After the explosion of dark qi filled the room, Zhu Lai had vanished from the spot. I hoped he hadn't been able to purge my technique, or we would be in trouble.

"Ren, is he still impaled on your glaive?"

"No, he slipped away at that moment," Wang Ren replied.

"Damn. Stay close. Be on your guard."

Zhu Lai's words had told me an important piece of information. We were dealing with a spider beast, not another cursed human.

While I pivoted on my feet, trying to watch my surroundings for movement, I grimaced. It was impossible to see further than a few paces around me with the sheer quantity of dark qi obscuring my senses.

This was the first time my enhanced energy vision had failed me. In fact, it was more of a hindrance than a help. I returned to using my regular vision, which wasn't much better but strained my mind less.

"Nine Webs Endless Prison Art!" a dozen voices assaulted us from all directions.

I felt threads of sticky webbing striking my entire body. Within moments I felt my movements had been entirely restricted. Suddenly a web struck my mouth, gluing it shut.

I tried to breathe. It was difficult, but manageable. Barely a single stream of oxygen passed through the webs.

"MMnwg Mnnn" I shouted, my voice muffled. It seemed we would have to fight without communicating.

It was times like this I envied higher cultivators for their ability to communicate through qi. Then again, I would soon be able to do so myself. It was an ability one gained at the Foundation Building Realm.

I saw a flicker in the shadows in front of me. A grey hand appeared, curled into a facsimile of a claw. It pierced my chest, making me grunt in pain.

For Zhu Lai to so easily tear apart my refined flesh, his physical strength had to be on par with mine. That was an impressive feat. It was the greatest body temperer of all time versus the natural advantages of a beast.

The beast won, but what he did next caused his downfall. Rather than tearing me apart with his strength, I felt a flood of dark qi being injected into my body.

"Let's see if you can so easily dispel my venom when your entire body is flooded with it," he cackled, before tearing out his hand and disappearing into the darkness once more.

If my mouth wasn't covered in webs, I would've burst into laughter. Rather than ending my life, he had given me the means to escape his imprisonment.

My body thrummed to life, three refined organs working in sync to absorb the dark qi and refine it for my own purposes. Even my liver continued to refine itself as it was fed by the cycle of energy.

My wounds were healed within moments and my body hummed with power. With a grunt I tore apart the webs, burning the remnants with my qi as I reclaimed my freedom.

I wasn't sure if Zhu Lai could use the web technique again, so I maintained a thin layer of qi across my entire body. It was imbued with corrosive intent so that any webs which came close would immediately dissolve.

I had no desire to feel like a desiccated corpse waiting to be devoured ever again. I edged towards the location I knew Wang Ren had been, hoping he was holding his own.

Against an opponent two star realms above him, a one on one duel would be barely manageable—if he could move, that is. As things were, I was once again put in a position where I needed to save my Senior Brother.

It felt as if I had an endless reserve of energy at my fingertips. I crossed the few steps in a single breath. I saw Zhu Lai biting down on Wang Ren's neck.

His skin was shrivelling and almost as grey as Zhu Lai's own. The spider's eight eyes widened in sync when it spotted me.

"You-" it began to say as it removed its fangs, but I was already on the move.

My palm struck his face. His neck snapped to one side with a crack. My second palm smashed into his solar plexus and I heard him gasp.

After that, I grabbed hold of his neck and raised him off the ground. I tried to be merciful where possible, but against a creature like this there would be no compromise.

He had attempted to devour my lifelong brother in front of my eyes. Death was the only reward waiting for Zhu Lai. I would not prolong it, but it was here.

His neck and chest bulged as I used a technique I had kept hidden for a long time. His cells turned against one another in a furious battle royale of mutation. They devoured one another as his body swelled under its own weight.

Even his qi refused to bend to his will, twisted into a crude facsimile of what it once was. His flesh burst and his spirit veins began to pop as my technique took hold.

