A Massive Harvest! Heavenly Spider Totem and Golden Spider Gu!

Seven colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple—red and purple, one symbolizing the beginning, one symbolizing the end. Neither was superior to the other, but red was also one of the three primary colors, symbolizing infinite possibilities; for instance, red plus blue yielded purple. Looked at from this angle, red already edged past purple. "Hongzi Security Group?" Anyone else might take it as an auspicious omen signifying roaring success, but Bai Zhou saw it differently. "Red comes first and purple comes second. The Major is quite ambitious." Behind the family feast bucket, the corners of Bai Zhou's mouth curled slightly. Back when he was learning ritual painting by drawing eggs, Crow had given him no shortage of lectures on color composition. Had he not embarked on the Adventurer pathway, perhaps after obtaining the Painter pathway, Bai Zhou might really have walked that path to completion. As for which purple came second? Aside from the Zijing Group, from which this Third Young Master hailed, what other purple could it be? Having pried out all the information, Bai Zhou inspected the booze-reeking man before him with his Mind's Eye. Drawing closer, the stench that barged into his nostrils made Bai Zhou subconsciously furrow his brow. "What a pity. He doesn't know enough..." Bai Zhou clicked his tongue. This man seemed to be a mere bottom-feeder in the company, completely oblivious to the shady dealings underway. A security group of such massive scale naturally couldn't exist solely to serve the Major's conspiracies; it would also have peripheral members and ordinary day-to-day operations. According to this security guard's "honest confession," Hongzi Security Group had monopolized security contracts for nearly all the schools across the city starting five or six years ago, focusing its business entirely on schools. If the Major didn't harbor an even vaster scheme, these schools were likely the smoke screen he had laid back then to cover his true design for Yuanmeng Middle School. Bai Zhou actually understood this tactic all too well. Before graduating from the Black Robes' Child Training Corps to enter the Youth Training Corps, he had once shyly hugged every child in his class just so he could hug a certain person. Back then... was he only eight years old? It hadn't really been adolescent awakening, just a kid thinking someone looked pretty while feeling too shy to say so, never imagining forming an undying partnership where marriage was permitted only after death. Who knew the Major was this kind of person too... Bai Zhou nodded, solemn and earnest in his sentiment. Coincidentally, it was also until that delicate juncture three years ago that the security company finally began expanding its business, no longer satisfied with mere school security contracts. Yachts, shopping malls, hotels, residential quarters, and luxury villa communities—these domains were vastly more lucrative than guarding schools. "Three years ago, Yuanmeng Middle School completed the ritual, and the demon officially entered its gestation stage," Bai Zhou pondered. "The security company's mission as a smoke screen came to an end, so it began pivoting toward turning a profit, squeezing out surplus value for the Major..." Classic Major. It completely matched the Major's consistent creed of "value" in Bai Zhou's understanding. So the man before him— "He's just a nobody... but a nobody is enough." Bai Zhou blinked twice, his eyes gleaming like a mouse that had secretly lapped up lamp oil. No one would care about a nobody, which meant no one would ever know that through this nobody who "knew nothing," Bai Zhou had quietly seized the Major's lifeline. In the final analysis, although the Red Spider emblem had become a trigger word for Bai Zhou, to the Major it had never been exposed. Skin-tight tattoos were inherently discreet, hard to notice even face-to-face. What was more, from beginning to end, Bai Zhou's rebellion had only implicated Adjutant Han; none of the Red Spider's personnel had run into trouble. That Bai Zhou could uncover these secrets was, for one, because while hiding in Liu Zhen's tomb, he had caught sight of the thug bearing this tattoo. Yet if that were all, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to search for "Red Spider," much less been acutely allergic to red. The most critical factor was still those shocking last words. Having read so many, he had naturally etched that emblem into his very marrow; even the glimpse of a spider leg or a strand of red silk would trigger an instinctual reaction in him. The Major was in the light while Bai Zhou was in the shadows. The Major had no idea Bai Zhou was silently closing in on him—this was an advantage built piece by piece upon an information asymmetry. "Next time you look for a job, you'd better wipe your eyes clean..." Bai Zhou muttered, looking at the dazed man. Just to be safe, he reinforced the hypnosis on the guard. "Feel your breathing, gradually calming down..." "Let your thoughts grow light... ethereal..." Bai Zhou pushed the hypnosis deep into the man's subconscious, making him forget everything that had transpired here. The guard was already drunk and groggy, so everything proceeded exceptionally smoothly. It