The Green Spider Lady twirled the dagger in one hand and the smoking pipe in the other hand."I've seen the phoenix. Now it's time to take a look at the dragon."
Song Yehai's hand grabbed the handle of his whip. 'What is she planning?' he wondered. 'Does she want to take on me now?'
"Moon Dragon Grandmaster," taking another breath, the Green Spider Lady's pupils glowed a brilliant green, radiating like a pair of lasers. Green smoke escaped her lips as she pulled the pipe away from her face. "We spoke about how Wu Xingyu lives up to his title, but we haven't spoke about whether you live up to yours yet. Moon Dragon, where did you get the moon and the dragon from, hm?"
"Beats me," replied Song Yehai dryly.
A devious smile emerged on the Green Spider Lady's face. "Let's find out, shall we?"
Leaping forward she thrusted her pipe forward like a sword. Song Yehai parried it to the side with the handle of his whip and turned his head away to avoid the smoke. The Green Spider Lady still got close to his face, giggling smugly as she did.
"Oh my, up this close, you are handsome to look at. You could make any young girl fall in love with you with that face."
"That would have to be a very stupid girl first," scoffed Song Yehai.
The Green Spider Lady's eyes narrowed as she giggled mischievously at that snide remark.
Song Yehai took a closer look at those green eyes that seemed to be faintly glowing. "Those are no ordinary eyes. Are they from the green spider venom you keep smoking?"
"Curious, aren't you? Well, I guess there's no harm in telling you," the Green Spider Lady pulled her pipe back and took another breath. "When I was young, I was blinded. Poor, little girl I was back then. It was only through years of breathing in this green spider venom did I regrow my eyes, along with an additional three pairs."
"Additional three pairs?"
"Try and guess where they are," challenged the Green Spider Lady in an alluring whisper.
Wu Xingyu and Shuying watched from the side as the fight began. Song Yehai flung forth his whip. A flexible and subtle weapon, it snaked at the Green Spider Lady from unexpected directions. Like a paper moving to the wind's will she dodged every strike, her movements fast yet elegant.
The fight carried on like that for the first few minutes with the whip lashing aggressively and the Green Spider Lady taking the minimum necessary steps and bends to avoid getting whipped.
"You should know that with my extra three pairs of eyes it's impossible to get me from behind or below or the side," bragged the Green Spider Lady.
"Your additional six eyes," said Song Yehai. "You have one each on the back of your shoulders, one pair on the sole of your left foot, and the other two on the palm of your right hand."
"Not bad. You found them much faster than I thought you would."
"No wonder her left foot always stands like that," remarked Wu Xingyu as he pointed at that elevated standing. "And she holds her pipe at the ends of her fingers."
The dagger the Green Spider Lady had lent to Shuying lengthened to a shiny, white sword which she swerved across with her other hand. Song Yehai dodged the strike. "That's the White Snake Sword?"
"Oh, you know about this sword?"
Song Yehai's whip coiled around the blade. It regressed to its dagger length, escaping the bindings before Song Yehai could pull, and then returned to its sword length. Just like that, throughout the fight its length varied to its advantage.
An unusual wavelength in its energy flow caught Song Yehai's attention. He looked at the sword's hilt and examined it introspectively before scrutinising all the way down to its tip.
"You seem bothered by the nature of this sword," said the Green Spider Lady, noticing the expression on his face.
"It is rather fickle," noted Song Yehai. "It seems like you are not the original owner."
The Green Spider Lady suddenly pointed the tip at Song Yehai. It blasted out, extending forward at a high speed and coming dangerously close to Song Yehai's brows. In the blink of an eye Song Yehai bent back and the sword went through above him.
"That is correct," affirmed the Green Spider Lady jovially as she brought her arm down but Song Yehai's whip had wrapped around the blade and she promptly retracted it again. "Not bad, Moon Dragon. You still know a thing or know about swords. I heard that ever since you gave away your Crystal Sword to your disciple, you never used a sword again in battle."
"That's a lie," Song Yehai straightened his posture.
"Not that it's never happened before, but it's certainly earth-shaking to hear that any cultivator would willingly give away any one of their holy weapons, even if it's to their own disciples. The Moon Dragon's generosity is enough to move even the heavens!"
