"What in the… what was that?!" Jin Shu exclaimed from within the soul space.

Shuang didn't answer. He just kept moving—dodging with desperate precision while storm-spears rained around him from his MP7. One after another, the spiders fell, shredded apart until only a few scattered survivors remained.

His breath hitched. The moment he paused, his legs buckled and he collapsed to his knees, gasping raggedly.

"Haa… haa… shit… I can't… hold on…" he wheezed, his strength bleeding out of him.

The aura that had surrounded him—keeping the spiders at bay—flickered, then collapsed entirely. The stragglers sensed weakness immediately and converged.

Three spiders darted forward in a blur—far too fast for him to even think of dodging, let alone through the stabbing headache crushing his skull. Two of them dropped mid-pounce, their heads bursting apart, but the third lunged right for his face—only to be stopped by a palm that slammed down on its back, crushing its carapace with a sickening crack.

"Are you injured?" Biyu's voice came sharply as she hurried to his side.

Still panting, trembling with the effort of holding himself upright, Shuang shook his head.

"No injuries… just… mental fatigue…" he groaned, his words sluggish and broken.

She placed her palms against his temples and let her healing energy seep into him. The relief was immediate—a cooling tide that cleared the fog in his mind and steadied his thoughts.

"How is everyone?" he asked once his voice returned. "Any more left?"

"No. Those were the last three. Everyone's fine. Li Xue is still immobile—she's terrified of spiders, though I'm not much better. The others are helping her. Tian Li ran out of ammo after her last two shots—that's why I had to step in."

She withdrew her hands and stepped back. Shuang tried to stand, but the technique's toll on his body lingered even after her healing. He staggered, collapsing into her arms. The warmth of her support barely had time to register before the ground shook.

A colossal spider—three meters tall and three times as wide—burst through the treeline. Trees toppled under its bulk, others sliced clean in half by its bladed legs. Compared to the others, this one was monstrous: grotesque, swollen, and dripping molten saliva from its fanged maw. The sizzling drool scorched the grass wherever it landed, flames licking upward along its underside.

Biyu's face drained white. Her voice came in a terrified whisper. "Broodmother…"

"Run!" she screamed, dragging Shuang toward the others.

He flicked his wrist, summoning a gust that snapped their robes off a distant branch and sent them sailing into his grip. At the same time, he reached into Biyu's storage pouch and pulled free his M7 assault rifle. Her panic told him enough—this thing was far too strong. But retreat without even testing it? Not his style.

"Anything I should know before I shoot this thing?" he asked, halting against her tug as he slid a special magazine from his earring into the weapon.

"You can't! Its shell is unbreakable!" she cried.

He fed the qi that had refreshed while he was using his newly formed elemental technique into the rifle, its engraved formations flaring to life. "Then I won't aim for the shell."

A red dot sight shimmered into view. He steadied it on the creature's gaping maw, finger tightening on the trigger.

The rifle roared. Element-fused bullets poured out in a deafening stream, each round laced with flame, frost, lightning—every formation on the weapon awakened. The barrage punched straight into its open mouth, bursting through flesh and fangs. Lava-like saliva and neon blood sprayed across the forest, burning everything it touched.

Eeeee!!

The broodmother shrieked in agony, the sound so sharp it rattled bones and nearly burst eardrums.

"Ahh!" Biyu and the others clamped their hands to their ears, eyes squeezed shut against the piercing cry.

Shuang gritted his teeth, the screech stabbing through his skull like needles. His vision swam, but he forced himself to stay steady. With a fingertip pressed against the empty magazine, the rune carved into its casing flared brightly.

Boom!

The broodmother's cry cut off instantly as a muffled blast tore through its insides—followed by twenty-nine more in quick, brutal succession.

Each explosion sprayed ichor and molten saliva from its gaping maw. The stench of scorched meat and rotten fluids filled the air as its grotesque body convulsed. Finally, its legs buckled and the monstrous weight of it slammed into the earth, sending tremors through the entire forest.

Shuang exhaled, raising his rifle to rest on his shoulder. "That was easier than I thought."

He turned, expecting cheers—or at least relief. Instead, the women stared back at him with stark terror.

"Y-you… you killed it…" Biyu stammered.

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"Yeah?" he said, confused, shrugging.

