Second Soul Ring Target: Two-Thousand-Year Man Faced Demon Spider

Bai Tang San pulled a map from his robes and pointed at a red-marked area with his finger.

"Two thousand years."

"Man Faced Demon Spider."

Pfft—!

The captain, who had been drinking, spat his mouthful all over the floor.

The surrounding mercenaries looked at Bai Tang San as if he were an idiot.

"How many years? Two thousand?!"

The captain's eyes widened, as though he had just heard the most absurd joke in the world.

"Kid, are you still asleep?"

"A two-thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider is a terrifying existence that even Soul Ancestors would avoid!"

"Never mind hunting it for a Second Soul Ring."

"Even for a third or fourth Soul Ring, nobody would dare choose that thing!"

"It's called the 'nightmare of lesser Soul Beasts.' Once it goes berserk, our brothers wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between its teeth!"

"We're not taking this job! No amount of money is worth it! That's suicide!"

The captain pushed the money pouch back, his expression resolute.

Bai Tang San said nothing.

He merely undid his cuff in silence.

There was no muscle revealed beneath it.

Only an ordinary-looking wrist.

"I never asked you to risk your lives."

Bai Tang San spoke calmly.

"I'll do the killing."

"You'll surround it."

"If I die, the money is yours."

"If I win, the corpse is mine."

"And one more thing."

Bai Tang San took another pouch of Gold Soul Coins from his robes and placed it atop the first.

"Double."

Dead silence.

Only the crisp clinking of coins remained in the tavern.

The captain's Adam's apple bobbed violently.

Twice the pay.

That was three years of income for their entire squad.

People died for wealth, birds died for food.

"You... you're sure you'll handle it yourself?" The captain's voice was dry.

"I'm sure."

"Fine!" The captain gritted his teeth and slammed his hand onto the table.

"I'll take the job!"

"But let me make this clear first—if you get eaten, we're not responsible for collecting your corpse!"

[Real World]

Shrek Academy, Sports Field.

"Madness! This is utter madness!"

Yu Xiaogang stared at the Sky Curtain, his entire body trembling.

He pointed at Bai Tang San as though pointing at an incomprehensible heretic.

"Two thousand years?!"

"That's the limit for a Third Soul Ring! Even many Soul Elders wouldn't dare absorb one!"

"He's only a Soul Grandmaster who just reached level twenty. What gives him the right?"

"Physical fitness? Even if he ate Whale Rubber and made his body a little tougher, so what?"

"The energy impact of a Soul Ring is a double trial for the soul and the meridians!"

"Crossing a limit of more than a thousand years is outright suicide!"

The more Yu Xiaogang spoke, the more agitated he became, spittle flying everywhere.

"Grandstanding!"

"This is the textbook definition of not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth!"

"Four hundred years for the First Soul Ring, seven hundred years for the Second Soul Ring—these are Iron Laws proven by countless predecessors!"

"No one can break them!"

"If he can successfully absorb a two-thousand-year Soul Ring, then I, Yu Xiaogang, will—"

Smack.

A large hand clamped tightly over Yu Xiaogang's mouth.

Flender stood behind him, drenched in sweat.

"Xiaogang! Stop talking!"

"I'm begging you, stop making vows!"

"Wasn't the lesson from that 'eating a pig' incident enough?"

"What if... I mean, what if..."

"This kid actually succeeds?"

"Do you still want to keep that old face of yours?"

With his mouth covered, Yu Xiaogang could only make muffled "mmph mmph" sounds.

Yet the defiance in his eyes still burned fiercely.

Impossible!

Absolutely impossible!

This violated the fundamental laws of Martial Soul theory!

To give everyone a more direct sense of the vast disparity in these hunts,

the Sky Curtain cruelly retrieved a future scene from the Black World.

[Black World · Future Footage]

Star Dou Great Forest, beneath a bleak night sky.

Hei Tang San faced a two-thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider alone.

In order to undergo Overlevel Absorption for his Third Soul Ring, and to save the captured Xiao Wu (corresponding to the original plot), he had no choice but to fight for his life.

"Hiss—!"

The Man Faced Demon Spider's ferocious human face twisted across its abdomen. Its eight spear-like legs swung madly like Death's scythes.

Hei Tang San fled miserably through the forest.

Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track had been pushed to its limit, leaving afterimages in succession.

