Chapter 97: Spider People's Little Secret

This was a rather special caravan, totaling roughly forty-plus people, yet among them there were basically no weaklings.

For a large merchant caravan traveling to the underground world, this number was too small; for an independent adventuring party, however, it was too many.

Rules and conventions are often the result of experience; arbitrarily breaking them is not a good thing.

"This means our movements along the way will be significant, attracting most of the demons and monsters. And if a real fight breaks out, we won't have enough manpower to conduct combat and defense." It was the veteran in the caravan who issued the warning.

"No choice. This is almost my limit. If there were more people, it would be impossible to bring them all back." Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, however, gave an implied response.

Before departure, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei had directly given her word, claiming she possessed the ability to bring people back directly, and that it would not take much time.

This was also the main reason Li En participated; he did not intend to leave the City of Radiance for too long. He had already paid his tuition, and his courses were not yet finished.

But in such a special caravan, bringing too many weaklings was impossible; basically, apart from some special personnel, everyone was an extraordinary being.

There were not many vehicles, but their specifications were quite high; they were mostly large cargo beast-carts and luxury carriages suitable for long-distance travel.

From what Li En saw, even the cargo carriers included seven or eight fully loaded multi-wheeled beast-carts. The pig-beasts pulling the carts were ridiculously strong, and some even wore armor plates, looking like armed tanks from a distance.

"Li En." Shaliman, standing behind Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, spoke up. This time, she had brought two guards to follow along.

Unlike her usual elegance and luxury, this time she wore simple yet high-quality gray leather armor.

She donned a veil, with daggers and throwing knives at her waist, dressing herself up like an ordinary adventurer.

"Shaliman." Li En opened his mouth but didn't know what to say; in a sense, this was also a rare "long time no see" between the two sides.

It was clear that Shaliman's state was somewhat terrible; there were obvious dark circles under her eyes, and she seemed not to have rested well.

But considering her dual identity as a backbone of the conservative faction and a close confidant of the royal family (actually also a royal spy), when Her Highness the Princess was at her wit's end, she had no reason to rest either.

Seeing Shaliman like this, Li En felt inexplicably uneasy.

"It seems... you need to rest properly." This was a reality anyone could see, yet few dared to advise it.

As the one with the highest title and status, she naturally became the leader of this journey.

"Mm, I've been working overtime a lot recently. Once we're on the road, I'll go back to the carriage and sleep for a bit." Shaliman's state was far worse than she was showing.

In these days, the City of Radiance had uncovered many foreign spies, captives from attacks, and cultists; as a royal spy, Shaliman had helplessly witnessed too much of humanity's extreme wickedness.

She was actually lying now; her actual workload was not heavy, she simply couldn't sleep because she was scared.

Probably, compared to evil dragons and demons, the bottomless human heart was even more terrifying.

For some people, killing is just daily life; enjoying the process of plunder and killing is the source of their joy. Their "enjoyment" of the weak has developed into various arts. Reading such hearts continuously, it's no wonder that "timid" Shaliman found it somewhat unbearable.

Actually, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei was in a hurry to depart because she was worried her immature niece would ruin herself like this.

But even so, when she returned to the carriage later, she still wouldn't be able to sleep.

"Um, do you want to come over to my side?" Perhaps due to her overly fragile state, she asked this subconsciously.

This plea was clearly impolite and weak.

After speaking, she immediately shut her mouth, then began to regret and hesitate; she seemed to already feel the piercing stares of others behind her, even though basically no one dared to look her directly in the eye.

A noble lady inviting someone into her private carriage was a serious breach of etiquette.

If not for the unmarried relationship, it could even be called licentious; and even with that layer added, nobles would still feel you lacked modesty.

Li En pondered for a moment; he actually didn't want to be too close to Shaliman, especially knowing he was a "Snake Mint."

He was actually gradually breaking free from the identity restrictions of "Li En Sudar"; as a Spokesperson for the Heroic Soul, he could have an independent resume, and he didn't want to owe too much to "Li En."

