Volume One: The Soul-Calling Gourd, the Soul-Burning Lamp Chapter 90: Trapped by His Own Making

With a faint white glow all around, a bloodcurdling sound of something piercing flesh echoed through the dark.

Sluuurp... sluuurp...

Plop.

A crystal-clear droplet fell and struck Gu Mo squarely on the face.

His facial muscles twitched, and with great effort he forced open his heavy eyelids.

Still groggy, he saw only a haze of white before him.

As his vision gradually cleared, he realized that the pale blur was made up of countless spider cocoons hanging in dense clusters from the ceiling of the cavern.

A warm, damp stench drifted everywhere, rising from below and spreading through the air.

Looking more closely, he saw the whole scene was flooded with white, while a layer of visible vapor split the image in two.

Inside those upside-down cocoons were not only insects struggling in various stages of death, but several human corpses dried into mummies.

Compared with them, the cocoons holding Gu Mo and the other two were smaller by far than those around the insects, so tiny they were hardly worth mentioning.

If those terrifying spiders were going to eat, they would naturally choose the larger prey, would they not?

And beneath all those cocoons lay an endless sea of milky-white spider eggs.

The eggs were warm and jade-white throughout, glowing with a faint, rhythmic light like breathing lamps.

Looking closely, one could even see the luminous mass shifting slowly within the eggs.

Seen from another angle, this faintly glowing scene could almost be called a breathtaking beauty poised between life and death.

At once, a suffocating sense of horror spread like wildfire.

At the sight of it, Gu Mo went completely numb.

Unfortunately, he had been bundled up in that bizarre spider cocoon like a rice dumpling, with very little room to move.

After several futile struggles, Gu Mo, drained to the last thread of strength, finally gave up.

So these eight-legged beasts had already taken the three of them for food for their young. Otherwise, why hang them above the spider eggs?

Damn it all. If the big spiders ate them, it would be over in an instant. But if they were fed to spiderlings instead, would that not be a thousand cuts before the end?

A chill of soul-shaking dread kept crashing over him. In the midst of that hopelessness, the last flicker of Gu Mo’s will to survive suddenly flared up.

In that instant, he felt a bone-deep cold sweep through every inch of his body.

Hoo...

A thick, resounding snore drifted over.

The scene shifted.

Xiao Yulou, all immortal grace and wandering charm, was tucked inside the warm spider cocoon, sound asleep. It was as if this shaggy-haired Taoist, who claimed to fear neither heaven nor earth, did not even know how to write the word death.

Beside him, Li Hetang, who was likewise bound tight, had not fallen asleep thanks to the protection of his polar combat suit.

Over this stretch of time, this sleazy fellow had kept trying again and again to figure out how to escape.

From that alone, it was clear the spider silk must be laced with some kind of neurotoxin. Once it touched the skin, all prey would instantly lose the ability to resist.

Thump-thump-thump.

Just then, a series of gruesome, scalp-numbing grinding sounds made Li Hetang glance fearfully to the side.

What met his eyes was Gu Mo, face as white as paper and mouth full of sharp teeth, staring at him with blood-red eyes like a demon from the underworld.

Gu Mo looked as though he had lost all reason and was ready to tear Li Hetang apart like prey.

Seeing Gu Mo turn into such a ghostly thing, the battle-hardened veteran nearly lost his soul on the spot.

All at once, Gu Mo, now like a vengeful specter, began thrashing violently. The white cocoon, hard as iron, swung toward Li Hetang like a yo-yo.

Whoosh.

Thump-thump.

A gust of force swept in as the ghostlike Gu Mo, carried by momentum, swung toward Li Hetang.

The spider silk binding the cocoon rasped and shook with every movement.

At the sight of this, Li Hetang’s entire body went rigid with fear. He immediately regretted being born.

A torrent of curses burst from his mouth at once.

“What the hell? What’s wrong with Mr. Gu? Why is he going crazy like this? Damn it, he’s trying to bite me to death!”

In his panic, Li Hetang finally noticed that within the cocoon wrapping Gu Mo, a sinister red light the size of a pot lid was glowing.

