Victory!

The black-purple fog went over Li Zhu's head, as he reached behind the spider, moving through the shadows.

Since he was trying to distract the spider away from Hua Shu, he quickly popped back up, making sure the beast kept its attention on him, while also trying to stay safe.

After a few rounds of this, it seemed the spider had gotten frustrated, and black webs began flying everywhere, each of its many mouths releasing them. It was a grim sight, since even Hua Shu was forced into the wall, shooting as many arrows as she possibly could, both keeping the webs at bay and working on forming the fire array.

Li Zhu did not dare exit Shadow Lurk any longer, since the moment he was caught by one of those webs it was highly possible that his heavenly energy would be drained. When he had examined the webs in the hallway, he had reached the conclusion that they were intended to trap heavenly energy in the spirit plants to avoid them having weaker effect over time. To do this, the webs blocked all energy flow in whatever they contained, meaning Li Zhu would not be able to hold his fused state if his full body was hit by the webs.

The moment he wasn't fused with buddy anymore, everything would immediately take a turn for the worse, since he could no longer use Shadow Lurk, which was currently his only lifesaving method.

Having realized this, Li Zhu temporarily retreated to the hallway, trying to recover energy and wait for the spider to stop its crazed web shooting. Shadow Lurk required a lot of heavenly energy, so Li Zhu ate many spirit plants at once, in an attempt to recover as much energy as possible.

As his distraction disappeared, the spider began to focus on attacking Hua Shu, who could no longer continue the array. The webs, shot by the spider, had hit a lot of the arrows, moving them from their position, ruining the pattern of the array.

It was unknown whether the spider did this on purpose, but the result was that the whole plan of using a fire array to escape had failed, and Hua Shu was now in a dangerous situation.

Li Zhu had expected this to happen when he had retreated, though there was nothing he could do about it; if he had gotten caught in the webs the result may have been even worse.

Fortunately, with the help of the spirit plants and herbs, energy quickly started flowing through Li Zhu's meridians, giving him a feeling of unprecedented strength.

After only about a minute, Li Zhu had a close to full Dantian, and was ready to begin fighting once again. Although the energy replenishment was fast, there would be consequences, and the reckless ingesting of spirit plants would cause injuries which if he did not heal sooner rather than later, could become chronic.

Meanwhile, the spider was only a few yards away from Hua Shu, who was still holding strong, as arrows flew out of her bow in the hundreds, endlessly slowing down the beast's advancement.

During the minute that Li Zhu had been recovering, the spider had stopped shooting webs, and begun striking with its many legs and shooting blades of energy towards Hua Shu.

Fortunately, although the beast was at the ninth stage Qi gathering, so was Hua Shu, and although she had a disadvantage, she could still hold her ground, and at least delay her fate.

As Li Zhu charged back into the battle, he punched the spider's back using heavenly energy, yet the latter did not even pay him any attention, simply continuing its charge towards Hua Shu.

Li Zhu bounced off the spider, his attack having failed miserably, and his unburned hand, which he had used to punch just now, was lightly injured.

Although Li Zhu had managed to kill an eighth stage cultivator before, there was no way he could harm a ninth stage spirit beast with his cultivation, since the gap in strength was simply too large. Furthermore, spirit beasts were born with stronger bodies than humans, giving them an innate advantage in many aspects, and in this case defense.

The spider had realized this, and it now ignored Li Zhu, only treating Hua Shu as the real enemy. This, of course, made any attempt from Li Zhu to distract the beast useless, since it did not even turn around.

'There has to be a way that I can contribute to this fight' thought Li Zhu, as he helplessly watched the spider close in on Hua Shu, who was now wearing a panicked expression.

After all, this was not a fight at his level of strength, and contributing in any way was a challenge. Thanks to Shadow Lurk, distracting was the most useful ability he had, yet now that was also rendered useless, leading Li Zhu to rack his brain to figure out a way he could help his friend.

Flames surrounded Hua Shu, as arrows flew. Any one of those arrows could injure a ninth stage spirit beast if they came into contact with it, yet the spider would not allow this, as it continuously slashed its legs, splitting and stopping arrows before they reached its large body.

"That's it! If it works, then this can become a whole new type of fighting style!" noticing the strength of the arrows, Li Zhu came up with an idea, which was extremely risky.

Having hastily concocted a plan, it was now the time to take action, as Li Zhu began to do something extremely strange.

As he stood a few yards behind the spider, Li Zhu began to act out a scene, as though he was playing charades.

He extended one arm, while pulling the other one back, as though he was an archer. Then, he continued by acting like he had just released an arrow, before he threw out his hand, apparently catching the invisible arrow.

Li Zhu planned to catch one of Hua Shu's arrows, and send it towards the unassuming spider himself.

He was now trying to communicate this plan with Hua Shu, who, though in extreme pressure, saw him from the corner of her eyes. It was not hard to understand what he planned on doing, yet Hua Shu worried that if he caught one of her arrows his arm would disintegrate, and the plan would fail.

Although this was possible, Li Zhu seemed adamant on trying this plan, and the spider was almost in slashing distance from her, so Hua Shu decided to go for it, as she shot one of her arrows to the right, as though she had missed.

Her aim was perfect, and it flew past the spider, who did not suspect the reason of her apparent failure to hit the target, as it continued to slash with its legs, now only three yards from Hua Shu.

Li Zhu, who had been very alert, with his senses sharpened, jumped towards the arrow, with his burned arm extended, about to catch the arrow, which was flying at lightning speed.

His catch was perfect, and his hand gripped the shaft of the arrow with strength, though the momentum knocked him back a few steps.

He tried to maintain as much heavenly energy in the arrow as possible, by having a black web stuck to his hand. This had the double effect of helping him avoid his hand being destroyed by the flames, and also keeping the strength of the arrow intact, ready to harm the spider.

Li Zhu did not hesitate to enter Shadow Lurk, since his hand was now in extreme pain. Although the webs blocked some of the heavenly energy, the attack was simply too strong, and much of the flames reached Li Zhu's arm, forcing him to grit his teeth.

After entering the shadows, Li Zhu traveled beyond the spider, ready to pop up from underneath it, and poke its eye. The eyes were a weak spot of the spider, and they were the only location in which the flaming arrows could actually severely injure it.

Bracing himself for impact, Li Zhu timed his jump correctly, waiting for the spider to finish a slash, before exiting the shadows, flaming arrow in his hand.

The spider was twice the size of a human, and Li Zhu needed to jump very high to reach its face. That said, he was already a fourth stage cultivator, and such a jump required very little effort.

He quickly reached the face of the spider, which was now realizing what was about to happen. Li Zhu would not allow it to close its eye or counter his attack, though, as he instantly threw the arrow with all his might, directly into one of the spider's eyes.

"Screeeeeeeech"

With a loud wail, the spider was flung backwards, its eye now covered in flames, which were quickly spreading to the rest of its body.

Li Zhu landed on the ground, and he immediately crouched, leaving enough space for Hua Shu to finish the beast off.

That she did, as many flaming arrows hit the now defenseless spider, which had no way to survive, as it finally fell to the ground… dead.

"We did it… we actually did it!" Li Zhu was ecstatic, as he yelled these words, which just a few minutes earlier he would not have expected to say.