One of his eyes burst like a balloon, spraying me with ichor, blood, and jelly-like flesh. I spat out the traces which entered my mouth before tossing his horrific corpse to one side.

Afterwards, I rushed to Wang Ren and knelt beside him. The first thing I did was to burn away the webs, taking care not to harm his skin or accidentally inject my poison while doing so.

I had no idea if I could cure my own techniques, but I wasn't willing to take the risk with him. Once that was done, I inspected his condition.

What I saw made my heart drop. His breathing was faint and the flow of his qi seemed regular, but he was not recovering.

Blood and green venom dripped from two circular wounds in his neck. If the spider beast hadn't been absorbing his qi, what was the purpose of that technique?

Straining my senses and drawing on my well of medicinal knowledge from two worlds, I tried to rack my mind for an answer. What did I know about venomous bites? Not much, unfortunately…

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My area of expertise was not venom or treating those kinds of wounds. I knew the basics of course, any doctor worth their salt did. However, my usual talents lay in torn limbs, burns, and other injuries of a more violent nature.

For almost ten seconds I observed his condition as it worsened. His breathing became ragged. Even though his qi flowed normally, I could tell he was close to death.

At that moment I wanted to curse myself for my stupidity. Advancing to Qi Gathering had made qi a far more potent tool than the lesser blood essence, but that didn't mean it was no longer an essential part of one's physique.

Switching my inspection from qi to blood essence, I instantly saw the problem. Wang Ren's blood essence was draining rapidly from his dantian. Cultivators did not rely on it for strength or even to live, but if all of one's blood essence was removed they would certainly die.

The physical body required it to maintain regular health. At least that was what I had learned over my few years of experience in this world and the texts I'd read.

However, what seemed to be an impossible problem became an easily treatable one the moment I knew what was actually wrong. Wang Ren's blood essence was tainted and draining, but a simple correction and application of my healing technique restored it to normal.

I was unable to restore the essence he had already lost, but that would be possible with time and rest. There was very little that time and rest couldn't heal, after all.

The problem is, we did not have the luxury of time or the comfort to rest. Zhu Lai had only been the opening act. Waiting for us on the floor above, ruling over this entire wretched city, was Zhu Jie—Mother.

Wang Ren opened his eyes after a minute. "Senior Brother, how do you feel?" I asked with a warm expression on my face.

"I told you-" he suddenly coughed, a trickle of blood falling to his chin. "Not to call me that," he finished, falling back to the ground.

"Take it easy. That spider drained over half of your blood essence. You're lucky to be alive," I told him, offering him a waterskin.

He took it gratefully and drained it in gulps, leaving it almost empty. I chuckled at his zealousness.

"It's a good thing I brought a few. Do you think you can still fight? I hate to ask, but if we don't defeat Zhu Jie we won't leave here alive."

He slowly crawled into a sitting position, taking a few deep breaths as he did. "Where's my glaive?" he rasped.

I glanced around the room. In the chaos of the battle I hadn't seen it. My eyes suddenly landed on a warped hunk of metal lying next to a blackened stick of wood.

"I'm sorry. His technique…" I started, but Wang Ren rushed over and interrupted my train of thought before I could finish.

"No!" he exclaimed, gathering the two pieces of his once mighty glaive in his arms. "Cursed beast," he spat. "This was the last relic of Master Bang."

After a few more seconds of forlorn staring at the damaged pieces of his weapon, Wang Ren kept them into his dimensional bag. He clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

Turning to me, I saw his rage overflowing. "Let's go. We're killing this creature."

I sighed. Violence and hatred only bred more of the same. Even so, I couldn't blame him for his feelings. Bang Ji had been slain because of his fellow Elder's treachery and Wang Ren now had nothing left that his master had handed down to him.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, I realised that wasn't true. "No, you still have his techniques. His legacy lives on through you. Besides, I'm sure we can get that glaive repaired if we find a talented smith. Let's go," I told him.

