Chapter 508: Fangxin Secretly Agrees

Whatever the reason, Zu An had no time to ponder, for the gluttonous beast had already approached him with heavy footsteps.

Looking at the ferocious monster before him, Zu An couldn't help but swallow, a chill running down his spine.

Fearing he would lose courage completely, he kept psyching himself up. This creature, he thought, might look a bit terrifying and have the formidable reputation of an ancient fierce beast, but its size was no more than that of a small Tyrannosaurus Rex or an Alien.

In his previous life, he certainly wouldn't have had enough lives to face it, but now he was a cultivator, his physical capabilities and reaction speed comparable to a minor superhero. He might not be without the strength to fight such a monster.

With that thought, his heart settled. "Son of a bitch, come on!"

The gluttonous beast seemed to understand his provocation, letting out "ying-ying-ying" cries as it charged towards him.

The powerful physique paired with such a delicate, infant-like wail looked utterly comical.

However, Zu An couldn't laugh now, because in that instant, the beast's initial direct palm strike suddenly shifted mid-motion. It was clearly dodging the longsword in his hand—since the 'Deathbringer Dagger' had lost its effect earlier, he had switched to the Tai'e Sword, whose length certainly offered a greater advantage.

Initially, seeing the creature foolishly swing its claw towards his sword, he had secretly rejoiced, thinking that no matter how powerful this monster was, it was still just flesh and blood. Before the Tai'e Sword, which could cut through metal and jade, it would be no different from tofu.

But just as he was about to strike, the gluttonous beast deftly moved its claw away, then swiftly slammed it into the flat side of the Tai'e Sword.

Caught off guard, the immense force transmitted to his hand in that instant made Zu An lose his grip on the Tai'e Sword. The sword arced through the air and plunged directly into the pile of bones several yards away.

Zu An was horrified. This creature was clearly no ordinary monster; its strength was far greater than its appearance suggested. Aliens and small Tyrannosaurus Rexes were nothing compared to it.

He couldn't help but feel utterly depressed. It seemed that just as humans in this world could cultivate to improve their power, monsters could too.

At the same time, he no longer dared to simply regard the opponent as a low-intelligence beast. The creature's reaction in that instant made him realize that the gluttonous beast had most likely discovered them the moment it entered, but had remained outwardly calm, pretending not to notice. Then, when they were at their most relaxed and off guard, it had shot out its tongue to launch a sneak attack, almost achieving a double kill in one go.

Thoughts flooded his mind, and without hesitation, he swiftly ran towards the Tai'e Sword, hoping to retrieve his weapon and resume the fight.

He had absolutely no confidence fighting this thing bare-handed.

But how could the gluttonous beast let him have his way? With a "ying-ying-ying" cry, it leaped, blocking the path between him and the Tai'e Sword. Then, without pausing, it lunged, tackling Zu An to the ground.

Zu An hadn't expected its speed to be so great, especially since the gluttonous beast had been moving sluggishly from the moment it appeared until now.

Caught off guard, he was immediately pinned beneath the creature.

Zu An felt like crying but had no tears. For the first time in his life, he was tackled to the ground, and it wasn't by a beautiful woman, but by a monster.

He even started to wonder if he was naturally too thick-skinned, otherwise why would such absurd thoughts pop into his head at such a critical and tense moment?

The gluttonous beast wasn't polite. Its gaping, blood-red maw lunged directly towards his head, and a foul, fishy stench assailed him.

Zu An quickly extended both hands to press its upper and lower jaws together, slamming them shut to make it bite empty air.

He recalled watching 'Animal World' where many animals had incredibly powerful bites, but the strength required to open their mouths was far less.

For instance, an alligator's mouth could tear apart not just a person, but even a several-hundred-pound ox or horse. However, if you closed its jaws beforehand, an adult's strength would be enough to keep it from opening its mouth.

From their recent contact, Zu An had already determined that while the gluttonous beast's strength surpassed his, there wasn't a qualitative difference. Thus, in a moment of desperation, he held its mouth shut, preventing it from using its formidable fangs.

The gluttonous beast was also dumbfounded. Having encountered such a prey for the first time, it instinctively tried to open its mouth to bite, but with its jaws clamped shut by the opponent, it couldn't open them at all. Frantically, it thrashed its head from side to side.

With his life on the line, Zu An put every ounce of his strength into holding its head down firmly.

Seeing it couldn't shake free, the gluttonous beast suddenly raised its sharp tail, then swiftly lunged it towards his head.

