Volume 10, Chapter 690 – Golden Fate Blossoms (Part 5)

The Lightning Hawk, startled into a panic, darted around like a headless fly. Its speed was astonishing, but unfortunately for it, the tracking talisman on its body ensured it could not shake off its pursuer.

Qi Huang followed from a distance. She had to admit that the Immortal Alliance’s design of this tracking talisman was truly ingenious. It wasn’t just a simple tracking device — first and foremost, it functioned as a protective talisman, constantly releasing a surge of Yin energy that temporarily dispersed the ambient Yin energy along the way. Because of this, the musk it released would linger longer in the cleared path, making it possible for sensitive cultivators to follow the faint scent trail. To someone like Qi Huang, this musk was practically a bright beacon in the darkness.

Of course, Qi Huang didn’t dare be careless. First, this Kapok Valley Treasure Land was crawling with malevolent spirits; she had to constantly monitor the Lightning Hawk’s safety. Second, the deeper she ventured, the thicker the Yin energy became. Not only was her Divine Sense’s detection range shrinking rapidly, but the lingering time of the musk left by the tracking talisman was growing shorter as well.

The Lightning Hawk flew in chaotic patterns for half an hour before finally calming down. It found a sunlit patch and landed to rest.

Qi Huang stopped a hundred feet away. With Heaven-Deceiving Water concealing her aura, she wasn’t worried about being discovered by the hawk or any lurking fiends.

Extending her Divine Sense, she scanned the sunlit area. While there were no Golden Fate Blossom seeds there, she did spot several rare herbs. But she resisted the temptation. The bigger goal came first, and she chose not to disturb the site.

After resting briefly, the Lightning Hawk spread its wings again, taking off more steadily this time. Its speed slowed, and its sharp eagle eyes scanned the surroundings, it clearly had resumed hunting.

Qi Huang knew this was the real opportunity. She hurriedly followed, focusing intently on observing its every movement.

Still, she made sure to keep her distance. Heaven-Deceiving Water could hide her from Divine Sense, but it couldn’t mask her from the hawk’s keen natural senses.

The Lightning Hawk flew deeper toward the heart of the Kapok Valley Treasure Land, where the terrain dipped into a basin, becoming a true treasure trove. The Yin energy thickened until it resembled black smoke from a kitchen fire, visibility reduced to barely ten feet. Qi Huang’s Divine Sense detection range was now limited to just ten miles. At this depth, most creatures relied almost entirely on their natural senses to navigate.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it. The thicker Yin energy corroded the tracking talisman, shortening the lingering time of the musk even further.

With no other choice, Qi Huang closed the gap, following five or six miles behind the hawk. The beast’s senses were razor-sharp, she couldn’t afford to underestimate it.

The Lightning Hawk flew aimlessly until it suddenly plunged into an unusually dense cluster of Yin energy and vanished from sight.

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Qi Huang’s expression darkened. She immediately focused her Divine Sense but discovered that this particular cluster of Yin energy was so thick it resembled liquid ink, seamless and impenetrable. Even at this distance, her Divine Sense couldn’t pierce it.

She quickly accelerated, moving another mile forward. Finally, her Divine Sense cut through the dense veil, revealing the scene within.

Blood surged violently within her chest at the sight.

Inside, massive animal bones jutted out at odd angles, and dozens of giant spider webs hung like ghostly nets. The largest stretched over thirty feet in diameter, the smallest still several feet wide. Faint tendrils of visible Yin energy drifted off the webs, and every strand glimmered with a nauseating green corpse poison.

At that moment, the poor Lightning Hawk was entangled in one of the webs, its feathers sizzling under the corrosive poison, black smoke hissing off its body. A house-sized spider was crawling atop it.

This spider wasn’t just massive, its mouthparts were grotesquely oversized, far more exaggerated than any ordinary spider. Its fangs were sunk deep into the hawk’s flesh. Its bulging eyes swirled with malevolent resentment, entirely black, without a trace of white. There was no life behind those eyes, this wasn’t a living spider.

It was a horrifying spider zombie.

“Damn it! How dare you eat my little chick!”

Qi Huang nearly spat blood in fury. Her anger flared, long hair whipping around her like a storm.

With a sharp thought, her hair exploded outward, transforming into countless thin strands that shot toward the giant spider.

The spider, mid-feast, sensed the attack at the last second. It kicked off with its eight legs, trying to leap away, but it was already too late.

