Gazing at the spider silks in the void, Zhong Shenxiu was momentarily stunned.
He finally understood why Gu Qingying described these fine strands as ’alive’ before.
At that moment, under the enhancement of his inner strength, these spider silks were emitting a faint glow, slowly writhing like long worms, indeed as if they possessed a life of their own.
Watching them was like seeing the ’blood vessels’ of the void, with something even more tumultuous seeming to surge within.
Just as Zhong Shenxiu looked up, these threads of spider silk also drifted down gently.
Everyone in the dilapidated temple dared not let the spider silk touch them, and Gu Qingying unsheathed the Lonely Goose Saber, slashing three times to the east, three times to the west, three times to the south, and three times to the north.
These twelve saber strokes naturally formed a circle of sabers, protecting himself without a single gap.
Zhong Shenxiu, lacking his saber skills and martial prowess, was fortunate that only one or two strands targeted him from the sky, drifting down gently.
"Medicine Sand Palm!"
He roared, his palms suddenly turning bright red, akin to glowing hot iron, to strike at an incoming thread of spider silk.
This strand of spider silk landed in the center of his palm and immediately hissed like a red-hot iron knife plunged into ice water, emitting a large amount of white steam.
Zhong Shenxiu’s expression changed instantly, feeling the strong corrosion on his fifth-level Medicine Sand Palm, which could normally catch a blade barehanded, sending a wave of acute pain!
’Just testing with fifty percent of my strength and I still can’t block a thread of spider silk?’
’Is this the real power of a Martial Arts expert?’
’If I get caught in the battle of such people, I’m afraid I’d be killed with a casual blow, which would be too unfair.’
With a quick thought, he suddenly increased his Medicine Sand Palm’s power to its full potential.
A strong scent of medicine emanated from the center of his palm, quickly neutralizing the inner strength carried by the spider silk, eventually dissolving the strand.
It was at this moment that Zhong Shenxiu barely survived the casual strike from that hidden enemy, whose main target wasn’t even him!
At that moment, a series of corrosive hisses could be heard.
Gu Qingying screamed in pain, his Lonely Goose Saber fell to the ground, and somehow a strand of spider silk had landed on his shoulder.
The spider silk suddenly dissolved, like aqua regia, rapidly corroding everything, and in the blink of an eye, his arm was ruined.
Heavenly Mechanism Star Du Wan saw this scene, suddenly heaved a sigh, and took a drag from his water pipe.
Invisible currents surged in the void, continuously blowing away the drifting spider silk.
This was an Earth List Master, using his profound inner strength to directly confront the spider silk in mid-air.
Threads of white, translucent spider silk floated in the void, occupying half of the temple and drifting towards Zhong Shenxiu’s side, but they seemed to be blocked by an invisible barrier, unable to pass at all.
’Heavenly Mechanism Star? Earth List Master? ... This strength is completely beyond that of an Innate Martial Practitioner...’
Zhong Shenxiu looked at this scene and couldn’t help but feel impressed inside: "The Martial Arts of this land seem very promising?"
He saw Gu Qingying struggling to get up and bandage his own wound.
On the other hand, the red-dressed girl following Heavenly Mechanism Star Du seemed utterly indifferent, seeming not to care about the competition between the Heavenly Mechanism Star and the enemy.
Zhong Shenxiu even felt that this girl, who appeared to be only in her teens, possessed a maturity beyond that of her peers.
Perhaps, even when faced with life and death crises, she would maintain such calmness.
At this moment, the man known as Heavenly Mechanism Star Old Man Du was merely smoking his water pipe, occasionally blowing out a puff of smoke.
The martial art he practiced was called ’Breathing Skill.’ In the Martial Arts community, it couldn’t be considered a superior martial art, and it didn’t even rank on the list of unique and matchless arts.
This martial art focused on ’breath’!
Even an ordinary Martial Artist, as long as they persistently trained, could get started by breathing and exhaling at a special frequency.
But to truly excel, one must grasp the rhythm of the breath. Once they understood this secret, anyone practicing the Breathing Skill would genuinely develop the martial art to its full potential, and even the act of breathing in and out would carry tremendous power.
At this moment, streaks of smoke sliced through the spider silk in the air as if they were flying swords, severing them in two.
Zhong Shenxiu could even feel the ’life force’ contained within the spider silks being extinguished as they snapped.
The broken strands of spider silk gently floated to the ground, swiftly dissolving out of sight.
"Heavenly Mechanism Star Du Tong, do you really want to pick up this feud?"
The previous female voice echoed in the night.
The campfire flickered violently, and suddenly, a graceful figure appeared in the air above the temple.
She was dressed in a black bodice as thin as cicada wings. The translucent fabric could hardly cover her fiery figure, not a shoe or sock on her flawlessly clean feet.
Because this mature, sultry woman, at most thirty years old, was standing in the middle of the air.
She wasn’t standing in mid-air but lying on a large web woven from spider silk in the void, like a spider queen, looking down at everyone in the Niu Shenjun Temple.
"So it’s you, the Black Widow of the Miaojiang Five Poison Sect!"
Old Man Du took a draw from his water pipe, "Originally, I had heard of an unrighteous Lonely Goose Saber causing outrage on Jianghu. I was so angry I couldn’t even eat, and after riding three fine horses to death, I was ready to go behead the scoundrel... But after some thorough investigation, I discovered there was more to the story. Five Poison Sect, you have great ambitions, to annihilate the Wang Family’s direct line, are you planning to wage a massive war against Lingnan? Or do you think that there were not enough Miao experts killed by the Fei E Sword back then?"
As he spoke leisurely, without a trace of mundane concern, the Black Widow’s face showed a tint of embarrassment and annoyance, which quickly faded. Her brightly colored lips pursed slightly as if offering a soundless invite.
This kind of woman was precisely the type an inexperienced Jianghu youth would find irresistible.
She was like a touch of fallen darkness, exuding a dangerous yet sweet fragrance, like a ripe poisonous fruit begging to be picked.
Even Gu Qingying, who had a vendetta, seemed to be briefly stunned at the moment.
In his moment of distraction, strands of spider silk meandered down, aiming to wriggle into his brain through his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
Again, Du Tong exhaled a puff of smoke that sliced through the spider silk, "You should leave. Since I’ve seen what happened today, I can’t ignore it."
"Mr. Du still has the vigor of youth, but I wonder how sturdy his bones are? Even if I’m not up to the task, there is still our Sect Hierarch," the Black Widow laughed coquettishly, and as she spoke, myriad strands of spider silk fell from the sky.
Zhong Shenxiu’s eyes twitched as he hastened to wield his palm like flying, barely sweeping away the threads drifting toward him.
Then, with a roar from Du Tong, he thrust out both palms as if carrying the force of wind and thunder, striking fiercely.
A large hole was immediately blown open in the east wall of the temple, and a violent storm poured in, while two figures, one chasing the other, darted out.
In the pitch-black curtain of rain, two Grandmasters of Martial Arts began a desperate fight to the death!