The stone chamber was vast and hollow, forming a nearly regular oval. Inside stood a table, several chairs, and two patches of reeds spread across the ground.
The furniture was battered and worn; it was a wonder how the spider demons had managed to scavenge human belongings in this damp swamp.
Having a table and chairs was already quite an achievement, so a bed was out of the question, leaving the two men with only the reeds to sleep on.
In a corner of the stone chamber lay a pile of medicinal herbs Dong Rui had requested.
He walked over, rummaged through them briefly, and shook his head. "Still missing several kinds."
A spider guardian stepped in to report, "The rest will be delivered later."
Even for them, foraging through the swamp for unfamiliar herbs took time.
Dong Rui sat down on a chair and looked around. "What kind of place is this supposed to be, anyway?"
"The bladder," He Lingchuan said.
"The Demon Nest," said the spider guardian.
Man and spider spoke at the same time, leaving Dong Rui unable to catch either answer clearly. "What did you two say?"
He Lingchuan rubbed his forehead, then turned to the spider guardian. "Are you very familiar with this cavern?"
"Yes." The guardian was incapable of lying. "I was born here."
He Lingchuan exhaled softly. "So this is the Demon Nest? The 'Demon Nest' of Demon Nest Swamp?"
"Correct."
Dong Rui picked up on the implication as well. "Are you saying the entire swamp was named after this cave?" What was so special about this place?
He Lingchuan ran his hand along the rock wall.
The texture was something he could never forget. "Zhu Erniang said the Jiana tribe was wiped out by a demonic entity. The ancient archdemons always liked to refer to 'gods' as 'demons.' So this cavern was probably the demon's former lair, wasn't it? After Zhu Erniang moved to the swamp, she picked up a ready-made home and settled here."
It sounded like a casual remark, but as Dong Rui turned the thought over in his mind, he grasped the deeper meaning and was visibly shaken.
"Are you saying this so-called demon was actually a deity? That the Jiana tribe was exterminated because they incurred divine wrath?"
"Well, the herbs haven't all been gathered yet, and we have time to kill." He Lingchuan asked the spider guardian, "Does Zhu Erniang live here as well?"
"The Ancestor resides in the atrium."
He Lingchuan nodded. The word "atrium" alone proved Zhu Erniang knew full well what kind of place this Demon Nest truly was.
"Can you take us to see it?"
The spider guardian replied, "Wait while we report!"
With that, one of them turned and departed.
Dong Rui asked He Lingchuan, "Are 'atrium' and 'bladder' code words of some kind?"
"Your table sits in the bladder," He Lingchuan said. "Zhu Erniang lives in the heart's atrium. It's meant literally."
Dong Rui looked at him as if he were speaking gibberish. Was this Demon Nest named after human internal organs?
It was one thing for the spider guardian to know, but how could He Lingchuan, a newcomer, know this as well?
It was driving him mad.
He Lingchuan noticed another trait in the man beside his sharp tongue: an intensely insatiable curiosity. "I'll tell you after I make final confirmation."
After a little more than a quarter of an hour, the spider guardian returned and said, "Follow me. No wandering off."
It seemed Zhu Erniang was quite carefree, not minding in the least if outsiders saw her boudoir.
The spider guardian led the way, taking them through a series of twists and turns across a distance even greater than before.
He Lingchuan memorized the route in silence.
As they walked, they realized this was the spiders' true stronghold. Every few steps, they encountered another one. Some forks were guarded, while others were sealed off by thick layers of webbing that kept everyone out.
Soon, they reached the atrium.
This was virtually the central core of the entire cavern. Squeezing out of the narrow passage, the space before them opened up dramatically.
Ahead lay a colossal cavern, seven or eight times larger than their workspace and easily over five zhang tall. Shouting a single word in here would surely produce an echo.
The fluorescent spores here were more numerous than anywhere else, densely packing every fissure in the rock and illuminating the entire cavern as bright as day.
Dong Rui swept his gaze across the space, pointed at the cave wall, and gasped in wonder. "Th-this...?!"
Beneath the cliff face stood several spider demons, each more colossal than the last. The largest and tallest among them reached a height of over three zhang—more than ten meters!
Even the burly Zhu Erniang would look petite and dainty by comparison.
Even standing there completely still, they radiated an overwhelming aura of dread that made anyone fear to approach.
These were true behemoths. How many people would be frightened to death if they were let loose outside?
He Lingchuan knocked his finger down. "What are you shouting about? None of them are alive."
Taking the opportunity, he counted them: one, two, three, four, five. There were only five giant spiders here.
"Huh?" Dong Rui was still reeling from the visual shock.
"You haven't stepped close—how do you know?" Zhu Erniang's voice echoed behind them.
She had caught up with them without either of them noticing, making not the slightest sound.
Her body, larger than a house, could actually compress to a quarter or fifth of its original volume to navigate the narrow passage.
Once she crawled out, her bulk swelled right back up, just like a dried malva nut dropped into water.
In truth, Zhu Erniang's question was quite pointed.
The spider demons lined up against the wall lacked nothing in form or ferocity. And since spiders lacked eyelids, they looked as though they were glaring at onlookers at all times. They were merely motionless—on what basis could anyone say they were dead?
