Chapter 689: Stalemate at the Poison Miasma Altar

Marcus didn’t waste any time on the second underground level and headed straight for the third. Fortunately, the underground structure beneath the Shrine of the Spider Demoness wasn’t nearly as convoluted as an actual spiderweb, so navigating it wasn’t particularly difficult.

He followed the brightly lit passage, taking a few sharp turns along the way and killing any monsters unfortunate enough to cross his path. After roughly two hours of traveling, he finally reached the entrance to the third underground level.

"Enter!"

The two Sea Demon Souls and Pebble went in first to scout the area. Only after confirming that there was no immediate danger did Marcus lead the rest of his pets inside, descending a flight of floating stone steps into the depths below.

Whoosh!

The scenery shifted in an instant, and a vast plaza stretched out before him. The space was so enormous that its farthest reaches were difficult to make out, and the ground was riddled with countless bottomless pits. Wisps of soft black energy drifted out of each one, curling and twisting through the air like strands of smoke.

What in the world was this place?

Fortunately, Marcus remembered what Insight had told him earlier. This region was saturated with yin-soft energy, which was precisely why the Spider Demoness had chosen to build her shrine here in the first place. Whatever else this place might conceal, its unusual environment was clearly no accident.

Curious, Marcus used Insight on the drifting black energy.

—

Poison Miasma: A peculiar form of true energy that wells up from deep within the earth. It contains potent poison and possesses an exceptionally cold, tenacious nature. The Spider Demoness prized this energy and constructed her shrine and underground lair here so she could cultivate her demonic arts by drawing upon it.

—

So this was the source of the Spider Demoness’s power.

Marcus swept his gaze across the surroundings, trying to get his bearings. Unfortunately, there was practically nothing to see. Apart from the stone steps he’d just descended, the entire area was an endless expanse of flat ground.

There were no walls, no landmarks, and not a single monster in sight. The only distinctive features were the countless black pits scattered across the plaza and the strands of poison miasma rising from them.

There wasn’t even anything that could serve as a reference point to help him determine which direction he’d come from. It was like drifting through an endless sea without a compass, with nothing but identical scenery stretching in every direction.

A maze.

Anyone else would probably have wandered around until they were thoroughly lost, then spent hours cursing their bad luck. With no monsters to fight and no landmarks to follow, even a patient player would eventually lose their temper.

Marcus, however, wasn’t about to let a little inconvenience get in his way.

"Eagle’s Vision!"

The Seven-Colored Divine Eagle perched on his shoulder immediately shone with brilliant prismatic light. As its ability took effect, Marcus noticed something he hadn’t been able to distinguish with his naked eye.

The poison miasma drifting through the air wasn’t moving randomly. Its faint, barely perceptible strands were slowly flowing in a consistent direction, forming an invisible current across the otherwise featureless plaza.

There was the path!

His Divine Beast had found a way to navigate the maze.

"Not bad, Little Eagle!"

Marcus reached up and affectionately patted the eagle’s head. Without its ability, he would never have noticed the subtle movement of the poison miasma, let alone figured out which direction he needed to follow. In a place where everything looked exactly the same, such a seemingly insignificant detail could make all the difference.

Once again, his Divine Beasts had proven just how valuable they were. Their abilities weren’t merely useful in combat. Sometimes, the right skill could save him hours of pointless wandering or help him overcome an obstacle that brute force alone couldn’t solve.

"All right, let’s move!"

Marcus spurred Blackie forward, following the direction in which the poison miasma flowed. The journey turned out to be far more tedious than he’d anticipated, however.

For the next four hours, they traveled through a winding route filled with sharp turns, twists, and seemingly endless stretches of identical terrain. It felt less like crossing a plaza and more like navigating an enormous spiderweb with no visible end.

The scenery never changed. Aside from the stone steps behind them eventually disappearing from view, everything remained exactly the same: the flat gray ground, the countless black pits, and the faint strands of poison miasma drifting through the air.

"Damn, this place really knows how to test someone’s patience."

Marcus couldn’t help shaking his head. ’Thank the gods for the Seven-Colored Divine Eagle’s maze-piercing ability.’ Without it, he would have had no way of knowing whether he was heading in the right direction or simply wandering around in circles.

Spending hours trudging through an empty landscape without encountering a single monster or finding anything of interest would have been enough to make anyone question whether they were making progress at all.

Still, there was no point complaining. He’d come this far, and he wasn’t about to turn back now.

Onward.

Another two hours passed before the poison miasma began to change. The black strands drifting through the air grew noticeably denser, and their movement became faster, as though an invisible force were drawing them toward a common destination. Marcus followed the increasingly obvious current, and before long, a white circular platform emerged from the gray expanse ahead.

Faint figures and flashes of light could be seen on its surface.

He’d finally found it!

After six hours of navigating that seemingly endless maze, Marcus was more than ready to put an end to the journey. The moment he spotted the platform, his spirits lifted. At least now he had something concrete to work toward.

