Su Rong faded in and out of consciousness many times over the next twenty four hours. The constant jostling caused by the movements of whoever was transporting his limp body around certainly didn’t help with his recovery, and even hours later he still let out the occasional low moan of pain.

In his semi lucid state, the fiery cultivator could not help but go over the brief moments between his ill thought out rescuing of Chun Dai and his relieving welcome into the land of unconsciousness.

Everything after he’d been hit by that blasted beast lord was just an indistinct string of images and sounds, mixed with remaining phantom pains pulsing from where most of his right arm had used to be.

But still, he could not help but be thankful for whoever of his companions had the stomach to just go up and cut his infected arm, as he was quite sure he wouldn’t have had the chance of lamenting his fate otherwise.

The spider queen’s poison had not been normal by any stretch of the word. Su Rong had spent a good chunk of his time at the sect’s Forges studying various spiritual beasts and all of the useful bits and pieces that could be harvested from their bodies, things like stingers, spikes, and venomous glands included. So he had a somewhat extensive array of examples to pull from.

But the poison that had taken his right arm was something he’d never seen or read about before.

Normally, if such a thing even existed when it came to spiritual beasts and the world of cultivation in general, the venom used by beasts merely ate away at the body, something painful to be sure and even lethal if not properly treated, but not something a cultivator in the Constitutional Realm had to fear.

Then there were those spiritual beasts that for one reason or another decided to refine their toxins, a process that was a bit more understood by the cultivators of their continent compared to how they refined their physiques.

For, unlike their bodies, the venomous beasts did not automatically strengthen their toxins, or rather, they did, but only as a side effect of their general body refinement.

After all, the organs used to produce such toxins were still part of a beast’s body and were thus subjected to the same mysterious process of refinement, which then allowed a beast to produce a more potent version of the venom it already was able to make.

But that was the thing. The venom was the same, only stronger.

True venom refinement didn’t merely strengthen the toxicity of a beast’s biological weapon, but elevated it into a weapon fit for a hunter of cultivators, be they humans or beasts.

As he’d already gone over, a normal toxin, even if strengthened by body refinements, could only harm the physical body of an unfortunate victim.

A refined venom, instead, did all of that while also becoming able to react, for lack of a better word, when it came in contact with spiritual energy. When refined toxins interacted with the spiritual energy of their victims the two substances fused and changed into a stronger venom, which then kept absorbing the poor fellow’s chi until his entire body was completely saturated with the deadly toxins, which in the vast majority of cases would lead to either a swift and painless death or a slow and torturous end, depending on the venom’s composition.

The spider queen’s venom went beyond even that.

If the previous version attacked a cultivator’s body and spiritual energy, then the beast lord’s toxins had eaten away at Su Rong’s spirit and the channels through which his chi flowed in his body.

More than poison, it had acted eerily similar to a living organism, consuming his spirit to create more of itself, using his physical body as nothing more than an anchor to attack his soul.

A shudder went down the fiery cultivator’s hanging body, which then prompted whoever was carrying him to adjust their posture and their grip on his body.

He had no idea what would’ve happened to him had his arm been left attached to his body in some misguided hope of keeping him whole.

Losing an arm was a far more palatable alternative to having his spirit consumed and possibly even incurring some soul damage.

>>>

The group of inner disciples kept running for a full day and a half without so much as a single break, but not one of them dared to complain about their aching legs and sore feet, more than aware that they couldn’t permit themselves such luxuries while they were still on the run from something that matched their combined strength many times over.

The most that the young cultivators could afford to do was letting out a collective sigh of relief once they left the thick jungles and towering rock formations sprouting from beneath the earth behind them.

It was only after the less advanced members of their group could no longer keep going that they finally stopped their mad dash to safety, using one of the house sized boulders as another makeshift abode.

And after settling down, they could now finally begin to treat Su Rong and Chun Dai to the best of their abilities.

The fiery cultivator had woken up almost an entire day after their disastrous encounter with the spider queen, at which point he started cursing up a storm in a mixture of pains from his newly gained stump and embarrassment of being carried around like a sack of potatoes by Yu Xiang.

The young reincarnator derived some amusement from the man’s obvious discontent, but soon enough the gravity of their situation brought his mood back down.

