ah, such a good opportunity.*

Qiu Honglei was taken aback and became a little annoyed. She directly pushed Zu An, saying, "Worst case, let him do it."

Zu An was speechless.

*I'm truly caught in the crossfire.*

A faint smile played on the beautiful woman's lips. "He's your man; can you really bear it?"

Qiu Honglei's expression was natural. "It's normal for a man to have three wives and four concubines," she said. "Besides, he's doing it to save his brother. What's wrong with a little sacrifice?"

Zu An was utterly bewildered.

Wei Suo almost shed tears, thinking, *If this is how to save a brother, I'd wish to save him every day!*

The beautiful woman frowned; her expression indeed changed slightly, but she quickly composed herself. "He's quite handsome; I wouldn't be losing out," she said.

Now it was Qiu Honglei's turn to be utterly bewildered.

Immediately, she grew angry. "A demon is a demon! What a shameless woman! Just kill her!"

As she spoke, she took out a pair of gleaming twin blades and made as if to strike her.

"Hold your hand!" Just then, a cry of alarm came. It was Xiao Ying, the female ghost from earlier, who had rushed back, holding up her skirt.

She had run away earlier out of fear of Granny, but later, she kept worrying about the handsome young man, so she secretly returned to check. To her surprise, she saw Granny, who had always been invincible, restrained.

Zu An was somewhat surprised. "You're pleading for her? Aren't you afraid of her?"

Because of *A Chinese Ghost Story*, he subconsciously regarded the other party as a miserable female ghost oppressed and controlled by Granny.

"Granny is indeed fierce, and I'm very afraid of her," Xiao Ying said timidly, "but she's actually quite good to us."

Zu An and Qiu Honglei exchanged glances. They had never expected such a development.

Seeing that the two seemed disbelieving, Xiao Ying quickly explained, "It's precisely because of Granny's protection that I wasn't captured by the Ghost King's subordinates. For years, Granny has strictly forbidden us from harming people. We were only allowed to find those lecherous scoundrels to absorb their Yang energy, but we never took anyone's life. They would recover after a period of rest."

"Lies!" Qiu Honglei's expression turned cold. "Many people in the vicinity have clearly been harmed here at Ruolan Temple. Do you think we don't know that?"

Wei Suo nodded repeatedly. Earlier, he had come here due to rumors of ghosts, accepting the villagers' commission to meet a female ghost... *ahem*, to eliminate evil for the people!

Zu An and the others were startled. They had never expected it to be like this.

"Xiao Ying, why bother explaining all this to them!" The beautiful woman was somewhat annoyed. Clearly, she felt such behavior bordered on begging for mercy.

"But just now, your senior disciple sister seemed to have absorbed human essence more than once or twice," Zu An sneered. That person had a fierce expression and was clearly burdened with many blood debts.

"Senior disciple sister sometimes couldn't help herself and would secretly drain people dry," Xiao Ying said weakly, "but out of consideration for Granny, the number wasn't that large."

The beautiful woman's eyes snapped open. "Such a thing happened, and you didn't tell me earlier!"

Xiao Ying trembled slightly. Clearly, the other's accumulated authority was great. "Because Senior Disciple Sister and Granny are of the same clan, we dared not say anything."

"Same clan?" The beautiful woman's face turned frosty. "I merely took pity on her back then and taught her a few things. How could she be considered of my clan? If I had known she was so vicious, I would have killed her long ago!"

Zu An smiled. "In that case, there's no enmity between us. For Xiao Ying's sake, I'll release you. How about you save my friend?"

The beautiful woman hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright!"

"To show my sincerity, I'll release you first," Zu An said. He loosened his grip and stepped back a few paces.

Qiu Honglei was somewhat worried, but Zu An's gaze signaled her to relax, indicating it wouldn't be difficult for him to subdue her again.

A hint of surprise flashed across the beautiful woman's face. Then she reached out and beckoned towards Wei Suo. Countless green lights flew out from his body, and immediately after, the dense sprouts and flowers on his body all vanished.

Wei Suo felt himself all over and began to grin foolishly with joy.

The beautiful woman turned and walked directly outside. "Xiao Ying, let's go!"

"Wait!" Zu An called out, stopping her.

The beautiful woman turned sharply. "Humans truly are untrustworthy!"

Zu An smiled. "Miss, you're overthinking it. I have no intention of troubling you. I merely want to inquire about a few things. Have you seen several women..."

As he spoke, he briefly described the appearances and characteristics of Yan Xuehen, Yun Jianyue, and Xie Daoyun to her.

"I didn't expect you to be such a Casanova," the beautiful woman sneered. "No, I haven't seen them."

From their recent conversation, her nature didn't seem like one to lie.

While disappointed, Zu An also asked, "By the way, what was that about the Ghost King you just mentioned?"