Shadow Lurking Spider

Shadow Lurking Spider

Ji Xinghuo fired a Willow Leaf Arrow. It flew with incredible speed, slipping through gaps in the trees and reaching the air a hundred meters away in the blink of an eye, where it sank into the flickering shadows.

"Hisss..."

The spider fell from above, letting out a piercing cry from its hideous mouth.

Only then did the others clearly see the monster's appearance. It was a giant spider over one and a half meters long, pitch-black all over, with dark red patterns across its abdomen. Its eight thick legs had curled into a ball. An arrow had pierced one of its eyes, leaving only a short section of the shaft exposed.

It really is a Shadow Lurking Spider. Chi Zhonglin's voice rang in his teammates' minds.

These giant spiders were one of the main sources of the Shadow Stealth Ability Seed.

They were highly numerous and lived in groups, but they did not build permanent nests. Instead, they roamed the forests, lurking in shadows to ambush prey.

Once the monster's identity was confirmed, everyone relaxed.

There was some danger, but not much.

Even if they had been ambushed by this group of Shadow Lurking Spiders, the team's strength meant they would not suffer any real harm.

However, Ren Mian, Chi Zhonglin, and Jiangnan Caiyi did not know that Ji Xinghuo, in his first real battle, had already opened the Myriad Stellar Eye interface in his field of vision.

His Spirit Source Energy, which had previously been reduced to zero, had now become "1."

Ji Xinghuo was thrilled.

Sure enough, killing living creatures could earn Spirit Source Energy. That confirmed his suspicion. Although it was only one point, that single point was worth several days of his hard training in his abilities. And there were still dozens of giant spiders nearby, spreading out to encircle them from both sides.

These were all Spirit Source Energy!

Ji Xinghuo's eyes lit up. Seizing the moment, he fired a second arrow.

Smack! Another Shadow Lurking Spider fell from a tree, but his Spirit Source Energy did not increase.

"What's going on?"

Ji Xinghuo froze for a moment. Looking carefully, he saw that this Shadow Lurking Spider was much smaller, only half the size of the first one.

He immediately guessed that perhaps he had to kill targets with abilities to gain Spirit Source Energy.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Ji Xinghuo's compound bowstring thrummed repeatedly as he sent arrows in different directions. It looked like he was firing at random, but after every shot, a giant spider fell to the ground with a pained shriek.

So that's how it is.

He watched the changes in his Spirit Source Energy and compared them to the targets he had killed. Only Shadow Lurking Spiders that had reached a certain level of strength gave him Spirit Source Energy.

The interface showed that he already had 3 points of Spirit Source Energy!

"The spider swarm is surrounding us." Ji Xinghuo warned his teammates mentally. There were already more than fifty spiders within his Magnetic Field Induction. Using the trees as cover, some were leaping closer from the front, while even more were spreading to both sides in an attempt to complete the encirclement.

"Kill their leader, and the swarm will disperse." Ren Mian said to Ji Xinghuo, "Can you find it?"

"Over there."

Ji Xinghuo pointed in a direction with an arrowhead. "About 180 meters away, in a tree twenty-two meters above the ground. It's very cautious. My arrows can't reach it."

In truth, he had spotted the spider swarm's leader long ago.

Its body spanned more than three meters when fully extended. It lurked in the shadows behind a tree, moving only occasionally.

It was an elite-class monster!

Nations across Earth followed the standards used by the nations of the Star Realm, dividing Star Realm creatures into three categories.

The first category was civilized races. They possessed intelligence and civilization, could make tools, cultivate abilities, master language and writing, create splendid civilizations, and establish great nations. They were the higher races of the Star Realm and its true rulers.

The civilized races of the Milky Way referred to native races born in the Star Realm as "Astral Alien Races."

In turn, Astral Alien Races called the civilized races of the Milky Way "Extraterrestrial Races."

The second category was monsters. They possessed no intelligence and reproduced and evolved purely through biological instinct. They were the most numerous, practically endless. Amid their enormous numbers, terrifyingly powerful monsters could emerge, but very few could evolve intelligence. They were still merely monsters.

The third category was Spirit Objects. They possessed intelligence and were usually far stronger than monsters, but they could communicate and were extremely rare.

More than 95 percent of creatures in the Star Realm were monsters.

The lowest-ranked "ordinary" monsters had no abilities. They were much like Earth's ferocious beasts, relying solely on their bodies and limbs to hunt for food.

As they aged and their lives evolved, many ordinary monsters would awaken abilities and grow more powerful.

Evolved monsters were "unusual" class.

Among unusual-class monsters, stronger individuals could appear. They awakened more abilities and were usually the leaders of their species, but they had not truly evolved. They were "elite" monsters among the unusual class.

Some elites were very strong, while others were weak. The gap between their upper and lower limits of strength was enormous.

The weak ones were little different from ordinary beasts.

The strong ones were more powerful than Advanced Espers.

The vast majority of monsters hunted by Earth's Aberrant Hunting Teams were unusual and elite monsters.

Only after elite monsters evolved again could they surpass the limitations of their species, awaken more abilities hidden in their genes, and fuse Ability Seeds like intelligent races, becoming extremely terrifying.

These were known as "exceptional" class monsters.

Most of the spiders Ji Xinghuo had just killed were ordinary monsters. Only three had been unusual monsters.

Their leader, meanwhile, was an elite monster.

Judging from the strength of its magnetic field, this elite Shadow Lurking Spider was about as strong as an Advanced Esper. However, it could not think and hunted targets only through instinct.

