Just as the female was getting dangerously close to Mei Hua, three balls of fire flew through the nest. Considering that it was completely filled with webs of Silver Soul Silk, fire could become a real concern. Fortunately for the Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras, their webs were not that easy to burn. Only a handful of small sparks ignited on the web and several males immediately went to cut them down.
However, these arrows were not meant as an attack.
Indeed, Sun Liao's group was right in front of the nest, in the entrance tunnel. Obviously, these three arrows had been shot by Sun Liao himself. Just in front of him, Ren Chao was holding his hammer ready to obliterate every vermin coming his way. And running from them, literally jumping into the nest, was Cao Yun. Even with their developed senses, neither Cao Yun nor Sun Liao could detect where Mei Hua was without seeing anything.
But with just these three burning arrows, both of them had perfectly engraved the nest in their memory. And with their senses, they could easily detect the movements of the demonic beasts. Fighting them all, especially in the midst of their very nest would have been suicide. Thus, they had no desire to fight at all. As fast as it had been, Cao Yun had seen all of the Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras. There were only twelve of them, eight males and four females. All things considered, it wasn't that bad. The females were clearly the more dangerous sex among this species.
Shocked for an instant, the spiders didn't know what to do. But very quickly, they organized themselves. That was also one of their strong suits, they were able to coordinate themselves extraordinarily well. With their mental abilities, they could send simple commands to one another on very short distances. And inside their nest, their webs allowed these commands to travel both faster and farther. The female that was close to Mei Hua turned her attention toward Cao Yun who was rushing toward her. Not afraid of this single human cultivator, she commanded her comrades to take care of the other humans.
The spiders were especially wary of the one with the bow. Even though they were not as smart as humans and didn't have all their knowledge, they clearly understood that he was preparing something. Since there was another, taller and bigger human protecting him, he should be a threat to their nest.
Several males charged toward Ren Chao. The tunnels were just big enough for the females. As such, they would completely obstruct the way. And their role was different in this strategy anyway.
Before they could really implement their plan though, the Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras got surprised. The man with a bow fired several other arrows, without any flame on them. All these arrows went directly toward their cocoons. All of them understood exactly what was going on, they wanted to rescue their preys.
At this very moment, a tremendous pain went through Cao Yun's, Sun Liao's and Ren Chao's skull. For a split second, they all stopped and froze. With a face full of pain, Cao Yun circulated his mind cultivation and the pain completely disappeared. His sea of consciousness became stormy for a few breaths but everything was back to normal. In fact, this attack had even activated his Five Agents. This was a great stimulus for them as it wasn't strong enough to damage them but still powerful enough to force them to counteract.
With his spear firmly in hand, Cao Yun kept on running toward the cocoons. He had to walk on the web. Thankfully, he had his stealth technique, 'Locking the Seven and Stopping the Waves'. It had taught him several ways to move. And by using them, he was able to walk of the Soul Silver Web covered in a sticky substance secreted by the spiders without getting stuck.
Cao Yun even activated his 'Dragon's Heart' as much as he could to increase his speed to the limit of what he could achieve safely. Just as he was rushing, the arrows hit the cocoons. At the moment of impact, they exploded. This was the first move of 'Houyi's Nine Suns', "One Sun from Tang valley". Several of the cocoons were just holding demonic beasts and small animals. However, three of them were holding humans. And seeing them getting open, Cao Yun rushed toward the one in which he recognized Mei Hua. The sparks from these liberating arrows had illuminated the nest for only a fraction of time, but it had been enough to identify them.
Sensing that the preys would escape, the only female close to the cocoons got furious. From her monstrous mouth, a disgusting shriek was sent toward Cao Yun. The pain from the previous mental attack increased. Once again, it wasn't enough to do anything against his mind cultivation. However, he clearly felt the pain this time. Another 7th-grade Mortal cultivator would have collapsed at once and a weaker one would have even died.
Feeling that the human didn't care about her attacks, the spider got frightened. But fortunately, her body was still way bigger than this little prey. If she couldn't put him down with her mind, she would just cut off some limbs. Such a strong mind was a great treat and she truly wanted to have a taste of it. Of course, if she were to try, she wouldn't fare any better than her sister who had tried to devour Mei Hua's mind.
By the way, these mental attacks had also reached the young alchemist. The first time, she had a doubt, but the second one was way stronger as it was right next to her. This could only mean one thing. Her friends had come!
Thus, she decided to definitely burn off the conscious inside the part of the mind she had trapped. And at the same time a pitiful scream filled her sea of consciousness, she left it to regain full consciousness in her body. When she woke up, the nest was almost entirely dark except for small sparks around her cocoons and a light in the tunnels in the distance. Thanks to her enhanced senses, she immediately recognized Cao Yun coming to her and Ren Chao and Sun Liao guarding the tunnels.
As soon as he saw her wake up, Cao Yun called for her and sent something in Mei Hua's direction.
"Sister, your weapon!"
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Catching her dart rope, Mei Hua felt confident they would all get out of this alive. However, she remembered some of the vague memories of the Soul Weaving Cyrtophora who had tried to devour her mind. Talking about her, the beast was now brain dead and even her most basic physiological functions had become damaged by the sudden destruction of her consciousness. The spider's body simply fell down from the web toward the ground. The impact was not enough to kill her, but her mind was already dead. The part she had sent into Mei Hua's mind was essential to her conscious. Right now, she was just an empty husk, like her poor victims.
What Mei Hua had in mind was the other captured cultivators. Luckily, the cocoons were all close to each other. Using her rope dart, she attacked the female close to her, the only one around here.
