Chapter 11 : My Spider Spirit Neighbor
Chapter 11: My Spider Spirit Neighbor
“Then how much is your budget for renting a place?”
Senior Brother Qiu took out the housing register and skillfully flipped to the last few pages.
What was recorded there was naturally the only kind of place someone with Long Tao’s assets could afford.
“Senior Brother, all these years my Spirit Stones have been distributed by you. You know exactly how much I could have left. Just find me a few cheap places at the foot of the main peak mountains.”
“I remember your family being fairly well-off, weren’t they? For something like renting a place, they should still be willing to help out, right?”
Senior Brother Qiu asked this while flipping through the register, not even lifting his head.
“They already spent quite a lot back then just to send me into the sect. I’d be embarrassed to trouble them over a house. My younger sister would laugh at me when the time came.”
“Think long-term!” Senior Brother Qiu finally raised his head and said solemnly, “With your mixed Spiritual Roots, being able to rise to the Outer Sect at this age already counts as ancestral graves emitting green smoke! Endure for a few more years, get yourself firmly established, and then you can support your family in return.”
As he spoke, his finger tapped on the housing register.
“Here… how about this one? At the foot of the mountain on the northwest side. The price is decent, but it’s a bit far from Qixia Town, and going up the mountain requires a detour.”
The “bit of a detour” coming from a broker’s mouth was definitely not just a little.
Long Tao immediately rejected it.
Moreover, everyone knew that the northwest mountain foot had strong winds and inconvenient transportation; usually no one was willing to live there.
Senior Brother Qiu seemed to have expected his refusal.
After all, that place really was miserable for whoever lived there.
His finger slid down a few more lines in the register and stopped at one entry, a playful smile appearing on his face.
“Then… how about this one? Over on the southwest side, near Fengying Pavilion. Not far from Qixia Town, and the price isn’t high either—two Spirit Stones a month.”
“So cheap?! There’s got to be something behind it, right?”
Long Tao immediately sensed something was off.
The Fengying Pavilion area was a prime location.
Whether going up to the main peak or down to Qixia Town, it was convenient.
Normally, the monthly rent would be at least four low-grade Spirit Stones.
“Senior Brother isn’t trying to cheat you. Cheap naturally has a cheap reason. The neighbor of this place is a demon from the southern Myriad Demon Mountains, so… they’re a bit hard to deal with.”
“A demon, huh…”
Long Tao’s breathing stalled slightly, and uncontrollably, images flashed through his mind—charming nine-tailed fox demons, snake clan beauties with graceful waists… Could it be—
“Stop! Stop right there!” Senior Brother Qiu cut him off the moment he saw his wandering gaze and knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Don’t dream about good things! If it were really those fox or snake demon beauties, would this place ever be your turn? The Inner Sect crowd would’ve fought tooth and nail for it already! Next door is a spider spirit. And their transformation cultivation isn’t complete. The upper body… barely passable. As for the lower body…” Senior Brother Qiu gestured exaggeratedly with his hands.
“Six long legs, the kind with bristles! Well? If you can tolerate it, then rent it. At this price, there’s really nothing to complain about!”
Hearing this, Long Tao shuddered instantly.
The sect had always maintained decent relations with the demon clans of the southern mountains, so quite a few demon “exchange students” came over to study.
He had seen spider spirits before.
Heh… unlike the exotic fantasy beauties in various two-dimensional works from his previous life, real spider spirits had compound eyes and chelicerae, made clicking sounds from their jointed limbs when they moved, and had nauseating skin.
Every close encounter triggered a visceral sense of disgust.
Still, after struggling for a moment, he felt that everything at present had to revolve around cultivation.
Compared to the tasks given by that System in his head, these difficulties were nothing.
On top of that, the price of two Spirit Stones was far too tempting.
In the end, he gave his answer.
“Alright… fine. A spider is a spider. Compared to the God of Poverty, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I’ll take this place.”
“Straightforward! As expected of a mixed Spiritual Roots cultivator who could reach the Outer Sect at this age—real guts. Come on… Senior Brother won’t trouble you. Just sign here and press your handprint. I’ll handle all the other trivial matters, including the procedures for you to move out of the dormitory. You can just go pack up and move.”
……
Calling it a move, a menial disciple living in a communal dormitory didn’t have much in the way of belongings anyway.
