Held at weapon point, Zhu Daniang remained calm instead, all eight claws resting lightly against the ground. He Lingchuan stood tall, saber still sheathed.
Dong Rui retreated behind the two of them, rubbing his arms.
Seeing that their willingness to fight seemed low, the other side's tension eased somewhat. One of them stepped forward two paces. "Who are you, and why have you trespassed into the territory of Mount Rong?"
He was a youth who had just come of age, with a square face, high cheekbones, sunken eye sockets, and prominent brow ridges.
How to describe such features? A single word sufficed:
Fierce.
The way he looked at people was like a hungry wolf fixing its eyes on prey, sending chills down one's spine.
He Lingchuan had spent so long in the Gale Army, where his comrades were all brave men who braved life and death, yet few ever possessed such an expression or such an aura.
Dong Rui could not help remarking, "So this really is Mount Rong! I didn't lead us astray after all!"
Driving the snail-toad through the underground, he rarely took a wrong turn; traveling aboveground was far more likely to mislead him.
He Lingchuan chimed in, "Are you all disciples of Mount Rong? We have just arrived at your esteemed domain, seeking Elder Dao Quan!"
At that moment, someone called out anxiously, "Junior Brother Qiu, there's no time! Those things are about to come out!"
The cold youth paid him no heed, merely tilting his head slightly to ask He Lingchuan, "Looking for Elder Dao? You, what business?"
Then he pointed at the spider demon. "Why are you with a cicada?"
A cicada? These blind fools of humans mistook a dignified spider immortal for a cicada? Zhu Daniang braced her eight legs, and her body instantly swelled by more than double.
She had originally contracted down to the size of a fine steed; now swollen, she was burly and imposing, every bristle radiating a warning: *Don't mess with me.*
The crowd started in alarm, raising their guard.
A fellow standing behind her took two steps back instinctively and accidentally tripped a trigger mechanism, sending a sleeve arrow whistling through the air with a swoosh.
With twelve eyes providing essentially a 360-degree panoramic field of vision without a single blind spot, how could Zhu Daniang ever be caught by a sneak attack?
A single lift of her leg, and the sleeve arrow struck empty air.
Such an enormous spider leaped through the air, pouncing directly atop the man and pinning him to the ground!
The unlucky wretch let out a bloodcurdling scream on the spot.
Zhu Daniang's legs bristled with stiff hairs up to three inches long; crushed in her embrace, the man felt as though ten thousand needles were piercing him, plunged into agonizing torment.
Yet he could not break free, for with a swift initial move, Zhu Daniang cast a web that bound him fast and tight.
Naturally, the next step would be injecting venom and waiting for it to take effect. But Zhu Daniang showed mercy, refraining from turning him into a juice pouch. After all, He Lingchuan had traveled a great distance and still needed to deal with the masters of this land.
Seeing this, the other disciples of Mount Rong rushed forward to the rescue. The cold, fierce youth surnamed Qiu narrowed his eyes, suddenly flashing behind Dong Rui and chopping toward his neck with the edge of his hand.
He could tell at a glance that this person was likely the weakest of the three intruders.
Strike the weak first; tough bones could be gnawed on slowly later.
Yet the moment he struck, his vision blurred as something inexplicably lunged toward his face, swelling larger and larger in midair.
The distance between them was too close; seeing that his entire face was about to be enveloped, the fierce youth let out a sudden, furious roar and drove a fist straight into the thing.
His roar was deafening, like a bolt of lightning splitting a clear blue sky right beside one's ear. Even Dong Rui was blasted two or three paces back, his mind and blood roiling, let alone a bat demon puppet that relied on ultrasonic echolocation.
It was thoroughly dazed by the shockwave, its body even stiffening for an instant.
Immediately afterward, the youth's fist arrived.
The demon puppet, which had just grown to the size of an ordinary flying fox, was struck in a high arc, crashing down thirty feet away.
