The Hand of Confession – Chapter 172

Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab

Spiderweb

The figure was nearly a meter tall, clearly neither Little Ancestor nor Little Monster.

At the corner at the end of the road, a pitch-black shadow flashed past, as if luring them forward.

Shen Maomao instinctively wanted to chase after it, but Lou Jingmo grabbed her: “Careful, it might be a trap.”

Seeing that the two of them didn’t chase after it as it demanded, Little Ancestor couldn’t help but angrily pound on Shen Maomao’s head, babbling incoherently: “Ya ya! Ya!”

Shen Maomao bared her teeth and grimaced as she tore it off her head, holding it in front of her. She pretended not to understand and asked, “Baby, what are you saying? There are no little ducks here…”

Little Ancestor kicked its legs wildly in mid-air, struggling hard.

Shen Maomao almost couldn’t hold it and had to put it down on the ground to see what it wanted to do.

As soon as it landed, Little Ancestor used all four limbs and quickly crawled in the direction the black shadow had left.

“Hey—!” Shen Maomao took half a step forward, wanting to remind it to be careful of the faces on the ground. But the next second she saw: the little thing bit into a face that had drifted onto it, then tilted its head to the side, easily tearing the face in half. It ate it up in no time¹ like eating a wrap, then followed the black shadow’s pace like the wind, disappearing from their sight.

Ate it…

Shen Maomao felt a pang in her face just watching.

Lou Jingmo walked two steps forward to examine the torn face, saying as she walked, “Don’t think of it as too simple.”

This little thing looked terrifying, but its usual actions and behavior weren’t much different from an ordinary child, which was why Shen Maomao always thought of it as a weak, pitiful little baby who couldn’t take care of itself. She almost forgot the experience of being treated as a toy at the very beginning.

She sighed wistfully, feeling a bit lost: “So it only sees me as a toy?” She truly treated it like her son!!

Lou Jingmo treated her words as wind passing by her ears². After squatting and looking for a while, she stood up again: “No blood, it’s already dead.”

The remaining half of the face was like a fallen leaf that had lost its nutrient supply. Its volume shrunk to the size of an adult’s fist within seconds. The edges of the skin shriveled and wrinkled, curling slightly upwards, and bits of flesh were still falling from the torn area.

Shen Maomao squatted beside Lou Jingmo, steeling her courage to poke the remaining half of the face with her hand.

The touch felt no different from real skin, even more delicate than human skin.

Shen Maomao stood up and asked, “Should we chase?”

Lou Jingmo: “No chase, take the other path.”

As soon as she finished speaking, tentacles that had been lurking in the corner suddenly erupted with a “xiu”³, wrapping around Shen Maomao’s ankle and pulling her to the ground.

“Holy crap!!” Shen Maomao was greatly alarmed, her hands scrabbling wildly on the ground, but the floor was too smooth. Her struggles were completely futile and had no effect whatsoever.

Lou Jingmo, who was already prepared, grabbed her right hand, but didn’t expect the owner of the tentacles to be incredibly strong. It dragged her along, sliding on the ground, and they were quickly pulled into the corridor.

A giant web appeared before them. On the web lay a baby with a massive head. The baby’s face was scarlet, and all eight of its eyes gleamed with fierce light.

Little Ancestor, who had just crawled over, was wrapped into a plump white cocoon, with only its head exposed, hanging on the spiderweb.

Lou Jingmo plunged her knife into the floor. The alloy floor was cut in half, its edges curling outwards, sparks flying everywhere.

Seeing that they were getting closer and closer to the spiderweb, and the predator had already opened its large mouth, Shen Maomao quickly shouted, “Lou-jie, let go!!”

Lou Jingmo: “Okay.”

Shen Maomao, who immediately crashed into the web: “???”

You told you to let go, and you actually let go?!! This was completely different from what she expected!!

The giant spiderweb was very sticky. Stuck to it, she couldn’t move at all. The child spat out spider silk from its mouth, preparing to wrap her up just like it did Little Ancestor.

Beside them, Little Ancestor’s crying shook the heavens, tears streaming from all four of its eyes, a look of utter heartbreak on its face.

Shen Maomao thought, what are you heartbroken about? Weren’t you the one who immediately abandoned them the moment you saw someone familiar? Now you’re tied up here waiting to be eaten, you totally deserve it!

The spiderweb wrapped around her foot, seemingly carrying some kind of poison. The poison quickly spread from her foot to her brain, making her feel dizzy and lightheaded.

On the other side, Lou Jingmo, having given up on rescuing her, threw two flying knives back. The two flying knives turned into two small fish swimming in the air with a “ka chi ka chi”⁴, swimming and cutting the web around Shen Maomao and Little Ancestor’s bodies.

The two fell to the ground. Shen Maomao grabbed Little Ancestor, who was still wriggling, and hopped forward like a rabbit, carrying it.

Just as the big one and the small one hopped two steps, they heard the baby behind them let out a loud hiss because its food had escaped. The next second, a strand of spider silk shot out fiercely, aiming for Shen Maomao’s head, with enough force to seemingly pierce her skull in an instant.

Lou Jingmo ran over in two steps, flyingly kicked her in the butt, directly kicking her to the ground, where she rolled outwards a few times before stopping.

Although she knew this was to save herself…

Shen Maomao clutched her throbbing butt and roared, “Couldn’t you have used a gentler method?!”

The attack missed its target and landed on the floor, smashing a large downward-dented pit into it.

