A Clashing Brawl of Demon Kings!

The two lingered in the cavern for a little longer until not a sound came from outside. Only then did Dong Rui whisper, "We can go now." He Lingchuan drew his saber and cut through the webs barring the entrance in two strokes. Spider silk that ordinary blades could not manage posed no challenge at all to Fusheng. He stirred and swept the severed strands aside to keep them from sticking to anyone. Then both men threw the black cloth over themselves and lay flat against the demon puppet's back. Dong Rui had already rubbed the cloth with spider carapaces and legs beforehand to mask their human scent. Now, he patted the demon puppet's head. "Go!" Once it started moving, any other creature looking at it would merely see a spider with a slightly raised back. However, Zhu Erniang's spider guardians were never carved from a single mold to begin with. They always varied somewhat, so this slight irregularity drew no attention. Carrying both men, the demon puppet darted through the labyrinth toward the nest's exit, moving far faster than human legs ever could. Before it had gone a dozen paces, the puppet suddenly stopped. Dong Rui whispered, "There's commotion ahead!" *** The plume of yellow smoke rising into the sky had not triggered any alert among the spider guardians in the Jiana ruins. Before long, however, several dozen small spiders bounded out from the jungle to the west, rustling and darting toward this spot. The sound of their movement was itself a high-frequency cry for help. Unfortunately, the spiders in the Jiana ruins gave no response. Their kin at the entrance to the Demon Nest, however, picked up on the abnormality and strained to turn their sluggish heads in that direction. Something was charging over, shaking the earth and rattling the mountains. Immediately after a shrill, piercing squeal, more than a dozen gargantuan beasts burst from the thickets, rushing straight for the Demon Nest! Manager Zhao hugged the tree beside him tightly, his face drained of color. If any of those things collided with him, he would be sent straight to meet his late master. These turned out to be robust wild boars. The one in the lead stood over two zhang tall—a behemoth that anyone would have to look up to. When it galloped, it resembled a colossal locomotive, yet it bore curved tusks a zhang in length. It snapped trees, demolished buildings, and didn't swerve in the slightest. The herd of boars trampled straight through the bonfires, kicking up sparks and lightning along their path with deafening crackles and an astonishing clamor. At their speed, they reached the Demon Nest in the blink of an eye. Once there, they overturned wagons at sight and slaughtered spiders on encounter. Poor things, the spiders had not yet shaken off the effects of the drug. Their reflexes were sluggish, leaving them completely at the mercy of the boars' overwhelming size. A few stomps from those massive trotters were enough to burst them into splatters of viscera. As for the caravan, they scurried up the hillside to hide. Manager Zhao and the others could only tremble like leaves, while Tu Zhongli led his subordinates along a detour, stealthily creeping toward the Demon Nest. Trampling Zhu Erniang's main entrance flat was still not enough for those dozen-plus boars. Tossing their heads, they used their massive tusks to scoop up burning logs from the bonfires and fling them into the Demon Nest. Most of the firewood tumbled into the sinkhole and was snuffed out upon hitting the water, but dozens of burning branches fell into the tunnels. Fluorescent spores grew everywhere here, utterly unable to withstand the repeated barrages of burning wood, and the tunnels soon caught fire. The boar in the lead swelled its long snout and blew downward. That mouth acted like a giant bellows, blasting a violent, foul wind that howled straight into the Demon Nest. Pandemonium broke out above and below. No matter how dull Zhu Erniang might be, could she remain oblivious when someone was running rampant right over her head? Before long, the fires inside the cavern began to dwindle. At regular intervals within the Demon Nest, thick spiderwebs formed compartmentalizing barriers. These webs were non-sticky, but they provided superb fire and heat insulation—far superior to the gable walls in human architecture. Once the open flames reached them, they could spread no further. Of course, the primary reason the fire died down so quickly was that the spiders inside the nest had rushed over and begun spewing webbing to smother the flames. Right on their heels, a dense swarm of spiders surged out of the caves to face the boars. These wild boars were naturally denizens of the Demon Nest Swamp as well. Their leader, the wild boar demon king, was inherently unreasonable, given to reckless rampages and brutal headbutts. Only after Zhu Erniang personally taught it a few harsh lessons and devoured several piglets from the herd had they learned to behave. However, during the previous appearance of the Emperor's Flowing Dew, a large blob of the nectar had landed right in the boars' territory. The entire sounder had shared in the bounty. Those with cultivation made great strides, while those without had their intelligence awakened. The demon boar clan's strength surged overnight, swelling their confidence along with it. After enduring for so long, they had finally come for revenge. The burrow spiders' webs possessed astonishing toughness. So long as a dozen-odd spiders spewed together, the sweeping web could pin most creatures in place, rendering them helpless. Some spider guardians could also spit acid; two unlucky boars were struck directly, blinded by the venom, and began thrashing about in wild, reckless agony. Over a century ago, General Nan Ke of Panlong City had led over a thousand men against Zhu Erniang and her brood, only to meet bitter defeat in the end. Even warriors protected by origin power had suffered such a fate, which spoke volumes about the spider demons' formidable combat prowess. Furthermore, these creatures fought in coordinated multi-role formations, operating with clear discipline under Zhu Erniang's training. Though Zhu Erniang's brood was far less prosperous than in its prime, its position as a regional overlord in the Demon Nest Swamp had been earned through raw strength. Even so, the wild boar king was twice as large as its companions, possessing staggering weight and power. Whenever it saw a kinsman trapped in webbing, a single charging ram was enough to free