Chapter 331: Counterhunt

He tried to tear those tough silk threads, but when his fingers touched them, he felt a slick, cold sensation, and at the same time an extremely faint yet deeply unsettling "pulse" traveling along the threads.

"Don't touch those threads!" The Blood King's voice suddenly rose, bearing unprecedented gravity and a hint… of… apprehension? "This place… feels wrong! These threads… aren't ordinary creature silk! They contain some… dormant will! It's a trap!"

Lin Yifan's movement halted, but seeing Su Wan'er's fading aura, a flash of resolve crossed his eyes. "I don't care what trap it is!" he growled low, the blood‑silver energy again cloaking his palm, this time with stronger corrosiveness, fiercely clawing at the threads binding Su Wan'er!

"Sizzle!"

The sticky threads snapped under the scorching blood‑silver energy, and at the moment of rupture a cold, dead silence, a spiritual shock saturated with strong negative emotions (hunger, resentment, numbness) surged like invisible needles, brutally piercing Lin Yifan's mind!

"Ugh!" Lin Yifan grunted, his body swayed, and Illusion sprouted before his eyes—countless twisted, wailing, withered silhouettes wrapped in silk cocoons floated up and down in the darkness.

"I warned you!" The Blood King's voice carried suppressed pain, clearly also struck by the impact. "This is the domain of the Sleeper! These threads are its tendrils, tools for sensing and siphoning nutrients! We have disturbed it!"

At that moment, a mutation suddenly erupted!

"Buzz—!"

The entire cavern floor—no, the massive "spider web" covering the ground—suddenly lit up! Not with warm light, but with a cold, ghastly green glow like decaying phosphorescence! The light raced along the threads' veins, instantly illuminating the cavern and the surrounding eerie scene—

Countless large and small "cocoons" wrapped in the same viscous gray‑white silk hung like clusters of fruit on the walls, stone pillars, even embedded in fissures of the cavern ceiling! Some cocoons were empty, the silk dried and broken; some revealed twisted, deformed bones long devoid of life; and many more emitted a faint, heart‑pounding life pulse, as if the things inside were merely in a prolonged slumber, ready to awaken at any moment!

And at the core of the light were Lin Yifan and Su Wan'er, trapped deep within the web!

"Sss… sss…"

A strange sound like countless sand grains grinding, and like a slick object being dragged across rock, came from the deepest, darkest corner of the cavern. The sound carried an indescribable thirst and… awakened fury.

Lin Yifan's pupils contracted sharply; he saw, under the ghastly green glow, that dark corner writhing! A massive, almost shadow‑filling, indescribable silhouette slowly lifted its blurred "head". Dozens of pale, massive tendrils, each ten times thicker than the threads that bound them, protruded from the outline, greedily and silently siphoning the energy waves transmitted from the "web"—those waves originated from the wound at Su Wan'er's waist and the unsettled blood‑silver energy on Lin Yifan's body!

The Sleeper awoke! It was drawn by the fresh, powerful energy aura!

"Damned it!" Lin Yifan cursed, no longer able to ignore the mental shock of the threads; blood‑silver energy erupted wildly, like countless blades, instantly cutting and scorching away the threads entangling Su Wan'er! He scooped the unconscious Su Wan'er into his arms, the grip cold and sticky with blood. Her body temperature was terrifyingly low; the wound at her waist looked even more gruesome in the ghastly green light, and strands of weak blood vapor and silver‑white energy were being greedily drawn by the massive web below, feeding the awakened monster.

"Same source… delicious… more…" A huge, chaotic, overlapping‑consciousness babble rang directly in their minds, laden with nauseating greed.

"Let her go! We can't escape with her!" the Blood King warned sharply, his voice showing genuine tension for the first time. "That thing is draining her life force and your energy recovery! It's getting stronger! Move!"

Lin Yifan glanced down at the barely breathing, furrowed‑browed Su Wan'er in his arms; even in her coma she seemed to endure immense pain. Blood surged in his eyes, a mix of struggle and ferocity. The Blood King's proposal was exceedingly rational—discard the burden, use his power to break through, the highest chance of survival.

But…

He tightened his grip on Su Wan'er's arm even more.

"Shut up!" Lin Yifan's voice was hoarse and low, laced with undeniable resolve. He jerked his head upward, staring at the writhing massive shadow approaching and the sky‑filled, death‑forest‑like massive tendrils, bloodlight flaring in his eyes as he deliberately poured a torrent of raging blood energy into the giant web beneath his feet!

"Boom!"

The blood energy, like sparks thrown into hot oil, instantly ignited a blaze on the ghastly green "spider web"! The corrosive energy frantically destroyed the thread structure and forcibly cut off the monster's energy‑siphoning channel!

"Roar—!!!"

Deprived of its "feeding", the Sleeper emitted a deafening, rage‑filled roar! The entire cavern quaked violently! Countless hanging "cocoons" trembled, as if the things inside were also about to awaken!

"Want to suck? Then taste this!" Lin Yifan, cradling Su Wan'er like a blood‑arrow shot from a bow, surged toward a relatively narrow fissure with fewer tendrils deeper in the cavern! He no longer suppressed the Blood King's power, but actively merged with it, detonating the massive, brutal energy he had gained after devouring the Primordial Son! Blood‑silver light formed a sharp conical force field around him; wherever it passed, the thick tendrils blocking the way were smashed apart, tearing, viscous fluid splashing, emitting a corrosive sizzle!

He chose battle, chose to carry Su Wan'er and break through toward the deeper, unknown abyss!

The Blood King, within his mind, let out an almost manic, angry‑mixed‑with‑twisted‑excitement laugh:

"Good! Very good! This is all because you forced me. Since that's the case, let the abyss become our first sacrifice of power! Kill through! Devour it! Become it!"

Behind him, the fully enraged Sleeper, waving countless death‑tendrils, crushing everything like moving mountains, pursued. Ahead, a dark, narrow fissure whose destination was unknown.

Lin Yifan, cradling Su Wan'er, turned into a resolute blood‑colored stream of light, plunging headfirst into the bottomless darkness.

The abyssal hunt and escape had only just begun. And Su Wan'er's faint life flame, in Lin Yifan's arms, flickered like a candle in the wind, unsteady.