The eight people in black were already less than twenty meters away from them. Behind them followed three rank two middle-stage sea spiders and thousands upon thousands of rank one small spiders.
As the distance closed, the five of them could no longer hide in the sea under the spells of the black-clothed female cultivator, who possessed a water spirit root.
Following the transparent outlines reflected in the water currents, the people in black could immediately sense five figures hiding behind the reef.
Based on the thin and small silhouettes sketched by the currents, they were clearly children who had not yet grown up.
Gu Ningyun then heard a transmission explode in her ear. "What are you five children doing hiding here? Run, quickly!"
Along with the transmission came a gentle wave of water, pushing them toward the island.
The leading woman in black had already led her group in a different direction, seemingly intending to draw the sea spiders away and land on the island from another side.
"Get to the island first."
Gu Ningyun transmitted to her companions as she swam toward the island, riding the current.
Fortunately, they were protected by water-repelling pearls and had undergone body refining, so they didn't have to worry about the water pressure.
In less than half a incense stick's time, the five of them swam from the seabed four thousand meters deep up along the reef to the surface and climbed onto the island.
The sunlight pierced through the shimmering water, illuminating the sea spiders in the water nearby with crystal clarity.
The small island on the surface glowed with a pale golden light, warm and brilliant.
This was a deserted island only a few hundred square meters in size, consisting only of barren reefs and coarse gravel.
The eight cultivators in black were already standing on the island.
Sea spiders needed to absorb seawater through the outer layers of their long legs to breathe.
As long as one moved toward the center of the island, the sea spiders could not leave the water and would not follow further.
Following the orders of the leading rank two sea spiders, they merely crowded around the edge of the island in a dense mass.
Not long after Gu Ningyun and her group came ashore, the area around the island was surrounded so tightly by sea spiders that not even a drop of water could leak through.
The eight members of the Yuebai Sect huddled together, seemingly discussing a strategy.
Since they had already been exposed, keeping the stealth talismans on was not only unnecessary but could also easily lead to misunderstandings.
Gu Ningyun and her companions took off their stealth talismans and, after a brief discussion via transmission, stepped slightly closer to the eight people in black.
Seeing Gu Ningyun and the others approach, the people in black stopped their discussion and turned around.
"Thank you, seniors, for your help in the sea earlier, allowing us to escape."
Since it was a gesture of goodwill, it was only right to offer thanks.
Gu Ningyun raised her hands in a junior's salute. "If you are interested in these sea spiders, seniors, I wonder if you would be willing to cooperate with the five of us? We want some of the long legs from the small spiders."
The long legs of sea spiders could be used for artifact refining; this was common knowledge in Donglin City.
Before the leading woman in black could speak, a man in black beside her with a beauty mark at the corner of his eye looked Gu Ningyun and the others up and down. He chuckled, "Just you five kids who aren't even as tall as my shoulder? You want to cooperate with us?"
Another man in black, with a fair face and a small goatee on his chin, also spoke up:
"If you're interested in these sea spiders, I advise you five to give up on the idea, lest you end up being eaten by the spiders until not even a bone is left."
The remaining cultivators didn't speak, but the looks they gave were all like they were looking at ignorant juniors who had just left the nest.
Only the leading woman at the middle Foundation Establishment stage kept her eyes calm and indifferent, quietly watching the five of them.
Gu Ningyun had long expected these Foundation Establishment cultivators to look down on them.
She smiled slightly. "Facing thousands of rank one small spiders, we are naturally no match. But if we were to block the small spiders and buy time while you seniors fight the rank two sea spiders, we can certainly manage that."
"Most of those small spiders are at the rank one middle stage, and there are even many at the rank one late stage or rank one peak. The oldest of you isn't even eleven yet; it would be impressive if you even had a cultivation at Qi Refining level five. How could you possibly..."
As the man with the beauty mark spoke, his divine sense swept over Gu Ningyun and the others, and his words instantly froze.
Refusing to believe it, he swept his sense over them several more times.
"A bone age of nine years and six months, with a cultivation at the middle stage of Qi Refining level eight?"
"A bone age of nine years and nine months, at the late stage of Qi Refining level seven??"
The man with the goatee’s expression changed slightly as he also extended his divine sense. "A bone age of nine years and eleven months, at the late stage of Qi Refining level seven?"
"Ten years and three months, at the peak of Qi Refining level seven?"
"Ten years and seven months, at the late stage of Qi Refining level seven?"
The man with the beauty mark looked at Gu Ningyun and her companions with utter disbelief. "Do disciples of small sects progress this quickly now? Is there any hope left for the rest of us?"
As an inner sect disciple of the Yuebai Sect with a high-grade dual spirit root, he had only been at Qi Refining level five when he was nine years old.
By the time he reached Qi Refining level eight, he was already fourteen.
The man with the goatee stroked his beard. "Even if you have achieved such cultivation at a young age, you must not be overly ambitious or arrogant. There are thousands of these small spiders, and many are at the rank one peak, which is equivalent to a cultivator at Qi Refining level twelve. How could you possibly withstand them?"
"Even if you could, how long could you hold out? You should know that fighting in the sea is much harder than fighting on land."
If they stood on the surface of the sea to cast spells, the sea spiders wouldn't be able to reach them and would surely retreat to the seabed. To take down these sea spiders, they had to go underwater.
Gu Ningyun flipped her palm, and a seven-stringed zither appeared before her. "I wonder what the speed of music is like in the water."
Upon seeing the zither, the furrowed brows of the cultivators in black instinctively relaxed.
The man with the beauty mark couldn't help but exclaim, "You're actually a music cultivator!"
That was an advantage.
One had to know that sound did not face obstacles in seawater; because seawater was denser than air, it actually significantly aided the diffusion of sound.
If a music cultivator took action, even if this little music cultivator was only at Qi Refining level eight, it might not be impossible for her to hold back those small spiders for a short while.
The man with the goatee was about to say more, but the leading female cultivator raised her hand to silence him.
He immediately shut his mouth, and the other six black-clothed cultivators also straightened their postures, no longer whispering.
The woman in black said, "Recover your spirit energy first, then enter the sea. You will need to hold them off for two hours. Once we have dealt with the three rank two sea spiders, we will come to help you obtain the small spiders you need. However, you must not slaughter them all. If something changes mid-fight—for example, if the combat draws in other sea beasts—we will take the five of you and flee. Is this acceptable?"
Two years ago, during the New Disciple Competition, the five of them had used a scheme to trap and kill tens of thousands of demon beasts.
This time, although they were facing tens of thousands of sea spiders at once and fighting in the sea, their cultivation levels were now far beyond what they were back then, and their combat experience and physical constitutions were also completely different.
Without having to face rank two demon beasts and only needing to stall rank one small spiders for two hours, it was naturally doable.
All four of her companions transmitted their agreement, so Gu Ningyun raised her hands in another junior's salute. "Senior has considered everything; this plan is feasible."
The woman in black wasted no time. She flipped her hand to reveal a contract scroll and, with a few strokes of spirit energy, wrote down everything she had just stated.
Rate on N.U.
