In the torrent of time, two figures tumbled continuously. Countless spider silks clashed with Sword Qi.
Eventually, those silks—whether broken or freshly congealed—formed layer upon layer of webs around Li Yunxian.
Li Yunxian could certainly cut through them, but…
The beautiful human spider’s voice carried a hint of smugness. “Go ahead, keep being smug! So what if you’re a sword cultivator? How much spiritual power do you have left to use?”
Li Yunxian didn’t offer a denial.
In the space within the gap in time, Duan Huacai and the others had needed Li Yunxian to provide spirit stones just to practice their cultivation.
Now that they were in the middle of the actual torrent of time, that need was even more pronounced.
Li Yunxian had naturally prepared for this situation. She had brought many spiritual power storage magic tools specifically designed for replenishing herself.
They were the high-volume kind used for powering Teleportation Arrays. They were definitely enough to keep her full!
However, no matter how much she prepared, spiritual power was ultimately a finite resource. Li Yunxian knew this, and Zhu San knew it as well. This was Li Yunxian’s greatest current weakness.
Li Yunxian looked at the overlapping layers of webs before her, her voice calm. “Then do you want to come and test for yourself exactly how much spiritual power I have left?”
The smug expression on the human spider’s face instantly soured.
On the surface, it clearly had the upper hand; Li Yunxian was completely wrapped in its webs. But who could guarantee she wasn’t bluffing?
It was just like their first encounter, when Li Yunxian had used that unreserved killing move. It absolutely did not want to take a hit from this sword cultivator’s blade.
No one ever wanted to take a hit from a sword cultivator.
Seeing that the spider remained silent, Li Yunxian assumed a leisurely posture.
She casually used her sword to clear away the surrounding silk without much effort, even asking curiously, “You’ve been at this for so long, yet all you do is spit webs. Don’t you have any actual killing moves?”
Li Yunxian had initially been very wary of these webs. The spider silk of a Tribulation Stage expert was extremely powerful in every attribute.
But strictly speaking, spider silk wasn’t exactly meant for killing. Li Yunxian had expected something more miraculous, yet after clashing for so long, she hadn’t seen any special effects from these webs.
“Are you only capable of controlling weaklings?” Li Yunxian recalled the person who had been possessed and controlled when she invited several factions to a gathering.
Having stayed in the gap in time, Li Yunxian didn’t know that several Tribulation Stage experts from the other race had also gone missing.
Consequently, these breezy questions made Zhu San feel so frustrated it wanted to cough up blood.
Theoretically, its killing moves were terrifying. It could easily conjure the image of the person most important to its target.
If the opponent showed even a hint of hesitation or wavering, the resulting gap in their heart would be enough for its spider silk to seep into their divine soul.
Yes, its silk could act directly upon the divine soul.
It only needed the tiniest opening. Even if the opponent reacted in time, the spider could manipulate the silk that had already entered to damage the divine soul.
The pain of the soul was unbearable, and the tremors from such an injury would create even more gaps in the heart, giving the spider more room to burrow deeper.
A wounded soul was naturally harder to defend, and eventually, the soul would be completely entangled and devoured by the spider as nourishment.
This was also why the beautiful human spider had always preferred devouring the other race.
Compared to Righteous Cultivators, the higher Demonic Cultivators progressed, the harder it was to find gaps in their hearts.
Whether they sacrificed themselves or others for their cause, they rarely wavered. Furthermore, they usually traveled in groups; if you hit one, a whole bunch would show up. They almost always moved in pairs, making it difficult to strike. Even if it found a gap in their hearts, it was rarely successful.
But the other race was different. Most of them followed the Demonic Path and practiced the Way of No Regret. They could only truly achieve a heart without regret at the final moment of ascension.
Every gap in their hearts was easy to find, and most of them were unwilling to associate with others of the same cultivation level.
Since they all walked the Demonic Path, they all knew exactly how despicable, lowly, shameless, and cold-blooded everyone else was!
These guys were the tastiest and easiest prey for the spider. Using the town-sealing city to influence the people living in the interstellar cities was, for the spider, essentially creating a Petri dish for its delicacies.
Since the interstellar world began using the town-sealing cities, the proportion of cultivators turning to the Demonic Path had immediately surged.
As for the overlapping, never-ending disaster tides… those were side effects produced when the dissipated Demonic Path Wen Dao reached a certain concentration. Of course, to the spider, they were positive effects.
