Global Evolution

“Don’t come over, it seems I’ve gotten stuck on something sticky.” Chang attempted to wave his arms in the air, but the effort he put in only caused a slight shake. As if there were a set of invisible shackles, his movement was completely restricted by them.

“Okay you should stop moving.” Seeing Chang struggled, Qing Shui picked up the high-powered flashlight that was tucked on his belt. He turned on the light to illuminate his surroundings.

“Jesus, what did I just see? It’s spider silk!” In the light, Chang noticed his body was wrapped around by threads of pink spider silk. The spider silk was crystal clear and it became invisible in the red fog and blended in perfectly to the environment. In the darkness of the night, even humans with good vision like Chang would be unable to find their presence.

“The spider silk seems as tenacious as steel.” Qing Shui carefully approached Chang, “The more you move, the more it will get onto you.”

“Then what do I do?”

“Don’t worry, I know how to deal with it.” Qing Shui took out a lighter from his pocket, and teared off a piece of cloth from his jacket. He wrapped the cloth around a branch and said, “We’ll just need to burn it.”

“Okay.” Chang was slightly relieved, he rolled his eyes from side to side to observe his surroundings. “Can you do it quicker? I feel like the vibration from my struggle has informed the weaver spider.”

“You are correct, it is coming.” As Qing Shui had just finished wrapping the branch, a dark shadow passed by swiftly in front of him. He threw the branch on the ground in a hurry and clenched his knife.

“Where??” Chang struggled to turn his head, but his head had spider silk pasted all over, he couldn’t move at all.

“Don’t even try, you can’t see it, it is behind you!”

“Kill it! Don’t let it bite me!” Chang shook his body even harder as if that could shake off the spider from his web, “How big is it?”

“Not too big. Don’t move.” Qing Shui concentrated fully on the spider that was the size of his face. On its body there were alternating red and white stripes. The spider stopped right behind Chang before making next move, while staring at Qing Shui with its eight eyes.

A man and a spider confronted each other for half a second.

Then they moved at the same time.

The spider seemed not to care much about the man that was immobile on the web, as it threw itself on Qing Shui directly.

Qing Shui moved the knife to the front of his chest.

The spider was fast. Compared to the spider, Qing Shui was much slower indeed. If things had gone the normal way, there would have been a certainty that the spider would have landed on Qing Shui first. He would have then lost balance, and died to the venomous spider. Perhaps it was precisely calculated by Qing Shui when his knife had not gotten in front of his chest. Instead, the knife was halted by the spider, crushing itself on the knife.

As if it was a bizarrely coincidental accident, the spider stabbed itself onto the blade.

Even more unexplainable was the fact that the spider hit itself in its own weak spot where the head connected with its torso, out of protection from its hardened fur. Yet that was not the end, Qing Shui reacted fast enough after the spider’s failed attempt to kill him, and quickly swung the knife to his side and sliced off the spider’s head effortlessly.

The spider must have had really bad luck to encounter Qing Shui in this way. It wasn’t even able to touch an inch of skin of its murdered. The spider fell onto the grass lifelessly.

However, the whole process took less than a second.

“The spider is dead.” Qing Shui wiped off the bodily fluids of the spider using a leaf nearby and then picked up the branch again.

“Really? That was quick.” Chang was astonished by how quickly Qing Shui handled the spider, “Was it weak?”

“I don’t know. I only know that if it is a species I can fight with, it is usually effortless to me. I can’t tell whether the spider was weak or not.” Qing Shui lit up the rags on the branch, making it into a small torch.

The small torch went under the spider silk and softened the spider silk around Chang’s limbs. Chang regained his power as the spider silk loosened.

“Finally! It doesn’t feel good as a fish on the chopping board.” Chang jumped off the web, and took over Qing Shui’s flashlight, “We need to keep it on, otherwise I can’t see the web.”

“Sure.” Qing Shui nodded “But I feel that it’s a bit strange around here, we need to be more careful.”

“Of course.”

With help from the flashlight, Chang was able see further again. Illuminated by the warm, yellow light, a cruel fact cooled down his heart – the spider web was everywhere.

The jungle ahead, as much as Chang could see, was weaved together by all kinds of spider webs They were large and small, thick and thin. It wasn’t hard to give an estimate on how many spiders resided here – countless.

“How dangerous did you think the spider was?” Chang was staggered by the numerous spider webs as he asked Qing Shui.

“1.5 if you were to put it in that danger index. It is merely my estimation though. And they seemed to be venomous.” Qing Shui gave a truthful answer.

“If there are more than 8 of them that come together, we’d be in danger. And looking around here, I feel like there are much more.” The flashlight swept across the jungle. “But interestingly, I don’t see any of them. Where are they? One spider can’t weave these many webs.”

“I don’t know either, but I agree with you, there can’t be only one spider.” Qing Shui frowned, “Where did they go?”

A sharp squeak flashed across the jungle.

Something they were familiar with...the roar from a millipede! The roar sounded like it came from the further end of the jungle.

It was a painful shriek though.

“This is why!! Most of the spiders are attacking the millipedes that entered their territory. Let’s take the opportunity to find Pangzi!” Qing Shui was ecstatic, he immediately pulled Chang to go with him.

“Hurry up, time does not wait for us.”

“Yes.” Chang looked down on the ground to find more footprints.

With the help from the flashlight, they dodged layers of spider webs, and, soon, a familiar figure hung above the end of the footprints.