Chapter 196 - 149: Mysterious Cave

Chapter 196: Chapter 149: Mysterious Cave

The two of them leaped and bounded between the branches of an emerald sea of trees.

Zhao Zuo landed on a branch about thirty centimeters in diameter. Pushing off with his Mana, the branch creaked loudly, and then... his body shot forward.

The tree shadows intertwined. Suddenly, the leaves to his left were instantly severed, as if an invisible blade had sliced through at extreme speed. Almost on instinct, Zhao Zuo raised his Black Flame Saber to defend himself as his Qi Blood erupted to form a dazzling golden barrier.

"Be careful," Shen Yunjiao said a moment too late.

Zhao Zuo felt a sudden pressure on his arm, and he finally saw what was attacking him—an incredibly fine, transparent thread. Fortunately, it failed to cut through his Black Rhino Hide Leather Armor.

He channeled Mana into his Black Flame Saber, and a wisp of Black Flame shot along the transparent thread. As the Black Flame spread, Zhao Zuo realized that, without him even noticing, the entire area around them had become filled with these transparent threads.

CRACKLE... POP...

Black smoke billowed as the charred, fist-sized corpses of spiders fell from the canopy and the shadows of the branches. It was like a rain of Demon Beast bodies. These spiders didn’t even qualify as One-Tier Low-Level Demon Beasts, which was why Zhao Zuo hadn’t been able to sense their presence.

Zhao Zuo felt a wave of lingering fear. If that silk had been just a few times more resilient, it would have severed his arm completely.

Their bodies curled into balls, eight long legs still kicking at the air in a desperate struggle. But they couldn’t stop the Black Flame from scorching them until they were nothing but ash.

"Stay alert. Their parents must be somewhere nearby."

In the Cultivation Realm, insect-type Demon Beasts tended to start off weak but reproduced at an astonishing rate. Since these tiny spiders that didn’t even qualify as Demon Beasts were here, there was bound to be a much larger one within a certain radius.

WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH.

Hearing something tear through the air, Zhao Zuo immediately changed his position.

Three brown spiders with wood-grain patterns covering their bodies appeared on a nearby tree trunk. Their torsos were round and the size of millstones, and their eight long legs were about 150 centimeters each.

The branch where Zhao Zuo had just been standing was now corroded by a deep purple venom, leaving a bowl-sized hollow that emitted wisps of bluish-purple smoke. Immediately after, white silk webs surged toward them from all directions. Unwittingly, Zhao Zuo and Shen Yunjiao had fallen into a trap meticulously laid by the Demon Beasts.

At that moment, Zhao Zuo truly felt the "hospitality" of the Yunlan Mountain Range’s native inhabitants.

"Be careful and watch yourself," Zhao Zuo reminded her. Since learning the Taotie Secret Technique, Shen Yunjiao’s fighting style had become far more direct and brutal, and she invariably charged into close combat.

The two began to swing their blades, and the flames they carried swept out in all directions like great dragons. At the same time, Zhao Zuo threw his Sky-Breaking Saber. The fire they wielded incinerated the silk with ease.

The Sky-Breaking Saber became like the Grim Reaper’s scythe, tearing through one spider after another. Greenish blood splattered everywhere, instantly filling the air with a foul stench.

Meanwhile, Shen Yunjiao charged directly into the spider swarm, felling droves of them with every swing of her blade.

Just then, Zhao Zuo heard a rustling sound from the leaves above his head.

The next second, innumerable fist-sized spiders dropped from the canopy, lowering themselves on crystal-clear strands of silk extruded from their abdomens.

The spider paratroopers were launching a surprise attack, their numbers so dense they were like a torrential downpour, blocking out the light.

"We can’t let them get close." After slaying seven or eight spiders, Shen Yunjiao retreated with ease. The two stood shoulder to shoulder, their gazes calm as they watched the surrounding Demon Beasts.

Zhao Zuo tightened his right hand on the Black Flame Saber. Mana surged through him as he continuously poured it into the blade. The ambient temperature shot up, and in the Void Space around him, black flames appeared, blooming like lotus flowers.

He swung his saber through the air. An arc of black fire shot from the blade, detonating the surrounding black lotuses. In an instant, a sea of black flames erupted, rising, spreading, and incinerating everything in its path!

The temperature of this new eruption of Black Flame was even more terrifying. Any fist-sized spiders that touched it were incinerated to ash in less than two seconds, then burned into nothingness by the intense heat.

The Black Flame burst outward, turning the grass beneath their feet a scorched yellow. The few larger spiders that were closer were also caught in the blaze, perishing within seconds.

Shen Yunjiao stared at the barrier of Black Flame, a peculiar glint in her eyes. On the night they had hunted the Demon Cultivator, she had already noticed that the power of the Black Flame Saber seemed absurdly high. Now, feeling it up close, she could finally confirm that the original Middle-Grade Magical Artifact had been upgraded to an Upper-Grade Magical Artifact.

After about five seconds, Zhao Zuo stopped channeling his Mana.

The forest was now covered in scorched black marks left by the flames. The wild grass around the pair had been burned away, leaving behind blackened earth that smoldered with wisps of dark smoke.

Dozens of meters away, rows of spiders watched them menacingly with their four pairs of black eyes.

"Do we retreat? Or do we wipe them all out?" Zhao Zuo asked.

"I’m curious about the Demon Beast hiding behind these swarms, the one giving the commands."

Those washbasin-sized spiders might have qualified as One-Tier Low-Level Demon Beasts, but they were incapable of devising such an ambush. Clearly, a spider of a much more exaggerated size was hidden behind them.

Furthermore, Shen Yunjiao had no desire to pass up a meal that had delivered itself right to her doorstep.

"Alright." Zhao Zuo took two steps forward and recalled his Sky-Breaking Saber. He struck again, taking out a whole line of spiders, as Shen Yunjiao charged back into the swarm, splattering greenish blood everywhere.