After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 349: Chapter 348: The Most Dangerous Moment

A double-hour passed. The sun had crossed its zenith and was now slanting west.

There was still no sign of Hee Lingchuan.

That was how it was with hunting fugitives: if you didn’t catch them within the first double-hour, the chances of finding them later plummeted.

Another double-hour went by, and the spider army had still found nothing.

The thought of the lost Spider Shedding made Second Madam Zhu’s chest tighten with frustration. But her priority right now was to return to rest and heal.

Especially after a small spider returned with news that the Civilized King’s boars were constantly snooping around the border, looking as if they wanted to come over and assess the situation.

She had previously scared the Civilized King witless and driven him from her territory, but for all that the Pig Demon was a fool, he had his moments of petty cunning. If he discovered that both the Spider Queen and Lord Boshan had been gravely wounded in their fight, leaving her unable to defend herself, the Demon Nest would be in peril.

Thus, though filled with resentment, Second Madam Zhu had no choice but to depart for her nest.

As for the spider army, she kept a few Guards with her but sent the rest back out to scour the mountains and plains for any trace of Hee Lingchuan.

Halfway back, Second Madam Zhu suddenly remembered something and hastily dispatched a Spider Guard to take care of it.

Soon, the Spider Guard returned carrying Tuu Zhongli’s corpse, dropping it before Second Madam Zhu. It also reported that the Civilized King’s spawn had begun tentatively entering Lord Boshan’s territory.

News of Lord Boshan’s death would reach the Civilized King within the next double-hour or two. When it did, who knew how the Wild Boar King would react.

Second Madam Zhu had retrieved Tuu Zhongli’s corpse for a reason: she had a few small spiders search it for something right in front of her.

Soon enough, a patterned spider fished a small Cloud Brocade Banner out of Tuu Zhongli’s sleeve.

That was right. This was the only pass for a human to leave the Demon Nest Swamp. Second Madam Zhu took it and let out a long sigh of relief.

For all his cunning, that brat Hee Lingchuan had still overlooked one thing.

Without the Cloud Brocade Banner, he could not leave the Demon Nest Swamp.

Sooner or later, the Earth Cave Spiders would find him.

Just then, the Red Spider returned, leaping onto her head and transforming back into an eyeball. With weary steps, Second Madam Zhu slowly crawled down the Celestial Pit and back into the Underground Palace.

A Spider Guard returned to report that Dong Rui was missing.

While all the spiders were busy chasing Hee Lingchuan, the man had taken the opportunity to flee.

But he couldn’t leave the Demon Nest Swamp without the token and would be found by the Earth Cave Spiders sooner or later. Second Madam Zhu was numb with exhaustion and couldn’t be bothered to wonder about his motives. She headed straight for the heart of the Demon Nest.

The passageways she normally traversed with ease now seemed endless. ’Why did that Jindu Ghost Child have to build such a complicated Underground Palace all those years ago?’

By the time Second Madam Zhu reached the display chamber, the Spider Guards had already withdrawn, taking up strict guard posts outside.

This had always been a space she preferred to enjoy in solitude. She swept the area with her Divine Thought out of habit, and after confirming it was safe, she spat out several layers of webbing to seal the entrance shut.

Inside the display chamber, only three Relic Shells remained.

One had been stolen in the Beiga Kingdom, and another had just vanished into thin air.

The sight filled the Spider Queen with sorrow. She lay on the spot for a long while before slowly moving to the wall and positioning herself right next to the other Relic Shells.

Then, she began to contort her body in a motion that was part dance, part struggle. An observer would have thought she was in agony, for the tips of her legs frequently twisted in unnatural directions.

The process continued for over a quarter of an hour. Then, the Spider Queen’s back split open. The fissure widened until it became a hole.

Incredibly, she began to twist and pull her body out of the opening, little by little.

Leaving the old shell behind.

Yes, Second Madam Zhu was now undergoing another molt!

