Chapter 217: Divine Hunting Squad

The stone cave where the Mysterious Spider resides is about a month's journey for an ordinary caravan.

A vast river roared past below a thousand‑meter‑high cliff, huge water beasts lurked along its banks, and from time to time giant beasts raised their heads and let out long howls, spraying water columns like fountains.

A thousand meters above the cliff, there is a semicircular plain on which an enormous stone fortress stands; at first glance its stone buildings are lined up, enough to hold tens of thousands of people.

Large amounts of bloodwater had flowed inside the fortress, and now the bloodwater has dried up.

A zig‑zag stone path had been carved into the cliff, and large quantities of fresh blood rolled down the path, staining a stone road several zhang wide a deep crimson.

The blood plasma coagulated on the stone path, forming a scab over an inch thick.

Also, large amounts of fresh blood slid down the cliff, dyeing even a small half of the black cliff red.

The blood plasma adhering to the cliff had also solidified, resembling a blood‑colored flag hanging askew on the cliff.

The bloody smell gradually spread; the water beasts in the great river grew restless, and several thirty‑ to forty‑meter‑long giant crocodiles twisted their massive bodies, cautiously swimming across the nearly kilometer‑wide river surface, climbing onto the riverbank below the stone path, and staggering toward the path.

On the great river, a raft sped swiftly with the current.

On the wide, heavy raft sat more than a hundred burly men whose aura resembled that of ancient savage beasts; they held roasted meat, carried wineskins, and laughed loudly.

Occasionally, when a man burst out laughing, huge waves rose up around the raft out of nowhere, and various phenomena such as thunder‑light heavenly fire, black mist, and mysterious ice appeared.

These men were terrifyingly strong, faintly showing the dreadful sign that their words become law.

The raft was still several li from the cliff where the stone fortress stood, when a red‑haired man suddenly rose to his feet; his head of long, disheveled red hair flowed behind him like a cape, each strand wreathed in flames, making his whole body seem to be burning.

His fiery red eyes flashed with light, and the man vigorously shook his wineskin, as large as a water tub.

"No wine left… who still has some?" the man slapped his thick wrist‑band, half a foot wide, and pulled out over a hundred huge wineskins, tossing them resentfully onto the raft.

"Empty, gone!" another man, his black hair faintly exhaling black vapor, roared angrily: "How can you drink it so fast? You lot of wineskin‑bellied gluttons… drink, drink, drink, you'll drink yourselves to death… hic!"

The black‑haired man, while shouting at his companions, flushed red and belched from drink.

"Better to eat no meat than to go without wine!" a man whose deep‑blue hair fluttered, faintly emitting swirling winds, smashed his empty wineskin onto the raft.

"When we're out and about, how can we do without wine?" the man stood, his eyes emitting threads of azure divine light, anxiously licking his lips as he looked around: "Look around, look around, find a local tyrant, and settle our dues with them."

About a hundred men rose together, each squeezing the last drop of strong liquor from their wineskins into their mouths, shaking the skins vigorously, their eyes flashing with divine light as they scanned the surroundings.

"Hey… there's a manor!" a man with cyan‑blue hair, beside whom a constant stream of clear wind flowed outward, the wind whistling back and forth, instantly traversing the empty space within a hundred‑li radius; from several li away he spotted the stone fortress on the cliff.

"No… there is a manor, but…" another man, whose eyes were three times larger than normal, with deep, huge pupils occupying almost three‑quarters of each eyeball, his eyeballs protruding over an inch from their sockets, suddenly spoke.

His eyes emitted threads of golden light as he gazed toward the fortress.

In his vision, all rocks, vines, water mist and vapor, and every obscuring object turned to nothing; at a glance he saw the fortress's true form, and also made out the blood seeping from within, staining the stone path and half the cliff.

"It has been wiped out. The entire clan—3,942 elders and children—and in the underground thirty‑two‑level cavern, the combined total of servants and slaves of all tribes, 97,544… all perished."

His eyes spewing golden light, the man instantly saw everything inside the fortress and casually reported the number of those killed there.

"All the servants and slaves died in battle, struck down face‑to‑face; the 3,942 members of the clan were gathered in the main courtyard and beheaded." He muttered, "What grudge, what hatred? Wiping out an entire family is bad enough… but to behead even infants?"