Under the pressure of a crisis, Righteous Cultivators often displayed the brilliance of humanity, but they were equally likely to explode with human ugliness in those moments of peril.
It was purely a matter of survival of the fittest, filtering out the most delicious rations for the spider.
However, this didn’t mean the spider feared the so-called righteous path. Righteous Cultivators were simply less convenient to eat than the other race.
The spider had never imagined a day when someone would actually ask with confusion if it only knew how to spit silk. It felt that Li Yunxian was the one who needed to reflect.
What kind of person looks at their most beloved and doesn’t experience a single tremor in their mind? She had even slashed down without the slightest hesitation or mercy.
The spider had endured the slash and prepared to strike while she was stunned and doubting whether she had killed the wrong person—a moment where a psychological gap would definitely appear.
Instead… Li Yunxian had chosen to go for a finishing blow.
Was that a loved one or a mortal enemy? The spider had never encountered such a bizarre person. She was like its natural nemesis.
The spider had always valued its own life. The things it had told Li Yunxian about being cowardly were not lies. This was the nature of the spider.
Most of its kind preferred to huddle in a safe place, weaving a web and waiting for prey to arrive before devouring them. Even though it could no longer be considered a mere spider, that nature remained.
Thus, its first reaction had been to flee. Where there is life, there is hope.
But… this suicidal sword cultivator, Li Yunxian, wouldn’t let it. She actually wouldn’t let it! This was exactly why it hated the righteous path the most!
Zhu San gnashed its teeth, prepared to deal with Li Yunxian at any cost. In the torrent of time, no other righteous cultivators could pop out to save her.
It was very confident in its own strength. This confidence came from devouring several Tribulation Stage experts of the other race.
With its strength, even against two or three Tribulation Stage experts, it wouldn’t necessarily be at a disadvantage.
It didn’t believe that someone’s heart could truly be without a single gap.
And yet…
Its thinking was correct. Li Yunxian’s heart was not without cracks. When the spider said they were lost in the torrent of time and that everyone she knew had either died or ascended, Li Yunxian’s mind had shaken.
When the spider said Li Yunxian’s spiritual power would eventually run out while its own innate talent required none, allowing it to wear her down indefinitely until she was exhausted—at which point it would leave the torrent to devour the entire world outside—Li Yunxian had also experienced a psychological tremor due to anger.
Though these gaps were tiny and lasted only a moment, the area around Li Yunxian was filled with spider silk. For Zhu San, that was more than enough.
And then… nothing.
The spider felt its carefully inserted silk get repelled directly by Li Yunxian’s divine soul. Li Yunxian herself hadn’t even noticed her soul repelling the silk.
Zhu San was speechless. What kind of person was this?! Was this the divine soul an Integration Stage cultivator should have?
Zhu San had eaten the souls of Tribulation Stage experts, but none of them had this level of strength. It was only then that it truly realized its previous thought—that she was its natural nemesis—was the absolute truth.
Ironically, the spider was no longer in a hurry to leave. The concept of a “natural nemesis” was far too important to it.
It had been at the Great Circle of Crossing Tribulation for many, many years, yet it had never felt the so-called Ascension Tribulation.
Perhaps for those who practiced the Demonic Path, the concept of an Ascension Tribulation simply didn’t exist.
The spider could manipulate its way into all sorts of people’s souls. It devoured their souls and scoured their knowledge and memories.
The records of the Ascension Tribulation were all things experienced by Righteous Cultivators.
Even the records the other race had of the tribulation didn’t seem to apply to those who specialized purely in the Demonic Path.
A pure Demonic Path Ascension Tribulation…
The spider’s gaze landed on Li Yunxian. In various records, there were always accounts of the great war of righteousness and demons.
They always ended with good triumphing over evil. Those demonic mighty beings capable of causing world-shaking disasters eventually died with regret, stopped by that single thin line.
The spider had once mocked those demonic masters, thinking their world-destroying rampages were utterly meaningless.
Wouldn’t it be better to stay in one’s place, cultivate properly, and then wait for ascension at the peak of one’s power while everyone watched in awe?
It was only now that the spider understood what those demonic masters were trying to achieve. Because *this* was their Ascension Tribulation!
Hiding the ferocity in its eyes, the spider drifted lightly through the torrent of time.
