Following last night's agreed tactics, Ji Gaoxin set out together with the Xiling family. On the way they met Jiang Yuwang and Zhu Ying. Ji Gaoxin privately thought Jiang Yuwang a useless wretch, but for the sake of appearances he warmly invited him to join them.
Naturally, Li Hanguang and Chang Ju, two newcomers who were thoroughly frightened, merged into the group as well.
With so many people moving together, Ji Gaoxin took the lead as a matter of course. He directed the others forward and back, and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was a pity that Xi Jiuge was not a team player, and that Ji Shaoyu indulged her every wish. The two of them had gone off by another path.
Ji Gaoxin was displeased that those two had ignored his arrangements. A fighting spirit flared up in him, and he became all the more determined to show everyone what he was capable of.
He cleared his throat and said to the people behind him, "Stay close to me. No one is to leave the group without permission. Follow me."
He had everyone bunch up tighter, and the whole party flew through the valley in a grand procession. Ji Gaoxin led from the front, standing on a lifelike flying dragon artifact that looked imposing and magnificent. Ji Ningsi followed close behind on a lotus that trailed streaks of colored light as it moved, and she looked lovely standing in it. The siblings flew at the very front, a dazzling picture of radiance and high spirits.
Chang Ju gazed at the brilliant Ji Ningsi ahead and said enviously, "The Princess of Shangjin's treasure is so beautiful."
Li Hanguang answered silently in his heart: yes, using something this bright in the wilderness, as if afraid of not dying fast enough. His ear twitched, and he glanced to one side. Since the siblings liked a show, he thought, he would give them a hand.
A needle of ice formed at his fingertip. Hiding the motion behind his sleeve, he flicked it quickly in one direction. It made less noise than the wind, and no one around him noticed.
Having done so, Li Hanguang clasped his hands behind his back and calmly drifted over to stand behind Ji Gaoxin and Jiang Yuwang. After all, he was a newcomer, and a very frightened one.
Ji Gaoxin was feeling wonderful when a wave of invisible sound burst from the mountain forest. The blast left everyone's vision swimming. Before they could recover, a giant spider pounced down from the mountainside. Ji Gaoxin reacted fast enough to dodge it by a hair, but Ji Ningsi beside him was not so lucky. The spider caught her squarely, and she tumbled from her artifact in disarray.
Ji Gaoxin wheeled around at once. He saw Ji Ningsi sprawled on the ground, and not far off a huge, snow-white spider crawling toward her, eyeing her with a gaze that was plainly the look of something at food. His heart clenched, and he rushed to her rescue. "A demon beast is attacking! Kill this vermin!"
Everyone landed in a hurry and hurled spells and treasures at the white spider all at once. The barrage drove it back two steps. Ji Ningsi seized the chance to scramble up and run back behind Ji Gaoxin.
Just then Xiling Sang saw something and cried out in alarm, "Look up there!"
Ji Gaoxin raised his head and looked around. Only now did he see that the mountainside was crawling with white spiders.
Whatever species they were, they stood twice the height of a man, with eight thin, pointed legs. Their skin was pure white, every detail of their bodies laid bare, even the blood beneath the skin visible. Their eyes were a grayish white too, so that at first glance they seemed to be all whites, and now countless pairs of pale eyes were fixed on the party in unison. It was chilling.
No one needed to say a word. Everyone could feel the threat. Xiling Sang and Ji Ningsi were pampered young ladies who had hardly seen a handful of insects in their lives, and surrounded now by a horde of repulsive giant spiders, their faces turned ugly.
As far as the eye could see there was nothing but densely packed, fuzzy white spider legs, and the sense of pressure was overwhelming. Ji Ningsi forced down her nausea and asked, "Brother, what do we do?"
Ji Gaoxin looked perfectly confident. He drew a Qiankun Seal from his sleeve and said, "A pack of third-rate demon beasts, nothing to fear. I'll clear the way with the Qiankun Seal. The rest of you follow and cover me, and we'll break out in one rush."
With that he activated the seal. It swelled rapidly and slammed a golden seal impression down onto the ground, and wherever it struck, the white spiders were knocked flying. Ji Gaoxin seized the opening, charged into the gap and flew outward.
