Chapter 29 - The Spider's Journey and the Cicada's Transformation 4

Dust and smoke filled the air, obscuring the view, as Li Cheng stood up, gasping for air heavily.

Shh—

The sound of footsteps approached densely from a distance, as countless small Spider Monsters split into two groups—one charged into the ruins of the building to rescue the Ink-Spotted Spider, whose life and death were unknown.

The other surged towards Li Cheng.

Li Cheng fought with all his might, but his muscles ached, his limbs were weak, and the Spider Monsters seemed endless, making it difficult to take a single step.

Click-clack click-clack—

The giant Ink-Spotted Spider slowly stepped out of the building’s ruins, suddenly leaning forward and raising its abdomen high towards Li Cheng.

The spider’s body surface was mottled with constantly shifting colors, instantly transforming into thousands of patterns.

While attempting to fight his way out, Li Cheng’s pupils trembled violently, and although he could clearly see the giant spider’s form, his brain was unable to distinguish its category.

‘This is a creature nearly the size of an armored truck, broadly divided into the front and back parts, connected by a relatively thin stalk…’

‘On its front, there are seven yellow items embedded…’

‘Below the center of it, there are eight stick-like objects, similar to spider legs…’

‘Wait, what is a spider?

Why can’t I remember?’

‘Wait, who am I?’

His thoughts were in chaos, and his consciousness ceased abruptly.

A gentle breeze brushed across his cheek, bringing a hint of coolness.

Li Cheng dazedly opened his eyes to find himself hanging upside down in the air, his whole body cocooned in white silk threads, with only his cheeks exposed.

His muscles were sore and weak, and he couldn’t even make a facial expression, so he could only move his eyes to look around.

This seemed to be the interior of a shopping mall, the word “seemed” is used because everything within sight was covered in thick spider webs.

Numerous small Spider Monsters scurried between bridges, web paths, and stairs, transporting cocoons of various shapes and hanging them on the webs.

The cocoons were big and small, with the smallest holding mice, squirrels, and birds, while the larger ones contained cats and dogs.

There were even larger cocoons holding humans.

Their eyes were tightly shut, their faces stiff, unknown whether they had fallen into a deep sleep or had been injected with paralytic toxins.

In a sense, perhaps it was better not to wake up—

High up in the spider web, there hung clusters of shriveled insect cocoons.

Inside, the humans had long been drained of blood and marrow, with just a shriveled, wrinkled skin hanging on their skeletons.

Whenever the wind blew, they would make a moaning sound.

Beneath the encircling insect cocoons, that giant Ink-Spotted Spider was coiled motionlessly at the center of the web.

Its injuries were especially severe, with densely packed wounds on its joints, mangled flesh on its back, a broken pincer, and its body colors unconsciously shifting continuously.

Dozens of small Spider Monsters crawled over it, spinning silk over its wounds to stop the flow of green blood.

Li Cheng’s pupils kept trembling.

Merely watching the Ink-Spotted Spider brought that confused state of mind flooding back.

Memories from before rose to the surface, and he remembered the battle on the highway, but in the blink of an eye, those memories became vague, dimmed, and faded.

Even this Forget effect had spread further, and he was starting to forget why he had ended up in the Shadow Realm.

He couldn’t keep looking.

He forced himself to divert his gaze and look down.

Through the gaps in the spider webs, he could see the shopping mall in the real world, bustling and thriving, with crowds of people who were completely unaware of the adjoining world and the skeletal Demon Cave within.

Shhuuula——

The sensation of the silk cocoon around the body tightening felt as though something was pulling at oneself.

Li Cheng heaved a silent sigh, mutely flexing the muscles around his mouth, trying hard to clamp his teeth on his tongue.

He was constantly ready to bite off the tip to stimulate his entire body with pain, to see if he could break free from the paralyzed state and fight back.

The anticipated image of being dragged away to the gaping maw of the Spider Monster didn’t happen; instead, the force at his feet pulled the cocoon over the railing, dragging it through the dimly lit staff corridor.

Inside the corridor, his was not the only cocoon.

Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia were also ensnared within, and upon seeing Li Cheng, they strenuously tried to blink at him, moving their facial muscles.

“Don’t move.”

A crisp, immature human voice suddenly rang out in the staff corridor, coming from a small Spider Monster.

It was indistinguishable from the rest of its kind, save for the white veil covering the right half of its head.

A talking Spider Monster?

Shashasha——

The Spider Monster crawled next to Li Cheng’s head, biting on his neck.

With a certain liquid injected, the toxins neutralized each other and the numbness pervading his body instantly receded.

His limbs regaining strength, Li Cheng immediately burst out of the cocoon and steadied himself.

At this point, the Spider Monster had bitten Ye Jiaying and Yuan Zhixia on their necks as well, lifting their paralysis.

Li Cheng helped them cut free from the cocoons, regaining their freedom.

“Keep it down, follow me.”

The voice came again from the Spider Monster’s abdomen, its legs moving as it started to descent down the stairs.

The three exchanged glances; trapped in the Demon Cave, there wasn’t much choice but to follow with light footsteps.

Throughout their descent in the employee corridor, the first underground level was a shopping street, the second basement level was an underground ring road and parking lot, and the third and fourth basement levels were municipal utility galleries, places used to lay pipes for gas, electricity, water supply, and communications.

The fifth basement level was for subway equipment, and further down were the subway tunnels.

As Li Cheng and Yuan Zhixia had guessed, indeed the Spider Monster horde had turned the city subway system into a means of hitchhiking.

Cobwebs were pervasive, across the floors, ceilings, and even inside the train carriages.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the Spider Monster being gravely injured, all its offspring had gone to attend to it, leaving the subway tunnels free of the creatures.

Such an absurdly bizarre sight made Li Cheng unable to help himself as he exclaimed, “How could the Special Affairs Bureau not notice something so obvious?!”

Yuan Zhixia raised an eyebrow, realizing that this must be the name of the state institution in charge of maintaining public order.

The unique Spider Monster ahead paused momentarily and continued leading the way, its abdomen conveying a crisp human voice, “Because, that big spider possesses the power to make others .”

“Forget?” Ye Jiaying looked puzzled while Li Cheng immediately thought of that previous sensation of fragmented memory, his hoarse voice inquired, “Visual Agnosia?”

Visual Agnosia is a condition caused by local brain damage resulting in acquired cognitive deficits.

Patients face certain items and can recognize them through other sensory channels, but specifically lose the ability to recognize familiar items, self, or visual space through a certain sensory channel and its corresponding sensation.

For instance, Visual Agnosia caused by damage to the occipital and temporal lobes would make patients able to clearly see an object’s shape and articulate its features, but the brain would fail to “recognize” the object.

A glove would be described as “having five everted containers,”

A stethoscope would be described as “a long rope with a disc at one end,”

A key would be described as “a thin metal plate with imperfect grooves.”

This was similar to Li Cheng’s experience, his brain failing to recognize the Spider Monster.

The issue is, Visual Agnosia arises from local brain damage, whereas Li Cheng’s brain was still intact.

“I don’t know what Agnosia is, but that’s probably not it.”

The little Spider Monster led the three further down from the subway equipment level to the subway tunnel level, whispering, “People and animals eaten by the big spider, in reality, they too are .

Everyone forgets about them.

Even if their blood, their backpacks fall to the ground, no one notices them.”