Escape the Infinite Chambers-Chapter 75 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (VI)
Chapter 75 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (VI)
Editor: Kitty
“It’s the cawing again.” Feng YuLan raised his head to look at the sky, which should have appeared vast and boundless. At this moment, it was covered by thick branches and leaves, and not a single kind of bird-like creature could be seen. Only the dull crying of the bird could be heard as if the bird was just within their vicinity, yet it also sounded that the calls came from very far away.
“The thing that acts regularly is obviously the cawing,” Shadow stated.
“But what does that represent?” Feng YuLan was still puzzled. Now, he would like to see his IQ instantly soar. A brain could be ripped apart, could be used as a replacement for thousands of computers, but after thinking about it, he felt that it was unrealistic, which made Feng YuLan very depressed.
Shadow seemed to have no answer to that and shook his head. He took Feng YuLan’s hand and pulled him as they walked forward. The two people bypassed the poor, confused soul who was handcuffed and shackled. Feng YuLan instinctively placed the book that contained the ancient scriptures that he didn’t understand into his arms. They had to head out to find more clues.
When they walked on the road, they saw several corpses hanging on the trees, and all of them were surrounded by layers of spider silk, forming huge white cocoons. The sight of them hanging on the branches was particularly spectacular.
Feng YuLan and Shadow stopped walking at the same time. They stood under a cocoon to observe. Shadow said, “I’m afraid that this is also one of the so-called…… things that appear regularly?”
Feng YuLan and Shadow could not help but study those cocoons for a long time. Amazingly, some of them would shake from time to time. This made Ah Lan realize that not all the cocoons may be corpses.
“It’s still moving…… Is it alive?” Ah Lan’s curiosity was aroused. He went to one of the hanging cocoons and found a big stone to step onto. Then, he stood on the stone and reached out his hand to touch the huge cocoon. The cocoon shook a little under his touch, but it soon calmed down and became immobile.
Ah Lan quickly retracted his hand. After taking back his hand, it felt like there was something sticky on it. He lowered his head to take a look and found that stuck on his palms were some spider threads, which were different from the ones that he would normally see. These spider threads were thick, similar to a type of thin rope, and it felt very sticky. It took a long time for Ah Lan to finally tear the threads off, but there was still some kind of sticky secretion on his fingers.
After dawdling about and losing some time, Ah Lan paused and heard a caw.
The cawing sounded very monotonous.
“Once every 15 minutes,” Shadow suddenly blurted.
“What do you mean?” After listening to what he had said, Ah Lan felt somewhat shocked, he paused: “Do you mean that the cawing will sound out once every 15 minutes?”
Shadow nodded and said, “It’s about this duration. I don’t have a timer, so I don’t know. But I kept an ear out for it just now. It should be about the same. Since the beginning when you woke up, it has sounded four times, so it’s almost an hour now.”
“That is to say…” Ah Lan looked at Shadow: “The time limit we have for this secret chamber is three hours. We still have two hours left, right?”
“That’s right.”
Ah Lan spread his arms open. A large patch of sticky fluid was on his hand: “The cawing indicates time, so what do these spider threads represent?”
“What does spider thread make you think of?”
“Spiders? Web?”
“Then what does the web stand for?”
“Bondage?”
Shadow smiled: “This is the edge of hell, the place where one transitions to hell, where confused souls are bound, but they cannot stay here all their lives; they have to head to hell&#k2026;&#k2026; But in such a dark place, there is no road and no sign. How can they get there?”
Ah Lan suddenly realized: “Is there someone to lead the way?”
“Maybe it’s not a person.” Shadow floated beside Ah Lan and touched his hand. Shadow’s body temperature was very low. Once again, Ah Lan could not help shivering. Ah Lan trembled for a while and said, “If it’s not a human…… could it be that it’s a big spider instead?”
There was only one cocoon bound by spider threads here, and many spider webs were entangled in the tree branches.
But the spider web was very high up. Almost all of the trees in the forest were gigantic. The trunks were so thick that several people would not be able to hug it. One was afraid that it would be a difficult feat to be able to climb up. Ah Lan turned to look at Shadow and asked, “What should I do?”
“Attract the spider here.”
“Attract the spider? Does that mean I have to become prey?”
“Spiders are very sensitive to their own threads, and when prey touches their webs, they will quickly detect it.”
Therefore, Feng YuLan raised his head and looked at the spider webs hanging high above his head. For a while, he was quite worried. The spider webs were hung very high up. How could he get up there?
“Don’t worry.” Shadow easily understood what Ah Lan thought internally and thus said, “You have just touched the cocoon. I’m afraid that the spider has sensed it. Maybe in a few moments, it will come to pick you up…… But since we are here, for the sake of safety, we need to make some preparations.”
“Preparations?” Ah Lan looked at Shadow doubtfully.
“I’ll take you up.” Shadow did not answer the question. He smiled thoughtfully and raised his head to look upward at the spider webs hanging high above his head. He held Ah Lan by the armpits with his hands out and lifted him up. The closer he was to the spider web, the larger Feng YuLan realized it was. When he approached it, it was like a huge web had spread itself all over the sky. When they got closer, they could clearly see many thick threads hanging on the branches and leaves. Just by taking a mere glance, it could be seen that almost all the trees were entangled with spider threads.
After getting to the place they wanted, Shadow let Ah Lan reach out and touch a spider thread. The thread was unimaginably sticky and resilient, and because of that, Ah Lan was almost unable to let go of it after holding it with one of his hands. Then, Shadow released Ah Lan and allowed him to hang stably on the spider web.
