Chapter Thirty-Four: The Attack of the Spider Demon

Huang Xiaoxue’s transformation left everyone utterly stunned. Not only was Wang Qingshan, who stood nearby, rendered speechless, but even Shen Lie in the distance was slack-jawed, at a loss for words. In the blink of an eye, a young and beautiful girl had turned into a ferocious black-haired dog. If this was the price of awakening, no one would dare pay it, no matter how powerful the ability gained.

But the shock Huang Xiaoxue brought was not over. Suddenly, she, now crouched on the ground, threw back her head and let out a guttural howl. Her body convulsed violently, and a gaping wound tore open at her neck, from which grew fleshy tendrils. To everyone’s horror, a second head began to sprout beside the original one!

The new head was smaller, but its eyes gleamed with savage coldness. Both heads scanned the surrounding crowd, and the newly grown one suddenly opened its jaws. A beam of black light shot from its mouth, striking Wang Laoben, who was close at hand. A bloody hole appeared in Wang Laoben’s chest, and he collapsed in terror and unwillingness.

“Run! Run for your lives!” someone screamed in panic, finally breaking the paralysis of fear. Instantly, everyone scattered in a mad dash, desperate to avoid the new monster’s wrath.

The two-headed beast that Huang Xiaoxue had become let out an ecstatic screech, leaping more than three meters into the air. Its hands—no, its front claws—gleamed with a deadly sharpness. In a flash, it tackled a young man who had only managed a few steps. Amid the man’s desperate cries, one of the monster’s heads clamped its jaws around half of his skull, tearing it away and chewing as it searched for its next prey.

By now, everyone realized that Huang Xiaoxue’s condition was not a true awakening, but a loss of all reason—a transformation into a mindless monster. What’s more, this aberrant awakening seemed even more powerful than the normal kind, striking terror into all who witnessed it. People fled in utter panic, desperate to escape the carnage.

Shen Lie did not move. For one, he stood at a distance, out of the monster’s immediate attention. For another, he had noticed something intriguing.

Before the monster attacked, Wang Qingshan and his daughter had already started to back away, as though they had sensed the danger in advance. Shen Lie observed that it was actually Wang Qingshan’s daughter who first noticed something amiss. The moment Huang Xiaoxue picked up the phantom mushroom, she gave a visible shudder and tugged quickly at Wang Qingshan’s hand. He then began to edge away, and was the first to retreat when the mutation began.

Wang Qingshan’s speed was remarkable. Even with his daughter in tow, they had already run farther than anyone else and were nearly out of sight.

Shen Lie noted all this, and a suspicion formed in his mind, but now was not the time to ponder it. In just a few dozen seconds, another four or five people had fallen victim to the two-headed monster. He seized Zhang Jing’s hand, and together they quickly withdrew from the scene.

Shen Lie and Zhang Jing ran for a while and then reached the car they had driven earlier. Speeding all the way back to the Qi Family Supermarket, they had barely gotten out of the car when Li Cheng and several of his men, faces ashen, hurried over.

“Brother Shen, bad news! The Red River’s water has faded and lost much of its force—it’s no longer blocking the monsters! Several spider creatures have already crossed the river to our side!”

Upon hearing this, Shen Lie and Zhang Jing both paled. A two-headed monster had just appeared on one side, and now spider beasts were crossing the river on the other. To call this a double disaster would be an understatement—it was a death sentence.

“What do we do, Brother Shen?” Zhang Jing’s expression was frantic, gripping Shen Lie’s shoulder as if terrified he would abandon her the next moment.

“There’s nothing for it. We have to break out of town!” Shen Lie was at a loss as well. He knew just how many spider monsters were on the far bank, and the number was enough to plunge anyone into despair.

And then there was the giant black cat and the white spider. Without the river’s protection, their ragtag group wouldn’t last the day. Even the so-called awakened ones among them would hardly escape with their lives.

Shen Lie’s words made Zhang Jing and Li Cheng even more pale, their eyes fixed on him, hoping he would say it wasn’t true.

“Let’s go. There’s no point in defending this place any longer. Tell everyone to take only what they need and run for their lives.” Since he’d decided to break through the red mist outside the town, Shen Lie didn’t intend to bring too many people. In fact, he was reluctant even to bring Li Cheng and Zhang Jing—too many people would only make them a bigger target.

Still, these two had helped him a lot in the past few days. His conscience wasn’t yet so corroded by the apocalypse that he could abandon them. So, he couldn’t bring himself to leave them behind.

“What do you mean, Brother Shen?” Li Cheng asked anxiously, not quite understanding.

“I mean everyone should fend for themselves. This place can’t be defended—stay or run, it’s up to each person. If you two want to come with me, then come. If not, find your own way out. Oh, and bring Taotao—I’ll take her with us.” Since he would be bringing people, one more wouldn’t matter. Whether they could all make it out alive now depended on fate.

At that moment, all the survivors in the town were running in terrified chaos. News of the spiders crossing the river had spread, and everyone knew this disaster would be even worse than the one three months ago. With death so near, no one could remain calm.

“Daughter! Where are you? Daughter!” someone wailed.

“Old He, hurry home and get Xiaosan. We’ll run for the outskirts together—there’s no holding this place!”

“Hey, what are you doing? Don’t take my bag!”

“Haha, Zhao Jinya! All these years acting pure in front of me, but everyone knows what you really are. If we’re going to die anyway, I’ll have my fun first!”

The street was thrown into chaos. In the distance, anguished screams echoed one after another, and the spider monsters’ shadows loomed ever closer. Each swing of their massive claws claimed a fresh life. In the blink of an eye, hundreds perished.

“Where are the awakened ones? Where are the bosses? Where’s the military? You’ve been lording it over us for days, so why aren’t you out here now? Damn you all, may you die horribly!” A man, cornered by a spider monster, screamed in rage—only to be run through the chest by a razor-sharp foreclaw the next moment.

A young mother shielded her daughter, not yet ten, with her own body. She had sacrificed her dignity to survive, trading herself to a dozen men just for a little food, believing that as long as she lived, there was hope. Now, a single swipe from a spider monster’s blade shattered that illusion.

A group of young men formed a desperate circle, clutching knives and clubs in a futile attempt to resist the monsters. The lead creature, marked by two stripes on its back, casually swept its blade-like arm, and in an instant, the men were sliced in half, their eyes staring in disbelief even in death.

Because of the Red River and the mist outside the town, disaster had come later here than elsewhere—but it struck with all the more fury. With the river’s power gone, the spider monsters surged across, and a massacre began to unfold in the half-ruined town.

Even Shen Lie was shaken by the carnage. Since the apocalypse began, he had entered another world and never witnessed such a scene firsthand. For a moment, he was at a loss.

“Brother Shen, where do we go?” As the panicked crowd surged toward the Qi Family Supermarket, Li Cheng finally arrived, clutching little Taotao. He yanked open the car door, climbed in, and asked with a trembling, ashen face.

“To the Yin Hao Supermarket!” Faced with the devastation, Shen Lie was no longer sure he could make it through the red mist. Even the spider monsters dared not cross it. After a brief consideration, he decided to regroup with the other awakened ones. In the current situation, their only hope was to band together.