Chapter 517 - An Insect in a Web

In the underground palace of endless gloom, two clusters of daemon qi constantly surged. One was powerful and invasive, while the other was weak but endless.

Two faces met one another. One possessed absolute beauty, filled with vengefulness and fury, while the other was filled with viciousness and malice, laughing weirdly like it was mocking the futility of her hatred.

With all of his flesh and blood stripped from his body, Li Qingshan was left with only the lower layer, the skeleton. It remained standing, glistening with a metallic lustre. However, it rapidly dimmed under the invasion of the venom.

Li Qingshan knew even if his bones were tougher than arcane artifacts, he would not be able to last very long if he simply allowed the venom to eat at it. However, after connecting with the underground river, he came up with a countermeasure.

Resplendent blue light burst forth from Li Qingshan’s body.

If the five elements were ranked according to how suited they were for healing and recovery, wood would definitely take first place. Water could only claim second. However, when it came to purging poison, water would definitely rank at the top.

The venom was vicious, but under the surging daemon qi, it was diluted and purified bit by bit. The metallic lustre of the bones gradually recovered as fibres of flesh extended from them like willow branches sprouting in spring, wanting to grow a new body.

With the support of the Water God Seal, he basically did not have to worry about his consumption of daemon qi at all. Although the venom that had been most threatening to him would continue to affect his movements, it was not a deadly issue anymore.

He managed to infer her venom should have required special refinement to produce. If that were the case, he would simply waste it away! He refused to believe the venom she had refined was infinite.

Why would Lolth wait for Li Qingshan to recover? She clenched her fists and barraged his skull violently, producing hollow booms that shook up the entire city.

Under the terrifying force, his skull began to change shape slightly. A few small cracks appeared. At the end of the day, the Tiger Demon Forges its Bones was not indestructible.

“I’ll definitely kill you!”

Lolth declared coldly. Suddenly, she sensed danger and retreated backwards.

Rip! Li Qingshan’s glistening, bone claws pierced through the web and wrapped around Lolth’s waist, pulling her into his arms firmly as if he was still unsatisfied with the kiss from earlier. His mouth riddled with teeth pressed against her lips and fierce wind passed through his hollow chest, speaking with a raspy voice.

“Mother of my child, it’s my turn!”

Lolth’s face changed. She felt a stream of air rush into her mouth like a condensed tornado, but the power had not diminished at all. It was even more terrifying than a real tornado.

It was Li Qingshan’s innate ability, the Tiger Demon’s Breath.

Like a high-speed turbine stirring up her innards viciously, her face twisted from pain. She pressed her hands against Li Qingshan’s face and pushed hard, flying away in retreat. She landed on one knee and spat out a mouthful of blood viciously, which contained fragments of her organs.

With the poison suit equipped combined with her powerful defensive innate ability, even a full-powered strike from Li Qingshan would struggle to deal a lethal wound, but her innards were still relatively weak.

Back to Li Qingshan, there were two more rips, and his legs that had been reduced to bones broke free from the great cocoon. They stomped on the ground loudly, causing it to crack and sink and sending rock fragments flying everything.

The silk that Lolth had spun on the spot obviously could not be as tough as the poisonous whip.

And, ever since he had become trapped, he had never stopped using the Tremors of the Ox Demon to destroy the structure of the silk. The damage had constantly accumulated until now.

He swung his extremely-sharp bone claws at his body wildly, finally breaking free from the restraints of the web and regaining his freedom.

A savage, robust skeleton that seemed to be forged from metal stood proudly.

Li Qingshan thought, I sure match Xiao An right now!

However, Xiao An’s white bones seemed relatively slender, even giving off a sense of holiness, while Li Qingshan’s bones had their edge on full display, radiating with malice.

At this moment, Lolth suddenly let out a sharp burst of laughter containing twisted pleasure. Her laughter came to a halt.

“I never thought you could force me to this point. Northmoon, looks like I still underestimated you, but from the moment you set foot in Cobweb city, your fate had been determined, which was death!”

Suddenly, Li Qingshan felt like sharp killing intent had surrounded him as if he had entered an encirclement with ambushes all around him.

Actually, Li Qingshan had been confused the entire time too. From the beginning till now, he had encountered many dangers, but they were completely disproportionate to the initial warning from the spirit turtle’s daemon core.

Now, the answer was about to be known.

The foot that Li Qingshan had lifted to take a step forward suddenly froze in the air. He could not move it at all. This time, he had become truly immobilised. He could not even move his finger. Even his daemon qi felt like it had become restricted, unable to unleash it as he wished.

“What’s going on!? There’s clearly not a single thread on me, yet I feel like I’m bound by thousands of threads?!”

Lolth spread her arms. The threads that criss-crossed the cavern suddenly flashed and began to tremble.

