Chapter 146 Spider 33
A strong wind suddenly picked up the fallen leaves, swirling them upwards. Before my eyes was a sky full of dust and endless darkness and blood.
With a loud bang, the grass beneath Xu Zhao's feet suddenly opened and closed, revealing a huge, dark mouth. In the blink of an eye, no one on the ground remained, and the gaping mouth closed with lightning speed.
The dead leaves gradually fell back to their original places, the smell of dust in the air disappeared, birds chirped, and flapped their wings to rush towards the sky covered by the canopy.
Above the lush greenery lay the clear, bright sky. Soaring birds seemed poised to break free and soar into the sky, only to spin a few times before falling back into the dense, perilous jungle, where lurking spiders lurked...
…
Xu Zhao fell on the hard concrete floor, his head numb with pain, his voice stuck in his throat, and his vision seemed to be dazzled by a transparent white light. He closed his eyes tightly twice before his vision returned to normal.
She held her breath back into her stomach, her cheeks suddenly turned pale, and the half of her body that fell to the ground due to gravity trembled slightly and curled up.
here……
The surrounding area is surrounded by walls carved out of stone, engraved with indescribable runes and outlines that vaguely reveal terrifying strokes.
Sharp fangs, slimy, fishy tentacles, fierce and ferocious spiders... and countless other indescribable and indescribable creatures. Frenzied, clawed, and bared marks covered the walls. A gentle breeze blew, carrying with it the cool, bloody scent.
This is not the worst.
Xu Zhao's pupils suddenly shrank when he saw the pile of bones in the corner.
Bones, red and white, mingled with flesh and blood, piled up in a corner, next to an indescribably large mouth, sketched with brushstrokes. It was as if they were lambs being brought to bear, ready to be skinned, boned, cooked, and served to diners.
"Hahahahaha!" A sudden roar of laughter ripped through the silence. Wang Zhiming grabbed a rough black hemp rope and tied up Xu Zhao, who had fallen to the ground. "One more person, just one more person... As expected... Help me. You've arrived just in time. Don't worry, don't be afraid. I won't hurt you... This is a great thing!"
Xu Zhao turned his wrist, feeling a tearing pain in it, and cold sweat immediately seeped out of his forehead. The man in front of him had bloodshot eyes, his clothes were torn and messy, and he was walking barefoot on the ground covered with broken bones. He left a trail of blood as he walked.
This man was mad and crazy, and she was afraid of angering him. She glanced at the bloody butcher knife he was holding and swallowed twice. She didn't dare to act rashly.
She asked: "...What, what good news?"
Wang Zhiming gave her a sinister look and said, "It's a good thing, of course it's a good thing. But it won't work if you say it out loud, hahahahaha!"
Xu Zhao gasped twice and glared at the man's back angrily, but she could do nothing. Her whole body was in pain as if it was about to break apart.
Who would have thought that spiders are not dangerous, but humans are!
The road they walked on was like a long tunnel, with hideous strokes carved on both walls. Finally, the man laughed and pushed her into the cocoon piled up in the corner.
Xu Zhao threw herself at him, swallowing back the curse words that had rolled out of her mouth. She wasn't even capable of fighting this mad man before her, so who knew if he had any accomplices? The wound on her back tore open, and her face paled until the last bit of color disappeared.
The white cocoons she had once suspected were now piled tightly together behind her. The tightly wrapped spider silk had been deliberately torn apart, revealing the true form of the prey wrapped within: a human still breathing.
Wang Zhiming casually pulled off the spider silk wrapped around Xu Zhao and muttered, "...What's going on? Why is this spider silk different from others? It's not sticky at all! The smell... the smell..." The smell of bitter medicine entered his nostrils, and he seemed to be gripped by something indescribable. He was in a trance for a moment, and then he came back to his senses, his eyes bursting with bloodshot.
He pointed at the cocoon behind Xu Zhao and cursed, "...you bunch of imposters! How dare you pretend to be... You will be punished!"
After saying these few words, the man left angrily.
During the dragging process, Xu Zhao's clothes were stained with dust and torn, and her flesh rubbed against the ground and bled, but she seemed unaware.
