Chapter 15: The Favorable Wind Spider

Chen Longshi had not gone far when he came upon a patch of lush wild Star Herb plants beside a black water pool—herbs of the Black Iron, Bronze, and even Silver grades. Some star plants whose grade he could not discern shone with dazzling colors in the darkness, captivating the heart entirely.

If apothecaries were to discover such a fertile ground for herbs, they would surely go mad, treating it as the treasure of their lives.

But Chen Longshi dared not approach; the black pool filled him with dread. He gave it only a distant glance before skirting around it.

Soon after, relying on his keen senses, he found a few exposed Star Crystal grains beneath decaying leaves. His heart raced; did this canyon perhaps hide veins of Star Crystal ore?

Star Crystals, once used solely as aids for martial cultivation, had now been developed by humanity to their utmost potential in a short span. Beyond serving as a new energy source, they had become irreplaceable in scientific research, weaponry, equipment, spacecraft, and daily life.

Every discovery of a Star Crystal vein sparked fierce dimensional wars—even the great powers of Earth played their games and waged wars over such resources.

“If there truly is a Star Crystal vein here...”

He shook off the thought; even if one existed, he had no means to act on it now.

Yet this aimless searching was getting him nowhere—no exit found, only getting deeper in. Along the way, he had encountered many tempting treasures, most out of reach, leaving him thoroughly frustrated.

Moreover, he had underestimated how much the magnetic field’s chaos affected his sense of direction. Now dizzy and confused, he had circled back several times and no longer knew where he was. Had he not been cautious and marked his path early, he might have been lost for good. He had fought many battles, spent much energy, and since falling from above, had not had a drop to drink—maintaining his combat strength was already impressive.

The Reincarnation Purple Lotus shielded him from the poisonous mist, but could not stave off hunger or thirst; if lost in the canyon, death awaited. Most troubling, time flowed strangely beneath the canyon; he feared he might already have missed the testing period.

Resolute, he stopped, following the marks he’d left to return to the Red Giant leader’s corpse. Though he lost his way several times and wasted much time, his efforts paid off—he finally found the Red Giant’s body. Seeing it again, Chen Longshi doubted he had come to the right place.

The corpse had decayed, leaving only white bones. A gentle touch reduced even those bones to dust.

Around the Red Giant’s remains, Chen Longshi found several other corpses—clearly, the fighting above had not ceased.

As he pondered, a powerful airflow pressed from above. Chen Longshi looked up sharply and, terrified, rolled away to hide.

A thunderous crash—a giant Star Spirit Fruit Tree fell from above.

“What’s going on?”

No sooner had he spoken than another surge of airflow came, and several more Star Spirit Fruit Trees crashed down, followed by enormous falling rocks and earth.

The ground shook; debris showered from the cliff, forcing Chen Longshi to flee as far as possible. The barrage lasted long, but finally ceased—yet the entire canyon was thrown into turmoil.

“Boom, boom!”

A true earthquake. Chen Longshi sent his senses out in a straight line, and suddenly, a jolt ran through him; he dove into a patch of mud, rolling several times, even pulling the Reincarnation Purple Lotus into his mouth.

He had to drop the lotus’s protective light shield; immediately, his skin tingled as the poisonous mist began to invade. Fortunately, holding the lotus in his mouth still detoxified him, though it required an extra step, and his exposed skin suffered. It was a trial for his flesh, but nothing compared to survival.

Dense ranks of humanoid spider monsters charged forth like an army, countless in number. All other creatures in the canyon retreated in terror.

These beings had eight spider-like legs, with a humanoid torso and face protruding from their upper bodies, and two pincers in place of hands. Their faces were hideous, eight single eyes in rows, and their mouths filled with spider-like fangs.

Their bodies were almost entirely encased in black exoskeletons; the largest were five meters in length, with sharp claws digging into the earth.

Chen Longshi shivered, desperate to escape.

“What possessed me to come treasure hunting in the Red Earth region?”

He could have sought fortune another time, plenty of chances to seize opportunity.

A group of seemingly leader spider monsters circled the fallen Star Spirit Fruit Tree, hissing sharply, as if deep in discussion.

It was clear they were highly intelligent, even organizing their ranks with skill.

At last, several leader spiders reached agreement, sending a team to carry the broken Star Spirit Fruit Tree deep into the mist-filled canyon. Their careful movements, leaving not a single twig behind, contrasted starkly with the destruction wrought by those above. Perhaps these humanoid spiders had a way to revive the Star Spirit Fruit Tree.

The largest spider pointed upward with its pincers, hissing, and the remaining force thundered off into the mist.

Chen Longshi, still dazed, huddled in the mud, enduring the poison.

