Chapter 69: The Incorrect Way to Clear the Trial

The army of the State of Jin had suffered far too many defeats; even a man like Meng Jingzhou had fallen into despair, believing victory to be utterly impossible.

"Can I truly triumph?" Meng Jingzhou asked himself in the depths of the cave, finding the answer too bitter to voice aloud.

"Hmm, a spider?" Meng Jingzhou noticed a spider weaving its web.

The creature failed time and again, yet it tried time and again, striking a deep chord within him.

"If a spider can fight on despite repeated failures, am I truly inferior to a mere insect?"

Deeply inspired, Meng Jingzhou rallied his spirits, determined to wage war against the State of Liang once more!

"The Liang army is stronger than ours, but the gap is not an unbridgeable chasm. Besides, how can we abandon hope after a mere handful of defeats? If I give up, what will become of the State of Jin behind me?"

"I believe that with the right strategy this time, victory is within reach!" Meng Jingzhou clenched his fists tightly, a plan already forming in his mind.

Through past defeats, he had grown familiar with the tactics of the Liang general. Having tasted victory so often, the Liang general would inevitably grow arrogant; he could exploit this hubris by feigning defeat, fleeing in apparent disarray, and luring the Liang forces into a canyon to encircle them.

This strike would surely catch them unawares, fulfilling the expectations of the elders of Jin!

"Thank you for the lesson," Meng Jingzhou said, cupping his hands in gratitude toward the spider. Without its inspiration, he would have surely crumbled, and all hope of victory would have been lost.

The cave was rife with mosquitoes and bugs. To show his appreciation, Meng Jingzhou caught an insect and offered it to the spider.

The spider, completely incapable of understanding his intent, perceived him as a threat and bit him.

"A venomous spider..."

Meng Jingzhou's head swam, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.

He knew not how much time had elapsed—perhaps a few minutes, perhaps a dozen—but before long, he awoke to find his body coursing with an extraordinary vitality.

"What has happened to me?"

Meng Jingzhou sensed a profound transformation within his flesh; his vision, hearing, and perception were sharper than ever, and his body possessed an unprecedented agility, as though he had been entirely reborn.

Instinctively, his right hand moved, his middle and ring fingers curling inward as a stream of white silk erupted from his wrist.

"What on earth is this?"

The white silk adhered firmly to the stone wall. Meng Jingzhou tugged at it with force, finding it extraordinarily resilient.

"Why does this resemble spider silk?"

Pressing both hands against the wall, Meng Jingzhou was astonished to find he could cling to the surface, scaling walls and leaping across roofs with effortless grace.

"I remember being bitten by that spider... Wait, where is it?" By the time Meng Jingzhou located the spider, it had already been slain by a praying mantis.

Meng Jingzhou crushed the mantis beneath his boot, avenging the spider's death.

Inheriting the spider's unfulfilled legacy, he reorganized his forces to clash once more with the army of Liang.

On the very eve of the decisive battle, clad in night-traveling attire and relying on his newly acquired powers, he launched a solitary decapitation strike, executing the Liang general directly.

The Liang general was utterly dumbfounded; as fellow commanders, shouldn't they face each other with blades drawn upon the battlefield for a final showdown? You just skipped straight to the end, a general assassinating a general?

Though the Liang general was flanked by cultivator bodyguards, they lacked Meng Jingzhou's nimbleness, and he successfully ended the general's life.

The Liang general was a rare military genius, and with his demise, the leaderless Liang army fell into chaos with no one to command the grand strategy, allowing Meng Jingzhou to lead the Jin forces to crush them completely.

Meng Jingzhou cleared the stage.

At the headquarters of the Immortal Sect, the Hierarch and the Vice-Hierarch stared at Meng Jingzhou's method of clearing the stage, remaining speechless for a long time.

A second method of clearing the stage had actually appeared.

The Hierarch massaged his temples. "What is the deal with this spider? How does a single bite grant someone the abilities of a spider?"

"If I were to bite a spider, would it transform into human form instead?"

The Vice-Hierarch was equally bewildered. After pondering for a moment as if struck by a thought, he retrieved an ancient tome from his storage ring, pointed to a passage, and said, "Found it. Look, the ancient texts record that a peculiar spider once existed on the Central Continent. Its own strength was no different from an ordinary spider, and it never bit anyone, but anyone bitten by it would undergo a bodily mutation."

"This species of spider went extinct tens of thousands of years ago."

The Vice-Hierarch analyzed rationally, "The conflict between Jin and Liang occurred one hundred thousand years ago, and we have perfectly recreated the scenario of that era. Therefore, theoretically speaking, it is entirely possible for such a peculiar spider to appear in that cave."

The Hierarch nodded. "It seems this Meng Jingzhou not only possesses perseverance and a sharp mind, but also extraordinary luck."

Luck was a nebulous concept, one that perhaps only the legendary Qi-Observation Art could truly evaluate.

However, it manifested clearly in other ways; out of so many people attempting this trial, only Meng Jingzhou had been bitten by the spider and mutated, proving his providence was far from ordinary.

Those blessed with immense providence would find their path of cultivation smooth and their future achievements unbound.

"Let us observe the others. I refuse to believe there is a third way to clear the stage."

Lu Yang gazed at the spider that kept weaving its web only to fail, sinking into deep thought.

"A spider weaves a web to capture prey, so why did the man waiting by the stump for a hare fail? Aren't both simply staying in one place waiting for prey to arrive? What is the difference between them?"

"Is it because insects have no brains and foolishly crash into the web, while hares are smarter and know to avoid trees?"

"If insects have no brains, meaning spiders have no brains either, then does the spider's persistence through repeated failures to weave its web demonstrate willpower, or merely the stubbornness of a fool?"

"Even a hare knows not to run into a tree, so why do some humans refuse to turn back until they hit a dead end?"

Lu Yang's mind wandered, his thoughts drifting far.

He was not discouraged by his failure; he was merely seeking shelter from the rain inside the cave while contemplating a strategy to defeat the enemy.

Seeing the spider weave its web now merely prompted many seemingly profound yet ultimately useless questions.

Suddenly, a praying mantis appeared and ambushed the spider while its guard was down. The spider fought back furiously using the advantage of its web, but the mantis moved with fierce agility, slaying the spider after a few exchanges.

Witnessing this entire process, Lu Yang grew contemplative. He stood up and recalled the movements of the mantis.

In hand techniques, he learned from the mantis's clever utilization of its two flexible, ever-changing forelimbs; in footwork, he adopted its sudden leaps and swift evasions in all directions.

"Imagine oneself as a mantis..."

Lu Yang muttered to himself. He felt as though he had learned something similar before, possessing an immense innate talent for it.

Lu Yang became like a human mantis, combining hardness and softness, fierce and swift, ensuring any opponent would fall beneath his boxing style.

Historically, the Jin general was in the mid-stage of Qi Refining; Lu Yang inherited the general's cultivation level, which was also the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

As his practice reached its zenith, his very form shifted, transforming into a giant mantis that struck out rapidly with its forelimbs, shattering the cave with a single punch.

Lu Yang marveled, "So this is the Mantis Fist spoken of in the martial world? Its power is immense, though ordinary people could never master it."

Lu Yang streamlined the Mantis Fist to make it simple and easy to learn, popularizing it across the entire army. The combat effectiveness of the Jin army completely surpassed that of Liang; without needing any complex strategies, they simply rolled over the opposition.

Lu Yang cleared the stage.

"Who clears a stage like this!" the Vice-Hierarch roared.

Bonus chapter for Alliance Leader 'Give Me a Hug'

(End of Chapter)