His plan was that he would clear the path while the others covered him with spells. In practice, it did not go that way at all. After Ji Gaoxin broke out first, he found no one had followed, and he was left caught in the middle of the spiders.
He turned back in a fury. Xiling Qiao, who should have been right behind him giving support, was still standing where he was, helping Xiling Sang fend off spiders. Xiling Sang had barely managed to get onto her flying artifact and had gone no more than a couple of steps before a white spider knocked her down. She plunged out of control and dragged Ji Ningsi down with her.
The two girls crashed heavily to the ground. With the spiders behind them about to rush in, Xiling Qiao hurried over to save them. He blocked a spider with his shield and pulled up Ji Ningsi, who was nearest to him. Just as he was about to pull up his sister on the other side, the shield fell for some reason. The white spiders broke through, eight legs scrabbling quickly, and lunged straight at the three of them.
Xiling Qiao had no choice. He could only take Ji Ningsi and retreat first.
Jiang Yuwang had known all along that he was no good at fighting, so he had brought many protective artifacts. The Shennong clan excelled at medicine, and he was driving off the insects with powder, with Zhu Ying never leaving his side, so his situation was fairly good.
He had been rather relaxed until he saw Xiling Qiao abandon Xiling Sang to save Ji Ningsi, which he could hardly believe. He hurled out a Vajra Shield, and it covered Xiling Sang just in time, before the spider's hairy legs could stab down.
Seeing the chaos, Ji Gaoxin had to give up on breaking out and went back to help.
Chang Ju had been scared senseless by the scene. Her mind was a pot of porridge, and all she knew was to hide behind Li Hanguang. Fortunately their luck seemed unusually good. Most of the white spiders had rushed over to besiege Xiling Sang and Ji Ningsi, and none paid attention to them. Chang Ju only had to follow Li Hanguang in dodging the stray spiders, and managed it with some ease.
Li Hanguang looked as if he were concentrating on dodging, but his hands had never rested. He used his power to steer the white spiders toward Ji Ningsi, and whenever there was a gap he drove an ice needle into a spider's back to enrage it and keep driving them forward. Xiling Qiao's shield failing so suddenly a moment ago was his doing.
He was rather curious which Xiling Qiao would choose, his own sister or his betrothed.
Li Hanguang enjoyed the emotional drama. He noticed that after Jiang Yuwang saved Xiling Sang with the Vajra Shield, he immediately ordered Zhu Ying to bring her over. Zhu Ying was unwilling to leave his side, and Jiang Yuwang's face darkened, as if he had issued an order on pain of death. Zhu Ying had no choice but to go. She risked danger to bring the girl back, yet Jiang Yuwang did not so much as glance at her, and only asked after Xiling Sang.
Ji Gaoxin came back from the front just then. The moment he arrived he thanked Jiang Yuwang in a condescending tone, treating himself in every way as Xiling Sang's owner. Jiang Yuwang's face was very ugly, while Xiling Sang paid no attention at all to the man who had just saved her life, and wanted only to go with Ji Gaoxin.
Li Hanguang applauded silently in his heart. Wonderful. Their feelings were so tangled; he might as well give them a hand too.
A wisp of cold gathered in his palm and precisely struck a string of spiders. Enraged by the sneak attack, and then seeing that familiar chill fly past them again, the white spiders followed it and charged. Ji Gaoxin and Jiang Yuwang were in the middle of arguing, and when they looked up they saw five or six white spiders dropping from the sky, lunging at them savagely.
The people on the ground were horrified and hurriedly produced their protective treasures to block. Then a whistling sound came from the air above. They looked up instinctively and saw an arrow streaking toward them.
The arrow was gold from end to end, a long tail of flame trailing behind it. It struck a spider in one eye and shot out through the other, and the white spider let out a howl of agony.
After killing that spider, the arrow, astonishingly, turned. It spun through the heads of the other spiders, and in the blink of an eye the chilling giant white spiders became a row of burning bodies.
Li Hanguang raised an eyebrow and looked behind him with a smile. The commotion had startled everyone, and they all turned to see a white figure suspended in the air to the rear, holding a divine bow. The sun was right behind her, her hem stirring in the wind, its edges seemingly gilded with gold. She was too dazzling to look at directly.
Only after Xi Jiuge had loosed her arrow did Ji Shaoyu catch up from behind. He saw the wreckage on the ground and was startled, then hurried down to help. "Brother Gaoxin, Ningsi, are you all right?"
