What a Twisted Fate

Before falling asleep, they had been on the main course of the Han River, swept downstream by the raging torrent. Now, however, the two men and the giant jellyfish appeared to be in a swamp. Lush aquatic jungle stretched in all directions; overhead, towering trunks and dense boughs crisscrossed, offering only occasional palm-sized glimpses of the sky. A few dragonflies flitted past the giant jellyfish, each longer than his middle finger. The water through which the jellyfish drifted was alternately narrow and wide, following no discernible pattern. Wait a moment—they were already deep within the swamp. The water was calm, with neither wind nor waves, so why was the jellyfish still moving forward at a steady pace? Dong Rui pointed downward without expression. He Lingchuan looked down, startled. It turned out the giant jellyfish wasn't drifting with the current at all; it was being propelled by something else— Tangled beneath the jellyfish was a dense, writhing mass of swamp eels. There were at least several dozen of them; even the thinnest was as thick as a fist, while the stoutest boasted a girth like a water bucket, easily rivaling a python. He Lingchuan immediately thought of his favorite dish: flash-fried eels. *Hiss—if all of these were tossed into a wok, how many basins would that make? The aroma, the spice, the glistening oil.* While he was drooling over their meat, the cluster of eels seemed to harbor ill intentions toward them as well. Some hauled from the front while others shoved from behind, dragging the jellyfish deeper into the jungle at no sluggish pace. It was just that when He Lingchuan woke up, he hadn't looked closely and assumed it was only water grass brushing against them. "Where have we drifted to? Where is this ball of eels taking us?" Speaking of which, the underwater realm didn't appear dark; instead, faint light filtered through. "Who are you asking? Who am I supposed to ask?" Dong Rui muttered irritably. If only he had woken up earlier and killed this guy named He, wouldn't he have successfully escaped ashore by now? He Lingchuan rubbed his nose. "I need to relieve myself." Having held it in for over a dozen shichen, he needed a thoroughly satisfying release. Dong Rui was alarmed. "Not in here! Wait until we get out!" The two of them were trapped in the same sealed sphere of water—could the man show some basic decency?! He Lingchuan reached back and drew Fusheng. "Among these eels, only one seems to be a demon, and it doesn't look all that tough." In that case, it would be easy to handle. Dong Rui suddenly gasped. "Look, there seem to be buildings ahead!" Aided by daylight, the two spotted a long strip of beach ahead. On the shore stood an unbroken stretch of structures built from stone and shells, the tallest rising three stories high. Yet these houses appeared long abandoned, with grass and creeping vines now their only occupants. That Dong Rui had spotted them at a glance was thanks to the clam shell decorations atop the roofs; the iridescent sheen inside the shells reflected light quite conspicuously. Just as He Lingchuan was about to slice open the jellyfish to go ashore and investigate, the eel ball acting as their porters suddenly slithered up along the jellyfish, wrapping around it completely and dragging it down into the water! "Wait, they seem to be taking us somewhere." Dong Rui's curiosity was far keener than He Lingchuan's. "Hold it in for now." "Where else could they take us? To their dining table." That said, He Lingchuan sheathed his blade for the moment, as their view became even clearer once submerged. The bottom of the swamp was carpeted with slender water weeds—dense, soft, and clean—looking for all the world like a vast meadow. The fruit of these weeds resembled pearls and actually emanated a faint blue glow, drawing schools of fish to frolic freely. He Lingchuan even saw a few turtles paddling clumsily past. A flourishing ecosystem, it seemed. As the swarm descended further, however, He Lingchuan saw even more stone-and-shell houses— Identical to those on the shore. Only, the underwater settlement was far larger, numbering at least two to three thousand structures. The architectural styles were richer and more exquisite, brimming with exotic charm, looking unreal in their beauty under the glow of the aquatic plants' luminous orbs. The tallest buildings here exceeded five stories, quite magnificent. The jellyfish had just grazed past the eaves of a tall edifice. Of course, it was now a habitat for aquatic creatures; fish, shrimp, crabs, and shellfish drifted in and out. Dong Rui was genuinely astonished as well. "A town hidden beneath the swamp?" He Lingchuan pointed ahead. "If we don't leave now, it'll be too late." Ahead lay an expanse of pitch-black darkness, seemingly the eels' destination. Neither man planned to stay trapped like fools any longer. Sightseeing ended here. With a flick of his blade, He Lingchuan cut a long slit in the top of the giant jellyfish. The monster's outer skin looked transparent and fragile, but in truth was remarkably tough; even with Fusheng, cutting through it gave the rough resistance of slicing through heavy tarpaulin. Evidently, the giant jellyfish had its own means to endure the scouring torrents intact and avoid being punctured by curious aquatic creatures along the way. The two wriggled out through the breach and swam hard toward the surface. The eels noticed two of their prey had escaped. Most continued hauling the jellyfish, but thirty or forty whipped around and pursued them, aiming sharp teeth at the two men to force them to change course. These creatures had mouths full of sharp teeth and bit viciously, tearing off a mouthful of flesh with each snap. Dong Rui was bitten right on the buttock and let out a yowl, the pain turning his leg numb. Seeing more eels closing in—especially the python-sized monstrosity joining the fray—He Lingchuan simply reached into his robes, pulled something out, and scattered it directly into the water. Dong Rui saw a cloud of pale yellow substance drift out around him. The relentlessly pursuing eels reacted as if struck by lightning, instantly scattering in flight without daring to look back. What was that stuff? Why was it so potent? A dozen-odd breaths later, the two swam to the surface and scrambled onto the long beach. The moment they reached shore, Dong Rui