Dawn pierced the thin mist at the valley entrance, casting dappled light and shadows across the damp sand. Xiao Yan stepped over stones still wet with dew, making his way deeper into the valley. The wounds from last night's struggle with the Human-Faced Demon Spiders still throbbed faintly. Every step pulled at his muscles, making him furrow his brow.
"Yao Lao, do you think some faction might be behind those Human-Faced Demon Spiders?" he asked quietly as he walked, a trace of lingering fear in his voice. "When that leader started convulsing earlier, I kept feeling something was wrong."
Yao Lao pondered for a moment. "Hard to say. Human-Faced Demon Spiders live in colonies, but they rarely provoke humans, much less appear somewhere like the Geothermal Secret Realm. Someone might be controlling them, especially given that strange fluctuation you mentioned..."
Xiao Yan nodded, quietly spreading out his Emperor Realm Soul to examine the flow of energy around him. The deeper he ventured into the valley, the stronger the smell of sulfur became, and the more frequent the geothermal activity grew. The sand beneath his feet trembled faintly from time to time, as though a great beast were breathing underground.
After roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn, the valley suddenly opened into a circular clearing. A huge hot spring lay at its center, its water an eerie dark red, bubbling and giving off scorching steam. The rock walls surrounding the spring were riddled with densely packed caves, with silver spider silk faintly visible at their entrances.
"This should be their lair." Xiao Yan lowered his voice and hid behind a boulder, cautiously peeking out. "So many spider eggs..."
The caves were piled full of white spider eggs, each as large as a fist and covered in a sticky membrane. Something could faintly be seen wriggling inside. White bones lay scattered beside the hot spring, some human and others belonging to magical beasts—clearly the Human-Faced Demon Spiders' "reserve provisions."
Just then, a commotion came from higher up the rock wall. Dozens of Human-Faced Demon Spiders crawled out of the caves. They were larger than those he had encountered last night, and the human-face patterns on their backs were clearer. A few even faintly exuded the aura of early-stage Dou Ling.
"This is bad. There are actually this many." Xiao Yan drew his head back, his heart pounding, and deliberately put a tremor into his voice. "Forget finding Heavenly Flames. We'll be lucky to get out alive."
"Don't panic," Yao Lao said gravely. "They seem to be guarding something. Look at the center of the hot spring."
Xiao Yan peeked out again as instructed. A strange blood-colored lotus floated at the center of the dark red spring, its petals layered upon one another. It gave off a strong smell of blood, and the surrounding water churned ceaselessly because of its presence, as though alive.
"What is that?" Xiao Yan asked in bewilderment.
"A Blood Soul Lotus." A hint of gravity entered Yao Lao's voice. "An extremely sinister plant that can only grow when nourished with the blood essence of countless living beings. It seems these Human-Faced Demon Spiders are guarding it."
Something stirred in Xiao Yan's mind, and his Emperor Realm Soul instantly locked onto the Blood Soul Lotus. Sure enough, an exceedingly well-concealed strand of Blood Curse power wound around its roots, identical to the fluctuation he had sensed from the Human-Faced Demon Spider leader last night. Moreover, that power was pouring continuously into the surrounding eggs and spiders, seemingly strengthening them.
"It's a Blood Curse!" Xiao Yan exclaimed in realization. "Someone cast a Blood Curse using blood and souls, taking control of these Human-Faced Demon Spiders to make them guard the Blood Soul Lotus!"
Yao Lao nodded. "Exactly. This Blood Curse is vicious beyond measure. Its caster can use its power to control the cursed, and even detonate their souls and blood essence at a critical moment to harness them for himself. Whoever arranged all this is certainly no ordinary person."
Just then, a Human-Faced Demon Spider about the same size as last night's leader crawled out. The human-face pattern on its back twisted as it let out a piercing screech, seemingly issuing orders. The others immediately sprang into action. Some guarded the eggs, while others scanned their surroundings warily. They had clearly sensed an intruder's presence.
Xiao Yan knew he could not wait any longer. If these Human-Faced Demon Spiders attacked, even heaven-reaching abilities would not spare him from having to reveal his strength. He took a deep breath, a sharp gleam flashing through his eyes. Bringing his Emperor Realm Soul fully into action, he precisely locked onto the Blood Curse's core at the lotus's roots.
Sinister though the Blood Curse was, its workings were perfectly clear to his Emperor Realm Soul. It was like a seemingly sturdy house: find its supporting pillar, and a gentle push would bring the whole structure crashing down.
Without the slightest hesitation, Xiao Yan sent a strand of soul power condensed to the utmost silently toward the weakest node in the Blood Curse's core, like an invisible needlepoint. That strand carried no hint of aggression. Instead, it mimicked the fluctuations of the curse's power, merging instantly into its workings like a drop of water flowing into a river.
