Chapter 266 – Tainted Gold, Spiders, Dolls, and Dogs—A Full Tour of Happyland Zoo - Part 3

Dusk was falling.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The disciple remained suspended on the spiderweb, stuck like a fly in amber—trapped, yet unscathed. Jing Banfeng could only stare in disbelief. His caution, however, kept him from taking rash action.

Off in the distance, Li Yuan and Cui Wuji watched in silence. They saw the Gu elder approach Jing Banfeng and say, “You’re just going to leave your disciple hanging there like that?”

Jing Banfeng opened his mouth, then seemed to think better of saying something provocative. Instead, he said, “Elder Gu, this is extremely strange. It’s best not to make any sudden moves.”

“Elder...please help...” the sixth rank disciple called, his voice betraying genuine fear.

The Gu elder paused briefly to sense the area around them, then gave Jing Banfeng a cold look. “If you won’t do it, I will.”

Jing Banfeng hesitated. “Then be careful, Elder Gu.”

Li Yuan continued observing from afar. He thought to himself that this kind of reckless attempt was exactly what he wouldn’t do. Still, there was no real basis for him to warn anyone here; he had no authority and no firm proof of impending danger. Besides, this wasn’t his operation; he was only here to help define the boundary of the domain. He glanced at Cui Wuji, who offered no objection, as if finding such actions perfectly reasonable.

It seemed to Li Yuan that members of the Gu Clan tended to be bold to the point of carelessness—maybe it was tied to their cultivation style. If he were to try to caution them now, Cui Wuji might well scoff at him. After all, if everyone was too scared to do anything, what was the point of investigating at all? So Li Yuan remained silent. He just hoped this would turn out all right.

In the distance, the Gu elder summoned a longsword artifact, its blade shining with spiritual radiance. He slashed sharply at the web. A faint twang shuddered across the strands, but nothing else happened. Encouraged, the elder took a step closer, gathered a mouthful of blood-infused energy, and spat it at the glimmering web.

Instantly, the sticky threads stained a deeper shade of red. Then, almost at once, the crimson hue faded into a ghostly white.

The world seemed to slow to a crawl, as if someone had hit the

slow-motion

button.

In that drawn-out instant, the ghostly white spider web suddenly began to swell, expanding so fast that not even a fifth rank martial artist could react.

In a flash, the Gu elder was caught in its sticky strands. Dense and vast, the spider web seemed to stretch into some fathomless void, its center nowhere to be seen.

Then, from those depths, a patch of darkness crawled out at an odd, contorted angle. It was a

spider

with a child’s limbless torso forming its center and eight

legs

composed of horrifyingly pieced-together human organs.

Moving with unnerving speed, it seized the sixth rank disciple in one of its

foot-heads

, while its

face

latched onto the fifth rank Gu elder. The elder didn’t even get the chance to summon his spirit artifact a second time. Screaming, he was dragged into the pulsing white web, which then closed in on itself and vanished, like a monstrous maw snapping shut around its prey.

It happened in the blink of an eye, so swiftly that everyone else stood there dumbfounded, half-convinced they were hallucinating. The elder and disciple’s screams still echoed in their ears; one was a fifth rank martial artist, wiped out just like that.

Jing Banfeng was frozen to the spot, goosebumps crawling all over him as a chill shot straight to his head.

Off in the distance, Cui Wuji stared, pupils blown wide, blood running cold. If he had gone in instead, he’d have died just as easily. How could a fifth rank martial artist be killed so swiftly, so unbelievably?

A heavy, dreadful atmosphere settled over everyone.

Nearby, the brown-clad woman who had first been stuck on the web clenched her fists. A soft dripping noise came from somewhere near her trousers. Her face twisted in terror as she let out a shrill, mindless scream.

“Aaaah!” She collapsed onto her backside and started wailing at the top of her lungs, tears and snot streaming, unable to stop or think.

Partway through those sobs, Li Yuan felt a fierce jolt of unease surge through his gut. He shouted, “Clan Head! Over here, quick!”

Jing Banfeng snapped to attention at Li Yuan’s cry. Although he had no idea what prompted it, his reflex was simple. If someone he trusted said to run, he’d run. So he shot into the air, heading for Li Yuan.

Cui Wuji glanced at him, pale-faced. “What’s happening?”

Li Yuan shook his head. “I have no idea. I just have a terrible feeling. Maybe we should bolt too?”

Cui Wuji looked out over the valley, where their disciples were still scattered. “That might not—”

Before he could finish, Li Yuan had already taken off at a sprint.

“Master Li! Master Li!” Cui Wuji yelled, charging after him.

Li Yuan himself wasn’t entirely sure why he was running—instinct, pure and simple. Where one disaster has struck, a second might well follow, like aftershocks in an earthquake.

He raced through the sea of vivid, eerie flowers, calling softly so that the flower spirit leapt into his sleeve. Then he kept going, full tilt, heart hammering, mouth dry, every nerve screaming as if he were back in the depths of Little Ink Mountain confronting the flower shop.

