Chapter Seventy-Three: Redemption

"It's the fat man. Those spiders have hung him up in the tree," Liu Chang whispered as he saw the figure suspended in mid-air. "He's not moving. I can't tell if he's still alive."

"Let's go up and check."

"Alright." Liu Chang responded, and together with Li Qingshui, they navigated through the gaps in the webs to reach the branches above. The mist lamp illuminated the fat man's face.

"Hey, Fatty! Fatty!" Li Qingshui called softly, poking him vigorously with a twig. "Are you dead? Say something."

"Mmm..." The fat man groaned faintly in his stupor, barely managing to open his heavy eyelids.

"He's alive!" Seeing him stir, Liu Chang and Li Qingshui exchanged glances, both surprised and delighted beyond expectation.

They were surprised because, truthfully, before finding him, they had already prepared themselves for the possibility that their companion was dead. After all, being lost in the jungle for nearly an hour, with such a terrifying threat behind him, his chances of survival had seemed slim. But now, seeing their resilient companion still able to murmur, Liu Chang and Li Qingshui were instantly reinvigorated—since their friend had survived, this trip had not been in vain.

"Hurry up." Relighting her little torch, Li Qingshui began to burn away the webs around the fat man, while Liu Chang, as soon as the webs loosened, pulled him out with all his strength.

"Ugh!" The fat man cried out in pain at the forceful tug, and once they freed him from the layers of webbing, the two finally saw his dreadful wounds.

Previously, the thick webs had hidden the injuries from view, but now, they could see the full horror and revulsion of the fat man's wounds.

Horrifying, because he bore hundreds of wounds, some as large as a palm, others as small as a fingernail, all avoiding vital areas. The sheer density of these wounds was enough to make one's scalp crawl.

Disgusting, because these were not just ordinary wounds; upon each gaping injury lay clusters of thick, bluish-green spider eggs, each no larger than a grain of millet. Gathered in small heaps, they soaked in the fat man's wounds, warmed by his blood and flesh—an utterly nauseating sight.

"Damn, these spiders are ruthless. They've turned him into an incubator. It'd be kinder to just kill him," Liu Chang muttered, his heart sickened by the sight of the fat man covered in sticky green eggs.

"Spiders don't understand cruelty. They only understand survival," Li Qingshui replied, checking the fat man's pulse and wounds, picking up a spider egg to examine it.

"So why leave him half alive like this?"

"For the sake of their offspring, and to keep food fresh for them," Li Qingshui explained. "If they killed him outright, their 'food' would only last two hours, but if he's alive, they can keep their supplies fresh for days. It's almost ingenious—these creatures have more imagination than we do!"

"Enough admiration—let's get him out of here first," Liu Chang said, bending down to slap the fat man's cheek. "Wake up! Are you conscious?"

"Mmm..." The fat man's eyes cracked open, a whimper escaping his lips. He seemed faintly aware, but incapable of speech.

"His muscles are paralyzed. You carry him," Li Qingshui instructed, hoisting the fat man onto Liu Chang's back.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the jungle, the giant millipede that had chased the fat man let out the final, agonized cry of its life.

"Hurry, we don't have much time. The spiders will be back soon."

"Right." Liu Chang shouldered the fat man, Li Qingshui leading the way with the mist lamp. They leapt from the branches, checked their bearings, and ran as quickly as they could toward the edge of the forest.

Because their escape route differed from the way they'd come in, after only a few steps, they stumbled upon another strange sight—a space formed by the trunks of three enormous trees, wrapped layer upon layer in spider webs, sealing off an area of several dozen square meters. Inside this webbed enclosure, the webs were so dense that various creatures were trapped within, as if the spiders had built a "food storage base."

From the scale of the place, it was clear the spiders had been managing this reserve for a long time. Here, they stored all kinds of prey: field mice, insects, birds—and a human.

A woman.

She was trapped at the very center of the "food storage zone." When Liu Chang swept the mist lamp over her, he saw her body, like the fat man's, was covered with countless non-lethal wounds. Unlike the fat man, however, some of the spider eggs on her had already hatched. Tiny, translucent spiders the size of fingernails crawled all over her, some gleefully gnawing at her skin, others devouring her flesh and blood. One after another, the little spiders emerged from her skin, her breasts, and her abdomen, greeting their first feast in this world.

A woman bound in webs, covered in spiders, devoured alive—a scene more terrifying than any hell. The agony of a thousand ants eating a heart was nothing compared to this.

Even worse, the woman was fully conscious. Her eyes were wide open, nearly bursting, as though the paralysis in her body had worn off. Now, completely aware, she endured a torment none could bear, bound helpless in the web.

"Can we help her?" Liu Chang asked, seeing the desperate plea in the woman's eyes as the lamp's beam met hers.

"How? The webs are too dense—we can't get in. The millipede is dead, and the spiders will be back any minute. We have to go!" Li Qingshui tugged at Liu Chang.

"If we can't save her, at least we can end her suffering." Liu Chang set the fat man down, unslung his crossbow, and aimed at the woman's body.

Thwack!

The bolt flew a few meters, slipped through a gap in the webs, and buried itself in her chest. Blood streamed from the wound—the battered woman finally received the mortal wound she had longed for.

In her final moment, her gaze sharpened, filled with clarity and gratitude.

"Let's go." Slinging the crossbow and lifting the fat man onto his back again, Liu Chang averted his eyes from the pitiable woman, and together with Li Qingshui, made their way out of the jungle.

This time, they encountered no further danger. By some stroke of luck, their passage through the forest was peaceful, and soon they emerged into the human world.

"Come on, let's find Xiaojing," Liu Chang said as they left the jungle for the city. Here, they no longer needed a compass to find their way—any collapsed building was a landmark easily recognized by humans.

With the fat man on Liu Chang's back, and the teacher who had shared life and death with him countless times at his side, they pressed on through the darkness, toward the human settlement.