It chuckled as it continued to weave its web bit by bit, catching onto Li Yunxian’s earlier words. “You want to know my weakness?”
“Since we’re both bored, why don’t we exchange answers?”
Li Yunxian looked at the spider strangely. “I already know your weakness.”
She pointed her long sword, the tip aimed directly at the spider’s heart core. “If I cut you there, you die. You know my weakness too. Once I run out of spiritual power, I can only surrender.”
Zhu San felt like saying it a hundred more times: it hated sword cultivators!
Feeling the fluctuations of the spider’s aura, Li Yunxian smiled slightly. “You’ve lived for so many years, yet how are you still so dim-witted? Could this also be the nature of a creepy being?”
The spider narrowed its eyes at her.
Seeing that expression, Li Yunxian said, “Is it really that surprising that I guessed? If you were truly just a spider, a mere beast, you would have died the moment we started fighting.”
“Beasts don’t just have things like heart cores. Except for a small portion of mythological Yao, most creatures won’t just be ‘heavily injured’ if they are sliced in half.”
“There are plenty of fatal spots—heads, necks, hearts, major arteries. Only creepy beings have only one weakness.”
Li Yunxian stated her judgment directly.
“I’ve said my piece. Since I gave you the information you wanted, can I ask you a question now?” Li Yunxian didn’t give the other party a chance to ask; she chose her own topic and turned it back on the spider.
Although the spider had gained many people’s memories and knowledge, it knew it wasn’t truly among the cleverest.
It didn’t respond directly, merely staring at Li Yunxian in silence, signaling for her to speak while it considered whether to answer.
It needed more communication to understand her, which would provide more opportunities to break through her mental defenses.
A small gap might not be enough to conquer her soul, but a large one might!
However, this reaction also signaled something to Li Yunxian. It was indeed wary of her. The spider’s actions toward her weren’t just an act.
Li Yunxian smiled and asked, “We’ve fought for so long, yet I still don’t know your name.”
The spider had expected many questions. No matter what she asked, it felt it could make some judgments regarding what Li Yunxian cared about. Instead… she asked for its name.
The spider remained silent for a long time before stiffly pulling a name from the depths of its consciousness. “Zhu San.”
“The ‘Zhu’ from ‘spider,’ and the formal character for ‘Three,'” Zhu San replied.
Hearing this answer, Li Yunxian’s smile became much more genuine.
Although the torrent of time wasn’t as stable as the gap space they were in before, and her research into the Spacetime Dao wasn’t as deep as her sword path… this was still the domain of the Spacetime Dao!
The moment Zhu San spoke its name, she felt a resonance with the name “Zhu San” within the rolling torrent. Her spirit sword instantly ignited, piercing straight toward that position.
The surging sword intent passed through the layers of silk without any resistance, as if cutting through countless ages, leading directly toward a time from many years ago.
At first, Zhu San couldn’t fathom the intent behind this strike. Its actual position was far removed from where the spirit sword was pointed.
But it could feel the unreserved spiritual power and sword intent within that strike.
With that single blow, Li Yunxian, having lost all her spiritual power, entered a brief state of weakness.
There was no doubt that this was the best time for Zhu San to devour her. But it also proved that this sword strike was no feint. Without a doubt, it was a killing sword. A sword meant to kill it.
Zhu San’s heart leaped, and its five eyes immediately stared toward where the spirit sword was pointed. It saw the churning torrent of time. It also saw a familiar figure within that pointed torrent.
The spider instantly understood what this sword intended to kill. If the living spider named Zhu San died in the river of time in the past, could the Tribulation Stage creepy being Zhu San still exist in the present?
It didn’t know. But it felt a bone-chilling cold.
Countless silks instantly surged to cover Li Yunxian’s spirit sword. But the silks that couldn’t block her earlier couldn’t block her now. Fluids sprayed everywhere.
Zhu San’s body threw itself directly into the path of the sword. The blade sliced into the spider’s current body again, but it did truly stop the strike.
Li Yunxian watched with great regret as the fleeting image within the torrent of time vanished.
It was an image of a woman, her eyes full of affection, feeding the spider with spirit stones. Although she couldn’t hear the voice, she could read the woman’s lips.
“What a cute child. You’re the third new member of the family. From now on, Mama will call you Zhu San, okay?”
That woman’s figure…
Li Yunxian looked at the hideous Zhu San, whose shoulder she had just partially severed. That figure and the spider’s current human form were exactly the same.
