"this……"

I was dumbfounded by the scene before me. Had I stumbled into a spider's lair?

In front of me, on a slope that stretched for about two or three miles, various weeds, thorns, and low shrubs grew.

But that's not the main point. Large swaths of white silk weave together huge, carpet-like structures among the bushes and tangled hairs. At this moment, numerous black spiders, each about the size of a little finger, are busily moving in and out of their makeshift "highway."

There were also some brightly colored spiders spreading out webs the size of fishing nets on the bushes, hunting passing flying insects. I even saw some species of spiders whose webs could intercept small birds that were passing by—it was truly incredible!

Is this place a spider kingdom?

An entomologist would be delighted to see this. But to me, there are just too many of these creatures, posing a significant threat to my passage.

My goal isn't to study them, but to find a way to eliminate them!

The weather was nice today, the sun was shining brightly. I picked up a leaf and tossed it into the air, and it flew in the exact direction I wanted—right onto that hillside.

I don't think I've ever been a destructive person; I've tolerated even the most thorny and bramble-filled areas.

But this time it's really gone too far. Since that's the case, let me show you how humanity did the most primitive way of destroying nature!

I got busy.

There were plenty of weeds and shrubs here, and dry wood and kindling were not hard to find. I quickly collected a lot of dry grass and branches, and then laid them out at the bottom of the slope to form a fuel belt about ten meters long.

I took out my fire-starting goggles, used the sunlight to light the tinder, and then used the tinder to light one of the torches I carried with me.

These torches were all treated with pine resin, so they can be lit immediately upon contact with an open flame. I originally planned to keep them for the night in case of emergency, but I didn't expect to need them here first.

The torch burned brightly in my hand, and due to the resin, a lot of black smoke rose up.

There was no pity in my eyes. As I walked, I lit the torch, and soon the torch in my hand ignited a row of firewood in front of me.

A gust of wind blew by, fanning the flames and sending them darting into the dense undergrowth. Immediately, plumes of thick white smoke rose, crackling sounds emanated from the weeds, and blazing flames shot up, making Gao Lao look like a dragon crawling out of hell!

I saw the spiders fleeing their homes in panic, but it was too late. How could they possibly keep up with the speed at which the fire was spreading?

As the fire intensified, relentlessly crashing against these tiny creatures like walls of flame, I thought to myself, aren't we just like those spiders struggling to survive in this inferno?

But no matter how hard we struggle, in the face of an irresistible absolute force, the final result is still destruction.

Just like my current situation, I don't know how long I can live. Perhaps tomorrow I will also encounter an insurmountable accident like these spiders and perish.

But I can't die yet, so I don't have the mindset of those saints. They are the enemies and threats that are hindering my life. If they are enemies, I should strike first and eliminate them!

Feeling the mixture of smoke and the smell of burning in the air, I numbly watched as the fire devoured everything.

Watching those fragile lives writhing and struggling to escape the flames, it was as if I were seeing ourselves, toiling away in the city, striving so hard just to have a better life and escape poverty.

I closed my eyes and stopped thinking about it. Perhaps this is what the old folks mean when they say that life is unpredictable.

The fire had died down, and all was quiet. Another gust of mountain wind swept through, carrying away the ashes on the road along with the ashes of the spiders.

I watched the ashes scatter and fall, wondering where they would be taken, perhaps to a faraway place where their lives could begin anew.

Spiders and thorny bushes, my enemies, have all been wiped out by fire, but I feel no joy. Instead, I feel empty inside looking at all of this.

Just as I was about to put on my backpack and continue on my way, a brightly colored spider was struggling to move on a small patch of bushes that hadn't been affected by the fire.

You can see that this lucky spider had most of its legs burned off by the fire I just set off, and now it can only crawl on the bushes with difficulty using three legs.

I stretched out my stick to catch the spider, and it actually climbed right up to me.

I placed the lucky spider on the unburnt grass and watched it limp away. I bowed to it with one palm raised in a Taoist gesture, and sighed softly.

"We are all fellow sufferers in this world, may the Heavenly Venerable grant us boundless blessings..."

I embarked on my journey again, heading north.

Perhaps fate wasn't playing tricks on me for the time being, because the road ahead was much easier. After crossing this earthen slope, the vegetation wasn't as dense, and there was a path just wide enough for one person to walk on.

However, I know that this road must have been formed by goats or muntjacs frequently walking on it and trampling the nearby weeds.

My suspicions were quickly confirmed: there was a pile of long, cylindrical feces, yellowish-brown in color, next to the road ahead. It was in two layers, one on the bottom and one on top.

Goats and muntjacs, when not startled, tend to stick to the same old paths. This is because the path is easier to follow and escape from when there are no thorns or weeds.

Therefore, experienced hunters will not damage their paths, but will place a kind of trap called "ghost-tear trap" in the places where they appear. I will talk about this trap later.

Once any one of their feet is caught in this trap, these four-legged creatures, with half their bodies lifted and their strength depleted, are unable to escape.

However, it looks like the feces here were made by a yellow muntjac, as only they would defecate in the same place multiple times, producing long, stringy feces.

Goat droppings are not concentrated in one place; they are formed into relatively round, black spheres or ovals as they walk.

Reeves' muntjacs are notoriously timid, cautious, and incredibly cunning. Now that I'm passing by their path, I reckon once they smell my unfamiliar scent, they won't be coming back for ten days or half a month.

It seems the produce here is quite good. At least since I set off, apart from the first day when I was hungry because I didn't have a fire, I haven't been hungry much.