Chapter 152: Ghost-Faced Bats

On Spirit-Binding Island, at a secluded corner near the lake.

A battered and wretched figure emerged from the water, crouching low and crawling toward the shore on all fours.

Looking closer, one could see that it was not that the man naturally hunched, but rather that a massive spider, large enough to cover a human's entire back, was clinging tightly to him.

The spider glowed with a faint eerie green light, and its jointed limbs were banded with colorful stripes.

Any ordinary person could tell at a glance that this spider was extremely venomous.

As the figure finally dragged himself onto the bank and turned around, his face was hideous and distorted. The flesh and blood on his face seemed to have withered away, leaving him looking precisely like a skeleton wrapped in skin.

His bulging, prominent eyes were filled with ruthless ferocity.

Only upon the closest inspection could one recognize that this was Lu Yu, who had fallen into the lake that day.

Ever since he plunged into the water, the fire on Lu Yu's body had been extinguished, but the heavy impact of the high-altitude fall had knocked him unconscious.

After an unknown period of time, jolted by a sharp pain, the unconscious Lu Yu had woken up in the middle of the lake. Discovering that he was somehow still alive, Lu Yu had initially felt a spark of fortune.

However, when he looked around, a swarm of spiders had crawled into the water at some point, each as large as a grain sack, completely surrounding him.

That piercing pain from a moment ago?

Holy shit! He had been bitten by a spider!

At that moment, Lu Yu was still submerged at the bottom of the lake, having no idea why he was able to breathe freely underwater.

Had he mutated after being bitten by the spider and turned into Spider-Man? Or perhaps a scuba-diving Spider-Man?

Even so, seeing spiders filling his vision, Lu Yu still felt a tremor of dread.

He needed to get as far away from these disgusting things as possible!

Yet the moment he moved, the spiders that had been lingering around him like spectators watching their prey sprang into action.

There were easily twenty or thirty spiders, crawling toward him in a dense, swarming mass.

Even at the bottom of the lake, they formed an airtight wall!

Lu Yu cursed inwardly, feeling completely helpless. He had no way of breaking through. Was he really just going to watch his own body become food for the spiders?

No! He refused to resign himself to this! Having survived being burned by Xiang Nan and surviving the fall to the bottom of the lake, he refused to die such a simple death.

No matter how incompetent Lu Yu might be, he still possessed Tier 2 cultivation. While these spiders looked bizarre, they did not appear to be supernatural-tier fierce beasts.

Driven by desperation, human potential is boundless.

Struggling and thrashing wildly in all directions, Lu Yu finally managed to break through the heavy encirclement of spiders.

However, he felt a sudden heaviness on his back, as though something had draped over him.

With no eyes on his back, naturally he could not see it, and in that frantic situation, he had no leisure to investigate. Breaking out alive came first.

Besides, whatever was on his back didn't seem to be attacking him.

In truth, it wasn't that the spider wasn't attacking him; rather, he had already been poisoned by the spider long ago, and his sense of pain was completely numbed.

The spider clinging to his back had long since driven its legs deep into his flesh and blood, preparing to merge completely with his body.

Having finally climbed ashore, Lu Yu's clothes were already in tatters, but he paid it no mind, sprawling flat on a rock and panting heavily.

At that moment, he felt his heart pounding furiously. A strange yet strangely alluring pain spread across his back—a pain that felt both agonizing and oddly desirable.

Very quickly, his body began to undergo a profound transformation.

The spider clinging to his back embedded itself entirely into his bone and flesh, fusing as one with his physique.

Not far away, a dark, swarming mass of spiders was still crawling relentlessly toward the shore.

***

Meanwhile, having discovered the strange stone statues, Xiang Nan followed their guidance and journeyed all the way into the valley.

Before even entering the valley, he heard the booming sounds of combat echoing ahead.

Someone must have run into fierce beasts. Since Xiang Nan was heading into the valley anyway, he didn't mind arriving early to catch the spectacle.

