The carriage driver finally realized something was wrong. Glancing at Jade's calm and serene face, he didn't press further. Instead, he led the horse away, looking back every few steps. In the end, he called out, "Miss, be careful. I'll wait for you on the ridge up ahead."
Jade simply waved a hand, watching him leave before turning toward the village.
The village was quiet under the night sky. A few houses still had oil lamps flickering within, but Jade narrowed her eyes and activated her vertical pupils.
What she saw was a scene of utter darkness. The air was thick with the stench of blood. Collapsed houses, lifeless livestock scattered about—yet not a single human corpse could be seen.
Her gaze shifted to the mountainside behind the village. A shadow stirred. A strand of white silk shot out and coiled around a corpse, dragging it into a pitch-black cave. The thing sensed her presence and leapt to the entrance, blocking it. Moonlight fell, revealing its full form.
A towering, blood-red spider stood there, at least fifteen meters tall. Its fanged maw split open, and its head bore the deathly pale face of a little girl—the most recent victim, whose face it had stolen for its own.
Jade's eyes burned with fury. This was a wicked beast, and one she was well within her rights to eliminate.
Still cautious, she scanned the area. No trace of Ji Shi's group or anyone else. She reached into her storage pouch, drew out a spirit sword, and charged straight at the spider.
"Heh. A little worm's come crawling in. Barely enough to wedge between my teeth, but looks tasty," the spider cackled, eyes gleaming with greed and bloodlust. In its eyes, Jade was a rare delicacy, far more nourishing than the humans it had consumed. If it devoured her, it could recover eighty percent of its power.
"Pah. You want to eat me? You'd better pray your fangs are sharp enough," Jade snapped back.
As she spoke, her spirit sword glowed with channelled power and slashed out. The spider sprang aside, and the sword's arc gouged a deep trench where it had just stood.
It was Jade's first real battle. Her strength control wasn't perfect, but she was a quick learner. Realizing the spider was dodging to wear her down, she shifted tactics.
From ranged strikes to close combat—Jade darted forward, her movements agile and precise, steps reinforced with spiritual power as she rushed into melee.
Compared to the massive spider, she seemed tiny. But once she closed in near one of its legs, her sword swung down. Sparks flew, metal shrieked—but the leg wasn't severed.
Unfazed, she slipped to the opposite side and targeted another limb.
The spider was no fool. Realizing she aimed for its legs, it lifted one high, then stomped down, hoping to impale her.
Jade rolled aside and darted beneath another leg. This time, she poured spiritual energy into her sword and executed a clean horizontal cut. The blade flashed, severing the upper half of the spider's leg.
The beast shrieked in pain, its abdomen contracting. A mass of white silk spewed toward her. Jade twisted away, narrowly avoiding it. Where the silk hit the ground, it hissed, corroding a hole straight through the earth.
"That was close." She hadn't expected its venom to be so potent. Now she fought even more cautiously, alternating between slicing legs and aiming for its spinnerets.
While Jade battled the spider with mounting momentum, Ji Shi and his fellow monks arrived at the outskirts of the village. They immediately noticed the carnage—and the distant clash between Jade and the giant spider.
"Master Uncle, that's a human-faced spider beast. It's hiding in the mountains, slaughtering villagers."
"Should we intervene?"
Ji Shi's eyes lingered on Jade's graceful movements and well-measured attacks. She was clearly a cultivator, though not of the Buddhist path.
"Let's observe a bit longer."
The monks exchanged glances. They didn't quite understand Ji Shi's intentions, but the girl seemed to be holding her own. Her strikes were sharp and rhythmic—she had already severed two of the spider's legs.
Jade was fully immersed in the fight. Her gaze locked on the spider's raised legs and the venomous threads it spewed. After cutting through a third leg, she miscalculated slightly and a strand of silk snared her left calf. Smoke curled instantly from the contact.
"Hiss!" She hissed in pain. Her eyes narrowed into slits, and she severed the silk with a swift strike. Enraged, she lashed out with her tail, slamming the spider onto its back.
Ji Shi and the monks, watching from a distance, were stunned by the flash of her jade-green snake tail.
Having knocked the spider over, Jade finally noticed the monks nearby. Her heart burned with resentment. A bunch of bald-headed monks, standing around just to watch?
She revealed her true form in full. With a few lashes of her tail, she smashed the spider until it no longer knew up from down. Then she coiled around it and squeezed tight, locking it in place, spinnerets and all.
"Hmph. Let's see how you like a taste of my venom."
She bared her fangs and sank them into the spider's back, injecting poison.
"Ugh. Filthy thing. Nearly made me puke."
With a final crushing coil, the spider's head and body split apart.
After killing the beast, Jade resumed her form as the green-clad maid and, sword in hand, entered the cave where the spider had dragged its victims.
Inside, the cave was thick with webbing. Bodies wrapped in silk hung from a vast web like cocoons. Gritting her teeth, Jade searched carefully, finally finding a small boy cradled beneath the corpse of what must have been his mother.
They had been dragged in recently. The boy had yet to be fully cocooned, and his mother's body had stiffened with time, her arms locked protectively around him. The boy was barely clinging to life.
Without disturbing the mother's body, Jade gently pulled the boy free and placed a drop of spirit dew in his mouth—gathered back at Lotus Lake from the lotus leaves.
She channelled a sliver of spiritual energy into him. His eyelashes trembled, then slowly opened. He looked at her with glassy eyes and rasped, "Monster… Immortal lady… save… everyone…"
He passed out again.
Jade checked that he was still breathing, wrapped him in a cloak from her storage ring, and returned the way she came.
Ji Shi and his companions had arrived at the hillside. Seeing Jade carrying something, Ji Shi instinctively stepped forward as if to block her path.
Jade's brow arched. Her voice was clear and biting.
"Great masters who claim to be so compassionate—why did none of you help earlier? And now you want to stop me?"
"Amitabha. You are a snake beast."
"Hmph. I am a beast cultivator. But tell me, have I killed or stolen any souls? Why are you questioning me?"
"Amitabha. Since you have done no evil and even slew a beast, I will not make things difficult. But I ask that you accompany us to Yunzhong Temple. The Buddha Child shall pass judgment."
"I'm not going. I have more important matters."
Ji Shi frowned slightly. She had not done wrong, but she was still a beast. There was no guarantee she wouldn't later stray.
"Amitabha. Forgive me, then."
Before the words had finished, his disciples moved to surround Jade. A golden alms bowl floated overhead, casting down beams of golden Buddhist light, enveloping her entirely.