The dark cave looked like the neck of a bottle, with the entrance resembling the bottle’s opening. Deep inside, I could hear a strange sound and see a ghostly face. I used my flashlight to find the source of the noise, which turned out to be Big Gold Tooth lying on the ground. He was tangled up in several shiny white threads, with one wrapped tightly around his throat. Although he wasn’t choking to death, he couldn’t speak.
Big Gold Tooth looked terrified. When he saw me and Fatty rushing over, he opened his mouth wide to call for help, but the tightness around his neck only allowed him to make muffled “ahh” sounds. His panic made it sound almost inhuman, which explained the weird noise we heard.
I didn’t have time to think about how Big Gold Tooth ended up like this. Fatty and I hurried to help him, but suddenly, we heard a rustling noise above us, and Big Gold Tooth was lifted off the ground as if someone was pulling him up.
I quickly shone my flashlight upward and saw a strange face hanging above us, looking down with a cold smile. The face twitched slightly, and with each movement, Big Gold Tooth was pulled higher off the ground.
I was shocked. What the hell was that? The ghostly face hung high in the cave, and as we moved deeper, the space opened up. Although we were close to where the tunnel intersected, it was already quite high, and the darkness above made it hard to see. I waved to Fatty, who without hesitation, put away his shovel and used his knife to cut the sticky threads binding Big Gold Tooth. He fell to the ground, and I quickly helped him up, asking, “Master Jin, are you okay? Can you walk?”
Big Gold Tooth’s face was pale, and he shook his head weakly. He was too scared to say a word, and his limbs felt limp and unresponsive.
Fatty glared at the ghostly face above and cursed, “Damn it, with all these sticky threads, is it some kind of ghost spider?” Without waiting for an answer, he raised his shovel like a javelin and threw it at the target.
The shovel’s sharp edge struck the ghostly face, and suddenly, two rows of red lights lit up beneath it, resembling eight blood-red eyes.
Then, a huge dark figure fell from the cave ceiling. Realizing the danger, I quickly pulled Big Gold Tooth aside. A dark mass landed right where we had been standing. I was less than half a meter away from it. I shone my flashlight and saw its true form clearly.
It was a gigantic spider with a human face, completely black, and the white patterns on its back formed a face that looked just like a human’s, with all the features intact. The face was about the size of a washbasin, and the spider was several times larger, with hairy legs.
I had seen large spiders like this in the Kunlun Mountains, but one with a human face pattern was extremely rare. Back when I was in the army, we had a strange incident in a canyon in Kunlun. A soldier from our unit went missing, and later, we discovered a massive spider nest deep in the canyon. The soldiers had never seen such a large spider before, but thanks to their training, they managed to eliminate three giant spiders in the nest with rifles and shovels. In the depths of the nest, we found the body of the missing soldier, wrapped in spider silk like a mummy, his body drained of life.
I remembered hearing experts talk about the horrors of spider attacks. This black giant spider, known as the Black Widow Spider, was a rare branch of spiders. It could spin silk like ordinary spiders but didn’t make webs. Its silk was very sticky but lacked strength and was not fire-resistant. Unlike regular spider silk, which is elastic and four times stronger than steel, the Black Widow Spider relied on the sheer number of threads and the potency of its venom.
It had a venom sac in its jaw, filled with toxins. Once it caught its prey in silk, it would inject the venom. The terrifying part was that when a person was poisoned, their muscles would stiffen, leaving them unable to move, but their consciousness remained clear, and they could still feel pain.
What was even more terrifying was that while the spider injected its paralyzing venom into its prey, it also released a digestive fluid that would slowly dissolve the victim, allowing the spider to feast on them. The thought sent chills down my spine.
Memories flashed through my mind like lightning. I was now only half a meter away from the giant human-faced spider. In the beam of my flashlight, I could see every single black hair on its body, making my skin crawl. Without waiting for the spider to make a move, I lunged forward with my knife.
The blade plunged in, hitting something tough like cowhide. The knife was too short to do any real damage, but it startled the spider, causing it to turn and charge at me. I knew its eight legs acted as sensors, so I swung the knife horizontally, managing to slice at one of its front legs. The knife was sharp enough to cut through the thick, rope-like strands.
The spider’s legs were extremely sensitive, designed to detect vibrations. Although I didn’t sever its leg, the pain made it retract slightly.
The shovel that had been stuck in its back fell to the ground. Fatty quickly picked it up and shouted, “Old Hu, we really fell into a spider’s lair!” He swung the shovel wildly at the giant spider.
The spider, feeling the pain, quickly retreated deeper into the cave. Fatty, furious, wanted to chase after it, but I shouted, “Don’t chase! Help me carry Big Gold Tooth and get out of here!”
Hearing me, Fatty came back and reached to help the collapsed Big Gold Tooth. Suddenly, he stumbled, stepping on something. He looked down and exclaimed, “Hey, isn’t this the goose we lost? Looks like the spider drained it dry.”
I helped Big Gold Tooth to his feet and said to Fatty, “Forget about the goose! Help me carry him. Luckily, we’re not far from the tunnel. This cave seems endless. I thought it was a limestone cave, but it might just be a spider nest. We need to head back to the tunnel; if we get trapped in these maze-like caves below, escaping will be impossible…”
Before I could finish, I suddenly felt a tightness around my legs, and I lost my balance, falling to the ground. Fatty and Big Gold Tooth fell at the same time. We were all dragged by a powerful force, as if something was trying to pull us deeper into the cave. I struggled to get up, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t break free. I realized my legs were wrapped in a thick spider silk, and the spider that Fatty had scared off couldn’t have produced such strong silk. Was there an even bigger spider in the cave? My God, how huge could it be to drag three people?
