He Lingchuan had a set tucked away in his robe as well, recovered from the corpse of Duyun Emissary He Jing. From the moment he acquired it until now, he had never used it once, keeping it purely as a collector's piece.
Alas, he simply couldn't afford it. The array talismans were powered entirely by profound crystals, making every activation exorbitantly expensive.
Without an escape-art prohibition array to restrict them, people from Beijia could indeed come and go freely using lesser mountain-moving arrays.
"Later on, the demons in the surrounding areas, large and small, along with wilderness cultivators and hunters, began constantly raiding my territory, and my brood kept mysteriously vanishing," Zhu Erniang said testily. "There were older demons living around Butterfly Valley too. They said someone had put up a bounty in profound crystals: turning in fifteen of my brood or more earned a reward; if they managed to bag a spider guardian, a single one would do."
Zhu Daniang looked puzzled. "Did you not track down their hiding place?"
"They were exceptionally cautious in their movements. They likely concealed themselves with arrays, or simply hid inside dwellings crafted with the Mustard Seed art," Zhu Erniang replied. "There were avian demons among our enemies. Once they took to the sky carrying a Mustard Seed house, I had no way to track them."
No matter how capable burrow spiders were, they had no wings. How could anything running on the ground outpace something flying through the sky?
The Mustard Seed art was a rare, marvelous skill. As far as He Lingchuan knew, only Songyang Mansion could craft such works, though certain individuals in Beijia possessed Mustard Seed houses in their collections. Back when Fu Shanyue had cordoned off the estate to arrest Cen Boqing, the latter had hidden inside the Mustard Seed space named Ficus Grotto-Heaven and hired someone to carry him out of the residence, nearly managing an escape.
"So your relations with the neighbors turned sour all over again, didn't they?"
Zhu Erniang let out an affirmative grunt. With all the surrounding demons capturing her young in exchange for profound crystals, how could neighborhood relations stay cordial?
Besides, she was an outsider. Why would the local demons have any reason to help her?
Zhu Daniang flared with anger. "When you ran into trouble, why didn't you tell me sooner? I would have helped you slaughter every last one of them!"
Her sister was simply too meek. If the two of them had struck together, there was no way the enemy could have handled a pair of giant spider demons.
"What would have been the point of telling you?" Zhu Erniang replied faintly. "Back then, you had just departed from Yuan Kingdom's Baisha Port and were drifting out at sea."
"..." Zhu Daniang ran the dates through her mind and realized she was right. At that time, she really had been on that endless sea voyage, spending every day drinking alongside He Lingchuan and Dong Rui.
Still, knowing her sister as she did, another thought occurred to her. "What were you planning to do back then? Move house again?"
Zhu Erniang fell silent.
After months of tug-of-war with those Beijia bastards, she had indeed grown exasperated, and the urge to relocate had resurfaced once more. Right at that moment, He Lingchuan's letter of invitation had arrived.
Zhu Daniang gave a long, knowing "Ohhh." "So you'd been wanting to come over all along, hadn't you?"
All twelve of Zhu Erniang's eyes glared back at Zhu Daniang. How could her own blood sister bend her claws outward toward an outsider? Couldn't she at least maintain some dignity and reserve? Was being cordially invited here really the same as rushing over on her own initiative?
Just what kind of bewitching potion had this He fellow fed her sister? They hadn't seen each other for only a few months—how had she grown so foolish!
Naturally, He Lingchuan understood Zhu Erniang's little calculations. He let out a light cough, breaking the staring contest between the sisters.
"After dealing with them for so long, do you know the leader's name?"
"I only heard his subordinates address him as Master Yu. I have no idea which character his name uses," Zhu Erniang said after a moment's thought. "However, the first time this leader spoke to me—communicating through my brood—he declared himself to be under the banner of National Preceptor Shuangye of Beijia Kingdom."
"National Preceptor Shuangye?" He Lingchuan felt a chill run through him.
