Chapter 36: Shadow-Crawler Spiders
Chapter 36: Shadow-Crawler Spiders
Ji Xinghuo nocked a leaf-shaped arrow and released it with incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, it flew through the gap in the trees and into the air a hundred meters away, disappearing into the swaying shadows.
"Ssssssss..."
A spider fell, its ugly mouth emitting a sharp cry.
At this moment, the others could clearly see the monster. It was a gigantic spider, over one and a half meters in length, pitch-black in color with dark red stripes on its abdomen. Its eight thick legs were curled up, and an arrow protruded from its eye, leaving only a small section of the arrow tail visible.
"As expected, it's a Shadow-Crawler Spider," Chen Zhonglin's voice sounded in his teammates' minds.
These large spiders were one of the primary sources of the "Shadow Escape" variant ability.
They were numerous, had a gregarious nature, and instead of building nests in one place, they roamed the forests, lurking in the shadows to ambush their prey.
Upon confirming the monster's identity, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
While there was some threat, it wasn't overwhelming.
Even if they were ambushed by these Shadow-Crawler Spiders, with their team's strength, they wouldn't suffer much harm.
However, what Ren Mian, Chen Zhonglin, and Jiang Nan Caiyi didn't know was that Ji Xinghuo, who was experiencing combat for the first time, had already activated the Myriad Phenomenon Star Pupil in his vision.
The spiritual source energy, which had been depleted, now showed "1".
Ji Xinghuo's heart raced with excitement.
As he had guessed, killing a creature granted him spiritual source energy. Despite only gaining one point, it was equivalent to the effort of several days of diligent ability training. Moreover, there were dozens of these large spiders surrounding them.
All of them were potential sources of spiritual energy!
Ji Xinghuo's eyes gleamed, and he seized the opportunity to shoot his second arrow.
Snap!
Another Shadow-Crawler Spider fell from the tree, but the spiritual source energy remained unchanged.
"What's going on?"
Ji Xinghuo was puzzled for a moment. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that this spider was significantly smaller, only half the size of the first one.
He immediately surmised, "Could it be that I need to shoot and kill targets with abilities to gain spiritual source energy?"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Ji Xinghuo's compound bowstring vibrated continuously as he shot arrows in different directions, seemingly firing at random. However, with each shot, a large spider fell to the ground, emitting painful hisses.
"So, it is like that," he muttered.
He paid close attention to the changes in spiritual source energy, correlating it with the targets he had shot. Only when he defeated a Shadow-Crawler Spider of a certain strength would he gain spiritual source energy.
The interface now showed that he had accumulated 3 points of spiritual source energy!
"The spider swarm is encircling us," Ji Xinghuo warned his teammates in his mind. Through magnetic field sensing, he detected over fifty spiders. They were using the trees as cover, with some leaping closer from the front, while more spiders were dispersing to the sides in an attempt to form a encirclement.
"If you kill their leader, the swarm will disperse," Ren Mian said to Ji Xinghuo. "Can you locate it?"
"Over there," Ji Xinghuo pointed with his arrow, "About 180 meters away, on a tree 22 meters above the ground. It's cautious, and my arrows can't reach it."
In truth, he had discovered the leader of this spider swarm earlier.
Its body, when fully extended, was over three meters long, lurking in the shadows behind a tree, rarely moving.
This was an elite-level monster!
The nations of Earth adopted the classification system of the Star Realm. They categorized the beings of the Star Realm into three groups.
The first group was the civilized races, endowed with wisdom and civilization. They could craft tools, cultivate abilities, comprehend language and writing, and create brilliant civilizations, establishing themselves as the true rulers of the Star Realm.
The civilized races of the Milky Way referred to the indigenous races born in the Star Realm as the "Star Realm Exotics."
In turn, the Star Realm Exotics called the civilized races of the Milky Way "Extraterrestrial Races."
The second group was monsters, devoid of wisdom, driven solely by their biological instincts to propagate and evolve. They were the most numerous, infinite in number, and within their vast ranks, incredibly powerful and terrifying monsters could emerge. However, very few would evolve to possess wisdom, remaining merely as monsters.
The third group was spiritual beings, endowed with wisdom and typically possessing strength far surpassing that of monsters. They could be communicated with and were extremely rare.
Over 95% of the beings in the Star Realm were monsters.
The lowest-level "ordinary" monsters lacked abilities and were similar to Earth's fierce beasts, relying solely on their physical bodies to hunt for food.
As they aged and their lives progressed, many ordinary monsters would awaken abilities, becoming more powerful.
The monsters that evolved were classified as "Exotic" level.
Among the Exotic-level monsters, stronger individuals would emerge, awakening more abilities, usually serving as the leaders of their species. However, they had not truly evolved and were considered "Elite" within the Exotic-level category.
Some elites were strong, while others were weak, with a vast disparity between their upper and lower limits.
The weak ones were comparable to ordinary beasts.
The strong ones surpassed even high-level ability users.
The majority of Earth's ability user hunting teams targeted monsters of the "Exotic" and "Elite" levels.
Only when an Elite monster evolved further could it transcend the limitations of its species, awakening more latent abilities within its genes and fusing with variants, becoming truly fearsome.
This category was known as the "Superb" level.
Most of the spiders that Ji Xinghuo had shot were ordinary monsters, with only three being Exotic-level.
