After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 332: Chapter 331: Then What the Hell Are You Testing For?

The other side, not to be outdone, shot upright, rising even higher than Second Madam Zhu.

It was a Giant Python with black and gray stripes. Its body was coiled in the reeds, so its total length was unknown, but the diameter of its chest was nearly five chi (1.6 meters), and it had whiskers under its jaw.

It opened its mouth in a display of aggression, its extended fangs like scimitars, over four chi in length.

The wind was blowing toward the shore, and Hee Lingchuan soon caught a foul, bloody stench.

The tension was palpable, as if a fight was about to break out at any moment. Hee Lingchuan quietly backed away.

It was unclear how the two communicated, but after about a dozen breaths, the Giant Python lowered its head, and Second Madam Zhu retracted her legs.

A moment later, the Python Demon turned north and slithered away.

Second Madam Zhu watched it leave before slowly crawling back.

As she passed Hee Lingchuan, she suddenly said, ”Are you overjoyed? Thinking that with two titans fighting, you’d have a chance to slip away?”

”Of course not,” Hee Lingchuan said with a very perfunctory smile.

”Lord Boshan loves to eat people, and he eats them alive. Prey swallowed whole by him can still feel themselves being digested in his stomach.” Second Madam Zhu seemed to laugh. After living for thousands of years, did he really think she was more naive than some wet-behind-the-ears boy? ”In his clutches, your fate would be ten times worse!”

Then, she ambled back to the Demon Nest, her large abdomen swaying.

The confrontation dissipated before a fight could even begin.

From Hee Lingchuan’s perspective, the Giant Python seemed the more wary of the two.

...

It was worth noting that during this time, the spiders frequently found bloated corpses in the swamp. Sometimes they were wild animals, sometimes livestock, and sometimes humans. They were often accompanied by large amounts of driftwood and ship planks, all washed down from upstream.

These were all consequences of the Hanhe River flood.

Hee Lingchuan even found the floating bodies of Yuan Kingdom soldiers on occasion. After drifting for so many days to reach the swamp, they were swollen beyond recognition; only their uniforms were identifiable.

’I wonder how the war in Yuanbei is going.’ He couldn’t go back, so all he could do was silently dig graves to give them a proper burial.

In fact, over the past ten-odd days, he had noticed the spider swarm’s attitude toward the two humans shift from neutral to hostile.

This was especially true toward Dong Rui.

Not from Second Madam Zhu, but from the swamp’s Earth Cave Spider Swarm.

This was due to Dong Rui’s inhuman—or rather, in-spider—methods when conducting his experiments. The Spider Demons designated as test subjects went in whole and healthy but came out with six or seven legs missing, and that was considered a light outcome. Some had hypertrophied limbs, some had their legs reattached backward, and some were swollen as if they’d been pumped full of water, wobbling as they walked.

Some were missing their heads entirely. Others went into a frenzy, ramming their cages and attacking everything in sight, as if they’d contracted some manic disease.

In any case, the results were bizarre and grotesque, and none ended well. It was enough to make even Hee Lingchuan shudder, let alone the sentient Spider Demons.

He finally understood why this scoundrel managed to incur the wrath of both gods and men in every kingdom:

His ceiling was lower than everyone else’s floor.

Hee Lingchuan had warned Dong Rui more than once. Even Second Madam Zhu, hearing the swarm’s protests, came to the Demon Puppet Master, but he shut them all down with a single line: ”If I don’t do it this way, it can’t be done.”

’Oh really? And doing it *this* way will get it done?’ Hee Lingchuan was not optimistic.

Every time he passed the spider swarm and heard the rustling sounds behind him, Hee Lingchuan could feel the malice coming from them. The Demon Nest Swamp was no place to linger. Even if Second Madam Zhu eventually agreed to let them go, these smaller spiders would likely remember the grudge and settle the score later.

But for now, at least, Second Madam Zhu’s orders served as an Amulet, keeping Hee Lingchuan safe. The Spider Demons were simple by nature, with discipline even better than worker bees. Aside from helping Dong Rui as an assistant, he spent his time wandering around under the cold glares of most of the spiders.

On one of these walks, Hee Lingchuan discovered that the Demon Nest was actually more than twice the size of the Red Peak Mine Cave. Its tunnels and caverns were sturdier and more spacious, and it even had comprehensive defensive structures. After all, this place had been developed for over a decade, while the other had been hastily built in a few days. The difference in quality was huge.

Judging by the scale of this Demon Nest alone, he knew the Sadist who originally lived here had been of a very high rank. He couldn’t imagine how the Beiga Kingdom had managed to defeat it back then.

But that was precisely the strange part—

Logically, that battle should have been incredibly fierce, yet he saw few traces of Divine Techniques or heavy bombardment. There wasn’t even any damage from a fight.

Even the three Patrol Squads that entered the Red Peak Mine Cave had left numerous marks behind.

’Perhaps the Demon Nest back then was so powerful it could repair itself?’

Too many things didn’t add up.

However, the nests built by Sadists were all structurally similar, as they were all modeled after the human body.

Hee Lingchuan wanted to take a stroll through the ”Pan Chang,” but he was stopped every time and told it was a restricted area. The Spider Guards at the entrance were nearly as large as the Guards at Second Madam Zhu’s own doorway, and they stood in groups of three, guarding it tightly.

If he couldn’t go in, he wouldn’t. Hee Lingchuan was observant and noticed that Earth Cave Spiders entered and exited this area in groups far more frequently than any other part of the Demon Nest.

Furthermore, they were transporting fluorescent spores, fodder, algae, and even some fermented fertilizer. It was the first time Hee Lingchuan had seen Demons skillfully making compost.