"Watch out!" Pei Mianman, who had been closely observing the battle, cried out in alarm. But as soon as she spoke, it aggravated her injuries, and sweat streamed down her face from the pain. Ignoring her own suffering, she weakly looked towards Zu An.

Seeing the gluttonous beast's sharp tail pierce directly into him, her mind went blank, and she felt as if her soul had left her body.

But soon, Zu An's voice rang out: "Little trickster, you think I haven't seen 'Alien'?"

Pei Mianman was filled with both surprise and joy, but her injuries were too severe, and she could barely speak.

Zu An tilted his head, letting out a silent sigh of relief as he saw the sharp tail, inches from him, plunged deeply into the dirt. From the moment he first saw the creature, he had noticed its long, sharp tail, so when he saw it raise its tail like a scorpion, he knew it was about to attack.

The gluttonous beast was furious and humiliated. With a flick of its tail, it raised it again, then viciously plunged it down once more.

Zu An quickly tilted his head to dodge in another direction. The gluttonous beast struck empty air, raised its tail again, and thrust it down. Zu An dodged again… The two engaged in a game of attack and evasion within inches of each other.

Of course, for the gluttonous beast, it might have been just a game, but for Zu An, a moment's inattention would mean being impaled on the spot.

Zu An knew that prolonged defense would inevitably lead to failure, and this couldn't continue. However, despite gathering his strength, he could at most barely control the creature's mouth; moving its heavy body was utterly impossible.

A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. He deliberately stopped dodging for once, allowing the creature's tail to directly pierce his shoulder.

In an instant, blood burst forth, but a red glint flashed in Zu An's eyes. Clearly, he intended to worsen his injuries to trigger the berserk effect of the 'Phoenix Nirvana Scripture'.

He was already injured, and now with this new horrific wound, he paradoxically felt his body surge with explosive power.

He directly bent his leg and pushed against the creature's belly. Then, as it once again raised its tail to end his life, he directly kicked it away.

With a tremendous crash, the gluttonous beast fell backward into a pile of white bones, crushing them to pieces. The strange snakes hiding within scattered, only for several of them to be snatched by the beast's claw and crammed into its mouth to be chewed.

The two eyes on its shoulders stared at the figure opposite it with uncertainty and surprise, wondering why the opponent's strength had suddenly increased so much.

Zu An had already seized the opportunity to rush to the Tai'e Sword and pull his weapon out of the ground. At the same time, he kept a close eye on its human-like but tiger-clawed hand.

The way it had just picked up the strange snakes and fed them into its mouth was almost exactly like a human eating. Its ability to use its claws with such dexterity was certainly not good news.

The gluttonous beast's confusion was brief; its ravenous instincts quickly led it to charge at Zu An with "ying-ying-ying" cries.

This time, Zu An was prepared for its speed. Furthermore, in his berserk state from the 'Phoenix Nirvana Scripture', he immediately used 'Sunflower Phantasm' to flash to its side, then swung his sword to stab its head.

At this point, the gluttonous beast clearly sensed danger. With a swing of its long tail, it thrust directly at him.

Zu An weighed the comparative lengths of the Tai'e Sword and its tail, realizing that trading wounds would still leave him at a significant disadvantage.

So he abandoned the idea of stabbing its head with the sword. Instead, he swung his sword to the side, and the already incredibly sharp Tai'e Sword directly severed half of its tail. Gray-blue liquid sprayed wildly from the stump, landing on the surrounding white bones and immediately corroding large holes into them.

"Ying-ying-ying!" The gluttonous beast screamed in agony, clearly in considerable pain from its severed tail.

Zu An's head throbbed at the sound. With his left hand, he delivered a heavy blow to its head. "I'll punch you crybabies one by one!"

The gluttonous beast was sent reeling backward by his punch, eventually crashing into a nearby wall. It shook its head as it got back up, clearly feeling dizzy from the impact.

Zu An couldn't help but shake his hand; the recoil from that punch had made his hand throb. He secretly regretted it, thinking he should have aimed for its waist instead.

Worried that Pei Mianman wouldn't last much longer, he quickly swung the Tai'e Sword and attacked while the creature was still dizzy.

But who would have known that a cunning glint would suddenly appear in the gluttonous beast's eyes? The two ram horns on its head flickered with purple electric light, and then a ball of lightning condensed between them, flying directly towards Zu An.

