Surveying the terrain around him, Tang San sat down against a large tree. He knew that if he wanted to keep searching for Xiao Wu, he had to recover some of his stamina first.
He pulled a water skin from Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlit Night and gulped down great mouthfuls of water, so absorbed in drinking that he didn't even notice getting soaked.
As his breathing gradually steadied, Tang San didn't dare cultivate — there was no telling whether a Soul Beast might appear. He only wanted to wait until his stamina recovered a bit before continuing his search.
Suddenly, a peculiar sound caught Tang San's attention.
The rustling noise was like someone changing clothes, or perhaps the friction of leaves rubbing together. Growing wary, Tang San slowly rose to his feet and carefully looked in the direction the sound was coming from.
Then he saw the source of the noise.
Black — the color filled Tang San with revulsion. This creature that had suddenly appeared was the same pitch black as the Titan Giant Ape from before. However, compared to the Titan Giant Ape, its body was far smaller. Yet for its own species, it was enormous.
Standing before Tang San was a spider — a monstrous arachnid with a body measuring over one and a half meters in diameter and eight spear-like legs exceeding three meters in length. Its entire body was encased in gleaming black chitin that shone like polished lacquer. The tips of its long legs were needle-thin, and with each silent step it drove them into the ground, a testament to their razor sharpness.
Tang San had spotted it, and it seemed to have spotted him too. All eight legs moved in rapid, fluid strides, trailing a series of afterimages. In the blink of an eye, it had closed the distance to Tang San. Two front legs shot upward and plunged directly toward his head.
The raising of its front legs inevitably tilted its body back, which gave Tang San a clear view of its underside. One glance was all it took for him to identify its species.
Tang San threw himself to the ground and rolled away without a heartbeat's hesitation, narrowly dodging the spider's attack. A sharp intake of breath escaped his lips — of all places, of all creatures, he never expected to encounter one here.
On the spider's lower abdomen, there were white markings that stood in stark contrast against its black body, and those white markings formed the shape of a sinister human face. A total of eight small eyes glowing with a faint purple light were clustered along its underside. Two of those eyes appeared to have been smashed by something, reduced to a bloody mess. There were even several cracks running through the chitin on its lower belly.
It was nighttime, and had Tang San not possessed the Purple Extreme Demon Eye, he would never have been able to make out these details.
Seeing that ghastly human face, Tang San recalled the many titles given to the creature before him.
The nightmare of small Soul Beasts. The consumer of life. The object of hatred for all Soul Beasts. The terrifying, sinister killer.
Every one of these titles described this long-legged spider. Its name was the Human-Faced Demon Spider. Even among Soul Beasts, it was considered a terrifying existence. Of course, it was clearly not on the same level as the Titan Giant Ape. But the Human-Faced Demon Spider was a creature that even other Soul Beasts feared.
It possessed an incredibly hard carapace, blinding speed, eight legs with tremendous penetrating power that were laced with deadly venom — and most fearsome of all was its web.
Ordinary spiders spun silk to weave their webs, but this one was different. It could spray its web directly from its body. The web was not only extraordinarily adhesive but also incredibly tough, coated with a terrifying neurotoxin. A Soul Beast like the Mandala Snake — the one that had given Tang San his first Soul Ring — would be nothing more than food in front of this Human-Faced Demon Spider.
Moreover, the Human-Faced Demon Spider had been one of the targets the Great Master had identified for Tang San's third Soul Ring. The Great Master had once told him that the Human-Faced Demon Spider was the hardest to obtain, and that he absolutely must not force the issue. Because encountering one — even with a powerful Soul Master standing by as backup — could easily lead to danger.
The Human-Faced Demon Spider's web was not only instantaneous but could cover an area ten times its own body, making it nearly impossible to dodge. Even a powerful Soul Master caught in it would need time to break free. And that time was more than enough for it to do a great many things.
Tang San had never expected to run into a Human-Faced Demon Spider under these circumstances. Judging from its appearance, it was clearly over a thousand years in cultivation. The Human-Faced Demon Spider could spray its web three times per day. Typically, its first response upon spotting prey was to launch its web. Yet right now, it was attacking with its legs instead. Combined with the injuries on its abdomen, Tang San reached a conclusion — this Human-Faced Demon Spider had already used up all its web sprays for the day.