Man Faced Demon Pearl

When Zhao Wuji burst out of the woods, he was covered in dirt, his clothes were torn in several places, and his left shoulder was bruised. He walked with a slight limp, but his steps were still quick.

He pushed aside the bushes blocking his path and saw Dai Mubai, Zhu Zhuqing, Ma Hongjun, Oscar, and Ning Rongrong standing in the clearing. He finally let out half the breath he had been holding. "You're all right. Thank goodness."

As soon as he finished speaking, his gaze swept over the group. He saw neither Tang San nor Xiao Wu, and Wang Xingyu was nowhere to be seen either. Zhao Wuji's face darkened. "Where are the three of them?"

Everyone fell silent. Dai Mubai stepped forward and recounted exactly what had happened: the Titan Giant Ape had seized Xiao Wu, Wang Xingyu had wrapped his Blue Silver Grass around her and been dragged away with her, and Tang San had gone after them.

"Why didn't Tang San wait for me?!" Zhao Wuji stamped his foot, sending gravel flying.

He clenched his fists and took a deep breath, suppressing his anger. This was no time to lose his temper. He looked at Oscar. "Can you produce your Mushroom Sausages now?"

Oscar nodded at once. "I can!"

"Good." Zhao Wuji turned toward the direction in which Tang San had disappeared. "Let's go find the three of them."

Tang San raced through the forest. Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track was pushed to its limit, every step landing on fallen leaves and gravel as tree trunks flashed past on either side.

The night wind rushed past his ears, carrying the forest's distinctive scent of decaying vegetation. He could hear nothing. The wind, the chirping insects, and the roars of distant Soul Beasts were all shut out.

The only images in his mind were of Xiao Wu being seized by the Titan Giant Ape and Wang Xingyu being dragged away with her after using his Blue Silver Grass. Fear flashed in those eyes-the fear of the two of them leaving.

In his previous life, he had been an orphan of the Tang Sect. In this life, he had never met his mother, and his father had not given him much love either.

The only extra gift heaven had given him was those two people who had always followed him.

One called him Third Brother, the other Little San. From Holy Soul Village to Nuoding City, from Nuoding City to Shrek, the Blue Silver Grass of the Triangle Cycle had remained intertwined, none of them ever letting go. They could not let go.

He could not let the Titan Giant Ape take them away. He could not bear to receive news of loved ones leaving again.

A claw tore through the darkness from the side, slashing diagonally toward his neck without warning.

Tang San's pupils contracted, and his body reacted instinctively. Mysterious Jade Hand activated in an instant, and he threw his right arm across his neck, forcibly blocking the claw.

With a piercing screech of metal scraping against metal, the impact sent Tang San skidding sideways, his soles plowing two deep furrows through the muddy ground.

He steadied himself and looked up. A spider. Its body was more than three meters across, its eight legs covered in barbs, every tip gleaming with an eerie blue light.

Most grotesque of all was its abdomen, which bore a pattern identical to a human face, its features twisted into a ferocious expression.

A Man Faced Demon Spider. Tang San suddenly recalled Wang Xingyu mentioning in passing that Man Faced Demon Spiders were angel investors. He had not asked what the term meant at the time. He only knew that Wang Xingyu always spoke that way, half serious and half joking, and might not have explained even if he had asked.

Now this angel investor was lunging at him, its legs raised high, the eerie blue venom on its barbs glimmering in the moonlight.

Tang San turned sideways to evade the slashing legs. Blue Silver Grass shot from his palm, coiled around the Man Faced Demon Spider's two front legs, and tightened sharply.

He wanted to trap the Man Faced Demon Spider temporarily and continue his pursuit.

Only seconds after the Blue Silver Grass wrapped around the legs, the barbs secreted large amounts of venom. White smoke rose as the vines corroded, and they snapped with a crack.

The Man Faced Demon Spider broke free and immediately slashed down again. Tang San barely dodged; a spider leg grazed his shoulder, slicing open his clothes and raising goosebumps on his skin. It was not the cold, but the venom evaporating into the air.

He made an immediate decision, abandoning his plan to restrain it quickly and escape. He deployed his Blue Silver Grass at full strength. Countless vines surged from his palm, and sixteen blue silver vines wrapped around the Man Faced Demon Spider at once, locking down every one of its legs and leaving not even the joints on its abdomen untouched.

