The demons of the northern demon kingdom were diverse and varied; naturally, plants could attain the Dao and become demons as well. The most renowned in the present age was the Jeweled Tree King, but two to three thousand years ago, Zhu Erniang had already heard the name of "True Monarch Musu"!
That too was a demon immortal, and a very difficult one to deal with.
So that thing had survived as well, and had even thrown itself into Beijia's embrace.
Though the world's spiritual energy had waned, if a demon like Zhu Erniang could eke out an existence and survive, it was hardly surprising that the Nine-Death Resurrection Grass—renowned for its tenacity—had not perished either.
However, for reasons everyone understood, what the Beijia operatives had brought was not its true body, but bone-buds from the Nine-Death Resurrection Grass. As long as they absorbed water and touched the ground, they could transform into temporary avatars of True Monarch Musu, possessing a portion of its combat strength.
Of course, this method of fighting consumed an immense amount of spiritual energy.
At this moment, the spider demon sisters were bickering over their mental link:
"Run! What are the two of you standing your ground for? It's not like you're guarding a treasure behind you! True Monarch Musu's avatars must have a time limit!"
"And how would you know that?"
"If you two drag things out and run, you win as soon as time's up!"
"Who knows how to fight, you or me? Beijia's methods were tailored specifically for you! They knew you'd run for sure, Zhu Er the runaway!" This was Daniang. "I'm not running!"
Ye Qing was dashing through the fray as he called out casually, "Hou Er, bee venom!"
Their mission remained unchanged: capture Zhu Erniang. Though he had no idea where this giant ape had sprung from to disrupt their plans, with True Monarch Musu's assistance, completing the mission was still well within reach.
Hou Er was an old comrade-in-arms, usually coordinating seamlessly with him on the battlefield. But this time, though he called twice in a row, Hou Er gave no response whatsoever.
Ye Qing immediately knew something was amiss. Looking back, where was Hou Er to be seen?
In a battle this fierce, where had Hou Er run off to?
Ye Qing's heart dropped with a thud, for a quick glance revealed that his teammates' numbers were wrong!
Yu Zecheng's party had numbered fifteen when they arrived at the Yangshan Archipelago. Yu Zecheng had kept two guards with him at Nuanxiang Chamber, and White Bird had been killed by He Lingchuan, which meant there should still be eleven operatives sent to fight on the eastern side of Suoding Island!
Six humans and five demons.
Yet when Ye Qing looked closely now, only five companions remained!
Five others had vanished without a sound, including the comrade who had been knocked off the cliff earlier and never reappeared.
He immediately yelled, "Watch out, everyone! In the shadows, there's another—"
Before the word "ambush" could leave his lips, something light and sticky hit the back of his neck, struck by a spray of spider silk.
Again? These little spiders never learn!
Ye Qing reflexively swung his blade back, wanting to sever the thread.
Yet this slash felt like hacking into maltose candy—rough and viscous, refusing to let his blade pull free.
He turned his head and saw a plump, rounded figure, eight long legs bristling with barbed hairs, and that beautiful constellation pattern across its abdomen...
Again again again?
This mirage demon's imagination is truly barren! Doesn't it have any other template it can mimic?
Just as he was about to speak, another bundle of spider silk shot forth, sealing his mouth with pinpoint precision.
The plump Spider Queen pounced, rolling him into a massive twisted cruller in barely two and a half motions, her technique peerlessly practiced.
Then, all that remained before his eyes was a blur of blinding white...
Was this how his companions had vanished too?
Ye Qing finally realized something was dreadfully wrong.
The way this creature shot webs was completely different from the other burrow spiders, and the web's strength was in an entirely different league. Could it be...?
Could this Spider Queen be real?
Just how many Spider Queens were on the Yangshan Archipelago?!
To think such a powerful demon would discard all dignity to lurk on the sidelines and stage sneak attacks!
Completely devoid of martial virtue!
The Spider Queen bundled him into a white cocoon and tossed him backward, where waiting burrow spiders caught him and scurried off into the distance.
