After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 345: Chapter 344: Stealing a March

When their leader was in trouble, his followers naturally had to help. The Giant Wild Boar and its swarms of snakes, large and small, rushed forward to break the siege, clashing with the horde of spiders.

Under the moonlight, the scene was as frenzied as a pot of boiling water.

The onlookers on the slope were terrified. ’When these Demons go wild, there’s simply no place for humans.’

However, Tuu Zhongli and the others took advantage of the demons’ chaotic brawl to quietly descend into the Celestial Pit, following the tree roots and vines.

But Second Madam Zhu, who hadn’t suffered a loss like this in ages, was now truly enraged. She struggled to lift her head and shot several plumes of Spider Silk toward the large trees in the distance.

The large trees above the Celestial Pit were at least seven or eight hundred years old, all incredibly thick and majestic ancient woods.

Once the Spider Silk took hold, Second Madam Zhu gave a mighty tug and actually pulled the entire tangled mass of Demons—including the other two Demon Kings—down into the Celestial Pit in one big, messy, writhing clump!

The drop was over a hundred feet. Upon impact, the Little Demons on the periphery were sent scattering, landing in a chaotic heap.

The bottom was covered in Spider Silk, with only a small path normally left for humans. Smaller Demons who were unfortunately knocked into the webs were instantly stuck. The snakes had the absolute worst of it.

The three Great Demons were still tangled together. They rolled down the slope and fell into the water with a SPLASH.

The water in the Celestial Pit was very deep.

The behemoths battled underwater for some time, but the Civilized King was the first to falter. It was a purely terrestrial Demon, unable to hold its breath for that long, especially during a high-intensity battle that consumed so much oxygen. To make matters worse, countless eels emerged from the depths—some as thin as chopsticks, others as thick as a large bowl—latching onto its body to gnaw and bite.

Normally, it wouldn’t be afraid; these little things couldn’t even break through its defenses. The problem was, the Spider Guards had already inflicted more than a dozen wounds and injected venom into them, so its hide wasn’t as resilient as usual. These eels specialized in worming their way into the wounds to wreak havoc, causing an unbearable mix of pain and itching.

Not to mention there was a particularly vicious one, as thick as a bowl, that was maliciously trying to burrow into places it really shouldn’t.

As for the other two Demons, the Giant Python Lord Bowen was an amphibious monster to begin with and could easily take a nap underwater. Second Madam Zhu lacked that natural ability, but her stiff bristles had trapped countless air bubbles upon entering the water. Whenever she couldn’t hold out any longer, she just had to take a breath from them. Some bubbles even seeped directly into her body.

A short while later, the Civilized King could take no more and turned to surface.

With one of the main attackers gone, Second Madam Zhu could focus all her attention on the Giant Python. Now, Lord Bowen was the one who was overwhelmed.

As a veteran Great Demon, Second Madam Zhu’s claws were sharper than steel blades. Even her bristles were coated in venom, so she didn’t need to bite Lord Bowen to poison him.

Of course, Lord Bowen was a poison master himself. His fangs sank into the Spider Demon’s shoulder plating as he pumped in what felt like his entire supply of venom.

But he soon realized something was wrong.

Second Madam Zhu’s fighting strength hadn’t diminished in the slightest, as if his venom had no effect.

’How is this possible?’

’A single drop of my venom can kill hundreds of humans. No matter how tough Second Madam Zhu’s constitution is, how can she be completely unaffected after I pumped over ten pounds of venom into her?’

Just then, one of Second Madam Zhu’s eyes began to swell. When it grew to twice the size of her other eyeballs, it detached and floated upward, its color changing from black to red.

The eyeball was actually a spider. It twitched its legs twice in the water, then died.

Seeing this, Lord Bowen had a sudden realization.

’Did that damn Second Madam Zhu gather all my venom into one of her eyeballs and simply expel it from her body?’

’They had been rivals for many years, yet Second Madam Zhu still had so many tricks up her sleeve!’

Just then, however, he suddenly noticed wispy strands floating in the water. When they touched his body, they stuck to him in a layer.

’Spider Silk!’

’Second Madam Zhu has been secretly spinning silk this entire time.’

This type of silk didn’t dissolve in water; in fact, its stickiness didn’t diminish for some time after being submerged. The spiders normally used it for fishing.

Now, Second Madam Zhu was using it to catch a snake.

Thanks to the water, the Spider Silk drifted everywhere, making it impossible for Lord Bowen to dodge. Once he was fully entangled, he would be helpless. This wasn’t land; he would have no leverage and no way to break the web with the same brute force he could on the surface.

By that logic, Lord Bowen’s only chance of victory was to find a way back to land and attack alongside the Civilized King.

Having figured this out, he decisively let go of Second Madam Zhu and swam rapidly toward the surface.

...

While all hell was breaking loose outside the Demon Nest, it was perfectly quiet inside the Underground Palace.

Squad after squad of spiders rushed out to provide support, their rustling quickly fading into the distance. The vast Demon Nest grew empty. The remaining Spider Guards held their posts, no longer venturing out.

In the dead silence, a sudden stir came from the Demon Nest’s wine cellar.

From one of the two large rows of wine vats that had been brought in earlier, a lid was slowly pushed open. Someone poked their head out, looked around twice, and whispered:

”No Guards. We’re safe!”

Four or five more vat lids were removed, and the bandits hidden inside jumped out.

Hiding in wine vats to sneak into the Underground Palace was, it turned out, a flawless plan.

”Quick, find out where we need to go!”

”The map?” a bandit called to the companion who had emerged first. ”Old Sixth, hurry up and check the map!”

There were fluorescent spores in the wine cellar as well, so lighting wasn’t a problem.

