To prevent her home from being raided, Zhu Erniang had sealed the entrance with a spiderweb before leaving the underground palace to battle the two demons. Three layers thick front to back, it was tight enough that even her own brood could not squeeze through without getting stuck.
Yet by the light filtering in from outside, He Lingchuan could see silhouettes shifting beyond the web.
Tu Zhongli and his men had arrived carrying wide wooden planks removed from the wagons. Now, they were sticking them vertically onto the web one by one. Men could walk across these planks—it took some effort, but spared them from touching the web.
To keep their hands and feet from getting stuck, they followed Lao Liu's example and tossed dirt and sand onto the web until the pure white silk turned an earthy yellow. After testing it with their sabers, they finally dared to squeeze through.
Counting the time, Lao Liu and the others had been inside far too long; there was no telling what trouble they had run into. After all, this was the infamous Demon Nest, so Tu Zhongli had no choice but to go in and back them up.
Yet no sooner had four or five of the bandits crawled inside than they came face-to-face with He Lingchuan and Dong Rui.
"Hey!" He Lingchuan gave them a wave. "What took you so long?"
"What's going on?" Tu Zhongli's eyes darted uncertainly. "Where's Lao Liu? What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you, of course." He Lingchuan shrugged. "Lao Liu is getting rather lonely in the wine cellar. He's waiting for company."
At the words "wine cellar," Tu Zhongli knew the secret was out. With a ferocious bark of "Kill!", he took the lead and charged, raising his weapon to strike.
Before He Lingchuan could make a move, the red spider on his shoulder leaped first. Tu Zhongli had quick reflexes; seeing a streak of red lunging at his face, he ducked instinctively. As a result, the bandit behind him took the brunt, the spider latching right onto his face. The man let out a sharp cry of "Ah!" and collapsed, convulsing violently.
Among Tu Zhongli's group was a mystic, who spewed a mouthful of true fire without a second thought.
He was quite accomplished; the flame stretched over three feet long and burned blue, showing its intense heat. Any ordinary spider caught in such a blast would have been charred to a crisp.
But what kind of creature was this red spider? The silk it spat could resist both fire and water; to it, a mouthful of mortal flame was nothing more than a visit to a sauna.
Without dodging, it jumped right at the mystic's face again. However, the mystic was at least equipped with two protective talismans, which flared to life and repelled the small red spider.
Dong Rui pulled a golden bell from who knows where and gave it a furious ring. The mystic instantly felt dizzy, his incantation hand-seal freezing halfway through. The red spider sank its fangs straight into his lip, drawing a shrill scream of agony.
Meanwhile, Tu Zhongli had already clashed blades with He Lingchuan, cursing as he fought, "I took you in with good intentions, so why the hell are you trying to ruin me?"
*Because you have no chance of winning, brother,* He Lingchuan mused silently.
He noticed the bandit leader possessed considerable martial prowess and orderly discipline, ruthless yet clean in execution, as if he had served in the military.
Soldiers practiced the art of killing—focused on swiftness, precision, and lethality, with none of the flashy flourishes.
Tu Zhongli, however, was tasting bitter misery. This suddenly appearing opponent wielded an eerie saber art; each slash seemed to weave invisible strands of energy, ensnaring him within. His foe's strength was clearly superior to his own; lingering any longer would turn him into a trapped turtle in a jar.
Just then, several burly, barrel-chested spider guardians appeared at the end of the passage!
Tu Zhongli had no stomach left to fight. Feinting with his hatchet, he tossed out a handful of stuff that was neither sand nor fog, then spun around and bolted.
He Lingchuan gave chase immediately. Yet not even the red spider on his shoulder noticed that he quietly dropped a small object into a corner of the passage—right inside an alcove behind the exit of the underground palace.
Nor did the spiders inside the underground palace notice that after the golden bell rang, a spider guardian crawled out of Dong Rui's workshop and followed the path toward the exit of the Demon Nest.
