Chapter 324: A Long and Bitter Fate

Before they fell asleep, they were on the main channel of the Han River, swept downstream by the raging current.

Now, the two of them and a giant jellyfish seemed to be in a swamp, surrounded by a lush aquatic jungle. Dense branches overhead allowed only a palm-sized patch of sky to be occasionally visible.

Several dragonflies, longer than his middle finger, flew past the giant jellyfish.

The water surface the jellyfish passed through was sometimes narrow, sometimes wide, with no discernible pattern.

Wait a moment—they were already deep in the swamp, where the current was calm, with no wind or waves. Why was the jellyfish still moving at a steady pace?

Dong Rui emotionlessly pointed downwards.

He Lingchuan looked down and was surprised.

It turned out the giant jellyfish wasn't moving with the current at all, but was propelled by something else.

Beneath the jellyfish was a dense tangle of eels, at least several dozen of them. The thinnest were as thick as a fist, while the stoutest had a waist like a water barrel, comparable to a python.

He Lingchuan immediately thought of his favorite dish, stir-fried eel. He mused, "If all of these were put into a pot, how many savory, spicy, oily servings could they make?"

While he was salivating over them, the eel swarm didn't seem to have good intentions either. Some pulled from the front, others pushed from the back, dragging the jellyfish deeper into the jungle at a considerable speed.

He Lingchuan hadn't looked closely when he woke up and had simply assumed it was water plants brushing past underneath.

"Where have we drifted to? Where are these eels taking us?"

Speaking of which, it didn't seem dark underwater; instead, there was a faint glow.

"You ask me? Who should I ask?" Dong Rui was annoyed. If he had woken up earlier and killed this He guy, wouldn't he have successfully escaped to shore?

He Lingchuan rubbed his nose. "I need to relieve myself." After holding it in for over a dozen hours, he needed a thoroughly satisfying release.

Dong Rui was startled. "Not here! Wait until we get out!" They were both in the same sealed water sphere; couldn't he have some public decency?!

He Lingchuan drew his Floating Life Blade with a backhand. "Among these eels, it seems there's only one demon creature, and it doesn't look very powerful. That would make them easier to handle."

Dong Rui suddenly exclaimed, "Look, there seem to be buildings ahead!"

Using the daylight, they saw a long beach ahead, with a cluster of buildings made of stone and shells on the shore, the tallest reaching three stories.

However, these houses seemed to have been abandoned for a long time, now inhabited by green grass and vines.

Dong Rui was able to spot them at a glance, thanks to the oyster shell decorations on the roofs of these buildings, whose iridescent inner surfaces reflected light, making them quite conspicuous.

Just as He Lingchuan was about to cut open the jellyfish and go ashore to investigate, the eel swarm, acting as carriers, suddenly climbed up along the jellyfish, completely enveloping it and dragging it down into the water!

"Wait, they seem to be taking us somewhere." Dong Rui's curiosity was far stronger than He Lingchuan's. "Hold it in for now."

"Where else?" He Lingchuan scoffed. "To the dinner table, presumably." Although he said that, he temporarily put away his blade because the view was actually clearer underwater.

It turned out the swamp bottom was covered with delicate aquatic plants, dense, soft, and clean, resembling a vast meadow. The fruits of these plants were pearl-shaped and emitted a faint blue light, attracting schools of fish to swim freely.

He Lingchuan also saw several turtles swimming past clumsily. "The ecosystem is quite healthy," he thought.

But as the eel swarm dove deeper, He Lingchuan saw more stone-and-shell houses.

They were identical to those on the shore.

However, this underwater cluster was much larger, with at least two or three thousand buildings. The architectural styles were richer and more exquisite, full of exotic flair, and so beautiful under the illumination of the glowing aquatic plants that they looked artificial.

The tallest buildings here were five stories or more, quite magnificent; the jellyfish just glided past the eaves of a tall building.

Of course, this was now the habitat of aquatic creatures, with fish, shrimp, crabs, and shells constantly moving in and out.

Dong Rui was truly surprised: "Below the swamp, there's actually a town hidden?"

He Lingchuan pointed forward. "If we don't leave now, it'll be too late."

Ahead was a dark expanse, which seemed to be the eels' destination, and the two had no intention of foolishly staying any longer.

Their sightseeing ended there.

He Lingchuan twisted his blade, making a long cut on the top of the giant jellyfish.

The creature's outer skin looked transparent and fragile, but was actually quite tough; even with the Floating Life Blade, cutting it felt like slicing through rough canvas. This showed why the giant jellyfish had remained intact despite being battered by raging currents and not being punctured by curious aquatic creatures along the way; it had its own defenses.

The two squeezed out through the opening and struggled upwards.

The eels also noticed that two of their prey had escaped. Most of them continued dragging the jellyfish, but thirty or forty turned and followed, snapping their sharp teeth at the two, trying to force them to change direction.

These creatures had mouths full of sharp teeth, biting fiercely, each snap taking a chunk of flesh.

Dong Rui was bitten on the buttock, yelping in pain as his leg went numb.

Seeing more eels follow, especially the one comparable to a python joining in, He Lingchuan decisively pulled something from his pocket and scattered it into the water.

Dong Rui saw a pale yellow substance float out from beside him, and the eels, which had been relentlessly pursuing, reacted as if struck by lightning, scattering instantly and fleeing without looking back.

What was that substance, so powerful?

