Chapter 38: Spider

Spider monsters rained down like a storm.

Li Cheng stepped forward, his mantis-arm bone blades slashing in rapid succession, cutting down every spider monster that drew near.

He stamped the ground, leapt into the air, and kicked hard against the roof of a display electric car, soaring to the second floor.

The corridor was blocked front and back by spider monsters; all he heard were the scraping sounds of legs moving and the clashing of mouthparts and chelicerae.

Huh!

A cold wind swept from behind his head; Li Cheng sidestepped a spider monster's ambush, stepped forward, and crushed it underfoot. Stinking green fluid sprayed everywhere, splattering like pulp onto the expensive Armani jacket beside him.

Another spider monster lunged at him; he extended ant-like setae from beneath his arm skin, gripped the monster's head with one hand, slammed it against the metal railing, and ground it forward, scraping it flat.

He cut through all the way, reached the corridor's center, leapt over the railing, plunged into midair, and drove his bone blade into the side of the escalator to reach the third floor. He repeated the same method to reach the fourth and fifth floors.

Most spiders in nature spin silk and weave webs, but a few defy convention.

For example, the Jumping Spider specializes in stealth, pursuit, and leaping.

The Three-protuberance Flower Spider changes its body color to match its environment, searching branch by branch, leaf by leaf, flower by flower for pests to hunt.

The Wolf Spider is the top predator among its size class: there are burrowing species like the Cave Wolf Spider and Baboon Spider, hunting species like the Bear Spider, and even water-walking species like the Water Wolf Spider and Little Wolf Spider.

With active hunting ability, there is no need to weave sticky webs and wait for prey to stumble in.

The Ink-Splatter Spider is no different. As a top predator, the upper layer of its nest's webbing has little stickiness—it resembles a steel mesh, firm underfoot.

We meet again.

The Ink-Splatter Spider raised its abdomen; its colors flowed slowly, activating its corruption ability once more.

Li Cheng snapped his eyes shut, slightly lifted his shoulder.

The long-horned rhinoceros beetle crouched on his shoulder, receiving the command, immediately flung open its elytra and took flight.

This newly hatched rhinoceros beetle, having absorbed two insect-lord blood amber cores, possessed explosive power and agility far surpassing all other species in its order.

It executed a midair axial roll, easily dodging the small spider monsters, then slammed headfirst into the Ink-Splatter Spider's back.

Like the human brain or surveillance cameras, the long-horned rhinoceros beetle had no resistance to the Ink-Splatter Spider's corruption ability.

In its perception, the Ink-Splatter Spider did not exist—only empty air lay ahead.

Thus, Li Cheng did not order it to attack the Ink-Splatter Spider directly, but instead commanded it to crash into the wounded area on the spider's back, wrapped in silk.

The long-horned rhinoceros beetle is native to Guadeloupe and Dominica in Latin America, living on trees and feeding on tender leaves, fruit, and tree sap.

During evolution, males developed exaggerated horn-like projections and exceptionally strong, long legs tipped with hooked spines to win battles during the breeding period.

Now, the beetle's horns and legs were tangled in the silk, firmly anchored, impossible to shake loose.

That was enough.

The mysterious connection with the beetle allowed Li Cheng to sense its position; he opened his eyes slightly, gaze unfocused, no longer looking at or thinking about the Ink-Splatter Spider—his mind held only one thought.

Attack in that direction.

He bent his thighs, tensed his muscles, and with a powerful stomp, shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, landing at the entrance of the sixth-floor cinema.

In the real world, the cinema was screening the latest Marvel movie.

The exterior wall bore a standard, clichéd giant poster: half-body portraits of countless unnamed superheroes.

Below the poster, stylish men and women, wearing 3D glasses, laughed and chatted as they walked down the corridor, searching for theaters.

Li Cheng landed among them; in his blurred vision, he saw no trace of the Ink-Splatter Spider.

Relying on instinct, he slashed with his bone blade, tearing the giant poster to shreds—not knowing if he had struck his target.

