There was no doubt about it — Zheng Yueling had sensed Bai Jie's power.
In truth, Zheng Yueling had witnessed this spider undergo earth-shattering changes every single day. Yet she could hardly believe that Nyx had grown to the point where even she felt flustered at the sight of it.
Everything seemed to have changed from the day she had Nyx fight the Two-Headed Gecko to the death — that was also Nyx's first life-or-death battle.
How long had it been...
Probably just over a week. Nyx's growth rate was terrifying, almost beyond comprehension.
"What a shame I can't take Nyx under my wing," Zheng Yueling lamented inwardly.
Still, all of this pointed to the fact that Nyx harbored a great secret.
She had reported Nyx's situation to her teacher, but even her teacher had no answers.
In Zheng Yueling's mind, the spider named "Nyx" was like a poppy — beautiful yet brimming with fatal danger.
Shhk shhk shhk!
The answer to the demon woman's question was Bai Jie's utterly frenzied barrage of poison arrows!
The moment they faced off, there was no holding back — killing intent was fully laid bare!
In the span of a single breath, seven poison arrows shot toward the demon woman.
Zheng Yueling twisted her slender waist, pulled in her stomach, tilted her head aside, and retreated rapidly — yet two streams of venom still splattered onto her chest and thigh.
"Are you really going to eat me too today?!" Zheng Yueling shouted sharply.
But Bai Jie's mouth did not pause for an instant. Nearly ten more poison arrows erupted in rapid fire.
Zheng Yueling's face darkened like water. She said nothing more and leaped behind the sofa.
This time her reaction was timely, and she dodged most of the venom — only a tiny bit splashed onto her fair cheek.
Yet that tiny half-drop was enough to make half her face rapidly fester. Flesh and blood blurred together — a ghastly, unbearable sight.
In the blink of an eye, a face delicate as peach blossoms and almond petals became as horrifying as a malicious spirit.
If an ordinary person had been touched by even this half-drop of venom, their entire face would rot away, the bone exposed, and they would pass out from the agony.
Yet now Zheng Yueling revealed her abnormality — the venom's effects did not spread. The flesh and blood on half her face was even visibly regenerating at a speed discernible to the naked eye!
The same held true for her chest and thigh.
"This demon woman is no ordinary foe. Poison arrows alone can't finish her. She seems to have some kind of self-healing ability, and it's fast. I need to engage her in close combat."
As this thought flashed like lightning through its mind, Bai Jie struggled toward the sofa where the demon woman hid.
Bai Jie's thinking was simple. It had resolved not to continue this slow investigation any longer. Its current goal was to finish off Zheng Yueling.
If not, Chen Zhang would remain under Zheng Yueling's life-or-death threat.
Even if Chen Zhang never set foot in her house again, who knew if this demon woman would take action on campus? Or wait for a moment when Chen Zhang was alone outside?
Danger had to be nipped in the bud.
Halfway through its charge, Bai Jie abruptly stopped. Its abdominal spinnerets shot out several strands of spider silk, sticking to the various objects on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Like a goddess scattering blossoms, they were flung behind the sofa.
For a moment, crashes and clatters rang out ceaselessly. Cups and tea sets were smashed to pieces, and many of them struck Zheng Yueling's head.
You could say the damage was minimal, but the insult was extreme.
Bai Jie also tossed over a box containing numerous crawling insects, and the densely packed bugs immediately poured out in droves.
"NYX!"
"Today, even at the risk of losing control, I will slaughter you!"
Zheng Yueling's furious shout suddenly echoed through the living room.
The light in the living room abruptly dimmed, as though night had fallen.
In stark contrast, densely intertwined, blinding blue electric arcs surged from behind the sofa.
Bai Jie's heart suddenly clenched tight. An inexplicable pressure descended from above.
Amid a noise akin to the simultaneous chirping of a thousand birds, a figure wreathed in layer upon layer of blue electrical light slowly revealed its form.
It was unmistakably Zheng Yueling.
"What?!"
Under this oppressive force, Bai Jie actually felt the impulse to retreat.
Her pupils blazed with a bright pink-purple light, her gaze merciless yet seemingly capable of spewing fury. Her originally fair skin had turned a dark, dusky blue. Her thin, form-fitting clothes had been blown to shreds by the electric arcs, half-exposing her springtime allure. On her body surface, spots of light similar to her pupils flickered in and out of sight.
Bai Jie also noted with shock that the venom injuries on her body had largely healed, leaving only scars behind.
This demon woman could even transform?!
It hastily activated the Status Panel, and the demon woman's information appeared before its eyes.
[Target]: Zheng Yueling (Symbiote)
[Vitality]: 28
[Body Length]: 168cm
[Status]: Unstable
Uh... this...
Her Vitality had skyrocketed to 28?!
System, can you be any less reliable? Are you trying to screw me over?!
An angry roar echoed in Bai Jie's mind.
Pop!
A massive blue light flared before its eyes. The arc-wreathed demon woman's presence instantly arrived right in front of Bai Jie. One hand came cleaving down with the might of wind and thunder.
"Danger!"
An indescribable premonition of peril hammered at Bai Jie's heart. An immense terror seized its entire consciousness. The last time Bai Jie had felt this kind of emotion was before its transmigration, when the demon woman had pinned it to her bed, unable to move a single inch.