was worth mentioning that hypnosis was merely hypnosis; a hypnosis ritual only shortened and accelerated the process. Because the target of the ritual was "hypnosis" rather than a human being, a person who had been hypnotized bore no spiritual traces of being targeted by a ritual—everything was soundless and seamless. Precisely because it was so useful and convenient, this was a mandatory lesson Crow had assigned to Bai Zhou—though according to his observations, other Extraordinaries didn't seem to know how to do this. A Hunter skilled at seamless lockpicking and hypnosis, with vast experience on the run... what sort of bizarre Hunter was this? The only pity was that hypnosis couldn't be used against powerful Extraordinaries; it could only be used to "bully" ordinary people and low-tier Extraordinaries. Nobodies rarely drew attention. Yet if utilized well, they could yield tremendous results. The collapse of a thousand-li dike often began with a negligible anthill. "Alright, mission accomplished." Bai Zhou snapped his fingers, and the security guard turned around at the sound, facing away from him. "Though..." Bai Zhou paced around the guard, sizing him up once more. He had to squeeze every last drop of value out of him—that was what the Major had taught him, after all. So next, Bai Zhou not only interrogated the guard with questions covering every possible angle, but also conducted a close-up study of the Red Spider on the man's body. Though this was Bai Zhou's first time observing this lifelike Red Spider, even before studying it, he had been certain that it wasn't just inked on for fun. Standardized armor and weapons in an army were meant to cut manufacturing and maintenance costs while boosting morale. What was a uniform Red Spider tattoo for? To show off that they were yakuza-style thugs? Why would a security company bother with such low-class tattoos? Having crossed paths with him so many times, Bai Zhou understood the Major to some degree. This Third Young Master, for whom efficiency was supreme, never acted out of vanity. He insisted that even a bottom-tier employee serve as a steadfast cog—to say nothing of a uniform tattoo like this. "As expected..." Bai Zhou held his breath. Through the family feast bucket, he observed closely with his Mind's Eye, his fingertips gently touching the contours of the Red Spider pattern. The more he studied it, the more discoveries he made. "Fascinating... it looks like a simplified version of a totem ritual!" Bai Zhou narrowed his eyes, inwardly startled. Did the Major have a ritualist of this caliber under his command? A totem ritual! According to Crow, this was an ancient ritual form. A totem was the earliest symbol and representation of an organization, embodying mythological worship and collective identity. Its rituals often served to unite groups and maintain social structures. Some totem rituals were innate; certain mystical forces naturally manifested in the form of totems. The Moon Wolf Totem across Bai Zhou's back, for example, was a classic totem ritual, serving to bear that unfathomable heretical power through ritual form. Yet there were also ritualists who imitated such rituals, channeling mysterious mighty power into them. However, this ancient school of thought was all but lost to time, found only in certain deeply hidden ancient lands—at any rate, Crow had never taught Bai Zhou any rituals of this kind, and he guessed she didn't know them either. This couldn't help but make Bai Zhou think of the Major's relentless pursuit of Tears of the Moon Goddess, as well as the demon worship and demon summoning he had conducted without a peep... Where on earth had the Major dug up this forbidden lore and ancient secrets? Or did he have another capable expert working for him? "Linking Qi and blood, stimulating potential, and..." As Bai Zhou studied this drastically oversimplified totem ritual, he indeed discovered that there was something extraordinary about this Red Spider. How was this any mere tattoo? This so-called Red Spider was fundamentally the manifestation of the guard's Qi and blood—the body's Qi and blood nourished the spider, and the spider in turn nourished the body. Qi and blood cycled back and forth, sculpting the guard's muscular physique. Yet that was merely a minor "side effect" of "raising a spider." Bai Zhou discovered that this minor spider totem seemed broken and incomplete, perhaps even a tiny fragment of some larger totem structure, and thus continuously influenced its host. In other words, the true function of the minor spider totem lay in... Compelling each host to obey and worship the source of the totem from the depths of their heart, without hesitation even if ordered to die. It was as though a queen spider had spun a colossal web; all the little spiders rested upon it, ruled by the queen spider. By the same token, if a host died, the source would immediately sense it—just as when a spider fell from the web, the vibration would alert the slumbering queen spider at once. This ensured that every totem host was absolutely loyal to the Major, every single one a death warrior, held completely within his grasp. Furthermore, as the embodiment of one's Qi and blood, if the spider totem was forcibly activated, even an ordinary person could overload and erupt their bodily