novelraw Chapter 81 : Black Widow
Chapter 81 : Black Widow
"You know sword formations? Little Junior Sister, where did you learn sword formations?" Not only did others not believe it, even her biggest fan Tantai Ming didn't believe it one bit.
The Lingqing Sect's texts on sword formations were also kept on the top three floors of the library. The sect leader and elders absolutely forbade disciples from going up there on their own!
Oh, forgot, their sect's leader and elders had all run away QWQ.
Chu Sang: "I've read all the books on the lower six floors of the sect to shreds. When I was bored, I went to the top three floors to look."
After all, with no sect leader or elders to stop her, she could browse the library as she pleased.
Of course, to be honest, she had only browsed there twice.
After all, given her current strength and cultivation realm, the books on the top three floors of the library were at minimum for Nascent Soul realm cultivators, with extremely abstruse and difficult content.
At her current level, it was truly difficult to comprehend the deeper meanings within. Even if she could memorize the sword formation contents with her superior memory, she couldn't use them.
But before entering the secret realm, after two months of sweet tutoring from Senior Sister, the vague sword formation in her mind gradually took on a clearer shape.
Unfortunately, there weren't many sword cultivators in the sect, so she never had a chance to use it.
Now with exactly six people, she could give it a try.
"Even if you know sword formations, this method is too risky. Even Nascent Soul realm cultivators might not fully control a sword formation, let alone you who's only at the Golden Core stage!" Qiu Xiude questioned. "What confidence do you have that you can use a sword formation without being instantly obliterated by it?"
"Confidence?" Chu Sang stroked her sword and sighed. "I've always been very confident in myself."
"Believe in me, and gain eternal life." She naturally took on the role of controller for everyone, one foot stepping on a rock. "Those willing, follow me and listen to my commands."
The Tianyan Sect disciples all took a deep breath, their temples throbbing. This person... was truly hopelessly arrogant!
But at present, apart from believing in her, there seemed to be no other path to choose.
—Die ingloriously swallowed by a demon beast, or fight to the death for a chance at survival.
Everyone present knew in their hearts which path to take.
As their gazes met and quickly dispersed, Ling Yu, as the strongest sword cultivator, went to attract the Black Lizard King's attention. The remaining six sword cultivators sealed off the six positions of the formation.
The most important life gate and death gate were guarded by Chu Sang and Mo Qingchen respectively.
Pouring all their spiritual power into their long swords, the swords resonated, and the sword formation began to take shape!
But at this moment, an unexpected change occurred—
Two disciples with lower cultivation simply couldn't withstand the formation's overwhelming killing intent and were about to collapse. The others were also somewhat lacking in spiritual energy, finding it difficult to continue supporting and consolidating the sword formation.
Chu Sang swiftly threw a recovery talisman to each of the two weakest sword cultivators. One hand continued to lay out the formation with her sword, while the other hand drew a spirit-gathering formation in the air, covering the ground beneath everyone's feet.
Everyone felt their dry dantians suddenly flooded with a large amount of spiritual energy. Their hands gripping the swords regained strength, and the sword lights blazed brightly!
They had no time to be amazed that Chu Sang could lay out formations with both hands simultaneously. They only heard the young woman give the command, and in an instant, tens of thousands of sword shadows descended together.
The sword cries reached the heavens, light blazing brilliantly,
As if the sky had been forcibly torn open!
With the Black Lizard King's mental capacity, it couldn't perceive their intentions. It only felt these insects were particularly annoying. After experiencing the pain of losing its tail and tongue, it became even more irritated and wanted to kill. It directly charged at them with its body.
"Boom!!"
The terrifying spiritual energy explosion turned all trees within several miles to ash, kicking up a cloud of debris and dust. Flying sand and stones mixed with the poisonous miasma, darkening heaven and earth.
As the dust settled, a crater several meters deep appeared on the ground. Chu Sang's face was solemn and cold as she leaped down, delivering the final blow to the immobilized Black Lizard King!
It was finally dead!
Everyone collapsed on the ground, their hearts letting out a huge sigh of relief.
"What are you still standing there for? Hurry up and leave!"
With the beast king dead, the barrier it had set up here had vanished. This foul-smelling poison gas made people eager to leave quickly. Qiu Xiude turned his head to see Chu Sang still standing in place.
Chu Sang pulled out an arm-length blade, unhurriedly dismembering the Black Lizard King.
Judging by how skillfully she handled it, this wasn't her first time doing this.
She muttered to herself, "This demon beast's armor is quite good. Hmm, very sturdy, even spirit swords can barely cleave it. After peeling it off and refining it into protective armor, it should be pretty good..."
"This meat is too sour and smelly, don't want it, throw it away."
"This long tongue is interesting, can extend and retract at will, good for both offense and defense. I'll refine it into a flexible sword and give it to Fourth Senior Sister later!"