Space instantly plunged into darkness, as though she were the Heavenly Dao itself, and Bai Jie was the demon being subjected to heavenly punishment.
Fierce wind tore through, the air exploded, thunder roared relentlessly — an unstoppable force crawled over the spider's entire body.
Crack!
Electric currents coursed through Bai Jie's body. Sharp pain and numbness intertwined, instantly seizing all its senses and freezing its thoughts in place.
...
On the other side, Liu Wei had escorted Chen Zhang out of the residential complex and back to the car.
Seeing the disappointment and resentment on Chen Zhang's face, Xia Qimeng's heart skipped a beat. "What happened? Why is there a palm print on your face?"
"Ahem." Liu Wei coughed twice. He had no interest in letting Xia Qimeng know that the slap on Chen Zhang's face had been dealt by him.
"That woman... she's eerie. Her combat skills are impressive, and she seems to know some kind of hypnotic sorcery. Also, I didn't find any signal-jamming device inside the house... But at least, this trip wasn't a total waste."
Liu Wei took the lead in recounting what had just transpired. Xia Qimeng listened, dumbfounded, not knowing what to say for a long while.
"Th-that's just too absurd... So what happened to Zheng Yueling?"
Liu Wei said, "She didn't pursue us."
Xia Qimeng was stunned. "You finally took action and yet did nothing? You just let her get away with it?"
Liu Wei glanced at her. "What else could I do, kill her? I'm not a law enforcer. I'm a law-abiding citizen, a model employee. I don't want to lose my job and go to prison."
"Her identity on the surface is at least that of a female university student. How could I break into a house and murder a woman?"
"To deal with her, you'd need to pay extra."
Xia Qimeng: "..."
And so, the three of them drove off.
Though Xia Qimeng wasn't short on money, she had no intention of hiring a hitman to commit murder.
...
"Pain..."
In Bai Jie's consciousness, apart from pain, it could think of nothing else.
Like a drowning person, it could only watch as vitality was slowly drained from its body, bit by bit.
[Alert: Host Vitality dropping!]
[23]
[22]
[21...]
A mechanical, indifferent voice came from the deepest depths of consciousness. No distraction could take priority over the system announcements. This actually allowed Bai Jie to grasp onto a sliver of awareness.
[19]
[18]
It's over!
If I die, who will avenge A Xiao? Who will stop Zheng Yueling from taking revenge on Chen Zhang? Am I to let her continue her evil unchecked? And what about my family, far away in another city?
I still want to go back as a human... to see them one more time!
From a wish filled with unwillingness, a sigh heavy with the deepest attachment was released.
Time halted at this moment. Space solidified at this instant. The roar of thunder and lightning abruptly fell into silence.
Bai Jie's consciousness gathered itself once more, focused, condensed.
Foot Blade Slash!
Razor Spider Silk!
A ghastly black line cleaved through the blue electric curtain, instantly opening a breach.
Immediately after, several snow-white strands of spider silk gleaming with cold light ignored the searing of the electric arcs and shot forth, splashing up several brilliant blossoms of blood.
"Impossible!!"
Zheng Yueling's beautiful eyes were wide with fury and nearly splitting. She stared in absolute horror and disbelief at the strands of spider silk embedded into the flesh of her chest and abdomen.
Hiss, hiss. Hiss, hiss.
Spider silk shot out in unbroken succession, faster and faster. Even though electric arcs continuously severed them, more and more strands of silk embedded themselves — piercing, cutting — into Zheng Yueling's flesh.
By the time she tried to break free, it was already too late. A single hair pulled would move the entire body. The slightest movement brought bone-gnawing agony.
At that moment, two spider forelegs bearing blade edges extended out from within the electric curtain. Then, like the scythes of the god of death, they crossed in a sweeping arc.
Shrrrk — a sound as though silk brocade was being torn.
In the next instant, the demon woman watched her own two hands, severed at the elbows, detach from her upper arms and fly spinning through the air of their own accord. Blood arrows sprayed forth.
"AHHH!" She let out a piercing shriek, eerie and utterly inhuman.
In the chaos of her mind's collapse, the blue electric arcs wreathing her delicate body instantly blazed twice as fiercely, as though sensing their master's emotions, and began madly bombarding Bai Jie.
Agony instantly redoubled! Bai Jie's consciousness once again began to scatter.
Under such ferocious assault, Bai Jie's skin split and flesh burst open. Most of its spider legs had lost all sensation. The exposed flesh had been charred black by the searing heat.
[Alert: Host Vitality continues to drop!]
[16!]
[15!]
[14!]
!!!
The alert's volume grew louder and louder, as though it were a warning from the very soul — the death knell tolling in long peals!
Amidst the excruciating pain, the warning once again pulled Bai Jie back to a shred of rationality.
Bai Jie abandoned thought. Its heart was filled with ferocious intent. Relying on pure instinct, it used its one remaining pair of legs that still had feeling to violently tug the spider silk. Its body shot toward Zheng Yueling.
Two long, thick fangs suddenly extended a fraction further and viciously stabbed into the demon woman's neck and shoulder!