It moved!

The mysterious sensation suddenly began to drop.

Li Cheng leapt over the railing, fell from the sixth floor to the third, landing in front of a toy store; his two bone blades swept like guillotines, slicing through shelves and families buying toys, cutting them cleanly in half.

Damaged objects in the Shadow Realm regenerated rapidly; Li Cheng, like a runaway train, crashed wildly through the mall, destroying everything, chasing an invisible target.

Boom!

Li Cheng was flung backward; blood suddenly gushed from his left ribcage, a wound deep enough to expose bone.

Had he not just absorbed the long-horned rhinoceros beetle's genes, growing lightweight carapace armor to enhance defense, this blow would have killed him.

————

"Huh"

On the subway platform, Yuan Zhixia slowly exhaled a thick breath, gripping tightly a modified handheld radio. One step ahead lay the train car.

Ding.

The doors closed slowly; she did not step forward—only in the final second before they sealed shut, she tossed the handheld radio and her phone into the train.

The train started, accelerating away from the platform; the electronic display showed the next train arriving in at least four minutes.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you leaving?" Yang Ling cried anxiously.

The thunderous sounds of battle drifted faintly from the mall direction, echoing through the tunnel as a low rumble.

"I want to be selfish for once."

Yuan Zhixia spoke without turning, yanked open her backpack zipper, pulled out her damaged but still flyable drone, removed the green laser pointer mounted under her pistol, and taped it beneath the drone's movable camera.

Ye Jiaying stood frozen for a moment, bit her lip, then followed.

They reached the underground parking lot; Yuan Zhixia suddenly frowned and turned to Ye Jiaying. "Did you hear anything?"

"What sound?"

"Never mind. Maybe I imagined it. Here—take this. You control the drone. I've programmed it to automatically detect and track the most prominent heat source—that big spider."

Yuan Zhixia tossed the drone remote to Ye Jiaying, then crouched, pulling out one item after another from her backpack.

Smoke grenade with white phosphorus as the smokescreen agent;

A disguised Pepsi can filled with magnesium flash powder;

And finally, a single Molotov cocktail;

"I don't know if this method will work against information pollution either. So we may have to rely on the radio and the phone as backup."

Yuan Zhixia pushed the Glock slide back hard with both hands, checked the chambered round, and said to herself: "The subway train from here to the Pujiang branch station takes six minutes. Once we get there and leave the so-called Shadow Realm, the phone with signal will automatically dial the police according to an emergency program I wrote in advance, and a voice software will relay the geographic coordinates I input — this mall. The handheld radio is the backup option for calling the police."

"Debts of kindness must be repaid, debts of vengeance must be collected. That Mr. Da Zai Zhi saved me twice at least — once at school, once on the highway. I can't just leave him here."

Yuan Zhixia stood up from the ground with the gun in both hands, her petite frame harboring an intense will and resolve, her gaze cold and steady. "So, within the limits of my ability, I will help."

"Understood."

Ye Jiaying took a deep breath. She actually didn't understand the specifics of the situation here, nor why "Da Zai Zhi" had suddenly turned back, nor why Yuan Zhixia had stayed.

But when her gaze swept over Yang Ling's face on the spider-monster beside her, she couldn't bring herself to just walk away either.

Ye Jiaying held the drone remote, her fingers pulled the joystick, and the drone rose slowly into the air, following the corridor into the mall.

On the remote's display screen, the mall's scene was immediately projected — Li Cheng was slashing at empty air like a madman, dodging one moment, striking the next.

The spider-monsters in the nest seemed to know this drone was an outside object, and leapt at it one after another.

Ye Jiaying pulled the joystick, steering the machine to drift left and right, barely dodging the spider-monsters' attacks.

At the same time, the preset heat-source tracking program made the drone automatically adjust its posture, pointing the camera at the largest heat source on site.

The laser pointer taped beneath the camera with adhesive tape also shot out a green laser beam in that direction.

(End of chapter)