Soft Bone Rabbit in the Mist

At the edge of the Mixed Zone in the Star Dou Great Forest.

The deeper they went, the heavier the moisture in the air became.

The thin morning mist had not dispersed with the rising sunlight. Instead, it seemed bound within the forest by some invisible force, winding around Ancient Trees, Vines, and rotting leaves, lingering for a long time.

Gu Changsheng walked at the front of the group, his feet stepping over soft, damp soil. The yellowed map in his hand had already been put away.

By this point, the map was of little use.

What he could truly rely on was his spiritual perception.

In his mind, the Myriad Heaven Book floated silently, its illusory pages turning soundlessly. Centered on Gu Changsheng, ripples of Mental Power imperceptible to ordinary people spread outward, sweeping over tree trunks, soil, bushes, and the faint Soul Power fluctuations hidden in the shadows.

[Residual mental fluctuations detected.]

[Attributes: Chaos, confusion, weaving.]

[Suspected target: Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider.]

[Distance: Approximately eight hundred meters.]

Gu Changsheng halted, his gaze darkening slightly.

"Found it."

His voice traveled through the Mental Link and directly entered the minds of Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan.

Hu Liena immediately looked at him, a trace of gravity appearing in her seductive eyes.

"Junior Brother, are you sure?"

Gu Changsheng nodded.

"I'm sure. About eight hundred meters ahead, there are obvious residual mental fluctuations. The environment here is damp and cold, the mist is thick, and the aura is concealed. It matches the Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider's habitat."

Xie Yue gripped his Moon Blades with both hands and said coldly,

"We've finally found the real target."

An orange-red Flame rose in Yan's palm, its glow reflecting the excitement on his face.

"After searching for so long, we finally don't have to keep playing hide-and-seek with those bugs."

But Gu Changsheng showed no sign of relaxation.

"A Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider around Five Thousand Three Hundred Years old is far beyond those Ghost-Face Wind Civets from before. Its most troublesome aspect isn't its strength, but its Mental Illusion and Cognitive Distortion."

He paused, his voice growing deeper.

"If it drags us into an illusion, even a moment of distraction could leave our bodies pierced by spider silk."

Hu Liena nodded gently, pink light flashing through her eyes.

"Don't worry. I'll help stabilize your mental field."

Gu Changsheng glanced at her, and his heart settled slightly.

He dared challenge a Mental Attribute Spirit Beast over five thousand years old not because of blind confidence.

The Myriad Heaven Book could analyze, Hu Liena could help stabilize their minds, and with Xie Yue's powerful offense and Yan's Flame blockade, they were not without a chance.

What they truly needed to worry about was the unexpected.

And the Star Dou Great Forest never lacked surprises.

Just as Gu Changsheng was preparing to continue forward, the Myriad Heaven Book in his mind suddenly trembled.

[Abnormal Source of Life detected.]

[Target approaching.]

[Fluctuations detected in mental disguise layer.]

Gu Changsheng's gaze sharpened.

The bushes ahead trembled lightly.

A pink figure emerged from the forest.

It was a young girl.

She appeared quite young, dressed in a pink skirt. Her long Scorpion Braid hung behind her, and she had fair skin, delicate features, and large, lively eyes filled with annoyance and vigilance.

She did not appear injured.

Her breathing was steady, and her Soul Power fluctuations showed no obvious disorder.

But when she looked at the surrounding mist, her brows were tightly furrowed, as though something had disturbed her sense of direction.

Hu Liena instantly stepped half a pace forward, shielding Gu Changsheng at her side. Her voice turned cold.

"Who are you?"

Xie Yue's Moon Blades had already appeared in his hands.

Flames ignited in Yan's palm as he looked the girl up and down.

The girl blinked, then planted her hands on her hips and said without any courtesy,

"I was about to ask who you are! This is the Star Dou Great Forest, not your backyard."

Yan raised a brow.

"This little girl sure has a big mouth."

The girl immediately glared at him.

"You're the little girl! Sister Xiao Wu is just lost, not scared of you!"

Xiao Wu.

At the sound of that name, Gu Changsheng's eyes shifted almost imperceptibly.

Though he had long suspected it, when the name came from the girl's own lips, it still felt as though the course of fate had quietly veered at that very moment.

At the same time, the words in the Myriad Heaven Book silently changed.

[High-level Source of Life fluctuation detected.]

[Slight damage detected in mental disguise layer.]

[Suspected: Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast in transformed form.]

Gu Changsheng's heart shook slightly.

As expected.

She was Xiao Wu!

But he quickly suppressed every emotion, not even allowing the rhythm of his breathing to change.

Because farther away, there was an even more dangerous presence.

Chrysanthemum Douluo, Yue Guan.

If Yue Guan discovered Xiao Wu's true identity, then this place would likely become a dead end in an instant.

Xiao Wu seemed to sense a faint, indistinct pressure as well, and a trace of unease flashed deep within her eyes.

She instinctively took half a step back, and the aura that had originally been stable around her became disordered for an instant with the fluctuation of her emotions.

Atop a distant treetop.

Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Hm?"

Gu Changsheng's heart sank.

He could not let him discover her.

Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Changsheng stepped forward and stood between Hu Liena and Xiao Wu.

"Don't attack."

Hu Liena looked at him.

"Junior Brother?"

Gu Changsheng remained calm, his voice utterly without ripples.

"She isn't an enemy."

As he spoke, he silently activated the Myriad Heaven Spirit Seal. A faint strand of Mental Power spread from his body like a thin veil, briefly covering Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu's body trembled slightly.

She could feel that the Origin aura she had nearly leaked just moments ago had been concealed by the young man before her.

