After several more exchanges, the tree demon, though no match for Chu Tian, still managed to retreat underground.
Chu Tian turned around and saw that Quan Xiaoyu’s side was also sweeping the area with a barrage of fire dragons. The little spiders were being eliminated cleanly and efficiently. They had excellent control over the flames and hadn’t set fire to anything that shouldn’t be burned.
Chu Tian called out, “Follow me carefully!” Then he headed straight toward the direction in which Xie Mingxuan had entered and slipped into the factory.
Quan Xiaoyu and the other two quickly followed. However, Xiao Yu and Xiao Ning returned to the spot where they had been digging and continued excavating.
Inside the factory was a series of enormous workshops. Judging by their size, there appeared to be three workshops of roughly equal dimensions. The one they had entered was the middle workshop.
The area where the machinery had once stood was now covered in a vast expanse of white spider silk. The place looked more like an enormous spider’s nest than a factory.
Xie Mingxuan had already been entangled in spider silk, but he wasn’t losing the fight. Although his body appeared to be tightly bound, his hands were completely free. At that moment, he was digging into something in front of him, pulling things out and shoving them into his mouth one after another.
The objects were milky-white, spherical things, each about the size of a goose egg. Xie Mingxuan was eating them with great relish, as though they were the most delicious delicacies in the world.
Meanwhile, Chu Tian was locked in combat with a gigantic spider. The enormous spider seemed unwilling to deal with Chu Tian at all. It was single-mindedly trying to rush toward Xie Mingxuan.
The three newcomers quickly understood what had probably happened. The giant spider had originally been fighting Xie Mingxuan, which was why it had wrapped his entire body in spider silk. But when Chu Tian entered, Xie Mingxuan seized the opportunity and made a beeline for the delicious food.
“Xiaoyu, the equipment I need is underneath all this spider silk. Be careful when using your fire ability.” Seeing Quan Xiaoyu draw his katana, Bai Mingxi hurriedly reminded him.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded. In truth, he didn’t need Bai Mingxi to remind him; he hadn’t forgotten the purpose of this trip.
“Find somewhere safe to stay,” Quan Xiaoyu said before heading off with his katana to support Chu Tian.
The giant spider had originally wanted to shake Chu Tian off. Who would have thought another opponent would show up? Meanwhile, Xie Mingxuan continued eating happily. No one knew how many spider eggs he had already devoured.
The giant spider flew into a rage. It stopped trying to evade the fight and swept its long, blade-like legs toward Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu.
The two had fought side by side countless times and possessed extraordinary teamwork. How could they possibly be hit so easily? After only a few turns and leaps, they had each moved to one side and severed one of the spider’s legs.
The spider’s body lurched as it lost two legs. Then, suddenly, its body began to vibrate, producing a sound like a swarm of bees buzzing.
“Damn it! Not again!” Bai Mingxi shouted. He grabbed Li Nan and ran outside. There was no way they could stay in there for even one more second.
At the same time that the giant spider began buzzing, a massive swarm of little spiders surged out from beneath the white blanket of spider silk like a rising tide. Each was about the size of a ping-pong ball, and they came rushing toward everyone with terrifying momentum.
The sudden appearance of the little spiders interrupted Xie Mingxuan’s delightful meal, and he became annoyed. With a single sweep of his hand, he smashed a huge number of them to death.
He wasn’t afraid of these things at all. He could let them crawl all over his body without being bothered in the slightest. The problem was that there were simply too many of them. In the blink of an eye, Xie Mingxuan was completely swallowed by the swarm.
“Should we burn them?”
From the moment Bai Mingxi had dragged Li Nan out of the workshop, Quan Xiaoyu had withdrawn from the battle and darted over to block the doorway. He wanted to prevent the little spiders from pursuing the two men, who were unable to fight.
Since their purpose in coming here was to retrieve the supplies inside, Quan Xiaoyu had originally been reluctant to use fire. But in the current situation, although they weren’t afraid of the spiders, there was only so much they could do against such overwhelming numbers. So he asked Chu Tian.
“Burn them!” Chu Tian answered decisively with just two words.
He could already feel the giant spider’s fury acutely, so he accelerated his attacks even further.
Before Chu Tian’s words had even faded, Quan Xiaoyu was already directing his fire dragons toward the oncoming swarm.
Fire truly was the spiders’ natural enemy. The flames swept through them in a devastating wave.
With their current combat strength, the two of them had no reason to fear monsters of this caliber. They had only been somewhat constrained because they needed to protect the supplies.
Now that they could fight without holding back, the battle ended in just ten minutes.
Chu Tian used his sharp claws to cut off the giant spider’s head, then chopped its body into several pieces. The little spiders, which Quan Xiaoyu had burned into scattered remnants, fled in all directions after the giant spider died, disappearing into unknown corners.
