Chapter 348: Friendly Negotiation

All the shed skins retained some of the cultivation it had shed. Zhu Erniang initially shed her skin to lighten her own burden. Occasionally putting on a shed skin allowed her cultivation to recover; while not restoring her to her previous peak, it would at least bring back fifty to sixty percent of her power.

However, while it was easy to put on a shed skin, it was difficult to take it off. To fully utilize the shed skin, it had to integrate its original outer shell with the shed one. Removing it meant undergoing a complete molting process again, which was both painful and dangerous. After shedding, there was also an awkward period of about two cups of tea, during which it was extremely vulnerable.

Zhu Erniang had previously engaged in a fierce battle with two great demon kings, then fought and killed the snake demon. She was already injured and exhausted. Forcing herself to shed her skin now truly drained her to the point of utter exhaustion, unable to muster even a trace of demonic power.

Otherwise, how could He Lingchuan have succeeded so easily?

But it didn't know that this fellow had long ago received direct instructions from General Hong in the Coiling Dragon Dreamland:

"Zhu Erniang can re-enter her shed skin and regain battle power, but not for long. Cave spiders are most vulnerable during their molting period; even if she is an ancient demon immortal, she cannot escape this rule. Seize this opportunity, and you might still have a glimmer of hope."

Therefore, when he previously discovered that one of the shed skins, the smallest one, was missing from the exhibition room, He Lingchuan knew that the opportunity he had long awaited had finally arrived. Later, when he saw Zhu Erniang in the swamp, her body appeared larger than usual, which further confirmed his suspicion.

"First, make a blood oath." Two cups of tea was a short time, and his priority was to ensure his own safety. "Also, Dong Rui will leave with me. You must not obstruct us."

Zhu Erniang had no choice but to make a solemn blood oath, promising that neither she nor her descendants would harm He Lingchuan or his companion in the slightest, and that she would help them move freely in and out of the Demon Lair Swamp.

He Lingchuan also saw her attitude clearly: she would rather die than be a pet. This was Zhu Erniang's bottom line.

Even if he were to split Zhu Erniang open, there were still thousands of angry spiders outside, waiting to avenge their ancestor. He wasn't confident he could escape from these creatures, especially since he couldn't get out of the Demon Lair Swamp.

As for finding the Mirage Demon, based on his probes of the spider guards over the past few days, most spiders didn't know where the Mirage Demon lived or what it looked like.

Looking at it this way, what substantial benefit would killing Zhu Erniang bring him? It was better to have a good talk.

Negotiation is the art of compromise: you retreat, I advance; I advance, you retreat. Both sides put on a strong front, and after some "friendly" (fierce) "consultation" (argument), a deal was finally struck.

Zhu Erniang immediately plucked out two of her eyeballs and gave them to He Lingchuan.

These two eyeballs normally remained dormant. Tapping them three times would transform them into small spiders, shrinking to the size of a button. They were very fast, moved silently, and had limited attacking power, but they were excellent for stealth and intelligence gathering, as He Lingchuan had already witnessed.

Most importantly, they could share their vision with their owner. This meant that whatever the eyeball spiders saw, their owner could also see in real-time. He Lingchuan, as an outsider, didn't possess this ability, but Zhu Erniang, being an ancient demon immortal, had her own methods to bestow it.

As long as her main body was alive, the eyeball spiders could share their vision with He Lingchuan.

To prevent birds from pecking at them, they would release an aura that their natural predators disliked when carrying out missions. He Lingchuan could simply keep them as ordinary spiders. If he was within ten *li* of Zhu Erniang, these eyeball spiders could also serve as a tool for instant communication, but if the distance between them exceeded ten *li*, they would be out of communication range.

To activate these two eyeballs into spiders, Zhu Erniang had to expend a bit of her bloodline power, something she would never do lightly under normal circumstances. But this time, for the sake of the deal, she had no choice.

He Lingchuan noticed that Zhu Erniang also had another type of eyeball spider that could perform assassination missions by injecting poison, but she refused to give it. "These need to return to me after two uses, or they will perish," she said.

Zhu Erniang also gave He Lingchuan a poison gland. The venom stored inside, when applied to a weapon and drawing blood, would cause excruciating pain to the victim, like being seared by flames. The wound would blister, and if not immediately lanced within a few breaths, the spider venom would flow through the bloodstream, causing nerve numbness and muscle weakness.

Simply put, the enemy's body would be "in the process of being digested," experiencing the agony of a spider's prey.

This spider venom was effective against common antidotes, but it was still suppressed by *yuanli*. Depending on the strength of the opponent's *yuanli*, the pain and toxicity it caused might be reduced.

Even so, due to its excellent applicability, it was still an essential and excellent poison for travel and home use alike.

Interestingly, if this poison gland was used for reverse suction, all the spider venom could be completely removed from the injured person.

In addition, there was a bottle of cave spider ointment.

Applying this ointment to his body, He Lingchuan would not be stuck by spider silk or other strange sticky substances. Cave spiders themselves used this method.

He Lingchuan personally watched this ointment being spat out from Zhu Erniang's mouth, and he thought it seemed more like saliva than oil.

In addition, He Lingchuan also extorted a pair of shed fangs from Zhu Erniang—yes, from the very skin she had just shed—along with ten bolts of her signature cloud brocade, personally woven by her, some high-strength spider silk, and several high-grade spider guard exoskeletons.

Zhu Erniang truly did not want to give up these fangs, and He Lingchuan had to haggle with her for a long time.