"And this row of poison glands on the back, should be what it used to spray poison gas. Dig them out, can refine some hidden weapons. Then when I see someone I don't like, I can just use one..."
Hearing this, everyone felt a chill. "......" Too terrifying.
As the old saying goes, provoke anyone but don't provoke that abnormal Chu Sang.
After defeating the Black Lizard King, the system gave her another ten points, snatched from Seventh Senior Brother.
Chu Sang deduced it was probably because she had prevented the Blood-Weeping Sword. After all, she had guessed before that Tantai Ming's descent into darkness in the original story was inseparable from this evil sword.
The urgent matter now was to find the other separated senior brothers and sisters. She thought for a moment and decided to add these ten points to her luck, manually transforming into a child of fortune.
[Physical Constitution: 15, Comprehension: 39, Aptitude: 6, Luck: 17]
After walking for a few hours, Chu Sang found Wen Renyue in a forest.
She had coincidentally fallen together with Shen Rufei, and the two were fighting a late Golden Core stage Forest Rain Scorpion.
Before completely depleting the opponent's health, Wen Renyue threw out a high-grade beast pouch. With a "biu~" flash of light, she successfully captured the scorpion beast.
Chu Sang widened her eyes curiously like a baby: Wow! Pokémon!
She also wanted to be a beast tamer, directly summoning without having to do things herself.
Hearing footsteps from this direction, Wen Renyue saw them and immediately ran over with a delighted expression. "Little Junior Sister, are you all alright! I wanted to find you, but these demon beasts are truly unpredictable and impossible to guard against. I couldn't walk two steps before one would pop out. It's so annoying!"
"We're fine, it's just that those we encountered... had some issues," Ling Yu smiled.
"Third Senior Sister, you really missed out. We just blew up a Late Nascent Soul stage beast king!" Tantai Ming howled, wishing the whole world could know about his handsome and heroic side.
Wen Renyue: "...Huh?"
A Late Nascent Soul stage beast king, did she hear that right?
Her doubtful gaze turned to Little Junior Sister, who confidently nodded, "Not to brag, but it was all thanks to me."
Wen Renyue took a deep breath and gave a thumbs up. "Impressive."
"Third Senior Sister, have you seen any other senior brothers and sisters?" Chu Sang asked.
Wen Renyue shook her head. "Don't even mention it. When I woke up, I was in this deep mountain forest. I opened my eyes and was faced with a pig's head that almost ate me. To calm my frightened heart, I roasted that wild boar for dinner that night."
Then, she glanced dissatisfied at Shen Rufei beside her, arms crossed. "And then I ran into this guy."
Without a doubt, not only had the Lingqing Sect lost contact, but the Beast Taming Sect's group had also been scattered by that storm.
The secret realm was too dangerous, so the two had joined forces. With demon beasts emerging endlessly, Wen Renyue and Shen Rufei were already exhausted from fighting all the way. Then they encountered this particularly troublesome Rain Forest Scorpion beast. It took a herculean effort to finally subdue it.
"Let me tell you, your Subduing Ferocity Tune just now was terrible. The demon beast didn't even react when it heard it. Is this what they call the Beast Taming Sect's top disciple?" Wen Renyue perfectly demonstrated what it means to change face in an instant, sarcastically digging at him without mercy. "If I hadn't run fast enough just now, I would have been completely ruined by you!"
"The situation was urgent, and my spiritual energy was exhausted. I couldn't control it well for a moment. Sorry." The Beast Taming Sect's top disciple had only come of age two years ago and rarely went out for solo training. This was his first time encountering such a thorny and dangerous situation, and he struggled to handle it comprehensively for a moment.
"Never mind that, your natal spirit beast isn't all that great either. It has Qinglong bloodline, yet it had no suppressing effect on the demon beasts in this secret realm."
"Qingyu was injured a few days ago and hasn't fully recovered yet. I'm really sorry."
"......" The other's good temper made Wen Renyue feel a bit embarrassed. She muttered softly, "He really hasn't improved much since before."
Shen Rufei glanced at her. "What?"
"Nothing, nothing. My junior sister and the others have arrived, so I won't be teaming up with you anymore." Wen Renyue waved goodbye and left.
Shen Rufei let out a sigh of relief. He didn't want to be with this hot-tempered female cultivator either. Though appearing gentle and courteous, he came from a prestigious family. As a favored child of heaven, he was both proud and arrogant, disliking being pressured by others.
Once at the Great Beast Taming Competition.
This time was... the second time.
Wen Renyue didn't know that after this secret realm, Shen Rufei went into closed-door cultivation for another half year.
The remaining most vulnerable senior brothers and sisters had all suddenly lost contact for some reason. Not only could the jade bracelet not sense their location, but even the communication jade disc seemed to have lost signal, unable to connect.
Chu Sang tried several times without response, until finally, on the last attempt, Mu Chihuai's side transmitted an intermittent voice, "We're... here... Cliff Valley..."
