As we entered the tower, I noticed it was covered in even more spider webs than the outside had been. It was creepy.

By now I was almost certain that Zhu Jie was a spider beast. Whether she was an awakened beast or an enlightened beast remained to be seen.

I hoped it was the former. If she was in the equivalent of the Foundation Building Realm, this would go from a difficult fight to an impossible one.

Nonetheless, there was no other option. Escaping from the city was impossible. It had been my first suggestion after I healed Fei Bo and spoke with him. However, he had told me that anyone who tried to leave would end up slipping deeper into Zhu Jie's enchantments and getting lost.

When I told him that I had managed to break them on my own the first time, he laughed. What he said at that time left me nervous for the battle ahead and our chances of survival.

"That wasn't an enchantment you broke, but the Bewildering Mists Poison. Her enchantments cannot be cured as they are not physical in nature. The only way out is to kill her or kill yourself."

It was a depressing sentiment made worse by the fact he was in a miserable mood. Each of the guardians I'd purged the curse from were similarly sombre.

Unfortunately I didn't have any time to coddle them. The first floor of the tower was empty apart from the cobwebs and a few bookshelves with dusty, decaying tomes scattered about.

Ignoring them, we made our way to the staircase at the far side of the room and ascended. The second floor was almost identical in design. In fact, the first four floors were abandoned.

The whole place seemed more like a spider's nest than a marvel of construction. Wang Ren was on guard the entire time. I'd relaxed a little after realising there were no enemies around us yet, but he refused to put down his glaive.

That caution paid off when we reached the fifth floor. The moment I stepped off the final step, I heard a whoosh of air.

Only my quick reactions saved me from being impaled through the chest by a javelin. The tip was made of polished steel and the end of the shaft had green tassels dangling from it.

Wang Ren leapt out of the staircase and flashed towards the other side of the room. I heard the clang of steel as his glaive descended.

Another cursed insectoid met his strike, wielding a javelin identical to the one that had been thrown at me. This opponent wasn't based on any insect I recognised.

He had eight eyes, thin hairs across his body, and six furry appendages poking out of his back, ending in sharp points that dripped with venom.

Not an insectoid. Arachnoid? I was likely the first scientist to discover this species, but already it was too late for preservation.

While I'd been musing in my head about the nature of our enemy, Wang Ren had decapitated him. The ugly head rolled along the ground and the corpse collapsed to the floor, blood spurting from its severed neck.

"I told you not to kill them, Ren," I hissed, staring down at the eight lifeless eyes that gazed up at me in accusation.

"Damn, sorry. I forgot. I'm not used to sparing my enemies," he replied sheepishly.

I felt sorry for the unfortunate soul who had been cursed and then killed, but I wasn't about to waste my time mourning someone who would've slaughtered me. We could focus on healing the rest.

"Try harder next time. It doesn't seem like you struggled to defeat him," I sighed as we made our way to the sixth floor.

"He was only four-star. This feels strange though. The ones outside were more powerful from what you've told me. Why are the guardians at the centre this pathetic?"

"Who knows. These are still the lower floors," I replied.

The sixth and seventh floors were also empty. The eighth was home to another arachnid-type cursed. This time it was a woman, but the transformation was even more gruesome.

Her entire lower body was that of a giant spider, while a humanoid female torso came out where the spider's head would usually be. She snarled at us, revealing two curved fangs.

"You dare intrude on Mother's domain?" the cursed creature snarled at us. "Die!"

How cliche. The creature was surprisingly fast for her large body. Within half a breath she was in front of me, her front two spider legs raised off the ground, poised to strike.

Before she could, I darted forward and struck out with a palm. The creature's thorax was rubbery yet tough.

My strike seemed to get absorbed. The legs smashed into my chest. I was flung into the wall, breaking a rib on impact and feeling the awful stomach churning sensation of a kidney bursting.

My potent healing energy restored both wounds within moments, but I was not immune to pain. Thankfully I wasn't fighting alone. Wang Ren had used the gap after the creature's strike to carve off the two legs.

