Aoli never imagined that the spider jade carving, which she had taken as nothing more than spoils of war, could manifest such formidable power and worse, be turned against her!
Now, with the Soul-Weaving Spider Mother's Manifestation bolstering it, the spider's strength surged to rival that of a fully accomplished Dragon-Elephant cultivator.
Yet even so, not a trace of fear flickered across her face.
Here, in the seas of Hunzhou, no one in her realm could match her.
Casting aside all restraint, Aoli unleashed her full might. Her manifestation power erupted like a storm, whipping the waters into a blizzard of ice and snow.
Countless shards of ice turned into blades sharp enough to flay flesh from bone, slicing mercilessly toward the Spider Mother Manifestation.
For her, the boundless ocean was both the wellspring of her strength and her deadliest weapon.
Qingzhuzi knew all too well that it could never truly defeat the Snow Maiden before it.
But victory had never been its goal.
It had long since cast aside thoughts of life and death, desiring only to vent its seething malice upon this enemy.
Like a mad beast, the spider burned through every drop of its power, ignoring the ice tearing at its body, hurling itself upon its foe, and biting down with savage fury.
In sheer size alone, the Spider Mother Manifestation, fused with the form of a beast, was more suited to brutal close combat than the ethereal Snow Maiden of ghosts and spirits.
For a brief moment, Qingzhuzi forced Aoli onto the defensive.
But both sides knew this balance would not last.
The borrowed power from the jade carving was burning away at a reckless pace.
Inevitably, the scales of victory tilted back toward Aoli.
Bit by bit, Qingzhuzi's manifested body began to fracture, and even its massive flesh-and-blood form was torn full of gaping wounds.
Its consciousness blurred, the world before its eyes shimmering unreal, and its life flickered on the edge of extinction.
In those final moments, memories flashed before it, most filled with the figure of Lady Jing Sushì.
The world knew her only as the fearsome Soul-Weaving Spider Matron, who had slaughtered without number.
But in Qingzhuzi's heart, she had only ever been a gentle, beloved elder sister: Su Xiaoxiao.
Its aura waned to a thread. In its fading sight, it thought it glimpsed the small raft carrying Jing Qian, drifting once more into view.
A bitter laugh welled up inside it. So it seemed, after all, it could not quite let go of the little boy that Sister Su had cherished.
Yet there was almost nothing left it could do.
With the dregs of its strength, aside from sustaining one last incantation, it wished only to inflict the slightest wound upon this great enemy before it died.
And indeed, Qingzhuzi was not mistaken!
At the edge of the icebound battlefield, Jing Qian had broken free of the spider silk bindings. Driving the fish beneath his raft, he had arrived with an iron stake in hand, equal to his height, leveled straight ahead like a sword.
The point of that makeshift blade was fixed upon the Snow Maiden herself.
Holding the weapon, Jing Qian's heart was utterly calm.
Though the enemy before him towered in strength beyond comprehension, he had studied the sword since childhood. In twenty years, he had fought no fewer than three thousand duels of high skill.
True, bound by limited talent, his victories had been few, his defeats many.
But the heart that endured loss after loss yet never ceased to rise again was unyielding, and in that, he conceded to no one.
To strike the strong from weakness, to seize the fleeting sliver of an opening that was the essence of his sword, engraved deep into his bones.
Moreover, with his fated Sumeru Life Pattern, he had stepped onto the path of cultivation. He was no longer a mere mortal.
As Qingzhuzi hurled its last frenzied assault at the Snow Maiden, Jing Qian too drove his stake forward in a decisive thrust.
Qingzhuzi tore at the Snow Maiden's head, a desperate, tragic struggle.
And against all odds, it worked.
The flawless manifestation cracked. A jagged gap yawned open in the Snow Maiden's head, revealing Aoli within.
At once, the blizzard surged back toward the wound, racing to seal it.
Qingzhuzi's struggle had been in vain.
But just as that fragile chance of victory was about to vanish, a slender figure appeared silently at the Snow Maiden's flaw.
With him came a gleam of sword light, cold and fluid as water.
The light slipped past the storm, impossibly fast, straight into Aoli's brow.
The proud Dragon-Elephant goddess perished in that instant, her life severed, her body and spirit alike undone.
Qingzhuzi's certain death had been overturned in a heartbeat.
It had seen the sword light with its own eyes. Shock filled its gaze, yet soon it spun silk to catch the boy as he tumbled from the dissolving manifestation onto the ice below.
The child's face was pale, his body near collapse.
But he seemed not to notice at all, smiling only at the spider.
"Qingzhuzi… Granny Qing. We meet again, don't we?"
The demonic spider, too, had already reached its limit. It lay collapsed on the ice, nearly unable to move.
Yet together, this grandparent and grandchild had succeeded in slaying the Snow Maiden, avenging their kin. That alone filled its heart with deep comfort.
Unconsciously, Qingzhuzi extended a single strand of silk, brushing it gently across Jing Qian's cheek in a tender caress.
But in the next instant, it suddenly flung Jing Qian away from the battlefield.
Under its precise control, Jing Qian landed safely on the same wooden raft from which he had come.
Qingzhuzi then touched its silk to the line tied to one end of the raft, the one connected to the school of fish.
At once, the fish swam off at great speed, carrying the raft with them into the distance.
Just as Jing Qian was left utterly bewildered, another voice rang within his ears:
"Little Qian, the Island Whale is about to arrive. Leave at once, do not let yourself be caught in its wake!"
"My wounds can no longer heal. To have witnessed you cut down Sister Su's killer, I have no regrets."
"She would surely have been overjoyed, knowing she had such an outstanding descendant as you!"
On the raft, the nearly exhausted Jing Qian stared unblinkingly at the wide expanse of man-made ice drifting farther and farther away.
But he had barely gone any distance when a massive shadow appeared beneath the ice.
That shadow spread for nearly a kilometer, completely engulfing the floes above.
Then, a vast surge of magical power erupted from within the darkness.
Jing Qian's eyes widened in disbelief as a colossal, deep-blue whale broke through the surface of the sea.
The kilometer-long shadow had been nothing less than its gaping maw.
And before Jing Qian's very eyes, the ice, the Snow Maiden, and even Qingzhuzi were swallowed whole in a single bite!