Chapter 208: First Encounter with the [Shadow Demon Spider Lord]

The Spirit Realm layer.

Dwarf Street's steam lighthouse cluster, inside a secret chamber room in the dark earth layer beneath one of the steam lighthouses.

Taku sat quietly in the corner, legs crossed.

In the room, there were five other Transcendents waiting just like Taku.

Darkness intermingled with viscous dark earth, like heavy water, could easily pollute and even seep into a Transcendent's physique, causing the Transcendent to distort and lose control.

And this was why ordinary Transcendents, even upon entering the Spirit Realm layer, only dared to stay in the lighthouse's safe zone, not daring to set foot on the ground that contained the Spirit Realm's dark earth.

But for Taku's current powerful Transcendent ecology,

staying year-round in this kind of environment posed no problem at all.

In the room, the one leading was the Steam Shadow Sorcerer Bevis Twain.

Besides him, there were two other Tier-4 Transcendents.

And three Tier-3 Transcendents, including Taku.

Compared to strength,

trustworthiness was the key to this underground treasure expedition conducted by the Dwarf family.

Of course, strength couldn't be too weak either.

Everyone gathered here had passed the assessment of the Steam Shadow Sorcerer Bevis Twain, so their strength was somewhat guaranteed.

At this moment, each of the six people in the room had brought a corresponding guarantor.

Baggin's magical scroll was being carried on Taku's back, and Baggin was among them.

It had to be said, the Dwarf family's methods were quite simple and straightforward.

Whoever participated, that participating dwarf would place his own life in the participant's hands.

If a participant betrayed them, they could easily kill the dwarf who had brought him into the group.

Whoever sowed the bitter fruit would be the first to taste it — simple, efficient, immediate retribution!

Taku, his form shrouded by the Shadow Ring Staff, silently comprehended the profound mysteries of the shadow runes while simultaneously scrutinizing the several people around him.

The two Tier-3 Transcendents.

One was a level-38 Wind Walker, whose speed stood out in a single word — fast!

The Wind Rune Blade in his hand — even from a great distance, Taku could sense the powerful gale force within it.

The other was a level-39 Steam Arcane Sorcerer.

Taku carefully searched through the threads of memory in his mind before confirming that this fellow was an arcane sorcerer prodigy from the Ramor Steam Spire, named "Karl Morris."

The two Tier-4 Transcendents farther away — a female Steam Assassin and a Radiant Knight.

Both were likewise extremely powerful existences.

Taku did not scrutinize them in detail.

Because the Tier-5 Steam Shadow Sorcerer Bevis Twain was right beside Taku, he didn't dare make too many moves.

Just now, when Taku had come over, this Tier-5 Steam Shadow Sorcerer had even chatted with Taku about the application of shadow power, giving Taku quite a few insights.

His gaze gradually swept over these teammates, and Taku gradually felt at ease.

There were teammates who ran slower than him.

This underground expedition was comparatively safe.

Sometimes, don't think of slow-running teammates as dead weight.

An extra front liner — isn't that nice?

As the group waited.

"Bzzz…"

An extremely subtle fluctuation rhythm transmitted from deep within the Spirit Realm's dark earth.

This subtle rhythm was nearly imperceptible, completely masked by the roar of the array flags.

Even Taku could only barely sense a little of it by relying on the innate ability of the Steam World Source Spirit Form.

"Has the battle of the experts underground begun?"

This time, it was the Three-Eye God Church and the lighthouse experts who brought "the Blasphemer Taku" to take the lead in advancing deep to draw fire.

After another period of time passed.

The fluctuation rhythm of the battle had clearly strengthened considerably, and Taku was already able to use the Precision Correction talent to see the subtle threads of the battle's fluctuations.

But the people waiting quietly here still hadn't noticed anything.

Until Taku could sense a slight fluctuation at the deeper source energy level.

Only then did the Steam Shadow Sorcerer Bevis Twain beside him slowly open his eyes.

"Has the battle deep underground… begun?" Bevis Twain pondered silently.

"Just as was said, this is a battle involving the Blasphemer Taku, so it will surely attract many experts to appear over there — even the Dark Sun Saint might appear there."

"Will this battle… be the one in which the Blasphemer Taku proclaims himself a God-Favored?"

After a moment's thought, Bevis Twain slowly reined in his mind.

"Everyone!"

A rich, mellow voice slowly rang out.

Everyone, including Taku, simultaneously opened their eyes.

