What kind of address was that—Chi?
Flippant. Rude.
The little bit of goodwill Ji Chenxi had left for Lan Mu dropped even lower.
He flipped lightly in midair, and anyone sharp-eyed would’ve noticed—he’d actually borrowed a bit of force from those spider threads. Those razor-thin strands, sharp enough to cut through flesh, didn’t leave a single mark on him. Instead, they became leverage, helping him move faster.
Ji Chenxi twisted and dropped, heading straight for Lan Mu.
Lan Mu’s eyes shifted slightly. He was starting to find this cat seriously annoying—like an irritating leopard that just wouldn’t go away. Just like Ji Chenxi standing right in front of him.
He quickly stepped back, fingers moving faintly, as if he were plucking something in the air.
Lan Mu’s threads were too thin—almost transparent. Even Ji Chenxi, whose spirit form was a feline, had trouble seeing them clearly. But he knew what Lan Mu was doing. Sure enough, just as his attack was about to reach Lan Mu, his dagger suddenly stopped midair.
Countless threads appeared in front of him, twisting together and slicing toward him. If Ji Chenxi hadn’t spun his dagger and wrapped those threads around the blade, his hands would probably have been covered in thin cuts in that split second.
Ji Chenxi clicked his tongue softly. His dagger spun again. It looked like it was completely tangled—but in the next moment, the blade sliced straight through the threads.
“Oh?” Lan Mu raised a brow. “Nice weapon. Not many things can cut through my threads that easily.”
Ji Chenxi didn’t answer. He lunged at Lan Mu again. The speed looked fierce—but that was already him holding back.
If Ji Chenxi really let himself show strength above S-rank, he wouldn’t even need to fight like this. A bit of pheromone pressure, a touch of spiritual power control, and he could pin Lan Mu down without effort. But right now, he was only supposed to be S-rank on the surface. So he had to keep reminding himself—hold back. Don’t overdo it.
Lan Mu retreated fast, his hands turning again. This time, countless threads spread out like a net, closing in around Ji Chenxi.
That dagger wasn’t ordinary. It could probably slice through even the hardest special materials without trouble. But this time, something sticky coated the threads. Even after Ji Chenxi cut them off, part of that sticky stuff clung to the blade. Not much at first—but little by little, it built up. And when the dagger met those threads again, it wasn’t as smooth as before.
From the darkness, dense clusters of tiny blue spiders crawled out. Some crept along the ground, others spat silk into the air. Every single spider was part of Lan Mu’s strength. Every thread was another string in his hands.
Most people who’ve ever faced Lan Mu end up giving him the same three labels—hard to deal with, dangerous, and… downright scary.
Even among S-ranks, his combat power sits near the top. After all, not many people have a spirit form like his spider—able to breed freely and carry deadly poison at the same time.
Off to the side, Bai Anran was watching with his heart in his throat. He wanted to shout a warning, but he was afraid Ji Chenxi would end up like him. Right now, Bai Anran’s whole body was numb. He couldn’t move at all. Logically speaking, as an S-rank himself, even if he wasn’t as strong as Lan Mu, he shouldn’t have lost that fast. But the situation earlier had been urgent. Not long after clashing with Lan Mu, he tried to save Lu Jianhan—and got bitten by one of those venomous spiders. Just one bite. That was all it took. After that, Bai Anran didn’t even have the chance to keep fighting.
Ji Chenxi, of course, wasn’t going to repeat Bai Anran’s mistake. The reason was simple—he had no intention of saving either of them in the first place. With so many school higher-ups watching this freshman trial behind the scenes, Lan Mu would have to be completely insane—throwing consequences to the wind—to actually kill someone just to threaten him.
The moment he heard Lan Mu’s name, Ji Chenxi already knew what the man’s weakness was.
Lan Mu was the kind of S-rank who relied heavily on his spirit form. You could even say he became S-rank largely because of it. And if that was the case, then his weakness wasn’t hard to guess.
The mother spider.
His strength came from his spirit form. So naturally, his weakness did too.
If Lan Mu wanted to summon those dense, almost disposable blue spiders, he had to release the mother spider. And once someone found that mother spider and subdued it, the so-called fearsome Blue Spiders would just leave behind an alpha with slightly better physical ability.
Ji Chenxi kept using his spiritual power to crush and tear through the blue spiders. He wasn’t just searching on his own—he released his spirit form as well, letting it help look for the hidden mother spider.
Well… “search” wasn’t really the right word.
He was wiping them out in large batches.
Ji Chenxi added a layer of protection over his snow leopard. It looked thin, almost fragile, but it was actually tough as steel. Unless the mother spider stepped in personally, all anyone would see was a giant snow leopard slapping blue spiders to death one after another.
Lan Mu let out a soft scoff. When he first realized Ji Chenxi was an S-rank who focused on spiritual power attacks, he’d felt a flicker of concern. Now, all he wanted to do was laugh at his naivety. He had thousands upon thousands of offspring spiders. Trying to pick out the mother spider from that swarm? That was like looking for a needle in the sky.
Threads shot in from every direction. Ji Chenxi moved with quick, clean steps, dodging with ease—
—and casually crushing piles of blue spiders along the way. The little things kept trying to crawl onto him. Even with spiritual power shielding him, they just wouldn’t stop. It was annoying as hell. He was this close to dropping everything and going to beat up that so-called senior first.
Meanwhile, his snow leopard had started rolling around on the ground, trying to squash all the spiders clinging to its body. Ji Chenxi, busy dodging Lan Mu’s threads, almost couldn’t bear to look. Maybe that big cat should just stop and go back to his spiritual domain already.
Sure, the snow leopard was efficient at killing spiders.
But it looked ridiculously embarrassing.