Zhu San’s eyes were bloodshot as it stared at Li Yunxian. It opened its mouth wide, revealing a terrifying smile. “Thanks for the pointer. Now I know how to handle you. You’re too weak!”
With those words, the spider’s figure instantly vanished from before her.
Li Yunxian’s heart tightened, and she immediately pushed her spiritual power to follow Zhu San up against the torrent of time.
Within the flood, she saw countless silks surging. She understood what the spider was trying to do.
It was looking for the past Li Yunxian. The current Li Yunxian had a solid divine soul that left it no opening, but the past version of her must have been as weak as it had been when it was just a spider.
Li Yunxian felt heavy, yet also somewhat speechless. “Zhu San, you haven’t studied the Spacetime Dao. Even if you find my past self, what could you possibly do?”
Li Yunxian could strike the past spider because her sword path could encompass time. Zhu San couldn’t.
If it could, all the pasts of the people flashing through this torrent would have been wiped out by its silk attacks long ago. If she could do it, other Tribulation Stage experts could too.
Zhu San naturally understood this. “There isn’t only one way to solve anything in this world,” it laughed loudly. “Li Yunxian, you only have yourself to blame for being too high-profile and for your cultivation time being too short.”
Li Yunxian was far too famous in the interstellar world. Because of the conflict between their factions, Zhu San had sensed something was off and had paid special attention to her.
Therefore, it knew everything about her experiences in the webnovel *Wanwuwu*. For instance, she had only been practicing cultivation for more than twenty years. That span of time was far too short and too close to the current era.
Even if the time within the torrent was extremely chaotic, having such an accurate anchor in time made things different.
Furthermore, Zhu San wasn’t just a sword cultivator. It was a creepy being condensed with the spider as its core. All its silks were its scouts. And it… had plenty of time.
As long as it could find Li Yunxian… the one who hadn’t yet started cultivation…
Zhu San dived into the torrent of time, dodging the spirit sword Li Yunxian swung at it again. Its mind was racing.
It raced with the realization that it had found Li Yunxian’s lifeblood. It also raced with the realization that this cunning human actually still had so much spiritual power stored.
When she was surrounded by silk earlier, she had pretended to be on her last bit of power, needing to conserve every drop.
Yet now, she was swinging sword after sword. As soon as it showed an opening, she didn’t hesitate to attack.
Having been stabbed several times, Zhu San’s gaze grew dark. Previously, it had mostly moved on the surface of the flood using its silk as a cushion, making it hard for Li Yunxian to lock onto its position.
Now that it was submerged in the torrent, it was within the range of her perception.
This was a race to see whether her heart would be pierced first or if its searching speed would be faster.
Or rather, it was a race to see if it could find the weak past Li Yunxian first. And as everyone knew… Li Yunxian’s luck was…
The corners of Zhu San’s mouth split into a wide, hideous smile. “I found you…”
A scene appeared before the spider, and Li Yunxian’s figure was clearly visible. It was Li Yunxian wearing a Jincheng High School uniform, her face indifferent as she walked home alone after school.
Her face carried a hint of arrogance and rebellion, looking exactly like a little hedgehog.
This wasn’t just a weak Li Yunxian. This was the version of her that hadn’t even traveled to the cultivation world yet.
When she saw what time period the spider had found, Li Yunxian froze. “Stop!!” she cried, her eyes wide as she used all her strength to charge at Zhu San.
Seeing her furious reaction, Zhu San became even happier. Grabbing hold of this fragment of the past, it only slightly dodged its most vital spots, pouring all its energy and ability into this memory.
Space seemed to wrap around its hands. “Be grateful for the abilities of the person you love most,” Zhu San said wildly. “Although I can only mimic them, it’s enough for now.”
It truly couldn’t cross the barrier of time to physically harm the past Li Yunxian. But its talent could act upon the divine soul. If it gave its all, it wasn’t impossible to cause tremors in that time period.
Li Yunxian watched helplessly as her past self’s soul was briefly driven out of its body by the impact the spider sent through the time barrier.
Then, the spatial channel opened by the spider—mimicking Su Wenjing’s talent—swallowed that soul.
Li Yunxian: “…”
She fell into a deathly silence. Theoretically, she shouldn’t have known where the spider had sent her past soul. But in reality… she recalled everything she had encountered in the cultivation world.
“So! It! Was! You!”
