[V5C165 – A Distance Within Reach]
This tender voice was like a sudden clap of thunder. It shocked both Qianye and Song Zining so much that one could even hear a needle drop to the floor.
Qianye was the first to break into a laughter. “Pfft… hahaha…”
Song Zining’s expression was petrified. His hands trembled and slipped, dropping the arachne egg straight to the floor.
“Yi-ya!” The little girl uttered some unintelligible syllables, but her actions were completely contrary to her cute voice. She tore away the remaining shells as though they were sheets of paper, scuttled out, and shot toward Song Zining at lightning speed.
Song Zining simply had no time to react before his jacket was grabbed by a pair of little white hands. Below her beautiful, palm-sized countenance was a lustrous black-ceramic-like arachne body. Her eight limbs were still somewhat weak and kept slipping on Song Zining’s body. She managed to stabilize her foothold only after taking a couple of steps.
Qianye’s heart was shaken after seeing this tiny human-faced arachne. Most arachne would be in their spiderling form at birth and needed to undergo several metamorphoses before gaining a half-human body. It was a process of continuous strengthening, and they would only be able to assume human form above the viscount level. This little arachne, however, was already in half-human form at birth and could be considered a rare genius among the arachne.
Meanwhile, Song Zining had come to at this point. His countenance was ashen and even a bit distorted, especially since Qianye was swaying back and forth as he guffawed at the former’s situation—there was no indication of him stopping either. Song Zining glared furiously at Qianye as he brushed away the little arachne clinging onto him and threw it to the floor.
The little arachne’s ash-green eyes were full of bewilderment. She opened her little mouth but no sound emerged. Instead, a stream of green gas was sprayed onto Song Zining.
Song Zining was caught off guard by the head-on spurt. His head and face were suffused with green smoke as a numb sensation extended toward his entire body. He was drawing back at the moment, and his right leg had just taken half a step when he discovered that he could no longer move. Song Zining had actually been poisoned! Quite unexpectedly, this extremely terrifying toxin was capable of immobilizing him.
The little arachne did its best to hang onto Song Zining with its little hands and limbs flopping about. At the same time, an elaborate spider web formed midair and came right down on Song Zining’s face, wrapping him up until he couldn’t so much as budge. Shooting webs was an arachne’s inherent hunting skill, but the ability to form webs out of origin power would usually emerge only at the viscount level.
The little arachne was finally satisfied after binding Song Zining firmly and proceeded to push her head into his chest.
Qianye, who had been enjoying the show from the side, jumped up in alarm, but he was too late. Qianye cried out “Oh shit” internally as he recalled how Stuka was famed for his poison, and that even Zhao Yuying had to avoid facing it head-on.
Qianye rushed over and grabbed the little girl by the back of her neck so that she couldn’t move and injected a strand of blood energy into her body.
Qianye’s blood energy was an intense poison to the dark races. It was quite possible that this little spider had already bitten into Song Zining’s skin and injected the toxin. Qianye’s aim in using his blood energy was to force the little arachne to utilize her poison for self-preservation and give her less time to infect Song Zining.
Quite unexpectedly, the blood energy vanished instantly after crossing over—like a stone dropping into the ocean. Qianye’s heart sank, and he could no longer bother to be merciful—he immediately activated the purple and dark golden blood energies and shot one strand each into her body.
The purple blood energy was born of Count Nana’s superior bloodline, while the dark golden blood energy’s rank was a mystery. The little spider finally reacted after these two blood energies were injected and promptly fell off Song Zining.
Qianye loosened his grip, threw her to the side, and grabbed a hold of the swaying Song Zining.
The little arachne fell to the floor with a plop. Her limbs moved a couple of times as she quickly clambered up; it was as though nothing had happened at all. However, she was swaying around like a drunkard—she stood up, fell down, and stood up again. That beautiful little face was flushed, and her golden curls were bouncing up and down along with her head movements, her large, ash-green eyes misty and unfocused.
Qianye held the rigid Song Zining up but had no idea where to start treating him. His blood energy was indeed capable of dealing with blood and spider poison, but he had never tested whether it could treat a poisoned human. Just as Qianye was hesitating, Song Zining erupted with origin power and vomited a mass of green gas. Only then did he barely manage to stand straight. His head was also covered in spider webs.
“Goddamit! This is so humiliating!” The seventh young master spewed out a rarely heard string of profanities as he carefully picked off the webs.
Arachne webs were different from ordinary ones. They were as hard as a steel alloy—if one were to pull it off directly, there was a good chance he would tear off his own skin in the process. Song Zining could only clean up obediently no matter how angry he was.
Qianye said in surprise, “You’re fine?”
“What can happen to this young master? That toxin was only for paralysis.”
Only then did Qianye realize that the little arachne wasn’t actually trying to poison Song Zining. She only acted out of instinct after seeing him pull away.
The two couldn’t help but glance at one another after taking a look at the little arachne. A white cocoon had appeared and wrapped the little arachne up to her neck. Her little mouth was spraying out large masses of origin power which then turned into sheets of spider webs which added to the cocoon. She was completely enveloped from head to toe in the blink of an eye.
Qianye pointed at the cocoon and asked, “What’s going on?”
“It’s your fault of course. How should I know? I’ve never raised an arachne before.”
“Didn’t she call you mama? Who will know if not you?” Qianye’s single sentence almost caused Song Zining to choke. His expression quickly turned into one of indignance, and he even had the urge to fight it out with Qianye.
