Volume One: The Soul-Summoning Gourd, the Soul-Burning Lamp Chapter Ninety-One: Gullies, Gullies, Gullies!

Thump—thump, thump!

Inside the dark cavern, the air was strangely damp and warm, and in the deathly silence, the heartbeat of the three men could be heard.

A stench of rot drifted wantonly through the air. White spiderwebs covered the layer of mud beneath their feet, making every step feel as though they were treading on pure white snow, each footfall giving off a faint, soft rustle.

Even so, the webs were thin and had little tack to them.

But such trivial inconveniences did nothing to dispel the gloom in Li Hetang’s heart.

At that moment, Li Hetang’s brow was tightly furrowed. His left hand supported Gu Mo, who could no longer move on his own, while his right gripped the composite bow called Demon Hunter.

Xiao Yulou, meanwhile, held several yellow talismans in one hand and supported Gu Mo on the other side, scanning their surroundings warily.

Then, all at once, came a faint pop.

A blast of foul stench, accompanied by an embarrassing noise, rushed straight into their noses.

Li Hetang’s brow tightened, and he snapped his head around to glare viciously at Xiao Yulou. That look alone was enough to make the latter blush red with shame.

“Damn it, did this filthy Taoist eat something bad? At a time like this, I sure as hell don’t want to die because of some stinking fart!”

Seeing this, Xiao Yulou could only force out an awkward smile.

Then, with dreadful timing, the ethereal Xiao Yulou let out a burp.

Burp—

The huge burp was magnified endlessly by the dark cavern. In the spider cocoons ahead, which gave off a faint glow, there was also a stir.

Seeing this, Li Hetang felt as though his heart had been clenched in a vice.

In an instant, Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang came to a tacit understanding and stopped in their tracks.

With blood rushing in their veins, the surrounding silence was so complete that even the drop of a needle could be heard.

A bead of cold sweat also slid down Xiao Yulou’s forehead.

Rustle—

Li Hetang stood rooted in place, every nerve stretched taut, when he heard faint sounds in his ears.

For a moment, this hair-raising cavern became utterly strange.

It was as though this pitch-black cave were a beast’s gaping maw, ready to swallow all three of them whole at any moment.

...

Drip, drip...

Crystal-clear droplets slowly fell from the cavern ceiling.

In the tranquil stillness, everything was eerily quiet. Yet after several seconds, nothing happened at all.

Then Li Hetang cast a vigilant sidelong glance and saw slight movement within several of the faintly glowing spider cocoons.

At that sight, an extremely bad hunch took shape in his mind.

Not daring even to breathe, Li Hetang immediately shot Xiao Yulou a glance and jerked his chin toward the right.

At their two-o’clock position, several white, glowing spider cocoons had begun to sway faintly.

Those cocoons, thin as cicada wings, seemed as though they might tear apart at any moment.

After seeing it, Xiao Yulou also frowned, having noticed the abnormality inside the cocoons.

It seemed these eight-legged monsters were about to hatch.

Swish, swish—

The sound of cloth sliding across skin rang out.

The unusually burly Xiao Yulou actually reverted, at a visible rate, to his former gaunt build.

A sheen of cold sweat also ran down his neck.

Between breaths, Xiao Yulou seemed to be secretly panting, exhausted.

Having witnessed the change with his own eyes, Li Hetang could only suppress his curiosity and wait to ask why once they were safe.

After that, Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang exchanged a brief look. Together, they continued supporting Gu Mo and advanced toward the cavern exit with utmost caution...

In the blink of an eye, a pale, ghastly thing suddenly dropped from the ceiling of the cavern.

Li Hetang could not even make out what it was before he instinctively lifted his arm and swept hard with the composite bow.

A crisp crack rang out.

A skeleton split into pieces and scattered forward in an instant.

For a moment, the entire spider cavern fell eerily still.

Yet that tremendous noise had somehow failed to wake the spider hatchlings about to emerge.

That was just too strange.

In confusion, Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang could only proceed cautiously into the unknown ahead.

After Li Hetang had taken a few more steps, those scattered bones came into view.

At a mere glance, he drew in a sharp breath.

Those deep, black eye sockets seemed almost alive, staring fixedly at Li Hetang.

He had, after all, clawed his way out of mountains of the dead. How could an ordinary dry skeleton frighten this veteran soldier so easily?