Chun Dai was another matter entirely. At some point of their prolonged escape, the core disciple had closed his eyes in what they’d initially believed to be exhausted unconsciousness, but they were quickly disabused of such a notion as the aura masking their presence never let up which led them to conclude that he’d entered some kind of meditative trance.

Fortunately, he ‘woke up’ once they settled down in their latest hideout, immediately garnering Lin Fen and Jin Shui’s undivided attention.

Apparently, the shaggy haired fellow had a knack for the healing arts, something that he’d picked up and had ample occasions to practice since he’d been hanging around the Su siblings for years now. Yu Xiang almost felt sorry for him, having to deal with two gruff hotheads must not have been easy, even if he didn’t seem to mind that much.

Meanwhile, Lin Fen had almost no formal education when it came to healing people the proper way, but what he had was a healthy dose of paranoid overpreparation and an extensive knowledge of alchemy, which meant he had packed away in his traveling bag a myriad of pouches filled with different pills that could help with healing wounds, soothe chaotic flows of inner energy, and, most importantly for them, get rid of toxins.

So the feline alchemist didn’t spare a moment before he started cramming pill after pill down both Su Rong and Chun Dai’s throats. They didn’t complain.

Fortunately, Su Rong was mostly physically alright after his twenty four hours long nap and getting his injured arm suitably covered in bandages soaked in healing elixirs, as much as you could call someone who’d just lost one of his limbs alright, but instead of becoming morose and despondent at his loss he instead opted for getting angry at the spider queen.

When Yu had asked about his relatively tame reaction to his situation, the fiery cultivator had just shrugged his wide shoulders as if he truly didn’t care.

“Once we get back to the sect I’m going to ask to have it regrown by an expert.” He’d said matter of factly, as he waved with his sole remaining hand at his right stump. But then, a strange glint appeared in his eyes, his face slacking subtly as he started contemplating something. “...Or maybe I could forge myself a new arm even…” Yu Xiang shook his head as the usually gruff young man’s voice dropped to a whisper and he started mumbling to himself, his eyes focusing on the spot where his arm used to be.

The young reincarnator could not help but admire his optimism, even as he didn’t share much of it, especially after he’d been called to Chun Dai’s side alongside Huang Lei.

“I want the two of you to go inspect the site where our door to the real world is located.” He’d said keeping his voice deliberately calm, as if he hadn’t had a gigantic chitinous spear sticking through his guts just a few hours before then.

A drop of sweat slowly crawled down the side of his head, and his face was shrouded by an unhealthy pallor that was unmistakable. The fact that even the usually stoic swordsman was showing signs of strain dealing with the venom of the spider queen left them more than a bit concerned, something that his next words only exacerbated.

"It is more than likely that you will find the entrance shrouded in some way, which means we won't be able to simply leave this hidden space and return at a later date, nor will there be any reinforcements." Despite the strain that was clear in his body, his voice was calm and measured, trying to keep their spirits from plummeting even further.

Yu Xiang grimaced at the older cultivator's words, seeing the noble lady beside him making a decidedly not refined expression behind the cover of her battle fan.

"How can you know that?" Asked Huang Lei in a curious tone, barely higher than a whisper. "You have been keeping our presences from getting detected all this time, and I never felt your aura shift from our position."

The icy eyed cultivator took a moment to reposition himself on the ground before he answered the question, seeming to need the few heartbeats of time to formulate a proper response.

"The beast lord." He started, which made Yu Xiang's eye twitch involuntarily in suppressed animosity. "The moment after it struck at me and abandoned its hiding, my spiritual senses brushed against its..." The core disciple trailed off.

A rare spark of annoyance entered his eyes, and he even let out an uncharacteristic sigh, which almost sent Yu into a backwards long jump due to sheer surprise.

"Let us just say that I sensed it interacting with the spatial membrane that contains this world. That is likely how it avoided any of our senses." He stared gravely into their eyes, their expressions equally stony. "And I even suspect that its ability to manipulate the hidden world might let it bar its entrance or exit."

Fantastic. Simply fantastic. The green eyed cultivator could not help but think to himself sarcastically.

From the corner of his eye, Yu Xiang noticed Huang Lei giving the wounded swordsman a knowing look.