Seeing him dash off convinced Jing Banfeng and Cui Wuji to do the same, and the Gu elder’s gruesome death only fanned the panic.

Suddenly, the entire Holy Tree Temple contingent was fleeing in one great stampede. They didn’t even know why, only that their two superiors were running, so they would too.

The brown-clothed woman, the convicts, and the bandits were likewise terrified out of their wits and followed suit.

But at that exact moment, darkness fell—thick yellow-brown clouds rolled in, like a midsummer squall.

Ding Ah-Fei, in his mad dash, felt something catch his foot. He pitched forward and landed hard in the mud. Cursing, he started to push himself up when a line of sinister red text appeared on the ground before him.

HIDE!

“‘Hide’?” he muttered. “What the hell?”

He ignored it and got up. Elsewhere, a number of other people glimpsed the same message—some saw it materialize on the ground, others in midair, still others on their clothing. However it showed itself, everyone who saw it recognized those three ominous characters:

HIDE!!!

Dressed in brown, the woman somehow never saw the same message that everyone else did.

Meanwhile, Ding Ah-Fei kept running. He’d barely gone a short distance when he noticed more ominous text appearing on a nearby rock.

TEN

A moment later, he spotted more blood-red letters, this time on a tree.

NINE

Then, bit by bit, other blood words revealed themselves around him, counting down. Recalling the terrifying spider creature from earlier, Ding Ah-Fei decided it might be best to find a hiding spot.

He wasn’t alone. Li Yuan, Cui Wuji, and Jing Banfeng also saw the red words telling them to hide, as well as the creeping countdown. They exchanged looks and all reached the same conclusion: hide, immediately.

Jing Banfeng dropped down to the ground and vanished without a trace. Cui Wuji turned to find Li Yuan—but by then, he was gone too. Realizing the countdown had reached

five

, Cui Wuji found a hiding place of his own.

As for Li Yuan, he used his Concealment and Hidden Breath skills, then pulled out a handful of copper pendants he always kept handy, gripping them tight in both hands. He pressed himself low, forcing his heart to stop pounding so wildly, trying to become undetectable.

He watched the blood-red numbers tick down—

THREE

TWO ONE...

And then, suddenly, all was still.

From somewhere in the distance came an ear-splitting, inhuman scream. And then another.

Li Yuan stayed perfectly still, crouched behind a rock, chills racing along his spine. Ding Ah-Fei, for his part, had also found cover behind a boulder. He was trembling, listening to the dying shrieks...when he heard footsteps, light and shuffling, like a child’s.

He didn’t dare peek around the corner. But from the sound, it seemed like a small figure was wandering nearby, searching. Soon, those footsteps drew closer to his hiding place. Ding Ah-Fei tried to shift his legs, but they gave way, and in his panic, he knocked a pebble loose.

Instantly, a tiny, rotted hand darted out from behind the rock and seized him, yanking him over. Ding Ah-Fei found himself staring into the face of a half-decayed child, its eyes brimming with malice. Its shriveled lips stretched to either side, as though in a grin.

“Aaaah!!” Ding Ah-Fei let out a guttural wail, his mind consumed by pure terror.

At nearly the same moment, Li Yuan also heard those childlike steps drawing near. He stayed motionless and silent, barely breathing. After circling around for a bit, the eerie presence seemed unable to find him and faded away.

Noticing that none of the copper pendants in his sleeves had cracked, Li Yuan realized he’d never actually been

attacked

. Did that mean whoever, or whatever, was out there only relied on normal hearing and vision to hunt? If it couldn’t see you or hear you, it left you alone?

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Night soon fell.

A clammy mist creeped across the land like the restless dead. Some distance away, the brown-clothed woman crouched among heaps of skinned, writhing corpses that were somehow still alive. She trembled, staring around in utter horror.

She had no idea why she wasn’t dead; everyone else around her had been slaughtered. Why spare her? She peered into the darkness, but there was no one. Just then, she heard a dog’s bark echoing over the barren ground, drawing nearer and nearer until it reached her from behind, a looming shape cloaked in shadow. A pair of pale fangs lunged out, sinking into her neck.

Midnight arrived.

In one of the tents, the bandit who had claimed the gold ingot roused from a drunken sleep. He burped, rubbed his aching head, and mumbled something incoherent.

Earlier, he’d helped himself to all the good food and wine left behind, surprised that nobody had bothered him. Now, peeking outside, he realized it was dark.

“Huh, it’s already night? Where’d everyone go?” he muttered.

Just then, a stabbing pain knifed through his abdomen—so intense he almost doubled over. Trying to move just a few steps, he let out a howl. His blood seemed to surge uncontrollably, flooding beneath his skin, pouring from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. At the same time, his chest cavity suddenly caved in, as if something inside had vanished entirely.

With bulging eyes, he collapsed and died right at the tent’s entrance, never understanding what killed him. The beguiling gold ingot in his robe rolled free and onto the yellow earth, left lying there as though waiting for the next unlucky soul to claim it.