by Tony Tran
Before a black light had shot out of her hand, but this time one did not so the sailor didn't know what Yuying did.
“Unlike the drones that I've made to follow simple commands, I implanted into this little one’s mind that I'm it's master and it has to obey me. Since it just hatched, the process was very simple. Young minds are the easiest to corrupt of course.”
The baby queen spider sat on top of Yuying's head, as it was her pet and since its body was red colored, it somewhat blended into her hair.
"You can release this bigger bubble too brother." Yuying said calmly.
Without questioning her, Zhang released the bubble keeping the swarm of drones away. Once the bubble disappeared, the drones surrounded them. However, the baby queen spider shrieked and when they heard it, the swarm began to disperse.
Thousands upon thousands of titanic golden spiders sped away and crawled up the walls of the cavern into tunnels and disappearing. They left as quickly as they came and left no sign of their being here at all once they were gone.
"Wait, so that means you have control over all of the colony of spiders!!" One sailor yelled out while staring at Yuying.
"Of course, the little one here is the only queen they have and the queen has absolute authority over the rest of them." Yuying said while she stroked the red spider queen that now crawled down to her shoulder.
"Milord now that it is safe again, are we going back to claim the gold?" Another sailor asked.
Without replying, Jian Wei nodded. The sailors deserved their share of the treasure for surviving so far and it did not seem right to leave the gold and treasures just laying around.
After doubling back, the group collected the rest of the treasure. Jian Wei offered the trio half of the remaining treasure, however Zhang refused.
Not because he was a humanitarian and did not want wealth, but he had already taken a bit more than half of the whole treasure already. But he did not tell anyone about it
Yuying had not release her control over the few spiders from before yet. She was going to have them carry the group and their horse up the hole and to the exit. To her amazement, the spiders can walk on top of water, when the group exited the palace ruins and reached the water edge.
The spiders ran across the water’s surface at rapid speeds.
Without any more interferences, the group quickly made their way to the pit. Yuying ordered the spiders to carry the group up the hole.
Using thread to latch onto the horses, the spiders hoisted them up.
Soon they reached the top of the hole and the exit was once more in sight. When the group reached the exit, Yuying released her control over the regular spiders and they scurried back down the pit.
"Wahhhh daylight!" Ai yelled the second they made it out of the cave.
The group was now located in the heart of the Dragon's Maw. Thanks to the underground secret passage way, they were able to avoid the twisting paths of the dragon’s maw.
It took them nearly half the time it normally would take.
When they exited, it was mid-day, so the group decided to pitch camp early and rest from their little adventure.
Zhang was utterly exhausted, the Sky Piercer was very heavy and using it over and over again to fight hordes of giant spiders is not something that happens too often.
Once camp was pitched, Zhang fell into a deep slumber. His body aches, even his bones were bruised. Due to utter exhaustion, Zhang fell asleep without a care in the world.
If someone were to come rob, then strip him naked and hang him up on the wall of a city, he still wouldn't wake up.
Hours later, Zhang finally woke up. However, when he did his arms felt even more numb then when he went to sleep. There was a stinging sensation that one would get from lack of blood circulation also.
Zhang looked around to find that the two beauties were comfortably sleeping beside him. They were using his arms as pillows and sleeping soundly.
Seeing this, a grin appeared on his face as he gently moved his arms toward and embraced their waists.
Warmth was transmitted from their bodies, making it very comfortable. Soon, with a yawn, Zhang fell back into his slumber.
The trio cuddled up in their tent and slept for hours. All three of them were simply too exhausted from all of the events that happened. How often does someone run into a swarm of hundreds of thousands of giant spiders? Not very often would be the correct answer.
Tossing and turned made all of their clothes come somewhat loose and if anyone were to walk in, they’d probably kill Zhang due to jealousy.
Chapter 30: Silver Spear
Jian Wei had been taking care of the unconscious Yan Li ever since they made it out of the underground ruins. His heart was filled with gratitude for this man in front of him.
In a lifetime many people are met and many becomes friends, while many become enemies. However, friends come and go and the same goes for enemies. But there are always those people who stay and become irreplaceable in life.
To Jian Wei, his friend Yan Li was as close as family and for Yan Li to be willing take the blow for him, it meant a lot.
As Jian Wei sat there contemplating, he heard the rumbling of wagons and horse a short distance away. Once he exited the tent, he saw a large caravan approaching.
Flags with a silver spear could've seen looming over the caravan. A team of ten horsemen rode in front of the caravan toward where Jian Wei was.
When the horsemen got closer, Jian Wei was able to see silver emblems with a spear on the ten men.
He recognized that emblem as the symbol of the Silver Spear mercenary group. As long as the employer has the money, these mercenaries would do the job.
