Chapter 2284 — Where Did They Go? But the Silk Bridge Was Built, Yet the Entire Spider Clan Had Vanished.

"I'll go take a look first. You wait here for me. If something's wrong, take the Sky Thunder Pig and flee back to the cave we came from. These three Sky Nets are for you too." As he spoke, Wei Zhao handed Sun Jingyan the Sky Nets the Heaven-Rank Spider had given him.

"You..." Sun Jingyan was somewhat reluctant to let Wei Zhao risk himself, but having come all this way, Wei Zhao would surely be unwilling to leave without seeing what had happened. So after a moment's hesitation, she agreed: "All right, go then, but be careful."

Wei Zhao smiled and nodded. With a leap he was up on the silk bridge. Though the bridge felt rather like walking a tightrope, for a cultivator like Wei Zhao it posed no difficulty at all—and the bridge was not long; the ravine on the far side lay plain at a glance.

Once on the bridge, Wei Zhao advanced slowly, as if treading on thin ice, all the while keeping watch on the jade pendant's reactions.

To Wei Zhao's mingled delight and regret, he reached the far side of the ravine, and still the jade pendant had given no reaction whatsoever. In other words, Wei Zhao had encountered no danger at all.

Yet the more it was so, the more Wei Zhao felt something was off. No danger anywhere—so where had the spider clan gone? This was a little unreasonable.

"All clear!" Wei Zhao waved to Sun Jingyan, then quickly walked back along the silk bridge.

Wei Zhao could cross with ease, but that did not mean Sun Jingyan could. Though she too was a cultivator, she was a most peculiar kind, with practically no real strength to speak of. The silk bridge would be difficult for her; Wei Zhao would have to hold her steady.

Back on the near side of the bridge, Wei Zhao now had a sense of how sturdy it was. Thin as it looked, it was uncommonly solid when actually walked upon—so he, Sun Jingyan, and the Sky Thunder Pig could all set foot on it together without trouble.

"This bridge looks a bit frightening. You have to hold on to me—if I fall, I'm done for!" Sun Jingyan eyed the bottomless ravine and said, somewhat nervously, "Even if you can heal injuries, if I'm smashed into a meat patty, I doubt that would help."

"Then just hold on to me. If I fall, I won't die, but I'd probably have a hard time climbing back up." Wei Zhao glanced down into the ravine—he was not deceiving Sun Jingyan. The ravine was steep; even as a mid-stage Earth-Rank expert, if he fell, getting back up would be no easy matter.

Wei Zhao could not leap that high, and splitting the climb into several jumps would not work either. The cliff was exceedingly steep, with few footholds to be found. Had it not been so high, it might have been fine—but the bottom was lost to sight. Unless Wei Zhao could fly, there was simply no getting back up.

"Then let's just not fall," Sun Jingyan said. "If we fall, we'll be spending the rest of our lives as savages down there..."

Yet as she said this, a very strange feeling suddenly rose in Sun Jingyan's heart. If she and Wei Zhao fell together, would that make them a couple bound by shared hardship? And then to spend a lifetime together down here, just the two of them?

Wei Zhao said nothing more. While Sun Jingyan was still turning the matter over in her mind, he scooped her up in his arms and strode toward the silk bridge.

Wei Zhao's sense of balance was impeccable. Never mind carrying Sun Jingyan—even bearing something far heavier, so long as the silk bridge could bear the weight, Wei Zhao could cross without trouble.

The Sky Thunder Pig, small and nimble by nature, had no trouble at all crossing the silk bridge.

Soon the two of them and the beast reached the far side. Wei Zhao set Sun Jingyan down. Carried so in his arms, she felt a little embarrassed and shot him a glare, though she said nothing.

For she saw that Wei Zhao's expression had turned grave, and thought better of joking: "What is it?"

"There are signs of a fight here!" Wei Zhao pointed at marks on the ground and said to Sun Jingyan, "Could it be that the spider clan met an enemy here, and something happened?"

"Here?" Sun Jingyan lowered her head and looked carefully where Wei Zhao pointed. Sure enough, she saw a chaotic jumble of footprints on the ground, along with some withered grass that had been scorched by fire. She said, "The Fire Lion clan? They came here?"

"Hard to say..." Wei Zhao rose and said, "Let's walk a little further and see. I don't know what exactly happened here—but if a fight did break out, then why is there not a single spirit beast corpse to be found..."

"True. This platform doesn't look large either, and apart from that cave not far off, there's no other way to go—it's all plain to see. If the fight happened here, then after the fighting, where did the spider clan go?" Sun Jingyan said, equally puzzled.

"Let's take a look inside the cave..." Wei Zhao raised his eyes to the cave and said, "If I guess rightly, that cave should be where the teleportation formation is. Let's go over and have a look first."

Sun Jingyan and Wei Zhao walked toward the cave together. Standing at the cave mouth, they could take in the whole interior at a glance. The cave was not large; its entirety was visible in one look. And inside the cave there was still not a single spirit beast—all was quiet.

In other words, neither the platform nor the cave held a single spirit beast.

"It seems something truly strange is going on here." Wei Zhao pondered a moment, then said, "So many spiders—even if they clashed with the Fire Lion clan, they couldn't all have vanished..."

"Could the Fire Lion clan have captured them and taken them back?" Sun Jingyan guessed.

"Unlikely, surely? Even if the Fire Lion clan has the advantage of an attack attribute, capturing so many spiders would be difficult." Wei Zhao shook his head, dismissing the idea. Three Fire Lions against the spiders' numbers—the odds were hardly equal.

That they might have killed a swath of these spiders, Wei Zhao could believe; but to capture them all and carry them off—that could hardly be easy. It was next to impossible.

"Be that as it may, let's go into the cave and take a look first," Wei Zhao said.

Wei Zhao and Sun Jingyan entered the cave. Inside, there was nothing particularly unusual. The formation that had roused Wei Zhao's curiosity—he was not even sure of it himself, for he had seen only a strange symbol formed of a few shattered stones on the ground, and could not tell whether it was the teleportation formation the Heaven-Rank Spider had spoken of. As for how to activate it, Wei Zhao knew even less, and did not dare try at random.

Wei Zhao could only take out his phone and photograph the cave's interior for the time being, intending to study it carefully later when he had the chance.

"Is this the so-called teleportation formation?" Sun Jingyan asked curiously, pointing at the pile of stones on the ground that looked like a teleportation formation.