That soft murmur against his ear struck like a black bolt of lightning crashing down from the ninth heaven, detonating inside Lin Mu's mind.
He had racked his brain and exposed his own trump cards precisely to escape the ravening wolf outside — Li Mang.
He had never imagined that in doing so, he had stripped himself bare and plunged headfirst into the den of this Rank 4 venomous spider.
In that instant, a storm of unprecedented magnitude erupted within Lin Mu's heart.
Run?
Cold, absolute reason churned through frantic calculations — and arrived at a conclusion that was as bleak as it was final. No way out.
He had no Spring Autumn Cicada to reverse time. Within the domain of a Rank 4 Spider Web Gu, locked onto by a Rank 4 Gu Master, the idea of a mere Rank 2 upper stage cultivator forcing his way free was nothing short of a madman's fantasy.
Was he simply to wait for death?
Yet in the next breath, Lin Mu's sharp mind seized on a small but critical gap in the logic.
If Wuxiang truly wanted to kill and plunder, she could have crushed him the moment he walked through the door — like pinching an ant to death.
There was no need for this teasing, this back-and-forth provocation.
She hadn't killed him. Which meant she didn't want to.
Or... she couldn't.
Thin as that thread of hope was, Lin Mu still dripped with cold sweat, his body rigid as iron, not daring to move a hair.
Because right now, he was nothing but a pitiful mosquito caught in a beautiful spider's web. Every logical deduction was still just a guess.
Life and death rested entirely on the whim of the unpredictable demoness before him.
Time seemed to stop.
"Tch."
Wuxiang looked at the boy in front of her — body stiff, clothes soaked through with cold sweat, yet his eyes still deep and utterly still, refusing to show even a crack of fear or collapse — and suddenly clicked her tongue with profound disappointment.
Dull.
"No fun at all. So young, and already this guarded. Not entertaining in the slightest."
Wuxiang rolled her eyes and waved one pale hand with languid disinterest.
In an instant, the terrifying Rank 4 pressure — along with that sticky, clinging sensation of spider silk — was withdrawn completely, as though it had never existed.
"Alright, both of you get up. Stop lying there playing dead."
The crushing weight vanished all at once.
Lin Mu and Old Ma, having just clawed their way back from the edge of death, both gasped for air and hauled themselves off the ground at nearly the same moment.
The two exchanged a glance. They opened their dry lips, about to venture a cautious question.
"Close your mouths. I know what you're going to ask."
Wuxiang cut them off with supreme impatience.
She drifted back to the cushioned seat and reclined against it once more. The thin black gauze shifted, revealing glimpses of what lay beneath — she paid it no mind whatsoever.
In a tone of complete indolence, she dropped a revelation that shook the room.
"This old man's inheritance — I've had my eye on it for a long time. To be frank, I have already cracked and obtained the 'skull' portion of the Black Bone King's inheritance."
What?!
Lin Mu's heart clenched hard.
This demoness had already claimed another core piece of the Rank 5 inheritance.
No wonder she knew Li Mang's secrets inside and out. No wonder she had seen through Lin Mu at a glance.
"However!"
Before either of them could recover from the shock, Wuxiang's expression shifted.
She shot them both a glare of aggrieved fury, gnashing her teeth — ranting with the energy of a girl who had suffered a tremendous injustice.
"That old lunatic's inheritance rules have never made a lick of sense!"
"Heart, skull, spine, limbs, torso... You threw out Li Mang's secret just now — were you also assuming that you just needed to hunt down the other inheritors, kill them all, collect the pieces, and slot them together like a puzzle to claim the final Rank 5 inheritance?"
Lin Mu swallowed instinctively and gave a small nod. Was that not the most natural logic in the world of Gu — raise and slaughter, last one standing takes all?
"Wrong! That heaven-cursed old freak!"
Wuxiang rolled her eyes with a complete lack of elegance and slapped the cushioned seat in frustration.
"The final trial of the 'skull' inheritance — the condition for the Rank 5 reward — is that you must assist another inheritor who holds a different piece in achieving Rank 4!"
Lin Mu's first reaction was pure, stunned disbelief.
His second was an almost uncontrollable urge to burst out laughing.
This twisted, perverse, darkly absurd rule was exactly the kind of thing that old lunatic would have devised.
"But that doesn't add up..."
The brief flash of dark amusement faded instantly as Lin Mu caught a massive hole in the logic.
If the rule required helping another inheritor reach Rank 4 — Li Mang held the "spine." And Li Mang was already a peak Rank 3 Gu Master.
If Wuxiang chose to assist Li Mang, it would be one final push — half the effort, twice the result. The Rank 5 reward would be within immediate reach.
So why pass up that ready-made shortcut? Why wait on him — a mere Rank 2 upper stage "heart" inheritor?
It would take until the cows came home for him to reach Rank 4.
Lin Mu's eyes flickered for just a fraction of a second.
On the cushioned seat, Wuxiang seemed to read his mind. She curled her lip with an expression of profound distaste — bordering on nausea.
"The reason I didn't choose that old dog Li Mang is simple..."
Wuxiang tucked a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear and stated her case with complete self-assurance.
"It's purely because that old thing is too ugly, too decrepit, and too revolting to look at. He turns my stomach. Assist him? In my dreams. I'd rather help Lin Cang a hundred times over before I'd help Li Mang."
Hearing that spectacularly bizarre — yet utterly irrefutable — reasoning, the heart that had been lodged in Lin Mu's throat finally dropped back into place.
Mostly.
He also understood clearly that Li Mang remained this demoness's fallback option.
If Lin Mu died one day, or if he managed to put her in a sufficiently bad mood, she would hold her nose, shut her eyes, and go find Li Mang without a second thought.
Now that the situation was clear, Lin Mu didn't hesitate for a moment.
He clasped his fists with both hands, bowed deeply, and spoke with deliberate gravity.
"My lord may rest assured. This one will exert every effort to reach Rank 4 as swiftly as possible and assist my lord in claiming the final inheritance."
"Please. Men and their pretty words."
Wuxiang yawned with supreme indifference, visibly unmoved by the declaration.
She flicked her hand in a dismissive wave — shooing them away like flies.
"The Sparse Shadow Gu you wanted — I've already planted it on you. That old dog Li Mang won't be able to find a trace of you."
"Go. Come back alive. If you just go and die on me, I'll have no choice but to hold my nose and go find that ugly old man. The thought alone is nauseating..."
"This one is deeply grateful for the Gu, my lord!"
Lin Mu and Old Ma felt as though they had been granted amnesty. Neither dared linger a moment longer.
They retreated from the small building with all the deference they could muster.
Only when they had fully left that strange bamboo structure behind — stepping into the secret passage, putting distance between themselves and that terrifying pressure —
Thud.
Old Ma's already-lame leg gave out completely. He couldn't walk straight. His entire body went limp as wet cloth and collapsed directly onto Lin Mu.
He gulped down ragged breaths like a man dragged back from the brink of death, muttering curses under his breath.
"You heaven-cursed little bastard... you nearly got Old Ma killed in there today."
"But you really do hide things deep, don't you... The Black Bone King's heart... Even I was fooled completely. Spent all my days hunting geese, and today a goose pecked me in the eye."
Lin Mu said nothing in response to the complaints on his back. No rebuttal. No explanation.
He simply carried Old Ma — steady as a pillar — and walked forward through the dark stone passage, one step at a time.