Chapter 33

Chen Mo's face was grim, and he was reluctant to approach, only saying, "What?"

"Below... below this thing... it's as if the crack in the earth was torn open by it." Yuan Tengfei didn't know how to explain, but he kept urging Chen Mo to come and see.

Chu Nan was stunned, even feeling a bit shocked.

Below the crack, instead of being bottomless, a massive object protruded. It looked like a building constructed with some unknown metal material mixed with huge blocks of rock. The part that was exposed resembled a horizontal ancient tower, and there was even a cave-like entrance that looked like a tower door. However, because it was buried at the bottom of the earth, based on the exposed part, no one could determine the true shape of this suspected building.

"Could it be an ancient relic that was exposed due to the earthquake?" Yuan Tengfei speculated.

Chu Nan frowned and said, "If it's an ancient relic, the architectural level is quite sophisticated. Look at the material between the two rocks; it looks like metal."

Su Yao suddenly became excited and said, "Let's not worry about whether it's an ancient relic or not. Look, the depth from this side to the head is no more than four meters. And on the other side, it forms a slope. We can cross over."

Hearing Su Yao's words, everyone realized it. They originally thought the crack was over twenty meters wide and too deep to cross. But now, with this suspected ancient relic appearing and spanning the crack, they could use it to get to the other side.

"Good idea," Yuan Tengfei nodded and said. Turning his head, he called, "Professor Chen." But he saw Chen Mo's face was pale and was taken aback, "What's wrong?"

Chen Mo smiled bitterly and said, "I have severe acrophobia."

"It's not high here, only a few meters to the relic below," Su Yao laughed. "Professor Chen, aren't you the most interested in these relics?"

Chen Mo indeed became interested and slowly moved closer, looking down.

"This... this must be an ancient relic." Chen Mo became excited and said, "Perhaps we have accidentally discovered an ancient civilization that has vanished."

Su Yao smiled and said, "Professor Chen, don't get too excited yet. The most important thing now is how to get across. The most important thing is to return to Jiangtian City. As for this relic, we can come back to study it later."

"Right, right." Chen Mo took several deep breaths to calm himself down.

After observing for a while and confirming that this method was feasible, they couldn't find a rope, so they found several bamboo poles a few meters long.

Tao Zhi and Chu Nan held one end of the bamboo poles, while Yuan Tengfei held the other end and carefully descended. When he was about a meter from the bottom, Yuan Tengfei let go and jumped down.

After landing, he crouched down and carefully observed. Seeing no movement, he stood up and said, "Alright, everyone, come down."

Chu Nan lowered Tang Sanli first.

Tang Sanli had not awakened and was still an ordinary person, so he was particularly careful, holding the bamboo poles and sliding down carefully.

Yuan Tengfei was alert, observing the front to prevent any sudden dangers.

This unknown ancient relic emerged from below, with a part of it spanning the crack, forming a natural bridge.

There were several dark openings on the relic, looking like round-topped stone doors, but inside they were pitch black. Everyone tried to avoid them, as they could easily fall in.

The six people descended one by one, with Tao Zhi being the last. Then, with Yuan Tengfei leading, the six of them carefully walked to the other side.

"Be careful, don't fall into those stone door-like openings," Chen Mo, who had acrophobia, didn't dare to look around and only focused on his feet.

Su Yao joked, "Professor Chen, can you tell which dynasty this relic is from? This architectural style should be quite rare, right?"

Chen Mo was silent for a moment and then said, "It somewhat resembles the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties period... but... it's not exactly the same..."

After walking about half of the twenty meters, suddenly, Yuan Tengfei, who was leading, stopped.

"What..." Su Yao had just whispered halfway when she suddenly closed her mouth because she saw something crawling out of a round-topped stone door in the relic in front of them.

The sky was bright, though there was no sun, it was a cloudy day, and it was around noon. In the bright light, they could see clearly that a giant spider with a completely black body had crawled out of the opening.

Its eight legs were spread out, as big as a washbasin, and there were faint white spots on its back, forming a skull pattern. They had never seen such a large spider.

"Such a big spider? Is it another mutant?" Yuan Tengfei stopped, frowning slightly, and said, "Tao Zhi, give me a bamboo pole."

Tao Zhi was holding the bamboo poles they had used to climb down, each a few meters long.

Yuan Tengfei didn't know if the spider was poisonous and didn't dare to get close, so he thought of using the bamboo pole to hit it.

