Chapter 280: Achieving the Goal
“Didn’t expect the Hunting Spider Queen’s brain core to be this complex.”
At the entrance of the burrow littered with severed limbs and broken corpses, Zhou Ming looked at the brain core removed from the Hunting Spider Queen’s skull and let out a sound of amazement.
Inside the incomparably pure brain core, which resembled transparent crystal, dazzling golden threads formed an extremely intricate structure. Merely observing it with the naked eye caused a distinct sense of dizziness.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
Before Zhou Ming could examine it carefully, the injury on his chest—where the Saint Elephant Type-3 Protective Suit had been torn apart—caused him to cough violently.
“I still underestimated the Hunting Spider Queen’s strength.”
Although the Hunting Spider Queen’s close-quarters combat ability could not compare to Ferocious Beasts of the same tier, her control over Shadow Energy Particles had been extraordinary.
In the final life-and-death struggle, the Hunting Spider Queen had still relied on her bizarre shadow innate spell to inflict fairly serious injuries on Zhou Ming.
Seeing the Shadow Energy Particles lingering on the wound, continuously corroding the flesh on his chest, Zhou Ming put away the brain core and began treating his injuries.
His flesh started to wriggle. A layer of withered skin peeled away, and newly grown tender flesh buds quickly filled in the wound on his chest.
However, the Shadow Energy Particles clung like parasites attached to bone. Even though the injury had healed, traces of shadow energy still remained hidden within the flesh.
Seeing this, Zhou Ming took out a purification potion and drank it.
As the potion took effect, the remaining Shadow Energy Particles in his flesh transformed into a twisted wisp of black smoke and dissipated.
After dealing with his own injuries, Zhou Ming shifted his attention to the giant serpent behind him.
The previously domineering and ferocious giant serpent was now lying on the ground covered in severed limbs and corpses, its body beginning to split apart into individual Ironthread Snakes.
Most of the Ironthread Snakes had already lost their vitality—this was the price the giant serpent had paid for obtaining power approaching that of a Lord-level Ferocious Beast.
Only a small portion of mutated Ironthread Snakes, along with those that had reached the Ferocious Beast level, had survived.
Zhou Ming had long anticipated this outcome. He stepped forward slowly, selected the surviving Ironthread Snakes one by one, and implanted his vacant Spiritual Seeds into them.
This could also be considered an invisible form of selection—only those Ironthread Snakes that survived had the chance to follow him further.
There were twenty-three newly subdued Ironthread Snakes in total: five twice-mutated Ironthread Snakes and eighteen ordinary Ironthread Snakes at the Ferocious Beast level. All had transformed by relying on the resources nurtured within the Endless Forest Sea.
Because the twenty-three Ironthread Snakes were extremely weak at the moment, Zhou Ming immediately stored them in his Beast Taming Space to allow them to recuperate.
At that moment, Zhou Ming suddenly felt his mind become abnormally exhausted—he could not even maintain his Serpentfolk Form.
“Aftereffect of the Platinum Cross?”
Zhou Ming immediately released the snake swarm under his control outside his body. Besides guarding his safety, they also cleaned up the surrounding corpses of the Hunting Demon Spiders.
As for himself, he quickly drank a potion that restored Spiritual Power and sat cross-legged on the ground to begin meditating.
However, to be safe, Zhou Ming also held the Deep Blue Barrier scroll he had obtained at the auction in his hand, ensuring that any unexpected danger would not threaten his life.
An hour later, after recovering most of his Spiritual Power, Zhou Ming reopened his eyes.
“It seems I’ll need to collect more treasures that can quickly restore Spiritual Power in the future.”
Although the Platinum Cross had excellent effects, its aftereffects could potentially leave him in a dangerous situation.
After some thought, Zhou Ming temporarily set the matter aside. He did not waste any more time and directed the snake swarm—still devouring the corpses of the Hunting Demon Spiders—toward the burrow entrance.