The other Beijia operatives finally sensed something was wrong, looking back and giving chase: "Captain Ye!"
Two charged ahead too recklessly, and the moment they entered the woods, they slammed into something soft and spongy, only to be bounced back.
Spiderwebs.
Extremely fine, gossamer threads of web, virtually invisible to the naked eye amidst the dark woods and tangled branches.
Produced by the Spider Queen herself, the moment the two collided with them, they were hopelessly trapped, fluttering like moths caught in a net.
Mm, three left.
Of course, not a single Beijia operative realized that the one fighting alongside the ghost ape was Zhu Daniang, while the one hiding off to the side launching ambushes was Zhu Erniang.
The remaining three Beijia operatives looked at the three giant demons on the field, exchanged glances, and knew tonight's mission was an utter failure.
Without a word, they turned and ran in unison.
Zhu Erniang lengthened her stride and gave chase.
True Monarch Musu paid no heed to the shifting tides here; after all, its commission was merely to bring down the spider demon and the giant ape.
The three little wooden figures grew larger and larger, already reaching the height of an ordinary human—the burrow spiders had been slain across the field by the Beijia squad, providing ample nutrients for the wooden figures to absorb from the ground.
Once the Nine-Death Resurrection Grass became a demon, it could feed on the flesh and blood of living creatures to nourish itself.
However, when the wooden figures grew larger, the ghost ape was actually pleased—its staff now had suitable targets. After being enhanced by Dong Rui, its agility had improved tremendously, and with eyes behind its head, it was not easily caught off guard by the wooden figures' sneak attacks.
The wooden figures also knew Zhu Daniang had tough hide and targeted only her large eyes.
Tiny spiders swarmed frantically onto the forehead of their ancestor's elder sister, thoroughly shielding that vulnerable spot.
As the Beijia numbers dwindled, the spider army's advantage in sheer numbers began to tell.
One of the wooden figures suddenly paused and tilted its head.
The gesture looked just like a human in thought.
Then it stepped onto a boulder, and with a soft *poof*, detonated into a massive cloud of spores!
These spores were as fine as millet grains and bore feathery plumes, drifting with the wind toward their two targets the moment they burst forth.
The wooden figure dissolved on its own, but the spore shower drifted down thick and fast like a sudden squall of yellow snow, beyond all counting.
They were utterly unaffected by the weight of the falling rain.
Some spores landed first on the corpses of burrow spiders and Beijia operatives strewn across the ground, burrowing in at once to gorge on flesh and blood, then shooting out stems, sprouting, and putting forth branches...
The ghost ape had open wounds on its body as well. Innumerable spores swarmed in, latching on and even attempting to bore into its nostrils and mouth.
These things drained blood more viciously than anything else. The ghost ape howled in pain as it was drained. Zhu Daniang raised her spinnerets and with pinpoint accuracy wrapped a thick bandage of webbing over its wounds, sealing the spores away from the injuries.
At the same time, she wove several large webs at astonishing speed, hanging them right in front of herself and the ghost ape. Most of the drifting spores were caught against them.
A Burrow Spider Queen's tightly woven web could temporarily dam flowing water; blocking the majority of the spores was no trouble at all.
Yet these spores actually rose upward, attempting to bypass the webs and attack the two from above.
Meanwhile on the ground, in just three to five breaths of time, nearly a thousand wooden figures stood up—just as agile and lethal as their predecessors, and equally capable of explosive proliferation.
Seeing things turn sour, the ghost ape spat several mouthfuls of cyan fire, incinerating a huge swath of spores.
Yet the spores were simply too numerous. After exhaling over a dozen blasts of flame, it grew weary, yet relative to the total quantity, it had barely made a dent.
Meanwhile, the wooden figures on the ground clashed fiercely with the spider swarm, rapidly expanding by feeding on flesh and blood.
This batch of wooden figures attacked Zhu Daniang and the ghost ape while clumping together, taking root unchecked in one another's bodies.
