Sixty Thousand Threads

Rong Xianxian took stock of the weapons in her possession. While the Soul-Suppressing Bell was an insidious tool that caught opponents off guard, it had one fatal flaw: it required preparation time to activate.

Perhaps as Rong Xianxian's spiritual power grew stronger in the future, spiritual attacks could be executed instantly, but at present, she could not achieve that.

However, when traveling in the wilderness, monster ambushes always came without warning; how could anyone be given time to prepare?

The Soul-Capture Bell and the narrow-bladed curved knife were not spiritual artifacts, after all. They could not be wielded as effortlessly and flexibly as Cui Lie's flying daggers or Xuanxuan's phoenix umbrella.

Watching the two children chasing a little bird and darting around the room in high spirits, Rong Xianxian felt as though she was about to be overwhelmed by a wave of anxiety—though, of course, she would never admit that she was deliberately putting on this show.

"Mom, look what this is!" Xuanxuan finally lost her patience, running over with the item she had obtained during the day.

"Mom didn't spoil you for nothing, knowing to bring good things straight to Mom," Rong Xianxian said happily, pulling her daughter into an embrace.

Xuanxuan desperately wanted to say, *I didn't mean to give it to you,* but looking at Rong Xianxian's beaming smile, she couldn't bring herself to say the words.

*Whatever my daughter snatches away obediently ends up in my hands anyway,* Rong Xianxian thought smugly.

"Wait, Mom, I have conditions. I can give this to you, but you have to promise me one thing," Xuanxuan hardened her resolve, hiding the item behind her back and saying with utmost determination.

"How come you never set conditions when Mom gives you things? How can a little child be so calculating?" Rong Xianxian said, somewhat at a loss for words.

"How is there no condition? Mom clearly always demands that I eat properly, listen obediently, and sleep on time. Are none of those conditions?" Xuanxuan said pouting with dissatisfaction.

"Fine, fine! Then what condition do you want?" Rong Xianxian desperately wanted to knock on her own head, feeling a mild headache coming on. What was she to do with a little brat demanding conditions?

"I haven't thought of it yet. I'll tell you when I figure it out!" Seeing that Rong Xianxian had agreed, Xuanxuan handed over the item with complete satisfaction.

When Rong Xianxian took it into her hands, she discovered that it was a net—if it could even be called a net.

Its material was unknown; it was snowy white and soft, yet the web threads were tough and possessed incredible elasticity.

Rong Xianxian pulled on it with a bit of force, and the threads instantly stretched out significantly. The moment she loosened her grip, the rebounding force sliced through the skin on her fingertip, instantly oozing bright red blood.

Rong Xianxian was startled. How sharp!

She had to remember that by now, her cultivation had borne fruit and her spiritual energy protected her body; ordinary weapons could not harm her. Yet just now, even though she had pulled her finger back well in advance, she was still injured by the residual force of the bouncing thread.

As Rong Xianxian was about to shake it open to examine it closer, she noticed that the threads were greedily devouring the blood from her fingertip.

The snowy-white, soft net was stained red by the blood before instantly returning to its snowy-white hue, and Rong Xianxian even sensed an emotion of eager longing emanating from it.

Rong Xianxian stroked the tiny capillaries at her fingertip to make the blood flow faster and more abundantly. As the amount of consumed blood increased, a wondrous connection formed between Rong Xianxian and this flexible, snowy net.

"Retract." Rong Xianxian extended a finger and gently tapped the mesh. With a *swish*, the snowy net wrapped itself around her wrist.

Rong Xianxian opened the window; outside, the sky was pitch black.

"Go." With a flick of Rong Xianxian's hand, the snowy net instantly flew out, vanishing into the thick tree trunk outside the courtyard. But a moment later, it flew back into her hand.

Seeing that the large tree remained completely motionless, Rong Xianxian felt a trace of disappointment. Just as she was about to close the window, the very same tree silently split into four pieces, its branches and trunk breaking apart and crashing successively onto the ground.

