(Man Faced Demon Spider illustration · JPG)
Night fell.
The Star Dou Great Forest was utterly quiet.
Dark clouds veiled the silver moon, and the sky dimmed in an instant. The mournful chirping of crickets abruptly vanished. Everything happened so suddenly.
In the darkness, a pair of dark red eyes suddenly opened, their gaze fixed intently in one direction.
"Saa-"
Sageross gave a low growl, like a beast defending its territory.
"Rustle..."
Yet the approaching sounds in the darkness never stopped, as though the warning had gone entirely ignored.
Seeing this, Sageross immediately swung out a blade of energy, both to repel the intruder and to sound an alarm.
Bang-
A pair of enormous black spider legs emerged from the darkness, blocking the blade energy Sageross had unleashed in an instant.
Lin En abruptly opened his eyes, rose quickly, and came to Sageross's side, staring intently into the darkness ahead.
Zhu Zhuqing was also startled awake. She instinctively lowered her center of gravity and reached Lin En's side in a few bounds.
Meanwhile, the unknown creature in the darkness gradually emerged.
It was a bizarre, enormous spider over a meter and a half across, with eight spear-like legs over three meters long. Its entire body was covered in gleaming black armor, and the tips of its long legs were slender and sharp, silently piercing the ground with every step.
As it advanced, Lin En and Zhu Zhuqing also got a clear look at its true appearance.
"A Man Faced Demon Spider!"
Zhu Zhuqing sucked in a cold breath, turned, and grabbed Lin En's arm, intending to take him along as she fled.
Yet despite pulling several times, she could not budge him.
"What are you doing? Run! That's a Man Faced Demon Spider, one of the Star Dou Great Forest's apex predators!"
Zhu Zhuqing was frantic. If he had not saved her earlier, she would never have risked warning him...
Lin En rolled his eyes at her. "Why should I run? It's the one that should run, not me!"
An apex predator?
It was nothing but a puny little spider!
"Sageross, use Instant Thought Strike."
Lin En faced the Man Faced Demon Spider head-on, fearlessly directing Sageross to meet the enemy.
"Saa-"
Sageross's figure rapidly vanished. A white thread formed between the blades, slicing soundlessly through the air.
In just two breaths, Sageross had reached the Man Faced Demon Spider and brought both blades crashing down.
"Hiss-"
The Man Faced Demon Spider hissed, raising its front four legs into a defensive stance to withstand Sageross's sharp blades head-on.
After blocking the blow, the Man Faced Demon Spider raised its sharp, long legs again and stabbed viciously at Sageross.
Sageross dodged sideways, holding both blades crosswise to block the Man Faced Demon Spider's attacks.
Both moved with astonishing speed. Blade energy and spears repeatedly intertwined in the air as they exchanged dozens of blows in mere seconds.
"You've got some strength, but it's still not enough!"
Lin En narrowed his eyes slightly, not taking the Man Faced Demon Spider seriously at all.
"Sageross, use Leaping Double Flash."
"Saa-"
Sageross retreated several meters. In a flash, both blades crossed, and shadow and blade energy lit up together.
Sageross sank low, then transformed into two overlapping afterimages and shot forward, both wings spreading beneath the moon.
Two streaks of blade light slashed simultaneously, one from the left and one from the right.
Before the Man Faced Demon Spider could react, Sageross's first streak of blade light had already swept past its side, immediately followed by the second slashing down from the other side.
The two attacks landed almost instantaneously, one after the other, so fast they seemed like a single strike.
Bang, bang...
As the two streaks of blade light fell, two cracks appeared in the Man Faced Demon Spider's gleaming armor, and thin streams of blood spurted out.
"Hiss-"
The Man Faced Demon Spider roared in fury. Its wounds only roused its ferocity further, and a dim purple glow radiated from its entire body.
Even from far away, Lin En could smell that nauseating, pungent stench.
"Disgusting. This thing's poison is highly corrosive!"