Taking the bamboo pole from Tao Zhi, Yuan Tengfei took a few steps forward. Everyone except Tang Sanli was an awakened individual, and Chu Nan was a second-level awakened. A spider the size of a washbasin, though strange, didn't scare them.

Yuan Tengfei, who had practiced martial arts for many years, used the bamboo pole like a long staff. He quickly closed the distance to a few meters and swept the bamboo pole at the spider.

In one move, he could sweep the spider into the bottomless abyss below.

The spider had just crawled out of the opening and seemed to have stopped when it suddenly saw the group. When Yuan Tengfei made his move, its eight legs moved quickly, and it tried to charge at him.

But Yuan Tengfei was faster. The bamboo pole struck it hard, and with a whoosh, the spider was flung far away and fell into the deep crack on the other side.

"Good, clean and neat..." Tao Zhi laughed, about to praise him, but suddenly his mouth opened wide in surprise.

Because after the spider was flung away, the cave in front of them started to rustle, and one after another, similar spiders with skull patterns on their backs crawled out.

The smallest were as big as a washbasin, and some were even larger. They surged out, their eight legs moving in unison, and a black mass charged at Yuan Tengfei and the group.

"How many spiders are there?" Yuan Tengfei shouted, sweeping the bamboo pole at the spiders and retreating.

He was very strong and had practiced martial arts for many years. Immediately, two more spiders were swept away into the crack, but one spider grabbed the bamboo pole and started to climb up it.

Yuan Tengfei was alarmed and turned the bamboo pole, striking it hard against the rock of the relic.

With a "plop," the spider was hit, and green fluid splattered out. But in that instant, several spiders had already rushed to within two meters of Yuan Tengfei.

"Quick, retreat—"

Yuan Tengfei shouted, flustered, mainly because he was afraid the spiders were poisonous and didn't dare to get close.

On the contrary, the reanimated corpse had no such qualms.

Su Yao was right next to him. She flipped her right hand and drew a dagger, slicing a spider that was charging at Yuan Tengfei. A large amount of green fluid splattered out, emitting a faintly foul smell.

Tao Zhi, Chen Mo, Chu Nan, and the others were retreating continuously. In a blink, there were already a dozen or so spiders surging out from the front, and more were coming. The area was too narrow, with abysses on both sides, so they had to retreat.

Tao Zhi had just taken a few steps back when he saw that a similar spider was crawling out of a cave behind them, emerging one after another at a rapid pace. In a blink, they were trapped in the middle.

"Damn—" Tao Zhi shouted, holding several bamboo poles and sweeping them out forcefully.

Some spiders jumped to avoid, while others were hit. Three spiders were directly flung into the deep crack below.

"There are spiders behind too, we can't retreat. Let's charge through—" Tao Zhi shouted wildly.

"Use our awakened powers, we'll be safe if we charge through—" Chen Mo shouted sternly. As a professor, he remained calm in the face of danger. Since they were surrounded by spiders, it was better to charge through.

"Understood." Yuan Tengfei let out a low whistle, instantly bursting with his strongest power. His adrenaline surged, and his strength increased several times. He swept the bamboo pole like a long staff.

"Whoosh—"

The bamboo pole became unstoppable. In an instant, five spiders were hit, some bursting into green fluid, others flung into the cracks on both sides.

The spiders behind showed a hint of panic. Yuan Tengfei laughed and took a big step forward, sweeping the bamboo pole again.

"Plop, plop, plop—"

Suddenly, the spiders seemed to sense danger and started to spin silk.

This silk was different from the usual spider silk used to weave webs. It shot out like arrows and stuck to the bamboo pole Yuan Tengfei was sweeping.

Dozens of strands of silk stuck to the bamboo pole. Yuan Tengfei frowned and tried to use his strength to shake them off, but the bamboo pole wouldn't budge.

The spider silk was extremely strong. Even with Yuan Tengfei's great strength, he couldn't overcome the combined effort of so many spiders.

Yuan Tengfei was slightly startled, and spiders started to climb up the silk, moving as fast as lightning.

Yuan Tengfei had to let go of the bamboo pole and retreat, or the spider would have pounced on his face.

Su Yao swung her dagger, and the spider that pounced on her fell, its belly sliced open, and a large amount of green fluid flowed out.

Chu Nan was about to step forward to help when he suddenly noticed that the spiders in front were collectively spinning silk again. Strands of translucent silk shot out like arrows.