Wu Yuan threw his head back and let out a piercing screech.

At the signal, the cliff edge above teemed with movement. A legion of rats poured over the ridge, each clamping a heavy stone or thick branch in its jaws.

Though the sight of the massive Spider Demon below sent shivers of instinctual panic through the swarm, discipline held. As one, they released their payloads, raining debris down upon the target in accordance with Wu Yuan’s command.

Watching from the shadows, Wu Yuan smirked with grim satisfaction. “Excellent. I knew these rodents had potential. They are well worth cultivating.”

The Spider Demon had sensed the vermin gathering above long ago, but detecting no spiritual fluctuations from them, it had dismissed them as mere pests. Looking up at the falling avalanche of rocks and wood, its compound eyes flashed with disdain.

It didn’t even dodge.

Instead, the beast raised its abdomen, spraying a massive, shimmering net of silk skyward. The sticky threads intercepted the falling debris instantly, binding the leaves and stones into a heavy, white sphere. With a twitch of its legs, the Spider Demon seized control of the mass and hurled the makeshift projectile directly at Big Old Black.

Now.

Seeing the monster’s attention fully diverted, Wu Yuan broke his cover. He surged from the rear, spiritual energy coalescing around him as he aimed a spell directly at the spider’s exposed abdomen.

[Dark Spirit Thorn]!

A streak of black light flashed through the cavern. The spell struck true, punching a clean hole through the spider’s chitinous armor. Viscous green and white ichor sprayed across the ground.

With a single strike, Wu Yuan had crippled its spinnerets. It could no longer spin silk.

“Screech—!”

The Spider Demon let out an ear-splitting shriek of agony. It frantically circulated its Demon Power to staunch the bleeding, swiveling its massive body to locate the attacker. When its gaze landed on Wu Yuan, pure hatred radiated from its eyes.

“Damned rat!” it hissed, its voice vibrating with rage. “I will pump you full of venom until your flesh melts from your bones!”

Wu Yuan remained unmoved by the threat. His expression was cold, calculated. He deliberately adopted a look of sneering arrogance to goad the beast further.

“You’re finished,” Wu Yuan taunted. “I’ll harvest your silk sacs to make myself a new robe!”

Before the words fully landed, he lunged.

He had no intention of engaging in a contest of brute strength. He moved like a phantom, darting in to rake his claws against the spider’s flank before vanishing back into the shadows. His goal was simple: harassment. Every scratch drained the spider’s Demon Power. Every dodge wasted its stamina.

Wu Yuan’s agility was leagues above the cumbersome arachnid. He stuck to its blind spots, relentlessly hacking at its legs.

The Spider Demon thrashed, agitation rising with every missed strike. A sense of foreboding began to creep into its primitive mind. It realized, with dawning horror, that it couldn’t handle this rat demon. Its legs twitched, testing the ground, looking for an opening to flee.

“Don’t bother looking,” Wu Yuan shouted, cutting off its retreat. “You can’t escape. Today, I’m going to wear you down to death!”

Seeing the cunning grin on the rat’s face, the Spider Demon snapped.

“I’ll kill you!”

It raised a bladed leg, thrusting it down at Wu Yuan with blinding speed.

This time, Wu Yuan didn’t dodge.

He surged upward, jaws snapping shut on the side of the descending limb. The spider’s leg was lined with razor-sharp barbs that pierced Wu Yuan’s mouth, filling it with blood, but he refused to let go. Ignoring the pain, he gathered his strength into his right claw and slashed viciously at the leg’s joint.

Crack!

The sound of fracturing chitin echoed through the cavern. The spider’s leg snapped clean off, exposing the snow-white meat beneath the shell.

Wu Yuan dropped to the ground, panting. His own claw was cracked and bleeding from the impact—a testament to the immense force he had just exerted.

“Your meat looks delicious,” Wu Yuan sneered, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

The trade was worth it. A cracked claw for a crippled leg. The spider’s mobility was now severely compromised.

Pain drove the Spider Demon into a frenzy. Its eyes turned a chaotic crimson, and it began flailing its remaining forelimbs wildly, attacking the empty air in a desperate bid to keep Wu Yuan away.

Wu Yuan watched the berserk display calmly, backing away slowly. The beast was panicking. It was time for the next phase.

He let out a series of sharp, urgent chirps.

From the shadows, a tide of fur and teeth emerged. The rat swarm encircled the wounded demon. Initially, the rats hesitated, trembling at the sight of the thrashing monster and the metallic scent of high-grade demon blood.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

Big Old Black scrambled to the front line, his voice booming. “Little ones! The monster is dying! The Boss has promised a reward of Lunar Essence to anyone who takes a bite out of it!”

