Chapter Thirty: The Swarm of Spiders Attacks

As he spoke, Qin Feng suddenly glanced to the side. “There really is a sound coming from over there.”

“Thank goodness.” I collapsed to the ground, exhausted, staring at my blood-soaked hands before saying, “Qin Feng, let me tend to your wound.”

“It’s nothing, you rest a bit first. I’ll take care of the others.” With that, Qin Feng moved behind one of the men. His eyes widened—he’d clearly spotted the same silken thread and red dot. Earlier, with no other option, he’d used his knife to cut his own skin, but now things were different. He took out a smokeless stove, heated the tip of his knife until it glowed red, then cut a small triangle of skin from the back of the man’s neck. He pried out the red dot, flicked his hand, and pulled it free.

At first, the man only groaned, but with that final motion, he howled like a pig being slaughtered. Qin Feng quickly extracted the red dots from the remaining four men’s necks. Looking at him and then at myself, I couldn’t help but silently curse my own uselessness.

When it was Peanut’s turn, Qin Feng suddenly paused.

“I suppose you don’t need any sterilization,” he said, his expression serious enough, though I knew he was only joking with Peanut.

Peanut grinned. “With such poor hygiene, I doubt I’d survive your surgical care.” He then asked me to point out the location of the red dot.

I went over and pressed my finger to the spot. Peanut reached behind, felt for the area, and then used his fingernail to slice a small cut in his skin.

“Did I get it right?” Peanut asked.

I examined it. “Yes, but it’s still embedded. What exactly are you trying to do?”

Peanut didn’t answer. Suddenly, he slapped the side of his neck. With a sharp crack, a line of blood spurted from the wound, and the red object shot out along with it.

We all stared in astonishment. What sort of person could do that?

Peanut rotated his neck a couple of times, then crouched down and shone his flashlight on the red object on the ground.

Watching his back, Qin Feng gave a wry smile. “For the first time, I think I’m a little afraid of someone.” Two of the men came over to help stitch his wound.

I looked at Qin Feng, then at Peanut. The two of them seemed alike, but on closer thought, not really. I’d only just met both, yet Qin Feng struck me as direct, capable, seasoned, cautious, and shrewd. Peanut, on the other hand, filled my mind with questions, strangeness, and confusion—and even a trace of fear. His abilities were astonishing, the kind that seemed to exist only in novels or television, yet here he stood before me. Why had he been trapped in my family’s cellar? What was his connection to my father?

I sighed, forcing myself not to dwell on it. Then I crouched beside Peanut to look at the ground.

In the beam of the flashlight, several blood-soaked red tendrils were tangled in delicate threads of silk, which slowly dragged them back along the path we’d come.

“What are those things? Is it possible we’ve been infected again?” I asked, still shaken. Earlier, when these things entered our bodies, no one felt a thing. If they returned, we’d be caught totally unprepared.

Peanut shook his head. “There’s something odd about them, but their control is limited—they can only numb certain senses. Otherwise, we’d already be dead. And those red things must be very valuable to the spider controlling us, or it wouldn’t be so eager to retrieve them.”

“Should we go take a look? If it’s a spider, we can kill it together to prevent future trouble.”

Hearing this, Peanut smiled at me. “You’re ruthless.”

“No, but if we don’t deal with it, we’ll just get caught out again. Even if it isn’t fatal, it’ll waste time.”

Peanut kept smiling. “You want to go back, hunt it down, and kill it. Don’t you think that would waste even more time?”

I tried to protest, but realized Peanut was right—I was being rash. But the fear made me impulsive, so I let it go.

Meanwhile, Qin Feng’s wound had been treated, and the group began to discuss the next steps.

“There’s nothing more to discuss. Since we hear something over there, we’ll head that way, but be vigilant about what’s behind us,” Qin Feng said.

No one objected, so we wasted no time—Qin Feng led the way, and we followed close behind.

Sure enough, as we moved, the atmosphere changed. Though the corpses within the cocoons still filled us with dread, it was no longer so silent. Beyond the distant rumble, we could even hear the sound of running water, and—intermittently—shouts.

“It’s Uncle Two and the others!” Qin Feng turned and exclaimed.

“From the sound, things aren’t going well for them,” Peanut observed.

“We can’t delay any longer. Keep up!” Qin Feng urged, dashing ahead. Though the path was choked with cocoons, they didn’t slow the others at all. I was quickly left behind, repeatedly bumping into the soft cocoons. Damn it, even with a flashlight I was so clumsy. Frustrated, I threw caution aside and barged ahead, knocking down cocoon after cocoon. I dared not look at the corpses spilling out. Soon, my clothes were covered in gray spider silk.