"Beep beep—"
"Sixth Senior Brother, Sixth Senior Brother, hello, can you still hear me?" Chu Sang grabbed the jade disc, but evidently, the other side had completely lost connection.
She turned her head to look at the other three with equally grim expressions. "It seems Fifth Senior Brother, Sixth Senior Brother, and Fifth Senior Sister are together and have encountered trouble. We need to hurry over there!"
"Cliff Valley?" Ling Yu repeated twice, taking out a scroll map and saying softly with lowered eyes, "I remember now. It's in the southeast direction, about a hundred li from us. Look."
A hundred li wasn't far for cultivators. They flew on their swords towards Cliff Valley. This area was quite vast, with lush mountains and forests. Trying to find the three of them would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"They must have encountered some powerful demon beast, forcing them to cut off communication." Chu Sang held several round little objects between her fingers, smiling. "Since we can't find them, let's have them find us."
The seemingly ordinary spheres were thrown by her into the valley below.
The next second, a thunderous boom swept across the entire area.
Handguns were so useful, of course other hot weapons had to be included. During this time, Chu Sang had improved and developed quite a few other strange things, such as landmines, bombs, and the like.
She hadn't found a chance to test their power before. This time gave her a space to display them.
One explosion after another broke the tranquility of the valley.
At the bottom of the valley, near a hidden cave, Mu Chihuai, Su Chen'an, and Changsheng—the three most vulnerable ones—were gathered together, tied to stone pillars by silvery spider webs, unable to move.
Besides the three of them, Zhao Yun and his group of weak tool refiners had also fallen into the trap.
Everyone being tied up together, they looked at each other, feeling strangely comforted.
Suddenly, the earth shook and mountains trembled. This terrifying disturbance of collapsing mountains and flying rocks made their hearts extremely uneasy.
What's going on?
Is the secret realm collapsing??
"Look up at the sky, there are several human figures. Who's that red-clothed one in the lead... Holy crap, Chu Sang?" Zhao Yun shouted.
He knew this ghostly disturbance must have been caused by that person!
Changsheng and the others were deeply moved. Wuwu, Little Junior Sister had come to save them, but with this indiscriminate commotion, was she trying to blow up the demon beasts along with them?
The three senior brothers and sisters were very fragile. Weren't they afraid of friendly fire??
"Hiss hiss~"
A giant spider, a full three meters tall, darted out from the cave. The spider's lower half was beast-like, while the upper half was human-shaped—a beautiful, fiery woman. Her three thousand strands of dark hair set off her cold and striking features. Unfortunately, her face was twisted with anger, appearing somewhat hideous and frightening.
Silver-white silk threads shot violently towards the sky!
"Damn, it can attack even at that height?" Tantai Ming was startled. After being tempered by that Late Nascent Soul stage Black Lizard King, his dodging skills had been maxed out.
This spider was also a Nascent Soul stage demon beast. Although its strength was slightly inferior to that Late Nascent Soul stage Black Lizard King, its spider silk was even more troublesome.
"Dark Spirit Thread Hundred Spider, this is a rare demon beast. I didn't expect it to have cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage." Chu Sang clicked her tongue. "I've heard the spider silk is tough and unbreakable, as hard as cold iron, unbreakable even by fire. It's an external refining material sought after at high prices. If it could be used on a sword..."
While the spider beast was planning which part of her body to bite first,
Chu Sang had already made her calculations about the other party.
She grinned, "I'm coming down!"
"Hey, Little Junior Sister, don't rush down there to your death!" In the air, they still had some fighting power, but down there was the spider's territory. With the spider web spread out, none of them could escape.
Tantai Ming scratched his head and also drew his sword to follow.
The Tianyan Sect group was relatively calm, though somewhat hesitant.
None of their disciples were trapped below, so they had no need to get involved in this matter. But they had just received help from Chu Sang's group, so it wouldn't be right to ignore the situation. They also went down to help.
This Black Widow was a late Nascent Soul stage demon beast. A group of fragile Golden Core stage cultivators rushing over would only be serving themselves up on a platter.
Spider webs covered all four sides. One careless move and they would be entangled in the webs, let alone trying to deploy a sword formation.
After just a few rounds, basically everyone had fallen into the trap. Mo Qingchen, who had just broken through to early Nascent Soul stage, held out for a few more rounds, but that was all. Silver-white pearl webs swept in from behind, hanging the young man upside down, making him drop his sword.
Mo Qingchen had never suffered such humiliation before. His face looked very unpleasant.
Chu Sang, who had been strung up before him, greeted him warmly, "Hi, you're here too."
Zhao Yun shouted, "What are you guys doing?"
Seeing that grand and imposing formation, he thought they had come to rescue them. But before even half an incense stick's time had passed, they had delivered themselves here.
How unlucky!