Ba Yin, seeing escape was hopeless, also became ferocious, swinging his claws and continuously striking against the spider legs of the human-faced spider.
The human-faced spider was obviously stronger than the Single-horned Wolf Spider, with each collision of its two spider legs sounding like the clash of metal, and the speed of its attacks becoming faster and faster.
Though Ba Yin's arms swung tirelessly, he was ultimately no match for the human-faced spider. In just a short while, his arms and body were slashed with seven or eight bloody wounds.
The intense pain and flowing blood provoked his fierce nature. Ba Yin swung a palm and knocked aside a spider leg thrust, and despite having another spider leg piercing through his right shoulder, he charged beneath the abdomen of the human-faced spider.
With a sweep of his long claws, he tore three extremely deep gashes in the abdomen of the human-faced spider.
In pain, the human-faced spider flung Ba Yin far away with the spider leg that had pierced through its chest.
Ba Yin rolled continuously on the ground, eventually crashing into a rock, where he finally came to stop.
But before he could scramble to his feet, "pu pu" sounds came from the void; one after another, white spider webs shot out from the abdomen of the human-faced spider, enveloping him below.
"Hiss hiss,"
Bursts of sounds followed, and in an instant, wisps of white smoke rose from Ba Yin's body. Wherever his skin and flesh contacted the spider web, it began to corrode, leaving behind shocking bloodstains.
Especially where there were wounds on his body, the blood seemed to ignite as it was corroded by the spider web.
Overwhelmed by the intense burning pain, Ba Yin writhed on the ground, howling in agony, frantically tearing at the spider web on his body, but for the moment he was unable to break free.
By this time, the human-faced spider had once again caught up to him.
Yuan Ming, seeing this, knew the outcome was decided; Ba Yin had no chance of victory.
He saw the human-faced spider raise a spider leg high and then fiercely thrust it down, and Ba Yin's howling ceased abruptly.
Just when Yuan Ming thought everything was over, the spider leg that had been thrust down by the human-faced spider seemed to stiffen as it was lifted upward.
Yuan Ming looked closely and saw Ba Yin's hand grasping that leg, slowly pushing it upward, forcing it to lift.
Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt Ba Yin's arm seemed to have grown thicker than before.
Then, a "boom" sounded.
The body of the human-faced spider was suddenly flipped over by the arm, landing on the ground with its eight legs pointing up.
As Ba Yin's body rose again, Yuan Ming noticed that it wasn't an illusion; his entire figure had indeed become thicker than before, his muscles outlined in exaggerated blocky lines.
He looked as though huge chunks of muscle were stacked on top of each other, unspeakably strange and awkward.
Without waiting for the human-faced spider to rise, Ba Yin charged forward and pounced, straddling the spider's abdomen and swinging his two exaggeratedly thick arms, repeatedly hitting the body of the human-faced spider.
"Chichi chi,"
Even from a distance, Yuan Ming could hear the sounds of flesh being punctured.
For the first time, the human-faced spider let out a wail, its voice like a crying infant, somewhat shrill and unsettling.
But Ba Yin, as if plunged into a frenzy, kept his arms in relentless motion, mechanically stabbing at the human-faced spider, turning its abdomen into a bloody, mangled mess.
The human-faced spider's eight legs contracted back, the front two stabbing towards Ba Yin's chest, the middle two stabbing one to each side of his neck, the remaining four all aiming for his back at the same time.
This was clearly the human-faced spider's killing blow.
But Ba Yin was one step faster. After breaking through its chest and abdomen, he powered up his right arm and thrust it straight out like a knife towards the head of the human-faced spider.
Just as it was about to strike, a whizzing sound came from the air.
"Chit," a noise resounded.
A bronze longsword shot swiftly through the air and pierced Ba Yin's right arm, causing his fatal strike to miss its mark.
The human-faced spider did not miss the opportunity; all eight of its spider legs stabbed into Ba Yin's body, blood splattering.
Ba Yin grunted, spewing blood from his mouth, and turned his head to look towards the mouth of the valley.
His eyes were bloodshot, covered in a layer of bloody haze, and he saw a White Ape standing there, still in the posture of throwing.
His lips moved, wanting to curse but failing to do so, he drew his last breath.
Under him, the human-faced spider was also seriously injured, struggling a few times, trying to get up but unable to do so, and even lacking the strength to pull its spider legs out of Ba Yin's body.
Yuan Ming, witnessing this scene, immediately got on all fours and quickly rushed over in the posture of a White Ape.
As he approached, he didn't immediately go forward to examine the scene but took a moment to pick up the bronze longsword, then circled around the human-faced spider to size it up.
Seeing that it no longer had the strength to resist, he then went forward and swung his sword to decapitate it.
With its head severed, the strength from the human-faced spider's eight legs dissipated, going limp all at once.
At the same time, Ba Yin, devoid of life, began to shrink rapidly, returning to human form. The Furred Beast Skin hung loosely on his body, looking a bit slack.
Yuan Ming heaved a long sigh of relief, dispelled the Fur Cloak Technique, and took out the Blood Storage Bag to begin collecting the blood of the human-faced spider.
