Chapter 00204: Nested Dolls
# Nested Dolls
Chapter 204
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 204: Nested Dolls
More than ten Spider Guards rushed to handle the situation, but the fire spread astonishingly quickly.
Often, after they painstakingly extinguished one room, four or five others were already ablaze.
The wind blowing up from the ground was particularly strong, carrying sparks that danced everywhere, further scattering the seeds of light and heat in all directions.
The four issuing arrows had this effect, which He Lingchuan had not anticipated.
However, he was not very happy, as the Spider Guards had already pounced.
The first two actually managed to jump, and with a single leap, they covered three zhang! This was the first time he had seen jumping spiders, especially in such an unfavorable environment.
He had no choice but to shout a warning to his companions on the surface, while he swung his long knife with all his might, managing to cut down two bundles of spider silk! These two bundles of spider silk were pure white, seemingly not from Zhu Erniang.
Before the jumping spider could land on his face, He Lingchuan took a deep breath and leaped down! Yes, he made a gesture of embracing the abyss and fell freely.
The jumping spider missed its target.
Other Spider Guards arrived, launching web attacks, trying to pull him up for a good lesson.
Unfortunately, they were still a few feet short.
However, any living creature that fell from here would have no chance of survival; they only needed to wait a bit longer to collect the corpses.
The Spider Guards lost interest in He Lingchuan and turned to rescue the burning stone chamber, while dispatching a small team of over a hundred Spider Guards, fiercely climbing out of the cave to settle accounts with the humans.
Humans, the creatures despised by spiders, would never venture into the Ghost Needle Stone Forest alone.
If one appeared in the cave, there would surely be a group outside! He Lingchuan plummeted like a weight, the wind howling past his ears, still clutching two bundles of spider silk.
He swung the spider silk again and again, hoping to attach it to the distant rock wall.
With the stickiness of the spider silk, even a slight touch would allow it to adhere firmly.
But they were simply too light and too airy, buffeted by the strong winds from below, and could only shoot straight up!
Damn, film and television really are deceiving! He Lingchuan cursed loudly.
It felt like he would die in a dream and should wake up in reality immediately.
Should.
But now he did not want to leave the dream; he wanted to try a bit harder.
At this rate of descent, he had only a few moments left.
Fortunately, he still had a backup plan.
The lair of the Spider Queen had developed from a natural cave system, filled with countless holes.
He Lingchuan chose the largest hole in the rock wall, and after taking aim, he pulled out an item from his bosom and, channeling his true energy, hurled it with all his might! After practicing throwing for a thousand days, he finally used it in this moment.
He Lingchuan watched as it accurately landed in the pile of dry leaves in the cave, his heart soaring with joy.
He was plummeting rapidly while aiming for a hole two zhang away; where would he have had such eyesight and calculation ability a few months ago? What was even more terrifying was that he was about to hit the bottom of the abyss, and the chance of success was only once! How awesome, he was truly awesome; he would have to praise himself later.
This life-saving treasure was a small cicada molt.
The Ghost Shadow Cicada hid underground in its larval stage, while the adult preferred to stuff itself at the base of tree branches, essentially in the armpits of large trees, and could even change its color to match the tree, making this cicada molt difficult to obtain.
But it was an indispensable material for performing the Li Dai Tao Jiang technique.
He Lingchuan had long memorized the secrets of this divine ability.
At this moment, with a pinch of his left hand, he cast the technique without even needing to chant, instantly teleporting into the mountain cave!
Correspondingly, the Ghost Shadow Cicada molt was swapped out from its original position, which should have continued to fall, but it was simply too light, and the wind at the bottom of the abyss was too strong, causing it to be blown upwards instead.
Having narrowly escaped death, He Lingchuan was drenched in cold sweat.
He leaned against the rock wall and let out a long sigh of relief.
Peering down into the abyss, he was drenched in cold sweat: it turned out that the distance between life and death was only four zhang! Thanks to the military merit he exchanged for the Li Dai Tao Jiang technique before setting out, and thanks to his repeated contemplation of its usage while riding along the way.
Look, it worked, right? Otherwise, he would have been forced to log out early.
He took a few deep breaths to calm his mind and prepared to continue exploring.
The ground beneath his feet was very soft, illuminated by the glowing spores; he could see that it was covered with half-rotten branches and leaves, as well as a moss carpet over a foot thick.
The plant carpet was exceptionally soft, causing him to sink in with a single step.
As he got closer, he discovered that there were things wriggling on the carpet, surprisingly large aphids, almost the size of pomelos? This was the first time he had seen aphids this big.
These strange insects were round-bodied and, under the glow, appeared light green.
Upon the arrival of this uninvited guest, they merely moved their six short legs, slowly and laboriously distancing themselves from him.
He Lingchuan focused his gaze and found that on the moss carpet stretching five zhang ahead, there were at least seven or eight hundred plump aphids, some feeding, some courting, and some simply sleeping soundly, but they hardly left their own little patch of land.
At that moment, a shadow passed by on the ground, and He Lingchuan quickly hid in the shadows, only to see a spider coming from the fork in the path ahead.
He was about to catch it off guard when the spider approached the aphids and patted one on the back.