Once she shed her hard exoskeleton, her body was slick with mucus. Her new shell was so soft that forget blades—even an ordinary human could leave a dent with a single finger, a dent that would only slowly rebound.

This was Second Madam Zhu’s most painful and vulnerable moment. Everything had to be perfect. That was why she had sent all the Spider Guards to defend the entrance to the death and had sealed the opening with her own webbing.

She trusted no one.

Fortunately, her new shell would harden in the time it took to drink two cups of tea. Then, she would once again be the same unrivaled Great Demon.

But just at that moment, Second Madam Zhu suddenly sensed a trace of danger:

An eye on the back of her head saw it—someone had suddenly appeared by the wall!

The fluorescent spores cast a green glow on his face, making him look sinister and vicious.

This person was none other than Hee Lingchuan.

He appeared without a word, leaping toward the back of Second Madam Zhu’s head with the agility of a leopard, his right hand gripping a short blade that he thrust viciously forward!

He was striking while she was vulnerable, aiming for the kill.

At this moment, Second Madam Zhu was completely stuck. With her new shell so delicate, she had no strength to defend herself.

Just as it seemed Hee Lingchuan’s strike would land, Second Madam Zhu suddenly spat something from her mouth.

It was a black orb, the size of an ostrich egg. The moment it left her mouth, it seemed to come alive, shooting directly toward Hee Lingchuan.

He froze for an instant before hastily dodging aside.

The black orb didn’t give chase. It simply paused in mid-air for a moment, then suddenly burst apart!

A halo of black light instantly expanded outward in all directions from the point of the explosion.

The explosion wasn’t as loud as normal dynamite; there was no earth-shaking blast. Yet, wherever the halo of black light passed, most things were silently vaporized.

Even the hardest stone walls.

Hee Lingchuan took the full force of the blast. Second Madam Zhu watched as his figure vanished, bit by bit, into thin air.

This was Annihilation.

Fortunately, the halo’s range was limited to a radius of about twenty feet. It dissipated on its own without damaging the rest of the cave.

The display chamber fell silent once more.

Only then did Second Madam Zhu let out a sigh of relief.

’My molting period is my most dangerous time; how could I have come unprepared? Still, it’s such a waste to use an Annihilation Treasure Pearl on one weak human.’

’I’ve treasured this artifact since the Middle Ages. Originally there were seven, but two had lost their potency and four had been used. Alas, today I was forced to use the very last one.’

But having lived for so long, Second Madam Zhu was very clear on one point:

No Supreme Treasure, no matter how magnificent, was more precious than her own life.

Trading it for her life was worth it.

Just as she refocused on the business of molting, a figure suddenly emerged from deep within a leg joint of the tallest Relic Shell.

Not even fluorescent spores grew in that blind spot, so neither human nor spider would have normally paid it any mind.

He had been hiding inside a concave, spiky section of the shell, and since the Annihilation Treasure Pearl clearly didn’t harm Second Madam Zhu’s own body or her Relic Shells, he had been spared from the blast.

While hiding, the man had been like an inert stone, without breath or heartbeat, even deceiving Second Madam Zhu’s senses. But by jumping out, he revealed himself, and she was instantly on alert.

But he was incredibly fast. Before Second Madam Zhu could even react, he leaped onto her head. A cold light flashed at his waist, and a Long Saber plunged deep into her flesh, which was as delicate as a newborn’s!

Second Madam Zhu’s shriek of agony echoed through the empty stone chamber.

Her attacker sneered, ”Struggle all you want; it’s useless. I’ll make sure you can neither live nor die!”

This person was, of course, Hee Lingchuan.

She had said those very words to him back in the ruins; he was now returning them in kind.

However, she was only halfway through her molt. Her head was free, but her abdomen was wedged in the hard old shell, and only two of her eight legs had emerged.

A moth traps itself by spinning a cocoon; she had trapped herself by molting.

