“Are these things causing the problems in Murknine County?” Gongsun Wan’er asked with a frown. There were so many of the spiders that even a celestial would have trouble dealing with all of them.

However, it didn’t seem likely that things were so simple, especially considering the matter of the soul linkage.

“Let’s take care of these spiders first, then worry about everything else later!” Bai Xiaochun performed an incantation gesture with his right hand, and then waved his finger, causing frigid qi to spread out in all directions. Everywhere it went, the buildings in the city were frozen!

As for the spiders, they instantly went rigid and unmoving. At the same time, Gongsun Wan’er took action, sending black flame down toward the city. This type of flame was different from the multi-colored flame that Bai Xiaochun would conjure as a necromancer. It seemed purer. In fact, as Bai Xiaochun looked at it, he could tell that it contained the power of the seven emotions and six sensory pleasures.

The black fire quickly became a sea of flames that spread out in the area. Instead of interfering with Bai Xiaochun’s frigid qi, it actually complemented it.

Roaring sounds echoed out as countless spiders were killed. However, there were still plenty of spiders left, and they began to clump together, transforming into eight towering piles that rose into the sky!

Soon, the piles formed into eight 300-meter-tall spiders composed of innumerable smaller spiders. Howling, the gigantic spider constructs rushed toward Bai Xiaochun and Gongsun Wan’er.

Because of the conglomeration of spiders that made them up, these larger spiders were no longer at the Foundation Establishment level. They were more like quasi-celestials, and they looked vicious to the extreme.

Anyone other than a celestial who faced a situation like this would have no way to come out alive. Thankfully, the suspicious activity in Murknine County had attracted the attention of not one celestial, but two. Most likely, the ultimate culprit behind everything had not considered that such a thing would transpire.

As the eight enormous spiders neared, Bai Xiaochun prepared to fight. However, Gongsun Wan’er had been holding in her frustration from what had occurred in the first village they encountered. The fact that Bai Xiaochun had ended the impasse before she could had left a deep impression on her. Therefore, she quickly performed an incantation gesture before he could do anything, sending masses of black smoke flying toward the spiders.

Along the way, the smoke broke up into eight ghost hands, which clenched into fists as they smashed into the spiders!

Cracking sounds rang out as the huge spiders collapsed, sending innumerable smaller spiders to their deaths. Before she could do anything to attack those that survived, they landed on the ground and, seemingly completely ignoring how the ground had been frozen and sealed by Bai Xiaochun, began to burrow down into the earth!

To them, the ground was as weak as soft tofu. Within moments, all of the spiders had vanished, leaving behind only fist-sized holes in the ground.

Right now, the earth below almost looked like a giant sieve!

Eyes flickering, Bai Xiaochun dropped down to investigate. Meanwhile, Gongsun Wan’er snorted coldly, performing an incantation gesture that brought all eight of her ghost hands back together to make a larger, vicious-looking hand. That hand clenched into a fist, and then slammed into the ground below Bai Xiaochun!

A massive boom echoed out as the land quaked violently, causing the countless holes that riddled the ground to collapse into a 300-meter-wide cavity!

Dozens of crevices spread out from the cavity in all directions, causing cracking sounds to fill the air. Soon, the entire city was almost completely enveloped!

By this point, the land was little more than a shell supporting the city. As the crevices spread out, the sprawling capital of Murknine County began to collapse.

Shockingly, the area beneath the ground was actually empty. Vast amounts of dirt, tiles, bricks and dust fell downward, and yet, not even that could fill in the huge hole below.

As the dust began to settle, what appeared before Bai Xiaochun and Gongsun Wan’er was a massive crater that instantly struck them to the core with a profoundly wicked sensation. Gray mist poured out of the crater, seemingly without end. Clearly, this crater... was the source of the mist!

It was possible to see little spiders scuttling to and fro, as if this crater were an enormous spider nest!

As Gongsun Wan’er looked down at the massive crater, her expression flickered.

“The source of the soul linkage is down there!” With that, she turned into a blur of motion that headed down into the crater. As for Bai Xiaochun, he blinked a few times, once again aware of the uneasy feeling inside of him. After all, it was a lot more frightening to be unaware of what enemy you were about to face.

Bai Xiaochun didn’t mind at all that Gongsun Wan’er had seized the initiative. Actually, he would prefer it if she could just resolve the whole situation on her own.

However, he followed her down into the crater. It was a massive thing, and also filled with mists that would cause even a demigod to shrink back. Only experts with a celestial cultivation base could possibly travel through it.

As they continued forward, they heard what sounded like the sounds of crunching and chewing. Both Bai Xiaochun and Gongsun Wan’er felt their anxiety mounting, and circulated their cultivation bases as the chewing sounds got louder and louder.

Unfortunately, the gray mists interfered with divine sense, making it impossible for them to know what was happening around them.

The chewing sounded like it was right next to them. At one point, Gongsun Wan’er stopped and looked over at him, and he slapped his bag of holding to produce a tongue of fourteen-colored flame.

Unfortunately, he was really running low on multi-colored flame, and needed to conserve his stockpile. After all, if he ran out, he would be in big trouble when it came to performing spirit enhancements.

But right now, he was in a tight spot, and the ordinary fire produced by various magical techniques didn’t seem as effective as multi-colored flame. And considering how effective the flame had been back in the first village they explored, it was a bit comforting to have some right there in his hand, ready to use.

Now was not the time to be stingy. Therefore, he clenched his hand into a fist, destabilizing the flame and causing bright light to spread out in all directions. Then he hurled the tongue of fourteen-colored flame ahead of him into the depths of the crater.

It moved with incredible speed, exploding in size as it did, and casting out dazzling light that clearly revealed everything it touched. Eventually, it landed in a spot deep in the crater and exploded, sending fourteen-colored flame out in all directions.

As the sea of fire spread out through the crater, Bai Xiaochun and Gongsun Wan’er accelerated, soon reaching the area of impact. Thanks to the brightness of the fire, they were able to see everything clearly. And they were completely shocked!

In the depths of the crater was a huge spiderweb, upon which crouched an enormous spider with a leg span of nearly 10,000 meters. This was the source of the chewing sounds! The spider was brightly colored, and had numerous magical symbols covering it as well as... countless human faces!

There were men, women, young and old, and all of them had expressions of tormented pain. Their mouths were open as though they were screaming, and yet no sound came out. It was bizarre to the extreme!

There were countless smaller spiders in the area as well, marching into the mouth of the huge spider, which was chewing them up and swallowing them. With every smaller spider that was consumed, another human face would appear on the surface of the larger spider!

In fact, Bai Xiaochun even spotted the face of the demigod who had exploded in front of him only a short time ago in the city!

And the bizarreness wasn’t over yet! Behind the huge spider was what appeared to be an egg sac, which was pulsing almost like a beating heart. Apparently, the reason that the huge spider was consuming everything in Murknine County was because of that egg sac!