"No! You killed it!" she shrieked, pointing at the corpse. "Its eggs will hatch!"

Shuang's head snapped back just as the broodmother's grotesque abdomen began to pulse, twitching eerily. Veins bulged against its black-and-red shell, glowing faintly like molten cracks. Then, with a sickening splrrrch, the swollen flesh split open.

From inside spilled a tide of horrors—hundreds of spiderlings tearing their way free. They crawled over each other in a frenzy, their translucent bodies still slick with glistening fluid. Some gnawed on their dead mother's flesh as they emerged, others hissed and snapped their mandibles in the air, the sound like bones splintering in unison.

Each was only a foot tall, but their sheer number was staggering. The ground writhed as if the forest floor itself had come alive, a carpet of legs and fangs racing toward them.

"Fuck! Woman, couldn't you have said that sooner?!" Shuang roared. If he'd known this nightmare was coming, he would have fled the moment he saw the broodmother.

Biyu's eyes narrowed, her voice cutting through the chaos. "You're not Jin Shu."

"I'm not—but that doesn't matter. Run!"

He sprinted, shoving their things into his earring mid-stride. With one arm he scooped up Yin'er, with the other Ji Ji, and in one fluid motion he slung the trembling Li Xue over his shoulder. Her body shook so violently he feared her bones might snap under the strain—until she went limp, mercifully fainting at the sight of the endless swarm chasing them.

They wove through the forest, twisting around boulders, stumbling over roots, and vaulting fallen trees. No matter how fast they ran, the spiderlings closed the gap. The terrain favored the swarm far more than it did Shuang and the women.

Yin'er squirmed in his hold, propping her chin on his shoulder to glance back.

"Daddy, the spiders are close!"

"I know!" he growled through clenched teeth.

He shot Biyu a glare as she kept pace beside him. "Why didn't you warn me this would happen?!"

"I didn't think you'd kill it! Maybe injure it at best! That was a peak Spirit Realm demonic beast, for crying out loud!"

"…Oh."

He hadn't realized the broodmother was that strong. In spite of the danger, a flicker of pride stirred in his chest—his weapon had taken down something of that caliber.

"Can't you run faster?" Ji Ji asked, her tone genuinely curious. "I can fly faster than this."

No—he couldn't run faster. Not while hauling two toddlers and a grown woman. But… he didn't need to run faster. He just needed to travel faster.

"You two, grab my shoulders," he ordered Biyu and Tian Li. "We're getting out of here!"

They shot him skeptical looks but obeyed, each gripping one of his shoulders. A heartbeat later, a shimmering portal rippled open before them. Shuang charged through.

Slipspace folded around them in a kaleidoscope shimmer. He let out a ragged breath of relief—they were safe… relatively.

"They can't follow us in here," he explained. "But we can only stay for one hour. After that, the pure water energy will poison us to death."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tian Li activate a formation on her disciple token. Above the jade, a three-dimensional map of the forest appeared. White blips moved slowly across it—other disciples, he guessed. There were only a few dozen left.

Then one blip winked out.

His stomach twisted. "…What does it mean when one disappears?" he asked, though dread already gnawed at him.

"They vanish when a disciple dies," Tian Li whispered, her voice even but heavy. "Or when their token is utterly destroyed. And it takes the strength of an Adept Realm cultivator to shatter one completely."

The spiderlings were many, yes, but weak individually. That left only one explanation.

Death.

"…I'm sorry," he murmured.

She didn't answer, only cast him a fleeting look. He was grateful she didn't try to console him. Any empty reassurance would have only deepened the guilt gnawing at him—because the truth was, this was his fault.

Turning to Biyu, he forced out another apology. "Sorry for snapping at you."

"It's fine. You were right—I should have warned you. But… who are you, really?"

"Jin Shu mentioned me, briefly. I'm Shuang—Jin Shu and Gold's twin. You actually met me first. Back then, though, I kept… slipping between personalities, so you probably couldn't tell."

She nodded slowly. "We noticed the changes. Subtle, but there."

"Yeah. We're still figuring it out," he admitted, adjusting the limp Li Xue on his shoulder.

"Anyway, we can't sit around in here," he said, setting off again. "Let's find somewhere safer before time runs out."