"Senior Brother!!"
As Chen An smashed Lu Yi into pieces right before her eyes with a single strike, Han Juan let out a shrill scream. She collapsed on the ground, unable to move, filled with nothing but terror as she faced Chen An.
"It's impossible! Senior Brother is at the mid-stage of Qi Condensation! How could he die at the hands of someone as cowardly as you? This can't be real!" Han Juan cried out in disbelief.
"Hmph, didn't you know? It's often the cowards who survive the longest," Chen An sneered, clearly unimpressed by her outburst.
He slowly approached Han Juan, looking down on her like a predator playing with its prey, relishing her fear.
"How does it feel? The effect of the Soft Bone Powder... You must feel like a noodle, completely weak and powerless," he said, mocking her.
"It was that strange fragrance on you!" Han Juan suddenly realized the cause but was still confused about one thing. "The fragrance came from you, so why weren't you affected?"
"That's because of this," Chen An said, spitting out a piece of grass from his mouth and casually explaining, "Remember when I suggested you chew on this manure grass? If you had listened to me, you wouldn't be paralyzed now. Regrets?"
Hearing Chen An's explanation, Han Juan's hope evaporated, leaving her in utter despair. She never imagined that she and Lu Yi had been completely toyed with by Chen An and had walked right into his trap. They had been played and killed like fools!
What kind of deep scheming and ruthless cunning does it take to pull something like this off?
"So, there was no such thing as the Crimson Fruit. Everything you said was bait to lure us into your trap?" Han Juan asked, her voice trembling.
"Smart," Chen An smiled slightly as he crouched down and gently stroked her pale face. "Honestly, you're so clever it almost makes me hesitate to kill you."
"You don't have to kill me," Han Juan pleaded, sensing a hint of mercy in his tone. "Senior Brother brought this upon himself; he was the one who had evil intentions toward you first. I was just following him. If you let me live, I... I could be your woman. I'll do anything you ask, spare me."
At the brink of death, past loyalties no longer mattered. Han Juan knew that saving her own life was paramount, so she quickly changed her approach, using a soft voice to appeal to Chen An's mercy.
Chen An seemed to seriously consider her words for a moment, then he slowly scanned Han Juan's face, muttering to himself, "I have to admit, you are beautiful—skin like jade, brows like distant mountains. No wonder they say women cultivators are unmatched in beauty. In the mortal world, it would be hard to find someone like you, even with a lantern."
"If you spare me, I'll never leave your side," Han Juan continued, sensing that Chen An was wavering. She hurriedly pledged her loyalty. But unfortunately for her, Chen An wasn't the kind of man to be easily swayed by a few words.
"You know," Chen An said, his expression suddenly darkening, "the old man once told me that the biggest trouble in the world is a woman. Of all the people you can trust, never trust a woman!"
"So..." He grinned, a cold, sinister smile forming on his lips. "No matter how beautiful you are, you still have to die!"
With that, Chen An drew a hidden dagger from his waist and, without hesitation, slashed Han Juan's throat.
Blood gushed out as Han Juan's body convulsed. Her eyes widened in shock, her gaze fixed on Chen An as her life drained away. In her final moments, her eyes reflected her confusion—why would Chen An so ruthlessly decide to kill her?
The answer was simple. If Han Juan lived, today's events would eventually be exposed, and Chen An's life would be at risk.
To ensure his survival, it was only natural that she had to die.
To Chen An, no matter how beautiful Han Juan was, she was nothing more than a pile of flesh and bones. He didn't care in the slightest. With enough cultivation, what kind of women couldn't he have?
Leaving her alive would have been a real foolish move.
After calmly wiping the blood off his dagger with Han Juan's clothes, Chen An meticulously searched through both Lu Yi and Han Juan's storage bags.
There wasn't much of particular value, aside from the five spirit stones Chen An had given Lu Yi the previous day, along with some common items used by cultivators. But one jade slip caught his attention.
Infusing his spiritual energy into the slip, he discovered that it contained a technique known as the Beast Controlling Spell.
As its name suggests, the Beast Controlling Spell allows the practitioner to control fierce beasts for their use—guarding a cave, serving as a mount, or otherwise.
The version found in Lu Yi's storage bag was the lowest-grade, first-level Beast Controlling Spell, which could only control beasts up to the peak of Qi Condensation. However, it had an important limitation: the beast must have a cultivation lower than the practitioner's.
Moreover, the higher the beast's cultivation, the more likely the spell would fail.
Intrigued by this spell, Chen An decided to give it a try. After burning Lu Yi and Han Juan's bodies to ashes with a Fire Talisman, he sat cross-legged and began to cultivate the Beast Controlling Spell.
Compared to other techniques, the spell was relatively easy to learn. Within half an hour, Chen An had a basic grasp of it.
Now, itching to test its effects, Chen An's eyes gleamed when a small snake slithered into view. The snake was no more than the thickness of a thumb, about two feet long, and entirely black with red rings around its body.
This was a Red-Ringed Snake, a common and not particularly dangerous venomous snake. Its bite would only cause a few days of pain for an ordinary person, and its venom wasn't strong.
However, the venom of the Red-Ringed Snake had an interesting trait: it could accumulate in the body for a long time—reportedly up to several years.
Under normal circumstances, the venom posed little threat. But if a person were bitten again by the same kind of snake, the accumulated venom would intensify and turn into a deadly poison.
What's more, the snake's venom was colorless and odorless, making it almost impossible to detect unless specifically searched for. Many people carried Red-Ringed Snake venom in their bodies for years without knowing it.
Chen An's old mentor had worked for decades as a menial worker in the sect and, unable to cultivate, had developed a deep knowledge of herbs, poisons, and venomous creatures. He had passed all of this knowledge down to Chen An, which is why Chen An was so proficient in the art of poison.
After poisoning Wei Ming earlier, Chen An realized that, with the right methods and enough venom, even cultivators were not immune to poison. This knowledge had become a valuable weapon in his arsenal.
Right now, both Chen An and the Red-Ringed Snake seemed unremarkable—one was a mere mortal, the other an ordinary beast.
But both possessed a hidden potential, the potential to turn the tables and triumph over the strong from a position of weakness!