Chapter 130: Danger in the Valley

Xu Lin said with a bitter smile, “I admit all that you said, but the problem is, I don’t know this secret either!”

Xu Ziyan nodded and continued speaking softly. At this moment, the two of them were some distance away from Xu Qi, Xu Tianlang, and the others, and both deliberately lowered their voices.

“And, as the clan leader’s son and the one with the highest cultivation level in this fleeing group, you couldn’t possibly not know about Senior Brother Xu Qi carrying the clan’s treasure, could you?”

Xu Lin fell silent. Xu Ziyan let out a light laugh and said, “Also, would Xu Tianlang, the only son of Ninth Uncle, the second strongest in the clan, not have any secrets either?”

Looking at the silent Xu Lin, Xu Ziyan continued, “I don’t mean to pry into your secrets. Everyone has their own secrets. The reason they are called secrets is because they belong to one’s personal world. Everyone has the right to keep their secrets. So, Senior Brother Lin, I don’t want anyone investigating my secrets!”

“Ziyan!” Xu Lin’s expression became somewhat flustered. “I don’t mean to investigate your secrets. I just… I just want to understand you a bit more!”

Xu Ziyan was silent for a long time, then softly sighed and said, “I understand! But I still want to keep my secrets.”

“Mm, I get it!” Xu Lin nodded gently.

When the sun reached midday, everyone had awakened. Seeing that everyone had finished their meditative rest, Xu Ziyan and Xu Lin stood up from the grass and walked towards the group. Seeing everyone looking refreshed, Xu Ziyan’s mood suddenly brightened. She said with a smile,

“Let’s all have something to eat first. Once we’ve built up our energy, we’ll enter the valley!”

“Mm!”

Everyone nodded in agreement and began taking food out of their storage pouches to eat. Because everyone was very curious about the inside of the valley, they ate very quickly. In just about a quarter of an hour, under Xu Ziyan’s direction, they erased any traces of their presence there, then stood neatly in front of the valley.

Xu Tianlang’s second group still stood at the very front. Xu Lin’s first group followed closely behind. Xu Ziyan stood in the middle, and at the very back was Xu Qi’s third group.

Xu Tianlang was about to step forward when Xu Ziyan softly called out to stop him, “Senior Brother Tianlang, let’s fly on our swords. Just don’t fly too high, staying one meter above the ground is enough.”

Xu Tianlang nodded. Ten flying swords emerged from their storage pouches, swirling around their bodies. The ten people stood on their flying swords, hovering quietly in the air at the valley entrance.

“Let’s go!”

Xu Ziyan called out clearly. Everyone slowly flew on their swords into the valley. It was a very long and narrow valley. The cliffs on both sides were as sheer as if cut by a knife, covered with hanging vines. The grass on the ground was very long, nearly over a meter tall, so Xu Ziyan and the others were almost flying right over the tips of the grass.

From outside the valley, it didn’t seem very deep, but once inside, they realized the valley was quite winding, dark and seemingly endless. The further in they went, the quieter it became, gradually even the sound of insects disappeared.

After flying about five hundred meters, suddenly, about a hundred meters ahead of Xu Tianlang, patches of grass on the ground began to shake. They quickly approached Xu Tianlang and the others, surging forward like waves.

“Go up!”

Xu Ziyan called out clearly. The ten people simultaneously flew upward on their swords. Xu Tianlang and the others vigilantly looked down at the ground, but Xu Ziyan looked toward the cliffs on both sides.

Patches of grass on the ground suddenly fell flat, revealing swarms of black spiders each about the size of a fist. They were packed closely together, completely flattening the nearly meter-long grass beneath them. The originally green grassy area instantly became a writhing mass of black.

“What is this?” Hearing the dense rustling sounds from the ground, Xu Ziyan couldn’t help but glance down. Immediately, her whole body broke out in goosebumps.

“These are Black Widows!” Xu Tianhai said softly, as if afraid of disturbing the spiders. “These spiders are called Black Widows. I heard about them when I was trading with my father. In the Endless Forest, there is a type of monster beast. Their grade isn’t very high, only second-tier, but their numbers are astonishing. Even experts at the Foundation Building Stage would be worn down and killed by their numbers if they weren’t flying in the air. They can burrow into a human’s body and eat all the internal organs clean, leaving only the outer skin.”

“What should we do?” Xu Tianlang turned and asked Xu Ziyan.

“Keep flying inward. Pay attention to the cliffs above, in case something else attacks from there,” Xu Ziyan said quietly.

