When Xie Fan woke up, the rain still hadn't stopped.
He stayed lazily inside the house.
Things were nowhere near as comfortable on the tour group's side.
Although the villagers had stopped chasing them, they were now trapped in the forest.
The rain was coming down too heavily, and more importantly, once a downpour started, conditions on the mountain became completely different.
After Pei Jing found a cave in the cliff, he had originally planned to go out and find something to eat, but now he was forced to stop and look at the pouring rain outside.
It was strange.
The forest they were staying in connected to the mountain path leading out, yet not a single one of them had thought of leaving. Even He Cheng, who had always looked down on this village, was the same.
Tan Qingxian listened to the sound of the torrential rain as he started a fire.
"Looks like those villagers are also afraid of getting trapped on the mountain by the rain."
Having found an explanation, his brows relaxed slightly as the fire on the ground cast a faint glow across his face.
"What do we do now?"
"What else can we do? Wait."
He Cheng shrugged.
After running around for an entire day, all of them were tired and hungry, and their tempers were beginning to flare.
Pei Jing remained seated near the entrance without saying anything.
Shen Xun was the one who noticed that the two weren't getting along. He came back to his senses and interrupted them.
"All right, let's wait a little longer."
"I saw an apricot tree outside earlier. Once the rain lets up a little, we can go pick some apricots."
The cave fell silent, leaving only the crackling of the firewood.
No one knew how long they had waited. Just as nearly everyone was about to fall asleep, Pei Jing suddenly opened his eyes and saw Shen Xun, who had been sitting quietly on a rock farther inside, abruptly stand up.
Almost instinctively, Pei Jing slowly quieted his breathing and closed his eyes again.
The next second, he heard footsteps beside him.
—Shen Xun walked out.
It was so late, and it was still raining. Where was he going?
Out of all of them, Shen Xun had the least experience surviving outdoors. For him to suddenly go out in the middle of the night struck Pei Jing as strange.
But unable to see and relying only on his hearing, he still couldn't determine exactly what Shen Xun was doing.
Pei Jing counted his footsteps. Only after he heard Shen Xun apparently reach the cave entrance and walk outside did he slowly open his eyes.
To conserve firewood, only a tiny flame remained inside the cave.
From Pei Jing's angle, all he could see was a white figure from behind, enough to confirm that it was Shen Xun.
After reaching the entrance, Shen Xun paused for an instant before leaving without looking back.
Pei Jing's head felt slightly foggy. Perhaps the damp cold of the mountain was making his body uncomfortable as well. He didn't know how much time passed before he fell asleep too.
When he woke again, he saw that the fire had already brightened.
Some fresh firewood had been added inside the cave.
Pei Jing frowned slightly and saw Shen Xun, who was crouching nearby tending the fire, raise his head.
"You're awake?"
"I saw you were still sleeping, so I didn't wake you."
Pei Jing nodded and noticed that Tan Qingxian had also woken up.
"This firewood...?" He looked at Shen Xun.
Shen Xun's expression showed nothing unusual.
"I saw that the rain had eased up a little, so I went out to gather some."
"I didn't go far from the entrance."
The fact that Shen Xun made no attempt whatsoever to conceal that he had gone outside instead caused Pei Jing to dismiss his earlier suspicions.
Had he simply been overthinking it?
Pei Jing pulled the zipper of his outdoor jacket higher, his expression returning to normal.
He Cheng, meanwhile, patted his good friend on the shoulder.
"A-Xun, thank god for you. It was freezing last night."
"This shitty mountain is even colder than a drafty cellar."
He felt as though he'd slept completely out in the open, tossing and turning several times throughout the night.
Shen Xun smiled faintly without saying anything.
By morning, the rain outside had become intermittent and was much lighter than the night before.
Tan Qingxian went outside to take a look and came back with some apricots.
"Speaking of which."
He suddenly remembered something.
"On our way through here, how come it seems like we haven't seen any birds or anything in the forest?"
Weren't there usually plenty of birds and animals in the mountains?