Flapping the wings of light on his back, he took flight, soared over a mountain ridge, and beheld the battlefield.

It turned out that Taoist San-Tong was locked in fierce combat with a horde of toad-faced mountain monsters.

Why was Taoist San-Tong here?

The two of them had agreed to search for the Town-Spirit Stone from different directions, but they hadn't expected to run into each other again so soon.

Looking closely, there were at least twenty or thirty toad mountain monsters. Although Taoist San-Tong possessed high cultivation, he couldn't withstand their sheer numbers; their attrition tactics were wearing him down severely.

Most importantly, the toads were venomous. A single spit could corrode an entire patch of land.

Taoist San-Tong was not like Xiang Nan, who was immune to all poisons. Having to constantly guard against their toxic spittle left him overextended and struggling to manage everything at once.

Xiang Nan was still debating whether to turn around and leave—after all, the man was a Tier 5 expert; even with certain constraints, he wouldn't easily be defeated by a pack of mountain monsters.

Unexpectedly, Taoist San-Tong spoke up first: "These mountain monsters are guarding a very large cave. The Town-Spirit Stone is very likely inside!"

Xiang Nan swept his gaze across the area and indeed spotted a patch of jungle that looked somewhat peculiar, with a faint breeze blowing out from within.

"I'll hold off these mountain monsters, you go on inside first!" Taoist San-Tong said, spinning the Vajra Umbrella in his hand rapidly as he spoke to Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan smiled faintly: "Alright!" With that, he flew straight toward that patch of jungle.

Seeing a figure suddenly dart forward, many of the toad mountain monsters instantly shifted their focus and launched attacks at Xiang Nan.

Taoist San-Tong's pressure was instantly alleviated, but true to his word, he fought forward valiantly to block the monsters attempting to intercept Xiang Nan.

Xiang Nan didn't stand on ceremony with them either, casually unleashing two streams of scorching flame waves.

Mountain monsters still harbored a natural dread of fire and immediately retreated in droves.

With just this brief exchange, Xiang Nan had already plunged directly into the cave hidden behind the leafy barrier.

It was a natural stalactite cave—the entrance was narrow, but the interior was vast and expansive.

The high ceiling in the center reached a height of seventy or eighty meters, and stalactites hung down from above, dripping water at irregular intervals and producing echoing, resonant sounds.

A chilly draft swept through the stone cavern, causing the hairs on Xiang Nan's arms to stand on end.

As Xiang Nan was scanning his surroundings, several bizarre, shrill, and piercing shrieks suddenly echoed from the passageways ahead.

The next second, a continuous stream of dark shadows came flying out from the tunnels.

Holy shit! Ghost-faced bats!

At least a hundred of them poured out, instantly blanketing the sky and rushing toward Xiang Nan in an overwhelming tide.

With no time to hesitate, Xiang Nan instantly concentrated his spiritual energy, unleashing scorching flame waves from both hands simultaneously.

The blinding white flame waves tinged with red were capable of maneuvering even within the wide cavern.

"Screee—" Shrill, ear-piercing screeches resounded in endless succession.

Xiang Nan could not help but frown. While these creatures weren't difficult to deal with, their noise was truly grating!

The scorching flame waves sent the foremost wave of ghost-faced bats crashing to the ground. However, the tunnels continued to pump out ghost-faced bats in an endless stream, their numbers multiplying rapidly.

At the same time, commotion arose at the outer cave entrance as countless even larger ghost-faced bats charged inward from the outside.

Elsewhere.

Taoist San-Tong, who had just finished off the toad mountain monsters outside and had yet to catch his breath, looked up to see the entire mountainside swarming with pitch-black ghost-faced bats, all flying frantically into the cave.

Damn it! This was bad. Xiang Nan was still inside that cave!

With so many ghost-faced bats, wouldn't he be eaten alive?