Zu An was already ready for this. He pushed off gently with his toes, and his figure flashed away.
The large boulder he had been standing on was instantly burned to ash by the heat of the flames. Zu An gulped. He would have shared the same fate if he had been caught by those same flames.
Before he had time to think, the dragon let loose another torrent of flame.
Zu An immediately employed his Sunflower Phantasm to evade. Even though he dodged it, the heat made his hair curl, and there was the stench of something being scorched.
Fearing that Zheng Dan would be burned, he quickly employed the Snowflake Sword to cover his surroundings in a layer of cold energy. The coolness helped to dissipate most of their discomfort.
The crimson dragon fired off several more gouts of flame, but somehow, his target miraculously evaded every attack. It started to realize that continuing this barrage would be futile, and only tire itself out. It gave up on its long-range fire attacks. With a flicker, its massive body disappeared, arrowing towards Zu An.
“Ah Zu, get out of here!” Zheng Dan said in a panic. “Don’t worry about me anymore!”
There might still be a chance for Zu An to escape with his teleportation-like movement skill, while she did her best to stall this massive monster.
She was already mentally prepared to sacrifice herself. Whether it be her life or her purity, it didn’t matter.
Zu An chuckled and said, “Even though I’ve never considered myself a hero, I have never abandoned my friends.”
When she saw his optimistic smile, Zheng Dan’s eyes grew moist. “Ah Zu!”
She steeled her resolve. At worst, the two of them would die together.
If they couldn’t be together in life, then they’d be together in death.
This made her feel much more blessed than Chu Chuyan.
Right at this time, the crimson dragon roared with laughter. “I’ve caught you!”
He had already figured out the rhythm of Zu An’s strange movements.
No matter how miraculous the Sunflower Phantasm was, the difference in strength was still too great.
Zheng Dan saw a massive claw appear in their path, as if the dragon had somehow foreseen their movement. It was so close she could even see the blood staining that claw!
This blood was clearly from Chen Xuan’s body. Not even Chen Xuan’s powerful metal body could withstand a single hit—what hope did Zu An have, with his weaker cultivation?
Zheng Dan wanted to block this attack in his place, but the arms that held her tightened around her. She herself was completely powerless as well, and there was no way she could have moved to shield him.
She decided to bury herself deeper in his chest. This way, when the claw tore through his chest, it would kill her as well. The two of them would thus truly become one.
Mi Li screamed in Zu An’s head. “You’re mad! Why are you purposely standing still?!!!”
Even though the Sunflower Phantasm couldn’t make up for the difference between their cultivation levels, there was still a chance that it hadn’t yet been compromised.
With her insight, she could tell that Zu An was refusing to dodge on purpose.
Zu An didn’t reply her. He turned his back and used it to take the full force of the dragon’s claw.
The crimson dragon saw that his target had no chance of evading his strike. Truly, humans were nothing more than ants.
However, when it saw him tightly embracing Zheng Dan, it felt a twinge of reluctance. After all, this woman really was pretty.
Soon, it would be able to take human form, and it had planned to celebrate its success with this woman.
Even though the two of them were different species, higher-level dragons could all change into human form. That was why dragons and humans had similar standards of beauty.
This shared perception of beauty wasn’t limited to just the dragon race. Other races with the potential to cultivate to a high level seemed to share it as well.
After all, the human form was the most suitable for cultivation. As such, all other high-level cultivators from these races also desired to evolve towards a more human form.
Of course, there were races who were limited in their cultivation, and had no hopes of ever achieving human form. To them, a human beauty might look no different from a female pig.
Killing such a beauty really was too much of a waste. As such, the red dragon held back at the last moment. Even so, its strength would still be enough to blast open a hole in the man’s body.
Unexpectedly, as the tip of his claw touched the man’s back, it did not penetrate flesh. Instead, it felt as if it had struck an invisible barrier.
A blue scale suddenly appeared on the man’s back, blocking this fatal strike.
“This is the Ocean Race’s…” Before it could finish its sentence, Zu An seized this moment of distraction. There was a flash of black, his dagger cutting through a layer of the dragon’s skin.
The crimson dragon was shocked. “An ant like you has a weapon that can injure me? Ridiculous! However, such a small weapon is only enough to tickle me!”
Zu An smiled. “Are you sure?”
The red dragon didn’t rise to this taunt. It raised its claw to strike him again. “You can die now, ant.”
Suddenly, its entire body trembled. It let out a cry of terror. “What is going on? This… this is a curse.. Ahhh…”
Its voice was full of fear and reluctance. Its sharp and penetrating eyes became dim, and then its massive body seemed to lose all strength, and it smashed into the ground. The whole cavern trembled, as if the earth itself was rupturing.
“It’s really dead!” Zu An gasped for breath. To be honest, he wasn’t a hundred percent confident. He wasn’t sure if the Poisonous Prick would be effective against such a massive dragon.
This was a dragon, after all, and one with a terrifyingly high level of cultivation. It wouldn’t have been all that strange for the Poisonous Prick to fail. After all, the Poisonous Prick hadn’t worked against Zhang Han and the others in the dungeon.
But Zu An had still decided to stake it all on this. He figured that it probably didn’t work on Zhang Han and the others since they were already dead. No matter how ridiculously powerful this dragon was, it was still very much alive.
Of course, no matter how extraordinary the Poisonous Prick was, it still had its weaknesses. He might not be strong enough to wound the enemy with it.
In a normal fight, it would have been hard for him to even stab someone like Chen Xuan, let alone such a massive dragon who was much stronger.
That was why he decided to stand his ground, and try to kill this crimson dragon by taking its blow full on and surprising him in one hit.
His body had already experienced several instances of the Primordial Origin Sutra’s refinement, and his ability to recover was also astonishing. He had been willing to gamble that the dragon’s attack wouldn’t kill him.
He hadn’t expected Shang Liuyu’s jade pendant to activate.
When he recalled Shang Liuyu’s words regarding this pendant, a lingering fear welled up in him. The jade pendant had deduced that the strike would have been enough to take his life, which was why it had blocked the blow.