Chapter 18 The Mother of Silkworms

In the southeastern part of the Crystal Labyrinth was a place called "Terrorleaf."

The so-called "Terrorleaf" was both a place name and a thing.

And the master of this place, or rather, this leaf, was the aerial overlord of the labyrinth—the "Mother of Silkworms."

At the same time that Feng Bujue and the others received their mission...

Accompanied by a strange "whoosh whoosh" sound, a huge white shadow wriggled toward this place. She was very fast, and her enormous figure was much more agile than it looked.

Before long, she had climbed onto this giant mulberry leaf, about the size of a football field, and settled on the veins.

"Ugh—blegh—"

The Mother of Silkworms emitted an incredibly eerie vomiting sound with her loli-like "cute voice."

The next second, a gush of mucus poured out of her mouth. Then, a pinkish-white humanoid pupa fell out and landed on the leaf surface.

"Heh heh heh... Still hasn't gone mad, huh..." The Mother of Silkworms muttered with a sneer, "This is the first time I've seen a human who can last this long..."

As she spoke, the "human pupa" was slowly lifted up by silk threads, rising toward the higher sky (the height of Terrorleaf was parallel to the silk web in mid-air, and the Mother of Silkworms always moved in the world above the web).

"Normally, people fall into extreme panic as soon as I control them. Even if I leave them alone, they'll go crazy within ten minutes," the Mother of Silkworms continued, "But you... were swallowed by me and carried all the way here, and you still show no signs of mental collapse..."

Around Terrorleaf stood four or five extremely tall crystal pillars that gradually converged upward. In the gaps between the Mother of Silkworms' words, the pupa containing Scumbag Uncle had risen to the edge of the top of one of the crystal pillars and was suspended there.

"But don't worry... I can wait." The Mother of Silkworms grinned hideously. "You can hear me now, right? Heh... That's right, there are several stubborn guys like you in those pupae beside you, and they're all still alive."

What she was referring to were the pupae hanging on the other crystal pillars. However, those pupae were larger than the one Scumbag Uncle was in. Judging by their appearance... the things inside the pupae were clearly not humanoid creatures.

"They've been there for far longer than you can imagine... Hehehe..." The Mother of Silkworms continued, "And don't expect to starve to death... You won't. My pupae can keep you alive until you become an insane feast." She laughed triumphantly twice, then her tone suddenly turned cold. "Hmph... I know you still have hope." She snorted coldly, "That's right, your companions did manage to cut off the 'brain threads' I implanted, but don't you dare imagine they will rescue you."

As she said this, her body shook again.

In that instant, the silk web above the entire Crystal Labyrinth returned to its invisible state.

"I won't let them succeed..." The Mother of Silkworms said darkly, her cute voice a stark contrast to her tone. "I'll wait here... waiting for them to walk right into my trap..."

...

Elsewhere in the Crystal Labyrinth.

"Huh? The web disappeared again," Atobe said, looking at the changes above.

"It didn't disappear, it just returned to its invisible state," Feng Bujue replied.

"The way I see it..." Honghu said thoughtfully, "It might be a sign that the Mother of Silkworms is returning to its nest..."

"Hey..." Tianma Xingkong turned to Feng Bujue at this time. "Are you sure we're going in the right direction?"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask too. Why are you so confidently leading the way again?" Atobe also asked.

"It's not that I'm completely confident, I'm only about sixty or seventy percent sure this time..." Feng Bujue explained, "You all saw that previously repaired silk web, right? I roughly deduced the order and direction in which the 'Mother of Silkworms' wove the web based on the depth of the silk color, and thus judged which way she was retreating." He gestured upward with his hand. "Moreover... the direction we're currently going is basically the same as the path she took when she approached earlier."

"Awoo—"

Before Jue Ge could finish speaking, an incredibly standard wolf howl suddenly came from ahead.

The four players immediately stopped and stood guard warily.

They were now nervous as birds startled by the twang of a bow, and even the slightest rustle would be treated with caution...

At this point, the terrifying nature of Nightmare difficulty gradually became apparent... Even though the five people who entered this instance were all powerful players, it didn't make the instance progress any easier. Because their own strength advantages had almost no chance to be displayed. From the beginning of the instance until now, they hadn't fought many serious battles, but everyone's stamina was already almost exhausted; under the triple debuff of hunger, thirst, and fatigue, there was no need for any powerful monsters to take action. Just some disgusting scene settings were enough to make the players exhausted and disheveled.

"Ugh..." A low beastly growl gradually approached, and a beastly shadow faintly appeared behind a translucent crystal pillar in the side front.

Just when the players all thought that some kind of wolf-like creature would come out, the system played with them once again...

"Awoo~" With another wolf howl, the phantom beast finally jumped out from behind the crystal pillar and revealed its true form.

It was a sheep...