Seeing this, he hurriedly called toward Xiao Yulou in a low voice.

“Shaggy! Something’s wrong with Mr. Gu!”

After several calls, Xiao Yulou still gave no response. Meanwhile, the wildly swinging Gu Mo was already right on top of them.

That ghastly white face, those rows of terrifying fangs, nearly scared the shit out of Li Hetang.

Huff, huff.

“Damn it! If this keeps up, I’m done for!”

The words had barely left his mouth when Li Hetang rolled his tongue and spit repeatedly toward Xiao Yulou.

Ptooey. Ptooey.

After a few tries, the deathly pale Xiao Yulou finally began to wake.

Seeing things go so smoothly, Li Hetang quickly raised his voice.

“Shaggy, something’s wrong with Mr. Gu!”

Hearing that, the drowsy Xiao Yulou yawned heavily, then lifted his eyes.

By now, Gu Mo, still swaying on the silk, had his mouth full of fangs and was only a hair’s breadth away from biting Li Hetang.

In desperation, Li Hetang could only rock his own cocoon as well, putting some distance between himself and the manic Gu Mo.

Xiao Yulou, just awake, frowned and asked in confusion, “Is it raining?”

Then he took in the situation and immediately exploded with curses.

“Holy hell, are you two playing bungee jump?”

Li Hetang twisted his features and cursed back, “What the hell kind of bungee jump is this? Mr. Gu is trying to bite me to death!”

At that, Xiao Yulou jolted and quickly looked over.

Gu Mo, still swinging toward Li Hetang, had clearly fallen back into madness.

Although he was tightly wrapped in the thick spider cocoon, Xiao Yulou still spotted the flashes of red light around Gu Mo’s chest at a glance.

Alarmed, Xiao Yulou’s brows knit as he quickly searched for a countermeasure.

If Gu had to keep spiraling into madness, chances were he could never be saved.

Thinking this, the immortal-looking Taoist no longer cared about any trump card, or lack of one.

A trump card had to be thrown at the critical moment.

At that life-or-death instant, Xiao Yulou closed his eyes halfway and began chanting the Three Pure Ones incantation.

“Heaven and earth boundless, borrow the power of yin and yang. Innate true energy, awaken!”

With that furious roar, brilliant golden light burst from within Xiao Yulou’s cocoon. A thick wave of visible steam also spread out.

With a horrifying cracking sound, the cocoon around Xiao Yulou’s body began to bulge apart.

Looking closely, his loose black Taoist robe had been stretched tight against his body like a second skin.

The shockingly massive muscles beneath it looked as though they had been pumped full of hormones, swelling to several times their original size.

No—

Not even hormones could do that, and feeding on fodder certainly would not have built such muscle.

What was more, that physique had appeared in an instant.

Seeing this, Li Hetang stared dumbfounded, his jaw nearly hitting the floor.

In his bewilderment, he even wondered if Xiao Yulou had taken some kind of drug.

Crack, crack, crack.

Under that immense power, the spider cocoon around Xiao Yulou was on the verge of splitting open.

Another gust of force swept in.

Seeing this, Li Hetang also began rocking his own body, using his cocoon to slam the frenzied Gu Mo away.

Bang.

The two cocoons were sent flying backward simultaneously in the impact.

Hoo.

Watching Gu Mo’s cocoon fly hard to the rear, Li Hetang finally let out a breath.

He had calculated and calculated, yet still overlooked one thing.

Force works both ways.

A few seconds later, Gu Mo, with his mouth full of fangs, came swinging back again like a pendulum.

As the distance between the two cocoons closed, a flash of insight struck Li Hetang. He instantly drew his neck back into the cocoon.

He heard a sharp crack, and Gu Mo actually tore off a large chunk of spider silk with those terrifying teeth.

Li Hetang’s cocoon shook violently from the force of it.

Seeing the horrifying gap in the silk, an ominous premonition surged into Li Hetang’s mind.

The moment the cocoon swung backward again, he thrust his head out at once and shouted urgently toward Xiao Yulou.

“Daoist Xiao, hurry! Mr. Gu has gone insane! If he bites a few more times, my spider silk will snap!”