Then the view shifted.

Above that blackened, mummified skull was a horrifying puncture wound, and large patches of weathered human skin remained connected to the skull in ragged strands. The other bones Li Hetang had knocked loose were still attached to different parts of the skin.

A whole sheet of human skin?

Could this fellow have been drained dry by spiders and left to die?

So brutal!

At the thought, Li Hetang shuddered all over like chaff. He had never dreamed of dying in such a way.

And the deepest fear in the human heart was the fear of the unknown.

...

Riiiip—riiip!

Suddenly, behind the three of them came a series of tearing sounds, one after another.

There was no need to think twice. Those eight-legged beasts had already hatched.

“Run for it!”

At Xiao Yulou’s shout, Li Hetang and Xiao Yulou immediately set off at full speed, sprinting desperately forward.

Rustle, rustle, rustle—

Behind them, the endless sea of white spider eggs had all begun to hatch!

Countless newly hatched white spiderlings surged after them like a tidal wave.

Even the smallest of those spiderlings was the size of a golden retriever.

Their slender abdomen legs jabbed endlessly into the fine spider silk, playing a murderous, almost cheerful melody.

Clatter, clatter, clatter—

Many spiderlings that could not squeeze their bodies through followed the stone wall of the cavern and came surging after them.

The cave had been as still as death before. Now it was as frantic as a storm.

In the violent shift from stillness to motion, every single spider cocoon in the cavern had begun to stir in unison.

Seeing the situation grow dire, the fleeing Li Hetang reached straight for his tactical pack.

With a sharp click, two pitch-black little “toys” were hurled behind him.

In an instant, those two black little toys were swallowed whole by the sea of white spiderlings.

And in Li Hetang’s mouth, there were actually two circular iron rings clenched between his teeth.

In the blink of an eye, a thunderous boom erupted.

The immense shockwave slapped countless spiderlings flat against the cavern wall.

A wave of scorched, fishy stench surged toward them with the blast.

Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang were nearly left with their eardrums torn to shreds.

A sky-shaking explosion rang out behind them, echoing through the whole cavern. The enormous chamber then began to tremble with catastrophic force.

And the mass of spiders close behind them was swallowed in an instant by a sea of searing fire.

Riiip—riiip—

Countless newly hatched spiderlings were burned into charcoal.

This grudge was now thoroughly made!

The other white spiderlings all widened their blood-red eyes and instantly detoured around the wall of fire ahead, continuing their relentless pursuit along the cavern wall.

Watching this shocking scene, Xiao Yulou, that shameless bastard, even found the time to give Li Hetang a thumbs-up.

“Brother Hetang, you’re insane!”

Hearing the praise, Li Hetang’s features twisted as he roared, “What the hell kind of time do you think this is? And you still have the nerve to joke around?”

Then, all at once, Xiao Yulou yanked Gu Mo off his shoulder and threw him to Li Hetang, putting on the brakes and planting himself in place to cover their retreat.

Unable to make sense of it, Li Hetang could only hoist the unconscious Gu Mo onto his shoulder and keep running.

After only a few steps, a sea of white and red surged toward Xiao Yulou.

Those newly hatched spiderlings had inherited eight blood-red eyes in perfect form.

Anyone who saw them would feel their ass clench and stand there dumbfounded.

And then the immortal-looking Xiao Yulou twisted the yellow talisman in his hand.

In the next instant, with a roar, the talisman in his grasp spat out a blazing wall of fire.

Amid the hissing, wailing cries, countless pursuing spiderlings were burned crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

But those greedy, bloodthirsty eight-legged creatures had no intention of giving up the chase.

A vast mass of spiderlings, eyes blazing with malice, surged forward wave after wave.

Seeing the horrifying scene before him, Xiao Yulou’s left hand was also stung raw by the searing flames.

“Shit—these beasts are going all out!”

With that cry, Xiao Yulou flicked the hem of his robe and took off in a desperate run.

After a few steps, Xiao Yulou abruptly stopped, slapped his forehead, and blurted, “Damn it! Am I an idiot?”

After mocking himself, he lowered his body at once and drew the spiritual energy within him into his legs.

At the critical moment, Xiao Yulou drew a taiji pattern on the ground with one foot, then shot forward at high speed.

In the space of a breath, the charging Xiao Yulou spotted Li Hetang’s fleeing back.

