After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 346: Chapter 345: Spider Shedding Acquired

”What’s this? ’He’s been poisoned?’”

Another bandit pointed at the Spider Shedding. ”There’s something on it... a Red Spider!”

In the light of the Fluorescent Fire Spores, everyone stared intently. Sure enough, a Red Spider slightly smaller than the mouth of a bowl stood atop the mountain-like Spider Shedding.

The bandit who just climbed up must have been ambushed by it.

’That thing may be small, but damn is it venomous.’

Old Sixth’s eyes darted around. He pointed to another Spider Shedding and said, ”Don’t mess with it! Grab a different one!”

It was a good suggestion. Another bandit grabbed a cloth sack and began to climb the smaller Spider Shedding.

He was halfway up when he heard someone below shout, ”Careful! The Red Spider is gone!”

’Gone? It probably jumped onto the second Spider Shedding.’

The Spider Sheddings were large, casting large shadows. The Red Spider’s tiny body was easy to hide and very difficult to spot.

They also discovered its movements were astonishingly fast, too quick for the human eye to follow.

The second bandit took deliberate precautions, moving as slowly as a snail, but he still fell for the trick. He was ambushed and came tumbling down.

Meanwhile, another figure quietly tossed a Hooked Rope to the top of the smallest Spider Shedding. It caught easily. He then scrambled up the rope in a flash.

His movements were as nimble as a monkey’s. He scaled the rope in one fluid motion without a single pause, landing atop the Spider Shedding’s head.

”The bag!”

The bandits were overjoyed and quickly tossed the bag up to him. Only then did they realize something was wrong.

’Hey, wait... This doesn’t look like one of our guys?’

The figure kept his head down, his face hidden in the backlit shadow, impossible for anyone to see clearly.

But his movements were incredibly deft. He took the Snake Skin Bag—no, the Qiankun Bag—and swiftly pulled it over the Spider Shedding’s head.

It was hard to say whether the Snake Skin Bag had grown or the Spider Shedding had shrunk, but in any case, it fit.

WHOOSH. The man leaped to the ground.

The Spider Shedding had vanished, and in his hand, he held a bulging Snake Skin Bag.

The Red Spider leaped over, pouncing on empty air. Furious, it shrieked in a human voice:

”Hee Lingchuan, you’re courting death!”

The person who had appeared out of nowhere was none other than Hee Lingchuan. As if waking from a dream, the bandits lunged forward to snatch the bag, but he used the Swallow Returning Body Technique to evade them all.

’That’s not a swallow, that’s a slippery eel!’

Hee Lingchuan shot out his Hooked Rope again, swinging in a wide arc through the cavern. He landed on the head of the largest Spider Shedding and tried to pull the Snake Skin Bag over it.

’Huh? It’s not going on.’

He tried a couple more times, but it was no use. It was full. Nothing else would fit.

Even so, the Snake Skin Bag’s capacity was far greater than the Immortal Ring he wore.

The Red Spider zipped over, sneering, ”You dare try to collect my ancient true form with a mere Snake Skin Bag?”

”Just giving it a try,” Hee Lingchuan said as he dodged. ”Hey, I’m on your side, you know! Without the Snake Skin Bag, they can’t steal your true form!”

Hearing this, the bandits below had a sudden realization.

”The one talking with this kid is the giant mother spider from outside!” Old Sixth yelled. ”Let’s go!”

Lord Boshan’s plan to lure the tiger from the mountain hadn’t been a complete success. Second Madam Zhu’s main body had indeed left, but she had left a Clone behind to watch over her Relic Shells.

She had to keep an eye on them personally to be at ease.

The bandits knew these Demons always had strange Spells up their sleeves. If the little spider discovered them here, the Spider Queen would surely burst in any moment!

They didn’t need to be told twice. Abandoning their two injured comrades, they turned and fled.

But the Red Spider didn’t give chase. It just stared at Hee Lingchuan and commanded, ”Put it back!”