The Man Faced Demon Spider was bound into a giant cocoon of vines, unable to move for the moment.

Tang San turned and ran.

Behind him came the hiss of vines being corroded as the Man Faced Demon Spider's venom dissolved the Blue Silver Grass strand by strand.

But by the time it broke free, Tang San would have run far enough away.

He had only run a short distance when something white shot at him from behind with a viscous swish through the air, catching his right foot with unerring accuracy.

Spider silk, as thick as hemp rope, coated in transparent slime. Tang San glanced down. The slime was seeping through his trouser leg, and a burning sensation spread across his skin. The silk was poisonous. He tugged hard twice, but could not break free.

The spider silk was far tougher than Blue Silver Grass, and its slime left a sticky trail across the ground. At the other end, the Man Faced Demon Spider was pulling him back, step by step.

It had already corroded a large hole in the Blue Silver Grass. Its eight legs gleamed with an eerie blue light in the moonlight, and the human face on its abdomen seemed to be smiling.

"Get away, beast!" Tang San seized a tree trunk beside the path with his left hand, his five fingers digging into the bark, and pulled back with all his might.

The spider silk stretched taut as the two forces struggled against each other. The Man Faced Demon Spider was pulled to a halt for an instant, but then it gave a fierce push with its front legs and dragged Tang San another half meter back.

Five deep finger marks were gouged into the trunk, and splinters lodged beneath Tang San's fingernails. The Man Faced Demon Spider drew closer and closer, until Tang San could see every barb on its legs.

A hand seized the spider silk. Mysterious Jade Hand circulated to its limit, its jade-white light keeping the venom at bay. Tang San gripped the silk, thick as hemp rope, in one hand and suddenly pulled with all his strength, yanking it viciously toward himself!

Caught off guard, the Man Faced Demon Spider staggered forward, briefly exposing the joints on its abdomen.

Tang San gave it no time to react. His left hand swept over the storage pouch at his waist, and the Godly Zhuge Crossbow appeared in his grip. Sensing danger, the Man Faced Demon Spider frantically pulled him beneath itself-that was its deadly trap.

The twisted human face on its underside had opened its mouth, its sharp, venomous fangs gleaming coldly in the darkness. Once its prey entered striking range, it would tear it to pieces.

That was exactly what Tang San wanted-the Man Faced Demon Spider's weakness was that human face.

He did not struggle. Following the pull of the silk, he let himself be dragged toward the Man Faced Demon Spider's abdomen. Closer and closer: five steps, three steps, one step. He raised the Godly Zhuge Crossbow and aimed its bolt case at the twisted human face.

The bowstring snapped with an explosive twang. Twelve bolts poured from the case, whistling through the air with the impact of Soul Power, and all buried themselves in the human face's mouth.

The Man Faced Demon Spider let out a piercing shriek, all eight legs convulsing violently at once as the silk fell slack.

Its enormous body rolled across the ground, eerie blue venom gushing from its wounds and corroding one smoking pit after another in the earth. Its shrieks grew fainter, its convulsions slower, until at last it lay motionless.

A purple Soul Ring rose from the corpse and hovered in midair. A Thousand-Year Soul Ring, at least two thousand years old.

Tang San's Soul Power was nearly exhausted, and the wound the spider silk had cut into his leg was still bleeding. He sat on the ground, looking at the purple Soul Ring.

Xiao Wu and Wang Xingyu were still in the Titan Giant Ape's hands. He could not continue the pursuit with his body exhausted. Poison attribute or not, he had to absorb the two-thousand-year-old Man Faced Demon Spider.

Tang San closed his eyes, and Blue Silver Grass reached toward the purple Soul Ring. He had only one thought in his heart: Wait for me.

In a nearby tree, two figures stood among the branches.

Moonlight fell through gaps in the leaves onto one of them, who wore a black cloak with a hood concealing most of his face. The other leaned beside him, holding a folded fan. They were Wang Xingyu and Tang Hao.

Tang Hao spoke in his rough voice. "Didn't you advise against Blue Silver Grass absorbing poison-attribute Soul Rings?"

"The Man Faced Demon Spider's Soul Ring isn't my target."

"Then what is?"

Wang Xingyu opened his fan. "The Soul Bone."