The next second, Li Hetang only felt a violent gust of wind behind him. That shamelessly sly Xiao Yulou had already burst up to his side.

“Holy hell, you freak, are you Superman? How the hell are you so fast?”

Xiao Yulou stopped and laughed smugly, then hoisted the unconscious Gu Mo right off Li Hetang’s shoulder.

With a sharp snap, Li Hetang felt a warm current course through his wrist.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Yulou had seized him and dragged him into a full sprint.

Since they were nearly out of the cage, Li Hetang bared a wicked smile and once more tossed several high-explosive grenades behind them as little gifts.

At once, the scenery before his eyes changed in a blur, and the biting cold wind made it hard for him to keep them open.

It felt as though Xiao Yulou’s running speed completely outclassed a Harley motorcycle.

In confusion, Li Hetang could not begin to guess Xiao Yulou’s true strength.

After a long while, they heard one deafening boom after another.

From within the black cavern behind them came bursts of terrifying firelight.

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

Under the horrifying explosions, the entire dark cavern trembled without end.

Yet Xiao Yulou, intent only on charging headlong outward, had not noticed that this bizarre cavern actually branched in all directions.

And Li Hetang, as a mere attachment hanging off Xiao Yulou’s thigh, was even more helpless and passive.

Within the strange and terrifying cavern, Xiao Yulou kept fleeing at great speed.

Then all at once, Li Hetang spotted a pitch-black chasm opening directly ahead!

“Scruff! Ravine! Ravine!”

Xiao Yulou, who knew only how to cast spells, heard him and responded with a grin that looked as though his brain had short-circuited.

“Go, go, go—ole, ole, ole!”

Then Li Hetang suddenly felt the ground vanish beneath his feet.

Under the force of gravity, Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang traced a beautiful arc through the darkness...

Thump!

In the blink of an eye, this foolish pair collided with the ground with brutal intimacy.

Protected by his polar combat suit, Li Hetang, though thrown heavily to the ground, rolled forward seven or eight meters before finally coming to a stop, sustaining little damage.

Xiao Yulou, on the other hand, was in a miserable state.

“Aahhh!”

A pig-slaughtering scream rang out at once.

That fool seemed to have been knocked half senseless by the fall.

And Gu Mo, as a human sandbag who could not move, was directly hurled more than ten meters away by Xiao Yulou.

Twisting his face in pain, Li Hetang moved his sore body and took a red flare stick from his tactical pack, snapping it open.

Sizzle—

A wash of red light instantly drove away the darkness around them.

In that light, it was clear that Xiao Yulou’s arm had been completely dislocated. His black Taoist robe was also caked in dirt.

He could hardly have looked more pathetic.

Seeing this, ten thousand wild horses stampeded through Li Hetang’s mind.

In a surge of fury, he cursed without restraint.

“Scruff, are you a complete idiot? Didn’t you hear me warn you about the ravine in front of you?”

At that, Xiao Yulou, sweat pouring coldly from his whole body, no longer held back and fired back.

“Dammit, if there’s a ravine, say ravine! How was I supposed to know your ‘go, go, go’ wasn’t just you trying to hype things up?”

After the outburst, Xiao Yulou raised his brows and continued, “And besides, isn’t ‘go, go, go—ole, ole, ole!’ the theme song from the World Cup back in the day?”

At this, Li Hetang’s face went black.

Even so, he still stepped forward and reached out to examine Xiao Yulou’s injury.

Only when he lifted Xiao Yulou’s arm did he realize the fool of a Taoist had really dislocated it.

“You’re a Taoist who cultivates in the deep mountains, and you actually know about the World Cup?”

At that, Xiao Yulou snatched his dislocated arm back from Li Hetang’s hands and glared at him viciously.

“Though I am a man of the Dao, I am not some uncivilized savage. Why should I not know the World Cup?”

Hearing this, Li Hetang could not help but laugh and cry at once.

Then, all at once, Xiao Yulou, that sleazy Taoist, yanked his dislocated arm back, gave it a hard wrench upward, and—

Crack.

With a crisp pop of bone, Xiao Yulou’s dislocated arm had actually been set back in place.

Seeing that, Li Hetang immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

This shameless, foolish Taoist actually knew how to set bones.

Just then, from the darkness ahead came a ground-shaking sound.

Boom—boom, boom...