Chapter 30: Devouring Ability
As Shi Yi and Zhao Wuji delved deeper, they noticed occasional spiderwebs draped across the surrounding trees, clearly indicating Xiao Yi's search was correct.
Suddenly, a strange sound caught their attention.
The rustling sound resembled someone changing clothes, or the rustling of leaves. They both grew alert, and even Xiao Yi felt a touch of human unease.
Then, they saw the source of the noise.
A black spider, its main body over 1.5 meters in diameter, its eight spear-like legs stretching over three meters. Its entire body was a gleaming black carapace, its tips slender, their sharp points piercing the ground with each step.
Shi Yi, looking at this size, barely breaking through the two-thousand-year mark, was the very human-faced demon spider he'd been dreaming of.
"Teacher Zhao, it's up to you. This thing can launch three webs ten times its own size, and they're loaded with toxins. It's quite troublesome. Try to suppress it directly with gravity control," Shi Yi whispered to Zhao Wuji.
Zhao Wuji nodded slightly, his body ablaze with golden light. As the fifth ring illuminated, a powerful gravitational pull instantly pinned the Man-Faced Demonic Spider down to the ground.
Sensing Zhao Wuji's power, the suppressed spider instantly unleashed a massive web at the two. However, its accuracy wasn't very good under such conditions, and they were in the jungle. As the web unfurled, Zhao Wuji grabbed Shi Yi's shoulder and dodged behind a large tree. At that moment, Shi Yi summoned Xiao Yi back into his body.
Looking at the gradually corroding tree, Zhao Wuji was somewhat surprised by the spider's venom, which seemed to be quite potent. He was also struck by its remarkable intelligence.
"This beast is quite clever. It's using its web to force us back, increasing the distance between us and it, allowing it to break free," Zhao Wuji exclaimed with surprise.
Shi Yi nodded in agreement, thinking to himself, "As I suspected, even soul beasts have their own unique talents. This human-faced demon spider's bloodline is incredibly powerful."
The human-faced demon spider was truly no simple soul beast. Not only did it possess the extremely advanced ability of devouring life, but even ten-thousand-year-old human-faced demon spiders possessed a special hidden skill. Furthermore, during their cultivation, a human-faced demon spider would awaken an extremely powerful innate ability: Spider God Possession. This simple, all-around instantaneous amplification ability consumes a year of cultivation for each second it maintains.
These three remarkable abilities demonstrated the extraordinary bloodline inherited by the human-faced demon spider.
"Teacher Zhao, you've come from heaven," Shi Yi chuckled, offering Zhao Wuji a mushroom sausage.
Zhao Wuji's eyes lit up at the words. His greatest weakness was speed, and any rash action would undoubtedly lead to the spider webs blocking him. While he could potentially use his spirit avatar to overcome this, it felt like overkill.
He possessed more control skills than offensive ones, for the reason that, in battle, hitting the opponent was paramount for a soul master like him.
"You've been prepared, you've even thought of this," Zhao Wuji marveled at Shi Yi's clever mind. Just by watching him attack a few times, he knew where his abilities were lacking.
As a Soul Sage, he could fly, but his speed was certainly far inferior to Oscar's mushrooms.
As Zhao Wuji soared into the air, the suppressed human-faced demon spider realized this. It struggled to raise its head, attempting to unleash its web. Zhao Wuji raised his hand and lightly tapped the air, instantly intensifying the golden light suppressing the spider.
"You still want to raise your head?" Zhao Wuji casually said, a golden light emanating from his hand. Shi Yi then saw a golden light descend from the sky. It was Zhao Wuji's second soul skill, the Powerful Vajra Palm.
"I've mastered an otherworldly version of the Tathagata Palm for you." Shi Yi smiled and slowly walked towards the spider.
"Hiss..." A shrill cry filled with a piercing sharpness, ringing out with remarkable clarity.
With a resounding thud, the Human-Faced Demonic Spider, having endured the full force of the Soul Saint's attack in its non-true form, was now on its last breath. Within Zhao Wuji's gravity field, it could no longer move, not even opening its mouth to spit out a web. Its carapace had been practically shattered by Zhao Wuji. Its eight eyes gleamed with a human-like venomous hatred that even Zhao Wuji marveled at.
"You're quite the picky one, boy! Besides your spirit, I've only seen such intelligence in ten-thousand-year-old spirit beasts," Zhao Wuji said to Shi Yi.
Shi Yi smiled and said nothing, summoning his own spirit.
"Little Ant, eat," Shi Yi whispered to Little Ant.
Seeing Little Ant appear, the venom in the Human-Faced Demonic Spider's eyes seemed to deepen. Perhaps it had never imagined that it would one day meet its end at the hands of the Thousand-Ton Ant it had so carelessly hunted.
