Chapter 680: Stealing Spider Silk |
More than a dozen martial arts experts surrounded Snowy Owl, Seagull, and High Mountain in the courtyard, attacking in unison. Though they were only second-rate and third-rate masters—roughly on par with Yue Zhenqiao—their sheer numbers posed a significant threat.
What was especially striking was that these martial artists came from completely different backgrounds, some not even from the same prison realm, yet they coordinated with uncanny precision, showing no signs of being strangers to one another.
In fact, their teamwork was absurdly seamless—two fighters struck simultaneously from front and back, with the one in front somehow ducking and lowering his head in advance to clear the path for the attack behind him, as if he could read his comrade's mind.
These dozen fighters produced an effect where one plus one was greater than two!
This indirectly proved that the puppets controlled by the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord's Causality Silk ability not only retained their memories, consciousness, and full fighting prowess but were also linked to some kind of hive-mind network, allowing each individual to coordinate like ants or bees in a colony.
Even so, Snowy Owl, Seagull, and High Mountain, surrounded at the center of the assault, were still quickly and continuously reducing the puppets' numbers despite their flawless coordination.
But the reduction was barely making a dent!
Because... over the courtyard wall, an endless stream of puppets kept climbing in to join the fray and fill the gaps.
This was both an encirclement and a war of attrition!
"This demon has no shred of kindness whatsoever!"
Snowy Owl sliced open a twin-sword expert, cursing again, "Old Daoist, stop explaining! How much longer?"
"Still need some time!"
Mystic Cloud Master hurriedly replied.
The black veins on Snowy Owl's skin had resurfaced. Though no martial artist had landed a blow on her, fine beads of blood were already seeping from her body.
"Dammit!"
Worse still, the puppets seemed to have noticed...
That although Snowy Owl appeared to be the strongest among the three, she was also the weakest link.
The focus of the puppets' assault instantly shifted to Snowy Owl.
Even when facing attacks from High Mountain and Seagull, they seemed to disregard their own lives, willing to take a hit just to land one more strike on Snowy Owl.
Under this relentless assault, Snowy Owl's condition inevitably worsened—though she still hadn't been hit directly, the curse was clearly deepening!
After just a few exchanges, Snowy Owl's skin was nearly soaked through with blood, making her look as if she'd been coated in a layer of red rice paste—utterly battered.
"Dammit, if I hadn't been cursed by that thing, these wretches wouldn't even be able to touch me!"
Even so, Snowy Owl had to admit...
She could still hold on for now, but it was becoming a real struggle.
If these martial artists kept pressing for a few more minutes, she might very well fall right here!
And then, just at that moment...
Snowy Owl suddenly felt the pressure from all sides ease significantly.
Snapping back to reality, she looked up—the courtyard, which had been packed to the brim, was now empty.
All the martial artist puppets that had been surrounding them were lying on the ground, quickly vanishing into nothingness.
They soon turned into fine white spider silk, which dissipated with a gust of wind.
Though there were still many puppets outside the wall, they were clearly intimidated by this bizarre sight and dared not enter the courtyard for a moment.
"What's going on?"
"How did they all just vanish into thin air?!"
Not only Snowy Owl, but High Mountain and Seagull were also bewildered.
Behind them, Li Nian's voice rang out lazily.
"Of course they didn't just vanish! It was me, all my doing!"
They all turned to look at Li Nian, only to see the girl smugly adjusting her sunglasses.
"How did you pull that off?"
"That guy spilled way too much info to Sister Yao earlier," Li Nian said, waving her hand. "With this ability called Causality Silk being able to manipulate a person's past, plus what I observed along the way, I came up with a theory."
"That these puppets, which still retain some self-awareness, must all have some kind of 'physical' thing carrying the Causality Silk ability... If they're special compared to ordinary puppets, there has to be something that makes them different."
"And as long as it's a physical object... I can steal it."
Li Nian said softly, turning her hand to reveal several strands of spider silk.
"What's this?"
"The physical vessel for the Causality Silk ability," Li Nian said, looking toward the courtyard wall. In her field of vision, behind each puppet, a gleaming strand of spider silk trailed into the ground. "This spider's power is eerie by Prison Mountain Realm standards, but it's not completely inexplicable or beyond reason."
"In fact, across all Ten Realms, except for the incomprehensible stuff in the Gray Domain, most abilities, no matter how strange they seem, should follow some sort of logic."
Li Nian spoke softly, just as a cold laugh came from the main entrance of the Taoist temple. "Quite clever. Even among the Otherworldly Ones, you are exceptionally sharp."
A familiar face appeared at the entrance.
"Oh, Dart Head Yue, you've been fully assimilated already?"
Dart Head Yue Zhenqiao didn't react to Li Nian's greeting.
He simply continued on his own: "Your Excellency's move here is indeed impressive. So... it seems we second-rate and third-rate martial artists are useless now."
"But luckily, we still have higher-level experts."
As Yue Zhenqiao spoke, six figures, exuding pressure more than ten times greater than the previous batch, slowly emerged at the entrance.
"I can sense that your strange ability to 'steal' spider silk requires 'contact' to activate—just now, you vanished and sneaked in the shadows to touch those strands. But now... can you still reach them?"
Mystic Cloud Master looked toward the entrance, his face changing drastically.
"This aura... no good, they're actually Twelve-String martial artists!"
The six easily stepped over the already battered protective formation outside the Taoist temple and strode inside—though the formation was on the verge of collapse, the casual way they moved through it, like flipping aside a curtain, said plenty.
These six were indeed nothing like the previous batch of fighters.
Li Nian squinted. "Oh dear, seems like it really will be hard to pull off again now."
She could feel it—the qi sense of these six newcomers was firmly locked onto her, clearly not giving her the slightest opportunity!