Chapter 8: The Spider's Snare
Fate is like a spinning wheel, and while you're desperately turning it, you don't know what the next moment will bring. But it seems to delight in playing tricks on you when you least expect it. Liu Ting crossed over and became a blood mosquito because he was afraid of what was happening to him, so he chose to escape. Faced with the uncertainty of his future, he was at a loss for what to do, even resorting to pretending to be crazy to hide his inner fear and unease. But just as he was about to give up all hope and indulge in his brief life as an insect, he met the so-called Blood Mosquito Queen!
The vast and boundless rainforest of Gaya, unknown how many powerful magical beasts and precious rare minerals it has given birth to. The barbarian war god emerged from Gaya, crushing countless brilliant civilizations, once swinging his spear towards the entire continent. Even in the depths of the rainforest, a giant dragon guarding the tomb still sleeps, guarding the treasure left by the heavenly gods in this world. But all these cannot truly represent the meaning of Gaya, this land that has given birth to countless wonders. Because since ancient times, there is only one thing that makes the entire continent tremble with fear, and that is the poisonous insects of Gaya!
Thousands of years ago, the Spider Queen Silvina followed in the footsteps of the Heavenly Dragon, and with her high-ranking magic bug body, she became the fourth insect evil god to obtain divinity after the Holy Scorpion, Blood Witch, and Poisonous Dragon. It is said that when the Spider Queen ascended to divinity, it caused a great disturbance in heaven and earth, the rivers reversed their flow, and seven heavenly gods came to stop her, but were nearly wiped out, with the remaining ones fleeing in disarray. Under the unmatched pressure of the Spider Queen Silvina, the poisonous spider tribe of Gaya rose rapidly, developing at an unstoppable pace, and became one of the top three powerful tribes among the tens of thousands of poisonous insect tribes in the Gaya Rainforest. Her reputation was unparalleled for a time, and even after thousands of years, until today, the Spider Queen's residual prestige still exists, influencing every move of the higher-ranking magic bug tribes in the Gaya Rainforest.
At this moment, the spider at the back of Liu Ting is just entering the magic insect stage, which is about the same as the lower-level magic beast, and its combat power is not as good as most of the lower-level magic beasts. However, when it needs to produce, it can rely on this privilege to forcibly recruit a region's peers to serve itself, even the ghost-faced spider of the same level has to crawl out from the underground cave thousands of meters away, risking death at any time to come here, just to ensure that the spider can complete this meaningful production.
It is known that spiders are different from mammals, they only lay eggs once in their lifetime, and the end of egg-laying marks the end of their life. So every time it's time to lay eggs, the mother spider will find a quiet place, continuously for ten or more hours, even for a whole day without eating or drinking, without sleep or rest, laying eggs, and then use her last bit of strength to wrap the countless little ones in a cocoon made of spider silk, protecting them until they hatch. This is an unbreakable natural law that low-level insect species cannot overcome, not even if they are promoted to low-level magical beasts like the spider queen. At this moment, the reason why this spider queen is occupying this place and summoning her own kind from all around is because she has discovered a way to cheat fate.
The blood mosquitoes and spiders living in Jia Ya have similar breeding habits. Coincidentally, today is also the day when a nearby female monarch of the blood mosquito tribe lays her eggs. Unlike Liu's birth, which was like a deformed melon, the queen's offspring are elite among elites, with noble bloodlines and great potential after growing up. The most important ones are the special insect eggs that inherit the queen's throne. Their existence is far more significant than ordinary blood mosquito eggs.
For a tribe, whether these eggs can hatch is of the utmost importance. Of course, in order to prevent being detected by natural enemies during the weak period when the queen lays eggs, it is easy to cause predators to launch a crazy attack. So all this was done in secret, and the blood mosquito queen only chose a few hundred strong blood mosquitoes as guards, and came here without anyone knowing. Coincidentally, not long after it started laying eggs, a spider queen of the same rank also chose this piece of land with good feng shui, secretly coming to carry out its egg-laying plan. Unexpectedly, it discovered the Blood Mosquito Queen. Overjoyed, the intelligent spider queen inherited the ruthless and decisive nature of Spider Queen Silvina, immediately issuing a summons in all directions, calling up tens of thousands of spider troops, capturing the weak and powerless Blood Mosquito Queen, and then starting to weave webs on a large scale, forcibly occupying this entire area.
You ask why? In fact, although every mother spider can lay millions of eggs during oviposition, only a few can survive in the end. This is because when they are born, there is not enough food, and hunger drives them to devour their siblings' flesh and blood to achieve their own survival. As a result, out of ten thousand, probably less than 10% of the lucky ones can survive. Not to mention the various crises they face after leaving the egg sac, so in the end, no more than three hundred of these little spiders can grow up. More than three hundred is already a remarkable number. But the existence of the Blood Mosquito Queen gives the timid spider mother a glimmer of hope.
