As the lightning net teetered on the verge of collapse, the webbing on Xing Tian had already been mostly undone.
And Bai Jie, hidden within the "Lightning Net Barrier" to evade the nanites, could no longer fire more webs.
Xing Tian slowly rose. The cannon port on its abdomen began charging, gathering violent energy.
Bai Jie was puzzled. Rockets and flames clearly couldn't breach the "Lightning Net Barrier," so why was Xing Tian going through this unnecessary effort?
The thought had barely flashed through his mind when his heart suddenly jolted. Fear crawled into every corner of his body, and Spider Sense made his body move instinctively.
A cerulean beam shot forth from Xing Tian's abdomen with a thunderous roar. It was so fast, like light itself, that Bai Jie couldn't react at all.
All Bai Jie felt was a flash of blue before his eyes, and then searing pain erupted from his body.
Ding!
[Alert: Host Vitality dropped to 580]
A small chunk of the demon spider's right side had vanished, and four of its spider legs had turned to ash...
The wounds were far too severe, with scorch marks still lingering at the edges.
Looking again at the "Lightning Net Barrier," a hole had somehow been torn through it, with ripples spreading outward around the breach.
Amidst a violent tremor, the lightning net finally collapsed with a snap!
Countless nanomechanical insects instantly swarmed in!
"Xing Tian... Xing Tian..."
The name echoed endlessly in the demon spider's mind. It didn't even hear Wang Miaoyin's urgent calls.
Though its body's wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, new limbs growing, the rage in the demon spider's heart would not fade because of it.
To be wounded like this by a former defeated foe!
The demon spider was furious beyond measure. Its spiritual energy boiled away as it instantly condensed over thirty lightning lances and hurled them all at Xing Tian.
Xing Tian raised its great axe to resist, but behind the demon spider, a pair of eyes reflecting a blood moon emitted strange, eerie fluctuations.
"Life and Death Standstill!"
In that instant, Xing Tian's form froze.
Coupled with the fact that its shield had long been destroyed under the bombardment of 'Heavenly Lightning Draw,' the blue-violet light pillars met little resistance, impaling Xing Tian like steel rods driven into its body, sending its just-risen form staggering again.
At the same time, the dense swarm of nanomechanical insects was also biting into Bai Jie's body...
Right at this moment,
Bai Jie suddenly saw that the center of Xing Tian's chest had been torn apart by lightning, explosions of fire blooming one after another, and a hatch door burst open with a bang.
Inside the hatch lay a figure, barely clinging to life.
For some inexplicable reason, Bai Jie felt that the silhouette was familiar.
Ding!
[Alert: Host Vitality continuously decreasing!]
[575], [570], [560]
[...]
Ignoring the system's warnings and the nanomechanical insects biting from every angle without blind spots, he concentrated his psychic force toward that figure.
His heart instantly trembled.
At this moment, he even forgot to breathe, forgot the pain, forgot the desperate situation he was in.
Because the person inside Xing Tian's hatch was, unmistakably...
Why was it him?
Why was the one piloting Xing Tian, trying to kill him, someone who had once been his friend?
It must be an illusion...
A pre-death illusion...
The chill in his soul and the torment of his body being devoured struck him doubly, making the pain nearly kill him in an instant.
Darkness, endless and boundless darkness, surged in like a tide, wrapping tightly around him.
Though "High-Speed Regeneration" was working tirelessly without pause, it still couldn't stop the nanomechanical insects' horrifying, locust-like devouring!
Crackle. A faint electric hum surrounded him.
The demon spider barely managed, with its nearly depleted spiritual energy, to cover its body surface with a layer of electric arcs to crush the nanomechanical insects, preventing itself from being consumed into nothingness in an instant.
But once this layer of arcs on its body surface lost its spiritual energy support and vanished—
Without a doubt, it would also meet the end of its life.
As the cells of its body were devoured one by one, Vitality plummeted rapidly.
This speed made Bai Jie feel fear like never before, tasting the flavor of death.
Its consciousness and soul felt as though they were being torn apart in every direction by pliers, on the verge of shattering, ready to break into countless fragments at any moment.
At the same time, a multitude of complex emotions intertwined in its heart.
Before these emotions, death didn't seem quite so terrifying.
Despair, unwillingness, self-mockery, rage...
The terror and authority of the Heaven's Punisher far exceeded imagination. The Federation Military District actually possessed such a devastating weapon of mass destruction.
But what the demon spider couldn't understand even more was—why was he piloting Xing Tian, and why had he participated in the operation to hunt it down, even pushing it to the brink of death?
The system alerts kept coming:
[520], [510], [500]
[...]
Its vision was now completely shrouded by the boundless black mist formed by nanomechanical insects. It could see no color, hear no sound, and its psychic force could no longer spread outward.
Suddenly, however, Bai Jie sensed a familiar presence rapidly approaching.
Why had she come back?
The demon spider was surprised, but even more so, deeply worried.
"Big Sister?"
That sweet, naïve voice called out, just as usual.
"What are you doing here? Get away from here, now!"
The demon spider urgently sent a voice transmission to drive her away.
Whoosh!
Amidst the endless black smoke, a golden flash appeared, and Bai Huahua was suddenly right before its eyes.
Even more miraculously, the nanomechanical insects didn't bite her.
"I sensed that Sister Bai Zhi was in danger, so I came." Bai Huahua explained.
"Don't worry, Big Sister, all the little ones are safe now."
Then, under the demon spider's astonished gaze, she climbed onto its head, just as she always did.
What was different from usual was that Bai Huahua didn't cry out in pain from touching the electric arcs.
And moreover, the head she landed on was now terribly mangled, purple blood constantly oozing out only to be devoured by the nanites—a truly miserable sight.
Seeing this, she closed her ruby-like eyes. Perhaps it was to hide the fear in them, or perhaps she couldn't bear to look at such horrific wounds.
In a slightly trembling voice, she comforted:
"Don't be afraid, Big Sister. It won't hurt soon."
Healing vitality seeped from Bai Huahua's jade-like scales, constantly mending the demon spider's wounds.
But the rate at which Vitality was dropping only slowed slightly—it didn't stop.
And the electric arcs on the demon spider's body surface grew fainter and fainter...
"Stupid snake, it's useless. Get out of here, now."
The voice transmission carried a hint of a bitter smile.
"I don't want to."
The little golden-white snake kept its eyes tightly shut, the golden energy it transmitted growing more and more. "I will heal Big Sister."
The demon spider couldn't help but sigh. "Once I die, you'll be their next target. So get away while you still can."
"No, I won't leave Sister Bai Zhi. Wherever Big Sister is, that's where I'll be."
The little snake conveyed its voice with a firmness it had never shown before.
It sounded like both willful stubbornness and a childish vow.
Immediately, the demon spider was both furious and enraged, its volume suddenly spiking:
"Stupid snake! I told you to get lost! Can't you understand?!"
"I'm not leaving. Even if I die, I want to be with Big Sister."
"How can you be this stupid? You're not even afraid of death? These bugs hurt like hell when they bite. Still not leaving?!"
But no matter how the demon spider raged and scolded, the little snake didn't budge an inch. It said nothing more, just silently pressed close against the spider's body...
Why?
At some point, the demon spider no longer had the strength to send voice transmissions, yet this question kept repeating in its heart.
When clearly, with your constitution, even if the mutated venom backfired, that tiny bit of toxicity couldn't possibly harm you.