During the fierce battle, Xie Mingxuan had been blackened by the smoke from Quan Xiaoyu’s flames. Nevertheless, he was still extremely excited. The moment Chu Tian severed the giant spider’s head, he scampered over, rummaged around inside it, pulled out a wet beast core, and swallowed it without the slightest hesitation.
After eating the beast core, Xie Mingxuan seemed to have finally filled his stomach this time. He no longer went behind the spider silk to search for spider eggs and instead obediently returned to Quan Xiaoyu’s side.
Just then, excited howls came from outside. Xiao Yu and Xiao Ning had clearly found something they liked.
Bai Mingxi was the first to poke his head inside.
“Is it over?”
“It’s all right now. You can come in,” Quan Xiaoyu replied, putting away his katana and nodding at him.
Bai Mingxi visibly breathed a sigh of relief. Insects really were among the most unpleasant creatures imaginable.
“What’s going on with those two?” Quan Xiaoyu asked in confusion, pointing outside.
At that moment, Li Nan came in with the two little beasts. Hearing Quan Xiaoyu’s question, he answered casually, “They dug up a nest of beads and ate them. I happened to pick one up.”
As he spoke, he held out the round ball in his hand to Quan Xiaoyu.
Quan Xiaoyu examined it but couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He was just about to hand it back to Li Nan when Xie Mingxuan let out a howl, snatched the ball away, and swallowed it in one bite.
Everyone was both amused and exasperated, but they didn’t particularly care about these things. They turned around and, under Bai Mingxi’s direction, began clearing the spider silk from the factory.
Fire was still the best way to deal with the silk, but this time they needed to be even more careful and precise. As a result, Quan Xiaoyu became their temporary human lighter.
It took everyone a full hour of working together to clear the spider silk from the surfaces of the machinery in all three buildings. Actually, it would have been more accurate to say that they had cleared two workshops and one warehouse.
The area where they had fought earlier had the highest concentration of spiders, so the damage there was extensive. Some of it had been caused by the spiders occupying the place for a long time, while the rest had resulted from the battle. After sorting through what remained, they found very little equipment that could still be used.
The other workshop was in somewhat better condition. Bai Mingxi picked out quite a few useful items and stuffed them all into the space.
The warehouse had suffered the least damage. Most of what was stored inside consisted of semi-finished products and spare parts, along with a small number of finished products. This haul made Bai Mingxi extremely happy. He kept saying that the trip had been well worth it.
After taking the things they needed, everyone returned to the courtyard and prepared to leave. The traces of the battle outside were still visible, but the tree demon had disappeared without a trace.
They had no idea whether the things Xiao Yu and Xiao Ning had dug up were related to the tree demon.
“Can you still sense their presence?” Chu Tian asked Li Nan.
Li Nan shook his head. “I can’t sense them anymore.”
Chu Tian nodded. After thinking for a moment, he said to Quan Xiaoyu, “Go and burn everything inside, so they can’t come back. Don’t burn the buildings, though. If there are any survivors, they might still be able to come here and take shelter.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded, turned around, and went back inside. He didn’t emerge again until more than ten minutes later.
“Let’s go.” Seeing him return, Chu Tian called for everyone to leave.
They had just walked out of the factory grounds and returned to the car when a figure flashed past. It moved away from their vehicle at an extremely high speed.
Xie Mingxuan was the first to fly into a rage and immediately chased after it.
By then, Chu Tian had already withdrawn from his combat form and returned to his original appearance. Quan Xiaoyu was therefore the first to dart back to the car and inspect it carefully.
“It’s fine. It probably tried to break the window, but it didn’t succeed. We came back just in time,” Quan Xiaoyu said.
“Was that a zombie?” Chu Tian asked uncertainly.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded. “A Level Four zombie.”
He had already seen that Xie Mingxuan was Level Six, so he wasn’t at all worried about letting him pursue it.
“What would a zombie want with our car windows?” Chu Tian asked, looking puzzled. “There aren’t any living people inside.”
Quan Xiaoyu shook his head, equally perplexed. This really didn’t fit the usual behavior of zombies.
“Let’s go after them and see what’s going on.”
Chu Tian had a feeling something was amiss. He climbed into the driver’s seat first, intending to follow them and investigate.
Thanks to his mental connection with Xie Mingxuan, Chu Tian quickly determined their exact direction and immediately drove after them with everyone else.
They hadn’t gone very far. Less than two kilometers away, Chu Tian spotted a small supermarket outside a row of dilapidated residential houses.
He sensed that Xie Mingxuan was inside.
“Is this the place?” Bai Mingxi poked his head forward to look.
Chu Tian nodded, but then remarked, “That’s strange.”
“What is it?” Bai Mingxi asked nervously. He wasn’t afraid of zombies, and he wasn’t afraid of monsters either. He just hoped there wouldn’t be any more insects. He really couldn’t take it.
“There are quite a few living people inside, besides Xie Mingxuan and that Level Four zombie,” Chu Tian said.