Breaking the illusion

At this moment, Li Zhu had a choice to make: either he could use Shadow Lurk and escape from the cave, or attempt to kill the spider and save Hua Shu.

Although he had not known her long, Hua Shu had saved him from bandits, which had left a deep impression of her in Li Zhu.

On one hand, he did not owe her anything, and leaving could save his life, allowing him a chance to regain his former glory. On the other hand, if he did abandon Hua Shu in this time of need, he would be the very type of person he hated the most: betrayers.

Li Zhu had his own principles, and though tempted, he would never be willing to betray a friend and leave them to die. If he did that, then there would be no point to get his own revenge anymore, since he had acted the same way as the person who had betrayed him. By doing this he would be admitting that this behavior was acceptable, making revenge pointless.

Lastly, although Li Zhu did not even take this into consideration, Hua Shu did in fact have the spatial ring with the treasures they had gathered, and if he escaped it would be empty-handed.

For all these reasons, Li Zhu gritted his teeth, deciding to kill this spider, and save his friend. Neither today or ever would he betray someone that trusted him, regardless of danger.

First of all, he needed to find a way to break Hua Shu out of the illusion. If he did not do this, there was no chance he could face two enemies at the ninth stage Qi gathering realm, and he would undoubtedly die.

Luckily, Li Zhu had an idea which could work. If he managed to get his hands on the spirit plants they had gathered, he could use a mixture of them to temporarily boost Hua Shu's soul strength, making it possible for her to brake out of the illusion herself.

There was one key problem though... the spirit ring with the plants was on Hua Shu's finger! To steal this ring, he would need to come out of Shadow Lurk, exposing him to the attacks of both Hua Shu and the spider, which was just waiting for Li Zhu to appear again.

Li Zhu did not have much time to think of a plan, though, since he was afraid the spider would not wait for much longer for him to reappear, and just attack Hua Shu. Furthermore, at his cultivation level, Shadow Lurk could only last for a few minutes, and at the moment it was the only ability he had that could keep him alive.

Putting his plan into action, Li Zhu hopped from shadow to shadow, quickly reaching Hua Shu, who was still standing with her bow drawn and a serious expression, ready to shoot at first sight.

He reached right below her, preparing himself to steal the ring and instantly return to the shadows. To avoid being killed in the split second he went out, Li Zhu decided to only send his arm out of the shadow, so that even if he failed he would not risk being attacked.

Having prepared himself, Li Zhu's arm flashed, instantly reaching Hua Shu's hand, which had the ring. Hua Shu though, her senses heightened by the battle at hand, turned around instantly.

It was too late, though, since Li Zhu had already slipped the ring off her finger, and his arm was close to disappearing.

It seemed as though Hua Shu was not okay with the result though, and she angrily stomped the ground, creating a sea of flames, which engulfed Li Zhu's arm.

"Argh!"

Pain flooded through his arm, after Li Zhu fully returned to the shadow. 'I need to be more careful… that was a close call, but it was the only possibility I had' thought Li Zhu, realizing that he had almost lost his arm.

His arm was now completely red from burn marks, though it was not to the point that heavenly energy could not heal. At the same time, fighting would be harder.

'At least I got it' He thought, staring at the shiny spirit ring in his hand, with a relieved expression. The spirit ring was not a living being, so Li Zhu could bring it with him in Shadow Lurk, and it would not be seen by anyone.

This also worked for the plants, which having already been picked, were now dead. Li Zhu tried to remember the basic plant combinations he had learned in the library, while searching through the available ones.

He was not able to make a specific mix of plants which could break an illusion, because that was beyond his knowledge, but he could make a very generic soul strengthening mix, which would allow Hua Shu to save herself.

Although he knew close to nothing about alchemy, Li Zhu did know about many spirit plants and their effects, making it possible for him to assume the combined effect of different ones.

"mmh, Soul Sage, that could help… Ten-Minds vines, not bad" Li Zhu ran through all the plants he had, choosing the best ones, which he gathered together. At the same time, he kept an eye on the spider, making sure it didn't attack Hua Shu.

The latter was patient, though, since it had just seen Li Zhu's arm, proving he was still nearby. Its many spider legs were flexed, ready to strike.

Li Zhu quickly concocted a mixture of herbs, by crushing them into powder, which he bundled into a small little sphere, wrapped with his heavenly energy. The "pill" was basically a smoke bomb inside a thin energy wrapping, so the moment it came into contact with something solid, the particles would fly everywhere, and Hua Shu would be forced to inhale it.

He now got ready for the second time he would exit Shadow Lurk. The skill was now close to running out, and he needed to give this pill to Hua Shu quickly, so that he would have a helping hand in fighting the spider.

This time, he still decided to use the burned arm, since he believed one very injured arm was better than two lightly injured arms, at least when it came to fighting.

His arm flashed again, this time for even less time than before. Li Zhu only threw the pill towards Hua Shu, before immediately retracting his hands.

His aim was true, though, and the pill perfectly reached Hua Shu's face, where it exploded into herb powder, making Hua Shu cough as she breathed it in.

What followed was a light, shining from Hua Shu, as she moved her hand around, with conflicting emotions flashing by,

At one point she looked excited, ready to break through the illusion, at other moments she seemed unwilling, trying to return. There were even times that she pinched herself, trying to get back to reality.

Hua Shu fought a battle of will against the spider, while Li Zhu could only watch helplessly on the sidelines. Fortunately, she had clearly lived through her fair share of challenges, and in the end, she did manage to break herself out of the illusion, making her turn her head towards the spider, finally realizing what was happening, and immediately beginning her attack.

Although she felt guilty about harming Li Zhu, there was no time to apologize, since they needed to deal with the major issue of the spider, which could kill them at any moment if they were not careful.

The spider's major advantage was its ability to trap people inside illusions, yet now both Hua Shu and Li Zhu were immune, since Hua Shu had her soul strength temporarily boosted by the pill, and Li Zhu had already begun to develop the "Will of a cultivator" (chapter 10), which made his soul incredibly powerful.

Because of this, they had no reason to fear the illusion skill of the spider, though they did have to watch out for its other attack skills, which it being a peak ninth stage beast, would not be weak.

Hua Shu began shooting a barrage of fire arrows, a very familiar sight. She was attempting to form a fire array, which would allow them to trap the beast long enough for them to escape from the cave and leave the forest.

Although slaying the spider was a more desirable result, since they would gain a very valuable nucleus core, escaping was much better than dying, and they would still have all the spirit plants they had gathered from the cave.

Li Zhu, understanding what Hua Shu was attempting to do, rushed towards the spider, trying to distract it long enough to allow the fire array to be finished. Of course, he was ready to enter Shadow Lurk at any time, since an attack from a ninth stage spirit beast was likely to kill him, if he did not use the heavenly dragon shield.

His plan was to avoid every attack that the spider threw at him by melding with the shadows, yet also keeping the attacks away from Hua Shu, who was busy forming the array, shooting hundreds of arrows.

As Li Zhu neared the spider, one of its many sharp legs flashed towards him, accompanied by a purple-black fog, which was no doubt meant for trapping him in an illusion.

Although he was immune to that, his soul strength was not yet strong enough to completely ignore the fog, and it would still leave him dazed for a few seconds if it hit.

Knowing this, Li Zhu instantly fell into the shadows, as he thought with a bitter smile, 'This is going to be a long fight!'