We could easily spot the executed, the executioner—that ping-pong ball-sized metal sphere—lying silently not far away on the ground. Da Xiong was about to go take a look when I grabbed him.

Da Xiong could only shake his head helplessly, muttering, "Really, it's already dead, what's the big deal about touching it? Is it going to spring back to life?" Nie Chuan laughed from the side, "Maybe it actually..." Before he could even finish the word "actually," we suddenly saw the ping-pong ball-sized metal object slowly begin to grow!

I was startled and said, "Did you guys hear what Little Brother said just now? The order of the divine temple is being restarted, which means it will revert to its former state, and the executioner will come back to life!" As I spoke, the ping-pong ball-sized executioner had already grown to the size of a soccer ball, and we saw something beginning to burst out from its side—tentacles, it seemed.

"Go! Go!

Little Brother isn't here to save us this time!" With that, I grabbed the two of them and we bolted. Having slept and rested well, our stamina had recovered about eighty percent, so we ran very fast.

Soon, we had sprinted out about a hundred meters. At this point, the stout Da Xiong gasped from behind, "That's far enough, slow down, slow down." Seeing that he was starting to lag behind, we eased our pace.

It was precisely then that we suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from behind us, interspersed with sharp snap-snap sounds, like a whip striking the ground. Turning back, we saw the sea urchin-like executioner rapidly gaining on us.

Without the leverage of the gravestone, this thing moved more like a rolling cactus on the ground. Da Xiong knew how dangerous this thing was.

He had already been struggling to run, but at that sight, he shot ahead of us in a blur, shouting as he fled, "Run!" The two of us were speechless for a moment and quickly chased after him. Because the further we ran ahead, the more pronounced the downhill slope became; one slip and we would tumble down.

We knew that if we slipped and let inertia carry us, we definitely wouldn't be able to stop at the bottom of the chute, guaranteeing we'd be smashed to pieces. However, the executioner behind us clearly didn't have this worry, as it had so many tentacles it could maneuver expertly on the incline.

Even if it missed the chute and fell, given its metallic body, it would likely be fine. Thus, on this slope, the distance between us and the executioner rapidly closed.

Before we had run much further, several of its whip-like tentacles nearly wrapped around my legs. Nie Chuan saw the critical situation, panting heavily, and yelled, "Lie down!

Quick, lie down!" I knew what he meant: when lying prone, friction with the ground increases, and even if we slid, we wouldn't lose control. So, we counted one, two, three, and then, just like soccer players diving for a header, we lunged forward.

We then slammed onto the ground and rapidly slid down the nearly sixty-degree smooth incline, flat against the surface. Almost simultaneously, we saw several whip-like tentacles swing past above us with a whoosh.

Had we not dropped down when we did, we might have been struck by those blade-like whips and suffered a spinal fracture. As we slid forward, the slope grew steeper.

If we hadn't been lying flat, we surely would have been rolled down in a circle like a donut. Seeing the executioner behind us begin to slip and actually stop in place, a wave of joy washed over us.

Just as I was feeling happy, I suddenly collided with something in front of me, the massive impact nearly shoving my head into my chest cavity. If the object hadn't been soft and yielding, I would have certainly cracked my skull open.

The impact caused Nie Chuan and me to decelerate rapidly, eventually coming to a stop on the slope. After struggling for a good while, we managed to climb up and looked at what we had hit: it was Da Xiong.

He was sitting on the ground, staring fixedly ahead. The thing we had run into was presumably his rear end, which we had propelled forward quite a distance.

"What the hell is wrong with you, kid? You almost killed me!" I yelled at Da Xiong, rubbing my neck.

Da Xiong, sitting in front, showed almost no reaction, just staring straight ahead. I knew this state of his usually meant he had seen something terrifying, so I followed his gaze forward.

Upon looking, I froze too. All along our path, we had seen spider silk but never encountered a spider.

Now, the main event had finally appeared before us. Contrary to our earlier assumptions, this giant spider wasn't a deep black, venomous killer that could hide in the darkness; it was a brightly colored specimen with alternating yellow and black markings.

I knew that such coloring was a warning sign, silently telling us this thing was highly venomous. This vibrantly colored behemoth hung suspended in the air, supported by three thick strands of silk, its eight eyes fixed upon us.

The two fangs dangling from its mandibles were nearly the size of the security door at our home. The tips of the fangs were incredibly sharp; piercing ten centimeters of steel plate should have been no problem for them.

Looking at such a massive creature, I thought we might still have a chance, because between the three of us, the other two were barely enough to fill its gap between its teeth, let alone Da Xiong. But the thought of the human cocoons hanging outside the bronze door made my heart sink immediately.

I watched, hardly daring to breathe, when Da Xiong quietly murmured from up front, "Don't move. Spiders only prey on moving things." Da Xiong's tone was calm; I realized then that he wasn't scared stiff, but immobilized.

As a biologist, I understood this principle even better than Da Xiong. A spider’s compound eyes are extremely sensitive to movement, and the whole point of a spider's web is for insects to fall in and struggle continuously, allowing the spider to sense the prey and initiate the hunt.

So, if we didn't want to die immediately, the best course of action was to stand perfectly still, preferably without touching any of the silk threads. Indeed, as the three of us froze, the spider's constantly rotating eight eyes instantly stilled.

Its body simply hung there, motionless. Yet, even in this state, we couldn't breathe a sigh of relief, because the rustling sound of the executioner rolling behind us was growing steadily closer.

If that thing caught up, we would die instantly, whether we moved or not. I thought our last hope lay in wishing the giant spider and the executioner would fight each other.

However, the unexpected still happened. As the sea urchin-like thing behind us approached, it spotted the large spider ahead, let out a high-pitched shriek, immediately contracted its entire body, and reverted to a ping-pong ball-sized metallic core.

Is it that terrifying? I thought to myself.

Apparently, the answer deep in my heart was yes, because the cold sweat told the whole story. Don't move...

absolutely do not move, I managed to swallow with great effort. At this moment, the multi-colored spider slowly lowered its body.

When all eight of its legs touched the ground, the three silk strands on its back detached. But this colossal spider didn't just crawl over our heads; it pressed its body extremely low by pushing down with all eight legs.

This brought the foremost figure, Da Xiong, into direct visual contact with the behemoth. No, it should be ten eyes meeting.

Seeing Da Xiong's face twitching, I gently poked him from behind, signaling him to keep his composure. But what happened next made me freeze my poking finger mid-air, afraid to retract it.

Because I saw the spider’s two massive fangs slowly part to the sides, and a black, circular object began to emerge slowly from its mouth. This thing was nothing less than a shriveled, wrinkled woman's skull.

This woman looked incredibly aged, with sparse hair draping to the sides of her head, her face a map of deep crevices, and eyes that were entirely white with no pupils. The repulsive head slowly drew closer to Da Xiong, its nose seeming to sniff the air, pushing Da Xiong to the very brink of collapse.