Lou Jingmo looked at the monster diagonally above her with a serious expression and said without turning her head, “So much nonsense.”

Shen Maomao glared at her, struggled to sit up, and then began tearing at the spiderweb on her leg.

Lou Jingmo stepped onto the wall, actually walking on the vertical wall like a martial arts master performing qinggong⁵ in ancient times, her body completely parallel to the ground. She quickly approached the Little Monster, her sharp dagger cutting the spiderweb connected to the wall. In the blink of an eye, she cut away a large section.

The Little Monster also quickly counterattacked, suddenly extending two pitch-black tentacles from its abdomen, flexibly stabbing towards Lou Jingmo’s body.

The small hands at the end of the tentacles emitted an eerie green light, clearly containing potent poison.

Lou Jingmo pushed off the wall, using the reactive force to spring out several zhang⁶ away with a somersault. While hanging upside down in the air, she threw a dagger with force from her hand. The dagger instantly severed one of these tentacles. A stream of green blood sprayed from the wound. She frowned and immediately dodged away. The green blood landed on the ground with a “zi la zi la”⁷, corroding the floor with a continuous sound.

Shen Maomao had already retreated to a safe corner, carrying Little Ancestor, the cicada pupa⁸, trying not to be a burden to Lou-jie. Seeing this, she couldn’t help but shout in surprise, “Did you kill it?!”

The next second, another tentacle extended from its abdomen, grabbing directly at Lou Jingmo.

Lou Jingmo swung her knife to cut again, but the Little Monster had learned its lesson and immediately retracted the tentacle, spitting a sheet of spider silk at her from its mouth. Lou Jingmo could only retreat again, starting a new round of battle with it.

Shen Maomao watched their direction intently, feeling a dizzying blur.

Little Ancestor struggled for a long time and finally pulled its arm out of the cocoon. The subsequent actions were much easier. It quickly kicked off the thick spider silk and dangled from Shen Maomao’s hand, swinging back and forth a couple of times.

Shen Maomao pulled her attention to look at it: “What do you want to do? Go serve yourself up as food?”

Little Ancestor: “Ya ya!!”

Its tone was urgent, but Shen Maomao didn’t dare to put it down directly because she wasn’t sure if it was friend or foe now.

If she let go, and it immediately went to cause trouble for Lou-jie, then she would truly be a sinner for a thousand generations.

Shen Maomao forcefully pinched its armpit, holding it in mid-air to prevent it from kicking her, and said to it seriously, “You be honest!”

Little Ancestor grabbed her hand and suddenly lowered its head and bit her wrist.

“Ah!” A sharp pain shot from her wrist to her brain. Shen Maomao trembled with pain, losing strength in her hand. Little Ancestor with a “pa ji” ⁹, landed on the ground and then crawled towards the battle circle using all four limbs.

Shen Maomao panicked. Ignoring the pain, she clutched her wrist and shouted, “Lou-jie, be careful! The brat¹⁰ is coming over!”

Lou Jingmo glanced sideways. The green tentacle seized the opportunity to attack her. She could only raise her dagger to block, having no extra time to pay attention to the brat.

Shen Maomao gritted her teeth, lifted her foot, and charged forward as well, preparing to grab the brat back first.

After only two steps forward, she stopped again.

Because she realized Little Ancestor was heading towards the Little Monster.

Little Ancestor climbed onto the spider silk, but this time, strangely, it wasn’t stuck. It climbed all the way to the back of the Little Monster, went down along its body, and quickly drilled into its abdomen.

The Little Monster seemed not to see it, continuing to attack Lou Jingmo.

Suddenly, it let out a long howl, and its body rapidly swelled up like a balloon being inflated.

Lou Jingmo’s pupils contracted. She turned and ran, bringing Shen Maomao along with her when she reached her side.

Shen Maomao was completely bewildered, stumbling forward as she was pulled along.

Just as the two of them ran out of the bend, an earth-shattering explosion sounded from behind them. The entire experimental base shook three times. Shen Maomao even heard the sound of rocks hitting the metal ceiling with a “bang dang”¹¹.

She held onto Lou Jingmo, and Lou Jingmo held onto the wall. Only then did they manage not to roll around on the ground from the shaking.

After the shaking stopped, Shen Maomao asked with lingering fear, “What happened?”

Lou Jingmo said, “It must have been something your son did. It self-destructed.”

Shen Maomao touched the tooth marks on her wrist, gritting her teeth and said, “I don’t have a son like that.”

Lou Jingmo looked at her: “Shen Maomao, you’ve grown a second pair of eyes.”

Shen Maomao: “?!!!”

She quickly touched her forehead with one hand and her face with the other, finally finding two slits on her face that hadn’t opened yet: “How did I not feel anything at all?!”

Lou Jingmo touched her own face, confirming she hadn’t grown eyes, and said, “How should I know?” She let go of Shen Maomao’s hand and walked towards the corner: “Let’s go, see what’s happening.”

Shen Maomao quickly followed.

Compared to just now, the corridor was now clearly a disaster scene—a large cloud of white smoke rolled in the air. Through the gaps in the smoke, one could see small pits corroded by green blood everywhere on the floor, ceiling, and walls of this corridor. White foam bubbled in the pits, making a continuous “zi la zi la” sound.

And most eye-catching was the small figure standing behind the white smoke. That figure was nearly a meter tall, clearly neither Little Ancestor nor Little Monster.

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