BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 64 A Blessing in Disguise

Standing atop the coffin, Sun Desheng watched the cold flare fall to the floor below. After waiting for a while and seeing no movement, he turned to Che Qianzi and said,

“Looks like all those land crabs are dead. Brother, let’s keep moving forward…”

Che Qianzi looked at him coldly. After a pause, he said, “Fatty, isn’t there something you’ve forgotten to tell me? You wanted to become sworn brothers with me. If something really happens, we’ll die on the same year, the same month, and the same day. If I go down, you won’t fare any better. By then your wife will remarry, and your daughter will be calling someone else ‘Dad’…”

“Now that’s something my brother would say.”

Sun Desheng paid no mind to his words. Grinning, he replied,

“Put your mind at ease. I’ve already said it—if anything happens, I’ll protect you with my life. Not that I’m bragging, but if that blind fortune-teller Jin got it wrong and there really is a one-in-ten-thousand chance, then your big brother will die in your place. Just come put some dirt on my grave and burn a little paper money every Qingming Festival and death anniversary. That’ll be enough for me.”

“Oh, right. You’ll have to do me one more favor. Help build a relationship between La Zi and your sister-in-law. If those two can somehow make a life together, then I’ll be able to rest easy in the underworld.”

No matter how hot-tempered and crazy Che Qianzi was, Sun Desheng’s words left a sour feeling in his heart.

He walked over and shoved the fat man aside.

“You handle your own love triangle with Shen La. I can’t stand you people—everything’s one giant mess. Makes my teeth ache.”

With that, he leapt down through the opening inside the coffin.

Watching him disappear, Sun Desheng chuckled to himself.

“How could your brother ever bear to let something happen to you? Once your origins are revealed in a few days, you’ll have a hard time even trying to die first. Same year, same month, same day… Heh, this bargain isn’t something I’m taking advantage of La Zi for…”

Che Qianzi could hear him muttering above but couldn’t make out the words.

He raised his head and shouted, “What are you mumbling about? Hurry up and get down here! Weren’t you in a rush to reincarnate just a moment ago? Leaving your last words up there? You really want your wife and Shen La to live together?”

“That mouth of yours… it’s a miracle you’ve survived this long…”

Sun Desheng muttered bitterly before jumping down as well.

Despite his bulky build, he was surprisingly agile. Landing firmly, he immediately got to his feet.

Shining his flashlight around, Sun Desheng discovered that they were inside an enormous underground cavern.

There were clear traces of human excavation. This place was definitely not naturally formed.

And if the cave itself wasn’t natural, then those giant spiders certainly weren’t native species. Someone had deliberately raised them here.

“No need to look around. If there were any spiders left, they would’ve rushed us already.”

As he spoke, Che Qianzi pointed toward the left front.

“I checked earlier. Looks like there’s something piled up over there. Not alive, so you don’t have to be scared. And if something happens, don’t bother protecting me. At that point, neither of us will be getting out anyway.”

Following the direction of his finger, Sun Desheng vaguely saw rows of objects arranged neatly in the distance.

Other than that, there seemed to be nothing unusual.

Exchanging glances, the two men cautiously approached.

When they drew close, Che Qianzi was stunned.

The neatly arranged objects were cocoon after cocoon.

Only these cocoons had already been opened. Spider silk was scattered everywhere, exposing the bodies within.

Men and women alike.

Some had already become mummies.

Others had died only recently, their faces still frozen in expressions of agony.

Regardless of when they had died, all the corpses shared the same characteristics.

Their mouths were wide open toward the sky.

Their abdomens had been torn open by something.

Their internal organs were missing.

Clearly, they had been eaten.

“Brother, understand now?”

Sun Desheng gazed at the hundreds of corpses before him and sighed.

“The silkworm babies up above were preparing to do this. They just hadn’t had time to drag those people down before we arrived.”

“Those spiders used them as incubators for their eggs.”

“See their open mouths? That’s where the eggs were laid.”

“After hatching, the spiderlings fed on the victims’ organs from inside. Once they were full, they burst through the stomach and crawled out…”

As he spoke, Sun Desheng noticed more than a dozen fresher corpses.

These people had died recently.

Their mouths hung open, and their swollen bellies made them look like pregnant women.

But their stomachs had yet to rupture.

After hesitating, Sun Desheng used his short sword to cut open one of the corpses.

Inside, besides the organs, were over a dozen fist-sized eggs.

Without hesitation, he stomped them all to pieces.

Many of the shattered eggs already contained fully formed baby spiders.

The sight made Che Qianzi sick.

Turning his head away, he said, “Fatty, there are at least a hundred and fifty corpses here, right? So many people disappeared, and the police haven’t noticed anything?”

“If your brother’s guess is right, none of these people are locals.”

“They’re foreign laborers who were tricked into coming here.”

“Their identities are probably fake. They were brought here to serve as containers for the spiders.”

“Let’s send them off properly. We can’t allow those land crabs to come back and hurt anyone.”

As he spoke, Sun Desheng took out a lighter and set fire to the spider silk wrapped around the bodies.

The silk ignited instantly.

Some of the mummified corpses had already formed corpse wax, making them highly flammable.

Soon, blazing flames engulfed the bodies.

Because they lay close together, the fire spread rapidly from one corpse to another.

In the blink of an eye, the entire field of corpses was ablaze.

Thick black smoke and a nauseating stench billowed out.

Sun Desheng had only been thinking about preventing the spider eggs from hatching.

Now, neither he nor Che Qianzi could endure the smell.

Covering their mouths and noses, they ran deeper into the cavern.

As they ran, Che Qianzi shouted, “Fatty, you’ve really done it this time! We shouldn’t be running inward! If there’s no exit, this smoke will suffocate us both. Are you really that eager to die with me on the same day?”

“We can’t run back toward the burial chamber either. Smoke rises, and you’re not afraid of death energy or swamp gas, but your brother here can’t handle that stuff. I’ve never burned corpses before—I don’t have any experience with it!”

At that moment, Sun Desheng regretted throwing away the oxygen masks.

Even cracked, they would’ve been better than nothing.

Now the two of them were running around like headless flies, hoping luck might somehow reveal an escape route.

Eventually, they reached the end of the cavern.

Before them stood an enormous stone wall.

Finding no exit, Sun Desheng grabbed Che Qianzi and prepared to retreat.

But when he looked back—

The thick black smoke was already rolling toward them.

Even Sun Desheng began to panic.

Then, suddenly—

A crack appeared in the stone wall behind him.

The crack widened until it formed an opening large enough for one person to pass through.

From within came a familiar voice:

“Great Sage, is that you?”

“I knew in the end, you’d be the one to save me…”

The speaker was none other than Huang Ran, with whom they had been unable to establish contact.

Just as he was about to lead everyone out, Sun Desheng grabbed Che Qianzi and rushed into the opening.

Inside, they found Huang Ran, Meng Qiqi, and several people of various nationalities, all covered in blood.

Sun Desheng had no time for greetings.

As soon as he entered, he shouted, “Old Huang! Shut the door, quick! Otherwise we’re all going to choke to death from the smoke!”

Only then did Huang Ran notice the thick cloud behind them.

He immediately ran to the inner side of the stone wall and pressed something.

The opening slowly began to close.

And as it did—

Sun Desheng noticed a figure lying on a stone platform in the corner.

Covered in wounds and barely clinging to life—

Zhang Zhiyan lay there, quietly waiting for death.