Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Ghost-Faced Spider of the Western Regions
As far as the eye could see, just two feet away, a huge cobweb blocked the way.
In the very center of the web, a huge spider the size of a washbasin coiled motionlessly over the web.
But this is not the most surprising, the most surprising thing is that on the ground in front of the cobwebs, there are four bodies tightly wrapped in cobwebs, like the kind of ancient Egyptian mummies seen on television.
Seeing this scene in front of us, the three of us suddenly stopped, and we didn't dare to come out, for fear of waking up the sleeping big guy in front of us.
I've never seen a spider this big, and if I get bitten about it, I'll be hairy all over my body. Wrapped in a mummy by a spider and slowly sucking the blood off his body, the physical and mental torture is worse than death.
"You two stand here and don't move, I'll get closer and take a look." I whispered to Li Huiyan and Xiao Yue.
The entire graveyard is blocked by cobwebs, and there is no way we can continue without getting rid of this big spider.
It's just that for this strange creature that I've never seen before, I decided that it would be better to observe it first and make sure that I have a bottom in my heart.
"Then you be careful, don't get too close, it may be dangerous." Li Huiyan nodded and said seriously.
I didn't say anything more, suppressed the uneasiness in my heart, and tiptoed in the direction of the cobweb.
When I reached a place about two meters from the cobweb, I stopped, and my forehead and back were already covered with dense cold sweat.
I was relieved to see that the big spider seemed to be really asleep and not awakened by the sound of my footsteps.
Because he was afraid of waking up the big spider, he didn't dare to shine a flashlight directly at it, and could only barely see its appearance through some faint light.
The spider was mostly pitch black, but on its back, there was a whitish patch.
Because the big spider was standing upside down with its head down, I didn't notice anything special about the whitish mass at first, but when I looked closely, my eyes widened instantly.
Grimace, how come this spider has a grimace on its back?
When I saw the white shadow on the spider's back, my mind began to sketch its shape, gradually piecing together an upside-down grimace pattern.
The grimace on the spider's back was exactly the same as the grimace I had dreamed of in my dreams, and the birthmark on my back, with the same sneer, the same weird anomaly.
What the hell is going on?
I can't figure out what the big spider is coming from and why it has such a grimace on its back.
Could it be that this spider was raised here by the owner of the tomb back then, and the grimace pattern on the back was also painted by the owner of the tomb with a craftsman?
I kept speculating in my mind, but quickly dismissed the answer. This tomb of a general of the Qin Dynasty is more than 2,000 years old, how could this spider survive for so long if the owner of the tomb had kept it here?
But if this answer is not true, then how to explain the grimace pattern that appears on the back of this spider. What does this weird spider have to do with the grimace in my dream and the birthmark on my body?
With these many questions in my heart, I cautiously retreated to Li Huiyan and Xiao Yue, and roughly explained what I had just observed.
I kept paying attention to the change in the expression on Li Huiyan's face, and sure enough, when she heard that there was a grimace behind the big spider, her face changed wildly in an instant.
"Zhang Sansan, give me the flashlight, I'm going to see it myself." Li Huiyan said to me.
As soon as she finished speaking, before I could make a move, she snatched the flashlight from my hand and walked towards the cobwebs in front of the tomb without looking back.
After two minutes, Li Huiyan returned to us again, handed me back the flashlight, and then lowered her head and did not speak, her brows furrowed, and she looked preoccupied. ”
"Do you recognize this spider?" After a moment's hesitation, I still asked the doubts in my heart.
"Well, I've seen it in an archaeological illustrated book at the Institute of Archaeology before." Li Huiyan nodded and said.
"Can you tell me about it?" I asked again, with some curiosity in my heart.
Xiao Yue also quietly pricked up her ears on the side to eavesdrop, although she didn't speak, but looking at her appearance, her curiosity was no less than mine.
"This spider is called the Ghost Face Spider, and there is another name called the Western Regions Ghost Face Spider. I didn't see what its face looked like, but it should be a grimace if nothing else. ”
"This spider only grows in the desert depths of the ancient Silk Road, and it is rare for ordinary people to see it. However, there are records in the wild history that some people in the 36 countries of the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty once domesticated this kind of ghost-faced spider, as for what method and how it was domesticated, there is no record. Li Huiyan thought about it and said slowly.
"Later, with the destruction of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions, this ghost-faced spider also seemed to be completely extinct, and no one ever saw it again. Later archaeological data recorded that all of them relied on some excavated murals or sculptures to learn about this spider. However, whether this ghost-faced spider was fictional or real has been debated by many archaeologists and biologists, and there is still no definitive conclusion. ”
"However, in many of the murals, this ghost-faced spider is depicted as a creature from hell, which will bring misfortune to everyone who has seen it."