Soon, several hundred wooden figures merged into two behemoths thirty feet tall, yet remarkably agile. The ghost ape had a leg seized when it was careless, and struck back with its staff against the wooden giant's arm. But it produced only a booming resonance, snapping a few wooden sinews while leaving the giant's arm largely unharmed.
It spat two blasts of cyan fire; the wooden giant did catch fire, but its wound quickly secreted an amber-like fluid that stopped the flames from burning further.
The two sides locked in a contest of strength, deadlocked for the moment.
Yet if this thing were allowed to keep growing, not even the ghost ape would be able to match its strength.
This was why True Monarch Musu was so troublesome—whether in solo combat or facing a crowd, there was always a form suited to counter you.
Right then, Zhu Erniang brushed through the thicket and returned from chasing the Beijia operatives, preparing to rejoin the fight.
Zhu Daniang stopped her: "Don't come in! Break the barrier!"
Zhu Erniang paused. "What barrier?"
"The windbreak barrier!" Caught in the wooden demon's clutches and unable to pull away, Zhu Daniang could only direct her sister telepathically. "Right beneath your feet! Hurry!"
Zhu Erniang's eight legs felt around a boulder by the roadside:
"This one?"
"No, no! Opposite direction!"
True Monarch Musu's avatar seemed to sense a threat, turning to advance toward Zhu Erniang.
Zhu Daniang forcefully spat several bursts of acid, while the giant ape brought its staff down hard against the back of its head. Likely left with a buzzing skull from the blow, the wooden demon finally turned back.
Fortunately, this thing was merely an avatar; its wooden head was far less sharp than the real thing.
Meanwhile, Zhu Erniang felt another large rock. "This one?"
The roadside was littered with big rocks; it was truly hard to tell them apart.
"It should be!"
Zhu Erniang asked as she dug around it, "What do you mean 'should be'?! Are you sure?!"
This rock was twice as large as the previous one, buried deep in the mud.
The little spiders swarmed forward as well, scooping away the soil with their jaws.
Zhu Daniang said hurriedly, "Sure, sure! Just lift it!"
The boulder loosened. With a sudden heave of strength, Zhu Erniang flipped it clean over.
*Whooooosh—*
A hurricane-force gale suddenly swept across the entire hilltop.
Caught completely off guard, the four behemoths in battle staggered back and forth in the howling tempest.
If even creatures of their immense weight were shaken by the gale, the featherlight spores stood no chance at all—with a violent *whoosh*, they were swept high into the sky, vanishing without a trace in an instant.
Even the little wooden figures scurrying all over the ground were blown away into nothingness.
What Zhu Erniang had uprooted was the Wind Lion Lord guarding this hilltop.
He Lingchuan had previously brought back several Wind Lion Lords from the Piaomiao Sect. A short while ago, he ordered craftsmen to follow the template, copying the ancient array onto the bottoms of ordinary boulders, which were then refined by Mount Rong disciples.
For over two thousand years, Piaomiao Sect's Wind Lion Lords could ward off the Meridian Divine Wind from the subterranean depths; the array's wonder went without saying. Yet He Lingchuan also knew that the main reason the Meridian Divine Wind never disturbed the Wind Lion Lord barrier was that the mountain-guarding divine beast of yore, the Wind Demon, had signed an agreement with the Piaomiao Sect never to harm the sect.
He Lingchuan had signed no such pact, so the high-quality replicas on the Yangshan Archipelago could not hold back astral winds of that caliber, and they also required profound crystals to activate.
Still, it did not matter. However ferocious the ocean's hurricanes might be, there was a qualitative difference between them and the Meridian Divine Wind. Furthermore, after the Piaomiao Sect's windbreak formation was verified and modified by several masters in Panlong City, it had become exceptionally energy-efficient. Although it still consumed profound crystals, its usage was only about a tenth of an ordinary wind-anchoring barrier.
A single grain of profound crystal the size of a mung bean could maintain the barrier for twenty-six shichen.
Chapter 995