There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. It was the most precarious of situations.

The Spider Guards outside heard her screams, but the webbing sealing the entrance was too strong for even them to break through.

So she could only scream, ”Stop! Stop! We can talk about this!”

His blade had sliced directly into the crown of her head. Her soft new shell offered no resistance at all. If Floating Life went another foot deeper, it would scramble her brains.

With her last life-saving trump card played, she was out of options for the moment.

As Second Madam Zhu begged for mercy, Hee Lingchuan halted the blade and said sharply, ”If you don’t want to die, acknowledge me as your master and form an Immortal Pet Contract!”

The one obliterated by the Annihilation Treasure Pearl moments ago was, naturally, his Clone.

These Ancient Great Demons were notoriously cunning. Even during her most vulnerable molting phase, Hee Lingchuan hadn’t been confident he could take her down in one blow, so he sent in a Clone to test the waters first.

One test, and the Clone was history.

Good thing it wasn’t his real body.

The opportunity to get a Great Demon like this under his thumb was once in a thousand years, and he was determined to seize it. The very fact that Second Madam Zhu had struggled to survive since Ancient Times was a testament to her powerful will to live.

The Spider Queen was stunned for a moment, then became furious. ”Never!”

Hee Lingchuan applied pressure, pushing the blade another half-inch deeper.

Enduring the pain, Second Madam Zhu snarled, ”I would rather die than be a slave! You’re dreaming if you think you can make me your pet!”

’I was once an Ancient Great Demon and I still possess their pride. How could I debase myself by acknowledging a master?’

Hee Lingchuan suddenly twisted, a dagger appearing in his other hand to impale a small spider.

It was one of Second Madam Zhu’s eyeballs, which had secretly transformed and tried to circle behind him for a venomous strike. But at such a critical moment, Hee Lingchuan had his Divine Thought fully extended, on high alert for exactly this kind of dirty trick.

As the eyeball was impaled, Second Madam Zhu cried out in pain once more. Hee Lingchuan patted the top of her skull, a look of mock regret on his face. ”Since you insist on being so defiant, then I’m afraid I’ll have to send you on your way.”

Just as he was about to ’politely’ finish off the Spider Queen, she hurriedly shouted, ”I won’t accept you as my master, but I can swear an oath not to harm you! I’ll let you leave the swamp safely!”

”No. The winner should enjoy the spoils of victory.” There was no advantage for him in such a treaty, so Hee Lingchuan rejected it outright. ”An Ancient Great Demon’s body is a treasure trove. Wouldn’t it be better to dismantle you for Artifact Refining and sell the parts? If I took your eyeballs to the Beiga Kingdom, I might even be granted an official title and a handsome reward.”

Second Madam Zhu’s whole body trembled, though whether from pain or rage, it was impossible to tell.

”If I live, I can lend you my Divine Techniques!” she continued, trying desperately to persuade him. ”They won’t just make you as strong as a tiger with wings—they could save your life in a pinch!”

Hee Lingchuan laughed dryly. ”You’re at a ’critical moment’ right now. Why aren’t those techniques saving *your* life?”

”I’m completely spent,” Second Madam Zhu said. With her life in his hands, she spoke no falsehoods. ”Before, you wouldn’t have even been able to get close to me during a molt.”

She couldn’t help but sigh in despair. ”You’re so lucky.”

Hee Lingchuan smiled. ’Only I know this was the result of meticulous planning,’ he thought. ’How could I attribute it all to luck?’

”There was a Relic Shell missing from the display chamber earlier,” he said. ”I figured you’d put it on.”

When he’d first entered the display chamber with the bandits, he’d noticed there were only four Relic Shells, meaning one was missing. It turned out that when the Civilized King had arrived with his entire brood to stir up trouble, Second Madam Zhu had sensed something unusual about the provocation. She had donned a Relic Shell for extra protection before going out to face him.