Yet even so, countless wounds covered his body, and blood stained his blue fighting outfit red.

"Godly Zhuge Crossbow!"

Hei Tang San seized an opening, and the mechanism exploded with a sharp sound.

Sixteen bolts shot out, but most were deflected by the hard spider legs. Only a few pierced the demon spider's joints, and none were fatal.

That strike instead completely enraged the demon spider.

A purple spiderweb descended from all directions.

Hei Tang San could only roll across the ground, barely avoiding it. His hair was disheveled, and his face was covered in dirt.

This was a completely unequal battle.

He relied entirely on willpower like a "protagonist's halo," along with the unexpected attacks of Tang Sect Hidden Weapons.

In the end,

Hei Tang San endured severe injuries and used the weight of the Clear Sky Hammer to smash the demon spider's joints before barely managing to send a Sleeve Arrow into its eye.

Boom!

The demon spider collapsed.

Hei Tang San also slumped beside it, coughing up blood in great mouthfuls. He did not even have the strength to move a finger.

A miserable victory.

An exceptionally brutal one.

Yet in the eyes of the Black World audience, it symbolized courage and fearlessness.

"Xiao San, well done!"

"This is the passion of a Soul Master!"

Yu Xiaogang was so moved that tears filled his eyes. "Exploding forth in desperate straits—this is the potential of a monster!"

However.

The next second,

when the image on the right lit up,

all the praise became flies stuck in their throats.

[White World · Present]

Soul Hunting Forest, an unnamed gorge.

The terrain here was narrow, with steep rock walls on both sides. It was a natural bottleneck.

Bai Tang San stood behind a boulder above the gorge, looking down coldly at the scene below.

He held a slender stalk of Blue Silver Grass in his hand.

A transparent liquid carrying a strange, sweet fragrance dripped from its blade.

"Wind direction, southeast."

"Wind speed, level three."

"Diffusion range, five hundred meters."

Bai Tang San quietly recited the data, as calm as a precision instrument.

Behind him, the mercenary captain swallowed hard and nervously gripped the heavy sword in his hand.

"Young master, that's a two-thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider..."

"Will that thing really come?"

Bai Tang San did not turn around. He only replied calmly:

"Spiders are solitary creatures, and they possess a powerful sense of territory."

"But no matter how powerful a creature is, it cannot resist its instinct to reproduce."

"The pheromone in my hand is ten times as concentrated as that of an ordinary female spider."

"To it, this isn't a trap."

"It's paradise."

The moment his words fell,

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

a teeth-grating scraping sound came from the entrance to the gorge.

It was here!

A massive black shadow crawled rapidly into the gorge, carrying a suffocating stench.

It was that two-thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider!

At that moment, it had completely lost its usual cunning and vigilance.

Its eight compound eyes were locked onto Bai Tang San's position, while urgent hisses came from its mouth.

It was too "excited."

So excited that it completely overlooked the faintly disturbed soil beneath its feet.

"It's in the circle."

A cold curve lifted at the corner of Bai Tang San's lips.

He slowly raised his right hand.

His five fingers spread open.

Then,

he clenched them into a fist!

"Detonate."

BOOM—!!!

A heaven-shaking explosion instantly erupted within the narrow gorge.

It was not ordinary gunpowder.

It was a specially made Thunder Fire Bomb, created by Bai Tang San using high-sulfur mineral powder from the Blacksmith Shop together with a Tang Sect gunpowder formula.

There were sixteen in total.

They had been buried in a ring along the demon spider's inevitable path.

A massive blast wave mixed with raging flames instantly hurled the enormous Man Faced Demon Spider into the air!

No matter how hard its carapace was, when its unprotected soft underbelly suffered such an impact, it could only helplessly flip over.

"Hiss—!!!"

The Man Faced Demon Spider let out a shrill, miserable scream.

It tried to flip itself over, tried to strike back.

But Bai Tang San gave it no chance at all.

"Lightning Element Soul Skill, unleash!"

The four Lightning Element Soul Skill mercenaries who had long been lying in wait on the rock walls to either side attacked at the same time.

"Second Soul Skill: Lightning Net!"

"Third Soul Skill: Falling Lightning!"

Purple lightning intertwined into a massive net, viciously enveloping the Demon Spider, which hung helplessly in midair with its belly facing upward.