In the kingdom of Mu to the east, a trio of small redback spiders realized to their quiet horror that the system had just forcefully reintegrated parts of their consciousness that they had been happy to leave on autopilot until that moment. In three of the four bodies he now controlled, Xiao Lu rubbed his forelimbs together anxiously.
The memories of his three new bodies came flooding back to him. He could not decide whether to be thankful or resentful that his bodies lacked a gag reflex or the ability to be sick. He certainly felt sick. He’d eaten his siblings. He’d nearly eaten himself. Redback spider mothers normally work to inhibit the cannibalistic tendencies of their young, but one of his bodies had witnessed the giant spider being swallowed by a monstrous lizard. His mind had retreated into a single point of awareness upon his transmigration, leaving his other avatars to operate on pure instinct. Or, at least in this case, impure instinct.
Xiao Lu walked closer to himself and reached out to give himself a slap. He needed to focus. An entire spider clan of hundreds had been reduced to a band of three in a matter of days. This place was not safe, he needed to focus on survival. There would be time for guilt and existential crises later. He sent one of his bodies to the top of a tall tree, but the forest looked the same in every direction for as far as his eyes could see.
Looking around, Xiao Lu easily found his mother’s webbing all throughout the immediate vicinity. There were walkways, traps, stored prey and defensive structures all made primarily from webbing. She’d been a dog-sized spider, the amount of web she’d been able to produce was simply monstrous. However, it had not been enough to defeat the Stalker Lizard. The reptilian horror had sated itself on his mother’s plentiful flesh and spirit and the better half of her brood before wandering off. Thankfully, Xiao Lu had been in the half that was spared.
Xiao Lu set off at a brisk pace down one of the web-tunnels that had been left intact despite the earlier fight. He’d read enough webnovels in his former life to know that a battle between two apex predators was sure to attract the attention of nearby opportunists. He intended to be well away from the area before any passing cultivators or spiritual beasts decided to investigate. Three fist-sized forms skittered frantically down the webbing in eerie coordination as Xiao Lu took to operating multiple 24 legs as well as he had adapted to eight. Xiao Lu was nothing if not adaptable.
When he exited the web tunnel he quickly entered another, and another after that, until he was several hundred feet away and there were no more web-tunnels. Then he went down to the forest floor. There would be greater cover there, but also more predators waiting in ambush. He changed his arrangement, sending one of his bodies to scout ahead and one of his bodies behind, so that he would have some forewarning if anything snuck up on him. He wanted to keep every part of himself intact, but it would be better to lose one or two bodies than all three. He would focus on keeping the slightly larger body in the center alive.
The three figures rushed through the jungle like shadows, trading speed for stealth now that Xiao Lu had left the protective confines of his former territory. All spiritual beasts were naturally territorial—he had to be careful not to impinge on the domain of a much stronger enemy. He prayed to the gods of transmigration and spiders that he was heading away from its depths, where the spirit beasts would be much more powerful and aggressive.
Suddenly, his forward unit burst out of the brush and into a clearing with a waterfall and small river. It was rather beautiful, but the sight made Xiao Lu’s blood turn cold. With this pattern … there should be a cave hidden behind the waterfall with a secret treasure growing inside. He looked around, and just as he expected, found the remains of a firepit and a few abandoned survival tools. This area was probably the most comfortable and suitable area for cultivation in several Li, and Xiao Lu guessed that it would be in a section of the forest that saw little strife. It was a stereotypical jungle oasis lying in wait for a stray xianxia protagonist in need of a quiet place to train or recuperate—a trope which naturally required an element of danger: the area boss.
Still, there was a chance that the main character had already come and gone, meaning there would be no boss monster hanging around to bother Xiao Lu. Regardless of his misgivings, he had to investigate. If his suspicions were correct, it would truly be a good place for him to stay and gather strength for a short while. He cautiously sent one body further forward, holding the other two in reserve.
The forward unit tentatively peered into the stream, but did not see any river dragons or other water monsters. Check. He investigated the fire pit and abandoned supplies. They did not appear to have been recently used nor did they look worn with age, indicating a use period of 2-3 months that had come to an end at least several days ago. Check. He found the expected cave behind the waterfall and wished he still possessed the ability to roll his eyes. Bracing himself for the worst, he skittered inside the cave.
OHGOD!
Before he knew it, Xiao Lu found himself reared up onto his hind legs in a threat display that was entirely ineffective against the giant tiger he found lying in the cave. Thankfully, this was mostly because the tiger was already dead. Unbending from his rigid posture and with one forelimb over his chest, Xiao Lu took a minute to breathe and calm himself down. When his heart rate returned to normal, he went over and inspected the tiger’s corpse.