Earlier, that village chief had even used the excuse that there were wild beasts in the mountains to stop them from going up alone, but after all this time, they hadn't seen any wild beasts at all.
Forget wild beasts. They hadn't even seen anything flying in the sky.
"Hiss."
He Cheng thought back.
"Now that you mention it, I feel like there really haven't been any."
"I was even thinking we could catch a mountain sparrow to eat."
He twirled the dagger in his hand, sounding somewhat regretful.
Tan Qingxian's lips twitched.
"With your skills?"
The two traded a mild jab.
Shen Xun came back to his senses and split open an apricot before eating it.
Eating apricots first thing in the morning was already rather harsh on the stomach, especially since the apricots growing on the trees in the forest were nothing like the sweet ones they'd eaten in the village that day. The moment they took a bite, their mouths filled with a sour, astringent taste. It was so bitter that He Cheng nearly spat his out, and even Tan Qingxian, who had picked them, darkened in expression.
"Why aren't these ripe?"
He choked for a moment, then looked at Shen Xun, who was eating his as though he couldn't taste the sourness or astringency at all.
Tan Qingxian: ...
"What's wrong?"
Shen Xun looked at him.
Tan Qingxian shook his head.
"Nothing. You can actually eat that?"
His expression was strange.
Shen Xun said, "We need to replenish our strength somehow, or tonight will be even harder."
Who knew how long they would be stuck on the mountain?
He Cheng said expressionlessly, "Forget it. Just eat."
The pile of apricots was eventually more or less finished. These young masters had truly never eaten anything so awful before.
Fortunately, not long after they finished eating, the sky finally cleared.
The statue that had been carried out of a villager's house and wrapped in red cloth remained quietly in the corner, as though everyone had forgotten about it...
...
Xie Fan felt that he couldn't keep being this lazy.
Although staying inside every day and being fed by the system was very comfortable, this was Xican Village!
Even he couldn't feel at ease when he was living as though he were on vacation.
Especially since there had been no word from the village chief.
After using the blood of every villager in the village for divination last night, the tour group still hadn't been found. But strangely enough... A-Qi and the others seemed to have given up?
At the very least, after Xie Fan got up this morning, he hadn't seen A-Qi continue searching.
Xie Fan even discovered that Zhang Hai, who lived up ahead, had gone back to his normal farming routine today after returning home to rest for the night.
Xie Fan felt as though he'd gone to sleep and somehow missed eighty-something episodes. He had absolutely no idea what had happened.
"They're just not looking anymore?"
He was slightly confused.
The "system" glanced at him.
"Maybe there's something else going on."
"Wasn't the ritual moved forward?"
Xie Fan had just been about to ask what could possibly be more important than finding the tour group when he heard the system's next sentence.
Right. The ritual.
This ritual had been moved forward... Was that why they'd given up searching for the protagonist group?
But that didn't make sense. Shouldn't the ritual make it even more important to catch Shen Xun?
After all, Shen Xun was the "god's wife."
A faint stabbing pain appeared at his temple. Xie Fan reached up and touched his head, feeling somewhat bewildered. The memories in his mind seemed to be separated by a layer from him, completely at odds with reality?
The next second, "Sun Zhou" took hold of his hand and lowered his head to look at it.
"Why are you gripping so hard?"
Confused, Xie Fan followed his gaze and saw the bloody marks his fingers had dug into his palm.
A dark mark lay beneath his index finger...
Xie Fan froze slightly. Somehow, he felt that this gesture was far too intimate. He and the system...
His thoughts were somewhat hazy. By the time he came back to his senses, the system had already released his hand and somehow produced an ointment, gently applying it for him.
The ointment carried a cool minty scent, and when it was rubbed onto his finger, it brought a trace of refreshing coolness. Xie Fan quickly forgot what he had been about to say.
"Is this ointment from the village?"
He looked at the packaging the system had taken out. This ointment didn't seem to have come from outside.
The system thought for a moment and raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't really pay attention."
"But..." He paused slightly. "Some of the medicinal herbs in this village really are quite effective."
