The Mountain Spider requested to battle Peter, largely because Peter himself was far too out of the ordinary. If Peter was to participate in the Immortal Trial, the Mountain Spider needed to gauge the general boundaries of his strength. Only in this manner could it determine how much of its own power to utilize during the trial.
After all, if it used the same level of trial difficulty as it did for previous Immortal Weapons, Peter would likely speed-run through it in a matter of minutes.
On the other side, Peter had changed into a set of clean clothes that were convenient for movement. This battle was different from his clashes with supervillains. To better adapt to and comprehend the Mountain Spider's immortal power, he was required to abstain from using any forces not bestowed upon him by the spider totem. In other words, the nano-suit, magic, and Anti-Venom were all unusable.
Furthermore, this was precisely the prerequisite for the trial itself. Technology was deemed an unclean thing, meaning such forces could not be brought into the trial when the time came. As for spider silk, since you inherently cannot organic-web spin either, it would be treated as nonexistent. The web-shooters were unusable as well; instead, he was given a bundle of rope to serve as his webbing.
Thus, carrying a bundle of hemp rope as thick as the webbing shot by Supaidaman, Peter arrived at the sprawling field of stalagmites outside the city. Suspending above it was a colossal web, while below loomed sharp stone spires. Both sides assumed their stances, each fully prepared for combat.
Daniel watched from the sidelines. He had battled Shou-Lao many times, and the most perilous of those encounters was precisely during the Immortal Trial. The Immortal Heavenly Beasts would choose to mercilessly slaughter those trial-goers who failed to measure up. While Peter faced no such danger, his own formidable power inevitably brought forth another complication.
That was, as the weakest of the Immortal Heavenly Beasts, the Mountain Spider would highly likely go all out.
The Mountain Spider indeed intended to do so. It first used spider silk to adhere to a loose, massive boulder that appeared to weigh a full forty to fifty tons. Then, with a tug of its two front claws, the boulder was hurled straight toward Peter. Peter did not dodge; instead, standing upon the slender spider silk, he took a deep breath, extended both arms, and caught the boulder.
The slender silk began to wobble violently under the sheer force of this intense impact. Peter hurriedly adjusted his posture to maintain his balance, after which his Spider-Sense flared. Following that, Peter flipped his hands and hurled the massive boulder right back.
He had initially assumed the Mountain Spider would dodge it, just as he would. But what occurred in the next instant surpassed Peter's expectations. The boulder was shattered in midair, and not by the Mountain Spider's razor-sharp claws. Rather, a single strand of spider silk pierced straight through the boulder, after which the high-speed vibrations of the silk shattered the rock to pieces.
It wasn't merely a matter of shattering the boulder; the momentum of this spider silk wasn't even dampened by the impact, descending directly toward Peter. Peter immediately leaped onto another strand of silk, while the strand he had originally stood upon was instantly severed by the silk launched by the Mountain Spider.
Furthermore, because of the severing of this single strand, a chain reaction ensued. The spider silk beneath his feet began to snap one after another, prompting Peter to sprint away while shouting, "What's the deal here?!"
Iron Fist provided some educational commentary from the sidelines.
"This is a method of utilizing Chi. The Immortal Weapons of the Spider Kingdom are different from K'un-Lun; they excel at using weapons like grappling hooks, chains, and whips to simulate the Mountain Spider's silk. Under ordinary circumstances, these weapons can hook onto objects and allow one to scale walls just like spider silk. But once Chi is infused into them, they will launch as razor-sharp weapons, just like what you're seeing."
"Then doesn't that mean if I master this technique, I can resolve my lack of a lethal ranged weapon? Even though I don't generally use lethal weapons."
As Peter spoke, he finally landed upon a safe strand of silk. The Mountain Spider used its rearmost two claws to grip the web, hanging upside down before swiftly using new silk to patch up the ruined section of the web. This time, Peter initiated the offensive. He charged forward in a single breath, attempting a direct sneak attack on the Mountain Spider's abdomen. However, the Mountain Spider was effortlessly capable of anticipating Peter's next movement.
In fact, even the Mountain Spider's subsequent action, which Peter had perceived beforehand through his Spider-Sense, would be modified by the creature a step ahead based on Peter's own actions.
"Spider-Sense?"
"No, no, no, young man. This is by no means that sort of danger awareness born of beastly instinct, nor is it a higher level of magical premonition. Whether it is danger awareness or magical premonition, both are essentially a latent anticipation prior to the arrival of a crisis."
The Mountain Spider landed upon the web, then used a claw to hook a strand: "But what I am doing is not quite so... mystical. I am merely perceiving your movements through my web, and then swiftly reacting to them—much like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. That perception of yours anticipates that I will throw rock, so you throw paper. But the event of me throwing rock, which you anticipated, essentially hasn't occurred yet. On the contrary, I see you throwing paper, so I throw scissors."
"And my Immortal Weapon can similarly utilize the immortal power, deploying Chi to project a similar perception radius in the surroundings to achieve the effect of throwing a hand second. It's just that the range..."
The Mountain Spider had initially intended to say that the range wasn't very large, but when it recalled that Spider-Man's personal life energy far exceeded that of ordinary men, it found it difficult to anticipate just how vast Peter's perception radius might become.
What if he could perceive every activity within a fifty-kilometer radius?
This was a method of perception entirely distinct from Spider-Sense, and it served as an excellent supplement to it. Peter had witnessed far too many instances where his Spider-Sense malfunctioned or was effectively rendered useless.
However, if an opponent was utilizing this skill...
White electrical sparks materialized across Peter's entire body. The Mountain Spider instantly realized what Peter intended to do, taking to the air in a single bound to pounce toward him. Peter's hands had already gripped the web, and a white torrent swept across the spiderweb woven by the Mountain Spider in a single instant, submerging everything.
These electrical currents did not destroy the web; instead, they continuously stimulated it back and forth, causing the web to sustain constant vibrations to weaken the Mountain Spider's perceptual capabilities.
Immediately afterward, Peter vanished from sight once more, causing the Mountain Spider's pounce to miss its mark.
"Excellent reflexes, young man. As a mortal, you are indeed remarkably outstanding. It's just a pity you seem to have forgotten what I said—my Immortal Weapon can use Chi to simulate my web for perception."
"What makes you think I can't do that?!"
The Mountain Spider's massive form whirled around swiftly, its sharp claws piercing toward the space ahead. Peter's invisibility was shattered in an instant. He grabbed hold of the Mountain Spider's spine-laden claws, while the electrical current throughout his body reached its absolute peak.
"Good question, sir. I didn't think that. I just needed to make you feel that electrical currents being here is entirely normal."
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