The moment Xiao Simeng activated the Red Cloud Needle, scorching spiritual power poured out from the flying needle, raising the temperature inside the mine tunnel slightly.
A dazzling crimson light flashed as the red needle shot out from Xiao Simeng’s hand.
A long, thin red line appeared, which suddenly split apart midway, transforming from a single needle into thousands upon thousands of flying needles.
Accompanied by fierce whistling sounds, they flew toward the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider.
The surging flood of flying needles rushed madly at the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider, forcing it to activate its divine ability once more.
It constructed a thick stone wall in front of itself, blocking some of the needles’ advance.
Xiao Simeng grinned.
“Hmph, don’t underestimate this young miss just because of some measly stone wall.”
She moved her fingers, and the flood of flying needles immediately split apart from the middle, bypassing the stone wall the demonic spider had built and surging toward it from multiple directions.
Ding ding ding ding.
The flying needles that had circumvented the stone wall continuously stabbed at the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider.
It could only swing its two massive forelimbs repeatedly to block the needles coming from all directions.
The needles rained down like a storm, colliding ceaselessly with its hard forelimbs and producing crisp metallic clanging sounds.
Under the continuous assault, the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider let out a massive roar.
Violent spiritual power mixed with thick blood qi exploded from its body, directly shaking away the incoming flying needles.
Then, scarlet light flashed across its horn again, as if it were about to launch another divine ability at Xiao Simeng.
“I won’t let you hit me again!”
Xiao Simeng formed a hand seal, and the deflected flying needles immediately changed direction, beginning to spin around the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider.
Countless crimson flying needles circled continuously around the demonic spider, layering it with encirclement.
From a distance, the needles glowing with red spiritual light looked like a cloud of mist, trapping the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider within.
The scorching spiritual power they emitted also severed the demonic spider’s connection to the surrounding earth and stones, preventing it from controlling them.
The Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider seemed to realize it had been cut off from the outside world by the flying needles.
It chose to tear open the encirclement directly with its forelimbs.
It controlled the ground beneath its feet, covering its forelimbs with earth and stone before forcefully thrusting them into the ring of needles.
At the same time, it continuously sprayed spider silk, weaving it into a cocoon-like shape to wrap around its body and defend against the needles flying at it from within the encirclement.
The Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider’s astonishing defense, combined with the earthen armor, actually managed to endure the flying needle assault.
It leaped out from the torn opening and pounced straight toward Xiao Simeng.
Seeing this, Xiao Simeng didn’t dodge at all.
The corners of her mouth curved upward.
“Got you.”
Suddenly, the pouncing Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider’s body froze mid-air, stopping completely in its leaping posture.
Upon closer inspection, the demonic spider was wrapped in countless silk threads.
The source of those threads was the very cocoon it had woven for itself.
Just moments earlier, while the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider had woven the cocoon to defend against Xiao Simeng’s flying needles, she had secretly controlled the needles stuck in the cocoon.
She refined part of the silk threads and fused them with the needles.
Then, when the demonic spider forcefully broke through the encirclement, the needles carrying the silk threads had silently pierced through several weak joints on its body, embedding the threads inside it.
The instant the demonic spider pounced, those silk threads suddenly tightened, binding it firmly in place.
“Haha, it looks like spider silk really is an excellent material with both toughness and elasticity.
As expected of this young miss’s judgment.
Cough, cough.”
Having completed all this, Xiao Simeng’s spiritual power was completely exhausted.
With a thud, she collapsed to the ground.
“I might have pushed myself a bit too hard.
Shucao, I’ll leave the rest to you.”
She spoke using what little strength she had left.
In front of her, the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider continued to struggle violently, trying to break free from the silk bindings.
Shucao, who had finished accumulating her magic power, immediately pointed her magic wand at the immobilized Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider.
“Mm, I’ll pierce right through it!”
A spiral beam of light condensed from powerful magic power shot out from her magic wand like a sharp spear, streaking toward the restrained Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider in mid-air.
The powerful beam slammed into the demonic spider’s hard outer shell.
Its black-red carapace only held for a moment before the constantly rotating spiral beam drilled straight through it.
Just like the previous spider, a large hole was punched through its body.
Thud.
The instant it was pierced, the massive body lost all support and crashed heavily onto the ground with a tremendous noise.
“Simeng!”
Shucao shouted.
She immediately landed on the ground and ran toward Xiao Simeng.
“How are you?
What do you need me to do?”
Shucao lifted Xiao Simeng from the ground, patted her face, and called out urgently.
Under the stimulation, Xiao Simeng weakly opened her eyes again.
“Don’t worry.
I just overused my spiritual power a little.
Forcing a spiritual item like that was still a bit too much for me.”
As she spoke, she waved her hand lightly.
The red needles seemed to respond to her will, transforming back into a set of flying needles and returning to the box.
Xiao Simeng handed the box to Shucao.
“Help me put it back in my storage pouch.
Also, there’s a white jade bottle of pills inside my storage pouch.
Take it out and feed me one.”
