Chapter 21 No matter how far they go, they will always return to...

Before Qingdai could think, Xiao Jiang's figure was already almost disappearing into the night, and she and Wu Hu had no choice but to quicken their pace to catch up.

But she was moving so fast that even though Wu Hu was someone who spent his life roaming the mountains and forests, he was still panting heavily behind her.

That's inhuman...

"Hey, Jiang Yuhuo, can you slow down a bit?"

The tiger howled and chased after it with all its might.

The woods surrounding the mine had been cleared, and the dark entrance lay open in the night, like a bottomless maw, exuding a chilling aura.

The three arrived at the entrance of the mine. The children from the tribe who had come out of the mine earlier had already returned to their homes. In the quiet night, the occasional calls of birds and beasts could be heard from afar.

The mine, which they valued so highly, was unattended at night... This was really unlike the way those people behaved.

Qingdai hadn't paid attention to their handling of this area before; she only knew that her father had reached a cooperation agreement with them, exchanging real estate resources for the village's prosperity. Originally, there was nothing wrong with that, but now that she thought about it, the whole thing did seem a bit strange.

Qingdai searched the surrounding area with a torch, while Wuhu called out Liuchong'er's name from behind, but they found nothing.

In the end, only the mine shaft remained.

"...Shall we go in?" Wu Hu asked in a low voice, feeling a tightness in his throat.

"Go." Xiao Jiang took the torch without hesitation and walked ahead.

The firelight illuminated the dark entrance, revealing the bottomless space within. Qingdai followed closely behind, pulling Wuhu inside.

"Six Insects..."

"Liu Chong'er, are you there?"

Qingdai's voice echoed in the deep space, but no one responded.

"Should we continue going in?" Wu Hu's voice began to tremble.

Xiao Jiang continued to probe deeper into the mine with her torch, but didn't see a single person. The mine began to shrink, but the torchlight still couldn't reach the end; only the stone walls gleamed with a faint blue mineral sheen. She had never seen anything like it before, so she lingered to look at it a few more times.

To her surprise, they had dug so deep into the area in such a short time.

The deeper she went, the stronger the chill became. She felt as if the air she breathed was mixed with cold, even though it was the height of summer.

"Have you been here before?" Qingdai asked.

Wu Hu shook his head. "We came to see the stones, so of course we left once we saw them. We wouldn't have gone this far."

He looked back towards the exit, but could only see an impenetrable darkness. The cave entrance was completely invisible, and the space ahead was becoming increasingly narrow. Wu Hu even felt that the mountains on both sides were contracting inward, as if they had entered the intestines of some giant beast that would devour them all at some point.

But he dared not tell them, for to say such a thing would make him, a grown man, appear to be the most cowardly of them all.

"Maybe it really isn't here." Qingdai touched the goosebumps on her arm and began to feel uneasy. She unconsciously moved closer to Xiaojiang. "Let's go out and look for it again. There's no point in staying here any longer."

Xiao Jiang nodded; Qingdai's words made sense. They had gained nothing, and continuing here would only be a waste of time.

She took one last look into the depths of the cave; the dark crevices, impenetrable by firelight, were completely silent, making it highly unlikely that anyone was hiding there.

Upon hearing their decision to return, Wu Hu felt as if he had been granted a pardon and immediately quickened his pace, eager to escape this place. However, the light from the torches was limited, and in his haste, he easily overlooked his footing. He failed to see a protruding stone on the road and was about to trip and fall face-first into a pile of rubble.

"careful!"

Qingdai only had time to utter this sentence before the figure beside her rushed out in a flash and grabbed Wu Hu's arm with the hand that wasn't holding the torch.

The sharp edge of the gravel was inches from Wu Hu's face; thankfully, he stopped...

Wu Hu's breath caught in his throat. The moment he realized he was alright, tears streamed down his face. He knelt on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. When he turned around, he saw Xiao Jiang's face contorted in pain.

"...Thank you...thank you."

Xiao Jiang clutched his arm, his face contorted in pain.

In her haste, she used her left hand, which was already injured when she climbed over the wall, and she suspected it was broken. Now, having pulled the chubby boy with all her might, she was in excruciating pain, causing the glass bottle at her waist to make a faint sound, which she didn't even notice.

Qingdai took the torch from her hand, her face filled with worry, "Are you alright?"

The firelight illuminated Xiao Jiang's left arm, revealing a long wound from which blood was seeping. "You here..."

Following her gaze, Xiao Jiang realized that when she pulled Wu Hu away, her left arm had been cut by the stone wall, making her already injured left hand even worse.

"Let's get out of here quickly. Your injury needs to be treated by the temple's healer immediately."

Wu Hu wiped away his tears, stood up from the ground, and prepared to help Xiao Jiang.

But before he could get close, the person in front of him suddenly narrowed his golden pupils. "Get away!"

Before Wu Hu could react, Xiao Jiang had already kicked him.

He was kicked aside, and at the same time, an enormous, hairy spider flew toward where he had just been standing.

If he had remained standing there, the spider would have attacked his head...

In the blink of an eye, the hairy spider had darted in front of Xiao Jiang.

Without thinking, she instinctively grabbed the torch and poked the spider.

The spider's long hairs were singed by the fire, and it took a few steps back, but the fire quickly spread to its entire body.

Enraged, the giant spider, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, suddenly lashed out with its long claws and attacked Xiao Jiang.

Its sharp forelegs, like sickles, slashed straight at Xiao Jiang's body.

Xiao Jiang used a torch to defend himself, but the wooden handle was sliced ​​in two by the spider's forelegs.

