—

At this sight, Jiang Luo felt his head pounding.

He cursed under his breath, knife in hand, secretly cutting at the web. His eyes never left the spider-man's every move—every nerve screaming with the sense of danger.

Resurrection was impossible. No matter how powerful, a person only had one life. His instincts told him the spider-man had become Chi You's Puppet.

Or possessed by Chi You.

Either way—both were the worst possible outcome.

Chi You was infinitely more dangerous than the spider-man. A month ago, Jiang Luo had just finished torturing him. A month later, the wheel had turned—and he was back in Chi You's hands.

Jiang Luo couldn't hold back again: 'Shit.'

His hands moved faster. The spider-man crawled slowly toward him. Eight legs sheathed in black-and-yellow striped fuzz, horrifying to look at—but it moved with an almost elegant grace.

Each step was like walking a knife-edge wire, forcing everyone to face death with every passing moment.

Qi Ye muttered beside him: 'It came back to life. How? It was dead, wasn't it? How is it alive?'

Jiang Luo thought: humans really are repeaters at their core.

He had no time to waste on Qi Ye's questions. Jiang Luo struggled against the web, fine beads of sweat breaking out at his temples.

Blood dripped from the spider-man onto the web, pulling out thick, viscous threads as it fell. Jiang Luo freed his right arm before the spider-man reached him—but the moment he tried to rise, a fresh strand of web descended from above and pinned him back down.

Jiang Luo: '...' His eyes burned as he stared at the spider-man.

Jiang Luo could almost picture what that pervert Chi You was thinking. He must have seen Jiang Luo's small escape attempts, but out of pure malice didn't stop him—waited until hope appeared, then crushed it completely.

This was exactly the kind of thing Chi You would do.

Under Jiang Luo's glare, the spider-man touched his face with a bloody hand. The blood smelled foul and sticky. Jiang Luo tried to turn away, his jaw clenched in a tight arc.

Bluish blood was deliberately smeared across his face and neck. The black-haired youth tried to dodge, but the more he dodged, the harder that foul-smelling hand pressed. Jiang Luo finally gave up—face dark, staring straight at the spider-man, letting it do as it pleased.

He already knew why the evil ghost was controlling the spider-man.

Specifically to disgust him.

Qi Ye shouted sharply from the side: 'Spider-man! If you've got guts, come at me!'

A strand of web descended from above, wrapping Qi Ye up tight as a silkworm cocoon.

Jiang Luo got an eyeful.

He stared at the spider-man, feeling that Chi You—whose very foundation he'd wounded a month ago—had recovered in such a short time. Why did it feel like death hadn't weakened Chi You's power, but rather broken some restraint, amplifying it instead?

More and more blood. Jiang Luo's beautiful, clean face and neck were now painted like a canvas with bluish liquid. His lips pressed tight. The spider-man's gaze dropped to those closed lips—its bottomless dark eyes showing a flicker of interest.

Damn it.

Jiang Luo could already guess Chi You's next move.

He struck first. Before the spider-man's finger could touch his lips, he opened his mouth wide and bit down—biting off one of the spider-man's fingers.

Disgusting. The blood tasted worse than the School cafeteria.

Suppressing his nausea, Jiang Luo gave the spider-man a provocative smile, then spat out the finger and bluish blood to the side.

The spider-man stared at him.

That gaze reminded Jiang Luo of the earlier feeling of being watched. He sneered: 'Your blood really does stink.'

The spider-man wasn't angry. Instead it brushed past Jiang Luo's lips, and like a true spider, said with an eerie smile: 'You're perfect as a nest for my eggs to hatch.'

Its voice was unpleasant—hoarse and shrill, like a crow squeezing its throat to speak.

The grotesque spider monster and the beauty—such an absurd scene was hard to fathom, yet carried a scalp-tingling, grotesque beauty.

Jiang Luo's face darkened.

The spider-man's hand slid to Jiang Luo's abdomen. It hummed softly, but the tune became grating and harsh under that rasping voice.

It said with pleasure: 'My eggs will enter your body one by one.'

