Chapter 115: Enemies Meet

Xu Chen led a group of people through the black mist as if they were in their natural element, whistling in and out of the great array like a band of bandits.

Under the sensing of his powerful and keen Divine Sense, they only encountered groups of Soul Beasts that were not too strong but just numerous enough to handle.

After half an hour of this, everyone had a full harvest.

The large Soul Beads were naturally collected by Xu Chen and the several Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters of the Taiyuan Sect, while the small ones that were not worth looking at were left for the group of rogue cultivators like Song Qingshi and Zhou Ding, with whom they had become familiar, to pick up as bargains.

In this way, everyone was happy; the rogue cultivators' favor for the Taiyuan Sect rose steadily, and as they kept flattering them along the way and harvesting more and more, the atmosphere became increasingly harmonious.

About one mile ahead was an Array Eye of the Five Elements array, guarded by a Danyuan Realm Elder from Yuqing Hall, with seven or eight Zhenyuan Realm Disciples responsible for defense and assistance; the Demon Beasts nearby had already been mostly cleared out.

Xu Chen therefore warned: "There is an Array Eye not far ahead, there aren't many Demon Beasts, so we won't go over there, let's change direction!"

"Alright!"

Just as everyone agreed and prepared to turn, Xu Chen suddenly raised an eyebrow and looked fiercely toward the direction of the Array Eye again.

"Boom—"

Accompanied by a violent tremor, the light pillar emitted by the Array Eye suddenly shook violently; accompanied by popping and cracking sounds, amidst flashes of lightning and thunder, the ground near the Array Eye actually began to collapse.

The Danyuan Realm Elder guarding the Array Eye had persisted for a day and a night, his Soul exhausted; thinking the black smoke had begun to weaken, his mood had relaxed somewhat, and he was sitting cross-legged in the light pillar with his eyes closed in meditation. Caught off guard by the shaking of the light pillar, he actually spat out a mouthful of blood, screamed as he was ejected from the light pillar, and fell downward while shrieking.

The sudden change caused the several Zhenyuan Realm Disciples assisting in the defense to panic instantly, at a loss in their exclamations.

"Not good, the Array Eye has lost control!" Xu Chen's expression changed drastically.

"Roar—"

Almost simultaneously, a dull, thunderous sound came from underground, and as the light pillar shook violently a few more times, the ground at the Array Eye location collapsed completely. A giant eight-legged spider covered in black, metallic-lustered armor rushed out of the soil, opened its mouth, and spat out a stream of black light, which transformed into a large net and covered the group of Yuqing Hall cultivators.

"Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters, hurry and help!"

Xu Chen was shocked, stepped on his Flying Sword, and turned into a streak of light, speeding toward the Array Eye; the group hurriedly followed on their swords.

This giant spider appeared very suddenly, just at the moment when the Yuqing Hall cultivators guarding the Array Eye were most relaxed.

Even Xuanchen Zhenjun, who was sitting in command at the Taiyuan Sect hundreds of miles away, absolutely did not expect this.

At this time, Xuanchen Zhenjun also thought the overall situation was settled; he had withdrawn his Divine Sense and was concentrating on refining Soul Beads and Spirit Stones to replenish his losses.

After all, one Spirit Origin Storm had almost exhausted his stored Spirit Qi, and the long, day-and-night observation with his Divine Sense had also left his Soul feeling exhausted.

Therefore, except for the few Danyuan Realm cultivators suppressing the great array, the others hardly felt the change in the array.

And with one Array Eye out of control, the other several Array Eyes also instantly began to shake violently, and as a result, the entire Five Elements array flickered with light and shadow, seemingly on the verge of collapse at any moment.

Although Xu Chen saw the change, he was still a mile away; he did not have the speed of a Danyuan Realm or Spirit Transformation Realm cultivator, and it would take at least dozens of breaths to rush over.

Therefore, within his Divine Sense, he could only watch helplessly as the black light spider web spat out by the giant spider instantly covered the several Yuqing Hall cultivators.

"Ah—"

Accompanied by a few screams that stopped abruptly, the few people wrapped in the spider web instantly went silent; they were soon dragged to the ground by the giant spider, and then cut into pieces by a few swipes of its giant sickle-like hooked feet, and one was even stuffed directly into the giant spider's mouth and swallowed whole.

Xu Chen's expression changed drastically; in his perception, the moment these cultivators were touched by the spider web, their Soul fluctuations vanished completely.

Therefore, he could infer that this giant spider did not just have a powerful body; the black light Spider Silk it spat out could also attack the Soul.

He recalled the situation when he encountered the giant spider deep in the cave, and couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat on his back.

If he hadn't released the two-headed giant bat to fight it and break the spider web back then, if he and Lan You had been wrapped inside, he feared their end would have been just as miserable, with their Souls destroyed.

"Third Elder..."

Just as Xu Chen was unable to reach them in time, a black silhouette suddenly rushed from the black mist to the vicinity of the Array Eye, swooped down, and grabbed the fallen Danyuan Realm Elder. At the same time, her Flying Sword emitted a dazzling light in the air, transforming into a ball of electric light that smashed heavily onto the giant spider's back.

"Boom—"

Amidst the terrifying tremor, the giant spider trembled all over from the electric light and stumbled back a few steps, almost falling back into the cave it had broken through at the Array Eye.

The moment the sword light bounced back up, the woman in black had already soared into the air again.

"Roar—"

The angry giant spider let out a low roar that shattered the Soul; the rolling black mist around it surged like lake water into a visible ripple, rolling toward the woman in black to engulf her.