But seeing Shaliman's dark circles, along with her hesitation and unease when making that plea, he smiled and nodded.

"Of course, I will come. After all, I am also Sudar." He sighed inwardly; regardless of the reason, Shaliman truly had nothing but good things to say about him.

And now the other party seemed to be in quite a terrible situation; otherwise, she wouldn't have spoken out of turn and been so impolite in public.

Visibly, accompanying Li En's response, the girl's eyes lit up.

She seemed to realize she could finally get a good night's sleep.

"Me too, me too! I want to sleep with little Snake-niece too!" Instantly, the girl-like Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei jumped out again to interfere.

Helping the niece out of a bind was one thing; yielding on certain matters was another.

Visibly, Shaliman, who was being hugged, showed a look of disgust and immediately turned her head and walked away.

Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, who had been shaken off, immediately chased after her, muttering strange languages in her mouth.

"Stop relying on sleep-inducing drugs. The human heart has its limits. If suppressed for too long, it's easy to accidentally go too far." The two seemed to be using a set of strange "Snake Language" to conduct encrypted communication within the family.

Everyone else looked confused, while Li En kept a straight face, pretending he didn't understand.

"I want you to help me, but you won't help." It seemed Shaliman was still a bit annoyed.

"My help is just to help you suppress it; there is no essential difference from drugs, and since the effect is better, the aftermath is greater. You must learn moderation, moderation. A healthy and stable mind begins with restraining one's own power..." As she spoke, Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei even turned back and waved at Li En, as if she wasn't just speaking to Shaliman.

The departure of Viscountess Shaliman also meant that the pre-departure pleasantries were about to end.

Introducing themselves to each other, knowing the cooperative relationship between them, and setting up some signals for emergencies would be enough.

The small initial encounter passed in a flash; the assembly didn't take much time, and anything could be discussed on the road.

After confirming once again that the goods and supplies were all fine, this overly strange caravan set off directly.

They, unlike expected, went straight out of the city.

Li En also boarded the luxury carriage bearing the Sudar family crest, and on it, besides the uninvited Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, there was also Larry, who had followed along stupidly.

She hadn't chatted or learned from her senior for a long time; now that she had time, she naturally followed along without hesitation.

She recounted her recent insights on knightly cultivation and exchanged problems encountered in the new "Punishing Evil"; one had to admit, the Dock District indeed tempered people. Li En was pleasantly surprised to find that this Larry had actually learned patience and tact, especially learning not to listen to one-sided accounts and not to swing his sword blindly.

As for disturbing rest time, Li En actually didn't care much. As the mistress, Shaliman, after Li En and Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei boarded the carriage, fell asleep after just a few words and was carried by the maid to a small room at the rear of the luxury carriage.

"I see, so this is your family's business..."

"Personally, I'm not clear. If Laina hadn't told me, I really wouldn't know. These matters are all managed by Father and her."

This caravan, besides "special personnel" like Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, was publicly an aggregation of at least five noble merchant caravans.

And their common point was that they all had some connection to the underground world, or more accurately, commercial dealings.

The Labore family was one of them; and if they hadn't defected to this side this time, they wouldn't have so easily mobilized this relationship for the royal family and the city.

"It seems there are a few Spiderman tribes in the Underworld that produce quite excellent silk, suitable for materials for special scrolls and mage robes; this is also the source from which our family rose."

This girl is truly too straightforward; she just directly revealed the family's origin.

Spidermen originally come from the Underworld and primeval forests; the Labore family comes from underground, and some of their distant relatives still exist in the Underworld in tribal form.

So, how would wealthy relatives in the city treat country relatives? Of course, by regularly exploiting them: doing business with them, using cheap daily necessities, and taking away their specialty, magical spider silk.

This business allowed the Labore family to actually possess far more "Spiderman" resources than appeared on the surface, and thus they outcompeted other Spiderman textile merchants, eventually forming a monopoly in the high-end textile industry.