Those four words sent a jolt of horror through Zhu San. Behind it, it felt a sword intent that soared to the heavens, one that intended to fight to the death. The spider whipped around, staring at Li Yunxian in disbelief.
“How are you fine?” it shrieked. “You should be dead!”
The spatial channel it had opened with everything it had led to who-knew-where. It had even felt itself break through some kind of barrier.
Theoretically, that channel should have functioned like a malfunctioning Teleportation Array, causing any soul inside to be crushed by the chaotic space.
“I am very much not fine!”
“Go to hell!! You spider!!”
***
In the real world, the eyebrows of Duan Huacai and the others were twitching.
“What’s wrong?” Su Wenjing immediately noticed their strange expressions.
Duan Huacai frowned as if encountering something incomprehensible. “I don’t know what happened, but the entire Time Dao is fluctuating wildly.”
“Is that good or bad?” Su Wenjing asked.
“Good,” Duan Huacai said decisively. “Such a fierce reaction makes it easier to locate the Time Dao and create a passage to bring Li Yunxian back.”
At this moment, the wave of the great war of righteousness and demons in the interstellar world had temporarily subsided, with the righteous path achieving a massive victory.
Seeing the situation turn bad, many of the other race had retreated quickly. Those who followed the Demonic Path always prioritized their own lives.
Min Juan and the others didn’t pursue them relentlessly. They knew the most dangerous of the other race wasn’t among them.
They also knew that at this moment, the surviving demons could be considered their “allies.”
Their high-level righteous cultivators were all present, and the retreating demons knew exactly what had happened to the few missing leaders from the other race.
To stay alive, those demons would be even more vicious toward the one responsible than the righteous path would be.
However, none of them had found where that enemy was. After searching the surroundings, they finally realized… the one in trouble was Li Yunxian.
The high-level cultivators of the interstellar world were stunned. They vaguely remembered that when they assigned tasks, the one given to Li Yunxian was supposed to be a very safe protection mission…
A flurry of activity soon followed. Everyone began brainstorming how to fish her out.
All the town-sealing cities were destroyed. Initially, they thought about building a new version of the old town-sealing city. They were fast; with interstellar efficiency, it took less than ten days.
However, it was useless. It couldn’t connect to the gap space that was supposed to exist. Without a doubt, the original space had been destroyed.
To save her, they had to build a channel through time itself, which was far more difficult and complex.
But how were they supposed to build such a thing? Everyone had a massive headache. No one had ever researched this!
Finally, Duan Huacai and the others raised their hands, indicating they could try.
Previously, to communicate with the real world from the gap space, they had worked on the subject of synchronizing the flow of time.
Furthermore, since they had all lived in a space filled with the Time Dao for hundreds of thousands of years, they had a decent understanding of it.
Combined with their research on the original version of the town-sealing cities, they were definitely the ones with the best chance of bringing Li Yunxian back.
And that turned out to be true. It took Duan Huacai and the others just over one year to figure out how to establish a channel with the Spacetime Dao.
The only problem was… they had to find where the Spacetime Dao was located. To find it, Duan Huacai, Su Wenjing, and the others had spent a long time searching the Wandao Sea.
Su Wenjing remembered Li Yunxian once saying she had felt and comprehended the Time Dao here. Now that there was a massive fluctuation, it was undoubtedly the perfect time to anchor it!
Upon hearing Duan Huacai’s words, everyone’s faces lit up with joy. Once the good news had been digested, they remembered a critical question.
“Who will be the first one to come out of the channel?” Min Juan asked hesitantly.
Facing this question, Su Wenjing answered quickly. “The enemy.”
“Yunxian is a sword cultivator, and there are many people outside the channel who lack the ability to protect themselves,” Su Wenjing’s voice was certain. “Even if there is a channel, she won’t retreat.”
It was just like when the town-sealing city channel was still connected to the gap space. Li Yunxian could have retreated then, too.
Min Juan’s arrangement for her had been that if anything went wrong in the space, she could take Duan Huacai and the others and leave for safety.
But Li Yunxian hadn’t retreated. She had only sent Duan Huacai and the others out.
“She never intended to retreat from the start. If she had, she wouldn’t have arranged for me to guard the channel.” Su Wenjing recalled the events of the past.
“She is the kind of person who would choose to protect others even if it meant shattering her divine soul.”
“She is Li Yunxian,” Su Wenjing said.