Carrying the two water jugs, I stood frozen beside the large stone, my mind in utter disarray, uncertain how I would face Xiao Shu upon my return. Should I tell him I had encountered Yingzi while fetching water, or should I say Yingzi gave me a jug, claiming it was to help treat his illness?

If he learned Yingzi had appeared, he would undoubtedly remain by the Sea of the Departed with Xing'er, refusing to budge an inch. In that event, what would become of the two hostages held at the Villa of Reflections? And what about Ah Li and me? After agonizing deliberation, I resolved to bury the encounter and everything I had witnessed deep within my heart. Let him deem me selfish or cruel; for the sake of Hua Gu and A Mang, who were equally in peril, I had no choice but to silently swallow this secret.

The journey back was significantly faster, as I had deliberately trampled the grass and shrubs into a mess on the way out, creating a makeshift path now available for a direct sprint to the cave.

Clutching the two jugs in one hand and holding the sputtering torch—now burning down to its final moments—in the other, I darted through the moonlit woods, desperate to reach the cave immediately. Yet, just as my focus narrowed entirely on the journey, another unexpected event unfolded.

I sensed something distinctly wrong with the path. When I first entered the forest, my feet crunched over dry twigs and undergrowth; the air was filled with the screech of breaking things, and the ground beneath my boots shifted unevenly between soft earth and hard branches—undeniably, I was walking within the forest. Now, the dense canopy remained overhead, moonlight dappling through the leaves exactly as before. However, the sensation underfoot was drastically different. The unevenness was gone, replaced by clumps of cotton-like material lying on the ground. Stepping on them produced no hardness or crisp snap, but rather a squelch... like large, swollen blisters bursting, releasing sprays of liquid.

I held the torch down toward the ground, but the tiny flame, suspended three feet above the soil, failed to illuminate the soft, cottony masses. With no other recourse, I knelt, bringing the torch closer to the earth for a better look.

What I saw made my blood run cold—enemies always cross paths sooner or later. The ground was densely packed with ranks upon ranks of spiders, crawling only where I had trod on my way in, twitching those repulsive spinnerets as they moved. Looking further back, those mushy things that burst under my boots were none other than spiders themselves. For some inexplicable reason, they only crawled on the ground, never attacking; they simply allowed my shoes to tread upon their backs, producing repeated squish-squish sounds of rupture.

My head felt like it had tripled in size, and my heart hammered so violently it felt ready to leap from my throat. I wanted to use the torch to burn them, but the flame was already minuscule. I couldn't use the water from the Sea of the Departed, as it was reserved for saving Xiao Shu's life. With no other options, I resorted to the thirtieth Stratagem of the Thirty-Six: bypassing the web of spiders blocking the path and sprinting toward the cave.

Upon reaching the mouth of the cave, the few saplings that had been propped up were now fallen and lifeless, resting haphazardly, while mounds of spiders lined both sides, rustling quietly. Seeing me approach with the torch to enter, the spiders did not swarm forward but remained motionless on either side of the opening, twitching their rear appendages as if they hadn't noticed me at all.

Inside the cave, flames roared, and Ah Li’s soft weeping drifted out. I threw down the torch, freeing my hands to shove aside the small trees, and leaped in from the outside. Xiao Shu lay still beside the campfire. Xing'er was awake now, blood still smeared around his mouth, sitting comfortably by the fire to warm himself. Only Ah Li remained huddled nearby, sobbing softly.