Soon, stones, earth, and grass began to rain down, along with snapped spider silk. He realized—the spiders were climbing up. That direction was the way back to the cliff above.

With that realization, he wasted no time, seizing the moment while his sense of direction remained, and chased after the spiders’ trail into the mist.

The spider troop was vast; before long, he caught up. He saw clearly—the path ahead was the exit he had searched for so long.

The spider monsters scaled the steep, negatively angled cliff with speed and discipline, ascending in tidy formation. Soon, even the last spider had climbed up.

A bold idea burst into his mind, and he could not suppress it.

Chen Longshi took a deep breath, suppressing his presence to its faintest, and cautiously extended a tendril of psychic power to grasp a spine on the back of a giant spider, activating the Mayfly Technique.

The spider paused, scratched its back with its pincers, then continued climbing.

“Easy, buddy—just hitching a ride.”

His heart pounded wildly, but the spider, its view blocked, did not notice its passenger.

Under the Mayfly Technique, he was like a scrap of cloth, drifting upward—he had succeeded!

He nearly waved to celebrate, but managed to restrain himself.

Passing the most difficult “gourd belly” section of the slope, the spiders’ ascent quickened. Through the thick mist, he could glimpse a hint of daylight—it was already morning outside.

Above the cliff, even more people had gathered than during last night’s battle. News had spread, and forces from all sides had converged at the broken canyon, even the military organizing human snipers. The Red Giants had reinforced with several tribes, now numbering over five hundred, locked in brutal combat with the human warriors.

People kept dying, yet fresh reinforcements constantly arrived.

One after another, none retreated.

Ever since Chen Longshi seized the largest batch of Star Spirit Fruits and plummeted into the canyon with the Red Giant leader, the cliff above had fallen quiet for a time.

Later, a group of adventurers arrived, eager for treasure but found nothing, and grew angry. Fierce battle erupted with the guarding Red Giants, causing heavy casualties. Some, maddened by their comrades’ deaths, sought revenge—unable to defeat the Red Giants, they vented their wrath by chopping down the Star Spirit Fruit Trees.

As the trees were felled one by one, only the last remained. At its top, a blue Star Spirit Fruit suddenly grew, devouring star energy at a visible rate, its dazzling blue light shining forth.

“Evolution Fruit!”

Someone recognized it, and madness swept the crowd.

The battle escalated, expanding ever further.

Now, with the Evolution Fruit nearly ripe, the struggle grew more frenzied.

At that moment—hissing sounds rippled as mist surged violently from below the cliff; the ground began to quake. The first humanoid spider monster charged out from the canyon depths, marking the insect tribe’s official entry into the competition for the Star Spirit Fruit Tree.

Cracks opened along the cliff walls, earth subsided, and spider monsters poured out, plunging the battlefield into greater chaos.

Chen Longshi, following the last spider, finally returned to the cliff’s edge. Cleverly, he slipped off his ride, stabbed his spear into a rock beneath the cliff to stabilize himself, then used his star-forged longsword to carve a recess, hiding there for the moment.

He needed time to recover and to learn what was happening above.

Clearing his mind, Chen Longshi took a deep breath, facing the rushing wind. He sat cross-legged, urging the Purple Lotus to purge his body of toxins. The recess was small, too cramped for the Eighteen Star-Forge Movements, so he practiced the Turtle-Serpent Body-Forge instead.

His limbs were steady as a turtle upon the earth, his head moved like a serpent, stretching and retracting. At a glance, he resembled a giant upright turtle.

His breathing grew rhythmic, slow and fast in turn, his mind settling into tranquility.

With the breath, his jaw moved, guiding his neck back and forth, mimicking a serpent poised to strike. His tongue flicked, lips opening and closing slightly.

“Breathe, breathe...”

Air flowed audibly through his nose; listening closely, one could hear the hiss of a serpent.

At the same time, Swallow began to transform stored souls, pouring endless essence into his body. His blood boiled, warmth flooding through him.

Unlike the dynamic Eighteen Star-Forge Movements, the Turtle-Serpent Body-Forge was a static cultivation, but both laid the foundation for the Star-Forge realm, the principles leading to the same end.

It was all about force, sinew, bone, marrow, and viscera, layer upon layer, each step advancing, ultimately triggering a transformation—a process of blood and qi accumulating until explosive change, or rather, a gradual evolution of life.

Gradually, his skin, jade-like, raised goosebumps; some areas shed dead skin and grew anew. This was the skin poisoned after he dropped the Purple Lotus’s light shield in the canyon, now sloughing off through metabolism.

This time, Swallow had stored a vast amount of “food,” and converted it into copious energy. Even the Soul Sutra’s progress in his mind raced ahead.