An ancient village that had existed for so many years was bound to have some things that couldn't be found outside.
Xie Fan didn't pay much attention to the system's words. He simply found the minty smell rather refreshing.
He instinctively withdrew his hand and found an explanation for his earlier discomfort: before, he'd only thought of the system as a string of data and code, so he'd felt no burden whatsoever when interacting physically with it. But after spending the past two days together, he'd already come to completely regard the system as a friend.
That must have been why he'd suddenly felt... uncomfortable just now.
Coming back to his senses, Xie Fan gave the "system" an embarrassed smile.
The eyes of "Sun Zhou" opposite him darkened slightly, while the handsome human face still wore an easygoing expression.
...
That night, Xie Fan had a dream.
Xie Fan had rarely dreamed over the past few days, and he'd originally thought he wouldn't have one tonight either.
As he slowly closed his eyes, Xie Fan saw the system sitting beside the wooden table illuminated by candlelight, reading a book, and felt a faint sense of reassurance.
The next second, his mind grew heavy, and at some unknown point, he fell asleep.
When he became conscious again, Xie Fan realized that he was inside a cave?
Not a single ray of light penetrated the pitch-black cave.
Xie Fan took a bewildered step forward, only to feel as though he had stepped onto some kind of soft strands.
This sensation... was so strange?
Xie Fan froze and forced himself not to lower his head.
For some reason, a dangerous instinct was telling him that whatever lay beneath his feet was nothing good.
Don't look.
Don't look!
His instincts were screaming warnings at him, making his eyelids twitch uncontrollably.
Xie Fan took a deep breath. Without a candle, he felt that not only was he face-blind, he couldn't see a damn thing at all.
Why was he here?
Where... was this?
Xie Fan didn't know whether there was a place like this somewhere in the village, nor whether he was dreaming or this was real.
The only thing he could be certain of was that he had never been here before.
There was a faint, familiar fragrance in the air. He instinctively sniffed it but couldn't remember where he had smelled it before.
The next second, a rustling sound arose.
It sounded as though something... had crawled out?
No.
Not just one.
A whole swarm.
Xie Fan's body stiffened.
He could even hear countless densely packed "sounds" coming from every direction, crawling toward him.
The sheer terror left him unable to make even a sound. He could only instinctively take a step backward.
But what met him wasn't a cold stone wall.
Instead, it was something... soft and gentle, almost like mist.
—Exactly the same as the strands beneath his feet.
His heart sank halfway into the abyss.
Xie Fan had no idea what the hell was going on with this place.
He could feel that dense swarm of "sounds" getting closer.
Closer and closer.
Crawling past his legs, overhead, beside him, and across the webs...
Webs?
Xie Fan raised his head and strained his eyes for a long time before he finally managed to make out what the soft, cloudlike masses surrounding the cave actually were.
They were white—
Spiderwebs.
The sounds in his ears had already become distorted.
Xie Fan was quite certain he was dreaming, because if this were reality, he would already have been scared to death.
He managed to entertain himself with that miserable thought for a brief instant amid his despair.
When Xie Fan opened his eyes again, he saw the swarm of spiders stop in unison.
Countless eyes turned within the cave walls to look at him...
Xie Fan abruptly sat upright and closed his eyes blankly for a moment.
"Another nightmare?"
A familiar voice sounded beside his ear, almost identical to what had happened last time.
Xie Fan was drenched in cold sweat. His mind was completely blank, and all he could hear was the concerned voice of the "system."
"What did you dream about?"
"A cave, spiderwebs, and... countless spiders."
He paused slightly and saw the system frown in confusion, as though puzzled by something.
"But I think I heard you talking in your sleep just now."
"What?"
Xie Fan hesitated for a moment, then instinctively uttered a name.
"Chen Yuzhu."
"Is that someone's name?" The system raised his eyes, those honey-colored pupils seeming to contain a certain delighted smile.
Xie Fan fell into a brief daze before coming back to his senses. His lips parted instinctively.
"That's—"
That's—
the Spider God's name.