The snow scattered, revealing the corpses hanging on the tree like mummies, suspended upside - down by a single spider silk and wrapped all over with layers of it.
The spider silk on their faces was so dense that it was like a layer of plastic wrap, through which their distorted and ferocious facial features could be seen. Some had their mouths wide open, trying to breathe; some had their eyeballs bulging out, presenting a terrifying visage of dying with unfulfilled wishes.
It made my hair stand on end. All this was the “gift” for the Earth Goddess.
It constantly reminded the Earth Goddess that it was she who had caused the deaths of these people. It was said that this was just a fraction of them. Those extremely jealous women had already been refined into marionettes by her and were waiting for orders to kill at any time.
Hearing this, I couldn't help sighing. A woman's jealousy was truly not to be underestimated. It was terrifying.
For the sake of a man, she could kill innocent people wantonly. It was truly unforgivable.
After the Earth Goddess finished telling Ah Xiang's story, she added one last thing. Since all this was caused by Jun He's magic spiders, only the Demon Lord could stop Ah Xiang from doing evil.
The Earth Goddess had visited the Demon Lord many times, but he had always refused to step in. So she had no choice but to bring me here.
The Earth Goddess, being of such an advanced age, was extremely respectful to Jun He. This suddenly reminded me of how my parents had treated Gu Yuan back then, and it made me feel uncomfortable.
Jun He didn't care about such things. No matter how much you bowed to him, he still did whatever he wanted.
However, I could tell that he had actually planned to get rid of the Snow Spider for a long time. The reason he hadn't acted was that he was waiting to use the Snow Spider to blackmail me.
If I didn't go back with him, if Yan Lin and the others died, it had nothing to do with him.
But if I went back with him, he would go after the Snow Spider to save Yan Lin. It was a two - birds - with - one - stone plan. Jun He was really calculating.
All the good impressions I had of him before crumbled at this moment.
The Earth Goddess's next words seemed to bring a glimmer of hope. I thought that this time, even without my agreement to go back to the Land of Eternal Night with her, he would still get rid of the Snow Spider.
“When I brought her here just now, I fed her the Butterfly - Transforming Gu. This Gu was created by the Snow Spider. It will hatch inside the human body until it breaks out of the cocoon and turns into a butterfly, just like this...”
The Earth Goddess raised her walking stick and gently tapped a corpse. The body of that person seemed to dissolve.
A swarm of colorful butterflies swarmed out and froze to death in the cold wind just a few meters away.
“...Behind the momentary beauty lies nothing but killing. To detoxify this poison, the creator of the Gu must be killed. So, Demon Lord, whether this girl can continue to live depends entirely on you.”
“Are you trying to get the Demon Lord to kill the Snow Spider for you?” I asked the Earth Goddess preemptively.
“I did all this for her own good. Instead of being grateful, the Snow Spider took her anger out on me. She killed the Earth God and now wants to kill me. Her parents once did me a great favor, so it would go against the Heavenly Way for me to kill her. But demons are different. So I need to use the Demon Lord's hand to get rid of her.”
The Earth Goddess hated the Snow Spider to the core and was determined to kill her.
Jun He's cold eyes were filled with violence. He reached out and grabbed the Earth Goddess by the neck, lifting her up.
“This is the consequence of threatening me.” As he finished speaking, he exerted force with his arm, and the Earth Goddess's physical body also turned into thousands of butterflies and scattered in the air.
After the Earth Goddess's physical body was completely destroyed, her immortal soul left her body and left one last sentence: “Demon Lord, you should know that this girl was never meant to be in this world. If her physical body dies, she will be completely annihilated. So, I beg the Demon Lord to avenge the Earth God.”
“A self - righteous and hypocritical god, using such despicable means to force me to submit. Then I'll make you completely annihilated first.” His voice was cold. Just as the Earth Goddess's immortal soul flew out of the mountain, a long sword flew out from behind Jun He, cutting through the sky and striking directly at her immortal soul.
With a shrill scream, the Earth Goddess turned into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared.
“Y - you killed her?” I never expected that he would kill a high - ranking immortal.
“So what? Do you have a problem with that?” Jun He's eyes were bone - chillingly cold. He forcefully grabbed my arm to check the Gu poison in my body.
How dare I have any objections? I quickly lowered my head.
He placed two fingers on my pulse, and his face turned extremely ugly.
“Am I going to die?”
“What do you think?” His voice was completely serious, and the meaning in his words was quite clear.
“No way. I have to find Gu Yuan. I have to see him before I die.” I struggled to break free from his grip on my wrist and was about to ring the bell.
Jun He's face became even darker. He grabbed my wrist with one hand and said fiercely, “Even if you die, you have to die in front of me.”
With that, he pulled me into the thick black mist.
The more I struggled, the tighter he held on. He showed no mercy at all.
“Y - you're hurting me!” I waved my hand desperately.
“Is this pain worse than the pain of a stab in the heart?”
As soon as he said this, I suddenly froze. What did he mean? Did he know that I had fed Gu Yuan my heart - blood?
Seeing me stiffen, Jun He thought he had intimidated me, and a sinister smile curled up on his lips.
“This time, I will never let you make the same mistake again.”
The meaning in his words didn't seem to be about me feeding Gu Yuan my heart - blood. Did I also get stabbed in the heart in my previous life?
While I was deep in thought, Jun He led me into an abandoned brick kiln not far from the Snow Village.
There was a large brick - making factory here, a place that used to produce red bricks.
But it had been abandoned for many years. The inside and outside of the kiln factory were in a complete mess. Apart from the snow, there were dense spider webs hanging in the uneven places.
A cold wind blew, making the spider webs sway and the floating snow move, making the place look even more desolate.
Jun He held my wrist tightly from beginning to end, not caring whether I could keep up or not. He strode towards the kiln cave with me.
As soon as we entered, a cold, gloomy wind hit us, making me shiver all over and my lips tremble.
Seeing that I was cold, Jun He took off his coat and put it on me without any room for refusal.
This intimate gesture seemed to stir up a commotion in the kiln cave. A horde of blood - sucking bats rushed out of the darkness, baring their teeth and attacking us.
Jun He pulled me into his arms, covering my face. He waved his arm, and the long sword in his hand twirled in a flower - like pattern.
In an instant, the large group of blood - sucking bats were torn to pieces. Blood flowed all over the ground, and some of the bat carcasses were not completely dead yet. They were lying on the snow, flapping their wings like dying moths.
After entering the cave, I found that Jun He had changed back to Tian Peng's appearance. Moreover, he didn't use any magic power when killing the bats. His skillful swordsmanship was enough to deal with these blood - sucking bats.
I didn't know why, but when he took on Tian Peng's appearance, the demonic aura on him was completely concealed.
Even when I used my Yin - Yang eyes to look, I couldn't tell that he was a demon.
He must have deliberately hidden his aura so that the Snow Spider wouldn't detect his demonic nature.
This kiln cave was extremely deep, with all kinds of winding paths, like a maze.
The further we went in, the stronger the wind became. There were large and small spider webs hanging all over the walls of the cave.
Poisonous spiders the size of fists, colorful in appearance, were hanging on the thin spider webs, swaying unsteadily. It seemed as if they could break the webs and fall down with a single misstep.
Above our heads, the spiders were waving their eight legs, sliding down little by little with the spider silk hanging from their tails. It made my skin crawl.
The further we went in, the bigger the spiders became. Finally, Jun He led me to the innermost part of the kiln cave.
When I saw what was behind the huge spider web, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. I grabbed Jun He's arm and said, trembling, “Let's go back.”