"Cui Jie-jie sure likes to talk a lot," commented Shuying.
"To distract her opponent," explained Wu Xingyu. "It's one of her tactics."
"The other grandmaster doesn't talk very much, does he?"
"Yehai is not a man of many words. He won't be thrown off by your sister's words."
"The White Snake Sword is forged from the scales of the first skin my Lady shed," said the Green Spider Lady. "She was the original owner before she passed it on to me."
"Why didn't it grow into a sword when you used it?" asked Wu Xingyu.
"I'm not good with swords," admitted Shuying.
"I can see that you have already set up some arrays on the earth," observed the Green Spider Lady aloud. "Could it be the famous Four Seas Array of the Sea Dragon Sect?"
Song Yehai's eyes narrowed. "You know of this array?"
"You seem to be setting the subarrays out of order though. Are you doing this in hopes of confusing me?"
She released three spiders to crawl to those arrays and dig around, ruining them. Song Yehai killed them all with one lash. Green toxic pus spurted from their carcasses. The Green Spider Lady stepped on one of them, flattening it into unrecognisable an mash, and kicked at Song Yehai. Her right foot, smeared with the green liquid, tried to stamp on her enemy. Song Yehai blocked with his arms against her legs and ankles.
"You're trying pretty hard to avoid touching the green spiders' blood," chuckled the Green Spider Lady.
A blinding ray of light suddenly illuminated from behind her. She flexed her shoulders like flinching from pain and stumbled forward a few steps. She tried to jump out of its path.
"What's this?"
Another source of light flashed from below her while she was midair. When she landed she unintentionally fell flat on both of her feet. She winced briefly before quickly propping up her left foot. A third source of light flashed from her side.
"Where's all this light coming from?"
Enveloped by light wherever she turned the Green Spider Lady began to falter. She raised her arm to shield the eyes on her face and let down her hair to curtain the back of her shoulders. She suddenly thought of the subarrays her spiders could not fully destroy.
"It's so bright!" Shuying squinted and blocked the light from her eyes with her hands. "Where's all that light coming from?"
She glanced at Wu Xingyu, who stood there without reaction.
"You don't find the light too… what the…?" her eyes widened immeasurably when she looked up.
Wu Xingyu protected himself from the light by having his own sash blindfold him. When the lights faded, it unwrapped itself and returned to his sleeve.
Song Yehai's whip caught the Green Spider Lady by her neck and strangled her as he pulled her to the ground. The smoking pipe and sword slipped from her hands as she was dragged across to his feet.
"Cui Jie-jie!" cried Shuying.
The Green Spider Lady could not look directly at Song Yehai, who also seemed to be emitting blinding light. Spiders crawled out form the folds of her attire and charged at Song Yehai before shying from the light.
"Ah, you're so fierce," she whimpered coquettishly as she ripped the whip from her neck and jumped back up on her feet. "And here I was thinking that you'd be gentle with women!"
Raising a palm, she struck out fiercely. Her attack was quickly countered by Song Yehai's own palm. She got close to his face again. "Is this why you've become known as the Moon Dragon?"
"What do you mean?"
"The light you're giving off right now, it's as radiant as the moon, isn't it?"
Song Yehai did not respond.
"And the dragon is a powerful creature of strength and wisdom. Song Yehai, do you live up to the dragon in your title?"
"Why don't you see for yourself?" Song Yehai pushed the Green Spider Lady back. She struck at him with her other hand in a knife hand strike. Song Yehai blocked it easily.
As the fight went on, the Green Spider Lady quickly found herself on the defensive. Being physically stronger and more skilled, Song Yehai overpowered her in close-ranged hand-to-hand combat, though he not hit her directly. Gradually the Green Spider Lady's speed began to dull, though she refrained from panting, slouching or showing any outward signs of exhaustion until she found herself unable to move.
"You are not my match," said Song Yehai.
"Are you in any position to talk to Cui Jie-jie like that?" snapped Shuying. "You're looking down on her, aren't you? You dare you be so arrogant!"
Wu Xingyu opened his fan. "Shuying, take a look at this." Purple wisps seeped from the paper and drew the outlines of a swallow, a peach blossom and a large goldfish with long, flowing fins.