Rong Xianxian looked in pleasant surprise at the soft, snowy net wrapped around her wrist like a white silk scarf. Just now, she had channeled her spiritual energy and flung the net out like a blade to test its lethality, and it certainly had not disappointed her.

After establishing a connection with the snowy net, she vaguely sensed its many versatile applications.

Rong Xianxian named it "Thousand Silks."

Through several rounds of experimentation and exploration, Rong Xianxian discovered that Thousand Silks could expand or shrink at will. When enlarged, it could reach five meters in length and three meters in width. As long as a monster was trapped within it, the net could slice and dice the creature into pieces—truly the bane of giant monsters and a lethal weapon for area-of-effect attacks.

When shrunk, it could be compressed to the size of a single needle, serving as a hidden projectile whose sneak attacks were impossible to guard against.

The Soul-Suppressing Bell, the Barrier Orb, and Thousand Silks combined together made for the ultimate top-tier configuration of an assassin.

Rong Xianxian felt slightly awkward; wanting nothing more than to live a peaceful life with her children, she was probably unsuited for this line of work.

Under normal conditions, Thousand Silks coiled around her wrist like a silk scarf, blending seamlessly with her fair, delicate wrist—lightweight, effortless, and entirely inconspicuous.

Thousand Silks was a spiritual artifact that could be nurtured and refined through spiritual energy, growing more powerful alongside Rong Xianxian's own advancement. Furthermore, nurturing it consumed very little spiritual energy, leaving Rong Xianxian with ample capacity to refine other spiritual artifacts.

Having acquired a new weapon, Rong Xianxian's combat power saw a massive boost.

In the days that followed, Xia Kai ventured into the safe zone several times to scout, but found no news regarding the return of the vanguard troops. Instead, the military dispatched three more units to explore the outside world.

The mission of Rong Xianxian and her group to gather supplies within the city proceeded smoothly; their three-story villa was nearly stuffed to the brim with all kinds of goods.

Rong Xianxian's pouch was also close to reaching its capacity.

While foraging for wild vegetables and herbs, picking wild fruits, and hunting prey in the wilderness, Rong Xianxian's group discovered three paths that had been cleared by the military.

One road passed through Binyang and traversed Xitang, appearing to be the most direct northern route.

The other two roads headed south and west respectively, connecting to other cities.

Rong Xianxian and her group drove along the northern route toward Binyang. Not only was the journey plagued by dense concentrations of monsters, wasting precious time, but just over halfway through the trip, a massive armored monster crushed one of their vehicles into pieces. Xia Kai was severely injured, and neither Rong Xianxian's Thousand Silks nor Cui Lie's flying daggers could do anything against the armored beast, leaving them with no choice but to flee in panic.

After that probing expedition, everyone unanimously agreed to limit their operations to the city and its near suburbs, waiting for news from the military before eventually relocating together with the main army.

While leading her team outside the city to slay monsters and farm treasures, Rong Xianxian even coincidentally ran into Shang Yuge, expending a great deal of effort to shake him off.

Back when they met at the Meadow Rong Supermarket, most of Shang Yuge's companions had still been ordinary people, their morale shattered and some even refusing to follow orders.

This time, however, they appeared high-spirited. Most had successfully cultivated their techniques and become practitioners, looking fiercely loyal to Shang Yuge.

Having obtained the Qingshuang Mother-and-Son Swords, Shang Yuge possessed formidable combat strength, and his prestige within his team grew day by day. Zhang Xiaoxiao had not been seen by his side this time; Rong Xianxian wondered if Shang Yuge would still have swaggered over to pester her so blatantly if Zhang Xiaoxiao had been in the party.

Whether it was because Rong Xianxian and her companions exercised extreme caution and tight security or because that mysterious organization had abandoned plans to cause trouble for them, another month and a half passed in relative peace.

Meanwhile, back in Beijing, Ning Qingyun's situation was an entirely different story.