Chapter 460 [(*^▽^*)]

I don't know if it's just their imagination, but the further we walk, the darker it seems to get. That shouldn't be the case; it's daytime now, it can't suddenly turn into night.

When they looked up at the sky, they realized that it had been covered by dark clouds at some point. Just then, a flash of silver light appeared in the thick clouds, and soon thunder rumbled. It was going to rain.

Lin Leyou said, "Let's find somewhere to take shelter from the rain. It's not a good place to use an umbrella."

Using an umbrella in the forest isn't impossible, but walking will definitely be difficult. It's better to find a place to take shelter from the rain and wait for it to stop before continuing.

They slowly made their way forward, looking at the map as they searched for shelter from the rain. Just as the raindrops began to fall, they finally found a place to take shelter. It wasn't a cave, but rather a natural depression formed by protruding rocks on the top and sides. It was about five square meters in size, but it was enough for them for now.

Just as they stepped inside, a bright light flashed outside, as if a searchlight had passed by, followed by a deafening clap of thunder. They could even feel the ground shaking.

Xue Rui looked at the torrential rain outside, where visibility was only about ten meters. "This rain is a bit strange."

Lin Leyou said, "It is indeed quite strange, but... we just need to take shelter from the rain, there shouldn't be any danger. If you're worried, just keep an eye on the map. If anything appears and gets close to us, it will definitely show up on the map."

Xue Rui stared at the map for a long time but didn't find anything extra. "It might just be a... Hmm? It seems there's something going on. Brother Lin, look at the map. There are already red dots appearing where we just crossed the river. Jiang Changdong's icon is on the riverbank. Besides that, there are three other red dots."

Lin Leyou suddenly opened the map and exclaimed, "How could this be? Are they moving so fast? I remember they were quite far away before?"

Xue Rui said, "They must have used props. These four people, including Jiang Changdong, should have come to the same place as Brother Lin. They are probably not easy to deal with."

"By the way, speaking of which, with this heavy rain, will it affect the bead you placed at the gravesite? Will it be washed away or lose its effect altogether?"

Lin Leyou's lips curled up. "Speaking of this? It's nothing, it's nothing. That bead isn't a real, simple stinky bead. It's a prop. I set it up so that if someone touches it, it will explode. Other conditions don't matter."

Seeing his expression, Xue Rui knew that nothing would happen, and he felt slightly relieved after hearing what he said.

When they took shelter from the rain there, Jiang Changdong and the three people with him did indeed go to the riverbank, but the river they saw was very different from the one Lin Leyou and the others had seen.

When Lin Leyou and his group passed by, the river was very calm, but now... perhaps because of the heavy rain, the river was nearly twenty meters wide, and the water was turbulent and surging. Looking around, there were many stones, branches and other objects being carried by the current, bobbing up and down and moving forward quickly.

Jiang Changdong wiped the rain off his face. "It seems like we can't fly across this river. I just tried. Do you have any ideas?"

The other three people, one man and two women, clearly knew each other. They didn't have any good suggestions regarding Jiang Changdong's situation; since they couldn't fly across, they had no choice but to cross the river. However…

If crossing the river were that easy, they wouldn't be squatting here with furrowed brows.

Jiang Changdong looked at the man, "Tian Zhong, do you have a solution?"

Tian Zhong shook his head and then looked at the two women, "Lü Yan, Qin Yan, where are you two?"

The two women shook their heads as well. Qin Yan sighed and said, "Anyway, now is definitely not a good time to cross the river. We might as well wait until the rain stops and then we can figure out a solution. It should be much easier then."

Although they didn't want to waste time, it was indeed difficult to force their way across the river at this point. Even with many tools available, if they couldn't fly across, they would have to plan their next move.

Lü Yan frowned slightly. "The rain is too heavy. Even with the dense branches and leaves above, a lot of water will still fall. Let's find a place to take shelter from the rain."

No one objected. Crossing the river was not an option, but it was easy to find some rainproof items. Two girls together and two men together were just enough.

Tian Zhong suddenly said, "There might be something dirty in this river."

The three men's eyes fell on Tian Zhong. "Really? You used the tool to detect it?"

Tian Zhong nodded, "That's right, we did detect it, but because the current is so strong, the debris inside is probably too scattered and not close to us, so the detection is intermittent. Once the rain stops and the current slows down, it may come this way."

