Bzzt... c-crack!
The electric light of the remaining four lightning-forged spears suddenly doubled in intensity, bursting forth and instantly striking right in front of the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant.
Boom! There was not even a sliver of room for evasion.
The Giant-Headed Demonic Infant was struck head-on over its entire body!
Instantly, its bluish-black, bloated body was engulfed by wild electric light. Every inch of its flesh was fiercely torn apart, scorched, and melted by the intense currents, emitting an even fouler stench.
"Not fun! Not fun!"
"Waaaaah..."
The Giant-Headed Demonic Infant let out a miserable scream, faintly mixed with sobbing. Its voice was no longer sharp, and lacked that mind-numbing, paralyzing power.
Dimly, vaguely, Bai Jie thought he could hear weeping amidst the screams—seemingly calling out for "Mama..."
Hearing this, an inexplicable chill ran through Bai Jie, sending his scalp tingling. A terrifying thought flickered through his mind.
Only now did he notice the bluish-purple ligature mark around the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant's neck—the kind left by a rope.
Could it be... that this creature was originally... an abandoned infant?
Discarded in the sewer, and through some coincidence, irradiated by the meteorite's spiritual essence, stirring up an immense reservoir of resentment, it had become like this?
And what the hell was that sewer crocodile? What connection did it have with this Giant-Headed Demonic Infant?
Urban legends actually existed?
Within the demonic spider's line of sight, the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant's Vitality was plummeting at high speed. But just as it dropped to 150, the "Status" column in its Status Panel suddenly blurred.
Then...
Ding!
[Giant-Headed Demonic Infant's status has been updated to "Out of Control"]
Hearing that notification, Bai Jie's heart clenched violently.
As the lightning faded, the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant's body was charred black, utterly wrecked.
The Giant-Headed Demonic Infant staggered forward one step, tilting its head up. From its mouth came a dreadful sound—something akin to a kitten's mewl, yet also like a child's weeping.
The Spider Sense also intensified at this moment.
Within the filthy water of the darkness, a face emerged from below, eyes slanting upward to gaze at Bai Jie.
That face's eyes were pitch-black and sinister, like the waters of the Styx. It had a mouth but no teeth—instead, countless twisting, writhing worms filled it, swaying like seaweed. Its expression was one of agonized ferocity.
Then, one after another, yellowed, rotting hands extended from the left and right walls.
Bai Jie watched as countless decayed, ghastly-white faces protruded from the sewer walls one by one, their heads lolling awkwardly in different directions.
"Oh no, Nyx, watch out!"
Yang Shining's sudden shout rang in his ears. Abandoning any pretense of staying hidden, she actually spoke up to warn him.
The demonic spider naturally knew danger was approaching, but it stood firm and unmoving, coldly watching the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant.
At this moment, the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant was trembling from head to toe, as if struck by lightning. Then, in the very next second, it detonated explosively.
"Dead?"
No, not dead—because the Giant-Headed Demonic Infant's Status Panel hadn't indicated the target was deceased yet.
Splat splat splat.
Chunks of flesh splattered everywhere in all directions. The demonic spider had instantly deployed its "Electric Web Barrier," melting any gore that came near it with intense heat.
But the rest of the minced flesh, upon sticking to the walls, began contracting and expanding like living worms. It transformed into a black liquid that coated the entire section of the sewer passage.
Even Yang Shining, in all directions around her, was now encompassed by the black liquid.
Yang Shining's face turned deathly pale. She muttered to herself, "This evil creature can actually deploy a 'Domain.' Good thing I chose not to act when I first discovered it."
"Meow..."
The pink fox also let out a trembling cry.
"Don't be scared, Nine-Tails. Since we can't get out, we have no choice but to fight with everything we've got. Besides, isn't the big spider here holding the front line?" Yang Shining stroked the fox's head to comfort it.
Immediately, she formed hand seals with a flick of her wrist, silently chanting, "Spirit Eye, open."
As that peculiar clear light adhered to her eyes, the pink fox on her shoulder also stopped trembling, its aura solidifying.
Squelch...
With a grotesque sound, inside the black-liquid-coated sewer passage, a massive number of blood-red flesh worms sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain, wriggling densely.
"What is all this?"
At the sight, the spider's heart couldn't help but crawl with numbness.
It was also so disgustingly vile that the spider leaped down from the ceiling and, in the span of a breath, wove a web for itself to perch on—keeping it from making any contact with the blood-red flesh worms.
New information coalesced before the spider's eyes.
[Target]: Worm Hell (Eldritch · Demonic-Evil Body)
[Vitality]: Unknown
[Body Length]: Unknown
[Status]: Out of Control
(Weak spiritual essence reaction detected)
The demonic spider froze on the spot upon seeing this information.
But it had absolutely no time to complain.
Because the moment the information appeared, Bai Jie distinctly felt his own thoughts growing sluggish. Even more bizarrely, his spirit power was draining away at an alarming speed.
There was no need to think—it had to be related to this "Worm Hell."
The next second, countless withered, yellowed, rotting human hands reached out to grab Bai Jie, only to be intercepted by webs that shot out and spread rapidly.
These webs were woven from Ten Thousand Binding Threads—capable of extending and expanding on their own, with extreme stickiness and tensile strength, keeping the rotting hands at bay.
Hiss hiss hiss.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Jie was surrounded by layer upon layer of fine, snowy-white spider silk, forming a "simplified" version of a spider nest.
But Bai Jie didn't let his guard down, because his spirit power was still being rapidly drained.
In just a few breaths, he had already lost over a tenth!
"How do I kill this monster? Where is its main body? Don't tell me it's all over the sewer walls?"
As these thoughts flickered rapidly through his mind, Bai Jie spurred fine electric arcs—like thousands of centipedes—to gnaw at the nearby walls.
Amidst the crackling, the withered hands, faces, and flesh worms that had grown on the walls melted away one after another—only to swiftly regrow, like super-fast-regenerating chives sprouting anew.
Bai Jie's heart immediately sank.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side,
Yang Shining hurled talisman after talisman from her hands. The talismans stuck to the black liquid on the walls and burst into brilliant flames. Fortunately, Yongan City's sewer ventilation system was well-designed—otherwise, if too much methane had accumulated, it never would have withstood her methods.
The Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox gathered spirit power around itself, weaving together wind blades and ice crystals by the thousands—blasting away the rotting hands and flesh that reached toward them.
"We're finished! If we can't break through this domain, we'll all be stuck here at this rate."
Yang Shining's expression grew increasingly grim. She was starting to regret coming here.
Anxiety burning at her heart, she couldn't help but cast her gaze toward that eerie, bewitching silhouette at the center of the "Worm Hell," protected by countless threads of spider silk.
"Nyx!"
She suddenly shouted, "There are two ways to break through an evil creature's domain!"
"One: locate and destroy its core or main body."
"Two: deploy a domain of equal or greater power within it!"
In truth, Yang Shining had a third option she didn't mention—simply wait for the evil creature's domain to exhaust its energy.
But deep down she was fully aware: since this evil domain could drain their spirit power at such a rapid pace, it was unlikely to burn itself out so easily.
At this point, she could only pin her hopes on the fact that the Spider Lord had no small degree of intelligence, could understand her words, and possessed the means to break through the domain accordingly.