From the way it had dried out, it seemed to have died a few months ago. However, the beast had clearly attained a high cultivation in life, so its flesh and bones were relatively well-preserved. There was a large gash on its chest, likely left by a sword cultivator. At least it had probably been a swift death.
Xiao Lu glanced around. Sensing no danger, the spider did not hesitate to cup two forelimbs together and offer a silent prayer.
Itadakimasu.
After failing to take a small bite, Xiao Lu quickly backed away from the body while giving it a look of utter betrayal. He had a constitution that allowed him to eat anything, but not in this body. The tiger was too high-level for him to consume! What a cruel twist of fate! He thought he’d found soft clay, only to bite a steel plate!
Xiao Lu had no vocal chords, and thus could not shout or mutter indignantly about the situation. Were it not for the erratic way he was rolling around and kicking his legs like a child throwing a tantrum, he would have appeared quite stoic. Xiao Lu brought his other bodies over and had one of them pat the first body on its back. It was basically the same as patting himself on the back, so it wasn’t very comforting.
Xiao Lu scanned over the tiger, seeming reluctant to admit defeat. He found another wound on the creature's gut, just above where its spiritual beast core should have been. Beast cores were useful in alchemy, formations, and weapon forging, and could even help a cultivator progress if they possessed certain specialized techniques. They were highly valuable, so it was little wonder that the core had been taken.
The three spiders continued to comb over the tiger’s remains and the rest of the cave. Finding a high-level beast corpse that he could not make use of had ignited a greedy flame in Xiao Lu’s heart, and he was obviously not resigned to leaving this place without gaining anything for his troubles. After several minutes, however, he’d only found some used bandages. It seemed that Xiao Lu’s efforts had indeed been in vain this time.
At this point, Xiao Lu thought that searching further would be pointless. Although he thought that way, he could not give up in his heart. He felt that he needed to turn over every stone in this cave in order to not leave any regrets behind. So, he did that. Since this place had obviously acted as a recovery zone for a plot-relevant figure, he considered his present circumstances relatively safe. Heaven’s divine will had real influence in this world, and the vagaries of fate would not suddenly fail now. He had all the time in the world.
Like this, two days passed. On the third day, Xiao Lu felt the urge to triumphantly wave his legs in the air, as he had finally found something. There were two stems—the root and core of a spiritual herb. One had obviously been recently plucked, while the other had an unripened bud of a fruit that Xiao Lu did not recognize. It had been smothered under the tiger, which had not been an easy thing to move. Still, he had found it. It was his. He unfortunately didn’t know what exactly it was, but it was his.
The three spiders huddled around the spiritual herb roots with their forelimbs lifted in supplication like a band of cultists gathering in the dead of night. There was an air of sanctity and reverence in their movements. Xiao Lu wished his system came with a background music function. He contented himself by imagining an organ playing a dark, dramatic melody.
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Quest Issued
—Dao Fruit Guardian—
Children of heaven require exceptional resources to reach their full potential and fulfill the destiny that heaven has written for them. Protect this spiritual herb until it reaches maturity and a child of heaven comes to claim it, and then guide them on their journey.
Acceptance Reward
2 Cultivation Method Tokens
2 Physique Tokens
Success
3000 Spirit Coins
2 Martial Technique Tokens
Failure
Lose fated meeting with a child of heaven
Xiao Lu’s eyes glimmered with greed, and he hurriedly accepted the quest. The failure penalty didn’t even take anything he currently had. If anything, it sounded like the system was threatening him with time off. He had nothing to lose by accepting the mission, and did so without hesitation.
He was not looking forward to the pain that accompanied the use of system tokens, but this constituted an emergency situation. His new bodies could cultivate with the Heretical Breath technique, but their cultivation would not be as efficient as the body that had received the technique directly from the system. Moreover, they did not have access to the spiritual foods that Xiao Lu’s first body would receive from Xin Mei. Even then, with the resources of a sect and a young mistress, that body was still forced to cultivate with a secondary technique from time to time.
Thus, Xiao Lu was in dire need of other cultivation techniques. Considering that he had three more bodies, all of which were squishy spider babies that hadn’t even taken their first steps on the martial path, his desire for the two physique tokens was also extremely great. He was even willing to undergo the excruciating pain of token use. After all, a little pain up front was better than being eaten by a monster in this accursed jungle. With only slight trepidation, Xiao Lu activated the four new tokens.
[Two Physique Tokens Redeemed. Please specify targets.]
[Two Cultivation Method Tokens Redeemed. Please specify targets.]
Two of the spiders pointed at themselves.
[Target selected. Scanning.]
A light shimmered over the two redback spiders. Again, Xiao Lu felt as if all his secrets were exposed. A status screen opened.