It screeched in pain and stumbled forwards, off balance. However, it still had six legs and stayed upright. Wang Ren was merciless though, and his next blow followed an instant later.

The butt of his glaive smashed into the spider creature's head with a thud. She screamed in pain but he didn't let up.

A series of slashes and staff strikes had her incapacitated on the floor within another three breaths. I had recovered and walked over. Wang Reng pinned her down while I executed the surgery to remove the cursed energy.

Once it was done, the spider torso shrivelled up and turned to dust, while her features returned to those of a pretty, round-faced young woman. During the procedure I had noticed two fingers on each of her hands were missing, so I'd restored them.

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I assumed that was the remnant damage from having her two front legs cleaved off. She remained unconscious so I simply ensured her condition was stable and gave her some water before we advanced up the tower.

All of the floors from the ninth to the fourteenth were equally empty. However, the further up the tower we went the more spider webs there were covering everything. More pieces of rotting furniture and trinkets from residents were scattered around.

When we reached the fifteenth floor, it was still empty. I was beginning to wonder if Fei Bo had misled me, but there were still three floors above. Zhu Jie might be content to wait for us to reach her lair.

Wang Ren stepped up behind me and I left the staircase. The moment my foot touched the wooden tiles of the room, a series of glowing lines lit up, forming a set of geometric symbols on the ground.

A trap formation.

I threw myself back against the wall and Wang Ren followed suit. However, the explosion or lethal techniques I was expecting never appeared. Instead, I only heard a faint hissing sound.

Narrowing my eyes, I instead focused on the flow of energy inside the room rather than what I could see with my eyes. Immediately I spotted the danger.

From four tiny holes in each side of the room, an invisible gas was spreading. It was brimming with cursed energy and poisonous qi blended into a virulent payload.

Against other opponents it would have been a deadly trap. Against me it was simply more nourishment for my cultivation.

With two deep breaths I inhaled all of the gas and my lungs made quick work of refining it into medicinal energy that furthered my cultivation. I was now firmly in nine-star Qi Gathering, consolidating my strength.

Approaching Foundation Building, I realised I would soon need to return to pondering my path. I had no idea how I would lay my own foundations and rushing ahead without a plan was suicidal.

Wang Ren had inhaled a little of the cursed energy. A few chitinous plates had begun to creep through on his neck before I healed him.

There was no need for the full surgical process as the curse had yet to take hold, making it almost effortless on my part. Once that was done we advanced onwards. The sixteenth floor was empty, leaving just two more above us.

If Fei Bo's information had been accurate, there should be a powerful enemy on each of the floors. Floor seventeen was home to Zhu Jie's prized child, while the top floor was her own lair.

"Be on your guard. The opponent on the next floor should be a nine-star Qi Gathering cultivator. It will take everything we have," I warned Wang Ren.

"This time you'll have to take point, Sect Leader. I'm merely a humble seven-star. I won't have much impact here," he joked with a smirk.

He was only telling half the truth. While it was true that his lower cultivation made it a tough battle, Elder Bang's supreme techniques and Wang Ren's excessive martial talent made it a simple matter for him to fight a couple star-realms above his own.

"If you say so, Elder Wang," I snorted. Nonetheless, I advanced up the stairs first while keeping my guard up.

The moment we entered I spotted a man sat in a cross-legged meditative pose in the centre of an intricate spider web. Contrary to expectations, he didn't rush to attack me the moment I entered.

Instead, he waited for both Wang Ren and I to enter before opening his eyes. "Greetings, guests. It has been a long time since someone reached this floor of mine. Mother has been eagerly awaiting your arrival," he said in a tone that was eerily formal and relaxed.

Wang Ren was tense. I could tell he wanted to make the first move, but in this battle that could prove deadly to him. Both of us had been thrown off by the calm attitude of the man facing us.

