Chapter 15: A Horde of Demons in Frenzied Dance (8)

The night passed without incident.

The monster did not appear, and Shen Xiao, unwilling to wait passively for disaster, decided to take action. From Wan Ji’s account, he learned that the spider demon only emerged every four or five days, so he resolved to seek out its lair without delay.

With the butcher’s clues in hand, they soon found the section of sheer cliff. It wasn’t especially high, but the ground here sloped slightly, blocking the sunlight, so beneath the cliff it was dark and damp, like a deep fissure split into the earth.

Within the pit, one patch was thickly webbed with white silk; at first glance, it resembled the decaying, fur-matted corpse of some large animal. Shen Xiao tossed a ball of fire down. The silk burned into a puddle of black sludge, but the dampness below was overwhelming, and the flames soon sputtered out.

Determined, he jumped down, used his longsword to pry apart the dense web, and called up to Lin Yuan and Shi Xianyu above, “There’s a cave here—this must be the monster’s nest. Come down!”

But as soon as he spoke, Shen Xiao remembered that Shi Xianyu was a delicate young lady and likely couldn’t get down by herself. Perhaps… Lin Yuan could lend a hand?

His gaze shifted to Lin Yuan, pondering whether the lad would carry her on his back or in his arms. After all, the manner of carrying would mean different levels and places of contact.

Just as he was thinking this, Shi Xianyu, astride her ram, leapt down nimbly with a soft thud, landing gracefully.

Shen Xiao: “…”

He had miscalculated. He’d forgotten that goats were born climbers; such a small cliff was nothing to them.

Lin Yuan followed, landing lightly as well. He noticed Shen Xiao’s peculiar expression and frowned. “What is it?”

Shen Xiao shook his head. “Nothing. Let’s head in. I’ve already checked—there’s no demonic aura within. The spider demon must not be home.”

The three skirted the webs at the entrance and entered cautiously.

Inside, the cave was pitch-black. Shen Xiao lit a fire talisman, illuminating their surroundings—a vast space filled with a damp, pungent stench. There were no webs on the ground, only soil and rocks. Evidently, the thick silk outside was for defense.

Not far ahead, they spotted several white cocoons, though the dim light made it hard to see clearly.

Shen Xiao urged the talisman to burn brighter, pushing the light further. As he advanced, his brow furrowed—the cocoons grew more numerous and densely packed. When he reached the end of the cave, his face darkened with fury. For within these white cocoons, every single one contained an innocent villager!

Each villager was shrouded in silk, only a pale, lifeless face exposed. Traces of crawling insects and bruises marred their skin around the mouth and nose, all signs of the vitality drained away.

Shen Xiao’s anger was barely contained, and he spat through clenched teeth, “For a demon to commit evil to such an extent—if it is not destroyed, I cannot quell the rage in my heart!”

Lin Yuan paused beside one cocoon, crouched to inspect it. “…They’re alive.”

“What?” Shen Xiao was startled. He hurried over, bending to check the breath of the person inside—a faint, living gasp!

He checked several more cocoons nearby; of over twenty, three villagers still clung to life.

His chest felt weighed down by a boulder—the suffering these innocents had endured was almost unspeakable. “The spider silk itself isn’t very toxic—it only paralyzes. These people are being starved and dehydrated to death.”

Shi Xianyu, seeing the grim look on his face, tried to comfort him quietly, “…At least, before dying, they likely didn’t suffer much. When someone falls into deep coma, they feel nothing at all.”

Shen Xiao shook his head and sighed, “This monster is truly detestable. It doesn’t even drain the life essence from the living—why torment these blameless people?”

Neither Shi Xianyu nor Lin Yuan had anything to say.

The spider demon’s behavior was indeed baffling: abducting humans, but not eating them, instead wrapping them up and storing them like cocoons—what possible reason?

Shen Xiao sliced open the thick silk with his sword. The villagers inside looked corpse-like, their skin swollen and mottled purple beneath the web, their clothes soggy with dampness. It was hard for Shen Xiao to judge the extent of the poisoning.

He frowned deeply. “We need to find a way to get these survivors out of here.”

Shi Xianyu pursed her lips, glanced toward the cave mouth, and hesitated. “Did you hear that…?”

Both Shen Xiao and Lin Yuan paused, turning toward her.

“You hear the voice again?” Shen Xiao’s grip tightened reflexively on his sword.

Shi Xianyu seemed confused—she could hear it clearly, yet the other two apparently couldn’t. She nodded quietly. “Just like before, it keeps calling for a child. You don’t hear it? …Listen—it’s calling again.”

Shen Xiao and Lin Yuan strained their ears. This time, they detected something—the sound of something crawling through the grass, and a hissing breath, but nothing about a “child.”

