Zu An felt a jolt of shock run through his body as he saw the blade of the sword thrust in his direction. Fortunately, he was always on guard. Seeing the speed at which his opponent was closing the distance, he didn’t dare hesitate, immediately summoning Grandgale to teleport several zhang away.

Ding Run couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

Never in his darkest nightmares did he imagine that he, a top-notch cultivator, would fail to land a blow on someone who should have been, right now, nothing more than an ordinary human.

“Was your seal undone as well?” He was extremely confused. This didn’t make sense either! Even if his seal was undone, the intelligence he had stated that he was only around the fourth or fifth rank. Killing cultivators like him should be as easy as slaughtering a chicken—how did this fellow manage to dodge his blow?

The rest of the group shared the same uncertainty. They just couldn’t figure out why he could move freely like this, let alone so quickly.

Sang Qian grew even more depressed. He was fully aware that, if the blow had been aimed at him, there was no chance at all that he could have avoided it even if he were at his peak, let alone right now, when his cultivation was sealed.

He never expected Zu An, who he had always looked down on, to accomplish this. A million different feelings warred within his heart.

“What do you think?” Zu An swallowed, seeing the devastation that the sword ki had wrought in the spot that he had just vacated a moment ago. A small tree there had been instantly torn apart. He would have been the one to suffer that fate if he had been even a moment too late.

Fortunately, Grandgale wasn’t affected by his seal. Ding Run, who had no clue about this, said with a cold snort, “There’s no need to guess. I just have to kill you.”

His image flickered, and he sent his blade flying towards Zu An again. Having learned his lesson, he immediately cut off Zu An’s retreat as well. That way, even if Zu An dodged like he did before, this sword ki he had launched in advance would be enough to cleave him in half.

Unexpectedly, Zu An seemed to have read his thoughts! This time, he didn’t use Grandgale to flee backwards, instead blinking a dozen zhang sideways.

Ding Run’s blade struck empty air again. He stood motionless, and began to question life itself.

Zu An wasn’t feeling too great at the moment either. Even though he could use Grandgale consecutively more times than before, there was still a limit. He wouldn’t be able to hold on if this man continued to press the attack.

Ding Run turned around and looked at him. He remarked in a low voice, “To be honest, I’m really impressed. Any youngster who can avoid two strikes from me can definitely be considered a genius. Given enough time, your future accomplishments might even exceed mine. Unfortunately, the heavens are not so kind.”

He did not rush at Zu An again. Instead, he raised his blade and tapped it.

Zu An had just watched this Song of the Struck Blade destroy Sang Hong! Without hesitation, he darted to the side.

However, Ding Run didn’t stop. His finger struck the blade again and again.

This time, Zu An didn’t summon Grandgale. He had already used it three times in succession, and he wanted to save whatever precious uses he had left for crucial moments.

He fell back to using his Sunflower Phantasm instead. Even though he couldn’t use ki to split himself into three, the technique still granted him great evasive abilities.

“Hm?” Ding Run grew more and more bewildered. Zheng Dan, who had seen this before, wasn’t as surprised, but both Sang Hong and Sang Qian were staring wide-eyed.

“This fellow really is a genius!” Sang Hong sighed in amazement. It truly was a pity. If the relationship between Zu An and his son wasn’t so awful, he would have gone all out to rope this kid in.

Sang Qian’s heart was dripping with envy. It was truly horrible, seeing someone he used to look down on surpass him by such a wide margin.

Ding Run made an agitated sound. His finger struck his blade at an ever-increasing speed. Blade ki sliced out with even greater frequency, flying towards Zu An from angles that were harder and harder to predict.

Despite all this, there was still a huge gap in cultivation between the two parties, and Zu An’s cultivation was also sealed. Therefore, even though Zu An was already a master of his movement technique, there was no way he could evade every single blow.

His movement was just a split second too slow. An invisible streak of sword ki sliced open a gash on his thigh.

This sudden injury caused his subsequent movements to grow momentarily sluggish. Sword ki drew a deep gash across his chest, and a bloody mist burst from his body as another stroke slashed across his lower back.