As I struggled on, I suddenly realized I was running out of strength—my limbs felt impossibly heavy.

“I’m in decent shape—not as good as those guys, but I’ve won my share of school track championships. Why do I feel so weighed down now?”

I tried to push myself, but eventually I just couldn’t go any farther.

“Wait…wait for me.” As I shouted, I cursed myself for being such a burden.

Two of the men stopped and quickly ran back to me.

“Sir, we can see the exit ahead! Here, let us help you,” one said, reaching for me.

Hearing we were close to the exit, excitement surged through me. But just as I reached for his hand, his expression changed—he jerked his hand back abruptly.

“Ah!” Both men grunted and took a step back.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, bewildered.

One pointed at me, face pale. “Sir, your body—”

I understood instantly, turning to look at myself. “It’s nothing, just brushed against some webs—”

Halfway through my sentence, I froze in shock. On my chest, a gray mass had gathered without my noticing. It looked like a cluster of tiny insects, crawling over me in a dense, writhing swarm, making a chittering, clicking noise.

“Spiders!” one of the men shrieked. “Damn it, sir, they’re all over your back too!”

Their faces contorted with disgust. One even clapped a hand over his mouth, about to retch.

I’d been running so hard I hadn’t felt a thing, but now, I could sense them crawling everywhere. These spiders must have come from somewhere nearby, each no bigger than a pinky fingernail, swarming all over me as if for some unknown purpose.

No wonder I felt heavier and heavier—it was all their doing. Looking down, I saw my body was nearly covered by those gray specks.

I let out a scream and threw myself to the ground, rolling back and forth. Instantly, I heard the crunching of crushed spiders beneath me. Their bodies burst, oozing a milky white fluid that quickly soaked through my clothes, leaving a sticky, revolting film.

I’d thought rolling would rid me of them, but instead, more and more spiders kept falling onto me, as if from nowhere.

“It’s the cocoons!” one of the men shouted. “They’re coming out of the cocoons!”

I stopped and followed the beam of their flashlight upward. Overhead, the giant cocoons resembled ant nests, with countless gray spiders raining down. As soon as they hit the ground, they scurried straight for me, as though drawn by something on my body. There were three of us standing here, but the spiders ignored the others completely.

Why me? Did I look weak or easy to bully?

In a panic, I continued to roll, but soon found I couldn’t move anymore. The two men tried to help at first, but gradually backed away. Looking down, I realized spiders had piled up on me like a small gray mountain—there must have been millions. Yet strangely, they didn’t bite or wrap me in silk. Instead, they seemed to be treating me as their nest.

Was I really going to be smothered to death by these creatures? What a wretched way to die.

Before I could think further, some of the spiders had already crawled onto my face, two even trying to climb into my mouth. I could only clamp my lips shut and lie still.

Just then, two flames burst into life, and the spiders covering me began to burn. A foul stench filled my nose, so vile it made me want to vomit. Peering through the smoke, I saw Peanut appear, that bastard actually grinning at the sight of me crawling with spiders.

Qin Feng followed, promptly using a fire striker to burn more of the spiders.

“There are too many spiders, we’ll never burn them all with fire strikers,” Peanut said.

“What should we do?” Qin Feng didn’t stop, while the other two men joined in, setting more spiders alight.

“Anyone have any liquor?” Peanut asked.

“Yes,” one of the men replied, pulling out a canteen. Peanut reached for it, but the man hesitated.

“What are you waiting for?” Qin Feng snatched the bottle.

The man protested, “That’s my hard-won bottle of genuine Wuliangye—use it sparingly!”

Everyone glared at him. If I made it out alive, I swore I’d drown that bastard in Wuliangye myself. As I cursed internally, Peanut uncapped the bottle and splashed liquor all over the spiders pinning me down.

We had no idea what he was planning. Given that he’d already detoxified the Purple Heart Grass on his own, there was no telling what else he could do.

Peanut twirled his fingers, then stopped.

“What are you doing?” Qin Feng demanded.

Peanut gave an innocent look. “Obviously, I’m going to burn them after pouring on the liquor. Didn’t I make that clear?”

Immediately, I heard Qin Feng and the two men spit in disgust. If I could have opened my mouth, I’d have bitten that bastard myself. Damn it, I thought he’d come up with some brilliant trick.