After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 350: Chapter 349: Friendly Negotiation

All her Relic Shells contained the Cultivation she had shed. Second Madam Zhu had initially molted to lighten her own burden, and occasionally putting a shell back on could restore her Cultivation. While it wouldn’t return her to her previous peak, she could regain at least fifty or sixty percent of her power.

But while putting this Relic Shell back on was easy, taking it off was difficult. To utilize the shell’s power, she had to fuse her existing carapace with the Relic Shell. To remove it, she had to go through a complete molting process again, which was both painful and dangerous. After molting, there was a vulnerable period lasting the time it takes to drink two cups of tea, during which she was pathetically weak.

Second Madam Zhu had previously battled two Demon Kings and fought hard to kill a Snake Demon, leaving her injured and exhausted. Now, she had to force herself to molt, which truly drained her until she was utterly spent, unable to squeeze out another drop of Demon Power.

Otherwise, how could Hee Lingchuan have succeeded so easily?

But she didn’t know that this scoundrel had received direct advice from the Red General back in the Panlong Dream Realm:

”Second Madam Zhu can put her Relic Shells back on to regain her combat strength, but not for long. Earth Cave Spiders are most vulnerable when they molt. Even as an Ancient Demon Immortal, she cannot escape this rule. Seize this opportunity, and you might just have a chance to survive.”

Therefore, when he had previously discovered that one Relic Shell—the smallest one—was missing from the display room, Hee Lingchuan knew the opportunity he had long awaited had finally arrived. Later, when he saw in the swamp that Second Madam Zhu was larger than usual, his suspicions were confirmed.

”First, a blood oath.” The time it took to drink two cups of tea was short; he had to prioritize his own safety. ”Oh, and Dong Rui leaves with me. You are not to stop us.”

Second Madam Zhu had no choice but to begrudgingly swear a blood oath, guaranteeing that neither she nor her descendants would harm Hee Lingchuan or his companion in the slightest and that she would help them freely enter and exit the Demon Nest Swamp.

Hee Lingchuan also saw her attitude clearly. She would rather die than become someone’s pet—that was Second Madam Zhu’s bottom line.

Even if he hacked Second Madam Zhu to death, a teeming swarm of several thousand furious spiders would be waiting outside to avenge their matriarch. Could he escape from them? He wasn’t very confident, especially since he couldn’t get out of the Demon Nest Swamp.

Find the Mirage Demon? Based on the results of his probing of the Spider Guards over the past few days, most of the spiders didn’t know where the Mirage Demon lived or even what it looked like.

Looking at it this way, what tangible benefit would killing Second Madam Zhu bring him? It was better to have a proper talk.

Negotiation is, after all, the art of compromise. A little give and take, some posturing and brandishing of might, and after an amicable (and fierce) round of discussion (argument), they finally reached a deal.

Second Madam Zhu plucked out two of her own eyeballs on the spot and gave them to Hee Lingchuan.

These two eyeballs were normally dormant, but three light taps would transform them into small spiders. They could shrink to the size of a button, were fast and silent, and had limited attack power, but they were experts at stealth and intelligence gathering, as Hee Lingchuan had already witnessed.

Most importantly, they could share their vision with their master. In other words, whatever the Eye Spiders saw, their master could see in real time. Hee Lingchuan, an outsider, lacked such an ability, but Second Madam Zhu, being an Ancient Demon Immortal, had her own ways of bestowing it.

As long as her main body was alive, the Eye Spiders could share their vision with Hee Lingchuan.

To prevent being eaten by birds, they would emit a scent that their natural predators detested while on missions. Hee Lingchuan could raise them like normal spiders. If he was within ten li of Second Madam Zhu, the Eye Spiders could also be used as a real-time communication tool, but they would be out of range if the distance exceeded ten li.

To activate these two eyeballs into spiders, Second Madam Zhu had to expend a bit of her Bloodline Power, something she would never do lightly. But this time, for the sake of the deal, she had no choice.