And it was a wild goat, seemingly of the highland variety. Its fur was brownish-gray, and the upper part of its body was darker. On top of its head were a pair of slightly curved horns with many horizontal ridges, like continuous mountain ranges.

"Awoo—" The goat glared with bulging eyes, lowered its head, shook its horns menacingly, and let out another wolf howl.

The players' expressions at this time, however, showed no fear at all. They just looked at the creature in front of them with an incredibly pained look.

"This... is a sheep, right..." Atobe said, his mouth twitching.

"Yeah, it looks like a sheep no matter how you look at it," Honghu replied.

"Well... perhaps it evolved the ability to imitate the calls of its natural enemies due to its need for survival..." Feng Bujue said, stroking his chin.

Just as the three of them were commenting on the goat in front of them, Tianma Xingkong stepped forward and leaped ahead.

"Evil creature!" Tianma Xingkong pointed with his arm and shouted with great momentum, "Do you want to stop the hero's progress!"

"Awoo—" The goat howled again, as if it could really understand Little Ma's words.

"I advise you to turn back from your errant ways!" Tianma Xingkong turned to the side again, changed his angle, and pointed at the other party with a completely symmetrical posture. "I can still see a trace of kindness in your eyes... Even if your mother's affair with a wolf caused your childhood to suffer discrimination, you can't give up on yourself. You must..."

"Kindness your sister!" Feng Bujue rushed up from behind and slammed his palm on Little Ma's face, pushing him aside. "What mother and wolf? What kind of childhood are you talking about? What country's discrimination? What kind of nonsense are you spouting to a goat? Do you think you're Naruto?"

Before he could finish complaining, he heard a "clang" and Jue Ge's cleaver was already out of its sheath.

"You all step back, this moment should be handled by this great one who possesses the strength of the 'Five Tiger Stars'." Feng Bujue picked up the cleaver and was ready to attack.

In his eyes, wolf or sheep, there was no difference... He had even eaten elves, how could an animal have any chance of survival in his hands?

"Uh... what is he talking about?" Honghu asked with a confused look.

"In the setting... the Five Tiger Stars are the strongest five chefs in the dark cooking world (also translated as the underworld cooking world)," Atobe replied. A second after he said that, he sighed, covered his face, and shook his head. "Ah... why do I know this kind of thing..."

As they were talking, Jue Ge had already pounced on the goat...

Then, amidst the alternating groans and roars of the man and beast, a scene of extremely ugly wrestling unfolded.

In order to protect the integrity of the "ingredients," Feng Bujue chose to fight hand-to-hand with a cleaver, resulting in him being exhausted...

In the end, he had no choice but to activate [Spiritual Consciousness Gathering Technique - Modified] to complete the kill.

When the goat was pinned to the ground and its throat was cut, Feng Bujue also did something that seemed quite disgusting to others... He went straight up and drank several mouthfuls of raw goat blood.

After drinking the goat blood, he generously wiped his mouth with his sleeve, stood up, and burped; "Ah... not bad at all."

"I really don't know how to evaluate your behavior..." Honghu licked his lips unconsciously. "I can only say that you are an extreme pragmatist."

"If you want to drink, come over and drink quickly. After you drink, I'm going to cut it up." As he spoke, Feng Bujue mischievously used blood to draw a smile on both sides of his mouth.

"This... is it really drinkable?" Tianma Xingkong asked as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Obviously, he was just as thirsty as his teammates, but there was still a psychological barrier.

"I seem to have seen raw goat blood on the menu at a hot pot restaurant before..." Atobe replied, "But I didn't dare to order it because I was afraid of parasites."

"I see..." Honghu was relieved a lot when he heard this, and immediately walked to the goat's corpse. "Then there's nothing to worry about. Maybe it tastes pretty good." His thinking was also very pragmatic. As for parasites, it didn't matter... In the game, there was no need to worry about getting sick. Even if it really triggered some abnormal state, it could be removed with potions.

Honghu squatted down, lowered his head, and took a few sips from the goat's neck. Three seconds later, he stood up and said with a strange expression, "Damn... why is it so hard to drink?"

"I never said it tasted good," Feng Bujue shrugged.

"Then why did you say 'not bad at all' with such a satisfied expression?" Honghu shouted.

"Because it can quench my thirst, and I didn't get an abnormal state after drinking it," Feng Bujue replied. "If it meets these two points, it's a qualified drink. What else do you want?"

"Well... as for me..." Atobe replied, "I want to put it in a bowl, add some cilantro and crushed peanuts..."

"I want to boil it to kill the bacteria, and then add some salt," Tianma Xingkong also replied.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Feng Bujue was quite helpless in the face of these two guys who answered a rhetorical question as a real question. "If you want to drink, hurry up and drink. After you drink, I still have to deal with the corpse. Do you still want to save Scumbag Uncle? Are you planning to pack your bags and go back to Gao Village?"