'Only a few of them will survive. The lucky ones will grow here, and here,' the spider-man's slender middle finger drew a circle on Jiang Luo's lower abdomen, then slowly moved upward, 'until they've eaten all your insides and split open your belly.'

'That picture must be beautiful,' it said. 'Don't you think?'

Jiang Luo suddenly smiled. 'How do you plan to put the eggs inside me?'

The spider-man said carelessly: 'Of course, by cutting open your flesh and putting them in.'

'But I think that's too boring,' Jiang Luo lowered his voice, as if sharing some tempting secret. 'Do you want to know another way to put the eggs inside me?'

The spider-man looked at him with interest. 'What way?'

Jiang Luo said: 'First, you need to free me from this damn web.'

The spider-man stared at him for a long moment, as if guessing what Jiang Luo planned. It smiled teasingly, but still reached out and cut the web stuck to his back.

Jiang Luo barely sat up, web still stuck to his front, binding his arms and chest tightly. He said: 'My way is...'

The last few words drifted softly on the wind.

The spider-man: 'Hmm?'

It leaned in slightly.

But Jiang Luo, hands bound, suddenly exploded upward—slammed into the spider-man, and together they plunged through the web hole he'd escaped from earlier.

The spider-man crashed heavily to the ground, Jiang Luo landing on top of it. Straddling the spider-man's chest, Jiang Luo gave it a mocking smile, stood and stomped hard on it. 'Drop dead, fucker.'

Hard words said, he turned and ran toward the drone.

Jiang Luo ran fast—nearly the fastest he'd ever run in his life. His hands never stopped cutting web with his dagger. Before he'd gone far, he heard the sound of wind behind him.

He glanced sideways—the spider-man was swinging through the trees on web lines at terrifying speed, closing several meters in a single glance.

Drone, drone.

A breaking wind sound passed by his ear. Jiang Luo instinctively rolled—but rolled straight into mud. When he struggled out, he'd lost his way in the Ba Gua Formation once again.

Identical trees and Creek Flow everywhere. The drone was gone. Jiang Luo tore off the web viciously, looked back—and saw the spider-man smiling at him from a tree branch.

In the dead of night, the spider-man's appearance was almost terrifying. Jiang Luo twitched his lips, then suddenly threw himself into the Creek Flow.

The forest was the spider-man's home turf—eight legs and web. He couldn't beat it there.

No—even if he could, it might still 'resurrect.'

Jiang Luo swam quickly through the water. His build was slender and tall—usually seemed a bit thin, but now was perfect for swimming.

The black-haired youth darted through like a fish. Not long after he jumped in, another splash sounded.

Jiang Luo looked back. The night was hazy, visibility in the water low, but he could still see a dark shadow pursuing relentlessly behind him.

Jiang Luo smirked slightly, deliberately swimming toward rapids choked with rocks. After who knew how long, he finally found a good spot—slipped sideways through a gap between two giant boulders. The spider-man tried to follow, upper body passed through, but the massive spider legs got stuck in the gap.

Jiang Luo swam back from behind the rocks. While he still had air, he viciously stabbed the spider-man with his dagger—copious bluish blood dyed the river a different color.

When his air was nearly gone, Jiang Luo surfaced.

His black hair was wet and slicked back. Jiang Luo exhaled. Thin mist sprayed from his breath—even in late May, Yunnan's deep night was cold as late autumn.

He swam slowly toward shore, and once his feet could touch the bottom, he wrung out his clothes and walked wet onto the bank.

The moon was bright and clear. Just as Jiang Luo was about to reach shore, a pair of black leather shoes suddenly appeared before him.

He paused, raised his water-soaked face to look.

Under moonlight, Chi You's incomparably handsome face carried a faint air of wickedness. His long brows swept to his temples, so beautiful they seemed to glow even in the dark. Tree shadows danced, sprinkling fragmented light across him—a world apart from the Puppet he'd just controlled.

The evil ghost stood in Tuxedo and leather shoes, posture perfectly composed.

'We meet again,' the evil ghost said. 'Zi Hour, deep night. Tonight is still long.'

He paused, raised an eyebrow and laughed softly: 'I hope I can give you a... pleasant night.'