He was also an arachnoid, with dark charcoal grey skin and a coating of thin hairs that was almost fur-like. Apart from that and the eight eyes that decorated his face, the rest of his physique was human.

On a closer inspection with my senses, I made a shocking discovery. There wasn't a drop of cursed energy visible in his body!

Either it was so integrated with his own energy that it was indistinguishable or he was also a beast. The first option was unlikely given what I'd seen of the curse's behaviour thus far, but I couldn't rule it out.

The second was the more realistic option. Beasts could procreate, but were less likely to give birth to offspring. It was the tradeoff for their potent natural talent for absorbing spiritual energy and cultivating.

However, it was still possible. This man in front of us could be the natural child of Zhu Jie. Which would make our task far more difficult.

Fighting someone under the effects of a curse was a lot easier, given that they were constantly fighting a war within themselves and using a power that wasn't their own. Fighting a peak awakened beast was another matter entirely. Before I could make my move, the creature spoke once more.

"This one is called Zhu Lai. What are your names, guests? I wish to know them before I kill you," he declared.

Wang Ren tapped the butt of his glaive against the ground. "You speak with the manners of a noble, yet you are a beast. Strange," he replied. "I am Wang Ren. Remember it well, for it is the name of the man who will kill you."

The creature's lipless mouth curled into a twisted smile, revealing sharp fangs that dripped with venom. It turned its gaze to me, cocking its head to one side.

"Zhao Dan," I said with a nod, raising my palms into a combat stance.

"A man of few words and a man of arrogance. Today you will meet your demise and become sustenance for our rise. Good," he finished, standing up and holding his palms to either side of his body.

There were no more words. His figure flashed and a breath later appeared in front of us. He thrust a palm towards us both, dark qi gathering at the tips of his fingers.

Wang Ren deflected it with his glaive, while I met it with a palm of my own. Neither reaction seemed to bother our opponent.

Where his dark qi touched the shaft of Ren's glaive, it left burns in the wood, charred furrows in the polished grip. As for my palm, I felt it burning under his touch.

As one, Zhu Lai and I smiled at each other. Our reasons were very different. When he saw my smile, his fell into a frown.

His qi began to drain faster and faster, being devoured by my body. He cursed and withdrew both palms, dancing to the side.

"What manner of technique is that!? How are you unaffected by my venomous palm thrust?"

"It's a secret," I replied with a smirk, sharing a glance with Wang Ren.

We hadn't fought together much in the past, aside from that time on Jagged Sword Peak, but we had a tacit understanding. We moved together, pincering our opponent from two sides.

Caught between the descending blade of a glaive and two lightning fast palms, he was in danger. Having experienced my palms already, he chose the glaive.

Two hands clapped around the blade, dark qi erupting outwards in the form of dozens of tiny black tendrils. They wrapped around the blade and hilt of the glaive.

I heard a hissing noise and saw tendrils of smoke curling towards the ceiling as Wang Ren's weapon was corroded. His eyes went wide as he watched his most prized possession decaying before him.

Before the process could continue, he slammed a foot into the ground and yelled. The deafening shout knocked Zhu Lai backwards as Wang Ren ripped his glaive upwards.

He thrust the tip of the blade towards the spider's heart. Zhu Lai's movements were strange and he seemed to slip around the blade, striking at Wang Ren's head.

However, he had forgotten my presence. Two fingers struck at an acupoint in his neck. His body froze and started to spasm as it was flooded with poisonous qi. As you fight fire with fire, so you fight poison with poison.

Wang Ren's strike continued, piercing the monster's flesh with ease while he was frozen. Zhu Lai gurgled as blood spurted from his chest. He coughed, spitting more blood and staggering back.

An explosion of dark qi burst from his body, covering the room. I was blinded, unable to see a thing. Even my senses were dark due to the excess of energy swirling in the air.

"Magnificent!" an echoing voice hissed from everywhere in the room at once. "To push me this far, you are the greatest guests we have received since making this our nest. Now, it is your turn to experience a spider's hospitality."

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