"It's you!"
"You bastard! Instead of hiding away like you should, you actually dared to come out!"
Meng Yiran was furious when she saw Chen An swaggering along with both hands in his pockets.
"Yiran, is this the thug you said bullied you?!"
Dragon Duke Meng Shu's brows knitted tightly, and his grip on the Dragon Staff involuntarily tightened.
"Calm down, calm down. I came to apologize to little sister Yiran." Well practiced at this, Chen An hurriedly awakened his people-pleasing persona.
Meng Yiran sneered. "What are you plotting now?"
Chen An ignored her.
He walked straight up to Meng Yiran, first parting his lips slightly, then bowing deeply. "Little sister Yiran, I offer my deepest apologies for my earlier crude and reckless behavior!"
"You... what exactly are you trying to do?" Meng Yiran clearly did not believe Chen An meant well. He might have set some trap she knew nothing about.
"Seniors, you've both seen my sincerity. Whether you believe me is entirely up to you!"
Chen An's tone also grew serious.
"Fine! But this old woman doesn't believe you came just to apologize!" Snake Granny Chao Tianxiang spoke with absolute certainty.
Chen An smiled faintly. "Of course. Senior Snake Granny, do you still remember our earlier wager? You promised me one thing."
"Oh?" Chao Tianxiang pretended to think, paused, then asked, "Yiran, did... did we promise to do something for him?"
Meng Yiran blinked.
She immediately understood what was going on.
Just as she was about to say "No," Chen An beat her to it and said loudly:
"Little sister Yiran, a girl should keep her word. Don't make your big brother Chen look down on you!"
Meng Yiran's heart jolted, and she stared fixedly at Chen An.
Those familiar words instantly reminded her that she had said the same thing to Tang San two or three minutes earlier.
"You... did you come to humiliate me?"
Chen An shook his head. "Something like that, but I'm not as ruthless as Tang San."
Meng Yiran burned with rage. "Fine! Then what if I refuse?!"
Chen An shrugged.
His face was utterly indifferent. "Then you're a petty person. I'll tell everyone I meet that the Peerless Dragon Snake have a petty granddaughter named Meng Yiran!"
"You!" Meng Yiran pointed her right index finger at Chen An. "Are you tired of living? Believe it or not, I'll kill you right now!"
Chen An did not answer, remaining as motionless as a toad.
"Yiran!"
"We might as well hear what this brat wants!"
Dragon Duke Meng Shu had figured it out. This brat named Chen An was nothing but a street thug, and he was extorting them right now.
"Ah."
"Senior Dragon Duke understands my painstaking efforts after all. It's just one tiny thing. I only want to watch little sister Yiran perform a song and dance."
At that moment.
Meng Yiran's mouth fell open. She could hardly believe that was all Chen An wanted.
Although it was somewhat humiliating, it was far better than kneeling and kowtowing to Tang San.
"Hiss..." Meng Yiran hesitated. It was not that she could not do it, but she could not get past the hurdle in her heart of dancing for a thug like Chen An.
"Fine, if little sister Yiran doesn't want to dance, then don't. Let's just say your big brother Chen was blind and misjudged you!"
Chen An's heart did not race and his hands did not tremble as he kept praising Meng Yiran in what sounded like mockery.
How could she fail to hear it? Her face flushed red. "Can you talk properly? You keep calling me little sister, and I'm not someone who can't take a loss!"
With that said.
Meng Yiran cleared her throat and danced gracefully in the breeze. Raising her hands, lowering her eyes, turning around-every movement flowed smoothly into the next. With one foot before the other, even the arcs she traced with her steps were beautiful.
"Ah."
"One swirl of her silken skirt raises gorgeous waves; one half-lift of her starry eyes stirs the mortal world. Marvelous, marvelous!"
Seeing such a beautiful dance, Chen An suddenly voiced his feelings.
Just look at Meng Yiran. They were both noble young ladies, yet she was countless times better than Ning Rongrong.
