Where Immortals Once Walked

This stone chamber was large, hollow, and somewhat oval in shape. There was a table and a few chairs, and on the floor lay two piles of reeds, spread out like crude bedding.

The table and chairs were old and battered. It was impressive that the spider monsters had managed to find human furnishings in a swamp this damp.

A table and chairs were already a luxury, while a bed was simply out of the question, so the two of them got stuck with reed mats.

In one corner of the chamber, a pile of herbs lay stacked. These herbs were the medicinal ingredients Dong Rui had requested.

He walked over, rummaged through them, and shook his head. “We’re still missing several key ingredients.”

One of the spider guards stepped in and reported, “They’ll be delivered later.”

Even for them, combing the swamp for unfamiliar plants took time.

Dong Rui dropped into a chair and looked around again, frowning. “What is this place, exactly?”

“The bladder,” said He Lingchuan.

“Demon Nest,” said the spider guard.

Man and monster spoke at the same time, and Dong Rui could not properly catch what either of them said. “What did you say?”

He Lingchuan rubbed his forehead, then asked the guard, “Are you familiar with this cave system?”

“Yes,” the guard answered bluntly. “I was born here.”

He Lingchuan let out a soft breath. “So this really is the nest in Demon Nest Swamp? The place the swamp is named after?”

“Yes.”

Dong Rui finally heard the implication and leaned forward. “You mean the entire swamp is named after this cave? What’s so special about it?”

He Lingchuan ran his hand along the wall.

He could never forget that texture. “Zhu Erniang said the Jiana Tribe was wiped out by a demonic creature, but the greater monsters of the Ancient Era liked to refer to gods as demons. In other words, this cave is probably the den or nest that the demonic creature once used. After Zhu Erniang moved into the swamp, she just picked up a ready-made dwelling and claimed it for herself.”

On the surface, it sounded like casual speculation. However, Dong Rui turned it over carefully in his head, and his expression changed.

“Are you saying that so-called demonic creature was actually a god? And the Jiana were destroyed because a god brought wrath down on them?”

“We’re waiting for the rest of your herbs anyway. We’ve got time to wait,” He Lingchuan said to Dong Rui. Then, he turned to ask the guard, “Does Zhu Erniang live here too?”

“The ancestor lives in the heart chamber.”

He Lingchuan nodded. Just those two words—heart chamber—were enough to tell him Zhu Erniang understood perfectly what this “Demon Nest” really was.

“Can you take us to see it?”

The spider guard said, “We must report it first!”

One spider turned and left immediately.

Dong Rui looked between He Lingchuan and the guard. “Is heart chamber and bladder some kind of code?”

“Your table is in the bladder,” He Lingchuan said. “Zhu Erniang lives in the heart chamber. It’s literal.”

Dong Rui stared at him like he had started speaking nonsense.

This Demon Nest... is it really mapped and named after human organs?

Still, if that’s the case, then it doesn’t really matter whether the spider guards know it or not, but why does He Lingchuan, who only got here, know too?

He was about to lose his mind.

He Lingchuan had noticed another thing about Dong Rui, besides the other party’s sharp mouth. Dong Rui’s curiosity was unstoppable. He Lingchuan said, “Let me confirm something first, then I’ll tell you more.”

More than fifteen minutes later, the spider returned. “Follow me. Don’t wander.”

Apparently, Zhu Erniang was careless and unbothered. She was not afraid of anyone seeing her private quarters.

The guard led the way again, taking them through even more twists and turns than before. The route was longer, too.

He Lingchuan silently memorized the path.

As they walked, they realized this was the spiders’ true stronghold. Every few steps, they passed another one. Some forks had guards posted, while others were sealed shut with thick webbing so dense that no one could pass.

Before long, they arrived at the heart chamber.

This was almost the very core of the entire cave system. They squeezed out of a narrow tunnel, and the space opened up abruptly—

A vast cavern stretched before them, seven or eight times larger than the stone chamber where they had been set up. This cavern also had a ceiling more than sixteen meters high. It was the kind of place where one shout would come back to you in echoes.

Additionally, there were more glowspores here than anywhere else. They packed every crack and crevice, turning the whole cavern as bright as day.

Dong Rui swept his gaze across the cavern wall and froze, then raised a trembling finger, awe spilling from his voice. “T-This is?!”

At the base of the wall stood several spider monsters, each one larger than the last. The biggest and tallest was over ten meters high.

Even Zhu Erniang, powerfully built as she was, looked almost small next to them.

They did not move, nor did they need to. Just standing there, they radiated pressure so heavy no one would dare approach.

These are true behemoths. If they appeared outside, how many people would drop dead from fright alone?

Dong Rui was absolutely astounded at the mere sight of these massive spiders.

He Lingchuan knocked Dong Rui’s hand down. “Quit yelping, none of them are alive.”

He used the moment to count. One, two, three, four, five. Only five giant spiders?

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

Zhu Erniang’s voice suddenly sounded behind them, “You didn’t even get close to any of them. How do you know?”

She had followed them without making a sound.

A body bigger than a house, and yet she could compress herself down to less than a fourth to a fifth of her usual size, allowing her to slip through narrow tunnels with ease. As soon as she crawled back out into the open cavern, her bulk swelled again, as a dried seed dropped into water expanded at once.

Her question was an excellent one.

Those massive spider monsters had the right shapes, the right menace, looking very much like any other spider. Moreover, with spiders having no eyelids, they always looked like they were staring you down, whether they were alive or dead. If they were simply standing still, what proof was there that they were not alive?

