95: Chapter 95 The Demise of the Tarantula

When the acid spray came, Lin Ye had already shut the wooden door tight.

A sizzling sound exploded right against the outside of the door.

The ice shell under the eaves was corroded, creating a fist-sized black hole.

The pungent odor poured in through the gaps.

Zhao Mengmeng inhaled a little and immediately bent over, coughing violently.

"Cough, cough! This smell is too strong!"

Lin Ye did not turn around.

"Get behind the fire pit and cover your mouth and nose."

"Got it!"

Zhao Mengmeng tore off a piece of wet animal hide and pressed it directly over her mouth and nose.

Lin Ye picked up the engineer shovel and rushed to a cold corner inside the cave.

There were frozen soil, slush, and grass ash there.

He used the shovel blade to shave off chunks of frozen soil and smashed them into a wooden basin.

He then shoveled in slush and ash, quickly mixing them into a paste.

A second glob of acid sprayed onto the wooden planks outside.

The wood blackened and emitted pungent white smoke.

The gap was widening.

Cold wind, carrying toxic mist, burrowed into the cave.

Lin Ye picked up the basin of ash-paste and plastered it directly over the door gap and the crack on the inside of the passage.

The ash-paste hardened upon contact with the cold.

The toxic mist was forcibly pressed back outside.

Zhao Mengmeng's eyes reddened from coughing as she aimed her crossbow, staring at the door gap.

"If this thing sprays into the pot, I'll come back as a ghost to curse it!"

"Move the pot."

"I've already moved it. The hotpot is fine, and we're safe for now."

Lin Ye applied a second layer.

The gap was sealed thick, and the toxic smell faded.

But the commotion outside was worse.

The Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders began to spin webs.

Viscous spider silk hit the ice wall, congealing into grayish-white ropes.

Three Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders used the webs to anchor their bodies, hanging directly outside the eaves.

They continued to spray acid at the lower edge.

The ice shell melted, and the outer wooden planks were corroded into a pitted mess.

Creak.

The wooden beam of the eaves let out a sharp sound of deformation under pressure.

Zhao Mengmeng looked up at the cave entrance.

"Brother Lin, they're tearing down our dog hole!"

"I know."

"If the dog hole collapses, we'll really end up like cured meat in a cave!"

Lin Ye grabbed a piece of charcoal and drew a few lines against the inner wall by the door.

The load-bearing points of the eaves, the stress points of the ice layer, and the gaps in the passage were all in his mind.

The acid continued to melt the ice.

Once the outer edge of the eaves broke, the Ice Waterfall would seal the entrance again.

This cave could keep them warm, but it could also bury them.

Zhao Mengmeng looked at Lin Ye, who still hadn't opened the door, her eyes fierce with anxiety.

"Shoot them to death directly?"

"No."

"Why?"

"The acidic blood will splash into the passage."

Zhao Mengmeng glanced at the black hole outside the door gap, which was emitting white smoke.

The Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders were too close; if they were blown up here, the acid would pour directly into the gap.

Lin Ye pressed his right arm against the door frame, and the micro-anchor of his Dark Weaver popped out silently.

The Nano-wire snaked out through the gap, moving along the outer edge of the ice layer.

Lin Ye didn't cut the Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders.

He cut the webs.

The first grayish-white spider silk snapped.

A Sickle-Foot Wolf Spider outside suddenly sank halfway.

It scrambled with its eight legs, stabbing its sickle-feet into the ice wall to steady itself.

The second web was cut.

Another Sickle-Foot Wolf Spider slid down three meters, its abdomen hitting the ice, causing its acid spray to veer to the side.

The third one moved extremely fast.

It stabbed its two front legs into the ice wall under the eaves and forced its way toward the passage entrance.

The sharp tips of its legs pierced the thin ice, only a palm's width away from the wooden door.

The scraping sound stung their eardrums.

"It's coming in!" Zhao Mengmeng shouted.

Lin Ye retracted two Nano-wires and switched to locking the crack in the ice wall horizontally.

"Don't shoot its body."

"Then where do I shoot?"

"Above."

Lin Ye pointed above the cave entrance.

"There is a row of hanging ice above the cliff; the roots have been hollowed out by the wind."

The outside was pitch black, and the Ice Waterfall blocked most of their view.

Zhao Mengmeng stood on tiptoe to peek through the gap.

"You want to crush them?"

"Yes."

"I can't see any cracks."

"I'll mark them."

Lin Ye briefly activated his left eye.

Red linear hazards lit up above the cliff.

At the roots of the hanging ice, several cracks intersected.

As long as three of the support points were destroyed, the entire row of icicles would inevitably fall.

Lin Ye used the Dark Weaver to pull out three Nano-wires, their tips lightly touching the outer edge of the ice wall.

On the dull ice surface, three tiny reflective white dots were scraped out.

"Do you see them?"

Zhao Mengmeng squinted, staring outside the gap.

She saw the faint white markings above the hanging ice.

"I see them."

"Three arrows, in the order I say."

"Are you sure you won't crush our door?"

"I'll pull the falling direction off-center."

Zhao Mengmeng raised her crossbow, her shoulder pressed against the edge of the wooden door.

"Your plan is really elaborate; if I miss, we'll both be buried."

"So don't miss."

"Easy for you to say."

"First arrow, top left."

Zhao Mengmeng pulled the trigger.

Whoosh!

