Chapter 29: Extreme Heat, Spiders

Jiang Si took the serum out of her backpack, and Qin Shen stared at her the entire time.

His gaze made Jiang Si uncomfortable. "Where does it hurt?"

Qin Shen looked away. "I’m fine." ’This is so weird,’ she thought.

After Qin Shen’s wound was treated, the group set off again, sprinkling realgar powder along the path.

This way, they wouldn’t have to worry about running into snakes on their way back with the water.

Suddenly, Qin Shen stopped in his tracks again.

Jiang Linhai asked nervously, "Xiao Shen, what is it now?"

Qin Shen pointed ahead and said slowly, "Watch out for spiderwebs."

Everyone stared.

Holy hell.

In the ethereal white mist, barely visible spiderwebs, nearly two meters wide, were everywhere.

Jiang Linhai was utterly shocked. "Webs this big... don’t tell me there are man-eating spiders?" he asked in disbelief.

Qin Shen’s calm nod startled everyone.

"There really are! Then what do we do?"

If they had known getting water was this dangerous, they would have asked for more details before coming.

Niu Niu was on the verge of tears from fear.

"Daddy, I’m scared the spiders will bite me."

Lu Zhifeng pressed the gun into her hand. "Don’t be afraid, Niu Niu. One shot will kill it, and then it can’t bite you."

With red-rimmed eyes, Niu Niu nodded bravely. "Okay."

Jiang Si knew a little about man-eating spiders.

As long as they didn’t touch the webs, they wouldn’t alert the spiders.

Once the webs were disturbed, the spiders would attack their prey. They would spit out a large amount of silk to entangle their victim. Their sharp, venomous fangs would paralyze the target, liquefy its insides for consumption, and leave behind nothing but a dried-out husk.

Jiang Si raised her torch to get a better look. "Let’s think of a way around this."

Shen Baoying studied the silk. It looked soft. "Can’t we just burn these webs down with the torches?" she asked.

Jiang Linhai rolled his eyes at her. "If you burn the webs, you’ll burn down the forest too. How are we supposed to get water then?"

Shen Baoying bit her lip, anxious and worried. "But having to be this careful every time we get water is just too hard."

Jiang Si sighed. "Having a water source nearby is much better than having to go somewhere else. If we can’t get around, we’ll just have to be more careful. This is the apocalypse, after all."

No matter how difficult it got, they had to press on.

She had her space, so her family was already doing much better than most.

Qin Shen led the way, with Jiang Si and the others following cautiously behind him.

The farther they went, the more numerous the webs became, and the less space they had to move forward.

Suddenly, Jiang Si’s gaze fell on something up ahead, and her pupils contracted.

Several webs held tightly cocooned bodies.

Their eyes were closed and their complexions were normal, as if they were still alive.

Jiang Linhai’s heart hammered in his chest. "They look like they just died. Could the spiders be nearby?"

Qin Shen shook his head. "Their bodies have already been sucked dry, leaving only husks. The spiders never left. Look up."

Everyone looked up. Without warning, pairs of horrifying, red spider eyes met their gaze.

There were thousands of them, packed densely together.

’Has the apocalypse mutated everything in this world?’

Niu Niu couldn’t help but scream, but thankfully, Lu Zhifeng quickly covered her mouth. He soothed her, "Don’t be scared, Niu Niu. You’re the bravest. If they dare to come closer, you shoot them with your gun!"

Niu Niu nodded, crying silently. It was a heart-wrenching sight.

Lu Zhifeng was starting to regret bringing her here.

With thousands of spiders directly above them, everyone took each step with extreme caution, wary of becoming the spiders’ next meal at any moment.

The white mist was thick, making the spiderwebs increasingly difficult to spot.

Jiang Si was also getting anxious. She asked Qin Shen, "How much farther? Is the water source going to be surrounded by webs?"

Qin Shen gave the same answer as before. "The situation is different every day."

In other words, they might continue forward only to find they couldn’t get any water and would have to return empty-handed.

They might even encounter greater dangers.

Jiang Si raised her torch and peered into the distance. "If we can’t find our way out of this soon, let’s forget about getting water today. We can try again another time."

Jiang Si could hide in her space, but the others couldn’t.

Having so many spiders overhead was just too dangerous.

Lu Zhifeng was even more worried. "Why don’t we turn back now?"

Niu Niu had been through too many scares tonight.

She was still just a child and needed time to adapt.

Qin Shen was only here to show them the way. If they decided not to go, it was no loss to him.

He said, "Next time might be even more dangerous."

At his words, the expressions of Jiang Si’s family and Lu Zhifeng all changed.

’This isn’t even the most dangerous it can get?’

’What could be more dangerous?’

Before anyone could voice their questions, a leaf fell from a tree, landing right on a spiderweb.

The instant the vibration traveled to the spiders, Qin Shen’s ears twitched.

His expression suddenly changed, and he yelled, "Run!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the horrifying sound of countless spiders scuttling filled their ears.

’Dammit, all the spiders have been alerted.’

Qin Shen charged forward, breaking through the webs, and everyone followed close behind.

In no time, everyone’s hair was covered in spider silk.

The silk was sticky, but luckily, the torches they held could burn it away.

The group sprinted for their lives after Qin Shen, with the spiders in hot pursuit.

SWOOSH—

Several spiders shot out strands of silk simultaneously, ensnaring Lu Zhifeng and Niu Niu.

The silk stuck to their backs, where Lu Zhifeng couldn’t reach it with his torch.

Lu Zhifeng yelled desperately, "Save my daughter! Save my daughter! She can lead you to the rest of the weapons! I’m begging you!"

Niu Niu’s cries were heart-wrenching. "Daddy— Daddy—"

Jiang Si and the others looked back and saw that Lu Zhifeng and Niu Niu were tangled in silk.

Jiang Si saw that the spiders wouldn’t catch up for a moment, so she doubled back and swiftly cut the silk binding them with her dagger. "Hurry up and run!"

Lu Zhifeng’s eyes were bloodshot with gratitude. He hoisted Niu Niu onto his shoulders and quickly caught up with the others.

The skin-crawling sound of the spider swarm continued its relentless pursuit.

Jiang Si’s stamina wasn’t what it was in her past life, and she was already gasping for breath. The others were even more exhausted.

Fortunately, the spiders weren’t especially fast.

But being chased like this wasn’t a sustainable solution.

She asked the ever-composed Qin Shen between gasps, "Where are we running to?"

Qin Shen glanced back, his composure unnervingly calm. "There’s a cave up ahead that I’ve used as a shelter before."

"We can build a fire at the entrance to keep them from getting close."

"Do we have time to light a fire with wood?"

’If not, I’ll have to risk exposing my space and pull out some gasoline.’

But Qin Shen said, "We’ll have time. I left a barrel of gasoline there. Afterward, you’ll have to compensate me for my loss."

Jiang Si was overjoyed. "Okay! No problem!"

Lu Zhifeng also chimed in, "Deal!"

The cave mouth was a long, slanted triangle.

Qin Shen ran inside first, took out the gasoline, and splashed it all over the cave entrance. The moment everyone was inside, he lit it.

Jiang Si quickly pulled a water bottle from her bag, wet some handkerchiefs, and passed them out for everyone to cover their mouths and noses.

The roaring flames kept the spiders at bay.

Shen Baoying hadn’t even had a chance to breathe a sigh of relief when she turned around and began to scream.