The raft arrived at the base of the cliff; a man with long, flowing water‑green hair waved his hand, and the vast, swiftly flowing river, despite its turbulent waves, suddenly grew calm, this stretch of water becoming smooth as it entered the realm, and the raft quickly drew to the shore.

About a hundred men leapt into the air at once and, in an instant, reached the top of the cliff.

The man whose head was covered in fiery red hair like flames gave a cold snort: "Send half the people to look for cellars or whatever, and bring back all the alcohol you can find—then we'll talk."

He paused, then murmured: "The whole family slaughtered? If you see anything edible—salted meat, sausages and the like—take it all. As for the gold and silver treasures, forget them; we're not bandits who raid homes."

Dozens of men stepped onto the void and rushed swiftly into the fortress.

With the man whose eyes glowed gold leading the way, no hidden chamber in the fortress could escape his sight.

The men, familiar with the layout, walked into each cellar, stuffing jugs of homemade liquor into their wrist‑bands; all the stored food—various salted meats, dried fish, sausages, dried mushrooms, starch, and so on—was completely cleared out by them.

As the red‑haired man had ordered, in many secret vaults they found piles of gold and silver ingots and assorted valuables stacked like mountains, yet they took not a single copper coin.

They swept through the entire fortress, taking only food and drink.

The red‑haired men stood on the fortress plaza, frowning as they looked at the corpses piled up into a small hill.

"Quite brutal… tsk, what grudge, what hatred?" the red‑haired man dipped a finger in the ground‑stained blood, brought it to his nose, and sniffed.

He murmured, "Probably… just a little over a day ago."

A group of men emerged from the fortress, all grinning with delight, and several of them cheerfully hefted full wineskins, gulping down the wine in large mouthfuls.

"This family was wealthy; they brewed so much wine it would last us two months of drinking." A man vigorously shook his wineskin.

"Because they were rich, did that bring disaster?" a man frowned, pondering to himself.

"Fool, they left all that gold and silver in their storehouse untouched—this certainly wasn't about money." Another bearded man slammed his palm hard onto his companion's back of the head.

"Old ghost!" the red‑haired man turned and shouted.

A thin, lanky man, slender as a bean sprout, hummed weakly with a hint of flirtation, flicked his pallid white hair lightly behind him, and approached carrying a staff made of white bone.

"Here, here… wait a moment, give me a sip of wine first." The white‑haired old ghost reached out his hand to the companion holding a wineskin.

A wineskin was handed to the old ghost; he took it, drank a mouthful, then casually slipped it back. Waving his bone staff, he muttered, "All right, all right, having drunk your family's wine, this is a karmic tie."

"With this karmic connection, come on, come on—having taken your food and drink, avenging you is only just… well, well, we're not great heroes or mighty champions, but if we can help you get revenge, we will."

"If your enemies are too strong… then it's not our fault…"

The white‑haired old ghost drew a deep breath, then suddenly lifted his leg high and stepped down hard on the ground. His movements were strange, flowing like clouds and water, treading Yu's steps while chanting incantations, his body rising and falling as he danced around the corpses in the plaza.

Threads of cold air seeped from the piled corpses, and some of the information lingering within those bodies was extracted by the old ghost using his secret art.

The old ghost's gaze suddenly sharpened.

He raised his head and said in a deep voice, "I've found it… actually, it's the right lead!"

The red‑haired man's body suddenly spewed out thick, magma‑like fire; every pore emitted flames, turning him into a flowing mass of viscous, scorching fire. He opened his mouth and spat out a large spray of cyan‑white sparks, then let out a low growl.

"Found it? You damned bastard, is it them? Good, good—we brothers have come out this time and chased them for five or six years… hehe, at last we've found the right lead. Are they the same gang?" The red‑haired man fixed a hard stare on the white‑haired old ghost.

"Not the same gang, but certainly the right lead."

The white‑haired old ghost snorted coldly, hooked his finger, and from the piled corpses a few tiny specks of deep‑blue ice crystals drifted out.

"Look, they've erased their traces, but these ice crystals… who else could they belong to besides them?" The white‑haired old ghost gave a sinister grin.

"Hehe, hehe, we've found it!" Over a hundred men simultaneously bared their teeth and grinned wickedly.