Hee Lingchuan shrugged, walked over, and shook the bag out. The Spider Shedding appeared out of thin air, right back in its original spot.

”Returned to its rightful owner,” he said, leaping down from the Spider Shedding’s head. ”Want to chase those petty thieves with me?”

The Red Spider snorted. ”The Snake Skin Bag. Give it to me!”

Hee Lingchuan tossed the bag to it.

For some reason, the moment the Snake Skin Bag touched the spider’s leg, it shrank until it disappeared, stored away somewhere by the Red Spider.

It then hopped onto Hee Lingchuan’s shoulder, letting him carry it out of the cave entrance in pursuit of the bandits.

Outside the cave entrance, Hee Lingchuan stopped and looked left and right.

The Red Spider grew impatient. ”What are you looking for?”

”Which way did they go?”

”West!”

”Which way is west?” ’In this twisting, turning Underground Palace, with no sun in sight, how am I supposed to know which way is west?’

”To the left!”

”Oh! Right!” Hee Lingchuan finally gave chase.

”Those bandits were sent by Lord Boshan to steal your Spider Sheddings,” he asked as they ran. ”You’re a spider and he’s a snake. What use could your sheddings be to him?”

”I am an Ancient Demon Immortal. My Relic Shells contain a sliver of the Power of Creation, which is something these impure Demons covet. Furthermore, my Abdominal Map is a natural Divine Object. They wish to steal it to comprehend the mysteries of the cosmos,” the Red Spider said, full of disdain. ”Those dull-witted fools. As if they are worthy.”

Hee Lingchuan understood. ”So the nobles of the Beiga Kingdom who stole your Relic Shell had the same idea?”

The Red Spider snorted.

’So that’s how it is. No wonder the Divine Bone Necklace is also interested in this treasure. It’s a picky eater and only consumes the finest things.’ Hee Lingchuan then asked, ”I remember you originally had five Relic Shells here. Why are there only four now?”

Second Madam Zhu originally had six Relic Shells, her entire collection accumulated since Ancient Times. One was stolen in the Beiga Kingdom, so there should have been five left. But when he counted just now, there were only four.

’Where did the other one go?’

The Red Spider said languidly, ”It’s none of your concern.”

’So it’s not lost, just being used for something else?’ Hee Lingchuan mused.

Along the way, they encountered a few Spider Guards. They were about to rear up in anger, but upon seeing the Red Spider on Hee Lingchuan’s shoulder, they immediately calmed down and fell in line behind them.

After several turns, the Red Spider suddenly ordered, ”Go find Dong Rui.”

”Huh?” Hee Lingchuan was confused. ”But we’re about to catch them.”

”Go!” The Red Spider’s tone was chilling and cold.

It stood perched on Hee Lingchuan’s shoulder. Afraid it might bite him, he had no choice but to change direction and run toward Dong Rui’s workshop.

Luckily, it wasn’t far.

A dozen or so breaths later, Hee Lingchuan arrived at the workshop.

Dong Rui was hunched over his desk, scribbling away. He looked up at the sound, a baffled expression on his face. ”What is it?”

”Second Madam Zhu is here to see you,” Hee Lingchuan said, pointing to the Red Spider on his shoulder. He breathed a silent sigh of relief. ’Dong Rui piloted the Demon Puppet to drop me off outside the display room and then slipped back. The timing was tight.’

”This is Second Madam Zhu?”

The Red Spider said coldly, ”Didn’t you hear the commotion outside?”

”I heard it,” Dong Rui replied, unconcerned. ”What’s it to me?”

When this man was engrossed in his work, he truly paid no mind to the outside world. The Red Spider had nothing more to say about it. She told Hee Lingchuan, ”Go chase the bandits,” then said to Dong Rui, ”You come out too!”

There was only one path from here to the Relic Shell display room, with no forks. Seeing Dong Rui here with her own eyes put her at ease, proving the two humans hadn’t schemed against her Relic Shells.

