My SSS-Rank Skill and System is too OP in Modern Cultivation world-Chapter 166: A Spider in the Heart and a Mop in His Hand

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System text ghosted across Kent's vision:

Mission Logged: Pocket Gate Recon – Difficulty B+

Primary Objective: Map rune array within 24 h of stabilization.

Secondary Objective: Retrieve ≤ 10 kg relic sample.

Penalty: Diplomatic incident if detected.

Bonus: First mapping of 33-ring submatrix (unknown reward).

He tightened his grip on the yoke. Behind him, the cabin thrummed; ahead, the sky ran starless and wide. "Four days till the gate opens," he thought. "Let's be there first, unseen."

Silent Star sliced northward, as hushed as her name, carrying them into the unknown.

The violet night thinned into a cold dawn haze as Silent Star drifted below the last serrated ridge. Kent, hands steady on the yoke, guided the skimmer along a gorge filled with pine shadows. No patrol beacons flashed, Yanling's inner sentries must still be asleep. Auri perched on the dash, tail-flame dim, eyes bright.

At 05:10 they banked over a misted valley and spotted the lights of Qingshi Crossing, a modest market-town huddled beside an ironwood bridge. Clay rooftops steamed under lantern glow; smoke spiraled from noodle stalls already stoking fires for breakfast crowds. Dozens of other small skimmers and beast carts dotted the common green, their owners snoring inside roadside inns while border papers cooled in pockets.

Perfect cover.

Jade tapped the silent landing rune. Silent Star kissed down behind a derelict granary. Cloaking sheets peeled outward; hull plates shifted hue, adopting the same dull gray as the surrounding barn walls. Five seconds later the craft looked like a harmless wheat shed.

Jade Monroe stretched and slipped from the cockpit. "Blend in quickly," he murmured, tightening a plain brown coat over his normal black uniform. On his hip, Nexus badge hid beneath wool. "We meet my contact at noon. Until then, act like traveling hedge scholars."

Nima yawned and shuffled aft. "Do scholars get fried buns?" Her eyes gleamed at the smell drifting from town.

Kent chuckled. "Only if they keep voices down." He checked the jade tags, still cool. "Remember: no flashy flames, no spying until dark."

By sunrise they had joined a trickle of cultivators heading toward the town square, an easy mix of loose cultivators, patched travel robes, calloused palms clutching beast-hide satchels. Everyone here wanted something, talismans, escort contracts, or the chance to stake a claim when the rumor of an opening pocket dimension finished sweeping through the taverns.

Kent and Jade kept to the edge of the crowd. Auri posed as an ordinary red-plum songbird, tail-flame muted to a faint ember. Nima bounced between them, face half-hidden under an oversized hat.

The square buzzed. Street criers shouted the same gossip in three dialects:

"Spatial rift near Star-Wall Basin, four days!"

"Yanling wardens block the main road, try the goat trail!"

"Entry passes sold at Nine-Talons Inn, limited to twenty!—"

Kent studied every face. Most were low-rank: Level-D wanderers from interior clans, a few Level-C bounty pairs, one grizzled Level-B brute with triple-knuckled gauntlets who demanded two coins per info snippet. Nothing Jade and Kent couldn't dodge if things soured.

They found beds at Crane-Wing Hostel, a three-story timber inn two streets off the square, cheap enough to avoid suspicion, clean enough to avoid fleas. The landlord, a genial auntie with onions on her breath, recorded them in a worn ledger as "Scholar Han," "Apprentice Ning," and "Cousin Wen." She assigned one large room with two pallets and an attic nook "for the bird." Auri chirped in what passed for gratitude.

"Blending complete," Jade murmured once they'd stowed packs. "We wait, we listen, we do not fight when provoked."

Morning drifted into late afternoon. Kent and Jade sipped weak tea in the hotel's front hall, pretending to annotate star maps. They overheard plenty:

The rift pulsed again at dawn; fishermen downstream saw moon-colored spray rise from the gorge.

Three warden squadrons marched from Yanling capital, nobody knew if they'd segregate foreigners or simply charge "research tolls."

One daring pair of cultivator brothers planned to camp beside the rift, disguised as charcoal peddlers.

Kent noted every detail in tiny shorthand. Jade closed his notebook only when the innkeeper rang supper bells.

Nima and Auri spent the day elsewhere, haggling for local rice candies, counting goat caravans, and doing her best not to draw eyes. By dusk she stumbled back, cheeks smudged with fried-chili oil.

"I was subtle!" she insisted, dropping a paper bag of sesame puffs on the pallet.

