When Hu Liena had left, the Cardinal finally spoke respectfully. "The young lady seems to have known Snake Lance Douluo would inform you of this, so she sent someone with a message."
"Speak." Bibi Dong furrowed her brows.
The Cardinal's voice trembled as he said, "The young lady said that Lan Si is her friend, and she will never allow anyone to lay a hand on him. Otherwise, she will fight them to the death."
"Good. Very good. It seems my precious daughter has really grown up—her wings have hardened." Bibi Dong laughed in fury. A vast aura surged out from her, sending rippling waves through the air. In an instant, the entire hall shuddered violently.
The Cardinal standing closest to her was the first to bear the brunt. He was flung backward and slammed into the hall wall, coughing up blood without end. Fortunately, Bibi Dong hadn't gone for the kill. Otherwise, he wouldn't even have had the chance to spit blood; the pressure of her immense aura would have crushed him into a pulp.
"Please spare me, Your Holiness! Please spare me!" Ignoring his grievous injuries, the Cardinal knelt on the ground and begged for mercy again and again.
"Get up." After letting off some steam, Bibi Dong felt a little better. She breathed out slowly, then flashed back to her throne.
"Your Holiness, what about Lan Si? Should we still try to recruit him?" The Cardinal asked with apprehension, trembling with fear.
"Not necessary. As long as he doesn't oppose Spirit Hall, leave him alone for now. All right, if there's nothing else, go. Don't disturb me." Bibi Dong sounded impatient.
"Yes." Hearing that Bibi Dong was dismissing him, the Cardinal felt as if he'd been granted a new lease on life. He bowed deeply, then rose and limped out of the hall.
Watching the Cardinal disappear, Bibi Dong lounged against her throne and murmured, "Friends? I never thought Xue'er would make a friend, too..."
As she spoke, the corner of Bibi Dong's mouth lifted in the faintest, almost imperceptible smile. Perhaps even she hadn't realized that she was happy her daughter—the one she loathed—had made a friend.
Elsewhere, in the Star Dou Great Forest.
It was nearing noon, and the sun blazed overhead.
At that moment, Lan Si and Qian Renxue sat beside the campfire, eating barbecue.
"I didn't expect you to be such a good cook!" Qian Renxue accepted a skewer of roast rabbit and took a small bite.
"Of course. Roasting rabbits is my specialty. Soft Bone Rabbit is especially delicious. It's a shame the oldest one around here is only a hundred years old. If there were thousand- or ten-thousand-year ones, you could really feast." Lan Si grinned.
"You're really not modest at all. Tell you you're fat, and you start panting. Soft Bone Rabbits are incredibly weak Soul Beasts, preyed upon by the vast majority of carnivorous Soul Beasts. Growing to a hundred years old is already impressive, let alone a thousand or ten thousand." Qian Renxue pursed her lips, unconvinced.
"Don't be so dismissive. Once I'm strong enough, I'll treat you to roast rabbit meat from a hundred-thousand-year Soft Bone Rabbit." Lan Si looked completely serious.
At that, Qian Renxue instinctively wanted to keep teasing him. But when she looked up at Lan Si, she saw that his gaze was crystal clear, without a trace of anything false. He clearly meant it.
"Then I'll wait for you to treat me to a hundred-thousand-year Soft Bone Rabbit." Qian Renxue giggled, then took another bite of rabbit meat.
One hour earlier.
As Lan Si was enveloped by the enormous Cyan Lotus, a brilliant purple ring of light gradually took shape around its outer edge.
"Ah!" Just as Qian Renxue thought all was settled, Lan Si suddenly screamed from inside the Cyan Lotus. The lotus's surface began to bulge. With a metallic clang, a translucent purple spike resembling one of the Soul-Eater Demon Spider's legs pierced through a lotus leaf as hard as Iron Essence.
"This is..." Qian Renxue excitedly covered her lips, her face full of disbelief. Before she could finish, there came another series of metallic clangs.
A grating succession of piercing sounds rang out. Eight translucent purple spikes had now pierced through the Cyan Lotus enclosing Lan Si. They lifted the entire lotus into the air.
With a tearing sound, the eight spikes ripped the Cyan Lotus to shreds. The fragments drifted down, then turned into wisps of cyan energy and sank into the spikes.
Lan Si's upper body was now arched, his limbs hanging limp. Eight translucent, pale-purple spider legs extended from his back. They looked almost identical to those of the Soul-Eater Demon Spider, but were a size smaller. Their tips were planted in the ground, holding his entire body aloft.
At first glance, those eight spider legs seemed unreal. A misty purple glow shrouded their surfaces, making them look hazy, as if they were both real and illusory. Qian Renxue felt as though she'd just dreamed an impossible dream.
They gave off an unreal, dreamlike impression.
"Ahh..." Lan Si stretched lazily, feeling more comfortable than ever. The eight Spider Spears seemed to respond to his movements, slowly lowering him to the ground.
"What? Why are you staring at me like that? I know I'm handsome, but you don't have to look at me like that." As soon as his heels touched the ground and he opened his eyes, Lan Si saw Qian Renxue standing not far away, staring at him strangely as if he were a monster.
As he spoke, Lan Si shrugged and instinctively glanced around. The moment he saw what was there, his eyes widened in shock. "What the hell!"
He found that eight translucent purple spider legs had appeared on his back. Each was about two meters long, its surface shrouded in a faint purple mist. Every time one moved, it left behind a pale-purple afterimage.
Lan Si tried moving the Spider Spears. Controlling them was nowhere near as easy as he'd imagined. When he tried to move them east, they went west; when he tried north, they went south. It took him quite a while to get the hang of them. Then he looked at the nearby trees, each as thick as a water barrel. They had been sliced into pieces, their cut surfaces smooth and flat, tinged with purple mist. The mist seeped into the severed trunks, and the trees withered in an instant, turning to rotten wood. A gust of wind scattered them into sawdust.
"What terrifying poison. It drained the life from those trees in an instant." Lan Si couldn't help exclaiming. He hadn't expected to obtain the Soul-Eater Demon Spider's External Soul Bone this time. In the entire first part of the original Douluo story, only Bibi Dong, Tang San, and Hu Liena possessed one. That showed just how difficult it was to obtain an External Soul Bone.
But when he looked at it from another angle, Lan Si felt at ease. In the original story, Tang San had obtained the Man Faced Demon Spider's External Soul Bone while absorbing a Soul Ring beyond the limit. The Man Faced Demon Spider had also been steeped in resentment. Tang San had been far weaker than it, but it had been injured, and could only shoot its webs three times a day. Before it encountered Tang San, it had already exhausted all of them fighting Dragon Duke Meng Shu, Meng Yiran's grandfather. That was why it had died so miserably to Tang San's Godly Zhuge Crossbow.
Only with all those factors at play had Tang San been able to obtain the External Soul Bone.
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