Chapter 159: White Bone Bewitching Spider

This unexpected harvest was a welcome bonus and would certainly prove useful in the future.

Having dealt with the Soul-Devouring Silver Insects, Cao Chengyu resumed his spiritual probing. At first, nothing out of the ordinary was detected.

However, as his divine sense penetrated deeper, patches of white spiderwebs appeared within his perceptive field.

"A spider demon?"

Finding traces of a spider demon in the Wolf Nest was indeed bizarre. Yet, pondering how long this place had been abandoned and how many people might have passed through over the years, the presence of other demonic beasts was actually within the realm of normalcy.

After a momentary shock, Cao Chengyu quickly regained his composure. His divine sense plunged nearly a thousand meters deeper before abruptly grazing a small cocoon.

If his intuition was correct, this aura most likely belonged to Daoist Lin.

What about Chi Jiuxiao and Chi Luan, then?

Before his divine sense could probe any further, upon touching the white cocoon formed around Daoist Lin, a piercing screech instantly shattered his spiritual perception.

A colossal, mountain-sized giant spider, its entire body the color of bleached bone, burst forth from the depths of the palace.

Its eight pink eyes blazed with ferocity as it rapidly scrambled outward.

Outside the palace, Cao Chengyu felt a momentary throbbing headache, plunging everything into darkness, though the tremors of the ground remained palpable.

A giant spider was charging out!

"Lin Qiu, take your junior brother and fall back a safe distance."

"Understood!"

Lin Qiu nodded decisively, grabbing the unconscious Lin Wen and bolting toward the side.

Cao Chengyu collected himself, fully recovering shortly after.

Sonic-based spiritual attacks of the kind just unleashed were actually quite rare among cultivators.

Cao Chengyu had only encountered it once before, back at the Feihong Immortal Market, courtesy of the Blood-Colored Yaksha.

Among the realms of cultivation, the Dao Body stage merely marks the initial contact with spiritual power, where its utility is strictly confined to sensory perception and assisting in the refinement of spiritual Qi of various attributes.

Upon reaching the Purple Palace realm, the spiritual Purple Palace and true Qi accumulate in tandem, granting a cultivator a baseline capability for spiritual combat.

However, true mastery and execution of offensive soul arts generally require at least the Golden Core realm.

There are two primary reasons for this.

First, without a specialized spiritual cultivation technique, a Purple Palace cultivator accumulates and restores spiritual energy at an excruciatingly slow pace. Furthermore, every spell they cast requires the infusion of spiritual power to unleash its full potential.

This is precisely why spells and secret techniques sometimes surpass magical treasures in sheer destructive might.

There exists a unique resonance between spiritual power and true Qi; their fusion generates an astonishing, incomprehensible magnitude of power.

When Cao Chengyu broke through to the Purple Palace realm, he experienced such an energy fusion within his body, causing his life level to soar and his lifespan to dramatically increase.

Yet, this integration is merely temporary.

Every time a cultivator breaks through a major boundary, a fusion of energies occurs, elevating their life level and achieving the breakthrough.

Only upon reaching the Nascent Soul realm can a cultivator completely fuse their spiritual power and true Qi, fully mastering this higher tier of energy.

Entering the Nascent Soul realm instantly expands one's lifespan to over five thousand years—a vast chasm compared to the twelve hundred years of the Golden Core and the five hundred of the Purple Palace.

To put it simply, below the Nascent Soul, all are mere ants.

Even the most prodigious talents cannot bridge the gap between Golden Core and Nascent Soul; the disparity is simply too immense, and the energies they command exist on entirely different planes.

While a Golden Core cultivator might require ten units of true Qi, a Nascent Soul expert might need only one, or even half a unit, to completely shatter their attack.

The gap is as vast as a natural abyss.

Second, spiritual attacks are clandestine and difficult to parry. Once deflected, the backlash to one's own soul can prove fatal for a Purple Palace cultivator.

It leads to a severely diminished lifespan, a regression in realm, and potential irreparable damage to the spiritual Purple Palace, effectively severing all prospects of future advancement.

Therefore, even though Cao Chengyu practiced the Undying Human Soul Chapter—possessing a peerlessly formidable soul imbued with bizarre power characteristics—he had never learned offensive soul techniques.

He feared that a single misstep would result in immediate destruction.

When it comes to defensive measures, however, he had made ample preparations.