Of course they did not take jobs that went against their code. No pillaging, no raping, and no killing of the innocent. Overall this group had a good reputation.
"What are you doing here?" A mounted man asked Jian Wei.
"Kind sir, we are simply travelers. We wish to go to Aurora city to visit some family." Jian Wei replied. Although the Silver spears had a good reputation, he still did not want to reveal his status as the lord of Aurora city.
It was best to keep his status hidden because for now he can't trust anyone besides those in his group.
"Is that so? How come your group is so small?" The man asked.
That was when Jian Wei remembered that when traveling within the Dragon's Maw, there was a requirement of traveling in a party with at least a few thousand people.
People would have to wait until a group met the required numbers before being allowed into the Dragon's Maw. This was to ensure that groups would be big enough to repel demonic beast attacks and the risk of bandits.
This is why he is questioning Jian Wei, most likely is because he thought Jian Wei could be a bandit.
"My son’s wives could not keep up with the speed of the group, so we ended up getting left behind." Jian Wei said.
"Is that so? Would you guys like to join our caravan? But first of course, I would like to meet and get a head count of how many people are in your group." The man said.
"Sure!" Jian Wei replied as he called his men out. One by one they emerged from their tents and lined up.
Everyone but the trio and Yan Li was present. Yan Li was still unconscious.
"Is that everyone? Which one is your son? And I also don't see any women." The man asked.
"We have one man who fell ill during the trip and he's resting in this tent." Jian Wei said as he pulled back the curtain revealing Yan Li.
"As for my son his tent is right there I'll go get him." Jian Wei said as he began heading toward Zhang's tent.
"Let me come with you." The man said as he dismounted his horse.
"Of course." Jian Wei said as he led the man toward Zhang's tent.
Pulled back the curtain Zhang could be seen sandwiched between two out of this world beauties. Their cloths appeared loosely and suggestively.
Seeing this the man stared intently without batting an eye.
The two beauties were too mesmerizing from their silky hair, snow white skin, to sliding curves that could be seen from the blanket laying on top of them. The man stared slack jawed at the two of them.
After allowing the man a small glimpse, Jian Wei quickly closed the curtain.
"He he he kids these days." Jian Wei said smiling at the man.
"Ye-yes." The man said while still in somewhat of a daze. After a few moments, he was able to snap out of the daze.
"If you guys want to, you are welcome to join our caravan. They should reach here soon." The man said.
"We would love to." Jian Wei replied politely. Joining the caravan would help the group avoid suspicion when they reach the checkpoint at other side of the Dragon's Maw.
On the other side of the Dragon's Maw, everything was under the control of Green Clover city. It was famous for its rare seven colored mushrooms. These things can help cure hundreds, maybe thousands of different types of poisons.
After roughly half an hour, the rest of the caravan reached where Zhang’s group had camped. Once the caravan reached where the group was, the man that questioned Jian Wei rode his horse toward another man who dressed in silver armor.
Moments later, the man in silver armor rode over toward the group. Just when the man reached where Jian Wei stood, Zhang emerged from his tent along with Yuying and Ai.
The trio finally had enough rest and woke up oddly at the same time. There was an awkward silence when they woke up due to the sleeping position they were in. A while later, Zhang got up and walked toward the curtain of the tent and the two beauties followed after.
“Hello my name is Sheng Huo leader of the Silver Spear mercenaries.” The man in silver armor said with a smile on his face.
“Nice to meet you sir, my name is Wei Jiang. This is my son and my daughters in law.” Jian Wei said. He did not wish to give his real name to Sheng Huo as to avoid trouble.
Sheng Huo greeted everyone in the group and then welcomed them to the caravan. Sheng Huo lent the group two of his spare carriages for the remainder of the trip. The Silver Spear mercenaries numbered roughly five thousand, while the rest of the caravan numbered another three thousand people. The caravan’s regular people consisted of many merchants that sold a wide assortment of things.
What Zhang wanted to know was what the Silver Spears were doing here. Being mercenaries, someone must have hired them as escorts or to deliver something. But employing five thousand mercenaries meant that the person who did it must be very wealthy and powerful.
This caravan had set off roughly a month and a half ago and in another two months or so, they would reach Green Clover city.
Later in on the day, the caravan found a place to set up camp. Soon hundreds of tents were set up and hundreds of camp fires started burning. Many trails of smoke ascended into the air.
“Brother, I heard that some of the merchants in the caravan formed a mini market and selling things out of their carriages. Do you want to go have a look?” Yuying asked Zhang.