The wooden arrow shot out through the gap, piercing diagonally toward the top of the cliff.

The arrowhead struck below the white dot, causing ice shards to explode.

The Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders outside were stimulated by the noise and sprayed acid wildly.

The outside of the wooden door sizzled.

Lin Ye raised his hand and patched it with another glob of ash-paste.

"Second arrow, high point on the right."

Zhao Mengmeng quickly loaded an arrow; her fingers were frozen stiff, but her wrist remained rock steady.

The second arrow was fired.

Crack!

Another crack appeared at the root of the icicles.

Zhao Mengmeng stared intently at the third white dot.

The third Sickle-Foot Wolf Spider outside had already poked half of its mouthparts into the outside of the passage.

Acid dripped onto the ice shell, corroding small black holes.

The wooden beam bent again.

Lin Ye's voice was very low.

"Third arrow, wait for my count."

The Nano-wire tightened.

He didn't immediately exert force to break the icicles; instead, he fine-tuned the crack points.

If he pulled too early, the icicles would just shatter.

If he pulled too late, the Sickle-Foot Wolf Spider could break through the wooden door.

Zhao Mengmeng's arm holding the crossbow began to ache.

"Brother Lin, hurry, it's coming in!"

"Three."

The Sickle-Foot Wolf Spider's front legs pierced through the outer wooden plank.

"Two."

Acid splashed onto the inside of the door gap, and the ash-paste turned black and bubbled.

"One."

"Shoot!"

The third arrow left the string.

The arrowhead nailed precisely into the crack at the root.

At the same moment, Lin Ye retracted his right arm to the limit.

The three Nano-wires exerted sudden force, and the cracks were forcibly ripped open!

A crisp explosion came from above the cliff.

The entire row of massive hanging ice broke completely from the edge of the Ice Waterfall!

Boom!

Tons of white ice chunks, trailing snow dust, smashed down wildly!

The three Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders were about to retreat, but the roots of their webs had been cut by Lin Ye beforehand.

Losing their anchor, they kicked their eight legs wildly.

Lin Ye's Nano-wire swept across, cleanly cutting off two of its supporting legs.

The Sickle-Foot Wolf Spider slid down, colliding head-on with the last piece of hanging ice crashing down from above.

The loud noise drowned out the sound of the wind.

The three monsters, along with half of the corroded spider webs, were all smashed into the icy pool.

The thin ice exploded.

Yellow-green liquid churned violently on the water's surface.

A cold current swept by, and the hole quickly formed a new layer of grayish-black ice shell.

The cave fell silent.

Zhao Mengmeng slowly lowered her crossbow.

"Is it over?"

"It's over."

She rushed to the door gap to sniff, then immediately retreated to the fire pit.

"The smell is still there, but it's stopped spraying."

Lin Ye did not open the door immediately.

He waited for a full half-minute, confirming there were no new crawling sounds outside, before scraping off a small piece of ash-paste to observe.

The eaves hadn't collapsed.

A section of the outer wooden planks was lost.

The ice shell had been corroded with several black holes, but the main support held up.

Lin Ye retracted the Dark Weaver and extinguished the light screen.

"It can be repaired."

Zhao Mengmeng slumped by the fire pit, cursing with genuine feeling.

"This wave saved more lives than fighting head-on."

"And saved arrows."

"Saving lives is more important!"

Lin Ye patched the ash-paste back up.

"Time to work."

Zhao Mengmeng trotted over.

"Repair the dog hole?"

"Yes."

"I have a lot of respect for the dog hole now, don't use that tone."

The two put on their animal hides again.

Lin Ye used the Dark Weaver to secure his body and crawled out through the ice gap from the inside.

The toxic smell outside hadn't dissipated yet.

He covered his mouth and nose with a wet animal hide and shaved off the corroded wooden planks.

Zhao Mengmeng passed out spare wooden strips and vines from inside.

In the cold air, the edge of the eaves was still emitting acidic white smoke.

Lin Ye avoided the corroded area and inserted the new wooden strips diagonally into the rock crevices.

Then he mixed slush, grass ash, and crushed ice into a hard shell and pressed it onto the outside.

As she passed the materials, Zhao Mengmeng muttered, "These spiders are really good at demolition; they don't even provide compensation."

"The compensation is at the bottom of the pool."

"Do you dare to fish that stuff out?"

"No."

"Then that's called malicious demolition."

Half an hour later, the eaves were stable again.

The passage was narrower than before, but fortunately, they could still pass through sideways.

Lin Ye circled back from the outside, his boots covered in black ice shards.

He kicked the ice shards into a snow pit outside and shut the wooden door tight.

"Keep a close eye on the ventilation tonight."

Zhao Mengmeng nodded.

"I'll take the first half of the night."

"You said something similar before."

"I'm really keeping watch this time. The spiders have already crawled to our door; there's no way I can sleep."

The hotpot had cooled down a bit.

Lin Ye added more firewood and pushed the pot back to the fire.

The two finished the remaining meat, and neither said another word.

The icy pool outside the cave was covered by fresh snow.

The crushed carcasses of the Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders sank beneath the grayish-black ice layer.

No one saw that, from the broken abdomens of those Sickle-Foot Wolf Spiders, a piece of Blood-colored Vines slowly slid out.

After leaving the body, the vine twitched twice, and its color quickly faded to gray.

An undercurrent swept by, and it fell into the depths of the pool.