The Snowman-Faced Spider

[Snowman-Faced Spider. Just as Jin Gabok said.]

"And Mumyeong, your other prediction seems right too."

I carefully examined the spider's abdomen.

[...?]

Even after its threatening roar, when I showed no particular reaction, the Snowman-Faced Spider tilted its head in confusion.

From beneath my dog-skin cloak I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠drew a dagger and a longsword procured from the village, gripping one in each hand.

"How many do you estimate?"

[Hmm.]

After a brief silence, Mumyeong spoke.

[At least seven. For a specimen of that size, there might be more inside its body as well. If Jin Gabok learns of this later, he'll be sick with envy.]

When I had accepted Jin Gabok's request to exterminate the Snowman-Faced Spider, Mumyeong had told me something: spiritual beasts that reacted extremely to Taoist spiritual energy usually did so when they had something they needed to protect.

"As expected."

Beneath the spider's abdomen sat seven or more round spider eggs.

Even I could sense it. Each one of those would put the inner cores handed out as rewards for the trials at Cheonsubaekryeonsa to shame.

The Snowman-Faced Spider seemed to realize something was off. It hesitated and began to retreat—but behind it lay only the cliff.

I strode forward without hesitation.

I had already passed through every kind of hell. From ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the moment I was ambushed by peddlers in front of Cheonsubaekryeonsa and had my belly carved open with a kitchen knife, I had brushed death more times than I could count. This was already my second fight against a spiritual beast.

The Snowman-Faced Spider was a formidable monster. An ordinary adult man would lose the strength in his legs at the mere sight of its grotesque form and collapse to face death. Twenty-two people. That was the number of ordinary folk Jin Gabok had told me this creature had claimed. It had been deep in the mountains to begin with, and though they had reported it to the authorities four days' travel away, the officials dismissed it as baseless rumor and showed no interest in investigating. That was how things had reached this point.

Before me, a monster the size of a house roared and thrashed.

[An astonishingly fast thrust.]

"What level?"

I asked while dodging a spider leg that grazed past my hair.

[A second-rate martial artist wouldn't last a single exchange before being torn to shreds.]

It felt as if steel rain were falling from the sky.

The spider's eight legs poured down from every direction with a series of thunderous crashes. I evaded every single one without so much as panting.

The spider shrieked in rage and growing terror at its inability to even brush my clothes.

I slipped through the oncoming legs as if a shadow were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dancing, seeping through them. The movements adapted from Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong were bizarre. They were not the movements of a human.

[This is perfect timing. Do not kill it right away.]

"Why?"

[Do you really need to ask?]

Mumyeong said.

[Is this not an excellent opportunity to master Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong?]

The greatest weakness Mumyeong and I both saw in me was the same one Pahwanggun had pointed out when I first began learning martial arts. By copying already perfected, complete techniques, the foundational links between martial arts had remained relatively lacking. It was the growing pain—and the inevitable weakness—I had to bear for advancing at such terrifying speed through copying. That gap had been filled to some degree by mastering numerous arts, yet compared to those who had built their martial arts properly from the ground up, I was still endlessly deficient.

The time my foot slipped, and the times before that… this is a problem I cannot ignore.

I recalled how, at the Ju Family, my foot had slipped on the carpet at the decisive moment and everything had spiraled out of control. After that, more than once I had allowed an opponent to exploit that fleeting gap and taken injuries.

I am still endlessly lacking.

As I grew, rather than feeling satisfied, the flaws I already carried only felt larger. It was like drinking salt water when thirsty. That very feeling drove me to push my training even harder.

To be honest, I am worried.

Even while entrusting me with the request, Jin Gabok had worn a faintly anxious expression. He trusted my skill, yet fretted that I might get injured over this. He had probably assumed I was at least at the entry stage of the Peak realm and worried on that basis. I had not bothered to correct him, but he had overlooked two things.

First, for someone like me who transcended realm distinctions by copying and applying supreme martial arts, fine gradations of realm held little meaning. Second, he had no idea that I had mastered the absolute footwork of the White Lotus Demon Sect—Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong.

Even at the Peak realm, where one freely manipulated qi, the quality of the martial arts one had mastered created vast differences. And I was the sole successor to a lost footwork art of the White Lotus Demon Sect, the ancient mother of both the Demon Cult and the Blood Cult—an art no one else in the entire martial world had mastered.

Ironically, the very hallmark of the Peak realm—freely handling qi—is still incomplete for me.

I made a mental note to focus on qi manipulation when I next had time, and dodged the leg in front of me. My form, trailing red eyes and scattering like black mist, was something the Snowman-Faced Spider's legs could not follow. Its downward strikes were tyrannically fast, yet aside from that terrifying speed they were far too straightforward compared to a martial artist's deceptive attack lines.

I can feel it.

When I first used Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong, I had watched the tips of the spider's legs to dodge. Once that grew familiar, I began reading from a little higher—the mid-joint of each leg. When that too became natural, I was already out of the space about to be crushed simply by seeing the first connection point where the leg met the body twitch.

The spider grew flustered. At last it abandoned its fortress-like stance and took a step sideways. In that moment, a shallow hollow that had been hidden by its abdomen was revealed.

