Under Li Nian's Item enhancement, what should have been an extremely tense situation was now granted a brief moment of respite by the siren's song.
The item from Chris, originating from the Pure Abyss, was truly no ordinary item. Although each spider looked incredibly ferocious and there were countless of them, they simply couldn't break through this barrier.
Of course, even though the spiders couldn't breach their defenses now, that didn't mean the trio could rest easy.
After all...
For them, this Item would eventually run out of duration.
The mermaid wouldn't sing endlessly, but the spiders clearly seemed infinite.
More importantly...
At this moment, the trio had already climbed to the summit of Twin Saw Mountain.
Standing at the highest point of the mountaintop, Lin Yu surveyed the area and once again confirmed his suspicions.
The range that the giant spider at the foot of the mountain could affect was larger than he had imagined.
Lin Yu had once wondered: if they hadn't stopped at Chen Family Fort but instead gritted their teeth and pressed on to Five Springs Village, what would have happened?
Now, he knew the answer.
Although the spider was directly beneath the Taoist Temple on Twin Saw Mountain...
The vast white spider silk covered the surrounding hundred miles like a heavy snow sealing off the mountain — whether it was Chen Family Fort or Five Springs Village, both were now submerged in that ocean of white spider silk.
They were right in the center of this terrifying ocean — no matter which direction they fled, the distance was endless, stretching beyond the horizon.
"This place is way too creepy," Li Nian said, looking at the dense spider silk and the massive spider demons roaming within it. "But... in this world, humans and demons are evenly matched. With such a commotion, shouldn't some native expert come to deal with it?"
"There will be, otherwise that thing wouldn't have stayed hidden underground for so long. If it's recuperating, that means something injured it before. If it's hiding, that means it's afraid of something," Lin Yu said calmly. "Besides, its previous actions showed it was consciously avoiding human detection — the fact that Chen Family Fort was never found to have problems several times proves it still has some fear."
Flying Knife was somewhat optimistic upon hearing this. "Then wouldn't we..."
"Impossible. Relying on those natives is no different from sitting around waiting to die," Lin Yu interrupted coldly. "It's been hiding for so long, which means its intelligence level is definitely not low. Now it's making such a huge commotion, which means that, at least in the demon's eyes, it has a chance to achieve its goal before someone comes to 'deal with' it."
"And its goal is absolutely related to us — at least related to this Mutilated Body."
Flying Knife was a bit devastated. "Then why did you bring it along? Why not just give it to the spider?"
"Even if we gave it to them, they wouldn't necessarily let us go. Besides, this thing is also the key to clearing the stage... What's the difference between failing to clear and dying? You saw what happened to Little Fire Dragon's trio!"
As Lin Yu said this, he suddenly realized something.
"Wait... I get it now!"
Lin Yu turned to look at Li Nian. "Those three players said their clearance condition was 'arriving at Willow Town,' and they weren't lying... but those dart masters only just entered here. In other words, unless this 'Xie Chong Mutilated Body' has been used repeatedly, then..."
"There's likely another part of the Mutilated Body near their mission location!"
Li Nian said, and Lin Yu immediately pulled out the map.
"Based on this map, if we head northwest from Twin Saw Mountain, we'll reach the location marked as the 'Taoist Temple.'"
He looked up toward the direction indicated on the map, trying to identify the exact spot using the marked terrain.
But...
The mountains were a blur of white, making it nearly impossible to tell one place from another.
"Regardless, the direction is right. At least we should try moving."
"The density of the spider silk isn't that high... From afar, it looks like a vast white expanse, but once we get close, we can still make out the terrain."
Lin Yu was thinking, about to give the order to head in that direction, taking it one step at a time...
Suddenly, in the northwest, an anomaly erupted!
A complex totem flashed across the sky, lines of gold and red intertwining to form a massive illusion with an eagle's face, tiger's claws, and a human body adorned with exaggerated feathers.
Then, the divine statue-like illusion spread its arms and let out a piercing shriek and roar. Burning meteors tore through the sky from nowhere, crashing down from the void!
"What kind of move is that?"
Lin Yu asked in astonishment.
Flying Knife stared blankly at the scene, but Li Nian answered softly.
"That's the ancestral shamanic sorcery of the Black Marsh world... Those are the real remaining three players in this game of ours."
"But judging by the display, even if they're not Third Tier, they're probably the terrifyingly powerful kind among Second Tier... What kind of messed-up matchmaking is this?"
Lin Yu found it reasonable upon hearing Li Nian's words.
His identity of Zhu Ming might be First-Tier, but he himself should actually be Second Tier.
And based on Lin Yu's self-assessment, although he had just been promoted to Second Tier, his four Specialized Items — at least in the Death Game's evaluation — would definitely not be low.
When the Death Game assessed his strength, it wouldn't just evaluate the surface-level power of the identity he used in the game.
"Then I think those really are the players we've been matched with..."
Old Zheng's voice chimed in leisurely.
"Oh my, this young lady has really good eyesight. That's indeed the ancestral shamanic sorcery of the Black Marsh world, specifically from the Zhi Tribe of Xia Jin. This kind of ancestral shamanic sorcery can only be taught by the high shaman of each tribe, and the high shaman of the Zhi Tribe is also one of the three great shamans of Xia Jin — Lu Gu."
"So that player over there... should be Second Tier. After all, if they were Third Tier, being forced to use ancestral shamanic sorcery already means they probably wouldn't have been accepted as Lu Gu's disciple to begin with."
Lin Yu couldn't help but feel amazed upon hearing Old Zheng's more detailed explanation.
"Even though you're based in the Misty Islands, you sure know a lot about the Black Marsh."
"Haha, really?" Old Zheng laughed it off. "Anyway, the other party's Class should be Student."
"There's actually a Student this powerful?"
Lin Yu asked in surprise.
"Don't slander them unfairly. Although Student is indeed the most frustrating Class, and their Class Item provides almost no direct combat ability... the 'ancestral shamanic sorcery' he just used made such a big splash, which means he used a combination of Specialized Items and Class Items. That's also how I recognized his Class."
Old Zheng explained.
"The Study Plan plus the Student ID allows a Student to record and release a one-time ability gifted by someone else without consuming resources!"
