Lan Yuan's POV
The three of us backed away from the hideous spiders that are crawling toward us. We unsheathed our swords, preparing ourselves for the next thing to happen.
"No wonder nothing appeared outside, they were hiding here all the time." Jingyi said.
"This is all your fault." Jin Ling blamed Jingyi.
"How is it my fault?!"
"If you haven't entered the temple, we wouldn't come across them. Now we're trapped!"
"How would I know they were here?!"
"Guys, instead of quarreling, let's focus on what's in front of us and think of a plan on how to escape and ask for help to kill these monsters. We won't be able to kill them all with just the three of us." I said to the both of them, finally ending the quarrel between them.
More and more of those spiders came out from the corners, surrounding the three of us. It will be difficult for us to escape. There were more of them than I imagined, my fingers couldn't count them anymore.
They were different from normal spiders. This one has a human head. From below its neck is where its eight legs are. They opened their mouth wide, letting out a screeching sound. Its sharp teeth had 3 layers, growing tier upon tier, it looks like it could tear a person's limbs if one was bitten by it. Some blood was oozing out from its mouth making the monster more hideous. Suddenly, a scream came from behind us.
It was Jingyi's voice.
"Jingyi!" we turned around only seeing Jingyi getting dragged by something away from us. It was dark from where he was dragged to so we couldn't get a sight of him.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the human headed-spider jumping at me. I immediately moved my arms and slashed the spider before it could land on me. Another one came at me, I jumped at the side, dodging the spider as I slashed his body sideward. Jin Ling was behind me, busy dodging and cutting off the spiders that have been attacking him also. A few spiders attacked us when we heard Jingyi's voice again.
"Sizhui!! Help meee!" Jingyi shrieked.
"Jingyi! Hang in there!" I yelled back. This spiders kept attacking us continuously. After slashing one or two spiders, another one would leap at us. There's no end in this. I'm starting to get worried about Jingyj, I hope nothing happens to him.
"Damn! why are there more of them!" Jin Ling grumbled, slashing up another spider.
"We need to save Jingyi." I said. I held my sword stronger, landing a heavy cut at each spider that tried to jump at me.
"Sizhuiii! Jin Lingg! Someone help mee! It's gonna eat me!!" we heard another scream from Jingyi again.
"That idiot! Just wait for us and try not to die!" Jin Ling angrily yells back. Even with the harsh tone, he was obviously worried at Jingyi.
With our swords, it was more tiresome to cut them one by one. Without a second thought, I sheathed my sword back to its scabbard and took out my qiankun pouch from my inner robe. I took out my guqin from inside and put the qiankun bag back inside my inner robe after it.
"Jin Ling, cover me." I said as dropped myself to the floor, ignoring the dusty and dirty ground.
"What are trying to do?!" Jin Ling asked, slashing another spider that came from behind him. I chose not to respond to him and focus on my role. I sat on the ground, laying my guqin horizontally on top of my legs. I took a deep breath before placing my fingers on top of the guqin, slowly and gently playing the strings, pouring all of my spiritual power into it.
The melody at first was calm and cool but long enough, it started getting intensive. With the final strum, the vibration of the string echoed around the temple. Each one of the human headed-spiders was slashed by the vibration as if an invisible string passed by them cutting their head into two.
I let out a long breath, feeling exhausted just from playing Sound of Vanquish. I looked up, meeting the human headed-spiders lying on the ground, lifeless. I looked around and all were the same.
I first put back my guqin into my qiankun pouch when Jin Ling spoke, "I thought we wouldn't be able to handle all of them by just the three of us, but you just killed them on your own. You should have done it awhile ago. We only wear ourselves out." Jin Ling approached, pulling out his hands to me. I only showed him a faint smile and accepted his hand, standing up from the ground. As soon as I stood up, I felt dizzy all of a sudden making me lose my balance. Before I could fall to the ground, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders, helping me return my balance.
"What's wrong with you? Are you okay?" Jin Ling asked. I raised my head to look at him but as our eyes met, I suddenly realized our faces were only an inch away from each other. Out of surprise, I immediately separated from him. I coughed a little bit and cleared my throat, trying to wash away the tension.
"I am fine, this is my first time using the guqin during a night-hunt so it easily drained my spiritual powers but I still have enough spiritual power to fight. Let's go and help Jing--"
"HELPPPPPP!!!" another scream came from Jingyi again.
Oh no!
We hurriedly run in the direction where Jingyi was dragged, ignoring the silky webs coming in our way. It was unbelievably dark as we went further. We couldn't see a single thing.
"Jingyi! Where are--" I still haven't finished my question when he answered right away.
"I'm right here! Hurry up!!!" Jingyi screamed in terror. His voice was louder so he must be near us as if he's just in front of us.
Jin Ling irritatingly asked with a small hint of worry, "Where exactly?!"