“Sure let’s go.” Zhang said. The trio left their tent and started walking to where the merchants had set up. While walking, Zhang made a flask appear in his hand. The flask was one of the things he picked up in the treasury.
This flask had the power to store large amounts of liquids despite its size. Using this flask, Zhang had collected a huge amount of the concentrated essence water from the huge lake where the ruins ended up. The water from that lake held extremely high volumes of essence and it allowed the spider queen to grow so large.
Zhang found out that if he drinks the water from that lake, it would give him some essence and empowered him. This would be very useful when he is fighting for prolonged periods. He would have a source to replenish his essence and continue fighting.
If others knew about this water, they’d paid extremely high prices to obtain it because there aren’t that many things out there that could quickly replenish someone’s essence especially during battle.
After looking at the flask for a while, Zhang put it back into his interspatial ring.
“Next time I see Xi Ning, I need to thank him, if he did not suggest that path then, I wouldn’t have such a big harvest.” Zhang thought to himself.
As the trio walked through the rows of tents, countless eyes locked onto them. Yuying and Ai now possessed a huge amount of jewelry. All of the jewelry in the treasury of the Sai empire was there for them to pick from after all.
Now the two beauties were using jewelry fit for a queen or princess which added to their beauty by giving them a noble aura. Anyone who saw them wouldn’t think twice and believe that these two were princesses from some kingdom.
Many men wished to walk up to the two beauties and try and woo. However, once these men thought it over they felt that they were inferior to the two beauties and were fortunate enough to even be able to see them.
Then they would see Zhang walking next to Yuying and Ai, once they saw Zhang they would secretly curse at him.
After walking for a while, the trio reached the market that was set up by the merchants. Close to a few hundred carriages lined up next to each other each serving as a makeshift stall. Many merchants stood in front of their carriages trying to attach customers.
Many types of goods were being sold here from things such as food, jewelry, weaponry, and even lower level demonic beasts. These demonic beasts here would most likely only serve as house pets or beasts of labor. They possessed little to no battle potential at all.
And when compared to the fist sized spider that sat on top of Yuying’s head, these beasts wouldn’t amount to anything. The baby queen spider would always crawl all the way to the top of Yuying’s head and sit there. From afar, it would look like a unique hair ornaments of sorts.
At night, it would crawl off into the night to hunt for prey. For now, it’s diet consisted of regular lizards, rodents, and sometimes even birds. Once it grew bigger, the spider queen would most likely start hunting other demonic beasts.
Zhang would leave small bowls of the essence water for it to drink in the hopes of increasing its growth rate. In the Ruler’s Domain, was a huge sack of Titanic Golden spider eggs and once they hatched, the trio would have a mini army of them. The new hatchlings would easily be controlled and be bent to Yuying’s will compared to the already grown spiders back at the ruins.
The spiders at the ruins would only listen to simple commands, even when ordered by the queen. Once these eggs hatched, they would be different, they would be able to do intricate tasks thanks to Yuying’s manipulation of their minds.
Many merchants approached the trio and asked the two beauties to wear the things they were selling. These merchants thought that if two beauties such as them wore their goods, then it would be great advertising for their business.
But Yuying and Ai being as picky as they are, did not simply take everything that was handed to them. The trio continued walking for a while, until something caught Zhang’s eye.
A merchant was selling magical transmission bracelets. These bracelets could be liked to become a set and once linked, the owners would be able to converse with each other over a certain distance of space. The distance depended on the quality of the transmission bracelets.
“Hello sir, how much for these? Also, do you have any high quality ones?” Zhang asked as he picked up three transmission bracelets.
“For all three? That will be three hundred gold coins’ young master. And sadly, I do not, those high quality bracelets are very much sought after and don’t come by very often.” The merchant said.
“Here you go.” Zhang placed a small pile of gold coins in front of the merchant.
“Customer, would you like me to wrap these up for you?” The merchant asked.
“No thank you, sir.” Zhang said as he took the bracelets from the merchant and walked away with the two beauties.
Zhang gave Yuying and Ai each their own transmission bracelet to use. After Yuying and Ai bound the bracelets, Zhang sent a bit of h
is essence into their bracelets. This would link his bracelet with theirs. After Zhang linked his bracelet with theirs, Yuying and Ai did the same.
Now as long as the trio were in a radius of a few hundred feet from each other, they’d be able to keep in contact.
The trio continued to stroll around for a while, however nothing else caught their eye, so eventually they headed back to their tent.
Zhang asked Jian Wei to come over to their tent to discuss some important matters.
As Jian Wei entered the tent, Zhang offered him a seat at a small table and then the two began talking.
“Senior, I have something to give to you.” Zhang said.
“Senior? You are to call me foster father.” Jian Wei said with a stern face.