Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 244: The Spider Demoness

"ROAR!"

With a rasping, inhuman shriek, the humanoid creatures surged forward like a tide.

"Target the heart — priority!"

Liang Yuzhi let out a low shout, shield in one hand and enchanted sapper shovel in the other, and plowed straight into the mass like a bulldozer — still in nothing but ordinary clothes.

Even so, the ferocity of her assault left Li Wei genuinely awed.

A half-dead powerhouse was still a powerhouse.

Zhao Xuanxuan followed right behind her — Liang Yuzhi seemed to deliberately leave the space at her back for Zhao Xuanxuan to fill.

She moved like a tigress, dual-wielding iron hammers in a steady, rhythmic cadence. Not a single swing wasted. She wasn't relying on brute force — she was using momentum to accelerate, her body only making micro-adjustments. It conserved stamina while maximizing impact.

Of course, without Liang Yuzhi up front with the tower shield clearing the path, Zhao Xuanxuan's rhythm would have been shattered instantly.

Li Wei spread out in a line with the five Freemen, their role to stab with iron spears — mowing through the creatures like harvesting grain.For Li Wei, this was nothing. The real concern was the five Freemen. Facing what had once been their neighbors and loved ones, their resolve was shaken — and it showed. But it didn't matter, because Li Wei was there to compensate.

Once the five Freemen found their rhythm — spear thrusts coordinated, movements firm and steady — Li Wei stepped back, drew the Three-Star War Bow, grabbed three hardwood arrows, and held ready, surveying the whole field.

Wherever there was a gap, an arrow filled it.

Beyond that, he focused on easing the pressure on Zhao Xuanxuan — or more precisely, creating the optimal attack environment for her. By actively reducing the number of creature corpses cluttering the space around her, he gave her room to chain three-hit combos, five-hit combos.

Like a support player setting up kills.

This was Li Wei's strength — and Zhao Xuanxuan's weakness. But combat experience was just a matter of getting your hands, eyes, and body familiar with it.

The effect was solid. Zhao Xuanxuan genuinely found her groove. The hammer flew, each strike ringing out crisp and clean. She felt like she wasn't fighting at all — more like performing a carefully choreographed dance, moving to the rhythm, the hammer an extension of her will, striking exactly where she aimed.

When the creature count dropped low enough, Li Wei stowed the bow and focused on recovering stamina, trailing behind the five Freemen with a two-star wooden spear, doing just enough to look useful.

As the last of the hundreds of creatures were about to be finished off, a far louder roar echoed from deep within the cave, accompanied by massive tremors — as if something enormous was on its way.

In the faint remaining light, Li Wei caught a glimpse of what emerged from the depths: a monstrous spider over three meters tall, its bulk roughly the size of a cargo van.

The reason it was monstrous was this: from the top of the spider's body grew the upper half of a human woman, the two forms fused together. Whatever force had created this was beyond comprehension. The ancients had their snake-women — now here was a spider-woman.

"A Spider Demoness? Of all the rotten luck."

Liang Yuzhi muttered from the front, driving the enchanted sapper shovel into the last creature's chest. She stepped back a few paces, breathing hard.

Li Wei was genuinely shaken — but not panicked. He immediately stepped forward to stand beside Liang Yuzhi in the front line. This was not the moment to rely on anyone else.

And he strongly suspected this might be a five-star mutated creature.

But just then, the half-woman atop the great spider opened her mouth. Her voice was clear and melodious, achingly beautiful.

"I've hidden myself all the way down here. Why do you still hunt me? This cave is a hundred meters underground — when the radiation storm comes, it barely touches me. I have no desire to hurt you. Why? Tell me why."

What?

A mutated creature with this level of coherent reasoning?

Li Wei stared, but didn't let his guard drop for a single instant. The half-woman's gaze swept across the group — and suddenly landed on Xavier. Her expression lit up with delight.

"Xavier? Is that you? You finally came back to see me. I've missed you so much."

"Lucia — it's you. It really is you!"

Xavier at the back suddenly burst into tears. Apparently they knew each other. But the next second, Liang Yuzhi's hand shot out like lightning and knocked him unconscious with a single chop. Blood tears were already streaming from Xavier's eyes — whatever had been done to him was clearly no ordinary trick.

"Enough talk. You were human once — but that's fine. We'll let you rest. Li Wei. Move."

Liang Yuzhi barked the order — and almost simultaneously, Li Wei switched to his Tracker title. Because he'd heard the Spider Demoness's call too. So beautiful, so enchanting —

"Li Wei. Is that you? You finally came back to see me. I've missed you so much."

In that moment, Li Wei's heart was suddenly filled with an unbearable ache, beyond words. He almost opened his mouth to speak. He felt as though he remembered everything — him and Lucia in Valley Town, tender and sweet, so beautiful. And now that beauty was about to be restored —

CLANG.

Suddenly, it felt like a hammer had struck the inside of his skull. Blood from all seven orifices, chaos, something spiraling out of control.

But it was fine. More than fine.

Because Li Wei had switched to the Tracker title. Yes — the moment Liang Yuzhi deliberately called out his name, Li Wei had understood in an instant.

No — he'd understood even before that.

