After the cultivators managed to stop Luo Quan and Qing Ting in their tracks, the rest of the villagers swiftly caught up and surrounded the young couple.
"Luo Quan! You ungrateful bastard!" Village Chief Qing Weihu was fuming in anger when he stepped forward to confront them. "Have I not treated you well enough all this time? How dare you repay my kindness by abducting Ting'er?!"
"He did not abduct me! I am the one who asked him to leave with me!" Qing Ting retorted.
"You shut up!" Village Chief Qing Weihu pointed at his daughter with a hand that was trembling with rage. "After we get back to the village, you can forget about leaving the house anytime soon!"
No matter how much he loved his daughter, Village Chief Qing Weihu could not help but feel ashamed that his daughter would attempt to elope with her young lover.
For a young lady to do something like this, her reputation was as good as ruined!
The silver lining here was that they had managed to catch up before dawn, which meant that they had at least prevented the young couple from spending the night together.
Otherwise, even if nothing truly happened between the two, nobody would ever believe that she still retained her innocence!
"Father, please!" Qing Ting pleaded. "You know that Brother Luo Quan and I are in love with each other!"
"Enough from you! To think that you are even saying that in front of Young Sir Sheng now. Are you afraid that you have not thrown away enough of my face?!" Village Chief Qing Weihu yelled.
"It's no use, Ting'er," Luo Quan said while struggling to his feet. "If that would work, we wouldn't have had to leave the village in the first place."
"Enough chatter! Are you treating me as non-existent?" Sheng Huoyuan sneered. "Qing Ting, I am giving you one last chance. You have ten seconds to crawl over to my feet right now. Otherwise, I will personally kill this guy in front of your very eyes!"
"Crawl...?" Village Chief Qing Weihu felt the corner of his lips twitch. "Young Sir Sheng, I understand your anger, but I assure you that this is all that brat Luo Quan's fault. If you want to take it out on anyone, please just take it out on him. Ting'er is still recoverin-"
"I said enough chatter," Sheng Huoyuan glared at the village chief. "Are you going to stop by yourself, or do I have to forcibly shut you up?"
Seeing the menacing look in his eyes, Village Chief Qing Weihu silently took a step back in fear.
"You can forget about it!" Qing Ting said while getting to her feet beside Luo Quan. "We will never yield to your demands, nor will we ever regret what we did today!"
"If anything, we can only blame ourselves for not being stronger," Luo Quan added. "So, stop barking like a mad dog and just get on with it!"
"Worthless peasants!" Sheng Huoyuan scoffed. "If this is what you want, then I shall grant you your wish! I, Sheng Huoyuan, don't need a shameless woman like you in my life, either!"
"Wait, Young Sir Sheng! Ting'er is still young and doesn't mean what she says. Please spare her!" Village Chief Qing Weihu cried out anxiously, but was immediately held back by one of the cultivators.
At this moment, Ah Qing suddenly dashed out from the crowd, standing between Sheng Huoyuan and the young couple.
Armed with a wooden pole in her hands, Ah Qing pointed it towards Sheng Huoyuan with a determined fire in her eyes. "You will touch them over my dead body!"
"One by one, you peasants are really testing my patience..." Sheng Huoyuan took a long, deep breath before a cold light flashed in his eyes. "Fine, I shall grant you your wish. You will be the first to die."
"No, Ah Qing! Get away from him!" Luo Quan shouted in horror, but it was too late.
In a flash, Sheng Huoyuan was already standing in front of Ah Qing.
With a single hand, Sheng Huoyuan grabbed her wooden pole in the middle and easily ripped through it by just closing his fist, instantly breaking it into two.
"Wha-?!" Ah Qing exclaimed in shock just as the back of Sheng Huoyuan's hand smashed into her cheek, sending her flying through the air like a ragdoll.
"Ah Qing!" Luo Quan and Qing Ting cried out in shock.
The rest of the villagers could not help but take a few steps back, intimidated by the brutal display of force.
Even though they adored Ah Qing, they had no blood ties to her whatsoever. Moreover, she was only punished because she had tried to side with the adulterous young couple.
Because of that, no one would ever step forward and stand up against the cultivators for her sake.
Ah Qing's parents had died of disease back when she was young. Since then, she had been taken in and brought up by Luo Quan's family. As for Luo Quan's parents, they had already been rounded up back in the village, prevented from coming along for this pursuit.
"You bastard!" Luo Quan gritted his teeth in rage. "We are the ones at fault, so come at us if you want! Leave Ah Qing alone!"
