Chapter 17: Battling the Demon Beast

I only just realized today is the Double Ninth Festival; I’ve been so busy with the new book lately that my head has been spinning.

Happy Double Ninth Festival to everyone, and a happy birthday to my daughter, Guoguo.

***

It was afternoon. Yangx Kai changed direction, heading toward the Lingxiao Pavilion. He had only taken three days of leave. Not counting the day of his departure, he had to make it back before tomorrow morning, lest he face punishment.

Time was plentiful. Yangx Kai estimated he was about a hundred miles away from the Lingxiao Pavilion. It wasn’t too far; he could arrive before dark.

Anticipating the improvements the Incense Burner—produced from the third page of the Wordless Black Book—would bring him, Yangx Kai felt delighted, his steps brisk.

He hadn’t even covered half the distance when he suddenly heard roars and heart-wrenching shouts from not far away, interspersed with a child’s cries.

At the sound of the commotion, Yangx Kai stopped in his tracks, quickly turning his head to listen carefully. A moment later, his expression shifted, and he hurried toward the source of the Yingg.

He recognized the voices. The roars came from the hunter he had met the night before last, and the crying was from the little boy.

The father and son must have run into trouble; otherwise, they wouldn’t sound so panicked. That night, Yangx Kai had eaten their rations. They had shown him kindness, so how could he just walk away now?

As he ran, the hunter’s roars grew increasingly desperate, while the little boy’s cries gradually weakened until they were barely audible. Yangx Kai’s expression turned grim, a faint sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

By the time Yangx Kai arrived, even the hunter’s roars had ceased. Ahead of him, beneath a high slope, was a pitch-black cave entrance surrounded by dense grass and covered in Yinshi webs. A small bow lay on the ground—the very weapon the little boy had been holding that night.

Without a second thought, Yangx Kai threw his belongings onto the ground. Eyes wide with vigilance, he darted straight into the pitch-black cave.

The light inside was dim, but he could still make out his surroundings. Upon a closer look, Yangx Kai was startled. The cave was filled with spider webs. Along the walls and across the ground, silver-white strands as thick as chopsticks crisscrossed and overlapped, blocking the path forward.

The cave was damp and gloomy, with liquid going DRIP DROP from the ceiling. When Yangx Kai stepped onto the ground, it felt slightly soft, sinking under his weight.

Holding his breath and concealing his Yingg, he ventured deeper. After only a few steps, Yangx Kai spotted a person lying to the side, wrapped almost entirely in spider silk like a cocoon, Luu-ing only his face. It was the hunter he had met the night before last.

Yangx Kai rushed forward and checked on him. He found that the hunter had merely fainted from overwhelming anxiety and was otherwise unhurt. He quickly pinched the man’s philtrum to wake him up.

The hunter slowly regained consciousness. Upon seeing Yangx Kai, he immediately pleaded frantically, "Save my child! He was dragged inside. Please, save him!"

"Dragged inside?" Yangx Kai was shocked. He scrambled to untie the hunter, but the spider silk binding him was incredibly tough. Unable to free him right away, he had no choice but to temporarily give up and plunge deeper into the cave.

From behind, the hunter warned, "Be careful! It’s a spider Demon Beast!"

Hearing the words "Demon Beast," Yangx Kai’s heart gave a THUMP. Demon Beasts were unlike ordinary wild animals that could easily be slaughtered. They were true, ferocious beasts, and none of them were creatures the current Yangx Kai could afford to provoke.

The thirty-mile outer perimeter of Black Wind Mountain was defined as a safe zone precisely because no Demon Beasts roamed there. For one to appear here now was completely unexpected.

Knowing a Demon Beast lurked inside, Yangx Kai moved with even greater caution. He groped his way forward for about fifty feet before finally spotting the hunter’s son.

The little boy was tightly bound in spider silk, just like his father. He was stuck to a massive spider web, suspended in midair. Beside him, a massive Flower-Backed Spider had extended a straw-like appendage from its mouth and pierced his arm. Streams of dark red blood could be clearly seen flowing from the boy’s body into the spider’s mouth.

On the cave floor, various strange white bones were piled into mounds. Evidently, this spider Demon Beast had already hunted countless prey here.

Yangx Kai had no time to consider whether he could match the spider in combat. Even a second’s delay could cost the little boy his life. Without making a sound, he lunged forward.

The enormous Flower-Backed Spider clearly hadn’t expected to be interrupted. Right as it was feasting, a burst of brute force slammed into it from the side. The massive web was instantly torn open, and both the Flower-Backed Spider and Yangx Kai tumbled away. The little boy fell to the ground.

Enraged by the sudden ambush, the Flower-Backed Spider scrambled on its eight hairy, long legs, fixing the eyes on its head upon Yangx Kai.

Before Yangx Kai could even get up, the Flower-Backed Spider pounced, pinning him to the ground.

With a furious roar, Yangx Kai thrust an iron fist forward, landing a direct hit just below the Flower-Backed Spider’s mouth. The strike sent it staggering. Seizing the opening, he delivered a vicious kick, finally sending the spider flying away.

Rolling across the floor, Yangx Kai crouched down, keeping a vigilant eye on the Flower-Backed Spider’s movements.

The brief clash had settled his nerves quite a bit. This Demon Beast’s Level was not high! Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to fight it at all. He guessed it was only a Level One Demon Beast. However, even a Level One Demon Beast was difficult to deal with given his current strength.

Both sides sized each other up. The Flower-Backed Spider was calm and unhurried, but Yangx Kai was losing his patience. The little boy appeared to have lost too much blood and showed signs of poisoning. If he didn’t resolve this quickly, there would be no saving him.

Suddenly, the Flower-Backed Spider Zhang Kai’d its mouthparts. With a sharp inhale and exhale, a glistening thread shot out of its mouth, flying straight toward Yangx Kai.

Having already experienced the toughness of this spider silk, Yangx Kai knew he couldn’t afford to be ensnared. He immediately rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the attack.

To his surprise, the Flower-Backed Spider ignored his evasion and continued spewing silk at a single spot. By the time Yangx Kai realized what was happening, the cave had been partitioned by a massive web, completely cutting off his escape route and trapping him inside.

"Are you trying to force me into a fight to the death?" Yangx Kai smiled. The last shred of his apprehension vanished into thin air, and the deep-seated pride in his bones was ignited. In this situation, it was absolutely impossible to leave without killing the spider. Since that was the case, they would just have to fight to the bitter end.

Pressed for time, Yangx Kai had no luxury to delay. Pushing off the ground with both feet, he rapidly closed the distance to the Flower-Backed Spider. Another strand of spider silk shot toward his face, but he was prepared for this trick and easily dodged it.

After dodging three consecutive strands of silk, he finally closed in on the Demon Beast. But before Yangx Kai could throw a punch, the Flower-Backed Spider actually raised a foreleg and ruthlessly gouged at him.

Yangx Kai raised his arm to block, and the Flower-Backed Spider’s sharp foreleg pierced clean through his arm.

The pain elicited a furious roar from Yangx Kai. His blood suddenly boiled. Instead of feeling fear or panic as his blood flowed, an inexplicable surge of excitement and anticipation swelled in his chest. His bones let out a series of loud CRACKs, and a warm sensation spread throughout his entire body.