Chapter 2287 — Why They Vanished, Part One
In the same way, after Wei Zhao wrote a message on the ground for the Great Fire Lion, he left with Sun Jingyan and the Heavenly Thunder Pig...
As for the truth behind the disappearance of the Fire Lion Clan and the Spider Clan, the story must be traced back to the night Wei Zhao lodged in the Spider Clan's nest...
A silk bridge was at last completed in the early hours of the morning. The Heaven-Rank Spider was just about to lead its clansmen back to rest when the unexpected struck!
"Roar—" An angry bellow rang out, and three fiery red shapes came hurtling over!
It was the Great Fire Lion, bringing the Little Fire Lion and the Mother Fire Lion to attack the Spider Clan!
The three shapes moved with incredible speed. Before the Spider Clan could even react, they had already leaped onto the silk bridge the spiders had built, forcing the spiders—who had been about to withdraw—straight back to the other side of the mountain ravine!
Though the Spider Clan had built that silk bridge, destroying it was no work of a single moment. They could not breathe fire to burn it down as the Great Fire Lion could, nor could they stop the Great Fire Lion and its family from setting foot on the bridge; all they could do was fall back and flee without pause!
"Roar!" The Great Fire Lion let out a furious bellow, and the Little Fire Lion and Mother Fire Lion beside it roared in fury as well!
Once the Great Fire Lion had come down off the silk bridge, it had no more scruples. It simply loosed a breath of flame, and in an instant those spiders too slow to flee were all scorched, a great swath of them—several spiders—burned on the spot!
It was not enough to kill them, but for these spiders to recover their vitality, a great deal of rare natural treasures would be spent!
The Heaven-Rank Spider's expression was very grim. What it dreaded most had come to pass—who would have thought the Great Fire Lion would choose this moment to attack? And three fire lions at once, no less!
What struck it as even stranger was that the strength of the Little Fire Lion and the Mother Fire Lion had both risen to the peak of the late Mystic Rank!
Thus the Little Fire Lion and Mother Fire Lion, who had once had almost no fighting power, could not breathe flame but could now rouse fire-attribute true qi. That scorching true qi, struck out with their claws, was fatal to the Spider Clan as well!
Today, when the Heaven-Rank Spider saw the natural treasure the little spider had plucked at the cliff's edge, it knew things would be troublesome! For that natural treasure was one useful to the Fire Lion Clan, just as the treasure the little spider had picked was one useful to the Spider Clan.
And the fire-attribute treasure at the cliff's edge was in fact of little use to the Spider Clan. The little spider, out on its first solo expedition, had not known these common rules and had plucked a treasure belonging to the Fire Lion Clan—which violated the tacit understanding between the two spirit-beast clans!
The two spirit-beast clans, though forever clashing over natural treasures, contested only those useful to both. As for treasures useful to only one of the clans, both sides tacitly chose to ignore them!
After all, what was the point of plucking something of no use to one's own clan? If you plucked theirs and they plucked yours, both sides would end up wounded—what kind of madness was that? So for a thousand years this had become an unwritten law among the two spirit-beast clans of the Ulonghot Mountains.
The little spider had known none of this. It had touched a fire-attribute treasure of the Fire Lion Clan. At the time, because Wei Zhao was present and the little spider had only just been found, the Heaven-Rank Spider had said little, hoping the treasure had been at the cliff's edge and that the Fire Lion Clan had best not noticed.
But now, seeing the Fire Lion Clan come seeking trouble in such a fury, the Heaven-Rank Spider knew the Fire Lion Clan must have learned that the fire-attribute treasure had been plucked!
In the middle reaches of the Ulonghot Mountains, there were only these two spirit-beast clans. The other ordinary small beasts did not dare step from the lower reaches into the middle reaches' territory, let alone pluck natural treasures there!
So this fire-attribute treasure had been plucked either by the Fire Lion Clan or by the Spider Clan—there was no doubt of it.
No wonder the Great Fire Lion was furious! That fire-attribute treasure was an essential ingredient for crafting the Fire-Flow Divine Bullet. The Great Fire Lion knew exactly how many such treasures grew in the Ulonghot Mountains each year, and picking them in order of maturity, it was precisely the turn of the one at the cliff's edge!
Yet when it went to pluck it today, it found someone had beaten it to the prize!
This was meant for crafting the Fire-Flow Divine Bullet for its benefactor! Now it was gone, the bullet could not be made—how was it to answer to Wei Zhao?
How could the Great Fire Lion not be furious? What did the Spider Clan think it was doing? Did it mean to break a thousand-year-old rule? Contests over shared cultivation resources were all very well, but these private resources had always been left untouched by each side. When had the Fire Lion Clan ever touched the Spider Clan's treasures?
In truth, this rule was also why the Heaven-Rank Spider had felt safe letting the little spider go pluck that treasure of the Spider Clan—it belonged to the Spider Clan, and the Fire Lion Clan had no reason to waylay and rob them!
What it had never expected was that the little spider, lacking experience, thought finding one more natural treasure was a splendid stroke of luck!
In this matter the Heaven-Rank Spider knew it was in the wrong and truly had no argument to make. It could only stiffen its resolve and command its clansmen to retreat swiftly! The Heaven-and-Earth Net had been given to Wei Zhao; they could do nothing against the Fire Lion Clan now, and could only avoid its edge!
Fortunately the Spider Clan was thoroughly united; those uninjured spiders used their silk to haul the wounded along as they fled!
"Roar—" The Great Fire Lion had no intention of letting them off. It kept breathing flame, meaning to wipe the Spider Clan out root and branch!
Such a thing—hunting one's foe clear to the edge of its own lair—was rarely seen in a thousand years. After all, there was no profit in it; Fire Lion Clan or Spider Clan alike, who would be so idle as to go harass the other?
With that energy, one might as well contend for supremacy when the shared natural treasures ripened; fighting at another's lair truly gained little!
Only today the Great Fire Lion was truly enraged! Two hours after being plucked, that fire-attribute treasure lost its original efficacy—so even if recovered, it was useless. That was why it had struck to kill the moment it arrived!
What it had promised its benefactor could now by no means be done—how could it not be furious?
Watching the enraged Great Fire Lion, the Heaven-Rank Spider felt a headache coming on! It knew today's matter could not be mended, like a waning moon made whole. (To be continued) RQ
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