The aphid trembled, and surprisingly, it excreted a droplet of honeydew the size of a pigeon egg.
The spider gulped it down in one bite, as if it were a delicacy, but unsatisfied, it went to find four or five more aphids to feast upon before finally leaving, satisfied and wiping its mouth.
Seeing this, He Lingchuan finally understood that these caves were pastures, and the spiders in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest actually imitated ants by raising giant aphids as their food source.
The air was slightly humid, and with the illumination, it was perfect for moss growth.
The aphids were like cows for the spiders, providing both milk and meat as options.
No wonder the Ghost Needle Stone Forest on the plains could sustain hundreds of thousands of spiders; the secret lay underground.
He Lingchuan cautiously walked out, stepping on the thick moss carpet and crossing over countless plump aphids.
Here, close to the bottom of the abyss, patrolling spiders were few and far between, moving slowly, making them particularly easy to avoid.
Perhaps they thought the deepest part of the lair was very safe and thus naturally slacked off.
Whether human or spider, the nature of living beings was carved from the same mold.
However, although the guards were lax, the complexity of the maze was very real.
He Lingchuan had only walked for a quarter of an hour when he no longer knew where he was; in any case, there were always several caves in front of him to choose from.
Nevertheless, he still made an effort to choose the path with higher terrain.
After walking for another hour, he still could not find his direction, but the moss on the ground became thinner, and the aphids fewer.
Then, he walked into a massive cave.
This place was about the size of a football field, with a height of around six zhang.
The ground was dry and clean, without a drop of dew or a speck of moss.
But the glowing spores covered the entire walls and ceiling of the cave, illuminating it as bright as day.
Thus, the first thing He Lingchuan saw upon entering was so shocking that his heart raced and his scalp tingled.
A gigantic cave spider stood three zhang away, facing him directly! Twelve enormous, pitch-black eyes stared at him in unison.
The Spider Queen Zhu Erniang was already large enough to be considered massive, but this cave spider reached an astonishing height of four zhang (thirteen meters)! To put it in perspective, a male giraffe generally does not exceed two zhang in height, and humans would already have to look up to see it.
This cave spider loomed there, its body extremely robust, resembling a small mountain, an overwhelming sense of pressure bearing down on him.
In that instant, He Lingchuan felt his back stiffen; every cell in his body seemed to scream: run, turn around and escape! The giant spider remained motionless.
He Lingchuan even softened his breathing, slowly taking two steps back.
The passage he had come through was relatively narrow; perhaps this monster's size would prevent it from pursuing him.
Wasn't it said that every spider group only had one leader? Could this be Zhu Erniang's true form?
But after retreating four or five steps, the giant spider still lay there, unmoving.
Was it sleeping? After all, spiders do not have eyelids, so whether asleep or awake, it was hard to tell.
However, He Lingchuan soon noticed a detail: the ubiquitous glowing spores were also growing on this giant spider!
On its back, forehead, joints, and even among its long, hard bristles.
The giant spider was close to the rock wall, and the number of glowing spores on the surrounding rock wall was greater than in other places.
How long had this monster not moved? He Lingchuan picked up a small stone from the ground, steeling his courage to throw it at the giant spider, with a force neither too light nor too heavy.
Thud, the stone bounced off the giant spider's front leg and hit the ground, producing a hollow sound.
The giant spider still did not move.
He Lingchuan tried twice more, finding it completely unresponsive, before gradually approaching.
The closer he got, the more he felt that this thing was enormous and hideous; he could not help but wonder how long it had lived and what it had eaten to grow to such a size.
Finally, He Lingchuan stood in front of the giant spider and gently tapped its front leg with his knife.
Clang, two dull sounds echoed, somewhat like the sound of metal striking stone.
In other words, the outer shell of the giant spider's front leg was as hard as stone.
From his current angle, he could glimpse the giant spider's abdomen, which astonishingly resembled a starry night sky.
Zhu Erniang's abdominal pattern was already beautiful enough, but the giant spider's star map was broader and more brilliant, as if it contained half a galaxy, making it impossible to look away.
Even the stars in the pattern seemed to twinkle slightly, resonating with the glowing spores on the giant spider's body.
He Lingchuan's courage grew bolder; he placed his hand on the giant spider's front leg and transmitted a bit of true energy.
If this were a living creature, how could it remain unresponsive when someone came knocking at its door? However, this bit of true energy vanished like a mud cow entering the sea, disappearing without a trace and giving He Lingchuan no feedback whatsoever.
Desolate, empty, and indifferent; this was what he felt from within the giant spider.
Such a magnificent monster had long since died countless years ago, with its remains nearly turning to stone.
He Lingchuan inexplicably recalled the skeleton in the Immortal's Cave, thinking of two words: sitting transformation.
Had this giant spider sat in transformation here? Continuing to walk deeper into the cave, he soon discovered another giant spider.
It was half the size of the previous one, also crouched on the ground, similarly covered in glowing spores.
He Lingchuan pressed on, discovering a third, a fourth... until he reached the seventh.
The size continued to decrease, each one still harboring a star map, yet all devoid of life.
(End of Chapter)