This shocked everyone present, especially Bi Linglong and the other ladies. They had been jealous when they saw Concubine Bai and Zu An acting friendly with each other. Who could have thought Concubine Bai would suddenly turn against him like that? They were so nervous that they thought their hearts would beat out of their chests. They had never worried about Zu An losing to a man, but he was so philandering that it felt inevitable that he would lose to a woman.
Zhao Yuan smiled in glee. This was the trump card he had prepared just in case. As the Shadow Group Master, he knew an assassin’s ability couldn’t be evaluated by their cultivation. More often than not, a frail beauty could be more useful than a powerful cultivator.
Concubine Bai was the card he had reserved to deal with Zu An. He had spent years investigating Zu An’s weakness. The latter was indeed a formidable foe, both in cultivation and wits, but he had a fatal weakness—his lustfulness.
Zhao Han had secretly sentenced Concubine Bai to death, but Zu An had taken on a huge risk to save her. That suggested he had special feelings for her. Thus, Zhao Yuan had begun formulating this plan. The dagger was smeared with the most formidable poison developed by the Shadow Group.
But his smile soon stiffened up. Concubine Bai had thrust the dagger toward Zu An, but the latter stood up casually as if nothing had happened. Zhao Yuan's gaze moved downward, only to realize that the dagger hadn’t pierced Zu An’s skin.
Concubine Bai was baffled too. His body is even harder than metal!
While she hadn’t exerted her full strength, it should have been enough to cut his skin. Of course, she hadn’t smeared the lethal poison on the dagger either. The dagger’s blue glow was a gimmick.
Zu An smiled. “You don’t have to go through so much trouble. I can help you rescue your son.”
Concubine Bai had just requested for him to put on an act with her. Zhao Yuan was holding her son hostage, forcing her to carry out this assassination. But Zu An hadn’t played along with her script.
Zhao Yuan’s face darkened. He exclaimed angrily, “You bitch! You’ll never see your son again!”
He uttered something to the elite assassins, and their eyes suddenly reddened with madness. They let loose loud screeches as they abruptly charged at Zu An.
“Careful! They're going to detonate themselves to bring you down with them!” Concubine Bai anxiously warned him.
Zu An also sensed the threat they posed. By the time he held Concubine Bai closer to him, the assassins were already in their vicinity.
Unlike before, they weren’t planning to fight. Their bodies swiftly swelled up and exploded. The simultaneous explosions of the remaining elite assassins triggered a chain reaction, culminating in a humongous explosion far stronger than the one before. A black hole suffused with destructive energy appeared in the sky. It exerted an incredible suction force that pulled the houses and trees into it.
The rebel kings and their aides had been the closest to Zu An—they'd remained on standby in case an extra hand was needed to take Zu An down. The turn of events scared them out of their wits. They desperately fled for their lives, but they couldn’t outrun the suction force. Despite their best attempts to run forward, their bodies were dragged backward.
As the black hole got bigger, even the experts in their ranks succumbed and flew into the sky too. Out of despair, some of them begged Zu An to save them.
But Zu An didn’t have the energy to entertain them. His mind was focused on altering the surrounding world laws. If he couldn’t stop the black hole in time, Phoenix Pass and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the vicinity would be annihilated here.
A massive hand suddenly manifested in the sky. It grabbed the black hole, and the two vanished into the void together.
Even though Zu An had transported the black hole into the void in the shortest time possible, Phoenix Pass was still destroyed. The rebel army also suffered heavy losses.
“Hahaha! Bastard Zu, look who I have in my hands!” A frenzied laugh echoed. Zhao Yuan held Bi Linglong before him, with a sword pressed against her neck.
As the Shadow Group Master, he needed to be resourceful. Concubine Bai was merely one of the hands he had prepared; the other was Bi Linglong. He knew Bi Linglong was on close terms with Zu An, so much so that there were novels about them on the streets. While his subordinates were exploding, he'd charged into the imperial army’s ranks and grabbed Bi Linglong. After what happened earlier, he'd had little confidence that the explosions would work.
Many people had been guarding Bi Linglong, but none were powerful enough to stop Zhao Yuan. In the blink of an eye, he already had Bi Linglong in his grasp. He immediately turned to Zu An, only to see the latter easily neutralizing the explosion. That filled him with fear and relief. Good thing I had a backup plan.
“Your Majesty!” Shocked and horrified, Zhang Zitong, Murong Qinghe, and the others quickly surrounded Zhao Yuan. They wanted to attack him, but they were worried that he would hurt Bi Linglong.
Zhao Yuan didn’t spare a glance at Bi Linglong’s guards. He cleared his throat and addressed Zu An, “Let me go and promise not to pursue me. I’ll let her go once I’m somewhere safe.”
He thought of forcing Zu An to break his arms, but he was worried that the other party would give up on Bi Linglong if he forced him too far. He had heard about Zu An’s many lovers, and while Bi Linglong was beautiful, she was merely one out of many in his massive harem.
Zhao Yuan didn’t want the crown anymore. After the consecutive blows he had received, his ambition had been quelled. He just wanted to survive and find somewhere peaceful to live out his life. Being the Shadow Group Master or the emperor was no longer important to him.
Of course, he wouldn’t release Bi Linglong even after reaching somewhere safe. He never believed his enemy’s promises. Only with the hostage in hand would his safety be guaranteed.
Concubine Bai looked at Zu An apologetically. Even though she wasn't the culprit here, he wouldn’t have been distracted if not for her. She secretly warned Zu An, “Big brother Zu, Zhao Yuan doesn’t believe in anyone. It is unlikely he will release big sister Linglong after getting to safety. It’ll be more dangerous if you allow him to take big sister Linglong away.” But she couldn’t think of any solution at hand.
In contrast, Zu An remained perfectly calm. One step at a time, he slowly made his way toward Zhao Yuan.
“Stay away! I won’t show mercy.” Zhao Yuan panicked. He tightened his grip on his sword, causing a blood slit to appear on Bi Linglong’s fair neck.
The chilling touch of the blade sent goosebumps all over Bi Linglong’s body, but she still calmly shouted to Zu An. “Don’t worry about me, regent. This man is the source of all this chaos. We have to kill him for the peace of the world!”
“I didn’t expect a woman like you to be so brave. What a pity he’s a sentimental man. I doubt he’ll bear to lose a beauty like you.” Zhao Yuan laughed, but he was uncertain. He was worried that Zu An would forsake his lover and attack him.
Bi Linglong wanted to say more, but Zu An stopped her with his gentle eyes. He turned to Zhao Yuan and said, “I don’t think you understand what it means to be god.”
Zhao Yuan felt uneasy. He tightened his blade further, holding Bi Linglong firmly in place.
All of a sudden, however, he sensed something amiss. He lowered his head and found that instead of Bi Linglong, he was holding a broken pillar.
Bi Linglong was standing next to Zu An!