He Lingchuan answered calmly, as though he were merely stating the obvious, “Glowspores are growing on their joints. If they were alive, they’d clean themselves up a little, wouldn’t they?” If he remembered correctly, spiders were relatively clean creatures. They were not like some old turtles that let barnacles cling wherever.

Zhu Erniang seemed to chuckle. “Clever.”

That confirmed He Lingchuan’s judgment. Dong Rui’s excitement exploded. He hurried forward, weaving between the bodies of the giant spider monsters, tapping here and touching there. He looked so delighted that it was as if he were a child who had finally gotten his favorite toy.

Even Zhu Erniang looked taken aback. Is this human... really that enamored of me?

“These are all the shells I’ve shed.”

“Huh?” Dong Rui looked from her to the giant spiders. Then it clicked. “Oh!”

No wonder they all share the same overall form, only differing in size, like nested dolls!

Remembering what He Lingchuan had said earlier, Dong Rui pointed to the largest shell. “So this is your monster immortal body from the Ancient Era? It’s truly incredible!”

Most objects from the Ancient Era had long since rotted away. A monster immortal’s cast-off shell surviving to this day was undeniably astounding.

Just seeing these alone made the trip into the Demon Nest feel worth it.

However, Zhu Erniang’s tone sank abruptly. “My monster immortal body isn’t here.”

“What?” Dong Rui blinked.

Zhu Erniang did not explain, but He Lingchuan understood at once.

In the dreamscape spider den, he had seen six giant shells. So it was not that the dream he had been in was wrong, but that Zhu Erniang was actually missing one here.

Now, the question was, where had the largest shell gone?

“Even so, these are already unbelievable,” Dong Rui said quickly. His amazement and admiration clearly pleased Zhu Erniang, and she began to introduce them one by one.

“This one is from toward the very end of the Ancient Era. This one is from the early Middle Era, then the mid Middle Era, then the late Middle Era...”

The closer to the present, the smaller the shells became.

Dong Rui glanced at He Lingchuan, then asked Zhu Erniang, “I understand now. You deliberately placed your cultivation into an outer shell and then shed it, storing your power inside. Is that right?”

Zhu Erniang tapped the ground with a sharp foreclaw. “Exactly.”

“Brilliant, truly brilliant!” Dong Rui raised a thumb. “The immortals of the Ancient Era couldn’t adapt to an environment where spiritual energy kept thinning. It’s likely that none of them would have been able to do the same thing you did, even if they wanted to.”

He Lingchuan did not say anything.

At this moment, the divine bone amulet against his chest had started to heat up again.

The moment they entered the heart chamber cavern, it reacted. That meant it was coveting something here.

The cavern is empty except for the shells. Is it craving Zhu Erniang’s cast-off bodies?

He Lingchuan looked at Zhu Erniang and thought grimly, That’s going to be hard to satisfy.

And then another question followed: how had Zhu Erniang transported these enormous shells across thousands of kilometers, then squeezed them through narrow tunnels into the heart chamber?

She must have some secret method or technique.

Meanwhile, Dong Rui stroked the shell the way a woman might stroke fine jewelry. He found himself unable to let go. Then, he suddenly said to Zhu Erniang, “I want to take a small sample from each shell. It’ll greatly help my research!”

“Really?” The moment he mentioned touching her shells, Zhu Erniang’s mood turned cold. “Explain.”

If he could not explain, he might become dinner.

“Just one bristle!” Dong Rui hurried to clarify. “To develop medicine tailored to you, the hardest part is the lack of comparable material. Your descendants are many, but their cultivation is worlds apart from yours. Medicine formulated based on their traits might be far too weak to work on you. These shells came from you. If I can take one sample from each for comparison, the difficulty of developing the medicine drops dramatically.”

Zhu Erniang was well-informed, and the other party’s reasoning was not without merit. Furthermore, it was only a single bristle from each shell, which was barely any loss to her.

After thinking, she personally plucked one bristle from each of the five shells and handed them to Dong Rui.

Leaving the massive cavern, the spider queen herself led them onward into two smaller chambers.

Of course, “smaller” was only relative to that enormous hall.

One chamber was her living quarters. The other was sealed shut with thick webbing, airtight and dense.

“This place is?” Dong Rui started.

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

She used her own claw to tear open the webbing. Otherwise, it would have taken anyone else a huge effort.

Inside lay a thick layer of dust. He Lingchuan, even while stunned, did not dare breathe too deeply.

This chamber was smaller than Dong Rui’s workroom. In the middle stood a stone platform.

Around it hung what looked like drapes, like soft curtains suspended from above. However, when He Lingchuan pinched a strip and looked closely, he froze. It was soft and elastic, like rubber bands, but more than that...

It was like the tendons he had seen in the Red Peak Mine in the dreamscape—those thick, tendon-like cords that connected Yun Gu to the entire mine.

Only these had existed far longer, and they had not rotted, but instead had dried out into tough, leathery strands.

“A blood-and-flesh fortress,” He Lingchuan murmured, the name sending a chill through him even now. “The thing that devoured the Jiana wasn’t some demonic creature; it was a ravenous devourer!”

No wonder stepping into this cave had made him feel like a nightmare had turned real.

Because that was literally what it was.

Dong Rui’s brow furrowed. “And what is that supposed to be?” Ever since entering this cave, he had been asking question after question. Out of the three living beings present, he felt like the only ignorant one, and he hated the feeling.