Chapter 7

Could there really be such good fortune?

The pink flesh ball, wrapped in silk, was greatly impressed.

One moment, it thought it was doomed, the next, its body was injected with a venom far more potent than anything it had consumed before.

What kind of delicacy was this?

Suddenly, the pink flesh ball grew quiet. It stopped struggling, bouncing, and attempting to escape, finding immense solace in the itch within its soul being soothed.

How could one pass up food that came willingly? Instinctively, the pink flesh ball immediately contracted its body, its tender flesh hardening even more than a stone, locking the venomous fangs in place.

Delicious! More! The pink flesh ball emitted joyful chirps.

Feeling its venomous fangs securely lodged, the Ghost-Faced Spider promptly increased the dosage of venom.

More, more! The cries of the pink flesh ball grew even more jubilant. It resembled a hungry baby, greedily suckling on the Ghost-Faced Spider like a bottle, without restraint.

As its venom sac was rapidly drained, the Ghost-Faced Spider became increasingly restless.

Thud, thud, thud… The girl was poking at the campfire with a stick when she heard the faint thumping sound, prompting her to glance over at the glass jar placed nearby.

“Master, what’s happening to it?”

She saw the Ghost-Faced Spider vigorously shaking its head, repeatedly slamming the silk ball against the glass wall. Its eight furry legs moved swiftly, crawling back and forth, displaying signs of extreme agitation.

“Excited after having a good meal, huh?” the old man speculated.

“Is that crystal jelly really that delicious?” the girl licked her dry lips.

“Oh, interested in trying it too? Alright, later I’ll catch a jar of bugs for you to sample,” the old man teased his young apprentice.

The girl quickly waved her hands, smiling awkwardly, declining the offer, thanking her master.

“Stay here and don’t move. I’ll take a walk around to see which path is best. If you can’t hold on, I’ll bring you back to the city immediately,” the old man patted his apprentice’s head reassuringly, saying, “A day as a teacher, a lifetime as a father; you’re no different from my own daughter. Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

The girl’s eyes were slightly red, her voice choked with emotion as she said, “Thank you, Master. Without you, I would have died long ago.”

“Stop talking about dying. You still have to see me off into old age!” the old man sighed lightly and walked away.

Watching his dignified figure depart, the girl’s eyes flickered with a hidden emotion, lost in her thoughts.

Thud, thud, thud… The more intense thumping sound drew her gaze.

“Why are you making such a fuss over eating something? Have you gone mad?” The girl seemed to enjoy talking to herself, looking down at the glass jar with a hint of disdain.

Inside the glass jar, the Ghost-Faced Spider had transformed from restlessness to madness, rapidly shaking the silk ball held in its mouth at an imperceptible speed. Like wild dogs tearing at prey. They wildly shake their heads, trying to tear the flesh from their prey.

But at this moment, the Ghost-Faced Spider seemed not to be tearing at flesh, but rather trying to get rid of a hot potato.

The girl raised an eyebrow, showing a hint of suspicion.

“Do you want to shake off this ball? Why? Isn’t it your reserve food?” Her whisper did not deter the Ghost-Faced Spider’s madness.

The dull thuds continued incessantly, at an alarming frequency, with a relentless determination. The Ghost-Faced Spider even seemed to be getting dizzy from the impacts, occasionally falling over at the bottom of the jar and struggling to get back up for a while.

The pink flesh ball trembled in pain, but as long as it wasn’t fatal, it would eat itself into a stupor. It would never give up the food near its mouth.

Chirp, chirp… It urged the Ghost-Faced Spider to feed it more venom.

However, the Ghost-Faced Spider wasn’t an endless pit; it couldn’t continuously secrete venom without limits. In just a few minutes, its venom sacs were drained dry, its body rapidly weakening, yet its temperament growing increasingly frenzied.

The only thought in the Ghost-Faced Spider’s mind was to immediately rid itself of this strange prey.

But it failed. It hadn’t killed the prey but instead depleted its own strength, ending up lying on its back at the bottom of the jar, its eight legs desperately pushing the silk ball outwards.

Sensing the pushing force, the pink flesh ball immediately clamped down on its own tender flesh, firmly locking the venomous fangs in place. No baby would discard its bottle before being full, and it was no different.

The prey had become the hunter, a sudden twist in the story catching the Ghost-Faced Spider off guard. Exhausted of its last bit of strength, it lay motionless, seemingly lifeless, clutching onto an unshakeable ball on its belly.

The girl, astonished, whispered, “Hey, are you dead? Why aren’t you moving?”

Suddenly, the Ghost-Faced Spider began convulsing, its furry eight legs twitching rapidly as if jolted by electricity. After several seconds, the convulsions abruptly stopped, leaving a deathly silence in the jar.

The girl belatedly realized something was amiss. She lifted the glass jar to her eyes, carefully observing.

At that moment, the white silk ball started to tremble slightly, as if something was trying to crawl out from within.

The girl furrowed her brow in surprise. She had assumed that pink flesh ball  had long been dissolved by the venom of the Ghost-Faced Spider. Yet, this resilient little creature had been struggling for over ten minutes and still hadn’t perished!