Shucao took the box, opened Xiao Simeng’s storage pouch, placed the box inside, and retrieved the jade bottle she mentioned.
When she opened the jade bottle, a faint, refreshing fragrance wafted out.
Shucao poured out one emerald-green pill, brought it to Xiao Simeng’s lips, gently pried them open, and placed the pill inside.
The moment the pill entered Xiao Simeng’s mouth, it melted into a stream of green medicinal liquid that flowed into her stomach.
Immediately, a warm current spread from her dantian, bringing a bit of color back to her face.
Suddenly, a powerful spiritual energy fluctuation appeared.
Shucao looked toward the source and saw that the blood qi on the fallen Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider had erupted once again, forming blood-red ripples similar to those she had seen on Lin Han.
The blood-red ripples surged toward the spider’s wound, actually sealing the pierced hole.
“This thing can still move?!”
Watching the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider stand up again under the influence of the blood qi, Shucao couldn’t help but shout.
“This is bad.
This young miss can’t move at all right now,” Xiao Simeng murmured.
She then looked at Shucao.
“Shucao, why don’t you run first?
That magical outfit of yours can fly, right?
You should be able to fly out through the entrance we came from.
After all, I was the one who dragged you into this.
There’s no need for you to keep fighting this thing.
It would be bad if something happened to you here.”
Hearing these words, Shucao gently set Xiao Simeng down and stood in front of her, facing the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider that had risen once more thanks to the blood qi.
“Don’t worry.”
With her back to Xiao Simeng, she said,
“I told you, didn’t I?
Leave the rest to me.”
With that, she kicked off the ground, her figure shooting explosively toward the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider.
“Sister Qianhua, what happens if I consume too much magic power?”
“It should dispel the transformation.
Of course, your real body will also feel quite exhausted.”
“I see.
That’s not too big of a problem then.”
She then increased the speed at which she drew magic power from the Heart Seed, erupting with even more power.
Seeing this, An Qianhua quickly warned her.
“If you can’t maintain the transformation, it’ll be troublesome.”
“But surviving is definitely more important, isn’t it?”
Hearing that, An Qianhua simply smiled.
“Then go all out.
That thing is probably at its limit too.
It’s just being forcibly kept going by the blood qi.
I won’t take responsibility for what happens afterward, though.”
“Mm.”
Powerful magic power enveloped Shucao’s entire body.
She leaped continuously, avoiding the earth spikes the demonic spider released toward them, and rapidly closed in on it.
Seeing Shucao approach, the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider immediately raised its forelimb and smashed down at her fiercely.
Shucao shifted her body slightly to the side, then raised her arm and blocked the incoming forelimb with her magic power-coated limb, deflecting it to one side.
She then clenched her fist and slammed it hard into the spider’s head.
Crack.
Driven by a large amount of magic power, the tremendous force from Shucao’s small fist caved in the demonic spider’s head, sending it flying backward.
“Stay down!”
Shucao raised her magic wand and continuously increased her magic power output.
Surging magic power poured into it.
She waved it gently, and several pink stars appeared around her before floating into the air and firing intense beams of light together.
The several beams merged in mid-air.
Under the combination of multiple light cannons, they transformed into an even more powerful bombardment that shook deep depressions into the stone walls along its path.
The Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider also sensed the power of this attack.
Light continuously flashed from the horn on its head as thick stone walls formed one after another in front of it, attempting to completely block the light cannon.
But under the power of Shucao’s combined light cannon, these stone walls were as fragile as paper, easily pierced through.
In the end, the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider was completely shattered.
Right before being swallowed by the light cannon, the demonic spider fiercely stabbed both forelimbs into the ground.
At the same time, the red light on its horn blazed brilliantly, as if pouring its final strength into the earth below.
After seeing the Sharp-Horned Demonic Spider completely destroyed, Shucao let out a breath of relief.
She immediately dispelled her magical outfit and sat down heavily on the ground.
“Ha… ha… Thank goodness.
I was just a little short of not being able to hold on.”
After catching her breath a little, Shucao tried to stand up, wanting to walk over to Xiao Simeng, who was still lying on the ground.
But suddenly, a violent tremor came.
The entire mine tunnel began to shake.
The ground cracked, stone pillars collapsed.
The demonic spider’s final attack had actually triggered a powerful earthquake in this section of the mine!
Cracks spread across the mine tunnel floor.
The once solid ground instantly became precarious.
“Simeng!”
Shucao shouted loudly and tried to run straight toward Xiao Simeng, but a wave of intense exhaustion made her stagger, preventing her from standing steadily on the shaking ground.
On the other side, Xiao Simeng looked at Shucao, gave her a thumbs-up, and said softly,
“You did really well.
Run now.”
A faint spiritual energy fluctuation appeared.
A red needle suddenly flew out from her hand.
As it neared Shucao, it split apart.
The silk threads attached to the scattered red needles transformed into a soft net at that moment, wrapping around Shucao and carrying her toward the entrance they had come from.
At that instant, the ground collapsed completely, and Xiao Simeng fell into the underground chasm below.