Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 134

135. White Spider

After hearing that other spirit stone mines had been attacked, they learned that the demonic cultivators weren’t immediately killing the captured cultivators but transferring them to the enemy’s rear. No one knew what they planned to do with the prisoners.

Considering the enemy’s skill in manipulating souls, the situation was even more unsettling. Therefore, surrender was only an option in truly unavoidable circumstances, and no one was willing to consider it.

“I know of an underground passage that leads to a place several tens of miles away from here, so we can escape through there,” Yeo Heung, who had been guarding this place for over a decade, suddenly mentioned calmly. Her words caused a stir among the group. Seonak and the other cultivators were initially surprised but soon became excited and spoke up.

“Yeo, is that really true?”

“That’s a relief! We can live!”

“A way to survive has opened up.”

* * *

The atmosphere, which had been filled with anxiety, suddenly became lively. Han Li was also pleased because he had no way to deal with the blue flames, and he saw no reason to risk his life defending this place.

At that moment, Seonak and Lye Cheonmong once again confirmed the existence of the underground passage with Yeo Heung and were contemplating whether to retreat.

There was no need to worry too much about the spirit stone mine. Even if the enemy destroyed it, it could be restored over time. Now, all they had to do was leave this place as quickly as possible.

Thus, 50 people, including Han Li, who were in charge of guarding the mine, entered the mine’s underground tunnel under Yeo Heung’s guidance. The moment they went underground, they could feel the entire canyon shaking.

“The Four Fiends Formation has been breached,” Seonak said expressionlessly, stating what everyone was thinking. At the same time, everyone’s pace quickened.

Inside the tunnel, thanks to the moonlight stones held by several cultivators, they could see the uneven walls. Judging by that, this underground tunnel seemed to have been artificially created.

According to Yeo Heung, this tunnel was originally a long vein of spirit stones.

As they dug into the ground and collected spirit stones, a long underground tunnel was formed, and finally, a passage was opened on the opposite side, marking the end of the collection.

However, because this passage was so long, it remained in Yeo Heung’s memory for a long time, and she suddenly remembered it today. If not for that, there would have been no way to escape, so it was truly fortunate.

‘Kururung’

But at that moment, the underground tunnel was engulfed in a tremendous light and began to collapse. Amidst the cultivators’ surprise, piles of dirt and rocks covered them, and soon the tunnel was filled with darkness.

* * *

‘Thud’

The stone wall of a natural cave in the underground world was broken through, creating a pit. Then, a lizard-shaped puppet came out, looked around, and went back into the hole. After a while, the lizard puppet stuck its head out again, but unlike before, there was a person crawling closely behind it. It was Han Li, who had survived the cave-in.

Han Li took out a moonlight stone from his pouch and looked around. This was a stalactite cave with openings on all sides.

The moment the underground tunnel collapsed and piles of dirt and rocks poured down, he quickly deployed a defensive barrier and barely survived.

However, he was swept away by the tremendous vibrations and piles of dirt, so he couldn’t tell where he was or which direction to go.

Han Li had no choice but to release the lizard puppets and send them in different directions. He hoped that at least one of them would find a way out.

He always sent the puppets ahead to scout the surroundings, and he crawled toward the safest-looking place through the passages they showed him.

After a long time, he came to a stalactite cave. It was truly fortunate that he had survived such a disaster.

He looked back at the passage he had just crawled out of. There must be others who survived the collapse of the underground tunnel. But he didn’t know if they could find a way out like he did.

However, even amidst his joy, he felt frustrated. How could the tunnel collapse the moment they entered it!

‘Could it be the work of the demonic cultivators?’

Han Li had a feeling that his guess was correct.

* * *

Above ground, the demonic cultivators were smashing the spirit stone mine, and they did not hesitate to shatter every magical artifact within the mine.

The yellow-robed old man, who was looking down from the sky, spoke to the red-clothed girl with a look of pity.

“Junior Sister Ryeong, to use a ‘Ground-Shaking Talisman’ [a talisman that causes earthquakes] just to catch the escapees, isn’t that a waste of a very rare mid-grade talisman!”

“Hmph! How dare they try to escape in front of me, Ryeong Bihwa? I can’t let them go so easily. Anyway, it was also my mission to damage this spirit stone mine, and I didn’t want to see them escape unscathed, so I did it.” The girl in front of him was the only daughter of the Demonic Flame Sect’s leader. As a mere Heavenly Fiend Sect protector, he couldn’t interfere.

After a while, the demonic cultivators, having completely destroyed the spirit stone mine, left the place and disappeared.

* * *

The next day, the same group appeared at a hidden herb cultivation site of the Seven Great Sects, quite far from there.

They not only took all the herbs and elixirs but also destroyed all the sprouts of the herbs with Azure Yang Demonic Fire [a powerful demonic flame].

When this matter reached the high-ranking officials of the Seven Great Sects, the attack on the spirit stone mine was pushed out of their minds.

Even if the mine was destroyed, it could be restored over time, but the spirit herbs were cultivated over decades.

The Seven Great Sects immediately gathered experts to hunt them down, but they were ambushed by those who were helping the group, and they suffered another setback. The Seven Great Sects were not ones to endure such humiliation. Naturally, a second large-scale battle between them and the Demonic Six Sects was foreshadowed.

