After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 329: Chapter 328: When a Nightmare Becomes Reality

The stone chamber was large, empty, and almost a perfect oval. Inside were a table and a few chairs, and two piles of reeds were spread out on the floor.

The table and chairs were old and shabby. It was a wonder the Spider Demons had managed to find human-made objects in the damp swamp.

Getting a table and chairs was already a feat; a bed was out of the question. So, the two of them had only reed grass to sleep on.

In a corner of the stone chamber was a pile of the medicinal herbs Dong Rui had requested.

He walked over, rummaged through them, and shook his head. ”There are still several ingredients missing.”

A Spider Guard walked in and reported, ”They’ll be delivered later.”

Even for them, it took time to go out into the swamp and gather unfamiliar herbs.

Dong Rui sat in a chair, looking all around. ”What kind of place is this, anyway?”

”A bladder,” said Hee Lingchuan.

”The Demon Nest,” said the Spider Guard.

The man and the spider spoke at the same time, and Dong Rui didn’t catch what they said. ”What did you two say?”

Hee Lingchuan rubbed his forehead and suddenly asked the Spider Guard:

”Are you very familiar with this cave?”

”Yes.” The Guard didn’t lie. ”I was born here.”

Hee Lingchuan let out a soft breath. ”So this is the Demon Nest? The ’Demon Nest’ of the Demon Nest Swamp?”

”Correct.”

Dong Rui was also starting to catch on. ”You’re saying this entire swamp was named after this cave?” ’What’s so special about this place?’

Hee Lingchuan stroked the cave wall.

’This texture... I’ll never forget it.’ ”Second Madam Zhu said the Jiana Race was wiped out by a Demon. The Great Demons of the Ancient Times liked to call ’Deities’ ’Demons.’ So, this cave was probably once the lair of that Demon, right? Second Madam Zhu just moved into the swamp and took over a ready-made home.”

His words sounded ordinary, but as Dong Rui mulled them over, he grasped the deeper meaning and was visibly stunned.

”Are you saying that the so-called Demon was actually a Deity? And the Jiana Race was exterminated because they incurred a Deity’s wrath?”

”Anyway, the herbs aren’t all here yet, and we’re just sitting around idle,” Hee Lingchuan said, turning to the Spider Guard. ”Does Second Madam Zhu live here too?”

”The Ancestor lives in the atrium.”

Hee Lingchuan nodded. The use of the word ”atrium” showed that Second Madam Zhu knew exactly what the ”Demon Nest” really was.

”Can you take us to see her?”

The Spider Guard said, ”Wait here while we announce you!”

With that, one of them turned and left.

Dong Rui asked Hee Lingchuan, ”Are ’atrium’ and ’bladder’ some kind of secret code?”

”Your table is in the bladder,” Hee Lingchuan said. ”Second Madam Zhu lives in the atrium. It’s literal.”

Dong Rui stared at him as if he were speaking gibberish. ’Is this Demon Nest really named after human organs?’

’It’s one thing for the Spider Guard to know, but how does a newcomer like Hee Lingchuan know too?’

He felt like he was going to lose his mind.

Hee Lingchuan discovered another one of the man’s traits besides his sharp tongue: an exceptionally strong sense of curiosity. ”I’ll tell you after I confirm one last thing.”

A little over fifteen minutes later, the Spider Guard returned. ”Follow me. And don’t wander off.”

’It seems Second Madam Zhu is quite nonchalant, not at all worried about others seeing her private chambers.’

The Spider Guard led the way. They followed another winding path, this one even longer than the last.

Hee Lingchuan silently memorized the route.

This journey revealed that this was the spiders’ main encampment; they ran into another one every few steps. Some forks in the path were guarded, while others were sealed off completely by thick webs, barring all entry.

Soon, they reached the atrium.

This was practically the very core of the entire cave system. The two men squeezed out of a narrow passage, and the space suddenly opened up before them.

Before them was an enormous cavern, seven or eight times larger than the stone chamber they worked in and over fifty feet high. A single shout would surely echo.

There were more fluorescent spores here than anywhere else, growing densely in the rock crevices and illuminating the entire cavern as if it were broad daylight.

Dong Rui’s eyes swept across the cavern. He pointed at the wall, his voice filled with amazement. ”This... This?!”

Lined up against the cave wall stood several Spider Demons, each more astonishing in size than the last. The largest and tallest of them was over ten meters high!

Even the robust Second Madam Zhu looked petite and delicate in comparison.

Even standing perfectly still, their imposing aura was palpable, daring anyone to approach.

These were true behemoths. ’How many people would they scare to death if let loose?’

Hee Lingchuan smacked his pointing finger down. ”What are you shouting for? They’re not alive.”

He took the opportunity to count them. ’One, two, three, four, five.’ There were only five Giant Spiders here.

”Huh?” Dong Rui was still reeling from the visual shock.

”You haven’t even gotten close. How would you know?” Second Madam Zhu’s voice sounded from behind them.

She had followed them at some point without making a single sound.

A body larger than a house had somehow shrunk to a quarter or a fifth of its original size to traverse the narrow passage.

After crawling out of the passage, her body swelled back to its original size, like one of those dried herbs that expands dramatically in water.

In truth, Second Madam Zhu’s question was a good one.

The Spider Demons standing in a row against the wall had the looks and the fearsome presence. Spiders don’t have eyelids, so they always look like they’re glaring at you. They were just motionless; on what grounds could he claim they weren’t alive?

Hee Lingchuan answered with unruffled confidence, ”There are fluorescent spores growing on their joints. If they were still alive, they’d probably clean themselves up a bit, wouldn’t they?” ’If I remember correctly, spiders are rather clean creatures. They’re not old turtles, letting barnacles grow all over their shells.’