They were all spiders, and this guardian was of a higher rank, so none of them moved to stop it.
Hearing the commotion within the cave, the bandits outside dared not advance any further. Tu Zhongli scrambled out of the cavern, not daring to look back even as the screams of his men echoed from behind, and led the remnants to climb the tree roots and flee the sinkhole.
At that moment, King Siwen and Lord Boshan were still fighting valiantly against Zhu Erniang, but their defeat was already evident. King Siwen had the least guile; seeing the bandits scrambling away, he urgently demanded, "How did it go?"
They had paid such a heavy price, not hesitating to break ties with the swamp overlord Zhu Erniang, all for that single outcome, hadn't they?
The bandits did not answer, keeping their heads down and scrambling up the vines.
He Lingchuan and the red spider pursued relentlessly, and the stragglers among the bandits dropped one after another.
Once Dong Rui cleared the sinkhole, he came to a stop. As a demon puppet master, he had neither the speed nor the strength of He Lingchuan, so he took the chance to slack off and slipped away toward the hillside.
As he walked, he rang the golden bell a few more times. The chimes penetrated the web at the underground palace and reached the ears of that spider guardian demon puppet.
When it reached the entrance of the underground palace, it halted.
Meanwhile, having failed to hear the answer he wanted, and fearing the bandits had succeeded only to be overtaken, Lord Boshan decisively abandoned Zhu Erniang and turned back to pursue He Lingchuan and the bandits.
Facing Zhu Erniang alone, King Siwen found the pressure overwhelming. He held on in earnest for a while, but the spider venom flared up, leaving his head swimming until Zhu Erniang seemed to have seventeen or eighteen eyes.
If this went on, he would die. King Siwen finally let out a bellow, wheeled around, and fled.
His kin hurriedly followed suit.
After this chaotic brawl, six or seven members of the wild boar clan lay dead on the spot—a heavy toll.
Zhu Erniang considered for a moment, then abandoned King Siwen to chase Lord Boshan instead. That damned serpent was full of vile tricks and posed a far greater threat to her. She would spare the stupid pig for now and settle accounts with him later.
Over on the other side, once He Lingchuan chased the bandits to the ruins of the Jiana tribe, he pivoted and ducked into a shell house.
The red spider urged him, "Keep chasing! Why did you stop?"
Ignoring it, He Lingchuan simply pressed his back flat against the wall.
After just two or three breaths, a colossal form rushed past the house, sending fallen leaves on the ground rustling in a loud whoosh.
He Lingchuan poked his head toward the window just in time to see Lord Boshan's receding silhouette.
That speed had to be at least sixty miles an hour.
He had no deep-seated grudge against these great swamp demons, so why chase them to the bitter end?
Of course, even if he didn't give chase, someone else would.
A few breaths later, Zhu Erniang's massive form came bounding over as well. Just as she was about to sweep through the ruins after Lord Boshan, a spider demon suddenly scrambled out from the underground palace cave, hissing with frantic urgency.
He Lingchuan could not understand its hisses, but Zhu Erniang's colossal form screeched to a sudden halt. Her eight legs pivoted, bringing her head right against the window of the shell house, her voice dripping with the impending tempest of her fury:
"Who stole my shed molt?!"
Rage caused her form to swell a full size larger out of nowhere, her eyes bulging even more prominently.
"Huh?" Had the theft of the molt been discovered by the little spiders in the underground palace so quickly? He Lingchuan met her suddenly crimson eyes, showing only confusion and not a shred of fear. "I put your molt right back where it was. Didn't you see it with your own eyes?" As he spoke, he pointed to the red spider on his shoulder.
This red spider was Zhu Erniang's avatar, and the two shared a line of sight. Naturally, Zhu Erniang had seen what He Lingchuan did in the gallery room.
"One of my molts is gone!"