The entire process sounds slow to describe, but from the electric light swirling around its horns to the formation of the lightning ball and its subsequent swift launch, it all happened almost instantaneously.

Zu An was currently unable to summon the great wind for instant teleportation, leaving him no time to dodge. The lightning ball exploded against his chest, causing a sharp pain and the smell of burning.

But these were not the most terrifying effects. The most terrifying was discovering that his entire body was paralyzed, rendering him unable to move an inch for a short time.

Clearly, this was the paralyzing effect of lightning!

Zu An paled with fright. He knew all too well what losing mobility at such a critical moment meant, but unfortunately, he was powerless to change it.

Just then, the gluttonous beast opened its huge mouth, and its long tongue shot directly towards the space between his eyebrows. Clearly, this strike intended to utterly smash his head.

Watching the tongue grow larger and larger before his eyes, Zu An's hair stood on end. He knew he was on the brink of death.

Unfortunately, the creature's tongue shot out too quickly, and with him paralyzed and unable to move, he couldn't make any effective reaction.

However, the imagined head-bursting strike did not occur. The tongue stopped an inch from Zu An's forehead.

Not only was Zu An stunned, but even the gluttonous beast was baffled. It instinctively retracted its tongue a bit, then shot it out again, but it still fell short by that same inch.

Zu An finally realized what had happened. The creature's tongue had just been severed when it pierced Pei Mianman's shoulder. The gluttonous beast was accustomed to its tongue's original length for hunting, so it instinctively believed it could directly pierce the enemy's head from that distance, forgetting that a section of its tongue was now missing.

How could Zu An miss such an excellent opportunity? While the creature was still stunned, he immediately summoned Baiming and launched a soul attack against it.

Because of his cultivation level, Baiming was currently better suited for defense rather than offense. However, that only applied to high-level cultivators. Although this gluttonous beast was cunning, it was still just a monster that couldn't even speak. It clearly hadn't developed true sentience, meaning its spiritual attributes were relatively weak.

Sure enough, as Baiming let out a shriek, an invisible sound wave spread out. The gluttonous beast's entire body trembled, a bewildered look appeared in its eyes, and even its previously stiff, extended tongue flopped limply downward.

Meanwhile, Zu An's blood felt as if it had ignited during his brush with death. The paralyzing effect gradually subsided, and he had barely regained his mobility. Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed the Tai'e Sword and dashed to the gluttonous beast's side.

Recalling the pain he felt when striking its head earlier, he chose not to target the head this time. Instead, he plunged his longsword into one of the eyes on its shoulder.

The creature was so bizarrely shaped that who knew if its head was its *actual* head? In any case, common sense dictated that eyes wouldn't be too far from the head.

"Ying-ying-ying!" With the entire sword almost fully embedded in its body, the gluttonous beast let out an incredibly piercing scream.

Then its entire body stiffened, before it crashed to the ground.

Zu An withdrew the sword, and countless disgusting liquids poured out from its eye socket, scorching the surrounding ground black.

"Fortunately, the Tai'e Sword is of extraordinary quality; any other sword would likely have been corroded beyond recognition by its blood," Zu An murmured as he sheathed the sword. He didn't bother examining the gluttonous beast's corpse, rushing instead to check on Pei Mianman.

Pei Mianman had been forcing herself to stay conscious, watching his battle with the gluttonous beast, her heart pounding several times as she saw him in perilous situations. Only now, seeing him kill the beast, did she finally breathe a sigh of relief.

However, as soon as that breath of relief escaped, she could no longer hold on and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Zu An quickly scooped her up. "Manman, Manman!"

Pei Mianman struggled to open her eyes, a faint smile gracing her lips. "Ah Zu, you're truly amazing. You even managed to kill such a terrifying monster."

Ordinarily, Zu An would have teased her, but now, seeing the horrific wound on her shoulder, his eyes stung with tears, and he felt no inclination to flirt whatsoever. "Manman, don't talk anymore. Save your strength."

Pei Mianman shook her head in his arms. "Anyway, I'm going to die soon. If I don't speak now, I'll never be able to… Actually, I have so many… so many things I want to tell you, but thinking about it… telling you now would only… only add to your troubles, so it's better not to… I just wish you and Chuyan a long… long…"

Seeing her eyes gradually dimming, Zu An quickly said, "I won't let you die, I won't let you die!"

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. He quickly took out a vivid red glass bottle and poured all its liquid into her mouth, murmuring anxiously, "Manman, you must hold on, you must hold on!"

Alas, Pei Mianman eventually closed her eyes.

