When we were attacked, Storm and I had just reached a breakthrough in our understanding and mastery of [Thunder Strike]. We were near where the Hunter's had vanished, the place they had planned to explore when it happened. By this time, I had learned to keep my perception active and monitor the area around me at all times. So even as we trained, I was aware of my surroundings.

Maintaining my perception on two different levels, one tightly focused on utilizing [Thunder Strike] and one broadly dispersed to scan the area around me, had helped me master my perception skills to the next level.

I had learned early that I couldn't be so tightly focused on what I was doing that I ignored everything else. Understanding that embracing situational awareness was vital to a cultivator's health was one of Elder Shadow's first lessons.

On a planet where everything and anything might be capable of attacking and killing you, learning to monitor your surroundings became second nature. Even in my sleep or while cultivating, a sphere of perception was always active, always searching unconsciously for threats or attacks. Without that ability, my enemies would be able to wait until I was fully immersed in what was in front of me to attack from behind.

Elder Shadow had impressed the importance of this in my training. It had been a hard lesson to learn, even painful at times when he used his Dharmic spells to attack my blind spots. His teaching method often relied on pain as leverage. If you didn't want to get hit, learn to anticipate, perceive, and dodge.

When I had survived the Heavenly Tribulation and stepped into the Qi Gathering Realm, my ability to keep my perception active at all times became significantly more manageable. With the ability to compartmentalize my mind and my increased Dharmic control, it became second nature to have perception running on multiple fronts.

That training allowed Storm and me to notice the attack quickly enough to dodge the sphere of spider web that had been tossed at us. A sphere that had expanded sufficiently focused, that if we had not moved, we would have been encased in a mass of silky threads resilient enough to make escape questionable.

Storm was already the size of a bus; with that much webbing being projected, how large was the spider? The size of something large enough to create and loft a ball of silk that massive suggested a beast of immense proportions.

Or a colony of spiders working together in an organized manner, one that would require a Queen to command.

The mystery of who attacked us became apparent as a flying spider streaked closer. A spider at least the size of Storm, the size making it easy to identify. What made the beast's size even more alarming was that it meant it was probably a tier-three beast. What was just as concerning was that it was capable of flight.

Every instinct I had was screaming at me to run. Spiders that could leap and craft a kind of parachute to glide were bad enough, but one that could fly was an abomination of everything sane. My instinctive desire to run was made more so because of my inherent aversion to the bugs.

I knew, intellectually, that they weren't insects but arachnids, but when it was all said and done, they were the same thing to me. Creepy crawling things that got into the smallest of places just waiting to bite.

I hated them. My fear of spiders was not rational; I knew that. They just weirded me out. The thought of bugs crawling on me, getting in my ears and nose, was enough to give me goosebumps. It didn't matter how powerful I became; I think my aversion to bugs would always remain. The only good thing about this spider attack was that it was so large I wouldn't have to worry about dealing with its legs skittering across my body.

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At least, that was my thought until I was proven wrong.

Storm had attacked it reflexively, sending a focused gust at the beast. Not unexpected since that was the attack we had been practicing. What was surprising was the results. The giant spider disintegrated, turning into a swarm of spiders.

A swarm controlled by a hive mind. A mind that coordinated the millions of tiny spiders and organized them and slotted them into the appropriate position to create the giant beast that had attacked us.

My relief that I would not be facing the miniature version of the damn bug was short-lived as the millions of dispersed arachnids each demonstrated enough control of world energy that they each had the ability to fly independent of the whole.

I watched in growing horror as millions of spinnerets and fangs worked in tandem to slot back into position. The spinnerets worked to produce silk allowed each spider to socket into place.

As I watched the tiny arachnids crawl over each other in a boiling tide of black and red chaos, legs and fangs moving frantically to obey the commands of the hive mind and slot into position, I panicked.

Their movement was too much for me to ignore.

My Tessen responded instantly, fluttering in the first step of [Wind over Water]. I began dancing, almost in desperation, calling the storm and releasing a torrent of water, fog, and ice. I channeled my most potent area affect technique once the atmosphere was saturated with water. [Falling Cherry Blossoms] began a rain of death. The individual petals of the flowers fell like snowflakes in a driving blizzard, each blossom as cold as dry ice.

The effect of that extreme cold encountering the warmth of a spider's body was explosive. The sounds of popping, the sight of viscera exploding as body parts rained like shrapnel from the attack began to litter the sky.

It was hard to maintain control or my battle technique, my aversion to the insect so great that I wanted nothing more than to fly away, but [Falling Cherry Blossoms] was effective, and little by little, I regained control of my fear.

The more I churned out, the greater the devastation to this predator. That the colony was controlled by a hive mind that might grow large enough and powerful enough to threaten Xiwang helped me overcome my last fear.

The spider's ability to fly wouldn't be contained to a specific hunting ground. The arachnids could move when food grew scarce. This ability to relocate and search for richer hunting grounds led me to believe this beast construct might be why the hunters had gone missing.

And why Storm hadn't found anything when she had searched earlier. If the spiders fed individually, they wouldn't have triggered her perception as something strong enough or deadly enough to investigate.

"Storm, try to keep them clustered together," I ordered, managing to keep any hint of emotion from being shared across our bond.

Her ability to use [Gust] was only one of her abilities. She had as much control over the winds that flowed with a storm as I did. With her working to keep the spiders corralled and my release of a blizzard of [Falling Cherry Blossoms], it was only a matter of time before there would be nothing left.

That is if I could find the controlling spider, the one that commanded the hive mind. There had to be a queen hidden within that mass of rolling chitin, the exoskeleton of the spiders made more durable between layers of webbing that had been woven amongst layers of chitin.

That silk acted as an armored barrier that was dozens of times more potent than the arachnids' normal defenses. It also made examining them with my perception problematic. It acted as a type of cloaking mechanism, the silk and chitin merging across the entirety of the spider colony, making it hard to distinguish where one spider ended, and the next began.

It seemed logical that the Queen, or whatever was directing the hive mind, would be contained in the center of the mass of swarming bugs. She had to be protected by layer after layer of spiders willing to fight and sacrifice themselves in order to protect the intellect that formed and guided their existence.

But there was no way of telling exactly where. The only way to be sure that the Queen was dead was to kill every spider present. To stamp out the pests and leave nothing behind to rebuild the colony of arachnids. A plan I was happy to embrace as [Falling Cherry Blossoms] was chained with lightning blasts from [Thunder Strikes]. The lightning allowed me to stun the insects giving me a method for crowd control.

The spiders were probably venomous, but with Storm keeping them a safe distance away and the lightning ricocheting across the gathered colony, the only offensive attack they had was their webbing and the strong wind gusts that Storm released had nullified those attacks.

The colony was being decimated, and I didn't feel even the tiniest amount of guilt at destroying it.