This caravan was also undertaking the Princess's mission to gather intelligence from the underground.

Therefore, these commercial families that had prior connections were even more valuable; sending both of their daughters up was enough to prove the Labore family's sincerity and decisiveness.

"Is it right here?"

Having walked less than half a day, they began descending from an underground cave in a hill.

This underground passage was obviously not on any map; it was one of the commercial secrets of those merchant families.

That Orc village outside was likely also an informant for these business families; people were watching this caravan throughout the journey.

Only after seeing the Labore family crests did they leave.

"Young Master Larry, Young Lady Nocturna is looking for you to discuss matters."

After entering, Larry was called back as well, and even when leaving, he was reluctant.

As for Li En himself, he also breathed a sigh of relief; it wasn't because he had any objection to Larry, but seeing Nocturna naturally made Li En recall those messy matters from before.

"It's strange; they seem not to care about the matter between you and that young man?"

And the smiling Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei seemed to have seen through everything.

"Their family is somewhat special; they haven't returned to the civilized world for very long, so they still possess strong Spider-nature. It's not noticeable in daily life, but at critical moments..."

Spider-nature? What is that? Is it a kind of beast-nature? Soon, Li En's eyes were opened wide.

The Orcs in this world are clearly different; influenced by their own racial traits and abilities, they still maintain their respective living habits and customs.

If they gather together, they will be influenced by culture and public perception and begin to converge.

But the more primitive the tribal form, the more original it is, even possessing many secrets and bad habits not fit to be told to outsiders.

"Are Spiderman tribes and clans matriarchal societies?"

Li En was also surprised, but upon thinking it over, it seemed to make sense.

In nature, male and female spiders are completely different; female spiders are generally much stronger than males and also much more ferocious. Most excessively, their lifespans are much longer, reaching a gap of three to ten times or more depending on the branch.

Many male spiders are annuals; their survival goal is reproduction, and even if they don't become food for the female spider after mating, they will die naturally after mating.

But female spiders can often live for over ten years, completely unrestricted.

And after transforming into Orcs, female Spidermen completely overwhelm male Spidermen in every aspect; not only are they larger and stronger, but their lifespans are also much longer. Male Spidermen are still notorious for being short-lived. In a sense, the situation of that Young Master Labore is quite desperate.

"They currently let males be the family heads, and even let females act like men, just to adapt to the Kingdom's customs, but outside is one thing, and inside is another matter entirely. Inside the home, females definitely have the final say."

In this era, the strong are still revered, especially among Orc branches with thick tribal cultures; female Spidermen are naturally stronger, so they are naturally more suited to be the leaders.

Now, Li En somewhat understood; that noble young man might actually be superfluous within his own family.

In a normal family, if the first two are daughters and the third is a late-born son, he would likely be especially cherished, but in the Labore family, it might be that everyone despises him for not being another daughter.

"If nothing unexpected happens, in a few years he will be sent to marry into another Spiderman family, but since his reputation is rotten, he might not even have that function anymore. Heh, actually, there's no difference; in any case, he won't live for many years."

Wait, even the shortest lifespan wouldn't be less than thirty years; that Labore family head is over forty. Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei, are you implying something terrible!

"Uh, female spiders eat male spiders; could female Spidermen also be..." This wasn't baseless; Li En recalled the Blood Frenzy Disease and the mad beasts he faced back then.

"Heh, guess." Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei revealed a mysterious smile, while Li En's eyes widened. Could it really be true? Didn't those Spidermen take their medicine properly?

"Sometimes, instincts are hard to control. Spiders, moreover, are quite ferocious." Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei seemed to have said nothing, yet seemed to have said everything.

At this moment, Li En was truly a bit dazed; he really didn't expect that Larry, who looked honest and decent, might have this side to him.

"You... aren't you bluffing me?" Li En was still somewhat hesitant; these two Labores didn't look like it.

"Heh, if you think it's not, then it's not." Purple Miss Zi Qiangwei still said nothing.

(End of this chapter)