"Go ahead and curse all you want while you still can. You won't have another chance to do so after tonight," Sheng Huoyuan said while flicking Ah Qing's blood off of his hand.
But at this moment, Sheng Huoyuan suddenly frowned and looked in a certain direction.
He was not the only one either. The other cultivators did the same without being told, with many of them even drawing their weapons as all of them turned towards the same direction.
"What's going on?" the villagers could not help but feel uneasy upon seeing this.
"Watch out, it's coming!" Bei Feng cautioned, and the cultivators tightened their grips on their weapons.
At this moment, the cultivators' attention had been completely diverted from Luo Quan and Qing Ting, and for good reason as well.
The next instant, everyone understood just why the cultivators had been so alarmed.
A giant spider suddenly leapt down from the trees, landing not even ten metres away from them.
Its body was as big as two grown men, and each of its eight legs was more than three metres in length. Its fangs vibrated on the spot, creating a slight buzzing sound that resembled that of a rattlesnake.
"It's a spirit beast!" the villagers shouted in shock the moment they saw the spider. "Run!"
There was no hesitation in their minds as they immediately turned tail and ran, trying to escape from the scene as quickly as they could.
"Calm down, everyone! The cultivators are here!" Village Chief Qing Weihu tried to manage the situation, but to no avail.
The fear of spirit beasts had long been ingrained in the minds of these villagers.
Throughout the history of the village, the appearance of spirit beasts had always been accompanied by the tale of death. After so many years, the villagers had learnt from the experiences of their ancestors and understood that there was only one way to deal with the appearance of a spirit beast.
Run!
That way, they could at least survive if they were lucky enough!
"Damn it!" Village Chief Qing Weihu shot one last reluctant glance at Qing Ting before steeling his resolve to turn around and run as well.
In his eyes, there was already no saving his daughter.
Even if the cultivators decided to be magnanimous and spare her, the spirit beast would end up taking her life anyway. Rather than throwing away his life through a futile rescue attempt, he might as well try his best to save his own hide!
This was all his daughter's fault. Had she not gone against him and obediently married the influential Sheng Huoyuan instead, they would never have gotten into such a dire situation in the first place!
The way he turned around and fled naturally fell into the eyes of Qing Ting, who felt her blood run cold.
That was her father – her biological father!
To force her into marriage was one thing, but for him to just escape by himself and leave her here to die... that was something that she had never expected.
From this moment onwards, she would no longer recognise him as her father!
She was injured and could no longer run, and neither could Luo Quan. All they could do now was to just stand there holding each other in their arms, praying in their hearts for a miracle to happen.
On the other hand, the cultivators were far more composed.
"Steel Man Formation!" Sheng Huoyuan roared while drawing his sword.
Upon hearing his command, each of the cultivators quickly took up specific positions relative to one another, getting into a battle formation while facing the spirit beast.
"The Ravenous Dark Spitter... why would it attack us head-on like this?" Bei Feng blurted out in confusion.
He already knew that there was a Ravenous Dark Spitter in the vicinity of the village, so its appearance here was not entirely out of his expectations.
However, this was a beast known for hiding in the shadows while targeting its prey with poison, only attacking after the prey was sufficiently weakened. For it to confront them like this, something did not seem quite right.
Nevertheless, the reason for that was secondary.
What mattered most at this point was still to defend themselves from the spirit beast!
"Go!" Sheng Huoyuan ordered as he got ready to attack.
But just as the cultivators were about to move, rustling could be heard from the bushes behind them, drawing their attention over.
To their horror, another Ravenous Dark Spitter slowly emerged from the bushes behind them!
At this point, even the cultivators instantly lost all will to fight.
Their raised arms fell along with their morale. Their minds blanked out, and they could only stand there in despair.
One Ravenous Dark Spitter was already enough to put them in a precarious situation. Even if all of them worked together, they might not be able to take it down unscathed.
Now that a second one had appeared, the cultivators instantly understood that the outcome was already decided.
There was simply no way for them to win this battle!
"Run!" Sheng Huoyuan shouted without hesitation. "We can't win this fight, but we don't have to die here either! Do everything in your power to escape! Use the villagers as meat shields if necessary. Everyone, reconvene at the village!"
Sheng Huoyuan's words woke everyone from their despair.
At this point, they understood that Sheng Huoyuan was right.
Even if it was a hopeless situation in which there was absolutely no way to win, it did not mean that the result had to be death.
There were so many of them, including the many villagers who had yet to escape far. Surely the two spirit beasts could not hunt them all down!
Next, a scene of absolute chaos unfolded as every cultivator made a mad dash for the woods, including Sheng Huoyuan and Bei Feng themselves.