It was hard to see so I had to take out a Flame Talisman. I passed a small amount of spiritual power in it and it ignited amidst the darkness. We could see the surrounding properly but what was in front of us made our eyes widened
"Jingyi!" I called out to him in worry.
"Sizhui! Jin Ling!" Jingyi cried out in relief.
JinI Ling, "What the heck happened to you?!"
His body was wrapped in thick silky webs, looking like a ball of thread. He couldn't move with those webs wrapped in his body, he could only look at us with tears in his eyes. We were just about to run toward him when a web suddenly clutched into him, pulling him closer to the creature that clutched him. Jingyi let out a yelp.
"Jingyi!" We shouted.
I raised my hand to lit up the area in front of us. As I looked up, four horrifying pairs of eyes greeted us. Its eyes were glowing red.
It's a huge spider.
Unlike the other human-headed spider, this one has a form of a true spider, eight legs with a furry black skin. But it was huge than its normal size and much bigger than us.
It started hissing as soon as it spotted us. It spurted out a thread of its silk, directly charging at us. We dodged its attack, jumping at the side.
It let out a screeching sound as if it was disappointed that he failed to catch us.
"What should we do?" Jin Ling asked from the other side.
I looked at Jingyi who was struggling from the spider's grasp within its webs, wriggling like a worm, but it failed. He could only cry our names asking us to save him.
"We must save Jingyi first." I replied.
The spider shot us another thread of silk but we were able to dodge it. We held tightly onto the hilt of our sword and charged at the giant spider.
"Go and save Jingyi, I'll distract that damn beast." Jin Ling said, shooting the giant spider a hard stare.
I nodded, "Mn. Please be careful." We run in the opposite direction.
"Hey, you beast! I'm here!" Jin Ling shouted, taking the giant spider's attention. The beast then turned in Jin Ling's direction.
I took my opportunity to go to Jingyi who was currently stuck at the huge cobweb.
"Sizhuiii! Save meee!" Jingyi whispered, trying to lower his voice to avoid gaining the attention of the spider.
"Just calm down first, I'll get you down from there." I said. Jingyi just nodded, it looks like he wanted to wipe his tear but he couldn't, his arms were also wrapped in web.
I took a glimpse at Jin Ling. He was doing perfectly fine fighting with the spider. I returned my attention to Jingyi.
I backed away a little as I swayed my swords horizontally and vertically at every side of Jingyi. The sword glares slashed through the cobweb. As he was finally free from the cobweb, his body fell. Before he could fall to the ground, I hurriedly sheathed my sword and catch him.
"Thank you Sizhui!" Jingyi exclaimed.
"Thank me later, you're still wrapped in webs. Let's deal with it later but we must get out of here first." I said. I immediately turned around with Jingyi in my arms. I was about to shout at Jin Ling to tell him to retreat, but the beast in front of him suddenly slammed him at the wall.
"Jin Ling!" I shouted. I tried to reach my sword that's hanging on my waist but... I couldn't move my hands.
It was stuck at the silk that's currently wrapping Jingyi's body!
It also feels like my hands and arms that are in contact with the silk are burning. Though it doesn't hurt that much actually.
I was panicking from inside. What should I do? I can't take out my sword. Jin Ling is unconscious from the strong force. I must get him out of here. But how?! I can't let go of Jingyi. The web is too sticky that my hands are stuck with it!
"Sizhui! What are you thinking?! That beast will gobble up Jin Ling if we don't save him!" Jingyi shouted making me snap out.
"My hands are stuck with the webs! I can't let go of you even if I wanted to." I responded.
I raised my head only seeing the beast standing in front of Jin Ling already, one of its legs already lifted from the ground. Watching the scene, our eyes widened. It was about to stab Jin Ling however a pair of chains swept past heavily, hitting the spider's leg that was just about to stab Jin Ling. Afterward, he took a stride forward and kicked the head of the spider with full force making the beast stagger backward until it fell to the ground.
"Uncle Ning!" "Uncle Wen!"
"....."
"Jingyi, since when did you start calling my uncle Uncle Wen?"
Jingyi, "Why? Am I not allowed?"
"That's not what I mean..."
"He's your uncle and you're my bestfriend, I thought I'd also call him uncle since it feels so rude to call him Ghost General."
"Then will you also call Jin Ling's uncle Uncle?"
A silence broke between us after questioning him, but he answered it after a while of silence. "... I do not dare..."
The question was meant to be a joke, but I wouldn't think he would take it seriously.
"A-Yuan! Jingyi! Let's leave!" Uncle Ning shouted through his hoarse voice. He was already carrying Jin Ling in his arms along with Jingyi's sword that he must have dropped awhile ago while being dragged away. He runs toward the doors of the temple. We didn't waste any time and followed Uncle Ning outside the temple.
