The Specter Thread Fish Again

Night, by the river.

Lin Shan approached the Specter Thread Fish's location one step at a time.

He carried the Red Lantern in his right hand and cradled five torches in his left arm. Even now that he had become a transcendent, he dared not clash head-on with an anomaly.

After planting torches around the area, Lin Shan walked straight toward the center.

An icy, sinister presence washed over him, instantly lowering the surrounding temperature by several more degrees.

Lin Shan looked exceedingly strange, holding the Red Lantern in one hand and a burning torch in the other.

The thing facing him was stranger still: a black column spiraling into the sky, countless fine threads dancing around it like tentacles.

Even though he had seen this sight once before, it still made his scalp crawl. He quickened his movements and began burning the base of the Specter Thread Fish.

The Specter Thread Fish began to shriek. This time, with Heart Light protecting him, his soul was not shaken out of his body, but he still felt faint, his consciousness growing hazy.

As more and more fine ash accumulated on the ground and the Specter Thread Fish's cries grew increasingly wretched, an eerie black mist rose over the river.

"Crack, crack, crack."

The river began freezing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The torches planted around him began to flicker as well, threatening to go out at any moment.

The cold sweat on Lin Shan's forehead froze before it could reach his cheeks.

A short while later, feeling that he had enough, Lin Shan quickly gathered the fine ash from the ground and picked up the Red Lantern beside him, ready to leave.

Just as he stood, he suddenly sensed a terrifying force descending from overhead. An intense feeling of suffocation and faintness flooded his mind.

Realizing something was wrong, Lin Shan hurriedly drove Heart Light to its utmost. Pale golden light flowed around him, resisting the force's encroachment, but its glow grew weaker and weaker.

"What's going on?" A little bewildered, Lin Shan raised his eyes to look ahead, and his heart lurched. A torch that had been burning in one corner ahead had gone out, restoring some of the Specter Thread Fish's ability to act.

Some unknown force now pressed down on him so heavily that he could not lift his head. His spirituality was draining at an alarming rate. Once it ran out, this force could kill him in an instant!

What should I do?

Lin Shan calmly considered his options. Using Heart Light to counterattack would inevitably weaken his defenses. He might lose his life the instant he diverted it.

His gaze fell on the Red Lantern beside his hand.

In an instant, he burned through all the oil inside the lantern, setting the space overhead ablaze.

Lin Shan felt the pressure abruptly ease. He hurriedly rolled to the side, retreating several meters.

He stared ahead at what looked like burning air.

In truth, it was not the air that was burning, but the Specter Thread Fish's supernatural power. Though the flames appeared to be burning the air, this was, in essence, a clash between two supernatural forces.

Seeing the flames grow weaker and weaker, Lin Shan bit his finger open and let more blood flow to replenish the lamp oil.

Lin Shan had not fled at once because the blue full moon now filled the entire sky. Everything around him had turned blue, and every way out had vanished. This place had become an isolated space. This was the Specter Thread Fish's true ability-creating an illusory space that was real.

To escape, he first had to break through this blue moon. To break through the blue moon, he had to find the Specter Thread Fish's true body. To make the Specter Thread Fish reveal its true body, he needed to light four torches. Without getting out, he could not light the torches. Everything seemed trapped in a vicious cycle.

His only option now was to use the Red Lantern's supernatural power to fight the Specter Thread Fish.

His own spirituality could only serve as a defensive safeguard. It was nowhere near enough to contend with the Specter Thread Fish. Their brief clash had made that clear: just a few seconds of encroachment had consumed more than half his spirituality.

Ink-black darkness surged toward him again. Lin Shan used the Red Lantern to set it alight, and the darkness intertwined with pale red flames.

A scorched stench drifted from the flames, like the smell left after burning a corpse.

While the Red Lantern fought the Specter Thread Fish, Lin Shan looked at the last torch in his hand, his eyes flickering.

Heart Light took the shape of a sword and split the torch into four pieces, then formed hands that planted them in the four corners one after another.

He directed the Red Lantern's flames to ignite the sticks in all four directions at once.