Second Madam Zhu seemed to chuckle. ”Clever.”

This confirmed Hee Lingchuan’s judgment. Dong Rui was overjoyed and ran over, darting between the spider statues. He tapped one here and stroked another there, more ecstatic than a boy with a new favorite toy.

Even Second Madam Zhu felt a little flattered as she watched. ’Does this man really like me that much?’

”These are all the remnant shells I have shed.”

”Huh?” Dong Rui looked at her, then back at the Giant Spiders. ”Oh!”

’No wonder they all look the same, just in different sizes, like a set of nesting dolls.’

He remembered what Hee Lingchuan had said earlier and pointed to the largest Spider Shedding. ”This is your Demon Immortal body from the Ancient Times? Truly, truly incredible!”

Most artifacts from the Ancient Times would have long since decayed, to say nothing of Demon Immortal Relics.

Just seeing these few specimens made him feel that this trip to the Demon Nest had been worthwhile.

But to his surprise, Second Madam Zhu’s tone suddenly grew heavy. ”My Demon Immortal body is not here.”

”Huh?”

Second Madam Zhu didn’t explain, but it dawned on Hee Lingchuan. He remembered seeing a total of six Giant Spider Relic Shells in the Spider Nest in the Panlong Dream Realm. ’Sure enough, the Dream Realm wasn’t wrong. Second Madam Zhu is missing one here.’

’Where did the largest Relic Shell go?’

”Well, these are still incredible.” The surprise and admiration in Dong Rui’s voice finally pleased Second Madam Zhu. She pointed them out to the two men one by one. ”This one is from the late Ancient Times, this is from the Early Middle Ages, the mid-Middle Ages, the late...”

The closer they were to the present, the smaller the Spider Shedding.

Dong Rui glanced at Hee Lingchuan, then said to Second Madam Zhu, ”I understand. You intentionally consigned your Daoist Practice to your outer shell and shed it all away, didn’t you?”

Second Madam Zhu tapped the ground with a sharp foreleg. ”Precisely.”

”Brilliant, truly brilliant!” Dong Rui gave her a thumbs-up. ”The host of immortals from the Ancient Times vanished from the world because they couldn’t adapt to the increasingly thin Spiritual Qi. Your method is one that others couldn’t imitate even if they wanted to.”

Hee Lingchuan said nothing, because the Divine Bone Necklace on his chest had begun to grow warm again.

The Divine Bone Necklace had reacted the moment he entered the atrium cavern, which meant it coveted something here.

’The cavern is practically empty, and the Spider Sheddings are the most conspicuous things here. So, it wants Second Madam Zhu’s shells?’

Hee Lingchuan looked at Second Madam Zhu and thought, ’This request from the Divine Bone Necklace will not be easy to fulfill.’

’Then again, how did Second Madam Zhu transport such enormous Spider Sheddings from thousands of miles away and then squeeze them through the narrow passages into this atrium cavern?’

’It seems she has a Secret Technique for it.’

Meanwhile, Dong Rui was caressing the Spider Sheddings as if they were jewels a woman couldn’t bear to part with. Suddenly, he said to Second Madam Zhu, ”I need to take a small sample from each Spider Shedding. It will be a great help in developing the medicine!”

”Really?” Hearing that he wanted to tamper with her relic shells, Second Madam Zhu was not pleased. ”What sort of logic is that?”

If Dong Rui couldn’t explain his reasoning, he might very well become her dinner tonight.

”Just a single bristle will do!” Dong Rui quickly explained. ”The biggest difficulty in developing a custom medicine for you is the lack of comparative material! You have many offspring, but their Cultivation is worlds apart from yours. A medicine formulated based on their characteristics would likely be too weak to affect you. But these Spider Sheddings came from you. As long as I can extract samples from each for comparison, the difficulty of creating the medicine will be reduced by more than half!”

Second Madam Zhu was worldly and wise. She could see the sense in his words, and a single bristle from each relic shell was a negligible loss. Thus, after a moment’s thought, she personally plucked a bristle from each of the five Spider Sheddings and placed them in Dong Rui’s hand.

Leaving the massive exhibition hall, the Spider Queen personally led the two men onward, into two smaller chambers.

They were ”small” only in comparison to the exhibition hall, of course.

One was the Spider Queen’s living quarters; the other was sealed airtight with webbing.

”What’s this place?”

”The center of the Demon Nest. I rarely come here, so I sealed it off.”

The Spider Queen used her own claws to open the webbing; anyone else would have had to struggle for who knows how long.

Inside, a thick layer of dust had accumulated. Even in his shock, Hee Lingchuan didn’t dare to take a deep breath after seeing it.

This stone chamber was even smaller than Dong Rui’s workshop, with a stone platform in the center.

The stone platform appeared to be hung with numerous draperies, but upon grabbing a piece to examine it, he found that it was soft and elastic, like a rubber band, but even more like—

Even more like the sinews he had seen in the Panlong Dream Realm’s Red Peak Mine Cave, the ones connecting Aunt Yun to the entire cave!

It had simply endured for too long. Though not decayed, it had become completely desiccated.

”A Flesh Fortress,” Hee Lingchuan murmured, uttering the name that had made his heart pound with fear even in his dreams. ”It wasn’t a Demon that devoured the Jiana Clan People, but a Sadist!”

No wonder he’d had the feeling of a nightmare coming true when he walked into this cavern.

It *was* true.

Dong Rui frowned. ”And what’s that?” ’Ever since we entered this cave, I’ve done nothing but ask questions. Among the three living beings here, I seem to be the most ignorant, and I hate this feeling.’