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In the meantime, Sun Liao and Ren Chao were also faced with the mental attacks from the other two females and the males rushing toward them. It turned out that Ren Chao did nothing to counter the pain, he just endured it. Even Sun Liao felt that the pain was unbearable and circulated his mind cultivation. On the other hand, Ren Chao's will was so strong and his character so stubborn that he simply ignored the pain. In his sea of consciousness, the Zhi character representing the Water Will was now transforming all the ocean in this strange amalgamation of black metals and rocks.
Now that the pain had subsided, Sun Liao got ready. He took out several spirit stones that gave off enough light for Ren Chao to perceive his enemies. Then, he simply got down to work. He had to set up his array formation as fast as he could before all the beasts were upon them. Against the males, Ren Chao would probably be able to resist, but against all the females, it was something else. Fortunately, the tunnels were not big enough for two females to attack at once. And just according to plan, only the males went toward them.
In fact, the females who were focused on the mental attacks tried to increase their violence again and again.
Neither Sun Liao nor Ren Chao were giving any attention to Cao Yun. They were both convinced he would do his part without any problem. As he was using his compass to analyze this place, Sun Liao got anxious. Obviously, he knew that this wouldn't be a great spot for his array formation, but it was even worse than he had thought. Maybe he wouldn't have the time to set it up given the difficulty and the raging spiders. However, he caught a glimpse of the side of Ren Chao's face. Seeing his resolution, it ignited his own. Of course, he would set it up. He wasn't going to be bested by neither stupid beasts nor a mere blacksmith.
Time seemed to have slowed down, but it really hadn't. The males were way faster than both the females and the Mortal cultivators assaulting their nest. In a matter of seconds, they were close to Ren Chao. Three of them tried to get past him at once. One was coming from the bottom of the entrance while two more came crawling from the top on each side.
Wielding his 'Lion's Roar', Ren Chao struck the beast right in front of him with 'Shattering Palaces and Splitting Mountains'. As soon as the head of his hammer touched the Soul Weaving Cyrtophora, its cephalothorax literally exploded. The entrance of the tunnel got splattered with a blueish blood and several pieces of the spider's internal organs. The shock was so violent that the other two males froze for an instant. Imagining that a weak human cultivator could do so much damage was beyond them.
Even though the Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras were not known for their physical prowesses, they were still 3-core demonic beasts. Of course, their strength mainly came from their developed mind, both for their mental attacks but also for their organization and coordination. Although they couldn't use any battle formation, even other 3-core demonic beasts were wary of them. And yet, a 5th-grade Mortal human had smashed and killed their brother with a single strike.
When Ren Chao got his hammer out of the shattered body, one of the 3-cores was even visible. There was a dent in the 3-core. Cores kept evolving with the demonic beasts. A 3-core was extremely resistant and yet he had dented it with his strike.
Without losing any time, Ren Chao directed his attention above. The two males felt an ominous presage. The first one jumped toward Sun Liao to stop him while the other one sent some Soul Silver Silk against Ren Chao.
'Kill the Hundredth Son'. Ren Chao's hammer flew right into the jumping spider. The weapon had so much strength that it went right through its body, leaving a gaping hole oozing with the same blueish blood. As Ren Chao had turned his back to the second male, his web completely trapped him. However, the male didn't feel that confident. As such, he decided to imitate his fallen brother and tried to quickly get rid of Sun Liao. He felt that this cultivator was a threat for the entire nest. The burly man was dangerous up close but against several females working together, he would ultimately fall.
'Humiliation Cleansed by Fury'. Under Ren Chao's scream, the entire web shook, even the entrance of the tunnel shook a little. His muscles bulged and the sticky Soul Silver Silk covered with some organic fluid shattered under his pressure. Filaments of Soul Silver Silk flew everywhere. Without his hammer, Ren Chao jumped and got a hold of one of the spider's legs. Using his strength and his weight, he threw the beast to the ground.
The legs were razor sharp and cut Ren Chao's hands very deep but he simply didn't care. To the contrary, he tightened his grip and pulled the demonic beast to him. Before the spider could react, Ren Chao's other fist penetrated its abdomen. Ren Chao's face was full of fury and rage. Deep within the beast's innards, Ren Chao's fist opened and his hand closed around a solid ball. Taking it out, Ren Chao was now holding one of the beast's 3-cores.
The poor male was writhing in agony as it wasn't yet dead. That was when Ren Chao stamped with his foot. In a very gruesome way, the beast kept on twitching for a while before stopping moving at all.
While other beasts were coming toward the tunnel, Ren Chao went to retrieve his hammer that was stuck into the walls of the tunnel.
Busy, Sun Liao didn't flinch at all in front of this scene. If he had the time, he would have been surprised by his brother's ferocity and inhuman strength. However, he had no time at all. The males were not that impressive to be honest and Sun Liao was confident in Ren Chao's ability to get rid of them. On the other hand, the females were another story. And he needed to complete his array formation as fast as he could.
While blue blood splattered all around, Sun Liao stayed focused on his compass and sent the flags he and Ren Chao had prepared all around. From time to time, he also sent demonic cores and even a couple of spirit stones. The array formation he had in mind was extremely powerful but it was at the limit of the 1-star Human rank. This was the most difficult array formation he had ever worked on. Of course, he had been able to set it up before, but that was in a quiet and perfectly suitable environment, the absolute opposite of these tunnels.
Before setting up the array formation, he had to first stabilize the wandering Qi of these tunnels. Only after achieving that could he set it up. And he didn't need it to last very long, just long enough for one strike. Then, they would flee as fast as they could and the other array formations would probably take care of the other demonic beasts. Either they would fell victims to the traps or they would deem that chasing these humans was not worth it.