The two suddenly calmed down as they glanced at the cocoon brimming with intense vitality.
Song Zining spoke only moments later, “It’s highly possible that she’s your descendant. What do we do with this little fellow now?”
Qianye was flabbergasted.
“In addition to natural procreation, vampires can produce descendants by means of the embrace and bloodline devouring. A superior vampire can grant an inferior one his origin blood, thereby suppressing, absorbing, and assimilating his original bloodline. Injecting the arachne egg with your blood energy might’ve produced the same effects. But the embrace can only be given to those of the same race or humans and half-vampires. I’ve never heard of it converting members of another race, but it might not be completely impossible either.”
Qianye did not reply immediately.
The vitality within the cocoon grew denser and denser as the sound of a powerful heartbeat emerged once again—apparently, the small arachne would break out of the cocoon very soon. Therefore, it was time to make a decision.
Qianye suddenly let out a sigh and shrugged with a rueful smile.
Song Zining understood Qianye’s thoughts. He finished picking off the last strand of web from his arm and patted Qianye’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’s your descendant, so she’ll obey you unconditionally. That is the law of the vampire race.”
Qianye mumbled, “But to raise a kid… why don’t you continue being her mama?!” Qianye’s suggestion brought a layer of darkness over Song Zining’s face.
It was at this time that a ripping sound emerged as a hole was torn through the cocoon, and the little girl clambered out from the within. This time, she was completely covered in slime and a thin layer of translucent membrane which eventually came loose as she struggled to move her limbs. In the end, it was left in place and one could still see a vague outline of an arachne body inside it.
But at this moment, she was a little human girl through and through.
Qianye and Song Zining glanced at one another, each sensing the astonishment of the other. This little arachne had completed a metamorphosis right after birth and even possessed a true human form. She would definitely be a celebrated genius in the arachne population no matter what. Even a powerful viscount like Brahms couldn’t leave his arachne body completely due to his bloodline problems.
The little girl started crawling instinctively toward Song Zining. Half-way through, she rose unsteadily and tottered on. However, she came to a sudden halt and looked up at Qianye. Her little face was filled with bewilderment as she tilted her head and glanced repeatedly between Qianye and Song Zining—she simply couldn’t make up her mind.
Song Zining seemed to have found a redeeming light amidst the darkness and was almost crying tears of joy. He immediately pointed at Qianye and said, “Your mama is over there. Go!”
“Nonsense!”
“But she grew up drinking your milk!”
“It’s blood energy!”
“There’s no inherent difference. Qianye, go!”
Qianye took a resolute step backward, “Absolutely not!”
Song Zining laughed coldly. “Stop trying to run away! You produced this mess, so you better take responsibility! Watch my secret art!” With that, countless fallen leaves appeared around Qianye, with each blade exerting a fair amount of pulling force. He was actually planning to lift Qianye over to the young girl.
“Humph!” Without any extra words, origin power screamed out around Qianye’s body to form a giant sea vortex which swept away all the floating leaves. At the same time, a hand pressed toward Song Zining, sending the entire maelstrom crashing onto him. The impact sent the latter staggering and caused him to fall on his butt right in front of the little girl.
Qianye circulated his Bloodline Concealment and withdrew his aura completely. He then scuttled behind Song Zining with lightning-fast movements, grabbed the little girl, and stuffed her into his arms.
The little girl rubbed her cheeks against Song Zining’s chest as she looked up at him. Unable to sense Qianye’s blood energy, her memories from before the transformation finally gained the upper hand.
She pounced into Song Zining’s arms and cried, “Mama!” Soon afterward, she let out a little yawn and fell into a deep sleep.
Seeing that the danger had passed, Qianye finally breathed a long sigh and retracted his origin power.
As Song Zining lifted the girl up, the remaining leaves floating in the air fell down one by one to form strands of hazy green light on her body and dispersed only after a while.
Song Zining remained silent for some time before lifting the little girl in front of Qianye. “Don’t you think she looks like you?”
“No!”
Song Zining said patiently, “Can’t you feel that bloodline connection?”
“Absolutely not!”
Seeing that Qianye was unwilling to step into these muddy waters, Song Zining helplessly explained the results of the test he had performed just now. “She has the Bloodline Concealment ability. Without deliberate testing, even an ordinary champion wouldn’t be able to identify her race when probing with origin power. There are many mixed-bloods on Evernight Continent. As long as she doesn’t use arachne specific abilities like the spider web, it’s fine even if her darkness origin power is a bit dense. You must guide her slowly later on!”
Qianye was startled. A subtle feeling arose in the depths of his heart as he gazed at that fair little face.
“Why don’t you name her?” Song Zining let out a nasty laugh. “She certainly doesn’t belong to Stuka’s family anymore in terms of bloodline.”
Qianye was determined not to continue along this topic. He gave it some thought and said, “Zhuji?”
“That’s good.” Song Zining seemed to have accepted his fate. He held the little girl in his arms as he discussed with Qianye how they should cover up this little accident.
Qianye suddenly recalled a certain matter toward the end of their discussion. He happened to see that almost-forgotten box nearby as he was fishing out the count-grade egg from Andruil’s Mysterious Space. He had wanted to show it to Song Zining at first.
“Do you recognize this thing?” Qianye produced the box with a palm-sized rhomboid crystal within.
Note: About the name Zhuji, the word means “Zhu Princess/ Lady Zhu”. This Zhu is a surname character, but its pronunciation is identical to the word “spider”. It’s also worth noting that this word is pronounced “Hime” in Japanese.