The cave spider queen's fangs were jet-black and non-reflective. Their curved shape resembled natural long blades, longer than the Floating Life Blade stuck in Zhu Erniang's head. Their sharpness was beyond doubt, and they had natural blood-letting grooves on their sides. Due to the spider queen's prolonged use, they inherently possessed toxicity without needing to be poisoned.

Zhu Erniang's shed skin was large, so the fangs were naturally long. However, He Lingchuan had seen Li Fubo refine artifacts and knew that the size of forged magical items could be adjusted. He had already learned the doppelganger technique and needed to equip his doppelgangers with powerful gear.

The cave spider queen only made one request:

If these fangs were ever refined into twin blades or daggers, they must be named "Zhu Erniang's Kiss."

Even treasures valued a noble origin.

As for the Cloud Brocade, even for Zhu Erniang, weaving it was a significant challenge. Each bolt took forty to fifty days to weave, and she currently only had ten bolts in stock. Needless to say, this was a crucial treasure for crafting armor and magical artifacts.

He Lingchuan was right; Zhu Erniang was indeed full of treasures.

With these terms agreed upon by both sides, the two cups of tea were almost up. He Lingchuan readily pulled out his blade and jumped to the ground, saying to Zhu Erniang, "Pleasure doing business with you."

"This was all my unilateral contribution; what cooperation?" Zhu Erniang snorted, a faint ache in her head, unable to hide her curiosity. "How did you get into the underground palace? I clearly saw you heading into the woods." At the time, she had even scanned with her divine sense and hadn't felt it was an illusion or trickery.

He Lingchuan shrugged. "One must always have some trump cards up their sleeve."

How could he tell Zhu Erniang that at that time, he had unleashed two major techniques simultaneously?

After dodging the spider queen's sprayed webs, he used the dense tree canopy on the cliff to conceal himself. He directly summoned a doppelganger while he himself performed the "Substitute for the Dead" technique, swapping positions between his true body and a ghost cicada shell he had previously placed inside the underground palace entrance.

The distance between the large tree and the underground palace entrance was less than three *zhang*. The palace entrance was only covered by spiderwebs and was not physically isolated from the external sinkhole space, all of which met the spell's requirements.

In this way, his true self instantly moved inside the underground palace, while the ghost cicada shell was replaced onto the large tree.

On a large tree in the wilderness, let alone a mere cicada shell, even the corpses of birds, insects, or snakes would not be surprising.

At this point, he manipulated his doppelganger to jump and flee out of the sinkhole. Zhu Erniang and the spider army saw it with their own eyes and naturally pursued relentlessly.

The problem was that a doppelganger would naturally disappear if it moved beyond twelve *zhang* from the true body. So, in the eyes of the cave spiders, He Lingchuan disappeared after jumping behind a few large trees, and they couldn't find him no matter how hard they searched.

This was where the doppelganger technique was more valuable than the illusionary clone technique: illusionary clones only fought and couldn't act according to the master's will.

Of course, He Lingchuan himself had already appeared at the underground palace entrance, where Dong Rui's spider guard demon puppet was standing guard.

He Lingchuan rode onto the demon puppet, then took out the disguised snakeskin he had found from the mountain bandits and held it in front of himself. At this time, all the spider demons were outside, providing support; only a few dozen were guarding the home, but their patrols were extremely tight, and there were fixed sentry points.

Although the snakeskin provided good camouflage, moving even slightly would expose him. The cave spiders had learned from their experiences with the mountain bandits and would not easily fall for such tricks again.

The passages were narrow, and there were many sections where spider guards could not be avoided, which was why He Lingchuan had asked for Dong Rui's spider puppet. He only needed to lie prone on the demon puppet's back, covered by the snakeskin, and let this creature transport him; even if he walked past the guards, they wouldn't stop him.

After all, in their eyes, it was just another spider passing by.

These creatures truly weren't very intelligent.

While Zhu Erniang and the spider army were searching for He Lingchuan all over the mountains outside, he himself was calmly moving forward inside the underground palace on the demon puppet, all the way to the exhibition room.

Two spider guards were also standing guard outside the exhibition room.

But this did not deter He Lingchuan.

He had the demon puppet create a disturbance nearby to lure away the spider guards, allowing him to slip inside.

He had anticipated that Zhu Erniang's re-wearing of her old skin would not last, and she would eventually have to return to shed it. So he simply waited for her here, like "waiting by the stump for a hare." After all, he had plenty of patience.

His luck was good; he succeeded in one go.

With the contract established, Zhu Erniang removed the spiderwebs from the exhibition room and ordered her spider guards to collect the materials He Lingchuan had requested.

Now that her entire outer shell had hardened, she had the confidence to go out again.

"Where is my shed skin?" Zhu Erniang asked him. "Where exactly is it?"

"It's not in my hands, anyway. If you don't believe me, I can show you all my storage spaces." He Lingchuan spread his hands righteously. "I truly don't know its whereabouts."

He truly didn't know why the divine bone necklace had absorbed the spider skin.

"Could it really have been stolen by Lord Boshan's descendants?" Zhu Erniang wondered suspiciously.

He Lingchuan followed her out of the underground palace. He didn't see the demon puppet anywhere along the way and didn't know where it had gone.

As they passed the workshop, Zhu Erniang suddenly asked, "Where is Dong Rui?"

He Lingchuan honestly replied that he didn't know.

"He has already made a demon puppet, hasn't he?"

"How can you tell?" An old demon, indeed hard to fool.

"The two children sent into the workshop ten days ago are still alive."