Chapter 2324

It had long suspected that He Lingchuan and the other had tampered with it, but lacked evidence—the spider shell had been swallowed by the divine bone necklace, leaving nothing to prove anything.

Later, the Heavenly Gang reversed, worldly affairs became unpredictable, and it turned into Zhu Erniang living a peaceful farming life under He Lingchuan's protection.

Being a clever spider, it simply stopped asking about the molt's whereabouts. Both sides tacitly agreed to pretend it never happened.

It wasn't that He Lingchuan didn't want to return it, but the spider shell had been swallowed by the divine bone necklace, and he himself didn't even know if it still existed.

Until two days ago, he suddenly felt something.

Then, the divine bone necklace, which had been feigning death for years, actually proactively spat out this shell.

He Lingchuan guessed it originally wanted to shed this shell mainly to study the star chart on its abdomen.

The spider queen's star chart corresponds in real time to celestial changes; pondering it is pondering the natural principles altered by the Tianluo Star. The Heavenly Palace's great array on Mount Xushan also used Zhu Erniang's shell as the array eye, enabling the array to activate smoothly. After He Lingchuan broke the array, although the rotating turtle shell produced by the Mount Xushan great array also had a diagram, it was far less useful than Zhu Erniang's molt.

After so many years, the Great Vase had swallowed countless heavenly treasures and great demons, its understanding of laws advancing by leaps and bounds. The spider demon's star chart had probably been thoroughly researched by it, and now it was finally time to return it to its rightful owner.

"I consulted Erniang's opinion, and it said it now lives in seclusion, also possessing the immortal molt retrieved from Mount Xushan. So, this spider molt is given to you."

"Good, good, excellent!" Zhu Xiuer excitedly spun around in place twice.

This is one of Zhu Erniang's two most important molts; once donned, it naturally surpasses her current shell in strength. The current spiritual energy environment has not yet recovered to ancient times, so using the immortal molt is not smooth and may require intermittent dormancy; whereas this spider molt is best adapted to the external environment.

It circled the spider shell, examining it again and again, reluctant to let go, then suddenly let out a sound of surprise:

"The star chart on the abdomen is somewhat different?"

The original star chart could barely accommodate the Big Dipper, given the limited area; but this chart includes several other Heavenly Palaces as well, appearing more intricate and profound.

This differs from the star chart on Zhu Xiuer herself, but she was too excited, spinning twice before noticing.

"I made some expansions and adjustments." He Lingchuan naturally lacked the ability; only the Great Vase could perform such an upgrade on the spider shell. But the vase cannot speak, so he took all the credit himself. "Try it on your upper body?"

Zhu Xiuer readily agreed, saw no need for pleasantries, and directly crawled beneath the spider molt.

The spider molt, originally as tight as a small mountain, when Zhu Xiuer approached, unexpectedly everted on its own, splitting open a huge gap on the side of its abdomen. This is the breach left from Zhu Erniang's former molt.

Then it wrapped Zhu Xiuer inside, and the gap closed.

Afterward, the spider queen remained motionless.

Dong Rui explained beside him: "After it burrows back in, its original outer shell must fuse with the molt, allowing flesh and blood to completely fill in. Only then can Zhu Xiuer use the new body."

Dong Rui's experimental subjects also included cave spiders, so he was quite familiar with this molt characteristic.

He Lingchuan understood: "That is, the exact opposite process of molting?"

"Exactly. So it will be slower."

As Dong Rui said, the spider queen stood motionless for over two moments, seeming to turn into a statue in place.

After a long while, it lifted a front leg slightly.

Dong Rui urged impatiently: "How is it?"

"Much better than my previous shell." Zhu Xiuer had always used her sister's shell, unchanged for a long time; though diligent in cultivation, she still had shortcomings, "The power it contains is tremendous!"

The cultivation path of the spider queen sisters differs from other demons; others internalize the golden elixir, with their magic power centered in the elixir field, whereas theirs is concentrated in the shell, so changing to a stronger shell directly increases cultivation, very convenient.

This is also their unique innate talent.

"What's special about it?" Dong Rui felt an unbearable itch, wishing to ask Zhu Xiuer to come down so he could try the shell himself.

"How to put it?" Zhu Xiuer was still adapting to the new shell, organizing her words while speaking, "The toughness of this shell exceeds my original by more than two levels, not far behind my sister's immortal molt, but in the current spiritual energy environment it is more agile and less laborious. Moreover, I feel its potential for improvement is still great, and this abdominal star chart is profound—uh, it will keep me researching for a long time."

"Moreover, I can now see the invisible and intangible. For example, the wind passing through the garden—I can easily perceive its flow trajectory, no longer needing to sense it through body hairs." The spider eye's imaging is fundamentally different from humans', "If I were to fight Qiongqi now, I wouldn't need the True Person's fire seed assistance; I could see its attack movements clearly!"

"There are many more improvements; I'll keep sensing them!"

In short, this is a comprehensive enhancement.

Zhu Xiuer gratefully thanked He Lingchuan with a full heart.

She also didn't ask He Lingchuan how he did it; this guy is mysterious and secretive.

The Soul-Capturing Mirror in He Lingchuan's bosom hummed: "It truly doesn't ask about origins? I don't even know whether to say this big spider is clever or simple."

He Lingchuan smiled faintly: "Why not say it has both?"

Zhu Xiuer didn't understand: "What?"

"Nothing." He Lingchuan casually summoned the Haoyuan Golden Mirror, "We should set off."

Passing through the mirror, he brought his two companions to the Wangfeng Peak behind the Chixiao Golden Hall.

This is a delicate little mountain; the name "Wangfeng" dates back to the Haidao era. It does not speak of romantic love, but the phantom religion teaches cultivators that entering the Dao gate is as deep as the sea, henceforth they must sever worldly ties.

Palace servants rarely come here; fallen leaves form carpets, everywhere birds sing and flowers fragrance, actually it is the habitat of rare birds and beasts.

He Lingchuan took out a flute and played; the flute sound was like a hundred warblers winding and soaring, riding the wind deep into the mountains and forests.

Not long after, several clear cries echoed from afar.

The white specks soaring in the sky, a few descended, the closer to the mountain peak, the larger their size appeared.

These are several white cranes, with red crowns and black necks, iron claws and steel wings, wingspan reaching over forty feet; when landing, a flap of those two sends sand and stones flying.

In recent years, these bird demons' size has grown rapidly. They all know the wind-control technique; in environments with sufficient spiritual energy, their large size does not become a burden to flight.

After landing, they followed the lead giant crane in bowing to He Lingchuan, unusually respectful.

"Go up."

The two people and one spider each climbed onto a crane's back; Zhu Xiuer curled herself up, her steel needles retracted and pressed against her body to avoid damaging the crane's back.

The several giant cranes cried out in unison, flapped their wings, and rose into the clouds in a short while.

From here to Shaocheng in the northwest of Shen State, the journey is far.

These giant cranes are masters of long-distance flight, further aided by wind-control and void-dance techniques; their flight speed is many times greater than that of bird demons over ten years ago, a single wingbeat covering seventy zhang.