Over the past few days, He Lingchuan had been busy entertaining merchants. The first batch of palm oil had already been refined, and the quality was excellent; if the Yangshan Archipelago didn't start securing customers now, it would soon be too late.
Besides, the islands would yield abundant products in the future, and expanding connections and trade routes was an unavoidable responsibility for He Lingchuan as island master.
Yet whenever he returned to the Yangshan Archipelago, Zhu Daniang would inevitably linger nearby.
Once or twice was no surprise, but three or four times struck He Lingchuan as strange. Zhu Daniang had never cared much for humans, and she especially disliked crowded places.
Why wasn't she staying on her own Pansi Island?
"Daniang." As she wandered near him once more, eight legs pacing back and forth, He Lingchuan felt as if he could see the conflicted frown written all over her face. "If something's on your mind, just spit it out."
"Well..." Zhu Daniang hesitated. "It's nothing."
He Lingchuan knew to read between the lines. With a blunt personality like Zhu Daniang's, she rarely hemmed and hawed.
"Did Erniang give you a hard time?"
The relationship between these two sisters had always been rather peculiar. Zhu Daniang possessed overwhelming brute strength, while Zhu Erniang was shrewd and calculating; when it came to interpersonal dealings and worldly affairs, Zhu Daniang was no match for her.
"Not exactly. But after she settled into her new home on Pansi Island, she only just mentioned something to me—" It was rare for Zhu Daniang to squirm for so long, and she finally couldn't hold it back any longer. "She had already moved once in eastern Mou Kingdom!"
"Oh?" He Lingchuan asked casually. "Was she unhappy with the first spot she chose?"
Zhu Erniang had tens of thousands of offspring, so relocating was no easy feat. How long had she even been in Mou Kingdom? Barely half a year longer than He Lingchuan. Why had she moved again?
"That place was quite nice, but she couldn't stay because Beijia found her!" That was precisely what angered Zhu Daniang: her younger sister had played petty tricks and lacked honesty, failing to lay out the stakes before moving!
Now that her sister had moved to the Yangshan Archipelago, would she bring disaster to their doorstep?
"..."
"..."
One human, one spider, staring wide-eyed at each other in utter silence.
Having dropped such bombshell news, Zhu Daniang had expected He Lingchuan to turn pale with fright and leap into the air. Instead, he simply blinked and asked in return:
"That's all?"
"Aren't you worried?" Shouldn't any normal person be terrified out of their wits to hear that a nightmare had come knocking?
Seeing his unruffled expression, was this how he was supposed to react?
"I thought it was something major," he said with breezy calm. "Whatever is meant to come will come eventually."
Zhu Daniang scrutinized him with all twelve of her eyes. Once she was certain he genuinely wasn't upset, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. "If I'd known you'd react like this, I would have told you sooner."
To think she had agonized over it for so long by herself.
"What else did Erniang say?"
"Oh, she wants you to come to the island to discuss it."
He Lingchuan was caught between laughter and tears. "How many days ago was this invitation made?"
"About two days ago, right after she came clean with me." Zhu Daniang puffed angrily. "I haven't felt like talking to her at all these past few days!"
"Don't be mad, don't be mad." He Lingchuan felt an urge to pat her reassuringly, but catching sight of her long legs bristling with stiff barbs, he quickly abandoned the thought. "Come on, head back to Pansi Island with me to see Erniang."
The new tenant had been settled in for several days, so as the landlord, it was high time he checked in on her.
Viewed from afar, or at least on the surface, Pansi Island appeared no different than before. The shore remained jagged with crags, and the island was lush and green. Only occasionally could one spot spiderwebs clinging to treetops or rocky crevices.
Ever since He Lingchuan deployed the Dragon-Torture Pillars, these islands were no longer shrouded in yin fiend energy, and living creatures had begun to visit. In just a few short days, birds were already singing sweet melodies in the woods, and the variety of insects crawling across the foliage had multiplied—unlike before, when only the little black bugs bred in yin fiend energy could survive.
Pansi Island had no roads, only rounded or jagged rocks scattered everywhere. He Lingchuan took the lazy way out, sprawling across Zhu Daniang's forehead and letting her carry him toward the burrow spider nest.
Eight legs in motion were certainly far steadier than two. Even with his eyes closed, he didn't feel the slightest jolt.
Before long, they arrived at the burrow spider nest.
In truth, He Lingchuan had heard rustling sounds from the surrounding woods long before. He was well familiar with that noise: the scrape of burrow spiders' long legs sweeping through fallen leaves.
Zhu Erniang had sent her little spiders out to welcome them.
Scrambling down a steep rock face, He Lingchuan felt the air grow increasingly damp. The place was not cast in perpetual gloom; from early morning until midday, sunlight beat down upon the broad, screen-like stone walls, allowing medicinal herbs rooted in the crevices to thrive.
Below the rock wall flowed a hidden subterranean brook, silent and still.
This was the exact environment burrow spiders favored most.
As the spiders slipped through an inconspicuous fissure, He Lingchuan realized the space broadened considerably farther in, though whether it had always been so or was intentionally expanded by the swarm remained unclear.
Burrow spiders were masters of terraforming, fully aware of how to excavate safely without causing cave-ins.
Sunlight still reached this point.
He Lingchuan noticed the ground was carpeted in a thick layer of black soil, soft and moist, without a single weed in sight. Several small spiders roamed nearby, instantly driving off any birds that fluttered down.
Zhu Daniang informed him that seeds had just been sown here to grow base grass for the mycelial mats.
This so-called base grass consisted of three plant species carefully selected by Zhu Erniang, rich in the nutrients required for the mycelial mats to grow rapidly. Without a foundation of base grass to nourish them, the mats would not flourish nearly as well.
"So particular? I assumed the mats could just sprout straight out of rock hollows." The mycelial mat was the foundational link in Zhu Erniang's unique agricultural chain, serving both as pasture for aphid cattle and as a petri dish for various delectable fungi and fluorescent spores.
"It needs base fertilizer. When the time comes, the base grass and pine needles will be shredded and fed to the mat."
Then, they entered the cavern proper, leaving the sunlight behind.
Every ten feet overhead, a glowing fluorescent spore illuminated the otherwise dim cavern, making everything clearly visible.
Cobwebs draped across every corner.
Having seen this setup countless times in the Demon Nest Swamp, He Lingchuan wasn't in the least surprised.
The dwelling the two sisters had chosen for themselves was a vast erosion cavern, with smaller caves branching off larger chambers in an endless progression, connecting all the way to sea caves near the shore. According to Zhu Daniang, the expansion project had only just begun; they intended to dig and widen until the entire nest was interconnected in every direction, spacious enough for both giant spiders to move about freely.
Calling it a home, He Lingchuan scratched his head—it was practically a subterranean fortress labyrinth!
In terms of defensibility, it seemed hardly different from the former Demon Nest Swamp. If ordinary people stepped inside, they would be completely disoriented within moments. He had no idea how these burrow spiders navigated their way through it all.
"So where is Erniang?"
"Down in the bay."
Zhu Daniang led Island Master He through countless twists and turns until even he began to feel dizzy. Only then did bright daylight burst before his eyes; he had emerged from a sea cave, and one more step would plunge his foot into seawater as clear as glazed glass.
A brisk breeze washed over them carrying the salt of the sea, bringing them straight into the bay.
Chapter 930