Upon reaching the edge of the Sea of the Undead, Xiao Shu let go of my hand, bent over, bracing himself with his palms on his thighs, gasping for breath. I stood behind him, afraid to relax, watching the spider crawling on his backpack with tense vigilance.

The back of a person’s head is the most vulnerable spot; an attack there can be instantly fatal. The critical question was whether the venom, if sprayed at Xiao Shu’s nape by the spider, would penetrate the skull and invade his cerebellum. If it did, Xiao Shu would face the dire risk of brain damage. If it didn't, I certainly wasn't going to risk letting him test the spider venom’s potency.

So, I slowly edged to Xiao Shu’s side, raising my staff, and quietly cautioned him to maintain his stooped posture and not move. Xiao Shu had been intending to sit down to rest, but upon hearing my words and sensing trouble behind him, he again propped his thighs with his hands, remaining rigidly bent over.

The spider was perhaps thirty centimeters from the back of Xiao Shu’s head. Based on my previous encounters with them, I roughly estimated their venom’s effective range to be around half a meter. To prevent any harm to Xiao Shu’s head during my strike, I positioned myself sideways, extending the staff over the top of his head. This way, some of the venom would hopefully be intercepted by the wood.

It happened in less than an instant. Seeing the staff extending from above, the spider sprang forward with a swoosh, attempting to slip under Xiao Shu’s collar and into his neck. I could not allow the tragedy that once befell me to repeat itself! With lightning speed, I drove the staff downward, pinning Xiao Shu’s collar, and swept it forward in the same motion, swiftly clearing the creature’s six legs. As soon as it lost its footing, hooking its own limbs onto the staff, I sharply swung the wood toward the Sea of the Undead. Before it could react, I hurled the entire staff into the water. The spider, which had been clinging to the wood, suddenly slackened its six feet upon hitting the water and sank like a stone.

This is the fate of every spider that dies in the Sea of the Undead; unlike corpses, they do not float up. Instead, they sink rigidly, as if petrified. This is an interesting phenomenon; if one were to prepare spider specimens, these ones sunk to the bottom of the Sea of the Undead would be the best material. They possess six intact legs, their bodies are perfectly rounded, and their surfaces show no damage; the posture they maintain in death is the most flawless.

“There,” I said, placing my hands on my hips toward Xiao Shu. The Chuan Chang Gu had calmed down again; the agonizing pain in my abdomen had subsided.

Hearing this, he finally straightened up, twisting from side to side, loosening his weary muscles. He was about to ask what had just happened when he spotted the staff floating in the water and the spider lying on the shallow bank. He stopped speaking. He simply patted my shoulder and offered a knowing smile.

Then, we both stared at the spider in the water in silence for a long time. Finally, Xiao Shu proposed, “Let’s spend the night by the lake tonight. And let’s skip the bonfire.”

Recalling our frightening experience last time, I agreed that a bonfire in this place was an obvious beacon, serving no greater purpose than to draw the spiders toward us in a gathering. Of course, the nights near the Sea of the Undead were quite chilly, so if we forewent the fire, we would need other means of warmth.

“How much farther is it to our destination?” I asked, watching the last sliver of the setting sun fade.

Xiao Shu pulled out the scroll map from his backpack, sat down, and spread it across his knees. After studying it intently for quite some time, he said, “Not far now. We’ve crossed this mountain. According to the markers on the map, the distance remaining is about one-third of what we’ve walked today, and we should be there.”

“We spent most of today climbing mountains. If we disregard the ascent and descent, it should only take another hour or two of walking to arrive, right?” I inquired.

“That’s right. We are very close to the Monkey Clan’s territory. If we push on now, we could reach them before midnight,” he replied. As he spoke, Xiao Shu and I simultaneously turned to gaze eastward. Beyond the sparse grass and scrubland, the area was now dominated by towering, ancient trees, presenting the appearance of a primeval forest.