He stumbled slightly, fortunately still having a razor blade in his pocket, which clattered to the ground. His hands were bound behind his back, and the slightest movement caused pain in his wounds. Xu Zhao's features wrinkled, and his clear eyes, in the dim underground cavern, seemed tinged with a blazing rage.
She twisted around to pick up the blade from the ground, staring nervously at the corner.
...What kind of person is this! Once she is safe, she will definitely... Her teeth are chattering.
The rope was not cut, and the man who had left came back. Xu Zhao cursed inwardly and hid the blade in her palm. The cold blade pressed against her sweaty palm, causing her to tremble all over and her spirit to be shaken.
I caught a glimpse of a man walking in with a bucket of something that looked like slop. He scooped up a bucket at random, pinched the person in the corner with two fingers, and poured it into the person.
The man who was choking started to cough: "Cough cough..." Slop mixed with unknown things flowed into his throat. He widened his eyes in anger and said: "Wang Zhiming! You heartless man, let me out quickly... Otherwise, otherwise..."
Wang Zhiming chuckled, "Uncle Li, don't bother. I was the one who saved you. Now your life belongs to me." He walked over to the person next to him and put his finger under his nose. "Shit! He's dead!" He threw the person behind him and continued to repeat the previous action while laughing and responding, "This is a great thing! Uncle Li, you will thank me sooner or later..."
Xu Zhao narrowed his eyes. Wang Zhiming was so dirty that it looked like he hadn't cleaned up for months. He looked like a primitive man, walking barefoot on the ground, with sunken eye sockets and two dark circles under his eyes.
He looked like a person suffering from tuberculosis, his body was staggering... Xu Zhao couldn't help but sigh in regret. If she hadn't suddenly fallen into the cave and been injured, she might have been able to defeat him!
Wang Zhiming finished feeding the person in the corner, glanced at Xu Zhao, who seemed out of place, and smiled, a rare expression: "...You didn't get caught by them, those fakes are really rubbish, they can't even catch a woman, I have to do it hahahaha!"
Xu Zhao shrank back, his expression terrified. "...Fake? What are you talking about? I don't understand. Please, let me go..."
Wang Zhiming was still laughing: "Fake? A fake is a fake!" He was extremely angry and stomped hard at the scattered spider webs on the ground. His expression suddenly turned gloomy: "...These disgusting spiders, do they think that by absorbing His breath they can become the same as Him? Wishful thinking! They even want to snatch His sacrifice..."
In a flash, Xu Zhao vaguely connected something: "...they were 'rescued' from their cocoons... by you?"
"Of course!" Wang Zhiming was smug, his cloudy eyes suddenly shining, like a languid drug addict who had just found a drug. "...Luckily, I arrived in time. They, him and him, were all about to die. I saved you. Now there's a great opportunity for you to sacrifice your lives for, and yet you're still crying and whimpering. You don't know what's good for you!"
"Oh..." Xu Zhao replied perfunctorily, glancing around. The cavern dug underground smelled musty and damp. The cramped, dark cavern, devoid of sunlight, only heightened her irritation. Trying to suppress the rage in her chest, she asked him, "...You saved them all by yourself? You're so amazing! What if the spiders find you?"
Wang Zhiming showed a contemptuous look: "I told you that they are fakes! What's there to be afraid of!" As if talking to Xu Zhao was such a cheap thing, he turned and walked away, stepping on the ground with his bare feet, leaving a trail of blood.
What a lunatic.
Xu Zhao slid the blade out and cut the rope until it could be torn apart with enough force. She hid the blade in her palm and slowly closed her eyes to rest, waiting for her body to recover.
...Was Lin Yue worried when he found out she was missing?
It was obvious that some of the people in the cave were brought from the "cocoon" by Wang Zhiming, and some were residents of Heishui Town.
The group of people brought back from the cocoons were even weaker, their faces ashen, as if they were only breathing their last breath. Even if their heads were exposed, their limbs were still wrapped in spider silk and piled up in the corner.
The people in Blackwater Town were a bit healthier, but not by much, just barely able to vent their anger. It was their curses that made Xu Zhao vaguely understand Wang Zhiming's intentions...