Screech-!
Watching as both the villagers and cultivators were trying to escape, the two giant spiders let out a bone-chilling cry that resembled the sound of metal scratching metal. They immediately made their moves, their long limbs instantly pinning down a few cultivators who were unfortunate enough to be the nearest to them.
From their mouths, a jet of dark purple gas shot out towards the pinned cultivators.
The moment the gas hit their targets, the Ravenous Dark Spitters would release them and move on to their next victim. Not discriminating between cultivators or villagers, the monster spiders took them down one after another.
With eight long limbs at their disposal, each of them pinned down several people each time. When pinned down by the Ravenous Dark Spitters, even the cultivators had no way of freeing themselves. It was only when these giant spiders finally released them after hitting them with the purple gas that they could at least attempt to run once again.
Unfortunately, their bodies would begin to go numb at a terrifying rate after being hit by the dark purple gas, and it took all that they had just to crawl on the ground. Even then, they were unable to crawl far before they finally lost all strength in their bodies, no longer able to do anything apart from lying there in wait for their eventual fate.
As for the villagers, none of them could even muster the strength to crawl after being hit by the gas. In fact, some were directly knocked unconscious by just the impact of the Ravenous Dark Spitters' limbs slamming them into the ground!
In the blink of an eye, numerous bodies littered the ground, all of them still alive and breathing, yet unable to move an inch.
Luo Quan and Qing Ting could only watch on in horror, their bodies completely frozen from fear.
At this point, one of the Ravenous Dark Spitters had gone on to chase after the rest of the escapees, while the second one arrived before the young couple.
Its towering body stopped right in front of them, watching them with all of its eight dark eyes.
In the face of imminent death, Luo Quan suddenly felt his fear dissipating, and the tension from earlier quickly left his body.
"I'm sorry, Ting'er. It is all because I am too useless that things have to end like this," Luo Quan said calmly.
"No, I chose this myself. I'd rather this than live out the rest of our lives in regret," Qing Ting shook her head and hugged Luo Quan. "If there is a next life, let us be husband and wife then."
"If there is a next life, let us be husband and wife then..." Luo Quan repeated while holding her in a tight embrace.
Just as they were immersed in living out their final moments without regrets, a wooden pole flew through the air and hit the Ravenous Dark Spitter right on the head.
"Stupid spider! Kill me if you dare!" Ah Qing shouted as loud as she could.
The giant spider immediately turned around to look at the bloodied young girl who was standing quite a distance away.
"Ah Qing?" Luo Quan widened his eyes in shock when he saw who it was. "What are you doing? Why are you not running away when you have the chance to do so?!"
"Brother Quan, you idiot! You finally made the tough decision to escape from the village and pursue your own happiness, so why are you giving up so easily?" Ah Qing shouted with tears of desperation in her eyes. "I will draw the monster away, so take this chance to run away with Sister Qing Ting!"
And with that face stained with tears and blood, Ah Qing fearlessly threw the other broken end of her wooden pole towards the Ravenous Dark Spitter, accurately hitting it on the head once more.
While the wooden pole harmlessly bounced off of the Ravenous Dark Spitter's head, the spirit beast let out another angry screech. Even though her actions might have failed to hurt the spirit beast, they definitely seemed to have succeeded in drawing its rage!
"Come kill me if you dare!" Ah Qing turned around and ran while screaming at the top of her voice.
The Ravenous Dark Spitter instantly obliged, turning away from Luo Quan and Qing Ting to pursue Ah Qing. That said, judging from how it chose to leap into the treetops to chase after Ah Qing from within the shadows, it appeared to have some reservations about this sole exception of a prey who had chosen to challenge it instead of running immediately.
"Ah Qing!" Luo Quan wanted to chase after them, but Qing Ting quickly grabbed him by the arm.
"It's already too late! There is nothing we can do even if we chase after them! Let's hurry and leave!" Qing Ting pleaded. "Please! Don't let Ah Qing's sacrifice go to waste!"
"But...!" Luo Quan clenched his fists in frustration, but he understood that Qing Ting was right.
In the first place, it would be difficult for him to catch up to them in his current injured state. And even if he did manage to catch up, what could he possibly do against a beast that was capable of taking down cultivators with such ease?
"Let's go!" Qing Ting pulled Luo Quan in the direction opposite to where Ah Qing had run, and Luo Quan reluctantly followed along.
"Ah Qing, I will forever remember this debt of life!" Luo Quan said with tears in his eyes while escaping. "When I become stronger in the future, I will definitely return to kill the Ravenous Dark Spitters and give you a proper burial!"