A creature this strange, and Liang Yuzhi had been dropping hints the entire time.

First: muttering that it was a spellcaster.

Second: muttering that it was a Spider Demoness.

Third: knocking Xavier unconscious.

Yes — to anyone else in that moment, those might have seemed like trivial, irrelevant details.

But Liang Yuzhi was a veteran who could cross dimensions. She didn't say irrelevant things in the middle of a fight.

Without question, by the time they'd finished off those hundred-plus flying spiders in the town, Liang Yuzhi had already figured out what they were dealing with. The reason she hadn't said it outright was that this creature had intelligence — even a hint of forewarning might have sent it fleeing.

And Li Wei had also sensed, by then, that this was something different from the Rat King, the giant crocodile, or even the Ability Users they'd faced. This wasn't a dungeon — so why send minions in waves instead of charging all at once? The only explanation was that it was deliberately draining their stamina.

So when the second wave of creatures appeared, Liang Yuzhi had taken point with the shield while Li Wei deliberately fell back. It looked like he was setting up Zhao Xuanxuan's attack environment — but in reality he was recovering stamina. His Three-Star War Bow shots were barely drawn at all, just enough to hit targets ten meters away. How much stamina could that possibly cost?

In short — as much as he hated to admit it, Li Wei and Liang Yuzhi had actually developed a genuine combat synergy.

As for what would have happened if he hadn't caught on?

Well — the Pioneering Card holder dies, the branch fails. But Liang Yuzhi would still have had one last chance to kill the Spider Demoness and claim the Universal Gold Card for herself.

Right now, Li Wei was on his knees. His Stamina had been at 300 — now it was down to 180. Even with the Tracker title active and Perception +3, he'd still been under the Spider Demoness's control for a full twelve seconds.

The others?

They were fighting. He could hear Liang Yuzhi shouting commands, could hear the Spider Demoness's piercing shrieks. So its ability was something like a boss targeting mechanic — whoever it targeted had their mind seized and their soul drained as a meal.

So Li Wei had essentially served as a mental-tank, absorbing the hit?

Not only had he broken the boss's cast, but he'd apparently thrown it into a temporary frenzy?

As these realizations surfaced in his mind, he was largely recovered. He still had 4 Spiritual Power remaining — more than enough for a fight.

Worth noting: his Tracker title had automatically deactivated. Some kind of defensive mechanism, apparently.

BOOM.

A massive impact rang out, followed by the teeth-grinding shriek of metal being cut. Li Wei could finally see clearly.

Liang Yuzhi's tower shield had been pierced clean through by one of the great spider's specialized limbs.

What kind of material was that limb made of?

It had even punched a hole through Liang Yuzhi's thigh.

But she was shouting.

"The hammer! The hammer!"

Before the words were out, Zhao Xuanxuan's silhouette flashed forward. She leaped high into the air, iron hammer raised, and brought it down with everything she had on the joint of that monstrous limb.

CRACK.

A thunderous impact. The grotesque limb snapped in two. Liang Yuzhi, already battered by the successive hits, let out a cry and was flung backward.

Almost simultaneously, the Spider Demoness released a far more agonized, ear-splitting, unearthly howl.

Santiago and another Freeman tried to charge in and finish it off — their timing was actually decent. But that howl was not something a normal person could endure. It hit like a mental shockwave.

In an instant, both of them dropped their spears in agony, clutching their heads and rolling on the ground.

Even Zhao Xuanxuan couldn't withstand it — she dropped her hammer, covered her ears, blood pouring from all seven orifices, face twisted in pain.

The great spider had already begun retreating rapidly into the deeper tunnels, as if that severed limb had been its core — losing it had broken something fundamental.

Li Wei was farther back, so the howl hit him slightly less hard. Even so, his mind went blank. His remaining 4 Spiritual Power was immediately reduced by 1.

But 3 was still enough. He staggered to his feet, switched to the Dog Butcher title, and lurched forward in pursuit. The first few seconds he moved like a drunk — then he snapped back to normal. He drew the Bloodthirsty War Spear and accelerated, eyes locked on the Spider Demoness. He was almost on it — when the creature suddenly spun around and unleashed another howl directly at him.

In an instant, Li Wei's vision blurred. Another point of Spiritual Power burned away. But he still had 2 left. Grinding through the searing headache, fighting down the violent nausea churning through his body, he completed the throw of the Bloodthirsty War Spear in the next second — with perfect, unwavering form.

THUD.

The Bloodthirsty War Spear punched clean through the Spider Demoness's abdomen.

Not the head. Not the heart. The abdomen — the junction where the woman's body met the spider's.

That was where its second life core was.

Everything above was a decoy.

As for its first life core — that was the extraordinary, near-indestructible, tower-shield-piercing limb.

The spear thrown, Li Wei was nearly spent. The cost had been enormous — especially the Spider Demoness's howls, which functioned like pure mental shockwaves. Viciously effective.

But the next second, the great spider's corpse dissolved into wisps of black smoke and dispersed. In its place lay a Universal Gold Card, radiant as sunrise clouds.

Slightly lower quality than the one from the five-star Ability User in the underground base — it only had two life cores, after all.

But still excellent.