The snake swarm entered the underground nest and began roaming along the tunnels, probing the structural layout of the Hunting Demon Spider Nest.
A short while later, a structural map of the nest appeared in Zhou Ming’s mind. It covered an area of nearly several hundred meters in radius and extended nearly a hundred meters underground. The network of tunnels was exceptionally complex and winding.
It could be said that the Hunting Demon Spider nest was like an underground fortress. Without the assistance of the snake swarm’s scouting, it would have been difficult to understand the nest’s layout in a short time.
Soon, relying on the map of the nest’s distribution, Zhou Ming found Mysterious Black Crystal Stone within a cavern densely covered with spider eggs.
“Didn’t expect the Hunting Demon Spiders to use the Mysterious Black Crystal Stone as a warm bed for incubating their eggs.”
With the ability granted by his Dark-gold Serpent Pupils, Zhou Ming saw clusters of spider eggs resembling bunches of grapes adhered to the surface of the Mysterious Black Crystal Stone, absorbing the energy contained within it as they grew.
There was no need for Zhou Ming to act personally. The snake swarm immediately began devouring the spider eggs rich in vitality. After some selection, Zhou Ming ultimately obtained only one cubic meter of usable Mysterious Black Crystal Stone.
“Still short of two cubic meters of Mysterious Black Crystal Stone.”
Zhou Ming continued searching. Eventually, in a cavern at the deepest layer of the nest—where the Hunting Spider Queen had resided—he discovered a vein of Mysterious Black Crystal Stone.
“Golden Horn, this time I’m counting on you.”
Looking at the Mysterious Black Crystal Stone embedded in the rock wall, Zhou Ming revealed a faint smile and summoned Golden Horn to his side, ordering him to use the golden horn on his head to ram the rock wall and mine the crystal.
After finally getting a chance to show off his strength, Golden Horn unexpectedly found himself being used as manual labor by his master.
However, while Golden Horn was left mining the Mysterious Black Crystal Stone, Zhou Ming discovered several more crystal veins during his continued exploration of the Hunting Demon Spider nest.
Soon, Vermilion Jade’s bone blades and Colorful Scales’ corrosive venom were all put to use by Zhou Ming.
After spending ten High-grade Source Crystals to purchase the intelligence, he naturally had to recover the cost. Any excess Mysterious Black Crystal Stone could be sold.
For a time, Zhou Ming’s snake swarm transformed into a mining team—some were responsible for excavating the crystal from rock walls, some specialized in transportation, and others cleared out young spiders hatching from the eggs.
Only Zhou Ming himself was left with nothing to do. Taking advantage of the downtime, he began examining the newly subdued twice-mutated Ironthread Snakes.
Half an hour later, Zhou Ming had gained a general understanding of the five twice-mutated Ironthread Snakes.
He named them Ruyi, Youmeng, Ma Mang, Blood Fang, and Black Fiend.
Ruyi was five meters long, covered in green scales. For a short time, it could double its body size, enhancing all its abilities.
Youmeng was three meters long, with pale white scales. It could emit a colorless and odorless hallucinogenic poison gas.
Ma Mang was seven meters long, its scales primarily red and black patterned. At the tip of its tail was a ten-centimeter spike capable of injecting prey with a toxin that caused extreme weakness.
Blood Fang was five meters long, its scales arranged in a black-and-white grid pattern. It possessed sharp, sturdy teeth on both upper and lower jaws, with a certain tearing characteristic.
Black Fiend had the largest body, already reaching ten meters in length. Its strength had reached the limit of low-tier Ferocious Beast. Although it had no special ability, it was extremely bloodthirsty and combative.
Because its scales were predominantly black, Zhou Ming named it Black Fiend.
These five twice-mutated Ironthread Snakes, relying on the abundant resources of the Endless Forest Sea, had all advanced to the low-tier Ferocious Beast level.
However, growing to the high-tier Ferocious Beast level had previously existed only in theory.
But now, with Zhou Ming’s help, it was different.
High-tier Ferocious Beast was not their limit.