Underground, Han Li, with his brow furrowed, finally found the entrance to a cave where the wind was blowing.

He first sent two puppets ahead, and he followed behind them. After passing through dozens of caves, the stalactite caves were gradually getting larger.

Just as he entered a new cave, he unexpectedly encountered seven cultivators, including Seonak, Lye Cheonmong, and Jong Oh. They were bewildered to see Han Li and the puppets around him. But as Seonak smiled and was about to say something, a desperate scream was suddenly heard.

Seonak and Lye Cheonmong exchanged glances and, without asking Han Li anything, ran toward the direction of the sound.

Han Li hesitated for a moment but eventually took out his white scale shield and slowly followed behind them.

However, he did not cast any defensive magic on his body because it would affect his agility and wind control technique. He always thought that in such confined spaces, agility was more important than a defensive barrier.

When they passed through three caves in a row and arrived at a huge stalactite cave, everyone was startled by the sight before them.

In the middle of the cave, a transparent white spider, several yards long, was tearing apart a bloody corpse.

Judging by the torn clothes of the corpse, it seemed to be a member of the Eomwol Sect, and magical artifacts were scattered around it.

What caught their attention even more was that behind the spider’s body, spirit stones surrounded a hexagonal teleportation array. On one side of the teleportation array, a five-colored skull was sitting cross-legged, floating in the air, holding a navy-blue spirit tablet in its hand.

“What is that?” a Qi Refining cultivator asked, swallowing hard. But perhaps the man’s voice had stimulated the spider, as it stopped what it was doing and looked at him with a chilling gaze.

The cultivators were startled and all prepared for battle. But after a while, the spider lowered its head again and began to devour the corpse, clearly ignoring them.

“Die!” An Eomwol Sect disciple, horrified that his fellow disciple was disappearing into the spider’s mouth, suddenly threw a flame-like dart.

At the same time, those with more sense, like Lye Cheonmong, cursed the reckless man in their hearts.

‘Clang!’

The dart surprisingly hit the spider’s head but bounced off without leaving any mark. The other cultivators lowered their gaze, following the falling dart.

“Attack all at once,” Seonak glared at the disciple who had created a dangerous situation and then signaled that they had no choice but to attack together.

This was because the spider had already stopped eating and was slowly crawling toward them.

As soon as the words were spoken, more than a dozen magical artifacts attacked the giant spider with various powerful auras. Among them was Han Li’s Golden Light Mother-Child Sword.

It seemed as if the spider would die in an instant, but after a while of collision sounds, the attacking magical artifacts began to lose their light. Some of the magical artifacts even lost their spiritual energy and fell to the ground. Han Li was shocked and immediately retrieved his magical artifacts to examine them.

The top-grade magical artifacts were fine, but the high-grade magical artifacts had severe defects, and the lower-grade magical artifacts had lost their spiritual energy.

And the white spider, which had reappeared, was smooth and uninjured all over, and it was slowly crawling toward them.

“Retreat!” Lye Cheonmong and Seonak shouted as if they had made a promise. Although both of them had a thought after seeing the teleportation array and the spirit tablet, it was a priority to avoid the demonic beast first. But as they tried to escape, the white spider’s mouth opened and a white liquid was ejected.

“No!” Han Li shouted without realizing it, as a thought flashed through his mind. The others were startled by his shout but did not understand his intention.

The liquid suddenly turned into a giant spider web and covered the entrance they were trying to break out of.

In an instant, they were trapped. Only then did the cultivators, their faces changing, realize that the exit was blocked.

“Is it possible that it’s trying to wipe us all out?” Jong Oh said, his face turning pale. Seonak did not answer and immediately shot eight flames from his hand at the densely packed spider web.

‘Pabababang!’

Despite the continuous explosions of flames, the spider web did not change. The cultivators were all surprised. In an instant, the spider bent its legs and launched its entire body. Judging by the direction, it seemed to be colliding with Seonak. Seonak’s face hardened, and he took out a yellow talisman and attached it to his body. Soon, the talisman seeped into him.

At the same time, a huge stone spike appeared in front of him and flew toward the spider’s abdomen, pushing the spider all the way to the cave ceiling.

“That’s it!” Lye Cheonmong praised, looking pleased. Then, he took out a dark green leather pouch and tried to emit a sunset glow toward the spider on the cave ceiling. At this moment, the spider, which was hanging in the air, made a strange sound and gathered all its legs on its abdomen, grabbing the stone spike.

‘Pasasak!’

As it exerted force and shook, the huge stone spike on its abdomen was easily broken. And when the spider, which had regained its freedom, landed on the ground, its two eyes glowed green, as if it was very angry. The spider, having bounced its body again, rushed at the cultivators again.

At that moment, a beam of light shot out from the prepared pouch and covered the spider floating in the air like lightning. Surprisingly, it shrank in size and was sucked into the green leather pouch. Han Li and the other cultivators, who were watching from the side, were startled. They couldn’t believe that such a difficult demonic beast had been captured at once. Lye Cheonmong also had a happy expression.

His Sun and Moon Pouch had great power and had captured many demonic beasts so far, but it was unexpected that he had captured the spider so smoothly.

However, he soon became too happy. If he could tame this demonic beast smoothly, his actual combat ability could increase several times over.

Without delay, he immediately tried to retrieve the green pouch, and under his gaze, the pouch slowly flew toward him.
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