After carrying his pack to the new address, Long Tao finally understood the deeper reason for the cheap price.
It was a row of three connected side rooms with poor lighting.
The three rooms shared a single courtyard.
And what Senior Brother Qiu hadn’t told him was… there weren’t one spider spirit neighbor, but two!
When he stood at the door of his new home and saw a pair of spider spirit siblings dragging their bloated six-legged lower bodies out from the rooms on the left and right at the same time, he truly felt the urge to go back and return this damned place.
“Are you the new neighbor?”
The one on the left, slightly larger in build, had the upper body of a young man with fairly decent features.
His face carried obvious apology and a trace of nervousness.
“My sister and I haven’t cultivated our transformation techniques deeply enough. This appearance… may have startled Fellow Daoist.”
Beside him, the “person” whose upper body was that of a young girl also lowered her head timidly.
Compared to the young man, her transformation technique was clearly worse, as even her eyes still retained the spider form—six in total.
However, when all six eyes blinked at once, it wasn’t as frightening as imagined.
It even looked rather interesting.
“We… we’ll try our best to stay inside and not disturb you…” The girl’s voice was as thin as a mosquito’s buzz.
Alright… one doesn’t strike a smiling face.
With the other party’s attitude so humble and polite, even carrying apology, his fear and discomfort were instead suppressed by an indescribable sense of awkwardness and pity.
He had to admit that this pair of spider spirit siblings truly had good manners.
The two demons, dragging those bloated spider lower bodies, even helped him tidy up his room.
After a brief conversation, he learned that the siblings’ surname was Luo.
The elder brother was called Luo Yunluo, and the younger sister was called Luo Yusi—also a major surname among spider demons.
In addition, he could sense that the siblings were somewhat self-conscious as well.
Understandable… with the rent being so low yet the place long ignored, even a fool would know they were being shunned.
However, Long Tao was also clear in his heart that keeping some distance from these special neighbors was the best course.
This place was only a temporary foothold for him; there was no need for deep involvement.
Maintaining surface-level politeness and peaceful coexistence would be enough.
After exchanging a few simple pleasantries, he politely declined the siblings’ offer to help further and turned to enter his own narrow side room.
He hastily laid out the bedding he had brought and almost collapsed into sleep the moment he lay down.
The “sleep paralysis” torment brought by the low-quality Turtle-Breath Pill the previous night, the life-and-death pressure of the Windless Cliff task, and the lingering terror of the Foundation Establishment Wolf King’s earth-shaking roar… layered together, they had long since drained both his mind and body dry.
Today, after running around all day just to secure a place to live, now that the dust had settled, the tightly wound string finally snapped.
……
The next morning, Long Tao rarely slept in late.
Having shed his menial disciple status, no one knocked on his door before dawn to rush him to work anymore.
The feeling was like moving from high school to university—after suddenly gaining freedom, it felt a little hard to adapt.
Still, being able to sleep until he woke naturally with the sun high in the sky was, in the end, wonderful! He slowly dressed in his Outer Sect disciple robes, pushed the door open, and stepped into the small courtyard.
He discovered that the spider spirit siblings were already sitting in meditation and cultivating.
Although the sitting posture with six spider legs looked strange… he guessed they were meditating.
“Ah… Fellow Daoist Long is finally up.”
Luo Yunluo sensed the sound of the door opening.
His upper body turned slightly as he greeted him politely, his tone still carrying that courteous distance.
“Haha, I just got promoted to the Outer Sect, so I can finally catch my breath and indulge a bit. Consider it a reward to myself.” Long Tao replied with a smile and stretched lazily.
“By the way, I’m heading out to Qixia Town to meet someone. If the two of you need anything picked up along the way, I could help.”
“Many thanks for your kindness, Fellow Daoist. There’s nothing we need at the moment.” Luo Yunluo nodded slightly.
After a few simple exchanges, both sides tacitly fell silent.
However, before leaving the courtyard, Long Tao couldn’t help glancing once more at the spider sister Luo Yusi’s six eyes.
Viewed up close now, the neatly arranged six eyes still didn’t stir his disgust.
Instead… they gave off an indescribable, almost bizarre sense of cuteness and meekness.
His heart skipped in alarm.
He hurriedly withdrew his gaze and walked out the gate, thinking to himself that perhaps something had seriously gone wrong with his sense of aesthetics.