The spider

As the cave inside was revealed before their eyes, Hua Shu and Li Zhu's eyes lit up, glancing at all the cultivation treasures growing in the ground.

"Shadow Mushrooms!" exclaimed Li Zhu, spotting small, black mushrooms, which seemed to blend in with their surroundings.

Shadow Mushrooms, as with most spirit plants in this cave, could be used for alchemy. With shadow mushrooms one could make cloaking pills, which allowed the person that took them to be invisible to anyone at their cultivation or lower. Although taking this pill was vastly inferior to using Shadow Lurk, the pills sold for a fortune, since generally people had enemies at their own cultivation, and the invisibility was still very useful.

"Moon-Death fruits!" this time it was Hua Shu who identified a treasure, as she realized there were three Moon-Death fruits right here, growing near the mushrooms.

Although Moon-Death forest was full of these fruits, they generally only grew in the inner forest, and the ones here had probably never been gathered due to their hidden location.

The surprised remarks continued for a while, as the two gained an understanding of their findings.

Quickly yet carefully, Hua Shu gathered all the plants in her spirit ring, the only place they could store them currently.

The cave was quite small, with the diameter of a few yards. As Li Zhu grabbed a shadow mushroom, his hand accidentally brushed onto the wall of the cave, yet something strange happened... he did not feel anything solid.

His hand wet straight into the wall with no resistance whatsoever, which could only mean one thing... it was an illusion!

Realizing this, Li Zhu tried to walk through the wall, and he successfully reached a large, stone hallway, where he saw many more treasures.

The treasures were peculiar, though, since they were covered in black webs, which acted as containers.

Carefully nearing one of the webs, Li Zhu analyzed it, before reaching his conclusion. As with most locations with treasures, there was a guardian beast somewhere in this cave.

From the appearance of the webs, the guardian beast was probably an arachnid, possibly specialized in illusions.

Knowing going further would only bring danger, Li Zhu returned to the room where Hua Shu was still gathering treasures, before asking, "Hua Shu, I think there is a beast guarding the treasures here. Beyond this fake wall there are more rooms with spirit plants, though if we gather them we risk encountering the beast. Do you think we should just take these treasures and leave, or should we go full out way and loot the whole cave?"

This was an important decision, since any beast that had access to so many spirit plants and had never been discovered, would probably be quite powerful.

Although there were many great treasures beyond the wall, the two needed to ask themselves whether the rewards were worth taking a possibly life-threatening risk for.

"No problem Li Zhu, as cultivators we need to take risks! If one always avoids challenges and takes the easy way out, then becoming powerful is impossible!" replied Hua Shu, who followed the same mentality as Li Zhu.

Although risking their lives could be considered quite foolish, the two understood deeply that constantly giving up in the face of adversity would give them doubts and make them indecisive, which would no doubt slow down their journey of cultivation.

Because of this, regardless of the potential outcome, they needed to fight on, and if they were skilled enough they could even gain riches from this.

Having decided the course of action, Li Zhu and Hua Shu both entered the hallway beyond the illusion of the wall, and began to carefully gather the spirit plants trapped inside black webs.

The webs were incredibly strong, and after struggling for some time, they both decided to store the plants within the web and remove them later.

It did not take long for them to notice a few hints of the spirit beast, making them nervous.

Eventually, after they finished looting the hallway, the two got into fighting stance, before slowly entering the large room which they suspected was the living space for the spider type beast.

Buddy crawled near Li Zhu, ready to fuse at the first sight of danger. Hua Shu, instead, had three arrows already knocked into her bow, and heavenly energy was concentrated in her fingertips.

They were ready to fight, and this proved to be a good thing, as the moment the three entered the room, a massive black spider, about the height of two humans, stared them straight in the eyes.

The closeness to the spider frightened Li Zhu and Hua Shu, who jumped back in shock. At that moment, though, they noticed that the spider was not moving, so they assumed it was just sleeping with open eyes.

'This could be a good chance to loot the cave without fighting this monstrosity" lightly whispered Li Zhu, as he tiptoed behind the spider and towards a massive stack of cultivation treasures, all covered in black webs.

Hua Shu held her breath, as she also followed him, trying her best to not alert the spider beast of their presence, since gaining riches without fighting was their main goal.

In the back of a room was a pile of already picked plants, probably what the spider had accumulated from the garden that Li Zhu and Hua Shu had already looted. There were all kinds of fruits and herbs, and Li Zhu made sure he gathered each and every one of them.

Although this was stealing, Li Zhu felt no pity for the spider, since he himself had lost his spirit ring, and was now trying to regain some resources. Although it was not exactly the right thing to do, it was part of life, and Li Zhu needed these plants to grow in strength.

Hua Shu and Li Zhu quickly cleared all the treasures, with only one red herb remaining.

'Might as well pick this one too" whispered Hua Shu, crouching down and picking up the herb, before placing it in her spirit ring.

At that moment, the cave began to rumble and shake. Tuning around, Li Zhu and Hua Shu saw what they had feared most… the guardian beast had woken up!

The last plant was probably placed there on purpose for the spider to know when there were intruders. The beast had left a fragment of its soul in the herb, so that anytime something happened to it, the main soul, the spider, would know.

"How ironic that we just killed greedy thieves, and now we may die for the same reason" as he said this, Li Zhu had a bitter smile on his face, realizing they had messed up.

"This beast is a Mind-Breaking Hundred-Clawed spider, which is at the peak of the ninth stage Qi gathering realm. Although its at the same cultivation as the Wind-storm bat and yourself, this beast is incredibly dangerous, since it can play with your mind and trap you into illusions." Warned Li Zhu, who instantly recognized this beast, which was one of the deadliest under the core consolidating realm.

The one advantage Li Zhu had over most people was his knowledge, which had endlessly grown during his time in the royal palace. He had trained in fighting every day, yet he had also often read books in the library, making it possible for him to recognize most spirit beasts and plants in this continent, at least the more common ones.

Spotting the stolen treasures, the spider had an angry expression, as it suddenly roared, releasing a foul stench into the cave and causing the walls to shake.

Li Zhu, ready to coordinate an attack with Hua Shu, turned towards her, meaning to quickly hatch a plan.

What he did not expect, though, was that as he turned around, he saw Hua Shu aiming her bow towards him, before releasing the flaming arrows.

Luckily for Li Zhu, he was right next to Buddy, and he instinctually fused with him and activated Shadow Lurk, saving himself from certain death.

As he lurked in the shadow in shock, Li Zhu stared at Hua Shu with anger and sadness. After his assassination attempt, the first person he had come to trust again had betrayed him, forcing him to rethink his outlook on human beings.

This seemed suspicious, though, since Li Zhu could not understand the reason why Hua Shu would kill him now. If she wanted all the treasures, she could have just waited until he helped her slay the spider, before killing him and moving on. There was no reason for her actions, which made Li Zhu suspect that something else was going on.

At that moment, while he analyzed Hua Shu from the shadows, Li Zhu saw her turn around towards the spider before yelling, "Li Zhu, the spider disappeared, but it couldn't have gone far. The moment it reappears, we slay it and get this whole fight over with!"

Realization struck Li Zhu, as he realized Hua Shu had not betrayed him, rather she did not know what she was doing… she was trapped in an illusion!

Looking better at the spider, Li Zhu noticed that it was releasing a dark purple fog towards Hua Shu, which was probably the way it was trapping her in an illusion, convincing her that Li Zhu was her enemy.

'Time to fight two enemies at once' thought Li Zhu, who looked extremely serious, knowing that the risk of him dying here was very high.