How was it possible? Was it immune to the deadly venom? Could she harness this ability herself? Many questions swirled in her mind, her gaze filled with curiosity.

The trembling of the silk ball intensified, as if something was on the verge of breaking free.

“It’s useless. Once the Ghost-Faced Spider’s silk sticks to something, it can’t be removed unless you peel off a layer of skin. I’ve seen a tasker whose head got entangled in the silk, and he suffocated to death. There were over a dozen taskers present, but none could save his life,” the girl murmured, her eyes showing pity.

The trembling of the white ball ceased, the trapped creature inside seemingly hearing these words of despair.

Shaking her head, the girl whispered, “There are no miracles in this world.”

Yet, a miracle was unfolding vividly right before her eyes.

Let’s rewind time by a few minutes.

The frenzied itch burning within its body had no relief in sight. Its milk had been drained dry, and the insatiable pink flesh ball decided to devour the bottle along with everything else.

Like an abyss, it was an insatiable bottomless pit, its modus operandi being to consume anything consumable.

Initially, it entertained thoughts of bursting the silk ball, running outside, and slowly digesting the Ghost-Faced Spider inside its belly. However, it soon discovered that the silk ball was much tougher than it had anticipated.

So, it took a minute to contemplate.

Learning hunting skills from its enemies was its forte. It was well aware that the Ghost-Faced Spider wasn’t feeding it but rather attempting to dissolve it with venom to be consumed later.

While it too dissolved its prey, the difference lay in its lack of knowledge regarding muscular movement to inject the venom, unlike the Ghost-Faced Spider.

Having encountered the Ghost-Faced Spider and experienced its lethal move, it quickly mastered this highly effective predatory technique. It believed it could apply this skill in future hunts.

Thus, the venomous fangs of the Ghost-Faced Spider were dissolved by the cellular fluid of the pink flesh ball, and the toxins within the fluid rapidly injected into the body of the Ghost-Faced Spider through the wound.

Exhausted, the Ghost-Faced Spider began convulsing, spasming, and struggling. However, the toxicity of the pink flesh ball far surpassed its own. In just moments, its body stiffened, its internal organs slowly dissolving within its exoskeleton.

Death came unexpectedly.

The half-corroded venomous fangs resembled two straws. The pink flesh ball gripped the straws, slowly contracting its body, sucking the liquefied organs of the Ghost-Faced Spider into its belly. Its way of feeding was identical to that of an abyss.

It was a miniature, ambulatory abyss.

The Ghost-Faced Spider perished, but all its survival skills were absorbed by the pink flesh ball, leading to a natural solution for escape.

The pink flesh ball transformed its own venom into that of the Ghost-Faced Spider, evenly coating the interior of the silk ball. After several minutes, the white silk dissolved into clear water, dripping sticky and viscous on the pink flesh ball.

It was free.

Even though it had just eaten its fill, the pink flesh ball wasted no food. It gently wriggled, using every cell on its body surface to absorb that transparent water.

Having gone through this hunting ordeal, it gained weight, returning to its original size, with the energy expended in repairing its body replenished significantly. It gently nudged the empty shell of the Ghost-Faced Spider, emitting a contented low hum.

—

The girl witnessed it all.

Only now did she realize that the once dark Ghost-Faced Spider had transformed into a semi-transparent empty shell, silently counter-killed.

Draining the prey dry was evidently a unique feeding method of the Ghost-Faced Spider. The girl had once seen a tasker sucked dry by a large grinding Ghost-Faced Spider, leaving behind only skin. The horrific sight was something she dared not recall in detail.

A top-tier assassin had perished at the hands of their own expertise! How could such a bizarre event have occurred?

The girl’s heart raced as she watched pink flesh ball  leisurely wriggle in the glass jar, lazily shaking its soft flesh.

Only the venom of the Ghost-Faced Spider could dissolve its own silk, that was common knowledge. The girl vaguely realized that pink flesh ball  had acquired some abilities of the Ghost-Faced Spider.

How had it achieved this?

The girl couldn’t fathom how she, one day, could be astonished by a tiny creature.

But an even more peculiar situation unfolded. Pink flesh ball  suddenly sprouted eight legs, and its single large eyeball unexpectedly split open, transforming into eight eyes orderly arranged on both sides of its head. Its back gathered pigmentation, forming a dark red skull pattern.

In a brief span of seconds, it metamorphosed from an unidentified species into a Ghost-Faced Spider. Apart from lacking fur and having a semi-transparent body, it bore almost no difference from a real spider!

“So, your greatest power isn’t resurrection; it’s the ability to transform based on what you consume! Feeding is your way of evolution!” the girl murmured to herself, a bone-chilling coldness flowing from her pitch-black pupils.

This ability might seem ordinary at first glance, but upon deeper reflection, it instilled fear!

As this creature’s menu expanded, evolving into devouring taskers one day, what form would it take? Just like the abyss spreading to the city would bring disaster, this creature could achieve the same.

Where it passed, no living being could remain! Everything in this world was its food!

Its existence rivaled that of the abyss!

The girl picked up the glass jar, silently watching the lurking pink spider within, a rising intent to kill evident in her eyes.