After a dozen breaths, the two swam to the surface and climbed onto the long beach.

As soon as they got ashore, Dong Rui asked, "What did you scatter?" Due to his profession, he always had a keen curiosity about powders and pills.

"A fragrance," He Lingchuan replied, holding out his hand to Dong Rui. "Where's the antidote? Hand it over."

"What anti—" Dong Rui started, then remembered the lie he'd told before nearly suffocating. "Oh."

At the time, to save himself, he had told He Lingchuan that the liquid inside the jellyfish was poisonous.

"It's not poisonous."

"You lied to me?" He Lingchuan cracked his knuckles.

"Hold on, hold on!" Dong Rui suddenly pointed behind He Lingchuan. "Hey, hey, look behind you quickly! There's a spider demon!"

"Don't kid me!" He Lingchuan started, but then he felt something was wrong, because round, plump figures were also emerging from the ruined house behind Dong Rui.

Not pigs, but spiders.

The small ones were only the size of an orange, while the large ones were as big as millstones.

He turned around and saw a swarm of spiders rushing from all directions, surrounding the two. The rustling sound of countless legs stirring the grass sent shivers down his spine.

No, a correction was needed.

There was a significant size difference among the spiders. Two gigantic spiders emerged from behind the tall grass, their bodies exceeding the size of adult wild oxen!

On their eight long legs, every bristle bristled with menace.

But He Lingchuan couldn't shake the feeling that this spider swarm looked familiar.

Dong Rui's eyes darted around. "Where's that fragrance? Use it again!"

There were too many spiders here, surely thousands!

If he remembered correctly, a nest of trapdoor spiders, like ants, had different roles: some emitted acid, some were good at grappling, and some were venomous, making them very difficult to deal with.

In the blink of an eye, the ground, trees, and vines were teeming with crawling spiders.

Anyone with trypophobia would surely faint.

"It's damp," He Lingchuan mumbled. The fragrant pellets from the Red Cliff Road bandits, having been submerged in water, were now damp and wouldn't be very effective if used now. He Lingchuan inwardly calculated the success rate of jumping into the water from their current position.

"Damn it!" he thought. He had dreamt that these spiders could cast nets; they better not net him in mid-air!

"Unprofessional!" Dong Rui cursed inwardly. Just as he was about to use some means to poison the spiders, a huge figure suddenly emerged from the tallest building.

It descended along the broken wall; despite its massive body, its movements were extraordinarily nimble, even landing without a sound.

This contrast made it seem like a phantom.

Dong Rui immediately pointed at it, raising his voice: "The Spider Queen! Damn, this is a swarm of trapdoor spiders!"

Right, He Lingchuan had been wondering why these spiders looked familiar; it turned out he had seen their kin in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest.

"I'm tired of eating fish; a change of taste is good once in a while," a chilling voice rang out as the Spider Queen glided past the dappled tree shadows onto the long beach, revealing her true form.

He Lingchuan took one glance and exclaimed, "Zhu Erniang!"

The Spider Queen was exceptionally stout, as large as a house. Her eight long legs were more like great pincers, making her appear like a particularly enlarged and enhanced version of a coconut crab. She had twelve large, dark, glistening eyes.

Her body, covered in stiff bristles, made her look particularly sinister.

Yet, she was also beautiful, for her abdomen bore a natural star map, exquisitely splendid, as if the entire night sky had truly descended upon her. Unfortunately, by the time most people could see it, they were not far from death.

He Lingchuan recognized this star map; it was on Zhu Erniang!

Right, this was the powerful Spider Queen, the leader of the trapdoor spider nest in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, who had once led General Nanke of Panlong City to his death in reality!

He never expected, after parting ways at the spider nest, to actually encounter Zhu Erniang again in reality.

Spanning over 150 years across space and time, what kind of ill-fated connection was this?

"Oh, damn it all," he thought. With Zhu Erniang here, his plan to escape by water was ruined. How could they run now?

Zhu Erniang, who had originally been salivating over these two tender morsels, stopped at his words, and all twelve of her large eyes looked at He Lingchuan. "You know me?"

"I..." Of course he knew her; they had faced each other like this in the spider nest back then. Only then, Zhu Erniang had been furious because He Lingchuan had used a massive fire to destroy her meticulously cultivated underground farm. "My ancestor was fortunate enough to have met you in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest and was deeply awestruck. He recorded this encounter in a book to pass down to his descendants. He particularly mentioned the magnificent star map on your abdomen!"

"Oh?" Zhu Erniang showed some interest. "What did your ancestor do?"

"He lived in Wutu City and was a merchant traveling through the Panlong Wilderness, often stopping in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest along the way. Your efforts to restrain the trapdoor spiders from preying on humans provided immense convenience to merchants, and my ancestor always held you in great admiration!"

He Lingchuan spoke fluently, his eyes full of reverence, and Dong Rui, watching from the side, almost believed him.

Almost.

If only he didn't know how sneaky the He family father and son were.

But with both of them currently trapped deep within the spider nest, He Lingchuan's approach was the right one.

It seemed there were at least several thousand spiders nearby, and two people with four hands simply couldn't handle them.

"Otherwise, how could someone as young as me know your name upon first meeting you?" He Lingchuan continued. General Nanke's entire squad had been annihilated by this powerful spider demon; eating the two of them would be trivial. He Lingchuan flattered her to buy time, while frantically thinking of a way to save his life.