"What are they doing?"

On a ridge, Xiangzi was hugging his knees, shrinking in a bush, his gaze peeking through the gaps of his collar, watching the members of the Dragonfire Guild in the valley below. They were forming a semicircle at the entrance of a cavity woven with white silk.

He turned his head puzzled, asking Elisa beside him.

But Elisa shook her head; she wasn't familiar with these big spiders and just looked at Fang Hong beside her.

Beside Fang Hong was a giant monster, its eight jet-black eyes glaring and clawing, preserving its ferocious form in life; its body was over three meters long and at least two meters high, covered entirely with gray-black bristles. However, its eight furry long legs were now limply draped on the ground, and its swollen abdomen had a huge gash, emitting a foul stench.

It was evident that it had been dead for quite a long time.

If one looked back, many such giant corpses could be seen along the path behind the mountain. They lay sprawled across the ground, some charred black, curled up, still maintaining their struggle pose from life, seemingly dead under flames.

However, the abdominal wounds of each giant spider were not their fatal injuries.

For the group had unanimously elected the holder of the 'level one material collector' title—Parker, to check them, and the abdominal areas were found empty, with the silk-producing glands already taken by someone earlier.

It was clearly just the wounds left from taking materials after the giant spiders had died.

Gita quietly watched below, then whispered, "That is the entrance to a Cunning Spider nest, and they intend to draw the Spider Guards out."

There was no need to articulate further because the Dragonfire Guild members had already proven it through their actions.

People were lighting resin torches behind and then handing them to the melee profession members in front. The foremost Iron Guard, holding a torch, ran a few steps towards the entrance of the Cunning Spider's nest, then forcefully threw the torch inside.

Soon, white smoke began billowing from the cave entrance.

"Are they insane?"

"Setting fires in this forest; the forest is full of flammable webs and dead trees, aren't they worried they won't be able to get out either?"

"Now the spider swarm is going to riot."

Luo Hao couldn't help but whisper.

Everyone agreed with this view.

Parker was vigorously wiping his hands on a rag, then looked disdainfully at the colorful towel, tossing it aside.

"Stay away from me," Elisa said sternly to him, "Why would you think of using your hands to scoop it out? I'm telling you, Parker, you can't come within three meters of me until you clean up."

The Papalarian had to walk off obediently, muttering complaints about how troublesome women are.

Just then, the valley below resounded with piercing screams.

It was the sound of the spider swarm—

Shadows of the massive spiders quickly appeared in the forest. They weren't just rushing out from that entrance; more were squeezing out from the crevices in the crimson mountain wall, in groups, like a black tide.

As the spider swarm spread like a sea through the forest, the Dragonfire Guild members became somewhat restless, probably because the numbers of the swarm exceeded their expectations.

Not just the Dragonfire Guild members, even the members of the Seven Seas Travel Group watching from the ridge gasped. They were somewhat mentally prepared for the number of the spider swarm, but when it truly appeared before them, the impact differed significantly from anything they had imagined.

They weren't even the ones facing it head-on, but the psychological pressure on the front line of the Dragonfire Guild below was unimaginable.

"Are these people stupid?" Luo Hao criticized again.

Fang Hong didn't share the same sentiment.

Decisively, after a brief commotion, the Dragonfire Guild members calmed down—

Fang Hong watched silently as the Iron Guards and Imperial Knights on their front line raised their giant shields to block the advancing spider horde. Among the front line of the Dragonfire Guild, Iron Guards accounted for the majority, standing in a formation that, from afar, looked like a gray line.

It appeared frail, but when the spider horde like a black tide collided with the line, the colossal spider guards rammed into the shield formation, rows of giant shields retreated backward. However, the Iron Guards behind them merely took one step back before stabilizing again.

From the ridge above, it was like the line curved slightly inward, then resiliently rebounded.

Only then did the gray-robed ritualists and priests in the backline step forward, chanting spells, casting grayish light upon the giant spiders. These beams enveloped the spiders' heads, visibly sapping their energy, slowing their attacks.

Fang Hong found it intriguing; among the Oulin Gods, only Angina, who governs knowledge, history, mystery, and self-perfection, the Dream God Cuirel, and Ilien, the blind-eyed Goddess of destiny, had priests and monks skilled in curse magic.

But he was most familiar with Angina's followers, whose attire was nothing like this.

And Cuirel is Ameya's vassal god, and natural artifacts do not accept Invoker believers. As for the blind-eyed Goddess Ilien, her priests are all female, and none of these Dragonfire Guild monks match.

So, aside from the Oulin Gods, the ones wielding such diverse curse magic must only be those hidden in darkness, whose names are unknown to the common man, evil entities, Evil Gods, and Demons, the All Saints of darkness.

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