Her main body was outside, locked in a world-shaking battle with two Great Demons. The Underground Palace was short-handed, so she couldn’t afford to leave the Demon Puppet Master here any longer.

But what she didn’t know was that just as she and Hee Lingchuan left the display room, another Hee Lingchuan suddenly stepped out from behind the recovered Spider Shedding—the very one that had just been released from the Snake Skin Bag!

He wasted no time, pressing the Divine Bone Necklace directly onto the Spider Shedding.

The Divine Bone glowed with a joyful red light, and the incredibly hard Spider Shedding suddenly collapsed.

It crumbled like a sculpture made of sand.

But this ”sand” didn’t scatter. Instead, it was sucked into the vortex within the Divine Bone.

The process was incredibly fast. In just three to five breaths, the enormous Spider Shedding vanished, leaving the area spotlessly clean, without a single speck of dust left behind.

Immediately after, this ”Hee Lingchuan” vanished on the spot.

The Divine Bone Necklace, no longer held by anyone, began to fall.

But before it could hit the ground, it too vanished.

The display room was as quiet as ever, except now it was inexplicably missing one Spider Shedding.

In reality, when Hee Lingchuan had returned the Spider Shedding, he had also sent out his Clone, ordering it to take his Divine Bone Necklace and hide behind the shedding.

The Spider Shedding was massive and propped against the wall; its shadow was large enough to hide several people with ease.

The Red Spider’s gaze was fixed entirely on Hee Lingchuan’s real body. How could it possibly have noticed the extra ”person” behind the Spider Shedding?

His pause for a few breaths after leaving the cave was to give his Clone time to take out the Divine Bone Necklace and absorb the essence of the Spider Shedding.

The Clone would automatically disappear if it moved more than a hundred feet away from him. As for the Divine Bone Necklace, that went without saying—it was a thing he couldn’t get rid of even if he tried. It would automatically return to him if it got too far away.

The theft was completed without anyone, god or ghost, being the wiser.

Hee Lingchuan let out a long breath. ’Perfect!’

’It was his first time using the Clone Technique in the real world, and not for fighting monsters, but for thievery. As long as you’re creative enough, Divine Techniques have all sorts of uses.’

Second Madam Zhu’s Relic Shells were coveted by so many Demons; they had to be good stuff. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t make sense of them—his Divine Bone Necklace wanted them.

He had left with the Red Spider, so she had no reason to suspect him.

Besides, Dong Rui had stayed put in his workshop, so he wasn’t the thief either.

It seemed he was the one who profited most from this chaotic battle among Demons, like a fisherman reaping the rewards while others fight.

That is, assuming he could leave the swamp alive.

With his Body Technique, Hee Lingchuan quickly caught up to the bandits.

He took care of two, Dong Rui handled one, and the Red Spider herself bit three. The rest were annihilated by the Spider Guards who rushed to the scene, leaving only a trembling Old Sixth.

The Red Spider had ordered them to leave one alive for interrogation.

So the Spider Guards shot out webs, trussing him up completely, and tossed him back into the wine cellar.

...

By the time Hee Lingchuan rushed to the entrance of the Underground Palace, the air was thick with the smell of fresh-cut grass, like walking through a newly harvested wheat field.

The scent should have been refreshing, but it made him want to yawn uncontrollably. If it affected a human this way, the spiders, who were even less resistant to it, were naturally staggering as they walked.

The Red Spider said coldly, ”This must be one of Lord Boshan’s tricks. He’s always devising new ways for his subordinates to devour my children.” ’That snake comes up with all sorts of poisons. Otherwise, I, Second Madam Zhu, wouldn’t have had to develop a new Demon Technique to expel all toxins into my eyeballs and discard them, solving the problem once and for all.’

’You’re no better,’ Hee Lingchuan thought. ’Spiders are just as happy to treat captured little snakes as a delicacy. The two of you are like neighbors who fight every single time you see each other.’