Chapter 94: The Nest

The scene descended into chaos at once. Piercing screams kept erupting, mingling with the staccato crack of gunfire echoing endlessly through the cavern. In such confusion, human strength was all but helpless against beasts. After all, in the darkness, beasts had the advantage of instinct; they were better adapted, their reflexes far faster than ours. Worse still, no one had been prepared. Taken by surprise by the sudden assault, especially in a black cave, casualties appeared almost immediately.

I and Black Sunglasses retreated quickly and had no intention of helping. After all, we were not really allies. If we managed to get out, we would soon become enemies anyway. Though these people were all experts in grave robbing, with excellent skills and physical ability, they still could not withstand such a swarm of spiders, especially those giant ones. Not only were their bodies coated in poisonous slime, but they were also covered in vicious barbs. In the confusion, people were constantly being wounded by those spines.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

A burly man in front of me raised a shotgun and blasted a spider half a man tall to pieces. While he was reloading, a spider dropped from nowhere, clamped onto his head, and with a sudden twitch of its body, actually wrapped his entire head in an instant. I hesitated, wondering whether I should save him. He was not far from me, and I could have saved his life with a few shots. But after that, we would very likely become mortal enemies. Just as I was wavering, I saw the shy girl swiftly draw a long blade and rush over. With a single stroke, she cut the spider on the man’s head clean in half. Before I could even recover from my surprise, I saw that the man’s head was already entangled in countless strands of spider silk. The webbing had been forced into his mouth and drilled down his throat into his body. He was already dead.

At that moment, cold sweat suddenly broke out all over me. The girl glanced at me, did not linger, and charged straight into the melee. So her skills were this good after all. Not only was she an expert shot, she also had quite a hand with the blade. Truly, one could not judge a person by appearances.

I moved farther away from them again. It was not that I feared the spiders. Rather, somewhere deep inside, I felt a faint sense of relief. If not for this sudden ambush by the spiders, the situation for me and Black Sunglasses would have been extremely dangerous by then.

Although there were many spiders, they could not withstand Old Ghost’s overwhelming firepower. After the initial chaos, everyone had suffered losses because of the sudden attack, but soon they began to counterattack in an orderly fashion. One giant spider after another was shot down, even blasted apart.

The cave was filled with the stench of blood and rot, and slime was everywhere. Old Ghost and the others were not faring well either. Several people were lying on the ground, and one of them had even lost both arms, becoming a complete cripple. After a fierce struggle, I saw that only Old Ghost, Old Fool, and two others remained. That Fire Walker had been bitten to death by a spider in the chaos, his body half devoured. It was a miserable sight. Old Fool was now crouched on the ground, staring blankly at that half-eaten corpse.

Things were no better on Madame Gu’s side. Three people had been lost, one of them a woman. The others who survived were all wounded. The shy girl was no longer shy in the slightest; her face was cold, and she did not speak a word. In one hand she held a Tang-style saber dripping with a mixture of red and green fluids, while with the other she supported Madame Gu, watching the surroundings with a frosty gaze.

After all that, they were down to eight people in total, and every one of them was injured. At this point, I and Black Sunglasses could finally set our minds at ease. To put it bluntly, their lives and deaths had nothing to do with me. More importantly, the greater their losses, the smaller my danger afterward would be. In this situation, even if things came to blows, I was no longer worried.

The cave temporarily fell silent again. Aside from the pungent, suffocating stench in the air, everyone remained somewhat mute. But soon they all came to their senses. This place was absolutely not fit for a prolonged stay. No one knew whether there were any spiders left, or whether something else might be lurking in the cave. They needed to get out immediately.

Old Ghost and the others no longer had time to worry about me and Black Sunglasses. They rose at once and prepared to leave. Old Fool cast a mournful glance at Fire Walker, but did not bother carrying the corpse any farther, simply standing up and following Old Ghost. Madame Gu’s side was the same. It seemed these grave robbers who walked in darkness had long since grown indifferent to life and death. Grief was only temporary; they could adapt again very quickly, especially those ancient grave-robbing sects and families.

This time, everyone seemed to have forgotten that the two of us even existed. After a quick bit of gear packing, they left in a hurry. Black Sunglasses and I casually picked up some weapons, food, and other supplies, stuffed our backpacks full, and followed after them.

“You’re wondering why they didn’t care about us, aren’t you? That’s because they know the battle that just happened cannot happen again right away, or their losses will only get worse. After all, you and I are not exactly easy to deal with either. Sure, you’re useless at everything else, but you’re pretty decent in a fight. Besides, they’re not worried about losing us. At worst, they’ll just block the exit and wait. By then we’ll be even more at a disadvantage. So hurry up and keep moving.”

As he spoke, Black Sunglasses quickened his pace. Hearing that, I thought it made sense too, so I hurried to keep up. The path ahead was winding and full of twists and turns, but no strange things appeared again. The air also seemed to grow much fresher. Then I noticed something else: there was actually airflow here. I instantly grew excited. It seemed this place really could lead outside, a true path to survival.

Black Sunglasses even took out a tuft of down and tested it. Sure enough, the fine strand was moving, and the wind was indeed blowing inward. That meant the route led all the way to an exit.

Black Sunglasses and I kept speeding up, though our pace soon became steadier, keeping about forty or fifty meters behind Old Ghost and the others. Not too far, and not too close. I watched Black Sunglasses grow quiet, and I knew he must be thinking of a plan, or rather, that he had already thought of one and was simply refining it in his mind. On that point, I admired him greatly. I, on the other hand, was not nearly so meticulous. If I were alone, I would probably have only two choices. The first would be to stay right on their heels and wait for an opportunity after we got out. Anyway, I had explosives on me. If you refuse to let me have peace, then none of us will have peace.