Chapter 2323

"What do you think?" The Great Emperor of Nine Abysses usually doesn't rack his brains over such matters.

"How about Mount Jing in the western part of Yaoxian?" Liu Qingdao laughed, "That place is rich in resources, and deep mountains and great marshes have recently seen many unruly monsters appear, posing some threat to people's livelihoods."

"Two birds with one stone? Good." The Great Emperor of Nine Abysses made up his mind, "Then we'll move the Qixia Sect to Mount Jing. With their abilities, subduing a few monsters as mountain guardian spirit beasts or cultivating them into Xu Ling should be easy."

The first task for the Qixia Sect upon joining Cangyan was to eliminate the monster threat in Yaoxian's Mount Jing, while also securing their own foothold.

Sects like the Qixia Sect, once subdued, can only obey Cangyan's direct orders thereafter; after relocating to their new garrison, they must help maintain local order, subdue demons and monsters, and also open their doors to recruit disciples—overall, they bring more benefit than harm to the locality.

He Lingchuan asked him again: "By the way, have you ever heard of the name 'Earth Mother'? It sounds like a great monster."

"Earth Mother?" Liu Qingdao, worthy of being an ancient living dictionary, pondered for a dozen breaths and replied, "That is the overlord of Mount Ya, residing in the ancient city of Yujing."

"Anything noteworthy?"

"Its form is ever-changing, usually appearing as a huge earth and stone monster, hence the name 'Earth Mother.' We don't know its exact age, but it should be very ancient, for it once claimed to have obtained a strand of genuine Hongmeng primordial qi."

Hongmeng primordial qi—even great immortals cannot obtain it. The Earth Mother daring to claim it is genuine and fairly priced shows it was not obtained through means like the Purple River Cart.

"What is its temperament?"

"Naturally reclusive, cunning and greedy, disliking interaction with other immortals and monsters. Lingshan has also invited it, but it refused."

The cultivation world is indeed not lacking in reclusive immortals and monsters.

He Lingchuan rubbed his chin: "Being invited by Lingshan shows it's not weak."

"Not just not weak?" Liu Qingdao shook his head, "Those who dare to cause havoc on its territory never return. As far as we know, it has killed many immortals. In ancient times, there was a famous immortal thief who robbed several major immortal sects, even invading the Great Return Sect. Yet this fellow set his sights on the treasures in the Earth Mother's treasury, and then… there was no afterwards."

"The Earth Mother did not participate in the Immortal-Demon War, thus aiding neither side, merely living its own life. However, in the late ancient era, battlefields were everywhere in the human world, with several major Immortal-Demon clashes erupting near Mount Ya. As a local tyrant, the Earth Mother reaped many benefits. The Immortal Lord of Thousand Illusions once suspected it had devoured the corpses of both sides."

Monsters eating monsters, monsters eating immortals—this was commonplace in ancient times. "With such an appetite, could it even devour heavenly demon flesh and blood?"

According to He Lingchuan's knowledge, monsters generally find heavenly demon flesh and blood unpalatable.

Moreover, low-level monsters consuming high-level heavenly demon flesh and blood are prone to mutation and chaos, so they avoid trying it lightly.

"Hence the suspicion. Since then, the Earth Mother's cultivation has greatly advanced, and it has derived many divine abilities."

"You say its lair is on Mount Ya?" He Lingchuan asked again, "I received news that it is now in Shaocheng."

"I only know that for countless years it has remained on Mount Ya." Liu Qingdao pondered, "A great monster like the Earth Mother should have a method to endure the depletion of spiritual energy, but during that period, all great immortals and major monsters kept a low profile."

Spiritual energy waned, and the mighty all had to retreat into seclusion.

"Fortunately, this monster is not in seclusion on the Flash Gold Plains; otherwise, we would have to deal with it, which would be at least several times harder than dealing with the Qixia Sect. Moreover, the panic it causes would be worse, for… it and its minions eat people."

"Man-eating monsters are not strange." The monsters newly emerged from seclusion on the Flash Gold Plains, many of them also enjoy eating live people as a tooth-gnashing ritual.

"Not the same." Liu Qingdao gave a bitter smile, "Ordinary monsters eating people, at most three or five at once; but the Earth Mother eating people, that's tens of thousands!"

"Rivals the flesh-devourers?" Cannibalism is a legacy of ancient great monsters.

"Though not equal, it is not far off." Liu Qingdao spoke very cautiously.

"I understand." He Lingchuan patted his shoulder, "I am going into seclusion; for the coming period, I will have to trouble you again."

Liu Qingdao immediately replied, "This is all within my duty."

……

After the interlude with the Qixia Sect, the three spent a little more time settling their affairs, and finally could set out.

But before departure, He Lingchuan summoned Zhu Xiuer to the Chixiao Golden Hall:

"Are you about to molt again?"

He noticed that Zhu Xiuer had been scratching her belly lately when idle, looking uncomfortable.

The density of heaven and earth's spiritual energy is increasing rapidly, but Zhu Xiuer seems not to have molted in a long time. Not only does cultivation regression require molting, but if a ground-hole spider's shell is too large or too small, it must molt.

"Ah, yes." Zhu Xiuer admitted, "This shell is too small; I am brewing a larger one! But at least it will take two or three more months, so it won't delay our journey!"

It was precisely because the journey was imminent that it didn't speak up, fearing He Lingchuan wouldn't take it out to fight.

"Has the new shell formed?" An internally grown shell that doesn't harden properly, and the old shell won't shed.

"Not yet."

Thus He Lingchuan said: "I have a gift for you. Did Erniang tell you beforehand?"

"Huh? No." Zhu Xiuer first looked bewildered, then eager, "Bring it out, quick!"

He Lingchuan is already the Great Emperor of Nine Abysses; the gifts he can produce are certainly not inferior.

He Lingchuan smiled, turned, and walked toward the rear of the hall: "Follow me."

Behind the library is the garden, with towering trees.

This garden, Zhu Xiuer often passes through, but now there is no one in it, and on the open ground ahead lies a huge figure—

A hairy giant spider!

Zhu Xiuer startled and stopped: "This, this won't be?"

This giant spider stands over three zhang tall, motionless like a small mountain, its body extremely sturdy, resembling a crab more than a spider, each bristle like a long sword.

Most importantly, Zhu Xiuer finds it strangely familiar however she looks at it.

"This is the greatest molt left by Zhu Erniang besides her immortal body." Even as the Great Emperor of Nine Abysses, he would not dare touch this giant spider barehanded, "Long ago, I took it from the demon's nest."

Dong Rui beside him rolled his eyes, "'Taken'? Said so euphemistically, clearly it was theft."

He was also in the demon's nest at the time and personally witnessed the scene.

To adapt to the deteriorating spiritual energy environment, Zhu Erniang underwent multiple molts, depositing her cultivation into her shells, forcing herself to become weak.

The shed shells, she cherished and hid deep in the demon's nest.

At that time, the divine bone necklace had long been fixated on Zhu Erniang's spider molts; coincidentally, the boar demon Wen Wang and the python demon Boshan Jun ambushed Zhu Erniang's old nest, and He Lingchuan seized the opportunity to steal this largest spider shell.

After Zhu Erniang returned to her nest and discovered this, she went berserk, killed Boshan Jun, and beat Wen Wang half to death, but the shell was not to be returned.