Feng Miaojun squeezed a sentence through her clenched teeth: “None of your damn business!” This man’s thoughts were truly venomous! Immediately trying to drive a wedge between them.
Seeing that Tie Xinning was no longer approaching, Mo Tizhun realized he had been recognized and simply removed his helmet, tossing it aside: “Yun Xi, the Jin Kingdom has no long-standing grudge against the Great Wei. Why do you pursue us so relentlessly?” From the initial pursuit of Feng Miaojun to the current disturbance at Cliff Mountain and the plot to seize the princess, Yun Xi’s actions were incomprehensible.
Not understanding naturally made prediction difficult. Mo Tizhun admitted this was indeed Yun Xi’s most challenging aspect. So after Feng Miaojun’s double was killed at Wolf Tooth Fortress, he remained cautious and continued to hide within the group.
Sure enough, Yun Xi hadn’t given up and now had even recognized Feng Miaojun.
Tie Xinning asked strangely: “Who? Master, you’re so disappointing. We merely want to leave your tutelage… Hand over the princess obediently, and don’t try to stall for time.”
At a time like this, how could he admit he was Yun Xi?
Even with Mo Tizhun’s normally good temper, his eyes now revealed intense anger. However, the three arrows Tie Xinning had just shot into the small island in the abyss were all bound with Mountain-Shaking Thunder, exploding on contact. The previous explosion, though violent, had at least detonated on the suspended spider web; this time, however, it blasted directly into the heart of Cliff Mountain, causing the majestic peak to shake like a patient with malaria. Huge chunks of rock, along with unsteady spider demons and humans, fell in droves.
Having experienced an explosion a second time, the Spider-King was more composed, avoiding injury to its four remaining eyes. Its clawed legs moved like the wind as it quickly climbed toward where everyone stood.
It understood clearly now—these people were the troublemakers!
The cliff was nearly ninety degrees vertical, but to the Spider King, it was as flat as a playground. Neither Mo Tizhun nor Tie Xinning wanted to face a red-eyed, enraged demon king, especially since the former needed to protect the princess.
But before the Spider King could unleash its full fury, a sudden “hiss” erupted from the abyss as violent steam burst forth!
Milky-white vapor shot up through the original magma channel, climbing three to four hundred zhang (one thousand meters) with lightning speed!
This time, not only were the creatures standing at the cliff edge affected without exception, but also nearly half of the winding maze-like passages in the Cliff Mountain cavern.
The sudden blast of two to three-hundred-degree heat instantly enveloped them, penetrating through the eyes, mouths, ears, and nose to invade the body. Even the weakest spider demons were instantly steamed to death, let alone ordinary humans.
All the human merchants resting in the many passages that Feng Miaojun had seen along the way were annihilated.
Fortunately, both Tie Xinning and Mo Tizhun automatically released protective barriers, keeping those near them safe. Thus, Feng Miaojun, the princess, and others only felt a rush of hot air without substantial harm.
At this, even Mo Tizhun’s eyes showed shock as he shouted: “Have you gone mad?!”
His earlier fleeting glimpse had been enough to see clearly: those three explosions had directly shattered the diamond island beneath the spider web. The lake water in the abyss had suddenly flooded in, revealing that the small island was hollow, with an entrance to another space inside.
The moment the lake water rushed in, it transformed into expanding, erupting steam, for only one reason:
The temperature below was terrifyingly high, instantly vaporizing the large volume of lake water.
Anyone with even slight knowledge of Cliff Mountain’s history could guess what lay below—magma.
Liquid, flowing, unfrozen magma.
Had Yun Xi gone to such lengths, nearly destroying the entire Cliff Mountain, just to break through to the underground and release the magma? Mo Tizhun roared: “That thing won’t be mature for another hundred years!”
Tie Xinning smiled: “Is that so?”
Amidst the rising steam, a huge black shadow appeared beside them—the Spider King had pounced.
With intelligence surpassing humans, it knew the steam forced out by the magma would kill most low-level spider demons, as well as unhatched spider eggs. Grief-stricken and enraged, it was determined to kill the perpetrators. When the incident occurred, it had been blinded by the light attack and couldn’t see clearly who was responsible. But did that matter?
As long as it killed all the humans on the cliff, it would have avenged its children and descendants!
It raised its head and spat a mouthful of venom toward Mo Tizhun. This sticky mass could corrode energy shields, so even the Great State Preceptor Mo couldn’t be careless. He had already moved the princess to a different position, and the spot where they had been immediately began to emit greenish smoke.
Just as the Spider King raised a leg to pursue them, its body suddenly trembled and fell back into the abyss.
The momentum was as if someone had pulled it down. However, it managed to anchor itself by driving several legs into the rock wall like pilings, seemingly struggling against some force.
Princess Hanyue’s gaze was directed straight into the abyss, and she exclaimed in shock: “The fire spirit! The fire spirit has emerged!”
Tie Xinning had shattered the diamond island, and what flooded in was lake water. What emerged was not only massive amounts of steam but also another strange and terrifying entity:
A fire spirit.
It was surrounded by white flames and appeared humanoid at first glance. As it emerged from the fissure, the intense flames on its surface had been extinguished by the water vapor, revealing its black underlying substance. This seemed to have angered it as it looked around and saw the most conspicuous figure before it:
The Spider King.
Without hesitation, this fire spirit grabbed two of the Spider King’s hind legs and pulled forcefully!
Though only half the size of the Spider King, its strength was no weaker. Composed of the purest fire elemental energy, it seared the Spider King’s flesh, causing it to smoke and sizzle. Anyone still alive on the cliff would have smelled the aroma of burning meat.
With another burst of strength, the Spider King was forcibly pulled down, but its two legs deeply gouged the rock wall, dislodging countless chunks of earth and shattering the footing where Mo Tizhun and the others stood. He had no choice but to leap again with the princess, but when he turned, he was stunned:
Tie Xinning had vanished without a trace, and Feng Miaojun had disappeared with him.
With white vapor filling the area and gigantic monsters grappling below, finding two small human figures would be no easy task.
But Mo Tizhun knew that if Tie Xinning had come for whatever lay beneath Cliff Mountain, he had most likely already descended underground. Mo Tizhun was also curious to investigate, but at this moment, the Jin princess’s safety outweighed everything else. He could only protect her and sigh with regret.
The Great State Preceptor Mo led the princess and several cultivators, quickly climbing up the rock wall toward the crack that had been opened by the explosion. Just then, the Spider King shot a flame past the fire spirit, sweeping the scorching white light toward the rock wall where they were climbing.
The area it covered was vast, and Mo Tizhun could no longer move everyone away in time. With no alternative, he turned back and released a gigantic spectral image.
The spectral image was a turtle-like monster with horns on its shell and head. Its mouth, filled with sharp teeth, opened and sprayed a water jet that directly countered the flame. It was merely a shadow and shouldn’t have possessed such strong power, but the current environment was filled with water vapor, which increased its divine power from three parts to eight parts.
This alone showed Mo Tizhun’s precise utilization of the environment and the situation.