Xi Jiuge descended slowly from the air. She swept her eyes over the disheveled group crouching beneath their artifacts and asked, puzzled, "What are you doing?"
Ji Gaoxin had just sworn he would put Xi Jiuge's team to shame, and now she had saved him. His pride was stung, and he answered stubbornly, "We were ambushed by a group of formidable demon beasts. They're impervious to blades, their hides are tough, and they move very fast. We were working out how to break through."
Xi Jiuge looked at the white spiders around them and said calmly, "What's formidable about these?"
She worked her power through both hands and drew a half circle in the air. As she moved, a pale golden formation appeared ahead of her. She pressed her hands forward, and fireballs burst from the formation and pounded down like a meteor shower. The dense swarm of spiders was instantly cleared from a wide patch of ground.
Chang Ju stood to one side with her mouth hanging open and said sincerely, "The Divine Maiden of Mingjing is so strong."
Li Hanguang withdrew his gaze with a smile. "Now that the Divine Maiden of Mingjing is here, the fight should be over soon. Let's go hide behind her."
The battle had dragged on for so long partly because Ji Gaoxin and the others were simply far too weak, and partly because of Li Hanguang.
With Xi Jiuge here, Li Hanguang could no longer get away with his little tricks, and the end of the fight was only a matter of time. He kept up his act of timid frailty to the end and slipped behind the others without the slightest qualm.
The fireballs exploded through the valley with a deafening roar. When the rain of fire ended, Xi Jiuge lowered her hands and was surprised to find that quite a few spiders were still standing.
Ji Shaoyu frowned. "What's going on?"
Xi Jiuge looked and said, "They have some ability after all. Their shells can withstand divine fire. It seems the only way to burn them to ash is to get through the hide and burn the flesh inside."
Xi Jiuge understood now why so many gods had gone missing in Fanghu. Even her divine fire could not burn through them; to ordinary gods, attacking them would probably be no different from scratching an itch.
It was the first time Ji Shaoyu had met a demon beast that even Xi Jiuge could not burn to death, and his expression gradually grew grave. "What kind of monsters are these? We shouldn't linger in the fight. Let's withdraw for now and plan carefully."
Xi Jiuge was unmoved. "The missing gods were quite likely harmed by these things. We'll have to face them sooner or later. Better to take advantage of the fact that they're wounded and kill them all now."
Ji Shaoyu hesitated. "But your fire can't penetrate their hides. Staying here may be dangerous."
"Who says so?" As she spoke, Xi Jiuge formed the eight trigrams with her hands and slowly, forcefully cast a series of incantations. "They're only a little more capable than ordinary demon beasts. Against me, that's nowhere near enough."
When she finished speaking, a dazzling ball of fire ignited in her palm. She spread her arms slowly, and the firelight interwove into a net, and finally stretched out into a wall.
Everyone else in the valley looked shocked. Even from that far away, Chang Ju could feel the scorching heat of the fire wall, and she backed away instinctively. "Heavens..."
Ji Ningsi had to put up a spiritual shield in front of her to withstand the pressure of the flames. She frowned and asked, "What is she going to do?"
Ji Gaoxin said nothing, his face dark. Li Hanguang wore a faint, unreadable smile as he watched that bright blaze from among the crowd.
Xi Jiuge pushed with both hands, and the wall of fire swept across the ground with a roar. Wherever it passed, the spiders collapsed in rout, and the smell of flesh and skin roasting over fierce flames filled the air. Li Hanguang sighed softly. Too brutal. He almost felt sorry for the spiders.
He said, "This spell must consume a great deal of divine power, and the Divine Maiden of Mingjing can't keep it up for long. Let's help out too."
The group standing behind had been gaping, and only now, hearing Li Hanguang, did they come to their senses and rush forward to cast spells and use their treasures. Whether Xi Jiuge heard something, no one could say, but after sending out that fire wall she calmly extended her right hand, and the sunlight around her flowed toward it like water. In moments her divine power was full again. Before everyone's eyes she effortlessly pushed out another wall of fire, longer and taller than the first.
Li Hanguang raised an eyebrow at the back. Fine. His outlook had been too narrow; he had never seen how the wealthy fight.
