After three days, I woke up reluctantly from my meditation.
You can never have enough rest in the face of an important day, especially if shit hits the fan, you could end up dead.
I shook my head and stood up, heading to the door where the Sect Master and Elder Wei, and elder Fu-Tian, were waiting.
This new elder, I never had a full interaction with him. He was not as old as elder Wei and looked slightly bulky even under the robes of the sect. He had a full beard and was bald with a large gash of a scar going from one side of his face to the other.
It gave him a feral look and seemed rather too 'Masculine' for him to treat it, it actually gave him an edgy good look.
"Elders," I nodded to the people outside.
"This is the brat that you said will help take down a half Saint Creature? Are you sure Sect Master," Elder Fu Tian said?
Before the sect master could reply, "Oh, hell no, I'm not helping with that, I still want to live, I'll only lure her out, you all will be the ones taking care of the 'Killing' her part. Once my job is done, I'll head to where the Sect Master is," I said.
"I didn't expect you to speak like a coward…" the elder said.
"There is a difference between being a coward and being a dumb idiot, I'm not planning on killing myself, anyway, do you all get the gist of the plan?" I asked.
Elder Wei nodded and so did the Sect Master.
"And we're supposed to believe that you, whatever your cultivation level is… is it, Nascent Soul?"
"Yes," I said.
"Ugh, a Nascent Soul cultivator, you said, is capable of pulling out a Saint Class beast," he said.
"Half Saint, if she fully transforms, I don't even want to pull her out," I said.
"Anyway, you seem confident, what if she doesn't come out?" asked Elder Fu Tian.
"Then, nothing changes and I'll keep treating the people here," I said.
"And you agree with this brat?" the irritating elder asked the Sect Master.
"His plan sounds solid, though I don't understand how he is capable of pulling the spider out, we'll have to trust him," the Sect Master said.
"I hope for your sake that there is a spider, otherwise if you're just wasting our time…"
"Well, I actually hope that there is no spider, but we can't all have what we hope for, that threat is real, and believe me you'll experience it firsthand. Anyway, Sect Master, did you gather the kids?" I asked.
"They're all at my own palace," he said.
I looked up, the distance between the Sect Master's Palace at the main Mountain Peak and my own small palace was pretty great, however, he could easily cover the distance in no time. I've seen his speed firsthand in the arena.
The reason why I tasked the Sect Master with staying with the kids, was for the fact that he is the only one capable of fighting against the spider one-on-one, and in case her nest is underneath the palace or near the kids he can stall her out and provide time for the disciples to escape.
As for the elders they'll be separated to guard the northern and southern parts of the sect. The west and east parts of the sect are pretty much empty and if the spider is anywhere around that area it'll be the best-case scenario because the elders and the sect master can both converge towards those areas and clear out the spiders.
"Right, I'll begin shortly, I hope we're all ready," I said.
Elder Wei nodded to me, turned, and shot forward to the northern part of the sect.
The second elder took a moment, looked me up and down then scuffed before he turned and headed to the south.
The sect master took a couple of steps and I could already feel his presence over the main palace in the distance.
Good, there are a few other elders on standby in case shit goes ugly, though they can't fight the Spider Queen, they can help with evacuating, and even staling her.
Now, my job to start this charade.
I pulled a small talisman with a small hole in the middle of it and hundreds upon hundreds of inscriptions surrounding it.
I placed it in front of my mouth, took a massive breath, then pointed the talisman up.
Then, I released the pent-up breath through the talisman creating a massive cloud of poison that shot up forward like a blasted torrent.
The cloud and the poison shot up like it had been ejected from the depths of hell and soon began coiling above the sect and under the dome.
I took another breath then released a second poison breath that followed after then a third and fourth.
Soon I received a divine sense message.
"Ling Cao, what are you doing?" asked the sect master as he realized that the poison cloud was becoming more and more dangerous the more I blew poison into it.
I took a couple of breaths and chugged down a couple of pills I made thanks to the many herbs I now have.
"I'm evacuating the spider," I said.
"This looks like poison, wouldn't this harm the students?" he asked.
"It's harmless to humans and plants. But it has a different effect on other creatures… and it's the reason I didn't want to use it," I said.
I then blew another gout of poison cloud and soon, the poison became thick enough that it started raining.
It rained pale green droplets above the entire sect and soon everyone who was watching what was happening seemed to realize that something wasn't right.
Looking around, the small animals and critters that would usually loiter around the sect, the birds and frogs seemed to go insane.
The small creatures began fighting against each other as if they had seen their mortal enemy, kin killed kin, and prey killed predator. The carnage that began on the sect was nothing compared to a full-on war, but for some reason, seeing a flock of pigeons pecking a small eagle to death, and rats biting their way through the flesh and bone of cats made everyone look at the world as if it had lost all of its logic.
The carnage began and seemed wrong, it looked wrong, and was wrong. It left a bad taste in my mouth and I was the one who instigated it. However, this was all for one reason.
"What is this Ling Cao?" asked the Sect Master, there was confusion worry, and utter shock in his voice.
"It's a toxin that affects a part of the brain. The Amygdaloids, or the Amygdala of the brain…" I said
"And what is this amygda- that thing you just said…"
"Oh, that's the part that is responsible for decision making, anxiety, fear, and aggression, I modified this toxin to not affect only one type of Amygdaloids and those are human amygdaloids, anything else, it'll send them to a frenzy like never before, they'll fear nothing, worry about nothing and their rationality will be struck against the wall, they'll fight and kill as if it is the last thing they'll do, they won't fear fang or claw and will keep fighting as long as there is a breath left in them…"
"And how is that going to help us get the spider out? Won't that just make it angry?" the sect master asked.
"Yes, it'll make it angry, very so, angry enough that she won't even bother feeding anymore and will come out to kill anything in its way, exposing its lair, like I said, I'm not a fan of this plan, but this is the only way to pull that creature out…" I said.
"Right, but I still can't locate it, I'm using my divine sense everywhere…" the sect master said.
"Don't worry, rain is all-penetrating, it'll soon find its way into one of the spider's own tunnels, nest or hiding, once a single drop comes in contact with the creature, or the toxin in the water infiltrates the air of the lair, we'll know where the spider is," I said with confidence.
Suddenly, the Sect Master Spoke, "I felt a tremor under me!" he then sent a shocking wave of divine sense and soon spoke up, "Damnation! You're actually right, it's here but it was hidden too deep! It's coming up!"
"Sect master…" spoke Wei, his voice was slightly trembling, "I also just felt a tremor…I think there is another spider here it's big, and it's coming up."
"Shit…" spoke Fu Tian, I didn't need to hear what he had to say because I could already guess it.
Not only I could guess that he too felt a tremor, but I at the same time felt the vibrations of the ground underneath me.
"What in god's name is happening in this sect!" I cursed as I took several ancient steps back from where I stood only to be stunned at what came out from where I was standing a few seconds ago.
Two massive hairy membranes shot up from under the ground. They had a thin but sturdy-looking structure and seemed to be bendable.
The two membranes looked like scissors and soon spread apart, then pinned themselves to the ground. With force, they heaved and pulled whatever that was attached to them to the overground.
In front of me was a creature that had Eight Eyes that were as big as elephants. And those were only its eyes…
And from the looks of things, there were three more, each underneath one of the elders, and two more that emerged from the east and west and were coming here.
"Well…shit."