Chapter 1251: [Giant Spider] (Part 1)

Although Hu Xiaotian didn't know what kind of beetle this was, he could guess it must be a dangerous poisonous insect. He touched the ground with his Wind-Severing Blade; the blade bent under his weight, then quickly straightened thanks to its good elasticity.

Hu Xiaotian used the rebound force of the long blade to leap into the air again, flying over the dense mass of black beetles. As soon as his feet touched the ground, another dense swarm of black beetles surged toward him from ahead, swelling like a tide, covering the surrounding cave walls without leaving any gap; beetles approached him from front and back, leaving only a space about one zhang wide unoccupied.

Thinking quickly, Hu Xiaotian raised his fist, gathered all his strength, and punched the ground. This punch was the God-Demon World-Destroying Fist taught to him by his maternal grandfather Xu Lingkong. The punch's power was immense; once it struck a target, the force rapidly spread outward. After Hu Xiaotian hit the ground, his inner energy spread along the cave walls; wherever the power reached, the beetles shook loose and fell to the ground. Thus the beetles on the ground became even denser, but the beetles on the two sides and the ceiling of the cave, unable to withstand the punch's vibration, fluttered down, while the ground beetles continued to surge like a tide. The spot where Hu Xiaotian could stand was now only two chi wide. At that moment he activated, waving the Wind-Severing Guard to protect his whole body, and charged forward at full speed.

He kicked back and forth on the beetle-free parts of the cave wall, finally leaping over the dense swarm of beetles.

Looking back, he saw the beetles regroup and rush at him again. Hu Xiaotian silently cursed the trouble, dared not pause even a bit, and rushed full speed into the depths of the earthen cave.

Lu Qingyuan saw that his successive tactics still could not stop Hu Xiaotian's pursuit, and inwardly he groaned. At the fork ahead, he ran to the right; Hu Xiaotian closely followed. Before the two Variegated Sect disciples trying to block his advance could even approach, Hu Xiaotian cut them down with a sweep of his blade.

Lu Qingyuan emitted strange howls from his mouth; Hu Xiaotian didn't know what he was saying. Seeing the distance between them shrink, a smile of triumph crept onto his lips. Today he would surely kill Lu Qingyuan to vent his hatred.

Lu Qingyuan had already fled to the end of the cave. With no way to escape ahead, he quickly turned, drew the long sword at his waist, apparently preparing to fight Hu Xiaotian to the death.

Hu Xiaotian eased his pursuit speed; with his martial arts, disposing of Lu Qingyuan should not be difficult.

A look of fear appeared on Lu Qingyuan's handsome face; he suddenly threw away his long sword. Leaning against the cave wall, he grabbed the iron chain with both hands, shook his head, and said, "I have no grudge against you; why must you press so hard?"

Hu Xiaotian smiled and said, "When you were scheming to harm people on Python Flood Island, why didn't you say that then?"

Lu Qingyuan said, "You are a man of Yan Tianlu; I am outmatched and have nothing to say, but you must let me die with understanding. Who are you? Who exactly are you?"

Hu Xiaotian saw no reason to answer his question, raising his Wind-Severing Blade. He infused it with inner energy, having already resolved to kill Lu Qingyuan.

At that very moment, Lu Qingyuan's hand suddenly wrenched the iron chain from the cave wall.

With a deafening boom, the ground suddenly gave way beneath Hu Xiaotian's feet, revealing a huge opening three zhang in diameter; his body plummeted straight down. Hu Xiaotian reacted with astonishing speed; the inner breath in his Dantian Qi Sea surged instantly. In the span of a breath, his body rose more than two zhang. Ever wary of Lu Qingyuan's tricks, seeing this man so deceitful, he flared with anger, raised his long blade with both hands, and dove down at Lu Qingyuan—this strike would surely cleave him in two.

Just as Hu Xiaotian was about to swing that blade, a white silk filament shot out from the cave. He reacted instantly, altered his blade motion, and chopped at the silk—but the blade could find no purchase on it; not only did it fail to cut the silk, it stuck to it. Almost at the same moment, another silk filament flew toward his face. Hu Xiaotian, airborne and preparing to drop his blade to flee, saw the tip of that white silk suddenly blossom like a flower, unfurling a huge net that wrapped around his lower body. He felt a powerful force dragging him downward, and before he could struggle free, it was already too late.

Hu Xiaotian's body plummeted, shouting in terror, but soon he landed on a soft, white net; his body bounced up and down on it. Hu Xiaotian tried to get up and break free, but then realized the net was sticky, making escape difficult. He looked around and saw a huge black shadow slowly approaching him. Though the cave was dark, his night vision allowed him to see that the approaching object was a spider the size of a millstone—not counting its eight legs, each about a zhang long.

Hu Xiaotian had never seen such a huge spider in both his lives combined; only now did he realize that the white silk filament earlier was actually spider silk. Lu Qingyuan, who seemed to have no retreat, was in fact luring himself here, deliberately putting on a pitiful act to trigger the mechanism that sent him into the cave.