The words had barely fallen when Xiao Yulou, flushed red with strain, suddenly exerted his full strength and brutally tore the cocoon in two.

Crack.

A few seconds later, the manic Gu Mo swung over yet again.

Seeing this, Li Hetang hurriedly tucked his head back inside.

“Damn it—better to be a turtle with its head tucked in than have my neck bitten off!”

In a blink, Xiao Yulou flicked the hem of his robe, caught the silk above him, and swung hard, three yellow talismans already pinched between his fingers.

Snap.

The swinging Gu Mo bit down and tore off yet another huge mouthful of spider silk.

Inside his cocoon, Li Hetang was soaked through with sweat the size of beans.

If this went on, he would either be scared to death, bitten to death, or dropped to his death.

Either way, it would end in death. After all, some deaths are lighter than a feather, while others weigh more than Mount Tai.

In that fleeting moment, Li Hetang’s mind raced through countless thoughts.

Then he heard a crisp cracking sound.

He quickly poked his head out to look.

Xiao Yulou, still in his Taoist robes, was standing with immortal poise atop Gu Mo’s cocoon.

The three yellow talismans were stacked together and pressed firmly against Gu Mo’s forehead.

Seeing the crisis finally averted, Li Hetang let out a long breath and said to Xiao Yulou, “Daoist Xiao, what the hell is going on? Why did Mr. Gu suddenly act like he’d been injected with adrenaline?”

Xiao Yulou only sighed deeply.

Then he swung over in the cocoon that held Gu Mo and arrived beside Li Hetang.

Seen up close, Li Hetang felt even more strongly that Xiao Yulou had become shockingly muscular.

Suddenly, Xiao Yulou stepped directly onto Li Hetang’s cocoon and reached both hands toward the edge, tearing with all his strength.

Crack, crack, crack.

In the span of a breath, the cocoon restraining Li Hetang was brutally ripped in two.

Seeing this, Li Hetang was stunned senseless all over again.

Xiao Yulou’s head was instantly stamped with the words immortal grace and divine bearing.

After that, the two men, freed at last, rescued Gu Mo by the same method.

But getting down from there became the most urgent problem of all.

Just when Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang were at their wits’ end, the fuzzy little Greedy Ghost in Gu Mo’s arms wriggled out.

Gulugulu.

Seeing that little blackened fellow again, Xiao Yulou immediately smiled and asked, “Maoqiu, do you have a way to get us down safely?”

At that, the fuzzy Greedy Ghost immediately stuck out its long tongue and made the shape of the number three.

Xiao Yulou hurriedly nodded with a bright smile, secretly delighted:

“Good thing this little thing only knows the number three as a multiplier. If one day it comes up with something else, wouldn’t this poor Taoist be losing big?”

Then Xiao Yulou rolled his eyes, and the schemes in his belly immediately began churning like a stormy sea.

The lewd Taoist turned at once to look at Li Hetang.

“Brother Hetang, I’ll put this one on your tab.”

Hearing that, Li Hetang could only shrug helplessly.

In a flash, the fuzzy Greedy Ghost stretched out its long tongue and, one by one, lowered Xiao Yulou, Gu Mo, and Li Hetang from above.

No mistake about it.

By rough estimate, the cave was at least a hundred feet high, if not more.

For a creature only the size of a watermelon, that tongue was absurdly long.

After this ordeal, Li Hetang grew even more curious about what sort of undead creature the Greedy Ghost actually was.

...

It had to be said, the feeling of having solid ground underfoot was excellent.

Unfortunately, the spider eggs all around surged like seawater. Anyone with claustrophobia or a fear of dense clusters would have been scared to death on the spot.

Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang carefully supported Gu Mo as they wound their way among the countless spider eggs.

The place was so quiet that even the sound of a heartbeat could be heard clearly.

Each faintly glowing spider egg before them was the size of a water vat.

It seemed the little creatures inside had not yet fully hatched.

The two men, trembling with fear, did not even dare breathe too loudly.

In the darkness, more than a dozen blood-red eyes hung high overhead like crimson lanterns, staring fixedly at the two men below...