The stench nearly made Lin En vomit.
Only after a moment did he pull himself together, his gaze settling on the eyes beneath the Man Faced Demon Spider's abdomen.
"Sageross, its abdomen is the spot. Attack its abdomen whenever you get the chance."
"Saa..."
Sageross nodded, those dark red eyes instantly turning intensely scarlet.
Standing nearby, Zhu Zhuqing watched Lin En locked in battle with the Man Faced Demon Spider, and a decision showed in her eyes.
"Lin En, keep it occupied from the front. I'll attack the eyes on its abdomen."
"Martial Soul, possess me."
Before her words had faded, dark Soul Power poured out of her body.
Her eyes gradually changed, sharp claws slowly extended from the fingers of both hands, and the phantom of a slender cat's tail appeared behind her.
Just as she was about to move, Lin En grabbed her.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"That's a Man Faced Demon Spider! If you die, I'm not burying your corpse!"
Hearing her words, Lin En could not help roaring.
A mere Soul Grandmaster dared to get involved in a battle with a Man Faced Demon Spider? Had her brain short-circuited?
"Trust me!"
Zhu Zhuqing's gaze was firm. Ignoring Lin En's objections, she pulled her hand back and rushed out as a black shadow.
"Damn it, if you weren't such a pretty little thing, I wouldn't bother with you..."
Lin En spat, a ruthless glint flashing through his eyes:
"Sageross, Twin-Blade Light!"
"Saa-"
A cold light gradually shone at the tips of Sageross's blades. Rather than adopting a slashing stance, however, Sageross condensed it into two arcs of light and sent them shooting out.
Like two intersecting crescent moons, the blade lights tore through the air and struck the Man Faced Demon Spider squarely in its breastplate.
The Man Faced Demon Spider's breastplate was the hardest part of its entire body.
Although Sageross's blade lights did not inflict any substantial damage, they made it sway, forcing its downward-pouncing body upward instead.
At the same time, the eyes beneath its abdomen were exposed.
Now!
Zhu Zhuqing's expression brightened. She understood that this was the perfect opportunity Lin En had created for her.
The two Yellow Soul Rings around her lit up simultaneously, and the pupils in her eyes, one blue and one green, abruptly became vertical slits. She silently accelerated forward.
The next instant, she pushed off hard with both legs, her body springing into the air. Enveloped in Soul Power, she curled up in midair as claw shadows filled the air. This was her Second Soul Ring skill, Netherworld Hundred Claws.
She relied on her body's rapid rotation and the sharp, penetrating attacks of her cat claws.
In an extremely short time, Zhu Zhuqing attacked the Man Faced Demon Spider's abdominal eyes over a hundred times, striking the exact same spot with every attack.
"Hiss-"
The wretched cry was piercingly shrill, sounding especially clear in the Star Dou Great Forest at night.
Zhu Zhuqing quit while she was ahead, never recklessly pressing forward for more credit, and continued circling the edges in search of opportunities to attack.
The Man Faced Demon Spider looked utterly miserable now. Six of its eight abdominal eyes had been clawed blind, leaving only two that could still see.
Driven into a killing frenzy, the Man Faced Demon Spider disregarded its wounds and frantically spat webs at Lin En and Zhu Zhuqing, trying to kill them both by force.
But before the webs could reach Lin En, Sageross shredded them on the spot. Zhu Zhuqing also successfully evaded them with her agility and the advantages of the terrain.
"Death throes. Sageross, kill it."
A cold glint flashed through Lin En's eyes as he icily ordered Sageross to attack.
"Saa-"
Facing the grievously wounded Man Faced Demon Spider, Sageross struck with full force, both blades slashing horizontally again and again, flaying its skin and stripping its bones as though intent on forcibly dismembering it to death.
Mantises were nature's masters of dismemberment to begin with. Against the Man Faced Demon Spider, Sageross handled the task with effortless proficiency.
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