Chapter 36: Spider's Journey, Cicada's Transformation (IV)

Smoke and dust filled the air, obscuring vision; Li Cheng regained his stance, gasping for breath.

Shhh—

A dense clatter of footsteps approached from afar; countless small spider monsters split into two groups—one surged into the building ruins to rescue the unconscious Mo Cai Spider, the other rushed toward Li Cheng.

Li Cheng fought desperately, but his muscles ached, his limbs weakened, and the spider monsters seemed endless, leaving him unable to take a single step.

Creak—crack—

The massive Mo Cai Spider slowly emerged from the building ruins, then suddenly leaned forward, raising its abdomen high toward Li Cheng.

The giant spider’s body surface shifted colors chaotically, instantly morphing into hundreds of patterns.

Li Cheng, struggling to break through the encirclement, felt his pupils violently tremble—he could clearly see the giant spider’s form, yet his mind could not classify it.

‘This is a biological entity roughly the size of an armored truck, divided roughly into front and rear sections, connected by a relatively slender stalk.’

‘Its front section is embedded with seven yellow objects.’

‘Beneath its midsection are eight longer, rod-like appendages, similar to spider legs.’

‘Wait, what is a spider? Why can’t I remember?’

‘Wait, who am I?’

His thoughts spiraled into chaos; his consciousness abruptly ceased.

————

A light breeze brushed his cheek, bringing a faint chill.

Li Cheng blinked dazedly, realizing he was hanging upside down, wrapped entirely in white silk into a cocoon, his face the only exposed part.

Every muscle in his body felt weak and limp; he couldn’t even form an expression, so he could only shift his eyes to observe his surroundings.

This appeared to be the interior of a shopping mall—but he used the word “appeared” because every visible surface was completely covered in thick spider silk.

Dozens of small spider monsters scurried across bridges, web pathways, and staircases, hauling up cocoons of various shapes and hanging them on the webs.

The cocoons varied in size: small ones contained rats, squirrels, and birds; larger ones held cats and dogs.

Some even larger cocoons contained humans—eyes tightly shut, faces rigid, whether in deep sleep or injected with paralytic toxin, no one could tell.

In a way, not waking up was better—

Higher up on the webs hung countless shriveled insect cocoons; the humans inside had long since been drained of blood and marrow, leaving only desiccated, wrinkled skins stretched over their bones.

Whenever the wind blew, they emitted mournful whimpers.

Amidst these cocoons, the giant Mo Cai Spider lay motionless at the center of the great web.

Its injuries were horrific: dense wounds covered its limbs, its back was a bloody mess, one chelicera was shattered, and its body surface’s colors drifted aimlessly.

Dozens of small spider monsters crawled over it, spinning silk over its wounds to stem the flow of green blood.

Li Cheng’s pupils kept trembling; merely looking at the Mo Cai Spider sent that same mental confusion surging into his mind.

Memories from before resurfaced—he recalled the battle on the highway—but instantly, those memories blurred, faded, grew indistinct.

Even this forgetting effect spread further—he could no longer clearly remember why he was in the Shadow Realm.

He couldn’t look any longer.

He forced himself to shift his gaze downward.

Through gaps in the silk, he saw the real-world mall—bustling, vibrant, crowded with pedestrians, utterly unaware that just beside them lay a hellish lair of bones and corpses.

Swish—

The silk cocoon around him tightened, as if something was pulling him.

Li Cheng sighed inwardly, quietly flexing his jaw muscles, preparing to bite his tongue—ready to pierce it with his teeth, using the pain to shock his body and break the paralysis for a counterattack.

The expected scene—being dragged to the Mo Cai Spider’s mouth—never came; instead, the force at his feet pulled the cocoon over the railing, dragging it down into the dimly lit employee corridor.

The corridor held more than just his cocoon—Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia were also wrapped in cocoons; when they saw Li Cheng, they strained to blink at him, twitching their facial muscles.

“Don’t move.”

A clear, childlike human voice suddenly echoed through the employee corridor—coming from a small spider monster.

It was identical to its kin except for a white gauze covering the right half of its head.

A speaking spider monster?

Shhh—

The spider monster crawled beside Li Cheng’s head and bit his neck; as a fluid injected, the toxins neutralized each other, and the paralysis in his body vanished instantly.

His limbs regained strength; Li Cheng immediately tore open the cocoon and stood firm.

The spider monster then bit Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia on the neck, lifting their paralysis; Li Cheng helped cut their cocoons open, freeing them.

“Keep quiet. Follow me.”

The special spider monster’s abdomen emitted another clear human voice; it moved its legs and descended the stairs.

The three exchanged glances—trapped in this hell, they had no choice but to follow quietly.

They descended the employee corridor to the underground first floor—a commercial street; the second floor, an underground loop and parking lot; the third and fourth floors, municipal utility tunnels housing gas, power, water, and communication lines.

The fifth floor was the subway equipment level; below that lay the subway tunnels.

Li Cheng and Yuan Zhixia had guessed correctly—the spider monsters had indeed turned the city’s subway system into a hitchhiking route.

Spider silk blanketed the floors, ceilings, and even the train cars; fortunately, perhaps because the Mo Cai Spider was severely wounded, all its offspring had rushed to tend to it, leaving the subway tunnels empty of spider monsters.

The surreal scene made Li Cheng blurt out, “How could the Special Affairs Bureau miss something this obvious?!”

Yuan Zhixia raised an eyebrow, realizing this must be the name of the national agency responsible for public order.

The special spider monster ahead paused briefly, then continued leading the way; its abdomen emitted a crisp human voice: “Because that giant spider possesses the ability of [Forgetting].”

“Forgetting?” Ye Jiaying looked puzzled; Li Cheng immediately recalled the sensation of fragmented memory and rasped, “Agnosia?”

Agnosia is an acquired cognitive disorder caused by localized brain damage.

Patients can recognize objects through other sensory channels but lose the ability to identify familiar objects, their own body, or visual space through a specific sensory channel.

For example, visual agnosia from occipital and temporal lobe damage: patients can clearly see an object’s shape and describe its features, yet their brain cannot “recognize” it.

They describe gloves as “five outward-flaring containers.”

They describe a stethoscope as “a long rope with a disc at one end.”

They describe keys as “metal sheets with imperfect grooves.”

This was similar to Li Cheng’s inability to recognize the Mo Cai Spider.

The problem: agnosia results from localized brain damage—but Li Cheng’s brain was perfectly intact.

“I don’t know what agnosia is, but it’s not that.”

The small spider monster led them down to the subway equipment level, then to the tunnel level, whispering: “People and animals eaten by the giant spider are forgotten in the real world too. No one remembers them. Even if their blood or backpacks are left on the ground, no one notices.”

(End of Chapter)