Chapter 87

The disgusting man scanned the surroundings with his shifty eyes. This guy’s head didn’t move, but his eyeballs could rotate 180 degrees, and his vision was so good that it surprised Du Qian.

"After you break free, don’t rush to kill the spider larvae. Save me first, then save the woman in the front row." As he spoke, his gaze swept over to her.

Du Qian followed his gaze and saw the woman the disgusting man was talking about. She was around thirty years old, looking quite composed, which was a stark contrast to the majority of people who were on the verge of breaking down in the face of death.

Since she was facing away from Du Qian, he couldn’t see her face, but he could tell that her figure was excellent, with a slim waist and a curvy bottom, her body shaped like a gourd. He couldn’t see her chest, but from her posture, it seemed she had a pair of large assets.

On either side of her stood two large men, whose build suggested they were bodyguards.

"Who is she?"

"Let’s not talk about that now. After we’re saved, head straight to the deepest part of the spider’s nest. There should be a clump of spider silk there, and the one that glows green is the one you need to get."

Before the disgusting man could finish speaking, the lightning spider moved, having just finished laying its eggs. Behind it were over a hundred parasitic bodies.

Hundreds of strands of spider silk shot out simultaneously, one for each person, no more, no less. Du Qian felt a tremor run through his body, and a powerful electric current almost made him faint. He bit down hard on his tongue, knowing he absolutely couldn’t pass out. Who knew if he would ever wake up again if he did.

In a moment, all the survivors were entangled by the spider silk. Most of them fainted in agony, their eyes rolling back.

It had to be said that this giant lightning spider was almost sentient. It spun its silk quickly and steadily, and the force was perfectly controlled to ensure that the captured people wouldn’t die.

The lightning spider dragged over a hundred parasitic bodies, over a hundred pieces of food, and moved swiftly. Du Qian’s body was tightly bound, but fortunately, it wasn’t cocooned. His arms were immobilized, and the electric current in the spider silk made his body unresponsive.

Not only was there a powerful electric current continuously stimulating Du Qian’s body and suppressing his spiritual energy, but even without the current, the toughness of the lightning spider’s silk made it impossible for anyone below the level of a Battle Master to break free.

The lightning spider’s speed was very fast. In less than ten minutes, it had left the forest and entered the desert. It turned out they were at the edge of the desert.

The speed increased, and the spider waved hundreds of strands of silk, the immense force making the entangled prey float in the air. The spider’s strength was terrifying.

Actually, Du Qian still didn’t understand. After all, the weight of hundreds of people was considerable. Although the lightning spider was huge, dragging so many people wasn’t impossible, but it would be very strenuous. The spider was using its speed.

When the speed increased, the weight of the prey became negligible due to the air’s buoyancy.

From the forest to being dragged into a huge cave, it took less than twenty minutes. Du Qian silently calculated that the spider’s speed was faster than the shuttle by a few minutes, covering at least a thousand kilometers. It was incredibly powerful.

Who would have thought that in the endless desert, there was such a large underground cave. The lightning spider easily dragged its prey back to its nest.

It placed the parasitic bodies and food on either side, making a series of buzzing sounds, as if saying goodbye to its offspring, and then ran out.

Few people knew that this lightning spider had grown so large and lived so long, having experienced countless lightning temptations. Driven by instinct, it ultimately couldn’t escape the fate of being drawn to lightning.

If it could advance in the lightning, its strength would greatly increase, and it might even achieve unparalleled combat power, transcending the mundane.

Nature has its rules. Humans strive to reach the realm of unparalleled combat power through various methods, and spiritual beasts do the same. This instinct is something no creature can escape.

The food was trying hard to resist the electric force from the spider silk, to break free, to gain freedom, to survive.

Du Qian didn’t do this. He knew very well that with his strength, it was impossible to break free. In fact, in this vast cave, apart from the parasitic bodies, no one could escape.

If he had the ability, he would have fought the lightning spider in the forest earlier. Even if he couldn’t win, he would have had a chance to escape. Why wait to be entangled by the spider silk?

From this, Du Qian could deduce that there were no Battle Master-level martial cultivators on the shuttle, not even a Battle King.

A Battle King’s strength was far greater than that of a Battle Spirit-level martial cultivator, capable of forming a battle skill slot and learning spiritual energy battle skills. Who would willingly be captured without a fight?

Du Qian was observing his position, the disgusting man’s position, and the woman’s position, finally focusing his gaze on the depths of the cave. Despite the distance, Du Qian could still see a green light, where the spider silk the disgusting man mentioned should be.