Time passed. The cave was dark and lightless, but Wang Zhiming returned, his face crazed. He cut open his palm with a knife and smeared the ground with fresh blood, creating a strange pattern. Then he knelt on the ground and said devoutly:
"Great God, our believers are fortunate to hear your call... Please descend and reclaim your territory... Tonight, on the night of the full moon, our believers will sacrifice a hundred lives in the hope that you will return..."
"God, please come! Great...!" he muttered.
Xu Zhao felt the pain in her limbs gradually numb. She moved her legs slightly, and sure enough, it felt better. The rope was completely cut, and she held it in her palm, still maintaining her original movement.
She moved her body, and something fell out of her pocket. Fortunately, it fell on the spider silk and did not make a loud noise to disturb Wang Zhiming who was concentrating on it.
Xu Zhao picked it up and found it was a syringe filled with black liquid.
When was this prepared? Why doesn't she remember it?
…
Wang Zhiming was a top student in the town. Scholars have always been highly respected, let alone in the isolated town of Heishui, when a young man suddenly emerged and passed the university entrance exam, the mayor's family was in great glory for a while.
Wang Zhiming's father is the mayor of Heishui Town.
This incident happened the year Wang Zhiming graduated. He was planning to stay in the big city and join a leading tech company. Before starting work, he returned to his hometown to visit his parents. On the day he returned, the ground shook, and after the shaking, a long tunnel suddenly appeared!
Everyone in the town was shocked. The old people said it was unlucky, and the young people didn't believe it. Led by Wang Zhiming, they walked into the tunnel.
That's exactly where Xu Zhao was. It was just like that on the day of the discovery: strange, eerie statues carved from solid granite, scratches all over the walls, and bones piled in the corners. The young people who returned to the surface after their exploration were all fine and sound, but a few days later, they began to suffer nightmares one after another. Some, in some cases, committed suicide by jumping into the river! Before they died, they muttered incoherent, indistinct words...
It was from that day that a curse seemed to descend upon this peaceful and tranquil town. The once lush and beautiful jungle suddenly became filled with many strange and poisonous insects. If you were not careful, you could be killed if you were stung.
Wang Zhiming, the only promising man in the town, refused to return to the city to take up a job and locked himself up at home, like a madman injected with stimulants, talking nonsense all day long.
At first everyone just felt sorry for him, then it became a topic of conversation after dinner, and after that, no one cared about him except Wang Zhiming's parents.
Until that incident happened——
A tour group came to Heishui Town.
The tour guide, unfamiliar with Heishui Town, happened to encounter Wang Zhiming, who was sitting at the tunnel entrance, and asked him to spare a few days to lead them on a tour of Heishui Town. Unexpectedly, this reasonable request became the bell of their death.
Wang Zhiming led them into the tunnels, where he spent days and nights, the scars on the walls etched deeply into his mind. Years of nightmares had driven him insane, like a victim possessed by another spirit. While they admired the "mural," he employed the secret techniques he had witnessed countless times in his dreams... The tour group, drugged with knockout drugs, had unwittingly become lambs to the slaughter, their blood dripping and their screams cascading.
That day, Wang Zhiming silently looked at his hands covered in blood, waiting devoutly. Sure enough, the ground shook, and then—
A bunch of fakes!
…
Uncle Li, who had confronted Wang Zhiming before, saw Wang Zhiming walking towards the corner and cursed angrily: "...You will get your comeuppance, Wang Zhiming! What did you tell us and the mayor back then? You said they were gods and that as long as we offered sacrifices to them, they would leave our town alone. Bah! That's not the case at all! You're just riding on your father's coattails. We all grew up watching you. How dare you? How could you be so cruel? Ah? I think you got those spiders!"
Wang Zhiming laughed silently.
The sudden appearance of the giant spiders had been infected by the aura surging from the ground, mutating into gigantic proportions. The deity Wang Zhiming longed for never appeared, but he did hear the townspeople discussing how the spider that had abducted Lin Yue was exceptionally powerful and ferocious... Could it be "Him"?