"It's begun!"

Following Bevis Twain's words, everyone rose to their feet simultaneously.

Bevis Twain at the front approached a wall and pressed a single palm against it.

An obscure, low, and vast wondrous incantation was slowly chanted forth.

Steam source energy, shadow rune arcana, resonated in the surroundings and echoed with it.

The dwarven family built a treasure site in the underground sealed area.

They also left certain means.

That is, from the spirit realm layer of Dwarven Long Street here, one can open the gate to the spirit realm secret path, allowing everyone to jump in and quickly reach the area near the treasure site.

But during this time, gloom-sun power has eroded the spirit realm layer, mirror layer, dream layer, and shadow layer to varying degrees.

And this concealed passage happens to pass through all these strange layers.

Passing through quickly might encounter certain danger.

The time to test everyone's strength has arrived!

Not long after, a profound, vast, wide but bottomless layer descent channel appeared behind the secret path gate opened by Bevis Twain.

After Bevis Twain turned his head and his gaze swept over everyone, he spoke in a deep voice.

"Be careful, I'll clear the way for you first."

"If you haven't arrived in three minutes, I'll leave that place."

"If unfortunately two people fail to arrive, that also means this operation has failed."

Six people, six kinds of magic keys, but each dwarf dual-wields different keys.

Thus, even if one person unfortunately falls.

It won't hinder the others from opening.

But if two people fall, it declares the mission a failure.

After all, just losing two people during entry makes opening the treasure unnecessary.

The return route is far more difficult than the descent.

After saying that, Bevis Twain clasped his hands together, raised them, placed his thumbs together at his brow, made a hand-eye gesture, revered the divine eye, and chanted softly.

"May the great Three-Eyed God protect us!"

This is the lofty gesture ritual of praying to the Three-Eyed God.

Taku raised his eyebrows, not expecting this steam-shadow mage to also be a follower of the Three-Eyed God.

The others also immediately began performing the divine eye prayer.

Although Taku had agreed to bear the duty of divine scroll bearer for the Three-Eyed God Church.

But the rites, ritual forms, etc., of the Three-Eyed God Church are still somewhat unfamiliar to him.

He can only imitate what the others do.

After completing the brief divine eye prayer.

Bevis Twain directly jumped into the speed-descent layer realm secret path and quickly vanished.

The others also followed suit one after another.

And Taku was the last one to jump in.

Upon jumping in, the weightless sensation of the speed-descent quickly spread, and the layer's power continually burst forth around.

Taku descended while carefully examining the surrounding world.

This speed-descent channel slants and curves downward like a giant slide.

From the spirit realm layer, it quickly plunges into the dream realm layer.

Just as some bizarre dream-creature spotted Taku, he had already swiftly slipped past them.

Next came the mirror layer, where silhouettes similar to Taku appeared all around—front, back, up, down, left, right.

Not long after, the familiar shadow layer beneath Taku began to emerge.

As Taku continued to fall.

"Hiss—"

Accompanied by a low-pitched hiss.

An extremely ferocious, violent, brutal terrifying aura quickly spread.

The moment Taku landed in the shadow layer.

A massive "Shadow Magic Spider Lord" resembling an armored Taku vehicle imprinted itself in Taku's view.

"That's that shadow lord."

In an instant, Taku recognized it.

That Shadow Magic Spider Lord was the big guy that once chased the Shadowflame Magic Wolf everywhere.

Back then, Taku thought his strength wouldn't be enough to beat it; even if he could, the commotion would be huge, letting other powerful shadow-sequence beings take advantage, so he didn't bother.

He hadn't expected to encounter it this time while passing through the shadow layer.

And yet he ran into that big guy.

"Save me!"

At that moment, from the cluster of shadow spider silk wrapped in front of the Shadow Magic Spider.

A cry for help rang out desperately.

Taku's eyes twitched slightly, and his powerful vision flared.

But within that cluster of shadow spider silk, entwined was a level‑44 Steam Assassin, Annabelle.

Taku really didn't want to land and have the mission fail.

After all, Taku had digested everything; guaranteeing mission completion was still necessary.

With that thought, Taku's left hand gripping the staff burst forth with source energy instantly.

"Boom!"

An extremely intense healing holy light, accompanied by a not‑weak light rune arcana, crashed down upon the entwined shadow spider silk.

Intense light instantly illuminated the whole silent, oppressive shadow layer.