In that instant, it sounded like thousands of zither strings had been plucked. With the sharp thrum, Cobweb city was carved into pieces silently and collapsed, falling into the surging water and kicking up huge waves.

The chambers shattered as well. Li Qingshan no longer stood on anything, but he remained frozen in the air, like he was stuck in a huge, invisible web.

The criss-crossing threads with geometric beauty finally revealed their true purpose in that moment. They formed a huge trap that resembled the formations of humans.

Formations were not an original creation of humans. Instead, they were replications of the omnipresent principles of nature that humans had discovered and studied through the use of tools like spiritual stones and formation banners. However, daemons were usually accustomed to using their own powers. Rarely did they use any foreign objects, just like how tigers and wolves were accustomed to fighting with their teeth and claws and not with weapons.

However, Lolth was an exception. When she was still a tiny spider, her primary tool of survival was her web. Even the significance of venom paled slightly in comparison to that.

Very clearly, when she climbed to the throne of Daemon Commander step by step, she did not give up on this unique skill of hers. Instead, she learnt how to weave larger and better webs.

Unfortunately, Li Qingshan had become an insect within a web. He thought, So this is her trump card!

Lolth exhaled gently, and a hint of exhaustion appeared on her face for once. Clearly, activating the web took her quite the effort. She stared at Li Qingshan viciously, but she was in no hurry to attack him, as when she smashed into Cobweb city earlier, she had snapped a few threads. She began to repair them one by one.

Li Qingshan became filled with dismay. Originally, he could still sensed the spiritual qi of the world as well as his vast region of water, but as the web was repaired strand by strand, it felt like a great door being gradually closed.

Once he lost his connection to the spiritual qi of the world and the support of the Water God Seal, he would become a body of water without a source. Once Lolth returned to finish him off, all he could do would be wait for his death. Even if he managed to erupt with strength on the spot somehow, it would be impossible for him to break free from the web she had weaved meticulously.

Suddenly, a dragon’s roar filled the entire cavern.

By now, the water had already flooded almost half of the cavern, and the water level continued to climb rapidly. A huge dragon’s head suddenly protruded from the surface. A water dragon lunged towards Lolth as she meticulously added to the web. The dragon consisted of thousands of tonnes of water, like it was rising up into the sky.

Lolth sneered in disdain. She did not even look at it.

The water dragon passed through the web and was carved into pieces by the threads, failing to affect Lolth at all.

The lethality of flowing water had always been limited unless he concentrated all of its power onto his daemon core like right at the beginning, and only then would it be possible to injure her. Li Qingshan was bold enough to use this move again, but it would only achieve those effects in a surprise attack. If she were prepared, he would not even have enough time to cry if she directly caught the daemon core.

As for directly controlling the water to attack her, the effects would be truly feeble. In Lolth’s eyes, this was clearly his final struggle. As long as she repaired the final strand, she would be able to do whatever she wanted with him.

Boom!

The water dragon had been carved into pieces, but thousands of tonnes of water still collided violently against the ceiling of the cavern with great force.

This was Li Qingshan’s true target.

After Cobweb city had been carved into pieces, the unbelievably large cavern had lost its most important pillar of support. If it were not for the night roamers who constantly reinforced the walls in the past millennium, the entire cavern would have collapsed from its own weight a long time ago.

The collision this time was like the final straw on the camel’s back.

Rumble! As if the earth was roaring furiously, a huge crack spread out like lightning, yes also weaving together like a spider web.

Thousands of tonnes of earth collapsed.

“Do you think you can avoid death like this?” Lolth casually waved her hand, and the poisonous whip shattered a few boulders falling towards her. The other boulders were easily carved into pieces by the fine threads just like the water dragon.

And, her threads were an entity of their own. The destruction of the surrounding walls did not affect them. The web was her absolute domain.

Li Qingshan paid no attention to her. He produced a bellow that revelled in joy, cheering for this natural sight of earth crumbling.

The rock and soil fell down, and the water level rose rapidly, swallowing Li Qingshan in the blink of an eye.

The cheering vanished. The spirit turtle’s figure appeared around Li Qingshan in the water, but it had never been so clear before.

The water was his world.

The spirit turtle suppressed, sinking to the bottom.

All of the threads pulled downwards with him, moaning from almost ripping.

Lolth’s face changed drastically. She never thought he would still be able to put up a struggle even at a time like this. She only required one thread to seal him off for good, but looking at the situation, the other threads would rip before she could fix the last thread.

However, if she returned now to subdue him, it would take quite the time before she could make his death absolute. As long as there was a hole in the web, he would continue to struggle.

Faced with a dilemma, Lolth’s face twisted viciously as she ordered, “Dragonsnail, stop him!”