The Eternal Sin-Chapter 45: Unlucky.

A sharp swoosh tore past Jiang Chen’s cheek.

The rocky limb grazed his face and struck the cliff behind him.

Stone exploded outward in a violent spray. Fragments whistled past his ears and vanished into the abyss below. If he had been a single breath slower, his skull would have been split like a cracked melon.

"Seeking death!" Jiang Chen’s heart surged with boiling fury.

Still clinging to the sword wedged into the rock, he swung his body sideways like a pendulum. Using the momentum, he lashed out with a heavy kick, his foot connecting solidly with the rocky protrusion that had just tried to decapitate him.

BAM!!

Pain shot up his leg like fire, but the force disrupted the creature’s balance mid-lunge, sending the attacker sliding across the vertical surface of the cliff.

Only then did Jiang Chen see it clearly.

In the harsh, unforgiving sunlight, the predator finally revealed itself to be a Rock Faced Ghost Spider.

Its body was covered in rough grey armor that perfectly mimicked the surrounding cliff. Six blood-red eyes snapped open, each the size of a lemon, glowing like embers beneath ash. When its eight legs were folded tight against its body, it was indistinguishable from natural stone.

Now those legs unfurled, each ending in curved obsidian blades that reflected a cold luster capable of slicing beast and man alike.

Jiang Chen snorted. ’No wonder my divine sense detected nothing. Rock Faced Ghost Spiders can suppress their heartbeat and match their Qi fluctuations with the rhythm of heaven and earth. Good thing I was very alert. If not, hmph.’

The spider resisted the recoil of his kick and chattered its mandibles, its legs clicking against the granite as it charged with horrifying speed, as if defying gravity.

Jiang Chen sneered coldly. ’Trying to eat me. Let me see if you are worthy.’

He twisted his body and swung once again, using the momentum to launch himself into the dark opening of the crevice while pulling out his sword at the same time.

He rolled once as he landed.

He only had time to stand up when the spider’s massive silhouette blotted out the sun.

The beast fanned its scythe-like limbs, stabbing into the hole in a flurry of killing arcs, slicing the stone walls as if cutting tofu.

But now, Jiang Chen’s feet were settled firmly on the cave floor. No longer hanging between life and death on a cliff’s edge, he stood rooted and stable.

His demeanor shifted.

A limb slashed for his head. He shifted his feet and allowed the blade-like limb to skim past his hair. Another thrust came for his abdomen. He bent backward with tiger-like flexibility, his ribs screaming in protest as the strike missed him.

Jiang Chen’s eyes sharpened.

The armor along the spider’s body was as hard as tempered rock. Its legs were weapons of slicing and stabbing. But beneath the cephalothorax, where the head joined the body, a narrow seam of softer flesh remained vulnerable.

Jiang Chen lunged forward, his sword in hand.

The spider’s blades crossed to shear him in half.

He dropped low, letting the two limbs scrape sparks above him. With a twist of his waist, he drove his sword upward from below.

The blade tip pierced the unarmored flesh beneath its neck.

A harsh screech filled the cave. The spider’s body jerked violently, its upper mass recoiling and lifting slightly as pain rippled through it.

Jiang Chen did not withdraw. He stepped forward and seized the moment, using the embedded sword as a pivot. As the spider’s head lifted, he followed the motion, hauling himself upward in a tight arc.

His body rose with the recoil.

In the next instant, his boots struck the low ceiling of the cave.

"Die!" Jiang Chen roared with a fierce expression as he kicked off the ceiling with explosive force, leaving cracked footprints in the rock. He drove himself downward, his entire body weight channeled through the hilt and into the blade. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

SCREEECHHH—!

The spider’s mandibles clicked frantically, a high-pitched wail of agony echoing off the cave walls. Jiang Chen felt the vibration of snapping cartilage travel up his arms as the steel bit deeper into the flesh. The beast’s limbs flailed madly, gouging trenches into the stone around him.

But Jiang Chen was uncompromising. He pushed his tiger bone essence to the limit, muscles bulging and veins stading out as he pressured the sword, using it like a wedge. The split seam ruptured further.

And then—

POP!

The spider’s head was torn clean from the cephalothorax. The screech cut off into an abrupt silence. A geyser of thick, dark green ichor sprayed across the cave walls as the severed head bounced once and rolled into the darkness, its six crimson eyes flickering out like dying coals.

Jiang Chen stood panting, his chest heaving. He had never fought this species of demonic beast before today, but its weakness was crystal clear to him.

Ever since obtaining the Flesh Devouring God Scripture, he had poured countless hours into studying beasts of every variety. He had memorized their habits, strengths, and shortcomings. If he began speaking at dawn about demonic beasts, he could continue until sunset the next day without repetition.

The spider’s heavy carcass began to slide backward, pulled by the gravity of the abyss. Jiang Chen stepped forward and caught it. With effort, he dragged the heavy body and wedged it into the mouth of the cave. Its stone-like shell blended seamlessly with the cliff, sealing the cave from casual view.

He then extended his divine sense through the hollow. It was shallow, about five meters deep. No other fluctuations stirred within that seemed dangerous. Still, the harrowing events of the day had left a seed of unease in his heart.

He began using his sword to probe every inch of the cave walls. He tapped, scraped, and tested until he was certain no second predator lurked within.

Just as Jiang Chen was about to withdraw his sword, a faint movement at the base of the wall caught his attention.

A thin, dark green worm no longer than a finger wriggled out from a hairline crack in the stone. Its translucent body revealed faint threads of sickly purple venom pulsing beneath its skin. Two needle-like mandibles protruded from its head, glistening with a toxic sheen.

"This..." Jiang Chen was speechless.

His divine sense had detected nothing. It was as if the creature were a sliver of dead flesh animated by instinct alone.

Unfortunately, Jiang Chen did not recognize the beast, even with his vast knowledge.

’Do the heavens really want me dead...?’ Jiang Chen shook his head lightly and picked up a piece of rock. With a decisive motion, he smashed it down.

Crunch!

The worm burst beneath the stone. A thin stream of corrosive fluid seeped across the cave floor, releasing a faint hiss as it ate shallow pits into the rock before evaporating into wisps of acrid smoke.

Jiang Chen studied the spot for a moment longer, then scraped the remains aside with the tip of his sword.

Only after confirming there were no further hidden threats did he finally release a long breath.

He sat down cross-legged in the lotus position.

He instinctively reached for his formation flags, but then clicked his tongue in annoyance. He remembered that his clones were placing the Divine Concealment Array in Earthly Spirit Bamboo Mountain, back where that hateful Sky Rupturing Owl had first snatched him from the sky.

He shook his head and took out a pile of spirit stones instead, the faint blue light reflecting in his cold, determined eyes.

The most urgent task was to replenish his drought-stricken dantian.

Spiritual Qi seeped into his meridians like cool water before trickling into his dantian, gradually filling it.

As Jiang Chen cultivated, his thoughts churned. ’My luck has been so utterly abysmal today. It is almost suspicious... First the Sky Rupturing Owls. Then this damned cliff. Finally this ugly spider. The only good thing was the encounter with the White Bone River Turtle.

’But from another perspective, it was because I was tempted by that river turtle that I fought so hard and exhausted most of my spiritual essence. Otherwise, would I risk doing something so reckless this deep in the wild? Sigh... Luck is bestowed by heaven, and misfortune is also bestowed by heaven. Man can only adapt to the circumstances. Oh, when will I be strong enough to grasp my own fate?’