Chapter 70: Spider Web
In Xu Zhi’s eyes, this man would likely end up as one of the lowest-ranking zealots. He couldn’t know much.
She’d still need to capture a lucid zealot to extract more detailed information.
Still, just this short trip had already exposed her to more uniquely gifted Transcendents. A thought formed in Xu Zhi’s mind—she wondered if that short-haired girl’s abilities were strong enough to directly suppress the Restlessness of that small Aberrant. Though, the uncertainty of it meant she’d have to leave the research to Zhong Lingfan.
Better to wait for solid results.
Perhaps she should even help Zhong Lingfan find some assistants to work with, or maybe ask around to see if there were any laboratories in Cloud City. She didn’t know much about that, but she could ask when she returned.
She packed the group into two random vehicles and had Zhen escort them to the Old Residential District. “Escort” might’ve been generous—it was more like a guarded transfer, just in case they tried to run.
She chose Zhen for this task because of its speed. Once it dropped them off, it would return to her quickly.
Xu Zhi didn’t wait around for Zhen to return. Instead, she continued driving toward the outskirts, following the map along the outer edge of the Third Ring. After driving for half a day, nearing evening, she noticed something off with the vehicle.
Xu Zhi wasn’t exactly a seasoned driver, but she could tell the car felt heavier, slightly sluggish compared to before. She had to press harder on the gas to maintain the same speed.
In the thick, dark-grey fog, she didn’t see anything blocking her way—but the car was undeniably dragging.
The area was eerily quiet, surrounded by deserted shops and high-rise buildings. Not a bustling place—after all, it was just the Third Ring.
With the car slowing more and more, Xu Zhi had no choice but to open a window and let Yi climb out to investigate.
Before long, Yi returned through the window, and Xu Zhi immediately noticed something strange.
The normally sleek, cool black scales of Yi seemed veiled in a thin film. She reached out and touched it, finding a faint, nearly invisible layer—she rubbed it between her fingers and then pinched it up.
“This is… spider silk?”
Xu Zhi was surprised. She quickly picked up the game console, and sure enough, the narrator appeared as expected:
[Your luck is always shockingly good. Yes, that is spider silk. Perhaps this is where you can find a key ingredient for crafting a lantern.]
[However, the silk here isn’t durable enough to resist fire. You’ll need to go deeper to find higher-quality threads.]
“This place looks like the lair of a mutated spider. A single one couldn’t have spun this much. Could there be a whole nest? Going deeper shouldn’t be too dangerous, right?”
[Who knows? Anything can happen in uncharted territory. Depends on whether you want the silk or not.]
“Of course I want it,” Xu Zhi sighed.
“These threads—can they be burned?”
[If it’s just the outer layer, yes.]
“Good.”
Xu Zhi had a plan. She’d burn the outer, flammable webs—then what remained would naturally be the fire-resistant kind she was after.
Simple, crude, but effective. And if she ended up angering the mutated spiders…
So be it.
She got out of the car, pulled a spare gas can from the trunk, and soaked a strip of cloth in it. Instead of lighting it immediately, she picked up the small Aberrant, had it stretch out, and used it to clear away the nearly invisible silk around the vehicle—just in case she ended up setting herself on fire. Only then did she light the cloth and toss it into the dense webs.
Normally, spider silk is too thin to burn for long—it just curls up and vanishes. But here, it was dense and everywhere. As soon as the flaming cloth hit it, the threads caught fire and spread quickly. Sparks radiated outward, accompanied by the crackling of flames and a foul, burning stench.
The area blanketed by webs was even larger than Xu Zhi had anticipated—it kept burning for quite some time. Eventually, a few shrill, screeching cries echoed from deep within.
“So they’ve realized someone’s attacking their nest?”
Xu Zhi stood calmly, intrigued, waiting for the enraged mutated spiders to show themselves.
Most mutated animals had low intelligence. Naturally, they’d come looking for the intruder.
Sure enough, before long, dozens of large black spiders charged at her, crawling over the ground and scaling nearby buildings.
No, not just dozens—Xu Zhi soon saw countless more trailing behind them.
She remembered reading about spiders’ powerful reproductive capabilities. This nest probably held hundreds—maybe even thousands—of mutated spiders.
But Xu Zhi wasn’t afraid. Watching the oncoming swarm, she coolly drew her Tang sword, activated her Eye of Secrets, and gave orders to Yi and Gouzi:
“Kill them.”
With her supernatural vision activated, she saw that all these mutated spiders shared a single attribute: [Forge].
“Why are spiders [Forge]?” Xu Zhi couldn’t figure it out. But that didn’t stop her from killing them.
The little Aberrant clung to her, extending long black tendrils to strike down any spider that got too close. Gouzi and Yi, with each casual move, smashed large swathes of spiders.
These mutated spiders were each about a meter wide—an unnaturally large size. But compared to other mutated beasts like Gouzi and Yi, they seemed almost… petite.
They didn’t recognize Xu Zhi as the real enemy. They simply attacked anything suspicious nearby.
With two loyal minions guarding her, very few spiders managed to get close. Those that did were instantly killed by the Aberrant before Xu Zhi even had to lift a finger.
Only during the occasional swarm—when there were just too many—did she get the chance to wield her Tang sword and test her own combat prowess.
She quickly realized just how feeble these spiders were on their own. She could pierce their supposedly tough shells with ease using a standard blade.
Yes, their appearance had changed too—besides growing in size, they had also developed exoskeletons.
But even with enhanced agility, they couldn’t land a blow on Xu Zhi.
Maybe if more had attacked at once, they could have overwhelmed her—but she wasn’t alone in this fight. And so, even though it was her first time directly engaging mutated creatures, Xu Zhi didn’t find the battle all that difficult.
Isn’t it obvious spiders are builders of webs so fordge