“….”

There, wrapped in spider silk like winter provisions, lay several corpses. From one of them, a child's hand clutching a wooden doll jutted out.

My body flinched.

Mumyeong spoke calmly.

[Practice is over.]

With a massive snowstorm, the fluid flow of my form slammed to a halt. I flung away the swords in both hands. The spider's eyes flashed. The instant it realized the flow of Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong had stopped, it roared ferociously and swung two legs with the force to tear my body to pieces.

I clenched my teeth and seized both legs. Bloodshot eyes blazing, I ripped the two legs clean off. I hurled one away and charged while still gripping the other. The spider drove its remaining legs into the ground. I activated Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong again and slipped past every one of them, then drove the leg into its side like a stake. I dodged the thrashing legs amid its screams, grabbed whatever came to hand, and tore and snapped them. The spider's body spun like lightning. I seized the gaping maw that lunged at me.

"Urgh!"

The spider's jaws clicked and twitched right in front of my face. Its house-sized body shoved forward as if to crush me flat. My body was forced back. The difference in weight was simply too great. Its mouth closed in on my neck. Sticky saliva ran down the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap and reached my elbow.

Crimson light exploded from both my eyes.

A gloomy, damp voice like thunder echoing from the bottom of an abyss resounded through my mind.

My qi and blood boiled as lightning-fire surged through my entire body. Violent backlash made every meridian thrash; veins stood out starkly—then the spider's jaws clenched in my two hands burst apart.

In a flash I closed on its torso, seized two legs on each side, and ripped all four free. The Snowman-Faced Spider screamed. I drove three spider legs into the ground. It dodged sideways; the legs stood in a row like iron bars. Gripping the last remaining leg in both hands, I kicked off the ground.

I leapt high, aiming for the crown of its head, and hurled the spider leg into its skull. It pierced the thick outer shell but not deeply enough. Spinning in midair, I put every ounce of my falling weight and full power into driving the embedded leg deeper.

The air itself seemed to stop. The snowfield shook with a massive tremor. The ground quaked. The spider leg punched clean through its crown and its head burst. In the aftermath, the spider's bodily fluids and the surrounding snow blasted outward in a perfect circle. Frozen bare earth was exposed beneath, and even that earth cracked and split, the shock grazing my cheek.

It was the exact same downward strike I had used when breaking through the Blood Cult's Heavenly Net Formation and when Namgung Sogyo had been in mortal danger—Heaven and Earth Great Shift grafted onto a full-powered smash.

I landed lightly on the ground. Even the snowstorm that had been whipped about by the storm of force scattered, then, as if remembering itself, began to howl fiercely once more.

"You damn bastard… how dare you."

With the red light fading from my eyes like dying embers, I clicked my tongue bitterly.

[Host.]

"What. I finished the job quietly, didn't I?"

[No, not that.]

Mumyeong said.

[You didn't burst the eggs as well, did you?]

At his words I shrugged as if I had expected the question.

"Why do you think I chose 4-star instead of 5-star this time? And I aimed as high as possible."

[…Is that so?]

"Besides, I told you last time with the Golden-Furred Divine Ape. There are countless spiritual beasts in this world, but the vast majority have no inner core in the head. That's why I targeted the head. I also deliberately drove the legs so it would dodge sideways and keep its body weight from crushing the eggs. And finally—"

I used the tip of my blade to roll free the spider eggs that had been half-buried at an angle beneath its lower abdomen. All seven eggs were intact despite the chaos.

"I prepared in advance for the shockwave of the downward strike."

[…]

In front of where the eggs had been, three spider legs stood planted side by side like a dike, having blocked the shockwave.

After a long moment Mumyeong spoke.

[Am I dreaming…?]

"…What are you talking about."

[Perhaps my host was swapped without my noticing. The host I know would never do something like this.]

His voice never rose or fell. It was always the same. If anyone else ever heard it, they would think he possessed no emotions at all. But by now I could tell.

[You have grown. Slightly, but still.]

He was impressed.

"Hmph. Only now you notice? Your host grows in his own way too."

[Yes. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Honestly, I had given up.]

“….”

I decided not to converse any further with this mother-in-law of a voice in my head. Grumbling, I set about what needed to be done. I drew my dagger and slit open the spider's abdomen, then searched inside.

[The same nature as the blood of the Golden-Furred Divine Ape.]

Once Mumyeong confirmed it, I filled an empty gourd bottle with the blood. This time I knew its value, so I tried to collect every last drop. Whether because it was a spider or not, the blood was not as abundant as the Golden-Furred Divine Ape's. Even though it had something like a beating heart for a spider, and I squeezed it completely dry, I barely managed to fill a single bottle. Still, the heavy gourd gave me a solid sense of reassurance. Above all, I had personally experienced the healing power this blood possessed.

Finally I checked what I had eyed most greedily—the seven eggs. As if to protect them, a thick green poisonous mucus that looked extremely potent clung stickily around the eggs. Each was about the size of a fist and perfectly round. Every single one would rival a spiritual pill that reinforced internal energy.

"Seven spiritual pills, huh."

I muttered as I stood before the eggs.

"First proper nourishment since Cheonbaeksam."