Wang Zhiming was undeterred. The rising belief in spirits in the town gave him a helping hand. He told his father that the tunnel contained instructions for exterminating the monster, which required human sacrifice. After much deliberation, the mayor and the townspeople decided to give it a try, tying up the town's elderly residents and throwing them into the tunnel.
But it's not enough.
Wang Zhiming then set his sights on the giant spider's prey - the group of people in the tour group that escaped first.
Finally, enough people gathered. Wang Zhiming smiled contentedly, his messy hair covering his dirty eyes. He ignored Uncle Li's insults and pulled a man out of the cocoon. "...It's you. You punched me and ran away with your men, causing me to not complete the ritual and letting those fakes get away with it! You are all the sacrifices I prepared for Him. This time, I chose you to be the first... Enjoy it!"
The man he dragged out was tangled in spiderwebs, barely breathing. His dirty face faintly revealed his delicate features. His wide-open eyes were filled with rage and a hint of fear, but he held his head high with all his might. "You lunatic! You'd better not let me survive, or just wait..."
Next to the blood-painted talisman lay a bloody butcher knife. Xu Zhao took in the man's features, and the missing person notice flashed through her mind. The huge reward made her heart skip a beat. She wiped the sweat from her palms and shouted, "Wait... wait a minute!"
Wang Zhiming turned around and glared at her.
Xu Zhao said, "...Since it's a sacrifice, the first one is the most important. He's insincere and even speaks nonsense. How dare you use such a person for sacrifice?" She blinked and said nonsense, "...If the spirit you speak of really exists, then when it descends, could you please tell it for me to be reborn into a wealthy family in my next life? I don't want to live such a hard life anymore... Please choose me first. I want to receive the blessing of the spirit you speak of!"
Wang Zhiming initially didn't believe her, thinking she was playing some kind of trick. But when he saw she was actually seeking a chance in her next life, he scoffed. Then he realized what she said made sense. How could these offerings, cursing and insincere, summon the gods?
He was reckless. He threw Zhao Wenqing to the ground with his backhand, grabbed Xu Zhao's neck, and pulled him in front of the blood-painted talisman.
Wang Zhiming looked frail, yet possessed immense strength. He gripped her neck, making it impossible for her to move. Anxiety surged within her, the blade still clamped between her fingers. Should she give it a try? Xu Zhao bit her lip, a bright light flickering in her eyes. She gripped the blade, the sharp edge giving her a sense of security. She slowly tightened her grip, her gaze inadvertently meeting Zhao Wenqing's. The man's eyes suddenly widened, then, in the blink of an eye, his expression calmed.
The incident happened in an instant. The terrified people in the corner saw Xu Zhao's movements behind him, and some of them shouted in surprise, "Quick, quick! Kill him!"
Wang Zhiming's expression turned stern, and he twisted Xu Zhao's arms violently. Seeing the ropes untied, he was filled with rage. He grabbed her hands with one hand, pulled out the blade from her palm, and threw it heavily to the ground: "... You dare to play tricks on me, I'll make you pay!" He reached for the butcher knife lying on the ground with one hand.
Xu Zhao couldn't help cursing in his heart.
She struggled furiously. Her strength was no match for Wang Zhiming's, and she'd fallen and injured herself. She'd originally planned to take him by surprise, but she'd never imagined... couldn't they just quietly wait for her to strike? She had to alert the enemy! Xu Zhao was furious, cursing even the people hiding in the corner. Her surprise at suddenly spotting Zhao Wenqing was replaced by a deeper, more powerless emotion, and the color drained from her face.
At the same time, Zhao Wenqing gritted his teeth, took his last breath, and pounced on Wang Zhiming. The man's broad shoulders pressed down heavily on Wang Zhiming. His dirty and dark face suddenly lit up, and his dark eyes stared at her with vigor: "... Pick up the knife, pick it up..."
The blade fell to the ground, wasting too much time. Xu Zhao pulled out the syringe, aimed it at Wang Zhiming's neck and pressed it down. As the venom gradually gushed out, the faint bitter aroma of herbs lingered in Xu Zhao's nostrils.
She collapsed on the ground, holding her chest and breathing rapidly. After Lin Yue could no longer find her, her tearful face appeared before her eyes.
Why did I suddenly think of him?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