The area around the platform was completely exposed, with no convenient hiding places anywhere in sight. Marcus wasn’t about to charge in recklessly, though.

He first set a Wanderlust teleport point at a distance, giving himself a reliable way to return if things went wrong. Then he dismissed all his pets except the two Sea Demon Souls and Pebble, keeping only the companions he wanted nearby as he approached the unknown situation ahead.

With everything prepared, he urged Blackie forward.

As they drew closer, the platform’s structure and the figures standing on it gradually came into focus. It was roughly half the size of a football field, surrounded by an endless expanse of flat ground punctuated by black pits.

From the way the poison miasma converged upon it from every direction, Marcus suspected that the platform was the central point of the third underground level.

At its center stood a strange black iron stone.

All the poison miasma flowing across the plaza seemed to be drawn toward the stone, gathering around it before being absorbed into its surface. The process continued without interruption, as though the stone were an enormous reservoir capable of swallowing an endless supply of energy.

Marcus had no idea what the object was or what purpose it served. He made a mental note to investigate it later, provided he got the chance.

For now, the figures on the platform demanded his attention.

One of them was a massive, two-headed wolf that stood taller than a grown man. Its imposing build and savage appearance made it look more like a ferocious tiger-lion than an ordinary wolf.

One of its heads radiated scorching red flames, while the other exuded a chilling blue mist. Even its fur seemed to reflect the two opposing elements, with the red patches burning like fire and the blue ones crackling with frost.

There was no mistaking it. The Divine Beast, Ice-Fire Howling Wolf!

Marcus’s heart skipped a beat.

He’d been wondering what had happened to the Ice-Fire Howling Wolf that had hunted Lady Silvia and the Roaring Tiger Squad. The creature had disappeared, leaving him without a clear idea of where it had gone or what it had been doing. He’d never expected to stumble upon it here, of all places.

His first reaction was a mixture of surprise and apprehension.

Ugh. This was going to be a problem.

With a Divine Beast like that standing in his way, rescuing Lady Silvia was going to be considerably more difficult than he’d hoped. Marcus wasn’t foolish enough to assume that his newly evolved Yin-Yang Giant Panda could simply overpower another Divine Beast, especially when he hadn’t yet had a chance to test its new abilities in a serious battle.

Fortunately, the situation wasn’t quite what it appeared to be at first glance.

As Marcus studied the platform more carefully, he noticed that the Ice-Fire Howling Wolf wasn’t standing alone. Four strange spider-like humanoids surrounded it, each roughly the size of a large dog. Their bodies resembled those of spiders, with eight spiderlike limbs extending from their torsos, yet each possessed the face of a woman.

The sight was unsettling, to say the least.

More importantly, the four creatures weren’t merely standing guard. They were actively restraining the Ice-Fire Howling Wolf, and the Divine Beast was fighting desperately to break free.

Neither side seemed capable of gaining the upper hand.

The wolf was bound by a white silk scarf that glowed with an eerie black light. The scarf had been wound around its body five times, leaving it tightly restrained despite its enormous strength.

Red flames and blue frost surged from its two heads in alternating bursts, and the resulting elemental energy battered the silk relentlessly as the wolf struggled to tear itself free.

The ground around it trembled beneath the force of its attacks, while waves of heat and cold swept across the platform.

Yet the scarf refused to break.

Every time the silk appeared close to tearing, one of the four spider humanoids would open its mouth and spit out a sphere of black light resembling the poison miasma drifting through the plaza.

The moment the sphere struck the scarf, the silk would tighten again, as though it possessed a life of its own, restoring its grip on the wolf and undoing all the progress the Divine Beast had made.

The process repeated itself over and over.

The Ice-Fire Howling Wolf would unleash its flames and frost, gradually weakening the bindings, only for the spider humanoids to reinforce the scarf with their black energy before it could finally break free. Neither side could defeat the other, and neither seemed able to end the stalemate.

Marcus watched the exchange with growing interest. Whatever that white silk scarf was, it clearly wasn’t an ordinary item. Not only could it restrain a Divine Beast, but it could also withstand repeated attacks from two opposing elemental forces. The fact that the four spider humanoids could continuously reinforce it with poison miasma made the situation even more intriguing.

And if he was lucky, he might be able to turn their deadlock to his advantage. A fisherman reaping the benefits while two sides fought over their prey. That was the first thought that came to Marcus’s mind.

His heart began to race. If he played his cards right, he might be able to take advantage of the situation without having to fight the Ice-Fire Howling Wolf head-on. There was no guarantee that things would go his way, of course, but with both sides occupied, this was an opportunity worth considering.

However, just as Marcus was weighing his options, another figure on the platform caught his attention. Slender and graceful, she stood apart from the others, her presence drawing his gaze even more strongly than the mighty Divine Beast itself.