potential, briefly becoming a "mini-superman." If multiple people were present, these mini-supermen could even resonate with one another's totems to complement each other, forming a formation to multiply their explosive strength. If ordinary mortals could do this, Extraordinaries bearing the tattoo would be even more formidable. In other words, without anyone realizing it, the Major had brazenly trained an army of Extraordinaries on par with death warriors! As for the aftermath—where those who forcibly erupted would end up dead or crippled—that was another story entirely... "No wonder. I knew the Major wouldn't indulge in empty formalism for no reason, handing himself an extra flaw that sets his men apart from normal people." Organizational identification wasn't what mattered—the function of the tattoo itself was what was indispensable! Bai Zhou's eyes burned brightly, yet he felt a bit uncertain. "Yet this feeling of absolute obedience and forced sacrifice... rather than an extremely fractured totem, it feels more like..." "A Gu insect!" Crow had once mentioned that a tiny handful of Extraordinaries could domesticate Gu insects, and even tame curses—legend had it that some could even tame names or numbers! "...A hybrid school that borrows a bit of everything?" Bai Zhou muttered casually, feeling thoroughly creeped out. The last thing he wanted to encounter was sinister scoundrels using such underhanded, unavoidable tricks. No one wanted to be cursed to death out of thin air; if the Major truly had such a "rare talent" by his side, Bai Zhou would be the one losing sleep. Monsters and demons weren't scary; what was scary was someone making a voodoo doll with his name on it, devoutly bowing to it three times a day, and driving nails into its head... Practitioners of such wicked arts ought to be dragged to a cross and burned for a whole day and night! "If only all disputes on Blue Star could be settled by grabbing blades and hacking at each other. That would be such a gentle, delightful world." ...So thought a certain serial bomber who loved secretly setting up rituals in advance the most. Yet perhaps that was precisely why the mystical world behind the mundane world was called the mystical world, rather than the Battle Qi World, the Yuan Power Dimension, or the Magic Realm. "Fortunately, I wasn't in a rush to kill him, or I really would have startled the snake." "Wait... this ritual?" Bai Zhou held his breath abruptly. His eyes slowly widened, his heart thumping wildly. "I think... I can learn it!" The ritual's patterns were laid bare before his eyes in crisp, close-up detail, ripe for his scrutiny. In fact, because the ritual had been simplified to an extreme degree and barely carried any spirituality, it gave Bai Zhou a chance to see through to its essence. Although the ritual itself held little intrinsic value—after all, Bai Zhou wasn't about to put a golden fillet on his own head and eagerly become the Major's dog—if he could reverse-engineer and replicate the ritual... "Mobilizing Qi and blood for an overloaded burst is also a viable way to explode with power in a desperate situation," Bai Zhou mused. "And most importantly..." As Bai Zhou delved deeper into the totem, he had reason to suspect that this was very likely the core identity verification within the security group. Anyone lacking this identity verification wouldn't trigger a totem resonance upon encountering Extraordinary colleagues. Should a stranger rashly step into the tangled "web," the other spiders upon it would probably detect something amiss immediately. It was like a lock, naturally acting as the optimal barrier safeguarding all the security group's secrets. Yet what if one possessed this identity verification? Without a doubt, one would hold the key to entering. Just as Bai Zhou previously had to swipe an access card to enter the Special Control Bureau's Black Chamber, sneaking into the fortress the Major had painstakingly erected would likely require an "identity token" like this. "When do you get a chance to return to headquarters?" Bai Zhou blinked, questioning the guard before him. "Clocking in at headquarters once a week?" "Reporting to headquarters every Sunday?" Hearing the answers, Bai Zhou blinked. It was now early Friday morning. In other words, the day after tomorrow, the security guard had to report to headquarters... A plan took shape in Bai Zhou's mind. What if... he replaced this guard when the time came? "Senior Zhou" was itching to slip into a new vest again. Yet reverse-engineering and replicating the ritual was no easy feat. In the realm of rituals, Bai Zhou had at best scratched the surface and was far from adept. By Crow's standards, he was merely a quasi-Rank 1 ritualist. Swish, swish— While studying the spider totem, Bai Zhou drew a paintbrush from inside his clothes. The archaic, purplish-black barrel possessed a peculiar warmth and suppleness, mottled and faded with several indelible scratches. One of the three extraordinary paintbrushes closely tied to the Painter pathway, it was more than sufficient for drawing rituals, capable even of drawing rituals beyond his rank that he otherwise couldn't manage. Except that on this paintbrush, there was also a clearly visible, shocking crack; seeing it made Bai Zhou wince in heartache every time. It had been caused