Chapter 2257

The building materials of the storage warehouse at Tongyue Town had all undergone special treatment—waterproof, fireproof, acid- and corrosion-proof, and resistant to blades and spears—and the entire warehouse was protected by several layers of formations. Even with Chen Tongling striking with all his strength, he might not leave more than a few white marks on the inner walls.

Yet this centipede demon, relying solely on its acidic venom, had corroded a large hole in the warehouse. If sprayed on a person, wouldn't it instantly leave nothing but bones?

What you fear most is what will come.

Once the powdery mist was sprayed out, it rapidly spread in all directions, seemingly intending to envelop the entire camp.

While battling the spider queen, there were still hundreds of soldiers glaring fiercely from the sidelines, so the centipede demon naturally sought ways to reduce the enemy numbers. Moreover, the spreading mist could obscure vision, which also aided its escape amid the chaos.

"Everyone, retreat—this is peach blossom miasma!" As the poisonous fog spread, Zhu Xiuer still kindly warned the group, then continued her fierce assault on the centipede demon. Soldiers with elemental protection might not die from inhaling the peach blossom miasma, but they would certainly feel unwell, and this substance also possesses hallucinogenic properties.

Chen Tongling immediately shouted: "Wind Pillars arise!"

The Spider Immortal didn't want their help, so they just stood by in formation.

Several sorcerers behind him instantly formed seals and activated the array.

The array devices had long been buried underground; upon activation, they formed four wind pillars encircling the warehouse, each with a diameter of five feet.

The powerful suction generated by these pillars instantly drew in the mist, and its color instantly turned pink.

Chen Tongling dared not use the Wind Summoning Technique. If the mist's toxicity were too strong and it dispersed over the town, who knew how many would die?

With spider silk present in the field, the garrison dared not approach closely, so they all aimed their arrows at the giant centipede.

The latter's hide was extremely tough—ordinary blades and spears striking it were merely deflected. But the garrison had switched to poison-vortex arrows, a special weapon: the arrowheads themselves carried deadly poison, and combined with the soldiers' elemental power, once struck, they would spin relentlessly, burrowing deeper into the wound, causing greater agony and secondary damage.

Its body also bore bristles like a boar's mane, capable of filtering out most arrows, but the occasional ones that managed to penetrate still made it whimper in pain.

What it could not endure most was the spider queen's claws glowing with a faint red light—one embrace from her left eight holes.

It felt that this spider queen's cultivation was not much higher than its own, but the power attached to her—elemental power—truly filled it with extreme dread.

The giant centipede spoke in human voice: "O mighty earth-hole spider queen, why do you serve these weak, foolish humans?!"

"You've cultivated too long in your cave, addling your brain?" Zhu Xiuer bluntly mocked it. "Just three thousand years ago, you stole something that belonged to someone—don't you still deserve a beating?"

"……" The centipede was momentarily speechless, but sensed something was wrong.

Zhu Xiuer continued: "Surrender immediately—I won't take your life!"

Such a good deal? The centipede demon doubted: "Then why are you still capturing me?"

"You raided four mines and seven warehouses, stealing over 3,300 catties of xuan crystals, and injured over two hundred people. This debt, the Lord of Cangyan will settle with you!"

The centipede demon staggered, its movements slowing by half a beat, then Zhu Xiuer's two claws pierced its belly—it squeaked in pain, and a spray of green blood hit the ground, hissing.

"Are you sick? I only went to four mines and five warehouses—the other two I don't know who took, can't be blamed on me!" This blame it refuses! "The xuan crystals I took weren't even over three thousand catties!"

Zhu Xiuer refused to let up: "Then how much was it?"

"……I can't remember!" It had just emerged from seclusion, merely stealing a few xuan crystals to survive—did it really need to borrow a scale from humans and weigh them ounce by ounce? "At most, only half!"

During the struggle between the two demons, Pu Hua seized the moment to draw his great bow and released three arrows in quick succession.

The centipede dodged one arrow, but another struck its forehead.

This arrow didn't pierce its skull, but instead forced out its ferocity—it suddenly coiled backward, attempting to wrap around Zhu Xiuer, who leapt aside just in time. The centipede demon then exhaled a gust of breath toward the surroundings.

Unlike the earlier pink mist, this exhalation carried an extreme cold. Nearby spider silk froze instantly, even forming ice beads.

Even the toughest spider silk, once frozen like this, becomes brittle.

The centipede shattered the nearest spider web and fled for its life.

Even Zhu Xiuer was somewhat surprised—this creature hid itself so well, yet still possessed an ice-cold talent!

But before the centipede could escape two hundred zhang, it saw a flash of cold light in midair. It swiftly dodged—yet the cold light surged forward, suddenly splitting into over ten strands, at least two of which pierced its body and nailed it fiercely into the ground!

Only then did the pursuers realize it was a giant axe, its blade wider than an ordinary door panel.

Immediately after, the grass parted, and a mountain-sized figure charged out, the other hand lowering its giant axe to chop flat at the centipede's foot.

This was a giant clad in grass skirts, over two zhang tall, fat and strong, mouth full of yellow teeth, skin cracked like bark, color resembling gray sandstone.

As soon as it moved, it brought a terrifying axe-wind, accompanied by faint sounds of wind and thunder.

The centipede's hind tail was nailed by the axe blade; at that moment, it strained hard—the front half of its body ran off, leaving only a segment of tail twitching in place.

Even Zhu Xiuer, who had followed, muttered inwardly: "Is this learned from a gecko?"

But as the centipede just ran into the grass, a flash of cold light appeared there too—its entire row of abdominal legs were chopped off.

Are there enemies in ambush?!

Sun Hongye, who had been observing from the small hilltop, saw the grass part again—and another figure emerged.

Eh?

This person resembled the giant, basically a scaled-down version, only four zhi tall, holding an axe that looked like a toy.

Yet this toy chopped off the great demon's legs.

Don't look at how short he is—shorter than a person—but his movements are faster than a spinning top.

Zhu Xiuer snapped: "Hairy Wild Giant, you're late!"

The big fellow scratched the back of his head: "Dark as pitch, took the wrong path."

The little wild man snapped: "I told you before—don't travel at night!"

After saying that, it leapt onto the big wild man's body, and in the next instant merged, forming a two-headed giant.

Sun Hongye watched, only able to marvel: "The world is vast—nothing is too strange."

The centipede on the ground writhed, still trying to escape, but suddenly its surface was coated with a layer of red light, becoming a hundred times heavier—it couldn't even lift its head.

This was the effect of the army formation's earth-binding technique. It hadn't yet escaped the formation's range over the camp.

How could this be? The last time it entered the world, the army's formations clearly couldn't achieve this!

This directly caused its misjudgment.

Seeing it had no strength to resist, Zhu Xiuer leapt forward and sprayed several layers of spider silk, directly wrapping the giant centipede into a white cocoon.

The battle was settled; Chen Tongling also ordered the sorcerers to raise the wind pillars into the sky.

The pink mist would be scattered by strong winds at high altitude, no longer threatening Tongyue Town.

The sorcerers were about to withdraw, but Zhu Xiuer said: "Wait!"

It turned to the giant of Mao Ridge and said: "You gather the mist."