He Lingchuan answered with serene composure, "Fluorescent spores are growing on their joints. If they were alive, they'd clean themselves off to some extent, wouldn't they?" If he remembered correctly, spiders were quite clean creatures. They weren't old turtles that let barnacles latch onto their shells at will.
Zhu Erniang seemed to chuckle. "Clever."
With He Lingchuan's assessment confirmed, Dong Rui could no longer contain his excitement. He bounded forward, weaving among the colossal spider figures, tapping here and feeling there, more overjoyed than a young boy receiving his favorite toy.
Even Zhu Erniang felt somewhat flattered watching him. *Does this man really like me that much?*
"These are all molted husks I shed in the past."
"Ah?" Dong Rui looked back and forth between her and the giant spiders. "Oh!"
No wonder they all looked identical, differing only in size like a set of nesting dolls.
Recalling what He Lingchuan had said earlier, he pointed at the largest molt. "Is this your ancient demon immortal form? Truly... truly magnificent!"
Most relics from ancient times had long since rotted away, let alone the molt of a demon immortal.
Seeing these alone made the trip to the Demon Nest worthwhile.
To his surprise, Zhu Erniang's tone abruptly darkened. "The demon immortal body is not here."
"Huh?"
Zhu Erniang offered no explanation, but He Lingchuan had a sudden flash of realization. He remembered clearly that in the spider nest within the Panlong dreamscape, there had been six giant spider molts. As expected, it wasn't that the dream had made an error; Zhu Erniang was simply missing one here.
Where had the largest molt gone?
"Even so, it's still incredible." The wonder and admiration in Dong Rui's voice ultimately pleased Zhu Erniang, and she introduced them one by one. "This one is from the end of antiquity; this is from the early medieval era, the middle, the late..."
The closer they got to the present day, the smaller the molts became.
Dong Rui glanced at He Lingchuan, then said to Zhu Erniang, "I see. You intentionally channeled your cultivation into the outer shell and shed it all together, didn't you?"
Zhu Erniang tapped the ground with a sharp foreleg. "Precisely."
"Brilliant, truly brilliant!" Dong Rui gave a thumbs-up. "The ancient immortals vanished from the world precisely because they couldn't adapt to an environment where spiritual energy grew increasingly thin. Others couldn't copy your method even if they wanted to."
He Lingchuan said nothing, because the divine bone necklace against his chest had grown warm again.
The moment he entered the atrium cavern, the necklace had reacted, which meant it coveted something in this place.
The cavern was empty aside from the spider molts, which were the most conspicuous things around. Could it be after Zhu Erniang's shells?
Looking at Zhu Erniang, He Lingchuan thought to himself that satisfying this demand from the necklace would not be easy.
Then again, how had Zhu Erniang transported such massive molts across tens of thousands of li to this place, and then squeezed them through the narrow passage into the atrium cavern?
It seemed she possessed secret techniques of her own.
Meanwhile, Dong Rui stroked the molts as though caressing precious jewels, unable to tear himself away. He suddenly turned to Zhu Erniang and said, "I need to take a small sample from each molt. It will be of tremendous help in developing the medicine!"
"Truly?" Zhu Erniang was displeased at the thought of someone touching her remains. "What is the reasoning behind that?"
If he couldn't offer a satisfactory explanation, Dong Rui might well become her dinner tonight.
"Just a single bristle from each will do!" Dong Rui hastened to explain. "The greatest difficulty in tailoring a new medicine specifically for you is the lack of comparative specimens! Though you have many offspring, their cultivation is worlds apart from yours. Medicine formulated according to their characteristics might prove far too weak for you. These molts originated from your very self. As long as I extract samples to cross-reference them, the difficulty of refining the medicine will drop significantly!"
Zhu Erniang had seen much of the world and recognized the sense in his words. Furthermore, taking just one bristle from each molt was a negligible loss. After considering it, she personally plucked a single bristle from each of the five molts and handed them to Dong Rui.
Leaving the massive display chamber, the Spider Queen led them onward into two smaller rooms.
Calling them "small" was only relative to the grand display hall.
One was the Spider Queen's living quarters, while the other was sealed airtight with webbing.
"What is this place?"
"The center of the Demon Nest. I rarely come here, so I simply sealed it off."
The Spider Queen sliced open the webs with her own claws; otherwise, anyone else would have had to expend an immense amount of effort.
Inside lay a thick layer of dust. When He Lingchuan looked upon the sight, even his shock could not tempt him to take a deep breath.
This stone chamber was even smaller than Dong Rui's workspace, with a stone dais standing in the center.
Hanging around the dais were what looked like numerous draperies. But grabbing a piece and inspecting it closely revealed that the material was soft, rubbery, and highly elastic—almost like a rubber band, but even more like...
Even more like the tendons He Lingchuan had seen connecting Yun Gu to the entire mine in the Chifeng mine tunnel within the Panlong dreamscape!
Only, having endured countless ages, they were not rotted, but completely desiccated.
"A flesh-and-blood fortress," He Lingchuan murmured the name that had made his blood run cold even in the dream. "What devoured the Jiana tribe wasn't some demonic entity—it was a tormentor!"
No wonder he had felt the illusion of a nightmare coming true the moment he stepped into this cavern.
It wasn't an illusion at all.
Dong Rui frowned. "What on earth is that?" Ever since entering this cavern, he had been asking question after question. Among the three living beings present, he felt like the most ignorant, and he detested the feeling.
Chapter 322