The instant he diverted the Red Lantern's flames, its supernatural power weakened. The Specter Thread Fish's power gained the upper hand and reached Lin Shan in a flash. Having prepared for this, Lin Shan drove Heart Light to its utmost to resist.

Darkness enveloped Lin Shan, and the pale golden glow covering his body grew weaker and weaker.

The next second, all four sticks caught fire at once. Lin Shan felt the pressure abruptly ease, and the blue moon overhead receded, returning to its original position.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Shan turned and sprinted out.

Only after running beyond the blue moon's reach did Lin Shan let out a long breath of relief.

The gap between him and the Specter Thread Fish was far too great. Without the Red Lantern and his knowledge of its weakness, he would have been killed in an instant.

Though both were Sequence 9, he was merely a newly advanced novice, while the anomaly stood at the pinnacle of that same Sequence. Such a disparity was hardly surprising.

After driving Heart Light so hard in that crisis, he discovered that his maximum spirituality had grown without his noticing.

Not only that, but he had somehow gained the ability to look inside his own body. Through this inner sight, he discovered that a small part of his heart had actually turned gold.

Is this a sign of digesting the Potion? Does that mean I'll have fully digested the Heart Light Potion once my entire heart turns gold? Lin Shan wondered as he examined his heart.

Though it had been perilous, the outcome was good. He had obtained the material, and his strength had increased as well.

Dragging his exhausted body back to Jin Tianzong's cabin, Lin Shan lay down on the bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, after breakfast.

Lin Shan lounged in a chair, basking in the sunlight with nothing to do. He had spent the past few days this way. There was no work in camp that required him. Everyone had their own responsibilities, and they were all professionals; his help would only make a mess of things. He only occasionally helped chop firewood or fell trees, doing a little manual labor.

"Lin Shan." Huang Ying came over and called to him. "The thing you asked me to make last time is ready. Have a look and see if you're happy with it. I also made you two sets of clothes while I was at it."

Huang Ying was a woman not yet thirty and a close friend of Xia Xuan's. She was exceptionally skilled at handicrafts and handled all the textile work in camp.

She held a green backpack with three compartments, using buttons in place of the zippers found on modern backpacks.

"As long as it works." Lin Shan stood and took the backpack. "Thanks for all your hard work, Ying."

He had asked Huang Ying to sew this backpack for him two days earlier. He would be traveling far over the coming six months, and a bag for carrying supplies was essential.

Huang Ying said apologetically, "We haven't found any plants we can use to make dyes yet, so green is the only color I could make."

"Green is good," Lin Shan said with a smile. "It'll even help camouflage me when I lie in the grass."

"Have you finished packing? It might be half a year before you come back," Lin Shan asked.

"I don't have much to pack. Besides, didn't you say it would only take the time to close my eyes and open them again?" Huang Ying replied.

"That's right." Lin Shan nodded, then added, "After you've slept and woken up, you might find we've already started building a city here."

"That would be best," Huang Ying said with a smile. "I hope the Human Race can prosper in this other world too."

"Hey, you two, what are you chatting about?" Just then, Xia Xuan walked over carrying a lump of oval-shaped blue-green cocoon.

"Here, a fresh cocoon." Xia Xuan tossed the enormous lump to Huang Ying.

Looking at the cocoon, Lin Shan finally understood why almost all the fabric in camp was silk.

Just one of these things was enough to make an entire silk quilt.

"Silkworms spin cocoons in winter too?" Lin Shan asked curiously.

"Then you're underestimating these silkworms," Xia Xuan replied. "These Azure Silkworms are a breed the Cat Clan developed through unknown means. They live for ten years. Apart from the pregnant ones, ordinary Azure Silkworms spin a cocoon once a month. After they finish and emerge, they're still little silkworms. They eat and wait to spin their next cocoon."

"They're practically emotionless silk-spinning machines," Lin Shan said in astonishment.

"You could say that." Huang Ying nodded, then continued, "This is how higher life-forms oppress lower ones. They alter your genes so that all you do is have babies or work, and you still feel that everything is exactly as it should be."