Chapter Eleven: The Thousand-Legged Spider

As soon as Qu Yi heard the reminder from the Artifact God, he immediately shouted, “Senior sister, Wuyuan, stop! There’s a Thousand-Legged Spider in the early Yuan Ying stage ahead.”
Bai Man immediately became nervous and sent out her spiritual sense, but found nothing unusual. She looked at Qu Yi in confusion.
“It’s what the Artifact God said,” Qu Yi explained right away.
This dispelled Bai Man’s doubts. She knew that the Artifact God’s spiritual sense was now at the level of exiting the body, while hers, still in the early Jin Dan stage, couldn’t compare.
Wuyuan remained calm, as if even a monster at the level of exiting the body wouldn’t scare him.
“Qu Yi, that Thousand-Legged Spider isn’t targeting you. It seems there’s an injured cultivator in the early Yuan Ying stage meditating ahead. The spider wants to launch a surprise attack and devour that cultivator,” the Artifact God informed Qu Yi about what it had discovered.
“There’s such a thing? Early Yuan Ying stage? Besides the four major sects on Cui Mu Planet, are there other cultivators at that stage?” Qu Yi thought in surprise.
Driven by strong curiosity, Qu Yi decided to go ahead and see who this early Yuan Ying stage cultivator was.
Thanks to the Dimensional Ball, Qu Yi didn’t have to worry about safety. So he took Bai Man and Wuyuan and continued flying forward to investigate the Thousand-Legged Spider and the cultivator.
…
The Thousand-Legged Spider was enormous, over twenty meters long, completely black in color. It had ten main legs, and from those main legs, numerous tentacles sprouted like branches, totaling well over a thousand—hence its name.
Now, beneath Fang Lao Mountain, a Thousand-Legged Spider emerged from the ground and quickly crawled toward a stone cave ahead.
Inside that cave, a young man in black was in seclusion, healing from injuries. Black sweat droplets covered his body; apparently, he had been poisoned and was using his vital energy to expel the poison.
The Thousand-Legged Spider was slowly approaching, and the young man in black soon noticed it. Frowning in concern, he realized it would be troublesome, but he already grasped a dark long sword in his right hand.
Scritch!
The Thousand-Legged Spider reached the entrance of the cave. Its metallic lips scraped against the surface, emitting a harsh sound.
“A Thousand-Legged Spider… I didn’t expect that while my spiritual sense scanned the surface, it didn’t cover the ground below. That’s how I ended up in its territory.” The young man in black stood up, quickly suppressing his aura so much that there was not even a trace of vital energy fluctuation—making him seem like an ordinary person.

This thousand-legged spider spends most of its time lurking underground and rarely comes to the surface. No wonder the young man in black searched the surroundings and found no dangerous beasts before coming to this cave. Yet, plans can go awry—even with utmost caution, he still found himself in peril.

The young man in black stood quietly, not rushing out of the cave, but waiting for the spider’s attack. His expression showed tension, but not extreme fear, as if, were he not poisoned, dealing with this spider would be a piece of cake for him.

The thousand-legged spider kept making screeching noises. Seeing that the young man in black wouldn’t come out, it became furious. Its entire head slammed toward the cave entrance, and its thousand tentacles exerted force simultaneously, shattering the entrance. With unstoppable momentum, the spider burrowed deep into the cave as if trying to carve through rock.

“Beast!”

Seeing the spider’s ferocity and realizing it was about to reach him, the young man in black shouted in anger and swung his black sword.

The energy emitted by this sword was strange—neither golden essence nor fiery essence, nor any other form of wood, water, or earth essence. It seemed like a mixed type of essence, infused with intense murderous intent.

The spider entered the cave quickly and exited just as fast. With all its thousand tentacles pushing at once, its massive body flew backward out of the cave.

However, the sword swung by the young man in black was even faster. At the cave entrance, the essence struck the spider’s head, splitting it open and revealing the pink, tender flesh inside.

Screeching in rage, the spider used earth essence to heal its wound while glaring viciously at the young man in black inside the cave.

By now, the entire cave was over twenty meters high, having been carved into a huge cavern by the spider’s fierce passage through it.

The young man in black still held his black sword tightly, standing quietly inside the cave and staring at the terrifying spider.

Having learned its lesson, the spider dared not enter the cave again, forcing the young man in black to attack. Amid the screeching, the spider suddenly opened its black mouth wide and spat out a stream of black essence, which quickly formed an oval-shaped net that flew into the cave, aiming to cover the young man in black.

This was the spider’s move, “Black Essence Net Prison.” Once trapped or touched by it, the toxins in the net would penetrate the body, destroying the Yuan Ying and thus killing a cultivator at the Yuan Ying stage—possibly even one at the Qiao stage.

