Oil-Producing Tube

“A Flame Spider… seriously?”

Zengu cried out when he saw the Flame Spider, and Ashin, her face drained of color, took a single step back. I was thinking about where the Flame Spider’s weak point might be.

The Flame Spider looked at us with its eight eyes. As I glared back, I noticed sparks flying inside its mouth.

“It’s going to breathe fire.”

While circulating qi through my whole body, I prepared myself so I could dodge at any time. In the next moment, fire gushed from the Flame Spider’s mouth. There was a type of street performance called fire-breathing, and this felt like an enlarged version of that.

I leaped sideways to avoid it. Then I moved around to the Flame Spider’s flank and slammed the Demon Spider Greatsword into the giant spider’s body. The blade cut through its hard shell and stopped after biting in about eight centimeters.

The Flame Spider thrashed in pain, and one of its legs attacked me. I caught it with the hilt of the Demon Spider Greatsword, but there was nothing I could do about the difference in strength, and I was sent flying bodily. Thrown through the air and slammed against the ground, I rolled across the earth. The qi circulating through my whole body apparently also had the effect of increasing my defense, so aside from a little internal bleeding, there was no hindrance to the fight.

Zengu struck the Flame Spider on the head with the tip of his spear, then, in one flowing motion, drove the spearhead into its chest. It was probably a technique from the Plum Blossom Spear Art that he had been practicing. If it had been a spear with greater penetrating power, it might have finished it with that one blow. Still, for a spear used in the Plum Blossom Spear Art, it lacked weight.

The spearhead Zengu drove in stopped after sinking only about five centimeters. The Flame Spider shook its body and pulled the spearhead back out. In that opening, Ashin slammed her warhammer into one of the Flame Spider’s eyes. But that eye repelled the warhammer. Ashin hurriedly jumped back.

“So even its eyes are tough. Ashin, use this.”

I threw the White Wolf Warhammer toward Ashin. Catching it, she waited for an opening in the Flame Spider. We attacked one after another in turns so as not to give the Flame Spider any chance to counterattack. The Flame Spider also countered with its powerful legs, but now that we had started fighting calmly, we either dodged or deflected every attack.

When I felt that the Flame Spider’s counterattacks had decreased, I raised the pressure of my qi using the breathing method and key principles of the Broadsword Fox-Flame Technique, and shifted my senses and thoughts into the “Moment of Foam.” The Flame Spider’s movements seemed to slow, and I could see each and every movement clearly.

Then the Flame Spider spat flames from its mouth again. We avoided it cleanly and counterattacked in succession. Using the White Wolf Warhammer, Ashin slammed a Qi Claw Strike into the Flame Spider’s back, destroying part of its shell and scattering flesh and blood.

Seeing that, Zengu thrust his spearhead into the destroyed section and twisted it. The Flame Spider began to thrash wildly. Sensing my chance, I moved around to its side and brought the Demon Spider Greatsword down toward its head. Flames burst from the blade, and it split the giant spider’s head open.

That strike of Fox-Flame became the fatal blow, and the Flame Spider died.

“Phew. It showing up out of nowhere really threw me off.”

Zengu said.

“Kou, which parts of a Flame Spider are the valuable ones?”

After catching her breath, Ashin asked me.

“I’ve heard that the valuable parts of a Flame Spider are the oil sac, the oil-producing tube, and the ovaries in its chest.”

The eggs inside the ovaries were materials for immortal medicine. And apparently the oil-producing tube could create a flammable liquid from the air. That interested me greatly.

We butchered the Flame Spider and recovered the valuable parts. When I recovered the oil sac, I examined the small amount of liquid still left inside it. It was a colorless, transparent liquid, and I thought it was probably methanol or kerosene.

After that, I examined the Flame Spider. Its eight eyes were covered with something like transparent hemispherical membranes. They seemed to protect the eyes when it spat fire. Their shape resembled contact lenses, but they were about twelve centimeters in diameter and were probably heat-resistant as well.

“What are you going to do with something like that?”

Zengu asked.

“I think I might be able to make a lamp with these.”

“Huh? A lamp from something like this?”

Ashin looked surprised. Meanwhile, Zengu was concerned about something else.

“But oil is expensive.”

I pointed at the oil-producing tube we had recovered.

“I can make the oil with this.”

“Do you know how to make it?”

“Before the Flame Spider spat fire, it looked like it was gathering qi in the oil-producing tube. So I think qi is involved.”

“Heh, so you were observing it while fighting.”

“By the way, I have a favor to ask of you two.”

Ashin turned her gaze toward me.

“What?”

“I want the oil sac and the oil-producing tube. In exchange for giving the White Wolf Warhammer to Ashin and the Demon Spider Sword to Zengu, would you give me those two?”

“I’ve taken a liking to this White Wolf Warhammer, so I’m fine with that.”

After thinking for a bit, Zengu asked a question.

“That Demon Spider Sword, was it made from a Sword-Leg Spider’s sword leg?”

“That’s right. It was made from the same thing as the Demon Spider Greatsword.”

“Then it can be turned into a spear too.”

Zengu agreed as well. It seemed he thought the Demon Spider Sword was more valuable than the oil sac and the oil-producing tube. While we were doing that, Kanru and the others returned. In his hands was the pelt of a White Wolf. He had probably collected the claws as well.

Kanru and the others came back looking triumphant, but froze when they saw the Flame Spider’s corpse.

“Hey, what is that?”

Kanru’s eyes widened as he pointed at the Flame Spider’s corpse.

“It’s a Flame Spider. It attacked us, so we killed it.”

I answered on behalf of everyone.

“You three defeated it by yourselves?”

“Of course we did.”

The two senior brothers wore expressions of disbelief. They knew just how formidable a yōma the Flame Spider was.

“You senior brothers killed the White Wolf, then.”

Chenfa nodded.

“More or less. More importantly, have you finished gathering the Star Dew Fruit?”

Zengu nodded.

“Yes. We’re done.”

“Then let’s get back at once.”

Kanru and the others suddenly looked displeased and spoke as though barking an order.

Defeating the Flame Spider gave me confidence. It might be all right for me to take the test to become an inner disciple a little sooner.