Hee Lingchuan noticed that Second Madam Zhu had another type of Eye Spider that could carry out poison assassination missions, but she refused to give those up. ”Those have to return to me after two uses, or they’ll wither and die.”

Second Madam Zhu also gifted Hee Lingchuan a venom gland. The venom stored inside, when applied to a weapon, would cause excruciating pain upon drawing blood, as if the wound were being seared by flames. The wound would also blister, and if the blisters weren’t immediately lanced within a few breaths, the spider venom would spread through the bloodstream, causing nerve numbness and muscle weakness.

Simply put, the enemy’s body would be in a state of ”being digested,” experiencing the agony of a spider’s prey.

This spider venom was effective against ordinary Antitoxic Pills but could still be suppressed by Primordial Power. Depending on the strength of the opponent’s Primordial Power, the pain and toxicity could be reduced.

Even so, due to its excellent versatility, it was still a must-have for murder, whether at home or on the road.

Interestingly, if the gland was used to suck instead, it could completely draw out the spider venom from an injured person’s body.

Additionally, there was a bottle of Earth Cave Spider Oil Paste.

By applying this paste to his body, Hee Lingchuan wouldn’t get stuck to Spider Silk or other strange, sticky substances. The Earth Cave Spiders did this themselves.

Hee Lingchuan watched with his own eyes as Second Madam Zhu spat this paste out of her mouth. ’It seems to be more saliva than oil,’ he thought.

On top of that, Hee Lingchuan also extorted from Second Madam Zhu a pair of venom fangs from her Relic Shell—yes, from the very shell she had just shed—along with ten bolts of her signature, hand-woven Cloud Brocade, a quantity of high-strength Spider Silk, and several high-tier Spider Guard carapaces.

Second Madam Zhu truly did not want to give up the fangs, and Hee Lingchuan had to haggle with her back and forth for a long time.

The fangs of the Earth Cave Spider Queen were pitch-black and non-reflective, their curve forming natural long sabers, even longer than the Floating Life Blade stuck in Second Madam Zhu’s head. Their sharpness was beyond question, and they had natural blood grooves along the sides. Because the queen had used them for years, they were inherently toxic even without being coated in venom.

Second Madam Zhu’s Relic Shell was large, so the fangs were naturally long, but Hee Lingchuan had seen Li Fubo’s Artifact Refining and knew that the size of a refined Magical Artifact could be adjusted. He had already learned the Clone Technique; it was time to get some powerful equipment for his Clone.

The Earth Cave Spider Queen made only one request:

If the fangs were ever refined into dual blades or daggers, they must be named ”Second Madam Zhu’s Kiss.”

Even treasures cared about their prestigious origins.

As for the Cloud-Glow Brocade, it was difficult to weave even for Second Madam Zhu. Each bolt took forty to fifty days to make, and she only had ten in stock. Needless to say, it was a key treasure for crafting armor and Magical Artifacts.

Hee Lingchuan wasn’t wrong; Second Madam Zhu was indeed a walking treasure trove.

By the time they had drafted these terms, the time it took to drink two cups of tea was nearly up. Hee Lingchuan decisively pulled out his blade, leaped to the ground, and said to Second Madam Zhu, ”A pleasure doing business with you.”

’What business? This was all me giving things up,’ Second Madam Zhu snorted, the spot on her head aching faintly. She couldn’t hide her curiosity. ”How did you get into the Underground Palace? I clearly saw you head for the woods.” She had even scanned with her Divine Thought at the time and didn’t sense any Illusion Technique or Blinding Technique.

Hee Lingchuan shrugged. ”Everyone needs an ace up their sleeve.”

How could he tell Second Madam Zhu that he had used two of his ultimate moves at once?

After dodging the net the Spider Queen spat, he used the dense canopy of the cliffside trees to hide his figure, directly summoning his Clone. He himself then used the Substitution Skill, swapping his real body’s position with the Ghost Shadow Cicada Shell he had placed in advance inside the entrance to the Underground Palace.

