Sage took the core of the Poisonfeather Bird out of Duo Tan’s tomb. Then, with the source removed, he started the long process of absorbing the remaining miasma. With a poison core already formed, he used the faster route and sent it directly to the Inner World, increasing the intensity in that poisonous valley where the Soul Clone built a Sect. Capturing this ephemeral soul poison didn’t use much Qi, but there was so much of it that it was going to take him a long time to clear such a huge area.

A few days later, he was walking through the poison miasma, capturing more Seething Purple Cobras and sucking the miasma into a hole in space. The poisonous energy swirled and spun, being drawn towards his hand and then disappearing as it was sent to his Inner World. At that moment, he suddenly heard some slurping noises followed by a voice.

“My precious, my precious. This is all for you.”

There was a soft scraping sound, echoing up through a crevice on the warm ice.

Ker thunk.

There was a splash and a plopping noise, like something heavy sinking into a thick liquid. Sage was surprised to hear someone talking and he leapt into the crevasse. A silk line was tossed from his waist to catch the ground before he leaped into the air and he dove into the giant crack like an experienced base jumper. There were gurgling noises, like a hungry tummy, and he followed the sounds bouncing off the walls to narrow down his search. He slowed the rate the silk was released and the line caught, swinging him towards the wall. His feet hit the wall and he ran down it, a rappelling technique that normal people would never dare to use, but he had a lifetime of experience as a spider and he just had to adapt to using less legs. Anytime he started to lose his balance he just had to kick or slap at the air. By using Cosmic Traction, the space itself would harden and he could use it to correct his trajectory.

He leapt over an icy shelf and then slowed down, catching himself on the line and hanging from it. He dangled in the air, hanging in front of a large passageway. A huge tunnel through the ice that was large enough to fit a six lane highway. There was a crack on the ice that revealed a blackened ashy ground, from which he saw a mist rising up. In any other place, the volcanic ground would be assumed to emit a poisonous steam or gas, but in this place it was the reverse. The ice here was warm and the air from the crack was ice cold. The mist was not steam, it was more going outside on a cold day and seeing your own breath. The place where the cold air from below and the warm ice met caused a cloud of mist to form.

Sage threw another silk line into the cave and used it to pull himself into the tunnel. He attached the line from the surface to the wall and then started walking down the huge tunnel towards where he heard the noise coming from. The gurgling got a little louder, then sputtered a little before going silent. The echoes from the sound were mostly gone and Sage slowed down as he found a crack on the side of the tunnel.

He heard a dull thumping sound coming directly from the crack and he walked up to it to see what was inside. He closed his eyes and a field of stars appeared in his right eye and then his head poked around the corner. At that moment, he had to tighten his jaw to keep from making a noise.

There was a huge dark green barrel in front of him. It was twenty feet tall and had red veins running vertically upon its surface. The top edge of the barrel curled outwards like it had wilted, and there was a dark green disk like a lid up in the air, hanging over the barrel, with an equally curled edge, almost like a small flat parasol. That was when he realized it was not a barrel, but a plant. It had large leg-like vines stabbing into a crack in the ice and the lid was connected by a green stem.

Cauldron Plant?

After a few moments he recognized it. It was a Demonic Plant. Sage didn’t have a comprehensive guide to Demonic Plants, but the Cauldron Plant was quite famous because of its recognizability. It looked like a cross between the common Pitcher Plant and an Alchemical Cauldron. It was also well known because of its symbiosis with another…

His thought was interrupted when he saw a large dark leg emit from the mouth of the Cauldron Plant with his Foresight. He took a quick step backwards and the insectoid leg stopped. Sage waited patiently, without releasing any energy or making any moves. Then the leg came out, along with another. Those legs bent oddly and had far too many joints at which point Sage realized why he had heard a voice coming from down here.

Many black beady eyes pointed in his direction. The eight legged monster climbed up onto the rim of the Cauldron Plant. It was a giant spider with a carapace the same color as the warm ice around them. It balanced on the lip of the Cauldron Plant on its four back legs, while the four front ones were lifted into the air. It held them up and to either side in pairs, like it had two huge arms. Sage smiled.

“Greetings, Cousin.”

The ten foot tall Crab Spider rocked backwards, surprised that it could understand this human in front of him. That was to say, Sage was using the language of spiders and not humans. The Crab Spider only knew a few words of the human tongue, but this human could speak spider? It tilted to the left and right, waving its ‘arms’ up and down.

Sage didn’t leave it guessing, he released some of the Human Seal and a set of four spider limbs sprouted from his back. Since he was still mostly sealed, the limbs were of a similar size to his human body, just like all the other features he could call upon from partially undoing his seal. The limbs touched the ground and lifted him into the air, “I am not a normal human. Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you. I just heard you talking. Who is precious?”

The spider tilted down, and Sage could swear he saw a little blush show up on the bit of carapace under its eyes. Then it rubbed the Cauldron Plant it was standing on, “This is my precious. She is the most beautiful and wonderful thing in all of creation.”

The plant? Then Sage thought about the Cauldon Plant. Just like the Pitcher Plant, it was commonly symbiotic with a Crab Spider. The plant was carnivorous and it lured creatures into its mouth, then they were trapped and fell into the digestive juices that it kept inside. The Crab Spider would catch creatures and after draining their fluids, drop the remaining carcass into the Pitcher Plant’s mouth. In return it could hide inside the plant for protection without being harmed.

So, this symbiotic partnership has turned into an obsession? Demonic Plants and Beasts do gain intelligence over time. People have done stranger things. I wonder what the term would be for a spider having a plant fetish.