Qin Yan frowned, somewhat troubled, "In that case... shouldn't we cross the river now? Once things calm down, we'll have to face those water ghosts, which isn't a wise move."

Lü Yan said, "I have a feeling that things aren't that simple. It's dangerous to cross the river now, and it's also dangerous to cross it after the rain stops. Right now, we're just looking at which is less dangerous. When do you two think would be a better time to cross the river?"

Jiang Changdong took a deep breath. "How about we wait here? There should be other people coming later. With more people, we might be able to come up with another solution. Even if we don't, having them cross the river to attract the water ghosts' attention is a good idea. What do you think?"

Qin Yan nodded, "I have no objection."

Although this method is insidious, everyone looks out for themselves. What's wrong with them using a few tricks to deal with others in order to complete their mission?

As long as the people behind them don't know there are water ghosts in the river, they have a high probability of safely crossing to the other side. As for what to do on the way back, they'll deal with that later.

Lin Leyou observed for a long time, "These four red dots haven't moved for a long time, they're probably taking shelter from the rain."

After watching for a while, Xue Rui said, "With such heavy rain, the water level of that river might rise sharply."

Lin Leyou was slightly taken aback. "Oh right, I almost forgot. Not only did the water level rise sharply, but the water also became murky and rapid. Plus, there were water ghosts in there... No wonder they were standing still on the shore."

Xue Rui said, "I guess they want to wait for the others. I saw some red dots behind them. Although they are moving slowly, they are still moving."

Lin Leyou: "That's really impressive. It didn't budge even in such heavy rain. It seems they must have used a prop."

Xue Rui, "Could we steal some props?"

Lin Leyou said, "It's probably quite difficult. Most of the people who can make it to this river alive are probably residents or expert players. They should all have their own ways to recover their items before they die in order to minimize their losses."

Xue Rui frowned slightly. "The last hundred people in the group have approached the first black ant nest. It seems that if they don't find a place to take shelter from the rain, at their current speed, they may reach the nest in an hour. Hopefully, more people will die."

Lin Leyou said, "There are a hundred people. This black ant nest is relatively small. I estimate that we can kill a few people at most, but the others should be able to escape."

Xue Rui, "Even if we could just scatter them..."

He was speaking when he looked outside with a look of horror in his eyes. Lin Leyou was stunned for a moment before turning his head to look outside, where he saw a spider right in front of their shelter from the rain.

Of course, they wouldn't be surprised if it were just an ordinary spider, after all, it was in the mountains and forests, but this spider... was as big as a round table in a hotel!

In addition, this spider has six eyes, three on each side, all of which are dark red. If you look closely, you can also see what appear to be some black threads floating inside.

On its back, black ghost faces appeared and disappeared one after another, accompanied by ghostly howls.

Just listening to these sounds made them feel dizzy and unable to think clearly. Even the objects in reality began to change shape and distort.

Lin Leyou immediately took out his peach tree branch. The moment he held the branch in his hand, he felt clear-headed and his mental state returned to normal.

He immediately had Xue Rui place his hand on the peach branch as well. After Xue Rui shook his head to clear his head, the two of them looked at the spider with serious expressions.

The two sides remained locked in a silent standoff until the ghost-faced spider slowly moved, its legs, faintly shrouded in black mist, gently lifting and lowering as if searching for an opportunity to attack.

Lin Leyou opened the map and indeed saw the spider icon. He clicked to view some information about the spider.

"Long ago, a little spider appeared in Xiushan Village. After the villagers killed the villains who had infiltrated the village, they would occasionally use some of the corpses as offerings. After the offerings, the little spider would secretly go and eat the corpses. In eating the corpses, it was as if it had accepted the villagers' requests and was protecting Xiushan Village!"

Lin Leyou said, "The number of ghost faces on that spider is probably the number of people it has eaten."

Beads of sweat appeared on Xue Rui's forehead. "There are so many of these ghost faces, it's hard to count them all. There are at least dozens, maybe even hundreds. These ghost-faced spiders are really difficult to deal with, and..."

Lin Leyou's expression was not good. "It is indeed difficult to deal with, and even if we could, we shouldn't. This spider is clearly one of the mini-bosses blocking our way. If we... it would be a loss for us."

Xue Rui said, "I don't know if it can understand what we're saying."

Lin Leyou thought for a moment, "Perhaps my identity will be useful."