He was helping her?

Xiao Wu looked at Gu Changsheng. The vigilance in her eyes immediately diminished somewhat, though it was replaced by confusion.

She had no favorable impression of people from Spirit Hall.

It could even be said that she bore an instinctive hostility toward them.

Yet this young man had just saved her once.

Gu Changsheng did not look at her. Instead, he watched the increasingly dense mist around them.

"She was probably led off course by the Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider's Spiritual Mist."

Xiao Wu froze.

"How did you know?"

Gu Changsheng said calmly,

"Your steps aren't unsteady, your breathing isn't disturbed, and neither is your Soul Power.

"You weren't being pursued, nor were you injured. Someone merely tampered with your sense of direction."

Xiao Wu frowned as she looked around, as though finally realizing something.

"No wonder... I clearly wasn't walking this way just now."

Hu Liena's gaze narrowed slightly.

"So the Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider deliberately led her before us?"

Gu Changsheng nodded.

"It doesn't want to kill her. It wants to use her to test us."

Yan frowned.

"A spider can be that smart?"

Xie Yue spoke coldly.

"Mental Attribute Spirit Beasts are naturally more cunning than ordinary Spirit Beasts. A Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider with five thousand years of cultivation would not possess low intelligence."

Gu Changsheng continued,

"If we had attacked immediately, it could have used the chaos to seek out weaknesses."

"It may even have wanted us to clash with her first."

When Xiao Wu heard that, her expression immediately darkened. Gritting her teeth, she said,

"That damned spider actually dared scheme against Sister Xiao Wu!"

Yan looked at her and could not help saying,

"Sister Xiao Wu? You really know how to elevate your own seniority."

Xiao Wu immediately glared at him.

"What? Not convinced?"

Yan was about to speak when Hu Liena shot him a cold glance.

"Shut up."

Yan opened his mouth, but in the end, he swallowed his words.

Gu Changsheng ignored their bickering. His attention remained fixed on the mist around them.

This mist was too quiet.

So quiet that it did not seem naturally formed.

And with Xiao Wu's appearance, the frequency of the surrounding mental fluctuations had clearly accelerated.

The Myriad Heaven Book turned once more in his mind.

[Spiritual Mist concentration increasing.]

[Target has locked onto the group's location.]

[Danger level rising.]

Gu Changsheng's gaze turned cold.

"It's here."

The moment his words fell, the surrounding mist surged violently.

The previously blurry forest seemed forcibly stretched and twisted by some power. Tree trunks became human silhouettes, branches and leaves turned into arms, and even the mud beneath their feet seemed to begin writhing faintly.

A dense scraping sound came from deep within the mist.

It sounded like countless spider legs scraping across bark, and also like someone laughing softly in the darkness.

Pink light filled Hu Liena's eyes as her Mental Power rapidly spread, steadying everyone's minds.

"Don't look at those shadows."

Xie Yue took position on the left, his twin Moon Blades crossed as a chilling gleam flashed from them.

The Flame in Yan's palm swelled violently. Two shafts of firelight illuminated several yards around them, burning the approaching mist until it continuously churned.

Gu Changsheng rapidly issued orders through the Mental Link.

"No one leaves the range of my Mental Link."

"What you see may not be real, and what you hear may not be real either."

"Senior Sister, help me stabilize the mental field."

"Senior Brother Xie Yue, guard the left flank."

"Senior Brother Yan, maintain the Flames. It fears strong light and high temperatures."

Then he turned back to Xiao Wu.

"You can leave. It'll become dangerous here very soon."

Xiao Wu put her hands on her hips and snorted.

"It has already schemed against me. Do you think Sister Xiao Wu would just leave like that?"

Gu Changsheng looked at her.

"You can stay, but don't stray too far from me."

Xiao Wu blinked, then suddenly smiled.

"You sure talk big."

Gu Changsheng said calmly:

"Because I'm stating the facts."

Xiao Wu curled her lip, but still moved to within three steps behind him.

Though she refused to admit it aloud, she knew perfectly well that if this youth had not stepped in to conceal her just now, she might already have been noticed by that extremely dangerous human powerhouse in the distance.

And she remembered that.

Just then, dozens of scarlet eyes suddenly lit up in the depths of the dense fog.

Nearly transparent strands of spider silk hung down from the canopy, weaving into a net in midair. Reflecting Yan's firelight, the silk gleamed with an eerie silvery-white luster.

Immediately afterward, a massive blackish-purple spider slowly crawled out of the mist.

It was as large as a millstone, its eight long, sharp legs like eight black spears.

Its back was covered in twisted patterns that constantly changed, sometimes resembling human faces and sometimes beastly visages. A single glance was enough to make one feel dizzy.

The Myriad Heaven Book in Gu Changsheng's mind flipped violently.

[Target confirmed.]

[Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider.]

[Years: approximately Five Thousand Three Hundred Years.]

[Abilities: Mental Illusion, Cognitive Distortion, Spider Silk Binding, Fear Projection.]

[Danger level: extremely high.]

Gu Changsheng slowly exhaled.

There was no fear in his eyes, only unprecedented calm.

"That's it."

Hu Liena stood at his side and said softly:

"Junior Brother, are you ready?"

Two Soul Rings slowly rose beneath Gu Changsheng's feet, and the Myriad Heaven Book appeared illusionarily in his palm.

"I'm ready."

"This time, I want its Soul Ring."

The Thousand-Faced Phantom Demon Spider let out a piercing shriek.

In the next instant, the entire forest seemed to go completely dark.

Everyone's vision twisted at once.

The battle had officially begun.