Endowed with high intellect, Singkuo’s brain revolved faster as he faced the imminent crisis of life-and-death. The betrayal of Death Dhyana Buddhist Master made him furious, yet he didn’t lose his reasoning. His killing intent surged inwardly as he took a roll of golden threads from his sleeve.

‘Bind!’

The golden thread unfolded and instantly shot forward toward the monk’s feet. The moment it bound his feet, Singkuo quickly pulled it back powerfully, dragging the monk’s feet and causing him to fall and fling backwards. In nearly an instant, he had overtaken Death Dhyana Buddhist Master’s position and had bolted to the front.

“DAMN YOU, SINGKUO!!!”

Death Dhyana Buddhist Master was so furious that his heart was inundated with endless regret. He had scouted Singkuo as a very talented youth and thus took a long journey with his companions to follow up in their effort to recruit him. Who would have thought that he must lose six companions just to rescue this fella, only to get stabbed in the back at this moment?

Right as Tang Xiu’s lightning-like figure appeared tens of meters away from the monk, he slashed the divine sword forward. At the moment when the monk frantically avoided his strike, an immortal sword appeared out of the blue, aimed at his neck. Although the slash wasn’t able to decapitate him, it still left a bleeding wound on his nape.

Tang An herself had been injured and she practically ignored it due to the death sentence Tang Xiu had given to Death Dhyana Buddhist Master, preventing this monk’s escape at all costs. Therefore, she kept chasing this monk closely. Even though her moves didn’t have overwhelming power, it was still powerful, making the monk unable to spare his attention on anything else.

“Tang Xiu, we have no enmity whatsoever; why are you still vehemently aiming for the kill?” growled Death Dhyana Buddhist Master furiously with a disastrous face while avoiding Tang An’s barrages. In the countless battles he had encountered, never once had he been so fearful and vexed as he was right now.

Tang Xiu flew up and stood mid-air as he fiercely retorted, “We had no enmity before, Death Dhyana. But you just created it by being a busybody, leading to this situation. Singkuo is but a dire wolf full of ambition that I must kill. Besides, did you forget what you just said? Hmph… rather than having you nagging my mind, might as well kill you now to spare me any worry.”

“You really want to shut out any reconciliation?” shouted Death Dhyana Buddhist Master. “Don’t force me to unleash my forbidden art, for I’ll drag you to hell with me. I’ll definitely kill that fucking bastard Singkuo myself if you let me go now. I just put on a strong front before you previously; how would I dare retaliate against you? Just let me go on my way.”

“Sword of Divinity—Homage to Heaven!”

At the monk’s pleas, Tang Xiu didn’t want to bicker more. Instead, he simply hacked the divine sword forward to intercept the monk’s movement to escape. Death Dhyana Buddhist Master was in a grave crisis involving Tang An who kept appearing and disappearing mysteriously to strike him.

A look of madness filled the monk’s eyes. He gritted his teeth as the Buddhist staff in his hand suddenly split into two parts. A centipede half a foot long then shot out of it and appeared in front of Tang An’s face in the blink of an eye. Death Dhyana Buddhist Master was more prepared than Tang An and brandished the two parts of his Buddhist staff to seal the left and right movements of Tang An.

While standing mid-air, Tang Xiu’s expression greatly changed. His body dived down suddenly as his hand formed a circle gesture, manipulating the divine sword to shoot at the Buddhist monk. It was the only move he could do at the moment since it would be too late for him to rescue her unless the monk retracted back his strike.

“Empty Shell Vanishing Art!”

Death Dhyana Buddhist Master roared. His body suddenly flickered to the side as the two halves of his staff pierced Tang An’s shoulders, whereas the centipede that shot at her finally fell on her nape and bit her neck.

Puff…

However, a rain of sword light also pierced the monk’s body. Right as he crazily spurted out blood, his figure vanished and appeared four-plus meters away before he staggered and fell to the ground.

Is it teleportation?

What he did surprised Tang Xiu inwardly. Yet, he ruled out this idea the moment after, since a teleportation technique could only be achieved by those who had broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage. For those under that cultivation level, it impossible to do it. Death Dhyana Buddhist Master’s power was only comparable to the middle stage of Golden Core, so teleportation was impossible. Further, teleportation techniques could reach a far greater distance, whereas what he did was only four-plus meter away, meaning that he had just shown profound footwork.

“DIE!!!”

The sword elongated and flashed forward as though carried by the wind, leaving its afterimage.

Death Dhyana Buddhist Master’s body violently trembled a few times. He looked down at his chest with despair on his face. The spot where his heart was located was hollow, instead replaced by a fist-sized hole. There were also wounds on his shoulders and legs.

“Tang Xiu…”

The monk shot a stare of deep hatred towards Tang Xiu. His life force rapidly left his body, yet he still flew up into the air as though wanting to unleash all his remaining strength to kill Tang Xiu.

