It was just a pity... that it had to drag Bai Huahua, this stupid snake, to die alongside it.
And Lin Binbin, Long Ge, Yang Shining, Wang Miaoyin—according to the properties of 'Mutated Venom,' they probably wouldn't survive either.
Perhaps only Yang Shining could rely on the protection of that pendant to grasp a sliver of hope.
I once fantasized countless times about turning back into a human, walking into normal human society, and beginning a brand-new life...
But now, it seemed I would ultimately never regain a human body. I suppose I had gotten lost and couldn't find my way home anymore...
No matter how the humans had found me, or why Chen Zhang had been involved—none of it mattered anymore. It was all over...
Though countless thoughts flashed by in an instant, Bai Jie's heart remained as still as a lake's surface, like an ancient well without ripples.
Death refuses all understanding.
In the next second, Bai Jie did not meet death.
But it "saw" something it could never, ever have believed...
A mass of...
Pink-purple... glow!
Suddenly emerging from its ruined body!
That glow had no form or scent, yet it was utterly strange and breathtakingly beautiful.
The eerie purple light!
Bai Jie's heart was as if stormy seas had risen, with thunder roaring and shaking.
This thing... had it been inside its body all along?!
In that instant, scenes from the past flashed like a revolving lantern through its memory.
The prophetic dream and reality of the meteorite's fall. The strange sensation when first discovering the meteorite fragment in Zheng Yueling's room. The temptation and satisfaction each time it devoured spiritual essence...
And the reason why, right after being reincarnated as an Amazonian Laser Tarantula, it displayed different characteristics from other tarantulas.
Could it be... that I've been parasitized by the eerie purple light all this time?!
But why had I never sensed anything abnormal before, nor the presence of the eerie purple light within me?
"Bai Zhi, be careful. Don't let that thing assimilate you!"
At this moment, that earlier alluring, seductive voice came through again.
Whose voice was this?
The pink-purple glow slowly drifted, enveloping Bai Jie's ruined body, and also wrapping around Bai Jie's last wisp of spiritual consciousness.
That familiar drowsiness surged up...
Making Bai Jie want to hand over control of its body, and even more so, wanting this wisp of consciousness to sink into slumber.
But in some deep, instinctive way, Bai Jie knew—this sleep was different from past evolutions. If it fell asleep now, it might truly never wake again!
Having finally awakened with such difficulty, was it still powerless to make any change?
...
Outside the black mist formed by nanomechanical insects.
"Say, why hasn't the nanite swarm dispersed yet? Bai Zhi can actually hold out this long?!"
Jian Xin and the others watched "Wang Miaoyin" as if facing a formidable enemy. The moment she made the slightest move, they would strike immediately.
Because the current situation undoubtedly favored their side. Once Bai Zhi was dead, Wang Miaoyin would be no threat at all. With the help of the Heaven's Punisher's nanomechanical insects, what was there to fear from a single Wang Miaoyin?
"Wang Miaoyin" glanced at the black mist, a hint of worry crossing her face. She had just taken one step forward when she turned her head toward a certain direction.
"Hm?"
The others also noticed something unusual and followed Wang Miaoyin's gaze.
They saw a maiden of celestial beauty and jade-like features, dressed in a long aqua-green dress, walking with delicate, lotus-like steps through the woods and arriving at the devastated mountaintop battlefield.
Who was she?
Shouldn't all irrelevant personnel near the rear mountain have been evacuated already? Could it be some death-defying Wu Gu Clan disciple?
Questions and conjectures floated up in the Secret Keepers' minds.
"You're... that brat from the Jiuli Clan?"
Long Bingheng suddenly exclaimed in shock. "What are you doing here?!"
Zi Chen murmured, "Jiuli? I feel like I've heard that name before..."
The newcomer was none other than the Jiuli Saintess—Yang Shining.
Yang Shining didn't even glance at Long Bingheng or the group of Secret Keepers. After stealing a look at the bewitching red-haired woman, she fixed her gaze upon the mass of black mist.
From the soft valley of her bosom, she retrieved the black crystal pendant, unclasped it from her neck, and let the pendant emit dazzling radiance as it flew on its own toward the black mist.
Yang Shining watched the pendant fly into the distance, her eyes dazed, her expression complex.
"What is that girl... doing?" Jian Xin asked, puzzled.
Long Bingheng's mind stirred and he said, "She must be in league with Bai Zhi. Why haven't you arrested her yet?"
Zi Chen and Li Wang cast inquiring glances at Gui Yu, but Gui Yu acted as if he hadn't heard Long Bingheng's words at all.
Jian Xin also didn't dare make any rash moves, because he was still wary of Wang Miaoyin's presence.
In the blink of an eye, the black crystal pendant plunged into the insect swarm's black mist and vanished.
At the same time, as the black crystal pendant entered, "Wang Miaoyin's" lips curled up slightly, revealing a breathtakingly beautiful smile. The two blood moons in her eyes flashed with light, and her enchanting figure transformed into a streak of blood-colored flowing light, plunging into the insect swarm's black mist as well!
"What?!" Jian Xin cried out.
"Did I just see that correctly?"
"Has she gone mad? Wait, no—isn't losing control basically the same as going mad?"
Zi Chen's and Li Wang's faces were filled with bewilderment.
"This woman... doesn't want to live?" Even Gui Yu's eyes showed a trace of astonishment.
In everyone's view, the outcome was already decided. Wang Miaoyin's only option was to flee.
But instead, she had chosen to enter the nanomechanical insect swarm with her physical body—a result far more gruesome than falling into a meat grinder.
...
Within the black mist formed by nanomechanical insects.
"Sister Bai Zhi..."
A little golden-white snake gleamed with golden radiance, tears shimmering in its eyes as it sobbed softly, protecting the remaining half of a spider head.
And the little snake's outer perimeter was wrapped by a mass of pink-purple eerie glow. Beyond the pink-purple glow were the countless nanomechanical insects.
The pink-purple glow seemed to form a protective barrier, isolating the spider from the swarm's devouring.
Suddenly, a pendant radiating a clear light abruptly inserted itself into the black mist. Ignoring the insect swarm, it passed through the pink-purple glow and pressed directly against the half spider head, remaining motionless, like an eye.
"Huh?" Bai Huahua stopped her sobbing.
Following that, something unbelievable happened.
The body tissue that had been eaten away began to regenerate and grow at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The spider's head, its eight blue-violet eyes, its back, its abdomen, a pair of pedipalps, eight legs, the patterns reappearing...
And correspondingly, the pink-purple glow's volume gradually shrank, trembling and twisting, its color and brightness dimming...
The pink-purple glow could no longer cover the spider's form, and the insect swarm resumed its devouring.
Bai Huahua, who had already sunk into despair, felt the miraculous changes beneath her. Her ruby-like vertical pupils, veiled in tears, once again lit up with brilliance. She exclaimed in joy:
"Sister Bai Zhi, you're finally awake?"
But the spider, its body newly remolded, did not respond to her, as if still deep in slumber.
...
Just as the black crystal pendant merged with the physical body of the spider in reality,
Influenced by the pendant's power, Bai Jie's consciousness, which had been on the verge of chaos, cleared once more.
However, the crisis was not yet resolved.
Its consciousness had fallen into a mysterious, dazzling river of stars, rippling and swaying.
At this moment, a flash of spiritual insight came to it, and it now understood many things.