“The spider demon is returning,” Shen Xiao said, glancing around grimly. “If we fight it here, we might harm the villagers. We should hide and wait for our chance.”

The cave offered many hiding places—uneven rocks and crevices abounded.

Each of them found a spot to conceal themselves. Only the ram was hard to hide; in the end, Shi Xianyu had it lie down in a corner, and from a distance, its white shape blended in with the cocoons.

Shen Xiao snuffed out the fire talisman, plunging the cave into darkness, except for a faint glow at the entrance.

Shi Xianyu crouched behind a boulder, heart pounding as the sound drew closer and closer. Knowing she alone could hear the voice made her skin crawl all the more.

“My child…my child…child…”

The plaintive, feminine voice crept ever nearer, accompanied by the sound of jointed legs scraping across stone.

“Child…eat, eat…”

A sudden crash.

Something fell, scuttling, rustling…

Shi Xianyu couldn’t help peeking out, and at that instant her eyes flew wide with terror—a chill so deep it froze her blood.

The spider demon was feeding!

It treated the villagers in cocoons as its children, stuffing their mouths with all manner of live things: moths, worms, centipedes, venomous scorpions. The half-dead insects writhed and squirmed on the villagers’ faces—some dropped to the ground, some crawled into mouths and nostrils, others burrowed under eyelids. Even the half-crushed beetle oozed green pus across pallid skin.

Shi Xianyu nearly vomited.

She loathed insects—especially half-crushed ones.

The spider demon, like a meticulous mother, fed two of the cocoons in turn, stuffing their mouths full before finally leaving the lair to forage for more “food” for its children.

Once the spider demon was gone, the three emerged, each with a sickened expression.

Shen Xiao’s face was thunderous as he hurried to the cocoons just fed. He gripped a villager’s jaw, forcing their mouth open, and reached in to pull out the wriggling or dead insects, which he then burned to ashes with another fire talisman.

The villagers’ breaths were growing fainter.

“We have to get the survivors out quickly,” Shen Xiao urged. “If the monster torments them again, none will survive.”

Shi Xianyu, suppressing her nausea, nodded. “Then let’s hurry…”

There was little she could do to help—her stomach was in turmoil. Before she lost it for good, she mounted her ram and hurried out, not wanting to be a burden.

Shen Xiao and Lin Yuan rescued the barely living villagers, carrying them to the forest’s edge before calling others from the village to bring stretchers and help carry them back.

The villagers had been bound in silk for far too long; the toxins ran deep. Shen Xiao prescribed medicine, but fearing ordinary herbs wouldn’t suffice, he brewed a decoction with several precious spirit fruits, only then feeling a little more at ease.

The entire day was spent saving and treating the villagers. Even that night, Shen Xiao dared not relax—if the spider demon discovered some of its “children” were missing, it would surely return.

He and Lin Yuan spent another sleepless night, nerves stretched taut.

Yet the spider demon did not appear.

The next morning, Wan Ji found Shen Xiao and speculated, “There are other villages on the edge of the Black Abyss Forest. Perhaps the monster went elsewhere last night. If you wish, I can send someone to investigate.”

Shen Xiao frowned in thought. After a moment, he replied, “There’s no point in investigating now. Even if we know where it went last night, we can’t predict where it’ll go tonight.”

Wan Ji was at a loss.

Shen Xiao paced the room, silent and brooding. Even with their remarkable stamina, he and Lin Yuan could not keep up this relentless vigil forever. The spider demon, on the other hand, could threaten the villagers at any time.

“If only we could lure it out, it would be easier to deal with…” Shen Xiao muttered.

Wan Ji asked, “Can we wait for it near the lair?”

Shen Xiao shook his head. “The terrain there favors the monster. It would be difficult to trap, and it could escape easily. Better to set a trap elsewhere and draw it out…”

“But how do we lure it?” Wan Ji looked troubled. “It comes to the village without warning every time…”

Shen Xiao was stymied as well. He’d learned several demon-repelling formations, but nothing about attracting monsters.

Shi Xianyu, sitting off to the side, hesitated before raising her hand. “What if…someone pretends to be its child?”

Shen Xiao blinked, turning to her. “Pretend to be its child? What do you mean?”

“Well…call it ‘Mother’?” Shi Xianyu’s hand shrank back as she spoke uncertainly. “It’s always calling for its child, so I thought if someone called out for their mother, maybe it would work?”

Shen Xiao’s mind sparked—perhaps this just might work. He immediately asked Wan Ji, “Is there any abandoned house in the village?”

Wan Ji took a second to process, then replied, “Will the hunter’s house do? No one lives there now—it’s at the far east end of the village.”

Shen Xiao gave instructions, “Gather the villagers and pile firewood and dried grass around the house. Tonight, we’ll try to draw the spider demon out!”

Wan Ji did not dare delay, hurrying off at once to summon help—