them. Brute force could overwhelm ten kinds of finesse. Facing such an embodiment of pure physical might, the spider demons' abilities fell somewhat short. Fortunately, at that moment, Zhu Erniang finally squeezed out of the cave entrance, scrambled up a large tree by the edge of the sinkhole, and climbed onto the surface, furious. "Fatty Si, have you lost your mind!" The boar demon king had once captured a scholar, and before eating him, had been given a cultured moniker: "King Siwen," the Refined King. It thought the title sounded grand and took it for its own. Zhu Erniang looked down on it, however, and never addressed it as anything other than a fat pig. King Siwen flicked its curly little tail toward the campfire. "Zhu Erniang, your brood captured my great-great-grandsons for humans to eat! Today, we settle all accounts, old and new!" Zhu Erniang turned one of her eyes toward the campfire. Sure enough, half a suckling pig was still roasting over the flames, golden-brown and glistening with oil. *Tsk...* Of course, that was hardly the point. King Siwen had never needed an excuse to fight. It scraped the earth with its hooves, lowered its head, and charged straight at Zhu Erniang. The momentum was ferociously overpowering, but just as it lunged before Zhu Erniang, its opponent abruptly soared into the air. Indeed, Zhu Erniang had shot a strand of silk into a large tree overhead and hoisted herself upward. This was an innate talent of spiders; despite her enormous bulk, she was exceptionally nimble in rising and dropping. King Siwen braked sharply. Had it not possessed excellent traction, it would have plunged headfirst into the sinkhole. Taking advantage of that momentary pause, Zhu Erniang dropped like a plummeting stone directly from above, crashing hard onto the wild boar king! The two behemoths rolled across the ground, shaking the very earth. No other creature could intervene. King Siwen sought to rely on its bulk and weight to pin Zhu Erniang to the ground. She, however, was agile and repeatedly scrambled on top, though finding an opening to bite was no simple task. Potent as Zhu Erniang's venom was, King Siwen's hide was exceedingly thick; piercing that defense with spider fangs would take time. Fortunately, Zhu Erniang did not panic in the slightest. As they rolled, she continued spewing silk, aiming to wrap King Siwen in layer upon layer. Her silk's stickiness and tensile strength were peerless in the swamp. King Siwen knew full well that once bundled into a cocoon, only death awaited; Zhu Erniang would surely inject venom into its body, as spiders always did with their prey. Thus, King Siwen exerted every ounce of its strength and swelled outward. Hundreds of long bristles across its body suddenly stood rigid as steel needles and shot out with a sharp *twang*. The scene resembled an oversized version of the Torrential Pear Blossom Needles triggered all at once—after all, the boar's stiff bristles measured over a foot long. Zhu Erniang was pressing directly down upon it; how could she dodge at point-blank range? She let out a long hiss. Bristles bristled all over her body like a man struck by countless steel nails; several of her lower legs were even pierced through. That was certainly no pleasant feeling. Taking advantage of Zhu Erniang's momentary lapse in grip, King Siwen suddenly contracted, its body shrinking by a full size as it forcefully squeezed out of the cocoon that had barely begun to take shape! Not only were the other spiders startled, but Zhu Erniang was also astonished. She had always taken immense pride in her silk. A closer look, however, revealed that King Siwen had actually left its outer shell behind inside the cocoon. After rolling in the swamp's mud bogs for countless years, a thick crust of mud had formed over its body, which, when reinforced by demonic arts, became an armor harder than adamantine rock. Formidable as Zhu Erniang's silk was, it had stuck to that muddy carapace. By shedding the crust, King Siwen had regained its freedom. In their past clashes, it had never revealed this trick, saving it precisely for a critical juncture. Even so, it was now stripped bare, leaving it in the dire predicament of severely diminished defenses for the remainder of the battle. In terms of combat strength, King Siwen knew very well that it was no match for Zhu Erniang. Therefore, it let out an ear-splitting roar, which meant: *You bastard, get over here and help!* A rustling crash sounded from the jungle behind them. Out from the dark shadows of the trees darted a colossal serpent, clamping its jaws around Zhu Erniang with a vicious bite! It had concealed itself so well beforehand that neither of the two warring behemoths had noticed its presence. This pounce was swift as lightning; before any creature could register what was happening, the giant serpent, Lord Boshan, had already joined the fray. Two giant boars that stood in its path were sent flying from the impact. Zhu Erniang had no time to react before its jaws seized her abdomen. Lord Boshan had deliberately ambushed her from behind to avoid her razor-sharp fangs. Having landed the strike, Lord Boshan immediately coiled his body, seeking to constrict Zhu Erniang's abdominal segments and legs to immobilize her completely. At the same time, King Siwen found its second wind, rushing in to bite Zhu Erniang's head while gouging into her with its scythe-like tusks. Unlike normal boars' teeth, their tips had long been honed sharp by King Siwen, leaving gaping, bloody holes with every thrust. Working in tandem, the two behemoths seemed to have driven Zhu Erniang into a corner in an instant. The underlings brought by the three factions were not idle either. This was Zhu Erniang's domain, where spiders were the most numerous. Seeing their matriarch cornered, the spider army launched an immediate assault on the two demon kings. From halfway up the slope, Manager Zhao could see them swarming over Lord Boshan and King Siwen in such dense clusters that their original colors were blotted out entirely. Though the spider demons' fangs were not as sturdy as their matriarch's, their numbers were overwhelming. Hundreds of them sinking into flesh at once to inject venom was agonizing. Lord Boshan fared better, as his body was shielded by tough scales that were not easily breached, but King Siwen had just shed its mud armor, leaving its defenses drastically reduced. Several spider guardians over a century old managed to puncture its outer hide, causing King Siwen to squeal and grunt in agony.