It was almost laughable. The first thing the disgusting man thought of was this. After having a plan to survive, he still wanted to make a big profit.

The disgusting man was almost ready to die. His position was closer to the front than Du Qian’s. The lightning spider didn’t care about the placement of the food, just throwing them in the cave. Since they couldn’t escape, did it matter who was first or last?

To the spider, it didn’t matter, but to the disgusting man, it made a huge difference. The newly hatched spider larvae would instinctively go for the nearest food.

In other words, the chance of the larvae finding him first was a hundred times higher than finding Du Qian.

Du Qian had a spirit transformation, but the disgusting man didn’t.

The danger wasn’t just that. The hatching speed of the larvae wouldn’t differ much, theoretically within twelve hours. But with the lightning spider laying thousands of eggs, a significant number would hatch simultaneously.

Du Qian needed to survive for twenty minutes. Given the disgusting man’s position, even if Du Qian was handsome and the spiders liked him, by the time he recovered, the disgusting man would be long dead.

Indeed, plans can’t keep up with changes. No matter how good the plan, it was useless, especially a hastily made one with too many uncertainties.

The woman’s position was good, right behind Du Qian, only a few steps away.

"Hey." A muffled voice came.

"Hmm." Du Qian tried to speak but realized how difficult it was. The continuous electric current made his facial muscles, lips, and tongue unresponsive, making it hard to speak clearly. No wonder the woman’s sounds were so strange.

"Save me, and I’ll give you a reward."

"Okay."

The woman expressed her thoughts with as few words as possible, and Du Qian answered even more concisely. He had already planned to save her. As for the disgusting man, he would have to rely on his own luck. Given his position, Du Qian knew the guy was doomed.

It was a pity, but there was nothing he could do. Du Qian didn’t like owing favors. If possible, he would still save the disgusting man first. But the current situation couldn’t be changed, and he could only take it one step at a time. Who made you so ugly and unlucky?

Various muffled groans continued to come from the over a hundred people, who, after realizing that struggling was futile, began to try to communicate, hoping to find a way to survive.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t even communicate properly, let alone come up with a plan. Without the ability to fight the lightning spider, they couldn’t think of a feasible escape plan even if they tried.

Time passed, and the parasitic bodies, as corpses, began to emit a strong stench. Du Qian was surprised; the temperature in the cave wasn’t high, yet the bodies seemed to be decaying too quickly.

The disgusting man couldn’t speak, but he understood. This wasn’t decay; the nutrients were being absorbed by the spider eggs. The parasitic bodies were meant to accelerate the hatching of the spider eggs.

The bodies liquefied, indicating that the nutrients were entering the spider eggs, and the lightning spider’s larvae were about to hatch.

The hatching time was earlier than the disgusting man expected, possibly less than ten hours. The first batch of the strongest larvae hatched.

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the hatching larvae. Death was so close, and it all depended on who had the worst luck.

This batch of larvae was small, only three. The parasitic bodies had turned into a pool of foul-smelling liquid. If in a closed room, it would be enough to knock out a martial cultivator. The smell was like a thousand people eating beans and farting non-stop in a bed.

Fortunately, the cave was spacious and clearly had ventilation, preventing everyone from being suffocated by the smell before becoming food.

The newly hatched lightning spider larvae were small, and Du Qian couldn’t see how big the spider eggs were, but they couldn’t be too large, as a human body could produce hundreds of them.

The larvae were about half an inch long, with a diameter of a few centimeters, not much larger than ordinary spiders, but they moved quickly. They looked at the distant crowd, making a pleasant buzzing sound, and their eight legs moved rapidly, reaching the food in an instant.

The leading larva was aggressive and impatient. When it reached the nearest person, it swiped with its front legs, and the spider silk, which even a Battle Master found hard to break, was cut like tofu. Clearly, the spider silk had no effect on the larvae, not because they were strong.

The newly hatched larvae had a combat power of ten thousand, making them genuine spiritual beasts. However, they lacked experience and acted purely on instinct. In a real fight, any martial cultivator could easily defeat them without much effort.

But now, the people on the ground were just food, whether martial cultivators or ordinary people, and they couldn’t recover in a short time, posing no threat to the larvae.

The first larva was clearly smarter. It raised its mouthparts, seemingly sniffing the air. Du Qian couldn’t understand how it could smell anything other than the overwhelming stench of decay.

As Du Qian was lost in thought, the larva suddenly bypassed the front row of food and charged straight at Du Qian, with the third larva following closely behind. To be continued.