He Lingchuan looked even more astonished. "We were together the entire time. It definitely wasn't me who stole it. Besides, look at the size of that molt of yours! Who could possibly haul it out?"
Every one of those molts was a size larger than the current Zhu Erniang. Aside from herself, no one knew how such oversized cargo could pass through the narrow tunnels of the underground palace. The storage rings surviving today generally had small capacities, with the rare exception being negligible. Even the immortal ring in He Lingchuan's possession couldn't possibly hold an entire molt.
No, wait. There was another fellow who knew—
He Lingchuan displayed a timely realization: "Right! Could Lord Boshan have sent snake demons to slip back inside? Look how he slipped away so quickly without saying a single word!" Unlike King Siwen, who had naively blurted out asking if they had gotten it.
The tips of Zhu Erniang's legs violently gouged the earth.
Lord Boshan!
She had seen with her own eyes that the snakeskin bag could hold a spider molt. If Lord Boshan could craft one, who was to say he couldn't craft a second?
He used the bandits as bait to draw the spider horde's attention, while secretly sending little snakes in to steal it!
What a neat trick of luring the spider away from her lair! With a piercing screech, Zhu Erniang broke into a stride, racing after Lord Boshan.
She moved like lightning and wind. Seeing spots of blood-red speckles surfacing across the giant spider's body, He Lingchuan knew Zhu Erniang's fury was fully ignited—she would stop at nothing to drag "justice" out of Lord Boshan.
But Lord Boshan couldn't give it to her. *Sigh.* He Lingchuan subconsciously patted the divine bone necklace against his chest.
No matter. As long as he wasn't the unlucky bastard, everything was fine.
To avoid suspicion, it was not wise for him to return to the underground palace right now.
Turning his head, he saw Manager Zhao and the others, who had been hiding behind the woods on the hillside, being herded out by the spider guardians, with Dong Rui tailing behind.
These looked like legitimate merchants. Knowing that mirage mist surrounded the perimeter of the Demon Nest Swamp, and with their safe-passage banner snatched by Tu Zhongli, they had no way of getting out anyway and dared not wander far.
With the wild boars and snakes near the Demon Nest having fled, the spiders clearing the battlefield had flushed them out as well.
Spiders large and small encircled them. Though their multifaceted eyes showed no change of expression, Manager Zhao could sense a raw, savage bloodlust from their restless agitation.
These spider demons were in a foul temper, itching to suck them dry into withered husks.
Just as Manager Zhao was trembling with dread, He Lingchuan walked over, and the spiders along his path parted one after another.
Naturally, Manager Zhao did not know he was borrowing someone else's majesty, and that the spider guardians were deferring to the red spider on He Lingchuan's shoulder. Thinking this young man enjoyed the deep trust of the Spider Queen, he dropped to his knees with a thud and cried out trembling: "Have mercy, My Lord! We were victims too—those bandits murdered our master!"
As soon as he fell to his knees, the dozen-odd men behind him knelt down as well.
"What was your master's surname?"
"Gan!" Manager Zhao replied. "Our master's surname was Gan."
"Why were you mixed up with the bandits?" He Lingchuan was asking when he suddenly stopped. "Wait," he said, turning to instruct the spider guardians, "go bring out the captive from the wine cellar."
Having received directions from the red spider, the spider guardians complied.
Before long, the bandit Lao Liu was dragged out by two spider guardians and dumped onto the open ground.
He was bundled in spiderwebs like a rice dumpling, unable to even bend his knees. The spiders stripped the webbing from his face, revealing a terrified countenance.
Looking at the spiders surrounding him, he immediately understood his predicament. He answered whatever He Lingchuan asked, behaving with utmost obedience.
Piecing together the answers from both sides, He Lingchuan assembled a rough picture:
Sure enough, this whole ordeal was Lord Boshan's conspiracy. Zhu Erniang had not chased the wrong person—no, she had not chased the wrong snake.
Chapter 340