We run through the woods as we stopped by a tree. Uncle Ning put down Jin Ling, laying him down by the tree.
He then looked at me, "You guys stay here, I'll go back to the temple. We can't let that beast stay alive."
"Mn. Please be careful." I said. He nodded.
He stared at Jingyi for a moment before looking back at me.
"Why don't you... put him down first?" Uncle Ning asked.
"I can't."
Uncle Ning, "Why?"
Jingyi replied instead, "His hands are stuck with the webs."
Uncle Ning let out an 'oh' as if he finally understood the situation.
"We'll deal with it later. I will come back soon and rest assured, I already killed all of the walking corpses around the mountain so you're safe here." Uncle Ning assured. We could only nod as we watched him sprint off, going back to the temple.
I heave a sigh of relief. I'm glad Jingyi and Jin Ling are fine. If something bad happened to both of them, I won't be able to face jiejie...
"Sizhui... I'm not that heavy right?" Jingyi anxiously asked. I chuckled at his question.
"A little bit." I replied, speaking the truth. Jingyi's face then turned pale.
"How did that happened... I don't even eat a lot!" Jingyi said in disbelief.
"Don't worry, It's probably the web that added to your weight. You were not that heavy the last time I carried you." I said and smiled an assuring smile at him.
"Really?" Jingyi asked he released a sigh of relief. A small groan suddenly came from Jin Ling. He slowly sat up, his hands on his head.
"Where... where am I?" Jin Ling groaned.
"Jin Ling, you're awake." I said. "How are you feeling? Do you feel pain anywhere?"
"My back..." Jin Ling mumbled.
"It must be from awhile ago when you got slammed on the wall." I mentioned. "Please sit there for a bit and rest. My uncle will be back."
"Your uncle? Do you mean Wen Ning? What is he doing here?" Jin Ling asked, his brows knitted together.
"I don't know either." I replied. Now that Jin Ling asked it, what was Uncle Ning doing here? How did he even know we were going on a night hunt?
"Let's ask him later." Jingyi spoke. Jin Ling then shifted his attention abruptly to Jingyi who was wrapped in web. They stared at each other for a few seconds.
"What are you looking at?!" Jingyi glared.
Jin Ling turned his head around, after that, his shoulders trembled, as if he was stopping himself from... laughing.
"You! Stop laughing at me!" Jingyi yelled, his nostrils flared. Jin Ling finally faced us back.
"Heh, are you going to sleep at the inn looking like that? I bet the inn owner won't let you go inside looking like that." Jin Ling mocked, a smirk forming his lips. He then tried to stand up but his back started to ache.
"Ack! My back... Why does it hurt so much?!" Jin Ling grumbled. Jingyi's angry face changed into a mocking one.
"How's your back old man? Does it hurt?" Jingyi sneered. A vein popped out of Jin Ling's forehead after hearing it.
"Guys, please calm down. We just got out of the temple. Jin Ling, please sit back and have a rest. And we must think of a plan on how to remove this webs wrapping your body Jingyi. I also have to think of a way to separate myself from Jingyi." I said, murmuring the last sentence to myself. The two went silent. Jin Ling immediately obliged and sat back to the ground as he crossed his legs, slowly closing his eyes, trying to meditate.
We waited for Uncle Ning under the tree while Jin Ling was meditating on his own. I tried to think of a way to separate myself from Jingyi but I couldn't come up with a plan. I just patiently waited for Uncle Ning.
After a few hours of waiting, a rustling sound came from above. Jin Ling shot his eyes open and immediately felt for the hilt of his sword by his waist and unsheathed it a little bit. The next few seconds, a figure came down from the tree.
"Uncle Ning, you're back." I called. After seeing who it was, Jin Ling sheathed back his sword and humphed.
"Sorry, it took me a while." Uncle Ning said. He noticed Jin Ling from beside, quietly standing with his arms crossed.
"Young Master Jin, you're finally awake." Uncle Ning greeted as he clasped his hands and bowed at him with respect. Jin Ling only humphed and turned around. I thought he was just going to ignore Uncle Ning but he didn't.
Jin Ling responded, "Yeah."
A smile escaped my lips. I couldn't help myself and feel happy from their small communication every time they meet. We've been having night-hunt together with Uncle Ning this past few months. Jin Ling goes silent and ignores Wen Ning every time we have a night-hun. But I've been noticing it lately that he's slowly opening up to uncle and sometimes talks and responds to Uncle Ning.
We understood what he feels toward my uncle. Uncle Ning played a role and is responsible for Jin Ling's father's death. As Jin Ling grew, he held a deep hatred toward my uncle. Even I feel a bit guilty for having the blood of Wens, the clan that caused Jin Ling's grandfather and his grandmothers' death.
And it is also the clan that caused jiejie's trauma...
But after everything has been cleared, those deep hatreds Jin Ling kept were long forgotten already.