Seeking the Dao in the Seemingly Mundane Mortal World - Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Demon Spider
Translator: Henyee Translations
Editor: Henyee Translations
Li Qingjun probably needed to relieve herself as well, but after the group of people arrived, she was too embarrassed to go to the toilet and had to sit back down by the fire. Qin Yi sat down in frustration as well while Li Qingjun kept shooting dirty looks at him as though he was some sort of hoodlum.
All Qin Yi cared about now was whether or not these people would disturb that demon.
The flame danced in the wind as the group of people filed in, bantering loudly among themselves.
It was very common for travellers to run into strangers when they took shelter from the rain in empty temples, so they didn’t think much of Qin Yi and his friends. Their gaze lingered for a while on the Li siblings’ spears, but they didn’t seem threatened. Instead, one of them even snickered, saying, “That’s a very big spear for pretty boys like them.”
Qin Yi cursed inwardly. However, Li Qingjun only chewed on her food and ignored the provocation.
Since she didn’t respond, the other side didn’t want to make trouble either. They only snickered and went back to mind their own business.
Qin Yi was a little surprised because Li Qingjun didn’t strike him as so mild-tempered.
Li Qingjun gave him a sidelong glance. “I thought you were going to get rid of the spider web, so what are you doing just sitting here?”
Qin Yi said casually, “I’m more than willing to wipe this place squeaky clean if the three of us were the only ones here. Why should I clean up for these outsiders?”
“Tch, you’re not an ‘insider’ to us either.” Li Qingjun snorted, but she didn’t persist. It seemed that she wasn’t willing to tidy the place for the newcomers either.
The other men’s bantering entered their ears from the other side of the hall.
“Have you heard? The Zhang Manor outside Hengshan Shire is haunted, and the owner has been killed by the ghost.”
“No, it’s not. Priest Cangsong has been there and according to him, there was no ghost. He died from illness.”
Well, if Priest Cangsong says no, then he must be right.” The other men seemed convinced. “He’s a real cultivator. He can swallow fire and stick his hands into boiling oil.”
“If that’s the case, the Zhang Family deserved it. It’s karma.”
The group reached a consensus and everyone laughed loudly. “That’s right. None of those rich people have ever done anything good. One of these days, someone’s going to rob them and give their money to the poor.”
Sipping his wine, Li Qinglin smiled and Qin Yi knew what it meant. It was a smirk. Even well-experienced travellers believed in immortals and tricks like sticking hands into boiling oil could convince people. No wonder those who were more educated were displeased.
Qin Yi was more displeased than Li Qinglin was, because these people were so loud that they might offend the demon. However, he couldn’t find a proper excuse to silence them.
This wasn’t his place, so he couldn’t tell them to stay quiet. Moreover, it just wasn’t realistic for a bunch of travellers to whisper among themselves.
The group had changed their topic by then. “And about the Lin Family…”
Another man chimed in. “They totally had it coming. The master teacher needed some flaming flint and he couldn’t find it anywhere in the kingdom. That old man of the Lin Family actually tried to hide his own stash.”
“It was for the elixir of life for King Wude, wasn’t it? He needed a flaming flint this time, and last time, it was red purple grass. All the stones were turned and everyone was complaining. If you ask me, Old Lin did the right thing. That lousy king shouldn’t have it.”
“What do you know? Why should we care if that king is dead or alive? The master teacher is a true cultivator and we can’t offend him!”
“Hey, why do you think a true cultivator like him would be willing to make pills for that king?”
Li Qinglin was still smiling, but Li Qingjun couldn’t take it anymore. She yelled, “The master teacher was the one who asked for the flint and the grass. Why are you blaming the king instead of him?”
One of the men gave her a sidelong glance. “If the king hadn’t asked the master teacher to make those pills for him, why would a true cultivator have done such things? Government officials of all levels have taken opportunities to extort money from common folks. Did the master teacher ask for that, too? The king is behind everything!”
Li Qingjun wanted to retort, but Li Qinglin handed her a pancake. “Eat.”
She immediately stopped talking and ate the pancake with a long face. This time, that group of men wouldn’t leave her alone. One of them sneered. “How can he look so girly even when he’s eating a pancake? Is he some sort of gigolo from the capital city? I bet it’s his job to entertain those high-ranking officials. No wonder he’s taking the king’s side.”