“Ah!” Zheng Dan cried out in alarm, her face going completely pale. However, with her cultivation sealed, she was helpless to intervene.

Seeing his fiancée show so much concern for another man made Sang Qian bubble with fury.

You have successfully trolled Sang Qian for 999 Rage points!

However, he quickly realized that, once Zu An was dead, he would be next. That was why he couldn’t afford to be angry right now.

“Huh?” a strange sense of unease wormed its way into Ding Run’s mind. His invisible blades should’ve sliced through a fourth or fifth rank cultivator with ease. This Zu An kid was supposed to be in pieces right now. How did he only suffer a few deep gashes?

“I thought about playing dead, but I don’t think someone like you would let me get away with that.” Noticing his opponent’s grave expression, Zu An slowly drew himself up from the puddle of blood. What a pity! This hit man is just too careful… I wanted to ambush him with my Poisonous Prick.

Zheng Dan immediately covered her mouth when she saw him rise back to his feet. Her misty eyes were filled with joy and disbelief.

Even Sang Qian had to give this guy some credit. Was he still human? His injuries looked terrible, but he hadn’t died yet. His body was exceptionally hardy.

Ding Run looked at Zu An, and a faint hint of praise seeped into his voice. “Your body’s sturdiness far exceeds my expectations. Even many high level cultivators can be considered to be far inferior to you.”

As a killer, he understood the physical limits of each different cultivation level. Such an understanding was vital to knowing how much force he needed to use to end any individual’s life.

Zu An sighed. “I don’t know whether I should feel happy or sad after hearing your praise.”

Ding Run’s mouth cracked open in a grin, revealing his intimidating white teeth again. “You should feel terrible, of course, because I won’t be going on easy on you anymore…”

He struck his blade at once, and countless invisible blades swept towards Zu An, each one containing much greater power.

Zu An’s expression grew focused. He continuously used the Sunflower Phantasm to evade, randomly sprinkling in one or two uses of Grandgale. Ding Run fired off more than ten shots, yet none of them ended up hitting Zu An.

How is this possible?! The same thought was shared by all. Zu An was clearly seriously injured, so why did he show no signs of weakening? Instead, he seemed to be growing ever stronger!

His speed had clearly increased severalfold as well.

Ding Run could no longer maintain his composure, having failed over and over again to deal with this brat.

He increased the rate of his attacks. The danger surrounding Zu An intensified. Many times, the attacks were so close that they sliced off the edges of his clothes.

A shadow dashed out from a nearby cluster of trees, halting at Sang Qian’s side, giving him a bottle of medicine, and also undoing his and Zheng Dan’s seals. “Big brother, please carry father. Sister-in-law, we should use this chance to get away.”

This was Sang Qien. Her choice of timing was excellent. Right then, all of Ding Run’s focus was on Zu An.

Zu An cried out when he saw what was happening. “What the heck? Is this how you treat someone who saved your dad and your brother’s lives?”

Sang Qien replied with a laugh, “Young master Zu, I’ll have to trouble you to help buy us a little more time. Please save them again!”

With that, she took her father, brother, and sister-in-law away.

All of them were powerful cultivators. Given the complexity of the terrain around them, their chances of escape were decent.

Even if Ding Run tried to track them down again, it would take him some time. Their father would have recovered somewhat from his injuries by then, and they might even be able to take him down if all of them worked together.

Of course, all of this hinged on sacrificing Zu An. The lives of her family were most important. Zu An was but a stranger. She felt no remorse in abandoning him.

Sang Qian was overjoyed. Why would he have any objections to this plan? He picked up his father and took off, giving his father the medicine his sister had given him along the way.

Unexpectedly, Zheng Dan pushed Sang Qien’s hand away and charged at Ding Run. Gathering the surrounding elemental water within the plants around them, she condensed it into an arrow of water and shot it at him.

Sang Qien was stunned. She looked at her bridal dress, then looked at Zu An in his groom’s clothes, and then turned back to face her older brother. “Brother, what is going on between you and sister-in-law?”