Yet in that brief moment of delay, Dong Rui had already executed a sliding step and ducked beneath Zhu Daniang's underbelly. His movements were nimble and swift; even if He Lingchuan were to do it, it might not have been any smoother.
Fighting wasn't his strong suit, but fleeing for his life was second to none.
Without such formidable skill, how could he have remained on the Beijia Kingdom's wanted Earth Ranking for so long without ever being captured?
Bantering was fine in ordinary times, but in critical moments, his teammate Zhu Daniang remained the most reliable. Her eight long legs stood like eight pillars, shielding him securely in the center.
Naturally, he still had to spout some formal posturing: "We've traveled ten thousand li to come here—is this how Mount Rong treats its guests?"
He had plenty of vicious, underhanded tricks, but it wasn't wise to unleash them now, lest they do too much damage to cordial relations.
The Mount Rong disciples' attacks were all intercepted by Zhu Daniang.
It was said that two fists could not rival four hands, but Zhu Daniang possessed eight legs and could engage multiple opponents simultaneously, fighting each on her own terms.
Even so, Zhu Daniang grew annoyed. With two sharp hisses, she spat out webs that pinned two of them directly against the trees.
The others rushed over to help, but the webbing was astonishingly resilient, resisting blades and swords alike.
Meanwhile, He Lingchuan had already engaged the fierce youth.
Facing He Lingchuan, the fellow pulled out a rod of purple gold. With a flick against the wind, it expanded into a six-foot-long staff. Lifting the tip, he thrust straight at his opponent's brow.
The moment they clashed, He Lingchuan sensed something unusual. This kid possessed astonishing strength, falling only slightly short of Meng Shan, yet far surpassing him in dense solidity. The staff made no whistling wind as it swung; only when it struck the enemy's weapon or body did its contained immense power erupt abruptly, catching people completely off guard.
He Lingchuan dodged a blow, and the tip punched silently into a boulder, boring a hole straight through it.
Taking advantage of the opening, He Lingchuan spun around and swung his saber right toward the youth's face.
He had come to Mount Rong to find someone, not cause trouble, so he flipped his wrist to strike with the flat of the blade.
If this landed, it would be no different from a resounding slap to the face.
Credit was due to the youth for seeing it clearly in that flash of flint and spark. Releasing the staff with his left hand, he turned it into a fist and struck squarely against the flat of Fusheng.
With a bang, fist collided with blade, faintly ringing with the clatter of metal.
Borrowing the force to press down, He Lingchuan whipped a roundhouse kick straight toward the back of the youth's knee, fast and ferocious.
The power behind this kick had once sent the tiger Jiao Yu flying; landed solidly against a joint, it would result in a fracture at best.
As a visiting guest, He Lingchuan had no wish to take a life, but he didn't mind serving up a fracture special first.
The strike was too fast, and the youth simply couldn't evade it.
Yet right at that instant, a dark silhouette abruptly emerged from the youth's leg and struck hard against He Lingchuan's boot.
He Lingchuan's kick landed on the dark silhouette, as if dispersing a cluster of black mist, sending the youth flying twenty feet away.
Yet He Lingchuan also felt a pang of pain in his foot, as though something had pierced through his boot and stung him, instantly numbing the top of his foot.
"Damn it!" Sensing immediate danger, he swept his hand across his storage ring and swallowed a detoxification pill without a second's delay.
The youth rolled twice upon hitting the ground and quickly rose to his feet.
His footing was unsteady and somewhat staggering, but he had indeed stood up.
This fellow was truly durable; moreover, with much of the force from He Lingchuan's kick absorbed by that dark silhouette, his bone hadn't even been broken.
He Lingchuan tapped the ground with his toes and closed in on him, moving like a phantom in the eyes of onlookers, before unleashing Wave Slash.
Ever since embarking on cultivation, he had devoted himself to grueling refinement and braved every hardship, all to train his saber intent to answer his will seamlessly.
As these two strikes slashed out, the youth opposite felt as though cast into raging billows and tempestuous waves, the omnipresent, surging force threatening to tear him to shreds.
Chapter 746