“Hmph…”

The same intense killing intent also flew out from Tang Xiu. He had no idea about Tang An’s current condition now, so he instantly unleashed two Explosion Charms upon seeing the monk who threw himself to him.

BOOM…

Death Dhyana Buddhist Master’s body shook greatly. A look of despair was evident as the divine sword came slashing his neck. Further, a blood-colored blob suddenly appeared which was sucked into the sword.

At this time, Tang Xiu could clearly sense that the divine sword’s might had been greatly increased and his sense of control over its power greatly improved. His body flickered a few times before he appeared next to Tang An who had taken out a dagger and killed the centipede. He then grabbed her wrist to check her pulse.

‘A vicious venom?’

Tang Xiu’s complexion changed. He swiftly took several silver needles out of his interspatial ring and instantly sealed up several acupoints in Tang An’s neck. At the same time, his other hand quickly ripped Tang An’s robe, revealing her shoulder in order to pierce the last acupoint there. He quickly grabbed her shoulder and hurriedly used his nails to pierce a certain spot on her flesh.

“Grand Master!”

Tang An was shocked and looked puzzled.

“Don’t speak, and don’t circulate your energy,” ordered Tang Xiu with a deep voice. “The centipede poison is very potent; it has flowed into your shoulders. I must force it out of your system.”

Upon hearing this, Tang An no longer felt strained. Instead, a hint of shyness flashed on her face and she silently nodded.

“The blood must be forced out and some veins must be sealed up.”

He retracted back his finger that sealed the spot, while his other hand slowly traced Tang An’s shoulder to control the blood and extract it out into his palm. The extracted blood was black and smelled a bit pungent originally, but turned red after a few seconds.

Shortly after, Tang Xiu threw the extracted blood away. He continued by holding Tang An’s neck, while his other hand’s finger began pinching and stroking her neck, followed by him pulling out several needles that pierced the acupoints. Blood also sprayed out from each point that was originally pierced by the needles. It kept flowing out, along with the constant pinching of Tang Xiu’s finger, although the extraction was now much slower.

Whoosh…

A few minutes later, Tang Xiu loosened his grip on Tang An and looked at the dozen people around him, shouting in a heavy voice, “What the hell are you doing here?! After Singkuo!”

“Tang Guan has gone to chase him, Boss,” replied Jin Shi in a low voice. “Our speed is too slow to pursue him…”

“No matter how slow you are, just go and kill him!” scolded Tang Xiu with a deep voice. “I don’t care if the road is blocked or not, you must not lose him. He’ll become a big headache later if we don’t kill him now.”

The moment his order came out, Jin Shi and the rest immediately moved toward the direction of Singkuo and the outlandish youth. Singluen and his men also followed suit. Singluen was the one who was impatient to see Singkuo die since he would have no worries left in the future after he took over the Dark Shaman Clan’s Patriarchal seat.

After that, Tang Xiu took out the Holy Healing pill from his interspatial ring and stuffed it into Tang An’s mouth, speaking in a low voice, “I’ve forced out the poison from your system; it won’t affect you for the time being. But your injuries are quite serious, so you must recuperate for some time. I’ll protect you.”

“Just chase Singkuo, Grand Master! I’ll be fine by myself.” Tang An shook her head.

“No. Your condition is critical!” Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “No one knows whether there’s another enemy coming here. We’re going back to the coconut plantation. Kanaja should have arrived there if my guess is correct, so we’re heading back. I’ll be staying there to protect you after we get there.”

“Alright.”

Tang An no longer refuted Tang Xiu’s suggestion and let him grab her waist as they flew into the sky and headed toward the ruined coconut plantation.

At the coconut plantation.

Kanaja was smoking a cigarette and stared at the helpless-looking Zuo Daquan before him. He wouldn’t have given him face previously. But, after learning that this man’s daughter was on good terms with Tang Xiu, he had no option but to treat him differently.

“Speaking bluntly… you rejected Mr. Tang’s request before and drove him out of your place?” questioned Kanaja.

“Yeah. It’s because I didn’t know his identity before, neither did I know what kind of relationship he had with the Huang,” answered Zuo Daquan with a helpless face. “The Huang Family is my mortal enemy. It is a powerful clan that has many experts and a formidable force. I thought that I would suffer more than I would gain if I were to give him shelter.”

“Dammit. You really just wasted a huge chance. That’s so fucking stupid, you know that?” Kanaja shook his head and sighed, “Alas… forget it. Nothing I can do about it. This place is yours, so tell your men to deal with the damage here quickly. Of course, I’ll also assign my own men to dispose of those dead bodies, and I won’t neglect my own part to rebuild your place since Mr. Tang asked me to help you with that. You can deduct the reconstruction cost of your place from the money you owe me!”