Ren Mian considered for several seconds before giving the order. "Xiao Chi, go lure it out. Cai Yi, go with him and protect Xiao Chi from the shadows, but don't leave Xinghuo's range."

"No problem."

Chi Zhonglin planted his spear on the ground. Its shaft turned red and hot, black scales emerging over his skin as he charged toward the spider leader.

In seconds, he had rushed into the center of the spider swarm.

The entire swarm instantly erupted. Pairs of crimson compound eyes appeared in the shadows above the woods, accompanied by shrill chittering hisses.

Rustle, rustle, rustle! Ren Mian reached out and pressed a hand against the Fire Tree Silver Flower beside her. The entire tree shook violently as more than a dozen leaves broke away, shooting above Chi Zhonglin's head before exploding.

Bang, bang, bang, bang...

A string of explosions filled the woodland with flames and white light, setting branches and leaves ablaze across dozens of meters.

Shadow Lurking Spiders were creatures that feared light, and they immediately fled the shadows.

But they did not retreat. Instead, they fixed on the nearest prey and pounced at Chi Zhonglin on the ground, spreading their fangs and spraying huge webs from the tips of their abdomens.

Amid the flames and shrieks, the vibration of the bowstring was drowned out.

Ji Xinghuo fired continuously.

His right hand moved so fast it almost left a Residual Shadow, firing seven arrows in five seconds.

Every arrow struck its target. One arrow pierced through an ordinary Shadow Lurking Spider before embedding itself in a second one behind it—one arrow, two spiders! Chi Zhonglin stood in the middle of the clearing, originally prepared to fight the monsters.

Yet before he could even thrust his spear once, the corpses of eight Shadow Lurking Spiders rained down around him.

Ji Xinghuo glanced at the interface.

Spirit Source Energy +2

Just then, an unusual-class spider attacked from the side. Less than five meters away, it sprayed a white web at Chi Zhonglin. A flash of blade light suddenly emerged from the air, slicing apart the web and cleaving the Shadow Lurking Spider into two halves.

Jiangnan Caiyi's figure flickered and vanished again.

Spirit Source Energy +1

As Ji Xinghuo drew another arrow, he thought, So I can gain Spirit Source Energy even when I didn't kill the target myself.

After killing another ordinary spider, he warned, "Ren-jie, watch the tree on the left."

Two Shadow Lurking Spiders had already circled around to both sides.

They were extremely cautious, not daring to reveal themselves directly in the dazzling light of the Fire Tree Silver Flower. Instead, they used Shadow Stealth to lurk beneath the trees and creep closer along the ground.

"Leave it to me."

Ren Mian took out a section of thorny vine and casually tossed it to the left. It landed with Precision behind the large tree where the two giant spiders were hiding.

The thorny vine took root the moment it touched the ground. In the blink of an eye, it grew four or five meters long and as thick as an arm, covered in sharp thorns. Like a python, it wrapped around the two Shadow Lurking Spiders and constricted. Its thorns pierced their bodies, strangling them alive.

Spirit Source Energy +2

Ji Xinghuo felt the joy of a bountiful harvest.

Chi Zhonglin on the ground was like a beacon. His flesh and blood drew the spiders toward him like moths to a flame, yet not one could get within five meters of him. They were pierced through the body while still in the air.

Spider corpses fell one after another.

Chi Zhonglin stood amid the bodies with one hand resting on his spear, boredly scratching his chin. A spark had landed there just now, making it itch slightly.

Less than half a minute into the battle, the spider swarm had been reduced by more than half.

The monsters' survival instincts prevailed.

No more spiders rushed out. Ren Mian's plan to use Chi Zhonglin as bait to lure out the elite leader had failed. In Ji Xinghuo's Magnetic Field Induction, the remaining Shadow Lurking Spiders were all retreating, including the elite leader.

"It's getting away."

Ji Xinghuo felt a little anxious.

The unusual-class spiders had mostly been killed. It did not matter if the ordinary spiders escaped, but he could not let the elite leader get away. That was Spirit Source Energy!

He immediately activated the Gale Boots, his speed abruptly increasing. In a few strides, he reached Chi Zhonglin's position and continued forward for several dozen meters.

By then, the elite leader had already retreated far away. It was two hundred meters from Ji Xinghuo, leaping swiftly between the trees and rapidly widening the distance. Occasionally, he could catch a glimpse of a shadow flickering through gaps in the dense branches and leaves, but he could not see it clearly at all.

Ji Xinghuo pulled out a Capacitor Arrow, nocked it, and drew the bowstring.

At the same time, the Myriad Stellar Eye locked onto the giant spider. With his back to his three teammates, he activated Myriad Aspects of the Universe! The world seemed to freeze.

Illusory streams of light appeared before Ji Xinghuo's eyes. Countless lights and shadows interwove, deducing one possible future after another.

An instant later, he fired the crackling Capacitor Arrow.

Then he deactivated Myriad Aspects of the Universe.

To Ren Mian and the others, Ji Xinghuo seemed to have simply chased after it and casually fired an arrow without even aiming properly. The Capacitor Arrow pierced layer after layer of branches and leaves before vanishing into the dim forest.

Chi Zhonglin shook his head and laughed. "You just threw away ten thousand Asia Yuan."

The moment he finished speaking, a pained roar came from the woods nearby, followed by the sound of many branches snapping under crushing weight.

Bang! A heavy corpse slammed onto the ground. It was the leader of the Shadow Lurking Spiders.