After he finished collecting the blood, he caught a glimpse of the spider's human face on its forehead starting to shrink. It fell off like a human skin mask, slithering to the ground.
Yuan Ming was extremely surprised and picked it up. After rubbing and tugging at it for a while, he found it was quite durable and seemed a bit unusual, so he decided to keep it.
Then, he turned to the spider's belly and saw that shocking wound. He couldn't help but feel that Ba Yin was truly terrifying. If he were to fight with him to the death, he wouldn't have been able to bear these last-resort tactics used on him easily before death.
At that moment, his gaze fell on the spider's two front legs and noticed that the flesh on them had withered away, revealing bones that emitted a faint metallic luster, seeming far from ordinary.
Yuan Ming immediately got to work, pulled Ba Yin's corpse down from the spider's leg, and set it aside. He then used a bronze longsword to chop off the leg at the joint to remove it from the body.
"Zhao Tong would definitely be interested in this thing," Yuan Ming said with a crooked smile.
Afterward, he walked over to Ba Yin, removed the Blood Storage Bag from him, and poured all the stored Blood Food into his own bag. He began searching Ba Yin for other possessions.
Just as Yuan Ming was about to remove Ba Yin's Furred Beast Skin, he was shocked to find that the skin had fused to Ba Yin's head. Tearing it would rip off a large piece of flesh, so he reluctantly gave up.
Moreover, Ba Yin's originally robust body had become extremely emaciated, as if all the flesh had dissolved, which was quite eerie.
In the end, apart from the Blood Storage Bag, all he found on Ba Yin was a black pottery bottle about an inch tall.
Upon opening it, there was a waft of pungent odor, and inside were two red pills the size of mung beans, the nature of which was unknown.
Once he had collected everything, Yuan Ming sat beside the two corpses and rested for a long time. Only when his mana and strength had recovered considerably did he get back on his feet.
Looking down at Ba Yin's corpse on the ground, Yuan Ming hesitated for a moment before he hoisted it over his shoulder and headed back into the valley.
When he was nearly at the Sulfur Lake, Yuan Ming stopped to look around. He didn't see the Single-horned Wolf Spider and guessed that it had fled back to its den due to severe injuries.
Then, Yuan Ming, carrying Ba Yin's corpse, approached the Sulfur Lake and threw it in.
At the site of the previous battle, he found only one relatively intact Beast Slave corpse and another that had been gnawed to almost nothing but a skeleton. Overcoming his discomfort, he threw them into the lake as well.
The last corpse was nowhere to be found. It must have been dragged back to the cave by the Single-horned Wolf Spider, so he had no choice but to let it be.
Fortunately, the Blood Storage Bags of these three corpses were still intact. Yuan Ming took the Blood Food from them as well. Including what he had collected earlier, there were about thirteen portions in total.
After tidying up, Yuan Ming left the valley with the bronze longsword and spider leg of the human-faced spider.
...
The next day, within Toad Valley.
Zhao Tong stared at the spider leg of the human-faced spider that Yuan Ming had brought back, zoning out for a moment.
"Judging by its appearance, this human-faced spider should have been beyond the Qi Refining Third Level. Did you really kill it?" He looked at Yuan Ming, who only had some minor scratches, and couldn't help but ask.
"What, if I didn't kill it, you wouldn't take it?" Yuan Ming retorted.
"Of course I'll take it. That spider leg is hot commodity. The guys at Fire Refining Hall are really fond of it," Zhao Tong responded with a smile, quickly securing the two items.
"Fire Refining Hall?" Yuan Ming asked, puzzled.
Zhao Tong shouldn't have mentioned internal Sect affairs to him, but he was so pleased today that he gave a brief explanation:
"Within the Sect, it's the division responsible for refining Magic Artifacts. But you wouldn't understand if I told you," he said.
"What is a Magic Artifact?" Yuan Ming pressed on with his question.
"It's a weapon with great power," Zhao Tong answered dismissively, not wanting to delve into the details.
Hearing this, Yuan Ming thought for a moment, then took a cylindrical Beast Skin wrap from his waist and placed it on the table.
"What's this?" Seeing this, Zhao Tong asked with curiosity.
Yuan Ming unwrapped the Beast Skin casually, revealing the bronze longsword inside, and said, "Take a look at this for me."
Zhao Tong glanced at the ancient bronze longsword with initial disdain, then raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise.
"This seems to be a Half-magical Artifact. Where did you get this?" He picked up the longsword and examined it closely, asking with some confusion.
"Found it on the road while hunting Fierce Beasts," Yuan Ming replied with a made-up reason.
"Would you sell this? It's a bit old, but the materials used in its refinement seem quite solid. Although it's only a Half-magical Artifact, it could still be worth some money, right?" Zhao Tong remarked.
"What is a Magic Artifact, and why is this sword considered a Half-magical Artifact?" Yuan Ming didn't answer but instead asked a different question.
"What's with you today, so full of questions?" Zhao Tong said with an air of discontent.
Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming's expression remained unchanged as he reached to collect the longsword, saying, "If you don't know, I'll ask someone else."
"Who says I don't know?" Zhao Tong's eyes widened in retort.
"Then, let's hear it," Yuan Ming said with a slight smile.