"Why haven't you left yet?"
Meng Yiran had been about to absorb the Thousand-Year Soul Ring produced by the Man Faced Demon Spider.
Chen An chuckled but said nothing.
I can't exactly say that someone is about to drop dead.
"Don't be afraid, Yiran. We're here to guard you!"
Dragon Duke Meng Shu did not know what medicine Chen An was selling in his gourd, either, but what waves could a mere three-ring Soul Elder possibly stir up?
Chen An knew how to behave.
He stood far off to one side, afraid of disturbing Meng Yiran's absorption of the Soul Ring.
Seeing that everything was in order.
Meng Yiran began absorbing the Thousand-Year Soul Ring produced by the Man Faced Demon Spider.
She found an open patch of ground and began meditating, concentrating her spiritual power.
The purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring slowly floated above Meng Yiran. She gritted her teeth, cold sweat constantly beading on her forehead as the Man Faced Demon Spider's poison-type Soul Power gradually invaded her meridians.
As time passed.
Meng Yiran trembled all over, faint traces of blood visibly seeping through the surface of her skin.
"As expected, the Man Faced Demon Spider's overbearing Soul Power and toxins aren't something an ordinary Soul Master can control!" Chen An watched very closely from the side.
He needed to judge the timing, using the Dendro Element affinity of his Lone Bamboo Martial Soul, then drawing on its mutated properties to help Meng Yiran.
"This is bad!"
"Yiran is in danger. This Man Faced Demon Spider was already close to two thousand years old, and its poison is far too overbearing. She can't absorb it at all."
Dragon Duke Meng Shu spotted the problem at a glance and clearly pointed it out.
Snake Granny Chao Tianxiang asked anxiously, "Old man, what do we do? If something happens to Yiran, how will we explain it when we return?!"
"Don't panic. Let me think!" Faced with this sudden turn, Meng Shu's heart immediately fell into turmoil.
"Pfft!"
Meng Yiran suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
"This is bad! If I don't act now, her meridians will rupture. Then her body really will burst and she'll die!"
Chen An no longer waited for the so-called right moment. He hurriedly used Teleportation to reach her and infused her with Dendro Element.
"You!"
"What are you doing?!!!"
The Soul Rings around Snake Granny Chao Tianxiang abruptly lit up as she prepared to kill Chen An outright.
Just then.
Dragon Duke Meng Shu reached out to stop her, shaking his head as he whispered, "I'm afraid this is why the brat came here!"
Chen An did not hear their conversation at all.
At that moment, all his attention was on Meng Yiran.
He first protected her meridians with gentle Soul Power, then used Lone Bamboo to slowly draw out the Man Faced Demon Spider's toxins.
To keep her conscious, Chen An also deliberately infused her slowly with the pure, natural Dendro Element stored in Lone Bamboo. Unlike the Dendro Element supplied by the system, this was entirely its own and completely controllable.
In an instant, a warm current wandered through Meng Yiran's body. Unexpectedly, it did not rampage at random, but slowly guided the Man Faced Demon Spider's toxins.
Once the poisonous Dendro Element had been completely withdrawn, Meng Yiran's complexion improved considerably.
A few minutes later.
Meng Yiran finally finished absorbing the Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
Seeing this.
Chen An let out a long breath.
Suddenly.
He felt a burst of searing pain in his chest, and an overwhelming sense of pressure struck straight at his brain.
Boom!!!
Chen An instantly dropped to both knees, clutching at his heart with one hand and bracing the other against the ground.
Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth and his eyes.
"It hurts!"
"Aah, my head hurts so much! What's happening to me?!"
Startled by Chen An's condition, Meng Yiran hurriedly looked toward Meng Shu.
He quickly shook his head, his eyes filled with disbelief and fear:
"Hmm...?"
"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"
"How could a mere greenhorn have been bound by someone in a Shared-Life Symbiosis contract?!"