The next moment, he detonated that strand of soul power.
Bzz—
A barely perceptible hum sounded at the center of the hot spring. The Blood Curse's core at the lotus's roots fell into chaos in an instant, and its once-orderly flow of power surged wildly backward like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam.
The first to suffer was the Human-Faced Demon Spider leader that had issued the orders. The human-face pattern on its back suddenly turned scarlet, as though blood were flowing within it. Then it let out an agonized screech, its enormous body convulsing uncontrollably as dark red blood seeped from beneath its carapace.
"What's happening?" Xiao Yan feigned surprise, widening his eyes as though he had no idea what was going on.
Before he could react, the surrounding Human-Faced Demon Spiders began displaying the same symptoms one after another. They collapsed in convulsions, the human-face patterns on their backs twisting out of shape before finally bursting with a bang, turning into clouds of foul-smelling blood mist.
The eggs in the caves were not spared either. Their white membranes ruptured one after another, and the tiny spiders inside dissolved into puddles of viscous blood before they could even hatch.
The entire clearing became a bloody inferno in an instant. The dark red hot spring grew thicker with blood, and a nauseating stench filled the air.
In just a few breaths, the previously teeming colony of Human-Faced Demon Spiders was utterly destroyed, leaving not a trace behind, as though it had never existed.
Xiao Yan stood behind the boulder, his face covered in "shock" and "confusion," as though the bizarre sight had frightened him senseless. "They... why did they suddenly explode?"
Yao Lao was equally bewildered. Only after a long silence did he slowly say, "It was the Blood Curse's backlash. Someone tampered with the curse on them, but their methods were so masterful that they wiped out the entire colony in an instant..." He paused, a probing note entering his voice. "Xiao Yan, did you sense anything unusual just now?"
Xiao Yan shook his head, deliberately putting on a look of lingering fear. "No... Could there be something wrong with this Blood Soul Lotus?" As he spoke, he cautiously emerged from behind the boulder and crept toward the hot spring.
Only when he reached the edge did he discover that the Blood Soul Lotus had withered and blackened under the impact of the curse's backlash. Much of its once-heavy smell of blood had faded, leaving only an odor of decay.
"Looks like this Blood Soul Lotus is ruined too." Xiao Yan curled his lip, looking somewhat regretful, though he understood perfectly well. With the Blood Curse's core destroyed, a lotus sustained by its power naturally could not survive.
"We shouldn't linger here," Yao Lao said gravely. "Anyone capable of laying such an intricate Blood Curse must possess considerable strength. If its master notices what happened here, we'll be in serious trouble."
Xiao Yan nodded and dared not stay any longer, turning to head out of the valley. He deliberately quickened his pace, appearing somewhat flustered, as though terrified that the curse's master might suddenly appear.
Yet the instant he turned, his gaze became unfathomably deep. When he detonated the Blood Curse, he had clearly caught an exceedingly faint soul mark. It had shattered the moment the curse rebounded, but its lingering aura pointed in a certain direction deep within the desert.
A Lizardmen tribe...? Xiao Yan murmured inwardly. That trace of aura bore some resemblance to the strange aura he had previously sensed from the Sand Thieves.
It seemed the waters of the Tagor Desert ran deeper than he had imagined. The destruction of the Human-Faced Demon Spider colony was merely the tip of the iceberg. The true conspiracy remained hidden in a deeper darkness.
Once he left the valley, the sunlight became scorching again, quickly evaporating the moisture on his body. Xiao Yan glanced back at the valley, which had fallen silent once more, and gently exhaled a stale breath.
What he did not know was that shortly after his departure, a dark figure silently appeared beside the hot spring. Looking at the wreckage scattered across the ground and the withered Blood Soul Lotus, the figure gave a cold, sinister chuckle.
"Interesting... Someone actually managed to unravel my Blood Curse..." The dark figure's voice was hoarse and eerie. "Whoever you are, now that you've come to Tagor, don't expect to leave alive..."
As those words faded, the dark figure vanished beneath the blazing sunlight like a drop of ink dissolving into darkness, leaving only the blood-soaked ground behind, its stench slowly dispersing in the wind.
Unaware that he had already become a target, Xiao Yan followed the green lotus aura he had sensed earlier, heading deeper into the desert. The dunes beneath his feet grew increasingly steep, and the fire-attribute energy in the air grew ever denser. Clearly, he was drawing closer to the hiding place of the Green Lotus Core Flame.
His steps still looked somewhat unsteady, as though the yellow sands might swallow him at any moment. But only he knew that an even greater storm awaited him ahead.
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