Anyone who didn’t know better would think the big cat was acting cute and rolling around for belly rubs.
While Ji Chenxi was silently roasting his own spirit form, Lan Mu was growing more and more irritated. He took a deep breath. He was no longer thinking about whether this might injure Ji Chenxi badly enough to land him in a medical pod for months. With a sharp pull of his hand, countless spider threads gathered into his grip. Those threads were so sharp that even Lan Mu himself got cut. Blood seeped out—and the swarm of spiders instantly went into a frenzy.
Now he was getting serious.
Ji Chenxi didn’t look panicked at all.
In fact, this was exactly what he’d been waiting for.
The well-hidden mother spider… should finally make a move.
The swarm of spiders grew restless, writhing so thick and fast it made most people’s skin crawl. Bai Anran was one of them. He never thought of himself as some weak omega, but seeing that many spiders spit silk like they wanted to swallow a person whole—his back still went cold.
Lu Jianhan, on the other hand, had seen his fair share of chaos. Compared to Bai Anran, he was much calmer. He’d already gone a round with Ji Chenxi before, so he knew exactly how terrifying Ji Chenxi’s spiritual control and attacks could be. Not only was he not that worried, he was actually watching with interest, wondering if Ji Chenxi really had a shot at beating Lan Mu.
Blood Threads—Lan Mu’s signature move. He used his own blood to stir his spirit form into a frenzy, forcing it to spit silk at insane speed and strangle his opponent. In team fights, this move was basically a finishing blow.
So how was Ji Chenxi going to deal with that?
Lu Jianhan watched closely. Beside him, he felt Bai Anran tremble slightly. He glanced back and lowered his voice. “What’s wrong?”
One look at Bai Anran’s pale face, and Lu Jianhan understood a little. His expression turned complicated. How could this guy be this timid? He didn’t seem like an alpha at all. Wait—was Bai Anran even an alpha?
His gaze drifted toward the back of Bai Anran’s neck, trying to see if there was an inhibitor patch or anything like that. But Bai Anran’s collar was pulled high, completely blocking any view of his gland. In this heat, he was still wrapped up like that—kind of strange. Still, Bai Anran had tried to save him earlier, even putting himself at risk. He hadn’t succeeded, but Lu Jianhan still appreciated it. So he added, a bit more gently, “Don’t be scared. They look crazy, but they’re still under Lan Mu’s control. They won’t suddenly attack you.”
“His Highness…” Bai Anran’s eyes were full of worry. That worry outweighed his fear of the spiders.
He and Ji Chenxi had grown up together. Even if they’d drifted apart in recent years, their past still meant something. Watching Ji Chenxi chased by a swarm of venomous spiders while he himself couldn’t even move—it made his chest tighten. Maybe omegas were only meant to marry and have kids. He’d thought he could choose his own path. He had strength greater than ninety-nine percent of omegas. And yet, in the end, he could only become someone else’s burden.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Lu Jianhan wasn’t even watching the fight anymore. He turned fully toward Bai Anran, confused. After a long moment, something seemed to click in his mind. “You’re worried about His Highness? Relax. He’s strong. Or… do you feel useless?”
“Anran,” he went on, his tone turning serious, “being S-rank already means you started ahead of most people. But even among S-ranks, there are levels. In other people’s eyes, we might be geniuses. But some people? They’re geniuses among geniuses. So what we do is keep learning, keep training, keep getting better.”
After he finished, Bai Anran still didn’t respond.
Lu Jianhan scratched his cheek awkwardly, assuming he’d misunderstood. He turned back to the fight. “Uh… just pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“…Thank you.” Bai Anran tightened his grip on his sleeve slightly. “I want to change something. But I keep realizing I’m completely powerless.”
“That’s not true. You’re pretty strong. If I hadn’t dragged you down, you might’ve lasted a few more moves against the Blue Spider. Don’t overthink it. Lan Mu’s been famous for years. It’s normal we can’t beat him.”
“And if someone could?”
Lu Jianhan’s eyes were fixed on Lan Mu as he answered, “Then that would be insane. A total breakout moment. Not just in school.”
As he said that, a certain thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Ji Chenxi had once said he didn’t care about making a big splash—but he had to beat one specific person. That alone showed he wasn’t obsessed with being first place. What he really wanted was to stand above that one person.
Up until now, he’d never fought this seriously before. So… could that so-called lifelong rival be Lan Mu?
Silver threads flashed, cold light cutting through the air. Spider silk tangled with blades formed from Ji Chenxi’s condensed spiritual power. As he fought, he kept ruling out possibilities, narrowing it down bit by bit—until he caught a tiny flaw.
The mother spider was…
Ji Chenxi’s gaze snapped toward a certain spot—
—only to see a long, well-shaped hand casually pinching the mother spider hidden among the swarm.
In an instant, the spiders that had been frenzied just seconds ago froze completely.
Ji Chenxi knew that hand far too well.
After all, not long ago, he’d personally tied those very wrists up.
The owner of that hand held the mother spider firmly now, giving it no chance to escape, and said in a low voice, “That’s enough, Lan Mu.”
“Chi… you’re helping him?” Lan Mu frowned slightly, as if he’d just seen something impossible.
Who else could it be?
Of course—it was Chi Zhuo.
Facing Lan Mu’s questioning look, Chi Zhuo simply nodded. “Mm.”
Ji Chenxi, who’d just had his target snatched away, lifted his eyes slightly. Strangely enough, his mood improved a little.
Compared to him, the snow leopard—who’d been rolling around moments ago with messy fur—was much more honest about its feelings. It walked over to Chi Zhuo with smooth, elegant steps and, all prim and proper, rubbed lightly against him.
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