"Ah—"

The woman in black was in the air and was instantly swept into the ripple; her figure stumbled as if drunk, she let out a muffled groan, and her body stalled and fell.

"Such a powerful Soul attack!"

Behind Xu Chen, the Eldest Senior Brother, Second Senior Sister, and Third Senior Brother all turned pale at the same time, the Flying Swords under their feet shook and trembled, and they almost fell off as well.

At this time, they were still dozens of feet away from the Array Eye and couldn't see what was happening at all; they only knew that the light at the Array Eye was flickering and shaking incessantly, and there must have been a major change.

And the group of Kaiyuan Realm rogue cultivators like Song Qingshi, who were hundreds of feet behind, were even worse off, screaming one after another as they fell into the rolling black mist like dumplings.

"Junior Brother, be careful!" the Eldest Senior Brother roared in terror.

"Senior Brother, Senior Sister, you must quickly send a message to the Great Elder to ask for help; if the great array is broken, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Xu Chen's voice came from afar, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared.

Because of Lan You's sudden appearance and attack, the giant spider instantly shifted its target; it stopped destroying the Array Eye and instead brandished several giant sickle-like claws, which were like those of the Grim Reaper, and pounced toward the falling Lan You and the Elder.

However, just as the two were in mortal danger, a sharp sword light whistled over and slashed heavily onto one of the giant legs that was already raised high.

"Boom—"

A terrifying spiritual light exploded again, the Flying Sword was knocked away, and a gap was torn in one of the giant spider's legs; the scattered armor turned into black smoke and decomposed, and rolling Black Mist instantly emanated from the wound.

"Roar—"

Attacked again, the giant spider became even angrier; it roared and suddenly turned its head, its two pairs of huge, blood-red compound eyes staring in a certain direction.

A moment later, a figure rushed out of the rolling black mist; it was Xu Chen, who had launched the attack from a hundred feet away.

Man and spider finally faced each other head-on.

The giant spider seemed to be stunned for a moment, then suddenly roared and opened its mouth to spit out a stream of black light.

Xu Chen was also briefly stunned; this big spider looked very familiar, its appearance almost identical to the one he saw deep in the cave last time.

And looking at the giant spider's mood and attitude, he instantly judged that this was the big spider that had jumped into the Black Wind vortex last time.

When enemies meet, they are naturally extra jealous.

Back then, Xu Chen summoned the Two-Headed Demon Bat to destroy the giant spider's nest, and a large number of its offspring and spider eggs were completely wiped out, with even the nest itself collapsing and being buried.

But Xu Chen did not die, and unexpectedly, this giant spider did not die either; it had actually resurrected, broken through the Array Eye, and attacked out from the ground.

What was even more terrifying was that the strength of this giant spider was clearly more formidable than its aura last time; the moment their gazes met, Xu Chen felt as if his Soul had been pricked by needles, causing a sharp, intense pain, and if not for the Blue Light Treasure Bottle stabilizing his Soul, he would definitely have completely lost control just like Lan You.

The black light rushing toward his face transformed into a giant web, arriving right in front of Xu Chen in an instant.

Xu Chen had nowhere to dodge and could only bite the bullet and circulate the Grand Void Demon Refining Art; as lightning suddenly flashed within the Blue Light Treasure Bottle in his Sea of Consciousness, his pores also instantly erupted with specks of Blue Starlight, which transformed into a layer of Blue Starlight mist that swirled and flowed around his body.

This was an attempt by Xu Chen, and of course, he also had some confidence in it.

Because although he could not yet actively release the Blue Light Treasure Bottle outside his body for protection, this Blue Starlight was extremely mysterious; if it could form a vortex capable of dragging both the Mysterious Water Nether Lotus and the Ancient Fierce Beast into the bottle, he concluded it could also block this Soul-annihilating web of the giant spider.

Furthermore, even if the Blue Starlight could not block it, he firmly believed that his Soul would not be compromised, because the Blue Light Treasure Bottle had already merged into one with his own Soul; although this giant spider was terrifying, compared to the Ancient Fierce Beast, it was entirely the difference between a firefly and the sun, and was not worth mentioning at all.

Sure enough, Xu Chen guessed right.

The moment the giant spider's almost invincible black light web encountered the Blue Starlight around Xu Chen's body, it was as if it had met a solid defensive layer; it could not get close, and instead, under the circulation of the starlight, it began to pop and crackle, flashing with sparks of light, and then began to melt and break apart strand by strand.

Seeing that it was effective, Xu Chen's confidence immediately soared; he pinched a seal with both hands and pressed forward, and the light of his Flying Sword surged, transforming into a giant sword of light ten zhang in size, which carried the momentum of wind and thunder as it slashed down at the giant spider once more.

This was the attack Array built into this Second-Grade Flying Sword, named Wind Thunder Slash; as long as there was sufficient Yuan Qi to support it, it could unleash an attack equivalent to the strongest strike of a cultivator at the True Essence Late Stage.

"Boom~"

Amidst the blinding brilliance, the spiritual light exploded on the giant spider like a ball of light.

The Array Eye light pillar flickered wildly, and when the spiritual light dissipated, one of the giant spider's legs had been completely severed, and its body lay heavily on the ground.

"Roar—"

In pain, the giant spider spat out another stream of black light, but Xu Chen ignored it entirely, and the Flying Sword soared into the air again, whistling as it fell.

"Boom~"

With another loud crash, the giant spider was slashed and retreated several steps, with half of its body falling back into the cave, but its several hook-claws, which were like giant scythes, were frantically clawing at its surroundings, causing spiritual light to constantly explode and shatter, while the Array Eye light pillar shook violently, looking as if it were about to break.

(End of this chapter)