The torch fell to the ground, and Xiao Jiang was forced to retreat deeper into the dark cave.

The darkness had no effect on the spider, but it did not affect Xiao Jiang; the situation inside was unknown.

There was no way to retreat any further. Xiao Jiang quietly put his hand behind his back and reached for the bone dagger in his sleeve.

Suddenly, she saw Qingdai's eyes.

Xiao Jiang kept his distance from the spider, but gradually slowed his pace and moved closer to the stone wall.

Upon seeing this, the hairy spider immediately pounced.

But before the spider could get close, Xiao Jiang nimbly dodged to the side, and then Qing Dai threw the large rock she was holding, smashing the spider hard against the stone wall.

The cave walls were covered in splattered liquid, and the hairy spider was smashed into a puddle, unable to move.

There was a burnt smell in the air.

All three were still in shock.

Xiao Jiang glanced at Qingdai and looked at her with newfound respect.

Qingdai dusted off her hands and glared at her. "What, are you surprised? Don't forget, among you, I'm the eldest sister."

Xiao Jiang was about to say something when Qing Dai interrupted her, "Stop talking nonsense and get out of here."

As she spoke, Qingdai pulled Wuhu, who was huddled in the corner, to his feet, and Xiaojiang picked up the torch, which was now only half-burnt. Everyone knew that this was not a place to stay for long, so the three of them didn't say another word and headed straight for the exit.

But they hadn't gone far when they realized something was wrong. No matter how far they went forward, they always ended up back in the cave where they had fought, and just when the cave seemed to open up a bit, they would immediately return to that cramped spot. Even more strangely, rustling sounds were coming from deeper within…

"How did we end up back here again..." Wu Hu's voice was dejected.

"Don't go any further, we won't get out of here." Xiao Jiang stopped and said, the torch in her hand was almost burning her hand, and she knew she wouldn't last much longer.

Qingdai placed her hand on Wuhu's hand, asking him to loosen his grip. He was trembling, clinging tightly to her arm.

“Since we can’t go out, let’s go inside and see what’s inside.” Qingdai said, turning to face the depths of the cave, then looking back at Xiaojiang.

Xiao Jiang nodded.

Watching the two walk ahead, Wu Hu hesitated for a long time, feeling conflicted. However, the fear of staying put outweighed the dread of going further, so he jogged to catch up.

The deeper the three went, the sparser the blue veins on the stone wall became, almost to the point where the veins ended.

The three stopped only when a stone door blocked their path. The last spark of light went out completely after passing through the stone door. They only had time to glance at the door, but none of them wanted to look again—because the entire stone door was covered with wriggling spiders.

Like the spiders that attacked them earlier, it was covered in long hair, only slightly smaller, but still much larger than a normal spider.

Wu Hu's legs trembled as he took a step back, but Qing Dai grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him back.

Xiao Jiang felt a chill run down his spine, not from fear, but because the scene was simply too unsettling.

The faint glow of the blue ore prevented the cave from being completely dark, and it was vaguely visible that the stone door was closed by two panels.

If you push hard, you might be able to push it open, but the things on top make it difficult to get your hands on them...

Xiao Jiang regretted not picking up more sticks; at least he could have used them to start a fire and drive away the spiders.

Her half-baked fire magic only allowed her to ignite flammable materials, not to create fire out of thin air.

Qingdai went to find stones on the ground, intending to use them to smash the door. Even if she couldn't break it open, she could at least kill a few spiders like before.

The spider was killed, but new spiders soon crawled up, and the entire stone door remained densely covered with spiders.

“It’s all in vain.” Qingdai clapped her hands and stood up, looking at the torch head that had been completely burned out with some regret. “We need fire. It seems that these things are only afraid of fire.”

Qingdai's gaze fell on Xiao Jiang, and she remembered the torch made of a wooden stick that had suddenly appeared earlier.

Xiao Jiang's gaze swept over the blue light on the stone wall. She knew that stones could be used to start a fire, and some ores could even be used as fuel.

She cut off a lock of her hair with a bone knife and tore off a strip of cloth. Now she had almost everything she needed to start a fire, except for a flint.

After seeing this, Qingdai and Wuhu understood her intentions. Children raised in the mountain village would inevitably know some skills for survival in the wild. Wuhu even contributed a burlap bandage from his wrist as kindling for Xiaojiang.

The faint blue mineral veins on the mountainside are like scattered blue flames.

Xiao Jiang picked out two large pieces of blue ore, broke them off, stepped on one of the ores, and used his other, uninjured hand to scrape the ores vigorously.

Whether it was because she used too much force or something else, the cave shook slightly.

But all three of them were focused on the ore in Xiao Jiang's hand, and no one paid attention to the strangeness of the cave.

A spark landed on that strand of white hair, and the flame immediately shot up high.

Xiao Jiang used his knife to stick up the burning cloth strip, intending to use it to drive away the spiders on the stone door, when he heard a heavy thud coming from behind the stone door, as if it had been hit by a powerful force.

The spiders that were originally everywhere quickly scattered, fleeing from every corner of the cave, retreating like a flowing river.

The force behind the door continued to strike, and cracks began to appear on the stone door, increasing and expanding rapidly at a visible speed.

Xiao Jiang only had time to take a few steps back when he heard a loud "boom" as the stone door shattered completely.

Smoke and dust filled the air, and pebbles littered the ground.

The three of them swept away the dust, and behind the suddenly opened stone door, a giant hairy spider, dozens of times larger than the one they had encountered at the beginning, was right there in front of them.