“When the spiders come, they’ll probably wrap you in that cocoon,” Shadow said, “So no matter what happens next, it’s important to get rid of the threads.”
“Do you want to burn them with fire?” Feng YuLan’s body shook. It was hard for him to hang on to the spider thread with one hand, and it was particularly strenuous for him to continue hanging there. However, if he stuck his whole body to the threads, it would be hard for him to move.
“We don’t have a source of fire. How can we burn it?” Shadow floated to and fro in front of Feng YuLan as he used his fingers to draw a few symbols in the air. Then, he shook his head regretfully: “How horrible. In this strange chamber, we can’t use magic spells.”
“But you can fly?” Ah Lan expressed great curiosity towards that aspect.
Shadow replied, “That’s a trait I was born with. As long as you’re alive, I can live. As long as your spiritual powers are still there, I can fly.”
“You are me?”
“That’s right.”
Ah Lan shook his head in confusion: “No, no, it should be said that you’re my grimoire instead.”
“Stop! There is no need to discuss this.” Shadow stated, “We have to find a way to help you successfully escape even if you are entangled in a cocoon of spider threads.”
“Can’t you help me undo the threads?” Ah Lan glanced at Shadow in anticipation, but Shadow shook his head regretfully: “I’m not able to do that, The only thing I can touch is you; I can’t touch anything else.”
As Shadow spoke, he gave a demonstration to Ah Lan. His hands and body went through the spider threads and leaves. He circled in front of Ah Lan, turned back to him again, and continued to float in front of Ah Lan.
Ah Lan stared at Shadow for a long time and suddenly said, “It doesn’t matter. Even if I am entangled by the spiders’ threads, as long as you can act, wouldn’t that do? Since you can only touch me, you will just have to hold on to me and fly.”
As the two people were discussing this, a crawling sound sounded throughout the forest. The sound seemed as if there were a lot of insects. If there was only one insect crawling, the sound would be very soft, but since many had gathered, it was very loud.
Feng YuLan and Shadow glanced at each other. Shadow said, “I’ll hide first.” After he spoke, he vanished. Although Ah Lan could not see where he had gone with his naked eye, Feng YuLan felt very relieved because he felt that Shadow seemed to be around him all the time; he felt strangely enriched.
Shortly after, Feng YuLan saw…… little spiders all over his surroundings!
That’s right, on the surrounding trees and ground, there were all kinds of palm-sized spiders crawling on the threads. One by one, like a tide, they emerged. They were too many spiders to count. The sound of crawling resounded in Feng YuLan’s eardrums.
Ah Lan was not afraid of insects and other creatures, and he was not really afraid of spiders. But when so many spiders gathered, it gave him a terrifying, scalp-tingling sensation. It was the sort of horrifying feeling where he felt even his goosebumps would fall out and scatter all over the ground, and Ah Lan could not help but shiver again.
But fortunately, these spiders that were densely packed together did not get close to Feng YuLan but stopped at a distance from him. Soon after that, Ah Lan heard a relatively large scuffle and saw a very large and huge spider appear on a tree trunk in front of him!
Feng YuLan did not know how to describe the predicament he was in. This was basically a giant spider that had been magnified by ‘n’ times. When it was climbing the tree, the branches and trunks trembled. The spider thread that Feng YuLan grasped with one hand was also violently trembling, and as a result of this, his whole body began to shake.
The giant spider got closer to Feng YuLan, and because of their close distance, Feng YuLan could clearly see each and every hair on the spider. It had three pairs of feet and many eyes growing on its head. After counting, he could determine there were eight eyes. They were densely squeezed together, and at the sight, Feng YuLan could not help but shiver again.
The spider did not seem to be very interested in Feng YuLan. It crawled onto the giant spider web and lightly used two of its feet to stab into Ah Lan’s clothes and dragged him up, lifting him. After that, it began to spin threads from somewhere in its abdomen, constantly producing them there.
The giant spider entangled the threads all over Ah Lan’s body, and Ah Lan almost did not dare to move. He realized that the spider did not bite him or infuse him with poison. It merely wrapped him up into a cocoon of spider thread at a very fast pace. In a flash, Ah Lan felt that he was unable to move his entire body, and his line of sight was blocked by one of the spider threads.
It felt as if he was being tightly wrapped. The spider silk was extremely resilient. Ah Lan tried to struggle twice, but his body felt extremely weak, as if his strength had been exhausted. He slowly began to feel strangely sleepy, causing him to almost be unable to open his eyes.
Although the spider thread had blocked his line of sight, Ah Lan’s sense of hearing was still working. He felt that after the giant spider wrapped him into a cocoon, he placed Ah Lan on a tree like the cocoons he had seen. Then, Ah Lan heard the sound of the tide of spiders retreating. The sound gradually got further away, indicating that the large spider and the other little spiders had all rapidly left.
“How do you feel?” After a while, Ah Lan heard the voice of Shadow, asking him this question.
“It feels very tight, and I don’t know why, but I feel so weak and tired. I want to sleep.” Ah Lan honestly revealed how he felt.
“Just bear with it for a few moments more. Don’t fall asleep…… Those spiders are not far away. I’ll take you as we follow them.” Shadow then reached out and grabbed Ah Lan. His hands could directly penetrate through the outer layers of the cocoon to hold Ah Lan. Shadow brought him away as they waveringly flew up.