"Oooh, pretty!" exclaimed Shuying, her former rage completely appeased in her distraction by the arts. Wu Xingyu suppressed the urge to chuckle as he closed the Purple Feather Fan and the images dispersed.
'I knew it. She has a short attention span! That's why she made a lot of mistakes the most basic foundations of her techniques.'
Song Yehai also concealed a very quiet laugh as a throat-clearing cough.
"Let me see, let me see the fan," pestered Shuying.
"Alright," Wu Xingyu passed the fan into her eager hands. When she opened it again, the purple wisps took on other shapes, entertaining her to no end.
"You're right, I'm not your match," conceded the Green Spider Lady before her lips curved up. "However, the one with more skills isn't always the winner in a fight."
Green smoke shrouded the air, blurring everything that could be seen. Song Yehai's guard heightened until he took a sniff of the green smoke. Tittering deviously, the Green Spider Lady faded in the thickening obscurity. Her voice sounded from all directions as though she was at multiple places at the same time.
"Are you starting to feel disoriented? Or a little tired maybe?"
Wu Xingyu drew a line on the ground with his sash, keeping the fog away from himself and Shuying.
"Let's see if you can defeat me now!" making the lunge, the Green Spider had the White Snake Sword going for Song Yehai's neck when the ends of a rope sprouted out from the earth, shot into the air and wrapped around her wrist.
Song Yehai's whip had burrowed into the earth and burst out to ensnare his enemy at the peak of her overconfidence.
"He's not affected by the fog?" questioned the Green Spider Lady in confusion. Before she could twist her arm and free herself, the whip tightened unbearably and she dropped her sword. Song Yehai kicked it back up. The Green Spider Lady had to lean to the side to avoid getting stabbed. Song Yehai pulled on his whip, slamming her into a tree. Catching the White Snake Sword as it fell back down, he pointed the tip at her throat.
"How are you not affected by this fog?" asked the Green Spider Lady.
"Antipsychotic pills," answered Song Yehai bluntly.
A self-mocking smile appeared on the Green Spider Lady's face. "I see. I've lost."
Song Yehai lowered his arm and returned the sword to her. It shrunk back down to its dagger length before getting encased. The green fog dissipated.
"Cui Jie-jie lost?" exclaimed Shuying in disbelief. "Cui Jie-jie should've been able to see through his moves, yet she still lost to him?"
"Shuying, return the Snow Phoenix Grandmaster his fan," ordered the Green Spider Lady.
"Oh, alright," Shuying reluctantly closed the fan and held it out for Wu Xingyu. "Thank you for letting me play with your fan."
"You're welcome," Wu Xingyu took back the fan.
"Heh, heh," the Green Spider Lady giggled, feigning great surprise. "Who knew that the Snow Phoenix Grandmaster could be so sweet with my precious Shuying. I wonder if you're just as gentle with ladies or not."
"It's time for us to see the Snake Bride," said Wu Xingyu.
"I will inform my Lady that you two want to see her. Wait here for a while," the Green Spider Lady entered the cave with Shuying, leaving Wu Xingyu and Song Yehai at the entrance.
"Do you think she can convince the Snake Bride to see us?" asked Wu Xingyu.
"Let's hope for the best."
The Green Spider Lady did not keep them waiting for long before coming out again. "My Lady has agreed to see you and hear you out. Come in."
They entered the cave and found themselves swallowed by a wave of heat. The interior earthy walls and rocky floors were sufficiently insulated. Hisses and squeaks emerged tentatively from the dim lighting. The screeches of a rat being very suddenly strangled and bitten startled Wu Xingyu, causing him to stumble. Song Yehai reached out his arm, his hand catching him and keeping him from falling onto the ground.
"Thank you."
The Green Spider Lady led them down, stopped at a door in the wall with a barred window covered by hanging curtains from inside. Shuying came out with an empty bowl in her hands. "My Lady says you two can go in."
"Excuse us," Wu Xingyu went in first with Song Yehai following behind.
They were immediately met with an overbearing blast of noxious, artificial scents. Fake flowers in bloom and candles with chemical alterations filled what appeared to be a honeymoon room with their perfume. The lighting was of a blaring red, caused by the many vivid, scarlet curtains hanging from the ceiling to the floor and the red 'Xi' character for happiness glued on every wall. The Green Spider Lady closed the door.