Seeing how frustrated Li Qingjun was, Qin Yi said, “Guys, watch it.”
Someone smirked. “Or what? Are you going to report us to the officials?”
They guffawed so loudly that the sound shook the roof. Some sand sifted down, hitting the spider web.
Qin Yi said indifferently, “I dare you to laugh more loudly, but don’t say you haven’t been warned.”
The man who called Li Qingjun a gigolo rose to his feet, threw back his head, and laughed. “There you go. I laughed. What are you going to do about it?”
As soon as he said those words, his laughter stopped abruptly, and he was choked. A small spider fell down from the beam and fell right into his open mouth. The man’s face almost turned green.
“Brother!” His friends panicked and rushed to his side. The man bent over, trying to spit out the spider, but it was to no avail. He retched so loudly that Qin Yi actually felt sorry for him.
Li Qingjun asked Qin Yi in a low voice, “Did you do that?”
Qin Yi replied in a whisper, “No, it wasn’t me. I think a demon is lurking in the dark. Be careful.”
Li Qingjun’s face turned a little pale. “So that was why you stopped me from touching the spider web and wouldn’t let me go out…”
“Yes.”
Li Qingjun fell silent.
Meanwhile, the group of travellers lowered their voices as well. As soon as Qin Yi warned them about the noise, that man ate a spider, which creeped them out a little as well. They immediately stopped provoking Li Qingjun, and the man headed for the back door with a hand on his throat, trying to find some rainwater to rinse his mouth.
His eyes lit up as soon as he walked past the shrine in the temple. “There’s a huge coral tree at the back!”
Qin Yi and Li Qinglin exchanged looks. They had checked everything after they entered the temple, and there was no coral tree. Qin Yi knew it was the demon’s doing. It was bait.
Hunting human beings wasn’t exactly the same as hunting bugs. All one needed was the proper bait.
Those men all rushed toward the back door. Li Qingjun couldn’t help but try to warn them. “Don’t go! It’s a trap!”
But no one would listen to her. In the middle of the backyard stood a magnificent tree glowing in the rain which looked very tempting. That man was the first to rush out the door, and he put a hand on the tree trunk. “It really is coral. This coral tree is huge…”
Since nothing happened to him after he touched the tree, the rest of the travellers ignored Li Qingjun completely. They swarmed into the backyard with greedy looks in their eyes.
Li Qingjun stood by the shrine and looked out into the backyard. As she watched, white threads began to come out of the man’s eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth. It was such an eerie sight, but none of the people around him seemed to have noticed.
The sight of gossamer coming out of one’s facial openings was so disgusting that Li Qingjun almost threw up.
The next second, the white threads gushed up, and tens of thousands of them seemed to be coming out of the man’s pores. In a split second, the threads wrapped tightly around all the travellers and made them into seven or eight human cocoons. The man himself had exploded—a spider had ripped his chest open from inside and climbed out from where his heart used to be. It gradually grew larger, turning into a demon spider the size of a horse carriage.
Its body was that of a spider, but it had a hideous human face with protruding fangs.
The coral tree was nowhere to be seen. All that was left was a slanted withered tree that was covered with spider webs. The splendor had vanished, replaced by rotten rats and cockroaches.
Li Qinglin was still sipping his wine while Li Qingjun stood there and watched with her spear in her hand. Her hand was trembling a little. It seemed that the spider had somewhat terrified her as well.
That demon tiger still looked like a tiger, but this spider had a human face, which made it indescribably disgusting.
The man’s dead body lay on the ground. All his internal organs were gone, and little spiders were crawling all over him. It was unbelievably gory.
Qin Yi found the scene gross as well and had goosebumps all over. Somehow, he recalled a D&D-themed transmigration novel he read before and some guy actually hit on Lolth, the Spider Queen. “So hardcore…”
Liusu’s voice rang out in his mind. “You have two choices now. No. 1: this demon still has a tacit agreement with us, so as long as we don’t sabotage its plan, we can still live in peace and we may gain its friendship in the end. However, I would highly recommend the second choice. Since this demon has formed a human face and has some pretty interesting techniques, I think it’s reaching perfection in its current state. If we let it eat all these men, it may make a breakthrough and form a demon internal core. We can then kill it and take the core…”
Before Liusu could finish, Li Qingjun took a deep breath, raised her spear, and charged at the spider. “You monster! I won’t let you hurt those people!”