Big Old Black’s voice carried a strange, bewitching resonance. Upon hearing the promise of “Lunar Essence,” the fear in the rats’ eyes vanished, replaced by a feverish, greedy red glint. The memory of that divine taste overrode their survival instincts.

With a collective roar, the swarm charged.

“Clever,” Wu Yuan thought, watching the chaotic scene. “No wonder Big Old Black dared to steal from this thing before. He uses the swarm as fodder to draw aggro.”

The Spider Demon was powerful, capable of crushing several rats with a single stomp. But it was overwhelmed by sheer numbers. For every rat it crushed, three more latched onto its body. They gnawed frantically at its open wounds, especially the severed leg and the hole in its abdomen.

At one point, a rat nearly burrowed completely inside the abdominal cavity.

Stimulated by the scent of blood and Big Old Black’s constant agitation, the rats had lost all reason. They were a wave of suicidal teeth, piling onto the demon to drag it down.

Wu Yuan remained hidden within the chaos, his eyes locked on the Spider Demon. He would occasionally pop out to deliver a taunt or a quick scratch, ensuring the spider’s rage remained focused on him, preventing it from organizing a breakout.

Yet, a frown creased his brow.

Why hasn’t it used its venom?

Big Old Black had explicitly warned him about the spider’s poison. It was supposed to be potent. Yet, despite being eaten alive, the beast hadn’t sprayed a single drop.

Something unusual must be afoot.

“Fine,” Wu Yuan hissed under his breath. “Let’s see how long you can hide your trump card.”

The battle raged for the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

Nearly 100 rats lay dead, their bodies littering the cave floor. The surviving rats were beginning to wake from their bloodlust. Seeing the carnage and the still-ferocious demon, the edges of the formation began to waver.

However, the Spider Demon was in far worse shape. Its obsidian carapace was shattered in a dozen places, its abdomen was practically hollowed out, and the leg Wu Yuan had broken was now completely gone—gnawed down to the socket.

Seeing that the swarm had served its purpose, Wu Yuan chirped a command for them to retreat.

This thing’s vitality is absurd, Wu Yuan noted, analyzing the panting beast. It’s tougher than the Owl Demon, but for an Awakened bloodline beast, its combat power is strangely low. It doesn’t add up.

The crimson glow in the spider’s eyes was fading, its movements turning sluggish. It was on death’s door. If it had a trump card, it had to use it now.

There.

Just as Wu Yuan anticipated, the Spider Demon suddenly arched its back. Its mandibles spread wide, and it hacked up an irregular, pulsating green crystal.

The moment the crystal touched the air, it erupted with a sickly emerald light. The radiance swept over the retreating rats that were too slow to escape.

There was no sound, no scream. As the light touched them, their skin blistered and liquefied. In the span of a few breaths, the rats melted into puddles of gore and white bone.

Wu Yuan, ever paranoid, had dived into a pre-prepared tunnel the second he saw the crystal emerge.

“So that’s it!” Wu Yuan’s eyes widened in the dark. “It never used its venom because it was condensing a [Poison Orb]! It was trying to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation!”

It made perfect sense. The spider had funneled all its Demon Power and toxins into the orb, leaving its physical body weak.

“You poured everything into that orb…” Wu Yuan licked his lips, his gaze turning fiery. “A weakened bloodline beast with a condensed core… that is highly nourishing!”

Outside, the Spider Demon collapsed. The surrounding rats were dead, dissolved by the toxic light. It lay flat on the ground, gasping for air, its life force flickering like a candle in the wind.

Wu Yuan crawled out of his tunnel. He stopped at a safe distance—not too far, but not close enough to be ambushed.

“Stop acting,” Wu Yuan shouted, his voice dripping with mockery. “I know you’re not dead yet!”

The Spider Demon barely reacted. It twitched slightly, its dim compound eyes staring blankly in Wu Yuan’s direction.

Wu Yuan took a step forward.

The spider remained limp.

He took another step. Then, abruptly, he scrambled backward.

The spider’s tense muscles instantly relaxed.

Got you.

Wu Yuan had already calculated the spider’s attack range. He knew the beast was baiting him, waiting for him to enter the kill zone. But Wu Yuan was patient. He would play this game.

He stepped in. He stepped out. He danced on the razor’s edge of the spider’s reach, taunting it, wearing down its mental focus.

After several rounds of this sadistic tango, the Spider Demon stopped reacting entirely. It seemed to have truly given up.

Only then did Wu Yuan narrow his eyes. He slowly crossed the threshold, entering the attack range.