"I didn't expect that this ghost-faced spider really existed in this world, and if this news spread, I am afraid it will cause a large group of archaeologists and biologists to be shocked."
I listened quietly to what Li Huiyan said, and I couldn't help but smack my tongue a little when I heard it, I didn't expect the origin of this ghost-faced spider to be so mysterious, creatures from hell, these ancients must have too rich imagination.
However, just looking at the appearance of this ghost-faced spider, it is indeed very intimidating, and it is no wonder that the ancients at that time regarded it as a hellish species.
"So what should we do now, in the book you read, does it record that this ghost-faced spider has any special skills? It's not invulnerable, right? Looking at the ghost-faced spider that was still motionless, I asked Li Huiyan.
"No, nothing is recorded." Li Huiyan shook her head, suddenly seemed to remember something, and then said: "However, legend has it that there was once a small country in the Western Regions that worshipped the ghost-faced spider as a god, but I only glanced at it at the time, and now I can't remember what the name of that small country is." ”
Although I expected this kind of ending, I was still a little unwilling.
I don't dare to make any rash moves until I know a lot about ghost-faced spiders, and if this thing is really an invulnerable and poisonous perverted monster, I will kill myself if I do something to it.
"But then again, this tomb of a general of the Qin Dynasty is at least two thousand years old, how could a ghost-faced spider survive in the tomb for so long? There shouldn't be any other ghost-faced spiders in this graveyard, right? I thought about it and said again.
"I don't know about that. However, what impressed me the most about the Ghost-Faced Spider was that the legend said that the Ghost-faced Spider seemed to possess the ability to regenerate Nirvana, similar to that of a phoenix. According to the descriptions of some murals unearthed from the old sites of the ancient kingdoms of the Western Regions, the ghost-faced spider will begin to fall into a deep sleep after it grows to a certain extent, and then slowly die. ”
However, this is not its actual death, as during the time it sleeps, another child spider will re-emerge from its belly. When the young spider is formed, the mother spider dies immediately, and the helpless young spider hides in the body of the mother spider and grows up by eating the corpse of the mother spider. ”
Of course, this is only what is described on the mural, and no one can guarantee how credible it is. I just don't know if the ghost-faced spider belongs to the rejuvenating rebirth of the lighthouse jellyfish, or the pure monochromatic breeding offspring of some hermaphroditic creatures. ”
After Li Huiyan finished speaking, her eyes flickered, obviously she was also very curious about the unknown creature of the ghost-faced spider.
"In any case, it is a miracle that it can continue to live for thousands of years in such a dark place." After listening to Li Huiyan's words, I couldn't help but sigh.
We still know too little about the world.
At the same time, I secretly kept what Li Huiyan said in my heart, thinking that if I could get out of here, I would have to check the information carefully.
I have an inexplicable intuition that the small country in the Western Regions that worships the ghost-faced spider as a god may have a lot to do with the ghost-faced birthmark on my back.
In any case, as long as there is a 1 in 10,000 chance, I will not let go of this opportunity.
"Sister Lizi, what should we do now? If we hadn't killed that terrible spider, we wouldn't have been able to get past here. Xiao Yue said on the side, looking timid.
"Why don't I try it first? If that doesn't work, we'll think of something else. I hesitated and said to the two of them.
"Alright then, be careful." Li Huiyan thought about it, and it seemed that there was no better way at the moment, so she had to say.
It was only after taking two steps that I realized that I had a very helpless problem, and I didn't have any weapons to use when it came to dealing with ghost-faced spiders.
The previous dagger had already been returned to Liu Laoqi, and now the three of us had nothing else on us except for some food and fresh water.
It's impossible to use these things against ghost-faced spiders, and fools know that it's impossible.
Suddenly, my eyes fell on the mummified corpses in front of the cobwebs.
Now that the tomb was empty, it seemed that the only thing to do was about the corpses, and perhaps these people would enter the chamber with a weapon or two.
As soon as I thought of it, I walked again in the direction of the cobweb.
When he was only about a meter away from the cobweb, he slowly squatted down and reached out to drag the nearest corpse to him.
Since the corpse had already decomposed to the point that only the skeleton remained, I didn't have to make too much effort when I did this, and easily dragged the corpse back to Li Huiyan and Xiao Yue.
"Hey, Zhang Sansan, why are you dragging the corpse back, it's so disgusting." Xiao Yue looked at me with a neurotic expression, shrunk his neck and said.