Chapter 73: Redemption
Translator: Letty / Editor: DarkGem / Jello
“It’s Pangzi, those spiders hung him up on the tree!” Chang looked up with concern as he whispered to Qing Shui. “He is not moving, I can’t be sure if he is dead or not.”
“Let’s go up and check him out.”
“That’s what I thought.” Chang replied in haste. They jumped through the gaps between the spider webs carefully. The flashlight illuminated Pangzi’s face.
“Pangzi…Pangzi!” Qing Shui hailed gently, and poked Pangzi on the arm with a branch. “Are you with me? Hey!”
“Ah……” Pangzi muttered. It was obvious that he tried to lift his eyelids, but they barely moved at all.
“He is not dead!” Chang and Qing Shui exchanged glances and saw the unexpected joy in each other’s eyes.
It really was a surprise to them. Before they found Pangzi, they had been preparing to accept the fact that he might be dead. After all, Pangzi had been lost in the jungle for almost an hour, and he had been chased by gigantic and deadly millipedes. The chance for him to survive was nearly zero.
Although he was at his last gasp, Chang and Qing Shui cheered. As long as he was still alive, the hadn’t wasted time coming on this trip back into the jungle.
“Hurry up.” Qing Shui lit up the “torch” as he had done with Chang and slowly roasted the spider web that wrapped Pangzi. Chang pulled him out as soon as the spider web loosened.
“Hmm….” What Chang did had apparently hurt Pangzi, but the duo could only stare at the horror scene on Pangzi’s body.
Pangzi’s body looked like it came straight out of a horror movie. There were small openings all over Pangzi’s body, and to put the severity of his injuries into perspective, there were around 100 of them.
The big ones were as large as a palm while the small ones were as small as fingernails. The good news was that the openings were not fatal, but they were so closely-spaced that it could give anyone goosebumps. [ED Note: I’m imagining something like trypophobia… search it up]
It exceeded any kind of disgust that they had ever seen in their lives. In and on those openings, there were spider eggs coated with mucus. The eggs were green and the size of beans. They were buried all over Pangzi’s body, as if his only use was to provide warmth for the eggs.
“Damn, these spiders are cruel! They treated him as a hatchery, while they could have just killed him!’ Chang was awfully upset after seeing the collection of spider eggs.
“They are not human, they don’t care if it is cruel or not. They do this to survive, like us.” Qing Shui checked out Pangzi’s pulse and cuts. He then picked up a spider egg curiously and carefully observed it.
“But why would they do that?”
“For hatching and feeding their offspring I guess… If they had killed Pangzi, the body could have only been preserved for two hours before rotting. Therefore, if he is alive, the freshness can last for a few days!” Qing Shui exclaimed. “They have become much smarter now.”
“Oh please, shut up! Pangzi is our friend, and we just need to get him out first.” Chang leaned over and patted on Pangzi’s face. “Hey, can you hear me?”
“Hmm….” Pangzi mumbled weakly. He seemed to be conscious, but not able to speak.
“He is paralyzed by the venom… I am putting him on your back, Chang.” Qing Shui lifted Pangzi on his shoulder, and slid him on Chang’s back.
At the same time, a millipede shrieked as an announcement of its own death.
“We are running out of time! They are coming back.”
Chang jumped off the branches, while Pangzi and him were bathed in the light from Qing Shui’s flashlight. They looked all around them at the same time as they re-coordinated. As if they had done it a million times, they ran forward without any second thoughts.
The route they chose was different from how they got in. They went by a strange place that wasn’t too far away from where they found Pangzi. The area was enclosed by 3 stout trees, and was inter-connected with numerous webs. It was some sort of residence for the spiders. The space was about 50 cubic meters. There were “decorations” within the webs, and it looked like a grain reserve for the spiders.
Judging from the scale of the reserve, it had been in operation for quite a while. It stored a variety of spider food, voles, insects, birds, and a human.
A woman.
She was locked in the center of the cylinder reserve. In order to see more clealy, Chang directed the light onto her. Her fate was no different than Pangzi’s. However, the condition of the eggs were different to Pangzi’s. Some of them had already broken and the transparent, infant spiders the size of fingernails covered her whole body like an expensive and sophisticated couture. But the beauty of the “cloth” was violated by the brutal act of the spiders. Some were gnawing at her flesh while some had just come out from underneath her breasts and abdomen as if her skin was welcoming the spiders’ newborn with a perfect feast.
Essentially, the woman trapped inside the web was covered with spiders while slowly being eaten to death. The scene looked worse than Naraka (ED Note: Buddhist Hell).
However, the woman was kept alive for purposely. The duo was tortured mentally by witnessing the inhumane cruelty she was suffering. Her eyes were wide open and it looked like they were going to pop out from her eye sockets. The effect of the venom seemed to be diminishing as time passed, and she couldn’t do anything but stand the pain.
“We should help.” Chang noticed the woman begging him when she realized there were survivors in the jungle.
“How?” Qing Shui pulled Chang’s arm, “The spider webs are too dense, we can’t get in without touching the strings. And don’t forget the spiders will soon be back!”
“At least we can help with the pain, even if we can’t do anything else.” Chang put Pangzi down and picked up his crossbow that was tucked on his belt. The tip of the bolt was pointed right at her heart as Chang pulled the trigger.
The bolt pierced through the spider webs and penetrated her chest. The blood oozed out from the hole. The poor woman had her final wish fulfilled with this long-awaited fatal injury.
She died with gratefulness.
“We are done.” Chang put Pangzi on his back again and he no longer paid attention to the woman, and fled out of the jungle with Qing Shui.
Thanks to the spiders, which did a good job cleaning this area, they didn’t encounter anything else and walked out safely.
“Let’s get Jing.”
They re-entered the human world. In here, they didn’t need the compass anymore as any collapsed building were the obvious signs for direction.
Three men, one unconscious.
In this dark world, they swiftly walked toward the unknown future.