The distance between the large tree and the Underground Palace entrance was less than three zhang. The palace entrance was only covered by cobwebs and not physically sealed off from the outer space of the Celestial Pit, which met the requirements for the magic.

Just like that, he instantly teleported inside the Underground Palace, while the Ghost Shadow Cicada Shell was swapped to the large tree.

On a large tree in the wild, finding the corpses of birds, insects, or snakes wouldn’t be strange, let alone a mere Cicada Shell.

He then controlled his Clone to leap out of the Celestial Pit as if escaping. Second Madam Zhu and her spider army saw it with their own eyes and naturally gave chase.

The problem was that the Clone would naturally disappear if it moved more than twelve zhang away from the original body. So, in the eyes of the Earth Cave Spiders, Hee Lingchuan vanished behind a few large trees, and they couldn’t find him no matter how hard they searched.

This was what made the Clone Technique more valuable than the Mirror Image Technique: a mirror image could only fight, it couldn’t act according to its master’s will.

Of course, Hee Lingchuan himself had appeared at the entrance of the Underground Palace, where Dong Rui’s Spider Guard Demon Puppet was standing guard.

Hee Lingchuan mounted the Demon Puppet and pulled out the disguised snakeskin he had taken from the bandits, holding it in front of him. At this time, most of the Spider Demons were outside providing support, leaving only a few dozen to guard the nest. However, the patrols were exceptionally tight, with stationary guards posted at fixed points.

The snakeskin’s camouflage was good, but any movement would give him away. The Earth Cave Spiders had been fooled by the bandits before and wouldn’t fall for it again so easily.

The tunnels were narrow, and many sections were impossible to pass without encountering a Spider Guard. That’s why Hee Lingchuan had requisitioned Dong Rui’s puppet. As long as he lay on the Demon Puppet’s back, covered by the snakeskin, and let the thing carry him, even if they passed right by the Guards, they wouldn’t stop him.

After all, from their perspective, it was just another spider passing by.

’These creatures really aren’t very smart.’

While Second Madam Zhu and her spider army were scouring the mountainside for Hee Lingchuan, he himself was riding the Demon Puppet through the Underground Palace, calmly and unhurriedly advancing until he reached the display room.

Outside the display room, two Spider Guards also stood watch.

But this didn’t deter Hee Lingchuan.

He had the Demon Puppet make a noise nearby to draw the Spider Guards away, allowing him to slip inside.

He had calculated that Second Madam Zhu couldn’t wear her old shell for long and would have to come back to shed it sooner or later. So, he decided to lie in wait here. He had plenty of patience.

His luck was good; he succeeded in one fell swoop.

With the contract settled, Second Madam Zhu removed the cobwebs from the display room and ordered her Spider Guards to gather the materials Hee Lingchuan had requested.

By now, her entire carapace had hardened, and she had regained the confidence to go out.

”What about my Relic Shell?” Second Madam Zhu asked him. ”Where is it?”

”It’s not in my hands, anyway. If you don’t believe me, I can show you all my Storage Spaces.” Hee Lingchuan spread his hands, his voice full of righteous confidence. ”I truly don’t know where it is.”

He genuinely had no idea why the Divine Bone Necklace had absorbed the Spider Shedding.

’Could it really have been stolen by the descendants of Lord Boshan?’ Second Madam Zhu grew suspicious.

Hee Lingchuan followed her out of the Underground Palace. Along the way, he didn’t see the Demon Puppet anywhere; it had apparently slipped away.

As they passed the workshop, Second Madam Zhu suddenly asked, ”Where did Dong Rui go?”

Hee Lingchuan frankly admitted he didn’t know.

”He’s already created a Demon Puppet, hasn’t he?”

”What makes you say that?” ’A Great Demon with years of experience really isn’t easy to fool,’ he thought.

”The two children sent into the workshop ten days ago are still alive.”