Zu An instantly felt as if he had plunged into an ice cellar. Holding her, he murmured to himself, "Why did I only just remember I had a bottle of 'Believe in Brother Spring'? If I had given it to you one second earlier, you might not have died."

"It's all my fault, all my fault. You're so beautiful, so talented, you had such a wonderful life ahead of you. If you hadn't come to rescue me, how would you have died here…"

***

Zu An held her in despair, pouring out his heart. The memory of their first meeting resurfaced in his mind—her enchanting peach blossom eyes, her affectionate smile, as if it were only yesterday. Then came their accidental acquaintance in Chu Chuyan's room, her secretly sneaking into his room late at night to teach him martial arts, and all her companionship along the way…

The more he thought, the sadder he became. He held her tightly and burst into uncontrolled sobs.

"Hey, that tickles! Your snot's all over my collar," a laughing voice suddenly said.

Zu An straightened up in disbelief, then lowered his head to see a smiling face looking back at him, her sparkling peach blossom eyes as enchanting and alluring as ever.

"You… you're not dead?" Zu An asked, hardly daring to believe his eyes.

"Did you want me to die?" Pei Mianman scoffed. "What kind of miraculous medicine was that? I had one foot in the grave, and it pulled me back!"

"That was an elixir of immortality given to me by an immortal," Zu An chuckled.

"Elixir of immortality?" Pei Mianman paused. "Doesn't that mean you can make many people around you immortal too?"

Zu An shook his head. "For now, it's just this one bottle. Of course, there might be more in the future…"

Before he could finish, Pei Mianman's expression changed. "You gave me the only bottle of immortal medicine?"

Zu An chuckled. "Just teasing you. It's not an elixir of immortality."

Pei Mianman pursed her lips. "This medicine can bring people back from the dead. Even if it's not an elixir of immortality, it's not far off. You actually used it on me. I truly don't know how to repay you."

"Hmph, repay me!" Zu An snorted, then swatted her on the backside in annoyance. "Were you already fine? Why didn't you say anything, letting me be so heartbroken?"

Pei Mianman let out a soft moan, her beautiful face already flushed crimson. She cast him a coquettish glance, but there was no blame in her eyes. "I really was unconscious at first, and only gradually woke up later. I'm actually glad it happened that way; otherwise, how would I have known I was so important to you?"

As she spoke, she gazed at him with tender affection. Seeing her face flush with a rosy glow, Zu An found her even more captivating than usual and couldn't help but stare in a daze.

"Oh dear~" Pei Mianman suddenly exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Zu An asked quickly, worried something was wrong with her.

Pei Mianman turned to her shoulder. "The injured spot on my shoulder is really itchy. Can you take a look?"

She still remembered the horrific wound on her shoulder; the gluttonous beast's corrosive blood had ravaged her body, and just thinking about it now still sent shivers down her spine.

Zu An gently poked her wound. "Does it hurt? Don't worry, with my immortal medicine, even if you lose a limb, it'll grow back."

He had experienced it firsthand. His previous injuries were far worse than what Pei Mianman had seen, and yet he had fully recovered.

"It really doesn't hurt anymore," Pei Mianman said with a hint of surprise. She moved her arm and clearly felt that the previous empty sensation was gone, indicating a full recovery. However, she immediately had another concern. "Can you help me unbutton my clothes and see if there are any scars left?"

Let alone a beauty like her, any woman would cherish her skin immensely, fearing even the slightest blemish.

"Oh~" Zu An subconsciously reached for her shoulder, then hesitated. "This might not be appropriate, you know, men and women shouldn't touch each other intimately."

Although the red bottle could restore her vitality, it couldn't repair her clothes. The fabric around her shoulder was already quite torn, and if he unbuttoned it further, it would easily slide off completely. He certainly didn't want to be mistaken for a pervert.

Pei Mianman let out a giggle. "You flirtatious fellow, you were just hugging and holding me, and now you're pretending to be a gentleman?"

"That was just to save you! Besides, I am a gentleman…" The more Zu An spoke, the more self-conscious he became.

Pei Mianman gazed at him with tender affection. "Silly boy, given our relationship, what does it matter if you see?"

***

Today, I've combined two chapters into one large chapter.

Lately, I've had a personal conundrum that I hope my fellow readers, with your hidden talents and wisdom, can help answer: Why do protagonists always have an endless stream of beautiful women around them, while in reality, I rarely even see girls, let alone pretty ones?