As the Human-Faced Demonic Spider's emotions shifted, its spirit power radiated violent fluctuations.
"Hey, still breathing?" Zhao Wuji exclaimed in surprise.
Shi Yi, however, understood that this was the power of his bloodline. Death at Xiao Yi's hands might be even more humiliating for him than death at Tang San's.
Xiao Yi, sensing the terror emanating from his natural enemy's bloodline, immediately hesitated to move forward.
"Xiao Yi, go ahead. Trust me, it'll be alright," Shi Yi soothed, gently stroking Xiao Yi's exoskeleton. A hint of human mockery appeared in the spider's eyes.
Under Shi Yi's soothing words, Xiao Yi began to devour the spider.
The process was lengthy, even the spider itself could clearly sense it: its roars, its venomous gaze, and its intense soul power pulsing. As the spider gnawed, Xiao Yi sensed the powerful bloodline's power, its consuming pace increasing. Shi Yi also sensed Xiao Yi's thirst for this bloodline's power.
This bloodline power was gradually transforming into nutrients, entering Xiao Yi's body.
As Xiao Yi gnawed, Shi Yi was surprised to discover that his soul power was gradually increasing.
"What's this?" Shi Yi's gaze instantly fell on Xiao Yi. Xiao Yi was beginning to show signs of change. His saber-toothed forelimbs seemed sharper, and a dark purple hue appeared within his carapace. Shi
Yi suppressed his inner surprise. Clearly, through his constant gnaws, Xiao Yi had begun to awaken his life-consuming ability, a power that was feeding back to his brother.
"It seems this went smoothly, and I've even made some new discoveries."
Soul beasts' cultivation methods are much simpler and more rudimentary than humans'. First, they rely on their environment. Just as humans need to mimic their training environments, soul beasts also need a place rich in celestial energy, such as the Life Lake at the heart of the Star Dou Great Forest. Second, they need to feed. Bloodlines are always a process of survival of the fittest.
With the loss of its bloodline power, the human-faced demon spider had long since died, but Xiao Yi's gnaws did not produce soul rings like the kills of humans like Shi Yi.
"The rules set by the gods dictate that bloodline power that humans cannot absorb directly transforms directly into spirit rings and spirit bones. However, Xiao Yi can adapt to the normal feeding methods of spirit beasts, and without producing spirit rings," Shi Yi thought to himself.
Suddenly, a host of terrifying conjectures flooded Shi Yi's mind. Why do some beast soul masters' martial spirits resemble existing spirit beasts?
Why can spirit rings significantly alter a martial spirit? Is this a form of mutual adaptation between different bloodlines?
Or are beast martial spirits originally derived from... spirit beasts? If a hundred-thousand-year-old spirit beast were reborn as a human, wouldn't its offspring be a beast soul master?
"What are you thinking, kid?" Zhao Wuji's voice brought Shi Yi back to reality.
Slowly regaining consciousness, Shi Yi saw that Xiao Yi had already devoured the flesh of the human-faced demon spider. His own spirit power had reached level 29, a mere step away from Soul Master status.
"Nothing, Teacher Zhao, I just thought of an interesting question." Shi Yi shook his head slightly. Questions that boiled down to fundamentals didn't actually make much sense to explore, because once Shi Yi understood that level, the answers would naturally present themselves.
"You guys are truly restless, your minds constantly wandering," Zhao Wuji said helplessly.
"Sure enough, the soul beast that can drop an external soul bone not only brought about tremendous changes to Xiao Yi, but also increased my cultivation by one and a half levels. This increase in soul power is not much different from absorbing a soul ring, and I imagine the power of the external soul bone should also be reflected in Xiao Yi," Shi Yi thought to himself.
"Let's go, Teacher Zhao, let's continue," Shi Yi chuckled.
Zhao Wuji smiled at Shi Yi and said, "How are you going to thank me, old Zhao? I sensed a surge in your soul power just now. You've made another breakthrough, haven't you?"
Shi Yi smiled and nodded. "Not much, just a level and a half. Now you're just one step away from level 30. I'll give you a treasure in a few days."
Zhao Wuji said in disbelief, "What treasure can you possibly come up with?"
"I promise you won't be disappointed. Let's go. This time we're going to raid the Thousand-Tier Ant's nest. Your mission is to help me extract the queen ant and capture an 1,800-year-old soldier ant. I want to take this opportunity to directly break through to level 30." Shi Yi chuckled at Zhao Wuji.
"Then Old Zhao will be waiting," Zhao Wuji said with anticipation.
"Little Ant, let's go," Shi Yi instructed. A human-like joy flickered across Little Ant's face at Shi Yi's words.
