Chapter Thirty-One: The Lord of the Cocoon Chamber

But at that moment, there was no other choice. “Kid, as soon as some of the spiders on you burn off, you need to get up right away.”

I wondered how reliable this plan really was, but before I could figure it out, Qin Feng had already struck a flame and set it alight. Wuliangye really lived up to its name—almost the instant the fire touched it, a great whoosh erupted, and the spiders were engulfed in a sea of flames.

They were indeed afraid of fire. The moment they felt themselves burning, the little creatures scrambled away as fast as they could. Soon, the pressure on my body lightened considerably. I tensed my muscles and sprang up from the ground in a single leap. Fortunately, the spiders had formed a thick enough layer that I didn’t catch fire myself as I moved.

As soon as I stood, the people around me started slapping at the remaining spiders clinging to me. But the ones on the ground quickly began crawling up my legs again.

“There’s no time, run!” Peanut yelled.

With that, Qin Feng gave me a hard shove forward. “Kid, run for your life! There’s a waterfall outside—get out first, and we’ll talk later!”

Qin Feng’s shout was deafening. Clenching my teeth, I summoned the determination that had once won me track and field championships and prepared to dash forward.

But just as I moved, a tremor shuddered through the entire room. I froze in fright, and then everything fell eerily silent. What was puzzling was that, after the tremor, the spiders crawling on me suddenly scattered. The spiders in the fire did the same. Within seconds, all that was left of the once carpeted floor were the charred and flattened corpses—every other spider had vanished.

Yet, like the calm before a storm, we all sensed that something terrible was about to happen. Everyone stood rooted in place, as if frozen in ice.

Suddenly, another deep tremor sounded, coming from the direction we had entered. It was like the footsteps of a giant. Peanut and Qin Feng, who were at the front, both began to inch backward.

“Brother Feng, do we run or not?” one of the men asked nervously.

But just then, countless red points of light glimmered in the darkness ahead. At first, we couldn’t make out what we were seeing. After a few seconds, Qin Feng flicked open a fire striker and tossed it forward.

It rolled across the floor, coming to rest beneath those red dots hovering in midair, illuminating an area more than ten meters wide. The sight it revealed nearly scared all of us to death.

Within that ten-meter circle, we saw only a single thing: a head. After a moment I realized—it was the enormous head of a spider, and the dense cluster of red lights were all eyes on its forehead. Its mandibles bristled with black, writhing tendrils, moving with a sinister “clack-clack-clack.” The whole face was covered in coarse black hair that looked disturbingly like human hair. Vaguely, its massive body seemed to inch forward bit by bit, and every movement sent tremors through the entire room.

“That must be the ancestor of the one that caught Old Tan,” I couldn’t help but say.

Peanut managed a stiff smile. “I don’t know about that, but if you can’t run any faster, you’ll be meeting your own ancestors soon enough.”

I understood immediately—faced with such a monstrous creature, even Peanut had no choice but to run.

“Back up slowly, don’t alarm it,” Qin Feng whispered.

So we kept our eyes fixed on the creature as we inched backward. Strangely, it seemed to pause, no longer advancing toward us.

“It’s too slow—it probably realizes it can’t catch us,” one of the men said with relief.

But as soon as he spoke, there was a sudden commotion atop the spider’s giant head. From its blood-red eyes, countless smaller red lights began to pour forth.

“It’s the things that crawled onto us before! Run!” Peanut shouted.

Before, there had been just a few, and they were tiny. Now, it seemed as if hundreds, even thousands, of red tendrils spewed forth. The moment they hit the ground, they clustered together and rushed toward us like a swarm of rats.

We didn’t dare look back. We just turned and ran for our lives.

Two of our men who had reached the exit turned back for us, but when they saw us sprinting like madmen, they froze in shock.

“Don’t just stand there! Run!” Qin Feng yelled, and the two spun around and bolted as well.

Just then, behind me, one of our men suddenly let out a terrible scream. We glanced back to see him frozen in place. Qin Feng was about to ask what was wrong when the man was abruptly yanked backward, as if seized by some invisible force, and flung toward the giant spider’s head.

“Little Tiger!” Qin Feng shouted, clearly about to rush back.

Peanut grabbed him. “It’s too late!”

Qin Feng looked like a trapped beast, his expression chilling to the bone. “Let go! I have to save him!”

Peanut frowned. “Then let’s go together.”

I was terrified and wracked with guilt. If I hadn’t slowed everyone down, we’d all have been out already. So I pulled out the pistol Qin Feng had given me, flipped off the safety. “I’m going too.”

At my words, the others also drew their weapons.

Qin Feng glanced at us, nodded, and was about to move when Peanut darted ahead of him. “This isn’t something you can handle with a few bullets,” he said as he ran.

We quickly followed and soon saw the massive head again.

The man who’d been grabbed now hung suspended by the spider’s mouth. Countless threads spewed from its jaws, wrapping his entire body.

“It’s feeding the little spiders. It must be a female,” Qin Feng shouted as he ran, raising Peanut’s dagger and hurling it forward.

With a hiss, the dagger flew straight into the spider’s mouth and vanished. But it severed the silk, and the man dropped to the ground.

Peanut moved with astonishing speed, darting under the spider’s head. He grabbed the man and hauled him up in one motion. The spider overhead suddenly let out a ghostly howl and lunged downward.

It was hard to imagine that such a huge head could move so swiftly. The mandibles snapped, slamming into the spot where Peanut had been. Fortunately, Peanut reacted even faster—he flung the rescued man forward and rolled away himself, dodging the blow. The spot where he’d stood was crushed into a deep pit by the spider’s jaws.

Missing its mark, the giant spider began to inch forward again. Its pace was slow, but each step covered three to five meters. Peanut had barely picked up the man again when the spider’s head was upon them.

“Fire!” Qin Feng shouted.

We finally snapped out of it, stopped running, and opened fire at the spider’s red eyes. I didn’t even realize this was my first time shooting a real gun, nor did I know how many shots hit. I just kept firing at the monster until my ammo ran out.

The bullets had some effect—at least, several holes appeared in its head, and white pus oozed out. The giant creature halted.

Peanut was almost at our side now. But just as I fired my last shot, the spider’s head dipped low, and its whole body lunged at Peanut.

Almost all the surrounding cocoons were smashed aside as the spider crashed forward. The room shook violently, and dust filled the air, blotting out our vision. Qin Feng hastily lit and tossed two fire strikers ahead.

My heart sank. Through the dust, I saw the rescued man sprawled on the ground, and not three meters behind him lay the enormous spider head—but Peanut was nowhere to be seen.

It was clear the man had been thrown clear, and it was easy to guess—Peanut must be pinned under that head.

We dragged the man over. I turned to Qin Feng anxiously. “Could Peanut have been swallowed by that thing?”

Qin Feng hesitated, and at the same moment, the spider’s head slowly lifted. The deep pit it had made was still there, but there was no sign of Peanut.

“Peanut!” I called, but there was no reply.

“Kid, you all need to run,” Qin Feng said.

“No, this is all my fault. I’m going to save him.” I rushed forward. My mind was blank—everything before me felt like my doing.

Qin Feng stopped me. “You go—I’ll save him.”

At that point, Peanut might already have been inside the creature’s belly. Qin Feng said he’d save him, but perhaps he just wanted to make me feel a little less guilty.