asked, "What did you scatter back there?" Given his line of work, he possessed boundless curiosity toward powders and pills. "A kind of aromatic." He Lingchuan extended an open palm toward him. "Where's the antidote? Hand it over." "What anti—" Dong Rui remembered the lie he had told when he was on the verge of suffocating. "Oh." To save his own skin back then, he had told He Lingchuan the liquid inside the jellyfish was poisonous. "There is no poison." "You tricked me?" He Lingchuan cracked his knuckles. "Wait, wait!" Dong Rui suddenly pointed behind He Lingchuan. "Hey, hey, turn around! Spider demon!" "Pig demon, my ass!" The curse had barely left He Lingchuan's mouth when he realized something was wrong, for round, bulbous silhouettes were emerging from the ruined houses behind Dong Rui as well. Not pigs—spiders. The small ones were only the size of tangerines, while the large ones rivaled millstones. He turned around and saw swarms of spiders surging in from all directions, encircling the two men. The rustling sound of countless legs brushing through blades of grass made one's scalp tingle. No, make that an understatement. There was vast variation among the spiders; two giant arachnids emerged from behind the tall grass, their bulk exceeding that of full-grown bison! On each of their eight long legs, every bristling hair oozed murderous intent. Yet why did He Lingchuan feel that these spiders looked somewhat familiar? Dong Rui's eyes darted wildly. "Where's that aromatic? Bring it out and use it again!" There were simply too many spiders here—easily thousands! If he remembered correctly, a nest of burrow spiders operated much like ants with specialized roles: some spat acid, some specialized in grappling, and some carried venom. They were exceedingly difficult to deal with. In the blink of an eye, the ground, trees, and vines were packed with creeping, crawling spiders. Anyone with trypophobia would have fainted on the spot. "It got wet." The scent buns specially supplied by the Red Cliff Road sand bandits had been soaked in the water just now; pulling them out now wouldn't do much good. In his mind, He Lingchuan calculated the odds of successfully diving back into the water from here. *Motherfucker,* he remembered from his dreams that these spiders could shoot webs—he definitely didn't want to get snared in midair! *Unprofessional!* Dong Rui cursed inwardly. Just as he was about to deploy some concoctions to poison the spiders to death, an enormous silhouette unexpectedly emerged from inside the tallest building. It descended along the ruined walls. Despite its immense bulk, its movements were extraordinarily agile, even landing without a sound. Such a stark contrast was positively ghostly. Dong Rui immediately pointed at it, his voice choking up. "A Spider Queen! Damn it, this is a burrow spider colony!" Indeed. He Lingchuan had wondered why these spiders looked familiar—it turned out he had seen their kind back in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest. "I've grown tired of eating fish; an occasional change of palate isn't so bad." A cold, sinister voice sounded as the Spider Queen glided through the dappled shadows of the trees onto the beach, revealing its true appearance. With a single glance, He Lingchuan blurted out, "Zhu Erniang!" This Spider Queen was remarkably stocky, as large as a house. Its eight long legs resembled massive pincers, looking like an extra-large, reinforced coconut crab, and it possessed twelve large eyes, each pitch-black and gleaming. The stiff fuzz covering its entire body made it look exceptionally wicked. Yet it was also beautiful, for upon its abdomen lay an all-natural map of the starry sky, exquisite and magnificent, as if it had truly summoned down the celestial vault. Unfortunately, by the time most people laid eyes upon it, they weren't far from death. He Lingchuan recognized this star chart—it grew on Zhu Erniang's body! Yes, the leader of the burrow spider nest in Ghost Needle Stone Forest, the mighty Spider Queen who in reality had brought about the death of General Nan Ke of Panlong City! Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that after parting ways in the spider nest, he would meet Zhu Erniang again in reality. Spanning over a hundred and fifty years of time and space—what kind of twisted fate was this? *Fucking hell,* with Zhu Erniang appearing, his plan for a water escape was completely shot. How was he supposed to run now? Zhu Erniang had originally been salivating over these two morsels of fresh meat. Hearing this, she halted in her tracks, all twelve large eyeballs turning to fixate on He Lingchuan. "You know me?" "I..." *Of course I know you. Back in the spider nest, we stood face-to-face just like this.* Only back then, Zhu Erniang had been furious because He Lingchuan had torched the underground farm she had painstakingly cultivated. "My ancestor had the honor of beholding Your Eminence in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest! He was so deeply awestruck that he recorded the encounter in a book to pass down to his descendants. He made special mention of this magnificent chart of resplendent stars on your abdomen!" "Oh?" Zhu Erniang showed a flicker of interest. "What did your ancestor do?" "He lived in Wutu City and ran merchant caravans across the Panlong Wasteland. He often had to stop over in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest along the way. You restrained the burrow spiders from eating humans, providing immense convenience to traveling merchants. My ancestor was forever grateful and full of admiration!" He Lingchuan spouted lies without blinking, eyes brimming with reverence. Watching from the side, Dong Rui nearly bought it. Nearly. If only he didn't already know how deceitful the He father and son were. However, trapped as they were in a spider nest, He Lingchuan's approach was the right one. Judging by the look of it, there were at least a few thousand spiders nearby. With just two men and four hands, they couldn't possibly fight their way out. "Otherwise, as young as I am, how could I have called out your esteemed name the very instant I laid eyes on you?" Even General Nan Ke's entire company had been wiped out by this powerful spider demon; devouring the two of them would be child's play. While flattering her to buy time, He Lingchuan racked his brains for a way to stay alive.