And their leader was indeed an Elite-level monster.
"No problem."
Chi Zhonglin's spear glowed red and heated up in his hand, black scales appearing on his skin as he charged towards the direction of the spider leader.
In just a few seconds, he had rushed into the center of the spider swarm.
The entire swarm erupted into chaos, and from the shadows above the trees, pairs of scarlet compound eyes appeared, emitting a shrill hiss.
Swish! Ren Mian reached out and placed her hand on the Fire Tree Silver Flower beside her. The whole tree shook violently, and more than a dozen leaves fell from the tree, flying above Chi Zhonglin's head before exploding.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions filled the air with flames and white light, igniting the branches and leaves within a dozen-meter radius.
The Shadow-Crawler Spiders were creatures that feared light, and they immediately scurried out from the shadows.
Instead of retreating, they fixed their gaze on the nearest prey—Chi Zhonglin. They pounced towards him, baring their fangs and spraying silk from their abdomens.
Amidst the burning and hissing, the sound of the bowstring vibrating was drowned out.
Ji Xinghuo fired his arrows continuously.
His right hand moved so fast that it almost became a blur, shooting seven arrows in five seconds.
Each arrow found its mark, and one arrow even pierced through one regular Shadow-Crawler Spider and then embedded itself in the second one behind it—a double kill!
Chi Zhonglin stood in the middle of the ground, ready to engage the monsters in battle. However, before he could even make a move, eight dead Shadow-Crawler Spiders rained down around him.
Ji Xinghuo glanced at the interface.
[Spiritual Source Energy +2]
At this moment, an Exotic-level spider attacked from the side, less than five meters away. It spat a white web at Chi Zhonglin, but a blade of light suddenly appeared out of thin air, slicing through the web and cutting the spider in half.
Jiang Nan Caiyi's figure flashed and then disappeared again.
[Spiritual Source Energy +1]
Ji Xinghuo withdrew his arrows while thinking to himself, 'So, I can gain spiritual source energy even if I don't kill the target myself.'
After shooting down another ordinary spider, he reminded his teammates, "Be careful of the two spiders hiding behind the tree on the left."
Two Shadow-Crawler Spiders had already flanked them on both sides.
They were very cautious and dared not reveal themselves in the dazzling light of the Fire Tree Silver Flower. Instead, they used their Shadow Escape ability to lurk under the tree, slowly approaching from the ground.
"Leave it to me."
Ren Mian took out a piece of thorn and casually threw it towards the large tree behind which the two large spiders were hiding.
The thorn took root and grew to a length of four to five meters in the blink of an eye, as thick as an arm and covered in thorns, like a python coiling around the two spiders. It then contracted, driving the thorns into the spiders' bodies, killing them alive.
[Spiritual Source Energy +2]
Ji Xinghuo felt the joy of a bountiful harvest.
Chi Zhonglin, standing on the ground, was like a beacon, attracting the spiders like moths to a flame. However, none of them could get within five meters of him, as they were pierced by arrows in mid-air.
One by one, the spider corpses fell to the ground.
Chi Zhonglin stood amidst the corpses, leaning on his spear and idly scratching his chin. A spark had landed here earlier, making it a bit itchy.
In less than half a minute, the number of spiders had diminished by more than half.
The monsters' survival instincts took over.
None of them dared to charge out anymore. Ren Mian's plan to use Chi Zhonglin as bait to lure out the elite leader had failed, as Ji Xinghuo's magnetic field sensing detected that the remaining Shadow-Crawler Spiders, including the elite leader, were retreating.
"It's going to run away," Ji Xinghuo said anxiously.
They had almost wiped out the Exotic-level spiders, and it didn't matter if the ordinary ones escaped, but they couldn't let the elite leader get away—it was a source of spiritual energy!
He immediately activated his Gale Boots, drastically increasing his speed, and rushed to Chi Zhonglin's position in a few strides before continuing forward for several more meters.
At this moment, the elite leader had already retreated quite far, about 200 meters away from Ji Xinghuo. It jumped rapidly between the trees, the distance between them growing larger. Occasionally, a glimpse of its shadow could be seen through the dense branches and leaves, but it was too fast to make out clearly.
Ji Xinghuo drew out an electric arrow and nocked it on his bow, pulling the string taut.
At the same time, the Myriad Phenomenon Star Pupil locked onto the giant spider, and he turned his back to his three teammates, activating the Myriad Phenomenon Star Domain!
The world seemed to freeze.
Ji Xinghuo's eyes were filled with illusory, flowing lights, and countless shadows interlaced, predicting the possible futures that could unfold.
In an instant, he released the electric arrow, and it shot out, crackling with electricity.
Then he closed the Myriad Phenomenon Star Domain.
To Ren Mian, Chi Zhonglin, and Jiang Nan Caiyi, it looked like Ji Xinghuo had casually shot an arrow without even aiming. The electric arrow pierced through layer after layer of branches and leaves, disappearing into the dim forest.
Chi Zhonglin shook his head and smiled. "You just lost 10,000 Asia Dollars."
Before he finished speaking, a painful hiss could be heard from the trees not far away, followed by the sound of many branches being snapped.
Thud!
A heavy corpse fell to the ground—it was the body of the Shadow-Crawler Spider's leader.
(End of Chapter)
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