—Status—
Name: Xiao Lu Third and Fourth
Titles: Dao Guardian, System Novice, Transmigrator, Unlikely Protagonist, Distributed Consciousness
Age: 0.3
Species: Redback Spider
Cultivation Base: Mortal
Cultivation Method: None
Martial Techniques: None
Spiritual Roots: Wood — 76% Purity, Fire — 9% Purity
[Analyzing Potential]
Spirit Talent: 3, 1
Body Talent: 4, 9
Subsidiary Method Talent: 2, 1
Dao Potential: Extremely Low, Unsuitable
[Detected Unsuitable Avatar]
[Activating Spiritual Root Token]
[Random Root Acquired: Lightning — 100% Purity]
[Generating Build Options]
Physique:
Extreme Wood — Increases efficiency of wood cultivation and techniques.
Extreme Lightning — Increases efficiency of lightning cultivation and techniques.
Green Aura — Increases herbalist talent.
Lightning Blood — Increases movement and mental processing speed.
[Expand Previously Generated Options]
Method:
Grasping Root — Cultivate wood qi by harmonizing with nearby plantlife. Cultivation speed increases over time spent in one place, until an area becomes barren.
Spirit Grass Emperor — Subjugate the will of spiritual grass, allowing one to increase the range of their spiritual sense as well as cultivate domineering wood qi.
Storm Swallowing — Cultivate lightning qi by refining heavenly lightning and thunderstorms into one’s own strength.
[Expand Previously Generated Options]
[Awaiting User Selection]
Xiao Lu was sorely tempted to acquire the herbalist physique, because he knew that an affinity with plants could be a massive boon in a cultivation world. There were countless examples in fiction of people with a talent for plants getting ahead either by impressing the alchemist guild, some judges in a competition, or just by finding and using spiritual plants for their own benefit. Xiao Lu wanted the awe-inspiring grandeur of an alchemist for himself.
However, this dream was not to be. Alas, Xiao Lu was a spider. Even if he were exceptionally gifted with plant selection and cultivation, a spider would never be given membership in a human guild. Moreover, he would not be able to physically operate an alchemy cauldron. While it was unfortunate, Xiao Lu had to set this ambition aside for the moment. Just until he figured out how to grow himself a pair of hands. On the bright side, this meant Xiao Lu would be able to compare the effect of cultivating with and without an appropriate physique.
WAIT.
Xiao Lu slowly turned to face the spirit herb he’d been hired to protect. What if the system meant he should protect it from changes in weather, or drying out, or whatever other mundane threats plants faced. He knew nothing about such things, but the system specifically gave him an option to be good with plants. Was the system testing him? Was the system checking if he would slack off?
Nice try, system! It wouldn’t be immediately useful to him, but Xiao Lu would take the system’s useless gardener physique! So what!?
Acting again with decisiveness while putting on the airs of a competent person, Xiao Lu swiftly made his selections.
In front of the two spiders that had been targeted by the system, new windows appeared.
[Acquired Rare Bodily Constitution: Green Aura Physique]
[Acquired Cultivation Method: Grasping Root Technique (Peak Heaven Grade)]
[Acquired Rare Bodily Constitution: Extreme Lightning Physique]
[Acquired Cultivation Method: Storm Swallowing Technique (Peak Heaven Grade)]
Of course, Xiao Lu did not have time to read these messages. The moment these windows appeared, two spiders collapsed. The third spider looked dully between them as Xiao Lu marveled at the fact that he could both be in pain and perfectly fine at the same time. He was somewhat concerned that his consciousness being distributed like this might not be that good for his mental health. It was certainly an alien sensation, watching himself suffer like it was happening to someone else. But, this was a cultivation world. There were probably no therapists on the planet. There was also the communication issue to consider—he could only do so much with gesticulation, after all.
Shaking his head—his whole body really, but that was as close as he could get—Xiao Lu refocused on his present situation, forcefully setting aside the issue of whether or not he needed counseling. The smallest body was not presently writhing in pain, so he set it to work spinning a qi-gathering web formation. Xiao Lu had taken the [Spirit Weaving] technique because it increased the rate at which he could produce silk, but it had also come with foundational knowledge in formation building. Specifically web-based formations, but that suited Xiao Lu just fine. It was not like there were any spare formation flags lying around in this cave. He had checked it thoroughly.
After setting up the qi-gathering array, Xiao Lu’s two bodies were done upgrading, and they joined in the next task of spinning basic formations for disguise and security. If they worked, it would be harder for enemies to find this place, and he would be made aware as soon as one happened to stumble in, giving him time to prepare. When they were done, Xiao Lu looked upon his handiwork with pride.
This was the dignity of a cultivator! This was the essence of the Dao!
Raising a forelimb over his face as if to cover a cough, Xiao Lu took a moment to calm himself down. He had to maintain his dignity as a Dao Protector. Luckily, Xin Mei had not been there to see his celebratory dance.