Kent raised an eyebrow. "You won chili-eating, arm-wrestling, and ring-toss competitions. Subtle like a lightning bolt. I told you to be normal."

She grinned, unrepentant. "Nobody asked for my last name."

Auri hopped from the rafters, demanding crumbs. Kent fed him, then ran a final system check:

SP Farm (remote) stable.

Bacteria Colony Mood: "productive."

Sun-Disk & Coin secure in triple warded chest.

All clear.

Deep night. Lanterns outside dimmed; hostel halls fell silent except for occasional snoring and the drip of roof runoff. Jade slept cross-legged in the corner, a light-doze meditative trance. Kent sat near the window, polishing his crimson sword. Nima lay on her pallet under a thin quilt, Auri curled by her shoulder.

Suddenly her eyes snapped open, wide, bright, alert. She sat bolt upright.

"Kent, big brother," she whispered.

He set the crimson sword down. "Bad dream?"

"No. It's… him." She pressed a palm over her sternum. "The third soul we captured at Azure Bay, he's clawing around inside my heart black hole thing."

Kent's stomach dropped. The "heart black hole" was Nima's strange internal soulspace, a dark place that stored stray souls she commandeered. Usually silent, occasionally it pulsed if she absorbed emotional storms too fast. The captured Level-B Demonic Sect Leader had been stuffed there months ago, still unpurified, bound but aware.

A cold ripple swept the room. The dim light guttered. "Summon him. Let's check." Kent asked her.

From behind Nima, a semi-transparent humanoid silhouette swelled into view, two meters tall, broad-shouldered, robed in shadow. Four gleaming eyes, arranged in a diamond, burned red above a mouth twisted into eternal snarl. Ethereal chains clung to his wrists, trailing off into Nima's sternum like leashes of faint light.

Kent sprang between the specter and the rest of the room, hand on dagger hilt. Jade startled awake, already forming a quick-seal hand sign.

"Enemy attack. Kent defending your sister. This guy looks strong. I will take care of him." Jade Monroe yelled.

"Hold," Nima said, voice steady. Her pupils glowed pale. "He's manifesting but still bound. This is my new summon."

The specter's four eyes jerked to focus on Kent, then Jade. A voice echoed, layered, distant, dripping spite. "Wretched whelps… prison of flesh… free me or drown in curses…"

Nima frowned. "Shut it, four eyes."

The chains tightened. The specter twitched once, forced to stand straighter. Nima looked thoughtful. "I need a name. Four creepy eyes… spider vibes."

Kent blinked. "You're naming your hostage demon?"

"Sure, why not?. Your name will be Spidey."

One eye twitched in outraged disbelief. "You mock the Thousand-Eyes Calamity—"

"—who currently has zero hands free." Nima pointed to the hostel's wash-closet door at the end of the room. "Spidey, first order, clean that toilet. Thorough scrub. No shortcuts."

If ghosts could choke, this one did. "I commanded armies! I devoured cities! I am…"

Nima snapped her fingers. A pulse of leash-light yanked. Spidey staggered across the floorboards, semi-corporeal feet sliding. An old wooden bucket and mop in the corner jumped as if dragged by unseen hands, rattled after him. The wash-closet door creaked open of its own accord; a cracked chamber pot inside awaited grim fate.

Kent tried but failed to mask a grin. "Of all tasks… My little sister is really a big boos."

Spidey hissed curses in three tongues, but his indisputable Level-B aura flexed uselessly against Nima's command. He dipped mop, scrubbed porcelain, muttered dire prophecies of doom. Each reluctant swipe produced a faint screech of iron chains.

Nima leaned against the wall, arms crossed, savoring every squeak. "Remember your place, Spidey. One more arrogant speech and the next order is dog-poo stew."

"Unthinkable!" the ghost rasped.

"Unavoidable," she answered sweetly.

Auri fluttered into the doorway, head tilted. With delighted chirps he began counting toilet-brush strokes. "One, two, three, .... Ten."

Jade, having dispelled his defensive seal, exhaled a bewildered sigh. "Remind me never to cross your sister. I am also a Level-B cultivator. She is making a summoning clear toilet. This is an insult… Somehow I feel threatened by her."

Kent wiped a tear of laughter. "Spidey might keep the wash closet spotless for the rest of the mission."

Minutes later the ghost emerged, steaming mop still in hand, black aura shrunken to a sulky flicker. He stood before Nima, eyes downcast. The chains retracted, drawing him back into her chest, Poof! He was gone. Only a faint spider-shaped sigil glowed over her heart for a heartbeat before fading.

Nima dusted her hands. "Toilet secure. I fulfilled my promises."

Kent managed to regain seriousness. "Can you feel if he's stable?"