last time outside the Sun Temple, when he drew the stroke of a forbidden ancient glyph to pick the lock. "Using this to imitate the spider totem and paint it on myself..." Bai Zhou's expression grew solemn. Injecting spirituality into the brush, it hummed, and the archaic-looking paintbrush instantly radiated a faint glow. Its swaying tip bloomed into luscious, shimmering rainbow hues, without any fixed physical form. "How should I study this thing?" Holding the brush, Bai Zhou's gaze swept over every inch of the spider totem, worrying inwardly. Right then— As if sensing its master's troubled thoughts. Hum! The shimmering rainbow light at its tip spread on its own, spanning the air like a rainbow bridge and linking to the spider totem on the security guard. "Wha—" Bai Zhou jumped in surprise. Yet in the next instant, a stream of information flowed from the brush, dawning upon Bai Zhou like an intuitive epiphany. ["Sketch Paintbrush - Earth" Activated] [All phenomena as guides, heaven and earth as witness: humanity imitates the myriad things to become the chief of all spirits; sages emulate cosmic divinity to rise above all living beings. Sketching is the imitation and restoration of all things.] A sketch paintbrush? Imitation, and restoration? Bai Zhou was dumbfounded. This brush... Was used like this?! He had wondered before what unique ability this extraordinary paintbrush possessed as an extraordinary item. Was it simply because he had never had such a need before that it had never revealed its true colors...? His thoughts raced, but Bai Zhou soon discovered that the spirituality he had just poured into the brush was draining rapidly. The rainbow glow linking the tip to the spider totem was dimming at a visible rate. Bai Zhou hastily channeled more spirituality into the brush, reigniting the seven-colored chain. The brush's consumption of spirituality exceeded his expectations. His already pale complexion turned even whiter; in just the blink of an eye, he had fed over a dozen units of spirituality into it. This was already the entire reserve of spirituality in a Rank 1 Destined—in some flawed pathways, it might even take draining a Rank 2 Extraordinary dry just to scrape together that much spirituality. Yet this only heightened Bai Zhou's anticipation. As the old saying went, a hearty appetite was a blessing. This only proved how extraordinary the brush was! [Analyzing, analyzing...] The rainbow light swirled, and a massive influx of information fragments flooded Bai Zhou's mind. Some were slowly pieced together, while others were flagged and discarded. However. Very soon, the flow of information came to an abrupt halt, as though stuck in some peculiar bottleneck. "What happened?" Bai Zhou blinked. A message trickled cautiously from the brush: [Required Material: At least 5 Cinders] [The more, the better] "Cinders?" Bai Zhou blanked for a second. Why didn't you say so earlier! Bai Zhou immediately took out a handful of cinders, roughly estimated to be well over a hundred grains. If it needed something else, Bai Zhou couldn't say for sure. But cinders? What was there to be timid about? Anyone watching might think he couldn't afford it! Eat! Eat, eat, eat! Gorge yourself! Bai Zhou fed a large fistful of cinders to the brush in his hand. Hum! The brush trembled, vibrated again, and then shook violently! The cinders in Bai Zhou's hand abruptly liquefied and were swallowed whole by the paintbrush. With the disappearance of the large quantity of cinders, the previously stalled information stream surged into Bai Zhou's mind at several times the speed and volume. The spirituality inside his body poured out continuously; as time ticked by, the brush's appetite for spirituality even grew instead of waning. "Eh?" Continuously fishing out cinders and indulging the paintbrush's feast, Bai Zhou's expression gradually turned strange. The incoming information fragments grew increasingly complex and cumbersome, leaving his brain throbbing and prickling with pain as the knowledge began to exceed his comprehension. Gradually, he began to feel that this ancient paintbrush was doing more than just imitating this simplified minor spider totem. While imitating and analyzing, it seemed to also be... tracing back to the source? After another moment— The intricate fragments interlinked. Two puzzle pieces leaped into clarity within Bai Zhou's mind, standing apart, connected yet distinctly delineated, vaguely feeling like fire and water in contradiction and complexity. [Analysis Successful] At this moment, as Bai Zhou beheld the puzzle pieces, he felt an ancient, primeval wildness surge in his heart. In a daze, he saw dense toxic miasma, colossal bones reaching to the heavens, Gu insects blotting out the sun, totem sacrifices, and billowing, unending beacons of bloody light. Ten thousand spirits clashing, behemoths tearing into one another, venomous insects blotting out the sky and sun. Totems—in terms of "origin," should naturally hail from an age of primeval history. "This is...?" Bai Zhou held his breath, his heart skipping half a beat. Two streams of information flowed along the brush into Bai Zhou's mind, translating the contents of these two seemingly complementary yet clashing puzzle pieces: [Heavenly Spider Totem - Fragment]! [Golden Spider Gu - Fragment]!