Old Sixth pulled a piece of black-and-gray snakeskin from his clothes and held it up to the light.

”We should be here!” he said, pointing to the map. ”So we need to go this way... hmm, wait, that doesn’t seem right.”

”Can you even read that thing? Don’t lead us astray!” the bandits urged impatiently.

The Demons outside were buying them time, but for how long was uncertain. They didn’t trust the Demons anyway. The only sensible thing to do was to complete their mission as quickly as possible.

Old Sixth shoved the snakeskin map at them. ”If you can do better, then you do it.”

No one took it. ”No, you do it, you do it. Just be quick about it.”

None of the others had a better sense of direction than Old Sixth anyway.

”Okay, this has to be it. Follow me.” Old Sixth finally found the path and slipped nimbly out of the wine cellar. ”Lord Bowen said this used to be his lair, so the map he gave us should be accurate.”

There were no Guards at the wine cellar entrance—

of course there weren’t. Who worries about their wine cellar being robbed?

But Old Sixth saw what looked like a flicker of light at the end of the passage and instinctively shrank back.

A few moments passed with no further sound or movement, so he headed out. The fluorescent spores in the Underground Palace had grown larger; it wasn’t unheard of for them to flare up suddenly.

This Old Sixth really had a knack for reading maps. Despite it being his first time in the complex, multi-leveled Underground Palace, he was able to get his bearings with just a compass-like gadget.

Although they took a few detours, their direction of travel was straight toward Second Madam Zhu’s personal chambers—the very heart of the Demon Nest!

Of course, they encountered patrolling Spider Guards along the way, but the men had a countermeasure. Whenever there was nowhere to hide, they would hold up a sheet of snakeskin in front of them. When a Spider Guard walked by, its huge eyes would see nothing but an ordinary rock wall—

An Illusion Technique had been cast on the snakeskin, giving it the power of camouflage. The Spider Guards’ level of Daoist Practice wasn’t high enough to see through it.

As for the bandits themselves, they had already smeared their bodies with plant juices and woodsy scents to mask their human odor.

By fooling several patrols this way, they made their way deeper and deeper into the caverns.

Despite having a map, the sheer size and complexity of the multi-leveled Demon Nest exceeded their expectations. One of the bandits steeled himself and asked Old Sixth, ”How much farther?” Just the walking had already taken a quarter of an hour; they were being delayed for far too long.

Their leader had sounded out Lord Boshan before. Although the Giant Python boasted of its own combat prowess, it also acknowledged Second Madam Zhu’s power and had warned them to get in and out of the Demon Nest quickly, lest they die a horrible death with no grave to mark the spot.

’We already failed the ”get in quick” part,’ they thought. ’Is ”get out quick” even going to be an option?’

Finally, they crept into a massive cavern whose entrance was sealed by a dense spiderweb.

Instead of being alarmed, Old Sixth was delighted. ”This has to be the place! It’s too heavily protected not to be!”

The web couldn’t be touched; its stickiness was incredible. But the men were prepared—the two bags of sand they’d been carrying could finally be put to use.

They tossed handful after handful of sand onto the web.

No matter how sticky the web was, once coated in layer after layer of sand, its adhesion was useless. Finally, Old Sixth tapped the web with his axe. Finding it didn’t stick, he said, ”We can get through.”

It was impossible to cut, but the web was very elastic, so the men simply forced their way through it.

They had just gotten inside and hadn’t even had time to brush the sand off their clothes when they saw several enormous, black Spider Demons standing against the wall, their dozens of eyes seemingly glaring right at the entrance.

The men shuddered in fear, and Old Sixth almost dropped the map he was holding.

’S-so big! Even bigger than Second Madam Zhu outside!’

After calming their pounding hearts, they realized these Giant Demons weren’t moving at all, as if deep in slumber.

”A-are these them?”

Old Sixth composed himself. ”Should be. Lord Boshan wants the Spider Sheddings. This must be them!”

”Which one should we pick?” Finding no Guards in the chamber, the men moved closer, looking them over and giving them a poke here and there.

It was their first time seeing such massive Demons, and their curiosity got the better of them. One man even reached out and knocked on a spider leg. KNOCK, KNOCK. ’It’s hard as a rock.’ ”There are four of them.”

”Lord Boshan didn’t say which one.” ’Perhaps the Giant Python didn’t even know there were four Spider Sheddings here?’ ”Let’s just take the biggest one.”

Another bandit shook out a snakeskin pouch. ”How does this thing work?”

”That big snake said to just slip the Qiankun Bag over the Spider Shedding’s head, and it’ll work.”

The bandit had no choice but to use his hands and feet to start climbing the massive, mountain-like Spider Shedding. But the bristles on its legs were like a wall of swords, forcing him to take each step with extreme care, lest one stumble and he be...

His companions below were burning with impatience, constantly urging him on. ”Hurry up! What the hell are you waiting for? Get up there!”

”You’re nimble enough when you’re climbing into Widow Wang’s bed!”

”His legs have probably gone soft. I thought he was walking a little funny today.”

The bandit grew irritated. He turned to shout back, ”Shut up! If you think you can do it, then you come up... AHH!”

He convulsed violently, twitched twice as if having a seizure, and then tumbled down headfirst.

The bristles on the Spider Shedding’s legs were like Thrusting Swords. As he tumbled down, they opened up countless bloody gashes all over his body, making him look like a leaky sack.

The others, startled, turned him over. His face was a ghastly blue-black, his whole body was convulsing, and his skin was swelling at a visible rate, as if someone were inflating him like a balloon.

The blood flowing from his wounds quickly turned a yellowish green, looking less like blood and more like pus.