He had only crossed paths with National Preceptor Shuangye once in Lingxu City, yet he was bound to this Grand Preceptor by a tangled web of connections! The missing Lingxu courier case, the elixir of immortality case, the Cen Boqing case—at their very core, all of them had been moves in the contest between Preceptor Shuangye and Preceptor Qingyang.
That bloodless covert struggle had ultimately concluded with National Preceptor Shuangye's triumph.
Given He Lingchuan's impression of Shuangye, whenever that man was involved, things were never simple!
"Whether this squad discovered you by accident or not, Lingxu City has likely learned of your presence in eastern Mou Kingdom and issued further directives," He Lingchuan said thoughtfully. "Beijia is full of talent. I don't know who this 'Master Yu' is, but his strategy is cunning. Before, when their numbers were few, they avoided direct confrontation at all costs. Instead, they ensured you were ostracized on all sides in Mou Kingdom, so that when you couldn't bear staying any longer, you had no choice but to pack up and move again and again.
"Had you not come to the Yangshan Archipelago, they would still be trailing you like a pack of wolves, waiting for you to show a weakness, waiting until exhaustion set in and your defenses faltered. When that time came, their reinforcements from Beijia would have arrived, and they would have dealt you the fatal blow."
Within Mou Kingdom's borders, Beijia couldn't mobilize an entire army, but they could summon a cohort of formidable experts.
"Erniang, you are cautious by nature, unlike Daniang here, who is..." He caught himself before saying *blunt*, quickly substituting, "...fearless. When faced with pests who harass you relentlessly yet cannot be caught, moving away was your only option."
And every time Zhu Erniang relocated, it dealt a heavy blow to her vitality. Vast amounts of mycelial mats, food, and supplies had to be abandoned. Since the young had nothing to eat during the move, Zhu Erniang had to regurgitate nutrients to nurse them.
The enemy had recognized her weakness, repeatedly harassing her to sever the burrow spider nest's ties to its environment, driving her into a corner time after time.
Back in the day, General Red had subdued Zhu Erniang through overwhelming, unyielding martial force.
Beijia, however, had adopted a completely different playbook.
It was a brilliant approach. One had to admit that as a demon kingdom, Beijia truly had a knack for dealing with these prehistoric monsters.
*Wait, no.* He Lingchuan stroked his chin. This methodology bore the distinctive hallmarks of National Preceptor Shuangye.
So, was this game about to turn into a match between himself and Shuangye?
*Thwack!* Zhu Daniang slammed the tip of her claw into the reef, gouging out a deep hole as sparks flew in all directions.
Zhu Erniang was not quite as agitated. Instead, she turned to send a few commands to the spiderlings, bidding them seal the final corner of the weir before lowering the nets.
"You promised me that once I settled in the Yangshan Archipelago, I would be safe from then on. That is the only reason I moved here." She turned her gaze back toward He Lingchuan. "Now, do you still dare claim the same?"
Casting aside his usual easygoing carelessness, He Lingchuan sat up straight and solemn. "I keep my word!"
The spider sisters exchanged a glance.
Faced with a pursuit by the preeminent empire of this world, who else would dare make such a boast? Coming from anyone else, they wouldn't have believed a single syllable!
Yet He Lingchuan was different.
The young man's past record was the finest guarantee they could ask for.
Zhu Daniang couldn't resist asking, "What do you plan to do?"
"Soldiers will be met by generals; floodwaters will be met by earthworks." He Lingchuan offered them a faint smile. "Erniang, don't let that 'Master Yu' rattle your thoughts and throw you into disarray as he did before. Don't take those Beijia pursuers so much to heart, either. Dig your burrows as you should, breed your young as you should, and proceed with everything strictly step by step."
*What? That's it?*
Hearing this, Zhu Erniang was deeply disappointed. Just as she was about to press him, she noticed that her sister beside her had not uttered a single word.
Usually, when her sister heard such seemingly nonsensical talk, wouldn't she be the first to jump up?
How had she managed to keep her composure this time?
Chapter 932