Now he had no time to worry about Lu Qingyuan. Hu Xiaotian stared at the enormous spider drawing nearer step by step, and a chill ran down his spine. That old monster from Beizhe sure knows how to cause trouble—he actually raised such a huge beast, even bigger than a king crab.

The giant spider presumably thought Hu Xiaotian was already its prey, so it moved without hurry or panic.

Hu Xiaotian struggled back and forth, trying to break free of the spider's bonds, but the spider's silk was extremely tough, swaying with his movements. From above came Lu Qingyuan's gloating laughter; he stood at the cave's edge, looking down at the trapped Hu Xiaotian, and said in a sinister tone, "Tuozi, although you were born a little ugly, fortunately Xiao Qing isn't a picky eater."

Xiao Qing was naturally the name of this giant spider. Hu Xiaotian cursed silently, thinking Xiao Qing was uglier than the monsters in Legend of the White Snake; if he were to be eaten by that beautiful green snake instead, he wouldn't even feel wronged. Hu Xiaotian certainly couldn't resign himself to dying in the spider's mouth; seeing the spider draw closer, he forced himself to calm down, began to circulate his inner breath, gathering energy in his Dantian Qi Sea. Though he could not break free of the spider's silk in a short time, he had already made his worst-case plan: if the spider attacked him, he could unleash his inner energy at close range to shock the spider to death.

But the giant spider suddenly stopped when it was one zhang away from Hu Xiaotian, perhaps because it truly found his current appearance too ugly to eat.

Lu Qingyuan saw the spider halt, found it strange, and urged, "Xiao Qing, dinner's here—eat him!" While speaking, he also took a wooden box from the corner and dumped its contents from above onto Hu Xiaotian's body.

What Lu Qingyuan poured out were all kinds of poisonous insects, which he normally used to feed the spider.

Poisonous insects crawled all over Hu Xiaotian's body; he mentally cursed Lu Qingyuan's ancestors eight generations over, but unfortunately his hands and feet were bound by spider silk, and the more he struggled, the more silk stuck to him.

Attracted by the poisonous insects, the giant spider crawled forward another three chi, its two massive fangs clearly visible. Hu Xiaotian's scalp went numb; who knows how many poisonous insects this spider had eaten to grow so huge—its venom must be extraordinarily potent. If it were to bite him, even immortals could hardly save him; setting aside its venom, just those fangs could tear a chunk of flesh from him in a single bite.

Lu Qingyuan said, "Eat! Eat him!"

Hu Xiaotian angrily shouted, "Lu Qingyuan, ** your grandpa, if you've got guts, come down and fight me one-on-one!"

Lu Qingyuan laughed loudly: "The provocation tactic doesn't work on me!"

Hu Xiaotian's body swung forcefully downward, rising and falling like on a trampoline, though the amplitude was only about one zhang up and down. This motion shook off some of the poisonous insects on him, but it was not enough to free him from the spider's silk.

The giant spider actually retreated a little distance, watching with interest this dying, struggling wretch.

Lu Qingyuan was adept at profiteering from chaos; seeing the spider delay its attack on Hu Xiaotian, he took out a crossbow from his waist, aimed at Hu Xiaotian's chest, and fired repeatedly. A volley of bolts struck his chest repeatedly, yet none penetrated—he was wearing armor he had obtained on Python Flood Island, made from the Seven-Star Sea Snake hide treasured by Yan Tianlu, extraordinarily tough, capable of blocking blades and arrows. Still, the impact of the bolt tips caused repeated sharp pains in his chest. Lying on the spider, he possessed a full store of inner energy but could not release it; the inner breath in his Dantian Qi Sea continued to accumulate.

After seeing that Hu Xiaotian emerged unscathed from that barrage, Lu Qingyuan immediately realized he must be wearing treasure armor; he shifted his aim to Hu Xiaotian's head—his body was armored, but his face was unprotected.

Hu Xiaotian's heart turned cold halfway; he never expected he would still be careless, ending up in a helpless situation where he could offer no resistance and be slaughtered at will.

Lu Qingyuan gritted his teeth and snarled, "Go die!" His finger had not yet pulled the trigger when he saw a white silk filament shooting up from below toward him; in front of his face it turned into a white net. He hastily fired; the poison arrows flew out, but were completely stuck by the net. At the same moment, the net enveloped his body. Lu Qingyuan cried out in shock—he was actually dragged down from the cave's edge by that spider. Though he could have easily escaped, he was too eager to witness Hu Xiaotian being devoured alive by the spider; seeing the spider remain motionless made him anxious, so he decided to strike himself.

When success is near, people often get carried away by victory; Lu Qingyuan was no exception—he focused only on attacking Hu Xiaotian, forgetting that the giant spider was a lurking danger. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come.)