The young man in black’s eyes gleamed; even in the face of such danger, a smile appeared on his face. It seemed he was observing the true essence characteristics of the “Black Yuan Net Prisoner” and trying to comprehend that essence energy. As the black net neared him, he already pulled out a yellow spirit talisman, infused it with his true essence, and activated it. It was a “Sky-Devouring Lion” spirit talisman, crafted from the essence of the Sky-Devouring Lion. When activated, a giant Sky-Devouring Lion appeared before him, opened its mouth wide, and swallowed the entire “Black Yuan Net Prisoner” in one gulp. Soon after, the mighty lion, capable of swallowing suns and moons, gradually weakened. The ten-meter-tall lion shrank to one meter in size, its eyes losing their luster, before disappearing entirely, leaving behind a pool of black water on the ground. With the death of the Sky-Devouring Lion, the “Black Yuan Net Prisoner” was also dissolved. The Thousand-Legged Spider let out angry chirps again and created another “Black Yuan Net Prisoner,” seemingly determined not to rest until it trapped the young man in black. The young man in black was delighted once more and carefully observed this “Black Yuan Net Prisoner,” as if he hadn’t fully understood it before. With another chance, he eagerly delved into its nature. Then, he swung his long sword, releasing his true essence, which created a mixed-color version of the “Black Yuan Net Prisoner” inside the cave to confront the Thousand-Legged Spider’s version. The two net prisons clashed, and the young man’s version gained the upper hand, trapping the Spider’s prison and absorbing the Earthly True Essence within it. However, after absorbing the Earthly True Essence, his own prison collapsed and dispersed. Chirp! This time, the Thousand-Legged Spider wasn’t angry but utterly shocked. It couldn’t figure out how this young man in black could be so powerful—having learned its spell after just two attempts. But as the Spider was stunned, the young man’s expression darkened again. One of his legs suddenly knelt on the ground, clearly because the deadly poison in his body hadn’t been cleared. Using his true essence once more had triggered another outbreak of the poison. Chirp! While still thinking about leaving, the Spider noticed the young man’s condition and became overjoyed, standing proudly at the cave entrance once more. The young man in black was now sitting on the ground, in extreme pain. His black long sword lay forgotten aside as he desperately circulated his true essence to control the poison’s effects. Just as the Thousand-Legged Spider prepared to create another “Black Yuan Net Prisoner,” a golden sword-shaped aura shot through the air.

Qu Yi was in the air. Seeing that the thousand-legged spider was about to kill the cultivator at the Early Yuan Ying stage, he immediately sent out a pulse of true energy, aiming at the spider’s head.
Squeak!
The thousand-legged spider was furious. It never expected that a cultivator at the Early Golden Core stage would dare to interfere in a battle between Early Yuan Ying cultivators. It casually spat out some Earthly True Energy to block Qu Yi’s pulse, then glared angrily at him from above.
Soon after, the thousand-legged spider suddenly transformed into a tall man with a dark face. It flew into the air, holding a black staff, ready to smash it on Qu Yi’s head.
Just as the man flew up, Qu Yi, Bai Man, and Wu Yuan suddenly disappeared.
At the Early Yuan Ying stage, Qu Yi had no way to resist and quickly hid inside the Dimensional Sphere. By then, the Dimensional Sphere had already floated to the entrance of the cave.
The man with the dark face was shocked. Where had Qu Yi and the other two gone? How did they disappear? Could it be that they were all at the Yuan Ying stage and had used teleportation?
However, seeing that Qu Yi and the others had been scared away, the man stopped worrying about them. He flew back to the ground and reverted to his original form as a thousand-legged spider.
Among the monstrous beasts in the cultivation world, some could transform into humans at the Yuan Ying stage due to their lower ranks, while others only achieved human form at the Great Vehicle stage. This thousand-legged spider had rather ordinary bloodline, allowing it to transform into a human at the Early Yuan Ying stage. But if it wanted to advance to a higher rank, it would face much greater difficulties.
Squeak!
The thousand-legged spider continued to gaze joyfully at the young man in black inside the cave, chewing as it gathered more true energy to deliver a fatal blow.
Just as it was ready to unleash its “Black Yuan Net Prison,” Qu Yi reappeared. This time, he held the Fire Scaled Blade, with all the true energy in his body transformed into Fire True Energy. He fully activated the blade.
A flaming sword swung straight at the thousand-legged spider, which was about to spit out its “Black Yuan Net Prison.” The spider was shocked and urgently spat out the net to avoid being struck. As it tried to locate Qu Yi, he disappeared again.
Squeak!
The thousand-legged spider was furious, screaming nonstop, but it couldn’t figure out where Qu Yi had gone.
For a while, it remained vigilant against Qu Yi while preparing to unleash its “Black Yuan Net Prison” again. It seemed determined to devour the young man in black, believing this would allow it to advance to the Middle Yuan Ying stage.
But just as it gathered its strength to spit out the net once more, Qu Yi appeared once again, swinging his Fire Scaled Blade and unleashing a wave of flames at the spider.

Naturally, to protect itself, the thousand-legged spider had no choice but to send the “Black Yuan Web Prison” toward the raging flames.