The group clustered together, seemingly united in fighting the monsters, though it was a little awkward. They were afraid of getting hurt in close combat, and at range they could not keep up with Xi Jiuge. She cast fast and hard and never had to worry about running low, and the rest had nothing to contribute.
Ji Gaoxin kept attacking with his treasures and looked very busy, but at most one spell in ten actually landed. The rest either missed or were snatched away by Xi Jiuge before they could hit.
Xi Jiuge's way of fighting was simply too overbearing. These were all noble, much-courted young masters and ladies, and none of them could stomach such a drop in status. Ji Gaoxin was deeply unhappy. Of everyone present, only Jiang Yuwang and Li Hanguang were probably relaxed and enjoying themselves.
Jiang Yuwang was not an aggressive man to begin with. The Shennong clan excelled at medicine and healing, and his time would come after the battle was over. As for Li Hanguang, there was no need to say more; he was slacking in the crowd and having the time of his life.
A huge golden seal appeared in the air, followed by fierce arrows of fire raining down on the swarm below. Xi Jiuge drifted down at her leisure and happened to land right beside Li Hanguang. She worked her power through both hands, replenishing her divine strength from the sunlight, and her lips barely moved as she said, "If you keep going through the motions without putting in any effort, I'll throw you out to feed the spiders."
Li Hanguang sighed. Ah, found out. He looked at Xi Jiuge, his eyes clear, dark and glossy as grapes, and said innocently, "Divine Maiden, it's not that I'm not trying. I'm just a little scared."
"What did you say?"
A smile played at the corner of his mouth as a knife silently settled into his palm. "Divine Maiden, I'll have to trouble you to look after me."
As he spoke, he turned the blade. The short knife spun a lovely flourish between his fingers, and before the blade's afterimage had faded, he had flipped onto a spider's back, then pushed off with his toe to leap to the next. A moment later the blood of those spiders finally sprayed out and their heads rolled off. A thin, even cut had passed through the hide and neatly severed each white spider's head.
While Xi Jiuge burned the swarm on a large scale, Li Hanguang wove through the valley, finishing off with one more stroke each white spider the fire had not killed.
Xi Jiuge noticed that one white spider was escaping. She summoned her divine bow, drew the string and nocked an arrow, ready to kill the one that had slipped away. Li Hanguang walked up beside her and said in a low voice, "Leave one alive. We still need to find out the truth about the disappearances."
Xi Jiuge thought that made sense and slowly released the string. She frowned. "It's already run far. If we let it go now, it won't be easy to track later."
"No matter," said Li Hanguang. "I left a mark on it. Let's rest first. No need to hurry after it."
So this spider had been let go by him, Xi Jiuge thought. No wonder it had escaped her fire. She put away her bow and arrow and asked, "What were you doing skulking behind everyone?"
Li Hanguang answered earnestly, "I'm new here, and a little scared."
Xi Jiuge scoffed, turned and walked toward the back, and Li Hanguang followed with a smile. To the group behind, it seemed to have happened in the blink of an eye: the whole swarm lay on the ground. They stood where they were, dazed, unable to come to their senses for a long while.
Ji Ningsi had lost all the swagger she had when entering the valley. She watched Xi Jiuge and Li Hanguang come back together and asked in surprise, "How did the two of you come from over there?"
Li Hanguang calmly slipped the blade back into his sleeve and said sincerely, "I was surrounded by spiders earlier. I'm lucky the Divine Maiden of Mingjing saved me."
Xi Jiuge rolled her eyes at that and couldn't be bothered to answer him. She said flatly, "Something is wrong with these spiders. There was one straggler ahead, and it should be heading back to their nest. Let's recover quickly, and once we've rested, go and scout their nest."
Xi Jiuge helped any stray person she came across without a second thought, so no one doubted what Li Hanguang had said. They had been tired for a long time, and their only thought now was to rest. At Xi Jiuge's words they scattered at once. Ji Shaoyu, walking among them, found himself recalling the conversation he had overheard last night.
Before leaving, he couldn't help glancing back. Li Hanguang had gone to Xi Jiuge's side again. The two stood face to face, and he could not tell what they were saying.
Doubt rose in Ji Shaoyu's mind, beyond his control. Had Xi Jiuge really just saved Li Hanguang in passing?
There were simply too many coincidences between the two of them.