Seeing this, he started to get the picture.

Earth Cave Spiders weren’t naturally creatures with strong collective abilities; they were rather disorganized. But once a Demon appeared within such a group, they were very likely to transform into a hive-like social structure. Take leopards, for example. They are originally solitary hunters, but the family of the Leopard Demon Quartz lived, cooperated, and cultivated together. Even their descendants, more than a hundred years later, still do the same.

Now these Earth Cave Spiders were working together in an organized fashion, and they were definitely taking care of their livelihood—their food source.

Finally, one day, Hee Lingchuan saw a few Earth Cave Spiders heading inside, carrying something on their heads that looked like a sticky rice ball—white, soft, and wriggling.

He had seen this thing before, in his dreams—

Aphid larvae.

’So Second Madam Zhu was leading the spider swarm in their old trade here in the Demon Nest!’

Running a Pasture.

The length of the human intestine is astonishing, stretching to at least six meters. The total space in this part of the Demon Nest was not small. Although it couldn’t compare to the old nest in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, as long as the spider swarm controlled the temperature and humidity, the Fungal Mat could thrive. The Aphid Bulls could then produce Honey Dew, giving the swarm a stable food source.

’He knew it. These Earth Cave Spiders wouldn’t so easily change their diet to just fish and shrimp.’

However, the Second Madam Zhu in reality had never had her Aphid Ranch burned down by Hee Lingchuan. Otherwise, she would never have placed a human in her own nest, so close to the Pasture.

’Should I repeat my old trick and reenact what I did in the dream? But even if I could escape Second Madam Zhu’s territory, how would I break through the Mirage Realm at the edge of the swamp?’

Hee Lingchuan secretly mulled it over, occasionally discussing it with Dong Rui.

Right now, apart from the basic necessities of life, Dong Rui was completely absorbed in his experiments, determined to work hard and fast for thirty days. He paid no mind to Hee Lingchuan’s new information, just giving a faint ”Oh.”

The Earth Cave Spiders were starting a Pasture? So what? What did that have to do with them?

Hee Lingchuan grabbed the hand Dong Rui was using to hold a medicine bottle, his voice as faint as a gnat’s buzz, almost inaudible to anyone but the two of them:

”It’s been over half a month. Let me ask you, can you actually make the drug for Second Madam Zhu or not?”

Dong Rui glanced at the entrance and said in a low voice, ”No.”

”...” ’So blunt?’ ”Then what the hell have you been experimenting for?!” ’And you’re not even thinking of a way to escape?’

Dong Rui sighed and explained with the patience of a teacher instructing a layman, ”Concocting the drug to create a Demon Puppet isn’t difficult. I have the experience, the technique, and even some existing drugs that only need minor adjustments. The biggest problem is Second Madam Zhu herself.”

”What’s wrong with her?”

”No two Ghost Beasts have the exact same characteristics, and the same goes for Demon Puppets. The key to creating them is to induce a non-directional mutation.” Dong Rui shook his head. ”But Second Madam Zhu is an Ancient Demon Immortal. Even though she used metamorphosis to reduce her Cultivation, her body and demonic nature are too stable. Hmm, not just stable, they’re practically rock-solid. These drugs might not have any effect on her at all, other than maybe giving her diarrhea.”

”And let’s say, for argument’s sake, the drug did work. She would have to endure intense and prolonged agony. I’ve experimented on so many Demons, and not a single one has been able to withstand the process of being turned into a Demon Puppet.”

’The process is excruciatingly painful, but the outcome is unknown. Is Second Madam Zhu really willing to pay such a price just to resist Primordial Power?’

Hee Lingchuan was confused. ”Then what have you been so busy with all these days?”

”The chance to experiment on a living Ancient Demon Immortal and her Relic Shell, even just a small part of them—what a luxury!” Dong Rui grinned. ”And she has a whole nest of disciples that are like downgraded copies of her. They even volunteer for my experiments! Where else would I find such a great opportunity?”

In the past, when he wanted to create Demon Puppets, he first had to fight life-and-death battles. The higher the rank of the Demon Beast he wanted to capture, the greater the risk. Otherwise, how would he have ended up wanted by the Beiga Kingdom?

This place was simply his personal research paradise.

”What’s your plan when the time limit is up?” Hee Lingchuan reminded him to focus on the immediate problem. Time was flying by.

Dong Rui scratched his head. ”We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

After being interrupted by Hee Lingchuan a few times, Dong Rui finally snapped out of his workaholic mode. Of course, it was also because his mind was exhausted after such intense labor.

Tonight was the full moon, so the two of them simply walked to the entrance of the Demon Nest and sat by the water of the Celestial Pit to drink, watching the silvery moonlight spill across the ground.

Hee Lingchuan always kept good wine in his Storage Ring, and he took out a jar for each of them.

From where they sat, they could look up and see the full moon like a silver platter. Its light hit the water’s surface, sparkling like stars.

Dong Rui stared blankly for a while, then let out a long sigh.

’Does this kind of person even know how to feel sentimental?’ ”What are you sighing about?”

”Nothing.” Dong Rui wasn’t wearing his face covering anymore. In the swamp, no creature cared that he was ugly. In the eyes of a Spider Demon, Hee Lingchuan was probably just as ugly as he was.

When he drank, a little wine would leak from the crooked corner of his mouth.

Hee Lingchuan had grown used to that ghastly face. He asked him again, ”What exactly happened to your face?”

Dong Rui just drank, not making a sound.

After a long moment, he wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth. ”A woman did it.”

Hee Lingchuan was stunned. ”That vicious?”