Chapter 44: Instantly Killing the Monster
Zhong Qi spoke in terror, truly feeling the shadow of death looming over him.
"Hehehe, you guessed wrong. I really am just a Qi Refining cultivator," Xu Yang said as he approached the black spider with the white lotus atop its head. The terrifying creature opened and closed its massive, stinking mouth, drooling foul saliva.
The spider's blood-red eyes glared at Xu Yang, radiating murderous intent.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" Zhong Qi was scared out of his wits, shouting and struggling desperately.
However, Xu Yang's grip was unshakable.
Though it appeared effortless, Zhong Qi couldn't move an inch, no matter how hard he tried.
"Let... let me go! We can talk this through, right? There's no need to do this!" Zhong Qi, faced with death, turned into a sobbing coward. A pungent stench wafted from his pants, filling the air with the smell of urine.
Xu Yang frowned in disgust, feeling nauseated.
By now, he had reached the spider's feet. With a casual wave of his hand, he hurled Zhong Qi toward the creature.
The massive black spider opened its gaping maw and caught Zhong Qi mid-air, chewing him messily for a few moments before swallowing him whole.
Xu Yang dusted off his hands and prepared to leave.
Suddenly, the spider lifted one of its enormous legs and brought it crashing down toward Xu Yang.
The black leg cut through the air with a sharp whoosh and smashed down toward Xu Yang's head with tremendous force.
The strike was incredibly fast and powerful. Any other Nascent Soul cultivator in Xu Yang's place would have been pulverized into paste.
But Xu Yang didn't flinch. His face darkened in anger. "Beast! If that's how it is, then you'll die here!"
He raised a single hand and caught the spider's descending leg mid-air.
Dust billowed as Xu Yang was driven deep into the ground like a nail, leaving only his head and one arm visible above the surface.
"Tsk tsk, I didn't expect your strength to be quite impressive," Xu Yang remarked.
With a sudden, forceful motion, Xu Yang leaped out of the hole, holding the massive black spider aloft with just one arm. Then, he slammed it to the ground with tremendous force.
Boom!
The impact was deafening. Dust exploded everywhere, and black blood splattered in all directions. The once-arrogant white-lotus ghost spider died instantly without even a chance to resist.
Ling Qingshu watched the entire scene with calm indifference, unsurprised.
She was used to it. In this world, there was nothing that Old Ancestor Xu couldn't instantly kill.
...
"Alright, let's move. We need to find those people who ran off earlier," Xu Yang said, tidying up the scene.
After walking for about ten minutes, they caught sight of the scattered group from earlier.
The group of people huddled together, hiding inside a mountain cave, their faces filled with fear as they glanced nervously outside.
When they saw Xu Yang and Ling Qingshu approaching, one person cautiously crawled out of the cave.
"That monster from before... is it still out there? Is it following behind you?"
"It's already dead," Xu Yang replied calmly.
The people inside the cave were stunned. That monster, so terrifying and powerful, was dead in just a few minutes?
But on second thought, they reasoned Xu Yang wouldn't lie.
If someone as seemingly weak as Xu Yang, just a Qi Refining cultivator, had survived and made it here, it meant the outside was no longer dangerous.
At that moment, someone realized something was off.
"Wait, where's Elder Zhong?" a timid voice asked.
"Yeah, why don't we see him with Xu Lao Zu?" others whispered among themselves.
"Are you talking about that old man? He's dead," Xu Yang said nonchalantly.
The group was dumbfounded, struggling to believe what they'd just heard.
Elder Zhong Qi—someone at the Nascent Soul stage—was dead?
A Nascent Soul-stage cultivator, someone considered immensely powerful, had been killed just like that?
"What about the monster from before?" another person asked.
"It's dead too," Xu Yang answered just as casually.
The group was utterly shocked. Zhong Qi was dead, and so was the monster? Could it be that Zhong Qi and the monster had perished together?
But that wasn't their most pressing concern.
They had ventured into this dangerous forest precisely because of its known perils, seeking protection under Zhong Qi, a Nascent Soul expert. With him around, they thought their safety would be assured.
Yet now, barely any time had passed since they entered, and even Zhong Qi, the mighty Nascent Soul elder, had died. Their "protector" was gone, leaving them—a group of Golden Core cultivators—vulnerable in a forest so perilous that even a Nascent Soul expert couldn't survive.
Many began to consider retreating.
"Maybe we should turn back now," one person suggested, fear and hesitation written all over their face.
"Yeah, it's too dangerous here. Dying for some unknown spiritual herb isn't worth it. No matter what the rest of you do, I'm leaving."
"Right, I want to leave too. That monster earlier was terrifying. If we encounter something like that again, we're as good as dead."
Once someone voiced their desire to retreat, it quickly became a cascade, and everyone began to waver.
Xu Yang observed this scene with indifference, making no comment.
While he had hoped these people could stay and help him collect spiritual herbs, he wouldn't force them if they didn't dare remain.
After all, they weren't indispensable to him.
"If you want to leave, try retracing your steps. We're still at the forest's edge, so it should be easy to make your way out," Xu Yang said.
"I'm going deeper. Take care of yourselves."
He turned to Ling Qingshu and added, "Let's go. We'll explore further in."
Without another word, Xu Yang turned and walked away. Ling Qingshu quickly followed behind.
The Golden Core cultivators, who had been discussing how to leave, stared blankly at Xu Yang's receding figure.
After a long pause, someone finally blurted out, "What the hell?! A Qi Refining weakling—he's staying and heading deeper on his own after we're all leaving?"
"I don't think he's just Qi Refining. Didn't you notice? That Golden Core cultivator with him keeps calling him 'Old Ancestor'!"
"What the—'Old Ancestor'? Could he be a Nascent Soul-stage monster in disguise?"
As discussions broke out among the group, while a few remained steadfast in their decision to leave, the majority reconsidered.
Ten of them ultimately decided to follow Xu Yang.
After all, those who dared to enter this forest, knowing its dangers, had come seeking fortune and opportunity. If there was even a sliver of a chance at finding it, they were willing to take the risk.