Thinking of this made me struggle even harder, trying to break the silk around my legs. I pulled out my knife, aiming to cut the silk, but as I looked up, I hit my head on a low-hanging rock, nearly breaking my nose. Blood gushed out, and I winced in pain, but the more I panicked, the more helpless I felt.
We were dragged through the winding cave, our clothes torn and bloodied. I was terrified, fearing we would be taken back to the spider’s lair, paralyzed with venom, and stored away for days before being eaten. The thought sent shivers down my spine.
Fatty, being heavier, was dragged a long distance and initially panicked. But he quickly calmed down, grabbing onto a nearby stone pillar to stabilize himself. He sat up, pulled out the shovel, and in a few swift motions, cut through the silk around his legs. Ignoring his own pain, he rushed over to me and helped cut the silk binding me. I cursed as I sat up, wiping the blood from my face with my sleeve, then used my knife to cut the sticky silk off my legs.
Fatty wanted to help Big Gold Tooth, but he saw that Big Gold Tooth had already been dragged about twenty meters away, flailing his arms and shouting in panic.
With only Fatty’s flashlight left for illumination, we saw Big Gold Tooth being pulled further away. If we didn’t hurry, it would be too late.
Gritting our teeth and ignoring the pain, we sprinted after him. The beam of Fatty’s flashlight flickered wildly as we ran. Just as we reached Big Gold Tooth, the flashlight flickered twice and then went out completely, plunging us into darkness.
The surroundings instantly plunged into darkness, and I knew that if we hesitated even for a moment, Big Gold Tooth would be dragged deeper into the spider’s lair, never to be rescued. The thought of being paralyzed by venom and slowly consumed was like a nightmare from the depths of hell.
Without thinking twice, I tore off my clothes. The back of my shirt was already worn out from dragging on the ground. I pulled hard, ripping it apart, and quickly tore off the sleeves. I grabbed the half-full water bottle from Fatty and splashed it on the fabric before igniting it with my lighter. I was wearing military gear, which could easily stick to my skin when burned, so I had chosen sturdy clothes for this mission, not expecting them to come in handy like this.
The fabric caught fire quickly, and I worried about burning my hands, so I tossed the flaming bundle like a fireball ahead of us.
In the flickering light, I saw Big Gold Tooth being pulled into a triangular hole. The fire was dying down, so I ran forward with Fatty, stripping off anything else that could burn and tossing it to illuminate our path.
As Big Gold Tooth was about to be dragged into the triangular opening, I sprinted forward and grabbed his arm, pulling him back with all my strength. Fatty caught up and cut the spider silk binding Big Gold Tooth. He was only about two meters away from being pulled into that hole.
Looking at Big Gold Tooth, I saw he was bruised and bloodied from hitting the cave walls, but thankfully, he was still conscious. That was a small mercy in this dire situation.
I realized that this hole was likely the spider’s nest, and we needed to get out quickly to avoid further attacks. Our clothes were nearly burned away, and if we kept this up, we’d be left with nothing. We had been dragged through the cave for who knows how far, and we had lost our way. But there was no time to think about that; we needed to escape first and figure things out later.
Just as I was about to lift Big Gold Tooth to carry him away, several strands of spider silk shot out from the triangular opening. These strands were fast and sticky, like Indian flatbreads, and once they stuck to you, there was no getting free. We all tried to dodge, but it was too late; we were ensnared. Fatty attempted to block the strands with his shovel, but it too got caught, slipping from his hands as he bent down to retrieve it, leaving him unable to move.
If we had been wearing clothes, it might have been easier to escape, but being bare-skinned, we were hopelessly stuck. The three of us were slowly dragged toward the triangular opening.
I feared I was right; that hole was definitely the lair of the human-faced spider. I had no idea how many spiders were inside—was it just one giant one or several smaller ones? Regardless, if we were pulled inside, there would be no escape.
The thick, sticky silk tightened around us, twisting together, while the spider continued to shoot out more strands. It seemed we wouldn’t even make it into the hole before being wrapped up like human dumplings.
In my panic, I remembered the lighter in my hand. I quickly flicked the flint and used the flame to burn the silk binding me. Thank the heavens, the silk from this black widow spider wasn’t fire-resistant like ordinary spider silk. In moments, I managed to burn through two or three strands, and although I was still covered in sticky silk, I had broken free from the spider’s grip.
In just a few seconds, Big Gold Tooth and Fatty were pulled another meter closer to the hole. If I wanted to use the lighter to burn the silk and save them, I would only have time to rescue one of them.
Thinking quickly, I yanked down Big Gold Tooth’s pants. His belt had already snapped when we were chasing him, and the pants were worn thin, so they came off easily.
I stuffed his pants into the hole and lit them on fire, hoping to burn through all the tangled spider silk. To my surprise, as soon as the pants sparked, the entire triangular opening ignited, and the flames grew larger and more intense.
In an instant, the entire cave was illuminated by the fire, and the spider silk shooting from the hole was burned away. I quickly dragged Big Gold Tooth and Fatty back, and we all worked to shake off the remaining strands of silk from our bodies.