Puchi… Puchi…!

Tens of thousands of Qi Huang’s hair strands pierced straight through the spider zombie’s body, skewering it completely.

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ROAR!

The spider let out a guttural screech, thrashing violently. But the more it struggled, the more her hair sliced into its flesh, ripping the wounds wider and deeper.

With a flick of her will, Qi Huang commanded her countless strands to bloom outward like a peacock spreading its feathers. In an instant, the giant spider’s body was shredded into uniform chunks of minced flesh.

Plop… Plop…!

Bloody chunks rained down, none larger than a broad bean.

Even as a zombie, the spider couldn’t survive such destruction, and it clearly lacked any ability to regenerate its body.

Qi Huang darted into the dense Yin energy, landing beside the struggling Lightning Hawk. Her face darkened further as she examined it, the poor “little chick” was too severely injured, its body riddled with corpse poison. There was no saving it.

Though her Water Exquisite Art could detoxify hundreds of poisons, her current cultivation was too low; against this spider’s venom, it was useless. Even Cheng Hongling wouldn’t be able to help.

“Poor little chick… you died so horribly… I failed to protect you!”

Qi Huang’s voice cracked, tears brimming in her eyes. If she had known, she would have stayed closer. After all her effort luring this Lightning Hawk, it had come to this. She didn’t know if she’d ever get another chance to lure a second one.

Scanning the area in grief, her anger returned with renewed force. She was ready to destroy the entire spider nest, but then, her Divine Sense caught something unusual nearby: a walnut-sized lump of spider flesh.

“How is this possible?”

Qi Huang froze. She had deliberately used her tens of thousands of hair strands to slice the spider evenly into minced pieces, venting her rage on it. With her current Divine Sense strength, it was impossible to make such a mistake. So how had this chunk survived intact?

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‘Did I lose control of my strength? Or… is this thing so hard that even my hair couldn’t cut it?’

The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed. She summoned the lump with her Divine Sense, bringing it before her.

Inspecting it closely, she saw it was coated in filth and blood. She released a wash of water-based True Qi, cleansing it until its true appearance emerged.

It was an odd fragment, red and white intertwined, not emitting any Yin energy. It looked like an ordinary crystal stained with blood, resembling certain bloodstone jades. But on one side, faint, fine blood vessels were visible, meaning this wasn’t a simple stone at all.

She picked it up and studied it further and suddenly, her heart jolted violently, pounding as though it resonated with the object. A strange sensation of shared bloodline surged through her.

‘What… is this?’

She pressed her right hand against her chest, realization dawning.

‘Could this be a fragment of a heart?’

“Could it be from that spider? But spider hearts shouldn’t look like this… and why isn’t it releasing any Yin energy?”

Completely baffled, she tested it by wrapping a strand of her Boundless Demonic Hair around it, pulling tight. Yet, even with all her strength, she couldn’t leave the slightest mark on its surface.

After studying it for a long time without conclusion, Qi Huang stored the fragment in her spatial ring. Whatever it was, its hardness alone made it valuable, it could easily serve as a deadly hidden weapon later.

Originally, she planned to leave immediately. But after some thought, she released her fellow disciples and the bait from her spatial ring. They needed to understand what had happened, or they might suspect her of lying about the Lightning Hawk’s death.

“What happened? How did it die?”

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The girls stared wide-eyed at the dead Lightning Hawk.

“I was careless… a giant spider killed it,” Qi Huang sighed.

“A giant spider?”

The girls looked around, finally noticing they stood in the middle of a spider nest. Piles of bones littered the ground, mingled with sticky webs and patches of minced flesh dripping with unknown fluids. The scene was revolting, and only the scattered, massive spider legs gave a clue to the culprit.

“What kind of spider could kill a Lightning Hawk right under your nose?”

Cheng Hongling didn’t sound accusing, only shocked.

“I don’t know. It was a spider zombie, and its strength was terrifying, about equivalent to a fourth-layer Heavenly Tribulation Realm. If I hadn’t caught it off guard while it was feeding, killing it wouldn’t have been so easy.”

Qi Huang explained calmly.

“Heavenly Tribulation Realm, fourth layer?”

Cheng Hongling’s expression darkened slightly.

“Heavenly Tribulation Realm, fourth layer? Could it be… a Heavenly Web Spider?”

Elder Kang gasped in alarm.