Shi Yi had long wanted to rob the Thousand Jun Ants' nest, but he lacked the necessary strength. A Thousand Jun Ant nest was no joke. While the ants possessed no offensive abilities beyond their immense strength, a nest represented a colony. A large group of ants could easily kill an elephant. Shi Yi, however, didn't dare attempt the task alone. He could easily defeat a single Thousand Jun Ant, but he couldn't defeat a hundred alone.
Soon, a giant golden bear emerged from a corner of the forest, raking the ground, its back laden with the corpses of numerous Thousand Jun Ants. After an unknown amount of time, its massive martial spirit finally emerged from its den, pulling out a massive Thousand Jun Ant.
This ant was quite remarkable, its exoskeleton bearing a faint golden pattern. This pattern, visible on any spirit beast, signified royal bloodline. This was the Thousand Jun Ant Queen Shi Yi sought.
In his spirit form, Zhao Wuji flicked his massive bear paw, knocking the Thousand Jun Ant Queen unconscious. Then, Zhao Wuji tossed the queen to Shi Yi.
Without waiting for Shi Yi to speak, Little Yi happily ran over.
It wasn't long before Little Yi devoured the queen, leaving nothing behind. Shi Yi internally reassessed the devouring power of the Man-Faced Demonic Spider.
This single feeding had barely allowed Shi Yi to break through the 30th level, but this Thousand Jun Ant Queen was a nearly 4,000-year-old spirit beast. Clearly, Little Yi's devouring power depended on the strength of its bloodline. While this Thousand Jun Ant's cultivation was higher than that of the Man-Faced Demonic Spider, the power contained in its bloodline was clearly too weak.
If the Man-Faced Demonic Spider were considered a genius like Tang San, this Queen Ant was at most a direct disciple with average talent who had awakened the Clear Sky Hammer. As for the pile of Thousand Jun Ant carcasses nearby, Little Yi didn't even glance at them.
"As expected, if you eat too much good food, you'll naturally disdain plain fare. No wonder San Pao won't even eat a thousand-year-old sub-dragon. The Golden Holy Dragon's bloodline can't be awakened by simply eating a few sub-dragons. Even if you did, it probably wouldn't be of much use. It's better to eat a carrot and then a bullet," Shi Yi thought to himself.
Yu Xiaogang's problem wasn't improving his bloodline, but awakening it. Basically, it was because his bloodline was too powerful, while his spirit master's talent was too low, preventing it from awakening. Tang San's casual use of a ninth-grade purple fungus boosted Yu Xiaogang's talent, naturally unleashing the power of his bloodline and breaking through its original limitations.
After the little ant finished eating, Zhao Wuji helped Shi Yi find a Thousand-Tier Ant of the right age and began absorbing it. Everything went smoothly according to Shi Yi's plan.
After absorbing the spirit ring, Shi Yi reached level 31. To Zhao Wuji's amazement, Shi Yi achieved the feat of jumping four levels in one day. Zhao Wuji had never seen Shi Yi cultivate like this before, and his so-called innate spirit power seemed a joke in front of Shi Yi.
"You've been thinking about these things for a long time, haven't you?" Zhao Wuji said to Shi Yi.
Shi Yi nodded and said, "Of course, the purpose of a spirit master studying theory is to guide their own cultivation, to use their own theory to continuously optimize their own cultivation, and to make reasonable plans for their own martial spirits. This is the reason for the existence of theory."
At this moment, Zhao Wuji also had a deep understanding of Shi Yi. Shi Yi was not like the theoretical masters he had met. Instead, he was a person who dared to explore and take action.
"This kid is a natural teacher." Zhao Wuji sighed inwardly.
"Let's go, it's almost time to go back." Shi Yi said to Zhao Wuji.
"Why don't you pay a few more? If you miss this opportunity, you will never see it again." Zhao Wuji said to Shi Yi meaningfully.
"Teacher Zhao, Xiaoyi is ultimately a martial spirit, not a spirit beast. A martial spirit and a spirit master must develop in a balanced way. If I rely solely on Xiaoyi's constant feeding, I might be able to grow quickly in the short term, but the road ahead will be much more difficult. However, if I cultivate to the appropriate level each time, as I'm doing now, and then find suitable prey for Xiaoyi to feed on, breaking through bottlenecks will be much easier than for ordinary spirit masters. This is the correct way to promote mutual progress." Shi Yi smiled at Zhao Wuji.
Zhao Wuji grinned at this and said, "I was worried that you wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of increasing your spirit power, but I, Old Zhao, was overthinking it."
The two smiled at each other and headed towards the town.
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(End of this chapter)