Everyone fell silent, cautiously flying further inside. Xu Ziyan had already taken out twenty-eight talismans, vigilantly watching the cliffs on both sides. Compared to the spiders on the ground, Xu Ziyan was more worried about the cliffs. Because no matter how many or how fierce the spiders on the ground were, they were still on the ground. For Xu Ziyan and the others in the air, they posed little threat.

Xu Tianlang and the other male disciples were managing okay, but Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo only glanced at the spiders on the ground once and didn’t dare look down again. They just felt their whole bodies go numb and nearly fell off their flying swords.

After flying another two hundred meters or so, a rustling sound came from above. Before anyone could clearly see what it was, Xu Ziyan had already thrown out the twenty-eight talismans in her hand. Instantly, a transparent light shield formed around everyone, enclosing them inside.

Everyone looked up and saw countless black dots emerging from the vines on the cliffs, lunging through the air toward the ten people. They slammed against the light shield Xu Ziyan had set up with loud ‘thump, thump’ sounds.

“Ahhh～～ Ahhh～～ Ahhh～～”

Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo screamed loudly, their bodies swaying on their flying swords, looking like they were about to fall off any moment.

“Quiet!”

Xu Ziyan shouted sternly, her voice buzzing within the light shield. Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo immediately fell silent, only keeping their eyes tightly shut, not daring to open them, their bodies still trembling uncontrollably.

“Senior Brother Tianhai, is there any way to deal with this?” Xu Ziyan asked with a slight frown.

“I’ve heard that spiders fear cold and fire. If we set a fire, we should be able to burn them to death!” Xu Tianhai said, looking at the dense mass of spiders outside the light shield.

“Ziyan, burning these spiders isn’t very useful. They don’t have anything valuable on them. How about we just leave this place?” Xu Qi said, looking at Xu Ziyan.

“Yes! Yes! Let’s get out of here quickly!” Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo, with their eyes closed, nodded repeatedly and said in unison.

“No!” Xu Ziyan gently shook her head and said, “These spiders are only second-tier monster beasts. They don’t pose a fatal threat to us and are actually our best cover. Let’s find a cave here to hide in first, take a good rest. After we’ve fully recovered and become familiar with the surrounding terrain, then we can take action. That would be the safest! Otherwise, if we just leave here now, we’d still be wandering unfamiliar areas. If we accidentally enter the territory of a more powerful monster beast, it would be worse than resting here first!”

“Ah? We’re going to hide here?” Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo exclaimed in surprise together.

Xu Ziyan also wore a bitter smile and said helplessly, “What choice do we have? Our strength is low. These spiders are our best cover. Once we find a cave, drive out the spiders inside, and we move in. Then I’ll use talismans to seal the entrance. With the dense vines outside and the swarms of spiders, even if those chasing us enter the valley and get attacked by the spiders, they wouldn’t think we’re hiding here.”

Everyone thought about it and felt Xu Ziyan made sense. Even Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo had nothing more to say. Looking at their miserable expressions, Xu Ziyan knew how they felt. Not just them, even Xu Ziyan herself felt creeped out deep down. But to motivate everyone, Xu Ziyan told them what she had discussed with Xu Lin.

“Let’s find a cave together. Then I have some top-tier elixirs from the Qi Refining Stage to share with everyone. You can eat them freely like candy beans. I think it won’t be long before we all break through!”

“Really?” Xu Mei, Xu Lan, and Xu Meiruo immediately opened their eyes, no longer caring about the terrifying spiders, staring fixedly at Xu Ziyan. In their eyes now, there was no room for spiders; their entire view was filled with Xu Ziyan’s figure. Even Xu Qi and the other male disciples looked incredulous.

“It’s true! The clan’s higher-ups know about my background. Before I came to the clan, a female immortal taught me a cultivation method and gave me many elixirs. After we choose a cave and settle down, I’ll distribute them to you.”

“Great!”

Everyone’s spirits lifted, their eyes shining brightly as they looked at Xu Ziyan. Xu Ziyan took out eight more Frost Talismans from her storage pouch and carefully added them to the original twenty-eight talismans, forming a new talisman array. Once this new array was formed, as Xu Ziyan’s hand seals moved, a layer of cold air slowly began to form on the light shield.

Xu Ziyan carefully controlled the frost talismans. She didn’t release all the cold from the talismans at once, as that would freeze the spiders on the shield to death, leaving many spider corpses on the grass and clues for their pursuers. So, Xu Ziyan only gradually increased the cold. The spiders on the light shield gradually became restless, their eight legs started to stiffen, they could no longer hold onto the shield, and they began falling off one after another, like a heavy downpour. But from the cliffs, swarms of spiders still lunged through the air toward Xu Ziyan and the others, like an even heavier rain.

Even Xu Qi felt startled seeing this situation and softly asked Xu Ziyan,

“Ziyan, can this light shield you set up hold?”