His eyes lit up, but the fury remained. "You're right. However, what use is a set of glaive arts without a damn glaive," he snorted.

"Well, you remember that time the sect master displayed his spear intent? Isn't that supposed to be the peak of weapon techniques?" I suggested, letting his mind fill the gaps on its own.

"I appreciate your attempt, Sect Leader, but I don't think I will grasp the profound mysteries behind glaive intent in the space of a single battle," Wang Ren replied with a smirk.

Despite his words, I could see that I had at least managed to brighten the mood temporarily. However, he was right. Without a suitable weapon, he would not be able to fight at full strength.

That meant taking down Zhu Jie would fall on my shoulders. I believed we would be equal in cultivation, but that was no guarantee.

At the very least I could be confident that my physique would help me counter the main weapons a spider possessed. Unfortunately as I had learned all too often, things rarely were as they seemed in this world.

With grim faces and determination blazing in our hearts we ascended the steps to the eighteenth floor. There was one final obstacle between us and our freedom.

Surprisingly, the top floor of the tower was completely free of webs. There wasn't even a cobweb in the corners or a speck of dust on the three bookshelves lining one of the walls.

All of the shelves were filled. A candle burned on a small shrine, with a few incense sticks beside it. Kneeling in front of the shrine was a petite woman with shiny black hair cascading down onto the wooden floor.

While we watched, she raised a doll made of fabric above her head in one hand. In her other hand, she held a thin silver needle.

"That sort of looks like m-" Wang Ren started to say. Halfway through his sentence the woman stabbed the doll.

I saw a flash of black qi erupting from her hand. It passed through the needle and filled the doll. It did look exactly like Wang Ren, which made my stomach drop.

This resembled witchcraft from stories in my old world. I never expected to see such a technique here. I had no idea how to counter it.

Glancing towards Wang Ren, I saw that he was convulsing as small chitinous growths appeared on his neck and hands. However, there wasn't a trace of cursed energy in his body.

I could do nothing to help.

If this continued, I would be forced to fight against my only ally rather than the insidious spider witch who we were supposed to. Finally, Zhu Jie turned around, caressing the doll gently.

There were only two eyes on her face. It was round and had delicate features, her skin pale and milky white. There were no traces whatsoever of spider-like features on her body, apart from her eyes.

Rather than eight separate eyes, her piercing blue eyes had four pupils each, forming a diamond in her sclera. It was creepy. Her stare sent a shiver down my spine.

I had trouble reconciling the beautiful woman in front of me with the horrific scenes in the city outside. Appearances were often deceiving.

"How delightful this is," she spoke with a soft voice that seemed to fill the air around me. "Guests, for the first time in almost a century! I was beginning to think we might be alone forever."

With every word she uttered, the air seemed to shimmer around me. I felt the room around me spinning as darkness crept in from the edges of my vision.

Then, one of the strands of energy from my stomach burst, a wave of energy filling my body and clearing the spell. Everything sharpened into focus instantly and I clenched a fist.

"How despicable. What are you? A witch? A beast?" I snarled.

There was no time to waste. Wang Ren was still struggling against the transformation but it was only a matter of time until he succumbed. The only path to escape was Zhu Jie's death.

She laughed, a chittering sound that resonated in the air, making me stumble once more. However, the remnant effects of that energy strand kept my mind clear.

"Curious! You can resist the effects of my poison so well. I do love interesting guests. How long will you entertain this mistress?" she said coquettishly.

When I remained silent, she harrumphed and began to pout. "It's not fun when they don't squeal. As for your impertinent questions, if you can't tell yourself, then perhaps you don't deserve to know."

So be it. I didn't need to know her nature to end her life. After all, every creature died when their qi was turned against them. Man, beast, and I assumed even demons, if I ever truly encountered one.

The time for words was over. I gathered my qi in my hands, forming a sharp blade along the edge of my palm as I rushed forwards.

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