Only when a cultivator ascends to the Golden Core realm, condensing their internal ocean of true Qi into a solid Golden Core with their soul taking residence within, does the landscape change. Even if a spiritual secret art is shattered at that stage, the Golden Core provides protection, avoiding the catastrophic side effects suffered in the Purple Palace realm.

At worst, one only loses a minuscule fraction of spiritual power. Consequently, such techniques are typically the exclusive domain of Golden Core cultivators.

Their intrinsic value is exorbitantly high and exceedingly rare.

Especially in these untamed, barbaric domains, they were scarcer still.

Cao Chengyu currently possessed no offensive soul techniques, though he did harbor quite a few unorthodox methods related to soul seizure.

Unlike cultivators, demonic beasts often possess innate bloodline talents, varying from individual to individual.

This giant spider presumably inherited a bloodline ability of this nature.

By now, the Bone-White Giant Spider had already charged out.

Measuring over thirty meters in length and twenty-something meters in height, with a leg span estimated at a hundred meters, its aura was terrifying—undoubtedly a fierce beast at the Blood-Transforming (Golden Core) stage!

Extremely dangerous!

While Cao Chengyu was confident in his ability to handle a human Golden Core cultivator, that did not mean he could effortlessly defeat a fierce beast of the same realm, which are universally paragons among their kind.

As for the Crystal Scorpion clan? Forgive them, but they belonged to the more pathetic tier of fierce beasts. But this giant spider, judging solely by the spiritual attack it just unleashed, could not be underestimated.

Its bloodline was undeniably extraordinary.

Man and spider stood locked in a standoff, neither daring to make the first move.

At that moment, an unexpected development occurred.

Lin Qiu, who had hidden away early on, suddenly let out a miserable shriek, his voice trembling with terror and disbelief.

"Damn dog shit Wen, what are you doing? Are you trying to suck my blood?!"

Cao Chengyu frowned slightly and swept his divine sense across the scene.

How could this be?!

Within his perceptive field, Lin Wen's eyes were completely bloodshot, canine teeth protruded from his lips, his physique was expanding rapidly, and thick hair sprouted frantically all over his body. After observing for just a moment, he could make a definitive judgment.

This fellow had been infected with Blood Wolf Poison and was transforming into a blood-drinking werewolf.

When had this happened? Wasn't this fellow scared unconscious earlier? Could this be the variable favorable to me? It didn't look like it.

As Cao Chengyu pondered inwardly, Lin Qiu was being relentlessly chased around the area by Lin Wen, and gradually, their paths began to shift.

Lin Qiu attempted to flee deeper into the palace.

This movement instantly infuriated the Bone-White Giant Spider, which raised its massive bone-like limbs high and viciously stabbed downward into the earth.

A barrage of bone spikes violently erupted from the ground. If someone were impaled by that length, they would not only lose their manhood but also end up a permanent casualty of war.

With any luck, not even a spear would be left behind.

Though Cao Chengyu felt a chill run down his spine, he still made his move. He needed to closely observe these two individuals to determine precisely when and how they would intersect with his own fate.

This was also a vital, deep-level deduction of the mystical arts of the Eight Trigrams.

It was of paramount importance.

With a flick of both sleeves, he unleashed two azure dragons, intercepting every single bone spike thrusting toward Lin Qiu.

With a twist of the wind dragons, the bone spikes shattered instantly.

The giant spider roared, fixing its pink eyes squarely upon him.

Pupil technique!

Cao Chengyu instantly activated his newly mastered Poison-Transforming Divine Ability, his entire body dissolving in place into a formless mist.

In less than the span of a breath, it wrapped around the giant spider's head. There was no helping it; the volume of the formless mist he could transform into was simply too small.

The amount that could normally easily envelop a single person couldn't even cover the giant spider's head entirely.

Perhaps because his comprehension of the Poison-Transforming Divine Ability was still insufficient, Cao Chengyu hardened his heart and rapidly blended the toxins of his Undying Poison Pupils into the mix.

Although this caused the formless mist to become visible, its toxicity surged dramatically.

The skull of the bone-white spider began to corrode rapidly, the terrifying and ferocious facial bone armor pitting and scarring heavily.

Large quantities of greenish thick blood poured out, only to be swiftly infected into a pale purple hue.

The path of poison, when utilized to overcome the strong while remaining weak, was indeed fiercely potent!