Only after Xiao Shu had finished retching did we emerge from the passageway. The moment we stepped away from the stone wall, a deep rumbling sounded behind us. By the time we turned to look, the wall had completely vanished. Before us lay only a blank expanse—no mountains, no stone, just a few clusters of bushes and several small, vibrant green saplings swaying gently in the breeze.

"Did you remember where the entrance was?" Facing an environment devoid of landmarks, I began to feel uneasy.

"We need to mark this spot. I'll go find materials; you stay right here and don't move." With that, Xiao Shu unhitched the backpack from his shoulders, retrieved a Swiss Army knife from inside, placed the pack on the ground, and walked toward the cluster of small trees.

The area we exited into was the embankment of the Sea of the Dead. On one side was the spectral expanse, and on the other, solid land. This land was flat and vast, stretching out limitlessly like a plain. Apart from low-lying scrub and sparse grass, only a few small trees stood scattered about. Xiao Shu approached the nearest sapling and forcefully snapped off two or three branches. The tender limbs proved resilient; even after the main branch broke, the bark remained connected. He took out the Swiss Army knife, made a few shallow cuts along the bark, and with a soft thwack, the branch fell to the ground.

Having cut down the three or so branches, Xiao Shu bent over to pick them up. The instant his hands neared the earth, they froze mid-reach, and his entire body stiffened in place.

At first, I assumed he was hunched over, examining something on the ground. After waiting a moment and noticing he maintained that posture without movement, a sense of unease crept over me. So, I tiptoed and peered through the brush toward where he stood.

There stood Xiao Shu, motionless as a mannequin, bent over, arms dangling, head slumped, rooted beneath the tree.

Normally, anyone would assume Xiao Shu was playing a prank, trying to imitate a marionette for a laugh. But this was the Sea of the Dead, a place haunted by the undead and the demon race; no danger was too surprising, and any bizarre event was possible.

I quickly took off my own backpack, stacked it atop Xiao Shu’s where we had emerged, creating a makeshift marker. Then, I pushed aside the surrounding bushes and hurried toward Xiao Shu.

Just as I was about to reach him, Xiao Shu violently lifted his head and shouted at me, "Don't come any closer!"

Following that shout, his fragile neck suddenly dropped downwards like a severed puppet string, and all movement ceased.

I sucked in a sharp breath, standing rooted to the spot, afraid to move. However, from this vantage point, I could clearly see the situation around Xiao Shu.

It turned out a massive spiderweb spanned the canopy directly above him. A spider the size of a fist was settled in the center, methodically spinning threads over Xiao Shu's entire body. His hands, feet, head, and back were already lightly coated in a grayish film of silk. It seemed determined to encase him within the web, to preserve him for slow enjoyment.

With Xiao Shu's life hanging by a thread, I was frantic, swirling with indecision. Spotting a long, slender branch amid the nearby undergrowth, I snatched it up without a second thought and jabbed it directly at the web above Xiao Shu's head.

The spider, detecting the intrusion into its domain, momentarily abandoned its work. It coiled its hind legs and reared up its front legs, then shot onto the branch I held, spitting several jets of white viscous fluid at the tip. Wherever the fluid landed, the branch quickly began to smoke, turning into blackened charcoal. It immediately leaped back into its nest, fixing me with an unmoving stare, as if the last action was merely a warning: one step closer, and I would suffer the same fate as the branch.