"Milky-!" the red-haired burly man laughed "keke": "This bunch of cowardly scum actually dared to invade our ancestral land, sneak attack our most outstanding descendants, nearly abducting them... Utter disgrace, utter disgrace!"

"Brothers, chase after them, seize them, cut them into thousands of pieces... once the meat slices are roasted, feed them to the spiders." The red-haired burly man waved both hands, and a crimson-red long spear shot out from his hand with a "whoosh".

Several huge crocodiles sneaked along the stone path, creeping up stealthily.

The red-haired burly man turned and swept with his spear; from hundreds of meters away, the several huge crocodiles went "whoosh" — flames spontaneously ignited inside them, instantly burning them to ashes.

"Alright, even after taking your liquor and meat, I won't let your corpses lie exposed here." The red-haired burly man waved his hand decisively, and all the corpses on the square were simultaneously burned to ashes.

"Don't worry, we'll help you get back the boys and girls they captured." The white-haired old ghost grinned: "Those girls are quite pretty; they'd be suitable as daughters-in-law for our family..."

The white-haired old ghost shook his head and said: "Several ancestors said our children all grow up coarse and unsightly, unfit to be seen in public... Tsk, so from now on our children must marry pretty spouses... and the sons born should also be somewhat handsome, right?"

A group of burly men simultaneously raised their wineskins, laughing loudly, then each leapt into the air, bringing a gust of wind as they drifted down from the thousand-meter-high cliff.

A burly man with a faint golden glow on his nose stepped out from the crowd, he vigorously twitched his nose, following a trace of scent in the air that ordinary people could not smell, leading his companions to stride across the great river, kicking up a gale as they raced downstream.

After rushing several hundred li, the golden-nosed burly man suddenly charged ashore, bringing his companions into a narrow stone crevice.

Luminous vines grew in patches within the winding stone crevice; the burly men flew through the air, silently following the crevice forward. Their speed was extremely fast — in the snap of a finger they would pass several li.

Following the stone crevice forward, they passed through an area as complex as a spiderweb of caves and mines, crossed a dark river, traveled several dozen li, passed through a blazing lava lake, then went forward several hundred li; in a huge stone cavern, over six hundred cultivators clad in black tight armor were resting.

They appeared to be sitting in scattered groups of three or two around the perimeter, but upon closer look, they were subtly positioned in a mutually supporting formation; anyone attacking any one of them from any direction or angle would be struck by a coordinated blow from the dozen or so companions nearby.

They sat on the ground, silently chewing dried meat and drinking clear water; from time to time they would glance at the twelve ice coffins in the center of the stone cavern.

Those were ice coffins formed from profound dark-blue ice, each containing a frozen boy or girl.

These youths had tender faces; the oldest was no more than thirteen or fourteen, the youngest perhaps only seven or eight. Their faces showed extreme terror; the instantaneously condensed Cold Qi perfectly preserved their expressions before they were frozen solid.

Several obviously leading black-armored cultivators sat beside the ice coffins; one held a basin-sized piece of dark-blue ice, pointing at several flashing blue specks on it and whispered: "Next, we must speed up... the divine envoy has already arrived at the appointed place; if we are too late... I've heard that this divine envoy is extremely difficult to serve."

"Which divine envoy is easy to serve?" A black-faced bald burly man glanced at the frozen boy in the ice coffin, then suddenly grinned: "But even if it's hard to serve, it's just a matter of taking a beating and scolding; as long as these offerings satisfy the heavenly deity... heh heh, what benefits will we brothers gain?"

After glancing at the black-armored cultivators in the stone cavern, the black-faced bald burly man muttered: "If we could let all our brothers become heaven's chosen ones, our divine hunting squad would truly stand out."

Several leaders simultaneously nodded and smiled, deeply agreeing with the black-faced bald burly man's words.

They chatted quietly for a few sentences, then the black-faced bald burly man hesitated and asked: "Just saying... the heavenly deity's power is truly boundless; how do they know where these offerings are?"

The group stared at the boys in the ice coffins, then gently shook their heads.

"The heavenly deity, of course, knows everything." Finally, a thin-built man said that.

Several dozen li away, beside the red-haired burly man, a man whose ears were twice the size of an ordinary person's was listening intently.