At the bottom of the pyramid in the biological chain, the native blood mosquito is indeed at the lowest end, and this cannot be changed no matter what. However, no one can deny the terrifying potential of the native blood mosquito. For thousands of years, it was this weak and vulnerable group that relied on its extremely strong talent to evolve into a large family tree with six systems and 72 branches. Among them, the three branches of Tongbai Water Demon, Jiaya Poisonous Dragon, and Dihua Corpse Insect are the most powerful poisonous insect groups in the 72-branch family tree, ranking among the top ten poisonous insects of Jiaya, known as the pinnacle of evolution of the native blood mosquito! The spider queen, who is reckless and arrogant, has now covered her heavenly net over this large umbrella with the blood mosquito queen as a hostage, forming a huge egg sac. Then, she will use the hundreds of millions of insect eggs laid by the blood mosquito queen to feed her own tens of thousands of children after they hatch, achieving the goal of "using war to nurture war" and increasing the survival rate of her own children. The spider queen, who has advanced to a higher level as a magic insect, will definitely produce magic insects if her eggs hatch. If tens of thousands of magic insects can survive, it will have a huge impact on the growth of Jiaya poisonous spiders. Therefore, many spiders will risk their lives to guard the spider queen, even after her plan is completed. They will not leave, and when necessary, they will even use their own bodies to feed the hungry little magic insects, sacrificing themselves for the prosperity of the Jiaya poisonous spider clan.
It is clear that Liu Ting has now been drawn into an unprecedented war, and unfortunately, he is standing right in the center of the battlefield, with sharp blades flashing all around him, ready to engage in a fierce battle. The current calmness is only the eve of the arrival of a violent storm, and the air is filled with the smell of gunpowder, which is even more suffocating than the previous storm. Even ferocious beasts are quietly retreating, not daring to approach this place again.
Old Liu was stunned, muttering to himself the message transmitted by the Blood Mosquito Queen. Suddenly, he came back to his senses and shouted: "Impossible! A bug can actually talk to me and express a message so clearly. Do these bugs also have wisdom!? ...Or do they have their own civilization?!"
The spider had been paying attention to the old Liu flying around its head for a long time, and for some reason, this seemingly juvenile native blood mosquito brought great pressure to it, forcing it to slow down its egg-laying work and divert some of its energy to deal with the old Liu. At this moment, seeing the old Liu suddenly lose control and shout loudly, his spirit clearly showed a flaw, the spider's eight thin legs stood up abruptly, just like a startled cat, four pairs of eyes as deep as gems suddenly emitted a weak light, shining directly on Liu Ting's body.
Old Liu suddenly felt his head spinning, and then he heard a loud crash from below, as if something had exploded. This made him feel a mortal crisis approaching. As the soul of a human being, Old Liu's body was much stronger than that of ordinary insects. The spider's "soul-stunning gaze" might be able to harm other magical insects or even control some weak ones. However, it was not enough to deal with a human. In just a fraction of a second, Old Liu broke free from the spider's attack and dodged a black, unidentified projectile that shot towards him like a sharp sword. Although he didn't get hit, a strong, nauseating smell still wafted over, almost making Old Liu choke.
"What the hell!" Old Liu cursed under his breath, getting angry. Looking down, he saw several ghost-faced spiders with big bellies, which he had divided into crooked gourds and split melons, shooting out unknown things like water guns, making Old Liu even more ashamed and angry. While dodging quickly, he couldn't help but shout loudly: "You bunch of stinky bugs with missing arms and legs, dare to mess with me? You're asking for death!"
The spider's attack missed, and it immediately retreated to the back, protecting its eggs that had just been laid. At this moment, these eggs were not wrapped in eggshells and were extremely fragile. Even a slight touch would make all its previous efforts futile, and the hard work of 100,000 spiders would be destroyed in an instant. However, while Old Liu was flying back and forth, performing some high-difficulty movements, it didn't let its guard down at all. Its tail casually stirred the messy spider silk under its body, instantly sticking together a long, thin thread of spider silk. Then, it lightly tossed it upwards, and this movement made the spider silk separate from the almost indistinguishable spider web, silently hanging in mid-air. The spider then repeated this action, suspending over a dozen threads of spider silk in the air, which seemed flawless to the naked eye. The spider let out a clear cry, immediately making the ghost-faced spiders that were chasing Old Liu turn around, puffing up their bellies and attacking even more ferociously. However, they were now attacking from a distance, and their speed had increased by several degrees, making it impossible for Old Liu to display his flying skills. They forced him in one direction, but Old Liu was too caught up in the chase to realize that he had been outsmarted by an insect. The direction he was flying was exactly where the spider had set a trap.
